Bionics
Bionics is the study of humans and animals perform certain tasks and overcome problems with the help the help of electronics and mechanisms.
Vincent Nguyen
Biology
Period 6
April 15, 2011
Bionics is a relatively new thing to the world. With only about half a century of being studied and developed under its belt, it already has a large amount of things to show.They help people in their everyday lives.If the have a disability or became severely injured by an accident they can get help from bionics. (Fischman 2010 2)People like Amanda Kitts can be greatly helped by bionics.She has one natural arm and one mechanical arm.It helps get her life back to normal and she even takes care of young children.People can get it whenever them one bionic arm. Young or grown. People can get new organs and body parts. These inventions can be life changing in may different ways. By restoring how the move and interact with people and things.
It is amazing and astounding what technology and electronics can do for any organisms when it has a issue or a problem.There are a wide variety of bionic things you can get. Ranging from surgeries, replacements, contacts prosthetic arms or legs, artificial eyes, hearts and various body parts (Gray 2010,1).The bionic part replicates or helps the movement or function the thing that has been lost or damaged.The machines are linked to computers and the nerves to tell it what to do and such.(Fischman 2010, 4)Even there is help for those who have only lost some small or minor, such as thumb or a finger or two.There is a group for that in United Kingdom helping that work on helping those who have lost a something small. is not just a small group of people supporting it , there are about one million and two hundred thousand in that group.(Dillow 2009,1)
The term bionics was created a Air Force worker named Jack Steele in 1958.He worked in the aeronautics division.At the same time he was a medical doctor and a Air Force Colonel.He first thought of bionics as the way to use machines to help peoples problems.(Lloyd 2008 , 1)The first people to use bionics were Willen Kolff. Kolff created the first kidney dialysis machine(Lloyd 2008 2).Which is to replace a non functioning kidney. Also the first pacemaker was made the doctors at Karolinska University hospital in Sweden in 1958.(Lloyd 2008, 3) A pacemaker is a device that uses electric shocks to control the beating of the heart.Even though it did not last long,it spawned the development of the modern day pacemaker. Plus, the invention of the MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging Scanner)(No name 2007, 5) in 1987 benefits many people today. It shows where body parts are and can possibly detect diseases.All of these procedures and inventions are greatly beneficial to the human race. Some of the first bionic machines were the pacemaker,a mechanical hand developed a the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and kidney dialysis machine.In the early times of bionics they were used for scientific study and development.They were developed to be better and less complicated to use.Some of the early bionic machines worked and some did not. The pacemaker was made , but only lasted for about three hours. Although it failed it was a good try. (Lloyd 2008,3) The MRI machine however worked from the start and did not fail shortly after. Although it has been refined to be smoother and less dangerous(radiation), much of it has stayed the same and it has the same concept as the early model.
Also, there are some new developments in the field of bionics. New things that it can do and stuff that has never been known to the world. Smoother and more fluid artificial body parts. There are many people who would like to advance humans. Such as Kevin Warwick , he put a radio frequency chip in his arm, letting people do things with out touching them. He believes that if humans do not advance themselves they will fall behind the robots the the world is producing. (Pasternack 2010, 1)In addition to the new body parts some people have developed Spinal Cord Stimulation. It is supposed to be for persons who has a injured spinal cord and treat their pain. (Thomas.L Yearwood,Brad Hershey. Kerry Bradley, Dongchul Lee 2010, 1).It has been improved and tested in the clinical and technical parts for four decades.(Thomas L. Yearwood, Brad Hershey, Kerry Bradley,Dongchul Lee 2010,2) It came from a big and bulky and not doing as much as it could to being what it is today very small and more programable.(Thomas L. Yearwood, Brad Hershey, Kerry Bradley,Dongchul Lee 2010, 3) This procedure is a very innovative and interesting. It has also shown that small children with hearing loss and or deficits, that they get cochlear implants before they are one and a half years have a better chance of hearing better. Cochlear implants are a device that goes by the ruined part of the ear and encourage the auditory nerve.(Mann 2010, 2)The things they would be able to understand music, sounds and speech better then there kids who receive them later in their life.(Mann 2010, 1) That could be very beneficial to those who have hearing problems, that they might be abe to live life a little less stressfully. There is also a better way to make life easier for people that have had an amputation. They have engineered a artificially smart knee,a mechanical hand that can hold objects, and a future where prosthetic body parts look and feel like the normal ones.(Ruiz 2007, 2) People have advanced a long way with all the technological advancements in the last few years to help people with disabilities.There are a number of artificial body parts to get if a person lost one. Scientists are developing them and have them ready to use. The liver is a part being currently worked on. They are working on two different types. The first one is the one that is a outside machine that resembles the kidney dialysis machine and one produced from human stem cells.(Hadlington 2007, 1) Even though there is not a artificial stomach yet, it is in development. It works the same way the real works.(Hadlington 2007, 2)
