background preloader

Ideas of interest

Facebook Twitter

Silat Suffian Bela Diri - 12 Essential Gun / Firearm Disarms. New Solution For Tooth Decay: Just Grow A New Tooth. Cavity seen on an x-ray.: image via webMD.com The main treatment for cavities - drill and fill - has given the dental profession a bad rep. Ask people what they hate to do most, and I bet half of them will say "Going to the dentist. " But now, French researchers at the National Institute for Health and Medical Research in Paris have developed a painless and simple method that could very soon put an end to fillings. You know - Novocaine, water, air, drilling, sore mouth, and chemical taste? Fillings are used to fill holes left by tooth decay. They made a gel substance from MSH (melanocyte-stimulating hormone) with poly-L-glutamic acid, a strong survivor often used to transport drugs through our bodies because it can fight off stomach acids that might destroy the medication.

MSH is a substance that is naturally produced by the pituitary gland and it is active in determining the lightness or darkness of our skin color. Isn't science great? Cancer vaccine success | Harvard Gazette Online. A cancer vaccine carried into the body on a carefully engineered, fingernail-sized implant is the first to successfully eliminate tumors in mammals, scientists report this week (Nov. 25) in the journal Science Translational Medicine. The new approach, pioneered by bioengineers and immunologists at Harvard University, uses plastic disks impregnated with tumor-specific antigens and implanted under the skin to reprogram the mammalian immune system to attack tumors. The journal article describes the use of such implants to eradicate melanoma tumors in mice. “This work shows the power of applying engineering approaches to immunology,” said David J.

Mooney, the Robert P. Pinkas Family Professor of Bioengineering in Harvard’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering. Most cancer cells easily skirt the immune system, which operates by recognizing and attacking invaders from outside the body. Mooney’s co-authors are Omar A. MIT Student Develops $3 Cutting-Edge Healing Device, Field Tested in Haiti. No one really knows why, but for an open wound, simply applying suction dramatically speeds healing times. (The theory is that the negative pressure draws bacteria out, and encourages circulation.) But for almost everyone, that treatment is out of reach--simply because the systems are expensive--rentals cost at least $100 a day and need to be recharged every six hours.

No more. Danielle Zurovcik, a doctoral student at MIT, has created a hand-powered suction-healing system that costs about $3. The device is composed of an airtight wound dressing, connected by a plastic tube to a cylinder with accordion-like folds. Zurovcik originally intended to field-test the device in Rwanda, but then the Haiti Earthquake struck. Currently, Zurovcik is verifying the healing benefits of the device, and developing a new model that can be readily carried and concealed. [Top image: Melanie Gonick/MIT; Bottom image: Patrick Gillooly/MIT] TED: Ideas worth spreading. Oliver Sacks: What hallucination reveals about our minds.

Taylor Mali: What teachers make. Top Ten List. LOVE KNOWLEDGE, LIVE TO LEARN.. Ancient history. History of China. Ancient Rome. Philosophy. Cerebral. A System for Connecting Brains to the Outside World.