Skin Deep
Devices that continuously monitor blood sugar levels are replacing painful finger-stick tests for many of the United States’ 18.2 million diabetics, but they typically must be implanted under the skin by medical technicians. A prototype developed by engineers at the University of California, Berkeley, could provide a way around this inconvenience. Stefan Zimmermann, Boris Stoeber, and Dorian Liepmann at the Berkeley Sensor and Actuator Center employed the same lithographic techniques used to create microchips to build an array of silicon microneedles, each about 200 micrometers long. The array is simply placed on top of the skin, where the needles puncture deeply enough to reach the fluid between cells, but not deep enough to hit nerves or blood vessels. A sensing device above the needles analyzes the fluid to determine blood sugar levels. Zimmermann says Berkeley is in negotiations to license the technology to medical-device makers.
Keep Reading
Most Popular
This new data poisoning tool lets artists fight back against generative AI
The tool, called Nightshade, messes up training data in ways that could cause serious damage to image-generating AI models.
The Biggest Questions: What is death?
New neuroscience is challenging our understanding of the dying process—bringing opportunities for the living.
Rogue superintelligence and merging with machines: Inside the mind of OpenAI’s chief scientist
An exclusive conversation with Ilya Sutskever on his fears for the future of AI and why they’ve made him change the focus of his life’s work.
How to fix the internet
If we want online discourse to improve, we need to move beyond the big platforms.
Stay connected
Get the latest updates from
MIT Technology Review
Discover special offers, top stories, upcoming events, and more.