Britain's $1m Bionic Man With Working Heart.

When Alex J Murphy (Robocop) defied death and came back as a killing machine, possibility of such advancements in science escaped an ordinary man’s imagination. 

Rex has been developed by a team of scientists called The Shadow team which is managed and directed byMr. Rich Walker. Watching an interview with Rex one can almost see him beaming with emotions and humanity while never concealing his true identity. He/It leaves people mesmerized with the swishing of moving mechanical body parts coupled with the near human smile.Rex explores a plethora of opportunities in the field of biomechanics, human nature, life and death. Rex is a prime example of innovation in the field of mechanics. It is the paramount invention of humans just about resembling almost a complete bionic human form. 

Image courtesy: independent.co.uk

Rex’s body consists of a face (yes you read it right), prosthetic knees hands and hip. All these body parts are available to the general public.Rex will soon be unveiled to the general public at the Science Museum in London. Some of the internal organs such as pancreas, set of artificial lungs and bladder, are being developed at this moment of time. These are the parts that can operate without human input. While organs such as brain, hands etc. cannot work without two way interactions within human bodies. Some of the technology cannot work without human input; bionic hands, for example, need muscles and signals from the brain to function. Other parts, such as the heart and pancreas, are designed to work on their own. 

Image courtesy: independent.co.uk

“We were surprised how many of the parts of the body can be replaced,” explained Rich Walker, the managing director of team Shadow.
 “There are some vital organs missing, like the stomach, but 60 to 70 percent of a human has effectively been rebuilt.”- Mr. Walker 

Team Shadow also consisted of Mr. Bertholt Meyer to give a provide psycho-analysis to the project. Mr. Meyer himself was born without his left hand and holds prosthesis. “I have looked for new bionic technologies out of personal interest for a long time and I think that until five or six years ago nothing much was happening”. Mr. Meyer. He also raises ethical issues highlighting the fact that humans can take undue advantage of technology. “Should I be allowed to cut off my real hand and replace it with something, does that gives me an unfair advantage over people who cannot afford this? I’m not saying that is going to happen but these are questions that should be on the table before that technology becomes available.”

(view full image gallery here:independent.co.uk)

Rex is a first step taken towards developing artificial sensory equipment which can work similarly to that of a human body. Rex is equipped with prosthetic parts identical to human body although not with such advanced capabilities as a human body is.

Although creation of a completely identical set of organs such as Brain is a fanciful idea at this time, with developments such as Rex, you can never know when human race will be sharing space with fully developed bionic humans.

Continue Reading

Wonder Of modern Science,Gun Victim Gets a New Face after 15 years.

For Richard LeeNorris every moment of life is precious and every moment is a chance to move forward with the blessing called life. One of the survivors of most horrific gun accident in history, Richard has not felt or touched his face in years. He has undergone dozen surgeries after his accident in 1997 which left his face disfigured.

Image Source

'We as doctors do the operation, but the rest is up to you as the patient,' said Eduardo Rodriguez, a dentist and surgeon at UMMC. 'You have to carry the ball”

There is a looming question! Even with immuno-suppressing drugs, doctors say they have no idea how long the transplant will last.There is an expectation that they will have to repair or replace the transplant eventually.He expects it to last at least a decade.
My friends have moved on with their lives, starting families and careers,' he said. 'I can now start working on the life given back to me.' For Richard Lee Norris every moment of life is precious and every moment is a chance to move forward with the blessing called life.

He spent last 15 years as a recluse and shopped only at night to avoid stares of people. Now after a life altering face transplant performed by 150 doctors and nurses and seven months of potent medications and extensive  grit and determination, he looks ahead in the future with a will to live and lead a normal life.

The surgery was pretty extensive. Everything from the scalp to the mid-line of my neck was replaced, including the jaw bones, teeth, part of my tongue, muscles, and nerves' said Norris

Apparently Mr Norris ran with the ball as this condition ameliorated pretty well after the surgery. Norris was taken off his postoperative ventilator, and within the first week he was able to shave his face and brush his teeth.

Norris spent the first two months following the surgery in the hospital. Doctors wanted to reduce inflammation and impede the risk of rejection through high doses of immuno-suppressing drugs.

After getting discharged Norris was instructed to remain in the Baltimore area to regularly  meet with his transplant team as well as a psychologist, a social worker, and speech and physical therapists multiple times each week.

In his hometown Hillsville, in southwest Virginia Norris does his speech therapy regularly and meets with his local physician. He returns to Baltimore once or twice a month for checkups with Rodriguez and other doctors.

