December 8, 2011 • 33 mins
Imagine a future in which replacement organs grow in magnetic fields and smart pills work for months. Thanks to advances in nanotechnology, this age of super medicine is nearly here. In this episode, Robert and Julie explore the world of nanohealthcare.
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind from how Stuff
Works dot Com. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind.
My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Julie Douglas. Julie. Um,
let's look in the future again. Why why don't we
closing mine? All right? Engaging third eye? Al Right, did
(00:26):
you get to the firestorms and the pyramids of bones?
You've gone too far? Okay, so back up a little bit. Um,
well what are you more to the point, what are
you seeing in terms of healthcare in the next um
century or two? Where are we going? I am seeing
the sort of healthcare where I can just basically, um like,
(00:51):
just take my finger and swipe it on some sort
of metal thing and it will tell me everything about
me I ever wanted to know. And how much calcium
I haven't vibed, I don't know potassium whatever. What do
you see? That's not very exciting one? Let me see
all right, Um, I'm seeing a day where instead of
taking um, like a multi vitamin vitamin every day, I
(01:14):
take one smart multi vitamin that that stays in my
system and administers for a year. Yeah, for administers like
a year. So it's like a tiny doctor that lives
inside me and uh and administers medication as needed. That yeah, okay,
and and actually that doesn't that's not too far off right,
right we are? I mean, the technology is coming together
(01:35):
now the and it basically comes down to and to
something that's kind of a can be kind of a
scary word for for people who are are not already
like me, deep in the field, and that is is
nanotechnology materials and ultimately a concept we're talking about called
nano manufacturing. Now. For me, anyway, I just finished writing
(01:59):
an article called ten ways nano Manufacturing will alter Industry.
So and I hadn't I had not really researcher written
much about nanotechnology. So it was kind of a deep
die for me where I had to sort of like
a lot of these topics that kind of have to
start from scratch and be like, all right, what the
heck is this? And then and what does it mean?
And then how like what does it really mean? Not
just what are the words on the page um in
(02:20):
this right up or or this one. But I think
nanotechnology can be a little confusing because we tend to
get this fantastic voyage idea in our mind, by which
I mean the the Asimov novel in the movie and
not the Coulio video, but the idea of you know,
like a little miniature ship, like a little miniature submarine
has been shrunk down and it's doing things inside the
(02:40):
body or building things, um at this minuscule scale, like
the nano scale, just to everyone know exactly how small
we're talking about? What what? What does technology or nanotechnology?
All right? Like the at the nano scale of things, UM,
where we have like we have like a single wall
old carbon nanitude um is scarcely one nanometer thick, all right,
(03:05):
So in relatable terms, you'd have to line up a
hundred thousand of those side by side in order to
equal the one hundred micrometer diameter of a single strand
of hair. Yes, okay, so that's that's how tiny it is,
but it's still it's by by comparing it to the hair,
it definitely puts it within like the grasp of human understanding,
(03:27):
but it's still very very tiny. Um. So nano nano materials,
nano nano technology, it involves dealing with matter at that scale,
which and you wouldn't think this is uh, it turns
out that when you are dealing with such small particles,
it's a lot easier to manipulate them, right, you can,
you can, you can. You have a lot more control
(03:48):
over the over the various characteristics of materials of of
well basically materials. And then but if you're altering you're
altering the material els in things such as medications uh
at times, or something as gigantic as uh like a
meta material that you plan to build a space elevator
out of. It's the analogy that I ended up using
(04:11):
the article was was like building blocks. It seems like
you start off with kind of big building blocks as
a kid, and then as you get a little older,
you start dealing with smaller blocks and the models that
you can build. Like so you wanted to build an
airplane out of alphabet blocks, you're gonna build something that
vaguely resembles an airplane, you know, assuming you assuming you
(04:33):
built it at a reasonable scale, like it had to
fit on a table. You can only build so detailed
an airplane, and you might have to use a little
uh um creativity uh to to see that it is
supposed to be an airplane. Legos are much smaller, there's
a lot more detail, there's a lot more room to
to create detail in the model, and you could build
a pretty amazing airplane model. Uh. That's the size of
(04:57):
the table if you build it out of legos. The
smaller the building blocks the the the greater the power
over what you're building. And that's exactly how it ends
up with with nanotechnology. It's the idea that we're going
to build things at the scale that nature builds things. Yeah.
And not only that, but particles behave differently at that scale. UM.
(05:18):
And so that's why quantum physicists are really interested in
this obviously. UM. From the article how nanotechnology works, there's
a good example that says, you know, we can't teleport
ourselves to the other side of the wall, but at
the nano scale, and the electron can. And this is
actually called electron tunneling. So you know, all of a sudden,
you do see this really cool. Um, these these sort
(05:40):
of things happening, and we can apply them in a
really meaningful, you know, concrete way. Hence nano manufacturing. Right,
you get down to a small enough scale, solid things
aren't really solid anymore. You can manipulate, uh, materials and
buy materials. You can manipulate everything from steel to um
medication and make it behave a little more like you
(06:02):
wanted to. And and again it's it's when when nature
builts something. When nature builds a coral reef, it builds
it from the uh. And I'm sorry to personify nature here,
but but when nature builds a coral reef, it builds
it from the bottom up, from the smallest particles up.
And and this is about building things from the bottom up.
And that's why the I say, throw out the whole
sort of fantastic voyage image of it, or the idea
(06:24):
of tiny little robots that are essentially big robots shrunk down,
because that is a that's more of like um, top
down thinking. Uh and uh and and nanotechnology is generally
more about building things at the smallest scale. And it
has like huge implications for our healthcare. And we're not
talking this is not sci fi stuff. They mean this
is stuff that is in the works and around the corner. Yeah,
(06:47):
these these are real applications of nanotechnology that that definitely
make a difference. Not not just like oh, I bet
you can make a super strong sword or a tower
that's is tall that's taller than the atmosphere. The type
of thing UM and and also before we get into
some of the healthcare um things that we'll be talking about,
I just wanted to mention too that right now there
(07:07):
are more than eight hundred commercial products that usually talk
about in the article too, like this is this is
something that's being used on in a widespread way. And
in fact, Adidas uses nanotechnology for their cleats because nanocarbon
tubes are actually like a hundred times stronger than steel
and it's a lot lighter. Yeah, And when we use
the term nano manufacturing, the point is that I think
(07:30):
of it in terms of say a weapon, like a
like a gun, a musket. There's a time where to
create a musket you would have to have an artisan
basically that would make it and make it one by one.
But uh, and there's only so much you can do
with that. It takes a lot more effort, a lot
more cost, and a lot more time to say outfit
in army that way. But if you can, if you
can mass produce the weapon, then it's a lot easier
(07:53):
to get that technology out there and actually make a
difference with that technology, you know. And uh, And so
the idea with nano manufacturing is that nano fact manufacturing
involves getting the nanotechnology to the point to where we
can mass produce its effects and make a real impact
with the with the technology right, right, because as you
point out in the article, none of it really matters
(08:16):
unless it's you can produce it on a scale in
which everybody has access to it. But that's that seems
to be the way that it's going. Yeah, it's like
the iPhone, right, Like the the whole idea of the
The amazing thing about the iPhone was that not only
is the technology great, but they're able to mass produce it.
