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Q: Bionics Research and Future Man/Machine Interfaces ( Answered 5 out of 5 stars,   2 Comments )
Question  
Subject: Bionics Research and Future Man/Machine Interfaces
Category: Science
Asked by: charlesnorbert-ga
List Price: $50.00
Posted: 18 Jun 2003 13:42 PDT
Expires: 18 Jul 2003 13:42 PDT
Question ID: 218911
I need a comprehensive set of articles and papers on the current state
of bionics. I define bionics as anything that resembles ideas about
the merging of man and machine, brain interfaces, prosethetics of any
kind, proposed nano-medical devices, and any other near future
postulations on the direction of man/machine interfaces, including
current animal research in this area.

While I would prefer real research, futurist articles and visionary
articles are more than welcome. As for the format, full text would be
prefered over links. Nothing is too small, volume is better.

$50.00
Answer  
Subject: Re: Bionics Research and Future Man/Machine Interfaces
Answered By: jbf777-ga on 18 Jun 2003 19:32 PDT
Rated:5 out of 5 stars
 
Hello -

Important note: Please ask for any necessary information/clarification
before rating this answer.  Thanks for your understanding.

Unfortunately, Researchers are unable to provide the actual text of
articles in answers due to copyright restrictions.  I have provided
brief snippets of each article with its associated link so you can
view them in your browser.

Articles on Bionics
====================

FDA Approves New Bionic Ear Technology: Advanced Bionics Introduces
CLARION CII Bionic Ear.
http://www.findarticles.com/cf_0/m4PRN/2001_March_21/72006271/p1/article.jhtml?term=bionic
California-based innovator of medical implants, Advanced Bionics
Corporation(R), today announced that its CLARION(R) CII Bionic Ear(TM)
System received U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for
the treatment of deafness in children and adults. The new bionic ear
technology, which took five years and $30 million to develop, is
approved for use in children and adults with profound hearing loss in
both ears. An estimated 460,000 to 740,000 people in the United States
who are severely or profoundly hearing impaired may benefit from
bionic ear surgery.

Australian inventors create bionic eye.
http://www.findarticles.com/cf_0/m0ECZ/2002_August_21/90587393/p1/article.jhtml?term=bionic
Inventors at the University of Newcastle in Australia are seeking
volunteers to take part in the human trials of a bionic eye. The
researchers need five completely blind volunteers to try out the new
technology which consists of a silicon chip and a pair of camera
glasses.
The chip is inserted into the eyeball and receives pictures from the
camera which breaks images down to pixels. The images are then
transmitted to the retinal cells through a series of wires. A
processing unit then handles the pictures which can currently measure
10x10 pixels.

Bionic hands for kids.(Prodigit artificial hand )(International
Pages)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
http://www.findarticles.com/cf_0/m3125/9_73/75144563/p1/article.jhtml?term=bionic
A Scottish engineer, recognized for inventing the first bionic arm,
has now fitted six children with prosthetic hands. The Prodigit
artificial hand has electronic fingers powered by signals from the
wrist that let wearers perform simple tasks such as picking up
objects.  Working in collaboration with Swedish researchers, U.K.
developer David Gow, bioengineer at Edinburgh's Princess Margaret Rose
Orthopedic Hospital, had specific goals in mind for the hand: it was
to be light, functional, cosmetic, and affordable. Inside, a miniature
battery-powered motor controls gripping. Electrodes buried in the
Prodigit pick up signals from the wearer's wrist muscles.

Bionic arm with skin is being tested in Scotland
http://www.findarticles.com/cf_0/m0WVI/1998_June_1/50074743/p1/article.jhtml?term=bionic
Bio-engineers at the Princess Margaret Rose Hospital in Edinburgh have
developed a bionic arm equipped with a motorised shoulder, rotating
wrists, moving fingers and artificial skin.  The arm, known as the
Edinburgh Modular Arm System (EMAS) is currently being trialled on
Campbell Aird, a 42-year-old hotel owner whose right arm was amputated
in 1982 after doctors diagnosed cancer.

