Ways for people to communicate after physically-disabling injuries can be improved significantly by reading brain signals rather than previous efforts which tracked eye movements. (Science Daily: Brain-sensing technology allows typing at 12 words per minute)
The article mentions trying to use a visual tracking technology which was tried by Stephen Hawking but it wasn't so effective for him. The current research had monkeys typing at twelve wpm and the potential from that is enormous.
Sci fi radiates from this one as the foundation is a technology which reads brain signals in real time and reacts as appropriate. Take fly-by-wire to fly-by-mind.
The immediate medical applications for people who are seriously screwed is immense. Stephen Hawking has been one of the first to try any innovative technology for communication in his circumstance so likely it won't be long before he tries this one. One step beyond typing the detected words is to speaking them.
You could sci fi this one all day long with the potential immensity of it.
The Crash Cart to jolt a patient out of cardiac fibrillation may be replaced with much less physically-impactful technology using light. (Science Daily: Light tames lethal heart disorders in mice and virtual humans)
The Crash Cart and those electrified paddles are some of the scariest aspects of medicine and there's some risk of damage to cardiac tissue from using this method. The researchers discovered light can have the same effect but with significantly less risk of injury to the patient from the procedure.
There's not much sci fi we can bring to this as bringing someone back from getting that close to death is about as much sci fi magic as anyone would ever want. It's not clear where medicine with light may extend but maybe sometimes it doesn't have to extend anywhere beyond solving the problem at hand. Given the enormous number of cardiac deaths in the world, this could be a tremendous advance.
Note: the study is in the realm of pure science since they don't have some type of device which can immediately apply this technique to patients but that's the next step.
The genetic basis for high blood pressure just got significantly more complex with more genes involved. (Science Daily: New studies double number of known sites in genome linked to high blood pressure)
We don't have the medical expertise to determine what that means specifically but all of you know the hazard in high blood pressure for many people. Here's a snapshot summary from one of the researchers:
One surprising finding from the study co-led by Johns Hopkins, Ehret says, was that many of the new sites identified were near genes that are active in cells that line the inside of blood vessels, suggesting those cells are somehow involved directly in blood pressure control. "As a physician, I would have suspected the kidney, and perhaps the adrenal gland, of sending signals to control blood pressure," he says. "But it seems that the blood vessels themselves may also be part of the cause of hypertension."
Even as a layman, that revelation as a surprise since who ever thought such 'intelligence' exists in the blood vessels and not some coordinating organ or some such.
The sci fi extension is in what will you do with the knowledge. We can't do anything with the human genome without eugenics and the research doesn't even imply that but rather it reveals the sophistication of the cause of blood pressure and the blood vessel understanding may lead to alternative approaches to treatment.
We can't get too outer space sci fi with this one but it's intriguing to watch the people who do. Here's additional research on the same theme. (Science Daily: Major global study reveals new hypertension and blood pressure genes)
Another paper gives confirmation stress is a really poor contributor toward conception. (Science Daily: Stress negatively affects chances of conception, science shows)
Maybe the first thought is, well, that's obvious but recognition of a clinical factor in stress may lead to improved ways to deal with it.
There's not much sci fi in this one unless maybe you want the Eloi from H.G. Wells in "The Time Machine" since they never experienced any stress. They also didn't make any babies and they only existed as a food source for the Morlocks. Other than that, life was an idyllic delight for them.
We have a bit of sociological / psychological play since humans don't tend to do all that well unless we're challenged (i.e. stressed). When we sit around dreaming, we usually turn to fat and drop out of the game. Humans typically rise to a challenge but that doesn't work for pregnancy or not in that way.
Likely there's a whole lot more research coming to discover what to do about the situation.
OK, that should do it for now but I have four more articles, all of which are uniquely interesting. These ones focus on medical research but the others go all over and all in their own interesting ways.
The article mentions trying to use a visual tracking technology which was tried by Stephen Hawking but it wasn't so effective for him. The current research had monkeys typing at twelve wpm and the potential from that is enormous.
Sci fi radiates from this one as the foundation is a technology which reads brain signals in real time and reacts as appropriate. Take fly-by-wire to fly-by-mind.
The immediate medical applications for people who are seriously screwed is immense. Stephen Hawking has been one of the first to try any innovative technology for communication in his circumstance so likely it won't be long before he tries this one. One step beyond typing the detected words is to speaking them.
You could sci fi this one all day long with the potential immensity of it.
The Crash Cart to jolt a patient out of cardiac fibrillation may be replaced with much less physically-impactful technology using light. (Science Daily: Light tames lethal heart disorders in mice and virtual humans)
The Crash Cart and those electrified paddles are some of the scariest aspects of medicine and there's some risk of damage to cardiac tissue from using this method. The researchers discovered light can have the same effect but with significantly less risk of injury to the patient from the procedure.
There's not much sci fi we can bring to this as bringing someone back from getting that close to death is about as much sci fi magic as anyone would ever want. It's not clear where medicine with light may extend but maybe sometimes it doesn't have to extend anywhere beyond solving the problem at hand. Given the enormous number of cardiac deaths in the world, this could be a tremendous advance.
Note: the study is in the realm of pure science since they don't have some type of device which can immediately apply this technique to patients but that's the next step.
The genetic basis for high blood pressure just got significantly more complex with more genes involved. (Science Daily: New studies double number of known sites in genome linked to high blood pressure)
We don't have the medical expertise to determine what that means specifically but all of you know the hazard in high blood pressure for many people. Here's a snapshot summary from one of the researchers:
One surprising finding from the study co-led by Johns Hopkins, Ehret says, was that many of the new sites identified were near genes that are active in cells that line the inside of blood vessels, suggesting those cells are somehow involved directly in blood pressure control. "As a physician, I would have suspected the kidney, and perhaps the adrenal gland, of sending signals to control blood pressure," he says. "But it seems that the blood vessels themselves may also be part of the cause of hypertension."
Even as a layman, that revelation as a surprise since who ever thought such 'intelligence' exists in the blood vessels and not some coordinating organ or some such.
The sci fi extension is in what will you do with the knowledge. We can't do anything with the human genome without eugenics and the research doesn't even imply that but rather it reveals the sophistication of the cause of blood pressure and the blood vessel understanding may lead to alternative approaches to treatment.
We can't get too outer space sci fi with this one but it's intriguing to watch the people who do. Here's additional research on the same theme. (Science Daily: Major global study reveals new hypertension and blood pressure genes)
Another paper gives confirmation stress is a really poor contributor toward conception. (Science Daily: Stress negatively affects chances of conception, science shows)
Maybe the first thought is, well, that's obvious but recognition of a clinical factor in stress may lead to improved ways to deal with it.
There's not much sci fi in this one unless maybe you want the Eloi from H.G. Wells in "The Time Machine" since they never experienced any stress. They also didn't make any babies and they only existed as a food source for the Morlocks. Other than that, life was an idyllic delight for them.
We have a bit of sociological / psychological play since humans don't tend to do all that well unless we're challenged (i.e. stressed). When we sit around dreaming, we usually turn to fat and drop out of the game. Humans typically rise to a challenge but that doesn't work for pregnancy or not in that way.
Likely there's a whole lot more research coming to discover what to do about the situation.
OK, that should do it for now but I have four more articles, all of which are uniquely interesting. These ones focus on medical research but the others go all over and all in their own interesting ways.
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