12-year-old boy in China receives 1st 3-D printed vertebra. Photo courtesy YouTube Screen Capture

The wonders of the 3-D printer are just beginning to populate the common consciousness and for one 12-year-old boy, the fantastical invention is changing his life.

Minghao of China learned about two months ago that he had Ewing’s sarcoma, a type of bone cancer usually discovered in children. There was a tumor lodged on the second vertebra of his spine. The usual treatment for this is bine replacement using a titanium tube. Minghao’s doctors decided to try something different.

Using the research and technology developed by the 3-D printer, the doctors at Beijing’s Peking University Third Hospital fabricated an exact replica of Minghao’s vertebra. When it is implanted surgically, they will be able to forego the usual surgical screws or cement. This will allow the boy to recover more quickly. Better still is the fact that the procedure will leave him with a greater range of motion in his neck that the previously used type of procedure would have. This is accomplished because the piece of replacement bone is made from titanium powder and has tiny pores throughout its design that will allow the child’s future bone growth to bond with it.

Minghao underwent the 5-hour procedure in August. It makes him the first recipient of a vertebra created by a 3-D printer.

Others have been helped by the ever-expanding technology surrounding 3-D printers. An Ohio baby’s life was saved in 2013 when it received an airway printed on the device. The implant corrected a birth defect that caused the infant’s airway to collapse several times, cutting off his supply of oxygen and on occasion, stopping his heart.

Minghao is expected to make a full and speedy recovery, thanks to the new vertebra and the out-of-the-box thinking by his doctors.

Astronomers Discover New Earth-Like Planet

This week a group of astronomers released information about a new planet that has been discovered. In the ongoing quest to discover and understand the universe new planets are found relatively often, but it isn’t very often that a planet this similar to Earth is discovered. The new planet might be nearly 500 light-years away, but scientists say it is a pretty significant discovery.

The new planet is named Kepler-186f, and while it is absolutely impossible to reach it scientists say it has plenty of information that could help us understand the origins of the universe. There have been quite a few planets discovered that are similar to Earth, but Kepler is unique in that it has been given a 90% chance of having liquid water. Based on the distance from the nearest star, as well as other factors, astronomers say that Kepler is the most likely planet we’ve found that could be inhabited by life.

This is a very significant scientific breakthrough, and it just goes to show how much research and science are constantly advancing. Additional research is being conducted right now, but it is still pretty impressive to see just how much information we can discern from such a distant planet.

Scientists Create New Stem Cells

For many years now researchers have been working on developing various disease cures with stem cells and the results are definitely looking very promising. Unfortunately at the current time stem cells are difficult to capture or grow without damaging the host organism, the good news is that this new breakthrough might be exactly what it takes to bring stem cell research to the front of the research process.

Essentially researchers found an innovative new way to grow stem cells from standard cells in a mouse, they have significant success through repeated testing. Now the research team is beginning to attempt the same procedure using human cells, if they are successful they should quickly and easily be able to develop human stem cells without any real risk. The stem cell research industry has been controversial and complicated for years due to public opinion but this could very well be the next big step forward in what many doctors say is the most promising form of medical research.

The scientists involved are hoping to begin testing the procedure on human cells in the next few months. If this process does in fact work out it will definitely be the best breakthrough the medical industry has seen in quite a long time.

Who needs elevators to reach the 103^rd floor of skyscraper when you have a bionic leg? Zac Vawter, a 31 year old amputee accomplished the phenomenal feat. Vawter earned his place in the history books as the first person to climb the 103 floors using a bionic leg.

His spectacular achievement was done as part of “SkyRise Chicago,” on Sunday, a fundraising event that benefits the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago.

The prosthetic leg he wore was controlled by his mind and marks the first public appearance for the technology. Vawter was able to activate the motors, chains and belts in his mechanical leg in synchronized movements in the ankle and knee simply by thinking about it. The “smart leg” was monitored by researchers as they cheered Vawter on. Its performance was lauded as utterly fantastic.