Heart Transplant Patient Learned of Bionic Heart Reading Newsweek's
'Next Frontiers: Health & Technology' Issue.
http://www.findarticles.com/cf_0/m4PRN/2001_July_8/76384624/p2/article.jhtml?term=bionic
The AbioCor [artificial heart] is the most ambitious of a new
generation of bionic organs; it was featured on the cover of
Newsweek's June 25 issue, which is where the unnamed patient learned
about it. Artificial hearts have been in poor repute since the
unsuccessful experiments of the 1980s. Earlier models were powered by
large external consoles connected to the device by tubes passing
through the skin, posing a constant risk of infection. The AbioCor is
contained within the body and runs off a battery system that transmits
current through the skin without wires. In theory, the patient, if he
recovers well enough, can resume normal activities, up to but not
including jogging -- not that he would need to jog to strengthen his
artificial heart anyway.

'Fuzzy' polymers for the bionic age.
http://www.findarticles.com/cf_0/m3066/28_164/89493136/p1/article.jhtml?term=bionic
Scientists from the University of Michigan (UM; Ann Arbor) say they
have developed a "fuzzy" polymer surface that could improve the
interface between electronic implants and living tissue, potentially
advancing a technology that they say may one day enable the blind to
see and the paralyzed to walk. The Michigan team has developed
polypyrrole-based polymers that are electrochemically deposited onto
the electrodes and provide a "fuzzy" surface with grooves and
depressions designed to mesh better with neurons. "The idea is to have
these electrodes make a quick connection with the neurons, before the
other cells get in and wall them off," says David C. Martin, director
of UM's Macromolecular Science and Engineering Center.

FDA Approves New Bionic Ear Electrode Technology for Use in Deaf
Children As Young as 18 Months.
http://www.findarticles.com/cf_0/m4PRN/2000_Nov_21/67457091/p1/article.jhtml?term=bionic
California-based Advanced Bionics Corporation, the only U.S.
manufacturer of bionic ear implants, today announced that its new
CLARION HiFocus Electrode has received approval from the U.S. Food and
Drug Administration (FDA) for use in children as young as 18 months
(children 12 to 17 months of age can be implanted under clinical
investigation). The HiFocus Electrode is the component of the CLARION
cochlear implant that is surgically implanted into the inner ear, and
may now be used to treat hearing impairment in many of America's
56,000 deaf children.

http://www.findarticles.com/cf_0/m1175/5_32/55625504/p1/article.jhtml?term=bionic
In 100 years, Kurzweil writes, we will see that "human thinking is
merging with the world of artificial intelligence (AI) that the human
species initially created."  Indeed, that has already started; daily
newspapers recently reported the development of an electronic chip
that--acting as a neural sensor of brain activities--enables a totally
paralyzed man to control a computer cursor using just his thoughts.
Kurzweil writes, quoting physician Rick Torsch: "We used to treat the
brain like soup ... [but] now we're treating it like circuitry."
But it remains to be seen if it's possible to endow a machine with
human-level intelligence. At this point, any intelligence found in AI
programs reflects that of the programmers, not the programs
themselves, just as a photograph of a beautiful painting is a copy of
beauty, not beauty itself.

The Bionic Searcher
http://www.findarticles.com/cf_0/m1388/5_23/55497355/p1/article.jhtml?term=bionic
Neurobiologists have implanted hairthin electrodes in rat brains that
convert neural activity into an electronic signal that in turn
controls a mechanical device. The rats first learn to get a drink by
pressing a lever connected to a robotic arm. Once that behavior is
ingrained, all a rodent has to do is think about a drink and voila,
the arm actuates to slake its thirst. Comparable experiments are
underway with human subjects controlling cursor movement by leveraging
and channeling the electrical impulses in their brains. Careful, we
don't want to make this computer thing look too easy.