The point of the point that everyone could have one
if it took a lot of effort and only Steve
Jobs could have one, what's the point that doesn't make
(08:37):
any money, right, that doesn't change lives. And by the way,
they use nanotechnology too. Yeah, there you go. Yeah, nano
manufacturing is already uh, already out there, and it's just
going to increase as time goes on, and we're going
to see nanotechnology trickling down to various aspects of our life,
especially healthcare. Yes, and let's talk about what that's gonna
look like, because I'm very excited by this. Something called
(09:00):
lab on a chip yes, Uh, do you want to
mention the uh the article with all the other day
Oh right, right, well, actually, yeah, before I talk about chlamydia,
because you know, we always like to do a public
service announcements about chlamydia. Um, they actually did use this
in some of their tests for this lab on a chip.
(09:20):
But before I talk about that, I want to talk
about how what what we're talking about here? What does
it look like? We're talking about transportable diagnostics via nano devices.
So a USB stick sized throwaway device called lab on
a chip. Right. Well, because if if anyone anyone out
there who's ever had like a blood sample taken, you
know the deal. They take the sample, but then they
have to send it off somewhere or take it into
(09:41):
the back room, and that involves, uh, it involves a
laboratory that is staffed, that is air conditioned. The expense
in the time really adds up. And that's assuming that
the facilities are there, uh where you can reach them.
If you travel out into the middle of nowhere, suddenly
the you know, the labs farther away, it becomes a
more a pain or even an impossibility to rely on
(10:03):
the modern lab technology that we have. Uh, certainly in
the developing world to it becomes a huge issue. Yeah,
I mean, this is so convenient. You basically take a
droplet of fluid and you put it in the chip
and micro pumps inside it send the fluid to internal
vessels containing re agents that extract target disease biomarker molecules,
(10:23):
and then that whole device can be sent to a
lab for analysis. But but here's here's UM actually a
little one up on this. There's a diagnostic app for
smartphones that's been developed UM in which you could essentially
do the same thing. You have a tiny droplet of
a sample and you press it against the phone's touch
screen for analysis, where the app would work out whether
(10:44):
you have food poisoning, strepp road or flu um. And
how does it work. I mean, the touch screens are
are highly sensitive, right, and so they can they can
store electric charges known as capacitance. Okay, and because the
screens are so sensitive, they can detect very small capacitance
changes and could could be these sort of platforms that
(11:05):
could actually identify disease markers. But okay, this is the
interesting part or or I mean, this is all interesting,
but here comes to the chlamydia. Right, okay, so watch
out here it comes. Young Yo Park and Beyng Yon
Juan at the Korea Advance Institute for Science and Technology
took three solutions containing differing concentrations of DNA from the
(11:27):
bacteria that causes chlamydia. Okay, they're originally going to going
to use crabs, but they were told they would get
laughs if they did that, they would get laughs. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
that's nice. Anyway, So they they apply these droplets from
each to an iPhone size multi touch display, and they
found that the output from the screens array of crisscrossed
touch sensing electrodes could distinguish between the capacitances caused by
(11:51):
each concentration using droplets of only ten micro leaders micro leaders,
which is one thousands of amlilate leader by the way.
Um so, but they're not able to differentiate between pathogens yet.
But differentiating between concentrations is really a first step. So
another problem is who wants their touch screen to be
bathed in the chlamidia? Really? Yeah? It especially changes the
(12:13):
whole You know, you're at the train station and some
some dudes down on his luck and was like, hey,
can I kind of borrow your phone for a second,
because it's weird enough if he's about to make a
you know, a personal call, but if he's going to
check for chlamydia with your cell phone, it's it's a
little weird, right right, And then you don't know, all
of a sudden, you've got, you know, chlamydia placed up
against your skin. You got chlamydia cheek really, But the
(12:36):
technology could be applied in in a to a kind
of star trek Um spit scanning device that would have
have huge potential, And like I said, not only that
in developing world, but pretty much in the field in general.
Like anytime someone who is out in the field wanting
to test somebody or anybody, you could have it geared
to particular ailments or or or maybe a little more broad,
(12:59):
but you could you who diagnose people in real time
in the field. Yeah, exactly. And they are trying to
come up with some removable stickers to put over the
phones that you don't you're not you know, transmitting a
little bio samples of chlamydia for instance. Well there you go.
I mean they already has even the Steve Jobs didn't
like them, told when I tried to buy one once. Yeah,
(13:19):
because they were Like Steve Jobs doesn't like those because
they imply that the screen is not solid and and
and can be easily scratched. And he's right. In my experience,
they're kind of a con you know, you end up
placing the stupid trastic thing over the over the screen,
and then all that does is just caused dust to
build up underneath there. I mean, I've never managed to,
you know, knock on wood to scratch your mess up
(13:41):
my screens. Yeah, but I mean what we're talking about
here is if if you are going to use yourself
have yeah or something akin to that. Um. But okay,
So that's that's one instance. We also have better, longer
lasting drugs, which you sort of inferred about the vitamins. Yeah,
(14:04):
they're There are a few different ways to look at
this stuff. One way is, of course, you you change
the way that the drug interacts with the human body.
Just consider, for instance, the botulism toxin in botox treatments.
Of course, bochualism toxin is a toxin but bacteria that's
generally bad for the human body unless it is administered
in small doses. For generally, it's like for muscle ailments
(14:28):
or for just merely cosmetic retulism in and of itself
is not necessarily something you want to cross. So uh,
doctors have actually generally inject botox because into a target
tusue because it can't pass through skin, right okay. Researchers
at the University of Massachusetts Allow Nano Manufacturing Center, however,
(14:50):
are working on creating a topical botox cream. Their secret
is they attached the toxin to a nanoparticle that allows
it to hitch a ride through the skin. And so
you you basically have a nanoparticle, this manipulated particle at
the nanoscale that is capable of passing through the skin
as as a lot of materials, uh and in substances
(15:12):
are capable of doing. And it ends up changing the
way that the boschel m toxin reacts with the body.
Like I said, it is a right, So suddenly something
that could not transfer through the skin can be rubbed
on in a cream form. I wonder if Nicole kid
Kidvin knows about this. I hate to say that. You
(15:33):
know what creeps me out about this is that we
have the blood brain barrier, right right, Yeah, that's the
thing there. Our skin is generally that the whole. Some
things can pass through and some can't. Like it generally
works in our favor. Um, if you don't want just
anything to come in, it's like a it's a private
party inside and not everything is invited, right, And so
so all of a sudden you've got you know, botulism
(15:56):
or the toxin at least in this concentration being absorbed
by your skin getting into your bloodstream. Right. And so
the blood brain barrier is a membrane that protects the
brain from potentially harmful chemicals in the bloodstream, right, from
making sure that doesn't cross into your brain. So that
this is something that keeps coming up. What is the
ability of nanomaterials to cross that barrier? And I don't
(16:19):
think that we have a good understanding of this yet. Yeah,
do you end up this is one of the fears
of nanotechnology in generally you end up creating these particles
that end up just passing right into our brain, right, Yeah,
I mean you know, do you wanna do you want
to bow talk to your brain? No? Probably not right,
Uh So that's that's a little bit creepy, but it
is you know, it's very interesting in terms of the delivery,
(16:40):
right and a lot of these drugs have really cool
delivery systems. Yeah, and also real quick like basic delivery
UM physics if you will include things like solutability, like
the ability of a drug to become a part of
your blood, to break down, to break down, you know,
in the body. UM nanotechnology will allow us to you
create drug particles at the nanoscale, so the the absorption
(17:04):
rate increases and dosage levels decrease because you end up
having to to put in less of a of a
particular medication because the particles are so much smaller, it
ends up being more potent being well it uh, you
absorb it faster and more completely. So it's it's it
allows you to to make a smarter version of a
(17:26):
particular medication. Okay. And this is also where the length
of time comes into right, Like you could take something
and it could last for I don't know, two weeks,
two months, no matter, you know, depending on what it
is being administered, right. Yeah. Researchers at Northwestern University are
actually developing drug devices made from nanodiamonds which prevent medicine
(17:47):
from releasing too swiftly into the body. UM. So the
idea this is again coming back to what I mentioned earlier,
the idea that you could implant month's worth of medication
directly into the affected tissue area. Like, think of it
this way. You're going out of town for the weekend.
