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IBM's Roadrunner Breaks Supercomputer Record
The hardware is capable of executing more than 1 quadrillion (1,000 trillion) floating point operations per second, a computation rate otherwise known as 1 petaflop.
The U.S. Department of Energy and IBM on Monday announced that the new Roadrunner supercomputer is the first such machine capable of executing more than 1 quadrillion (1,000 trillion) floating point operations per second, a computation rate otherwise known as 1 petaflop.
The $100 million machine is about twice as fast as the current supercomputing record holder, IBM's Blue Gene system at Lawrence Livermore National Lab.
U.S. Secretary of Energy Samuel Bodman said that Roadrunner will provide calculations for nuclear security and scientific research.
The machine will be housed at the National Nuclear Security Administration's (NNSA) Los Alamos National Laboratory. Occupying 6,000 square feet and weighing 500,000 pounds, it's not likely to be moved to satisfy redecorating whims.
IBM calls Roadrunner a hybrid supercomputer. It combines 12,960 IBM Cell chips, which power Sony's PlayStation3 video game machine, with 6,948 dual-core AMD Opteron chips, and 80 terabytes of memory. It runs Red Hat Linux.
IBM characterizes Roadrunner's thirst for energy (3.9 megawatts) as miserly, noting that at 376 million calculations per watt, it's likely to rank at the top of the Green 500 list of energy efficient supercomputers, when that list is updated later this month. IBM's Blue Gene holds first place on the February 2008 Green 500 list, with 357.23 million calculations per watt.
It would take 100,000 of today's fastest laptops -- which would reach 1.5 miles into the sky if you're the stacking sort -- to equal Roadrunner's computational power. Engineering difficulties, zoning issues, and insurance costs would probably preclude the creation of such a laptop tower, however.
According to IBM, supercomputing power has increased 1,000 fold in the past 10 years. In what can be seen either as a swipe at Detroit or as pride in Moore's Law, IBM observes that if the internal combustion engine improved at a similar rate, cars would be getting 200,000 miles to the gallon.
-------------------- It is impossible to make anything foolproof because fools are so ingenious.
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quote:Originally posted by Lockman: All we need now is a way to fuel our cars with salt water.
you can, but they won't go anywhere
Au contraire mon fraire Click the link at the end of the article for the 2 minute video.
Water-fuel car unveiled in Japan
Jun. 13 - Japanese company Genepax presents its eco-friendly car that runs on nothing but water.
The car has an energy generator that extracts hydrogen from water that is poured into the car's tank. The generator then releases electrons that produce electric power to run the car. Genepax, the company that invented the technology, aims to collaborate with Japanese manufacturers to mass produce it.
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talk about the shrinking value of the US$? The Quarter Shrinker uses a technology called high velocity electromagnetic forming, or "Magneforming". It involves quickly discharging a high energy capacitor bank through a work coil to generate an extremely powerful, rapidly changing magnetic field which then "forms" the metal to be fabricated. To shrink coins, I charge up a large high voltage capacitor bank consisting of a number of large "energy discharge" capacitors. Each capacitor is specially designed to reliably store up to 12,000 volts and deliver 100,000 ampere discharges. Each steel-cased capacitor measures 30" x 14" x 8", and weighs 165 pounds. A High Voltage Double Pole Double Throw (DPDT) relay is used to connect the capacitor bank to either a high voltage DC charging supply, or to a bank of high power "bleeder" resistors. A 15,000 volt high voltage transformer and a set of 40 kV rectifiers make up the DC charging supply for the capacitor bank. The electrical energy stored in the capacitor bank is proportional to the square of the stored voltage, and the actual "shrinking" force is proportional to the energy stored in the capacitor bank. The initial energy stored within the capacitor bank is typically in the range of 3,500 - 6,300 Joules (watt-seconds). Because this energy is discharged in approximately 20 millionths of a second, the instantaneous power is very large and, for a brief instant, is roughly equivalent to the electrical power consumed by a good sized city.
