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boiling water again (quokk.au)
submitted 7 months ago by to c/science_memes@mander.xyz
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boiling water again
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[–] 2 points 7 months ago* (5 children)

I'll admit I've been out of the field for a couple years so my information is going to be outdated, but I believe the issue with using MHD for continuous stimulation is that it generates tiny amounts of power - enough to trickle-charge a pacemaker, but not enough to keep tickling the brainstem with the frequency needed in DBS. Hopefully there have been/will be improvements to the tech that I am unaware of!

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  • [–] 2 points 7 months ago (4 children)

    huh, so you wouldn't have to plug in and recharge your pace?

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  • [–] 2 points 7 months ago* (3 children)

    I think the idea was to provide a redundant method of charging in case you're unable or forget to recharge it externally. But ideally yes, it would be entirely internally powered so you wouldn't be tethered to the grid.

    edit:

    A more promising approach is this which is, somewhat unglamorously, just a small turbine implanted into the heart that is spun by bloodflow. oh, no, this is a different study than the one I was thinking of! This uses a flexible generator that generates power from the deformation of the Vena Cava. Fascinating, I'll have to dig thru it.

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  • [–] 2 points 7 months ago* (2 children)

    now that is a novel use of piezoelectricity. whoever thought of that needs many sloppy kisses from many cats

    personally i think they just need to design for the battery run at 80% capacity and let it wear down. although i can see why they might need to periodically replace a foreign object implanted in the body. i had to get all the titanium plates and screws removed eventually because ow.

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  • [–] 2 points 7 months ago* (1 child)

    Yeah. Unfortunately even rechargeable pacemakers are extremely rare - almost all of them just expect that you'll have to replace the battery every several years (I think the average is 5?), which in the long run isn't terrible but still. Rechargeable batteries self-discharge far too much and as a result require quite frequent recharging so are far from ideal for implantation, although not having to undergo regular surgery to replace the battery is obviously a highly desirable outcome. The idea with internal power generation is to bridge the gap between the two and allow a person to go for far longer without the need for invasive surgery (there's a whole sidebar here about rechargeable battery chemistry not being ideal for implantation) but without the drawbacks inherent to rechargeable batteries.

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  • [–] 1 point 7 months ago*

    our experience was 7, but that was probably more because it was powering a DBS and not an actual pacemaker (i'm guessing lower charge draw over longer period of time) and it was time to implant a probe on the other side of the brain.

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