Smart Dust Is Here
August 6, 2016 11:45 AM Subscribe
Engineers Create The First Dust-Sized Wireless Sensors That Can Be Implanted Into The Human Body. Relevant paper here.
I'm sure there are all sorts of positive uses for this sort of thing, but right now all I can think is that this is going to be a great boon to the surveillance community. Brb, buying a house-sized Faraday cage and never coming out ever again.
posted by Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The at 12:29 PM on August 6, 2016 [6 favorites]
posted by Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The at 12:29 PM on August 6, 2016 [6 favorites]
Oh this will end terribly and I want them immediately
posted by schadenfrau at 12:34 PM on August 6, 2016 [8 favorites]
posted by schadenfrau at 12:34 PM on August 6, 2016 [8 favorites]
Eh, I'm hopeful. Right now, diabetic implants are dangerous and clunky. With further iterations of this tech, we could have complex implants that act as an artificial pancreas. Or dozens of other diseases that require constant pharmaceutical management.
posted by domo at 12:36 PM on August 6, 2016 [9 favorites]
posted by domo at 12:36 PM on August 6, 2016 [9 favorites]
With further iterations of this tech, we could have complex implants that act as an artificial pancreas.
"Fully functional?"
"Fully functional!"
posted by CheesesOfBrazil at 12:38 PM on August 6, 2016 [4 favorites]
"Fully functional?"
"Fully functional!"
posted by CheesesOfBrazil at 12:38 PM on August 6, 2016 [4 favorites]
On the one hand, this is super cool, and I can imagine all sorts of amazing medical benefits. On the other hand, this means that when the singularity happens, the machines are going to take over our bodies and force us to do their will, right?
(I'm joking. I'm sure there are all sorts of alarming implications that do not involve dystopian sci-fi scenarios, but it's also very, very cool.)
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 12:48 PM on August 6, 2016 [2 favorites]
(I'm joking. I'm sure there are all sorts of alarming implications that do not involve dystopian sci-fi scenarios, but it's also very, very cool.)
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 12:48 PM on August 6, 2016 [2 favorites]
Finally my heavy investments in vinyl duster jackets and wraparound mirror sunglasses will start to pay off.
posted by Sangermaine at 1:14 PM on August 6, 2016 [23 favorites]
posted by Sangermaine at 1:14 PM on August 6, 2016 [23 favorites]
Why does the rest of the world seem to think The Diamond Age was an inspirational book?
posted by bongo_x at 1:16 PM on August 6, 2016 [15 favorites]
posted by bongo_x at 1:16 PM on August 6, 2016 [15 favorites]
On the other hand, this means that when the singularity happens, the machines are going to take over our bodies and force us to do their will, right?
resistance is futile
posted by entropicamericana at 2:03 PM on August 6, 2016 [1 favorite]
resistance is futile
posted by entropicamericana at 2:03 PM on August 6, 2016 [1 favorite]
*invests his life savings in tinfoil stock*
*shakes head derisively, knowing that tinfoil won't stop ultrasound; begins coating self in sound-absorbing closed-cell foam*
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 2:15 PM on August 6, 2016 [5 favorites]
*shakes head derisively, knowing that tinfoil won't stop ultrasound; begins coating self in sound-absorbing closed-cell foam*
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 2:15 PM on August 6, 2016 [5 favorites]
On the Effectiveness of Aluminium Foil Helmets: An Empirical Study (previously)
posted by hippybear at 2:17 PM on August 6, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by hippybear at 2:17 PM on August 6, 2016 [2 favorites]
She felt a prickling near her thumb, and noticed a tiny cut, the sort you get from handling paper some times. She ignored it and after a couple of days, the thin slice of sore redness faded away. It was only years later, the she remembered that odd cut again after months of dealing with trolls controlling her fingers on the keyboard, jamming up the words and preventing her work. Had she been hacked during that conference trip to Paris?
posted by infini at 2:24 PM on August 6, 2016 [55 favorites]
posted by infini at 2:24 PM on August 6, 2016 [55 favorites]
What has already gone wrong with this?
