WorldChanging has covered the rising trend of biomimicry before: taking design cues directly from nature.
The latest example comes from Wilmington, DE company NanoCyte, which has filed a patent application for a dermal injection system utilizing the stinging cells of jellyfish.
Jellyfish and other Cnidaria have stinging cells called cnidocysts. These shoot a tiny hollow thread, at incredibly high speed, into anything that touches a "trigger" near the cell's opening, and then pump toxin through the thread into the target.
The inventors propose extracting the toxin without killing or triggering the cells, simply by incubating them for a few minutes at around 70°C. The empty cells could then be soaked in whatever chemical is to be injected, they say.
The cells would be applied to a patient's skin in a patch and then pressure combined with a few low-voltage electric pulses should trigger the cells to fire. They would shoot out their tubules, penetrate the skin and inject the new chemical. Because there is no toxin, the injection should be very quick and painless, and the threads would be extracted once the patch is removed.
Such a bio-based system could be used in the treatment of diabetes and skin diseases such as acne, as well as being a rather novel way of applying tattoos. It's not entirely clear if the system would use cells harvested from living jellyfish or grown as cultures, though -- after one nasty childhood incident at the beach in Corpus Christi, TX in 1982 -- I find it difficult to feel particularly concerned for the well-being of the jellyfish in question.
via: New Scientist
