Menu

Blog

Archive for the ‘health’ category: Page 243

Apr 29, 2020

Drinking coffee appears to cause epigenetic changes to your DNA

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, genetics, health

Coffee has been linked to changes on our DNA that affect how active certain genes are. The finding may help explain some of coffee’s touted health benefits.

Apr 29, 2020

Robots will feed, teach & exercise one in three kids by 2050, expert claims

Posted by in categories: health, robotics/AI

ROBOTS will raise one in three children in the future, an AI expert says.

Dr Michelle Tempest says the droids will feed, exercise and teach kids.

They will also change nappies and tell stories and artificial uteruses will develop foetuses.

Continue reading “Robots will feed, teach & exercise one in three kids by 2050, expert claims” »

Apr 29, 2020

Dr. Fauci backed controversial Wuhan lab with millions of U.S. dollars for risky coronavirus research

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, health

“just last year, the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases, the organization led by Dr. Fauci, funded scientists at the Wuhan Institute of Virology and other institutions for work on gain-of-function research on bat coronaviruses.

In 2019, with the backing of NIAID, the National Institutes of Health committed $3.7 million over six years for research that included some gain-of-function work. The program followed another $3.7 million, 5-year project for collecting and studying bat coronaviruses, which ended in 2019, bringing the total to $7.4 million.”

Continue reading “Dr. Fauci backed controversial Wuhan lab with millions of U.S. dollars for risky coronavirus research” »

Apr 28, 2020

How Will Coronavirus End? It Depends on Our Immunity. Three Possible Outcomes

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, health

With the curve finally flattening in the US, the ramping up of anti-viral and vaccine trials against SARS-CoV-2—the virus that causes Covid-19—and the launch of antibody tests to screen for previous infection, it seems like science is rapidly moving towards the end game. How exactly the Covid-19 pandemic will finally bugger off into history is still anyone’s guess, but virologists and public health experts generally agree that immunity is key—either through widespread safe and effective vaccination, or when enough of our population has recovered from infections and gained herd immunity.

Well. That’s the hand-waving, shruggie emoji, “eh who knows” short answer.

Like most processes in biology, immunity to SARS-CoV-2 is complex and mysterious, with results that could rapidly diverge into many possible futures. It’s partly why estimates of how long Covid-19 sticks around to wreak havoc can vary enormously, from months to years to…well, seasonal and forever, similar to the flu.

Apr 28, 2020

My Gene Therapy with Dr. Jason Williams

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, health

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQd_Yf0x_5I

Dr. Jason Williams discusses his decision to administer follistatin gene therapy, a myostatin inhibitor, to himself in 2015.

Visit Integrated Health Systems to learn more about follistatin gene therapy.

Continue reading “My Gene Therapy with Dr. Jason Williams” »

Apr 28, 2020

Making sense of the viral multiverse

Posted by in categories: bioengineering, biotech/medical, health

In November of 2019—likely, even earlier—a tiny entity measuring just a few hundred billionths of a meter in diameter began to tear apart human society on a global scale. Within a few months, the relentless voyager known as SARS-CoV-2 had made its way to every populated corner of the earth, leaving scientists and health authorities with too many questions and few answers.

Today, researchers are scrambling to understand where and how the novel coronavirus arose, what features account for the puzzling constellation of symptoms it can cause and how the wildfire of transmission may be brought under control. An important part of this quest will involve efforts to properly classify this emergent human pathogen and to understand how it relates to other we may know more about.

In a consensus statement, Arvind Varsani, a molecular virologist with ASU’s Biodesign Center for Fundamental and Applied Microbiomics and a host of international collaborators propose a new classification system, capable of situating coronaviruses like SARS-CoV-2 within the enormous web of viruses across the planet, known as the virosphere.

Apr 27, 2020

We may get rid of coronavirus, but what about the robots we used to fight it?

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, health, robotics/AI

This is the seventh in a series on the impact of the coronavirus on China’s technology sector.

China’s robotics market is forecast to reach US$103.6 billion by 2023, driven by manufacturing, consumer, retail, health care and resource applications.


Chinese robotics companies have seen a surge in demand since the coronavirus outbreak but some believe robot tech is not mature enough for widespread use.

Continue reading “We may get rid of coronavirus, but what about the robots we used to fight it?” »

Apr 26, 2020

Biofuel-powered soft electronic skin with multiplexed and wireless sensing for human-machine interfaces

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, cyborgs, health, nanotechnology, robotics/AI, wearables

Existing electronic skin (e-skin) sensing platforms are equipped to monitor physical parameters using power from batteries or near-field communication. For e-skins to be applied in the next generation of robotics and medical devices, they must operate wirelessly and be self-powered. However, despite recent efforts to harvest energy from the human body, self-powered e-skin with the ability to perform biosensing with Bluetooth communication are limited because of the lack of a continuous energy source and limited power efficiency. Here, we report a flexible and fully perspiration-powered integrated electronic skin (PPES) for multiplexed metabolic sensing in situ. The battery-free e-skin contains multimodal sensors and highly efficient lactate biofuel cells that use a unique integration of zero- to three-dimensional nanomaterials to achieve high power intensity and long-term stability. The PPES delivered a record-breaking power density of 3.5 milliwatt·centimeter−2 for biofuel cells in untreated human body fluids (human sweat) and displayed a very stable performance during a 60-hour continuous operation. It selectively monitored key metabolic analytes (e.g., urea, NH4+, glucose, and pH) and the skin temperature during prolonged physical activities and wirelessly transmitted the data to the user interface using Bluetooth. The PPES was also able to monitor muscle contraction and work as a human-machine interface for human-prosthesis walking.

Recent advances in robotics have enabled soft electronic devices at different scales with excellent biocompatibility and mechanical properties; these advances have rendered novel robotic functionalities suitable for various medical applications, such as diagnosis and drug delivery, soft surgery tools, human-machine interaction (HMI), wearable computing, health monitoring, assistive robotics, and prosthesis (1–6). Electronic skin (e-skin) can have similar characteristics to human skin, such as mechanical durability and stretchability and the ability to measure various sensations such as temperature and pressure (7–11). Moreover, e-skin can be augmented with capabilities beyond those of the normal human skin by incorporating advanced bioelectronics materials and devices.

Apr 25, 2020

Global coronavirus death toll surpasses 200,000, as world leaders commit to finding vaccine

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, health

The global coronavirus death toll surpassed 200,000 on Saturday, according to John Hopkins University data.

The grim total was reached a day after presidents and prime ministers agreed to work together to develop new vaccines, tests and treatments at a virtual meeting with both the World Health Organization (WHO) and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

“We will only halt COVID-19 through solidarity,” said Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General. “Countries, health partners, manufacturers, and the private sector must act together and ensure that the fruits of science and research can benefit everybody.”

Apr 25, 2020

Kim Jong Un in ‘vegetative state,’ Japanese media report says

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, health

North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un is in a “vegetative state” after he underwent heart surgery earlier this month, a Japanese magazine says.

The weekly Shukan Gendai reported Friday that a Chinese medic sent to North Korea as part of a team to treat Kim believed a delay in a simple procedure left the leader severely ill, Reuters reported.

North Korean media hasn’t mentioned Kim’s health or whereabouts, even though reports by other media have sparked international speculation about his well-being.