What do you do if you have a dog? Defeed?
Do you just open six cans of alpo and leave
them there on the table for the dog? No, you
(18:08):
have somebody come and open one can um you know,
of two cans a day for the dog. Because the
dog doesn't know any better, it will eat all the
cans of alpo and make itself sick. You need somebody
to administer it. So this is the idea instead of
instead of having to administer you know, all the the
alpo one bit of a time, it could self administer.
You know. It's interesting too because I was just thinking
(18:28):
about birth control and how this is going to affect
that because you have birth control pills, like I think,
like a season all or maybe that's a subcutaneous um
birth control that they implant. But in any case, they've
got different kinds of birth control pills that you have
to take only like you know, every four months or
some one and so forth, and um, I mean, essentially
you could do the same thing with birth control. You
(18:49):
could you could have it release over your period and
just take one pill, right and and the other really
exciting area is is of course, like I said, being
able to target the area of the body, like uh,
I mean, that's the big thing about cells, right, the
particular cells, a particular particular organs. Even um. Chemotherapy tends
to be um such an ordeal because you're generally having
(19:12):
to treat the whole body to treat the area that
you want, you know, instead of going after the you're
you're treating the population to get to the criminal. So
if if we could, if we could, we could apply
it to just a particular area of the body through
through these these nano delivery devices, you could have a
situation where you could treat you could use the chemotherapy
(19:33):
therapy to target the specific cells and not end up
you know, making the individual rul sick, which is great
because then you're not wiping out a bunch of healthy
cells exactly. Yeah, And that is a chief complain about chemotherapy,
that um that comes up over and over again. And
then you have something called super pain killers. Oh yes,
this and this sounds crazy just because of these substances
(19:54):
involved in it. But University of Kentucky College of Medicine,
they came up with this concept of taking a morphine molecule,
which of course is the heavy pain killer UM and
uh the th HC molecule th HC being the intoxicating
part of marijuana, and joining them together with a single
nanoparticle and then once so once in they travel into
(20:15):
the body. But once in the body, the linking bit
breaks free and releases the morphine and the th HC
in equal targeted doses. See that's that's insane, right, because
you wonder, I mean, obviously that would be really helpful
for surgical procedures and you know, trying to heal from
certain things and trying to avoid pain in general. But wow,
doesn't that make an interesting cocktail of a of a drug. Yeah?
(20:38):
And it also I can't help but think of like
drug companies in their various patents on substances, you know,
because the idea is like you you take a you
take two patent medications, and when the patents running out,
you just sort of combine them together and then you
have a new patent. So if you could, I wonder
to what extent um nano manufacturing allow just minor tweaks
(20:59):
in medications to make sure they continue to keep the
pattern well. And also does this make us rethink legalization
of marijuana at least here in the United States? Probably not,
because you know, again, this is this is a medical use, right,
this is which we have medically used. We are one
in some places. But still, I mean, now that you're
gonna you're gonna use it in this context, it sort
(21:21):
of makes the whole uh cannabis are the against cannabis
argument a little bit silly. Well, and then let's take
a quick break here from our sponsor, and when we
come back, we're gonna get into a topic that we've
enjoyed talking about in the past, that being grow your
own organs in bath and your sparing. This podcast is
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(21:44):
the Discovery Channel. At Intel, we believe curiosity is the
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and explore the answers to life's questions. All right, we're back,
so we uh we. In the past, we've vote, we've
discussed the idea of doing yourself organs or or more
(22:04):
specifically the idea that we can print organs, that we
can grow them um through the use of stem cells.
And we can, and we can. We've we've done this,
We've people are walking around with them, um and it's
it's it's amazing, um. But how does how does nanotechnology
affect this? Right? How can it play a role? Well,
let's just think about what we've done so far. I
(22:25):
mean we were basically we've used patient's own stem cells.
And we know from a previous podcast that fat stem
cells are really easy for us because most of them
can adapt to a particular type of organ And we've
successfully grown human bladders and even hearts by coaxing stem
cells to grow over an organ shaped scaffold. Yeah, and
like one of these is the ideas here as you
(22:47):
take a use a ghost heart, So you take at
an existing human heart, like a donor heart, and then
you you strip it down with chemicals to like just
the collagen, and then you set the stem cells on
there to grow over this scalp foldings. So it's kind
of like the idea of let's strip the building down
to just the beams and then build a new exactly
the way we need it. And the scaffolding is really important, right,
(23:09):
because you have to be able to achieve this shape.
That's where nanotechnology can You can't obviously, you can't just
grow a You don't just want to grow a bowl
of heart tissue. You need to grow that amount of
heart tissue in the shape, in the complex, specific shape
of a human heart. Right. So it turns out that
researchers at Rice University and MD Anderson Cancer Center in
(23:30):
Houston have developed an organ sculpting technique that uses metal
nano particles suspended in a magnetic field. Yeah, they were
Basically they woke up one day and they're like, you know,
the idea of growing your own heart um with stem
cells is not quite mind blowing enough for us. I
wonder if we can somehow up the antie and a
loan of the whole. They do, because they their concept
(23:50):
here as you take these these magnetic hether they're metal
land on particles and they're in a magnetic field, and
by manipulating the magnetic field, you arrange these particles into
a like a floating scaffolding. I know this such dug
henning nanotechnology. I mean, seriously, get really excited by this
because I just think Yeah, it's like suspending jello. Yeah,
(24:11):
it's like magic. The idea that not to mystify the technology,
but seriously, imagine walking into a room and they're floating
in the middle of it is this pullful flesh that's
growing into the shape of a donor heart. And again
you've got the nanoparts particles suspended in a magnetic field.
You have these matching up with this three D model
of what it should be. Yeah, I mean you have
(24:31):
these these particles behaving in a very different way than
in this in the at the scale. So that's so cool. Um.
There's also reconstructive surgery. Severe burn patients have little viable
skin leftograft onto um the rest of their body, and
so you can you can grow new skin using polymeric material,
but sometimes it takes too long and the patient it
(24:53):
can get really bad infections. And so when the newest
theories in the field of cell growing is at the
smallest ructure, the wider the possibility to manipulate the cells. Again. Uh,
So they have a new laser based technology called e
u V Extreme Ultraviolet that you that creates uh, nanostructured
polymer surfaces which really allows you to rapidly grow these
(25:16):
new skin for someone and then there's also no scar.