The climb from ground level to the 103 floor of Willis Tower, formerly known as the Sears Tower, took roughly 45 minutes. That is approximately 2.28 floors per minute, something many of with both of our natural limbs cannot do.

Technology is making it possible for many like Vawter to lead not only productive lives but athletic ones if they so choose. It makes you wonder just how far we can go when faced with adversity.

Abbygail and Colton Ainslie were among the first ten kids treated with a new therapy developed to treat “bubble boy disease “ and among the firs three kids cured.

Abbygail was born in July of 2011 and seemed perfectly fine but her mother worried. Abbygail’s older brother Colton had been diagnosed with severe combined immune deficiency syndrome (SCID) commonly referred to as “bubble boy disease” named for the 13-year-old boy, David Vetter, who lived his entire life in a plastic isolation ward before succumbing to the illness in the 1970s.

Abbygail passed all the tests given at the hospital when she was born. She even weighed in at a healthy 9 lbs. but her mom, Jessica Ainslie had concerns so she had Abbygail genetically tested. Sure enough, the results proved Abbygail had the same form of SCID her brother had.

Knowing that another baby had a one in three chance of having SCID, the genetically inherited disease, Jessica and her husband talked and prayed over their decision. Colton, who is now 5, had been treated by Dr. Kohn with an experimental gene therapy and was better. Jessica knew she could rely on the doctor to treat another child if necessary.

Dr. Donald Kohn, a professor at UCLA’s Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Molecular Genetics, developed the technique to treat the group of diseases lumped under the SCID umbrella that affect one in every 100,000 newborns.

The particular type the Ainslie children have, SCID-ADA, creates a faulty enzyme that causes immune cells to die, leaving the victim unable to fight off germs. Colton, who was born premature at 26 weeks, had it but then seemed to recover for a time before worsening. One the proper diagnosis was reached, Colton was given specialized care before being placed in the clinical trials which have now effectively saved his and his sister’s lives.

The treatment is expensive and the kids will likely need boosters for the rest of their lives but Jessica says it is worth it. Abbygail is now one year old and Colton just started kindergarten, a feat Jessica thought he’d never live to do.

This week President Obama unveiled his personal list of people that he wanted to recognize for their contributions to science, technology, and innovation. The awards given out yesterday are prestigious and rare to say the least so those that received them are surely glad to have received such incredible recognition.

The awards were specifically given to seven researchers for their various discoveries including new DNA properties, new health and medicine discoveries, optimized research methods, and much more. Five people were also recognized for their amazing inventions which included things such as space craft and aircraft guidance systems, and other advanced inventions. All of the recipients were personally given their awards by President Obama at the official ceremony and dinner, during which he spoke about the many accomplishments and achievements the group had made.

Overall analysts agree with President Obama’s sentiments that the group of scientists truly had made some of the greatest advancements in their respective fields. It is not often that a group of scientists is recognized on a global platform such as this one so it is truly fitting that they were all personally presented their awards by the president himself. Until next year these 12 men and women will be considered America’s top scientists and innovators, many of them are surely hoping to stay in that group in the coming years as well which will hopefully help develop even more advancement in the scientific world.

Gamers Solve Puzzling Science Problem

For years scientists have been working to understand and decode the structure of a key protein in the development of AIDS and until recently they have been unsuccessful. Fortunately just last week t he code was cracked under a new program which utilized video games to help solve the problem. An online video game called FoldIt was designed to help solve problems like this and thanks to the hundreds of thousands of hours spent by video gamers the problem was quickly solved.

Researchers say it is absolutely astonishing how quickly the gamers were able to do this; the three years of research done on the protein were absolutely wasted since the gamers managed to crack the code in just under 3 weeks. This type of research is still very cutting edge and despite previous beliefs that it would never work gamers were successfully able to prove that combining human brain power with computers is in fact an effective way to solve complicated problems.

At this point medical experts say that the information gained is simply astonishing and as such many more future projects are expected to be planned through games and other online projects. No word on what may come next but it seems like the future of medical and technical research might be based entirely on distributed brain power through video gamers and other online enthusiasts. Apparently no computers are as smart as the combined brain power of everyone on the internet.