People are even working on a artificial brain. It is likely they wont have one for many years, but they are working on it.(Hadlington 2007,5) They are testing a electronic eye. One that has a tiny camera and computer chip linked to the retina of the eye. Once the image is received it will be transformed into electronic signals which then it travels to the brain.(Hadlington 2007,6 ) That invention could prove to be life changing for the blind. Scientists are trying to produce a substitute for blood but it is very difficult. They have two chief methods of making a substitute for blood. One is two use the natural haemoglobin and synthetic perfluorocarbon.(Hadlington 2007,7) Artificial lung are already around and used mainly in emergencies. They are made up of many slim, hollow polymer fibres. The artificial lung is not efficient and requires a large amount of blood for it.(Hadlington 2007, 8) The development that can work with the body and be useful has been baffling. People that have had a heart transplant have not lived very long , about a couple of months. People in Texas have been analyzing a heart that does not beat, but pumps blood out all the time. (Hadlington 2007, 9) This is perhaps the most useful artificial body part, the artificial pancreas. The pancreas produces many hormone, including insulin. People that have diabetes cannot produce insulin. Insulin is needed for life. The artificial pancreas can produce insulin and watch the blood glucose level in the body. It is the tests to prove that it can work in real life, but it is too early to tell when it will be able for use on a large scale.(Hadlington 2007, 10)Although the finished product is not yet finished, many people are anxious for one of these artificial pancreas's. They would make the life of people suffering from diabetes easier and more enjoyable. Another very useful bionic part would be the bone. More than 2 million bone transplants occur every year around the world. Researchers are currently looking for different thing to make synthetic bones out of. One idea they have is to use coral and transform it into hydroxyapatite. Hydroxyapatite is the chief mineral component in the human bone.Scientists at the University of Illinois are working on a glue that will secrete a substance that will heal the bone when it is damaged.(Hadlington 2007, 11 ) The artificial bone could a great use to the injured. there also other uses for bionics such as defense , preventing people from harm and entertainment. A way defense could be linked to bionics is that scientists are working toward machines that could help injured soldiers and in extreme temperatures. ( No name 2007, 6) There are machines that do jobs that a human could never do , such as machines to find explosives. (No name 2007, 5) Plus there bionic things that can entertain. The mechanical dog for instance, it can learn new tricks and it acts much like a real life dog.( No Name 7) Bionics has so many new things to show a much more to come in the future.
All in all, bionics is a way to make human life easier and more manageable. The way electronics is revolutionary and amazing due to what it can do now and what it can do in the future. It benefits almost everyone with all that it can do. From saving lives, to defending people, and making life a ton easier for the people with disabilities. There is no telling what bionics cant do. Bionics has been able to produce artificial body parts for people. Even though some of the body parts are not ready yet, in the future it could possibly help patients with their issues. The bionic pancreas for example, even though not yet finished could change the lives of millions of people affected by diabetes. It would relive them of the hassle of pricking themselves and injecting insulin. That would be a major improvement. That is just one bionic thing of all the bionic things in the world.There is already other things that bionics can help with. A fake leg that would aid leg amputees to get their life almost back to normal. It provides people with issues and problems with help they need to live and continue on. If they lost a body part or losing one they could quite possibly receive a new one. The transplant would life changing and so helpful to those people. Bionics is certainly in the future and it will continue to help the human race with all that it can do. With new developments and information being processed and reviewed all the time bionics will be a force in the future of the world. It would also become more easier to use and handle with the new developments and studies on it. Bionics is a great and amazing thing for the world.