The largest coin I've shrunk was a Silver Eagle, a silver coin that starts out being about 1.6" in diameter, and ends up 1.3" in diameter afterwards. At 6,300 joules, a silver Morgan Dollar is reduced from about 1.5" to 1.25" in diameter, and a clad Kennedy half dollar is reduced to a diameter smaller than a US Quarter. At 5,000 joules, quarters will shrink to about 80-100 mils smaller than a dime.
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Honda rolls out fuel cell car Japanese automaker's hydrogen-powered FCX Clarity promises twice the efficiency of gas-electric hybrids. Last Updated: June 16, 2008: 9:00 AM EDT TAKANEZAWA, Japan (AP) -- Honda's new zero-emission, hydrogen fuel cell car rolled off a Japanese production line Monday and is headed to southern California, where Hollywood is already abuzz over the latest splash in green motoring.
The FCX Clarity, which runs on hydrogen and electricity, emits only water and none of the gases believed to induce global warming. It is also two times more energy efficient than a gas-electric hybrid and three times that of a standard gasoline-powered car, the company says.
Honda expects to lease out a "few dozen" units this year and about 200 units within a year. In California, a three-year lease will run $600 a month, which includes maintenance and collision coverage.
Among the first customers are actress Jamie Lee Curtis and filmmaker husband Christopher Guest, actress Laura Harris, film producer Ron Yerxa, as well as businessmen Jon Spallino and Jim Salomon.
"It's so smooth," said Harris, who played villainness Marie Warner on the hit TV show "24." "It's like a future machine, but it's not."
Harris, Spallino and Yerxa were flown to the ceremony, courtesy of Honda. Yerxa says he's excited to show off the car and believes there's "a lot of interest."
The biggest obstacles standing in the way of wider adoption of fuel cell vehicles are cost and the dearth of hydrogen fuel stations. For the Clarity's release in California, Honda said it received 50,000 applications through its Web site but considered only buyers living near hydrogen fuel stations in Torrance, Santa Monica and Irvine.
"This is indeed a historic day for both Honda and American Honda - a new chapter in our nearly fifty-year history in America," said John Mendel, a senior vice president at America Honda Motor Co. at a morning ceremony here. "It's an especially significant day for American Honda as we plant firm footsteps toward the mainstreaming of fuel cell cars."
Initially, however, the Clarity will go only to a chosen few starting July and then launch in Japan this fall.
Although Honda Motor Co. (HMC) was the first Japanese automaker to launch a gas-electric hybrid vehicle in the U.S. in 1999, it has been outpaced by the dominance of Toyota's (TM) popular Prius.
Toyota announced in May that it has sold more than 1 million Prius hybrids, while both the Honda Insight and the hybrid Accord have been discontinued due to poor sales.
The FCX Clarity is part of Honda's plan to keep pace with rivals in green technology. It also plans to launch a gas-electric hybrid-only model, as well as hybrid versions of the Civic, the sporty CR-Z and Fit subcompact.
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Newly found planets make case for 'crowded universe'
It's the first time three planets close to Earth's size are found orbiting a single star
Mass of the smallest of the planets is about four times the size of Earth
They are much too hot to support life
Astronomer: "Planets are out there. They're all over the place"
WASHINGTON (AP) -- European astronomers have found a trio of "super-Earths" closely circling a star that astronomers once figured had nothing orbiting it.
The discovery demonstrates that planets keep popping up in unexpected places around the universe.
The announcement is the first time three planets close to Earth's size were found orbiting a single star, said Swiss astronomer Didier Queloz.
He was part of the Swiss-French team using the European Southern Observatory's La Silla Observatory in the desert in Chile.
The mass of the smallest of the super-Earths is about four times the size of Earth.
That may seem like a lot, but they are quite a bit closer in size and likely composition to Earth than the giants in Earth's solar system -- Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.
They are much too hot to support life, Queloz said.
Scientists are more interested in the broader implications of the finding: The universe is teeming with far more planets than thought.
