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Implants for Sensing Magnetic Fields 238

Posted by Zonk from the kind-of-a-crappy-superpower dept.
Okian Warrior writes "Wired is running a story about people who have magnets implanted in their fingertips. As a result they can sense ambient magnetic fields, including whether AC wires are carrying current. From the article: 'The fingertip was chosen because of the high nerve density, and because the hands are constantly interacting with the environment, increasing the chances of sensing electromagnetism in the world.'"
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Implants for Sensing Magnetic Fields More

Implants for Sensing Magnetic Fields

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  • Yeah, but.... (Score:5, Funny)

    by FalconZero ( 607567 ) <FalconZero&Gmail,com> on Friday June 09, 2006 @05:44PM (#15505855)
    How long before I can get my 802.11 sensing fingertip implants?

  • Wait (Score:5, Funny)

    by EmperorKagato ( 689705 ) * <sakamura@gmail.com> on Friday June 09, 2006 @05:44PM (#15505857) Homepage Journal
    So now you'll be able to literally feel the power?

    • Re:Wait (Score:5, Informative)

      by azav ( 469988 ) on Friday June 09, 2006 @06:15PM (#15506077) Homepage Journal
      Actually, yes. That's what the article says. Being able to detect phone lines, magnetized speakers, etc...

      I think this is actually similar to the active detection of electrical fields that many fish can do. Sharks have these "Ampules of Lorenzini" that they use to zero in on their pre from a distance by detecting the electrical signature of muscle contractions in a prey animal.

      • Re:Wait (Score:4, Funny)

        by suv4x4 ( 956391 ) on Friday June 09, 2006 @06:36PM (#15506226)
        I think this is actually similar to the active detection of electrical fields that many fish can do. Sharks have these "Ampules of Lorenzini" that they use to zero in on their pre from a distance by detecting the electrical signature of muscle contractions in a prey animal.

        Fish have built-in magnets?

        Are you thinking what I'm thinking? As in, buying a huge neodymium magnet and goin' fishing?

        • Humans have them as well (Score:2, Interesting)

          by MCTFB ( 863774 )
          in the forms of very trace amounts of magnetite in brain tissue. Whether or not this magnetite is actually used at all in human beings or not, there is no clear concensus on, however, at the moment it is believed that this magnetite has no effect on human beings and if this magnetite was ever used for sensing magnetic fields, it was in an ancestor of the human species going back many millions of years.

          I believe the original source for my knowledge of this was some television program, but to save you some Go
      • I had actually submitted an article similar to this (from bmezine.com) several years ago. It seems like a really neat idea and the guy who wrote the article which I had submitted discussed concerns about the iron in his blood concentrating in his fingertips and he was worried about what effects that could have over an extended period of time (like a decade).

        Also, in my article, the author mentioned how erie it was when he was able to detect the location of the motor in his electric can opener.

        i can only ass

      • Re:Wait (Score:3, Interesting)

        by TheRaven64 ( 641858 )
        I was under the impression that this ability was not too uncommon in humans. I haven't tried for a while, but I used to be able to tell if my father's telephone was turned on by touching the back. I sometimes think someone is trying to call me and take my 'phone out, then have it start ringing a second later, and I've known several of my friends do the same (this seems to only work with GSM 'phones, although that may just be that we are familiar with the characteristic sequence of EM pulses that precede a

  • um.... (Score:5, Funny)

    by dark404 ( 714846 ) on Friday June 09, 2006 @05:45PM (#15505861)
    if they touch my crt screen, they'll lose those implanted fingers!

  • Goodbye Finger (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Suddenly_Dead ( 656421 ) on Friday June 09, 2006 @05:45PM (#15505864)
    So, what happens when you get too close to another rare earth magnet [unitednuclear.com]? I would expect bad things.
    • Well, from the article:


      I become slightly phobic of magnetic resonance imaging machines. The superpowerful electromagnets used in medical imaging can make metal fly across a room and stick, often for the hours it takes to power down the magnets. A person with an embedded magnet runs the risk of having their implant ripped out of their body.

