Results tagged “Playing God” from HAWT action [hot ak-shuhn]
When the science of biology pushes the envelope, like when we determine aspects of our babies or cause human ears to grow on mice, we are Playing God. This is a series that explore those advances.
I love these Playing God posts, because it is a peek into the future. There will be a time when our offspring will look back and marvel that there were blind people in the year 2009, or that fake limbs were hooks, or that people had spinal chord injuries that paralyzed them. Each one of these Playing God posts moves that reality closer, and in a giant effort to speed us towards that reality, a team at University of Rochester Medical Center is attacking the last one on that list: spinal chord injuries.
This guy is their test patient. He is blue.
That blue color is the miracle.
I love these Playing God posts, because it is a peek into the future. There will be a time when our offspring will look back and marvel that there were blind people in the year 2009, or that fake limbs were hooks, or that people had spinal chord injuries that paralyzed them. Each one of these Playing God posts moves that reality closer, and in a giant effort to speed us towards that reality, a team at University of Rochester Medical Center is attacking the last one on that list: spinal chord injuries.
This guy is their test patient. He is blue.
That blue color is the miracle.
Continue reading Playing God. Project: Blue Miracle.
When the science of biology pushes the envelope, like when we determine aspects of our babies or cause human ears to grow on mice, we are Playing God. This is a series that explore those advances.
We've covered some sassy things on Playing God series: artificial muscle, artificial bone, artificial eye... but today's is totally unique. This one is a cast, like a broken bone cast, in a syringe.
Casts always seemed silly to me. I understand they work and I understand they are the only option for most broken bones, but they still seem barbaric to me. Is the best way to immobilize a limb to put a giant, man-made rock on your body in that you can't get wet?
That sounds insane.
And it is.
Thank goodness those people from Johnson & Johnson (oh, how I know them) have something for us. The J&J Operating Company that came up with it? DePuy, pronounced "De Pew," and the product? They call it HEALOS Fx, which might be the silliest name ever. It's either a G.I. Joe character or a Playing-God-worthy post.
Apparently, it's the latter.
We've covered some sassy things on Playing God series: artificial muscle, artificial bone, artificial eye... but today's is totally unique. This one is a cast, like a broken bone cast, in a syringe.
Casts always seemed silly to me. I understand they work and I understand they are the only option for most broken bones, but they still seem barbaric to me. Is the best way to immobilize a limb to put a giant, man-made rock on your body in that you can't get wet?That sounds insane.
And it is.
Thank goodness those people from Johnson & Johnson (oh, how I know them) have something for us. The J&J Operating Company that came up with it? DePuy, pronounced "De Pew," and the product? They call it HEALOS Fx, which might be the silliest name ever. It's either a G.I. Joe character or a Playing-God-worthy post.
Apparently, it's the latter.
Continue reading Playing God. Project: Liquid Bone.
When the science of biology pushes the envelope, like when we determine aspects of our babies or cause human ears to grow on mice, we are Playing God. This is a series that explore those advances.
When pharmaceutical companies and the FDA take on new drugs, it brings up a couple of concerns at HAWTaction headquarters.
1. FDA tests are totally and utterly ineffective. Sure, the FDA makes the pharma company go through the paces of testing the products, but it's not effective. The New Yorker had an amazing article (Guinea-Pigging by Carl Elliott) that explored the system for FDA trials and those who participate... and it's just appalling. (I think HAWT will visit this article in detail soon.) It's not a surprise that some drugs still cause problems when they make it to market and result in giant lawsuits. So, we get concerned about that. Also?
2. While drugs are developed, lots of animals are used in testing.
The answer?
Maybe.
When pharmaceutical companies and the FDA take on new drugs, it brings up a couple of concerns at HAWTaction headquarters.
1. FDA tests are totally and utterly ineffective. Sure, the FDA makes the pharma company go through the paces of testing the products, but it's not effective. The New Yorker had an amazing article (Guinea-Pigging by Carl Elliott) that explored the system for FDA trials and those who participate... and it's just appalling. (I think HAWT will visit this article in detail soon.) It's not a surprise that some drugs still cause problems when they make it to market and result in giant lawsuits. So, we get concerned about that. Also?
2. While drugs are developed, lots of animals are used in testing.
The answer?
Maybe.
Continue reading Playing God. Project: Body on Chip.
When the science of biology pushes the envelope, like when we determine aspects of our babies or cause human ears to grow on mice, we are Playing God. This is a series that explore those advances.