Using a new tool to study more than 100 stars once thought to be devoid of planets, the Swiss-French team found that about one-third had planets that are only slightly bigger than Earth.
That's how the star with three super-Earths, 42 light-years away, was spotted.
The European team took a second look with a relatively new instrument that measures tiny changes in light wave lengths and is so sensitive that it is precisely positioned and locked in a special room below the observatory in Chile. The key is kept in Switzerland, scientists say.
The discovery is "really making the case that we live in a crowded universe," said Carnegie Institution of Washington astronomer Alan Boss, who was not part of the discovery team. "Planets are out there. They're all over the place."
That means it is easier to make the case for life elsewhere in the universe, both Boss and Queloz said.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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Germans perform world's first double-arm transplant Technical University of Munich doctors transplant arms on 54-year-old farmer Farmer had lost both his arms in an accident six years ago 40 people conduct operation; several years spent preparing for the surgery Donor matched the patient in sex, age, skin color, size and blood group
(CNN) -- Doctors at the Technical University of Munich have conducted the world's first double-arm transplant on a 54-year-old farmer who had lost both his arms in an accident, officials said.
The operation was conducted at the university's "Klinikum rechts der Isar" last week, the clinic said in a statement Friday, following several years of preparatory work.
The man's condition "is very good under the circumstances," the statement said.
"Now it is a matter of avoiding future wound healing disorders, infections, strong side-effects caused by the drugs and in particular any rejective reaction."
A team of 40 people participated in the transplant surgery, conducted July 25 and 26. The donor matched the host in sex, age, skin color, size and blood group, the statement said.
The transplant subject had lost both his arms at the upper arm level six years ago, and two attempts with artificial limbs had been unsuccessful.
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Scientists say they're closer to invisibility material Engineered materials redirect light away, rendering objects invisible Previously only possible with thin two-dimensional objects Materials may be used by military in the future
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Scientists say they are a step closer to developing materials that could render people and objects invisible.
Researchers have demonstrated for the first time they were able to cloak three-dimensional objects using artificially engineered materials that redirect light around the objects.
Previously, they only have been able to cloak very thin two-dimensional objects.
The findings, by scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, are to be released later this week in the journals Nature and Science.
The new work moves scientists a step closer to hiding people and objects from visible light, which could have broad applications, including military ones.
People can see objects because they scatter the light that strikes them, reflecting some of it back to the eye.
Cloaking uses materials, known as metamaterials, to deflect radar, light or other waves around an object.
Metamaterials are mixtures of metal and circuit board materials such as ceramic, Teflon or fibre composite.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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Lab makes renewable diesel fuel from E. coli poop Some biotech laboratories are using bacteria to create a form of diesel fuel "Production facilities" are so small, you can see them only under a microscope Bacteria are fed plant material, or sugar, and excrete the equivalent of diesel Experts say the process is still too small-scale to be a viable energy alternative
By Marsha Walton CNN
SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, California -- Fossil fuels that keep our planet running -- oil, natural gas and coal -- were created from the decomposition of plants, plankton and other organic material over millions of years.
Scientists all over the globe today are working to create fuels with the same properties, but without that pesky 100 million-year wait. And "renewable petroleum" is now a reality, on a small scale, in some laboratories.
The biotech company LS9 Inc. is using single-celled bacteria to create an oil equivalent. These petroleum "production facilities" are so small, you can see them only under a microscope.
"We started in my garage two years ago, and we're producing barrels today, so things are moving pretty quickly," said biochemist Stephen del Cardayre, LS9 vice president of research and development.
How does it work? A special type of genetically altered bacteria are fed plant material -- basically, any type of sugar. They digest it and excrete the equivalent of diesel fuel.
