A team of University of Arizona researchers has developed an ultra-thin wireless device that grows to the surface of bone and could someday help physicians monitor bone health and healing over long periods. The devices, called osseosurface electronics, are described in a paper published Thursday in Nature Communications.
[...] The outer layers of bones shed and renew just like the outer layers of skin. So, if a traditional adhesive was used to attach something to the bone, it would fall off after just a few months. To address this challenge, study co-author and BIO5 Institute member John Szivek -- a professor of orthopedic surgery and biomedical engineering -- developed an adhesive that contains calcium particles with an atomic structure similar to bone cells, which is used as to secure osseosurface electronics to the bone.
It's not for that kind of bone.
Journal Reference:
Cai, Le, Burton, Alex, Gonzales, David A., et al. Osseosurface electronics—thin, wireless, battery-free and multimodal musculoskeletal biointerfaces [open], Nature Communications (DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-27003-2)
(Score: 4, Insightful) by maxwell demon on Tuesday November 23 2021, @02:00PM
So how long until someone will use it for other purposes? For example, as “artificial biometrics”, an identity token that's permanently connected to your bones.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 4, Informative) by Mojibake Tengu on Tuesday November 23 2021, @02:15PM (1 child)
I just linked the Nature ref on a private chat and was immediately told this kind of in vivo application to mice is strictly forbidden by law in Europe.
So, for those relevant researchers involved, it's probably best never to travel to Europe in future. Could be interesting consequences to their careers.
As for social and political consequences, the necessity to actually build tools able to resonance overload and destruct such devices is obvious. It's not difficult at a garage techlevel.
Respect Authorities. Know your social status. Woke responsibly.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by ElizabethGreene on Tuesday November 23 2021, @07:58PM
I'm ignorant and curious. What about this makes the research verboten? It doesn't take a rocket scientist/designer to see that machine human hybrids are on the horizon.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 23 2021, @04:12PM (3 children)
I seen a youtube video that says that vitamin K2 helps the body absorb calcium out of the blood vessels into the bones. Unlike vitamin K1, vitamin K2 is not found in greens, it's found in fermented vegetables like Kimchi.
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Tuesday November 23 2021, @04:21PM (1 child)
Well, that you saw it on youtube doesn't prove that it's false. But it sure doesn't prove that it's true.
If it were to be true it would be interesting, but I still wouldn't know what it meant. Perhaps that those who avoid milk and cheese should eat more sauerkraut. Perhaps not, also. Simple explations in biology are almost always wrong.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 23 2021, @06:25PM
"Simple explations in biology are almost always wrong."
Usually there are multiple competing factors that result in a mixed outcome.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 23 2021, @04:24PM