Ten Confounding New Inventions from the World of Biomedicine

The field of medical technology is constantly surging forward. From laser headsets that scan your brain to dissolving pacemakers, these innovations push the boundaries of what scientists once thought was possible. Infrared contact lenses. Batteries that run on oxygen. Even a swarm of robots that targets brain aneurysms. Biomedicine has it all.

Month after month, scientists around the world are coming out with yet more high-powered breakthroughs. Their mind-boggling devices reduce the risk of illness, keep us safe, and allow people to see the world in ways they never have before. From budding prototypes to fully-fledged inventions, here are ten new medical creations that could change our lives for the better.

Related: Top 10 Overused and Bogus Medical Treatments

10 Contact Lens Allows Wearer to See Infrared Rays

Night vision goggles may soon be a thing of the past. Scientists in China have come up with a new contact lens that allows wearers to see infrared light. The human eye normally finds it impossible to detect these rays, but the Chinese team claims their device grants people “super-vision.”

Researchers say this invention removes the need for night vision goggles. The contact lenses do not rely on an external power source and allow users to see visible light and infrared at the same time. So, how does the science behind the lenses work? It all relies on what are known as upconversion nanoparticles. These tiny dots take in infrared light and convert it into visible light. In a 2025 study, the lenses absorbed near-infrared light and transformed it into reds, greens, and blues.

The China team has also injected nanoparticles under the retina of mice. However, when it comes to humans, they plumped for a less invasive option. Scientists say a similar method could be used to convert light into visible shades for colorblind people.^[1]

9 World’s Smallest Pacemaker Could Be a Game Changer for Healthcare

The smallest pacemaker ever created is tinier than a grain of rice. It is activated by light and dissolves into the body once its job is done. Researchers at the University of Chicago came up with a minuscule device that they say removes the need to cut patients open.

Pacemakers are electronic implants that pulse to help the heart beat regularly. Surgeons will attach electrodes to the patient’s heart muscle. Wires jut from their chest to connect the electrodes to an external pacing box. This technology can cause infection or tissue damage, especially when placing or removing it.

So the Chicago team developed a new device small enough to enter the patient via a syringe injection. Instead of a wired pacing box, a soft gadget on the chest emits pulses of light to guide the pacemaker and prevent the heart from beating out of time.

Cardiologist Igor Efimov explained, “Our major motivation was children.” He said that 1% of children are born with a heart defect, and while they might only need a pacemaker for a week, “Those seven days are absolutely critical. Now, we can place this tiny pacemaker on a child’s heart and stimulate it with a soft, gentle, wearable device. And no additional surgery is necessary to remove it.” ^[2]

8 E-Tattoo Helps Monitor Wearer’s Stress Levels

Some jobs come with a massive mental workload. Staff need to be on the ball, and exhaustion can lead to costly errors. Now, scientists at the University of Texas have created a high-tech E-tattoo that signals when someone is feeling the strain. They say the device could be a vital tool for pilots, healthcare workers, and people in stressful, critical roles.

The E-tattoo consists of a series of dark wiggles that run across the forehead and along the face. Each wiggle is made of a graphite-based conductor. Electrodes on the forehead and around the eyes pick up signals from areas of the brain and monitor eye movement. The team is now working on a signal that can alert a phone app if the user seems overworked.

“For this kind of high-demand and high-stakes scenario, eventually we hope to have this real-time mental workload decoder that can give people some warning and alert so that they can self-adjust, or they can ask AI or a co-worker to offload some of their work,” said Dr. Nanshu Lu.^[3]

7 Laser Headset Scans Brain to Test Stroke Risk

A group in the U.S. has invented a headset that uses lasers to monitor blood levels in a patient’s brain and signal if it thinks a stroke is likely. Researchers say the device can pick up early signs of a stroke.

Every year, millions of people around the world die or suffer long-term consequences from a stroke. They account for one death every three minutes in the US alone. These are typically caused by a blood clot restricting flow to the brain or a ruptured blood vessel. The sudden lack of oxygen throws the brain into disarray.

The U.S. scientists created a wearable gadget that monitors blood flow and volume in the brain. It uses an infrared laser and a camera to track changes in blood dynamics using a non-invasive technique called speckle contrast optical spectroscopy. The headset is still in its early days, but the team hopes it can offer a new, simple way to help prevent strokes.^[4]

6 New Battery Works Inside the Body and Runs on Oxygen

Keeping devices running inside the body is a tricky task. When batteries run out, patients often need invasive surgery to give their implants a power boost. But now, a team from China has developed a battery that draws its energy from oxygen inside the body.

