Category: Health & Medicine
January 12th, 2010
2010 tech predictions: a futurist roundup
Sure, you’ve already read enough tech predictions for 2010 and probably have some of your own. But there’s one subset of the tech community that makes a living prognosticating- futurists. So it’s worth a post to highlight a few thought-provoking and entertaining ideas from a few experts. (Note: I would’ve posted this a lot earlier but was in Brazil on vacation for the last few weeks).
Jump the Curve
#7: An amateur scientist using cheap supercomputers accessed through “the cloud” will make a major scientific discovery. Her discovery will have initially been dismissed by peer-reviewed journals but hailed by the growing number of “open-science” advocates.
#13: Hype surround algae’s promise as the “bio-fuel of the future” will grow hot after a breakthrough in the field of synthetic biology. Environmental advocates, however, will draw parallels between the advent of the “designer bacteria” (which is used to convert algae into fuel) and the creation of genetically modified organisms. The issue of “Frankenbugs” will gain traction in the media.
#19: A conservative state legislator will introduce legislation prohibiting healthy individuals (i.e. non-injured combat veterans) from using implanted brain-neural technology to control objects outside their body. The bill will die in committee but the author and other supporters vow to make it a campaign issue in 2010.
Read all of Jack Uldrich’s 2010 Technology Forecast & Predictions
Ross Dawson
1. Information Intensity
We will soon consume more media than there are waking hours, by virtue of multi-channeling at most times. Billions of people and places will be media producers, including video streaming from most points of view on the world. We are just at the dawn of an incomprehensible daily onslaught of news and information – some valuable, much useless.5. Culture Jamming
Remix culture will surge, with everybody taking and jamming up slices of everything and anything to express themselves, while intellectual property law fails to keep pace. Every culture on the planet will reach everywhere – the only culture we will know is a global mashed-up emergent culture that changes by the minute.9. Augmented Humans
More than ever before, we can transcend our human abilities. Traditional memory aids are supplemented by augmented reality glasses or contact lenses, thought interfaces allow us to control machines, exoskeletons give us superhuman power. Machines will not take over humanity… because they will be us.
Read all of Ross’ Top 10 trends for the 2010s: the most exciting decade in human history
December 12th, 2009
Manhattan Beach Project to reverse aging by 2029
Human life expectancy may see a hockey stick growth curve in the coming years as a result of leaps made in fields such as molecular nanotechnology, gene therapy, robotics, and regenerative medicine.
Seizing the potential for radical longevity, an effort dubbed the “Manhattan Beach Project“, is a focused and targeted “all-out assault on the world’s biggest killer- aging,” according to its founder David Kekich, President/CEO of Maximum Life Foundation.
Sculpture of Methuselah, a 969 year-old man mentioned in the Hebrew Bible (Credit: www.answersingenesis.org)
The project was spawned during an international scientific conference nine years ago in Manhattan Beach, California (hence the namesake that only in ambition is similar to the Manhattan Project).
It consists of a group of researchers and entrepreneurs that have for years been collaborating on a scientific road-map to intervene in the human aging process and are disclosing their plan “to start saving up to 100,000 lives lost to aging every day, by 2029.”
In November ‘09, Kekich organized a Longevity Summit that brought together a number of leading scientists, visionaries, and experts on human aging and longevity for a discussion on the state-of-the-art research and the implications of their discoveries. Their goal is to develop a scientific and business strategy to make human life extension a real possibility within the next two decades. Here’s a video of Kekich explaining the project.
Hosted by the Maximum Life Foundation and sponsored by the Life Extension Foundation, also a non-profit organization dedicated to longevity research, the summit opened with futurist Ray Kurzweil, who explained, “We are very close to the tipping point in human longevity. We are about 15 years away from adding more than one year of longevity per year to remaining life expectancy.”
