Issue link: http://cp.revolio.com/i/393
#1 Fall 2008 7 Fast Blasts Skin Phone Kristi Scott Welcome to the conceptual solution that combines the beauty of a tattoo with the convenience of your cell phone and Bluetooth technology, the "Digital Tattoo Interface." DTI, developed by Jim Mielke, debuted at this year's Greener Gadgets Design Competition 2008, receiving Notable Entry award. is is one tattoo with a lot of potential: a phone that would be implanted under the skin, with microscopic spheres that would act as the touch-screen buttons. Don't want to show off your phone? e concept has a button that, when pushed, can render the phone invisible. If you get a call, just push the same button to answer the display and have the phone reappear, with video capability. Where's the battery? ere isn't one. You just eat something (preferably food), and the phone works off your own blood supply. With luck this phone quickly moves on from concept to actuality for a fashionable future enhancement. PETA Wants Meat! RU Sirius e notion that tissue cultures could be developed into veritable animal flesh without the necessity of raising and slaughtering living creatures has been in circulation among tech enthusiasts for several years. With current off-the-shelf biotechnology, it should be possible to grow edible meat in laboratory vats, starting from a single cell. Recently, this idea got a boost from PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals). e animal rights group is offer- ing a $1 million prize for "the first person to come up with a method to produce com- mercially viable quantities of in vitro meat at competitive prices by 2012." e chal- lenge has been controversial among PETA supporters because… well… like, I mean… yuck! More-reasonable commentators may note that any person or organization that can make commercially viable fake meat in sufficient quantity to have an effect on animal suffering won't need PETA's mon- ey. Still, you never know. e competition could supply motive simply by calling more attention to the possibilities. Guilt-free meat eating -- a yummy idea. Resources Digital Tattoo Interface www.core77.com/competitions/GreenerGadgets/projects/4673 Resources When Meat Is Not Murder www.guardian.co.uk/science/2005/aug/13/ genetics.internationalnews New Harvest www.new-harvest.org/default.php I m a g e b y J i m M i e l k e I m a g e b y D C S p e n s l e y