Optical control of heart muscles

Came across this article which demonstrated the control of heart muscles in mice to induce artificial fibrillation. One may think why would we want to produce fibrillation, but the thing is if this stimulation can produce arrhythmias, it can also be modified to produce a natural heartbeat, it could become a pacemaker. Then one thinks, we already have pacemakers and they work just fine. Then again, the average life of a surgically implanted very expensive pacemaker is 5-15 years because the energy source, the battery has limited capacity. Here's the interesting part, if we use optical pacemakers, the main advantage is that these work on light production which is done by LEDs or laser sources, preferably the former, which will utilize much less energy per beat, thus increasing the life of the pace maker significantly, MANIFOLD. Thus actually reducing the requirement of another very expensivve surgery to change the pacemaker in pacemaker dependent patients. It will become HUGE a great invention to increase longevity. Eagerly awaiting its development.

The link to the original article is attached for further reference.

Only problem in the article is that it says: "Photostimulation is much more suitable: the cells will even withstand stimulations of several minutes at a time without problems. " . The actual duration of the photo stimulation as of now is limited to a few minutes, future developments will take care of this too making its use continuous and not limiting its use to a few minute or hours, but an entire life-time.

Optical Control of Muscles

This is an article which i came across right now and found it quite informative, so thought it would be a great thing to share. i have enclosed the link to the actual article if you find it interesting. here is a brief description about the article:

In a study involving bio-engineered mice whose nerve-cell surfaces are coated with special light-sensitive proteins, researchers at Stanford University were able to use light to induce normal patterns of muscle contraction.   The new approach allows scientists to more accurately reproduce muscle firing order, making it a valuable research tool. The investigators, from Stanford’s schools of medicine and of engineering, also believe this technique could someday spawn practical applications, from restoring movement to limbs paralyzed by stroke or spinal-cord or brain injury, to countering spasticity caused by cerebral palsy. 


sounds quite beneficial to the human race if it works out..;)

Glass Box, the successor of Black Box

This is an article which i came across while surfing the IEEE website. It is a pretty good article and talks about the requirement of new security and monitoring practices in the aviation industry. The author is a professor in the University of Texas.

The link is provided and I'd say, you should give it a few minutes.

Enjoy.. food for thought..