Humans have used bacteria and yeast for centuries to do similar work, creating beer, moonshine and, more recently, ethanol. But scientists' recent strides in genetic engineering now allow them to control the end product. Watch the fuel-making process at work »
"So these are bacteria that have been engineered to produce oil," del Cardayre said. "They started off like regular lab bacteria that didn't produce oil, but we took genes from nature, we engineered them a bit [and] put them into this organism so that we can convert sugar to oil."
The company is focusing on diesel fuel, but the microbes also can be "programmed" to make gasoline or jet fuel.
The bacteria used is a harmless form of E. coli. And the feedstock, or food for the microbes, can be any type of agricultural product, from sugar cane to waste such as wheat straw and wood chips. Choosing plants with no food value sidesteps one of the biggest criticisms of another synthetic fuel, corn ethanol, because critics say corn should be used as food, not fuel.
It takes a lot of microbe poop to fill a gas tank, however. Biofuel experts tell CNN that processes like those used at LS9 are scientifically viable, but there's still a long way to go before they can address global energy needs.
"Scalability is really the critical issue," said Robert McCormick, principal engineer at the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL) in Colorado. "If you've got something that you can make work in a test tube, that's good, but you've got to be able to make it work on a very large scale to have an impact on our petroleum imports."
But del Cardayre says his product has other benefits over traditional fossil fuels.
"What we've done is make the same molecules from renewable sources, so that it can go into the existing infrastructure, be made domestically, and in an environmentally friendly way. That's the goal," he said.
The LS9 product does not have the cancer-causing benzene that is in other fossil fuels, and has far less sulfur, he said.
LS9 President Bob Walsh says that using existing petroleum pipelines is critical. Ethanol, for example, requires its own distribution system because it can corrode oil pipelines.
"You can't put ethanol in a pipeline, [and] even your car needs some adjustments to it; whereas the product we're making is going into the existing system, and that's a big difference," he said.
LS9 expects to be in large-scale commercial production in three or four years. But del Cardayre is the first to admit that microscopic oil fields are not a silver bullet for the world's energy woes.
"I doubt we're going to completely eliminate our dependence on oil, but we'll certainly be able to supplement the amount of oil we need in the short term," he said.
While energy researchers are spending tens of millions of dollars in venture capital, NREL's McCormick believes that "just making more" is not enough.
"I think that the answer to reducing our petroleum-import problem and reducing the carbon emissions from transportation is really threefold," he said. "It involves replacement fuels like biofuels, it involves using much more efficient vehicles than we use today, and it involves driving less."
One thing that McCormick and del Cardayre agree on is that energy research is a great place to be these days if you are a scientist.
"The fun of the challenge from the science perspective is that you do have farmers and biologists and entomologists, and biochemists and chemical engineers, and process engineers and business people and investors all working to solve this, and it ranges anywhere from a political issue to a technical issue," del Cardayre said.
"Honestly, I couldn't think of a more exciting thing to work on as a scientist or technologist right now," said McCormick, a chemical engineer. "Part of the excitement comes from the fact that this is such a complex problem, it can't be solved by a farmer or an ag expert, and it can't be solved by a chemical engineer or a chemist.
"We all have to pool our various talents and training and try to come up with a whole new system of producing energy," he said. "And the current energy price environment has made literally everyone interested in replacements for petroleum."
-------------------- It is impossible to make anything foolproof because fools are so ingenious.
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Researchers produce blood in lab from stem cells The discovery marks a technical advance but has a long way to go before it can be considered an alternative to donor blood. By Karen Kaplan Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
August 20, 2008
Scientists said Tuesday that they had devised a way to grow large quantities of blood in the lab using human embryonic stem cells, potentially making blood drives a thing of the past.
But experts cautioned that although it represented a significant technical advance, the new approach required several key improvements before it could be considered a realistic alternative to donor blood.
The research team outlined a four-step process for turning embryonic stem cells into red blood cells capable of carrying as much oxygen as normal blood. The procedure was published online by the journal Blood.
The ability to make blood in the lab would guarantee that hospitals and blood banks have access to an ample supply of all types of blood, including the rare AB-negative and the universal donor type, O-negative.
