Bioethics: Not just for the bioethicists

 

 

Bioethics: Not just for the bioethicists Bioethicist Arthur Caplan, winner of the National Science Board's 2014 Individual Public Service Award, discusses the importance and potential of bioethics. Caplan is director of the Division of Medical Ethics at New York University Langone Medical Center, and a frequent contributor to WebMD/Medscape, NBC.com and various public radio stations. Caplan was a student at Columbia Medical School when he wandered into the philosophy department, looking for advice on the ethical medical issues he would face as a doctor. Initially, the philosophers "looked at me like I'd flow in from Pluto," Caplan said. He ended up getting a Ph.D. in philosophy, and is considered a global leader in bioethics. "I don't really see the job of the bioethicist as saying, 'You have to go to this panel of gurus and they will solve it and then we'll move on,'" he says. "Everybody should be engaged, there's a wide spectrum of views out there." The NSB's Public Service Award honors an individual's exemplary service in fostering public understanding of science and engineering. Credit: NSF

This breathalyzer reveals signs of disease -- Science Nation

 

This breathalyzer reveals signs of disease -- Science Nation This breathalyzer reveals signs of disease This invention could give new meaning to the term "bad breath!" It's the Single Breath Disease Diagnostics Breathalyzer, and when you blow into it, you get tested for a biomarker--a sign of disease. As amazing as that sounds, the process is actually very simple, thanks to ceramics nanotechnology. All it takes is a single exhale. You can't buy it in the stores just yet-- individual tests such as an acetone-detecting breathalyzer for monitoring diabetes and an ammonia-detecting breathalyzer to determine when to end a home-based hemodialysis treatment are still being evaluated clinically. However, researchers envision developing the technology such that a number of these tests can be performed with a single device. Credit: National Science Foundation