Science is Drokking Fantastic Because...

[Frank]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-18042528

next up riot foam!

Coming to an opening ceremony near you soon: (LINK)

[Proudhuff]

YES!! The retinal pigmentosa that blinded my Dad and hovers over me and the MiniHuffs can now* be addressed by bionic eyes... 

(*Not yet available at specsavers)
 

Eye chip 'allows blind people to see'


A retinal implant - or bionic eye - which is powered by light has been invented by scientists at Stanford University in California.
Implants currently used in patients need to be powered by a battery.
The new device, described in the journal Nature Photonics, uses a special pair of glasses to beam near infrared light into the eye.
This powers the implant and sends the information which could help a patient see.
Diseases such as age-related macular degeneration and retinal pigmentosa result in the death of cells which can detect light in the eye.
Eventually this leads to blindness.

More at the BBC news health site

[JayzusB.Christ]

Sweet! I was just reading The Invisibles earlier, where Robin promises some lad that they'll soon invent bionic eyes, and lamenting the fact that it didn't come true

[Frank]

YES!! The retinal pigmentosa that blinded my Dad and hovers over me and the MiniHuffs can now* be addressed by bionic eyes... 

Not to pish on anyone's chips, but I was going to post a link to that bit on the BBC news site here, until I read the quote from the (delighted) recipient of that implant, saying he could now see vague differences in blurry patches of light. I can see why that's a miracle to someone with zero vision, but it's not quite Dredd's 20/20 zoom lense jobs.

This post's not really in the spirit of the thread, so here's reason for more immediate optimism ... and evidence that someone at the BBC shares my fetish for prosthetic body parts.

[Proudhuff]

BK... my thinking is that by the time I'm blinded ( 50/50 chance) or my sprogs (one in four) are hit by this there will be Dredd style inplants   

[Mikey]

Yeah, it's a start at least. Here's to Bionic Huff!

M.

[Frank]

evidence that someone at the BBC shares my fetish for prosthetic body parts.

MANDROID!

[vzzbux]

This cannot come soon enough.




V

[IAMTHESYSTEM]

Amazing tech stuff.

Would you replace your worn out heart with a new, shiny Factory job? You could extend your life and those of your family but only if you can afford it.

I suspect the mega wealthy will be doing this soon. We'll have CEO scumbags screwing us all forever instead of one lifetime.

[vzzbux]

GAHHHH forgot the link.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7959785.stm





V

[Frank]

This cannot come soon enough.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7959785.stm

Me too, vzzbux. The proposed treatment has interesting side effects:

Belgian neurosurgeon Dirk De Ridder has tried implanting electrodes directly into the brain of sufferers to permanently normalise the overactive neurons. He has had some successful results, although one of his patients repeatedly reported an out-of-body experience as a side effect.

[TordelBack]

My implausibly wonderful wife presented me with an early anniversary present of a boxset of TSR's Buck Rogers XXVc  role-playing game from way back in 1990, which she acquired completely gratis on a freecycle website.  Goes without saying that I love the daftness of obscure old RPGs, and this is one I've always wanted to see in the flesh - turns out to be a really lavish production with loads of huge full-colour fold-out maps, colour cardstock A4 cards for ships, planets and characters and no fewer than 4 chunky booklets.  Incredibly it's fully intact, the token sheet hasn't even been punched out. 

Pure retro joy of the silliest, most immersive kind.  Call me when Windows 3.0 launches.

(Okay, it's not cybernetic implants - but it does have rules for using them!)

[Spikes]

Predator! -  http://www.wired.co.uk/magazine/archive/2012/06/start/hiding-in-plain-sight/viewgallery#!image-number=1

[IAMTHESYSTEM]

That us a bit spooky. Invisible Security Agents would make Justice Department look like amateurs. Paranoia overload.

[Frank]

Predator! -  http://www.wired.co.uk/magazine/archive/2012/06/start/hiding-in-plain-sight/viewgallery#!image-number=1

Only a few years ago, previous developments in this field were reported as Harry Potter cloaks. The zeitgeist, it appears has moved on, so Rowling's new book had better be more than just a weak allegory for the New Labour years or The Arab Spring.

Isn't it weird how the geniuses who come up with this tech always have so little idea of how their work will be implemented? The clip I linked to suggests it'll be used to give you 360 degree vision in your car, but I can only see that happening a considerable time after military vehicles and personnel have gone all Claude Rains.