Pour in a little but of liposuctioned fat or human bone marrow. Add a dash of sugar, a pinch of oxygen, a bit of growth hormone and some nutrients. Put in a bioreactor and voila! You have made human bones.

It sounds a little bit crazy but this is the process that scientists are using and it’s allowing them to actually create human bones. The work is being done at Columbia University and the implications are huge. It could mean that people would no longer need titanium joints or even bone grafts because we could grow human bones for them instead.

Basically the scientists create a fake bone first using a machine that reproduces it from a digital images. This allows any bone to be recreated. This fake bone is then put into the bioreactor with the aforementioned ingredients (although of course the whole process is a lot more precise than that). And over time, this leads to the growth of a human bone.

It will be awhile before this technology is used in hospitals. It needs to go through animal and human testing first. However, a decade or two from now we could see bone grafts disappear as this much less painful option becomes available.

Has anyone heard of the product called Le Whif? I’ve only read about this online but from what I understand it is a product that allows you to get the benefits of chocolate and coffee without actually consuming them. This is done through inhaling a powdered version of the product from a biodegradable dispenser.

The website for the company says that you get chocolate without the calories and your coffee caffeine jolt without the cup. This could be appealing to people who are dieting but crave chocolate. It could also be good for people who really like the morning caffeine boost from coffee but don’t like that whole process of making it and taking a cup with them to work.

I don’t know if I buy it. I think it’s an interesting idea. I think I’d considering trying the product just to see what it’s like. I’m particularly curious about the taste of the products. But as a true substitute for chocolate and coffee? I think I’d rather stick with the real thing.

What do you think about the idea of Le Whif?

Tags: breathe coffee, inhale chocolate, le whif

Nanotechnology is starting to really become an interesting part of medicine today. A recent report indicates that nanobot robots can actually be used to locate cancerous tumors in the body. They are inserted into the body and then essentially ride the bloodstream to the location of the cancer. Not only that, but they actually have the potential to disrupt the tumor’s growth.

The study, completed at the California Institute of Technology, found that small polymer robots could be covered with a protein called transferrin and then inserted into the body to find melanoma tumor cells. The robots could get inside of the tumor cells and use a process called RNA interference to disrupt the growth of the tumors. The next step would be to create nanobots that could actually get in there and shrink the tumors to get rid of the cancer entirely (rather than just stopping it from growing).

This technology is still a ways off in terms of being a reality for the average cancer patient. Additional testing needs to be completed and technology may need to be improved in the future. However, this is a great step for nanotechnology in medicine.

The use of nanotechnology in medicine fascinates me. I think it’s because this is one of those things that I can comprehend at an intellectual level but it just blows my mind to try to understand exactly how it really works. Sure, I can read the scientific explanations of how the technology works but then when I try to think about how someone can build a super-tiny machine and actually make it do things like this … Wow!

Tags: medicine, nano robot, nanobot, nanotechnology

The Last Goodnights: Assisting My Parents with Their Suicides is an intense book that is definitely worth a read. It tells the true story of a man who helped both of his aging parents to commit suicide separately. It provides a strong argument for euthanasia, an argument worth checking out regardless of what your personal opinion is on the topic because it does give such a thought-out and personal view of the issue. It also provides insight into the degeneration of the mind as it ages and the difficulties that individuals face as they and their loved ones go through this all-too-common ordeal.

The parents of the book’s author both decided when they were younger that they would like to be in control of their own deaths when they got old. They didn’t want to suffer long and drawn out misery due to age. The father was diagnosed with a horrible form of cancer and didn’t have very long to live. He asked his adult son to assist him in committing suicide which they did together at home using the medications he’d been prescribed by his doctors. The process was very short because of the situation.

In contrast, the man’s mother was suffering from Alzheimer’s. She knew that she was degenerating, forgetting things and losing control over both mind and body. She wanted to hang on as long as possible but to never get to the point where she was living beyond what she decided she wanted to live. She also asked for her son’s help. This was a much longer process than the situation with the father and the telling of it gives terrific insight into the issue of Alzheimer’s and what people go through when this happens in their families.

The book mostly focuses on the individual’s right to what the author calls Self De-Termination and the situation surrounding the decline related to Alzheimer’s. However, it does also provide food for thought regarding this man’s own personal choices and struggle to assist his parents and the little-known fact that euthanasia may be placing pressure on adult children since it’s not allowed to be done by doctors. I’m not saying euthanasia is right or wrong; that’s not the point. The point is that the book provides a very interesting perspective.

It’s an emotionally tough read but definitely a fascinating one!

Tags: book review, books, euthanasia, john west author, last goodnights

March 20th is Obscura Day, a day designated for celebrating wondrous, curious and esoteric places. The celebration is going on in cities all around the world. There are special events going on at strange places ranging from visiting a dead body in a sculpture park in Lucas, Kansas to checking out giant potholes in Nighoj, India.

This is one of those things that is a little random and weird but is also really cool. There are tons of interesting and unusual things to see in various places around the world. They exist in large cities as well as small towns. Sometimes you go see them and they turn out to be kind of boring but often you discover things that you never would have known anything about. Broadening your experiences makes your world bigger.