WILD WEIRD WORLD OF CHIPS
http://www.findarticles.com/cf_0/m0GSY/9_27/78132331/p1/article.jhtml?term=bionic
In another medical application, Microsemi Corp., Irvine, CA, has
developed a custom processor that will be used in an implanted pros
thesis developed by medical device partner Cyberonics Inc. of Houston.
The processor will be built into a tiny generator in the prosthesis,
which will stimulate a patient's vagus nerve (the nerve running from
the brain throughout the abdomen, controlling a wide variety of
functions including breathing and digestion). The immediate goal is
relieving epilepsy, but in theory, a wide variety of illnesses could
benefit, says Manuel Lynch, vice president of business development at
Microsemi. He expects samples to be in production next year.

World's Smallest Battery-Powered Implantable Bionic Device for Urinary
Incontinence in Clinical Trial; Advanced Bionics' bion(R) System
Enters Clinical Trials in Europe, Powered By Quallion's Miniature
Implantable Lithium Ion Battery Technology.
http://www.findarticles.com/cf_0/m4PRN/2003_April_2/99511618/p1/article.jhtml?term=bionic
Implanted using minimally invasive techniques and controlled via radio
waves, the bion(R) is powered by a single hermetically sealed
high-energy density lithium-ion battery about the size of a long grain
of rice. Developed by Quallion, this miniature battery provides
thousands of charge and discharge cycles, and is remotely recharged
using magnetic inductive coupling, eliminating the need for any
percutaneous wires. Also incorporated is Quallion's proprietary
Zero-Volt(TM) technology, which allows the battery to be kept in a
deep-discharged state for long periods without negatively impacting
battery life.

Moleculars "motor" between cells.
http://www.findarticles.com/cf_0/m1068/20_54/56646799/p1/article.jhtml?term=bionic
Coupling the organic and inorganic, biological engineers at Cornell
University (Ithaca, NY) demonstrated the feasibility of small,
self-propelled bionic motors that do their builders' bidding in plant,
animal, or human cells. Such machines could travel through the body,
functioning as mobile pharmacies dispensing precise doses of
chemotherapy drugs exclusively to cancer cells, for example. The
device, the result of integrating a living molecular motor with a
fabricated device at the "nano" scale, is a few billionths of a meter
in size. The first integrated motor, a molecule of the enzyme ATPase
coupled to a metallic substrate with a genetically engineered
"handle," ran for 40 minutes at three to four revolutions per second,
Carlo Montemagno and George Bachand report in the September issue of
the journal Nanotechnology

THE BIONIC RAT.(research with rats and robotic arms may have future
implications for paralyzed humans)(Brief Article)
http://www.findarticles.com/cf_0/m1511/11_20/57042501/p1/article.jhtml?term=bionic
In his Philadelphia lab, neurobiologist John Chapin has connected a
robotic arm to the brain of a rat, creating a direct link between mind
and machine. Chapin and his colleagues at the MCP Hahnemann School of
Medicine began by teaching rats to press a lever that moved a robotic
arm holding a tiny cup of sweetened water. Electrodes implanted in the
rats' brains recorded which neurons they used and converted the
signals into an electrical impulse that could directly control the
motorized arm. Soon the rats no longer needed to press on the bar to
get their sugary treat; they just had to think about it. > A
much-refined version of this system could begin aiding paralyzed
humans in about a decade, Chapin says.

Cyberkinetics Closes $5 Million in Initial Funding to Advance
Development of Novel Brain-Computer Interface Technology.
http://www.findarticles.com/cf_0/m0EIN/2002_Dec_9/95094829/p1/article.jhtml?term=bionic
Cyberkinetics will use the proceeds from this new financing to
initiate the development of medical devices based on the Company's
proprietary brain-computer interface technology. This interface
consists of an implantable array, computer hardware and software which
processes and decodes neural signals. Using the brain-computer
interface, neural signals can be detected and processed to drive
computer-mediated movement using currently available technology.

