The World in 2030

314 The World in 2030
It is the potential of stem cell medicine (coupled with
the potential of molecular nanotechnology) that turns
some otherwise quite level-headed futurists into the
modern equivalent of ancient Egyptian Pharaohs lusting
for immortality. For example, the developing ability to
practise medicine at the nano-scale 545 coupled with stem
cell technology holds out amazing promise. As ‘The Project
on Emerging Nanotechnologies’ (a partnership between the
Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and the
Pew Charitable Trusts) suggests on its website:
Imagine a world where damaged organs in your body
– kidneys, liver, heart – can be stimulated to heal
themselves. Envision people tragically paralyzed
whose injured spinal cords can be repaired. Think
about individuals suffering from the debilitating effects
of Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s relieved of their
symptoms – completely and permanently.
In a dramatic demonstration of what nanotechnology
might achieve in regenerative medicine, paralyzed lab
mice with spinal cord injuries have regained the ability
to walk using their hind limbs six weeks after a simple
injection of a purpose-designed nanomaterial. 546
Nanomedicine and stem cell treatments hold out huge hope
for the disabled as well as for those less needy individuals
who seek to extend their natural life-spans. It is to be hoped
that the money being spent by those who wish to rejuvenate
themselves and ‘live forever’ drives forward the research that
develops cures for the paralysed and those suffering from
what in 2007 are still intractable diseases.