World first as nanobots get to work choking cancers to death
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Nanobots are one of the ultimate medical frontiers and science fiction classics, and they’re slowing beginning to show their promise. Recently I discussed how we’re building the first generation of enzyme powered nanobots capable of hunting and tracking down disease within the human body...
Genetic engineering breakthrough turns chickens into egg laying medicine factories
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Being able to produce drugs and medicines cheaply is important, and this breakthrough breaks grounds on all kinds of fronts. Ordinarily, when scientists want to produce proteins to use in medicine they have to use techniques that are costly and complex. Recently, however, in...
RNA breakthrough makes it possible to cure Cystic Fibrosis with an inhaler
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF A revolutionary new way to deliver mRNA into the body in aerosol form makes genetically editing faulty genes easier than ever before. Recent there have been some almost miraculous medical breakthroughs, from treating patients with inherited genetic diseases with in vivo gene therapy treatments...
A new blood test can tell what time it is in your body
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Certain drugs have to be delivered at certain times, and as we start to use nanomachines to release drugs telling the time in someone’s body becomes vitally important. Recently I wrote about new simple blood tests that can detect cancer and chronic pain, and now...
New Mantis Shrimp inspired camera will make self-driving cars safer
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Over the past few years people have been killed when their semi-autonomous cars got confused and blinded by the Sun so scientists have turned to biology to solve the problem. A little while ago a man driving a Tesla on autopilot was killed when...
The world’s smallest computer makes a grain of rice look massive
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF As computing and AI processing gets moved to the edge of the network and into billions of IOT devices computers will have to get ever smaller. Researchers at the University of Michigan have created the world’s smallest computer, again, after their previous micro-computers, called...
Scientists have turned human cells into complex living computers
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Being able to turn human cells into powerful, living computing systems will revolutionise computing, energy, and healthcare, along with a myriad of other industries. Today’s computer hardware is about to get softer, a lot softer, after a research team in the US announced they’ve...
Researchers have read the mind of a “black box” AI using cell biology
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF As we continue to endeavour to read the mind of today’s so called black box AI’s there may be more than one way to do it, and while turning to biology is unconventional, it works. The deep neural networks that power today’s Artificial Intelligence...
Revolutionary blood test lets doctors see chronic pain in colour
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF We all suffer from pain now and again, but for chronic pain sufferers the condition can leave them feeling depressed, disheartened, and isolated, this new test that lets people see pain could be a game changer. Around 100 million Americans are in pain right now. Chronic...
These nanomachines can drill into diseased cells and kill them
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Tomorrow’s medical treatments won’t necessarily just include new fancy drugs, nanomachines and nanobots will play an increasingly important role in helping us all stay fit, healthy, and alive… Researchers in the UK and the US recently demonstrated single-molecule nanomachines that can independently target diseased...
Smartphone app uses selfies to detect Pancreatic Cancer
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Every year thousands of people die from Pancreatic Cancer, one of the most deadly forms of cancer, but now people can screen for it in the comfort of their own home using just their smartphone and an app. Better screening tools for all Cancer...
Nanoparticles help researchers accurately locate metastasising cancers
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Until now it has been hard, almost impossible, to identify how Cancer spreads around the body, and that’s made metastasising cancers harder to treat. Following on from a recent announcement from another team that they’ve managed to use a simple blood test to detect...
Semi-synthetic cells could revolutionise everything from sensors to healthcare
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF The ability to create semi-synthetic cells that have both organic and inorganic properties opens up a whole world of new use cases that span everything from biotech to new forms of manufacturing. The more we study natural biological cells, the more we learn about...
MIT’s “mind reading” wearable let’s you silently interact with all your devices
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF As computing becomes ubiquitous, and embedded in the devices around us, we won’t always want to talk out loud to use them, that’s one of the many use cases for this technology. MIT researchers have developed a new form of computer interface called AlterEgo...
World’s first stem cell bone tissue transplant is a success
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF When patients loose part of a bone, for example, to Cancer, often there is no way to get the bones to grow or fuse together again resulting in amputation, this breakthrough will prevent that. Medical history was made at Emek Medical Center in Afula...
Ultrasound on a smartphone, Butterfly Network release the iQ
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Healthcare in many countries is expensive and difficult to access, tools like these help democratise access to vital services helping people live longer, healthier lives. Engineer Jonathan Rothberg became famous for creating the world’s first DNA sequencer on a chip called the Ion Torrent back in...
Baidu’s AI can clone anyone’s voice in under a minute
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Being able to clone people’s voices, and mimic them, opens up a range of well meaning opportunities, but it also paves the way for fake news chaos and everything in between… In the near future, just as it is today, fake news will become...
New Cancer “Vaccine” wipes out cancer in mice, human trials next
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Cancer ruins millions of lives every year, but now, thanks to an army of researchers and new powerful technologies and tools it might just be possible we’re seeing a tiny chink of light at the end of the tunnel. The eradication of cancer has...
World first as Chinese scientists clone two monkeys, raising fears humans could be next
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF So far monkeys have proven resistant to cloning, but now that barrier has been broken, and many suggest it leaves the way open for a day when we can see the first cloned humans. Last week Zhong Zhong and Hua Hua, the world’s first...
Google’s AI is helping scientists unravel the mysteries of the human genome
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF With the advent of personalised medicine and new revolutionary gene treatments, being able to interpret and make sense of the vast volumes of human genomic data in order to better predict disease indicators and outcomes, and provide patients with better treatments, will become increasingly crucial....
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