Self-destructing circuits mimic Mission: impossible tape

‘This tape will self-destruct in five seconds.’ So ended the agents’ instructions in the long-running TV series Mission: impossible. While the idea of self-destructing tape was pure fantasy then, now researchers in China and the US have produced electronic devices that gradually decompose through reactions with water in the air. The researchers believe the device could have important applications not just in security but in environmental protection and potentially medicine too.