      So, I would imagine, um, that sort of thing, basically.

      • Sounds bad for your health then, having to avoid MRIs as much as possible. People will do some strange things to differentiate themselves from everyone else.
      • I believe that in extreme emergencies, an MRI can be powered down almost immediately (heavily damaging the machine, albeit)

        • Re:Goodbye Finger (Score:4, Informative)

          by networkBoy ( 774728 ) on Friday June 09, 2006 @07:20PM (#15506515) Journal
          That would be an emergency quench and with most MRIs I'm familiar with runs a 10-20% chance of the magnet tearing its self apart as the field collapses.
          -nB

        • Re:Goodbye Finger (Score:2, Interesting)

          by diskis ( 221264 )
          Yup. My local hospital's MRI scanner has this big red button on it. With a very big sign saying something like: Shuts down the magnetic field. For extreme emergencies only. Press only if you get stuck to the machine.

          (The last part was added with a pen by some technician)

          My ex-girlfriend had her head examined there, so I talked to a tech while she was in the scanner. He told me that it just takes ages to power it up again. And gave me a complimentary copy of a MRI image of my ex-girlfriends brain.

      • Re:Goodbye Finger (Score:2, Interesting)

        by sidfaiwu ( 901221 )
        That will be a problem with almost any added sense. It can be overloaded and cause damage. Take the some of the senses we have. Too bright of light will make us blind, too loud of a noise will make us deaf, too strong of an electrical field will rip out your implants. Often, you have to take the risk with the reward. The question is wether the reward is worth the risk.
      • You would probably sense it and pull your hand away as from a hot stove before anything happens.

      • Re:Goodbye Finger (Score:3, Interesting)

        by David Horn ( 772985 )
        The superpowerful electromagnets used in medical imaging can make metal fly across a room and stick, often for the hours it takes to power down the magnets.

        I was under the impression that an MRI machine can be shut down more or less instantly, and a series of emergency stop buttons are placed around it for precisely this reason. IIRC, an emergency shutdown runs the risk of damage to the machine, as all the coolant boils off, which is why medical staff presumably leave it energised and try to pry off it
      • Wolverine: Hey bub. *snict*, I got adamantium coated bones and claws.
        Magneto: *bzzt* Now you don't.
        Wolverine: Don't knock me out, I'll be knocked out enough when I hit the big sleep (bleeds everwhere).

        LATER...

        Woverine: *splurch* Hey bub, I got bone claws...

        *snap* now you don't...
    • So, what happens when you get too close to another rare earth magnet? I would expect bad things.

      Tell ME about it. Mine were adamantium!

      Sincerely,
      Wolverine.
    • It really depends on whether or not the mini magnet is stronger than the mega magnet.

    • Re:Goodbye Finger (Score:3, Interesting)

      by drinkypoo ( 153816 )

      There are so many problems with this idea it's hard to know where to start. Just think about those magnets in hard drives... I let two of them come together from about 1/4" away from each other, they pinched the skin on my finger, took a piece of it with them, and chipped themselves. If you get one of those stuck to your finger, expect severe injury. First of all, the polarity of a magnet that strong will be enough to make that little grain of magnet rotate in your finger immediately, that's going to feel

  • Imagine the possibilities... (Score:4, Funny)

    by one-eye-johnson ( 911152 ) on Friday June 09, 2006 @05:46PM (#15505867)
    Being near a big transformer gives the implant-bearer a vibrating fingertip. Just saying is all.

    Oh, and going through an MRI might be a little painful.
  • I saw this article several days ago. It was very interesting, but I don't think having the magnet implanted is ready yet for prime time. Apparently the magnet can break, it can also cause problems if the coating on it wears through. That said, it would be interesting to have an additional sense, but I wonder if it would hurt (after the surgical wounds heal). Probably not - I guess ear rings don't "hurt" after the piercing heals.