Plastic surgery. Scientists in Japan have developed a biodegradable thin
film of only about twenty nanometers thick that could replace
surgical stitches, which is really amazing. If you look at
the pictures, uh, you can already see, like um, that
the organism is beginning to heal itself really rapidly, as
(25:38):
opposed to sort of the big franken science stitches that
exist on it. So all of this makes me think
of another episode that we did a while back, that
being The nine Birthday Candles, which if you haven't heard
it or we're confused by the title, it deals with
the the science and the emerging science of living to
be nine years old, and that specifically what Aubrey de
(25:58):
Gray has to say about a lot of them. Yeah,
Abrey de Gray being the great bearded one, he does
look like a wonderful sort of gnome like man, gnome
like because of the beard, wizard like imagined him and
Alan Moore and Gandalf hanging out together. You can tell
my you can tell my crush is lessened because yeah,
now I'm calling him a gnome um. But no, it's
(26:18):
gonna be cute. So but he he is uh, he's
sort of a rock star in the bio geriatric field,
and a lot of people at first were sort of like,
what are you talking about? This is impossible, But he
has made a very good argument that the human body
is much like a classic car and if you can
get in there and you can do this sort of
maintenance before huge diseases and take over, then you can
(26:40):
actually extend the life. And he is saying that right
now that there is someone who is going to live
to be at least five hundred years old because of
the new technology, like what we're talking about today, and
it's it's it's probably David Bowie, that's my guess. Oh yeah,
I'm sure he's he's he's funding some of this and
he and Nicole Kidman. But I mean, we are talking
(27:01):
about self maintenance. And this is from UH an article
from HS Plus magazine. It's UH Nanotechnology and surgery surgeon's perspective.
The surgeon says this trend is already apparent in plastic surgery,
talking about all the sorts of nano technology that aims
at appearance enhancement. Expect this trend to appear in other
(27:22):
surgical specialties like orthopedics for enhanced athletes, transplantation of organs
from bioprinting or stem cells, new ordinary arteries delivered with
angioplastic balloons, enhancement drugs with DNA modifications, and many many others.
It seems that surgery will be the vector of our
first steps towards transcendence, gradually moving towards less and less
invasive procedures until surgery becomes almost obsolete. So that's what
(27:47):
that's what he's talking about. And he's basically, you know,
this idea that Aubrey de Gray has that we can
continue to use technology to to uh fix ourselves and
we you know, surgery may become very obsolete. And you
know when this happens, are we are we still human? Yeah?
I don't know. I don't know. I mean, if we
enhanced ourselves beyond uh you know, at least calling ourselves
(28:08):
homo sapiens, or are we homo sapiens Homo sapien plus?
I think maybe that's I like that, Yeah, like the
plus because you don't have to keep updating it with like,
you know, one point two point. So there you go.
That's nano manufacturing at least as it relates to healthcare.
We uh, we may come back and explore the topic
a little more and look at the ways nano manufacturer
(28:30):
is going to change other aspects like architecture. Architecture is
pretty amazing. Um, but if you can't wait for that,
by all means, you can check out tin waves and
manufacturing will alter industry. It's actually hosted on the Curiosity website,
which how stuff works. Theres a lot of content for that.
We all right, uh if you're amount of content for
that that property which is owned by Discovery Channel, yes, yeah,
(28:52):
and our employers, yes, our employers, And it's a part
of that the awesome TV show, the Curiosity Project show.
So uh, let's call over the robot uh and see
if it has any mail for us. Come on, Arnie,
all right, So let's uh, let's grab some of this mail,
all right, Luke writes in. Luke says, hey, Robert, I've
(29:13):
heard you talk about doing several times on the podcast,
that being the novel by Frank Herbert, and so I
finally read it, and he was to say it was amazing,
But now I want your opinion on the sequel. So
I find myself wanting to find out what happens next
to get more closure. But I'm also a slow reader
and feel somewhat exhausted after done. I've seen your reviews
and I've sort of gathered what happens in doing Messiah?
Is it a good read? Regardless of that, should I
read it? Even though I know I kind of know
(29:35):
what will happen. Like you talked about in the podcast
about too many choices decisions, tig, I'm looking for someone
whose opinion I trust to make the decisions for me.
Thanks and happy Thanksgiving. Yeah, yeah, no, that's interesting. I
remember in Decision the Decision Fatigue podcast, you said it's
great to have someone who can bet things for you.
So you're betting this for him? Yeah? If I will go,
(29:55):
just go and say, if you were looking for closure
and the things you read, proceeding with the Dunes here
is is probably not your best bet, um, because and
then a Frank Herbert dies before he can finish it. Uh,
And in my opinion, the books become less and less
solid as even if they progress in his writing of them. Uh,
they become less about characters and more about ideas. And
(30:15):
then even the idea is kind of fall flat after
a while again in my opinion, and then his son
ends up finishing the series, but their various voices back
and forth about to what degree he was able to
um to accomplish his father's vision. So for the most part,
I advise people to um to stick with June unless
you really really can't help yourself, and then, uh, you know,
(30:37):
don a side is pretty fun, but they gets less
fun as you go, So that would be my advice.
There are so many I suffer from this myself sometimes
with books, Like I found an author that I like, uh,
and I will just keep reading them until I'm not
reading the things that they may do. We're good anymore,
because not everybody's like that, where everything that they wrote
is great, or every or every album that they came
(31:00):
up with this amazing, or or every film they ever
directed or start in as a masterpiece. So um. But
but I often end up doing that, like I find
some an artist that I like, and I keep exploring
their work, uh, when I really should be finding new
artists who discover Actually I think that that's a better
appreciation of how they've evolved as an artist. Yeah, but
(31:20):
then there's there's something to be said, like what do
I at the end of at the end of the life.
What what do I want? Do I want to say
I have a really good appreciation for how um Frank
Herbert evolved or he evolved as a as a writer.
Or do I want to be able to say I
read some really good books that had some really amazing ideas.
And I don't know. I don't know, but I see
(31:42):
I see some sort of college level of course coming
on a festa. Thanks where that's where you could apply it.
Let me see if I have one more This is
maybe a little more science. Oh, I know, this one's fun.
Let's go at this. Uh Nathan writes in it says, Hi,
Robert and Julie, I love your podcast, and I only
have two things to say. Firstly, I read simply listen
to your podcast on doppelgangers and wondered if you have
(32:02):
heard of the Elvis impersonator theory. The theory is that
there are so many Elvis impersonators out there, but only
about fifty of them actually look like him. So there
are fifty people out there that look exactly like you
right now. I just thought that you might find it interesting.
My second splirt of information is that I think you
guys should definitely do a podcast on cinesesthasia. I have
(32:23):
graphine color synesthesia and would love to hear your opinion
on the matter. Very cool. Yeah, a couple of things. One,
now I imagine myself as an Elvis personator like fifty
of us, all with a Cape song to splurt love it. Yeah, okay,
and uh and three we have heard from a lot
of people who talk about sinensaia and having different experiences
with it. So that's that's definitely one that we could
(32:45):
dive deeper into. Yeah, it's weird how sometimes the really
obvious ones like I feel like sinesasia has been on
when we first started doing stuff to blow your mind,
that's stuff to blow your mind, were Mando this enormous
list of possible topics, and and some of them were
no brainess like Seneslatia. We gotta do that. That's great
mind blowing topic. Um. And some of those those no
brainers are still on the list. Uh. And when we
(33:05):
ended up sort of going into into weirder areas here
and yeah, our attention gets diverted. Yeah, we're easily distracted
by science. So there you have it. Um, if you
have something you would like to share with us. Be
it science related, be it sci fi related, be it
just about anything that's interesting and mind stimulating. You can
find us on Facebook as stuff to Blow the Mind,
(33:27):
and you can also find find us on Twitter, where
our Twitter handles blow the Mind one word, and you
can also send us a line at blow the Mind
at house to work dot com. Be sure to check
out our new video podcast, Stuff from the Future. Join
how Stuff Work staff as we explore the most promising
(33:47):
and perplexing possibilities of tomorrow.
Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind from how Stuff
Works dot Com. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind.
My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Julie Douglas. Julie. Um,
let's look in the future again. Why why don't we
closing mine? All right? Engaging third eye? Al Right, did
(00:26):
you get to the firestorms and the pyramids of bones?
You've gone too far? Okay, so back up a little bit. Um,
well what are you more to the point, what are
you seeing in terms of healthcare in the next um
century or two? Where are we going? I am seeing
the sort of healthcare where I can just basically, um like,
(00:51):
just take my finger and swipe it on some sort
of metal thing and it will tell me everything about
me I ever wanted to know. And how much calcium
I haven't vibed, I don't know potassium whatever. What do
you see? That's not very exciting one? Let me see
all right, Um, I'm seeing a day where instead of
taking um, like a multi vitamin vitamin every day, I
(01:14):
take one smart multi vitamin that that stays in my
system and administers for a year. Yeah, for administers like
a year. So it's like a tiny doctor that lives
inside me and uh and administers medication as needed. That yeah, okay,
and and actually that doesn't that's not too far off right,
right we are? I mean, the technology is coming together
(01:35):
now the and it basically comes down to and to
something that's kind of a can be kind of a
scary word for for people who are are not already
like me, deep in the field, and that is is
nanotechnology materials and ultimately a concept we're talking about called
nano manufacturing. Now. For me, anyway, I just finished writing
(01:59):
an article called ten ways nano Manufacturing will alter Industry.
So and I hadn't I had not really researcher written
much about nanotechnology. So it was kind of a deep
die for me where I had to sort of like
a lot of these topics that kind of have to
start from scratch and be like, all right, what the
heck is this? And then and what does it mean?
And then how like what does it really mean? Not
just what are the words on the page um in
(02:20):
this right up or or this one. But I think
nanotechnology can be a little confusing because we tend to
get this fantastic voyage idea in our mind, by which
I mean the the Asimov novel in the movie and
not the Coulio video, but the idea of you know,
like a little miniature ship, like a little miniature submarine
has been shrunk down and it's doing things inside the
(02:40):
body or building things, um at this minuscule scale, like
the nano scale, just to everyone know exactly how small
we're talking about? What what? What does technology or nanotechnology?
All right? Like the at the nano scale of things, UM,
where we have like we have like a single wall
old carbon nanitude um is scarcely one nanometer thick, all right,
(03:05):
So in relatable terms, you'd have to line up a
hundred thousand of those side by side in order to
equal the one hundred micrometer diameter of a single strand
of hair. Yes, okay, so that's that's how tiny it is,
but it's still it's by by comparing it to the hair,
it definitely puts it within like the grasp of human understanding,
(03:27):
but it's still very very tiny. Um. So nano nano materials,
nano nano technology, it involves dealing with matter at that scale,
which and you wouldn't think this is uh, it turns
out that when you are dealing with such small particles,
it's a lot easier to manipulate them, right, you can,
you can, you can. You have a lot more control
(03:48):
over the over the various characteristics of materials of of
well basically materials. And then but if you're altering you're
altering the material els in things such as medications uh
at times, or something as gigantic as uh like a
meta material that you plan to build a space elevator
out of. It's the analogy that I ended up using
(04:11):
the article was was like building blocks. It seems like
you start off with kind of big building blocks as
a kid, and then as you get a little older,
you start dealing with smaller blocks and the models that
you can build. Like so you wanted to build an
airplane out of alphabet blocks, you're gonna build something that
vaguely resembles an airplane, you know, assuming you assuming you
(04:33):
built it at a reasonable scale, like it had to
fit on a table. You can only build so detailed
an airplane, and you might have to use a little
uh um creativity uh to to see that it is
supposed to be an airplane. Legos are much smaller, there's
a lot more detail, there's a lot more room to
to create detail in the model, and you could build
a pretty amazing airplane model. Uh. That's the size of
(04:57):
the table if you build it out of legos. The
smaller the building blocks the the the greater the power
over what you're building. And that's exactly how it ends
up with with nanotechnology. It's the idea that we're going
to build things at the scale that nature builds things. Yeah.
And not only that, but particles behave differently at that scale. UM.
(05:18):
And so that's why quantum physicists are really interested in
this obviously. UM. From the article how nanotechnology works, there's
a good example that says, you know, we can't teleport
ourselves to the other side of the wall, but at
the nano scale, and the electron can. And this is
actually called electron tunneling. So you know, all of a sudden,
you do see this really cool. Um, these these sort
(05:40):
of things happening, and we can apply them in a
really meaningful, you know, concrete way. Hence nano manufacturing. Right,
you get down to a small enough scale, solid things
aren't really solid anymore. You can manipulate, uh, materials and
buy materials. You can manipulate everything from steel to um
medication and make it behave a little more like you
(06:02):
wanted to. And and again it's it's when when nature
builts something. When nature builds a coral reef, it builds
it from the uh. And I'm sorry to personify nature here,
but but when nature builds a coral reef, it builds
it from the bottom up, from the smallest particles up.
And and this is about building things from the bottom up.
And that's why the I say, throw out the whole
sort of fantastic voyage image of it, or the idea
(06:24):
of tiny little robots that are essentially big robots shrunk down,
because that is a that's more of like um, top
down thinking. Uh and uh and and nanotechnology is generally
more about building things at the smallest scale. And it
has like huge implications for our healthcare. And we're not
talking this is not sci fi stuff. They mean this
is stuff that is in the works and around the corner. Yeah,
(06:47):
these these are real applications of nanotechnology that that definitely
make a difference. Not not just like oh, I bet
you can make a super strong sword or a tower
that's is tall that's taller than the atmosphere. The type
of thing UM and and also before we get into
some of the healthcare um things that we'll be talking about,
I just wanted to mention too that right now there
(07:07):
are more than eight hundred commercial products that usually talk
about in the article too, like this is this is
something that's being used on in a widespread way. And
in fact, Adidas uses nanotechnology for their cleats because nanocarbon
tubes are actually like a hundred times stronger than steel
and it's a lot lighter. Yeah, And when we use
the term nano manufacturing, the point is that I think
(07:30):
of it in terms of say a weapon, like a
like a gun, a musket. There's a time where to
create a musket you would have to have an artisan
basically that would make it and make it one by one.
But uh, and there's only so much you can do
with that. It takes a lot more effort, a lot
more cost, and a lot more time to say outfit
in army that way. But if you can, if you
can mass produce the weapon, then it's a lot easier
(07:53):
to get that technology out there and actually make a
difference with that technology, you know. And uh, And so
the idea with nano manufacturing is that nano fact manufacturing
involves getting the nanotechnology to the point to where we
can mass produce its effects and make a real impact
with the with the technology right, right, because as you
point out in the article, none of it really matters
(08:16):
unless it's you can produce it on a scale in
which everybody has access to it. But that's that seems
to be the way that it's going. Yeah, it's like
the iPhone, right, Like the the whole idea of the
The amazing thing about the iPhone was that not only
is the technology great, but they're able to mass produce it.
The point of the point that everyone could have one
if it took a lot of effort and only Steve
Jobs could have one, what's the point that doesn't make
(08:37):
any money, right, that doesn't change lives. And by the way,
they use nanotechnology too. Yeah, there you go. Yeah, nano
manufacturing is already uh, already out there, and it's just
going to increase as time goes on, and we're going
to see nanotechnology trickling down to various aspects of our life,
especially healthcare. Yes, and let's talk about what that's gonna
look like, because I'm very excited by this. Something called
(09:00):
lab on a chip yes, Uh, do you want to
mention the uh the article with all the other day
Oh right, right, well, actually, yeah, before I talk about chlamydia,
because you know, we always like to do a public
service announcements about chlamydia. Um, they actually did use this
in some of their tests for this lab on a chip.
