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Calorie Burning Implant
Computerized implant that takes a set amount of energy from someone and converts it to heat. | |
Scientists are now able to construct molecular motors powered by ATP, the same molecule that powers living cells. It's actually not that hard to make ATP either- raw materials are pretty much just sugar and oxygen. If you wanted to, you could make a power source that runs on sugar with these motors.
Now, that might be kind of useful for a backpacker or similar- find some kind of food and you can run your equipment, but it could also be rather useful to more sedentary folks. Let's say your on a diet. You screw up and eat a candy bar. No matter, dial the correct number of calories of whatever it is you just ate, and the corresponding amount of sugar is taken out of the bloodstream and converted into heat, charges your cell-phone, etc. If we ever use implants for serious tasks regularly, like artificial hearts, eyes etc. this would be a good way to power them too.
BBC article on artifical ATP powered motors.
http://news.bbc.co....sci/tech/441670.stm
[Madcat, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 21 2004]
A page made by a guy that researches biological ATP motors.
http://www.cse.ucsc...g/ATP_synthase.html
[Madcat, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 21 2004]
(?) Fuel cell diet aid
http://www.halfbake...l-Cell_20diet_20aid
We've been here before [jwt, Oct 04 2004]
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Annotation:
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[madcat] how I wish I could have one of these. Sure beats going to the gym I can tell you. Can you supply a link to back up your ATP molecular motor statement? |
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(feeds [Madcat] a croissant, watches beanie propellor spin faster) |
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So, a gigantic personal mitochondrion with various electrical outlets? Will it make my bum look big? |
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(Dude, tapeworms are baked) |
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Tapeworms cause damage to the digestive system, and give you nothing. This lets you power electronic equipment. It might make you bum look big but seeing as it'll probably get kind of hot I'd rather have it somewhere else. I was thinking maybe a pair of them at the shoulderblades. You may as well look like you have muscles if you're trying to get in shape. |
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Such a device could help diabetics better manage blood sugar. In diabetics, the kidneys provide similar functionality (without the powering your portable DVD player part). The problem is that over time, the kindney function will be degraded, and the kidneys will fail.
Powering personal electronics will get you a bun. The life-saving fully baked version of this would probably net you a Nobel. |
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[Madcat] the tapeworm remark was directed at [Dude] above me. Personally I think this is an interesting idea, (+) however if implemented right now whilst these motors are so slow, users may only get chubbier as they eat more thinking their motor will burn off the extra. There's a lot of ATP in an O'Henry. |
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If the main purpose is weight loss in spite of continued overeating, then just removing the semi-digested food from the gut by an implanted tube should be sufficient. |
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If the main purpose is heat generation, then you can just add the food to a camp stove. If the main purpose is electricity generation, then the camp stove can be replaced with a portable solid-fuel generator. In either of these cases, any fuel will do; you don't have to sacrifice your $4 energy bars. |
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I won't say this is a bad idea, tho, since it would be a useful invention if it were small and convenient. |
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I'll play along to some degree with the electronic tapeworm concept of this, but using the output to power electronic gadgets - no, I won't give you that. That bit's silly. |
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I'd like to see you give us more elaboration on the former, and dump the latter. |
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The notion of using body provided ATP energy to power medical implant devices is a good one. |
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But ATP is a largely intracellular. I take particular issue with this statement "the corresponding amount of sugar is taken out of the bloodstream" A technology to do that at a size that would be remotely implantable would be a miracle. |
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As it stands right now a dialysis machine is very large, about the only way to extract components from the blood. This device would be more usefull as an artifical kidney than a weight loss gimick and PDA charger. |
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Finally it assumes a wirdespread willingness to undergo unneccesary surgery- something I doubt |
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[waugs] I agree. I'd much prefer subdermal LEDs being used instead. |
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the first thing i thought off was:
this is a benign form of
artificial cancer: saps body of
engergy for its own uses but does
not hurt or grow out of control.
