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Sep 21, 2026 18 min

Bringing hard electronics into soft and squishy bodies

from Science Friday Hosted by Flora Lichtman, Charles Bergquist, John Rogers

A lot of things in life are squishy, including your skin, your organs, and all the goo inside you. But technology tends to be rigid and hard. Figuring out how to get those two worlds to work together can be challenging. How do you connect an electronic sensor to a soft, beating heart? As an inventor of biocompatible electronic devices, John A. Rogers has designed things like flexible probes, a pacemaker smaller than a grain of rice, and wireless sensors that stick to skin like a temporary tattoo. He joins Host Flora Lichtman to talk about the challenges of meshing the natural and artificial worlds, and his approach to science and technology development. Guest: Dr. John A. Rogers is a professor and director of the Querrey-Simpson Institute of Bioelectronics at Northwestern University. Transcripts for each episode are available within 1-3 days at sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Follow us on socials @ scifri on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and Bluesky and sign up for our newsletters. Got a science question that’s keeping you up at night? Call us: 877-472-4374

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Inventor John Rogers bridges the natural and artificial worlds with flexible, biocompatible electronics.

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Bringing hard electronics into soft and squishy bodies

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