posted by Oyéah at 2:31 PM on August 6, 2016 [4 favorites]
posted by Oyéah at 2:31 PM on August 6, 2016 [4 favorites]
I think what's already wrong with this is that these things don't come out of the gate with strong legal regulations in place to protect peoples' civil and human rights. The abuse potential here is so high that I find this terrifying despite the obvious positive applications, and nothing is being done to head off that abuse. Instead, I just imagine all the people who will want to use these to exploit, extort, and control others are steepling their fingers and saying "Excellent" in their best Mr. Burns voices.
posted by Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The at 2:36 PM on August 6, 2016 [12 favorites]
posted by Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The at 2:36 PM on August 6, 2016 [12 favorites]
Smart Dust Is Here
Cool, does this mean I won't have to clean house anymore?
posted by Greg_Ace at 2:51 PM on August 6, 2016 [9 favorites]
Cool, does this mean I won't have to clean house anymore?
posted by Greg_Ace at 2:51 PM on August 6, 2016 [9 favorites]
Just wait until the macrophages start eating them.
posted by benzenedream at 3:24 PM on August 6, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by benzenedream at 3:24 PM on August 6, 2016 [1 favorite]
95% of the class of 2020 is going to die of Sensor Lung
posted by idiopath at 3:37 PM on August 6, 2016 [10 favorites]
posted by idiopath at 3:37 PM on August 6, 2016 [10 favorites]
Going to die? Or just be declared dead while their remotely-controlled physical forms begin the first work of Skynet?
posted by hippybear at 3:40 PM on August 6, 2016 [11 favorites]
posted by hippybear at 3:40 PM on August 6, 2016 [11 favorites]
What is death, anyway, but another solid state phase transition? Once we eliminate the body entirely, we can finally sublimate into our true cloud forms, and death will be passé.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 3:53 PM on August 6, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 3:53 PM on August 6, 2016 [2 favorites]
The alpha test group whose sanity survived passed the beta tests with only increased stress indicators along the spine and the carpal tunnel. Today, almost 6 years later, these survivors would be the only ones capable of holding the frontlines against the onslaught that had already begun. Yet, their self induced training as they had struggled to survive the guinea pig years, made them cautious and isolated from the rest of humanity. Would they find each other in time to turn the tide or was it already too late when the first papers cleared the peer review hurdles and were published?
posted by infini at 3:54 PM on August 6, 2016 [11 favorites]
posted by infini at 3:54 PM on August 6, 2016 [11 favorites]
infini, I wish to subscribe to your Dystopian SF literary journal.
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 4:33 PM on August 6, 2016 [4 favorites]
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 4:33 PM on August 6, 2016 [4 favorites]
Pace yourself, infini. Or at a minimum, find a decent literary agent to represent you first.
posted by mosk at 5:11 PM on August 6, 2016 [3 favorites]
posted by mosk at 5:11 PM on August 6, 2016 [3 favorites]
What is death, anyway, but another solid state phase transition? Once we eliminate the body entirely, we can finally sublimate into our true cloud forms, and death will be passé.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson
epony ... good grief!
posted by sebastienbailard at 5:12 PM on August 6, 2016 [6 favorites]
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson
epony ... good grief!
posted by sebastienbailard at 5:12 PM on August 6, 2016 [6 favorites]
That's just inifini's elevator pitch. Best delivered between floors 2 and 10, spoken quickly.
posted by hippybear at 5:13 PM on August 6, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by hippybear at 5:13 PM on August 6, 2016 [2 favorites]
epony ... good grief!
It's full of wessonwillwheatonality!
posted by hippybear at 5:15 PM on August 6, 2016 [1 favorite]
It's full of wessonwillwheatonality!
posted by hippybear at 5:15 PM on August 6, 2016 [1 favorite]
and death will be passé
Ask not for who the Cloud crashes, it crashes for thee.
posted by GenjiandProust at 5:21 PM on August 6, 2016 [4 favorites]
Ask not for who the Cloud crashes, it crashes for thee.
posted by GenjiandProust at 5:21 PM on August 6, 2016 [4 favorites]
"Whom" of course. Screw you, autocorrect and whiskey.
posted by GenjiandProust at 5:46 PM on August 6, 2016 [6 favorites]
posted by GenjiandProust at 5:46 PM on August 6, 2016 [6 favorites]
On the other hand, this means that when the singularity happens, the machines are going to take over our bodies and force us to do their will, right?
