>>A Blog About the Science and Technology of Living Forever

The human ear is pretty impressive and hard to artificially replicate. By comparison hearing aids are still sizeable, uncomfortable and have yet to get to the point where it makes it possible to hear rich sounds that humans take for granted. Still, inserts, like crickets, may provide insight into how we can learn to to design a small speaker that is  loud, just as you’d need for a hearing aid and help treat conditions like single sided deafness and unilateral hearing loss. Crickets make sound by rubbing their wings together. The wings are corrugated in patterns which make them stiff. This makes them very loud when the insect rubs them together. Scientists can use laser vibration systems and advanced computer modeling simulations to mimic this idea, by engineering the stiffness of the speaker surface. This produces a simple and efficient way to make ultra small speakers that produce sound that is very loud. Hearing aids are designed to operate in stages. Audio signals are collected by a microphone and then amplified to be louded. Background noise is filtered out with digital processing technology. As a result the speaker in a hearing aid can deliver high-intensity sound to an ear.  Better understanding insects may help us in each of these processes. We can learn more about bio-acoustics through the locust. It has two large “tympanal” membranes that is uses to hear. These membranes, on its chest, vibrate with sound. They transfer the audio signals to the insect’s nervous system,  just like a human’s ear drum. Scientists have discovered that this membrane has a regular variation in thickness. When sound is played to it, i produced tsunami-like vibration with the peak of the wave directly at the location of the nerve cells. This allows for huge amplifications of the sound....

A new nasal spray may give snake bite victims at shot at survival. As many as 125,000 people die each year from from venomous snake bites. The challenge? Getting to a hospital in time to get a dose of anti-venom. Most victims die on the way. Drugs used to treat snakebites aren’t easy to use in the wild. So researchers developed a nasal spray to deliver anti-venom drugs (anticholinesterase agents such as neostigmine.) They have been used for decades on snake bite victims, but the challenge is they have to be administered with a needle. In April 2013, researchers from the California Academy of Sciences and the University of California, San Francisco tested delivery of the life saving medicine via nasal spray. In India a doctor has since successfully used the spray to reverse facial paralysis in a patient who had been bitten by a krait, a common venomous snake found in Indian and south Asian jungles. One bite from a krait has enough venom to kill two grown men. The patient recovered from the facial paralysis in half an hour, and was back on their feet within two...

Two doctors have invented a heart replacement device that is keeping a man alive without a heartbeat. The gadget which replaced his failing heart pushes blood like water through a garden hose. So there is no heartbeat. Amazing. See how it was done in this short (under 4 minute) mini documentary. Heart Stop Beating is the story of Billy Cohn and Bud Frazier, two doctors from the Texas Heart Institute, who in the spring of 2011 replaced a dying man’s heart with the device they developed, demonstrating that life  is possible without a pulse or a heart beat, with the right technology. The documentary is called: Heart Stop Beating (click the link to see it now).        ...

Researchers may have a new tool in the fight to cure neurological diseases after they discovered the role of an important brain protein which helps store learning as long-term memories. In a study published in Nature Neuroscience, they said further research into the Arc protein‘s role could help in finding new ways to fight neurological diseases. The protein might also be connected to autism. Research has also revealed the protein is lacking in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients. Scientists recently discovered that Arc is depleted in the hippocampus, the brain’s memory center, for patients suffering from Alzheimer’s. Read more at...

A 37-year-old Virginia man, who was severely disfigured in a gun accident 15 years ago, is doing well after a face transplant. It’s the 23rd face transplant since doctors began doing the procedure, seven years ago. The recipient, Richard Lee Norris, was given a new face, nose, teeth and jaw in what his University of Maryland doctors say is the most extensive face transplant yet. A week after the surgery, Norris can feel his face and is already brushing his teeth and shaving. He has also regained his sense of smell, which he lost in the accident. The donor’s family had been consulted specifically about donating the face. Although Norris now has the donor’s facial tissue, he does not resemble the donor but appears as a blend of two people. The 36-hour operation was the most extensive of its kind because it included a transplant of the donor’s upper and lower jaw, his teeth and a portion of his tongue. It also included all his facial tissue from the scalp to the base of the neck. The first full face transplant was performed in France in 2005 on a woman who had been mauled by her dog. Full story here: The Guardian See video here: UMM...

A study from Harvard University announced they have developed a nano-scale robot, made entirely of folded DNA, that can target and kill cancer cells in the body. So far, these findings can only been observed in the laboratory, but these robots made of DNA reveal that a new caner treatment may the answer to curing cancer. The folded DNA strands form a clamshell structure that can open and close, referred to as ‘DNA robots.’  In the presence of leukemia and lymphoma cells invitro, the researchers controlled the DNA robots to deliver antibodies to the cancer cells, which caused the cancer cells to self-destruct. Proving this concept is ground breaking for drug delivery systems and cancer treatments. The DNA robots open and close, like a clam, in the presence of cancer cells.  The researchers have designed the DNA to unlock one end of the clam and open, when the lock comes into contact with a specific molecule, specific to the cancer cells.  When the DNA robot lock and the specific cancer cell molecule come into contact, the DNA robot unzips, releasing antibodies that stop the cancer cells’ growth. These DNA robots take on the role of the immune system’s white blood cells, which target and destroy damaged or foreign cells.  Immune cells are designed to recognize viruses or other foreign invaders, and engulf them.  These DNA robots function using a similar mechanism. This study has observed this outcome in the lab, so the next step involved injecting these DNA robots into animal models to see how the DNA robots function under different conditions.  In the animal models, there will be more challenges, such as maintaining sufficient levels circulating through the body, minimizing toxicity levels, and searching for accumulations.  These DNA robots are not cells, so...

