Imagine a robotic arm 17.6 metres long and weighing 1640kg servicing the International Space Station (ISS) would inspire robot technology capable of removing a brain tumour. It is exactly the precision-focused maneuvers needed to maintain the ISS which have been used in developing a neurosurgery tool which would be more efficient for surgeons and safer for patients. Versions include BrightMatter Drive (2015), neuroArm (2010) and the Image-Guided Autonomous Robot (IGAR).
Measuring Nitrogen Monoxide
The European Space Agency is measuring the nitrogen monoxide in the air astronauts breathe to investigate their susceptibility to airway inflammation and act before it becomes a health problem. On Earth, it has resulted in the Swedish company Aerocrine and ESA developing a small device for asthmatics to control the disease.
While microgravity does crazy things to a human body, it can also achieve amazing results. Scientists in space are able to successfully crystallise the protein found in muscle fibres of patients with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. It is a more perfect version of the protein than the one extracted from patients on earth which have allowed the development of a drug, TAS-205, for treating this condition.
In the seven decades of Star Trek, its medical tricoder has made many advancements. So too advances have been made in real life technology. The simplest is the handheld digital thermometer. In 2017 Basil Leaf Technologies has developed a non-invasive device which can diagnosis up to thirteen conditions and collects and analyses vital signs by transmission to a smart device.
We're not quite to the letting robots operate on us as was the case for Darth Vader in Star Wars III Revenge of the Sith but in reality we are remote-controlling machines in surgery. The first such surgery was a laparoscopic cholecystectomy performed in 1987. Decades of innovation have seen the creation of the Da Vinci surgical system and RP-Vita Robot.
Move over Six Million Dollar Man and the Bionic Woman! Medicine, science and technology are growing, building and 3-D printing all manner of prosthetic body part to enhance quality of life. We're cloning and transplanting. What could possibly be next.
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