Nice.
A suite of flexible and biocompatible threads, embedded with sensors and electronics, can be sutured/woven into tissue for in situ measurements of physical and chemical biomarkers.
Continue reading “Smart threads for in vitro and in vivo diagnostics” »
[Brain implant experiments] like those that let a paralyzed person swig coffee using a robotic arm, or that let blind people “see” spots of light, have proven the huge potential of computers that interface with the brain. But the implanted electrodes used in such trials eventually become useless, as scar tissue forms that degrades their electrical connection to brain cells.
[However,] tests will begin in monkeys of a new implant for piping data into the brain that is designed to avoid that problem. [Led by Harvard researchers,] the project is intended to lead to devices that can restore vision to blind people long-term…[The device will] go beneath the skull but can rest on the surface of an animal’s brain, instead of penetrating inside the organ.
Russian author Boris Zhitkov wrote the 1931 short story Microhands, in which the narrator creates miniature hands to carry out intricate surgeries. And while that was nearly 100 years ago, the tale illustrates the real fundamentals of the nanoscience researchers are working on today.
Nanoscience is the study of molecules that are one billionth of a metre in size. To put this into perspective, a human hair is between 50,000 and 100,000 nanometres thick. At this tiny size, materials possess properties that lie somewhere between a lump of metal and that of a single atom. This unique environment means they can become very reactive and be used as catalysts.
Continue reading “Five ways nanoscience is making science fiction into fact” »
The problems that I have seen when limiting the topic of quantum mechanics to the human mind topic is that the relationship around Quantum Mechanics to biology is missed completely. For example, it has only be in the recent few years that scientists began to understand Quantum Mechanics Action of ELF electromagnetic fields and its relationship to human cells. And, this find has open valuable research in how cells can (through electromagnetic fields can spin a low temperatures) mimic telepathy communicating between the human cells.
Nobody understands what consciousness is or how it works. Nobody understands quantum mechanics either. Could that be more than coincidence?
The Broad Institute in Cambridge, Mass., will retain potentially lucrative rights to a powerful gene-editing technique that could lead to major advances in medicine and agriculture, the federal Patent and Trademark Office ruled on Wednesday.
The decision, in a bitterly fought dispute closely watched by scientists and the biotechnology industry, was a blow to the University of California, often said to be the birthplace of the technique, which is known as Crispr-Cas9.
An appeals board of the patent office ruled that the gene-editing inventions claimed by the two institutions were separate and do not overlap.
Scientists have discovered a groundbreaking immunotherapy combination that kills brain cancer, promotes long-term immunity and is highly effective against breast cancer and myeloma.
Researchers at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO) in Ottawa had the promising findings published Wednesday in the journal ‘Nature Communications’.
The study outlines how the team developed a unique combination of drugs known as SMAC Mimetics and immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) that produce high kill rates for cancer tumor cells in mice.
In a controversial move, a senior US scientific committee has given the green light to one of the most contentious forms of genome editing: where genetic changes made to human embryos will then be inherited by following generations.
For the first time, a panel of experts from two of the most recognised scientific institutions in the US has advised that this process – called germline editing – should be seriously considered as an option in the future, and not outright prohibited.
It’s a considerably more positive tone than the assessment of an international summit of scientists in December 2015, which declared that it would be “irresponsible to proceed” with germline editing unless safety issues and social consensus could be satisfied.
Continue reading “US Scientists Have Cautiously Backed Permanent Gene Editing in Humans” »
Nice write up on the physical sensory parts of the brain and central nervous system. However, everyone is proving and continues to prove that with the electromagnetic spin properties tied to human cells is showing that there is the additional layer of cell to cell communication occurring within the human body as well as these cells which are charged are also able to connect with other charged particles in a room or location. My guess is we will need all to effectively enable meaningful/ useful system intelligence to provide real pragmatic value.
Not everyone is Fred Astaire or Michael Jackson, but even those of us who seem to have two left feet have got rhythm–in our brains. From breathing to walking to chewing, our days are filled with repetitive actions that depend on the rhythmic firing of neurons. Yet the neural circuitry underpinning such seemingly ordinary behaviors is not fully understood, even though better insights could lead to new therapies for disorders such as Parkinson’s disease, ALS and autism.
Recently, neuroscientists at the Salk Institute used stem cells to generate diverse networks of self-contained spinal cord systems in a dish, dubbed circuitoids, to study this rhythmic pattern in neurons. The work, which appears online in the February 14, 2017, issue of eLife, reveals that some of the circuitoids–with no external prompting–exhibited spontaneous, coordinated rhythmic activity of the kind known to drive repetitive movements.
While the recent cases of Ebola and Zika contributed to an emphasis on research, response, and policy related to EIDs, the meeting also had presentations on emerging biotechnologies. Of particular note was the Synthetic Biology panel, which focused on the current state of synthetic biology, its use in the health security defense enterprise, and the policy conundrums that need to be addressed.
Synthetic Biology – Complexity through Simplification
The first presenter, Dr. Christopher Voigt of the Synthetic Biology Center at MIT, noted that synthetic biology was the application of engineering principles to biological systems. The end goal of this bioengineering framework is to leverage ever-increasing computer capabilities to simplify both the designing and writing of genomic sequences. Further simplification would then allow for the creation of more complex systems.