Here in my own neck of the woods, some of the things going on for Obscura Day include:

• Wine and snacks at the Long Now Foundation Museum. This place is working on a project to make a 10,000 year clock. I’ll be honest; I’ve been here and I think this project is just a little bit too smart for me because I couldn’t quite follow the point of it. Nevertheless, I got to check out some cool machines and try to get a grasp on a really unique project.
• Tour of Musee Mechanique. This is a really cool old arcade museum that features arcade games from years and years ago. It’s located at Fisherman’s Wharf here in San Francisco and it’s always tons of fun to go to it.
• See a huge pneumatic tube system. In nearby Palo Alto you can tour one of the world’s largest pneumatic tube systems for Obscura Day.
• Berkeley’s Bone Room. I haven’t ever been here but I’ve heard it’s a must-see thing for people who are into strange stuff. It’s a collection of bones and for Obscura Day they’re providing a talk about what you can see there.

Tags: obscura day

Check out that tiled OLED light wall. When it’s not in use, it’s a mirror. It’s cutting-edge green technology but I’m just in love with it because it’s a super-cool, fun, smart thing that would be neat to have in your home. Of course, it costs close to $7000 so I don’t think I’ll be getting it. Ah well.

Read more about it at Inhabitat.

Tags: luxury, oled mirror

I recently had the opportunity to do some research and writing into the t-shirt industry. One of the things that interested me most was that there are a lot of different ways to alter t-shirts and recycle t-shirts rather than just throwing them away when you don’t want to wear them anymore. Two of the posts that I wrote about this were included in blog carnivals recently.

30 Ways to Recycle Your Cool Graphic Tees was included in the Reduce, ReUse, Recycle Section of the All Things Eco blog carnival. Other posts in this category were on Enviro Produce Bags, Recycling Plastic Bags and Dealing with e-waste.

50 Ways to Alter Cute Tees into Sexier Shirts was included in the Make It From Scratch blog carnival. Some of the other posts included in this blog carnival were on upcycled sweaters, mixed media art education and warming your home.

Lots of good green and DIY posts in all of these carnivals so have a read if you’ve got some free time.

Tags: blog carnival, blogs, eco, edgi

Can you name someone who has been a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize? Probably (most of us can at least name one, right?). How about a non-human entity that has won the Nobel Peace Prize? That one might not be quite as easy for most of us to conjure up. That’s because there’s only been a few cases in history in which a Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to a non-human entity. And it just might happen again in the near future.

Way back in 1965, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to UNICEF. This well-known group advocates for children’s rights and has done a lot to save the children over the years. If any non-human group deserved the award, surely it was this one.

Twenty years later, another group was given the prize. The International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War were recognized for the crucial role that they played in maintaining world peace. Preventing nuclear war is surely worthy of such a prize, right?

Almost another twenty years passed and another non-human entity was awarded the prize although it had to be split with a human winner this time. The entity was the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) which split the prize with Al Gore. Both were recognized for their work to prevent global warming.

Will it be another 20 years before a non-human gets the prize? Not necessarily. The Internet has been nominated for the award this year. Do you think it should win? Does it play as big of a role as these other non-human beings in establishing world peace? Arguably, the Internet has globalized the world and made us all more culturally aware of one another. Should it get the peace prize for that achievement?

Source

Tags: internet nobel, nobel peace prize, nobel winners, winners of nobel peace prize

I was just reading an article in a design magazine about a very unique design approach that has been taken by a Japanese mental health clinic located in Tokyo. The design uses a variety of different tricks that would likely confuse the mind. For example, there are doors located all throughout the mental health hospital but the doors don’t actually open. How do you get into the rooms if the doors don’t open? Well, there are hidden doors located behind bookcases and in the center of walls adorned with decorations.

It sounds almost like a form of torture doesn’t it? Here you are, trying to gather together your sanity, and everything that should be normal around you is different from the way that it’s supposed to be. It sounds confusing. It sounds frightening. But perhaps it’s exactly the opposite. Perhaps this unique approach to design could be the thing that helps to heal patients.

The thinking behind this design is that it’s a truly hands-on, day-to-day method of getting everyone in the facility to think outside of the box. When your normal surroundings are altered in a very unusual way like this, you are forced to think differently. You are forced to be more creative. This could have a very beneficial impact on altering the negative states of mind of the patients who come to receive help at the mental health clinic. It might even have a positive effect on the thinking patterns of staff and visitors.

As beautifully described by the magazine:

“By providing alternate perspectives for viewing the world, and avoiding being trapped by pre-existing perceptions, the interior allows visitors–and staff members–to experience opening new doors in their hearts, one after the other.”

It’s a fascinating idea isn’t it?

Tags: design, hidden rooms, japanese design, mental health clinic, unique design

When I first moved to San Francisco, the phrase “hella” was everywhere. It hadn’t yet reached the rest of the nation so it sounded foreign and strange. To be honest, I still think it’s a little bit weird when people use hella (or worse, hecka) to describe something. Nevertheless, I’ve adjusted to the use of the word and there have been times when trying to describe something that the best description that came to mind was that the thing was “hella” whatever it was.

The word doesn’t seem to be used quite as often these days as it was when I first moved here. However, people do still use it to describe a lot of something, a big amount … and one student is really pushing for that to become a permanent thing. UC Davis physics student Austin Sendek is petitioning for hella to become the official word used to describe the number that equals one trillion trillions (or 10 to the 27th power).

Some facts that support his petition:

• Northern California has played an important role in science over the years. This designation of a word unique to this region for such an important scientific indicator would honor that role.
• Right now the largest number that there is a word for is 10 to the 24th power. However, as we begin to learn more and more about the far reaches of the universe, we are going to need to be able to name even greater distances and amounts.
• It might be a weird name for a number but is it really any weirder than some of the existing prefixes which include yocto and zetta? In fact, this five letter word seems to fit right in.

Tags: big numbers, facebook petition, hella, northern california, science, sendek