New ultra-flexible, waterproof LEDs would be implanted under your skin [Mad Biology]

LEDs are, on small scales, the most affordable, most useful, and most technologically powerful light sources available in the market. But their true potential is finally being unleashed. A new generation of LEDs can go anywhere – even into your body.

LEDs, or light-emitting diodes, are frequently used for text and video displays, and their infrared counterparts are everywhere in remote control technology. You possibly can’t take a trip without running into an LED – traffic signals are all LEDs, as are many of the lights on a car dashboard. And anyone who has been to a rock concert has probably run into a couple of people going crazy with LED-powered glowsticks.

Still, as researcher John Rogers of the University of Illinois points out, LEDs are brittle, meaning they may’t be bent into different shapes. Well, no more, as a result of his new invention. He and his team have put tiny LEDs, each smaller than the end of a pen, on flexible electronic sheets. These sheets should be would becould very well be stretched and tangled up to 720 degrees without any loss in LED function, and they’ll hold up under soapy water or maybe underneath the surface, which they demonstrated by implant one sheet under the surface of mice.

As scientist’s are likely to do, Rogers looks at this from the angle of the way it may benefit humanity. He sees great potential applications in using implanted LEDs for diagnostic purposes, and putting his LEDs on surgical gloves could allow doctors a good better view at what they’re operating on.

But let’s be real here – the crazy awesome applications of this invention way outstrip the humanity-benefiting ones. Implanted LEDs can also be the brand new tattoo – put red ones down your spine for the sexy Cylon look!) Take your boring old household pets and stick some LEDs in them – instant excitement with glowing kitties and puppies! New glowsticks might be twisted 720 degrees to seem like double helixes of DNA and handed out to biologists, giving scientific conferences a refreshingly heavy metal feel. And you only know somebody is understanding how one can put these items on a condom.

What crazy ideas do you’ve for these ultra-flexible LEDs? Listed here are some more awesome pictures of Rogers’s LEDs in action to get your creative juices going.

[ Nature Materials ]

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This post is tagged: diagnostic purposes, different shapes, light emitting diodes, remote control technology, traffic signals