Friday, September 23, 2016

More Twisted Ways Science is Keeping You Alive

Usually the immediate reaction to a heart attack requires extreme measures, possibly even opening your chest to implant some type of assistive device in your heart.  The wizard science of the first part in this article is a tiny device with a propellor which is inserted through an artery.  All the cardiac docs want to do is get some assistance for the heart in pumping blood and this tiny device can do that ... and save your life.  (Science Daily:  In a heartbeat: Tiny propeller keeps blood flowing)

We're guessing you won't mind if the researchers take a bow over that one ... particularly if it's your heart.  Likely one of the scariest things about a heart attack is the rib spreader they use to set us up for open-heart surgery because it's not only as risky as life gets, it's also going to hurt like hell in recovery.

This tiny device shows great promise for bypassing those ordeals by an injection and not one so simple as a flu shot but not terribly far from it when you consider that rib spreader.


Different forms of nanobots are getting tremendous attention from researchers due to the radically new form of physical management they present in attacking disease and other afflictions in unique ways.  (Science Daily: The microdoctors in our bodies)

The article doesn't so much present the latest breathtaking discovery in this realm but rather presents a survey and it's extraordinary how far the field has evolved from not so long ago when nanobot sounded like something which might have come from a comic book.  If you're deterred by the science in other articles, this one may be more palatable and it's useful for getting an appreciation of a medical discipline which will inevitably affect many lives.


There was another article this morning regarding the use of engineered bacteria as nanobots inside our bodies because of their specific ability to attack a deadly part of a tumor from cancer.  The research goes into mechanical and also biological options for how best to exploit this technology and results thus far promise spectacular changes in medicine in the relatively near future.  (Ithaka:  Genomics Has Become a Scientific Water Slide and It's a Great One)


People on social networks are constantly advising to 'be kind' or 'be gentle' but they rarely offer any reason, where is the hope.  We see kindness and gentleness as illusions when there is no hope behind them so consider how these medical situations apply to you, if not now maybe years from now.

There's no point in dancing with medical science since eventually it lands on all of us.  Getting obsessed with that is a problem but it's not a bad thing to have the awareness if you do have a heart attack as many do then the medical response to it may not be as extreme as it has been in the past.  That means for you less pain and a better chance of surviving it.

So, do you want me to make cupcakes or find more of this stuff.  I vote for finding more.

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