It would also ensure that patients are never at risk of contracting diseases such as hepatitis C or HIV from donor blood, said Dr. Dan Kaufman, associate director of the University of Minnesota's Stem Cell Institute, who wasn't involved in the study.
"People don't usually think about these types of cells when they talk about human embryonic stem cell therapy, but it is important," Kaufman said. "There's more infections all the time, and the number of donors is more and more limited."
Researchers have tried to harness the so-called adult stem cells that are responsible for making blood in the body, but their methods were far too inefficient to be put to practical use, experts said.
In the new study, researchers were able to make as many as 100 billion red blood cells -- enough to fill two or three collection tubes -- from a single plate of embryonic stem cells.
After allowing the stem cells to begin the earliest stages of embryonic development, the researchers prompted some of them to grow into red blood cells by exposing them to a variety of proteins.
Up to 65% of the resulting cells matured to the point at which they shed their nucleus, which allows them to take on the distinctive doughnut shape of circulating red blood cells, said Dr. Robert Lanza, chief scientific officer at Advanced Cell Technology Inc. and the study's senior author.
The team, which also included researchers from the University of Illinois at Chicago and the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., produced blood of types A-positive, A-negative, B-positive, B-negative and O-positive.
The method was 100 times more efficient than previous efforts, said Eric Bouhassira, a professor of stem cell biology and regenerative medicine at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. But most of the cells had embryonic or fetal versions of globin, the compound in red blood cells that carries oxygen. Only a relative few appeared to contain the adult globin that would be needed by patients, he said.
"Whether they would be good enough for transfusion is very unclear," said Bouhassira, who wasn't involved in the study. Lanza said the research team was conducting more experiments to see whether the stem cells would produce more adult globin if given more time to mature in the lab.
Even with substantial improvements, the method faces another big hurdle. Roger Dodd, director of the American Red Cross' Holland Laboratory in Rockville, Md., said that producing blood in the lab could cost thousands of dollars per unit -- far too expensive to replace the 14 million pints of red blood cells that are transfused every year. "It's a rather ambitious goal," Dodd said.
karen.kaplan*latimes.com
-------------------- It is impossible to make anything foolproof because fools are so ingenious.
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Wireless recharging one step closer to reality Wireless power transmission is creeping closer to becoming viable Demonstration shows 60-watt light bulb glowing from an energy source 3 feet away Wireless transmission of electricity makes use of some basic physics Technology could one day wirelessly power pacemakers and artificial hearts
SAN FRANCISCO, California (AP) -- Imagine juicing up your laptop computer or cell phone without plugging them into an electrical socket.
That's a luxury that could be provided by wireless power transmission, a concept that has been bandied about for decades but is creeping closer to becoming viable.
Building off work unveiled last year by Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers, Intel Corp. on Thursday demonstrated how to make a 60-watt light bulb glow from an energy source 3 feet away.
The Intel team did it with relatively high efficiency, losing only a quarter of the energy the researchers started with.
"That to me is the most striking part about it -- transmitting 60 watts at 75 percent efficiency over several feet," Intel's chief technology officer, Justin Rattner, said in an interview.
"The power pack for your laptop isn't that efficient ... it's one of those things that's almost too good to be true."
Wireless transmission of electricity makes use of some basic physics. Electric coils that resonate at the same frequency can transmit energy to each other at a distance.
But this technology has a long way to evolve before it becomes a commercial product. In both the MIT and the Intel work, researchers used charging coils far too large for wide-scale use.
Even so, Rattner said Intel is in the early stages of trying to modify a laptop to accept wireless power. One challenge is figuring out how to prevent the electromagnetic field from interfering with the computer's other parts, he said.
Eventually, a homeowner could attach a large transmitter to a wall -- or even bury it inside the wall -- and plant many smaller receivers inside nearby tables and chairs and other pieces of furniture, creating the ultimate in recharging convenience.
