Recent Technological Discovery

Amazing how far our society has come

As human, we’re far from perfect, and in many ways we are similar to machines. We too require constant tune-ups, care, attention as well as maintenance. Without these things, it is hard to maintain our body, and it can easily break down! For a long time, scientists have tried to develop a better understanding about the human body, and create new technologies to increase their knowledge as well as cure fatal diseases. Currently there are many concerns that society face such as Alzheimer’s disease, digestive disorder, as well as heart problem. In this blog, I will try my best to discuss these issues and talk about technological development related to these and share my opinions.

Alzheimer



Of course while we’re 17 years old we’re not going to think about elder health care, but to those that are middle age/senior citizen this is an issue that worries many. They may be worried about Alzheimer’s disease and other common problems such as blood pressure. Right now, scientists do not have a full understanding of Alzheimer’s disease, but they know that this disease targets the brain. Though this disease is currently incurable and scientist is trying their best to further their understanding. Researchers at the University of South Florida have determined that GCSF (granulocyte colony stimulating factor) is able to reduce the level of a specific protein (beta amyloid) that clogs the brain. It also increases the production of neuron development and increased nerve cell connections. The GCSF is a stem cell growth factor that is found in blood which stimulates the bone marrow to increase production of white blood cells. In short, they discover that they could use stem cell to reduce the protein that clog the brain and rebuild neural connections. Stem cell treatment may reverse the effect of Alzheimer’s and if this treatment continues to develop, soon Alzheimer’s could be cured. So far stem cell treatments have worked on mice but have not yet tried on human. My opinion about stem cell treatment is that currently it’s unknown whether this is safe or not. Often to promote the product they often exaggerate its effect, but in reality it is nowhere close. But if this method was to develop, and by the time we become a senior it might be perfected. From what I read from the description of stem cell on brain, it seems like its something that has a lot of potential. If this were to work, then that's one less problem to worry about in the future.





Digestive System

Regardless of age, stomach pain occurs to everyone, most of the time it might not be serious but at times it can be very serious. Pepto Bismol can’t always be used to relief the stomach pain! In order to solve the society needs of curing serious digestion diseases, scientists have developed SmartPill, a swallowable wireless sensor that can monitor the human body. SmartPill is around the size of vitamin pill, it is approved to help clinicians diagnose gastroparesis (a disorder that causes the stomach to empty very slowly). While in the stomach, a radio transmitter sends information about how long the journey will take, as well as acidity and pressure levels of the stomach. This pill provides information to the doctor in a much easier than other process which allow doctors to further help their patience. Not only is this pill safe, it also provides valuable information to the doctor about what’s happening in your body. If this technology were to develop in the direction that it should, soon I believe it can be used for other diseases. It can provide much better information about the body than CT scan and it more painless than surgery. There is no risk in this product which makes it assuring to use, the only problem would probably be the cost. In this stage of the product, there are no mass production. But to me I'd rather swallow a pill than to do a painful surgery.









Circulatory System

Heart is the most important part of the human body. It can’t be replaced, and malfunctioning of it can lead to death. Coronary artery disease is the most common form of heart disease, which causes death to many. Prevention of coronary artery disease is a concern to many. Through research scientists have developed better ways to test for heart disease, so that appropriate measures can be taken. From an online source (posted in 2006), the best way to detect the disease is coronary angiography which thread a tube into the heart and releases a dye. Using X-ray images to look for decreased blood flow they can easily found out the problem. But in this procedure the tube can possibly pierce an artery, resulting in bleeding, which can lead to heart attack or stroke. Other tests such as cardiac ultrasound are less risky, but not as accurate. MRI is a technique that allows doctors to clearly view the body using magnets and radio waves. Previously, it could not produce clear images of moving objects, such as a beating heart. But recently stronger magnets, more powerful computers, and new software have improved MRI, and allow it to be used to determine coronary artery disease in the heart.

Not only have scientist work to detect heart disease, scientists have also worked to fight against heart disease as well. MIT and Harvard based their previous work of delivering cancer drugs with nanoparticles and created particles called nanoburrs. It was said that particles is coated with tiny protein which allow them to stick onto damage arterial walls. Once it’s stuck on the wall, it is able to release drugs to prevent heart disease. Drugs such as paclitaxel (helps prevent growth of scar tissue that can clog arteries) can be carried by nanoburrs to cure heart diseases. Nanoburrs can deliver drugs over a longer period of time, which prevent patient to have repetitive surgically injections. Though nanoburrs have not been perfected yet, it seems to work on mice and is able to successfully travel to intended area. If this technology were to continue to develop, not only can it cure heart disease but disease everywhere in the body. Seeing how they have used nanoburrs to treat cancer, I believe that it must have worked really well, so I have confidence in nanoburrs and believe it excellent in curing heart disease. To learn more about the nanoburrs check out the following cite: http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2010/nanoburrs.html


Through our technologies development, future does not seem like a scary place. Currently new developments are being made, and scientists are able to learn more about the human body every day. If these technologies were to continue to develop it seems like soon the society wouldn’t have to worry about fatal diseases. It is truly amazing to see how the technologies have advanced in the past year, decade, and century, and it seems like these developments can never stop astonishing us.

http://www.prlog.org/10520247-stem-cell-treatments-for-alzheimers-disease.html
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/46007.php
http://www.technologyreview.com/Biotech/17470/
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/01/100118153248.htm
http://www.technologyreview.com/read_article.aspx?id=17065&ch=biotech

Have We Gone Too Far?