Over the next three days, experts presented their latest research at a series of conference sessions. As H+ (The Manhattan Beach Project to End Aging by 2029 ) and Reason.com (The Methuslelah Manifesto) report, below are conference highlights: Read the rest of this entry »
November 22nd, 2009
The surgeons of tomorrow: Miniaturized robots that go inside you
Before the advent of laparoscopic or keyhole surgery in the 70’s, operations such as a stomach bypass or gall bladder removal required large incisions and long periods for recovery. The next chapter further minimizes the invasiveness of surgical procedures via robots that are millimeters in size that infiltrate our bodies through the ears, eyes and lungs, to take tissue samples, deliver drugs, or install medical devices.
Brad Nelson, a roboticist at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EHT) in Zurich, recently told New Scientist; “It’s not impossible to think of this happening in five years. I’m convinced it’s going to get there.”
Hurdles to overcome include the development of new mechanisms for propulsion and power supply on a miniature scale, which are also prerequisites to the loftier idea of nanoscale medical robots swimming in our bloodstream.
November 19th, 2009
7 things you should know about Body Area Networks (BANs)
The budding field of Body Area Networks gives new meaning to the term “personal” in PCs. In a nutshell, the technology leverages wireless communications protocols that allow for low-powered sensors to communicate with one another and transmit data to a local base station and to remote places like hospitals.
For instance, small flat sensors placed on the skin, or even under it, could be used to create a “medical” body area network that provides doctors with real-time data about their patients’ bio-signs. Another key application is short-range person-to-person communications that could help protect front line soldiers in combat.
BAN technology is still in its infancy and mainstream adoption is still over the horizon as engineers and researchers work to overcome challenges involving interoperability, sensor design constraints (i.e. power and complexity), privacy, and security to name a few. Once these issues are overcome, expect BANs to first revolutionize healthcare allowing for concepts like telemedicine and mHealth to become real, and potentially allow for groundbreaking uses in communications, security, and sports.
Below, in no particular order, is a list of facts, news, and generally good things to know about BANs: Read the rest of this entry »
November 12th, 2009
Top three Star Trek-style holodeck experiences
Surround 3D TV is making its way to your living room. To get a sense of what it may look and sound like, look no further than the cutting edge of virtual reality taking shape at academic research centers outfitted with world class data visualization facilities. In this post, we’ll take a look at three (ok, four) of the most remarkable scientific visualization technologies.
Allosphere: University of California, Santa Barbara
The AlloSphere is a spherical space in which immersive, virtual environments allow researchers to convert large data sets into experiences of sight and sound. For example, it allows researchers to “fly” through a hydrogen atom while hearing sonified features of the wavefunction of its single electron to help describe invisible processes of nature.
The facility consists of a 30-foot diameter sphere built inside a 3-story cube that’s nearly echo-free. Inside the chamber are two spherical hemispheres that are constructed of perforated aluminum designed to be optically opaque and acoustically transparent. A 7-foot-wide bridge runs across the center, supporting the users. High-resolution video projectors can project images across the entire inner surface enabling seamless stereo-optic 3D projection.
The Allosphere has more than 500 audio components that hang suspended in rings just outside the aluminum shell and are connected to multiple Gigabit Ethernet LAN fibers that lead to a server farm consisting of seven Hewlett Packard 9400 workstations (as of April 2009).
October 25th, 2009
Carbon nanotubes: Great for agriculture, but for humans?
In what can eventually kick up a firestorm similar to the genetically modified food controversy, the emerging field of “nano-agriculture” is making headlines. It involves the use of nano-particles — wisps 1/50,000th the width of a human hair — in agriculture and could have beneficial affects for crops, say scientists.
Tomato seeds exposed to carbon nanotubes (right) sprouted and grew faster than unexposed seeds. (Credit: The American Chemical Society)
University of Arkansas researchers report that tomato seeds exposed to carbon nanotubes (CNTs) germinated faster and grew into larger, heavier seedlings than other seeds. That growth-enhancing effect could be a boon for biomass production for plant-based biofuels and other agricultural products, they suggest.
Considerable scientific research is underway to use nanoparticles — wisps 1/50,000th the width of a human hair — in agriculture. The goals of “nano-agriculture” include improving the productivity of plants for food, fuel, and other uses.