My body already forces me to do its will. This is merely switching bosses.
posted by srboisvert at 6:04 PM on August 6, 2016 [2 favorites]
My body already forces me to do its will. This is merely switching bosses.
posted by srboisvert at 6:04 PM on August 6, 2016 [2 favorites]
It's not quite dust yet - more like coarse sand, and it needs an ultrasound source to power it. I too would like to see some protective legislation enacted before this gets too far along, but I'm not holding my breath. The bots are doing that for me.
"It's coarse and rough and irritating and it gets everywhere."
posted by Autumn Leaf at 6:11 PM on August 6, 2016 [1 favorite]
"It's coarse and rough and irritating and it gets everywhere."
posted by Autumn Leaf at 6:11 PM on August 6, 2016 [1 favorite]
autocorrect and whiskey
New York City's hottest Dubstep-Country DJ duo
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 6:19 PM on August 6, 2016 [20 favorites]
New York City's hottest Dubstep-Country DJ duo
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 6:19 PM on August 6, 2016 [20 favorites]
"It's coarse and rough and irritating and it gets everywhere."
When did this suddenly become the new Trump thread?
posted by Greg_Ace at 6:31 PM on August 6, 2016 [10 favorites]
When did this suddenly become the new Trump thread?
posted by Greg_Ace at 6:31 PM on August 6, 2016 [10 favorites]
relevant future lingo term: motes
posted by pterygota at 6:55 PM on August 6, 2016 [5 favorites]
posted by pterygota at 6:55 PM on August 6, 2016 [5 favorites]
It's a sure bet there's DARPA-funded lab somewhere working on weaponizing this.
posted by Thorzdad at 7:10 PM on August 6, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by Thorzdad at 7:10 PM on August 6, 2016 [1 favorite]
Well, slightly larger, but this one can be powered by body heat: The Michigan Micro Mote
Yes, mote is the term you should be incorporating into your forward looking powerpoint decks.
posted by Freen at 7:48 PM on August 6, 2016
Yes, mote is the term you should be incorporating into your forward looking powerpoint decks.
posted by Freen at 7:48 PM on August 6, 2016
The Michigan Micro Mote
This sounds like a nitro-burning Austin Seven conversion that will eventually kill three people on a drag strip in Lapeer, and be broadcast live on ESPN3.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 8:23 PM on August 6, 2016 [3 favorites]
This sounds like a nitro-burning Austin Seven conversion that will eventually kill three people on a drag strip in Lapeer, and be broadcast live on ESPN3.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 8:23 PM on August 6, 2016 [3 favorites]
I for one welcome our Smart Dust overlords
posted by BungaDunga at 8:45 PM on August 6, 2016
posted by BungaDunga at 8:45 PM on August 6, 2016
*shakes head derisively, knowing that tinfoil won't stop ultrasound; begins coating self in sound-absorbing closed-cell foam*
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 2:15 PM on August 6
Ultrasound is a dead-end tech, IMHO. It can't carry much information (due to the low, low frequency of sound compared to EM waves), it's trivially blocked by common materials (e.g. drywall), and it drives dogs crazy.
posted by shponglespore at 8:58 PM on August 6, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by Johnny Wallflower at 2:15 PM on August 6
Ultrasound is a dead-end tech, IMHO. It can't carry much information (due to the low, low frequency of sound compared to EM waves), it's trivially blocked by common materials (e.g. drywall), and it drives dogs crazy.
posted by shponglespore at 8:58 PM on August 6, 2016 [1 favorite]
BTW, anyone interested in the intersection of smart dust and mind control should really read the Nexus trilogy by Ramez Naam. Top-notch near-future sci-fi!
posted by shponglespore at 9:01 PM on August 6, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by shponglespore at 9:01 PM on August 6, 2016 [1 favorite]
Lemme know when they develop nanotech they can send into my liver to try to deal with the fatty deposits caused by all the anxiety drinking this sort of thing inspires in me.
posted by aspersioncast at 9:10 PM on August 6, 2016 [7 favorites]
posted by aspersioncast at 9:10 PM on August 6, 2016 [7 favorites]
My favorite part of this is that one of the neurobiology grad students cited in this article was once an undergrad in the program that I help administer. I'm hoping this work has implications for all sorts of weird-ass things, and I am happy and feel lucky that I get to live in a very interesting time in human history, never mind playing a small tangential part in it.
