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"  A study published today in Science shows that ultrathin patches of electronics\u2014less than half the width of a human hair\u2014can be placed onto the skin to measure the electrical activity of the heart, muscles and brain. And using the same principles behind removable tattoos, these devices could be affixed to the skin with minimal or zero adhesives, staying there for hours or longer. &amp;quot;We view this as the first step in blurring the distinction between an artificial, manmade system like a piece of electronics and a natural biological tissue like the skin,&amp;quot; John Rogers says. Rogers, a University of Illinois professor of material science, is lead author of the study published this week in Science. Rogers&amp;#039;s technology contains a mesh of silicon-based electronics embedded into a rubbery sheet. The entire thing is 40 micrometers thick. Because the design can incorporate a virtually endless variety of electrical parts like transistors, diodes and sensors, it isn&amp;#039;t limited to act as any single device. Rogers says the project started with the challenge of matching the components of a rigid silicon chip to the flexible surface of our skin. The solution: making it ultrathin. Everything bends if you slice it thin enough, Rogers says, pointing out that a sheet of paper is basically the same material as a 2 x 4, simply much thinner. The electronic components are built into curving strands of silicon that can stretch and buckle along with the skin and are embedded in a rubbery sheet. Rogers then uses a water-soluble backing to hold those components together. Once you stick the entire thing to a person&amp;#039;s skin, water washes away the backing, leaving the device held to the skin only by a weak attraction called Van der Waals forces.  Rogers shows in his study that one version of his creation, when placed on a study volunteer&amp;#039;s chest, can measure the person&amp;#039;s heart electrical activity just as well as an electrocardiogram (EKG). But where the EKG requires several bulky electrodes, as well as straps to hold it on and conductive pastes or gels to transmit electrical signals, Rogers&amp;#039;s epidermal electrical system does away with all that. Igor Efimov, a biophysical engineer at Washington University in St. Louis, even goes a step further. &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s probably better than an EKG,&amp;quot; he says. &amp;quot;Because it can take measurements from many different places on the skin, you gather more and lose less signal.&amp;quot;  Though Rogers&amp;#039;s paper just came out today, several researchers are already trying to adapt Rogers&amp;#039;s technology. That includes Efimov: He wants to use the sensors to study the heart activity of animals and humans. &amp;quot;This opens endless opportunities to interface, or communicate, between the human body and computer platforms,&amp;quot; he says, calling it a major milestone in the history of medicine.  University of Pennsylvania neurologist Brian Litt is looking at the brain. He tells PM that he&amp;#039;s most intrigued by the system&amp;#039;s potential to both measure electrical signals and deliver them, which could help treat debilitating diseases or injuries. &amp;quot;The most exciting applications will likely be for medical rehabilitation, such as reading activity from the muscles and nerves and then applying the information in some kind of device to restore balance, movement or sensation,&amp;quot; he says. And there&amp;#039;s mc10, a company based in Cambridge, Mass., with 15 employees that commercializes technologies developed in Rogers&amp;#039;s lab. Next year the company plans to release a wearable device that can monitor heart rate and muscle activity, vice president Ben Schlatka says. He says the company is also planning products to measure vital signs like hydration level. &amp;quot;In the near term, [it] will change how consumers interact with their electronic devices,&amp;quot; he says. &amp;quot;In the long term [it] will revolutionize medical electronics.&amp;quot;  Not all the possibilities for Rogers&amp;#039;s device are fully realized yet. Though he built versions of the device that contained the components necessary for wireless communication, he hasn&amp;#039;t yet used it to transmit data\u2014though he&amp;#039;s working on it. For now, he uses wires to physically connect the device to a computer. Finally, the time that the system could be used is limited currently by the fact that skin sweats and eventually sloughs off the device, Litt says.  Nevertheless, the creation by Rogers and colleagues allows for plenty of speculation about sci-fi becoming reality. Princeton University mechanical engineer Michael McAlpine says these kinds of devices open the door to thinking about skin-mounted computers or bionic eyes. &amp;quot;You could, for example, have Google maps on the surface of your eye,&amp;quot; he says. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/health/a6826/new-electronic-sensors-stick-to-your-skin/>