Everyone knows that science has been booming at an insanely quick rate for the past decade. The world has erupted with stem cells, tissue engineering, cures for diabetes and Alzheimer’s Disease all in the past ten years! But what about the next ten years? MSNBC predicts that stem cells will be the norm, tissue engineering will be a replacement for most major surgeries with the remaining surgeries to be preformed by robots, and cures to widespread diseases will be perfected. If you’re not very fond of reading, watch this video The Year 2017 and get a glipse of what is to come (the video will play after a 30 second commercial).

There’s so much going on in the world of science, unfortunately I can not cover it all. Here’s the latest buzz going around in the field.

Reversing Alzheimer’s Disease
Alzheimer’s Disease has gotten SO much buzz this week! It’s on CNN.com, Medical News Today UK, Google News, and the list goes on…
The interesting thing about this “cure” is the possibility of reversing memory loss through mental stimulation by a specific drug treatment. MIT has conducted extensive research on patients with neurodegenerative disorders and shown that the memories aren’t lost, they are just inaccessible. Further research may lead to endless possibilities for not only Alzheimer’s patients, but patients with dementia or any type of neurological damage.

Embryonic Stem Cells
When this embryonic stem cell revolution began over eight years ago, people didn’t expect such a large moral argument to arise from what considered a future medical miracle. This article presents a different view of embryonic stem cells that many people may not be used to reading: The View From the Hill.

Cloning
A new country is now on the brink of medical research: Victoria, Australia. A measure to use embryos to create and clone stem cells has been passed and an exciting project is now underway! Embryonic stem cells are clonogenic, which means that they can give rise to a colony of genetifcally identical cells (clones) that have the same properties of the original cell. Imagine the possibilities.

There’s so much going on in the world of science, unfortunately I can not cover it all. Here’s the latest buzz going around in the field.

Alzheimer’s Disease Cure on the Way
Purdue University has discovered the first step in a cascade of events leading to amyloid plaque formation in the brain. This is the beginning of finding a cure to Alzheimer’s Disease. A vital enzyme, called memapsin 2, was discovered to be what seems like the cause of plaque formation in the brain. Further research into this area delves into creating a memapsin 2 inhibitor protein to block the function of the enzyme before it causes plaque to build up.

Immune System Activation
Scientists at the University of Michigan have discovered a bacteria that inserts itself into the body and evokes a strong immune response. These bacteria attach onto receptors on the surface of immune cells and hyperactivate them. Think of the possibilities for victims with weak immune systems and post-traumatic surgery patients!

Dr. Heart Robot
HeartLander, a 20 millimeter long robot, has been invented to deliver drugs to the heart in a minimally invasive manner. Surgeons can monitor this robot’s crawling motion across a beating heart with an X-ray video and control its movement by using a joystick. Scientists are continuously developing this robot to become more eclectic so that they may be able to utilize it for the treatment of a plethora of heart conditions.