Futurists are always talking about how flexible electronics will change our lives in amazing ways, but we’ve yet to see anything mind-blowing come to market. A team of scientists from the University of Texas in Austin, however, think they’ve found the key to changing that: ultrafast graphene transistors printed on flexible plastic.
     |
Metamaterials are a mind-bending class of matter. Broadly defined as manmade materials with unusual properties not found in nature, this category of materials is probably most famous for serving as the building blocks for a Harry Potter-style invisibility cloak
| |
A team of scientists in Switzerland has managed to cram 11,011 electrodes onto a single two-millimeter-by-two-millimeter piece of silicon to create a microchip that works just like an actual brain. The best part about this so-called neuromorphic chips? They can feel.
| |
Technology can be fragile. Anyone who’s dropped his or her phone knows that all too well. And though you might not get it in your hands for a while, there are some seriously robust electronics coming down the pipe. New self-healing microchips developed by Caltech, for instance, can survive multiple laser blasts. More »
Thinking about injecting an identification chip in your pooch? If you live in the southern part of the UK, you won’t have a choice. Come 2016, English and Welsh authorities will require all of the country’s pups to have embedded microchips, so they can be returned to their owners if ever they run astray. The United Kingdom’s Environment Department says some 60 percent of the country’s 8 million dogs already have the tags, but beginning in three years, owners who don’t spring for the device could be forced to pay fines of up to £500 (about $780). Cat microchipping will remain optional, since felines are less likely to wander outdoors. And “World’s Cutest Dog” fans need not worry about their precious Boo getting the forced implant — the famed Pomeranian (pictured above) is based in San Francisco, some 5,000 miles from the Queen’s needle.
Filed under: Misc
Source: AP (Huffington Post)
The fastest microchips we have can only pass their data from side to side and front to back, no matter how close their components are squeezed together. A new chip developed by researchers at University of Cambridge, on the other hand, can pass data up and down too, making for the world’s first truly 3D microchip. More »
The mesmerizing movements of jellyfish have inspired researchers to design all sorts of things, from mechatronic jellyfish that function as autonomous robots to artificial jellyfish built from rat cells and silicone. Now scientists have built a jellyfish-inspired microchip that can capture cancer and other rare cells in human blood. More »
Testing new and potential life-saving drugs can be a harrowing process because of the risk involved with not knowing how a substance will react once in the human body. Harvards scientists are hoping that microchips, such as the one pictured above, can mimic the function of human organs well enough for them to test those drugs. More »
An “ingestible sensor” doesn’t sound like the tastiest of snacks, but soon it might be just what the doctor ordered. A tiny microchip which activates upon contact with stomach acid has recently been given the green light by health regulatory agencies in the US and Europe. When the sensor is swallowed, an external patch picks up its signal and shoots a message over to whoever it’s supposed to. The technology is aimed at tackling an issue known in the healthcare biz as compliance — or, following instructions. Correct timing and dose are important for many drugs, and lax schedules can be responsible for treatment failures or the development of nasty drug-resistant bugs. Although the necessary trials used placebo pills, one pharmaceutical heavyweight has already bagged a license to the technology for real-world applications. If the thought of passing microchips is troubling you more than the thought of eating them, no need to worry — the kamikaze sensors dissolve in your stomach shortly after completing their mission.
Continue reading FDA approves Proteus Digital Health’s e-pills for dose monitoring
Filed under: Science
FDA approves Proteus Digital Health’s e-pills for dose monitoring originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 01 Aug 2012 17:04:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | 
DVICE, Proteus Digital Health | Email this | Comments
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
