The Future for Pregnancy and Child Birth - future reproductive technology

Since the early 1990s reproductive technology has been used to help women get pregnant. However, future technology may make it so that they don't actually have to be pregnant. There is a strong possibility that one day in the very near future babies will be conceived and grow in artificial wombs that are hooked up to a placenta machine. 

Scientists have been working on creating human sperm cells from embryonic tissue, as well as manufacturing eggs and even entire embryos. In 2001, researchers from Cornell University began growing sheets of endometrial tissue; when the sheets proved too thin to accommodate embryos, they were able to construct a freestanding uterus.

In 2008, scientists made a potential breakthrough in the treatment of serious disease by creating a human embryo with three separate parents (source BBC). The embryos were created using DNA from a man and two women in lab tests.The scientists took DNA from the mother and the father, but removed the parts that could foretell a condition like blindness or diabetes. That DNA was implanted into a donor egg which had been scraped of all genetic information except for the tiny bit that does control production of mitochondria, ensuring the fetus ended up with all the genes he or she needed, minus the disease-causing ones.

With advances in genetics research, people may soon preselect their children's physical and personality traits like they pick out options on a new car. So from this scenario, will children born without such genetic tinkering end up inferior to the ones born in the lab? For now, we're left with more questions than answers, but as we wonder at the possibilities, science keeps moving forward.

It may be possible for two gay men to have a baby together without the help of a surrogate, because eggs can be made from male cells. However, sperm requires a Y chromosome, leaving lesbian couples to rely on the help of male tissue.

The advances we discussed in this article aren't really right around the corner, but bioethicists are already deliberating and pondering over the implications of future reproductive technology. Are we simply ensuring that a child has the best possible start in life, or are we playing God? How old is too old to have a baby? Will men and/or women become superseded? Will the next generation be an army of clones? Who will be able to afford pregnancy and childbirth? And will a good old-fashioned way to lovemaking become the least popular way to have a baby? How far will reproductive technology go in the future? Will women one day be able to have children whenever and however they want? Will sex even be necessary? These are the questions that scientists are pondering. Read on to find out how the birds and the bees talk might go in the future.

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In the article 'Why sex could be history (Via Guardian) - author Aarathi Prasad in her book 'Like a Virgin' looks at the technologies that would take intercourse out of the reproductive equation, advances that could challenge everything we know about the relationship between men and women.  The book presents a portrait of the future in which sex is no longer necessary to reproduction and women can conceive using a combination of their own stem cells and an artificial Y chromosome to not only make eggs but also sperm.

Vehicle-to-vehicle communication technologies

V2V (vehicle-to-vehicle) technology will have a large impact on all future cars and it will become increasingly important in the not too distant future. Unlike so many new technologies that can be reserved for luxury buyers, V2V technology is inherently made for the mass market. In its early stages, it will see cars talking directly to each other. This new technology is the next generation of auto safety improvements, building on the life-saving achievements we’ve already seen with safety belts and airbags.

The Car2Car Communication Consortium, the European industry group lobbying for a full set of standards covering C2C and intelligent transport systems, has already announced it wants usable vehicles on the road by 2015 or 2016. 

The US Department of Transportation has approved the use of vehicle-to-vehicle communication technologies on public roads in America.

For more information about Vehicle-to-vehicle communication technologies



Car-2-car communications to aid safety

International deals with IT giants bolster SA company’s position in car-to-car communications

Volvo joins other Euro marques in safety breakthrough

Vision screening for children

It's really important that childhood vision disorders are detected as early as possible because poor vision can have devastating consequences in children's lives academically, psychosocially, and ultimately economically. Vision disorders, if not detected and treated early in life, can result in a condition known as amblyopia or “lazy eye” – the most common cause of blindness in persons under the age of 45. 

Fortunately most vision problems can be treated inexpensively and effectively — but the problems must first be detected. Detection of amblyopia can be challenging because often the child can see clearly with one eye, allowing them to read a book and see the surrounding while slowly going blind in their weak eye. It's not always possible to look at children and see that they are suffering with a vision problem. It would be wonderful for every child to be examined by a professional eye doctor every year, but that is not logistically or financially viable. 

Over the past decade, Vision Quest 20/20 has developed an innovative approach to assess the entire visual system of the child while they “play” a 3-minute video game.  EyeSpy 20/20™ is a school vision screener that dramatically improves the accuracy, availability and cost of vision screening for children. This new and outstanding product maximizes the interest and participation of the child through a 2-3 minute gaming interactive process.

EyeSpy 20/20 has been used to screen more than 200,000 students in three years for amblyopia, strabismus (eye misalignment), cataracts, and focusing problems (nearsightedness, extreme farsightedness, and astigmatism). It can detect virtually any vision disorder and will soon be the main form of vision screening around the world!

Independently validated by the Storm Eye Institute in Charleston, South Carolina, and the American Association for Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus, EyeSpy is essentially a two-minute matching game. Using accredited age-appropriate symbols in vision screening, students ages 4 and up are seated about 10 feet away from a computer screen.

Where good ideas come from?

