Chase Shattered Nerves

How Science Is Solving Modern Medicine's Most Perplexing Problem
Erscheinungsjahr 2006
ISBN: 978-0-8018-9213-4
Verlag: Johns Hopkins University Press
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 0 Seiten, Format (B × H): 152 mm x 229 mm

Winner of an Honorable Mention in the 2007 American Society of Journalists and Authors Annual Writing Award in the General Non-fiction Book Category

Once the stuff of science fiction, neural prosthetics are now a reality. Research and technology are creating implants that enable the deaf to hear, the blind to see, and the paralyzed to move.

Shattered Nerves takes us on a journey into a new medical frontier, where sophisticated, state-of-the-art medical devices repair and restore failed sensory and motor systems. In a compelling narrative that reveals the intimate relationship between technology and the physicians, scientists, and patients who bring it to life, Victor D. Chase explores groundbreaking developments in neural technology.

Through personal interviews and extensive research, Chase introduces us to the people and devices that are restoring shattered lives, from implants that enable the paralyzed to stand, walk, feed, and groom themselves, to those that restore bladder and bowel control, and even sexual function. Signals from the brains of paralyzed people are captured and transformed to allow them to operate computers. Brain implants hold the potential to resolve psychiatric illnesses and to restore the ability to form memories in damaged brains.

This timely and important book also explores troubling boundaries between restoration and enhancement, where implants could conceivably endow the able-bodied with superhuman capabilities. Chase concludes this fascinating book with a provocative question: Just because we can, does that mean we should?

Autoren/Hrsg.

Chase, Victor D.

Fachgebiete

• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaften Interdisziplinär Neurowissenschaften, Kognitionswissenschaft
• Technische Wissenschaften Verfahrenstechnik | Chemieingenieurwesen | Biotechnologie Biotechnologie
• Medizin | Veterinärmedizin Medizin | Public Health | Pharmazie | Zahnmedizin Klinische und Innere Medizin Neurologie, Klinische Neurowissenschaft
• Medizin | Veterinärmedizin Medizin | Public Health | Pharmazie | Zahnmedizin Medizin, Gesundheitswesen Medizinische Ethik

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Learning to Listen All Over Again
2. The Body Electric
3. Of Frogs' Legs and Transistors
4. The Grandfather of Neural Prostheses
5. Accidental Pioneers
6. Giving a Hand
7. Looking Back at an Empty Wheelchair
8. The Dirty Little Secret
9. Sound in the Brain
10. In the Eye of the Beholder
11. Nerves of Platinum and Iridium
12. Pins and Needles in the Brain
13. From the Inside Out
14. Reaching the Depth of Depression
15. A Hole in the Center of the Brain
16. Ethics
17. Biomimetic and Superhuman
Selected Bibliography
Index

Über Autor(innen)

Chase, Victor D.
Victor D. Chase is a science and technology writer who has written for a variety of publications, including Air & Space, IBM’s Think Research, MIT’s Technology Review, Nature Medicine, Popular Science, Science Digest, National Forum, R&D Magazine, Mechanical Engineering, and Environmental Health Perspectives.