An 83-year-old woman suffering from a lower jaw infection became the first person  to receive a jaw implant manufactured with a 3D printer. Infections such as hers are normally remedied with reconstructive surgery, but doctor’s deemed the procedure too risky because of her age and health. Instead they turned to LayerWise, a company that specializes in 3D printing of metallic structures. Titanium powder was melted with a high-precision laser into layers guided by a computer model of the jaw. The computer model was digitally divided into 2D layers and printed at 33 layers per millimeter. The 3D printing made it possible to create an implant that just as intricate as the real thing. With articulated joints, cavities that foster muscle attachment, and grooves to guide nerve and vein regrowth, the new jaw was an intricate piece of hardware. It normally takes several days to make a custom implant, but the 3D printed implant took just a few hours to print. From Singularity Hub. Read more...

The following is a short excerpt from David Brin’s brilliant essay, “Do We Really Want Immortality?” A number of eminent writers like Robert Heinlein, Greg Bear, Kim Stanley Robinson and Gregory Benford have speculated on possible consequences, should Mister G. Reaper ever be forced to hang up his scythe and seek other employment. For example, if the Death Barrier comes crashing down, will we be able to keep shoehorning new humans into a world already crowded with earlier generations? Or else, as envisioned by author John Varley, might such a breakthrough demand draconian population-control measures, limiting each person to one direct heir per lifespan? What if overcoming death proves expensive? Shall we return to the ancient belief, common in some cultures, that immortality is reserved for the rich and mighty? Nancy Kress has written books that vividly foresee a time when the teeming poor resent rich immortals. In contrast, author Joe Haldeman suggested simple rules of social engineering that may help keep such a prize within reach by all. More people could wind up dying by violence and accidents than old age. Might we then start to hunker down in our homes, preserving our long-but-frail lives by avoiding all risk? Or would ennui drive the long-lived to seek new thrills, like extreme sports, bringing death back out of retirement in order to add spice to an otherwise-dull eternity? To read Brin’s essay, click here. David Brin, a scientist and best-selling author whose future-oriented novels include Earth, The Postman, and Hugo Award winners Startide Rising and The Uplift War, is a 2010 Fellow of the IEET. Brin is known as a leading commentator on modern technological, social, and political trends. His nonfiction book The Transparent Society won the Freedom of Speech Award from the American Library Association. Brin’s most recent novel, Kiln People, explores...

One of our favorite resources, Medgadget, has published its list of some of the most interesting and important developments in the medical technology world during the past year. Click here to read their...

There have been many studies showing the correlation between a healthy brain and high levels of omega-3 fatty acids. Your grandma probably told you, “eat your fish, it is good for your brain.” A new study published in the December 28 issue of Neurology is unique, however, because researchers measure nutrient biomarkers in the blood….testing for omega-3 and other vitamin levels including B, C, D and E. Previous studies have used data from diet questionnaires. The paper’s first author is Dr Gene Bowman from the Departments of Neurology and Public Health and Preventive Medicine at Oregon Health & Science University in Portland, and a member of the American Academy of Neurology. He and his colleagues describe three sets of findings: Elderly people with diets high in several vitamins or omega 3 fatty acids were less likely to have the brain shrinkage that usually accompanies Alzheimer’s disease than people whose diets were low in those nutrients. Those whose diets were high in omega 3 fatty acids and in vitamins C, D, E and the B vitamins were also more likely to score better on tests of mental ability than those whose diets were low in those nutrients. Those whose diets were high in trans fats were more likely to have brain shrinkage and perform less well on thinking and memory tests than those whose diets were low in trans fats. For the study, Bowman and colleagues recruited 104 elderly people of average age 87 who had few risk factors for impaired memory and thinking. From participants’ blood tests the researchers measured 30 different nutrient biomarkers. All the participants also completed tests of memory and thinking, while 42 of them also underwent MRI scans that measured their brain volume. The results showed that overall the participants’...

(Ivanhoe Newswire) – Severely impaired stroke survivors could walk better when assisted by a robotic system on top of conventional rehabilitation, according to this study. Italian researchers evaluated two-year mobility outcomes in 48 stroke survivors who had been discharged from a hospital and were unable to walk at the study’s start. Half underwent conventional overground gait rehabilitation and half had conventional rehab plus electromechanical robotic gait training for several months. “After two years, five times more patients who underwent robotic assistance training were able to walk without assistance, but only the most severely impaired,” Giovanni Morone, M.D., lead researcher and a physiatrist specialist and temporary assistant professor at the Santa Lucia Foundation, Institute for Research Hospitalization and Health Care in Rome, was quoted as saying. “In others it seemed to make little difference, so the patient selection for this type of treatment is most important.” The robotic devices are electromechanical platforms attached to a patient’s feet that are controlled by a physical therapist. The therapist uses a controller to carefully measure a patient’s status and to progressively set bearing weight and their walking pace. In this study, patients were evaluated during their hospital stay, at discharge, and two years later. They were classified by the degree of their disability, and separated into either high- or low- mobility groups. The team used three standard tests to evaluate patients’ ability to walk and other task performance, including normal daily activities. During treatment, all patients underwent two therapy sessions each day for five days per week for three months. The robotic gait assistance group also had 20 sessions of robotic gait training during the first month along with abbreviated conventional therapy for the extended period. Only patients with the greatest degree of motor impairment who underwent robotic...