This is a very interesting video about 'Where good ideas come from' by Author Steven Johnson. He address an urgent and universal question:

• What sparks the flash of brilliance? 
• How does groundbreaking innovation happen? 

Johnson shows that with today's tools and environment, radical innovation is extraordinarily accessible to those who know how to cultivate it. He provides the complete, exciting, and encouraging story of how we generate the ideas that push our careers, our lives, our society, and our culture forward.

3D Printing: Food in Space

NASA sees 3D-printed food as a revolutionary way to make personalized meals for astronauts.

NASA and a Texas company are exploring the possibility of using a "3D printer" on deep space missions in a way where the "D" would stand for dining. The 3D Printing food in Space  has the potential to save space and could easily create a wider variety of dishes from the components astronauts usually have on hand.

 

Perhaps in the future you won’t even order pizza to be delivered anymore — you’ll just have the recipe sent to your 3D food printer.

NASA recognizes in-space and additive manufacturing offers the potential for new mission opportunities, whether "printing" food, tools or entire spacecraft. Additive manufacturing offers opportunities to get the best fit, form and delivery systems of materials for deep space travel.

Will printed food go beyond being a resourceful way to make personalized meals for astronauts? Should it replace other foods or supplement the nutritional value of existing foods?

Could this be a great step forward in the world of sustainable food creation?

Prospering from the baby boomers lifestyle

Today, globally, there is no bigger trend than the aging of baby boomers. The largest concentration of wealth on the planet is in the hands of the aging baby boomers, multi million strong-and getting older. They will wield significant economic power over the next decade. If you don’t have a strategy to capture the values of this generation you need to get cracking! Potentially great organizations will be crippled if leaders are refusing to be aware of this diverse stream of new possibilities and continue to manage their business as usual.

The whole landscape is changing and businesses will have to reshape their strategy around it in order to manage these new possibilities. Since the baby boomers demand higher quality, choices and value-added products, their enormous spending capabilities and desires will create a new economic environment where quality will become more affordable. It’s a lot of change and it will be a challenging transition. But businesses will gain a huge amount from a better recognition of the diversity of opportunities and new business possibilities.  Rather than closing your eyes to forewarning indicators and hoping that things don’t change too much, you must be willing to break with your own successful conventional practices and discover different ways of tapping into the curiosity of the boomer generation.  

You need to ask questions such as:  What can I do differently that would generate different possibilities? What processes are we using to deal with change? What could happen? How can we better understand and reach this powerful consumer segment? What will baby boomers need and  want in five years and ten years? How could the business of bankers, retailers, manufacturers and trainers change in the coming years to support the baby boomer market?

There are a great many baby boomers that are not choosing to retire. In actual fact many baby boomers are at the peak of their earning years and have comparatively large discretionary incomes to spend. So how can your businesses prosper from the baby boomers lifestyle? 

To understand what baby boomers are going to really choose to buy, businesses must recognize what is truly important to them. They must appreciate that ‘the desire to do what you want when and where you want’ is the common psychological denominator of baby boomers. Baby boomers don't think they are old, and they certainly don't want to be perceived or depicted that way, either. In this environment, companies that excel in making sure their clients are made to feel special and respected will out-perform their competitors.

Take a look at what you currently offer in your business and see if you can't make a few tweaks to capture this huge target audience. The key to unlocking the participation and purchasing power of baby boomers is knowing what inspires them.

Printing human body parts using 3D printing

The use of 3D printers outside the fields of product engineering and manufacturing and to print off a kidney or another human organ may sound like something out of a   science fiction story. But now this science fiction is a reality. 

Unlike normal printers, Bioprinters use a "bio-ink" made of living cell mixtures to form human tissue. Basically, the bio-ink is used to build a 3D structure of cells, layer by layer, to form tissue.  

According to researchers, 3D printing will make organ transplants easier because organs and tissues can be generated on demand. It can also lessen organ rejection among patients because the living cells used in engineering these organs can be harvested from the patient’s body itself. Organovo , a San Diego-based company that focuses on regenerative medicine, is one company using 3D bio-printers to print functional human tissue for medical research and regenerative therapies.

Australian scientists have found a way to grow human body parts using 3D printing technology. Instead of using traditional materials such as plastics or metals however, the team hopes that the printers will be able to create new body parts out of the patient’s own skin cells – a concept that Professor Mark Cook, director of neuroscience, has described as “quite incredible and limitless”. This will become invaluable for doctors because these machines help them do their jobs with a higher degree of precision. 

University of Wollongong researchers are leading the way in this area using a 3D bio-plotter, the first of its kind in Australia. This machine is able to use bio-materials to print material in a sterile environment that more accurately represents human tissue. It's possible to print devices and structures that can be implanted in human bodies, and these devices can have cells grown on them so that bodily functions can be replicated on these very tiny devices.

Whilst similar projects are being conducted globally to recreate body parts, the Australian partnership between St. Vincents and ARC Centre of Excellence for Electromaterials Science have sought government assistance to accelerate proceedings, in order to position Melbourne in the forefront of this area of research.