Porous silicon may be biocompatible.
http://www.findarticles.com/cf_0/m0WVI/1999_April_6/54338205/p1/article.jhtml?term=bionic
A porous version of silicon could be the key to allowing mechanical
devices to interact with human tissue, according to initial research
into biocompatibility of the material at De Monfort University,
Leicester. A report in this month's issue of Materials World, suggests
the material could lead to 'bionic' limb replacements and electronic
sensing devices for checking body chemistry and potentially viewing
images and hearing sounds.  Porous silicon was made by scientists
attempting to electropolish silicon with an electrolyte containing
hydrofluoric acid.

Bionic leg a step up, amputee says 
http://www.cbc.ca/stories/2003/06/03/bionic_leg030603
MONTREAL - A robotics company has created a bionic limb that allows an
amputee to walk and climb stairs with natural motion.  With a
conventional prosthesis, the amputee must do all the work. To climb
stairs, for example, the fit leg goes up first and the prosthesis
trails behind. The extra work can be tiring.   The motorized
prosthesis provides the energy needed to move itself, said Stéphane
Bédard, the chief scientific officer at Victhom. The company plans to
integrate the external cables and machinery into the leg itself.

Bionic man: Parkinson's patient enjoying life following 'brain
pacemaker' surgery
http://www.jg-tc.com/articles/2003/06/06/features/feat19.txt
Longtime Parkinson's disease patient Bob Hardwick of Mattoon likes to
joke that since having deep brain stimulation surgery he is the
"bionic man."  The little gizmo that looks appropriately like a TV
channel changer controls the small battery packs neatly tucked under
the skin on each side of his upper chest, which turn the electrodes
implanted in his brain on and off.  Deep brain stimulation, or "brain
pacemaker" surgery, developed in France in 1987, is the latest
surgical technique doctors are using to control the persistent and
debilitating symptoms of Parkinson's.

Researchers Combine Electronics With Living Cell To Create Potential
Toxicity Sensor
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2003/06/030610074708.htm
Berkeley - In experiments conducted at the University of California,
Berkeley, researchers have found a way to tap into the telltale
electrical signals that mark cell death, opening the door to the
creation of a "canary on a chip" that can be used to sound the alarm
of a biochemical attack or test drug toxicity on human tissue. In a
study appearing in the June 15 issue of Sensors and Actuators,
researchers used a microchip to electrically determine cell viability
by detecting changes in the electrical resistance of a cell membrane
within milliseconds after it is exposed to a toxic agent. They found
that after a cell is exposed to a toxin, its electrical resistance
experiences a quick spike before dropping dramatically when it dies.

Nano-nose sniffs out smallest scents
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2135963,00.html?rtag=zdnetukhompage
Tiny vibrating bars catch scent of passing molecules, promising a
world of computerised noses.  Researchers at the Oak Ridge National
Labs in Tennessee have claimed a new world record for weighing tiny
amounts of stuff. Tiny gold-coated silicon bars two microns long and
fifty nanometres thick were vibrated by heating them with a
solid-state laser at around two million times a second, and variations
in their resonant frequency measured.  Those variations reflected
extra weight loaded onto the bars -- in this case, masses as low as
5.5 femtograms could be detected. A femtogram is one billion billionth
of a gram, or roughly the mass of 122 gold atoms.

UCSB Postdoctoral Researcher Wins Fellowship
http://www.instadv.ucsb.edu/news/hot-news/02-03/20030609c.htm
Trnka's research is an attempt to use state-of-the-art, nano-sized,
composite materials for the delivery of drugs to cancer cells. The
goal is to load nano-scale hollow spheres with doses of chemotherapy
agents. Trnka's research proposal targets cocktails of multiple drugs
to ovarian cancer cells.

Nanotechnology study launched
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/06/11/unan.xml&sSheet=/portal/2003/06/11/ixportaltop.html
While genetics alters DNA, nanotechnology has the potential to modify
all matter, living and non-living.  Some people believe the benefits
of nanotechnology include "smart" materials for aircraft, vehicles and
buildings, and new ways of combating pollution.  Nanotechnology could
also lead to improved treatment of disease by minute, precision
delivery of medicine to affected cells.  Others speculate that it
could leader to smaller, faster computers with vastly greater data
storage.

