injuries

Ultrathin silk-based electrodes as brain implants

Silk is not only flexible, it is also transparent and strong, and the rate at which it dissolves can be manipulated. So researchers at the University of Illinois, Urbana; Tufts in Boston; and the University of Pennsylvania decided to build silk-based brain implants, using electrode arrays with silk proteins and thin metal electrodes.

Since silk is biocompatible and water-soluble, it dissolved in the brains of the cats they studied, leaving the mesh-like electrodes, which are about 1/40 the thickness of a standard sheet of paper, literally hugging the brains' contours.

The cats were anesthetized, but their eyes still functioned, … Read more

Doctors fear you'll be Wiik at the knees this Christmas

Laptop-related repetitive-strain digit injuries have nothing on this.

It appears that the latest technology that is maiming society is the wonderfully engaging Wii.

Yes, the medical profession is adopting the brace position in expectation of Wii-aggravated knees, elbows, backs, fingers, and thumbs this holiday season. All fueled by humanity's obsessive need to gift and conquer.

Deep-thinking medicos at Leeds Teaching Hospital in the U.K. have already identified a condition they call "Wii knees."

And doctors from all over the Kingdom have claimed they are recognizing injuries that they themselves have sustained in an effort to keep … Read more

Whatever happened to carpal tunnel syndrome?

Remember when carpal tunnel syndrome was looking to be the big bad wolf that would blow down the IT industry with a gust of wrist injuries?

While some people have certainly and unfortunately been afflicted with it, it has not become the epidemic that so many predicted.

An Associated Press article on Sunday looks into what happened with the repetitive stress injury washout:

With the personal-computing boom of the 1990s came thousands of repetitive stress injuries or repetitive strain injuries. RSI became the hip medical acronym of the keyboard era, with subset carpal tunnel syndrome the diagnosis of the day.… Read more

Beware the killer laser printer!

When you think of workplace injuries, you usually think of factories or construction sites. But a new study out of the Queensland University of Technology in Australia shows that emissions (in the form of toner particles) from some laser printers may be high enough to cause respiratory and heart problems. In fact, the university's Air Quality and Health Program compares the emissions from some models to second-hand cigarette smoke. Printers from HP, Ricoh, Canon, and Toshiba were tested; not all showed high levels of emissions, and results weren't consistent by manufacturer.

So the next time you make that … Read more

'Lightsaber' phone seems a bit forced

This phone might work fine, but even the most ardent Star Wars aficionado might balk at using it on a regular basis. Just answering Nikko Japan's "Lightsaber" VoIP phone could cause major damage in close quarters.

The handset, if it can be called that, connects to the computer by USB (doesn't everything?) and is cradled in a base that bears the Star Wars logo in blue LED. The phones, part of an ensemble seen by fellow Craver Will Greenwald at CES last week, can even make the familiar Lightsaber swooshing sound. We were thinking of pre-ordering … Read more

Robot, heal thy self

We make sport of robots here at Crave on occasion, but it's all in good fun. We'd like to state that for the record, now that we're afraid they may some day rule the world.

The latest fodder for our paranoia comes not from watching too many episodes of Battlestar Galactica, but from a reputable periodical. Science magazine is reporting today that mechanical engineers at Cornell University are working on a robot that can recover from injuries--we're not talking Terminator just yet, but it's definitely limping in that direction.

Cornell's four-legged prototype can, … Read more