medical tech stories

Genetically modified mosquitoes ready to conquer malaria

Monday, June 18, 2012 - 1:17pm

Mosquitoes, unfortunately, have a valuable place in our ecosystem or something, so going out and nuking all of the little buggers is probably not a good option. The worst part about mosquitoes isn't mosquitoes themselves anyway: it's the malaria parasites that they carry, and genetic modification may have finally solved that problem for good.

Implantable glucose fuel cell is powered by spinal juice

Evan Ackerman

Thursday, June 14, 2012 - 8:26am

Electronic medical implants have worked wonders for lots of people, and we're only just realizing what is potentially possible in the future. What we need, though, is a power source that doesn't involve opening people up and replacing batteries every few years, and these spinal fluid powered glucose fuel cells could make that happen.

Don't feel like getting any exercise? Drugs are now the answer

Evan Ackerman

Wednesday, June 13, 2012 - 12:52pm

Listen up, kids: any problem you'll ever have, ranging all from being fat to (now) being lazy, can be effortlessly be solved by taking drugs. Don't want to exercise? Just inject yourself with some of this new hormone, and you'll be on your way to the gym before you can say "recombinant human erythropoietin!"

We still have a novemdecillion more drugs to discover

Evan Ackerman

Thursday, June 7, 2012 - 1:57pm

Drugs are just molecules that are small enough to interact with the cells in your body. We've discovered a lot of them: 67 million unique substances, according to the American Chemical Society. But this is only about one tenth of one percent of the potential drugs out there, so we've definitely got some work to do.

Sliced up mouse brains form new gigapixel 'wiring diagram'

Evan Ackerman

Friday, June 1, 2012 - 3:55pm

Neuroscientists at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory have just publicly released the first batch of gigapixel images showing how the neuronal pathways in mice are all connected to each other. It's the first step towards the first ever wiring diagram of an entire vertebrate brain.

This laser can tell whether you've eaten your vegetables

Evan Ackerman

Thursday, May 31, 2012 - 1:52pm

Do you eat enough fruits and vegetables? Of course you don't. And to punish you for this lack of nutritional awareness, Yale researchers have developed a laser system that can measure your intake (or lack thereof) of healthy foods right through your skin.

First ever chemical circuit could bring computing inside your body

Evan Ackerman

Wednesday, May 30, 2012 - 2:59pm

Your body, in many ways, is a computer. It's not wired with silicon, but relies on chemical pathways to transmit and receive information and instructions. Conventional electronics may not play well with biology, but the invention of the first artificial chemical circuit could be the key to interacting directly with our cells.

Electromagnetic brain shotgun almost ready to treat depression

Evan Ackerman

Tuesday, May 29, 2012 - 11:34am

It's often hard to tell just where in the brain depression comes from. A company called Brainsway has developed an electromagnetic "shotgun" that can stimulate a bunch of different areas of the brain all at once, and after promising trials, it's applying for FDA approval to use it clinically.

MIT invents painless, programmable hypospray

Evan Ackerman

Thursday, May 24, 2012 - 1:47pm

We've got phasers. We've got tricorders. And now, thanks to MIT, we've got a hypospray that works just like the real thing, delivering programmable doses of drugs painlessly right through your skin without any needles.

Old skin cells can be transformed into new, beating heart muscle

Evan Ackerman

Wednesday, May 23, 2012 - 1:35pm

After a heart attack, your heart can become weak to the point that it's no longer able to effectively supply the rest of your body with blood. This means bad times, especially since patients with severe heart failure have to rely on mechanical devices or transplants, but stem cells derived from a patient's own skin could potentially provide a cure.

DVICE

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medical tech stories

Genetically modified mosquitoes ready to conquer malaria

Implantable glucose fuel cell is powered by spinal juice

Don't feel like getting any exercise? Drugs are now the answer

We still have a novemdecillion more drugs to discover

Sliced up mouse brains form new gigapixel 'wiring diagram'

This laser can tell whether you've eaten your vegetables

First ever chemical circuit could bring computing inside your body

Electromagnetic brain shotgun almost ready to treat depression

MIT invents painless, programmable hypospray

Old skin cells can be transformed into new, beating heart muscle

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