Your phone will know you're sick before you do

            One of the most difficult aspects that our health care system has to deal with is people waiting too long to do something. With the new advancements in applications and technology this problem could soon be fixed. Very soon Iphones and other smart phones will be able to monitor your statistics to a point where they know if you are sick even before you do. Spurred on  by inventions such as the Nike-fuel band or other dietary scanners that help keep you in shape before you realize how far out of shape you are. Mark Curtis who most notably founded Foursquare believes that smart phones will entirely change the healthcare system as it stands.

            He believes that the role of doctors will change due to these new applications, “They will become coaches, rather than a source of initial diagnosis.” However will the impact of this new technology be beneficial, harmful, or widely ignored? Initially, WebMD sounded like a genius idea could keep many people from the need to go to clinics; however, once it started to relate every minor bruise or issue to cancer, thee site became largely ignored. Will these new applications be more accurate? Or will they remain on the same par as just an overlooked app that was never useful? Mark Curtis believes that they will be above and beyond what the average person would expect, using science to make people constantly aware of their wellbeing. 

              In fact I have many complaints about this article; first of all, I thought upon reading the headline that the app was already out, or at least in a beta phase, or maybe they had a doctor recommendation for that app, I was let down on both guesses. The article was entirely theoretical about how a developing technology could change the medical world. But in a way it does relate to our class as we are know using our phones and tablets to record our data instead of handwriting it. In the same way people will soon be using their phones, not doctors, to check up on themselves.

posted for M. James

LINK

http://www.cnn.com/2013/02/26/tech/opinion-health-mobile-curtis/index.html?iref=allsearch

The Happiest US State is......

http://www.livescience.com/27541-happiest-state-2012.html

            The article that I read summarized a research that investigated the level of happiness in different states of America. Turns out, Hawaiians are the happiest people in the United States. The results were based on personal life evaluation, emotional health, work environment, physical health, healthy behavior and basic access to necessary services. Hawaii came in at 71.1% out of 100%. The next state on the list is Colorado, with on 69.7%. The research also included what exactly made people happy. Most things, such as income, vehicles, housing, etc… had to do with money. Sex was also at the top of the list.

            This article opened my eyes to the fact that in certain states, such as West Virginia, many people suffer from the same problems. Depression was most common in the lower-rated states. Not surprisingly, the states with the lowest ratings had the highest suicide rates. New York took the 30^th spot right under Pennsylvania and above New Jersey with 66.2%. This study can help people decide where they want to move in the future and also account for some occurrences that happened in those states. For example, states with a higher happiness level have lower crime rates. This information can help the government make better investments into public services such as parks, hospitals, recreational events and even the police in that area.

            Overall, I thought this was a decent article. I thought the research was conducted and executed very well. However, I do believe that the information is limited. I don’t think that many conclusions can be made from such a new project (started in 2008).  

posted for M. Izotov

Team Creates MRI for the Nanoscale: Level Comparable to an Atomic Force Microscope

I read “Team Creates MRI for the Nanoscale: Level Comparable to an Atomic Force Microscope,” which is about the MRI imaging that reveals details of living tissues and diseased organs and tumors, which used to be primarily found in x-rays. This is called the nonoscale MRI. Dr. Carlos Meriles, a professor of physics at the City University of New York, and the University of Stuttgart to see even tiny atoms that can help doctors determine diseases and causes for disease. ‘"Standard MRI typically gets to a resolution of 100 microns," about the width of a human hair, said Professor Meriles.”’ This new technology allows doctors to see 10,000 times better. Dr. Meriles and his students studied how diamonds that have missing carbon atoms, a defect is formed. This defect is called nitrogen-vacancy (NV). Thease imperfections have a spin, which can be used to serve as sensitive sensors. Through this process, they discovered the reasons behind the new nanoscale MRI machine.

This will help the world in the future because it will allow doctors to see everything up to blood cells more clearly. Many diseases can only be found in X-ray machines, once they are big enough to be seen, but with the help of this machine, tumors, cancers and diseases can be seen before it is too late to minimize the effects of these diseases.

I thought this article was very confusing. The beginning was not too difficult to understand, but once they author started talking about the diamond aspect, he got too scientific for my understanding. He was also not very clear as to who made the MRI, because in some places it sound like the students and Dr. Meriles created it, but at other places, it seems as though they were just studying the machine.

