Christopher Bettinger, based at Carnegie Mellon University, presented his group’s work on creating edible, nontoxic batteries at a national meeting of the American Chemical Society. Bettinger describes one of the biggest obstacles for sending tiny medical robots into the human body for diagnosing and treating diseases are batteries. They are usually made of toxic materials such as lithium.

The Bettinger group’s battery is made of melanin, a dark pigment found in human skin, hair, eyes and the brain. Read More>>