Soon the days of large, battery-powered implants like a pacemaker may be a thing of the past. A team of engineers at Stanford has delivered a proof-of-concept device that was small enough to propel itself through the blood stream, demonstrating the ability to power micro-devices wirelessly.
Electronic medical implants have worked wonders for lots of people, and we're only just realizing what is potentially possible in the future. What we need, though, is a power source that doesn't involve opening people up and replacing batteries every few years, and these spinal fluid powered glucose fuel cells could make that happen.
Journalist Miles O'Brien recently went on a whirlwind tour peeking at what's up in the world in the world of bionics. It reads like a greatest hits list, with exoskeletons, bionic arms and eyes and ears, and even some mind control thrown in for good measure.
It's Healthy Week at Syfy, and I know what you're thinking: "I'm already healthy, I don't need any advice from you!" Fortunately, your body is good for lots more than just keeping you alive. Here's a list of 9 ways you can modify your body to be even more useful, from bionic implants to portable power generators.
When told that the aortic root of his heart had expanded to life-threatening levels, Tal Golesworthy was given two options: have a mechanical valve inserted (and forever after take Warfarin, a drug that can cause severe bleeding), or risk a fatal heart attack. Golesworthy made up a third option and designed his own brilliant heart implant.
We write about plenty of implants and bionic eyes, but most of them are still in development or are years away. Not so with this sub-retinal chip out of Germany — it's already given sight back to three individuals who have been blind all their life.
Dr. Mark Gasson from the University of Reading in the U.K. implanted a chip under the flesh of his hand. It allows him to open special doors and even keeps his cellphone locked down so only he can use it. What else does it let him do? Well, contract a virus only meant for computers.
Get ready for the future of hearing aids. New bone-anchored, implanted hearing aids are starting to be given to patients with poor hearing and with great results. Colin Hughes was born with atypically narrow eustachian tubes, making it difficult for...
Wolverine has some fun tricks up his sleeve — and under his flesh, actually. He heals quick, his bones are made of virtually indestructible adamantium, and everybody's envious of his retractable claws. So how about the rest of us mere...