LONDON: British scientists have for the first time successfully cured paralysis of the arms.
They restored the ability to grasp with a paralyzed hand using spinal cord stimulation.
There is currently no cure for upper limb paralysis, where there has
been damage to the nerves which send messages to the muscles from the
brain, such as happens after a stroke or spinal injury.
But now
researchers at Newcastle University, working with macaque monkeys, have
shown that by connecting the brain to a computer and then the computer
to the spinal cord, it is possible to restore movement. The discovery
opens up the possibility of new treatments within the next few years
which could help stroke victims or those with spinal cord injuries
regain some movement in their arms and hands.
The team first
trained the primates to grasp and pull a spring-loaded handle. The
monkeys were then temporarily paralyzed using a drug that wore off after
about two hours. During that time the monkey had no movement in their
hand and was unable to grasp, even though most of the brain was
functioning normally. But when the stimulation circuit was switched on
the monkey was able to control its own arm and pull the handle.
Dr Andrew Jackson from Newcastle University and Dr Jonas Zimmermann, now at Brown University, led the research.
Dr Jackson said "When someone has a damaged motor cortex or spinal cord
the problem is that the signal from the brain to the muscles isn't
getting through. What we have done here is restore that connection, to
allow the signal telling the hand to move to reach the spinal cord. By
exploiting surviving neural networks below the injury, we can activate
natural actions like grasping using just a few stimulation sites. This
is the first time that anyone has done that".
The next stage
will be to further develop the technology to eventually have a small
implant for use in patients that can then form the link between the
brain and the muscles.
Dr Jackson added "Much of the technology
we used for this is already being used separately in patients today,
and has been proven to work. We just needed to bring it all together. I
think within five years we could have an implant which is ready for
people. And what is exciting about this technology is that it would not
just be useful for people with spinal injuries but also people who have
suffered from a stroke and have impaired movement due to that. There are
some technical challenges which we have to overcome, as there is with
any new technology, but we are making good progress".
Dr
Zimmermann said "Animal studies such as ours are necessary to
demonstrate the feasibility and safety of procedures before they can be
tried in human patients, to minimize risk and maximize chance of
successful outcomes".
Dr John Williams, head of neuroscience at
the Wellcome Trust said "Being able to restore dexterous hand movements
to patients paralyzed by stroke or spinal cord injury would be a huge
improvement to their independence and quality of life. When used alone
or in combination with other rehabilitation approaches, this technique
could lead to significant improvements in hand function and transform
the lives of paralyzed patients".
NEW DELHI: For 11 billion years after its formation through the Big Bang, the Universe had fever - its temperature was rising. Then the fever broke and it started cooling.
A single alcohol binge causes bacteria to leak from the gut, leading to increased levels of toxins in the blood.
Photo / Thinkstock
Unwinding in the pub on a Friday night could be wrecking your health -
just four glasses of wine is enough to cause lasting damage, scientist
have found.
A single alcohol binge causes bacteria to leak from
the gut, leading to increased levels of toxins in the blood, according
to a study carried out the University of Massachusetts Medical School
(UMASS).
And the damage could be caused by fewer drinks than you
think - researchers classed a binge as four or more alcoholic drinks
for women and five or more for men, consumed over a roughly two-hour
period.
Professor Gyongyi Szabo, who led the research, said: "We
found that a single alcohol binge can elicit an immune response,
potentially impacting the health of an otherwise healthy individual.
"Our observations suggest that an alcohol binge is more dangerous than previously thought."
To
assess the negative impacts of binge drinking, 11 men and 14 women were
given enough alcohol to raise their blood alcohol concentration (BAC)
to at least 0.08g/dl in the space of an hour.
Blood samples were then taken for every 30 minutes for four hours after and then again 24 hours later.
The results, published in the journal PLOS ONE,
showed that just one alcohol binge led to a rapid increase in
endotoxins in the blood - these cause the body to produce immune cells
involved in fever, inflammation and tissue destruction.
The
researchers also found evidence of bacterial DNA in the bloodstream,
showing that bacteria had entered the gut. It is then able to travel
through the gut walls to other parts of the body.
Women had higher blood alcohol levels compared to men, as well as higher endotoxin levels.
Greeter
gut permeability and increased endotoxin levels have previously been
linked to many of the health problems associated with alcohol
consumption, including liver disease.
- Independent
WASHINGTON:
US doctors claim to have wiped out a woman's advanced blood cancer with
a massive dose of the measles vaccine, enough to inoculate 10 million
people.
WASHINGTON:
In a breakthrough, Harvard scientists have discovered that stem cells
loaded with the herpes virus can be used to specifically target and kill
brain tumours.
London:
What if you can change colours of your clothes to suit the ambiance of
where you can be just like a chameleon? This could soon be a reality as a
textile designers have now come up with an interactive electronic
fabric that can change colours in ...
It appears dark in extreme ultraviolet light as there is less material to emit in these wavelengths.
