Thursday, June 11, 2015

Tuesday, June 09, 2015

How scientists built the world’s first lab-grown limbs

Harald Ott spent weeks in a lab tending to a tiny rat’s forelimb. He got a special incubator for it, monitored it daily, cared for its every need.
The reason a rat leg was worth all that work? There was no rat attached to it.
Ott, a researcher and thoracic surgeon at Massachusetts General Hospital, is the proud parent of the world’s first lab-grown biolimb — a living, functioning, artificial leg that responds to stimuli and even circulates blood,  the hospital announced Tuesday. Though it’s still a long way off from made-to-order transplants for humans, Ott and other regeneration experts say that the tiny pink rat leg is a step toward the future of artificial limbs.
“This is science fiction coming to life,” Daniel Weiss, a lung regeneration specialist at the University of Vermont College of Medicine, told the New Scientist.

Wednesday, June 03, 2015

High Prices for Drugs Attacked at Meeting

Cancer specialist criticizes new-treatment costs in high-profile speech

He said that one step toward controlling prices would be allowing Medicare to negotiate prices directly with pharmaceutical companies, which it is currently barred by law from doing.

Color Vision Articles from Science Daily

When the color we see isn't the color we remember


Brain, not eye mechanisms keep color vision constant across lifespan


Bach to the blues, our emotions match music to colors

Tuesday, June 02, 2015

Smart Glove to Guide Blind People Inside Grocery Stores

Researchers at Penn State are working on a smart glove that can help blind people shop at the grocery store. The idea came because figuring out what items are on the shelves is a major limitation blind people report as wanting to be able to overcome. There are products in existence that can scan bar codes and tell you what’s inside the package, but they depend on the bar code facing the camera or laser used to scan it. The other problem is that these products don’t help you find what you’re looking for, but simply verify that what you’re holding is the right thing.
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