    Interesting, but creepy.
    • I don't think this could really be compared to an ear ring, though. Something being implanted under the skin like that is dealing with different tissue. Percings eventually grow epidermal tissue around the wound. You're right, though, that they don't hurt. I can tug on my lobes and my eyebrow ring pretty hard without any pain at all.

  • Cyberdyne Restaurant (Score:5, Funny)

    by Tackhead ( 54550 ) on Friday June 09, 2006 @05:48PM (#15505884)

    Walk into the doctor's office wherever you are, just walk in, say "Doc -- you can mod any parts you want at Cyberdyne Restaurant" -- and walk out.

    You know, if one Slashdotter, just one Slashdotter does it, they may think he's really sick and they won't take him.

    And if two Slashdotters do it -- in harmony -- they may think that they're both TROLLIN' and they won't take either of them.

    And if THREE Slashdotters do it! Can you imagine three Slashdotters walkin' in, singin' a bar of "Cyberdyne Restaurant" and walkin' out? They might think it's a HACKER CONSPIRACY.

    And can you imagine FIFTY Slashdotters a day? I said FIFTY Slashdotters a day -- walkin' in, singin ' a bar of "Cyberdyne Restaruant" and walkin' out? Friends, they may think it's a movement, and that's what it is.

    The Cyberdyne Systems T-800 Model 101 Trans-Humanist Movement!

    And all you gotta do to join it is to mod me (+1, Funny) the next time the mod points come 'round on the thread view. With feelin'.

    You can mod any parts you want at Cyberdyne Restaurant (or be an Alice!)
    You can mod any parts you want at Cyberdyne Restaurant
    Magnets, implants, and MRI,
    And then across the room you'll watch your finger fly,
    Oh, you can mod any parts you want at Cyberdyne restaurant...

  • Ouch (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Wellington Grey ( 942717 ) on Friday June 09, 2006 @05:49PM (#15505890) Homepage Journal
    Don't forget to tell the doctor before you go in for that MRI.

    -Grey [wellingtongrey.net]

  • Why implants? (Score:2, Interesting)

    by JanusFury ( 452699 )
    Why implant a magnet? I can only imagine what kind of hassle that would be if you ever needed an MRI. Couldn't a ring or some sort of fingertip cap be created that transmitted signals through the skin to nerve endings, so you could take it off as needed? I imagine it might be less effective due to the skin barrier, but it seems like it would be a much safer alternative that would work nearly as well.

  • Great idea (Score:3, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 09, 2006 @05:51PM (#15505907)
    Until something happens to the magnet, as documented here [bmezine.com]. (don't click if you don't want to see a finger being sliced open to remove the magnet)

    • The plan was to make a cut that would let us just fold open the skin over the implant and remove it either by excision, scraping it off, or irrigating it out depending on the consistency

      Why they didn't think of pulling it out with another magnet I wouldn't know. After all, that's the big fear with having them near an operating MRI, right?

      Anyway, even if I could power small electronic devices by repeatedly shoving my magnet-embedded finger in and out of a copper coil (electromagnetic induction), I'd still

  • I love it - a low tech solution to what Kevin Warwick of Reading University in the UK has been trying to do. Or rather, he has been trying to make a lot of PR with crap science. It's nice to see a simple solution provide the same basic science.

    Augmenting our senses is nothing new. Pigeons can sense magnetic fields, so why not us?
  • I took a trip to Phoenix to have Haworth implant a magnet in me last September. Because body-mod artists are not medical practitioners, ice was the only anesthetic available.

    And you didn't think to get really, really drunk before why...?

    -Grey [wellingtongrey.net]
  • Shit, I want one!

    Got two steel bars in my back already - shame I don't get any extra sensory information from them, apart from "hey, your back aches!" :-)
  • You wonder if this will be on the pre-MRI questionaire soon. I guess as soon as a patient's hand flys through the window and smacks the operator in the face.

