JUST RELEASED FROM LAST YEARS TEDMED: Alex Berenstein shows how modern science can navigate inside our arteries to fix complications in amazing ways. Berenstein, MD (Dr B.) was born in Mexico City in 1948, graduated from the UNAM, at present is Professor of Radiology, Neurology, and Neurosurgery at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and [...]
Scientists at Queen’s University Belfast have begun work into improving the lives of thousands of Cystic Fibrosis sufferers thanks to the award of a £1.74 million US-Ireland Research and Development Partnership grant. The grant has been approved by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the USA with funding for the Queen’s component provided by [...]
Got milk? You may need a couple cups more than today’s food labels say to get enough vitamin D for strong bones. But don’t go overboard: Long-awaited new dietary guidelines say there’s no proof that megadoses prevent cancer or other ailments – sure to frustrate backers of the so-called sunshine vitamin. The decision by the [...]
The long, anxious wait for biopsy results could soon be over, thanks to a tissue-imaging technique developed at the University of Illinois. The research team demonstrated the novel microscopy technique, called nonlinear interferometric vibrational imaging (NIVI), on rat breast-cancer cells and tissues. It produced easy-to-read, color-coded images of tissue, outlining clear tumor boundaries, with more than 99 percent [...]
Chances are, you haven’t heard of Haidar Taleb yet, but he’s on a mission to inspire the world. On Monday, the disabled 47-year-old from the UAE is set to embark on a record-breaking 200 mile voyage across the desert in a solar-powered wheelchair he designed and built himself. “With this journey I hope to raise awareness [...]
Twelve people left almost blind by a hereditary condition that strikes in childhood are to receive the world’s first eye therapy derived from human embryonic stem cells (hESCs). Stargardt’s macular dystrophy currently affects 1 in 8,000 people in the US. Their sight deteriorates from around age six when retinal pigment epithelial cells (RPEs) start to [...]
Doctors in Glasgow have injected stem cells into the brain of a stroke patient in an effort to find a new treatment for the condition. The elderly man is the first person in the world to receive this treatment – the start of a regulated trial at Southern General Hospital. He was given very low [...]
There are two pacemakers in the picture above. There’s the typical clunky, stone shaped device with wires on the right — and on the left, a device dwarfed even by a one-cent coin. This is the Medtronic wireless pacemaker, just revealed at TEDMED 2010, which can be implanted directly into your heart via catheter and permanently [...]
Scientists at the University of Connecticut Health Center have successfully converted stem cells derived from the adult skin cells of four humans into region-specific forebrain, midbrain, and spinal cord neurons (nerve cells) with functions. The research is a key step toward realizing the cells’ potential to treat various neurodegenerative diseases. The UConn team, led by [...]
Today, prosthetics are a world apart from these pre-digital age examples, using advanced robotic and cybernetic technologies and tools such as 3-d printers for mass customization. As such vintage prosthetics often have the particularly strange look which is both creepy and fascinating and accompanies technological obsolescence. Head on over to oobject to flick through this [...]
