Echo Point, Blue Mountains.

During the past week we’ve discussed a number of great links; on Google+, Twitter, the Daily ‘Paper’ and so on. Here are a few of my favourites.

• Nose-to-Knee Cartilage Transplants : If you’re in need of a bit of new cartilage for your knees – due to injury or a condition such as osteoarthritis – check out the research of Ivan Martin. It just may be possible to generate replacements using cartilage from your own nose.
• Mandatory Vaccinations for Health Care Workers : Interesting idea; would love to see it used much more widely. Particularly in gyms, pools, physiotherapy centres and doctors’ surgeries.
• 3D Printed Before/After Masks for Plastic Surgery : Whether it’s for purely aesthetic reasons or to aid repairs following an illness or accident, this is a wonderful idea – 3D-printed Before/After masks.
• DARPA‘s New Initiative to Make Nanoscale Machines a Reality : The promise of nanotechnology is enormous. On the medical side, think ‘miniature devices in the body, delivering medications and making repairs as needed‘. Keeping people healthy, rather than waiting for signs of illness.
  DARPA’s ‘Atoms to Product‘ (A2P) project hopes to push that along. Good stuff.
• Neuromodulation and Brain Implants : Also from DARPA, the ElectRX program – designed to develop tiny electronic devices to interface directly with the nervous system; to help treat everything from PTSD to arthritis. Once again, enormous potential.

We also talked about energy security for gym owners, human powered transportation (somewhere between bikes and cars) and a whole lot more. Keep up with the World of Health & Fitness in the Straight to the Bar Community on Google+.