This bee’s tiny backpack could one day monitor human hearts
The tiny new sensor could one day find its way into a variety of medical monitoring methods. PJURGEN RAHMER AND INGO SCHMALE/PHILIPS RESEARCH HAMBURG Testing the viability of an injectable medical sensor by first strapping it to a bee’s back like a tiny bee backpack may not initially make the most sense. But are you really going to question researchers’ motives for something that looks so cute? As detailed in a paper published earlier this week in Science, a team at Philips Research in Hamburg, Germany recently designed a 1-millimeter-wide sensor employing two opposing magneto-mechanical resonators (MMRs) within a cylindrical casing. They then attached the sensor to a honeybee just above its wings, and released the insect into a small enclosure featuring a variety of flowers to hop between. Researchers wirelessly checked the...