Prof. Giovanni Traverso and colleagues have developed a new ingestible sensor that could be used to help diagnose gastrointestinal conditions, reports Jeremy Hsu for New Scientist. “Eventually, the futuristic device could provide treatments for gut illnesses through electrical stimulation via additional electrodes embedded in the sensor,” Hsu notes.
Researchers from MIT and Harvard have developed a new biosensitive ink “that indicates one’s health condition by changing its color,” writes Seung Jae Park for The Los Angeles Times. “With the subtle embellishment of the ink with tattoo artistry, the team aims to overcome the shortcomings of the current biomedical monitoring devices.”
In an article examining graphene, John Colapinto of The New Yorker highlights Prof. Tomas Palacios’ work integrating graphene into everyday objects. “Rather than using graphene to improve existing applications, as Tour’s lab mostly does, Palacios is trying to build devices for a future world,” writes Colapinto.
“There’s an enormous richness of information by looking in the water that’s indicative of what’s going in a city in a real-time fashion,” says Prof. Eric Alm in an interview with Wudan Yan of The Daily Beast of his idea to examine public health by tracking the transmission of pathogens in sewers.