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Researchers at NASA have developed a new substance that generates minute amounts of electricity, for use in a bandage that takes advantage of an electrically-based healing process. This new substance, a polymer called polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF), produces a mild electrical current when pressure or heat, such as body heat, is applied to it.

“This method utilizes generated low level electrical stimulation to promote the wound healing process while simultaneously protecting it from infection,” according to NASA.
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Of all the illnesses that one might have to face throughout life, one of the most frightening is that of experiencing a stroke, where a circulatory problem in the brain delivers either too much or too little blood flow to a given region, resulting in impairment in that part of the brain. The effects can be life-changing, resulting in the loss of various functions in the patient, including impairment of vision, speech, and motor functions. However, a new study from Stanford University may be offering researchers a new glimpse into how the brain heals itself, using a stem cell therapy that triggered profound healing effects in its patients, including giving one formerly wheelchair-bound individual the ability to walk again.
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A research team at Ohio University has enabled a man suffering from quadriplegia to regain partial use of his right hand, using signals recorded by an implant that was surgically placed in his brain. "For the first time, a human with quadriplegia regained volitional, functional movement through the use of intracortically recorded signals linked to neuromuscular stimulation in real-time," the study’s text proclaims.

Ian Burkhart, now 24, broke his neck six years ago in a swimming accident, resulting in his paralysis. Two years ago, he underwent the procedure to have an implant inserted into his brain’s motor cortex, where the device picks up on the signals that would ordinarily be sent to the rest of his body to activate his muscles.
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Researchers at the Salk Institute have found a way to heal damaged hearts, though the new discovery refers to physical cardiac damage, not the emotional kind.

Scientists have managed to repair the injured hearts of living mice by reactivating long dormant molecular machinery found in the animals’ cells, a finding that could help pave the way to new therapies for heart disorders in humans.
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