Monday, September 15, 2014

Bionika u medicini, regenerativna medicina i biološka besmrtnost / Bionics in medicine, regenerative medicine and biological immortality

Bionička medicina / Bionics in medicine


Bionički pristup u medicini postoji oduvijek odnosno od vremena kada su ljudi počeli sa pokušajima da nadomijeste izgubljene udove izradom pasivnih proteza koje su makar izgledom imitirali izgubljeni dio tijela. Neka od tih pomagala mogu čak i nadomjestiti pojedine izgubljenje funkcije, poput hodanja u slučaju proteza za donje udove ili nekih kompleksnijih kuka koje mogu donekle zamijeniti izgubljene ruke ili šake.


Bionics approach to medicine exist from time of the first try to replace a lost limb with materials from environment. Those prosthesis were mostly passive and could just return some of the functions of lost limbs, walking or complex hooks to replace lost hands.

Međutim sve su to dosta bijedne imitacije originala koje iako predstavljaju veliko poboljšanje povrijeđenoj osobi, ipak su jedva bolji od štapa i kanapa (u mnogim slučajevima upravo se i samo o tome i radi).

But in most cases those were and are pathetic imitations of the original which are a substantial improvement to unfortunate human being but are in the bottom line just a bit better than a stick and a bit of rope (and in many cases are just that).

Ovako je bilo oduvijek, od izrade prve proteze prije nekoliko hiljada godina,  pa sve do par godina u nazad. Tek nedavno ljudi su uspijeli da neke druge tehnologije minijaturizuju dovoljno da ih mogu primjeniti u izradi puno savršenijih i kompleksnijih proteza. Servo električni motori, novi izdržljiviji materijali poput karbonskih vlakana, hidraulika, mijaturni čipovi za potrebe kompijutera, adaptivni software i što je najvažnije kompaktni izvor napajanja energijom u obliku litijum-ionskih baterija ili sličnog.

This was a reality for many thousand years, all back to few years ago when substantial advancement in technology took place. Very recently, humans have developed new methods of producing miniaturized but powerfully electrical motors, new hard materials like carbon fibers, miniaturized hydraulics, small and very powerful computer processors, advanced adaptive software to run on those, and most important, compact but powerful enough energy sources like Lithium-Ion batteries or similar.

Ovo je dovelo do revolucije u izradi takvih proteza koja se upravo sada događa. U ovom videu (koji je preuzet sa TED talks, posjetite njihov site krcat sličnih inspirativnih priča, link) predavanje drži jedan od pionira ove nove revolucije u izradi novih medicinskih proteza Hugh Herr.

This brought a revolution in manufacture and design of prosthesis which is happening just now. In this video (TED talks) the speech is held by Hugh Herr a pioneer in limb prosthesis design.


Tadi se o radikalno novom pristupu izrade ovih proteza koje obuhvataju opsežna mjerenja i proučavanje mehanike udova te komunikaciju između mišića i nervava i izradu prilagodljivog i dinamičkog softwera koji može upravljati ovom kompleksnom tehnologijom. Trenutno se bave izradom proteza koje mimikuju hod do u detalja do te mijere da omogućavaju ples, kako se vidi na kraju videa.


It is a radical new approach to tackle the problem of design and manufacture of those prosthesis which involves study of limb mechanics, neural communications and finding a way to connect neurons to artificial hardware and writing the complex software to control this advanced technology. At the moment they are able to produce enough advanced leg replacements which to allow people to actually dance, as seen in this video.

Najviše mi se dojmila njegova izjava da ljudi ne mogu biti invalidi, ono što nas čini invalidima je u stvari samo naša loša tehnologija.

From his speech the most compelling statement of him is that people are not broken it is our technology which is broken and inadequate.

S druge strane nisu samo Hugh Herr i njegov tim na granici razvoja ovih novih tehnologija. Postoje mnogi timovi širom svijeta koji se bave proučavanjem i izradom sličnih pomagala. Evo nekoliko fenomenalnih primjera:

On the other hand Hugh Herr and his team are not the only ones on forefront of development of this kind of technologies. Here are some more examples:

Bionička ruka kojom se upravlja direktno iz mozga
 Artificial hand controlled directly by brain.

Egzoskelet koji omogućava da se podižu veoma teški tereti i 
koji omogućava paraliziranim ljudina (od struka na dolje) da ponovo hodaju.
Exoskeleton which allows heaving up very heavy objects and allows paralyzed people (from waist down) to walk again 

Prvo bioničko oko za sljepe, trenutno sa tek 60 piksela ali koje će veoma brzo biti usavršeno
The first bionic eye for blind people, unfortunately with only 60 pixels but which will be improved in short time

Regenerativna medicina / Regenerative medicine


Međutim ambicije i tehnologija idu dalje. Sve ovo su samo prelazna riješenja (iako se može argumentovano govoriti i o tome da neki ljudi možda i žele u potpunosti zamijeniti djelove tijela mehaničkim konstruktima i postati kiborzi), medicina se razvija u mnogim pravcima a jedan od njih je i regeneracija izgubljenih udova ili šire, regenerativna medicina. Ova tehnologija (potpuna regeneracija) je ipak još uvijek negdje u budućnosti ali ne toliko daleko kao što se misli.



