The pentagon has been backing researchers that are in the process of “creating patches of synthetic skin that will eventually provide direct feedback to the brain”. The skin itself is made of a rubbery polymer called polyimide and is then infused with carbon nanotubes (is their anything nanotubes can’t do? First enabling Spiderman like climbing suits now this). The researchers have stated that the skin should be ready for artificial limbs as early as 2010, which I might remind you guys is only 2 years away!

At the rate of progression that artificial limbs are moving I wonder how long it will be until people (soldiers perhaps) are opting to upgrade their body, I mean sure they have to get the texture of the skin right, and maybe some fake hair or something, but once that’s done and the skins perfected who wouldn’t a bionic arm that’s stronger, faster and does everything better than a normal arm. I say 2020, but hey that’s just my guess, but lets not forget they’ve already been testing the skin prototypes, and the thought controlled prosthetics, 12 years is a long time especially in this day and age. I love breakthroughs that go beyond just the average small business phone systems that gets a new LCD, we’re talking a cutting edge research that goes into making things we never thought would go beyond science fiction and TV into something we eventually will see in our everyday real lives.

Source: Wired

Things like what to expect from the classes and entering the field after the training is complete, something that I think he completely ignored in his search through the various medical assistant programs that he had brochures from. Most people seem to forget that you really have to look beyond the actual training or college to after that. I recall in school kids all trying to determine what they wanted to do to go to college for, but none really seemed to think about after college. You see for some odd reason people have this notion that if you study for something you will automatically fall into a job in the field.

The trick isn’t looking through and deciding on which of the medical assistant training programs will best teach you your skill. Well it party is the goal, but the trick to it is finding the right one that will actually guide you beyond the training into actually getting job placement into the same field. I mean what’s the sense in being a medical assistant if your not working as a medical assistant? So this post goes out to Chris, as a reminder that as he’s doing his hunting, the Internet’s a big place and you really need to take your time and think about just the next few years, especially when your trying to lock yourself into a career for life.

The system will work as long as the person still can work their larynx, even if they can’t control it well enough for understandable speech due to loss of muscle coordination. The wheelchair could help people with spinal injuries or other neurological problems like cerebral palsy or motor neurone disease. It’s not going to perform miracles like make the person able to play a game of Titleist golf but it could definitly improve their lives and mobility. The larynx control system named Audeo was developed at the University of Illinois by the 2 who together founded Ambient.

The entire system works via a sensor filled neckband easily hidden below a collar which eavesdrops on electrical impulses sent to the larynx muscles. Then relaying the signals via an encrypted wireless signal to a nearby mobile computer processor. And matches those “words” if you can call them to pre-recorded “words” that were determined during training exercises.

What’s really interested is the fact that they believe this can go much further, into the realm of even restoring speech. By translating commands sent by the brain to the larynx even if they can’t be produced to a computer and then output via speaker. And the design may even have it’s place in space with the group looking at the possibilities of using it in space suits. The issue with brain control in the past has been that we’ve been unable to fully read works and phrases directly from the brain, but via talking muscle signals seems a lot easier and doable.

Source: NewScientist

Its quite interesting to watch the news and research that has gone into techniques such as the tummy tuck in Los Angeles in recent years that have allowed for faster recovery times and all around better results in the end. As anti-inflammatory and more advanced techniques keep evolving people are seeing surgery like tummy tucks done with astonishing accuracy. But the question I ask is with the new robotic surgery’s reaching into the battlefields right now how long will it before we see that technology in a cosmetic studio in the US. Could you imagine walking down rodeo drive into a parlor and having a extremely precise tummy tuck performed completely by robotic arms so that incisions are exactly the needed dimensions and never a tremble or unnecessary cut.

I continually watch as things have evolved in California, it’s kind of ironic though. We watch California not only because they always seem to be at the forefront of environmental movements, but also in the advances that are being made to benefit those undergoing cosmetic surgery. I’ll be amazed to see what the doctors in LA are accomplishing when I turn 40-45 perhaps by that point we won’t even have to worry with cutting our skin to get cosmetic surgery, especially at the rate things are progressing, I mean we’ve come so far in the last 2-4 years, I can’t imagine 20 years down the road.

Ever since starting calorie counting I really have started to change the way I eat and control my drinking of caffiene drings. One of the most important changes is while i can’t give up coke, i have started drinking more coke zero’s and diet cokes. Really helps to cut down on the total calories i’m taking in daily. If you sit down alot and don’t often get all the working out that you need. Or if your drinking a lot of energy drinks and sodas, you really might want to start calorie counting and see just how bad your doing ;)

Source: MyFitnessPal / Inhouse