[HN Gopher] Hydrogel interfaces for merging humans and machines
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       Hydrogel interfaces for merging humans and machines
        
       Author : panabee
       Score  : 50 points
       Date   : 2022-12-19 19:21 UTC (3 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.nature.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.nature.com)
        
       | ShuffleBoard wrote:
       | I for one welcome our new Orbeez overlords.
        
       | nh23423fefe wrote:
       | After surgery I used hydrogel wound gel and hydrocolloid
       | bandages. The wound healed really fast and the scar was minimal.
       | I'm a believer in the wet-environment promotes healing by cell
       | mobility argument. Silicone tape is pretty great too.
        
       | panabee wrote:
       | Abstract:
       | 
       | The last few decades have witnessed unprecedented convergence
       | between humans and machines that closely operate around the human
       | body. Despite these advances, traditional machines made of hard,
       | dry and abiotic materials are substantially dissimilar to soft,
       | wet and living biological tissues. This dissimilarity results in
       | severe limitations for long-term, reliable and highly efficient
       | interfacing between humans and machines. To bridge this gap,
       | hydrogels have emerged as an ideal material candidate for
       | interfacing between humans and machines owing to their mechanical
       | and chemical similarities to biological tissues and the
       | versatility and flexibility in designing their properties. In
       | this Review, we provide a comprehensive summary of functional
       | modes, design principles, and current and future applications for
       | hydrogel interfaces towards merging humans and machines.
       | 
       | Overview:
       | 
       | The main challenges of human-machine interfaces stem from
       | materials. Existing machines largely employ conventional
       | materials, such as metals, silicon, glass, ceramics and plastics,
       | to communicate and interact with human bodies. However, the hard,
       | dry and abiotic nature of these conventional materials is
       | intrinsically contradictory with the soft, wet and living nature
       | of biological tissues. In recent decades, intensive efforts have
       | been devoted to transforming these conventional materials into
       | flexible and stretchable structures to conformally interface with
       | soft and curvilinear biological tissues. However, these
       | structural designs do not alter the materials' intrinsic
       | properties, which may still hamper their communication and
       | interactions with biological tissues. For example, the
       | integration of conventional materials with tissues usually relies
       | on physical attachment or surgical suturing, methods that face
       | challenges such as non-conformal contact, unstable adhesion,
       | tissue damage and/or scar formation. As another example, the
       | properties of metallic electrodes, such as their high rigidity,
       | low interfacial capacitance and low charge injection capacity,
       | make them far from ideal for the electrical recording and
       | stimulation of soft neural tissues. In addition, biological
       | tissues often recognize these materials, even when in flexible
       | and stretchable structures, as foreign bodies due to their
       | inherently disparate properties, resulting in an adverse foreign-
       | body response, biofouling, and fibrotic encapsulation or
       | fibrosis. Such foreign-body response and subsequent fibrotic
       | isolation from the surrounding tissues can severely compromise
       | the long-term reliability and efficacy of the communication and
       | interactions between humans and machines.
       | 
       | Because of their unique similarities to biological tissues and
       | the versatility and flexibility in tailoring their properties,
       | hydrogels have naturally emerged as a promising material
       | candidate to act as an alternative or adjunct to conventional
       | materials for bridging humans and machines.
        
         | spiritplumber wrote:
         | thank you!
        
       | apienx wrote:
       | This is useful if you care about conformation and scare tissue.
       | For everything else, micromachined electrodes/meshes are the
       | superior alternative IMHO.
       | 
       | 1. Neither Synchron nor Neuralink have adopted anything
       | resembling this in their R&D stack (despite the hype and wild
       | claims being around for 15-20 years). 2. Instability is a major
       | concern. And the target application (surgical/augmentation)
       | wouldn't compromise stability for...conformation. Impedance data
       | on such devices are very much humidity-level dependent. 3. Soft
       | matter degrades. Especially if it gets heated by nearby
       | electronics or when subjected to HF signals (brains/synapses are
       | >1kHz). As it does, its properties change. 4. Ionic diffusion
       | will mess with your interface in vivo. It's just the way nature
       | works.
       | 
       | Nature created a journal dedicated to reviews in materials
       | science this year. That was the news for me.
        
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