Conspiracy Theories Aside, New Research Into Tiny Microchips Could Save Countless Lives
Seriously, some days I feel I'm the only one who sees the promise of this technology. Not that I can't see the potential for abuse, but if we had a non-for profit healthcare and far more widespread ownership of goods, this wouldn't be such a scary prospect. I suppose the main issue there is that the same people who scream about this tech being evil also scream about THAT being evil too, basically pigeonholing them towards blut und boden agrarian fascism without even realizing it.While conspiracy theorists will go bananas over microchipping humans, modern medicine relies on implantable medical devices to treat a whole host of ailments. As this technology is becoming increasingly more common, even the smallest applications are still considered bulky, difficult to communicate with, and nearly all require new batteries from time to time. External devices like wearables and other health tracking tools have addressed this to some degree, but devices designed to work inside the body still suffer from these and other limitations.
In hopes of creating a simple solution to this complex problem, a research team from the Columbia School of Engineering and Applied Science has developed a first-of-its-kind, tiny, injectable microchip. This tiny device can be given instructions and recharged using ultrasound.
“This should be revolutionary for developing wireless, miniaturized implantable medical devices that can sense different things, be used in clinical applications, and eventually approved for human use,” said team leader Ken Shepard, a Lau Family professor of electrical engineering as well as a professor of biomedical engineering, in the press release announcing the research.