Imagine your old phone dissolving away after you’ve traded up, or a pacemaker that’s absorbed by the body when it’s no longer needed. Such gadgetry may not be far off: Scientists have developed a technique for making electronic devices that disappear without a trace. Constructed of silicon, magnesium and silk, the transient electronics can be tuned to last for days, weeks or even a year — and then disappear.
![](https://i0.wp.com/www.sciencenews.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/16519.jpg?resize=300%2C246&ssl=1)
Scientists used the approach to make a bacteria-fighting medical implant that melts away after a few weeks, and a simple 64-pixel sensor array like those found in digital cameras, which was designed to last for about a day. The researchers also made temperature and strain sensors, solar cells, transistors, radio antennas and wireless power coils — all of which degrade into nothing. The team describes the work in the Sept. 28 Science.
“This is a huge step. It is a pinnacle,” says materials engineer Mihai Irimia-Vladu of Johannes Kepler University in Austria. “It’s a very elegant demonstration of making functional devices that are biodegradable.”