We hope everyone is having a joyous and healthy holiday season. While we are grateful for what this year has brought us, we also saw much human suffering around the world, often driven by violence, conflict, and some of the ugliest parts of human nature. Yet we continue to see much to be hopeful about. One of those is the resilience of human ingenuity and humanity's unquenchable thirst for knowledge and improvement. In that spirit, we offer some examples of what our best and brightest have been up to this year. Some suggest investable opportunities, but all are undeniably inspiring, and, dare we say, just plain cool.
Human health
In the next week, many of us will mark the New Year by resolving to adopt healthier lifestyles, striving to improve both quality and quantity of life. Those resolutions will likely involve pledges to eat healthier. Less sweets, for instance. But what if that weren't necessary? That's the hope of scientists at Harvard University’s Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, who are working on an enzyme that, when added to and consumed with sweet treats, would reduce absorption of sugar into the bloodstream and instead turn it into fiber, which can improve gut health. Wyss Institute researchers are working on securing regulatory approval and figuring out how to lower production costs.
A healthy lifestyle isn't just about diet, however. Although science still doesn't have a definitive answer for why humans need sleep, we do know without a doubt that bad things happen to us when we don't get enough of it. And new tech on the market claims to help us do just that, including electrode-laden headbands and masks worn at night to modulate brainwaves. (Don't like the idea of wearing gadgets to bed? There's some evidence to suggest a heavy, weighted blanket can help as well, even if this isn't exactly space-age technology.)
This year also saw advances in helping the body to heal when things go wrong. A project originally funded by DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) could result of a variety of smart bandages, embedded with sensors and electronics that can help doctors closely monitor how wounds are healing or even actively assist in healing, whether through electrotherapy or by actively fighting infection through UV therapy or by administering doses of antibiotics when sensors deem it necessary.
A different team of Wyss Institute researchers are working on a different approach to wound healing: anthrobots, which are tiny biological robots made from human tracheal cells that can be programmed to speed wound healing within the cell donor's body without triggering an immunosuppressant response. Hopefully, anthrobots might also be able to help clear arterial plaque buildup in patients with heart disease, repair spinal cord or retinal nerve damage, or even deliver drugs to targeted tissues.
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