'I have been doing very well regaining my speech back,' Norris said. 'Each day it improves a little more.'

When people hear ''rejection,'' they think, ''Oh, my God, the face is going to melt off,''' Rodriguez said. 'That’s not the case at all. The skin got a little bit swollen and there was a little bit of redness. On a scale. Of 1 to 10,” with 10 being the worst-case scenario, “this was a Grade 1 rejection. Norris continues to run the risk of rejection and he will have to take medications for the rest of his life.

How is Norris dealing with having a new face: Rodriguez feel that such patients develop a facial identity crisis. Before the transplant, Norris rarely left his home. In addition to wearing a surgical mask and baseball cap on his infrequent trips out in public, he did his shopping at night so he wouldn’t have to face the stares of as many people.

'I am now able to walk past people and no one even gives me a second look,' he wrote.

There are challenges along the way! There is a challenge to teaching Norris, who has not eaten or spoken properly for 15 years, to use his fully functional face.

Meanwhile Norris wants to experience the simple joys of life and wants to make the best of the opportunity to live life which has been given to him. Watch the video here:

Continue Reading

Retinal Implant Gives the Gift of Sight to Nine Blind People.

A man’s sight is his biggest treasure. Imagine a person who has lost his eye-sight in an accident, how his world is a never ending mystery he wishes to unlock? While a man who has his vision restored finds even mundane sights beautiful and finds life ever so new and exciting. Such is the state of one of the nine(9) patients who have been fitted with an Alpha IMS device, which is a form of retinal prosthesis having capability to restore sight to blind people.

Image source

These devices are fitted in patients who have lost their vision through diseases such as retinitis pigmentosa that destroy the light-detecting cells in the eye but leave the vision-processing neurons intact. A chip is implanted in brain from which wires run to the retina. Also, there is a dial behind the ear that can be used to adjust brightness. Power to the device is provided via a battery kept in the pocket.

Image Source: kurzweilai.net

Earlier, Clinical Trials were run on Argus II, another visual prosthesis. The Argus II was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) only a few weeks back. This device has been adapted to let blind people read Braille by sight rather than touch. However, the Argus II works very differently, it converts video from a camera on a pair of glasses into electronic signals "displayed" on a grid of 60 electrodes implanted over a person's retina.

On the other hand, the Alpha IMS detects light entering the eye instead of using an external camera, which means that a patient can look around by moving their eyes rather than always having to move their head. A grid of 1500 electrodes are implanted underneath. It also makes use of the natural processing power of the neurons in the middle layer of the retina that process motion and contrast.

Continue Reading

NASA Will Pay You $5000 Per Month For Laying In Bed!!

Feeling lazy already?  Let’s find out the details....

The research will track down the effect of zero gravity space travel on the human body and will be carried out at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. 

Image Source: Wikipedia

All you have to do is stay in bed and pass time while the researchers perform some tests on you. All you need is to be able to clear Air Force Medical Examination and be a non-smoker. If you can do that you’re on for this rest-to-earn policy of NASA.

During the first fifteen (15) days, you will be allowed freely wander in an especially designed bed rest and carry out normal activities.

You will partake in various tests to find out the normal state of your bone, muscle, heart and circulatory system, brain and nervous system, and vestibular (inner ear balance) system as well as your nutritional condition and your ability to fight off infections. 

After these 15 days, you get to spend entire 60 days in bed while the tests will continue. And the last 14 days will serve as a recovery period where you will begin the process regaining muscle strength and readjusting to a normal life.

Image Source: factualfacts.com

Also, you are required to stay awake for 16 hours in a day with 8 hours fixed for sleeping when the lights will go off. In the 16 hours that you are awake, you can watch television, play games, read anything you would like, learn a foreign language, meet visitors for a fixed interval of time etc.

Continue Reading

Duck Successfully Fathers A Chicken, A New Hope For Extinct Species.

In the age of cross breeding andhybrids, scientists in Dubai took an extra step by making some unusual discoveries. In order to make more fertile hens,scientists in Dubai of Central Veterinary Research Laboratory injected a duck’s DNA to produce eggs and sperm into a chicken.

According to Timenewsfeed, it says: 

Researchers injected a chicken’s germ cells — carrying DNA to produce eggs and sperm — into the reproductive organs of a male duck embryo; once the duck matured, it began to produce the chicken’s sperm. Initially looking to genetically modify chicken to produce more fertile hens (the global poultry industry currently maintains some 50 billion chickens).

