The "Science As I Never Imagined It" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Just got an email from a former student of mine who is in management at Google.  I emailed him a day ago asking what he might know about the glucose sensor contact lenses that I have been reading about in the newspaper.  He told me that there were employees, who evidently had diabetes or who knew of someone who had diabetes, standing up at their weekly meetings asking if they could try out the contacts.  He told me he will look into their progress with the lenses and tell me what he is allowed to release at this point.  He said that, as I can imagine, the company is tight-lipped as there are plenty of people interested in this research.  My interest in the contacts came about because my granddaughter has Juvenile, or Type 1, diabetes and I am hoping that an invention, dare I call it that, such as this will make her life easier.  Ever since she was diagnosed with Type 1 three years ago, my wife and I have been donating to the Juvenile Diabetes research fund.  Not sure if funds from that entity were used in the development of the lenses, but I'm hoping they may have helped.  For years now, Courtney has had to prick her finger many times a day to get a blood sample that she tests and then transfers the info to her insulin pump which wirelessly sends insulin through a small tube to her port which is attached to her body.  This 11 year old girl has experienced more needle pricks than I have in my entire life.  She is well beyond her age in knowing the functions of her body and the care that is needed to keep it healthy.  Shouldn't be that way, but she has no choice.  There are 382 million diabetics just like her who need insulin and keep close tabs on their blood sugar.  At first, at the age of 8, she had to give herself multiple shots every day until she was able to use the insulin pump with port.  But, the finger pricks still create pain for her.  When I saw the breakthrough that Google has created, my hope for her increased.  

The prototype will take at least five years before it is ready for the public and is one of several monitoring devices that are being worked on at present.  Donations are constantly needed to keep the research on track.  Other devices are a flexible spring that is tucked under the eyelid, a thumb cuff, tattoos and a saliva sensor.  Google is a high tech company which is exactly what is needed to create inventions such as this.  The contact lens has two twinkling glitter-specks loaded with tens of thousands of miniaturized transistors.  It is ringed with a hair-thin antenna.  These electronics can monitor glucose levels in the tears of the diabetics that wear them and then transmit them to a handheld device.  

Researchers also had to build in a system to pull energy from incoming radio frequency waves to power the device enough to collect and transit one glucose reading per second.  The electronics in the contact lens doesn't obscure vision, since they lie outside the eye's pupil and iris.  I have also read where they might be able to someday combine both the diabetes monitoring system with the visual needs of a patient and take care of two problems with one lens.  Science is wonderful, isn't it.  I am amazed at what is being done in the medical field.  My only wish is that I will be alive to see my granddaughter able to live her life without the constant pricking of her finger to monitor her affliction.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.