The battery’s electrodes are made from nanoporous gold and a sodium-based alloy, both of which are safe to be inside the body. When the electrodes come in contact with oxygen in the blood, they trigger a chemical reaction and produce a current. So far, the design has only been tested on rats, but the results are positive.

“When you think about it, oxygen is the source of our life,” explained Xizheng Liu, an expert in energy materials and devices at Tianjin University of Technology. “If we can leverage the continuous supply of oxygen in the body, battery life won’t be limited by the finite materials within conventional batteries.”^[5]

5 Scientists Monitor Chemical Traces Using Electronic Nose

An electronic nose grown by microbes is a radical new concept that could be about to take the medical world by storm. A group from the University of Massachusetts Amherst developed this remarkable new detector. The high-tech hooter picks up a range of chemical tracers from the body. Scientists say it can help monitor for signs of kidney disease and asthma.

Researchers use bacteria to build the sensitive sniffer. E. coli microbes have their DNA spliced to inspire them to grow tiny nanowires. Researchers then sculpt those wires into the electronic nose. Scientists boast that the design is stable, cost-effective, and biodegradable. It can recognize chemical tracers in sweat on the skin or in a patient’s breath.^[6]

4 Smart Glasses Help Blind People to See Using Sound

A new device created in Sydney turns sight into sound, offering people with low vision a new avenue to explore the world. University scientists teamed up with ARIA Research start-up and came up with this novel invention that they hope will “transform the lives” of blind people. The smart glasses take in visual data from the wearer’s surroundings and convert it into sound signals. In tests, researchers found that people with low vision were more likely to recognize objects when wearing high-tech specs.

“Smart glasses typically use computer vision and other sensory information to translate the wearer’s surroundings into computer-synthesized speech,” explained Chin-Teng Lin, an AI researcher at the University of Technology Sydney. “However, acoustic touch technology ‘sonifies’ objects, creating unique sound representations as they enter the device’s field of view. For example, the sound of rustling leaves might signify a plant, or a buzzing sound might represent a mobile phone.”^[7]

3 Concussion Headset Lets You Know When You Can Play Sports Again

A nasty knock to the head can have severe repercussions. For athletes, a good rest before returning to the field is always recommended. But at what point is it safe to get back to the game?

Scientists at UC San Francisco have developed a digital headset that tells players when they are ready to play again after a concussion. It picks up small changes in the brain’s function to prevent long-term harm to athletes by playing too soon after a head injury. The device can detect small pulses caused by the head contracting even after the main symptoms have faded.

Experts warn that many players return to playing sports too soon while the brain is still recovering, which can have a severe health impact later in life. Experts also point to links with chronic traumatic encephalopathy, Alzheimer’s, and Parkinson’s diseases.^[8]

2 Ultrathin E-Tattoo Helps Combat Heart Disease

Earlier in the list, we introduced you to an e-tattoo that tracks how stressed workers are. Well, this entry is a similar device that scientists claim can monitor the heart around the clock outside of a clinical setting. Researchers from the University of Texas devised this ultrathin sensor. They hope it will give medical experts a new, more accessible way to keep an eye on patients’ cardiac health.

The e-tattoo detects electrical signals from the heart, as well as sounds from the valves. The Texas team hopes this gadget will help clinicians track patients’ heart health after they leave the medical center.^[9]

1 Tiny Robot Army Helps Combat Brain Aneurysms

A swarm of magnetic microbots could be the future of treating brain aneurysms. So say researchers in China and the UK, who devised tiny bots to transport blood-clotting medication to the cranium. Each bot is about twenty times smaller than a red blood cell. The minuscule carriers contain a drug inside a coating that only melts at certain temperatures.

Medical experts use magnets to guide the robot cluster to the bulge site remotely. They converge inside the aneurysm and release their clotting protein under heat. The term aneurysm refers to a bulge in an artery wall. If one ruptures, blood leaking out into the brain can be fatal. Brain aneurysms account for half a million global deaths each year.

“Nanorobots are set to open new frontiers in medicine,” Dr. Qi Zhou explained, “potentially allowing us to carry out surgical repairs with fewer risks than conventional treatments and target drugs with pinpoint accuracy in hard-to-reach parts of the body. Our study is an important step towards bringing these technologies closer to treating critical medical conditions in a clinical setting.”^[10]