Monday, November 18, 2013

Physics of the Future Chapter 3 : Future of Medicine

Okay so today I am reviewing chapter three of Michio Kaku's Physics of the Future(ISBN 978-0-385-53080-4), and the topic is Future of Medicine. In the future of medicines he says many things will happen including recognition of someone by their DNA completely. In the future of medicine DNA scans can model a person's entire face, and body. Another future medicine is growing organs for quicker transplants. Using special biodegradable acids they have already been able to make plastic molds of certain organs, that when treated with certain growth factors grow into the mold, and the mold then disintegrates. A recent discovered and studied technology is stem cell technology. Stem cell technology takes a few stem cells from an embryo. Since stem cells can change into any type of cell, it is useful. With a few stem cells a scientist can research to grow a body part inside someone quickly, to the right age and size. They can also cure disease. But when a stem cell continues growing, it will become cancer, which must be prevented. Embryonic cells normally prevent this by sending chemical signals to stop further reproduction. Once that is made possible to scientists stem cell technology could be really useful.

Another technology is adding selective genes to make someone smarter in the sense of better pattern recognition, and someone stronger by changing the control on how much muscle mass can there is at a certain time. Many things prevent us from actually doing it, including smarter people means more sensitive to environment, or stronger people, will gain more muscle mass than the arm could support. With these preventing factors out of the way important technology can be made possible for us. For example many dream of being immortal. But in reality, are you going to be old and disease ridden, but immortal in pain? Or, are you going to be  happy youthful immortal person with no disease, or pain, like every other example there will be many problems to face before people can enjoy the benefits of our medicine in the future. Another part of future medicine is bringing back an extinct species by reviving their DNA. While it may sound fun to see them in a zoo, many will argue they have rights, or don't just belong there. So while we might look forward to all of these medicinal, and biological improvements, we will have to face all the problems before we truly achieve our goal.

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