I love x-rays and MRI's and CAT scans. Really, I love any way for us to look into our systems without actually cutting ourselves open. I can't help but think of Medieval medicine where you couldn't even see if a bone was fractured. My lordie.
So, when I get a CAT scan or MRI, I never complain about drinking funny-tasting liquid or fasting or lying completely still. The alternatives are... well... not pleasant. So, I don't complain. Could things be better? Sure. Could imaging be less of a hassle and just be like walking through a door way? Yes. Could it be totally portable, a-la Star Trek? Sure. Could the detail of the imaging be more precise? Yes.
IBM is taking us there.
I love x-rays and MRI's and CAT scans. Really, I love any way for us to look into our systems without actually cutting ourselves open. I can't help but think of Medieval medicine where you couldn't even see if a bone was fractured. My lordie.So, when I get a CAT scan or MRI, I never complain about drinking funny-tasting liquid or fasting or lying completely still. The alternatives are... well... not pleasant. So, I don't complain. Could things be better? Sure. Could imaging be less of a hassle and just be like walking through a door way? Yes. Could it be totally portable, a-la Star Trek? Sure. Could the detail of the imaging be more precise? Yes.
IBM is taking us there.
Continue reading Playing God. Project: Imaging.
When the science of biology pushes the envelope (or physics), like when we determine aspects of our babies or cause human ears to grow on mice, we are Playing God. This is a series that explore those advances.
Do I see flying cars in our future? Yes. Implantable computers? Yes, and not soon enough. HAWTaction.com ads on the moon? Fr shr. One thing I struggle to accept as an incoming truth is teleportation. Will I be able to step into a bathtub and end up in Barcelona? Will I be able to sit in a couch and end up at JLF's lair (that remains an undisclosed location)? The answer had always been no... but there is progress in the area that is trying to tease me into a yes.
The latest advancement comes out of the University of Maryland, more specifically the Joint Quantum Institute. (Either the Joint Quantum Institute is working on teleportation or they are working on developing a blunt that gets you high in a parallel universe.) So, what has Christopher Monroe's team done? They instantly move the quantum properties of a molecule across 3 feet to another molecule. What? Come on. Hold my hand. I'll walk you through it.
Do I see flying cars in our future? Yes. Implantable computers? Yes, and not soon enough. HAWTaction.com ads on the moon? Fr shr. One thing I struggle to accept as an incoming truth is teleportation. Will I be able to step into a bathtub and end up in Barcelona? Will I be able to sit in a couch and end up at JLF's lair (that remains an undisclosed location)? The answer had always been no... but there is progress in the area that is trying to tease me into a yes.The latest advancement comes out of the University of Maryland, more specifically the Joint Quantum Institute. (Either the Joint Quantum Institute is working on teleportation or they are working on developing a blunt that gets you high in a parallel universe.) So, what has Christopher Monroe's team done? They instantly move the quantum properties of a molecule across 3 feet to another molecule. What? Come on. Hold my hand. I'll walk you through it.
Continue reading Playing God. Project: Teleportation.
When the science of biology pushes the envelope, like when we determine aspects of our babies or cause human ears to grow on mice, we are Playing God. This is a series that explore those advances.
One thing we haven't come close to seeing replicated by man is bone. It's just too strong, and yet porous at the same time. Just getting the shape and material is difficult, forget their other functions: It makes our red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets. It holds our muscles, tendons and ligaments in place. It's a complicated thing, this bone, and we usually just replace it with metal. Or a wooden stump, as is de rigueur for pirates.
Turns out it's a hard to connect tendons to a piece of metal, though. So, here comes a group of scientists from Georgia Institute of Technology, ready to blow. Your. Mind.
One thing we haven't come close to seeing replicated by man is bone. It's just too strong, and yet porous at the same time. Just getting the shape and material is difficult, forget their other functions: It makes our red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets. It holds our muscles, tendons and ligaments in place. It's a complicated thing, this bone, and we usually just replace it with metal. Or a wooden stump, as is de rigueur for pirates.
Turns out it's a hard to connect tendons to a piece of metal, though. So, here comes a group of scientists from Georgia Institute of Technology, ready to blow. Your. Mind.
Continue reading Playing God. Project: Artificial Bone.
When the science of biology pushes the envelope, like when we determine aspects of our babies or cause human ears to grow on mice, we are Playing God. This is a series that explore those advances.
Technology Review, my alma mater's magazine, is always chock full of sassy science stuff. That's kind of what you'd expect, though, from that bunch of nerds.