TECHNIQUE MAKES PROTEIN ARRAYS
http://pubs.acs.org/cen/topstory/8006/8006notw2.html
By using the technique known as dip-pen nanolithography, chemists at
Northwestern University and the University of Chicago have made
protein arrays with feature sizes ranging from 100 to 350 nm. The
advance could lead to protein or nucleic acid arrays--useful screening
tools--that are 1 million to 10 million times denser than those
currently available.

In Situ Click Chemistry
http://pubs.acs.org/cen/coverstory/8006/8006clickchemistry.html
In the "click chemistry" strategy developed recently at Scripps
Research Institute, reactive molecular building blocks are designed to
"click" together selectively and covalently. The Scripps researchers
are now extending the idea by using protein binding sites,
supramolecular complexes, or functionalized surfaces as reaction
vessels to direct the in situ formation of potentially functional
click chemistry products. The products might be biological inhibitors,
molecular-electronics components, sensor probes, nonlinear optical
materials, light-harvesting compounds, or compounds with any number of
other useful properties.

Nanotechnology, a Hard Pill to Swallow
http://www.i-sis.org.uk/nanotechnology.php
In August last year, scientists from Osaka University unveiled the
world’s tiniest sculptures, bulls the size of a single blood cell,
made using lasers. That was a dramatic demonstration that techniques
for miniaturising machines are feasible, perhaps ultimately, down to
the size of molecules that could fit inside cells.  Researchers from
universities of Glasgow, Edinburgh and Strathclyde are working on
robots about the size of a pill, that, when swallowed could measure
temperature, acidity and oxygen concentration in the stomach, and the
signals transmitted to an external receiver. Other researchers have
developed a minute camera in a pill that can transmit pictures of all
parts of the gut.

Computer control is all in the mind
http://www.findarticles.com/cf_0/m0WVI/2000_Nov_13/67154463/p1/article.jhtml?term=%22brain+interface%22
In fact, rather than a trip into Scanners territory, the Adaptive
Brain Interface (ABI) is a brain-computer interface originally
designed by the Commission's joint research council (JRC) to help the
disabled.  Using electrodes connected to a user's head, the system is
based on the analysis of electroencephalogram (EEG) signals, which can
be used to select characters or instructions on a computer screen.

Neil Squire Foundation
http://www.neilsquire.ca/rd/bci/progress.htm
Prior to Jan. 2002, the BCI research team had developed a
single-position, brain-controlled switch that responds to specific
patterns detected in spatiotemporal electroencephalograms (EEG)
measured from the human scalp. We refer to our initial design as the
Low-Frequency Asynchronous Switch Design (LF-ASD) [3]. Our initial
evaluations of the LF-ASD had demonstrated that it was capable of
detecting imagined motor movements in able-bodied individuals and in
individuals with high-level spinal cord injuries. Our current on-line
evaluations continue to evaluate the usability of the LF-ASD on a
larger subject population, which include able-bodied and C4/C5 SCI
subjects. Preliminary findings, verify our previous observations of
being able to control the switch at a rate of 40-80% with a
corresponding false activation rate of less than 1%.

Big Brother Gets Under Your Skin
http://www.xontek.com/Advanced_Technology/Bio-chips_Implants/Big_Brother_Gets_Under_Your_Skin.shtml
Big Brother Gets Under Your Skin: Ultimate ID Badge, Transceiver
Implanted In Human
New implant technology currently used to locate lost pets has been
adapted for use in humans, allowing implant wearers to emit a homing
beacon, have vital bodily functions monitored and confirm identity
when making e-commerce transactions.  Applied Digital Solutions, an
e-business to business solutions provider, acquired the patent rights
to the miniature digital transceiver it has named "Digital Angel®."
The company plans to market the device for a number of uses, including
as a "tamper-proof means of identification for enhanced e-business
security."

