It’s no longer science fiction. Nanotechnology used in medicine is inching its was to enabling humans to live longer, even perhaps achieving immortality. Among the first concrete step in this direction is the use of nanotechnology in creating artificial arteries that pulsate along with the beating of the patient’s heart.

This has been achieved by the Scientists at London’s Royal Free Hospital which proved to be so promising, they’ve been given a grant by British charity group the, Wellcome Trust so that the new artificial artery could be used in human trials within this year.

“The new micro-graft pulses rhythmically to match the beat of the heart,” said George Hamilton, a team leader and professor of vascular surgery at the Royal Free Hospital. “As well as this, the new graft material is strong, flexible, resistant to blood clotting and doesn’t break down, which is a major breakthrough.”

The groundbreaking artificial arteries are designed to replace plastic artificial ones that were first used to repair and replace ruptured or blocked arteries in the human heart or legs. The new artificial arteries were created by scientists who combined a polymer with nanomaterials in order to create a more flexible artificial artery.

There are other advances in medical science using nanotechnology. These artificial arteries that pulsate are just among the latest to graduate from the lab to the clinic and hospitals.

Via Computerworld

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I know the movie Patch Adams was first released in 1998. But it has become one of my most favorite movies of all time. Since my creative juices were drowned by dumplings and vodka while waiting for the break of the New Year, I spent the last hours of 2007 watching this Robin Williams classic instead of finishing the year-end series for 2007. Rest assured though that the it will be posted by the day’s end.

Patch Adams, both the film and the real Doctor behind it still continues to inspire me to do something for the common good. Though my desire of becoming a doctor has become somewhat tarnished and shaken, the film’s message of hope, unity, respect for one’s humanity and dignity and it’s calling to “improve the quality of life” around us is what pushes me on to blog for a cause and not just for the heck of it, continue on with my advocacies and tasks, even to the point that I’ve literally forgotten about my own well-being. My fellow Lasallian volunteers and co-student-leaders at the University Student Council knows of this very well.

The movie is a perfect blend of comedy and drama in that you’ll find it irresistible to laugh out during Patch’s comical antics. And if you realized it, you did not just laughed, you learned a thing or two about life, care, and medicine of course. From laughing your heart out, the movie will then touch you deep that you’d also find it not difficult to instantly become an emo, soft and teary.

One of the most heart-wrenching scenes in the movie is where Patch completes the reading of the poem entitled Sonnet XVII by Pablo Neruda to his girlfriend who now laid in a coffin. The clip below is from that very tear-dropping scene.

After hearing the whole poem, I quickly scoured the net for a copy of it. Thankfully, free sources were available. To save you the trouble of searching for it, the poem is share below.

Love Sonnet XVI

I do not love you as if you were salt-rose, or topaz,
Or the arrow of carnations the fire shoots off.
I love you as certain dark things are to be loved,
In secret, between the shadow and the soul.

I love you as the plant that never blooms but carries in
Itself the light of hidden flowers;
Thanks to your love a certain solid fragrance,
Risen from the earth, lives darkly in my body.

I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where.
I love you straightforwardly, without complexities or pride;
So I love you because I know no other way
I love you without knowing how, or when, or from where.
I love you straightforwardly, without complexities or pride;
So I love you because I know no other way

That this: where I does not exist, nor you,
So close that your hand on my chest is my hand,
So close that your eyes close as I fall asleep.

Her tragic murder has broken Patch but later on would become the turning point for him to face his toughest challenge yet, graduating from medicine school. That challenge itself was a great battle of the minds and hearts which pitted Patch Adams not only against his arch-nemesis Dean Walcot, but also the distinguished State Medical Board. Below is a clip from the movie depicting that scene which was the climax of the movie.

Brilliant. Just brilliant.

What a way to end, or rather start the new year eh?

Happy new year everyone!

PS: Dr Patch Adams once called US President Bush and VP Cheney as “mass murderers.” See the story here.

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Despite the pricey ink cartridges, I am a solid HP fan. Their printers are among the best in terms of print quality, if not printer reliability. In terms of usability, HP printers are also among the easiest to setup, install and use.

HP printers may have been the subject of criticism because of the health hazards they may cause, it seems that their makers, HP has decided to make up for this pitfall and actually do something that will benefit almost anyone health-wise.

Just recently, HP technology will no longer just print images by squirting microns of it on paper but it will also deliver life-saving drugs in almost the same manner. “Print” them on the patient’s skin instead of using the dreaded syringe.

HP has signed a licensing deal to allow its printing technology to be used to give injections to humans.

The technology uses micro-needles embedded in a patch which puncture the outside layer of the skin and insert the drug.

Skin patches are already used for some drugs, like nicotine replacement, but many drugs cannot penetrate the tough outer surface of the skin.

