5 fascinating 21st Century applications
Salty Wave Story #10
Scientists are curious creatures and always work towards finding solutions to issues that have persisted for hundreds of years. Ancient scholars from Europe, Asia, and the Pacific invented things we still use in modern-day society. In the 21st Century, research ingenuity continues the tradition of ‘tour de force,’ designing remarkable applications that have already changed the course of human life for future generations. Here are my top five fascinating 21st-century applications.
Written by Gabrielle Ahern, Salty Wave, www.saltywave.com.au
1. Wireless retinal implant devices to restore sight.
An invention to restore sight through an implant was first applied in 1968 by Drs. Brindley and Lewin. This implant was the precursor to several more sight restoration inventions before a 2013 invention by a German company called Retina Implant AG. This implant works to restore sight in patients experiencing macular degeneration by stimulating the remaining retinal nerve cells with an electrical signal. It was the first wireless epiretinal implant device to gain approval in Europe. Two types of implants currently under development include epiretinal and subretinal implants (Wikipedia: Retinal Implants).
Vision is one of the senses human beings use to navigate through life, and it is something many of us take for granted. However, some individuals might experience deteriorating eyesight or vision loss due to diseases like macular degeneration or retinitis pigmentosa. Retinal diseases are caused when the retina loses photoreceptor cells. These cells are light-sensitive nerve cells located in the outer layer of the retina (Wikipedia, Retina).
There are three different types of photoreceptor cells.
cones – detect bright light and colour,
rods – detect low light and monochrome (black and white),
ganglion cells – detect circadian rhythms and control the pupil’s reflex response to different light conditions.
When light shines on the retina, it triggers chemical and electrical impulses, that travel to the visual cortex in the brain via the optic nerve. The signals are processed and turned into the images we observe (Wikipedia, Retina).
2. Tokenization: protecting sensitive data with unique digital symbols.
For many years, information was shared in ways that increased the risk of hackers stealing private data. In 2001, Trust Commerce introduced ‘Tokenization’ to protect credit card information. Tokens were used by Trust Commerce to replace sensitive data normally stored under a primary account number, with a non-sensitive digital asset or randomized number. For example, Trust Commerce processed a customer’s payment by referring to their assigned token. Traditionally, private data was stored in a server, and anyone with system access could view it. Tokenization has revolutionized the privacy of information stored by banks, companies, and regulatory agencies because the information stored by the token is encrypted (Medium, 2019 + Okta, 2023).
When tokens are used in conjunction with blockchain, the security of information is heightened. Cryptocurrencies like Ripple are digital currencies or representations of money stored in Blockchains like Bitcoin. Every transaction made using your cryptocurrency via Bitcoin has a ‘hash tag’ attached to it, which is tracked and recorded. This system makes it impossible for repetitive use of the cryptocurrency once the transaction is final (Investopedia, 2023).
3. E-readers: electronic digital books.
An invention that has changed the way we read for pleasure, learning, or business is e-readers. E-readers are electronic devices that use electronic paper, an invention made by E Ink Corporation in 1997. With this technology, e-readers don’t need a backlight and reflect light like normal paper books. Some of the benefits of using e-readers include purchasing and uploading books online, traveling with a library of books, e-readers being the size of a conventional book or smaller, causing less eye strain compared to LCD screens, and e-readers helping to save trees.
Applications included in some e-readers make quick referrals to information, translations, and definitions, or adjustments to font and page sizes, improving the overall experience for people with dyslexia or other reading challenges. E-readers are now used in most industries, and since late 2013, passengers can use their e-reader while traveling inflight on planes (Wikipedia, 2023). There are currently 982.87 million e-readers in use around the world, but this number is predicted to increase by 140.3 million+ by 2027 to 1.1 billion e-reader users. (Statista, 2023).
4. The creation of human organs
Technological advancements are contributing to improving health and the survival rates of diseases. 3D printing has initiated the development of a plethora of new applications, including bioprinting technology to engineer human tissues or organs. The technology is still in the early stages of development (Wikipedia – Collagen & News Medical Life Sciences, 2020).
Another technology called electrospinning (Xue et al., 2019) creates organs from nanofibers. The organ scaffold is placed inside a bioreactor and rotated, where it is covered in the patient’s bone marrow cells over two days. This procedure has been successfully applied to trachea transplant operations (LiveScience, 2014).
Decellularization is a process where the cells from a body part are removed or ‘washed out’. Next, the remaining organ scaffold is “seeded” with cells from the patient. This technique has also been performed with tracheas, and there are future plans to use it in heart transplants (LiveScience, 2014).
Different technologies and applications are currently being tested to produce eye, skin, brain, bone, muscle, corneal, liver, and cardiac tissues. These advancements will hopefully culminate in the production of organs, that are readily available and compatible with patients in the future (Science Museum, 2018 & News Medical Life Sciences, 2020).
(Xue J, Wu T, Dai Y, Xia Y. Electrospinning and Electrospun Nanofibers: Methods, Materials, and Applications. Chem Rev. 2019 Apr 24;119(8):5298-5415. doi: 10.1021/acs.chemrev.8b00593. Epub 2019 Mar 27. PMID: 30916938; PMCID: PMC6589095.)
5. Antigravity: a hypothetical technology that counteracts gravity.
Being gravity-free is a concept more at home in a comic strip, book, or film, but it is fast becoming a reality, according to scientists. The technology is still in development, but its implementation in society would make life simpler. Apparently, the transport of large, heavy items will be easier, people will be able to avoid traffic congestion on the ground by flying above it, and antigravity will also make traveling overseas less complicated. Something to look forward to.
All these 21st Century inventions and innovations are making or will make a difference to life as we know it.
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