Wash your mouth out with shape-shifting metal Experts in chemistry, dentistry, and engineering have developed a way to electromagnetically control iron oxide nanoparticles to clean plaque on human teeth. In an article published recently in the journal ACS Nano, University of Pennsylvania researchers Min Jun Oh, Alaa Babeer, Yuan Liu, Zhi Ren, Jingyu Wu, David A. Issadore …
If science fiction has taught me anything, it's that no harm ever came from black viscous ooze in bodily orifices, no sir. Er...
- The X Files
- Prometheus
- Star Trek TNG
- Westworld television series
- William Gibson's unfilmed Alien 3 script
It's either going to kill you, rewrite your DNA to turn you into an alien hybrid or else eat your brain leaving just your body as a puppet for an AI.
Cool!
Eating a twice daily dose of rust is going to have complications. While it may actually help people who are currently anemic, iron supplements can interfere with uptake of essential nutrients as well. There is the additional issue of waste disposal, as this will probably spike free iron levels in the wastewater supply, and of course, disinfecting whatever is still stuck to the magnetic "brush".
Classic futurist nonsense, where in 10 short years people will stop using cheap, proven ways to do something and replace them with a complicated and expensive device that will probably be used instead to clean parts for the nuclear weapons program.
Worse for me, if they ever DO sell this, they will probably insist on making it mint flavored.
RTFA - the 'rust' is not to be ingested, or if done accidentally would be tiny (RDA of Fe is 10-15 mg or up to double that for pregnant women), and is recollected and reused. It will not significantly increase Fe in wastewater.
"people will stop using cheap, proven ways to do something..."
While toothbrush/toothpaste is cheap/proven, it is still not very effective (even brushing 3X a day does not completely clean especially hard to reach areas) which is why even people who brush and floss regularly need an annual deep-clean and still sometimes get cavities.
"if they ever DO sell this, they will probably insist on making it mint flavored..."
Please no! (But there are many, many non-mint flavoured toothpastes available - YMMV depending on location of course). And it's easy to make your own toothpaste with bicarbonate
Dentists were finding infections caused by toothpaste microplastics back when they had blue sparkles in them. You don't want anything under your gums - that's pretty much the whole reason for cleaning your teeth.
I could be wrong, but it doesn't seem that a mouth is acidic enough to dissolve iron oxide quickly. The common hydrated silica can dissolve in ordinary water as long as it's not already saturated.
Seeing how much brands like Braun charge for their toothbrush heads I wouldn't hold my breath (ah !). A bit like printer vendors and platine-priced ink.
I can imagine that because some of the stuff will be swallowed/lost, we'll have to "refill" our STARS thingy from time to time ?
the IONP continually reattach themselves and also get gathered by the magnetic field and reintegrated into STARS mass.
Why do I have this eerie feeling ?
"But it will fit inside the mouth."
That's a good start, at least someone is setting priorities right here.
If you have ferrous fillings that's something to be concerned about regardless of your oral-hygiene regimen.
Even old-fashioned amalgam fillings (an alloy of mercury, silver, tin, and copper) won't be significantly affected by the small magnetic flux required to herd these little beasties around. Ditto for gold crowns and the like.
And if you have amalgam fillings you might want to consider having them replaced with resin anyway, since having a bunch of mercury in your mouth is not ideal, even if there's some disagreement on just how bad it is. (The FDA says "little to no data" on long-term effects, particularly for fetuses where the mother has amalgam fillings and other possibly more sensitive cases.)
"Literature Review
2.1. Introduction
Henry P. Coats was the first to mention Magnetic Abrasive Finishing (MAF) in his patent in 1938
in the USA. Later MAF was further developed by researchers in the former USSR and Japan [19]. Many
studies have been conducted to investigate the MAF process parameters and performance. Some of the
studies employed permanent magnets as a magnetic field source, while others used electromagnets with
direct current (DC) or alternating current (AC)."
- https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://uwspace.uwaterloo.ca/bitstream/handle/10012/13695/Al-Dulaimi_Thamir.pdf
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