(09:20):
But before I talk about that, I want to talk
about how what what we're talking about here? What does
it look like? We're talking about transportable diagnostics via nano devices.
So a USB stick sized throwaway device called lab on
a chip. Right. Well, because if if anyone anyone out
there who's ever had like a blood sample taken, you
know the deal. They take the sample, but then they
have to send it off somewhere or take it into
(09:41):
the back room, and that involves, uh, it involves a
laboratory that is staffed, that is air conditioned. The expense
in the time really adds up. And that's assuming that
the facilities are there, uh where you can reach them.
If you travel out into the middle of nowhere, suddenly
the you know, the labs farther away, it becomes a
more a pain or even an impossibility to rely on
(10:03):
the modern lab technology that we have. Uh, certainly in
the developing world to it becomes a huge issue. Yeah,
I mean, this is so convenient. You basically take a
droplet of fluid and you put it in the chip
and micro pumps inside it send the fluid to internal
vessels containing re agents that extract target disease biomarker molecules,
(10:23):
and then that whole device can be sent to a
lab for analysis. But but here's here's UM actually a
little one up on this. There's a diagnostic app for
smartphones that's been developed UM in which you could essentially
do the same thing. You have a tiny droplet of
a sample and you press it against the phone's touch
screen for analysis, where the app would work out whether
(10:44):
you have food poisoning, strepp road or flu um. And
how does it work. I mean, the touch screens are
are highly sensitive, right, and so they can they can
store electric charges known as capacitance. Okay, and because the
screens are so sensitive, they can detect very small capacitance
changes and could could be these sort of platforms that
(11:05):
could actually identify disease markers. But okay, this is the
interesting part or or I mean, this is all interesting,
but here comes to the chlamydia. Right, okay, so watch
out here it comes. Young Yo Park and Beyng Yon
Juan at the Korea Advance Institute for Science and Technology
took three solutions containing differing concentrations of DNA from the
(11:27):
bacteria that causes chlamydia. Okay, they're originally going to going
to use crabs, but they were told they would get
laughs if they did that, they would get laughs. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
that's nice. Anyway, So they they apply these droplets from
each to an iPhone size multi touch display, and they
found that the output from the screens array of crisscrossed
touch sensing electrodes could distinguish between the capacitances caused by
(11:51):
each concentration using droplets of only ten micro leaders micro leaders,
which is one thousands of amlilate leader by the way.
Um so, but they're not able to differentiate between pathogens yet.
But differentiating between concentrations is really a first step. So
another problem is who wants their touch screen to be
bathed in the chlamidia? Really? Yeah? It especially changes the
(12:13):
whole You know, you're at the train station and some
some dudes down on his luck and was like, hey,
can I kind of borrow your phone for a second,
because it's weird enough if he's about to make a
you know, a personal call, but if he's going to
check for chlamydia with your cell phone, it's it's a
little weird, right right, And then you don't know, all
of a sudden, you've got, you know, chlamydia placed up
against your skin. You got chlamydia cheek really, But the
(12:36):
technology could be applied in in a to a kind
of star trek Um spit scanning device that would have
have huge potential, And like I said, not only that
in developing world, but pretty much in the field in general.
Like anytime someone who is out in the field wanting
to test somebody or anybody, you could have it geared
to particular ailments or or or maybe a little more broad,
(12:59):
but you could you who diagnose people in real time
in the field. Yeah, exactly. And they are trying to
come up with some removable stickers to put over the
phones that you don't you're not you know, transmitting a
little bio samples of chlamydia for instance. Well there you go.
I mean they already has even the Steve Jobs didn't
like them, told when I tried to buy one once. Yeah,
(13:19):
because they were Like Steve Jobs doesn't like those because
they imply that the screen is not solid and and
and can be easily scratched. And he's right. In my experience,
they're kind of a con you know, you end up
placing the stupid trastic thing over the over the screen,
and then all that does is just caused dust to
build up underneath there. I mean, I've never managed to,
you know, knock on wood to scratch your mess up
(13:41):
my screens. Yeah, but I mean what we're talking about
here is if if you are going to use yourself
have yeah or something akin to that. Um. But okay,
So that's that's one instance. We also have better, longer
lasting drugs, which you sort of inferred about the vitamins. Yeah,
(14:04):
they're There are a few different ways to look at
this stuff. One way is, of course, you you change
the way that the drug interacts with the human body.
Just consider, for instance, the botulism toxin in botox treatments.
Of course, bochualism toxin is a toxin but bacteria that's
generally bad for the human body unless it is administered
in small doses. For generally, it's like for muscle ailments
(14:28):
or for just merely cosmetic retulism in and of itself
is not necessarily something you want to cross. So uh,
doctors have actually generally inject botox because into a target
tusue because it can't pass through skin, right okay. Researchers
at the University of Massachusetts Allow Nano Manufacturing Center, however,
(14:50):
are working on creating a topical botox cream. Their secret
is they attached the toxin to a nanoparticle that allows
it to hitch a ride through the skin. And so
you you basically have a nanoparticle, this manipulated particle at
the nanoscale that is capable of passing through the skin
as as a lot of materials, uh and in substances
(15:12):
are capable of doing. And it ends up changing the
way that the boschel m toxin reacts with the body.
Like I said, it is a right, So suddenly something
that could not transfer through the skin can be rubbed
on in a cream form. I wonder if Nicole kid
Kidvin knows about this. I hate to say that. You
(15:33):
know what creeps me out about this is that we
have the blood brain barrier, right right, Yeah, that's the
thing there. Our skin is generally that the whole. Some
things can pass through and some can't. Like it generally
works in our favor. Um, if you don't want just
anything to come in, it's like a it's a private
party inside and not everything is invited, right, And so
so all of a sudden you've got you know, botulism
(15:56):
or the toxin at least in this concentration being absorbed
by your skin getting into your bloodstream. Right. And so
the blood brain barrier is a membrane that protects the
brain from potentially harmful chemicals in the bloodstream, right, from
making sure that doesn't cross into your brain. So that
this is something that keeps coming up. What is the
ability of nanomaterials to cross that barrier? And I don't
(16:19):
think that we have a good understanding of this yet. Yeah,
do you end up this is one of the fears
of nanotechnology in generally you end up creating these particles
that end up just passing right into our brain, right, Yeah,
I mean you know, do you wanna do you want
to bow talk to your brain? No? Probably not right,
Uh So that's that's a little bit creepy, but it
is you know, it's very interesting in terms of the delivery,
(16:40):
right and a lot of these drugs have really cool
delivery systems. Yeah, and also real quick like basic delivery
UM physics if you will include things like solutability, like
the ability of a drug to become a part of
your blood, to break down, to break down, you know,
in the body. UM nanotechnology will allow us to you
create drug particles at the nanoscale, so the the absorption
(17:04):
rate increases and dosage levels decrease because you end up
having to to put in less of a of a
particular medication because the particles are so much smaller, it
ends up being more potent being well it uh, you
absorb it faster and more completely. So it's it's it
allows you to to make a smarter version of a
(17:26):
particular medication. Okay. And this is also where the length
of time comes into right, Like you could take something
and it could last for I don't know, two weeks,
two months, no matter, you know, depending on what it
is being administered, right. Yeah. Researchers at Northwestern University are
actually developing drug devices made from nanodiamonds which prevent medicine
(17:47):
from releasing too swiftly into the body. UM. So the
idea this is again coming back to what I mentioned earlier,
the idea that you could implant month's worth of medication
directly into the affected tissue area. Like, think of it
this way. You're going out of town for the weekend.
