Bringing hard electronics into soft and squishy bodies

Science Friday | Sep 21

A lot of things in life are squishy, including your skin, your organs, and all the goo inside you. But technology tends to be rigid and hard. Figuring out how to get those two worlds to work together can be challenging. How do you connect an electronic sensor to a soft, beating heart? 

As an inventor of biocompatible electronic devices, John A. Rogers has designed things like flexible probes, a pacemaker smaller than a grain of rice, and wireless sensors that stick to skin like a temporary tattoo. He joins Host Flora Lichtman to talk about the challenges of meshing the natural and artificial worlds, and his approach to science and technology development.

Guest: 

Dr. John A. Rogers is a professor and director of the Querrey-Simpson Institute of Bioelectronics at Northwestern University.

Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com.

Top Stories

Are you a New Yorker? The Department of New Yorker Verification will now decide.

Campus Sexual Assault and The Lawsuit Against Cornell

New apartments are coming and there’s nothing these 12 neighborhoods can do to stop it

Advice for the Modern Dating Scene

YOU ARE ONLINE