Science is just starting to discover how the body as an ecosystem functions. We still have a lot of progress to make from wiping out all bacteria and relying on broad-spectrum antibodies.

The amazing thing about the bacterial ecosystem is how even different parts of your skin can be colonized by completely different types of bacteria, even just a few inches apart. There are symbiotic relationships just among the bacteria, and other bacteria which are several degrees removed from directly relying on our host bodies. It's a fascinating area of study, but one which is difficult, because it's impossible to isolate and study the bugs individually.

Dissolving electronics will have unpredictable, and non-reproducible failure conditions. Can you imagine designing a medical device in such a way that any random part of your circuit could be randomly destroyed and yet fail in a graceful manner? It seems there's enough difficulty as it is with non-dissolving electronics.

In the US, a simple magnetic stripe is used to encode the data, which can be duplicated with little effort. Even if your credit card is swiped at a brick and mortar retailer, this well-known vulnerability gives consumers some credibility against the credit card issuer when they claim to have not made the purchase. The scary part of this chip and pin vulnerability is that banks have a history of blaming the consumer and not issuing refunds since chip and pin was presumed to be secure. From the article, "Others [banks] reported already being suspicious of the strength of unpredictable numbers... If those assertions are true, it is further evidence that banks systematically suppress information about known vulnerabilities, with the result that fraud victims continue to be denied refunds."

The conventional wisdom says never take a counteroffer. Your loyalty is questioned so you'll be the first to go during layoffs, they'll take the pay bump out of your future raises, and other people will eventually find out. I've also heard about people taking a counteroffer and not actually getting one... by the time you realize this, the other position is filled.

It sounds like you've determined that the positions are close in desirability (or you wouldn't be asking this question). Since you have nothing to lose, you might as well negotiate harder for what you want -- more pay, vacation, or other benefits. Perhaps this might push you over the top for the director position. Moving from a lead developer to a director position for 10% more salary seems low. I would imagine that you could ask for a 25% bump

For 1080p screens, if you're sitting further than 2x the diagonal screen width, your eye can't resolve more detail on the screen even with more pixels. This is called the Lechner Distance. Does anyone actually sit that close? It's certainly not how far the average person sits from the screen.

http://nationsreportcard.gov/science_2009/