With the assistance of Dr. Mc Grew, a scientist at the Roslin Institute, Dubai team wishes to make chickens give birth to a variety of different bird species like songbirds and eagles. Hoping this technique could be used to breed even endangered species one day.

Image Source: www.blisstree.com

Scientists are unable to give reasoning for creating new species of animals and it is thought to be a crazy and scary thought by many. One of the team member quoted:

“ I’d like to take this moment to voice that science is totally amazing/crazy/terrifying.” Animals giving birth to other species of animals is definitely terrifying."

Such instances make you think if the knowledge and energy of our scientists should be channelized to protect deteriorating habitats rather than to create new ones. As climate change and overpopulation has led to space crunch which has crippled the chances of these existing species for survival or this is the ultimate answer to our problems ?

Continue Reading

5 Ways to Make Your Brain Unbelievably Bad-Ass Awesome!

Brain is considered to be the most important and complex organ. Its functioning has been a nightmare to many for the past, ummm too many to count years. According to our history, the brain is just an unsolved mystery.

However, studies have found that it is easier to just fool the brain than to fight with it. 

Various techniques to hoodwink the grey matter are:

1. Making it think like you got a good night’s sleep after only 2 hours of actual sleep

Image Source: ownyourlifecoaching.com

The Uberman Sleep Schedule allows you to have a maximum of essential sleep without wasting precious hours just lying on the bed.Stump the brain by taking six, half an hour naps, every four hours a day. The getting used to this schedule will take some time and you might even want to pull your hair in the end, but when you realize that you can play Wii badminton wee bit longer than everyone else, it’s worth it!!

A normal healthy human being sleeps for 8 hours a day. Over these 8 hours of sleep, the body moves through 5 distinct stages of sleep, out of which the 5th stage- REM sleep is the part which provides you with the actual sleep. 

The trick is to skip all the other four stages and directly enter the REM stage. This is achieved by taking six (6) twenty (20) to thirty (30) minute naps in a day. A common approach to achieve to incorporate this schedule is to indulge in an intense long term project. Jump right in, play/work for five (5) hours, take a nap for thirty (30) minutes and so on for the next few days. It is easier said than done, but the benefits are countless.

The Uberman Sleep Schedule involves establishing a customized sleep pattern

2. Be sane with insanity!!!

Image Source: twistedsifter.com

Close your eyes, think of your favorite thing to do and do it with the person you want!!
YUP!! Being insane by hallucinating helps you block most of the signals that go to your brain. Be high with your own dose of delirium and enjoy the Ganzfeld effect.


The technique provides ‘unstructured’ sensations to a person. It is achieved by placing half cut Table Tennis balls over the eyes, the purpose of which is to diffuse the light (usually red) coming through and side by side exposing the participant to white noise through headphones.

Image Source: www.wikipedia.com

The Ganzfeld effect, which means “complete field” in German, otherwise known as Perceptual Deprivation, is an occurrence of sensitivity caused by exposure to a shapeless (diffused white light), unchanging stimulus (White Noise). The result of it is Hallucinations. The trick is to block out signals reaching your brain. After some time (30 minutes or so), the sensory signals of the light coming from ping pong balls and the white noise are ignored by the brain. To compensate for the lost signals, brain has to create its own; this is where the participant will experience hallucinations.

This phenomenon is known to be naturally experienced by miners stuck in pitch black mines; Arctic explorers who would only see bland expanse of white noise for a long time.

3. Go to your own fool’s paradise

Image Source: in5d.com

Wish peter pan actually existed?? Or you could see Santa and his reindeer's with your own eyes? Wish you could ask the tooth fairy to leave more than 1 dollar the next time your tooth breaks?

All this is possible when you add imagination with the supernatural powers of belief, with a tinge of sleep to mix it all property. In a dream state, your mind mostly loses the ability to criticize anything that's happening because dreaming just doesn't involve the critical part of your brain.

How to have a clear cut dreams of who, what, where, how and why?  Keep dream journals to write your own lucid dreams and go into your own movie of “INCEPTION”. The moment you wake up from a dream, jot down every detail that you can remember from your dream, however irrelevant it may sound, just note it down. The brain will recognize patterns embedded in your dreams. It is easier for your brain to recall something that is on paper. Tell your brain that you are serious about remembering your dreams.

4. Become smarter while sleeping [HAVE YOU LOST IT (OR FOUND IT?????)]

Image Source: ronedmondson.com

Ever heard the expression “SLEEP ON IT”? Well, scientists have found that you remember more when you learn 24 hours before and then sleep. (Seems like my mother was bang on about this) The ability of your brain to retain information and consolidate it occurs while you are asleep. The brain processes all the things that have happened to you since the morning and create permanent blocks that can be brought back whenever you need it.

