When I last spoke to John Rogers from the University of Illinois, we talked about his new “electronic skin” – a patch that can be applied like a temporary tattoo, that monitor heartbeats and brain activity, and that flexes and bends without breaking. We talked about his curved camera, inspired by the human eye. We spoke about his flexible medical sensors that can mould to the contours of a beating heart or the fissures of a human brain. We chatted about the $500,000 MIT-Lemelson prize that he had won for his inventions.

I tell you all this because I want you to understand that when John Rogers says his team’s new invention is “some of our