What do you do if you have a dog? Defeed?
Do you just open six cans of alpo and leave
them there on the table for the dog? No, you
(18:08):
have somebody come and open one can um you know,
of two cans a day for the dog. Because the
dog doesn't know any better, it will eat all the
cans of alpo and make itself sick. You need somebody
to administer it. So this is the idea instead of
instead of having to administer you know, all the the
alpo one bit of a time, it could self administer.
You know. It's interesting too because I was just thinking
(18:28):
about birth control and how this is going to affect
that because you have birth control pills, like I think,
like a season all or maybe that's a subcutaneous um
birth control that they implant. But in any case, they've
got different kinds of birth control pills that you have
to take only like you know, every four months or
some one and so forth, and um, I mean, essentially
you could do the same thing with birth control. You
(18:49):
could you could have it release over your period and
just take one pill, right and and the other really
exciting area is is of course, like I said, being
able to target the area of the body, like uh,
I mean, that's the big thing about cells, right, the
particular cells, a particular particular organs. Even um. Chemotherapy tends
to be um such an ordeal because you're generally having
(19:12):
to treat the whole body to treat the area that
you want, you know, instead of going after the you're
you're treating the population to get to the criminal. So
if if we could, if we could, we could apply
it to just a particular area of the body through
through these these nano delivery devices, you could have a
situation where you could treat you could use the chemotherapy
(19:33):
therapy to target the specific cells and not end up
you know, making the individual rul sick, which is great
because then you're not wiping out a bunch of healthy
cells exactly. Yeah, And that is a chief complain about chemotherapy,
that um that comes up over and over again. And
then you have something called super pain killers. Oh yes,
this and this sounds crazy just because of these substances
(19:54):
involved in it. But University of Kentucky College of Medicine,
they came up with this concept of taking a morphine molecule,
which of course is the heavy pain killer UM and
uh the th HC molecule th HC being the intoxicating
part of marijuana, and joining them together with a single
nanoparticle and then once so once in they travel into
(20:15):
the body. But once in the body, the linking bit
breaks free and releases the morphine and the th HC
in equal targeted doses. See that's that's insane, right, because
you wonder, I mean, obviously that would be really helpful
for surgical procedures and you know, trying to heal from
certain things and trying to avoid pain in general. But wow,
doesn't that make an interesting cocktail of a of a drug. Yeah?
(20:38):
And it also I can't help but think of like
drug companies in their various patents on substances, you know,
because the idea is like you you take a you
take two patent medications, and when the patents running out,
you just sort of combine them together and then you
have a new patent. So if you could, I wonder
to what extent um nano manufacturing allow just minor tweaks
(20:59):
in medications to make sure they continue to keep the
pattern well. And also does this make us rethink legalization
of marijuana at least here in the United States? Probably not,
because you know, again, this is this is a medical use, right,
this is which we have medically used. We are one
in some places. But still, I mean, now that you're
gonna you're gonna use it in this context, it sort
(21:21):
of makes the whole uh cannabis are the against cannabis
argument a little bit silly. Well, and then let's take
a quick break here from our sponsor, and when we
come back, we're gonna get into a topic that we've
enjoyed talking about in the past, that being grow your
own organs in bath and your sparing. This podcast is
brought to you by Intel, the sponsors of Tomorrow and
(21:44):
the Discovery Channel. At Intel, we believe curiosity is the
spark which drives innovation. Join us at curiosity dot com
and explore the answers to life's questions. All right, we're back,
so we uh we. In the past, we've vote, we've
discussed the idea of doing yourself organs or or more
(22:04):
specifically the idea that we can print organs, that we
can grow them um through the use of stem cells.
And we can, and we can. We've we've done this,
We've people are walking around with them, um and it's
it's it's amazing, um. But how does how does nanotechnology
affect this? Right? How can it play a role? Well,
let's just think about what we've done so far. I
(22:25):
mean we were basically we've used patient's own stem cells.
And we know from a previous podcast that fat stem
cells are really easy for us because most of them
can adapt to a particular type of organ And we've
successfully grown human bladders and even hearts by coaxing stem
cells to grow over an organ shaped scaffold. Yeah, and
like one of these is the ideas here as you
(22:47):
take a use a ghost heart, So you take at
an existing human heart, like a donor heart, and then
you you strip it down with chemicals to like just
the collagen, and then you set the stem cells on
there to grow over this scalp foldings. So it's kind
of like the idea of let's strip the building down
to just the beams and then build a new exactly
the way we need it. And the scaffolding is really important, right,
(23:09):
because you have to be able to achieve this shape.
That's where nanotechnology can You can't obviously, you can't just
grow a You don't just want to grow a bowl
of heart tissue. You need to grow that amount of
heart tissue in the shape, in the complex, specific shape
of a human heart. Right. So it turns out that
researchers at Rice University and MD Anderson Cancer Center in
(23:30):
Houston have developed an organ sculpting technique that uses metal
nano particles suspended in a magnetic field. Yeah, they were
Basically they woke up one day and they're like, you know,
the idea of growing your own heart um with stem
cells is not quite mind blowing enough for us. I
wonder if we can somehow up the antie and a
loan of the whole. They do, because they their concept
(23:50):
here as you take these these magnetic hether they're metal
land on particles and they're in a magnetic field, and
by manipulating the magnetic field, you arrange these particles into
a like a floating scaffolding. I know this such dug
henning nanotechnology. I mean, seriously, get really excited by this
because I just think Yeah, it's like suspending jello. Yeah,
(24:11):
it's like magic. The idea that not to mystify the technology,
but seriously, imagine walking into a room and they're floating
in the middle of it is this pullful flesh that's
growing into the shape of a donor heart. And again
you've got the nanoparts particles suspended in a magnetic field.
You have these matching up with this three D model
of what it should be. Yeah, I mean you have
(24:31):
these these particles behaving in a very different way than
in this in the at the scale. So that's so cool. Um.
There's also reconstructive surgery. Severe burn patients have little viable
skin leftograft onto um the rest of their body, and
so you can you can grow new skin using polymeric material,
but sometimes it takes too long and the patient it
(24:53):
can get really bad infections. And so when the newest
theories in the field of cell growing is at the
smallest ructure, the wider the possibility to manipulate the cells. Again. Uh,
So they have a new laser based technology called e
u V Extreme Ultraviolet that you that creates uh, nanostructured
polymer surfaces which really allows you to rapidly grow these
(25:16):
new skin for someone and then there's also no scar.