Letting Silicon-Chip Implants Do the Talking
http://www.xontek.com/Advanced_Technology/Bio-chips_Implants/Implants_Do_the_Talking.shtml
Over in England, a nutty professor is planning to hook his central
nervous system to his computer. He thinks it might improve his sex
life and maybe even save mankind from becoming slaves to machines.
He's touting his scheme in an essay called "I, Robot"--the cover story
in this month's Wired, a magazine that can be trusted to go gaga over
any cockamamie utopian idea, as long as it involves computers.

'Soul Catcher' Computer Chip Due...
http://www.xontek.com/Advanced_Technology/Bio-chips_Implants/The_End_of_Death.shtml
A computer chip implanted behind the eye that could record a person's
every lifetime thought and sensation is to be developed by British
scientists.  "This is the end of death," said Dr. Chris Winter, of
British Telecom's artificial life team. He predicted that within three
decades it would be possible to relive other people's lives by playing
back their experiences on a computer. "By combining this information
with a record of the person's genes, we could recreate a person
physically, emotionally and spiritually."  Dr. Winter's team of eight
scientists at BT's Martlesham Heath Laboratories near Ipswich calls
the chip the 'Soul Catcher.' It would be possible to imbue a new-born
baby with a lifetime's experiences by giving him or her the Soul
Catcher chip of a dead person, Dr. Winter said. The proposal to
digitize existence is based on a solid calculation of how much data
the brain copes with over a lifetime.

Why You Should Get a Chip Implant
http://www.xontek.com/Advanced_Technology/Bio-chips_Implants/Why_You_Should_Get_a_Chip_Implant.shtml
How would you like to avoid waiting in lines for the rest of your
life? Breeze through everywhere like you owned the place. Watch lights
snap on, doors open automatically, money pop out of ATMs as you
approach. Never have to show an ID, buy a ticket, carry keys, remember
a password. You would leave stores loaded with packages and waltz
right past the cashiers. You wouldn't have to carry a wallet. Ever.
Family and friends could find you instantly in any crowd.  THERE'S
ONLY ONE CATCH. You would need to have a tiny little chip implanted in
your body. No big deal. Just ask Kevin Warwick, a British professor
who had a silicon-based transponder surgically inserted into his
forearm last year. You would think from all the attention that the
natty professor was jacking chips into his brain like some cheese-ball
sci-fi android. Truth is, his modest implant simply turned him into a
walking EZ-Pass.

Cyborgs and Biochips
http://www.asiaweek.com/asiaweek/technology/2000/0804/tech.chinatelcom_sb1.html
In their quest to invent machines with more reasoning agility than an
electronic calculator, computer scientists are starting to borrow
heavily from the natural world. A team of researchers from the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Lucent Technologies' Bell
Labs in June unveiled a silicon chip etched with electrical circuits
that crudely duplicate the biological wiring of neurons and synapses
in the human brain. The goal of so-called "neuromorphic engineering"
projects is to build devices capable of the complex reasoning and
discriminative abilities of animals rather than the simplistic
"yes-no" logic of conventional computers. That could open the door to
dreamed-of applications such as artificial vision systems and
computers that can understand speech and recognize faces.

Tiny spheres may detect radiation in astronauts
http://www.floridatoday.com/news/space/stories/2002a/080502spheres.htm
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - Tiny robots swimming around inside an
astronaut's body might be able to sound an alarm when the space
traveler has received too much damaging radiation.  Using an almost
science-fiction approach, researchers are studying whether
nanotechnology can help astronauts weather heavy radiation while on
long space missions.

Merging man and machine
http://www.itweb.co.za/sections/computing/2003/0303261103.asp?O=SLF
The researchers have been able to create four artificial synapses on a
silicon chip of one centimetre squared. Each synapse is a tiny hole in
the silicon, which is just 5 000 nanometres wide.  Even though this is
much bigger than a real synapse, it can stimulate a single cell in a
layer above the chip, because – when an electrical field is applied –
a neurotransmitter stored in a special "pipeline" in the chip is
pumped out to stimulate nearby cells.

