All posts by catschroedinger

Physics and Astronomy at Western What's Happening

Home grown organs

So some clever researchers at MGH (the medical wing of Harvard, a couple of students from the department have gone on to work there as post docs) have grown a working rat kidney. Yes, a working rat kidney that pees.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/15/science/rat-kidneys-made-in-lab-seen-as-step-to-human-transplants.html?_r=0

I have posted before about the heart research, and this is another like it, but the organ is more functional. Do I have to say how amazing this kind of stuff is? Envisage the future….. No more waiting for a donor, tragedy with a purpose. Instead you grow you own organs to replace failing ones. Long life with good health.

The only problem with all the promise that this research, and similar research holds, is that we while we will probably be able to fix almost every part of the body within maybe 10-20 years from now, the one part that matters more than the rest is still a bit of a mystery. We do everything with our brains, and currently we do not even understand the causes of brain problems, never mind the solutions needed to fix them.

Watch this space over the next decade as brain research becomes the thing.

Physics and Astronomy at Western What's Happening

Have a heart!

http://singularityhub.com/2009/06/23/stem-cells-used-to-grow-hearts-cool-new-pics-and-vid/

I fully intend on living for a long long time.  For this to happen, this is the kind of research that will need to succeed.  The ability to grow new organs to replace old ones should mean that we will be able to live a lot longer.  It will also mean that transplant waits will become a thing of the past.  The question though is not, “is this possible?”, we know it is, and just a matter of time and research to find out how to do it.  The real question is, “How will this technology intersect with society”.  I think that question bears some thinking about now.  Is it ethical to grow new organs and replace them for people who can afford it?  Is it ethical to allow people to live for hundreds of years.  I know where I stand on these kind of issues, but do you now what you think? What will happen to the global population? The environment? Jobs?

For me, immortality beckons, what about for you?

Physics and Astronomy at Western What's Happening

We could not find a Shark Net, so we have an advanced attack helicopter instead

4 Comments

The recent entry of the astronomy department into an arms race (I am of course referring to the Helium Filled Attack Shark launched by Gallagher et al) has disturbed many members of the Department who do real Physics for a living.  Well despair no more.  With the arrival of the latest in drone technology from the US military we have all the weaponry we need to keep the atrium free from spying eyes.  There are of course the usual bugs to iron out and Brian Dalrymple would like to apologize, profusely, to the student who was sitting too close to our launch area and was unfortunate enough to be struck in the leg.  (They were studying some notes for a Cami course though, so no loss.)

will playing with his heli 006

will playing with his heli 004

will playing with his heli 018

 

will playing with his heli 017

will playing with his heli 008

 

Physics and Astronomy at Western What's Happening

Artificial Intelligence, just over the horizon

SPAUN
I saw the science paper on spaun, and a few newspaper articles and frankly it struck me as being something pretty special.  Then I looked at the videos of SPAUN performing and I was completely blown away.

This article is pretty good.

Artificial brain ‘Spaun’ passes IQ tests

Basically, it looks to me, the ultimate layman, like they are not far off being able to create an AI.  I would say that because their simulations look like the work, except they do not have the complexity of our brains.  That means it is only a matter of time for computing power to get there.  If you look back to the Human Genome Project, it did not really get off the ground until we had TeraByte hard drives available, which just happens to be the amount of storage you need for the human genetic code.  It will probably be the same thing for these attempts to make models of the brain.

 

Here is a question though.  If they make a model that is able to perform tasks, make decisions, have opinions; do they have the right to switch it off at the end of the day?