Plastic surgery. Scientists in Japan have developed a biodegradable thin
film of only about twenty nanometers thick that could replace
surgical stitches, which is really amazing. If you look at
the pictures, uh, you can already see, like um, that
the organism is beginning to heal itself really rapidly, as
(25:38):
opposed to sort of the big franken science stitches that
exist on it. So all of this makes me think
of another episode that we did a while back, that
being The nine Birthday Candles, which if you haven't heard
it or we're confused by the title, it deals with
the the science and the emerging science of living to
be nine years old, and that specifically what Aubrey de
(25:58):
Gray has to say about a lot of them. Yeah,
Abrey de Gray being the great bearded one, he does
look like a wonderful sort of gnome like man, gnome
like because of the beard, wizard like imagined him and
Alan Moore and Gandalf hanging out together. You can tell
my you can tell my crush is lessened because yeah,
now I'm calling him a gnome um. But no, it's
(26:18):
gonna be cute. So but he he is uh, he's
sort of a rock star in the bio geriatric field,
and a lot of people at first were sort of like,
what are you talking about? This is impossible, But he
has made a very good argument that the human body
is much like a classic car and if you can
get in there and you can do this sort of
maintenance before huge diseases and take over, then you can
(26:40):
actually extend the life. And he is saying that right
now that there is someone who is going to live
to be at least five hundred years old because of
the new technology, like what we're talking about today, and
it's it's it's probably David Bowie, that's my guess. Oh yeah,
I'm sure he's he's he's funding some of this and
he and Nicole Kidman. But I mean, we are talking
(27:01):
about self maintenance. And this is from UH an article
from HS Plus magazine. It's UH Nanotechnology and surgery surgeon's perspective.
The surgeon says this trend is already apparent in plastic surgery,
talking about all the sorts of nano technology that aims
at appearance enhancement. Expect this trend to appear in other
(27:22):
surgical specialties like orthopedics for enhanced athletes, transplantation of organs
from bioprinting or stem cells, new ordinary arteries delivered with
angioplastic balloons, enhancement drugs with DNA modifications, and many many others.
It seems that surgery will be the vector of our
first steps towards transcendence, gradually moving towards less and less
invasive procedures until surgery becomes almost obsolete. So that's what
(27:47):
that's what he's talking about. And he's basically, you know,
this idea that Aubrey de Gray has that we can
continue to use technology to to uh fix ourselves and
we you know, surgery may become very obsolete. And you
know when this happens, are we are we still human? Yeah?
I don't know. I don't know. I mean, if we
enhanced ourselves beyond uh you know, at least calling ourselves
(28:08):
homo sapiens, or are we homo sapiens Homo sapien plus?
I think maybe that's I like that, Yeah, like the
plus because you don't have to keep updating it with like,
you know, one point two point. So there you go.
That's nano manufacturing at least as it relates to healthcare.
We uh, we may come back and explore the topic
a little more and look at the ways nano manufacturer
(28:30):
is going to change other aspects like architecture. Architecture is
pretty amazing. Um, but if you can't wait for that,
by all means, you can check out tin waves and
manufacturing will alter industry. It's actually hosted on the Curiosity website,
which how stuff works. Theres a lot of content for that.
We all right, uh if you're amount of content for
that that property which is owned by Discovery Channel, yes, yeah,
(28:52):
and our employers, yes, our employers, And it's a part
of that the awesome TV show, the Curiosity Project show.
So uh, let's call over the robot uh and see
if it has any mail for us. Come on, Arnie,
all right, So let's uh, let's grab some of this mail,
all right, Luke writes in. Luke says, hey, Robert, I've
(29:13):
heard you talk about doing several times on the podcast,
that being the novel by Frank Herbert, and so I
finally read it, and he was to say it was amazing,
But now I want your opinion on the sequel. So
I find myself wanting to find out what happens next
to get more closure. But I'm also a slow reader
and feel somewhat exhausted after done. I've seen your reviews
and I've sort of gathered what happens in doing Messiah?
Is it a good read? Regardless of that, should I
read it? Even though I know I kind of know
(29:35):
what will happen. Like you talked about in the podcast
about too many choices decisions, tig, I'm looking for someone
whose opinion I trust to make the decisions for me.
Thanks and happy Thanksgiving. Yeah, yeah, no, that's interesting. I
remember in Decision the Decision Fatigue podcast, you said it's
great to have someone who can bet things for you.
So you're betting this for him? Yeah? If I will go,
(29:55):
just go and say, if you were looking for closure
and the things you read, proceeding with the Dunes here
is is probably not your best bet, um, because and
then a Frank Herbert dies before he can finish it. Uh,
And in my opinion, the books become less and less
solid as even if they progress in his writing of them. Uh,
they become less about characters and more about ideas. And
(30:15):
then even the idea is kind of fall flat after
a while again in my opinion, and then his son
ends up finishing the series, but their various voices back
and forth about to what degree he was able to
um to accomplish his father's vision. So for the most part,
I advise people to um to stick with June unless
you really really can't help yourself, and then, uh, you know,
(30:37):
don a side is pretty fun, but they gets less
fun as you go, So that would be my advice.
There are so many I suffer from this myself sometimes
with books, Like I found an author that I like, uh,
and I will just keep reading them until I'm not
reading the things that they may do. We're good anymore,
because not everybody's like that, where everything that they wrote
is great, or every or every album that they came
(31:00):
up with this amazing, or or every film they ever
directed or start in as a masterpiece. So um. But
but I often end up doing that, like I find
some an artist that I like, and I keep exploring
their work, uh, when I really should be finding new
artists who discover Actually I think that that's a better
appreciation of how they've evolved as an artist. Yeah, but
(31:20):
then there's there's something to be said, like what do
I at the end of at the end of the life.
What what do I want? Do I want to say
I have a really good appreciation for how um Frank
Herbert evolved or he evolved as a as a writer.
Or do I want to be able to say I
read some really good books that had some really amazing ideas.
And I don't know. I don't know, but I see
(31:42):
I see some sort of college level of course coming
on a festa. Thanks where that's where you could apply it.
Let me see if I have one more This is
maybe a little more science. Oh, I know, this one's fun.
Let's go at this. Uh Nathan writes in it says, Hi,
Robert and Julie, I love your podcast, and I only
have two things to say. Firstly, I read simply listen
to your podcast on doppelgangers and wondered if you have
(32:02):
heard of the Elvis impersonator theory. The theory is that
there are so many Elvis impersonators out there, but only
about fifty of them actually look like him. So there
are fifty people out there that look exactly like you
right now. I just thought that you might find it interesting.
My second splirt of information is that I think you
guys should definitely do a podcast on cinesesthasia. I have
(32:23):
graphine color synesthesia and would love to hear your opinion
on the matter. Very cool. Yeah, a couple of things. One,
now I imagine myself as an Elvis personator like fifty
of us, all with a Cape song to splurt love it. Yeah, okay,
and uh and three we have heard from a lot
of people who talk about sinensaia and having different experiences
with it. So that's that's definitely one that we could
(32:45):
dive deeper into. Yeah, it's weird how sometimes the really
obvious ones like I feel like sinesasia has been on
when we first started doing stuff to blow your mind,
that's stuff to blow your mind, were Mando this enormous
list of possible topics, and and some of them were
no brainess like Seneslatia. We gotta do that. That's great
mind blowing topic. Um. And some of those those no
brainers are still on the list. Uh. And when we
(33:05):
ended up sort of going into into weirder areas here
and yeah, our attention gets diverted. Yeah, we're easily distracted
by science. So there you have it. Um, if you
have something you would like to share with us. Be
it science related, be it sci fi related, be it
just about anything that's interesting and mind stimulating. You can
find us on Facebook as stuff to Blow the Mind,
(33:27):
and you can also find find us on Twitter, where
our Twitter handles blow the Mind one word, and you
can also send us a line at blow the Mind
at house to work dot com. Be sure to check
out our new video podcast, Stuff from the Future. Join
how Stuff Work staff as we explore the most promising
(33:47):
and perplexing possibilities of tomorrow.
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Joe McCormick
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