How many organs can we make?

Release date: 2010-11-29

The "fusion" of excellence between man and machine proves that we can finally master the technology of creating bionics. In the American superhero TV series "Invincible King Kong" of the 1970s, Steve Austin, starring Lee Mejs, can use bionics to rebuild his body and make himself "better, stronger, faster". . Nowadays, in reality, artificial organ technology that replaces damaged human tissues, organs, etc. has been used to improve the quality of life of patients and even save patients' lives.
How many organs can be artificial? How many limbs can be replaced like parts? The British "Daily Telegraph" newspaper published a few days ago, revealing the secrets of scientists to create real "bionics" from head to toe. The brain's research to date shows that the brain is the most important and complex human organ. It controls the body's activities such as breathing, enabling people to perceive the world, store memories, and form unique personalities. Diseases such as accidents or strokes can cause catastrophic damage to the brain, such as paralysis and amnesia. But some scientists believe that a way to repair brain damage can be found - using the "brain" (prosthetic brain).
Dr. Theodore Berger of the University of Southern California has been studying a device that can be implanted in the brain to restore memory, which mimics the complex neural activities that occur in the hippocampus of the brain, and these neural activities are the formation of new memories. "Heart". The device includes a tiny smart chip that decodes memory and stores it in other areas of the brain. At present, the chip has completed the brain test of experimental rats, and the researchers are planning to carry out animal experiments. They hope to find a new way to help patients with memory problems recover from memory problems caused by stroke, car accident or Alzheimer's disease, which causes damage to the hippocampus. Eyes Macular degeneration and retinitis pigmentosa are the two most common forms of blindness, with approximately 1 million cases in the UK alone. At the beginning of this month, German doctors used high-tech means to bring three blind people back to light. The patient’s eyeball was implanted with a chip with multiple electronic sensors similar to those used in digital cameras. When light hits the sensor, The electrical impulses generated by the sensor enter the optic nerve and brain at the back of the eye. According to reports, these patients have a sufficient degree of visual recovery to distinguish between objects such as fruits and cutlery, and even read their own names.
Mika Telho, a 46-year-old Finnish financial adviser, was one of the first patients to undergo a transplant in a clinical trial. The transplant surgery has brought earth-shaking changes to his life. He has walked out of the dark world of total blindness, recognizing the blurred black and white outline of objects and reading time.
"After implanting the chip, I saw something vague. My vision is like a muscle that has no activity for a long time. It needs training to recover. I am used to recognizing objects, and then I see people and can recognize the head. High and short. Although I can't see the face for a while, it has made me more self-sufficient and live a normal life," said Terho.
Eberhardt Zrenner, the head of the new research and professor at the University of Tübingen, Germany, has improved the details of the patient's viewing of the object by replacing the power supply. At present, the chip is still charged through an external electromagnetic source through an electromagnetic wire that passes through the skin. Zrenner hopes that the implanted chip will have intelligent image processing capabilities to improve image contrast and granularity.
A larger clinical trial is currently being planned. Although the goal of most studies is to help blind patients, it does not mean that this technology is a “single bridge”. Some scientists also hope to improve the vision of healthy people, even with artificial lenses with microscopic circuits. Wearing a display device, diffracting maps, computer displays, and the like to the wearer. Ears The emergence of bionic ears has been around for more than 40 years, and thousands of patients have benefited a lot. The cochlear implant converts the sound into an electrical impulse signal that is transmitted to the brain, allowing the wearer to "hear" the sound. Unfortunately, the cochlear implant cannot be adjusted to a specific sound, so in a noisy environment, the patient feels that listening to people is very difficult, and it is difficult to enjoy the melody when listening to music. However, scientists at La Trobe University in Australia have developed a new device that is closer to the human ear by studying how the ear transmits information to the brain. Heart The artificial heart is actually a miniature blood pump. After being implanted in a patient, it can play the role of a “temporary heart”, so that the organs of the body's body are not damaged by the lack of blood flow while waiting for a heart transplant. But just last month, the Italian doctor first implanted a permanent artificial heart into a 15-year-old boy. The artificial heart developer Carmat of France has developed an artificial heart prototype that completely replaces the heart. It works in the same way as a natural heart: it uses a hydraulic pump to push blood throughout the body. The blood is first sucked into the heart chamber, and then squeezed into the arterial blood vessels and flows to the whole body. Arms In July, 13-year-old London boy Patrick Kane installed a prosthetic upper limb, the i-Limb pulser, produced by the British technology company Touch Touch Bionics. For Patrick, who lost his left hand because of meningitis at 9 months of age, this revolutionary pulse hand meant that he could even pick up grapes with new fingers. He said: "This hand is different. It can help with some very fine things. Now I can open the cap, hold the fork with both hands, and even tie the laces."
Patrick's prosthetic upper limb works by connecting the skin to the upper arm through two electrodes. When he tightens a muscle, the tiny electric pulse generated by the nerve under the electrode will hold the hand tight; when tightening another muscle , then open the palm of your hand.
Researchers are currently investigating prostheses that give patients greater control. As long as you have a deep understanding of the principles of the human neural network controlling limb movements, researchers can try to make the robot arm as free as a real arm. When people want to move their arms, their brains produce a weak signal. After capturing these signals through the electrodes, the robot can simulate the corresponding action. Muscles In order to provide better treatment for patients suffering from severe sports injuries or losing muscles in an accident, some researchers attempt to replace individual muscle tissue rather than the entire arm or the entire leg. They are developing artificial muscles using polymer gels that can relax and contract the current. These muscles can replace the heart valve and sphincter and eventually replace larger muscle tissue.
Scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory are currently working on an artificial arm powered by artificial muscles made from a new smart material electroactive polymer that is powerful and complete. Be sure to win the wrench wrist game. Scientists at the University of Texas have developed artificial muscles that are 100 times more powerful than human muscles. The interior uses an elastic wire that "bends when heated and returns to its original shape when cooled."
Dr. Richard Baker of the University of St. Andrews in the UK is also working on polymer gel research. He hopes that the new materials developed in the future will be able to relax and contract the chemical signals emitted by the human body. Tendon Researchers at the University of Manchester in the UK are developing artificial tendons to help patients with severe tendon damage. The fine textile plastic fiber used in the artificial tendon is very similar to the natural tendon tissue of the human body, and can be implanted into the patient to restore the patient's exercise ability.
Professor Sandra Dauns of the School of Materials at the University of Manchester said that this artificial tendon promotes self-healing and gradually breaks down in the human body. The research team plans to launch a preliminary clinical trial, hoping that the artificial tendon will be available within five years. Tactile Even with the most advanced prostheses, patients with robotic arms can't feel the objects they touch. This is why the patient is miserable because the sense of touch is an important sensation for human beings to enjoy the stimulation and grasp of the object. It even helps us to make a certain impression on the people we see, such as shaking hands to judge each other's personality.
Italian scientists have embarked on a cutting-edge study of new artificial skins that they believe will give the robot a sense of touch. Although the original intention of this technology is to serve robots, researchers at the Italian Institute of Technology are currently exploring new ways to return information on super artificial skin back to the patient's nerve cells to restore the patient's sense of touch.

Source: Youth Reference

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