Module III: Podcast Script

Module III: Podcast Script

The Human Mechanic Show

Complete Show Length in Minutes: 6 min 20 sec

Episode 1: Topic: The recent advancements in human bionics.

Intro Music Clip: Title: “Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger” (Daft Punk) Time: 20 sec

Intro: The Human Machine: Time: 1min

Welcome! I am Ian Enrique Gonzalez, and this is my podcast, “The Human Mechanic”, where I discuss modern medicine and how technology has essentially changed the medical field as it progresses. In today’s show, I will discuss the use of bionics in human medicine. Bionics concerns the usage of mechanical parts to replace failed body systems or to enhance systems that are already present. That is to say, scientists in the field of medical bionics, attempt to create analogous replicas of working organs or limbs so as to improve the lives of individuals who suffer damaging diseases or disfigurations that would otherwise render their natural systems useless. Thanks to the creation of nano-computers, machines and sensors, it has become easier to implant these prosthetic organs into the bodies of the patients, without being very noticeable. This field is still very new, but it is growing at a rapid rate and as technology progresses and improves, more and more is made possible. In fact, the year 2008 has actually seen some of the greatest advancements in human bionics, since its conception.

Segment Music Clip: Title: Six Million Dollar Man (Theme) Time: 20 sec

Segment: Bionics in Medicine Time: 3 min

On April 22, 2008, British surgeons at the Morrfields Eye Hospital in London, conducted the first ever bionic eye implantation into two blind patients. The operation was a success, and the formerly blind patients gained the ability of sight. This is a major achievement in both the medical field and the field of bionics. How the bionic eye works, is it has a camera mounted on a set of spectacles or glasses, which then wirelessly link up to implants within the eye. These implants are electrodes which connect to the back of the patient’s eye. The camera feeds the visual information into a processing unit, which converts the information into electrical signals to the electrodes, which then transfer these signals to the eye’s retina. The retina then takes this information to the optic nerve, which then leads to the brain and is processed as actual sight. In spite of this incredibly complicated prosthetic, the user can still only see lights, shapes and movement with low resolution. They cannot see the objects with the sharp acuity that we can and also cannot view the full spectrum of visible light that healthy eyes can. In any case, this is still very amazing and would qualify as a major success in terms of early medical bionics. As technology progresses, the visual quality of these ocular devises will increase and perhaps surpass that of normal eyes.

This is not the only bionic prosthetic that is currently being developed. At current, researchers at the Texas Heart Institute are attempting to develop a fully functional, permanent replacement heart for patients who suffer frequent heart failures. The current heart replacements are not very efficient and only properly function for a few hours. This bionic heart is planned to be a permanent replacement, acting just as efficient as a real heart, if not more so. The Institute has recently received a National Institutes of Health grant, in order to fund this potentially lifesaving technology. Currently, they are still planning the development of the device. A bionic heart along with several other possible replacement parts, seem like an all too real possibility over the horizon.

Organs are not the only thing that bionics can replace, but it is believed that replacement blood can be synthetically produced. This too is in the planning stages, but scientists believe that it could be entirely possible to produce nano-bots called respirocytes, which serve the same function as natural blood. In actuality, they believe that these respirocytes may even surpass the efficiency of natural blood, as this hypothetical nano-bot could carry about 236 times the oxygen than that of natural blood cells. These complex machines are incredibly small, only one micron in diameter and contain an array of complex computers, sensors and power plants. In addition to its amazing efficiency, these nano-bots can be coded to be accepted by the bodies of the recipient, using just a small drop of their own blood. If these machines were ever successfully produced, then we would never have to worry about blood shortages, based on the rarity of certain blood types. What’s your blood type? Who cares, there’s plenty to go around!

End Segment Music Clip: Title: Iron Man (Black Sabbath) Time: 20 sec


Ending: The future of Bionics Time: 1min

The benefits of bionic research are self evident. It is all too true that we in the 21st century want to live forever, a reason why research in the medical field has been so strongly supported. With the use of bionics, we can undoubtedly increase our life spans to a noticeable degree. We can, in effect, negate the negative effects of aging by maintaining the human body using bionic replacement parts for organs that fail or by creating implanted dispensers for the purpose of regulating necessary chemicals within the body. Imagine, being able to run a marathon at the age of a hundred. This is not at all impossible because along with organ replacement, bionics has extended itself to the replacement or enhancement of human limbs, thus negating the limits of arthritis. With bionics, age and disease may no longer be a deciding factor as to whether we live or die. Bionics could possibly become the new conduit for medical technology.

Ending Music Clip: Title: Mr. Roboto (Styx) Time: 20 sec