Genetics, human body and human enhancements, bionics and exoskeletons or how to be a superhero in 2015

* First thing to do for today, we will have a crash course in Genetics history timeline. Modern genetic engineering began in 1972 when United States Biochemists Herbert Boyer and Stanley Cohen used enzymes to cut a bacteria plasmid and insert another strand of DNA in the gap. Both bits of DNA were from the same type of bacteria, but this milestone, the invention of Recombinant DNA technology, offered a window into the previously impossible—the mixing of traits between totally dissimilar organisms. In 1976 Allan Maxam and Walter Gilbert developed a DNA sequencing method based on chemical modification of DNA and subsequent cleavage at specific bases. In 1991 DNA Plant Technology receives approval from the US Department of Agriculture to field test its Fish tomato but the plant is never successfully commercialized. The creation of a genetically modified plant, with a fish transgene designed for human consumption galvanizes citizen skepticism towards the emerging technology. In 1994 the first modern recombinant crop approved for sale in the U.S., in 1994, was the FlavrSavr tomato, which had a longer shelf life. However, higher costs and same bland flavor as conventional tomatoes led to it losing money and disappearing from the shelves. In 1996 a developer submitted a data set to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for AquAdvantage Salmon. The first genetically modified fish Glofish is introduced into the market in the U.S. in 2003. In 2004 the first genetically modified blue Rose made in the lab. 2010, Monsanto corporation through its Indian subsidiary Mahyco unsuccessfully attempted to introduce Bt brinjal, which was put on hold due to citizen organizing against approval for sale in the country.
Amflora genetically modified potato was approved for industrial applications in the European Union by the European Commission in the same year. 2015, first genetically engineered organism is born, a mosquito that will not give malaria to humans. Are we playing with powers that we do not understand? The future will tell us.


** In the same 2015, we are not just created our first genetically engineered organism, but we will have even more surprises for the futurologists. Although most people will have seen exoskeletons only in science fiction and superhero movies, there are actually two established fields of application for the technology: in the military and in medical rehabilitation. To date, however, no exoskeleton has been developed for use in manufacturing. This was precisely the goal that the partners in the EU's Robo-Mate project set themselves. Since the end of 2013, twelve research institutes and companies in seven European countries have been working together to develop a helper for production workers.
Now the first Robo-Mate prototype is ready; it was presented at Fraunhofer IAO in Stuttgart on 12 June. "Our exoskeleton prototype consists of modules for the arms, the trunk of the body and the legs," explains Prof. Dr. Wernher van de Venn, coordinator of the Robo-Mate project and Head of the Institute of Mechatronic Systems at Zurich University of Applied Sciences in Switzerland. We are talking about arm modules that can lift heavy weights, trunk module that is protecting our spine and leg modules that alow us to work in squatting position without exerting extra strain on our legs.
Read more about this at: http://phys.org/news/2015-06-exoskeleton-industry-unveiled.html#jCp .

*** Bionics is one of the sciences that is developing at an alarming fast rate. Today  assistive technology is giving disabled people more control and we can have a bionic hand ready in only 5 days. The bionic eye was a huge success, but i will talk about this in detail in a future post, along with the emotional and psychological implications. At this moment 50% of human body can be replaced by bionic technology. Iron man, can you here me, we are following your steps! One of the interesting applications of bionics could be in sport, imagine basketball players jumping 4-5 meters, or even in mountain climbing, or mining, they are already intensive researched for medical and combat field, and probably the best is still to come in the next 10-20 years.

That's it for the moment. See you later!