Author Archive | Daen de Leon

‘Please, State The Nature Of The Medical Emergency’

AI doctor treatement graph

  Two researchers at Indiana University, Kris Hauser and Casey Bennett, have developed a predictive system for determining how to treat patients that adapts to new health information over time, and it could reduce costs by up to 50 percent while similarly improving patient outcomes. The system, published in Artificial Intelligence in Medicine journal in January (PDF), […]

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The Vision Of The Future

Second Sight

It took 20 years and $200 million in funding, but the FDA finally approved Swiss company Second Sight’s Argus II retinal prosthesis last week after the Opthalmic Device Panel unanimously voted in favor of approval last September. The system restores partial vision to sufferers of retinitis pigmentosa, an inherited disorder that progressively destroys the light-sensitive […]

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Could You Print Me Out A Couple Of Livers?

3D printing stem cells

Additive manufacturing, or its more commonly-referred to description as 3D printing, has been in the news a lot over the last few weeks, with stories about varied uses such as printing musical instruments, plastic magazines for rifles, and moonbases for European space missions. Now, a joint venture between academics at Edinburgh’s Heriot-Watt University and private […]

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Big Science, Big Money, And A Levitating Frog

HBP

“It’s crap.” That was the candid response of one eminent scientist towards Henry Markram’s Human Brain Project (HBP) at a meeting of the Swiss Academy of Sciences last January. The meeting was ostensibly reviewing the progress of high-performance computing in the neurosciences. For Markram, it felt like the inquisition. But on Monday it seemed like Markram’s […]

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The Wired Woods: Measure For Measure

Man, this place is dead after Burning Man

Advances in alternative energy technology over the last four decades have made it both easier and cheaper to live off-grid. This series provides a personal perspective on the pluses and minuses of living with technology in the forests of Northern California. After a short hiatus, The Wired Woods is back. Parts one and two. I […]

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The Wired Woods: How To Live In The Forest Using Only Car Batteries And A Composting Toilet

wired_woods-2

Advances in alternative energy technology over the last four decades have made it both easier and cheaper to live off-grid. This series provides a personal perspective on the pluses and minuses of living with technology in the forests of Northern California.   It’s July, 1984. The miners’ strike in England is getting bloody. The twenty-third summer […]

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