{"id":41374,"date":"2020-10-03T09:00:54","date_gmt":"2020-10-03T16:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=41374"},"modified":"2020-10-02T17:20:12","modified_gmt":"2020-10-03T00:20:12","slug":"everyday-erinyes-234","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2020\/10\/03\/everyday-erinyes-234\/","title":{"rendered":"Everyday Erinyes #234"},"content":{"rendered":"

Experts in autocracies have pointed out that it is, unfortunately, easy to slip into normalizing the tyrant, hence it is important to hang on to outrage. These incidents which seem to call for the efforts of the Greek Furies (Erinyes) to come and deal with them will, I hope, help with that. As a reminder, though no one really knows how many there were supposed to be, the three names we have are Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone. These roughly translate as “unceasing,” “grudging,” and “vengeful destruction.”<\/p>\n

This sounds like something out of a fantastic hidden-object-puzzle-adventure (“HOPA”) computer game – such as “The Andersen Accounts.” But apparently, even though supernatural powers are not in the offing, there is some promise of getting tattoos to be more than just art.
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Dynamic tattoos promise to warn wearers of health threats<\/h1>\n
In the not-too-distant future, tattoos could become medical diagnostic devices as well as body art.
\nLightFieldStudios\/iStock via Getty Images <\/a><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Carson J. Bruns<\/a>, University of Colorado Boulder<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

In the sci-fi novel \u201cThe Diamond Age\u201d<\/a> by Neal Stephenson, body art has evolved into \u201cconstantly shifting mediatronic tattoos\u201d \u2013 in-skin displays powered by nanotech robopigments. In the 25 years since the novel was published, nanotechnology has had time to catch up, and the sci-fi vision of dynamic tattoos is starting to become a reality.<\/p>\n

The first examples of color-changing nanotech tattoos have been developed over the past few years, and they\u2019re not just for body art. They have a biomedical purpose. Imagine a tattoo that alerts you to a health problem signaled by a change in your biochemistry, or to radiation exposure that could be dangerous to your health.<\/p>\n

You can\u2019t walk into a doctor\u2019s office and get a dynamic tattoo yet, but they are on the way. Early proof-of-concept studies provide convincing evidence that tattoos can be engineered, not only to change color, but to sense and convey biomedical information, including the onset of cancer.<\/p>\n

Signaling biochemical changes<\/h2>\n

In 2017, researchers tattooed pigskin, which had been removed from the pig, with molecular biosensors that use color<\/a> to indicate sodium, glucose or pH levels in the skin\u2019s fluids.<\/p>\n

In 2019, a team of researchers expanded on that study to include protein sensing and developed smartphone readouts for the tattoos<\/a>. This year, they also showed that electrolyte levels could be detected with fluorescent tattoo sensors<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In 2018, a team of biologists developed a tattoo made of engineered skin cells<\/a> that darken when they sense an imbalance of calcium caused by certain cancers. They demonstrated the cancer-detecting tattoo in living mice.<\/p>\n

UV radiation sensors<\/h2>\n

My lab<\/a> is looking at tech tattoos from a different angle<\/a>. We are interested in sensing external harms, such as ultraviolet radiation. UV exposure in sunlight and tanning beds is the main risk factor for all types of skin cancer. Nonmelanoma skin cancers are the most common malignancies in the U.S., Australia and Europe.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
UV-activated tattoo ink is invisible until exposed to UV light.<\/span>
\nJesse Butterfield\/The Laboratory for Emergent Nanomaterials, University of Colorado Boulder<\/span>, CC BY-NC-ND<\/a><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

To help address this problem, we developed an invisible tattoo ink that turns blue only in UV light<\/a>, alerting you when your skin needs protection. The tattoo ink contains a UV-activated dye inside of a plastic nanocapsule less than a micron in diameter \u2013 or thousandth of a millimeter \u2013 about the same size as an ordinary tattoo pigment.<\/p>\n

The nanocapsule is needed to make the color-changing tattoo particles large enough. If tattoo pigments are too small, the immune system rapidly clears them from the skin and the tattoo disappears. They are implanted using tattoo machines in the same way as regular tattoos, but they last for only several months before they start to degrade from UV exposure and other natural processes and fade, requiring a \u201cbooster\u201d tattoo.<\/p>\n

I served as the first human test subject for these tattoos. I created \u201csolar freckles\u201d on my forearm \u2013 invisible spots that turned blue under UV exposure and reminded me when to wear sunscreen. My lab is also working on invisible UV-protective tattoos that would absorb UV light penetrating through the skin, like a long-lasting sunscreen just below the surface. We\u2019re also working on \u201cthermometer\u201d tattoos using temperature-sensitive inks. Ultimately, we believe tattoo inks could be used to prevent and diagnose disease.<\/p>\n