The latest issue covers a scientific advancement in the "diabetes" universe. Now, type 1 diabetes is an interesting disease because (boiled down) it simply means the pancreas doesn't create insulin. Unfortunately, insulin is quite an important hormone that allows the body to "manage" sugar, converting it to energy that's stored in the liver and muscles. Without insulin, diabetics use fat for energy, and that's no good. That's coma time.
Type 1 diabetics, to correct that flaw, continuously check their sugar levels and inject the missing insulin into their body. Honestly, though, the pin pricks and portable blood-level tests and insulin injections all seems rather Medieval to me. "Here, take this chart, bleed ye-self twice daily. Taste the blood, match the metallic taste with this axis and correspond it with the appropriate leech and newt powder."
If only there was a way to monitor sugar and dispense insulin automatically? Well, here comes the future.
Technology Review, my alma mater's magazine, is always chock full of sassy science stuff. That's kind of what you'd expect, though, from that bunch of nerds.
The latest issue covers a scientific advancement in the "diabetes" universe. Now, type 1 diabetes is an interesting disease because (boiled down) it simply means the pancreas doesn't create insulin. Unfortunately, insulin is quite an important hormone that allows the body to "manage" sugar, converting it to energy that's stored in the liver and muscles. Without insulin, diabetics use fat for energy, and that's no good. That's coma time. Type 1 diabetics, to correct that flaw, continuously check their sugar levels and inject the missing insulin into their body. Honestly, though, the pin pricks and portable blood-level tests and insulin injections all seems rather Medieval to me. "Here, take this chart, bleed ye-self twice daily. Taste the blood, match the metallic taste with this axis and correspond it with the appropriate leech and newt powder."
If only there was a way to monitor sugar and dispense insulin automatically? Well, here comes the future.
Continue reading Playing God. Project: Artificial Pancreas.
When the science of biology pushes the envelope, like when we determine aspects of our babies or cause human ears to grow on mice, we are Playing God. This is a series that explore those advances.
Brushing the teeth is such a tedious and complicated task (just as Richard Christy). Toothbrush AND toothpaste? Clockwise motion? Straight up and down? Toothbrush with rubber guards? Electric machines? Do it with too much gusto, and you erode the gums. Do it too infrequently, your teeth rot and fall out. I just... can't get wrap my hands around how complicated it is! In 50 years, society will be laughing as they look at toothbrushes in the Smithsonian. It'll be looked back upon like x-raying feet to measure them, racism or smoking. Barbaric stuff.
Well, there is hope for people like me who can't wrap their heads around the brushing concept and execution. It comes from the University of California at San Francisco. What we're talking about is tooth regeneration, people. My dreams, come true.
Brushing the teeth is such a tedious and complicated task (just as Richard Christy). Toothbrush AND toothpaste? Clockwise motion? Straight up and down? Toothbrush with rubber guards? Electric machines? Do it with too much gusto, and you erode the gums. Do it too infrequently, your teeth rot and fall out. I just... can't get wrap my hands around how complicated it is! In 50 years, society will be laughing as they look at toothbrushes in the Smithsonian. It'll be looked back upon like x-raying feet to measure them, racism or smoking. Barbaric stuff.
Well, there is hope for people like me who can't wrap their heads around the brushing concept and execution. It comes from the University of California at San Francisco. What we're talking about is tooth regeneration, people. My dreams, come true.
Continue reading Playing God. Project: Tooth Regeneration.
When the science of biology pushes the envelope, like when we determine aspects of our babies or cause human ears to grow on mice, we are Playing God. This is a series that explore those advances.
We've seen some crazy things that are getting us closer to Playing God, but this might be the most sassy yet.
The vermiform appendix (a.k.a. the appendix) is a mess. It is a pocket on the intestines, around where small and large tubes meet. It's a useless organ. It does nothing, and we operate flawlessly without it. It's kind of like love. I mean... wha? But, how did we get this appendix then? Everything in us must have given us an evolutionary advantage. Long, sexy legs? Obvious. Eyes? Obvious, to see long, sexy legs. Appendix? Totally useless. No one has any idea.
All we know is that that thing can get infected like all get-out. The pain is excruciating, I've heard. Either the pocket's taken out of the wailing human, or it ruptures and he/she can die. This post is about a new way to get it out. Bag it.
We've seen some crazy things that are getting us closer to Playing God, but this might be the most sassy yet.
The vermiform appendix (a.k.a. the appendix) is a mess. It is a pocket on the intestines, around where small and large tubes meet. It's a useless organ. It does nothing, and we operate flawlessly without it. It's kind of like love. I mean... wha? But, how did we get this appendix then? Everything in us must have given us an evolutionary advantage. Long, sexy legs? Obvious. Eyes? Obvious, to see long, sexy legs. Appendix? Totally useless. No one has any idea.
