There are numerous factors that seemingly chip in to make human experience valuable, but if we are being honest, none of those factors do as much for us as our ability to find solutions. You see, since the very beginning, human beings have retained a tendency to find a suitable pathway out of every situation. Now, when you are able to do such a thing on a consistent basis, you, a bit unsurprisingly, take yourself towards some significant milestones in the process. This is proven by whatever we have achieved so far, with one notable piece of testimony coming from an idea called technology. The reason why technology’s emergence deserves a shoutout here is surely inspired by the creation’s unprecedented skill-set. However, beyond that, it is also predicated upon the manner in which those skills were used, as that really helped technology in impacting the entire spectrum, including the all-important area of healthcare. In fact, the famous medtech linkup couldn’t have materialized at a better time, considering how badly the sector was struggling against an outright obsolete structure. This revolution, however, will continue even after giving healthcare a whole new identity. The same dynamic was put on display by a recent development.
A team of scientists at Binghamton University, New York, has successfully developed a technique, which can allow you to collect relevant material from old CDs to make flexible biosensors. According to certain reports, the technique involves the use of a specialized chemical, along with a sticky tape, that facilitates the removal of CDs metal coating. Once the material is removed, it is put through a Cricut cutter to slice out the final sensor design from the metallic sheet. Going by the available details, the whole process takes about 20-30 minutes and costs just $1.50 on each sensor. Furthermore, it does not require any particular engineering skills, toxic chemicals, or expensive laboratory equipment, thus making the approach all the more universal.
“When you pick up your hair on your clothes with sticky tape, that is essentially the same mechanism,” said Ahyeon Koh, a researcher involved in the study. “We loosen the layer of metals from the CD and then pick up that metal layer with tape, so we just peel it off. That thin layer is then processed and flexible.”
It is understood that the sensors you can construct from the stated technique will be equipped enough to carry out functions like monitoring pH, glucose and oxygen levels, and electrical activity in muscles. When quizzed regarding how the technology could evolve over time, a researcher involved in the study, Matthew Brown said:
“We used gold CDs, and we want to explore silver-based CDs, which I believe are more common. “How can we upcycle those types of CDs with the same kind of process? We also want to look at if we can utilize laser engraving rather than using the fabric-based cutter to improve the upcycling speed even further.”
