Engineers explore ways to take robotics to the limits of size and function
Category: biotech/medical – Page 3,123
Hacking the Human OS — IEEE Spectrum
Medicine has always sought to understand the human body’s operating system. Now, with biometric sensors and big data analytics, we’re learning how to fix the bugs
L’Oreal Goes After 3D Printed Human Skin to Test Beauty Products — By Jason Dorrier
In Lyon, France, cosmetics company L’Oreal is growing human skin.
Each year, some 60 scientists cultivate 100,000 paper-thin skin samples in nine varieties simulating different ages and ethnicities—and then they test beauty products on them. Read more
Howard Hughes Medical Institute Selects 2015 Investigators
“The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) announced today that 26 of the nation’s top biomedical researchers will become HHMI investigators and will receive the flexible support necessary to move their research in creative new directions. The initiative represents an investment in basic biomedical research of $153 million over the next five years.”
Blueprint for a Better Human Body — Rose Eveleth | The Atlantic
“But at the same time, there are more and more amputees who are going without the cosmetic covers, who are showing the machinery behind the leg, the hinges and the carbon fiber and the metal. And while function is still crucially important, there are people who are no longer asking how to replicate. Instead, they’re asking how to improve. How to make a limb new, better, stronger, more striking, more beautiful.”
Read This Before You Freak Out Over Gene-Edited Superbabies — Nick Stockton | WIRED
“The point being, science needs room to figure out exactly what this technology is capable of doing. Right now, researchers have a ton of potential on their hands, but not a lot of agreement about how far that potential reaches.” Read more
Stackable Brain Specimen Coasters Reveal a 3D View of the Human Brain
by Christopher Jobson — Colossal
The brilliant minds at ThinkGeek just launched this set of 10 glass coasters printed with sequential illustrations of the brain. When stacked in the correct order they reveal a complete three-dimensional “scan” of human brain. Available here. (via Laughing Squid)
Chinese scientists genetically modify human embryos
David Cyranosk & Sara Reardon - Nature.com
In a world first, Chinese scientists have reported editing the genomes of human embryos. The results are published1 in the online journal Protein & Cell and confirm widespread rumours that such experiments had been conducted — rumours that sparked a high-profile debate last month2, 3 about the ethical implications of such work. Read more
IBM Creates Watson Health to Analyze Medical Data
Steve Lohr | The New York Times
“The company and its partners say that technology, economics and policy changes are coming together to improve the odds of making the IBM venture a workable reality. They point to improvements in artificial intelligence, low-cost cloud computing and health policy that will reward keeping patients healthy instead of the fee-for-service model in which more treatments and procedures mean more revenue.” Read more
Discover the Chemical Composition of Everyday Stuff…With a Smartphone Camera
By Jason Dorrier — SingularityHub
Our smartphones can do a lot—compute, pin down our location, sense motion and orientation, send and receive wireless signals, take photographs and video. What if you could also learn exactly what chemical components were present in any object? A new invention out of Israel aims to enable just that.
“The tricorder is no longer science fiction,” a recent Tel Aviv University (TAU) article declared. While a number devices in recent years have inspired similar comparisons, maybe this one is a little closer. Read more