MIT physics professor Marin Soljacic said researchers have proposed many intriguing ideas for real-world applications since his group disclosed its breakthrough last year in a scientific journal. Those include the possibility of wirelessly powering pacemakers and artificial hearts.
One of the big challenges in transmitting wireless power is preventing too much energy from escaping while in transit.
The MIT researchers, who call the technology "WiTricity," a combination of "wireless" and "electricity," had previously lit their bulb from 7 feet away with larger charging coils and between 40 percent to 45 percent efficiency.
That means most of the energy didn't make it to the light bulb.
But Soljacic said his group has since been able to get up to 90 percent efficiency when the devices were moved to around 3 feet apart -- better than the Intel demo.
Soljacic, who didn't work with Intel, said Thursday that he was pleased the world's largest computer chip maker is getting behind the technology and helping push the envelope.
"For me, it's like a confirmation that it's so exciting, it's something people would like to have," Soljacic said. "Now the question is if it's feasible or not. It's exciting that they're also inspired, and it seems closer to reality every day."
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
All AboutIntel Corporation • Wireless Technology • Massachusetts Institute of Technology
quote:Originally posted by glassman: beleive it or not? Tesla did this "wireless lighting power scheme" on a huge scale well over 100 years ago at a worlds fair....
I'm well aware of that glass, just nice to know we are starting to pursue it. Tesla was a genius before his time.
-------------------- It is impossible to make anything foolproof because fools are so ingenious.
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Scientist: Holographic television to become reality Researchers have created the first rewritable and erasable holographic images Holographic televisions could come out of the wall or up from a table The 3D hologram technology could have uses in surgery or in the military
By Mike Steere For CNN
LONDON, England (CNN) -- Picture this: you're sat down for the Football World Cup final, or a long-awaited sequel to the Sex and the City movie and you're watching all the action unfold in 3D on your coffee table.
It sounds a lot like a wacky dream, but don't be surprised if within our lifetime you find yourself discarding your plasma and LCD sets in exchange for a holographic 3D television that can put Cristiano Ronaldo in your living room or bring you face-to-face with life-sized versions of your gaming heroes.
The reason for renewed optimism in three-dimensional technology is a breakthrough in rewritable and erasable holographic systems made earlier this year by researchers at the University of Arizona.
Dr Nasser Peyghambarian, chair of photonics and lasers at the university's Optical Sciences department, told CNN scientists had broken a barrier by making the first updatable three-dimensional displays with memory.
"This is a prerequisite for any type of moving holographic technology. The way it works presently is not suitable for 3D images," he said.
The researchers produced displays that can be erased and rewritten in a matter of minutes.
To create television sets the images would need to be changing multiple times each second -- but Peyghambarian is very optimistic this can happen.
He said the University of Arizona team, which is now ten-strong, had been working on advancing hologram technology since 1990 -- so this was a major step forward. He believed that much of the difficulty in creating a holographic set had now been overcome. Do you think holographic television will work?
"It took us a while to make that first breakthrough, but as soon as you have the first element of it working the rest often comes more rapidly.
"What we are doing now is trying to make the model better. What we showed is just one color, what we are doing now is trying to use three colors. The original display was four inches by four inches and now we're going for something at least as big as a computer screen," he said.
There were no great barriers to overcome now, and it would just take time and effort, he said.
The breakthrough has made some long-time researchers of the technology believe that it could now come to fruition.
Tung H. Jeong, a retired physics professor at Lake Forest College outside Chicago who had studied holography since the 1960s told NJ.com; "When we start talking about erasable and rewritable holograms, we are moving toward the possibility of holographic TV ... It has now been shown that physically, it's possible."
And what might these holographic televisions look like?
According to Peyghambarian they could be constructed as a screen on the wall (like flat panel displays) that shows 3D images, with all the image writing lasers behind the wall; or it could be like a horizontal panel on a table with holographic writing apparatus underneath.
So, if this project is realized, you really could have a football match on your coffee table, or horror-movie villains jumping out of your wall.
