While I was busy being hung over on my birthday, it was announced that tech engineers have started creating silk-based electronics that would serve well for a continuously-expanding list of implants under the skin. Whether that is joyful news to the V.A.T.S. enthusiast or discomforting for the conspiracy theorist, it's apparently a big deal in the bionics community.
<blockquote><p><em>The stretchable, ultrathin design would make for better brain-computer interfaces (BCIs), which record brain activity in paralyzed patients and translate thoughts into movements of computer cursors or robotic arms. Because it’s so thin and flexible, a silk-based device could reach regions of the brain that were previously inaccessible.
“This development heralds a new class of implantable devices, not just for the brain, but for many other tissues,� said neurologist Brian Litt of the University of Pennsylvania who co-authored the study published April 18 in Nature Materials.
The research team printed electrode arrays onto silk films that disintegrate after they are placed on the brain’s surface and flushed with saline. They’re just 2.5 microns thick, so thin that they need to rest on a platform so they don’t fall apart during fabrication or implantation. After the silk film dissolves, the array wraps around the curves on the brain.
This will significantly improve recording by conforming the electrode array to the surface of the brain,� said biomedical engineer Barclay Morrison of Columbia University. “It will move forward the field of flexible electronics.�
The team found that the mesh-like device conforms perfectly to the contours on a model of the human brain. When tested on the visual processing area of the cat’s brain, the flexible array—about one 40th of the thickness of a sheet of paper—faithfully recorded neural activity for about a month without causing inflammation. By increasing the contact between the electrodes and brain tissue, the system produced better signals compared with more rigid electrode arrays, which are about 30 times thicker.</em></p></blockquote>
As I read it, I couldn't help but be reminded of the somewhat-recent article in NatGeo detailing the breakthroughs of bionic technology in recent years. It seems more than likely the two are bound to work in concert with eachother.
The article continues here.
Spotted @ Wired.com
