Awesome New Electronics Can Dissolve and Disappear When They're No Longer Needed

I don't kniow about everyone else, but this seems a bit of a waste outside of the medical industry.

Don't crucify me for it, I'm just saying...

Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please.
Mark Twain

@TeslasDisciple

This is just the first way we've discovered a possibility for eco-friendly electronics. Yes it currently really only has benefits for medicine, but think about what is possible with this tech. Instead of mountains of electronic waste, we might have a small piles of plastic casings (which should be 100% recyclable). This is the exact type of thinking we need to make our footprints smaller and smaller.

Planned obsolesce sneaks its ugly head into electronics, forcing unnecessary consumer upgrades, without the consumer knowing why his electronics failed....... sheesh.

*drops phone in the toilet*
"Quick grab it before it's rui.....oh crap, it's gone"

In all seriousness though, not everything that's disolvable is 'eco friendly'. Methylmercury disolves, and it's a neurotoxin. We may lessen the piles of e-waste sitting on the surface, but you have to wonder where the rest of it goes. Here's a hint: drinking water. But hey, out of sight, out of mind.

So out of the four comments, only one of the authors has actually read and understood the article.

TeslasDisciple
As early as the byline the article speculates on the the possibilities beyond medical tech.

Robot
Assuming you don't habitually toss your electronics in water, you should be fine. If you do, I suspect you have bigger problems.

tertertert
Nice straw man you've built there. Can I stick him in my field to scare away the crows?

Teslator,
My point if you care was about 'planned engineer obsolesce', which out auto engineers and other manufacturing companies for decades make good use of and this would be another tool in their box, to tactfully ensure electronics do not last as long as they should as well as their mechanical devices.

Teslator,
The above tecnology 'might' be a good and uselful thing for some and for others a useful tool for ....

Read the link below.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planned_obsolescence

Actually this just makes me think we'd end up with more waste. As in we couldn't control where the dissolved remnants of devices would end up if this is used to somehow deal with e-waste. Little to no chance of recycling the materials. Only useful in medical applications.

There are huge industrial benefits to this. Billion dollar benefits.
1. Separation of mercury from natural gas.
2. Refining processes in oil, chemicals, and pharmaceuticals.
3. Nanolevel computer repair for our newer technologies.

I could come up with more billions and trillions in uses, but my dog wants to play right now, and I ain't on your dime.

I can see benefits to medical and other electroniv areas, providing it works.

Around here, we have government sponsored hazardous waste sites, and electronic items are on their list. Think of the bazillions of obsolete/failed devices that get tossed -- or do you still have your eight track.

(Just as an aside, if you drop your cellphone in the porcelain water fountain, there's a good chance that it's toast anyway)

I do wonder about the interconnects. One of the big issue with electronics has been the solder. We now have the fabulous ( and somewhat clunky) lead free stuff for regular connections. This article doesn't mention what they're using with the magnesium interconnects.