The patch was developed at HP Labs but is being taken to market by Irish company Crospon which will pay royalties to HP.

“This industry-first skin patch invented by HP allows Crospon to offer a superior drug delivery platform for doctors and patients,” said John O’Dea, chief executive at Crospon.

Imagine that, because in essence, the patches will be like printers that were shrinked down to size and ‘printing’ medicine right through your skin. This then eliminates the need for syringes and needles that are not only scary at first glance, but are more prone to being contaminated and being passed on to others as in the case of illegal drug addicts.

Then again, if this new innovation picks up and its usage becomes widespread drug abusers may simply use the skin patches to get their daily dose of illegal substances. Since there are no more needles and syringes, catching them red-handed would be much difficult. But hey, if this innovation can be abused, I’m sure another form of technology will be used to combat it.

Bonus HP goodness

As an added treat, mypapit has a quick guide on how to get the HP Officejet 5680 working smoothly with Ubuntu Linux like sending fax for example.

And like him, I would recommend you get an HP printer the next time you’re going to get a new one.

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An article from the National Geographic website has a basic laydown about the results of the latest mapping of the human genome.

According to the story, our DNA varies more widely from person to person. This is one of the conclusions scientists and geneticists had after analyzing new researches about the human genome. The genetic material found in every cell of our bodies that define and make us humans.

The new map provides a much clearer picture of human genetic variation, says geneticist and co-researcher Charles Lee of the Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts.

“This evidence is showing that we are more genetically unique from one another—we all have individualized genomes,” he said.

Personalized DNA? You can bet a monkey’s butt on it. Which is not really surprising when one would consider that we humans are among the most dispersed organisms in the planet. We inhabit almost every terrain on Earth and continue to expand our territories, often with harmful effects to other species.

Evolutionary theory would support this and say that since we have a very wide range of distribution-we’re found almost anywhere in the planet, we would have more variation in our DNA since we have adapted and continue to adapt to more types of different habitat.

This also justifies the difference between ethnic groups and help us understand how they adapted to their specific environments; e.g. Why Asians have a smaller body build compared to their European cousins and why our African brothers are more resistant to HIV infections compared to our South American cousins and so forth.

Aside from shedding more light into those topics mentioned earlier, medicine will greatly benefit from this new research because now, we could better understand the effects of genes on diseases, how they originate, how they spread, how they are passed on from one generation to the next and of course the why-counterparts of these questions and more. We answer those questions, we would finally have a cure, even prevent age-old diseases like cancer, deformities and AIDS.

Lastly, as pointed out in the title of this piece, we have also come to the surprising suggestion that we humans are now more distant to chimpanzees that we previously thought. Before, studies suggested that we shared 99% of our genome with chimps, that has now changed and the figure is now somewhere between 96-97% similarity.

A difference of roughly 3% over the past million years has made us more humans than chimps. The question now is, what particular genes made us more humans instead of chimps?

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Some years ago, back in my highschool days I found my self in one of those life-turning, mind-bending and your-reputation-is-at-stake situations so typical when you mix in closely-knit highschool buddies with the urge to know secrets, something alcoholic and the empty bottle from which that something came from. Yes, it’s the ever so faithful ‘spin the bottle’ game though childish at first reckoning, it has never failed to highten up boring gatherings or idle times with your classmates, buddies and even co-workers.

The highschool pecking order is thrown out of the window and under the power of that spinning bottle, every one else in the circle is of the same level. Round and round it goes, tensions increase with the gaggles, laughters and giggles ending up in the ceremonial screams of despair coming who was “it.”

I was not spared. Facing the threat of a dreadful consequence to which I wasn’t – at that time – ready enough to do, I went for the other option and presented myself to my friends’ sharp questioning.

Preparing for the worst question, I was relieved to hear that the query was a simple and quite exciting one. “What was of my greatest fears and what would you do about it?”

I bravely answered with a matching facial expression, “Growing old and all wrinkled up.” We all broke out into laughter and when the laughing subsided, everyone listened in to hear the second half of my answer. “Growing really old quite scares me because I’ll loose my hair, teeth and my skin would shrivel like a raisin or a loose bag or something. Looking at my grandparents today, I wouldn’t want to end up looking exactly like them.” Laughters resume coupled with a few cheers and jokes. I quickly quipped to wrap up my turn with a punch line.

“Besides, I want look good and young when I get buried.”

Of course I’m not alone in this world for there are a lot who shares this outlook with me. It may be ‘unnatural’ for some but I think I have the final say in what I want for myself and that is to stay looking young, to the very least, as long as I live. Advances in medical and surgical techniques and technologies today and in the future time that I would need to take care of my aging looks will ensure that I will get what I desire. And when the time does come, I think I’ll have my cosmetic surgery in Toronto, Ontario. A place that holds a special place in my heart. The reasong being, would be for another story for another time.

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