Before you continue reading understand I vigorously drank my way
through the Bio-Chem curriculum in college and vaguely remember
something about a Mole, a cell, a toga, Reagan, a girl named Mary and
a fancy carbon atom.  And the fact I may be more optimistic than most
with respect to the following theoretical possibilities.  Thanks :)

Anyway, although this is still theory per se, one can reasonably IMHO
extrapolate that Nanotechnology could be that elusive elixir, if you
will to most if not all aliments including aging. Briefly, Nanotech is
the engineering of small self-replicating machines or Molecular
assemblers called Nanobots which are measured in nanometers or even
atoms/molecules of length.  They have to ability to manufacture at the
molecular and in theory the atomic level.  They may also go beyond
self-replication and be able to replicate specific tissues either
directly or along with stem cells and genetic manipulation.

Therefore, with such technology one could for example send into your
body some Nanobots via injection programmed to destroy the AIDS virus.
The Nanobots would by chemical means recognize the virus and destroy
or render it to a benign state.

Okay, now let's imagine all of the other diseases that could be cured.
Suppose your heart is damaged.  You could get a stent, a balloon, a
bypass, medication or a transplant besides dietary/exercise/lifestyle
changes and nutritional supplements.  The invasive procedures have a
number of risks including rejection.  Perhaps your Cardiologist
instead after an extensive new imaging helped by Nanotech enables
him/her to locate exactly the specific damage of the infraction.  The
Doctor then prescribes a course of Nanobots, vitamins, exercise and
stress reduction.  Or even little by little grow a completely new
heart.

Finally, we could use such tech in the reduction or 'cure' of the
aging process.  The Nanotech could in theory tweak that 'death gene',
extend the telomeres of all your cells of which shorten as we age,
enable positive genetic manipulations or inject a version of stem cell
type growth to all tissues including the brain or.......  Yes, I know
what your thinking; something about Mary Shelly's novel or even a
Michael Crichton, Steven King nightmare.  Sadly, the first time
mohammad gets his hands on this technology and threatens or commits
bio or otherwise terrorism, the whole thing may come to a grinding
halt.  And the fact that Nanotech will have multiple applications far
beyond Medicine.

http://bionano.rutgers.edu/mru.html

http://www.nanoaging.com

--
Keith

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"Cosmic upheaval is not so moving as a little child pondering the death
of a sparrow in the corner of a barn." -Anouk Aimee, French Actor  
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"Death is better, a milder fate than tyranny", Aeschylus (525BC-456BC),
Agamemnon
_____

"I wear no Burka." - Mother Nature
   
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