Health and Medicine
Solar cells, which have powered space systems, are now being used as a power source in studies on brain function. A miniaturized solar cell developed by General Electric provides enough power, under ordinary house lights, to stimulate an animal's brain and to telemeter respiratory, cardiovascular, and brain-wave data while the animal is allowed to move about freely. Such a system is now used by the National Institute of Mental Health Laboratory at Rethesda, Md.
Scientists at the Ames Research Center have devised a new technique for studying organic compounds, whether synthesized in the laboratory or produced by a living system. This technique is based on a property of matter called optical activity. Previous methods of measuring optical activity have been plagued by low sensitivity. The new method is many tunes more sensitive and represents a real contribution to modern analytical instrumentation.
Studies on calcium metabolism and bed rest simulating weightlessness are adding knowledge on the prevention of demineralization of the skeleton; treatment of Paget's disease and osteoporosis prevention of muscular atrophy; the cause and treatment of renal calculi (kidney stones); optimal calcium for the human diet; and the factors influencing calcium absorption, metabolism, and excretion. The results will have great importance in bone healing and repair, care and treatment of fracture cases, treatment of paraplegics, and treatment of polio patients and similar cases. These grant studies at Texas Woman's University have also proven that the X-ray bone densitometry method can accurately detect changes in the skeleton.
A primary objective of the planetary exploration program is the detection of possible extraterrestrial life. The study of the fundamental properties of living things on Earth is restricted to the type of life which has evolved and survived here. Life which has been exposed to totally different environmental conditions may have markedly different physiological characteristics. The impact of the new information obtainable from the study of extraterrestrial life upon the sciences of medicine and biology will unquestionably be of fundamental and far-reaching importance. Advancement in the treatment of disease and the problems of aging are among the many possible consequences.
New developments in such techniques as ultraviolet spectrophotometry, polarimetry, and gas chromatography will find use in the detection of biochemicals and other compounds in hospitals and in toxicology and pathology laboratories. They will also be useful in studies of atmospheric pollutants such as smog.
Studies of the chemistry of living systems, molecular biology, and biophysics of cellular processes will create a better understanding of the basic mechanisms of life, leading to an understanding of both inherited and acquired disease, especially neoplastic conditions and chemical disturbances incident to mental disease.
The University of Pittsburgh is conducting a study to increase the availability of cytological technique in research and as a monitoring procedure by developing an automatic electronic scanning device using computer analysis for recording, counting, and sorting chromosomes. Structural changes in blood cell chromosomes can indicate the degree of radiation damage as well as damage resulting from various environmental stresses. Accordingly, this instrument, when developed, can be used as a radiation dosimeter in civil defense by swiftly detecting the degree and type of chromosomal aberrations in blood cells. Thus, casualties in nuclear attack could be quickly detected and treated. This system would also be useful for nuclear industrial plants and for military maneuvers. In medicine, various disease trends could be monitored. (Chromosomes exhibit anomalies in leukemia and mental retardation as well as in other states.) In space exploration and experimentation, the device can spot monitor radiation dose levels as well as changes resulting from any of the environmental stresses experienced in space. This apparatus can be modified for use as an extraterrestrial-life-detecting instrument by scanning the growth of cells (or cellular inclusions), computing rates, and telemetering changes to the researcher.
Investigations of rhythmic phenomena of various physiological systems can result in knowledge of the utmost importance to medicine. Rhythmic phenomena are found in the cardiovascular system of normal humans. Changes in these rhythms have the potential of foretelling abnormalities (heart disease, arteriosclerosis) before outward signs are manifested, allowing for earlier diagnosis, treatment, and control or cure.
The spacecraft sterilization program requires the use of rooms having the lowest attainable level of bacterial contamination. The rate of dissemination of bacteria from the humans in the room is basic to the problem. Data on this matter are being obtained through support of the Communicable Disease Center of the U.S. Public Health Service. The findings are affecting the measures used in surgical practice to lower infection rates.