Sean Kearney's Bionic Brain

Researchers have developed a new type of super-thin silicon transistor, which can be embedded on a dissolvable silk-based film (pictured). Brian Litt, associate professor of neurology and bioengineering at the University of Pennsylvania, told Technology Review, "Current medical devices are very limited by the fact that the active electronics have to be 'canned,' or isolated from the body, and are on rigid silicon." These new silicon-silk implants are much easier to place within a body: the silk sheet "melts away," and the transistors are small enough that they don't irritate tissues.