Medicine (Main Frame)

Bio-Sensors

Electronic sensors capable of responding to physical qualities like temperature, light, sound and touch have been used for over 100 years. Sensors can now be made from biological material and implanted in the human body. Thin films of artificially produced light sensitive material can be used to replace damaged retinas and so help blind people to see. The human body does not reject these foreign materials but instead new nerves are introduced to grow and to join with the new sensors. Sound detectors can be implanted inside the human ear and so cure deafness.

The range of human sight and hearing is confined to specific ranges of wavelength but with the new sensors this range can be extended or altered so that, for instance, people can see in the infra - red region of the spectrum. Various filters can be worn like glasses to alter the wavelengths that the person wishes to see.

Donors

100 years ago those people who when they died, wished their organs to be removed and re-used to help others had to carry a DONOR card like the one shown here. Very few people carried this card so a lot of valuable body parts - kidneys, lungs, hearts, eyes, pituitary glands, etc. were buried or cremated. Nowadays there is no need to carry a card since organs are removed automatically so providing a resource which supplements the artificially produced organs.

Agriculture

Genetic engineering has had a profound effect on agriculture worldwide and this has help prevent widespread famine due to increases in world population. Foreign genes can be introduced into plants which can then be engineered to give enhanced pest, drought, frost and disease resistance and to improve their nutritional value.

Plants can now be grown in areas of the world which previously could not support crops of any kind eg the Sahara desert is being pushed back many miles each year and is now only a small area compared to 100 years ago. Gene cloning has also offered a solution to the rising costs of fertilisers since plants which do not normally fix nitrogen in the soil can have the necessary gene introduced.These plants then pass this property on to their seeds. Fast growing plants rich in carbohydrates which are very fast growing have also been genetically engineered and are used in "energy farms" to trap and store solar energy very efficiently. The efficiency of manufacturing certain synthetic drugs depends on genetic engineering and allows very expensive drugs to be made much cheaper.

Life Expectancy

Life expectancy in the western world is now about 130 years. This is due to a number of factors - genetically engineered drugs of great purity which are manufactured in space, intelligent computers with large knowledge bases of diseases which can help design new drugs, a more leisurely lifestyle and better preventative medicine. This latter factor includes control of food additives and the world wide banning (in spite of many protests) of cigarettes, which accounted for many thousands of deaths due to lung cancer - a disease almost unheard of now. Artificial organs and those obtained from donors are also a contributing factor.

Donors
		100 years ago those people who when they died, wished their organs to be removed and re-used to help others had to carry a DONOR card like the one shown here. Very few people carried this card so a lot of valuable body parts - kidneys, lungs, hearts, eyes, pituitary glands, etc. were buried or cremated. Nowadays there is no need to carry a card since organs are removed automatically so providing a resource which supplements the artificially produced organs.

Agriculture
	Genetic engineering has had a profound effect on agriculture worldwide and this has help prevent widespread famine due to increases in world population. Foreign genes can be introduced into plants which can then be engineered to give enhanced pest, drought, frost and disease resistance and to improve their nutritional value.
	Plants can now be grown in areas of the world which previously could not support crops of any kind eg the Sahara desert is being pushed back many miles each year and is now only a small area compared to 100 years ago. Gene cloning has also offered a solution to the rising costs of fertilisers since plants which do not normally fix nitrogen in the soil can have the necessary gene introduced.These plants then pass this property on to their seeds. Fast growing plants rich in carbohydrates which are very fast growing have also been genetically engineered and are used in "energy farms" to trap and store solar energy very efficiently. The efficiency of manufacturing certain synthetic drugs depends on genetic engineering and allows very expensive drugs to be made much cheaper.

Life Expectancy
		Life expectancy in the western world is now about 130 years. This is due to a number of factors - genetically engineered drugs of great purity which are manufactured in space, intelligent computers with large knowledge bases of diseases which can help design new drugs, a more leisurely lifestyle and better preventative medicine. This latter factor includes control of food additives and the world wide banning (in spite of many protests) of cigarettes, which accounted for many thousands of deaths due to lung cancer - a disease almost unheard of now. Artificial organs and those obtained from donors are also a contributing factor.