So in essence Batman and Robin would be creating Captain America.

This seems like it would be the first step in creating a “super soldier” program, and thus flinging our world even further into the realm of costumed justice. Volunteering for the project would be huge. Who wouldn’t want to be an “improved human?” I think I would volunteer, but not until they worked out all the kinks. I don’t want my heart to explode whenever I get an adrenaline rush or anything.

That would be the worst super power ever; Heart Exploding – and really, you’d only be good for one adventure anyway.

I mean, think about if we could have studied any or all of the people so many popular myths were based on? Maybe the key to human progress is not looking at the stars, but looking at ourselves. Could we further our own genetic growth by simply researching extreme cases of survival that defy both logic and science? A Massachusetts-based research company called Knome thinks so. They’re going to study blood and DNA samples of Ozzy Osbourne in order to better understand how drugs are absorbed in the body, and why some people can survive extreme substance abuse while others can’t.

Meanwhile, I’d like to pre-order my Ozzy brand drug survival patches now, please.

Health consciousness is on the rise, our population is aging, and our technology is rapidly improving. This is, perhaps, the perfect storm for technologies that enable us to monitor our biological functions in real time.

If you have existing health issues, or have loved ones that are not in good health, it is not hard to imagine the usefulness of such technology. Imagine if it were possible to see mom’s vitals after she returned home from heart surgery, or being able to see if that daily run is really giving you the health benefit you expected.

Experts believe the popularity of such devices and applications will explode in the next five years.

“The number of mobile connected, machine-to-machine (M2M) and embedded devices will ramp up to nearly 412 million globally by 2014, according to analyst firm Juniper Research. But the main market drivers won’t be the oft-hyped e-readers or netbooks. Rather, they will be several enterprise verticals lead by healthcare monitoring, a small market today, but one poised to achieve significant revenues.”

Connected Planet

Already, we are seeing the introduction of devices that are able to track and record various bodily functions into the mass market.  One such device, The WIN Human Recorder, tracks and records electrocardiographic signals, body surface temperature, pulse, and respiration.  Another company, MediSens,  has begun clinical testing on a personal body monitoring device that is able to assess neuromotor functions, allowing doctors and therapists to track a patients progress during rehabilitation, following  a surgery or traumatic event.

Recreational and pro athletes are definitely the early adopters of this type of technology. Cyclists, runners, and triathletes,  have long known the benefits of tracking their performance using heart rate monitors, power meters ( wattage) and other devices. But, this revolution will spread far outside the ranks of the fitness obsessed.

Boomers and the aged are the most obvious groups that this type of technology would appeal to.With health issues beginning to surface, or already present, the need for monitoring devices for this population is apparent.

In the not so distant future monitors will make it possible for doctors to get a true perspective on the health of an individual, to track the effectiveness of medication, diet or fitness routine.When used in conjunction to a cell phone, such devices could  even call paramedics and relatives in the event of  an emergency.

Most mobile devices, such as the iPhone, are already capable of hosting such applications, all we are lacking is the periphery devices that will monitor the biological data. Count on personal body monitoring to be one of the macro trends that appear in the coming decade.

“Advanced medical devices are the tools that enable humans and robots to merge, perhaps signaling the dawn of a technological singularity. How close are we now? Take a tour and shop around — we’ve been cramming more intricate engineering into our bodies than you might think.”

A world ruled by a New Bionic Uber Rich Species?  …oh jeeze… I need to either start making more money or run for the hills.

Canarypox is a bird virus- in this case altered so it can’t cause human disease and used to ferry synthetic versions of three HIV genes into the body. The vaccine contains a genetically engineered version of a protein on HIV’s surface and so are not made from the whole virus- and cannot cause HIV.

So with this we come one step closer to our cyberpunk future-where diseases are cured with a blend of animal bits and synthetics, people have Augmented Reality eyes, bioware embedded in their bodies and cities will be sprawling, interconnected behemoths of corporate industry with vertical forests.

Still, as long as companies look forward toward progress and towards embracing the future instead of fighting it- and become faster at both adopting new technologies and adapting to them, they will always be ahead of the curve.

Scientists at the University of North Carolina have found a protein in the human blood stream that is connected to aging.

“Interestingly, the study found that inactivity contributed more to this aging marker than a high body mass index, which seems to show that activity slows down aging more than preventing obesity does.” -via

While many of us seek for longevity, there’s a key difference in seeking longevity for the sake of living longer or staying younger. The most interesting part isn’t about vanity though, as the team of scientist pointed out,

“…the discovery could help with stabilizing organ transplants, recovery from surgery, or cancer treatment. As of now, it’s a way to see just how far your body has aged molecularly, regardless of how you have aged chronologically.” -via

It wouldn’t be all that surprising to make some incredibly helpful discoveries pertaining to general health and disease in our endless perseverance to be young, strong, ad fast. So long as we live we will age, and so long as we age there will be room for constant improvement.