CALIFORNIA: A mysterious squarish hole in our sun from where solar wind
is streaming out at a super fast speed has been captured. Luckily for
us, it is positioned so far south on the sun that there is less chance
that the solar wind stream will impact the earth.
The coronal
hole is clearly visible as the sun rotates, appearing to be a black
abyss into the centre of the sun, Nasa reported.
In the Nasa video, the massive hole appears to flicker and spark as it rotates past the camera.
Such holes may appear at any time of the solar cycle but they are most common during the declining phase of the cycle.
"A coronal hole, almost square in its shape, is one of the most
noticeable features on the sun of late," the space agency said in a
statement.
It appears dark in extreme ultraviolet light as there is less material to emit in these wavelengths.
"Inside the coronal hole, you can see bright loops where the hot plasma
outlines little pieces of the solar magnetic field sticking above the
surface," Nasa added.
Solar flares can damage satellites and have an enormous financial cost.
The charged particles can also threaten airlines by disturbing the earth's magnetic field.
Very large flares can even create currents within electricity grids and knock out energy supplies.
LONDON:
The world's first airplane completely powered by electricity has
successfully taken to the skies for its maiden flight, and could bring
down air travel cost by more than a third, its developer Airbus said.
The small experimental aircraft called 'E-Fan' carried its first flight
at an airport near Bordeaux in southwestern France, and could prove to
be a key step towards greener, quieter and cheaper air travel.
Manufactured by Toulouse-based Airbus, E-Fan measures little more than
19 feet from nose to tail and makes slightly more noise than a
hairdryer.
Powered by 120 lithium-ion polymer batteries, the
plane's first official flight last month lasted less than 10 minutes,
though the plane has the capability to fly for around an hour before
recharging. An hour-long commercial flight with the E-Fan, according to
Airbus, could cost only $16, compared to $55 for a flight in a
petrol-powered plane of the same size, 'Inhabitat.com' reported.
The electric E-Fan training aircraft is a highly innovative technology
experimental demonstrator based on an all-composite construction, Airbus
said on its website. "The E-Fan project and Airbus Group's commitment
to the field of electric and hybrid research show our vision of future
technological developments," said said Airbus Group chief technical
officer Jean Botti.
"It will not only lead to a further
reduction in aircraft emissions and noise to support our environmental
goals but will also lead to more economic and efficient aircraft
technology in the long run," said Botti.
Airbus plans to
manufacture two versions of the E-Fan. The two-seater E-Fan 2.0 will be a
fully electric training aircraft, while E-Fan 4.0 will be used for both
training and general flight purposes and will be powered by a hybrid
system, the report said.
Airbus Group and its partners are
aiming to perform research and development to construct a series version
of the E-Fan and propose an industrial plan for a production facility
close to Bordeaux Airport, Airbus said.
NASA scientists have recreated, right here on Earth, dust grains similar to those that form in the outer layers of dying stars. A team of researchers at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California, has successfully reproduced the processes that ...
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------psst, want some gold dust from NASA?
Grace Choi was at Harvard Business School when she decided to disrupt
the beauty industry. She did a little research and realized that beauty
brands create then majorly mark up their products by mixing lots of
colors. "The makeup industry makes a whole lot of money on a whole lot of bulls**t," Choi said at TechCrunch Disrupt conference this week. "They charge a huge premium on something that tech provides for free. That one thing is color."
By that, she means color printers are available to everyone, and the
ink they have is the same as the ink makeup companies use in their
products. She also says the ink is FDA approved.
Choi created a
mini home printer, Mink, that will retail for $300 and allow anyone to
print makeup by ripping the color code off color photos on the Internet.
She demonstrated how it works, then brushed some of the freshly-printed
makeup onto her hand. She answered a lot of the tough questions about
how she'll move beyond powders to creamier products and partner with
traditional printing companies in the video below.
Here's how Mink, Choi's makeup-printing machine, works.
First, find a color you want to print. Choi says her machine will print creamy lipsticks or powdery eye shadows.
TechCrunch Disrupt
Use the color picker to copy the hex code of the color you've chosen. In this demo, Choi chose pink.
TechCrunch Disrupt
Using Microsoft Paint or Photoshop, paste the hex code into a new document. You'll see the color you want to print pop up.
TechCrunch Disrupt
Print the color, like you'd print any other document on your computer.
TechCrunch Disrupt
Here Choi is, printing out the pink eye shadow.
TechCrunch Disrupt
This is what the finished product looks like. It comes in a little Mink-provided container that looks just like eye shadow.
TechCrunch Disrupt
Choi dips a makeup brush in the freshly-printed powder to show it really is makeup.
TechCrunch Disrupt
Then
she brushes the pink on her hand. "Mink enables the web to become the
biggest beauty store in the world," says Choi. "We're going to live in a
world where you can take a picture of your friend's lipstick and print
it out."
