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Finally: World's First Viable Bionic Heart That Works Without a Pulse
Australian researchers have developed the world's first bionic heart that pumps blood without a pulse and it could be ready for human trials within three years. If everything goes according to plan, the device could provide a real alternative to organ donation for the hundreds of people who are diagnosed with heart disease every year.
The device, designed by Brisbane engineer Dr Daniel Timms, has been successfully transplanted into a live and healthy sheep. Timms, who started the project in 2001 while studying at the Queensland University of Technology, said the device, known as BiVACOR, could last 10 years longer than previous artificial heart designs because of lack of wear and tear on parts.
The bionic heart has a small bladed disk spins in the heart at 2,000 revolutions per minute to pump blood around the body without a pulse, a significant departure from traditional pulse-based designs, which included balloon-like sacs to pump blood, 'Brisbane Times' reported. "There were other devices that were quite large, and they also would break quite easily. And the reason they would break is they would have a sac, so if you're beating them billions of times per year, they're going to break," Timms said.
He said the new device addressed the problem of wear and tear by using magnetic levitation technology to keep the components from touching. "It means there's no wear and that's the key of the device - it can actually last for up to 10 years or longer without wearing out," he said. "And that's a paradigm shift actually from these earlier pulse-style devices that couldn't last for more than two years," he added.
In January, a combined surgical team from Brisbane, Texas, Sydney and Melbourne removed a sheep's heart, chosen for its similarity in chest size to women and children, and replaced it with the device.
Professor John Fraser from the Prince Charles Hospital's said there was excitement and almost relief that more than a decade of hard work had paid off.
"We've now shown that the device works. This idea is viable. Now it's a matter of making it robust and reliable so that it works in a patient," Timms said. "The time frame is three to five years before it could be ready for humans. We need to test it for a year to confirm its safety and regulatory properties before we implant it in a patient," he said.
According to researchers, at least $5 million is needed to take the device to clinical trials and Brisbane's Prince Charles Hospital has started a campaign to help. Professor John Fraser hopes similar collaborations between researchers from Australia and other parts of the world could develop other breakthroughs in artificial lungs or even improve upon on bionic heart design.
The team of specialists were recently awarded a coveted Centre of Research Excellence (CRE) grant by the National Health and Medical Research Council.
Picture credit: Prince Charles Hospital
Source: http://food.ndtv.com/health/finally-worlds-first-viable-bionic-heart-that-works-without-a-pulse-746997
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Founded by Russian entrepreneur Dmitry Itskov in February 2011 with the participation of leading Russian specialists in the field of neural interfaces, robotics, artificial organs and systems.
The main goals of the 2045 Initiative: the creation and realization of a new strategy for the development of humanity which meets global civilization challenges; the creation of optimale conditions promoting the spiritual enlightenment of humanity; and the realization of a new futuristic reality based on 5 principles: high spirituality, high culture, high ethics, high science and high technologies.
The main science mega-project of the 2045 Initiative aims to create technologies enabling the transfer of a individual’s personality to a more advanced non-biological carrier, and extending life, including to the point of immortality. We devote particular attention to enabling the fullest possible dialogue between the world’s major spiritual traditions, science and society.
A large-scale transformation of humanity, comparable to some of the major spiritual and sci-tech revolutions in history, will require a new strategy. We believe this to be necessary to overcome existing crises, which threaten our planetary habitat and the continued existence of humanity as a species. With the 2045 Initiative, we hope to realize a new strategy for humanity's development, and in so doing, create a more productive, fulfilling, and satisfying future.
The "2045" team is working towards creating an international research center where leading scientists will be engaged in research and development in the fields of anthropomorphic robotics, living systems modeling and brain and consciousness modeling with the goal of transferring one’s individual consciousness to an artificial carrier and achieving cybernetic immortality.
An annual congress "The Global Future 2045" is organized by the Initiative to give platform for discussing mankind's evolutionary strategy based on technologies of cybernetic immortality as well as the possible impact of such technologies on global society, politics and economies of the future.
Future prospects of "2045" Initiative for society
2015-2020
The emergence and widespread use of affordable android "avatars" controlled by a "brain-computer" interface. Coupled with related technologies “avatars’ will give people a number of new features: ability to work in dangerous environments, perform rescue operations, travel in extreme situations etc.
Avatar components will be used in medicine for the rehabilitation of fully or partially disabled patients giving them prosthetic limbs or recover lost senses.
2020-2025
Creation of an autonomous life-support system for the human brain linked to a robot, ‘avatar’, will save people whose body is completely worn out or irreversibly damaged. Any patient with an intact brain will be able to return to a fully functioning bodily life. Such technologies will greatly enlarge the possibility of hybrid bio-electronic devices, thus creating a new IT revolution and will make all kinds of superimpositions of electronic and biological systems possible.
2030-2035
Creation of a computer model of the brain and human consciousness with the subsequent development of means to transfer individual consciousness onto an artificial carrier. This development will profoundly change the world, it will not only give everyone the possibility of cybernetic immortality but will also create a friendly artificial intelligence, expand human capabilities and provide opportunities for ordinary people to restore or modify their own brain multiple times. The final result at this stage can be a real revolution in the understanding of human nature that will completely change the human and technical prospects for humanity.
2045
This is the time when substance-independent minds will receive new bodies with capacities far exceeding those of ordinary humans. A new era for humanity will arrive! Changes will occur in all spheres of human activity – energy generation, transportation, politics, medicine, psychology, sciences, and so on.
Today it is hard to imagine a future when bodies consisting of nanorobots will become affordable and capable of taking any form. It is also hard to imagine body holograms featuring controlled matter. One thing is clear however: humanity, for the first time in its history, will make a fully managed evolutionary transition and eventually become a new species. Moreover, prerequisites for a large-scale expansion into outer space will be created as well.
Key elements of the project in the future
• International social movement
• social network immortal.me
• charitable foundation "Global Future 2045" (Foundation 2045)
• scientific research centre "Immortality"
• business incubator
• University of "Immortality"
• annual award for contribution to the realization of the project of "Immortality”.
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