But ambition and technology goes even further. All those mechanical replacements are a stepping stone (although somebody can argue that some people would want to replace they original body parts with technology to achieve true cyborg status), medicine is developing in many directions, one of those is the regenerative medicine, the ability to grow back the once original body parts. Those technologies lie in close future and those videos show how far we got today.



Istraživanja idu dalje i kloniranje ljudskih organa nije daleko. Ljudi će jednostavno u budućnosti (možda čak za jedva 30ak godina) biti u stanju jednostavno da zamijene svoje organe novima koji su klonitani iz ćelija originalnog organa što će eliminirati potrebu da se ljudski organi presađuju sa drugih (često preminulih) osoba. Ovo će eliminirati neželjene efekte poput odbacivanja organa i mnogih emocionalnih drama koje se odvijaju u postojećem sistemu doniranja.

The research goes further in to area of transplantation and regrowth of diseased and damaged organs, cloning of those organs from stem cells recovered from original organ, thus preventing all those problems with immunity response. This will bring a new age in transplantation technology, avoiding all those dangers of rejection of donated organ and even eliminating the need for donation which now are the norm with all difficulty to get those and freedom from all the emotional problems connected tho those procedures.
Biološka besmrtnost / Biological immortality


Na kraju postoji i još nešto, mnogo radikalnija misao, vezano za naš sam pojam postojanja, nešto što uprvo definiše to postojanje. Radi se o smrti, odnosno kraju postojanja. Napretci u tehnologiji, medicini i biohemiji pomalo otkrivaju sve mehanizme koji nas čine konačnima. Upoznavamo mehanizme koji čine da naše ćelije na kraju prestaju da se dijele i odumiru, odnosno čine da starimo. Već uvelike se rade mnoga istraživanja u tom pravcu, razumijevaju mehanizmi takvih funkcija i upoznavaju tajne mnogih primitivnih organizama koji nemaju moć starenja već mogu da se regenerišu neograničeno.

In all of this there is something else, a more radical thought, connected to our ultimate faith of our existence. It is about the inevitable death of us, the end of our existence. Advances in technology, medicine, biochemistry give us insights in to mechanisms which limit our existence in to a set time frame. We are uncovering the secrets of mechanisms which ultimately kill our cells by stopping its reproduction eventually bringing the old age to all of us. We research to understand those mechanisms because we know that living creatures exist whom do not succumb to old age. We search for them, find them and uncover their immortality secrets.

Međutim potrebno je objasniti prvo što znači biološka besmrtnost. Biološka besmrtnost ne predstavlja pravu besmrtnost, to je samo termin koji označava osobu koja je ne može starati ali je dalje podložna bolestima i nesretnim slučajevima te svopstvenim odlukama da prekine svoju egzistenciju, međutim, teoretski u zaštićenom okruženju takva osoba bi mogla živjeti neograničeno.

It is important for me to explain what is Biological Immortality. Biological Immortality is not immortality in full sense like to be indestructible and live forever. Biologically immortal person would be still subject to fatal disease or accident or to choice to end its own existence, but theoretically a person confined to a safe and controlled environment could live indefinitely. 

Iako daleko u budućnosti, ipak (kako se vidi iz ovih videa) postoji šansa da ćemo kao ljudi uspijeti pobijediti i finalnu sudbinu svih nas, a to je da umremo od starosti. O poimu biološke besmrtnosti se već uvelike ozbiljno govori, proučavaju se moguće socijalne implikacije, mehanizmi postizanja takvog postojanja, struktura društva u kojemu ne postoji starost itd.

Biological Immortality for now stays a bit further in the future but as seen from those videos the chance exist for us to beat this ultimate fate. This term, Biological Immortality now is contemplated with all seriousness of a scientific mind. All implications of it are debated among many academics, the social and population implications, job and economical problems or advantages coming with this technology, etc.

Predikcija? / Predicrions?

Za 30 godina imati ćemo prve perfektne zamijenske udove koji podižu, trče, rade, vide i čuju bolje od originalnih bioloških.

- In 30 years we will have available perfect replacement hardware which will be better, faster, stronger, will see better, hear better than original body parts.

Za 50 godina biti će mo u stanju da kloniramo i regenerišemo sve dijelove tijela.

- In 50 years we will be able to clone and regenerate original biological body parts to replace damaged ones.

Za 60 godina roditi će se prvo biološki besmrtno dijete.

- In 60 years first biologically Immortal baby will be born.


Na kraju zanimljivo je da su stari Grci smatrali da je starost neizlječiva bolest. Moderna nauka je svojim proučavanjima dala odgovor da su bili u pravu. Osim možda ovog zadnjeg, odnosno neće biti neizlječiva još dugo.

On the end, just a thought. Old Greeks regarded the coming of old age as a incurable disease. Modern science has demonstrated that this is actually true. Well maybe not for a long, as soon this disease might be actually cured.



1 comment:

  1. It is the only way we have to go! Immortality! We are born to learn and discover the different world than it was happend in the past.

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