Tiny batteries have uses beyond medicine

Actually, this mini battery won't be powering hearts at all (that requires far more juice). This is for those smaller organelles that need hardly any power, such as bladder control muscles.

This isn't a major breakthrough, but it's an interesting note in the marching ahead of miniaturization technology applied to medicine. Your best remains staying healthy, of course, so that you don't need to become the bionic man (or woman) just to keep your organs working correctly.

• A new battery -- lauded as the smallest implantable battery in the world -- may soon be powering tiny bionic neurons, devices that emit electrical micropulses to stimulate damaged nerves and muscles.
• The new battery may power implantables that could help millions of stroke victims and people suffering from urinary-urge incontinence and neurological disorders such as Parkinson's disease.
• "This is a concern for doctors, especially for those treating patients who are not so healthy, because (the patients) have to be subjected to surgical intrusion when the implant needs replacing," Fong said.
• They work by mimicking nerve impulses from the brain: They reanimate the paralyzed muscles through electrical stimulation, just like the frog in Frankenstein.