Pacemakers and medications can be enlisted to correct these kinds of irregular heartbeats, but scientists are now reporting a new way forward that involves neither, instead using fine carbon threads as electrical bridges to keep the signals circulating.

The research was led by Dr Mehdi Razavi from the Texas Heart Institute, whose previous work in this area has resulted in wireless pacemakerspowered by microwaves and surgical tools for obese patients. This time around, the cardiologist teamed up with researchers from Rice University to tackle the dangerous and potentially fatal consequences of an abnormal heartbeat.