Cancer-killing nanoparticles, fat-fighting nucleic acids and more breakthroughs set to transform health care
Posted 08.01.2006 at 1:00 am
0 Comments
We´ve seen the future of medicine-and it´s tough on the eyes. The secret to radically improved health care lies at the cellular level, ground zero for disease, where everything is roughly 1,000 times as small as the period at the end of this sentence. Dial out a decade or so, and doctors will wield molecular tools to switch genes on and off, taming
diabetes and obesity, among many ills. Researchers will
harness tiny proteins to ward off any strain of influenza.
Bye-bye bird flu. Precision-guided cancer killers will lay waste to tumors without so much as grazing the surrounding healthy tissue. No more chemotherapy side effects.
From a nano-sewing kit that mends severed nerves to a genetic switch that turns off fat genes, the future of molecular medicine looks bright. And that's no small thing.
Related:
Waiting For an Arm and a Leg: The Next Generation of Artificial Limbs
In 2021 You'll Grow a New Heart
Want to learn more about breakthroughs in electronics, medicine, nanotech, and more?
Subscribe to Popular Science and enter to win $5,000!
Subscribe to Popular Science and enter to win $5,000!
0 Comments
To comment, please Login.
Download Our iPhone App
Stay up to date on the latest news of the future of science and technology from your iPhone with full articles, images and offline viewing
Follow Us On Twitter
Featuring every article from the magazine and website, plus links from around the Web. Also see our PopSci DIY feed
Become a Fan On Facebook
Share links with friends, comment on stories and more
November 2009: Astronaut 3.0
Inside NASA's astronaut bootcamp and the grueling new training regimen for deep space. Plus, ten young geniuses shaking up science today, one writer's quest to analyze every man-made chemical in her body and more.
Check out the issue's full contents online here
Popular Science Photo Pool
Popular on Popsci
Most Viewed
Science
- Baguette Dropped From Bird's Beak Shuts Down The Large Hadron Collider (Really)
- Hideous Rodent May Provide Cure For Cancer
- Fermi Space Telescope Captures Glimpse of Space-Time
- My Quest To Analyze Every Man-Made Chemical In My Body
- So Just How Tiny Is a Virus?
- Gallery: Where Toxins Come From
- Kissing Evolved To Spread Germs, Not Feelings
- A Material Based on Sharkskin Stops Bacterial Breakouts
- How To Fix a Broken Collider: the LHC's Restart Checklist
- Gray Matter: The Hidden Uses of Everyday Explosives
Most Commented
Science
- Baguette Dropped From Bird's Beak Shuts Down The Large Hadron Collider (Really)
- This Week in the Future, October 26-30, 2009
- Hideous Rodent May Provide Cure For Cancer
- This Week in the Future, October 30- November 6, 2009
- Fermi Space Telescope Captures Glimpse of Space-Time
- Kissing Evolved To Spread Germs, Not Feelings
- My Quest To Analyze Every Man-Made Chemical In My Body
- A Material Based on Sharkskin Stops Bacterial Breakouts
- Mutant Bacteria Are Likely to Threaten Future Space Travelers
- Lawsuit Banning Human Gene Patents Continues, Court Rules
Most Emailed
Science
- My Quest To Analyze Every Man-Made Chemical In My Body
- Kissing Evolved To Spread Germs, Not Feelings
- Fermi Space Telescope Captures Glimpse of Space-Time
- This Week in the Future, October 30- November 6, 2009
- Nanoparticles Can Damage DNA Without Crossing Cellular Barrier
- Mutant Bacteria Are Likely to Threaten Future Space Travelers
- Digital TV Switch A Boon For Astronomers
- Will a Shortage of Nuclear Isotopes Mean Less Effective Medical Tests?
- Baguette Dropped From Bird's Beak Shuts Down The Large Hadron Collider (Really)
- New Genomic Zoo to Collect DNA of 10,000 Vertebrate Species
Today on PopSci.com
Copyright © 2009 Popular Science
A Bonnier Corporation Company. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.