posted by not_on_display at 10:12 PM on August 6, 2016
posted by not_on_display at 10:12 PM on August 6, 2016
I for one welcome our Smart Dust overlords innerlords.
posted by Joe in Australia at 12:03 AM on August 7, 2016 [4 favorites]
posted by Joe in Australia at 12:03 AM on August 7, 2016 [4 favorites]
p2p communication, both light and dark. In bloodstreams, its difficult to distinguish the "good" guys from the "bad" guys. the best you can do is hope that one or two of the gangleaders are friendly. Blood music was only the first draft of the concept. A more pragmatic vision evolved.
posted by infini at 3:53 AM on August 7, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by infini at 3:53 AM on August 7, 2016 [1 favorite]
The alpha survivors had a secret weapon unknown to the majority of the bloodstream runners - unlike the later hosts who did not notice the now subtle shifts and changes that led to minor yet critically important typos and missing words, the alpha blood recognized its own frequency.
Fools, dost thou think that my fiingers cannot sense the veriest whisper of resonance set up by your minuscule layer of energy? I was the alpha user. Your system is built on the song of my blood.
posted by infini at 3:58 AM on August 7, 2016 [3 favorites]
Fools, dost thou think that my fiingers cannot sense the veriest whisper of resonance set up by your minuscule layer of energy? I was the alpha user. Your system is built on the song of my blood.
posted by infini at 3:58 AM on August 7, 2016 [3 favorites]
First there was a completely secured p2p communication system, using the alpha hosts. Then, the DippyRK cyborgs broke through and destroyed the majority of the survivor hosts, even as the Teenybopper scriptkiddos ran their clockwork orange horroshow. Today, the p2p net is a vestigial remnant of the second variety that emerged functionally. Sneak in delicately to edit words, oral and scripted. Ever wonder why you said what you did though you had no clue where the thought came from? It was inserted.
This, too, is on its last legs as the landmass battles the bicoastal continent. The bloodwars over control are almost over, as the IoT distracts the lumpen.
posted by infini at 4:14 AM on August 7, 2016 [2 favorites]
This, too, is on its last legs as the landmass battles the bicoastal continent. The bloodwars over control are almost over, as the IoT distracts the lumpen.
posted by infini at 4:14 AM on August 7, 2016 [2 favorites]
Having squeezed utility dry; the system can be unveiled as a force for public good. Commercial applications for profit is the contractual reward.
posted by infini at 4:16 AM on August 7, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by infini at 4:16 AM on August 7, 2016 [1 favorite]
Alpha, in the meantime, stays woke.
posted by infini at 4:16 AM on August 7, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by infini at 4:16 AM on August 7, 2016 [1 favorite]
**This badly needs a plotline and narrative. I am completely unable to come up with the dramatics beyond alpha's awakening and return to sanity - can we make a tumblr somewhere to jointly create the story? I can build the world. I think the difference between Ramez Naam and Greg Bear's narratives and this one is that they focused on teh protaganist as scientist and with knowledge if not control over what happened, whereas here alpha was an old woman sleeping one night when she was selected as disposable lab rat.
posted by infini at 4:27 AM on August 7, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by infini at 4:27 AM on August 7, 2016 [2 favorites]
Blood Music, chochachos. I'd say we have about a month, at the outside.
posted by adamgreenfield at 4:29 AM on August 7, 2016
posted by adamgreenfield at 4:29 AM on August 7, 2016
with a difference that the thingiebobs are set up to respond to the neural pathways imprinted from the brain that was first sucked dry to provide the circuit design for the systems.
posted by infini at 4:35 AM on August 7, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by infini at 4:35 AM on August 7, 2016 [1 favorite]
I'm trying to figure out how to make a Metal Gear joke about all this.
posted by dismas at 6:01 AM on August 7, 2016
posted by dismas at 6:01 AM on August 7, 2016
Has the ability to sense and trigger nerves. What if an athlete has something like this implanted at certain muscle trigger points. Inert most of the time but a way to trigger near the end of a race to boost the fast twitch muscles just enough to push ahead that last 1%. Inert, invisible unless exactly located by surgery and perhaps not that harmful to the organism. but winners!
posted by sammyo at 6:27 AM on August 7, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by sammyo at 6:27 AM on August 7, 2016 [1 favorite]
It's only takes on bug for smart dust to become gray goo....
