Future Showcased in Hong Kong
The scene is Innovation Expo 2001 where research comes out of the lab and applied to everyday living. Cool stuff includes interactive bus stops featuring not only bus routes but news, weather, and other information. Also on display was a GPS driven child locator (Big Brother?) featuring a web interface letting parents track the movements of their offspring from a computer. Perhaps the most unanticipated but certainly interesting conceptually is the soft drink vending machine that you can call on your cell phone to pay instead of slotting in coins.
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Engineered Eyesight
Researchers at Institute of Ophthalmology in London transplanted human retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells into the rats that were subject to age related macular degeneration (a deterioration of eyesight commonplace in the elderly). The RPE cells were vat grown and genetically engineered and then transplanted into the rats which lead to an increased response in the rats to visual stimulation and cues. This could lead to eventual human treatment and is the kind of successful research that deserves the same press as the more sensational stories of cloning and stem cells.
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current science news posted by Greg at 12/17/2001 10:47:00 PM
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