Have you ever dreamed of being a cyborg? Sure, it’s a natural part of going through puberty, but it’s only ever going to be a dream unless scientists can perfect a flexible and reliable way to integrate circuitry into the human body. Thankfully, researchers at Tufts University, University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana, and UPenn have developed tiny silicon circuits that sit on a transparent film. When implanted in a body, that silk completely dissolves over time, leaving just the silicon components which are too small to cause irritation. As reported in a recent article in Applied Physics Letters, the end result is a biocompatable, biodegradable circuit that was successfully bonded onto a mouse. The same circuits could one day provide a better nervous system to machine interface. Or LED tattoos. Either way, it’s going to be exciting.

We’ve seen some amazing technology that connects computers to our nervous system: Braingate, epilepsy controlling shock therapy devices, retinal implants, etc. A consistent problem in these devices, or at the least a limitation, is the way in which metal contacts connect to nerve cells. You can place the contact near the nerve, or pierce the nerve with the contact, but getting the two to touch perfectly is difficult. Even when this is accomplished, the long-term compatibility of the metal isn’t always well known or desirable. That’s where silicon-silk circuits could prove very useful. With a biodegradable film that is flexible and dissolves over time, surgeons could get the circuitry much closer to nerves than before, and in harder to reach folds in the brain, without piercing through connecting tissues. Or in a related use, the silk film could be used to produce circuits that rest near the surface of the skin. We could see LEDs that light up when you’re about to have a heart attack, or that usher in the next generation of body-alteration art.

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