The world's smallest implantable chip might save your life one day

SCIENTISTS AT COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY have created the world’s smallest microchip, which can be implanted into the body and may eventually be able to detect medical conditions such as strokes. The chips, called motes, are the size of dust mites, measuring less than 0.1 cubic millimetre, and can only be seen under a microscope.

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Motes operate as a single-chip system, complete with their own electronic circuit. They’re implanted via hypodermic needle, and the data they collect is read using an ultrasound machine. And though the chips have only been tested in lab rats, the Columbia team hopes that one day they can assist in monitoring everything from glucose levels to oxygen saturation.

‘These devices can be designed to sense things and communicate this information back to the ultrasound image, which also provides biogeographical data on where this particular information was sensed,’ says lead researcher Ken Shepard, PhD, professor of electrical engineering and biomedical engineering at Columbia.