Tuan C. Nguyen

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“Technically It’s Not Any Harder Than A Liver And Heart Transplant”

March 6, 2015 in Excerpts, Science/Tech | Permalink

Tuan C. Nguyen of the Washington Post earnestly investigates the pretty ridiculous claims of neurosurgeon Sergio Canavero who believes he’ll perform a successful head-transplant surgery in the next two years. The writer comes away believing the procedure won’t permanently be impossible, but there’s one little catch: Even a “successful” operation will leave the patient permanently a quadriplegic. An excerpt:

In recent years, there’s been renewed talk of perfecting such a procedure. This time it’s spearheaded by Sergio Canavero, an Italian neurosurgeon at the Turin Advanced Neuromodulation Group who has claimed that advances in medical science now make it possible to carry out head transplants that would allow patients to not only survive, but function normally. And with sufficient financial and legal support, he envisions successfully performing a transplant on a human as early as 2017.

“I think we are now at a point when the technical aspects are all feasible,” Canavero told New Scientist.

While expert opinions on Canavero’s claims vary, the possibility isn’t as far fetched as it sounds. James Harrop, director of Adult Reconstructive Spine at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia and co-editor of Congress of Neurological Surgeons, says that the kind of complications the surgeons faced back in 1970 could easily be fixed using today’s methods.

“Technically it’s not any harder than a liver and heart transplant,” he says. “We now have immunosuppressant drugs that might prevent the body from rejecting it. Arteries and the ends of the esophagus can be sewn together. Bones can be fused. As long as the cuts are in place and if you do it high enough, there isn’t that much to hook back up.”

Several challenges remain, however. For Harrop, the biggest hurdle would be to reconstruct the millions of disconnected central nerve fibers that, under normal circumstances, do not regenerate.•

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“[It] Is Known Mostly For Being Perhaps The World’s First Bitcoin-Only Cafe”

November 6, 2014 in Excerpts, Politics, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

The opening of Tuan C. Nguyen’s Washington Post piece about Paralelní Polis, a Czechoslovakian cafe opened by crypto-anarchists in which the coin of the realm is virtual:

“Step inside the newest coffeehouse on Dělnická street in Prague and it doesn’t take long to notice that something’s amiss. There’s no cash register, nor a counter where customers would typically form a line.

Instead, you’ll find a long, wood slab table situated ever so slightly towards the left side of the room, where a wide selection of pastries, along with menus, plates, cups, utensils, jugs of water and an expresso machine can be found neatly laid out in the open.

Oddly enough, there’s something about the arrangement that’s refreshing, and at the same time, a bit disconcerting. Upon passing through the first time, my initial reaction was to quickly scan the room for any apron-wearing employee. And as the confusion intensified, so did the urge to grab a cup and, heck, whip up a latte myself.

Just as I began mulling over that very notion, a gentlemen with a tightly-trimmed beard and who looked to be in his 20’s, got up from a nearby table, where he had been seated with a couple of young women, and walked over to greet me.

‘I know the set-up can be sort of disorientating, but that’s the whole point,’ Michal Navrátil, operations manager and part-time barista, assured me. ‘The idea is that by not having uniforms, we also get rid of the imposed separation between patrons and workers.’

Paralelní Polis, which in Czech means ‘Parallel World,’ is known mostly for being perhaps the world’s first bitcoin-only cafe. All transactions — from wages to point of sale — are processed virtually, using one of the most well-recognized cryptocurrencies. More broadly though, the recently-renovated space, which includes a co-working room and hacker space, was conceived as way to demonstrate on a micro level how an entirely decentralized society might function.”

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“Machine Washing Is Like Trying To Clean Your Clothes By Giving It A Bath”

February 7, 2014 in Excerpts, Science/Tech, Urban Studies | Permalink

Where does the washing machine rank in the pantheon of revolutionary inventions? After the wheel and printing press, sure, but it holds a prominent place. The machines have improved over decades, but the fundamentals have remained stubbornly the same. In our lifetimes, I would wager that the soaking-and-circulating tub method will fall into obsolescence. From Tuan C. Nguyen at the Smithsonian blog:

“The electric washing machines are right up there with automobiles and personal computers. With the press of a button, a load of laundry that had once taken in excess of four hours to clean was reduced to a 40-minute automated process. Some economists have even credited the time-saving appliance with precipitating the rise of women in the workforce during the 1950s, as homemakers were suddenly freed up to take up other pursuits.

But for all its necessary convenience, the conventional washing machine has remained, to this day, a resource-intensive technology that requires as much as 55 gallons of water per load and electricity to heat the water. Nor is it even the most efficient method for removing stains. ‘Machine washing is like trying to clean your clothes by giving it a bath,’ explains Jonathon Benjamin, a longtime industry executive and head of Xeros Cleaning’s North American operations. ‘Not all the dirt gets washed away as some of it just gets moved around in all that water.’  

Since 2010, the UK-based startup has been introducing into several markets a radical, nearly-waterless machine that allegedly leaves clothes cleaner while using 72 percent less water, cutting energy costs by as much as 47 percent. The Xeros cleaning system, found at select athletic clubs, drop-off cleaners and Hyatt hotels, does this by swapping out water for tiny plastic beads specially-engineered to absorb dirt directly—and therefore more effectively—from fabric.”

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