Human beings, I love ya, but man are we disgusting. This video by Aaron Rogers lists and animates all the scientific grossness of being a human and it gets pretty gnarly. Like how many hot tubs our saliva can fill and what our eye boogers are made from and all the other nasty stuff that comes with our human body. It’s an eye opener. [Vimeo] More »
Do you remember Richard Lee Norris? He was the guy who suffered a horrific gun accident in 1997 that ripped off his nose, chin, lips and teeth and turned him into a recluse. This past year he went under the most extensive face transplant ever and now after much recovery, his face is brand new. More »
Ultrasound is likely most often associated with sonograms, but some MIT engineers are poised to change that. By using two separate beams of inaudible sound waves (one at low-frequency, the other high) the team were able to increase the permeability of skin, in a bid to improve the efficiency of transdermal drug delivery. The technique works thanks to the waves exciting bubbles in a fluid (such as water), forcing them to swell and move chaotically. Once the bubbles reach a certain size they implode, sucking the surrounding fluid into the void. This process creates micro-jets of liquid, which cause miniscule tears in the skin, allowing it to (painlessly) absorb chemicals more effectively. In practice, a pre-treated area of skin is then covered with a patch containing the correct dose of drugs — but don’t worry, the skin is said to grow back just a few hours later.
Up until now, research into ultrasonic administration of drugs has concentrated on low-frequency waves, because the higher end of the spectrum doesn’t have enough energy to pop the bubbles. Higher frequencies do, however, help create more of them and also limits their lateral movement. By using both high- and low-frequencies, the MIT engineers found this produced better over all results, by not only increasing the skin’s uptake of the medicine, but also increasing the number of drugs that can be delivered this way. With pretty much anything that is usually delivered in capsule form being on the cards, this could make the administration of many popular drugs much more convenient and / or effective. Also excellent news for those who really don’t like needles.
Continue reading MIT engineers use ultrasound for improved topical drug administration (video)
MIT engineers use ultrasound for improved topical drug administration (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 19 Sep 2012 04:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Scientists, bless their brains, have finally tracked the paths of sperm in 3D. It’s the first time they’ve been successful in 3D-mapping the trajectory of sperm and it’s revealed a few things about those drippy critters: some sperm swim in corkscrew-like patterns and others are ‘hyperactive’ and hectic. Your sperm has strokes, dude. More »
Discover Magazine has an amazing story about how a woman needed to be carried upside down in order to stay alive. It sounds crazy but it’s real. The reason she had to be held upside down was because her pacemaker had become disconnected from her heart and holding her upside down led the pacemaker to be reconnected. More »
It’s fairly well known that if you want to get ripped, you gotta pump some iron. But what’s more of a surprise is that lab-engineered muscle also responds to a workout. Researchers at the Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center Institute for Regenerative Medicine have been looking at a way to help the body grow new muscle, and found that cells derived from muscle tissue (on a bio-compatible material) responded to “exercise.” The research also showed that when tissue was applied to mice with reduced back muscles, those which received the exercised flesh enjoyed significant recovery benefits over those that just received the “sedentary” cells. The scientists who conducted the study suggest that if this was done on an equivalent human scale, muscle would have recovered to 70 percent of the force of native tissue within two months — what they consider a significant amount. So if you ever need a transplant, perhaps that Thighmaster in the loft will finally come to use.
Continue reading Research shows that lab-engineered muscle responds to a workout
Research shows that lab-engineered muscle responds to a workout originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 18 Jul 2012 14:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
If you’re looking for a pair of futuristic glasses that have realistic, earth-shifting implications, check out these frames by 2AI Labs being tested by doctors right now (hmm? not who you were thinking?). They can make your veins glow so nurses can easily spot them, show a change in hemoglobin color to locate trauma and can be used to monitor how a patient is really feeling. More »
Poppin’ pills is a sorta magical, sorta scientific method in feeling better. When you get hurt? Pop pills. When you can’t sleep? Pop pills. When you want to get high? Pop pills. But how do those tiny little capsules actually work? This video explains how aspirin and ibuprofen makes your body feel less pain. More »
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