From: Anders Sandberg (asa@nada.kth.se)
Date: Sun Jan 04 1998 - 09:35:56 MST
Twink <neptune@mars.superlink.net> writes:
> I would think also urine analysis, perhaps done spectrally or through a
> gas chromatograph. No, even that sounds a bit much.
>
> How about finding out what basically goes wrong -- i.e., what chemical
> changes happen in blood, urine, etc. -- and developing simple solution
> tests for those? In other words, mix 1cc of blood with the kit's blood test
> solution A and depending on what color it changes, this tells you if blood
> LDL levels are too high?
>
> Something like this might prove marketable now.
Yes, although drawing blood is a problem for the market (can you draw
1 cc blood yourself without hurting you?). If you need a blood test,
it must be able to work on just a drop of blood to be
marketable. Urine tests are easier, but urine doesn't contain all the
stuff we would like to measure.
There are a lot of information in the blood. Kinase levels tell about
muscle damage (esp. infarcts), there are several marker molecules for
liver or kidney diseases, LDL and antibody levels are interesting and
so on. But to interpret these results well you need some expertise,
even 100% healthy people tend to have at least some odd values.
Anyway, I think there really exists fairly simple tests for many of
these chemicals. What is needed now is packaging them together,
creating a simple user interface and marketing it.
> I can imagine doing very simple tests, such as those of reaction time to
> visual stimuli combined with a measurement of neurotransmitter levels...
Yes, and a glucose level test together with some memory tests (this is
something I actually plan to do later this spring).
> This is not as glamorous as the other two you mention, but if we start
> out with a simpler goal we might achieve it, market it, and move on to
> some more complex/interesting.
Exactly.
-- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Anders Sandberg Towards Ascension! asa@nada.kth.se http://www.nada.kth.se/~asa/ GCS/M/S/O d++ -p+ c++++ !l u+ e++ m++ s+/+ n--- h+/* f+ g+ w++ t+ r+ !y
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