Retention of any information by the human brain comprises of three (3) stages- attainment, consolidation and recollection. While rest of the body is asleep, the brain is constantly processing information gathered; this is when the consolidation of information occurs. Think of it in this way- A Software will take longer to install when there are many applications running in the background, while it would take a lot less time when all other applications are down. 

5. Bamboozle!!!

Image Source: brainethics.wordpress.com

Trick your brain into believing anything is possible. Use your memory to distinguish the real memories from the fake ones that have been told to you since you were young. Accentuate the memories that you actually need from the garbage fed to you by everyone around.

The Brain processes so much information that the memory becomes distorted. The brain tends to keep a blend of memories. The memories consists of general lessons learnt and the important facts and figures. All this information is a part of an assortment, the information can be gathered from an experience or from something you read, saw, heard etc. The trick lies in confusing your mind by constructing scenarios using your memories and believing in it.

Continue Reading

NASA Bombed Moon By A 2 Tonne Centaur Rocket- A $79 Million Science Experiment To Discover Water On Moon.

In its quest to discover water on the moon, on 9th October 2009, at 7:31 a.m. ET, NASA bombed the moon by a 2.2 tonne empty rocket using LCROSS (Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite).The rocket crashed in the moon's surface at a speed of 5600 miles per hour. The target was a 60-mile-wide crater called Cabeus. The LCROSS crashed on the surface four minutes later.

Image Source: www.nasa.gov

It was hyped that the blast would create a large cloud of gas, dust and vaporized water ice going up to 6 miles high and which will be visible from the Earth. Although, millions who were watching the event live on the internet were left disappointed. There was barely a change observed in the crater where the missile hit. NASA claim to have gained a lot of new knowledge through the $79 million experiment.

The principal investigator, Anthony Colaprete quoted- "I'm not going to say anything about water or no water, but we got the data that we need" to answer the questions raised by many as to what have we gained from this experiment

Image Source: www.dailymail.co.uk

The LCROSS carried a visible camera, near-infrared cameras, spectrometers and a visible radiometer to guide scientists from NASA to examine the resultant dust plume. Moon's surface is like a dry desert but scientists believe that some ice is trapped deep in the craters where the sunlight cannot penetrate.

Two American spacecrafts had earlier reported the presence of water on Moon by tracing the hints of Hydrogen and Oxygen- the two elements that make up the water. These constituents were found in frozen state in deep craters of the North and South poles.
[SOURCE: www.nasa.gov]

Continue Reading

Nokia Has Invented Tattoos That Vibrate When Your Cell Phone Rings.

This Will Give a Whole New Meaning to Putting Your Phone on Vibrate.

It's not available yet -- the company has just submitted the patent application -- but Finnish cell phone company Nokia has invented a magnetic tattoo that will tingle when your cell phone rings.The technology is what's known as "haptic feedback," meaning communication via touch, as with the Nintendo Wii controller.

This is how it would work: you would get a tattoo, which, after it healed, would be magnetized. Then, when your phone rang -- or when you receive a text, a low-battery warning, missed call or want to be reminded of an upcoming appointment -- you would feel a tingling, almost like an itch, in your arm. 

The description from Nokia's patent application: "Prior to using the ferromagnetic inks for attaching to human skin, the ink material may be exposed to elevated temperatures to cause demagnetization. Such demagnetized ink is then used for creating an image by dispersing the ink material on or under the skin to make a functional, tattoo like image. Once the apparatus is settled and the skin cured, the user with the functional image may use permanent magnets to magnetize the functional image on the skin again."

Continue Reading

The Microscope for your Pocket.

Apps like Twitter and Instagramm let us share what we have for dinner as well as the silly moments of our pets. Its undeniable: With the invention of the Smartphone, Photography has changed; it became more accessible and a big part of our daily life. But yet again the creativity of an inventive mind has taken the concept of mobile Picture-taking to a whole new level - literally: Thomas Larson will turn your Phone into a Microscope! 

Image source: kickstarter.com

It doesn’t look like much, in fact, you could easily overlook it. Yet the tiny lens holds a capability, that you would not expect: Six Millimeter in Size, capable to magnify objects up to 60x. The basic magnification (without the camera zoom) amounts to 15x. With that kind of optical support you can already satisfy some curiosity and get amazing pictures full of detail. 

