The higher the oxygen level, the shorter the glow duration. Instead, researchers looked at the duration of the glow to get a measure of blood oxygen. The intensity of the glow is dependent on the depth of the implanted sensor and may not be a good indicator of blood oxygen levels. Once inside the body, the silk-based sensor reacts with oxygen and glows when exposed to light waves which penetrate the skin. It can’t interfere with the chromophore or other targets, and it has to be biocompatible,” Kaplan told SYFY WIRE. It has to be tunable for degradation rate. You have to prepare it in water, process it in water, and use it in water. To make something like this work, you need something that works in water. “People don’t always appreciate how unique this silk protein is. In order for this to work, you need a material capable of achieving the required reaction which is also safe to use inside the body. That material can then be formed into different shapes or injected directly into the body. Those proteins are then doped with a chromophore which gives the material color and reacts with oxygen in the environment. To make their material, they start by cleaning silkworm silk and breaking it down from fibers into core protein material in a solution of water. Their findings were published in the journal Advanced Functional Materials. Before we can enhance our biology, we need to be able to see it clearly.ĭavid Kaplan, the Stern Family Professor of Engineering in the School of Engineering at Tufts University, and colleagues, have developed a tattooable gel-like material made of silkworm silk which is capable of sensing and reporting blood oxygen levels inside the body. Surely, the first step toward addressing a cyborg problem is being able to define it. Writers, filmmakers, and viewers have imagined countless cyberpunk futures filled with enhanced humans who have better control over their own bodies. Ever since The Six Million Dollar Man hit the small screen in the ‘70s, generations of people have been dreaming of what it might be like to be rebuilt better, faster, and stronger.
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