The Prosthetics Breakthrough That Could Fuse Nerves With Fake Limbs
A replacement limb that moves, feels and responds just like flesh and blood. It’s the holy grail of prosthetics research. The Pentagon’s invested millions to make it happen. But it’s been elusive – until, quite possibly, now. The body’s own nerves are arguably the biggest barrier towards turning the dream of lifelike replacements into a…
Wireless devices swim through your bloodstream and fix you up, Fantastic Voyage style
Implantable medical devices will eventually dispense drugs, get rid of blood clots and perform micro-surgeries inside our bodies, but powering them could be problematic. If the point is to have minimally invasive gadgets keeping tabs on our health, cutting patients open to swap out their batteries is not an ideal situation. A new micro device…
Will People Ever Evolve Out of Craving Unhealthy Food?
Maybe, but it’s going to take a long time. For the past 200,000 years or so, fatty and sugary foods were hard for humans to come by and well worth gorging on. Fats help maintain body temperature, sugars provide energy, and craving such food is hardwired: Eating fats and sugars activates reward centers in the…
Do Competitive Eaters Have Unusual Stomachs?
Yes. Marc Levine, the chief of gastrointestinal radiology at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, has found that a competitive eater’s stomach works more like an expanding balloon than a squeezing sac. For his study, Levine recruited a professional eater, then ranked among the top 10 in the world, and a man who was…