    You might erase your credit cards everytime you hand one to someone.

    And you'll never get rid of those damn iron filings.

    G.

  • Places you couldn't go (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Optikschmoptik ( 971793 ) on Friday June 09, 2006 @05:58PM (#15505954) Homepage
    We operate a 10-Tesla magnet in our lab. When it's on, all nearby metal needs to be secured and people with pacemakers shouldn't be anywhere near us. I suppose this wouldn't be quite as serious, but a field like that would likely rip your implants right out, or cause you to lose control of your fingers. It's not an 'everyday environment', but I would expect physics labs to be a little more common in the lives of the kind of people who would consider getting magnets implanted in their fingers.

    Oh, and no MRIs either.

  • So in terms of implants... (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Women get boob-jobs and men get hand-jobs?

  • magnetic implants meet silicon implants... (Score:3, Funny)

    by presarioD ( 771260 ) on Friday June 09, 2006 @05:58PM (#15505957)
    ... interesting... interesting I tell ya!

  • If only chicks were made of metal...

  • Oh yeah? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Wellington Grey ( 942717 ) on Friday June 09, 2006 @06:08PM (#15506024) Homepage Journal
    from the kind-of-a-crappy-superpower dept

    And how many superpowers do you have Zonk? If it could be made safer (I'm a science teacher and have a few magnets in the lab that could rip this out of my finger) I'd get one in a second.

    -Grey [wellingtongrey.net]
  • As if my love life isn't awkward enough

    Oh well, at least then I would have an excuse :)
  • FTFA:
    Jarrell puts it more bluntly, writing about the procedure in a BMEZine article from March: "'If you had to lose or seriously damage one of your fingers, which would it be?' This was our answer." But nobody's finger fell off, and Huffman's results were better than they'd imagined.

    Other scientists should really learn from those guys.
    • Not a good idea? I beg to differ. It's dangerous, yes, but that doesn't mean it isn't a good idea. A lot of new technologies started out being dangerous, including the utilization of electricity (how apropos).

      Personally, I do think it's a good idea, and can't wait for the day that it is considered safe enough for a majority of people. I would try to be amongst the first to implant this.

      • It will NEVER be safe. If you have metallic implants, especially magnets, you can never get a CAT scan again. Woe betide you if you are unconscious when they bring you in, and they decide to scan you to find out if you've got internal injuries, because if you don't already, you certainly will then.

        It is never acceptable to have magnetically sensitive materials (whether that's a magnet, or something that can be magnetized) implanted anywhere in the body - it's just completely wrongheaded.

        Of course, yo

    • Re:In case this sounds like a good idea... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by jwiegley ( 520444 ) on Friday June 09, 2006 @08:43PM (#15506898)

      I just had to reply to this thread after reading the bmezine article.

      Here's the summary of my opinion: "Children do not try this at home. Hell, don't even try this at your good friends home like the original idiot did."

      Frankly, this guy is an idiot. The first thing that came to my mind when seeing his fingertip was: Blood infection. Bright red, vascular looking, painful... blood infection. This is NOT something you should take to your "body-mod" friend to be "fixed". This is flat out an emergency room visit. I'm not a medical doctor but if this is a blood infection it has the ability to travel quickly, infect organs and cause death in a surprisingly rapid fashion.

      This is something that needs professional medical equipment to make sure the damage is repaired properly. He's "guessing" they migrated together... He needs an X-ray, not a guess. He needs this for several reasons. To pinpoint where the damage and pieces are so they can be removed with minimal invasion instead of poking around until you've found it all. He also needs follow-up X-rays to confirm that all pieces were found and removed.

      I certainly would not go to my body-mod (oh hell, let's just call a spade a spade... body-hack) for the repair. For best results I would be looking for this to be done by a vascular surgeon or neurologist so that I have the best chance of not loosing any senesitivity in my finger and preventing any vascular damage that could result in necrosis.

