[HN Gopher] Battery-Free Bioelectronic Implants
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       Battery-Free Bioelectronic Implants
        
       Author : Brajeshwar
       Score  : 32 points
       Date   : 2024-11-17 14:56 UTC (8 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.chemistryworld.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.chemistryworld.com)
        
       | Rygian wrote:
       | I've always wondered why we can't build devices that process
       | blood sugar into electricity to power themselves. Or blood
       | pressure/flow itself.
        
         | whaaaaat wrote:
         | I think MIT developed a glucose fuel cell that can take energy
         | from blood. But the safeguards you'd need there (and the
         | ability to ensure it remains clean/usable) are probably a whole
         | lot more complex than building just the fuel cell.
         | 
         | That said, I'd love to have something that could pull a little
         | excess glucose from the ol' bloodstream.
        
           | hollerith wrote:
           | Isn't it easier to eat such that there's no excess in the
           | first place?
        
             | jajko wrote:
             | But then you wouldn't get cyberpunk, at least till some
             | septic shock happens
        
             | xelamonster wrote:
             | No? I mean I'm with you that it sounds like a really bad
             | idea and would probably not end well, but laying on a table
             | so someone can implant a device that handles it for you
             | forever does sound a whole lot easier than having to
             | actively balance your intakes for your entire life.
             | 
             | I totally understand the appeal, hell I'd do it myself if
             | you could give me a guarantee, my problem with it is there
             | is no guarantee and it's 99.9% likely to not actually be
             | safe.
        
           | cmiller1 wrote:
           | I mean, your muscles are pretty good at that, they can even
           | turn that energy into useful work!
        
           | elcritch wrote:
           | Yeah all of the complex chemical reactions our bodies do are
           | handled by structures which self-repair when damaged. Our
           | technology level isn't that advanced yet. Any in body system
           | would almost certainly need to be replaced more often than a
           | battery + inductive charger combo would.
           | 
           | That said, it would be awesome if we could and this research
           | are small stepping stones on that path.
        
       | jtrueb wrote:
       | Hey, that's our stuff. we do a ton of different types of battery
       | free stuff beyond this.
       | 
       | Check out bioelectronics.northwestern.edu and
       | rogersgroup.northwestern.edu
        
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       (page generated 2024-11-17 23:01 UTC)