Pennsylvania researchers using gene therapy have made significant improvements in vision in 12 patients with a rare inherited visual defect, a finding that suggests it may be possible to produce similar improvements in a much larger number of patients with retinitis pigmentosa and macular degeneration.
Scientists are to investigate whether human-engineered nanoparticles which are found in sunscreen have any links with Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases.
Learn about the frontiers of human health from seven of Stanford’s most innovative faculty members. Inspired by a format used at the TED Conference (http://www.ted.com), each speaker delivers a highly engaging talk in just 10-20 minutes about his or her research. Learn about Stanford’s newest and most exciting discoveries in neuroscience, bioengineering, brain imaging, psychology, and more.
….new kind of artificial arm that moves more easily than other devices and that she can control by using only her thoughts.
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Jan. 17, 2008
By Hannah Hickey
Contact lenses with metal connectors for electronic circuits were safely worn by rabbits in lab tests. The lenses were manufactured at the microscopic level by researchers at the UW. Contact lenses with metal connectors for electronic circuits were safely worn by rabbits in lab tests. Movie characters from the Terminator to the Bionic Woman use bionic eyes to zoom in on far-off scenes, have useful facts pop into their field of view, or create virtual crosshairs. Off the screen, virtual displays have been proposed for more practical purposes — visual aids to help vision-impaired people, holographic driving control panels and even as a way to surf the Web on the go.
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On September 24, 2008, the U.S. insurance company Continental Western Group (CWG) issued a statement noting that it would exclude nanotubes and nanotechnology from its coverage.
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The Council of Canadian Academies has been asked by the federal Minister of Health: “What is the state of knowledge with respect to existing nanomaterial properties and their health and environmental risks, which could underpin regulatory perspectives on needs for research, risk assessment and surveillance?”
An Expert Panel on Nanotechnology has been appointed by the Council of Canadian Academies to address this question. Scientific knowledge, or evidence, is broadly interpreted to include natural sciences and engineering, as well as social sciences.
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interestingly the write up title is
Scientists Identify Genes that Could Turn Ordinary People into Supergeniuses (or Mindless Drones)
By Dave Gram, Associated Press
SOUTH BURLINGTON, Vt. – After bone cancer forced the amputation of her
right leg below the knee, Eileen Casey got even more bad news: Her
insurer told her that she had spent her $10,000 lifetime coverage limit
on her temporary limb and that the company wouldn’t pay for a permanent
one……
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Question: One the one hand society promotes a body image and a social environment that seems to make legs essential 9most places are still not set up for non leg modes of movements)and on the other hand they are not willing to enable one to have the legs.
Technorati Tags: legs, prosthetics, insurance, payment, ableism, disablement,
SAN ANTONIO, Texas (CNN) — Last week in an operating room in Texas, a wounded American soldier underwent a history-making procedure that could help him regrow the finger that was lost to a bomb attack in Baghdad, Iraq, last year.
Army Sgt. Shiloh Harris’ doctors applied specially formulated powder to what’s left of the finger in an effort to do for wounded soldiers what salamanders can do naturally: replace missing body parts.Technorati Tags: regenerative medicine, health
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A probe so sensitive that it can tell whether or not a cell living within the human body is veering towards cancer development may revolutionize how future colonoscopies are done, say researchers from the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Fla.
more hereTechnorati Tags: sensor, health, cancer, colon,
A new technology with research and clinical application including the early detection of disease has been invented and developed by University of Queensland researchers.
more hereTechnorati Tags: Nano, nanotechnology, nanoscale. health, diagnostic, detection
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Technorati Tags: Telehealth, ehealth, health, wireless
Hat tip to Sheila Moorcroft, Research Director, Shaping Tomorrow
Technorati Tags: Health, Telehealth, e-health, Microscopy
Ten highlights in health statistics 7-34
Progress towards MDG 5: maternal mortality 8
Coverage gap and inequity in maternal, neonatal and child health interventions 10
HIV/AIDS estimates are revised downwards 13
Progress in the fight against malaria 15
Reducing deaths from tobacco 18
Breast cancer: mortality and screening 21
Divergent trends in mortality slow down improvements in life expectancy in Europe 24
Monitoring disease outbreaks: meningococcal meningitis in Africa 27
Future trends in global mortality: major shifts in cause of death patterns 29
Reducing impoverishment caused by catastrophic health care spending 32
References
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Technorati Tags: WHO, World Health Organisation, Health, Global,