City College of New York. "Team creates MRI for the nanoscale: Level comparable to an atomic force microscope." ScienceDaily, 13 Feb. 2013. Web. 13 Feb. 2013.

Revolutionary Lenses May Cure Colour Blindness

       

            Recently, an American research institute has developed Oxy-Iso lenses that will allow medics to spot bruising and veins that are difficult to see. Though originally developed to aid medics, they have been tested and found to enhance greens and reds in the colour blind. The lenses work via, “the Oxy-Iso filter concentrat(ing) its enhancement exactly where red-green colour-blind folk are deficient.” Of course, these lenses carry a tremendous impact. The possibility of a solution (though currently under-developed) to colour blindness is truly remarkable. Theoretical neurobiologist Mark Changizi developed the Oxy-Iso lenses for glasses offers an explanation into the importance of human colour vision, describing how it "evolved above and beyond that found in other mammals... allowing us to sense colour-signals on the skin, including blushes, blanches, as well as sensing health". Colour vision has always been a paramount part of human evolution beyond other mammals. While the promise of these lenses is extremely exciting, the lenses are not yet perfected. Daniel Bor, a colour-blind neurologist, described some negative effects (as well as positive ones) after wearing the lenses. He stated that, while the lenses made red colours appear vibrant, they subdued yellows and blues tremendously. This would make the lenses unsafe for drivers to use.

            While there are a few areas for improvement in the lenses, they symbolize the start of a solution to colour-blindness. This is incredibly impactful to humanity, especially as 1 in every 10 men are colour-blind, and there are many colour-blind women. The Oxy-Iso lenses that Mr. Changizi has developed are on the verge of having the ability to change the world, though that was not their original purpose. This recent breakthrough will also, perhaps, encourage other scientists to continue working on a solution to colour-blindness as well as other genetic defections that affect millions of people across the globe.

            Overall, I enjoyed reading this article as it gave me a sort of renewed faith in accidental science. Though thousands of scientists have been looking for solutions to colour-blindness for years, one scientist was lucky enough to stumble upon the beginning of a solution. This reminds us that, sometimes, the answer is right there. While I enjoyed the article, I felt that the author broke up their paragraphs too much, which distracted my attention from the main point of the article at times, and contributed to a lack of eloquence throughout the article.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-21367584

‘Lenses found to ‘cure colour-blindness’’; 7 February 2013; BBC News

The Answer Is (Artificially) Blowing in the Wind

               As you may know, the economy right now runs on fossil fuel which is not the cleanest source of fuel out there in this world. Knowing this, couple millions of dollar was put into various organizations to research a better fueling source instead of using fossil fuel. However, it was a professor at the California Institute of Technology who found an alternative source of fuel. Nathan S. Lewis, a chemistry professor who led the national and international effort to produce fuels directly from sunlight did succeed in creating a prototype artificial “leaf” fuel. This prototype artificial “leaf” fuel was constructed off the basis was photosynthesis which is a process by which plants convert and store energy form the sun. If leaves are able to do that with the support from the sun, then there must be a way to use photosynthesis to convert the energy in leaves to fuel. So…..that’s Nathan S. Lewis did, he created a artificial leaf that is inspired by leaves, but will not look like them. The “artificial leaf” is composed of a thin sheet of plastic embedded with light-absorbing materials, or sheets of bubble-wrap like material spread out over a field that “take in sunlight and water vapor and emit, for example, hydrogen or methanol.”

                Because this prototype of clean fuel is made, there are many benefits that can be spread across nations all over the world. For example, once the leaf has gone through the process of photosynthesis, the materials will soon be broken down into hydrogen and oxygen where this will be collected as fuel. This artificial leaf can then be used right on the spot. Basically, the article states that if the scientist breaks through the difficulties then “people in third-world countries may generate the hydrogen in the place they want to use it.” Because of this we can now move from a fossil-fuel energy economy to a renewable-energy economy. 

 Eisenberg, Anne. "NOVELTIES; The Answer Is (Artificially) Blowing in the Wind." The New York Times. The New York Times, 22 May 2011. Web. 06 Feb. 2013.