[explosion]
(male narrator)
Imagine if there
were electronics
able to prevent brain seizures
before they happened
or monitor the surface
of a beating heart.
Problem is,
such devices are a tough fit.
Body tissue
is soft and pliable,
while conventional circuits
can be hard and brittle...
until now.
We're moving from a silicon
wafer type of electronics
to a biological
tissue-like electronics
to really blur
the distinction
between electronics
and the body.
(narrator)
With support from the
National Science Foundation,
University of Illinois
Materials Science
and Engineering professor
John Rogers is developing
elastic electronics.
It's circuitry
with a real twist,
able to monitor and deliver
electrical impulses
into living tissue.
Made of tiny,
wavy silicon patterns,
these circuits
are thinner than a hair
and bend and stretch
with the body.
(Rogers)
As the skin moves and deforms,
the circuit can follow
those deformations
in a noninvasive way.
(narrator)
Rogers hopes elastic electronics
will open a door to a range
of bio-integrated
medical devices like this.
It's what he calls a "sock,"
here wrapped around
a model of a rabbit heart.
(Rogers)
It's designed to accommodate
the heart's motion,
but keep active electronics
into contact with the tissues.
(narrator)
Using animal models,
Rogers has developed a version
that can inject current
into the heart tissue
to stop arrhythmia.
He also envisions
an implantable circuit
that diagnoses
and perhaps treats seizures
by injecting current
into the brain.
These bio-devices
can also be mounted on the skin
like temporary tattoos.
They detect differences
in brain wave activity
each time
the subject blinks.
(researcher)
Blink.
(narrator)
They also detect muscle movement
and heart activity.
Rogers says their size could
really benefit premature babies.
(Rogers)
These are such tiny humans
that this epidermal form
of electronics
could be valuable
in monitoring these babies
without constraining
their motion
or disrupting their natural
biological processes.
(narrator)
Developing technology
that's sure to stick around.
For Science Nation,
I'm Miles O'Brien.
