In our first article we've proposed new-age nuclear power reactors, increasing agility of robots and the newly emerged possibility of correct prediction of preemies as the first three technological and scientific advancements of the last year. Now, let's continue our list. By the way, don't forget to suggest your own picks in our Twitter account, Telegram chat and of course, the comments under this very Steemit article.
Holistic probing gut and stomach with a single pill
Massachusetts General Hospital has come out with arguably the most valuable step forward in medicine of the last year - a tiny, easy-to-swallow electrical device that easily captures and photographs the entire ecosystem of a person's gut without the need of surgery. The researchers are now moving towards testing this device on infants and children.
The disease this device was designed to fight is EED (Environmental enteric dysfunction), and it is one of the most fatal illnesses you've probably never even heard of. The reason for it is because it is mostly spread and raging in poor countries where it serves as the main trigger of infants' and children' malnourishment. The truth is, today, scientists just don't know for sure what precise type of bacteria causes EED, which is why this ailment is next to impossible to be treated effectively.
Guillermo Tearney, a pathologist from Massachusetts General Hospital has invented and is maintaining the swallowable pill that contains mini microscopes that are even provided with power and light. This pill sends pictures of a child's insides via wireless networks. The power is provided through the extremely thin wire, with the help of which the medical worker can even control the movements of a pill.
Promising vaccination for cancer
Yes, it is true. You're probably just "resting" assured that the cure for cancer is for sci-fi and unreachable future hopes of humanity. But the reality is the treatment is already out there, being successfully tested with the ill patients. The way it works is simple - once injected, it "teaches" a human's immunity system to fight only those tissue mutations that are unusual to the natural order of things happening inside a human body while developing.
The actions this vaccine undertakes are similar to those implemented with traditional chemotherapy with the one crucial difference - the damage is limited and focuses mostly on the cancer cells, not all cells of the targeted part of the body.
The meatless meat burger
You're probably already familiar with so-called "vegan burgers" that utilize the modern selection technologies in creating meat from lab compound mixed together or simply from growing plants. And if you tasted it, you'd likely notice that the taste and feel of those burgers are already very close to that of the meat we're all used to.
According to some UN forecasts, the world's population is set to exceed 10 billion people in thirty years. What is more, the population is escaping poverty at a rate unseen before in human history. Both trends are not good news for the ever-worsening climate change challenge. And as you probably know, the meat and the way we produce it is the worst air pollution source among all other industries - worse than cars and coal plants. Just like with the war on drugs, the vegetarian movements' failure has demonstrated to us that people ain't turning down the meat in any of its forms, so the pursuit for the best meat substitute developed in the lab is now on.
Basically, what scientists are doing is they are extracting the base tissues of real animals and grow them themselves in bioreactors. Or else, the meat may be simply made out of plants, like pea proteins, soy, wheat or even potatoes.