The Midas Nerve: How Nanotech Will be Built on Gold

All the riches in the world lay before you. The strivings of millions of men lay carelessly in the corners of your home. Worldly want is but a glazed over memory of your recent past, a past far happier than your life as of the last 30 seconds. Your newest 3 million dollar acquisition could not have taken more from you. Your portfolio’s recent .34% increase has both reduced your wealth to nothing and put a burden of guilt so powerfully upon you that you shall never overcome it. Your daughter lies before you, 100lbs troy, in the finest mint-quality pure gold an investor could ask for.

The Midas tale provides a powerful reminder of the dangers of unchecked wealth accrual, yet it has the potential to create a misconception that is increasingly dated: “A human body full of gold is bad.” New research has used many of gold’s unique traits to fortify life rather than destroy it. Gold is able to mimic nerves and provide a safe connection from the body to medical electronics. The human body’s endless layers of internal sophistication and motion mean that typical electronics will often get crushed or damage tissues in unforeseen ways. The human body is fundamentally based on nature’s mathematics. The Fibonacci sequence allows us to partake in the beautiful cycle of movement that our lives should consist of. From our fascia to the structure of our hearts, flexible spirals constantly reacting to every other part of the body and the outside world are the foundation of physicality. Rather than the binary limitations of the computing systems behind electronics, the natural world is boundless, constantly evolving, and non-discrete. Klas Tybrandt, a professor of materials science at the Laboratory of Organic Electronics at Linköping University said, “The classical conductors used in electronics are metals, which are very hard and rigid,” thus limiting their ability to work with the dynamic human body.

Tybrandt continued, saying that the “mechanical properties of the nervous system are more reminiscent of soft jelly. In order to get an accurate signal transmission, we need to get very close to the nerve fibers in question, but as the body is constantly in motion, achieving close contact between something that is hard and something that is soft and fragile becomes a problem.” Tybrandt’s group of researchers was able to create gold nano-wires that could be constantly in contact with the body, never failing to relay crucial information between man and machine. Gold’s softness and flexibility allow it to fit into a physical system that is fundamentally different from the one that most technology uses. The binary limitations of electronics can be overcome by the beautiful flexibility of the most precious metal. Gold initially proved difficult to work so thin, but the team was able to use silver nano-wires as a platform for the gold wires. Silver has many of the same qualities as Gold, but its reactivity makes it a toxic and short-term fix.

Gold nano-wires on the other hand, can last for three years inside the body. While this is far from what would be ideal, this is far better than other materials. Researchers have suggested that Gold’s early durability could signal even more success after future research. The nano-wires were melded with silicon to further increase their flexibility and lifespan. While they are both flexible, gold and silicone’s safety enables them to be used. Both materials have been historically used in the body with no side effects. Their compatibility with the human body means they will both be safe and safer from public scrutiny. People will be less resistant to gold-enabled medical devices because most already have an uncle with a gold tooth.

This new technology has potential to aid those suffering with loss of muscle control, nerve pain, and a wide range of other conditions. When the brain’s natural connections to different muscles are inhibited, gold could restore that and bring back quality of life for the elderly or impaired. Individuals with leprosy could possibly receive the ability to feel again. Some horrific suggestions have been made that this innovation could be used to create a computer-brain interface. While this may be helpful for some severely disabled individuals, that is the last sort of innovation our society needs. No amount of productivity or unique abilities would be worth embedding the ability to compute inside a brain. Whether it is used optimally or not, this discovery has the ability to help many lives.

Get Peter Schiff’s most important gold headlines once per week – click here – for a free subscription to his exclusive weekly email updates.
Interested in learning how to buy gold and buy silver?
Call 1-888-GOLD-160 and speak with a Precious Metals Specialist today!