The scientists report the first evidence that CNTs penetrate the thick outer coating of seeds, and support water uptake inside seeds, a process which can affect seed germination and growth of tomato seedlings.The nanotube-exposed seeds sprouted up to two times faster than control seeds and the seedlings weighed more than twice as much as the untreated plants.
October 19th, 2009
'Scaffolding' to regenerate lost or damaged bones and tissues, even stop age clock
Implantable organ and tissue “scaffolds” are currently in the spotlight for regenerative medicine, and may allow for the replacement of most body parts that flounder with age within 30-50 years, according to a report from BBC.
That means future centenarians born today could have a “physical” age of 50 at a calendar age of 100.
A “scaffolding” technique developed at Leeds University allows for transplantable tissues, and eventually organs, that the body can make its own. Once the scaffold has been transplanted, the body takes over and repopulates it with cells without any fear of rejection - the main reason why normal transplants wear out and fail .
Using this technique, a research team at Leeds has managed to make fully functioning heart valves, which involves taking a healthy donor heart valve - from a human or a suitable animal, such as a pig - and gently stripping away its cells using a cocktail of enzymes and detergents. The inert scaffold left can be transplanted into the patient, writes the BBC. According to Eileen Ingha, a professor at the university’s Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering, trials in animals and on 40 patients in Brazil have shown promising results.
Across the continent, another approach to scaffolding is underway at Tel Aviv University’s Department of Biomedical Engineering. There, professor Meital Zilberman has developed an artificial biologically active scaffold made from soluble fibers, which may help humans replace lost or missing bone.
October 6th, 2009
A brain-computer interface that communicates thoughts between people
New research from the University of Southampton has demonstrated that it is possible for communication from person to person through the power of thought alone.
Looking to take brain-computer interfaces (BCI) to the next level, Dr. Christopher James from the University’s Institute of Sound and Vibration Research, set out to show that brain-to-brain (B2B) communication is possible. Utilizing electrodes, computers, and the internet, he claims that his experiment is a “proof of concept” that shows, for the first time, true brain to brain interfacing.
Dr James noted: “Whilst BCI is no longer a new thing and person to person communication via the nervous system was shown previously in work by Professor Kevin Warwick from the University of Reading, here we show, for the first time, true brain to brain interfacing. We have yet to grasp the full implications of this but there are various scenarios where B2B could be of benefit such as helping people with severe debilitating muscle wasting diseases, or with the so-called ‘locked-in’ syndrome, to communicate and it also has applications for gaming.”
Below is a three and a half-minute video detailing the BCI experiment:
September 29th, 2009
Researchers give brain implants a nanotube coat to boost performance
Microelectrodes implanted in the brain are increasingly being used to treat neurological disorders, but robust and reliable chronic application of neural electrodes remains a challenge.
Scientists at University of Michigan have created brain implants tested in rats that can more clearly record signals from surrounding neurons. The findings could eventually lead to more effective treatment of neurological disorders such as Parkinson’s disease, epilepsy, and paralysis.
The newly developed brain implants use nanotubes coated with PEDOT, which is a bio-compatible and electrically conductive polymer that has been shown to record neural signals better than conventional metal electrodes. The coating allows the electrodes to operate with less electrical resistance than current metal electrode sites, which means they can communicate more clearly with individual neurons.
This illustration depicts neurons firing (green structures in the foreground) and communicating with nanotubes in the background. (Credit Mohammad Reza Abidian)
September 23rd, 2009
Latest MIT retinal implant to see human trials by 2013
Led by an MIT professor, a team with 20 years of retinal implant research announced a prosthesis that could one day help restore a useful level of vision to certain groups of blind people.
The eye implant is designed for people that have lost their vision from one of two leading causes of blindness; retinitis pigmentosa and age-related macular degeneration. The prostheis takes over the function of lost retinal cells by electrically stimulating the nerve cells that normally carry visual input from the retina to the brain.
Credit: Shawn Kelly
Christopher Jablonski is a freelance technology writer. Previously, he was the manager of marketing editorial at CBS Interactive, delivering client solutions on BNET, ZDNet, and TechRepublic. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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