ScienceWorld[R]: body shop.Your body is an amazing combination of pumps, levers, filters, and electrical networks. No human has ever devised a machine as complex as your body. But scientists are hard at work designing and building replacement parts you may need one day. If an accident or disease damaged a bone or an organ, these replacements would help you function more normally. The parts are bionic A machine that is patterned after principles found in humans or nature; for example, robots. It also refers to artificial devices implanted into humans replacing or extending normal human functions. See biomimicry. , or engineered to mimic real body parts. Today, replacement parts exist for many bones and joints, but very few organs. Here's a sample of the latest bionic body parts in the works. Electronic Ear To replace faulty hearing parts, the CII CII Confederation of Indian Industry CII Chartered Insurance Institute (UK) CII Construction Industry Institute (University of Texas) CII Council of Institutional Investors Bionic Ear System uses a mike to relay sound to a processor (A), which converts sound into electrical signals. A headpiece head·piece n. 1. A protective covering for the head. 2. A set of headphones; a headset. 3. See headstall. 4. An ornamental design, especially at the top of a page. 5. (B) receives them, then uses a radio signal to send sound through skin to an implant (C). An electrode (D) transmits sound to the hearing nerve. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Auto-Eyes Tiny silicone chips containing light sensors may soon replace part of a faulty retina, the sensory membrane lining the eyes. Like a real retina, the chip detects light that enters the eye and changes light into electrical signals. Designers hope the brain will read these signals as shades of light and dark. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Mechanical Master Muscle The newest artificial heart--the AbioCor--is also the world's first self-contained heart (see SW 9/17/01).A grapefruit-size plastic pump replaces two chambers in the four-chamber human heart. Powered by a battery pack on the patient's belt, it pumps blood through the lungs to receive oxygen, then sends oxygenated blood Oxygenated blood Blood carrying oxygen through the body. Mentioned in: Patent Ductus Arteriosus through the body. The AbioCor is a vast improvement over older fake hearts, some of which relied on 159-kg (350-lb) external power devices. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] New Nerves To replace damaged nerves, doctors stitch tiny wires under the skin. One wire end prods muscles in a lifeless limb; other ends attach to a joystick-like controller implanted near working nerves and muscles. To move a hand, for example, a patient nudges the joystick with shoulder muscles. Electrical signals race to the hand muscles, which then contract. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Future Filter This tube isn't just plastic--its lining contains billions of live cells extracted from pig kidneys. As in a real kidney, the cells help the fake kidney filter waste products from blood. One catch:This bionic device remains outside the body, with smaller tubes inserted into internal blood vessels. Scientists soon hope to create a implantable model. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Jumping Joints When injury or disease wears away the bone and rubbery cartilage in knees, shoulders, and hips, every movement can hurt. For decades, doctors have built artificial joints using metal for bones and plastic for cartilage, but the plastic wears out over time. Now, high-tech materials, like ceramic-like oxidized oxidized having been modified by the process of oxidation. oxidized cellulose see absorbable cellulose. zirconium zirconium (zərkō`nēəm), metallic chemical element; symbol Zr; at. no. 40; at. wt. 91.22; m.p. about 1,852°C;; b.p. 4,377°C;; sp. gr. 6.5 at 20°C;; valence +2, +3, or +4. , match the toughness of real cartilage. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Lesson Plans Did You Know? * The first artificial heart valve artificial heart valve Cardiovascular surgery A synthetic-mechanical or natural–porcine–valve surgically placed into the heart to replace a defective or malfunctioning valve; the aortic and mitral valves are the most frequently replaced with AHVs was implanted in 1952, the first artificial hip replacement in 1954. Every year more than 500,000 partial and total joint and valve replacements are performed in the U.S. * Organ transplantation is severely limited by a donor shortage. For example, fewer than 3,000 donors are available, but there are nearly 30,000 patients who require a liver transplant each year. * Scientists are studying the genes that let a salamander salamander, an amphibian of the order Urodela, or Caudata. Salamanders have tails and small, weak limbs; superficially they resemble the unrelated lizards (which are reptiles), but they are easily distinguished by their lack of scales and claws, and by their moist, regenerate an amputated limb to one day regrow Re`grow´ v. i. & t. 1. To grow again. The snail had power to regrow them all [horns, tongue, etc.] - A. B. Buckley. Verb 1. human limbs through genetic engineering. National Science Education Standards The National Science Education Standards (NSES) are a set of guidelines for the science education in primary and secondary schools in the United States, as established by the National Research Council in 1996. Grades 5-8: structure and function in living systems * understandings about science and technology * science and technology in society Grades 9-12: the cell * behavior of organisms * matter, energy, and organization in living systems * understandings about science and technology * science and technology in local, nation, and global challenges Resources Students can view what a person wearing a retinal implant might be able to see in this Scientific American Frontiers  This article or section reads like a and may need a .Please help [ to improve this article] to make it in tone and meet Wikipedia's . interactive activity: www.pbs.org/saf/1107/index.html To lean more about the NeuroControl Freehand See Macromedia FreeHand. System: www.neurocontrol.com Cross-Curricular Connection History/Inventions: Choose any body part and research the history of an invention that has helped improve or repair its function--such as eyeglasses eyeglasses or spectacles, instrument or device for aiding and correcting defective sight. Eyeglasses usually consist of a pair of lenses mounted in a frame to hold them in position before the eyes. , dental braces, or crutches. Teen Mental-Health Resources Dr. Bruce Perry's Child Trauma Academy Web site: www.childtrauma.org/ National Institutes of Health-Child and Adolescent Mental Health www.nimh.nih.gov/publicat/childmenu.cfm Center for Adolescent Studies at Indiana University: education.indiana.edu/cas/adol/adol.html Directions: Write essays for the following questions. 1. If you were a scientist and could create a bionic body part to help cure one human deficiency, what would you cure? Why? 2. Based on your answer to the previous question, research and cite at least three different branches of science necessary to make your creation possible. ANSWER Body Shop Both answers will vary. |
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