[thedoc (OP)]

Michael Kelly asked the Naked Scientists:
   Your show is amazing!!  I enjoy listening to your podcasts during my daily commute.    

After learning about all the fantastic new scientific and technological advancements, I couldn’t help wondering how often research projects are abandoned due to newer discoveries.  

For example, one of your November shows discussed the use of menstrual blood to create stem cells to grow different organs. However, recent discoveries have found that skin cells can be used to create stem cells while other research has developed techniques to re-grow damaged hearts.  Do these recent discoveries make the menstrual blood research obsolete?

Also, do researchers work together and combine their efforts?

For example, in February 2008 the Simon Fraser University in Canada announced their development of a wearable technology that generates electricity from the natural motion of walking and promises to revolutionize the way we charge portable battery-powered devices.  

In February 2007, the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago described a procedure to surgically transplant nerves from the shoulder to the upper-chest muscle. The rerouted nerves then grew into the muscle, which amplified the messages once sent to muscles in the arm and hand; those signals are read by sensors on the prosthetic limb and translated into movement.

Couldn’t these two innovative technologies be combined to create new prosthetic limbs that are self-charging?

I look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

Mike Kelly
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
What do you think?