The full story is over at Wired, and is quite interesting, but one of the effects achieved was to basically reverse Parkinson’s disease in mice. You should head over to find more, including what they’ll do to get around the need to thread fibre through your skull. [Wired]

The thing about electroscalpels is that they put off gaseous ions, which, besides being something you shouldn’t breath in, it so happens are perfect for being analysed via mass spectrometry — a method of identifying molecules based on their mass and change. A spectrometer pulls in the fumes from the electroscalpel, and analysis of the chemical sample happens almost instantly, allowing surgeons to, in near real time, “draw a map and say this part is healthy liver, that is connective tissue, this is adipose tissue, that is cancer” according to Zoltán Takáts, a Justus-Liebig University professor who came up with the idea.

Like any other technology-driven medical advance when it comes to cancer, it’s not cheap to implement: The electrosurgery setup alone is $US8000, while the mass spectrometry setup is $US120,000. I wonder how much the first medical tricorder is gonna cost. [Technology Review]

The entire article is nine pages of well-reasoned scenarios involve wireless devices galore, dynamic health monitoring and remote doctor consultation. Some of the technology looks to be lifted from Star Trek, but most of the ideas could be implemented tomorrow, should someone bankroll the cash, time and necessary legislation. (Keep in mind, US healthcare won’t even acknowledge devices as practical as the iPhone.)

My personal favourite idea was this Smart Mirror (and not just for the PG-level cartoon nudity). It’s a touchscreen monitor that can track most vitals through your hand. But it does a lot more, from listing your recent exercises to tracking your sleep patterns to performing bi-weekly body scans to test for melanoma.

From these short, daily checks, a doctor is left with a ton of analysable trend data (surely software could be employed to summarise trends) that’s potentially more reliable than general self-reporting. The user is left with a mirror on their bathroom wall — something they had in the first place.

Very cool stuff. [Fast Company]

Brain surgeons in Halifax, Canada can now do dry runs of brain surgeries using models of their patients. Their new simulator uses MRI images to allow them to go to down on digital copies of busted brains.

First, patient data from functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is rendered into a 3-D, high-resolution model of an individual’s brain. After the model is loaded into the system, doctors can touch and manipulate tumors and other virtual objects on screens in real time using a physical instrument resembling a scalpel. The instrument has six degrees of freedom and re-creates the force-feedback of the real tool and the varying resistance of tissue in brain regions with differing toughness. Meanwhile, photo-realistic on-screen imagery shows the simulated surgery, including bleeding and pulsing grey matter.

How long until this thing is ported to the Wii? [Technology Review via PopSci]

The team devised a sensor system made from nine chemiresistors that could respond to the biomarkers by altering their electrical properties. The chemiresistors were assembled from gold nanoparticles that are 5nm in diameter and functionalized with different organic compounds that allowed them to sense the biomarkers.

When the researchers exposed the sensors to untreated breath samples, they obtained readings that clearly distinguished between the exhalations of healthy patients and those with lung cancer. Regardless of the humidity of the breath, the gender of its source, or their smoking habits, the sensors were able to detect the lung cancer biomarkers. The sensors were also capable of working with a wide range of concentrations, and the process was reversible, meaning the nanoparticles can be reused.

It’s not clear if the new breathalysers can detect the cancer in its early stages—the study focused on stage-3 or stage-4 patients—but it’s a significant step forward in detection nonetheless. Next time you get pulled over on your way home from the bar a DUI may not be the worst news you get. Harsh. [Ars Technica]

Back in 1999, Pek Van Andel and three of his colleagues did a research study to take MRI images of a couple having sex. Now, the video is on the internet. Oh my.

It’s sure not the sexiest piece of footage I’ve ever seen, but it’s interesting. I guess? What’s great is that the researchers were pretty up front about there being no real point to this study other than just seeing if they could do it. Look at their objective!

Objective: To find out whether taking images of the male and female genitals during coitus is feasible and to find out whether former and current ideas about the anatomy during sexual intercourse and during female sexual arousal are based on assumptions or on facts.

I don’t know if there was any actual point to doing this other than just to say they did it and to have the kind of creepy footage, but hey, science! Also, can you imagine trying to have sex in an MRI tube? That’s got to make the back seat of a compact car feel like a king sized bed by comparison. [Improbably Research]

Stacked with the same bone conduction technology we’ve been seeing in Bluetooth headsets for some time now, along with wired and wireless device connectivity, a new class of hearing aids is making its way into patients’ ears—or more accurately, their skulls. Bone conduction makes a big difference to hearing aids’ core functionality, eliminating all manner of noise issues, but the heart of these new plugs is a powerful processing platform, with a gadgety twist:

[T]he newer processors, costing about $6000 (AUD) each, shut out background noise, giving users up to 25 per cent better hearing, and can be attached directly to MP3 music players or wireless headsets for talking on the phone

This makes a lot of sense—wearing earbuds or a Bluetooth headset on top of hearing aids would feel a little redundant, no? Anyway, as they are, the systems, made by Australian company Cochlear, aren’t as cyborgian as you might imagine. The processor, with its headphone jack and wireless radio, isn’t actually drilled into your head—that’s just the cochlear implant—but instead worn around your ear, headset-style. The company’s even got a range of “Freedom Accessories” which, let’s be clear here, are consumer tech accessories meant to indirectly plug into your bone. It’s a great time to be an old. [Sydney Morning Herald via Neatorama via BoingBoing]

If there is anything abnormal, and we have a very intricate system set up, it will literally call the physician responsible at two in the morning if need be. It is a tremendous convenience for the patient from even interacting with a telephone to call the doctor. On a larger scale it enhances our ability to pick up and evaluate any problems with their pacemaker and certain other rhythm disorders that could be potentially dangerous or life threatening in ways we really could not do before.

That’s what Dr. Steven Greenberg, director of St. Francis’ Arrhythmia and Pacemaker Center, is predicting that this will change the way people with heart problems manage their condition, and interact with their doctors. Happy news indeed. [PC Magazine]

That secret is Brilliant Blue G dye, a variant of Blue Number One, which is a common and harmless food colouring product. Scientists dropped weights on the rats’ backs to break their little spinal cords, injecting the Brilliant Blue G dye in their bodies. The dye turned their skins blue, but within weeks all motor functions returned to normal. The rat could walk, run, jump, have sex, and do whatever it wanted.

According to the study, the dye prevented inflammation of the spinal cord. Not only it is as simple as that, but one of the neurologists—Maiken Nedergaard—says that they can’t find “clinical effects on the rat.” This is one of the things that they should start trying in humans as soon as possible. Better to look like a smurf than never walking again. [National Geographic]

To achieve this, the researchers used filters to block out background light and convert the light source—a simple LED—into the 460-nanometer wavelength required to excite the green fluorescent dye in the sample. After that they were were able to take fluorescent images of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (which causes TB in humans) with a 3.2-megapixel off-the-shelf phone camera. The images were then automatically analyzed using software to show the total of bacteria in the blood sample.

Traditional instruments with the same capability can be bulky and extremely expensive, which is why the CellScope can have a profound impact on health care in developing countries. It is still in the prototype phase at the moment, so there is no telling when it might go to manufacturing. [CNET]