Longevity science

Researchers at Columbia Engineering have developed a new "plug-and-play" method to assemble complex cell microenvironments that is a scalable, highly precise way to fabricate tissues with any spatial organization or interest -- such as those found in the heart or skeleton or vasculature.

The study reveals new ways to better mimic the enormous complexity of tissue development, regeneration, and disease, and is published in the March 4 Early Online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

The bebionic is tightening its grip on its reputation as one of the world’s most advanced prosthetic hands. Watching a recent video of an amputee with the bebionic and it’s clear that bionics are nearing the point where they are no longer awkward and insufficient substitutes but life-changing replacements that give back much of what was so dearly lost.

See video about the 'Terminator arm'

For more on robotic hands:

http://www.gizmag.com/robot-rebuilt-sensitive-robotic-hands/25263/

Mayo Clinic researchers have found a way to detect and eliminate potentially troublemaking stem cells to make stem cell therapy safer.

Induced Pluripotent Stem cells, also known as iPS cells, are bioengineered from adult tissues to have properties of embryonic stem cells, which have the unlimited capacity to differentiate and grow into any desired types of cells, such as skin, brain, lung and heart cells.

Researchers have created a self-supporting scaffolding of nanowires and coated it with a biocompatible material. They grew heart and nerve cells within this scaffold, which developed into a single structure with embedded nanowires.

With this technology, researchers can work at the cellular scale much more effectively, without damaging the cells and with the capability to observe cells from anywhere within the tissue.

Tissue engineering is definitely an exciting field – the ability to create living biological tissue in a lab could allow scientists to do things such as testing new drugs without the need for human subjects, or even to create patient-specific replacement organs or other body parts.

While some previous efforts have yielded finished products that were very small, a microfluidic device being developed at the University of Toronto can reportedly produce sections of precisely-engineered tissue that measure within the centimeters.

A team of bioengineers at the University of Washington has developed the first structure for growing small human blood vessels in the laboratory. The vessels behave remarkably like those in a living human and offer a better and much more modular approach to studying blood-related diseases, testing drugs and, one day, growing human tissues for transplant.

The past year alone has brought remarkable advances in blood vessel regrowth in the human body...

"No one is better at predicting the future" than Ray Kurzweil.

~Bill Gates

Humans are continually changing their own world and positions. We transcend limitations far more successfully than any other species. As we push developing technologies further, we are approaching a time when the difference between human and machine is no longer a meaningful distinction. This time has been dubbed 'the Singularity' by Ray Kurzweil, one of society's most credible and well-known futurists.

In this interview, Ray talks about how the technology he has predicted will change the face of life and death. Though the report focuses closely on his desire to create an avatar of his dead father, keep in mind that is just one aspect of the ideas.

When you look at your body in the mirror, most of what you consider to be “you” actually isn’t you, at least not in a biological sense. That’s because there are approximately 10 bacterial cells for every single human cell in the body.

Biocompatible scaffolds, like those developed to stimulate the repair of heart tissue and bone and cartilage in the body, would normally need to be implanted surgically.

Now bioengineers at Harvard University have developed a compressible bioscaffold that can be delivered via a syringe before popping back to its original shape inside the body. The material is also able to be loaded up with drugs or living cells that are gradually released as the material breaks down.

In a new study, scientists were able to restore partial hearing to deaf gerbils by implanting human embryonic stem cells in their ears.

Although the complex technology would not be possible in humans at this time, the breakthrough offers hope for future development.

MIT researchers have genetically engineered muscle cells to make them flex in response to laser light.

“With bio-inspired designs, biology is a metaphor, and robotics is the tool to make it happen'" says Professor Asada. "With bio-integrated designs, biology provides the materials, not just the metaphor. This is a new direction we’re pushing in biorobotics.”

"A succinct, yet powerful animation titled “Synthetic Biology Explained” shows the incredible potential of this emergent field and how engineering will transform the field of genetics to produce some truly amazing technology.

With the sequencing of the human genome and the increased understanding of genes that have followed..."

>>Home-built "Bio Computer" runs Linux, grows wheatgrass:
PC case modder and hardware hacker Mike Schropp's latest project, the 'Bio Computer' sees a working PC put to use as a garden in which to grow wheatgrass.
http://www.gizmag.com/bio-computer-grows-wheatgrass/22550/

>>Dwarf plants could reduce demands for water, fertilizer, nutrients and pesticides:
Aside from arable land, most farm crops require significant amounts of water, fertilizer, nutrients and pesticides to grow. While specialized breeding is often used to help produce plants that require less of these inputs, Purdue University researcher Burkhard Schulz has found a way to create tiny versions of plants that suffer no reduction in yield through the addition of a cheap and widely available chemical.
http://www.gizmag.com/dwarf-plants/22561/

>>Maintaining genetic diversity in food supply

Could we be missing the point? Natural and wild may not mean the same in the future. Struggling to keep this stuff alive in a polluted and warming environment, increasingly encroached upon by human beings is a losing battle. But cultivating, preserving, building environments (semi-indoor) can save the plant and animal species that we struggle to maintain.
http://www.naturalnews.com/031144_food_security_biodiversity.html