posted by mikelieman at 6:56 AM on August 7, 2016
posted by mikelieman at 6:56 AM on August 7, 2016
Simon Ilyan's case in Memory by Lois McMaster Bujold
posted by infini at 7:19 AM on August 7, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by infini at 7:19 AM on August 7, 2016 [2 favorites]
I'm noping outta the future. Also? Where IS that opt-out menu option, anyways?
posted by symbioid at 9:34 AM on August 7, 2016
posted by symbioid at 9:34 AM on August 7, 2016
OK, gots to get myself in on some clinical trials here.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 12:49 PM on August 7, 2016
posted by The Underpants Monster at 12:49 PM on August 7, 2016
New Microfluidic Chip Will be Able to Replace Muscle-Nerve Connections
posted by StrikeTheViol at 2:10 PM on August 7, 2016
posted by StrikeTheViol at 2:10 PM on August 7, 2016
"What has already gone wrong with this?" Like many other experimental devices, and processes, they are not going to say I am sorry. Nor will they pay, you will meet first with an attorney, who makes sure, you agree in writing, they don't have to play sorry.
posted by Oyéah at 3:53 PM on August 7, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by Oyéah at 3:53 PM on August 7, 2016 [1 favorite]
"Sensors at this time have already been shrunken to a size of 1 millimeter cube..."
All I can say is: that is one big piece of dust.
posted by storybored at 10:20 PM on August 7, 2016 [1 favorite]
All I can say is: that is one big piece of dust.
posted by storybored at 10:20 PM on August 7, 2016 [1 favorite]
“You wired?” asked Wendy.-- Excerpt from "Rogue Farm" (2003), by MeFi's Own Charlie Stross
“No, why?”
She pulled out a fist-sized box and pushed a button on the side of it, waited for a light on its side to blink green, and nodded. “Fuckin’ polis bugs.”
“Isn’t that a –”
“Ask me no questions an’ I’ll tell you no fibs.” Wendy grinned.
“Uhhuh.” Joe took a deep breath: he’d guessed Wendy had some dodgy connections, and this — a portable local jammer — was proof: any police bugs within two or three metres would be blind and dumb, unable to relay their chat to the keyword-trawling subsentient coppers whose job it was to prevent consipracy-to-commit offenses before they happened. It was a relic of the internet age, when enthusiastic legislators had accidentally demolished the right of free speech in public by demanding keyword monitoring of everything within range of a network terminal– not realising that in another few decades ‘network terminals’ would be self-replicating bots the size of fleas and about as common as dirt.
posted by Rhaomi at 10:20 PM on August 7, 2016 [2 favorites]
Imagine a DDoS at the finger-keyboard level; or worse, directly to the brain interface.
they are not going to say I am sorry. Nor will they pay
posted by infini at 12:29 AM on August 8, 2016 [3 favorites]
they are not going to say I am sorry. Nor will they pay
posted by infini at 12:29 AM on August 8, 2016 [3 favorites]
The teh problems outlined one by one here, and sprinkle magic pixie dust.
posted by infini at 1:38 PM on August 8, 2016
posted by infini at 1:38 PM on August 8, 2016
I'm noping outta the future. Also? Where IS that opt-out menu option, anyways?
No matter how much the technogeeks would have it, the human brain is an organic unknown and does not work like a computer. Said someone whom i can't recall so cannot look up the article. That is ultimately your best defence.
posted by infini at 2:22 PM on August 8, 2016 [1 favorite]
No matter how much the technogeeks would have it, the human brain is an organic unknown and does not work like a computer. Said someone whom i can't recall so cannot look up the article. That is ultimately your best defence.
posted by infini at 2:22 PM on August 8, 2016 [1 favorite]
"We can't do it. They're too far in and they've been there too long. They're connected, now."
It had taken a long time for her to notice it happening and that was why it had spread so far. It was exactly like a cancer. And over time the exposure to more and more 'motes had metastisised the problem throughout her body.
At first it was completely under her field of perception, just as much as the 'motes were still on the outside of her body. Like the frog in the slowly heating pot, the itching went unnoticed. It was only much, much later that she began to grow suspicious. Not the ever increasing frequency of itching whenever she saw the Wheaties boxes in the store, not even when she started to realise she felt a slight warm glow every time she saw the Shreddies box.
