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The year 2016 presented the world with a number of big surprises. Some positive, some negative, depending on whom one asks. Here at Medgadget, 2016 will be remembered for many amazing and pleasantly unexpected medical technology developments, many of which are foreshadowing cures for spinal cord injuries, effective treatment of diabetes, new ways to fight heart disease, and many other long sought-after medical solutions. Virtual and augmented reality systems, new imaging techniques, and innovative delivery approaches are changing the way doctors learn and take care of patients.

Looking back on the past year, we selected what we felt to be the most important, innovative, and surprising medical technology developments. They naturally fell into a few categories. Here we share with you Medgadget’s choices of Best Medical Technologies of 2016.

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Could the so-called EmDrive be close to debuting for real, helping spacecraft travel through space and producing thrust without the help of propellant? One month after NASA’s exciting study on the drive that suggested it may work, Chinese researchers have just confirmed that they’ve been running some tests on their own version of the drive in low-Earth orbit, adding some intrigue to what some have called a modern-day “space race” with the U.S.

According to Digital Trends, the EmDrive was originally designed in 2001 by Roger Shawyer as a propulsion system that doesn’t rely on conventional means to operate. That means that it doesn’t make use of fuel to do its work, thus making spacecraft considerably lighter and easier to maneuver, while also potentially reducing costs. Another exciting aspect of the drive is its potential to push spacecraft to unusually high speeds – as Digital Trends described it, that could mean sending humans to the outer reaches of the solar system in mere months, instead of years.

#EMdrive w/ Carbon 14 #diamondbattery could allow our children to explore space using radioactive waste. @cabotinstitute @neiltyson pic.twitter.com/e76rMERCTx

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The US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) officially handed off control of the Space Surveillance Telescope (SST) to the US Air Force Space Command. After five years of successful operation the telescope will now be dismantled and sent overseas.

Australian forces are planned to handle the task of scanning the skies for asteroids that could endanger satellites or potentially strike the Earth. The Air Force will maintain “a broad and full SST partnership” with the Australian military, said 1st Lt. Sarah Burnett, a spokeswoman for Air Force Space Command (AFSPC). After the move, SST will operate as a dedicated sensor in the US Space Surveillance Network, operated by AFSPC.

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Hmmm.

Technological and human rights implications for the world

China adopted the highly controversial cyber security law on 7th November 2016. The legislation which will take effect in June 2017 was passed by its largely rubber – stamp parliament emphasizing the ‘objective need’ of China as a major internet power. The stated objective of the law is to counter the growing threats such as hacking and terrorism. Overseas critics of the law are not amused as it has already triggered concerns among foreign business and rights groups that the law threatens to shut foreign technology companies out of various sectors which China deems as ‘critical’. The legislation also incorporates contentious requirements for security reviews and for data to be stored on servers in China.

China recognizes that cyberspace profoundly impacts many aspects of national security; it is a national space; a space for military action, important economic action, criminal action and for espionage. So it controls Internet through the world’s most sophisticated online censorship mechanism infamously known outside China as the Great Firewall. The human rights advocates contend that the law will further tighten restrictions on Internet which is already stifled by highly regulated governmental control. The legislation was in drawing board stage for long. Beijing released the draft Cyber Security Law in July 2015 to make all key network infrastructure and information systems ‘secure and controllable’.

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For the first time, a team of physicists have successfully teleported a quantum state of a photon to a crystal over 25 kilometers away through a fiber optic cable. This effectively showed that the photon’s quantum state, not its composition, is important to the teleportation process. The team was led by Nicolas Gisin of the University of Geneva and the results were published in the journal Nature Photonics. With this new paper, Gisin’s team has successfully squashed the previous record they set a decade ago by teleporting a quantum state of a proton 6 kilometers.

The quantum state of the photon is able to preserve information under extreme conditions, including the difference between traveling as light or becoming stored in the crystal like matter. The photon’s state acts as information that can be teleported along great distances using the optical fiber, and can be stored within the crystal. This was achieved due to a phenomenon in quantum mechanics known as entanglement, where two particles have a correlation, despite the fact that they aren’t touching and transmitting information to one another.

To test this and ensure what they were observing was actually happening, one photon was stored in a crystal while the other was sent along optical fiber, over a distance of 25 kilometers. The photon that was sent along the optical fiber collides with a third photon, which was assumed to destroy them both. However, the information from the first photon was transferred to the third photon in the collision, like the transfer of energy when one billiard ball hits another. The information from the third photon came back to the crystal where it could be measured to ensure the information was preserved between the first and the second.

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Very cool; I do look forward to see where we land in the next 5 years on mobile imaging systems.

Years ago I remember developing software for a mobile blood gas analyzer to help researchers and doctors in some of the world’s most remote locations. And, the technology then did improve survival rates for so many. And, I see advances like this one doing so much for many who do not have access or the luxury of centralize labs, or hospitals, etc.

Democratizing Cellular Time-Lapses with a Cell-Phone!

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