The smell of burnt flesh rises in the operating theatre and the smoke from vaporised tissue is sucked away. But these fumes are diverted into a machine that tells the surgeon exactly what is being cut into, guiding the rest of the operation. This is “smart surgery“, and it holds the potential to transform medicine. This is the first NMR spectrometer in the world which does the work of a histologist.who identifies the tissue being cut/taken out.
For people with memory-degrading conditions like Alzheimer’s, it’s not always easy, or even possible, to remember to take one’s medicine. Yet forgetting to take your meds-or perhaps worse, forgetting that you already took them and doubling up-can derail a dosage schedule and in worse cases be detrimental to your health. So a couple of University of Texas students have come up with a smart digital system that helps the forgetful among us remember to pop our pills and verifies visually that we’ve done so.
By the students’ own admission their Project Smart Pill Box is somewhat rudimentary, which in certain respects is an advantage because the only hardware it requires is a computer and a Web cam, two pieces of technology that are already present in most homes these days.