No; it was when all of the sudden the itching and the glow started to happen for more and more consumer goods. Of course, she was a firm Shreddies consumer by then, but now she realised she had been dusted. And, worse and more insidious than that, the 'motes which had infiltrating her for all that time had been hacked.
"The thing is, we can normally microwave the 'motes on the outer skin. This would now mean a complete burn-and-peel of your skin down to half the hypodermis. Which would be very painful but you would survive. Albeit with a few weeks in care and a painshunt to your nervous system. However. Uhm ... well, they have pretty much migrated everywhere now. We can't get them all without microwaving you like a bucket of popcorn. And they've networked fully, too, so if we start taking out only the outer layer, they will signal the deeper-lying 'motes with the universaly mandated 'mote destruct code for this type. So those too will also selfdestruct. And considering the concentration throughout your body, that will do just as much damage as trying to remove them all ourselves."
"Hack them to inactivate them? We're sorry ... we don't have the code or processing power for that. Maybe you can somehow contact the makers AND the hackers and offer some Bitcoins to make it stop?"
posted by MacD at 2:44 PM on August 8, 2016 [1 favorite]
It had taken a long time for her to notice it happening and that was why it had spread so far. It was exactly like a cancer. And over time the exposure to more and more 'motes had metastisised the problem throughout her body.
At first it was completely under her field of perception, just as much as the 'motes were still on the outside of her body. Like the frog in the slowly heating pot, the itching went unnoticed. It was only much, much later that she began to grow suspicious. Not the ever increasing frequency of itching whenever she saw the Wheaties boxes in the store, not even when she started to realise she felt a slight warm glow every time she saw the Shreddies box.
No; it was when all of the sudden the itching and the glow started to happen for more and more consumer goods. Of course, she was a firm Shreddies consumer by then, but now she realised she had been dusted. And, worse and more insidious than that, the 'motes which had infiltrating her for all that time had been hacked.
"The thing is, we can normally microwave the 'motes on the outer skin. This would now mean a complete burn-and-peel of your skin down to half the hypodermis. Which would be very painful but you would survive. Albeit with a few weeks in care and a painshunt to your nervous system. However. Uhm ... well, they have pretty much migrated everywhere now. We can't get them all without microwaving you like a bucket of popcorn. And they've networked fully, too, so if we start taking out only the outer layer, they will signal the deeper-lying 'motes with the universaly mandated 'mote destruct code for this type. So those too will also selfdestruct. And considering the concentration throughout your body, that will do just as much damage as trying to remove them all ourselves."
"Hack them to inactivate them? We're sorry ... we don't have the code or processing power for that. Maybe you can somehow contact the makers AND the hackers and offer some Bitcoins to make it stop?"
posted by MacD at 2:44 PM on August 8, 2016 [1 favorite]
Seven facts on the GSK-Google bioelectronic medicines deal and what it may mean for you
posted by XMLicious at 1:52 AM on August 9, 2016
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has been working on bioelectronic medicine since 2012. It has invested about 45 million euros ($50 million), with research collaboration around the world. In 2013, it announced a million-dollar prize to encourage research into bioelectronic medicine, or "electroceuticals."Discussed on today's Deutsche Welle Spectrum science and technology podcast (in English).
GSK has now formed a joint venture with Verily Life Sciences, a subsidiary of Google's parent company Alphabet, worth 640 million euros ($715 million) over seven years. The new company is called Galvani Bioelectronics.
What exactly is bioelectronic medicine?
Bioelectronic medicine uses miniaturized, implantable devices to alter and control electrical signals in the human body. These could be electrical signals that flow to your lungs to determine tension in your airways. By controlling these signals researchers hope to help people with asthma, for instance. The tiny devices, which wrap themselves around nerves to control the electrical signals, could also be used to fight diabetes and arthritis.
posted by XMLicious at 1:52 AM on August 9, 2016
Security against hacking needs to be top priority - IoT's vulnerabilities cannot be the model for humans.
posted by infini at 4:43 AM on August 9, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by infini at 4:43 AM on August 9, 2016 [1 favorite]
« Older Underground music, echoes of war | Shiny! Newer »
This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
posted by entropicamericana at 12:02 PM on August 6, 2016 [20 favorites]