Image source: kickstarter.com

Image source: kickstarter.com

Image source: kickstarter.com
This bizarre trout parasite was recently documented by the Whitewater Creek Conservation Association by using the Micro Phone Lens. What will you discover?

 
Simple Use and great Results

How? Simply press the Lens directly onto the phones camera and start the devices application. Adjust the Focus and you are ready to go. The unscratchable lens stays sticky “forever”, promises its creator. If it gets dusty a simple rinse with soap will do the trick. This is possible through the patent pending platinum catalyzed silicone technology. 

Mechanical Engineer Larson: “This is a project that I've been working on for over a year now. There have been plenty of ups and downs, and now it's finally time to make the Micro Phone Lens available to the public.” 

Image source: kickstarter.com

In August he started his own Kickstarter-Campaign with the modest wish to achieve $5,000 to get started. But at the time of this article the only 22-year old graduate of the University of Washington already scored $50,000, paid by almost 3,000 supporters! With such an overwhelming response the lens proved, that demand exists. For Larson, who views the project as his first step into the post-educational world, future looks bright and he already announced to create a 150x version of his invention. He believes, a cheap and portable microscope of this kind could not only be used for entertaining purposes, but also provide possibilities for health and disease prevention in the developing world.

Continue Reading

Revolutionizing Architecture: Hotel Built In Just 15 Days In China.

China has shown yet another example of its booming economy and a step ahead towards modernization. At 30 stories tall and 183,000-square feet hotel has been built by Broad Group, a Chinese construction company in Hunan Province in just 360 hours. Yes, you read it right; this extraordinary building has been built in mere 15 days.

Image Source: www.hotelchatter.com

And the bigger surprise that comes our way is that the quality of this building has not been compromised over time. The building is earthquake resistant up to magnitude of 9. Its sustainable architecture design has 4-paned insulated windows and a smart heat conservation system. The Broad Group has claimed energy efficiency five times that of conventional hotels and in addition to it, the air filters make the hotel’s air 20 times the purity of conventional hotels.

Credit: differenteneregy

The workers worked around the clock to complete this lavish building. But, this building could not have been completed in 15 days had the materials not been fabricated. The Broad Group’s previous spectacular construction of the 15-story Ark Hotel  took a mere 46.5 hours to build, half the time this hotel’s construction took. The company surely aims to revolutionize large scale architecture and with the means China provides, it is the favorite destination.

Continue Reading

A Russian Billionaire Planning To Become Immortal By 2045

You have probably stumbled upon a page describing how to become immortal, you have seen movies about it and you have read books.  But if a person says that it’s possible you would just laugh and call him stupid, but that’s not the case for Dmitry Itskov.

Dimitry Itskov, a 32 year old Russian billionaire is planning on living forever. He plans to achieve this feat by the year 2045, which gives the name of his idea-“Initiative 2045”

Image Source

He has a simple idea- To build an android body for himself.

As simple as it may sound it’s really complicated in reality. The idea aims to create the technology enabling the transfer of a person’s personality into an advanced non-biological carrier and extending life, including to the point of immortality.

Itskov has named his “advanced non biological carrier” “an avatar” (some inspiration from a Hollywood movie!!), which is regulated by a brain computer interface. Itskov says that it function somehow like the 2009 James Cameron movie Avatar.  No matter how dubious it sounds but Itskov has put a lot number of world class experts to work on his idea.

Image Source

We are facing the time where the unconscious evolution period has almost finished, and we come to the new era, a new period of controlled evolution,” says Itskov in a video interview.

“Initiative 2045” wants to make the Avatar technology available by the year 2020.

Itskov also says that by the year 2025 he expects autonomous life-support system for the human brain linked to a robot, which means he will be on a hold of technology that could implant the human brain into a robot. By the year 2035 a human should be able to upload there brain into a robot and by the year 2045 we will be replaced by holograms or our body will be. “We will transform into a new species, when this will happen” says Itskov.

Image Source

To make these goals a reality, the Global future Congress held its first meeting in Moscow last year. The Congress has promised that it will reveal the most human like robot the world has ever seen when they will meet in New York in June this year.

There are a few flaws to Itskov’s idea, but many believe that it can happen. Itskov’s initiatives 2045 has lead almost twenty thousand people supporting his idea. Many folks are also calling for the year 2045 as a new religion and set of ethics because they don’t believe any of the current ones can handle the societal implications of living forever. This in turn has lead Itskov to form his own political party in Russia called “Evolution 2045.”

Image Source

There are still many years left to see if the age of immortality is here or not, but I would say the age of traffic jams is definitely here. What will happen if we all become immortal?

Continue Reading