Monkeys
Neural prosthesis restores decision-making ability in monkeys
We may sometimes joke that we lack the ability to make decisions, but the fact is that for people with certain types of brain damage, proper decision-making is indeed impossible. This isn’t so much about things like choosing between vanilla and chocolate, however. Instead, these individuals simply can’t decide on how to respond to everyday situations, so they either don’t respond, or they respond inappropriately. Help may be on the way, though, in the form of a brain-stimulating device that has been shown to work on monkeys. Read More
In a world full of scary viruses Ebola surely ranks right up there amongst the scariest. It can cause fever, rashes, muscle pain, headache, followed by internal and external bleeding, with case fatality rates as high as 80 percent in humans. Currently there are no available vaccines or therapies to combat the virus. Now scientists report they have successfully prevented monkeys exposed to the virus from dying from hemorrhagic fever and suggest that such protection should be possible for humans. Read More
Scientists cure color blindness in monkeys - humans next?
When English chemist John Dalton first wrote about color blindness in 1798, he must have wondered how science would improve the quality of life for people living with the condition. Today, spectacles, contact lenses and revolutionary corrective eye surgery combat the effects of a myriad of vision disorders, yet people with color blindness still live in quiet acceptance of this common genetic disorder. Now researchers have delivered promising results by successfully treating two squirrel moneys with defective color perception using a gene therapy that could also safely eradicate color blindness in humans. Read More