Animal Testing Without Animals
http://biology.about.com/library/weekly/aa041599.htm
Two researchers at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have developed
an Electric Cell-substrate Impedance Sensing (ECIS) device that uses
electricity to study complex cell behavior. The device offers
researchers a way of testing cell interactions through non-invasive
means.  The ECIS device is an "electronic eavesdropper" on cells and
can measure the activity of cells over time. Because it is connected
via software to a computer, all data acquisition and analysis can be
automated. Data about a cell's response can be taken as frequently as
every quarter second.

Artificial Liver
http://biology.about.com/library/weekly/aa040899.htm
The Extracorporeal Liver Assist Device, or ELAD, is the first
artificial liver to use cells from humans rather than from pigs. The
device is used to sustain patients awaiting a liver transplant or
whose own liver is not functioning and needs to recover.  The ELAD
uses a chamber system in which each of the two chambers is filled with
cartridges that contain liver cells. Similar to a dialysis machine,
when the device is connected via blood vessels, the blood is filtered,
remixed, and returned to the body.

Bioengineering Blood Vessels
http://biology.about.com/library/weekly/aa042299.htm
Using a system that closely resembles the fetal environment,
scientists have produced new blood vessels from cells taken from the
arteries of an adult pig. When re-implanted into the same animals, the
"artificial" vessels performed very similarly to normal blood vessels.
The scientists used a bioreactor to produce the vessels by simulating
the fetal environment. It provided nutrients that the cells need to
develop into strong vessels and "stressed" the vessels much like the
heart would in normal vessel development.  Scientists used a tube of a
biodegradable polymer, approximately 98% air, to provide the edifice
for the vessels. Smooth muscle cells were then extracted from the pigs
and layered on the outside of the tube. The layered tube was then
placed in the bioreactor through which it received nutrients.

Implantable Insulin Pumps
http://biology.about.com/library/weekly/aa061099.htm
Researchers at the University of Delaware recently announced that
"smart" implantable insulin pumps may one day provide relief for
people with Type I diabetes. Approximately 16 million people suffer
from markedly fluctuating glucose levels because of their body's
inability to produce insulin. Insulin helps the body process sugar.
Sugar levels must be controlled within a specific range as high levels
have been linked to blindness and a host of other medical problems.


Additional Links:
-----------------
More articles on Biotechnology
http://biology.about.com/library/weekly/topicsubbiotech.htm

More articles under Cybernetics and Bionics
Innovation Archive
http://www.tecsoc.org/innovate/innovatearchive.htm#cybernetics

More articles on Bionics
eLibrary
http://ask.elibrary.com/search.asp?srcmags=checked&srcnews=checked&srcbooks=checked&srctvrad=checked&srcpics=checked&RO=Relevancy&refid=1upinfo&query=bionics

Neil Squire Foundation
http://www.nimh.nih.gov/neuroinformatics/electrodemo.cfm

 
Search Strategy [among others]:
-------------------------------
biotechnology articles
merging man and machine
cybernetics articles
"developing a brain * that"
biochips on google
nano implants
brain interface
bionic on findarticles.com
nano on findarticles.com
bionic on news.google.com
nano protein on google
nano cells on findarticles.com
cyborg articles
chip implant
battery-powered bionic
"articles on" "bionic interfaces"
"articles on bionics"
"articles on" man machine interface
charlesnorbert-ga rated this answer:5 out of 5 stars and gave an additional tip of: $10.00
In depth, interesting with a wide breadth of topics and insights. Thank-you.

Comments  
Subject: Re: Bionics Research and Future Man/Machine Interfaces
From: jbf777-ga on 19 Jun 2003 13:47 PDT
 
Thank you very much for the rating, tip, and kind words!  It was a
very interesting topic to research.

jbf777-ga
GA Researcher
Subject: Re: Bionics Research and Future Man/Machine Interfaces
From: brainiac5-ga on 27 Jun 2003 05:11 PDT
 
You can find a wealth of information on the merging of man and machine
at www.transhumanism.org, a group dedicated to the discussion of
transhumanist (those moving toward a goal of posthumanism) issues and
posthumanity (the end result of man/machine unification).

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