If you are a fan of Star Wars movies, you know that both Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader had electronic machinery in their human bodies. In the movies, the machinery functioned just like a human body part would. Or have you ever watched re-runs of that 1970’s TV show “The Six-Million Dollar Man?” The main character, Steve Austin, was an astronaut who had an accident and was ‘rebuilt’ with 6 million dollars of electronic gadgets that were placed right in his body. (Not to mention they gave him super-human strength. Not bad for a mere 6 million smackers!) 

How close are scientists to creating electronic machinery that can function as a part of the human body. Not that close, but the early steps are in the works. For many years, artificial pacemakers, machinery that is placed in a human chest to help the heart beat at a proper rhythm, have been placed in people with heart problems. Pacemakers send a signal to the heart, but they don’t get a signal back from the body, like electronic limbs would have to. After all, a limb can’t function as part of the body if it doesn’t know what the rest of the body is doing! 

Enter scientists from the Netherlands (Holland). They have developed a special microchip that can monitor the conditions of the human body, from inside of it! Yup, this tiny microchip is swallowed in the form of a pill! It then sends this information to a computer. What is the chip used for? Right now, it is just being used for scientific study. Scientists want to know more about the conditions experienced inside the body under extreme conditions, such as walking for days on end or running a marathon. This chip lets them record these conditions for the first time! Is it the first step to creating electronic body parts that respond to changes in the body? It could well be. But for you non-believers out there, remember the immortal words of Darth Vader… “Your lack of faith disturbs me.”