      He needs this to be done in a sterile environment not on somebody's desk. He risks an equal or worse post-hack infection (that would sort of be like a post-surgical secondary infection but this was NOT surgery; this was an adult being stupid.)

      I hope most slashdotters don't think this is cool, cause it's not.

      • Re:In case this sounds like a good idea... (Score:5, Informative)

        by MustardMan ( 52102 ) on Friday June 09, 2006 @10:19PM (#15507250)
        A few points...

        Tom Brazda is no "hack". He is one of a handful of people who PIONEERED the modern body modification scene. He invented a lot of the tools and techniques that can be found in any piercing studio on the beach today. He helped push the industry to its limits, while also helping spread word about how to do things as safely and carefully as possible. People like Tom are the reason every respectable studio on the planet has an autoclave.

        Second, Shannon Larratt is no idiot. A risk taker, sure. Someone who uses his own body as a testbed for the untried? Absolutely. But an idiot? Not a chance. He knows exactly what he's doing, and he knows the risks. He's written countless articles about the safety aspects of piercings, tattoos, and more extreme body modifications. He's quite well aware of the risks, and indeed most likely purposely chose to have Tom do the removal because that way he could document every step of the process for others to learn.

        Third - read the article more carefully. Another person with the same implant went to a doctor to have it removed. The Dr. fucked it up. The local emergency room person may or may not do the same. The problem with Doctors is, just like everything else in the world - there are ones who are good, and there are ones who are not. A perfect example of this is doctors who tell people with an infected piercing to remove it and shoot them up with antibiotics. This can often be a VERY bad idea, because the piercing can no longer be properly cleaned, AND it can no longer drain. You better hope those antibiotics work, because the good Doc has just taken away all but one of your treatment options.

        And last but not least - your quip about a sterile environment shows just how clueless you are. Any good quality piercer will have sterility routines that put your average family practice doctor to shame. EVERYTHING is autoclaved, needles are disposed of in proper medical sharps containers, studios are kept immaculately clean and gloves are changed CONSTANTLY during a procedure.

        My piercier practices better hygiene than my oral surgeon.

  • Well (Score:5, Interesting)

    by ShooterNeo ( 555040 ) on Friday June 09, 2006 @06:13PM (#15506063)
    A far better approach, albeit more complex, would be to build a microchip - powered by induction like RFID circuitry - that could generate signals in the right voltage and frequency range to stimulate nerves. A surgeon would carefully place the chip along a nerve inside your hand somewhere, placing the electrode side parallel to the nerve. The chip would have signal processing abilities and could be used to :

    1. detect the signal pattern for pain and cancel it out
    2. interact with novel gadgets like a magnetic or radio field sensor, or a geiger counter
    3. Pick up signals from one part of the body, and transmit them to another chip located in a damaged limb somewhere that the nerves have been cut from

    All of this is basic signal processing, simpler than the state of the art in radio by a considerable margin (nerve signals are MUCH, MUCH slower)

    I don't understand why this sort of thing isn't routinely done. I know there are implantable nerve stimulators to stop phantom limb pain, I know that surgeons don't need FDA approval to perform trials on gadets like this - they just need a researcher to create a prototype that is appropriately coated with bioneutral materials and sterile, and the surgeon can implant it into any consenting adult. Surgery is not a medical procedure that has to be specifically approved : this is how the variants of the gastic bypass were developed, such as the bands around the stomach approach. A particular surgeon decided to try it, and others adopted it.

    Should be a whole thriving industry by now.
    • ya know the secret service guy cliche with the earpieces?

      put a small speaker on the jawbown.. run a wire under the skin to the thigh or armpit..- then a small coil close to the surface of the skin...

      now put another coil (transformer) on the outside.. and you have two-way radio with no coil coming out of the ears...

  • Ok let's think about it. Magnets react to magnetic fields, right? But what about metallic coils? After all, electromagnets are made with coils and metal.

