Hasta La Gadget!

Drug addiction is a plague on society, watching someone succumb to an addiction is a horrible thing. Tearing apart families and causing untold amounts of physical and emotional pain. It must take a tremendous amount of emotional strength to fully recover from something like a true addiction. Luckily, I can’t imagine being in a situation like that, but what if someone I loved was? What would I do then?

Well, it seems that behind the scenes, researchers have been working not only on vaccines that may be effective against certain forms of cancer, but they have also been working on vaccines that might be able to cure addiction. One such vaccine, developed to combat cocaine addiction, has been developed by teams led by Ronald Crystal from Weill Cornell Medical College in New York, and could very well be the first of a new line of anti-addiction shots that use proteins of from our immune systems (or antibodies)  that can attach to the dangerous molecules, and mark them for destruction by our white blood cells, blocking the action of the drug before it hits our brains.

These anti-cocaine antibodies stop the drug before it crosses into the brain and researches say that this is important because cocaine’s addictive properties and physiological effects are all created in the brain. If any of these approaches turn out to work in human trials, researchers may be able to develop vaccines against heroin, nicotine and many other addictions. Trials so far have shown success in primates with results lasting for up to four months and human trials for some of these vaccines may begin as early as next year.

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[ Cocaine Vaccine – Curing Addiction in One Shot? copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

My best friend went to Mexico on her honeymoon. They had a lovely hotel at a fabulous resort and I helped her pick out bathing suits and shorts for almost 3 months before they left. On the first day she swallowed some water while brushing her teeth… and the rest of that vacation became a blur of bathroom tile, rough toilet paper and Pepto-Bismol.

If only she had this perfect little travel gadget, the Nano UV Dual Scanner, useful when traveling in strange lands or unfamiliar locations, or even when you’re at home, you can confidently eliminate many harmful microorganisms that you could be exposed to, in both your drinking water, or on surfaces.

This nifty gizmo can kill about 99% of many microorganisms include bacteria like E. Coli, Staphylococcus Aureus, and Salmonella Typhimurium ,and viruses like H1N1 and other pesky critters like dust mites and bedbugs on surfaces exposed to the Nano UV in under 10 seconds, and it can get your water safe to drink in well under a minute.

The unit comes with a built in timers for both water and surface disinfection, has child safe buttons and an automatic shutoff, operates on 4 AAA batteries and is an environmentally friendly alternative when sprays and chemicals cant be used. The Nano UV measures 6″ W x 1 3/4″ D x 2″ H and can be in your travel bag for only 99 bucks, from Amazon.com.

[ Nano UV – Saves you from Bedbugs, Bacteria, and Bad Vacations copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

How many of you have a problem remembering your medication? Have you ever failed to take your entire course of antibiotics? Or worse, lied to you doctor and told him that you had? Do you constantly worry that an elderly parent, or a loved one is taking all their medications properly? For me, the answer is guilty on all counts, wouldn’t it be nice if the meds could keep track of themselves?

Well, what if they could just send a message to your doctor’s cell phone? The US Food and Drug Administration has given its approval for edible computers that can be used in numerous medical applications and health monitoring devices, including an ingestible  silicon sensor the size of a grain of sand, that can be embedded in your pills, and after being activated by stomach fluids, transmit information to a companion patch worn on your skin, the patch in return can transmit information on the type of pill and the time of ingestion to your physicians mobile device.

The type of information transmitted isn’t just limited to the pill either, other stats like body temperature, heart rate or activity levels can also be recorded, so gone are the days you can lie to your doctor and tell him about all the exercise you’re getting.

Proteus Digital Health, developers of this marvelous technology have finally received approval for the Ingestion Event Marker but how this novel technology will be used remains to be seen, also remaining to be seen is exactly what price tag digital pills will carry, and whether or not insurance companies will opt to cover them. Digital pills, I can’t help but wonder what’s next.
[ Digital Pills – There’s an App for That! copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

It is rather hard to believe that after all these years, there does not seem to be any vaccine for the scourge that we call malaria. Sure, trailblazers to Africa and other remote places did come across this strange disease, where they did not realize that it is mosquitoes that actually carried the malaria disease, and until quinine was discovered as the cure, countless people had already fallen victim to it. Well, early detection plays an important role so that the proper medical care can be administered, and while we might see ourselves to live in a developed country where you do not hear of anyone falling sick because of malaria, there are still millions out there living along the fringes of urbanisation as well as in deep, remote areas of the jungle that who could die because malaria was not detected earlier. Researchers at St George’s, University of London announced that they are working on a spanking new project known as Nanomal, where Nanomal will function as a portable device which is capable of detecting the malarial parasite while identifying its species in record time – we are talking about just 15 minutes.

This particular handheld device will take a sample of your blood through the normal finger prick, where it will then extract the malarial DNA followed by detecting and sequencing the specific mutations that are linked to drug resistance, all using a nanowire biosensor. The chip is electrically capable of detecting the DNA sequences, converting them directly into binary code afterwards so that computers are able to figure things out. This binary code will then be readily analyzed and shared if the need arises over wireless or mobile networks, alongside scientists checking out the binary code for real-time monitoring of disease patterns.

Roughly the size and shape of a mobile phone, it is touted to offer a similar quality of result as a referral laboratory, without having one fork out too much money. We are looking at a single-test cartridge costing approximately €13 (£10) at first, although do expect the final sum to reduce in due time.

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[ Malaria detection for idiots copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

The London 2012 Paralympics was definitely a success, and a celebration as well as triumph of the human spirit despite being physically disabled in certain aspects as China romped to the top of the medals list while setting a new record in the number of gold medals amassed, with Russia following in second place. Well, the Paralympics do see quadriplegics fire rifles, toss a ball, in addition to the blind running, jumping, and even swim. Training is definitely rigorous to say the least, and the difference for blind folks would be the quadriplegic athlete himself or herself will need to learn the correct muscle motion through the study of the movement of others, and the blind lack such and ability. Trainers will need to approach the situation for the blind from a different angle, usually by directly moving their arms and legs so that the repetitive motion can be embedded into their muscle memory. Enter the Ghost system that has every intention to make the coaching job easier, which we will talk about in the extended post.

There is this bunch of brainy researchers over at the Imperial College London in the UK (they would not be researchers if they were brainy, would they?) who managed to develop a vibrational feedback device which is capable of teaching blind people how to perform precise repetitive movements without the need for a human coach hanging around, hence the name, the Ghost system. Hopefully the world of the paranormal would leave these athletes alone during their training, otherwise it would really be a freaky experience!

The Ghost system basically memorizes specific movements when demonstrated by a trainer, where the athlete will then get to work by repeatedly practicing those movements as the Ghost monitors their accuracy and later on, delivers the relevant guidance using vibrations and audio cues.

Apart from that, the Ghost system is capable of import motion recordings that were recorded from star athletes, in an effort to assist the blind in reproducing techniques which will help one win medals in the Olympics. This particular system was originally designed for blind athletes only, but we do see the technology being used to help assist folks who are recovering from a stroke or other neurological conditions.

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[ Ghost system helps coach blind athletes copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]