Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1315894
DECEMBER 2020 I DESIGN007 MAGAZINE 19 so many things all at once, and I actually told them when I interviewed, "You're trying to invent so many things at once that it's prob- ably never going to work, but it will be a lot of fun." And I'll be darned if we didn't make them work. Matties: I always appreciate our conversations so much. They're always so educational for us, and it's nice to catch up and hear your stories as well. Ritchey: My wife calls it the "fine art of BS." Matties: Who was it who famously said that there's only a world market of one personal PC? Ritchey: That was actually IBM and Thomas J. Watson Sr., but the PC started out as a pro- gram for an IC tester. Matties: Anytime you can bring a product out that empowers people's creativity, you win. That's what Apple did. I would not be a pub- lisher but for the Apple Mac. I'm also looking at 3D and the innovation that's going to come out of 3D printing. Ritchey: I have another little homily that I tell my students: "We have reached a point where hardware is a shipping container for software." If you want to see it in public, go on the Arista website, and every VP is listed except the VP of hardware engineering. Matties: It has been a pleasure. Thank you so much. Ritchey: It's always a pleasure, Barry. DESIGN007 Thin tissue grafts and flexible electronics have a host of applications for wound healing, regenerative medicine and biosensing. A new device inspired by an octopus's sucker rapidly transfers delicate tissue or electronic sheets to the patient, overcoming a key barrier to clinical application, according to researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and collaborators. "A crucial aspect of tissue transplantation surgery, such as corneal tissue transplantation surgery, is sur- gical gripping and safe transplantation of soft tissues. However, handling these living substances remains a grand challenge because they are fragile and easily crumple when picking them up from the culture media," said study leader Hyunjoon Kong, a pro- fessor of chemical and biomo- lecular engineering at Illinois. Current methods of transfer- ring the sheets involve growing them on a temperature-sen- sitive soft polymer that, once transferred, shrinks and releases the thin film. Seeing the way an octopus or squid can pick up both wet and dry objects of all shapes with small pressure changes in their muscle-powered suction cups, rather than a sticky chemical adhesive, gave the researchers an idea. They designed a manipulator made of a temperature- responsive layer of soft hydrogel attached to an electric heater. To pick up a thin sheet, the researchers gently heat the hydrogel to shrink it, then press it to the sheet and turn off the heat. Then they gently place the thin film on the target and turn the heater back on, shrinking the hydrogel and releasing the sheet. The entire process takes about 10 seconds. Next, the researchers hope to integrate sensors into the manipulator, to further take advantage of t h e i r s of t , b i o - i n s p i re d design. (Source: University of Illi- nois at Urbana-Champaign) Octopus-Inspired Sucker Transfers Thin, Delicate Tissue Grafts and Biosensors