    So imagine a future where nanoscopic coils, or maybe thin-film nanomagnet arrays can be implanted under your skin. Or behind your ears, so you can sense magnetic fields in 3D.

    Let's not forget that some animals are sensitive to magnetic fields [uiuc.edu], and others can sense electricity miles away [wikipedia.org].

  • I think I'd prefer something external... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Vellmont ( 569020 ) on Friday June 09, 2006 @06:25PM (#15506146) Homepage
    It sounds like it'd be a usefull tool for electricians or audio engineers, but it'd be far more practical if it were an external device that you could take off. I don't know many people that want to permanently place something in their body that could easily lead to damage to your finger. How would a thin stick-on magnet that you could attach to a finger work?

    • it'd be far more practical if it were an external device that you could take off...How would a thin stick-on magnet that you could attach to a finger work?

      That's just what I was thinking.

      I don't want a magnet *in* my finger, but I'd love a way to sense magnetic fields that was entirely external. I wonder if the nerve endings inside the finger are that much more sensitive that it wouldn't work outside the finger. (/me needs to go find a very small magnet and a piece of Scotch tape.)

    • Maybe you could glue magnets to the inside of some surgical gloves. Be sure to let the glue dry before wearing them!!!!

  • Interesting uses... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by bill_kress ( 99356 ) on Friday June 09, 2006 @06:27PM (#15506161)
    Your brain seems to be able to adapt senses to what it knows is going on--for instance, if you wear glasses that invert your vision for a couple weeks, your brain will compensate and you will start seeing things "upright" again. If you take off the glasses, you will then see everything upside-down for a while.

    So what other kind of input could this give you. If you implanted one in each hand of a def person, might he eventually be able to hear if he put his fingers near to a speaker magnet? If I were def, I'd totally give that a try--you never know! I wonder if such an implant could be placed inside the ear, maybe returning the ability to hear completely (as long as the sound was broadcast via magnetism like if the user was wearing headphones.

    How about an extra input from your computer. Placing tiny electro-magnets under some of your keys could allow the keyboard to give you a little buzz that nobody else could perceive.

    Any others?
    • Interesting ideas.. though the one about being deaf - I'd expect there are a few dozen better ideas specifically geared towards that that I would rather try first. I am pretty sure that sensing speaker magnet vibration in your hand wouldn't help you hear anymore than sensing sound vibration by your hand already does for anyone, deaf or not. Some things still have to be routed through the right areas of the brain for it to give you the same sense.

      In almost any case I can think of I do not see any point to

    • Re:Interesting uses... (Score:3, Informative)

      by zsau ( 266209 )
      Regarding giving deaf people the ability to ear again, there's a much better approach: The bionic ear. Basically, you have a speaker which is attached to a device inserted partway into the cochlea and stimulates the nerves inside the cochlea directly. Obviously it only works if (a) the cochlea is at least partially functional and (b) the connection between the ear and the brain, and the temporal lobe of the brain are both functional. Also, for it to be useful, the patient generally will need to have lost th
  • Will it also sense Future Bible Heroes? Gothic Archies? The 6ths?
  • Hey folks -- I had a similar idea, if there are crystals or some substance that can be tuned to vibrate with musical scales. If they were small enough, you could implant the scale some place on your head -- say, in your lips or under your scalp -- and when you sing and hit the note precisely, you feel a small tingle. Over time, you learn to hit notes based on the tingling.

    Could this work?
    • Sure, you just hook some electrodes up to Cartman and everytime he gets a word wrong Kyle zaps him.

      This type of implant doesn't need to be inside the body. You could make the device small and place it on your chin or something. Although the early version would look a lot like a normal headset that gives you some kind of sound cue feedback. Heck, you could do it with a normal headset and a computer program (if the headset were good enough). It would be pretty easy to do. Sounds like a pretty okay way to get
  • Great, now men will be even more adamant about not asking for directions.

    "Dammit! I know where we are! We just need to head north, which is ..." *waves hand around* "... that way!"