Are we going too far?
As technology becomes more advance, we start to interfere with things that are “supposedly” to be beyond human control. One of the major areas would be modifying genetics. Media use the term designer babies to describe babies whose traits were modified in embryos and were given desirable traits.

How far can our technology go?

It is true that our technology for genetics have advanced at a rapid rate for the past few years. There are many movies created to over exaggerate the outcome of genetic enhancement, such as Gattaca. The media even started creating terms such as “designer babies” to describe this frightening scenario if this were to happen. If we take a step away from all our imagination and from all those sci-fi movies, we have watched and think. What is it that we can do with genetics right now? Currently one of the advanced reproductive techniques we have is called InVitro Fertilisation (IVF) which is used to fertilise eggs with sperm in a test tube outside the mother’s body to reduce the chance that a child will be born with genetic disorder. The embryo is then introduced into the womb. Another technology already used by wealthy people is Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD) which is used to prevent passing serious genetic disorder to children. PGD does not count as modification of human embryos so it is much safer than IVF. Though we do not have the technology to put certain traits on babies, but we can select the sex of the baby and currently working on selecting eye colour. Though there are many other possible things we could do to alternate genetics, the government has limited this field by making it illegal replace faulty DNA with healthy ones on human beings.

This is all great! Or not...



MUST WATCH!!!!!

Wouldn’t it be awesome if children grew up to be extra healthy, extra smart, long lifespan, or even resistant to bacteria? Who wouldn’t want that? It would be the greatest thing that will happen to mankind... or not. If this were to happen, this will bring end to our social arrangement, as well as social equality, and possibly the same scenario suggested by the movie Gattaca. In this Sci-Fi movie, human were able to alternate the genetics of children to select favourable traits to put into children as result creating super enhanced humans. The result caused by genetic altering is totally unimaginable, unenhanced people were viewed as genetic inferiority and were looked down against. Normal people could no longer perform certain jobs, and were discriminated against in many ways. I went past the movie and imagined if designer babies were introduced in our generation, what will happen? Guess who would get hold of this advance technology? That’s right the wealthy people, and that’s why in the previous paragraph I have bolded the word wealthy. If the wealthy people were to get hold of this technology what will happen? This will completely separate us two social groups; the enhanced “superior” human, and the normal “inferior” humans. The normal humans can no longer compete with the “superior” group in any way, and those who can’t afford genetic enhancement would be looked down against.

Should we be doing this?
Beside the argument CAN we do this, comes the argument SHOULD we do this? The big argument that comes with genetic enhancement is that is all this ethnical? Like all arguments made there are two sides, and both side provides good argument.
For argument against genetic enhancement: Actions caused by Hitler have caused horror to many, as one man’s desire of creating perfect race had lead to the death of many. Could we too be the source that will cause to death of millions if we continue in pursue perfection and go into the extent of altering genetics. When messing with genetics, we can not only think about what we can do, but instead on what will happen if we do this. We should focus on every aspect, such as what will happen to world’s population, what will happen to world’s gender (certain gender is preferred over others in certain areas). Many believe that children are unique people with their own dignity and status which should be valued for who they are and we should not try to change their uniqueness by altering their genetics. They believe that love for a baby should be unconditional and rather than based on what they can do with their life. What happens if the parents spend a lot of money just to find out their designer baby doesn’t live up their expectation. Would they give up on the baby?

For argument for genetic enhancement: Argues that it is a pain for many parents to force to see their child suffer disease and sometimes children die. If we have the technology to change their genetics to prevent the disease why wouldn’t we? With genetics we could create new possibilities, cure disease and much more, if we have this power why shouldn’t we do this? We shouldn’t be scared to experience new things but instead embrace it and create new possibility.

My opinion:
I’m pretty sure everyone is tired of reading this long blog so I’ll end this with my opinion on this complex subject. Obviously we all want to help children with a serious genetic disorder but where do we draw the line to decide what we should be able to do with genetic enhancements. Who should be able to decide that, and if we do decide to help the children with serious genetic disorder what do we do about the current adults with genetic disorder? So what about other illness? Even if the government were to draw a line, it would cause controversy all over the world, and it would be unfair to certain people if genetic enhancement were introduced. If this were introduced, the main concern should be what could be done so that everyone is treated equally. Do we have the money to provide genetic enhancement to everyone? We are not sure what will happen in the future, and messing around with genetics may result many problems. We might even introduce new viruses into the world by modifying genetics. What I believe is that there are certain things we, humans shouldn’t mess with. As a Christian I believe certain things on earth are part of God’s plan and messing with it is not wise. God have made us all unique for a reason, and by altering genetics, we are in a way denying God’s plan for this planet. Even the pope have condemned the idea of designer baby because it's unethical. I agree that there are benefits to this technology, and by all means if we can cure children’s disease we should. But changing height, intelligence and anything else affecting our uniqueness should be out of our hands.

http://www.bionetonline.org/English/content/db_cont1.htm
http://www.actionbioscience.org/biotech/agar.html
http://www.arhp.org/uploadDocs/cloning.pdf#search=%22human%20cloning%22
http://www.qub.ac.uk/methics/McIlwaineC.pdf
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8C0MR5egORA