This Smart Scalpel Can Smell Cancer as It Cuts

This Smart Scalpel Can Smell Cancer as It Cuts

Cancer surgery is invariably difficult, in part, because doctors have always had a hard time determining exactly where the healthy tissue ends and the tumor begins. Not anymore. A new "intelligent knife" can actually sniff out the cancer cells during an operation and keep the doctor on track.

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These Synthesia Glasses Help Blind People “See” Via Sonar

These Synthesia Glasses Help Blind People “See” Via Sonar

People who have been blind since a young age can sometimes learn to develop a sort of low-grade echolocation. This technique, used by the likes of Ray Charles, Stevie Wonder, Ronnie Milsap, and Ben Underwood, works much the same way as it does in bats and dolphins. But people who have just recently lost their sight can’t harness this ability innately. They need the vOICe to do it for them.

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We’re Closer Than You Think to Beating HIV

We're Closer Than You Think to Beating HIVAt least 35 million people around the planet live with HIV, and it kills over 1.7 million people each year, so the fact that it’s currently untreatable is one of the biggest medical problems of our time. But in recent years scientific advances seem to be kicking HIV’s ass more effectively than ever—so is there hope that we neutralize the virus’s threat? The answer is more hopeful than you think.

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Bone Marrow Transplants Remove All Sign of HIV in Two Men

Bone Marrow Transplants Remove All Sign of HIV in Two Men

It’s turning into quite a year for HIV treatment. First a baby girl was functionally cured of the HIV virus, then 14 adults were successfully treated with early-stage ARV drugs. Now, two men with longstanding HIV infections have been freed from HIV drugs thanks to bone marrow transplants. We’re really getting there.

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It’s Almost Worth Breaking Your Arm for this Crazy 3D-Printed Cast

It's Almost Worth Breaking Your Arm for this Crazy 3D-Printed Cast

Plaster casts are bulky, obnoxious, heavy, inevitably sweaty, occasionally pink. In short, they are no fun. But this 3D-printed "Cortex" cast could change all that. Sure, it looks a little like a fishnet stocking, but have you seen a old-fashioned cast lately?

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Breakthrough Research Could Replace Insulin Shots With Pills

Breakthrough Research Could Replace Insulin Shots With Pills

Whether you don’t like needles, or whether you really don’t like needles, there’s some good news on the horizon: a special "bioadhesive" coating that was just developed at Brown University is bringing us one step closer to saying goodbye to injections and hello to things like insulin pills.

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This New Contact Lens Basically Turns Your Eye Into a Telescope

This New Contact Lens Basically Turns Your Eye Into a Telescope

Contact lenses are great if your only issue is near or farsightedness, but for those struggling with age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a leading cause of blindness among older adults, those flimsy little lenses ain’t going to cut it—or at least not the kind of contact lenses you’re used to. But soon, AMD-sufferers could see their vision vastly improving thanks to a slim, adjustable telescope that sits right in the middle of their eye.

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This Beautiful Map Is Made Up of Microscopic Cells

This Beautiful Map Is Made Up of Microscopic Cells

This map may look like a fairly reasonable representation of the world—but that’s all the more impressive when you realise it’s actually made up of microscopic cells from parts of the body that cause problems for people who live in each country.

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A Pint-Sized Dialysis Machine Gets Its First Taste of Human Blood

A Pint-Sized Dialysis Machine Gets Its First Taste of Human Blood

Who needs gigantic dialysis machines? The first portable blood filter has just been approved for testing on humans, and it’s practically pocket-sized.

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New Melanoma Test Sniffs Out Skin Cancer Based on Odor Alone

New Melanoma Test Sniffs Out Skin Cancer Based on Odor Alone

We’ve known for awhile that certain illnesses can have a very, er, special smell for the olfactory-inclined, but even us humans (with the help of smell-sensitive technology) could soon be diagnosing diseases with nothing but our nose. Thanks to a nanotechnology-based sensor, we’re now able to differentiate between normal skin cells and melanoma cells based entirely on scent.

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