According to a posting on the U.S. Department of Defense’s Small Business Innovation Research/Small Business Technology Transfer page, the Pentagon is looking for a new robot capable of extracting wounded soldiers from the battlefield with “minimal intervention” from traditional medics. The posting emphasizes the need for an autonomous system in order to “reduce or eliminate [...]
Posts under ‘Medicine’
Which supplements are worth your money?
Choosing which health supplements to take can be fairly daunting, as manufacturers make a lot of claims that are often not backed up with firm scientific evidence. Information is Beautiful is a Web site that takes information and conveys it through well-designed graphs and charts. They’ve evaluated the evidence of supplements for use in treating [...]
3D organ printing: coming soon to a hospital near you?
For a few years I’ve been reading about technology that enables doctors to “print” human organs for transplants. Unlike the traditional sources for transplant organs (willing donors and cadavers), 3D printers would enable patients in need to receive organs without having to wait on a list, as well as produce organs created from the patients’ [...]
Highlights from the AAAS Annual Meeting
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) held their annual meeting this week, and naturally a lot of very interesting stories and research results were unveiled: Turning paper and clothing into batteries – By coating fabric and paper with ink “laced” with carbon nanotubes, researchers were able to coax these ordinary materials into [...]
Stem cell therapy lengthens telomeres for those with premature aging disease
People with a rare premature aging disease called dyskeratosis congenita (DKC) experience many of the symptoms we associate with the normal aging process – such as gray hair – but also experience serious symptoms such as anemia and a predisposition to cancer. It is thought that the symptoms of DKC are brought on by the [...]
New prosthetic hand accurate enough to play “Jenga”
This recently unveiled bionic hand, manufactured by the UK-based BeBionic, shows a remarkable degree of accuracy – even enabling users to pull out precariously balanced blocks in a game of “Jenga.” The company shows a range of different grip types and capabilities in the above video. According to Engadget, the hand can also be sheathed [...]
Plastic surgeons create “implantable bra”
Plastic surgeons from South Africa have created an “internal bra system” that consists of a cone-like polyester mesh implant, which is inserted into the breast and provides support from within. The procedure is being positioned as an alternative to traditional saline or silicone breast implants: The cone-shaped material, named Breform, is similar to what is [...]
“Artificial Pancreas” improves blood sugar control in diabetics
In what sounds like a potential significant advance in diabetes control, researchers at Cambridge University released study information about a new “artificial pancreas” that can monitor blood sugar levels and deliver insulin when necessary: “These devices could transform the management of type 1 diabetes, but it is likely to be a gradual process,” Roman Hovorka [...]
New powered exoskeleton helps paraplegics walk
ABC’s Good Morning America has been running some interesting medical technology stories this week, but this one in particular caught my eye. An Israeli company demonstrated a powered exoskeleton called ReWalk that can be used to help wheelchair-bound individuals walk upright, even up stairs: ReWalk is a lightweight device comprised of an upper body harness, [...]
HumanPlus Blog Linkstravaganza: 1/29/10
It’s Friday. Here’s some sweet linkage to check out over the weekend: io9 asks if vat-grown meat is kosher. I would think yes, but they consult a rabbi who gives a more nuanced answer. Boing Boing notes the doctor who created the “MMR vaccine scare” could lose his license. Good riddance to bad researchers. Climate [...]