In the age of smartwatches, foldable phones, and dogs with Instagram, it was only a matter of time before someone made a pacemaker smaller than a grain of rice—and gave it Jedi powers. Northwestern University engineers have done just that with a light-activated, injectable, and fully dissolvable pacemaker that’s so tiny it fits in a syringe. Yes, a literal syringe.
Designed especially for newborns with heart defects (though it works for hearts of all sizes), the mini pacemaker teams up with a soft chest patch that flashes infrared light to control heartbeats—kind of like a rave, but medical. Once the job’s done, it dissolves in the body like a bio-friendly magic trick, no surgery needed.
At just 3.5 x 1.8 x 1 mm, this little guy packs the same punch as full-sized devices, thanks to a clever battery that activates when biofluids get involved. So, yeah, it has a dissolvable design, and it is infrared control, which all sounds like impossibilities, and let’s not talk about the size. Anyways, this means a future of potential multi-pacemaker setups for even more precise heart management.
So yeah, it’s tiny, smart, temporary, and powered by light. Somewhere, Iron Man is taking notes.
Images: Northwestern University.
