(September 20, 2011) Human devices, from light bulbs to iPods,
send information using electrons. Human bodies and all other living things, on
the other hand, send signals and perform work using ions or protons.
Materials scientists at the
University of Washington have built a novel transistor that uses protons,
creating a key piece for devices that can communicate directly with living
things. The study is published online this week in the interdisciplinary journal
Nature Communications.
Devices that connect with the
human bodys processes are being explored for biological sensing or for
prosthetics, but they typically communicate using electrons, which are
negatively charged particles, rather than protons, which are positively charged
hydrogen atoms, or ions, which are atoms with positive or negative charge.