Off-label use of stimulants, such as Ritalin, is on the rise among college students. Studies show that 5 percent to 15 percent of students use prescription drugs as study aids, and surveys suggest the practice may be common among academics as well. The trend has sparked debates over how and when these cognitive enhancers should be used. Military personnel routinely use stimulants while on active duty, but should that practice also be permitted among surgeons working long shifts? What about scientists working late nights in the lab? Or students taking exams? Join discussion...

This past week, Stephen Oesterle, an executive at Medtronic gave a sobering keynote speech on the future of medical devices—and, if you’re in the medical device industry, the news wasn’t good. According to the Wall Street Journal’s Health Blog, Oesterle was quoted as saying, “When biotechnology gets it right we’re finished. Because it’s restorative, not palliative as device are.” If the message still wasn’t clear to his audience, he then added, “It’s done. [Medical] devices ultimately are done.” Join discussion...

Aging is one of the most complex biological processes we know of, and the human brain the most complex biological system. Unsurprisingly, that makes figuring out how aging affects our brains – affects those processes we really care about like learning, behaviour, and memory – enormously difficult. A whole host of gross-level neuroanatomical changes take place as we get older, but it’s unclear to what extent these can explain the cognitive deficits that characterize normal aging and diseases of age like Alzheimer’s. For example, while some parts of the hippocampus (a brain structure crucial for the formation of new memories, and linked to dementia) lose neurons as we age, other parts only grow more and more synaptic connections. Join discussion...

In studies scheduled to begin at Cedars-Sinai, autologous (derived from patients themselves) stem cells will be used to treat heart attack and heart failure. Studies in these areas are advanced and are expected to provide clinical results within a few years. The goal is to have stem cells providing healthy new heart cells to replace those damaged by disease. Join discussion...

Ever wonder if all your vitamins, cholesterol and blood pressure pills are really necessary? Just as genetic differences between individuals determine one’s susceptibility to disease, genes also determine the body’s reaction to different nutrients in food and medicine. This pioneering field of how nutrition and genes interact and the implications for dietary modification is called “Nutrigenomics.” As doctors and dieticians become more knowledgeable in this new field, they will be able to prescribe diets that exactly match individual genetic needs. A strong link between genes and food was evidenced recently when University of Wisconsin researchers knocked out a gene called SCD-1 from mice which created a foodie’s dream – a mouse that couldn’t get fat, no matter how much of a high-fat diet it ate. Human equivalent of SCD-1 exists and might someday be harnessed to eliminate obesity. Join discussion...

The fields of Nanotechnology, Biotechnology, Information technology and Cognitive science are coming together into a single field of advancement in much the same way as the television, the Internet, the cell phone and the video game are merging today. The ramifications for humans with the convergence of the NBIC technologies is far greater than the entertainment/communications merger of the TV-phone-computer. Like the TV-Phone-Computer convergence, advances in one technology are feeding advances in the others. The result is a rapid development cycle that promises huge changes for mankind, technologically and socially. It's no longer a question of if, but when. And not even when, because it's happening now. The question of when happens when the technologies suddenly appear in the commercial, scientific, industrial and commercial markets. Join discussion...

Scientists are now talking about people staying young and not aging. Ray Kurzweil is taking it a step further: "In addition to radical life extension, we’ll also have radical life expansion. The nanobots will be able to go inside the brain and extend our mental functioning by interacting with our biological neurons." Join discussion...

What is Biotechnology? Biotechnology broadly defined is using living organisms to solve problems or to make products. From this definition, one could say that biotechnology has been practiced by human society for a long time, in such activities as baking bread, brewing, breeding crops or animals. Today, it is still biotechnology, but scientists have a better understanding of cells, biological molecules, proteins, DNA and other building blocks of life. Scientists are now using nanotechnology to manipulate life at the atomic level. Join discussion...