2020-03-01_Cosmos_Magazine

contact with certain conditions. 3D printed cells, for

example, can start to divide, fold and interact when

they come into contact with other cells or in the body.

A microscopic chemical turbine could fire up when it

reaches body temperature, and as any physicist will

tell you, movement equals energy.

When biomedicine does move beyond lithium or

cell batteries it will open the field exponentially. A

group at the University of Pennsylvania has developed

an electrochemical battery made of paper where

polymers are incorporated in a network of cellulose

fibres, performing the oxygen-blocking and proton-

exchange properties of organic decomposition.

And in June this year, Seokheun Choi, Associate

Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering

at Binghamton University, New York, led his team

to develop a biobattery made from organic microbial

fuel cells where bacteria in the device is used to

disintegrate the device itself at the end its useful life.

“One of the critical challenges to make the

Internet of Disposable Things is a power source,”

says Choi. “It has to be disposable, eco-friendly and

inexpensive.”

To that end, his research group embarked down

two pathways – disposable paper-based batteries

and long-term microbial fuel cells – then found

themselves meeting in the middle.

“The biobattery was a combined technique of

those two,” says Choi.

“We enhanced the power duration by using solid-

state compartments – but the device is still a form

of a battery without complicated energy-intensive

fluidic feeding systems that typical microbial fuel

cells need.”

It’s been so busy through the first part of the work

day that you’ve forgotten lunch, until your phone

vibrates with a notification from the Sodi-Kit strip’s

data, which is showing that your blood sugar and

sodium are low enough to be a drag.

While you’re eating lunch, you get a call from your

GP’s office asking you to make an appointment to

come in soon. You’re on blood-thinning medication

following a recent heart arrhythmia event, and

the SmartCaps pill that you took this morning

has alerted your doctor that your metabolism is

absorbing the drug faster than expected.

GETTING DOWN TO BUSINESS

THERE’S A NASCENT COMMERCIALfield sprouting up

around the IoDT, including AM Fitzgerald, which has

specialised in MEMS since 2003. Most of its market

so far has been high-performance silicon sensors in

Since the natural home of

many disposable sensors

will be the human body, it

makes perfect sense to use

our heat, movement and

chemistry to power them.

Is that single vineyard olive oil really sourced from the Italian hill town it claims?

The inexpensive FISC tag or sensor attached to the bottle (or pair of shoes, or

expensive fountain pen, etc) contains and transmits information about the entire

trip from grove to supermarket shelf to prove product authenticity.

04 FISC (FIDELITY IN SUPPLY CHAIN)

DAY 1 DAY 3

DAY 39

DAY 41

L16urI4

Sell by

Retail

Warehouse

Bottled at

ITALY

Issue 86 COSMOS – 61

TECHNOLOGY