All we know is that that thing can get infected like all get-out. The pain is excruciating, I've heard. Either the pocket's taken out of the wailing human, or it ruptures and he/she can die. This post is about a new way to get it out. Bag it.
Continue reading Playing God. Project: Bag the Appendix.
When the science of biology pushes the envelope, like when we determine aspects of our babies or cause human ears to grow on mice, we are Playing God. This is a series that explore those advances.
If I were to start listing all the good things that came out of MIT, this post would be... like... really long. And in that list? You'd see my name. Lucky me! Lucky MIT! Lucky, lucky.
Well, the latest to come out of there is the clear liquid shown above. It's water that tastes like beer. Scientists have been looking for this liquid since Ancient Egypt. Well, not really. The liquid is actually a nanostructured material that is supposed to stop an animal bleeding instantly.
If I were to start listing all the good things that came out of MIT, this post would be... like... really long. And in that list? You'd see my name. Lucky me! Lucky MIT! Lucky, lucky.Well, the latest to come out of there is the clear liquid shown above. It's water that tastes like beer. Scientists have been looking for this liquid since Ancient Egypt. Well, not really. The liquid is actually a nanostructured material that is supposed to stop an animal bleeding instantly.
Continue reading Playing God. Project: Coagulation.
When the science of biology pushes the envelope, like when we determine aspects of our babies or cause human ears to grow on mice, we are Playing God. This is a series that explore those advances.
In 100 years innocent, wide-eye kids will ask, "people were actually blind and deaf back then?" It seems inevitable that the function of hearing or seeing will eventually be done by a computer. Your eyes and ears are, essentially, computing data and delivering it to your brain. Technology is bound to develop a self-powered processor that can bridge the "silicon/biological" divide.
As reported at the BBC, researchers in London have taken a step towards giving blind people sight, which will make it that much easier for them to read HAWT action [hot ak-shuh
n].
In 100 years innocent, wide-eye kids will ask, "people were actually blind and deaf back then?" It seems inevitable that the function of hearing or seeing will eventually be done by a computer. Your eyes and ears are, essentially, computing data and delivering it to your brain. Technology is bound to develop a self-powered processor that can bridge the "silicon/biological" divide. As reported at the BBC, researchers in London have taken a step towards giving blind people sight, which will make it that much easier for them to read HAWT action [hot ak-shuh
n].
Continue reading Playing God. Project: Artificial Eye.
When the science of biology pushes the envelope, like when we determine aspects of our babies or cause human ears to grow on mice, we are Playing God. This is a series that explore those advances.
Anytime there is a synthetic body part, my ears perk up. A synthesized eyeball? A fabricated tongue? A man-made liver? Wha? I must learn about it.
Well, researchers at University of California, L.A. have taken a technology used in Japan to generate electricity from ocean waves and applied it to artificial muscles. What would that make? A self-healing, electricity-generating muscle. Holy. Moly. Sounds like success to me.
Anytime there is a synthetic body part, my ears perk up. A synthesized eyeball? A fabricated tongue? A man-made liver? Wha? I must learn about it.Well, researchers at University of California, L.A. have taken a technology used in Japan to generate electricity from ocean waves and applied it to artificial muscles. What would that make? A self-healing, electricity-generating muscle. Holy. Moly. Sounds like success to me.
Continue reading Playing God. Project: Artificial Muscle.
When the science of biology pushes the envelope, like when we determine aspects of our babies or cause human ears to grow on mice, we are Playing God. This is a series that explore those advances.
The brain and the power of our genetic content remain the two true puzzles in our bodies that we might never figure out. Heart? Liver? Lungs? Skin? Kidneys? Done. Understood. Transplanted. Replicated. Brain? Genetics? Barely started. We have generations and generations of study left.
Above are MIT's postdoctoral associate Albert Y. Hung and Menicon Professor of Neuroscience Morgan H. Sheng. Their work has bridged both the brain and genetics, finding an amazing link between them.
The brain and the power of our genetic content remain the two true puzzles in our bodies that we might never figure out. Heart? Liver? Lungs? Skin? Kidneys? Done. Understood. Transplanted. Replicated. Brain? Genetics? Barely started. We have generations and generations of study left.Above are MIT's postdoctoral associate Albert Y. Hung and Menicon Professor of Neuroscience Morgan H. Sheng. Their work has bridged both the brain and genetics, finding an amazing link between them.
Continue reading Playing God. Project: "Autistic Savants".
