GLIMPSES OF THE
FUTURE |
Retina Transplants From Stem Cells? We're getting used to stories about miracle cures provided by stem cell technology, but now scientists have created a three-dimensional, retina-like structure out of human embryonic stem cells that they hope could someday serve as a retinal transplant for people with macular degeneration and other diseases of the retina. The new method was developed at the University of California, Irvine and is designed to provide an alternative to human fetal tissue transplants, which have been conducted on a small group of patients and have resulted in improved vision. Fetal cells are difficult to obtain and raise ethical issues. The researchers first created two types of cells from the human embryonic stem cells: early-stage retinal cells, and retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) cells, which provide nourishment to the cells responsible for vision in the retina. The researchers then grew these two types of cells together in a chamber designed to expose them to a gradient of concentrations of solutes and growth-promoting chemicals. The cells could form three-dimensional structures, a feat rarely achieved with stem cells. Playing The Piano - Without A Piano! A new pair of cybernetic gloves have been developed to provide would-be pianists with a 'virtual piano.' The prototype gloves let the wearer play a piano on any surface via buttons on the tips of the fingers. Audio is processed via an Arduino microcontroller wired to the buttons and presently the software can be set to play a major scale or ten semitones, which limits the gloves to playing tunes comprised of ten or less notes. The developer is working on increasing the range of notes that can be played. 'Chopsticks' anyone? Don't Cut Baby Off From Protective Stem Cells New research suggests that medics may be robbing babies of beneficial stem cells by cutting umbilical cords too soon after birth. The timing of umbilical cord clamping at birth should be delayed just a few minutes longer, suggest researchers at the University of South Florida's Center of Excellence for Aging and Brain Repair. Delaying clamping the umbilical cord for a slightly longer period of time allows more umbilical cord blood volume to transfer from mother to infant and, with that critical period extended, many good physiological 'gifts' are transferred through 'nature's first stem cell transplant' occurring at birth At birth, the placenta and umbilical cord start contracting and pumping blood toward the newborn. After the blood equilibrates, the cord's pulse ceases and blood flow from mother to newborn stops. In recent Western medical practice, early clamping - from 30 seconds to one minute after birth - remains the most common practice among obstetricians and midwives, perhaps because the benefits of delaying clamping have not been clear. The new research suggests that waiting for more than a minute, or until the cord stops pulsating, may be beneficial. 'Brain Vacuum' Can Reverse Effects Of Stroke Twenty-seven stroke victims are alive and well today because of a new tool that vacuums clots out of blood vessels in the brain. Known as the Penumbra System of Continuous Aspiration Thrombectomy, the technology has been assessed at the Seaman MR Research Centre at Canada’s University of Calgary. If used within a few hours of a stroke, it can restore blood flow to the brain, thus reversing the effects of the stroke and preventing any permanent brain damage. Vehicle License Plates Could Go Digital In California (And Show Ads) California has a serious deficit problem, so the state's government is considering introducing digital vehicle licence plates which can show advertisements. A bill proposed by Senator Curren D. Price Jr, D-Inglewood, gives the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) the authority to investigate the emerging Digital Electronic License Plate (DELP) technology that would enable rear license plates on vehicles to become message boards to display advertising or other images when the vehicle is stationary for periods longer than four seconds, such as at a stop light or in a traffic jam. Regenerative Body Parts Under Development A Canadian researcher is hoping that within ten years, people will be able to regrow tendons, spinal cords or heart valves lost to injury or disease. Dr. Brian Amsden, a chemical engineering professor from Queen’s University, is developing a technique wherein cells from a patient’s body would be placed on a polymer prosthetic that stimulates cell growth. After the cells had established themselves sufficiently, the prosthetic would be implanted in the patient’s body. The polymer would then biodegrade, leaving behind nothing but the patient’s own tissue.
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Plastic Antibodies Effective In Animals Scientists are reporting the first evidence that a plastic antibody works in the bloodstream of a living animal, opening up the possibility of plastic antibodies being specially tailored to fight everything from viruses and bacteria to the proteins that cause allergic reactions. Using synthetic polymer nanoparticles (plastic antibodies) to capture a peptide toxin in the bloodstream of mice, the scientists at the University Of California, Irvine, were able to demonstrate that these artificial proteins can recognize, capture and neutralize peptide toxins in a living test subject without being inactivated by plasma proteins and/or blood cells. Although the MIP nanoparticles have previously been shown to target melittin in vitro with an affinity and selectivity comparable to those of natural antibodies, this is the first time the synthetic antibodies have been used in living animals. BeautifulPeople.com Matches Eggs And Sperm To Make More Beautiful People The dating Web site BeautifulPeople.com has launched a fertility-introduction service to help make this a better-looking world. The site, which touts itself as the largest community of beautiful people with more than 600,000 members around the globe, says their virtual fertility forum will allow attractive donors to find (or help) someone who matches their 'procreation interests'. More than 200 members have already signed up, according to Greg Hodge, the site’s managing director. And hey, if you’re not hot, no worries, says founder Robert Hintze in the company’s press release. 'Initially, we hesitated to widen the offering to non-beautiful people. But everyone—including ugly people—would like to bring good looking children in to the world, and we can't be selfish with our attractive gene pool.' Renewable, Sustainable Power For The Emirates The largest concentrated solar power (CSP) plant in the Middle East is to be built in Madinat Zayed, approximately 120 km (75 miles) southwest of Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). When it becomes operational in 2012, the plant, dubbed Shams 1, will feature some 6,300,000 square-feet of solar parabolic collectors, cover 741 acres of desert and will produce enough electricity to power 62,000 households. With a capacity of approximately 100MW and a solar field consisting of 768 parabolic trough collectors, Sham 1 represents one of the first steps in the region towards the introduction of sustainable energy sources in an energy market which until now has depended mostly on hydrocarbons. It is expected to displace approximately 175,000 tonnes of CO2 per year, equivalent to planting 1.5 million trees or removing 15,000 cars from Abu Dhabi’s roads. Visitors to Abu Dhabi and Dubai who have considered such desert-city development unsustainable can now take heart. Watch London Underground Trains Move In Real Time In one of the most enjoyable mash-ups, British programmer Matthew Somerville has created a live, almost-real-time, map of movements on the London Underground. Also, see Matthew's live National Rail map of UK train movements. Blogs And Tweets Could Be Used By Google (And Others) To Predict The Future Interest in the idea of analysing web data to make predictions took off a year ago, when researchers at Google used the frequency of certain search terms to forecast the sales of homes, cars and other products. In their landmark study, Hal Varian, Google's chief economist, and his colleague Hyunyoung Choi showed how the volume of searches for certain products, such as types of car, rose and fell in line with monthly sales. Google keeps extensive records of what is being searched for, and that information is available almost instantaneously. That could make Varian and Choi's method a far quicker way of gauging purchasing behaviour than traditional sales forecasts, which are often made by looking back at purchasing patterns. Other researchers have since analysed search terms to look at all manner of behaviours. In late 2009, economists at the Bank of Italy showed that the volume of searches for terms like 'job search engine' is a good indicator of coming changes in the unemployment rate in the US. Researchers at the Ruhr University in Bochum, Germany, showed that tracking Google searches for consumer goods provided a better means of forecasting US retail sales than the traditional method of using surveys of consumer attitudes - the so-called Consumer Confidence Index. Now other sources, such as blog posts and tweets, are being mined too, and the variety of subject matter they address might mean that phenomena other than purchasing patterns can be explored. I'll be out of a job soon. Back issues of 'Glimpses' are archived here. |