cool. It would be better if the
energy was put to some use but
just burning off dangerously
excessive amounts of sugar might
be use enough. maybe it could
take up some exhausted blood
constituent and bind that to the
sugar and dump it to the colin? |
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Help -- losing body mass -- implant stuck on on -- requires surgery -- gasp. |
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Someone get him a pizza- no, thirty pizzas, STAT! Hurry Almafeta, chew, chew! |
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//But ATP is a largely intracellular.\\ |
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Precisely. That's why you need to take sugar out of the bloodstream, not ATP. I suppose fats and starches would work too, but then you're talking more chemistry. I suspect actually that this might not be as hard to do as you expect; though you're right that a conventional dialysis machine is going to be rather unimpressive at this. Since the device is producing power, hopefully an excess thereof, we can use some of that energy to grab sugar molecules and pull them into the implant. Active transport instead of diffusion. |
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After the sugar is inside the implant, any number of things could happen. Personally, I'd love to see some sort of custom molecules similar to the usual electron transport system working to establish a charge that can be drawn upon somehow, but that probably requires more experience with nanotechnology than people have right now. Hell, it DOES require more experience with nanotechnology than we have right now. You could however, house some methane producing bacteria in the implant, feed them the sugar, and run a small fuel cell. *HEY, that gives me a new, kind of sick idea!* |
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Want to loose 25 lbs in 10 minutes? |
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Saw off a limb. It's cheap and effective ;) |
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I like the ATP engine idea, quite novel but you already have millions of ATP burning engines implanted. The thing is that no one would ever loose any weight with the device. If they couldn't loose it before then what makes anyone think burning an extra 1k calories a day is going to help. They'll just eat more. Especiall if they figure out they can run their toys off of it. Plus if the ATP engine ever quit, God forbid, they would within a few weeks be 400 lbs because their body's own metabolism would be slow as Atkins syrup. |
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Why not just eat less and exercise a bit more. The ATP engine would do nothing for cardiovascular health let alone the immune system or anything else. The energy is converted in the body for a reason. To be used. If you don't need that much energy then don't put so much in. Seems much more simple than implanting artificial cancer. |
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Now..subdermal led's seems like something useful. Hey, you know that potato clock experiment....hhmmm. Where do you put the probes? |
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//They'll just eat more.// Great then. Why are you judging them? I enjoy eating, and hence carry a bit more around than I'd like to. If I could implant something that removes the cost of eating, sure I'd probably eat more - or higher calorie foods. At some point there would be a limit - either from getting bored of eating chocolate cake all day or from physically being incapable of eating more. Just size the device for that, and I'd glow a bit brighter. |
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A couple of other previous ideas on HB are around the same notion - see Fuel cell diet aid link, and diet dialysis linked from that. |
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The fuel cell diet aid seems to be missing. Any progress on this yet [Madcat]? It'll make me feel better about the donut I ate this morning. |
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It seems like it would be possible to use GM bacteria for
this |
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I'd like to see what [MaxwellBuchanan] thinks of this
idea. |
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a dinoprostone patch will induce a natural rise of the body temperature... some side effects; check with your doctor before self-medicating. |
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use 2,4 DNP to turn your existing mitochondria into
little heat machines.... then, simply turn your
heating down. Excess food>home heating with one
simple, moderately-dangerous drug. Not for use in
warmer places. Jumpers are contra-indicated. |
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hmm.... well, yes. But that's a bit hand-wavy for
my taste. Why bother messing around in the
margins? Brown fat is about 5% of neonatal mass....
adults? A vanishingly small percentage. Any
stimulation would give you a few fold increase...
but nothing compared to uncoupling every
mitochondrion. why bother with 5% when you can
have 100%? Also, 2,4-dnp is about $90 per kilo,
even at Sigma's highway-robbery rates. |
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Plus it's cloaked in danger and glamour. If you want
a more elegant solution... perhaps lentiviral
delivery of UCP1 to some target tissues? |
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//Waves hands around a bit// |
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You see, [Bigs], this is where a scientific training
comes into its own. The secret is to wave _one_
hand, preferably as if drawing something complex in
the air in front of you, while you put your other
hand - fingers outstretched - to your temple. |
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Try it in front of a mirror - it looks so much more
scientific. |
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