In a first, U.S. surgeons transplant pig heart into human patient.
Unusual opportunity
Last week’s procedure marks the first time that a pig organ has been transplanted into a human who has a chance to survive and recover. In 2021, surgeons at New York University Langone Health transplanted kidneys from the same line of genetically modified pigs into two legally dead people with no discernible brain function. The organs were not rejected, and functioned normally while the deceased recipients were sustained on ventilators.
Aside from that, most research has so far taken place in non-human primates. But researchers hope that the 7 January operation will further kick-start clinical xenotransplantation and help to push it through myriad ethical and regulatory issues.
Using a brain computer interface, the man cut and ate food with thought-controlled robotic hands. A man paralyzed from the neck down has used two robot arms to cut food and serve himself — a big step in the field of mind-controlled prosthetics.
Robert “Buz” Chmielewski, age 49, has barely been able to move his arms since a surfing accident paralyzed him as a teenager. But in January of 2019, he got renewed hope, when doctors implanted two sets of electrodes in his brain, one in each hemisphere.
The goal was that this brain computer interface would help Chmielewski regain some sensation in his hands, enable him to mentally control two prosthetic arms, and even feel what he is touching. man paralyzed from the neck down has used two robot arms to cut food and serve himself — a big step in the field of mind-controlled prosthetics.
Scientists have been trying to find ways to predict an epileptic seizure for decades, with little success. They are almost always unpredictable. The best techniques we have now — machine learning and self-awareness — give us only minutes notice ahead of the seizure.
Now, for the first time, a study has shown that brain activity could be used to forecast the onset of epileptic seizures several days in advance.
A New Hope
A team of researchers looked into data from brain implants designed to monitor and prevent seizures. Buried in the data, they found patterns of brain activity that predicted seizure risk a day or more in advance. The researchers say this could be used to create an epileptic seizure forecasting tool — giving new hope to patients with epilepsy.
But still there are many areas such as carpenter, electrician e.t.c where remote work is not possible.
As jarring as the transition to remote work was during the coronavirus pandemic, it was modest compared to what’s coming next, says Adam Ozimek, a labor economist at the freelancing platform Upwork. He argues that the next phase of remote work will transform economies, as more companies revise their policies to accommodate employees who have permanently shifted to working remotely, and more workers move to places they’ve always wanted to live but couldn’t.
The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.
About 2 million cells are transplanted into each patient in the treatment. They were created from iPS cells stored at Kyoto University in western Japan, according to Keio University.
In the future, the university plans to increase the number of cells to be transplanted in order to enhance the effectiveness of the treatment.
Some 5,000 people sustain spinal cord injuries every year in Japan and the number of people living with spinal cord injuries is said to exceed 150,000.
Despite the fact that floating around in space looks like a certified blast, it’s not something the human body is optimized for. In order to make these trips possible, scientists are going to have to figure out how to mimic Earth’s gravity in space. » Subscribe to Seeker! http://bit.ly/subscribeseeker. » Watch more Elements! http://bit.ly/ElementsPlaylist. » Visit our shop at http://shop.seeker.com. » Sign Up for Seeker’s Newsletter! https://www.seeker.com/newsletters.
We evolved with gravity constantly pulling on us at a rate of about 9.8 m/s2, or 1 g. Our bodies are built in a way that takes that into account. Our rigid bones can hold us up, our cardiovascular system can pump blood to and from our extremities, our vestibular system in our ears keeps us balanced, and so on. Our bodies are also good at adapting to our needs, which means when you take gravity away the body starts to change. Bones lose mineral density, hearts weaken, and the vestibular system shuts off because suddenly there is no “up” anymore. So long as the body stays in space these changes aren’t really a problem, but coming back to Earth and readapting to 1 g can be painful and disorienting.
To make the transition to Earth easier, astronauts on the ISS have to spend two and a half hours every day doing aerobic and resistive exercise. It takes a lot of valuable time and still doesn’t prevent all bodily changes, so maybe some sort of artificial gravity could be a better solution. The only practical way to recreate the effects of gravity would be by using centrifugal force, aka spinning. If you’ve ever clung for dear life to one of those whirligigs on a playground you know what I’m talking about. If astronauts could somehow be spun around that might mimic gravity enough to keep their bodies from changing too drastically. There have actually been several proposals on how to leverage centrifugal force, and each of them has its downsides.
One of them is a staple of sci-fi: a spacecraft with a gigantic rotating section. Inside the astronauts would be pushed towards the outermost wall and that would become the “floor”, so to speak, while the rest of the station would remain stationary and in microgravity. But a spacecraft like this would be really complex and expensive to build. Another design is a long spacecraft that twirls like a baton, creating Earth-like acceleration at either end. If the craft were about a kilometer long it would only need to rotate once or twice a minute, but a kilometer-long spacecraft would be about 10 times longer than the ISS and an incredible engineering feat.
In 2001, the founder of Mitticool ceramics learned many of his customers in India don’t have regular access to electricity. So he invented a fridge made out of clay. It keeps food 8 degrees cooler than the outside air, but it doesn’t need any electricity to run. And while other ceramics companies in the region shut down, Mitticool is thriving thanks to the success of the powerless, eco-friendly fridge.
MORE BIG BUSINESS VIDEOS: How Millions Of Hearing AIDS Are Made In America | Big Business. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eri08ZZ1Kmo. How This 8,000-Pound Crystal Went From Mine To Smithsonian | Big Business.
Pfizer Japan Inc. said Friday it has applied to the health ministry for approval of its COVID-19 pill which, if granted, would make it the second oral drug for mild coronavirus cases available in the country.
The new drug application for Paxlovid, a combination of the antiviral drugs nirmatrelvir and ritonavir, comes as Japan is battling its sixth surge of COVID-19 cases amid a spread of the omicron variant, with the country already agreeing to procure enough of the drug for 2 million people.
Cardiovascular Aging & Targeted Senolytic Bio-Therapies — Prof. Dr. Tohru Minamino, MD, PhD, Juntendo University, Japan
Dr. Tohru Minamino is Professor and Chairman of the Department of Cardiovascular Biology and Medicine, Juntendo University Graduate School of Medicine (https://juntendo-cvbm.com/en/about.html). He also serves as Director of the Cardiovascular Medicine, Juntendo University Hospital. He received his MD from the Chiba University Graduate School of Medicine in 1989 and his PhD from Faculty of Medicine, the University of Tokyo in 1997.
Dr. Minamino is a medical cardiologist and research scientist focusing on molecular mechanisms of aging. He started his major research focusing on cardiovascular aging at Harvard Medical School (1997–2000), and his research interests have currently been growing in the biology of aging including metabolic pathways of longevity and senolysis. He has published more than 100 papers including in Nature, Nature Medicine, Cell, Cell Metabolism, and Lancet.
