Here’s a quick look at everything that tickled my fancy this past week:
Superblood
A startup known as Rubius Therapeutics is hoping to treat diseases with enhanced forms of blood.
According to Futurism:
“Rubius plans to equip red blood cells with a therapeutic protein that can be tailored to treat a particular condition. Afterwards, they’re infused into the body to begin treating the patient’s condition. Ultimately, thissuperblood will only account for less than 1 percent of the total amount of blood in a patient’s body.
Initially, the company wants to develop superblood therapies that replace missing enzymes in patients suffering from rare diseases, as well as treat cancer and autoimmune disorders like lupus and type 1 diabetes. Unlike T-cell therapy, however, red blood cell therapies don’t need to be as personalized. On their site, Rubiusclaims they’d only need one universal donor (someone with an O negative blood type) to ‘generate enough therapeutic doses to treat hundreds to thousands of different patients.’
Seeing Heart Disease
I hate not knowing my risk of a heart attack. I could drop dead tomorrow and I’d have no idea about my impending doom today. Thankfully, there may soon be a quick non-invasive way to tell if you are at risk of developing heart disease. No blood test required.
According to the Verge, “Scientists from Google and its health-tech subsidiary Verily have discovered a new way to assess a person’s risk of heart disease using machine learning. By analyzing scans of the back of a patient’s eye, the company’s software is able to accurately deduce data, including an individual’s age, blood pressure, and whether or not they smoke. This can then be used to predict their risk of suffering a major cardiac event — such as a heart attack — with roughly the same accuracy as current leading methods.”
Silicon Quantum Computers
Quantum computers can do some amazing things that regular computers can’t. Unfortunately, the technology is still years away from making an impact. Or is it? A new breakthrough from Intel could drastically alter how we integrate Quantum Computers into society by making one that works with existing technology.
As The Next Web reports:
“The researchers used a special type of qubit (the quantum version of a classical computer’s bits) called spin qubits to run two different quantum algorithms on a silicon chip.
Other quantum systems, like Intel’s breakthrough 49-qubit computer, rely on superconductive materials and near perfect-zero temperatures. A spin qubit doesn’t require either, it’s an electron that’s been agitated by microwave pulses.
While other quantum systems are closer to being useful, the idea here wasn’t to create a better computer but one that would work with existing infrastructure.”
Luciola
In the future we may have tiny lights capable of flight.
According to Reuters, “Japanese engineering researchers say they have created a tiny electronic light the size of a firefly which rides waves of ultrasound, and could eventually figure in applications ranging from moving displays to projection mapping.”
It could even become a key component in future iterations of smartphones.
Are any of these the Greatest Idea Ever?
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