medic

There is no shortage of stories that highlight the utility of Apple's iPhone and this is certainly one of those circumstances. After several reports of an impaired driver heading westbound on I-84 near The Dalles in north-central Oregon, two officers decided to pull the man over, according to KVAL.com.

The man was definitely impaired, but another challenge proved more difficult for the officers--he only spoke Chinese.

In order to get to the bottom of the problem, one of the officers grabbed his iPhone and opened the Google Translate app. The man was able to speak into the phone … Read more

An elderly woman has received a replacement titanium jaw, an operation participants say demonstrates the potential of patient-specific body implants.

Belgian company LayerWise today said that it produced an entire jaw using additive manufacturing, a technique that allows fabricators to make an item directly from a CAD drawing. The transplant demonstrates that precision 3D printing can be effective for both bones and organ implants, the company said.

The method selectively heats metal powder particles with a laser to construct an object layer by layer. Using this method allows LayerWise to create complex shapes that a custom made for patients and … Read more

"Gorilla Glass" could one day become a household phrase, but Corning has even larger ideas.

"A Day Made of Glass 2" is a montage of "how highly engineered glass, with companion technologies, will help shape our world," according to Corning. It is mind-blowing to imagine everyday objects suddenly having rich, interactive displays and multiple functionalities.

After watching the video, I began to think about how intelligent glass, installed on a broad scale, could change the world. There are two key integrations: in the education and medical fields.

In the video, kids sit in rows … Read more

To get in the mood for this one, I've put on an old favorite, a deep bass track by Dead Prez. It turns out the song's title, and main refrain--"It's Bigger Than Hip Hop"--applies to the power of music in a very literal sense as well.

The acoustical vibrations that are particularly pervasive in the heavy bass lines of hip-hop penetrate our bodies and can then be captured and stored as electricity to power implanted medical devices. Researchers out of Purdue have built a device, which they are unveiling at the IEEE MEMS conference in Paris … Read more

Researchers are making progress bridging the soft, wet world of the human body and electronics.

The National Science Foundation today released a video giving the latest news from researchers trying to develop flexible electronics that can be placed on the skin or embedded in the body. The hope is that these devices can be used to diagnose or provide care to patients.

The group is testing prototype circuits that can detect muscle, heart, and brain activity with a skin-attached temporary "tattoo." These devices, made from small curly wires embedded in flexible membranes, perform as well as rigid electrodes, … Read more

If you have a good mind for puzzles and are a whiz at video games, your may have a calling in science.

Researchers at the University of Washington have devised a video game that lets citizen scientists take a stab at decoding the shape of proteins. The graphical game called Foldit challenges players to predict protein structures and ultimately design their own using a three-dimensional construction tool.

"You could imagine where you come home in the evening and you can either stay up all night playing Halo or be designing an HIV vaccine with people around the world. Which … Read more

Online reviews are sticky little things.

I recently stayed at a hotel that someone on TripAdvisor had described as having filthy--in fact, sticky--conditions and I found it perfectly nice.

So one wonders about all the ramifications surrounding the case of New York dentist, Stacy Makhnevich. She is alleged to have gotten her teeth so deeply into a patient that she began charging him $100 a day for negative Yelp reviews.

The way TechDirt examines it, Makhnevich requires patients to sign a form handing her copyright to any online reviews.

Should the reviews not glow in the dark, she allegedly has … Read more

Some people cry over the hue of their eyes.

If only they were blue, rather than muddy brown. And, well, brown eyes don't look so good with your dyed-blonde hair.

An inventor in California believes he has found the solution. Gregg Homer, founder of Stroma Medical, says that, in a mere 20 seconds, he can turn old brown eyes into old blue eyes. Or even young ones.

The way Homer told it to KTLA News, brown eyes are actually blue. Well, beneath the brown pigment that covers the iris, there is apparently a blue-looking orb.

So his procedure … Read more

Sarah Churman is the unlikeliest Internet star. The Texas stay-at-home mom of two little girls has somewhat ordinary interests--she loves to read, watch movies, and attend concerts with her husband of almost 10 years, Sloan.

But on September 26 of this year, Churman was catapulted to YouTube fame due to an intimate, home movie that went viral. She was born deaf. But on that day, she heard her own voice for the very first time. The 91-second video clip brought this viewer goosebumps, tears, and an empathy for this remarkable woman.

When I interviewed Sarah and Sloan Churman at medical offices in San Jose, Calif., she explained to me that the deaf community tends to be divided into two categories: those who want to use technology to restore their hearing and those who try to make the most of life without it. She is very firmly rooted in the first camp and has spent a good deal of her adult life researching the latest hearing devices to come onto the market. In May 2011, Churman heard a radio ad for Envoy Medical's Esteem implant. That set the balls in motion for a summer of hope, frustration, high emotion, and ultimately, success. … Read more