things that can and never should

About this talk

Games like World of Warcraft give players the means to save worlds, and incentive to learn the habits of heroes. What if we could harness this gamer power to solve real-world problems? Jane McGonigal says we can, and explains how.

from the article:

Stem cells have been a focal point for hype and hope for years now. Besides healing horses and dogs, they have promising effects on diabetes, corneal blindness, even HIV. It’s pretty clear that they’re also the future of organ transplants. Just the news of a stem cell related development or patent will cause a biotech company’s stocks to soar. The FDA, which regulates all interstate drug sales and related clinical trials is not trying to keep Americans from these “miraculous” cures, it’s simply trying to make sure they are safe first. Apparently, that’s taking too long. Medical tourism agencies are starting to cater to those seeking stem cell treatments. Whether or not they are ready for widespread medical use, stem cell therapies are in high demand, not just in the US but around the world. It’s no longer a question of when we will have access to these treatments, it’s a question of how.

read the entire article here

About this talk

At TED2010, Bill Gates unveils his vision for the world’s energy future, describing the need for “miracles” to avoid planetary catastrophe and explaining why he’s backing a dramatically different type of nuclear reactor. The necessary goal? Zero carbon emissions globally by 2050.

About this talk

Anthony Atala's state-of-the-art lab grows human organs — from muscles to blood vessels to bladders, and more. At TEDMED, he shows footage of his bio-engineers working with some of its sci-fi gizmos, including an oven-like bioreactor (preheat to 98.6 F) and a machine that “prints” human tissue.

via Anthony Atala on growing new organs | Video on TED.com.

Thanks to tvtropes.org, ask.metafilter.com and joel for the music

http://dunk3d.tumblr.com/

Category: Film & Animation
Tags:
enhance zoom image magnify analysis closer tighter scale algorithm bitmap trope cliche mashup supercut

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*sigh* i love movie technology hehe

“hold on a sec, i’ll enhance the reflection in her eye…”

Researcher Kwabena Boahen is looking for ways to mimic the brain’s supercomputing powers in silicon — because the messy, redundant processes inside our heads actually make for a small, light, superfast computer.

via Kwabena Boahen on a computer that works like the brain | Video on TED.com.

MIT professor Neil Gershenfeld talks about his Fab Lab — a low-cost lab that lets people build things they need using digital and analog tools. It’s a simple idea with powerful results.

via Neil Gershenfeld on Fab Labs | Video on TED.com.

Neuroscientist and inventor Christopher deCharms demonstrates a new way to use fMRI to show brain activity — thoughts, emotions, pain — while it is happening. In other words, you can actually see how you feel.

via Christopher deCharms looks inside the brain | Video on TED.com.

For more http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20227114.600.

A heart has been made to beat again by stripping its cells and recoating it with foreign stem cells.

Category: Science & Technology

Tags:

Rat heart stem cells animal testing heart cell stripping.

via YouTube – Hybrid heart.

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note: i’ve seen BETTER techniques from other videos dated 2003. this seems completely backwards compared to the other video i saw. they could grow any organ they wanted using scaffolds made from deceased animals or synthetic means by coating the surface of the scaffold with stem cells. they demonstrated creating a bladder, a trachea pipe, and heart that began to beat on its own after only a few hours.

HOUSTON (Reuters) – Teen-age boys, are you tired of embarrassing questions about when you last changed underwear? Japan’s space scientists may have just the answer — a line of odour-free underwear and casual clothing.

Koichi Wakata, the first Japanese astronaut to live on the International Space Station, is testing the clothes, called J-ware and created by textile experts at Japan Women’s University in Tokyo.

“He can wear his trunks (underwear) more than a week,” said Koji Yanagawa, an official with the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency.

Wakata’s clothes, developed by researcher Yoshiko Taya, are designed to kill bacteria, absorb water, insulate the body and dry quickly. They also are flame-resistant and anti-static, not to mention comfortable and stylish.

Japanese astronaut Takao Doi gave the clothes a trial run during a shuttle mission last year. Even after a vigorous workout, Doi’s clothes stayed dry.

“The other astronauts become very sweaty, but he doesn’t have any sweat. He didn’t need to hang his clothes to dry,” Yanagawa said.

J-ware should reduce the amount of clothing that needs to be sent to the space station, which has no laundry facilities. Toting cargo into orbit is expensive, so having clothes that stay fresh for weeks at a time should result in significant savings.

The Japanese space agency plans to make the clothes available to NASA and its other space station partners once development is complete. A commercial line also is in the offing.

Taya also is working with clothing manufacturers Toray Industries and Goldwin. on clothes that have a microscopically thin chemical layer in the materials.

Wakata, who arrived at the station last week for a three-month stay, said on Sunday that the clothes appear to be working.

“Nobody has complained, so I think it’s so far, so good,” Wakata said.

(Editing by Jane Sutton and Cynthia Osterman)

via Japanese astronaut tests stink-free underwear.