The technology of medicine

The Long News: stories that might still matter fifty, or a hundred, or ten thousand years from now.

At a recent conference on the future, one of the participants claimed that every one of the top ten human diseases would be cured within twenty-five or fifty years. While the time frame may be overly optimistic (after all, we’re still waiting for our flying cars to arrive), the pace of change in medicine is nothing short of remarkable — as shown in these recent news items.

1. Two stories of doctors operating at the molecular level: Bacteria take fantastic voyage through bloodstream and Healing the heart with bone-marrow cells

2. A new era of customized medicine: Personalized drugs may lengthen cancer survival

3. Reports of two new treatments for the blind: Synthetic fibers to reverse blindness and Implantable telescope helps restore vision

4. A new possible treatment for Parkinson’s: Sending genes into the brain

5. Finally, if these stories don’t make you feel optimistic, maybe this one will: The whole world is optimistic

We invite you to submit story suggestions for The Long News here.

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What is the long now?

The Long Now Foundation is a nonprofit established in 01996 to foster long-term thinking. Our work encourages imagination at the timescale of civilization — the next and last 10,000 years — a timespan we call the long now.

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