Peyghambarian is also optimistic that the technology could reach the market within five to ten years. Peyghambarian is also optimistic that the technology could reach the market within five to ten years. He said progress towards a final product should be made much more quickly now that a rewriting method had been found.
However, it is fair to say not everyone is as positive about this prospect as Peyghambarian.
Lecturer in Electronic Engineering at Bangor University in Wales, Dr Justin Lawrence, told CNN small steps were always being made on technology like 3D holograms, but, he couldn't see it being ready for the market in the next ten years.
"It's one thing to demonstrate something in a lab but it's another thing to be able to produce it cheaply and efficiently enough to distribute it to the mass market," Lawrence said.
Yet, there are reasons to be optimistic that more resources will be channeled into developing this technology more quickly.
The Japanese Government is pushing huge financial and technical weight into the development of three-dimensional, virtual reality television, and the country's Communications Ministry is aiming at having such technology available by 2020.
Peyghambarian said there were no major sponsors of the technology at present, but as the breakthroughs continued, he hoped that would change.
Even if no major electronics company committed themselves there was hope that backers could come from outside of the consumer electronics industry, he said.
"It could have some other applications. In training it's useful to show people three-dimensional displays. Also it would be good to show things in 3D for defense command and control and for surgery," he said.
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German farmer starts using transplanted arms German who received world's first double arm transplant is recovering well Man can perform some basic tasks with new arms, doctors say Doctors say it could take two years before he relearns to use his hands
MUNICH, Germany (AP) -- A German farmer who received the world's first complete double arm transplant is recovering well and able to perform some basic tasks, though doctors said Wednesday it still could take up to two years before he relearns how to use his hands.
Doctors spent 15 hours on July 25-26 grafting the donor arms on to the body of 54-year-old Karl Merk, who lost his own just below the shoulder in a farm accident involving a combine six years ago.
"These are my arms, and I'm not giving them away again," Merk said at a news conference at the Munich University Clinic where the operation was done.
It took five teams of medical professionals -- a total of some 40 surgeons, anesthesiologists, nurses and other helpers -- to carry out the operation.
Merk said that when he first woke up, he could not believe it had been carried off successfully.
"It was really overwhelming when I saw that I had arms again," he said.
So far, Merk can perform simple tasks with his new appendages -- using them to open doors and turn lights on and off.
Doctors said there were good indications of nerve growth in the arms, but that it could still take up to two years before his hands could be usable.
At the moment, Merk said he was just looking forward to going home, which doctors said could be in four to six weeks. During that time he will have to continue an intensive program of physiotherapy, electric stimulation and psychological counseling.
There is also still a risk that Merk's immune system will react to the new appendages, though doctors said so far there was no sign of them being rejected.
-------------------- It is impossible to make anything foolproof because fools are so ingenious.
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Years back, I had the nerves to my left forefinger and thumb cut. After that, for a couple of years, though I was able to use them withing a month or so, both were totally numb and I couldn't use them for much.
Then in maybe three years, feeling began to return to them, quite painfully. The constant pain settled down after a couple of months, so that it only appeared when the finger or thumb was struck or burned or something, and, otherwise, I had normal feeling in both. Well, normal if you accept that a thumb that feels like a forefinger and a forefinger that feels like a thumb is normal.
It took a bunch of years, maybe a dozen, for me to learn to feel correctly which of them was which and I can still tap the scar where I was cut and feel pain in the end of my forefinger.
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No, they said they had no idea what would happen, that sometimes it did and sometimes it didn't.
I later had nerves in my mouth (car wreck) severed and some of them reworked themselves and some didn't. Great advantage getting a filling....no need for Novocain.
If I understand, they cannot reconnect, but the ends of the nerves, where they were cut, must grow to the area, because the cut off portion dies. It is a matter of if they can find their way.
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Anybody remember the computers from Minority Report? They were maniplulated by hand gestures. It's now a reality. Watch the video in the link below, pretty friggin cool! It's only like 3 mins long.
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