Article Reflections 1/6/17

Miracle Maker

This article focuses on Anthony Atala, who was born in Peru, and is currently the director of the Wake Forrest Institute for Regenerative Medicine. For the past decade this surgeon has been working towards delivering live organs that can be ordered online, and printed out in the hospital. According to Atala it started back in the early 1990's when many shortages for transplant organs were causing patients to die before replacements could be found. Though it may seem like science fiction, in 1999 Atala and a team of researchers built successful bladders for seven children out of collagen and synthetic polymer. Though many praised this revolution in medicine, Atala knew the process took too long and was not viable to implement everywhere. What Atala really wanted was an assembly line for creating these organs. This could be accomplished in some forms through early 3-D printers until the ITOP came along. This printer was able to keep human and animal cells alive longer than previous models and successfully implanted cartilage, bone, and muscle tissue on rodents. This breakthrough has given hope that in the near future, the process will be done successfully with humans.

The Home of the Future

Though i believe the idea of a comfy chair that can move on command and stop automatically for a robotic vacuum cleaner would make our lives much easier and is definitely very neat, I cant help but think I will likely never use these products. The reason I would never use them would be both based on financial reasons, and necessity. I want to teach my kids how to do things themselves so that if one day all of this technology which is no doubt fantastic fails, they will know how to do things like clean, cook, and change their oil themselves.

The Best Inventions Powered By Technologies of Tomorrow

There are a ton of very cool inventions in this article but the ones I find the most interesting good or bad include the shoes you can tie with one hand, period proof underwear, and housing that welcomes the homeless. As far as the shoes go, I only find this interesting based on how lazy people can be to really need shoes that you can tie with one hand. This goes back to wanting to teach my children not only to not be lazy, but also to know how to do things for themselves. Though i found that invention rather silly, I did think that the period proof underwear as well as the homeless housing very beneficial. I am not a woman but I can only imagine how great it would be to not have to go to the restroom constantly during menstruation to replace disposable pads. As a Catholic I am also all about helping the homeless, as long as they are willing to get on their feet with the help we give them. These shelters which have clinics, outdoor running tracks, and classrooms could definitely help not only to improve our homeless problem here in the U.S., but also perhaps use those classrooms to provide GED's and job placement.

The Twenty Five Best Inventions of 2016

Again, though there are many cool inventions in this article from the past year of 2016, the ones I find the most interesting good or bad include the solar panels that don't stick out, tires that spin in every direction, and cannabis vape pens. The solar panels that don't stick out help to encourage people to save money and the environment but might not like how ugly the panels look on their house. This solar roof is made up of tiles designed to blend together in order to look like an ordinary roof. On the other hand Goodyear has a designed a spherical concept tire that will help ordinary people do things like parallel park with more ease. Though I am all about knowing how to do things yourself, this invention will help auto owners to park and maneuver into places they could not before with regular tires. Though both of these inventions are very great, now we have to talk about cannabis vape pens. Though they can beneficial over pills to help with insomnia, headaches, etc. These pens will only worsen underage drug use in this country. Vape pens are already being used by minors all across the country, and now kids will be getting baked with vape instead of only having lung problems. I wish the energy put out to make drugs easier to use was put towards more things like the blending solar panels and spherical tires that actually contribute to society.