Flexible electronics

The Wall Street Journal (April 21) -- Imagine a digital tattoo that transmits skin temperature; a transparent sensor on a contact lens that tests for glaucoma; a pliable pacemaker wrapped around a beating heart; and an implant that controls pain after surgery, then dissolves harmlessly when it is no longer needed. “It is such a different way of thinking about electronics, making things stretchy,” says U. of I. materials science and engineering professor John Rogers who helped pioneer the technology. “There are a lot of things in human health care that we could do with these that are impossible today.” Also: Epoch Times (New York City, April 22), WCBU-FM (89.9) (NPR; Peoria, Ill., May 7).