While, the subject of obesity has been no stranger to the media spotlight during the past five years, the move from criticism and concern to legislative and administrative action is noteworthy.

In light of the IOM’s (Institute of Medicine) recently toughened standards for pregnancy and weight gain, demands for NYC restaurants to post the caloric data of menu items( Paterson’s war on Obesity) and the beginnings of institutionalized fitness and BMI standards for everyone from firefighters to Boy Scouts, it seems that the talk is over and war on obesity has officially begun.

Hating smokers is easy, smoke stinks, causes cancer, cardiovascular disease, emphysema, bad breath, world hunger, and so on and so forth. Obesity is a much more sensitive issue; that begs for serious debate on the issue of personal freedom and our right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Unlike smoking, obesity does not directly affect the health of others, however it could be demonstrated that obesity incurs a heavy toll on the pocketbooks of individuals, as well as private and publicly funded institutions. So the question remains, should the public have to pay the additional expense of those, whom despite warnings, continue to ignore to take action to improve personal health?

On the other side of the coin, at what point do we limit the power of government and institutions to interfere in our personal liberty in the name of public good?

We predict that the trend towards the creation of public and private policy to counteract the cost of obesity will continue. Look for more aggressive campaigns to ban or heavily tax foods that are considered to be catalysts to the obesity epidemic; such as high fructose corn syrup, fast food, soft drinks etc, employers will enact mandatory fitness standards to save on insurance costs when possible and make a stronger effort to encourage involvement in voluntary programs where such measures would likely end in charges of workplace discrimination. There will be an increased demand for higher nutritional standards in school, hospital, workplace cafeterias.

We all want the most out of bodies, but increasingly wanting more may not be enough, it may simply be expected of you.

I love the fact that it elevates something that’s usually viewed with pity (or worse) to something that is admired and embraced, and draws fascinated attention instead of awkward stares or averted eyes.  WETA has created gorgeous mermaid tails for Hollywood before but they were not built to last and were easier to maneuver because the actresses had two legs.  So after many hrs of trial and error (and engineers working in their spare time) they succeeded at fulfilling the dreams of Nadya Vessey and transforming her into the world’s first mermaid.

From their website:

Doing any type of performance based sport talent identification testing is very difficult below age 6 due to developmental levels of motor skills, strength and eye-hand coordination.  Atlas First looks at only genetic markers, specifically the presence of ACTN3.  Studies have found that individuals having the variant in both copies of their ACTN3 gene may have a natural predisposition to endurance events, one copy of their ACTN3 gene may be equally suited to for both endurance and sports/power event, neither copy of their ACTN3 gene may have a natural predisposition to sprint/power events.  Knowing this information may be helpful, not in eliminating choices for sport activities but adding exposure to a host of team or individual sport events that may come easier to a young athlete.

Sounds official, but many in the scientifific community are skeptical.

Michael White, writer of the blog Adaptive Complexity, and  postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Genetics and the Center for Genome Sciences at the Washington University School of Medicine says:

The reason this test is not a good predictor of your child’s athletic potential is this: the effects of almost any genetic variant you have depends on the context – dozens or possibly hundreds of other genetic variants in your genome. You may have the RX combination of ACTN3 variants, but whether you are a great sprinter almost surely depends on variants in many other genes (and of course environmental factors). With a ‘bad’ combination of other genes, your ACTN3 RX genotype may be meaningless, and in fact you may be a better distance runner than sprinter.

The Body Warranty wave tells us that people want and expect more from their bodies than ever before and thanks to science and technology we are getting it. But when the very human desire to reach our maximum potential is imposed on children that can barely walk, talk and much less express a desire to run the 100 meter hurdles we have to wonder if we are beginning to cross the line from the  human desire excell to an unhealthy predisposition to succeed at any cost and imposing that on our children. No test will give a child the discipline and support nedded to become a professional athlete and it certainly will not help them develop a love for a sport or desire to play.

We agree with White: Just DON’T do it.

The second group of 119,472 women was followed from 1996 to 2001. All were offered regular mammograms, and nearly all accepted.

For every 100,000 women who were screened regularly, 1,909 were diagnosed with invasive breast cancer over six years, compared with 1,564 women who did not have regular screening...NYT

So what does this mean? The pool of women who were screened regularly had a 22% higher rate of cancer diagnosis. With a pool of participants this large it is unlikely that a few anomalies would skew the results.

Unfortunately repeating the study may be impossible on ethical grounds. It is unlikely that anyone in the medical community is likely to ask a group of women not to be screened for breast cancer or ask them to stall treatment in order to see if it will clear itself up.

If the study is accurate, that means that 1 in 5 women heal themselves of breast cancer, which is pretty extraordinary. Maybe there are still many things concerning the human body that we are yet to understand.  The study does bring up some important questions and will definitely be a source of controversy and debate in the medical community.