Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Long Live Star Trek!






This is great! You
have to read this and follow all the links. It is probably the best Pharma News
I have read to date!

 


Four
Star Trek medical technologies we use today




Nobody ever planned on a short-lived TV series having such a lasting impact
on society, but it has. And this is true whether you like Star Trek or
not. It doesn't matter that the show's medical devices looked like scavenged
pieces of plastic the Desilu studio prop department glued together on a low
budget. Star Trek is part of our collective mythology. And in the
endless loop of life imitating art, many of the futuristic technologies
introduced on the show are now a reality. That's why we decided to compare some
of today's medical breakthroughs with those envisioned by science fiction TV
writers, producers and actors more than 40 years ago.


So, for our list of four ways real life medicine is catching up with Star
Trek
, here are the ground rules for all the hardcore Trekkers out there. We
are sticking to The Original Series, where the gadgets, the technology, the
basic assumptions of how the future might look are in their most primordial
state. Each medical device or medicine was more of an idea, a basic concept of
what things should do rather than anything that got too bogged down in actual
science. As the later spinoffs got rolling, real science often got in the way of
simply telling the story. Ultimately, the in-depth scientific explanations of
the later series will likely turn out to be wrong, while The Original Series
will forever retain a colored-plastic purity.


But enough of all that. Here's our Top 4 list.


1. Hypospray - The hypospray was a
needle-free device that could subcutaneously inject drugs via forced air.


2. Medical Tricorder - There are many
types of tricorders, but the one used by medical personnel can diagnose diseases
and collect other vital information about a patient. And it can do all this
noninvasively, from a distance from the patient.


3. Sickbay Vital Signs Monitor - There
is a screen hanging above each bed in sickbay displaying various vital
signs, and McCoy will not let you leave sickbay until those needles fall within
acceptable parameters.


4. Venus drug - The illegal Venus Drug
makes plain-looking women beautiful.

No comments:

Post a Comment