Imitating humanity

Back at work this week and a return to shipping. Actually, this week was one of those frustrating days when I’m not able to find much information. However, it can still be enjoyable.

For instance, I’d only been in about ten minutes when Emma asked everyone if they’d like to go up on gallery and see the bionic man, an exhibit she’d worked on. It had featured on a channel 4 programme this week and was only unveiled at the museum yesterday afternoon. Emma thought we could all go and look at it before the masses arrived at the museum.

The bionic man is made up of all the bits and pieces that modern science can recreate in the human body. He’s doesn’t look anything like Steve Austin but is similar to a Borg.

He is pretty amazing, I have to say. Apparently, on the TV programme, he walked into Harrods and went shopping. I’ll have to watch it and see. Emma said it was quite good.

The only problem with the bionic man is a small sign in the bottom of his case which tells visitors to the museum that they may not take photographs. We all thought this was a bit harsh. Emma said the owner had stipulated that the taking of photographs should be discouraged. That’s a bit of a tall order in the Science Museum where you can take photographs of everything else!

We ignored the little sign and snapped away – all eight of us. There were no members of the public there yet so I’m certain we didn’t exactly set a bad example.

The bionic man is called Rex and he cost about £500,000 to build. He features everything from an artificial lung (it will keep you alive on an operating table but won’t work out and about), to synthetic blood, to a spleen.

Dr Bertolt Meyer, a researcher from Zurich University who uses robotic prosthetics himself, was called in to create Rex and, with the help of many robotic and medical scientists, he did.

Here’s short extract from a piece from the Guardian

“Take the elegant simplicity of Bionic Man’s pancreas, invented by Prof Joan Taylor of De Montfort University. Within a protective casing of firm gel lies a store of insulin. In the presence of excess glucose, the gel begins to soften and liquefy, releasing the insulin – and as glucose levels drop in response to the insulin release, the gel hardens once again, in a self-regulating loop. Like a natural pancreas, this device requires no conscious monitoring – implanted permanently within the body, it plugs directly into our own homeostatic systems, potentially liberating us from the chore of blood sugar monitoring. It is, Prof. Taylor hopes, only around seven years from general use.” Corrinne Burns

I mean that is fantastic! Imagine a world without diabetes.

It’s quite amazing although it does blur the line between what’s real and what’s not. It’s one thing to replace something that is missing (like an arm or a leg) but it’s quite something else to create something that will improve the thing it replaces. And, ethically, when does the human become the machine?

Not that we were thinking any of that as we ‘oohed’ and ‘ahed’ in front of Rex’s glass case. We just thought he was simply amazing. With a big thank you to Emma, we all went back to work.

Behind his glass case