r/UpliftingNews • u/ahothabeth • 18h ago

World’s smallest pacemaker is activated by light

https://news.northwestern.edu/stories/2025/03/worlds-smallest-pacemaker-is-activated-by-light/
96 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

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u/TheTrollerOfTrolls 18h ago

Smaller than a single grain of rice, the pacemaker is paired with a small, soft, flexible, wireless, wearable device that mounts onto a patient’s chest to control pacing. When the wearable device detects an irregular heartbeat, it automatically shines a light pulse to activate the pacemaker. These short pulses— which penetrate through the patient’s skin, breastbone and muscles — control the pacing.

Designed for patients who only need temporary pacing, the pacemaker simply dissolves after it’s no longer needed. All the pacemaker’s components are biocompatible, so they naturally dissolve into the body’s biofluids, bypassing the need for surgical extraction.

That's really cool. Go science!

4

u/datascience45 15h ago

"Supposing you brought the light inside the body, which you can do either through the skin or in some other way."