Science: Becoming bionic

microfluidics platform, Nature

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While chips about the size of a glass microscope slide are not exactly what come to mind when talking about bionic humans (I'm thinking the Bionic Man and RoboCop), the chips described below are the real McCoy.

Reports of these chips that may augment and assist the human body and even act as functioning organs are beginning to appear with more frequency. Some of these chips are currently being used and some are years away from application. Terms for you to use when tracking development of these and similar devices are microfluidics, biochip, and organ-on-a-chip. Interesting discussions about transmuting nature to hardware that can repair or strengthen human capabilities are available at IEEE's Spectrum.

Gizmag reports on the heart-on-a-chip and other organs being chipified.

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heart-on-a-chip, gizmag

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Harvard's Wyss Institute reports that three ‘Organs-on-Chips’ are ready to serve as disease models and drug testbeds.

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ogan-on-chip, Wyss Institute

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Bionic eye implants show promise for restoring vision to the blind.  TheScientist explains how this might work in The Bionic Eye.

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Bionic Eye, TheScientist

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Great advances have been made in prosthesis. TryEngineering offers a Bionic Arm Design Challenge that can be approached as a game in which you will "virtually design and test a robotic arm, and learn how engineers create working artificial arms."

-- Marge