DISSOLVING ELECTRONICS
The technology would allow doctors to monitor patients' condition and apply appropriate treatment from inside the body, without the need to remove it afterwards.
Devices which could internally measure patients' temperature and muscle activity, and apply treatments such as heat therapy or release drugs, would help doctors spot and treat problems like infection after surgery.
But electronic implants are not commonly used in surgery because of fears about the long-term effect they could have if left the patient's body for a long time.
Most electronic devices are built to last indefinitely, but researchers from Northwestern University in the US designed a silicon and magnesium circuit just a few millionths of a centimetre thick which is easily and harmlessly absorbed by body fluids.
By coating the circuit in silk proteins of different thicknesses, they found they could accurately design the circuit to degrade within anything from a few days to several months.
Devices which could internally measure patients' temperature and muscle activity, and apply treatments such as heat therapy or release drugs, would help doctors spot and treat problems like infection after surgery.
But electronic implants are not commonly used in surgery because of fears about the long-term effect they could have if left the patient's body for a long time.
Most electronic devices are built to last indefinitely, but researchers from Northwestern University in the US designed a silicon and magnesium circuit just a few millionths of a centimetre thick which is easily and harmlessly absorbed by body fluids.
By coating the circuit in silk proteins of different thicknesses, they found they could accurately design the circuit to degrade within anything from a few days to several months.
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