  • Hoax? (Score:3, Informative)

    by Handyman ( 97520 ) on Friday June 09, 2006 @06:51PM (#15506336) Homepage Journal
    Dutch blog "Retecool" tried it out and calls it a hoax [retecool.com]. Translation of highlights:

    I still need to install a ceiling lamp in the bedroom. There's no current flowing there now. The electricity company therefore doesn't charge me anything for the power being hooked up there. If there's no current, no magnet will vibrate, because it is the current (in Amperes) that causes the magnetic fields. But the electricity company does deliver me the required power for the lamp. Therefore, the connection has countless electrons waiting charged with anticipation before I poke a screwdriver into the hole. Without telling my magnet that they are so charged with anticipation, they wait for the moment that they can jump onto my well-conducting finger, to run to earth through my body. Free at last!

    One slight drawback remains to be mentioned. My iBook has a magnetic detector on the right of the keyboard which detects when the screen is closed. I now have to press "Enter" with my left hand, because approaching the magnet with my right hand puts my iBook to sleep. So while my bionic magnetic finger doesn't detect anything, my iBook does detect it.
    • He glued a magnet to his finger.

      Glued. On the outside. I wouldnt call that "tried it out". It's kind of essential that it is a strong magnet surrounded by your nerve endings. Not elasticly bonded to an elastic surface - ie skin. And just to mention it again - strong magnets... neodym or whatever they where called. Not the household 'stick things to your fridge and watch them fall off' kind of things he seemed to be using.

      So I wouldnt put much thought into this dudes observations, although I wouldnt recommen

  • Why implant the device? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by David_Shultz ( 750615 ) on Friday June 09, 2006 @07:02PM (#15506398)
    why are they implanting it?

    It works by stimulating via vibration "somatosensory apparatus" (ie touch), which to the best of my knowledge IS available on the outside of the finger -it should work by being strapped to the outside. Albeit it is not as cool and cyberpunk sounding, but it does remove EVERY SINGLE NEGATIVE POINT associated with the device (painful surgery, risk or rejection, no more MRIs, etc)

  • So... (Score:3, Funny)

    by christoofar ( 451967 ) on Friday June 09, 2006 @07:28PM (#15506559)
    ...how can we use this for sex again?
  • I remember reading somewhere - and Gary Mitchell knows how cannon it is - that Vulcans can see magnetic fields. Always thought that would be cool.

    I tell ya though, we geeks need better options. I mean, suppsoing my hand were to get chopped off tomorrow in a bizzare gardening accident.

    Now, I'd want a full set of cybernetic impants - who wouldn't? But if this is the best there is to offer...
  • that are coming up all around the world.

    *Feel Feel* *Sense Sense* ... and we will be able to know we are being tapped or not.
  • Keep your friggin' magnetic hands of my bank-card you idiot!
  • It would primarily be used to outdoor survivalists/military (I'd think), but I thought of a small compass implanted in the back of a persons neck. Something very very subtle so that a person could just slightly percieve the direction of magnetic north. Personally I can't wait till there are a bunch of usefull body modifications, I never understood jabbing steel into your arm (or worse) but I'd totally get a implant that performed a usefull task.

  • met Todd (Score:3, Funny)

    by jumbledInTheHead ( 837677 ) on Friday June 09, 2006 @10:25PM (#15507270)
    I met Todd at a dinner party, he also has a magnetic implant in his arm which bottle caps will stick too. Anyways here is part of that conversation from that evening:

    Some friend of his whose a girl: The magnet in his arm gets him laid all the time, ask him.
    Me: So do you get laid a lot because you have the magnet.
    Todd: It isn't like I get laid from it everyday, but yeah once in awhile.
    All my friends in near unison: I want a magnet in my arm.

  • hand me that floppy disk.... (Score:3, Funny)

    by seven of five ( 578993 ) on Friday June 09, 2006 @10:35PM (#15507307)
    ... on second thought ...

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