Serious discoveries that are designed to improve the quality of life are expected in the field of nanobiological technologies. Scientists are working to create wristbands for invasive diagnosis of various diseases.
Sensors commensurate with the size of the nervous system cells are placed in various human organs, “eavesdrop” on the work of cells and transmit information to a mini-computer embedded in the bracelet.
It is very the creation of such a device will lead to a sharp increase in diagnostics, and thus – will prolong human life. What was previously unnoticed (especially early signs of disease, including brain) will be immediately diagnosed and will prevent the development of disease.
Another major breakthrough, which will affect our life expectancy, is in the field of transplantology. Recently, English scientists at the Papworth Clinic performed the world’s first successful heart transplantation operation, which has already stopped beating.
A person with a dead heart and lungs has become a donor for successful transplantation. “Doctors with the help of the newest device – a kind of bioreactor – were able to save and transport an unbeaten heart to the patient in a condition suitable for transplantation.
Physicians are confident that this success will greatly simplify the procedure of transporting organs for transplantation, and therefore, the number of such operations will increase and new life will be able to get much more patients. At present, the preparation of organs for transplantation is as follows: the donor has brain death, but his heart keeps beating.
Doctors support the organ in the artificial circulation system until a team of transplantologists arrives, who place the beating heart in a special freezer. We need to get him to the patient in a very short time. The new method is suitable for long-term transportation of the heart, so the time between the removal of the organ and its delivery is significantly increased, which is extremely important.
As long as this is only the first operation, and the transplanted heart still has to prove its efficiency, you need to make sure that it is not actually damaged. “It is possible to check it only over time, tracking the work of the organ “on the spot” – in the human body,” – explains the expert. But the main thing is that the first step has already been taken, and soon this method of organ transportation can be put on stream.
Turn off the rain.
Our quality of life is influenced not only by discoveries in medicine, but also by the environment. For example, the weather. Managing it is a long-standing dream of mankind, and science has finally managed to get closer to its realization. Efforts of scientists around the world today are focused on creating a long plasma channel in the atmosphere.
Special femtosecond laser units are capable of creating high power pulses, which, in turn, can form a conductive plasma channel. Na nem-tom and starts to condensate water vapour, from which at repeated influence laser pulsami there is a rain or snow. “Actually it is a question of that in the future we can include and switch off.
So far, we are talking about experiments in special cells. A few have already been conducted in natural conditions, but unfortunately, they are not yet successful. “But I think that in the near future these technologies will develop, and it is possible that 2015 will be a turning point.
Specialists of our training and scientific center are also engaged in developments in this area. So far, mainly preliminary calculations have been carried out, but experimental studies have already been initiated. We have modern laser units of sufficient power level required for such work.
The life of motorists will fundamentally change another expected innovation – the emergence of cars that will be fully autopilot driven, without human involvement. In the future, cars will become robots – this is an inevitable process, because the need for this from the side of humanity is enormous.
This is why companies of the global automotive industry make huge investments in the development of unmanned car projects. After all, those who will not be able to adjust, will simply have to leave the market.
IT giants are also interested in such evolution. According to Andrei Ionin, now the industry is considering several technological approaches to solve this problem. Some companies are going to equip the car with a special laser, which reads information around itself and after data processing provides a three-dimensional picture of what is happening around the car.
But it is very expensive (now estimated at tens of thousands of dollars) and therefore unacceptable for the consumer market. In addition, such systems can not work under certain weather conditions – for example, in the rain. Other companies use already existing systems – video cameras, various radars and so on. Mercedes, in particular, conducts such experiments.
But all this sounds good so far only in theory, and in practice there are many unresolved problems, the most important of which is security. Much effort will be needed to build new roads, which will be fundamentally different from the existing ones.
And, of course, there are issues with legislative regulation, which can only be solved by the state. How can you understand who is to blame for the accident in the case of two unmanned cars? Do drivers need a license if they do not drive a car? But sooner or later all these problems will be solved and a new era will come in the automobile industry.
Genes will determine the treatment
One of the new trends in pharmacology, which is rapidly developing, is pharmacogenomics, which will soon be able to radically change the approach to treatment of various diseases. It’s researching the effects of human genes on the efficacy and safety of a drug.
Predictive genomic medicine, as it is called by specialists, answers a number of questions: will the drug be effective in treatment, can there be an adverse reaction, what is the right dose? Methods that predict the efficacy of a particular drug will soon be widely used in oncology, psychiatry, cardiology, in the treatment of hepatitis.
The scientific community places great hopes on computer systems that interpret the results of genetic testing. “There is a serious task to tie genetic medicine to IT.
Gradually, computerised systems are being created to support clinical decision-making, which predict the effect of treatment, taking into account human genetic characteristics, gender, age and associated diseases.
Such systems will make it possible to predict the toxic effect of a drug before the patient takes it. This also happens with the use of genetic chips. With just one chip it is possible to examine thousands of genes, to predict the effect of drugs and to protect the patient from side effects.
Now scientists from all over the world are developing such systems – in the USA, Europe and Russia. So far, they are used only in fragments, but they show excellent results – reduce the risk of serious adverse reactions, accelerate the selection of dosages.
In the near future there will be a serious breakthrough in this area, and in 10 years they will already be widely used in medical practice, which is especially important for patients with a high risk of adverse reactions.