Cover Story: Journeys to the Future
Neural Implants Will Help Parkinson’s Patients
By Jaydeep Bhattacharya
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| Foto: raviolidesign.de |
What is the most important question to be solved in the future:
by your discipline? The development of bio-chips which can be implanted into the human body for medical purposes, e.g. neuronal chips for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease or implantations for hearing impaired people.
by research in general? Natural energy sources are being reduced every day. Alternative energy sources are still incapable of fulfi lling our daily requirements. That’s a big question for future research.
Which ground-breaking invention do you hope will be made within the next ten years? Such inventions are going to occur in the research of stem cells as they are the key player in regenerating human body tissues, such as nerve cells and heart muscle. The biochemical mechanisms for dedifferentiation, that is the process of regression from a specialised cell to a simpler unspecialised form which plays an important role in the development of some cancers, is also of immense importance.
Which ground-breaking invention do you fear could be made within the next ten years? I fear the progress in remote automation, miniaturisation and robotics. The combination of these in the relatively near future is very frightening because it will allow the crime masters to commit crimes from miles away without leaving any clues behind.
Which problem of the future cannot be solved by research? The problem of pollution and global warming cannot be solved only by research unless people all over the world from all disciplines are aware of the problem.
Please complete the sentence: In the future, the world will be different from today because … the progress of science has always proved to be beneficial for mankind and society.
What is your favourite piece of Science Fiction? I like the movies “28 days later”, directed by Danny Boyle, and “Doomsday”, directed by Neil Marshall, the most. The main themes of these movies are the same and are related to the disasters caused by the outbreak of a viral disease. The outbreaks of the viral diseases were accidental in the movies but give us some insight into what a manmade biowar or bioterrorism can do.
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