Quick note on Frietas: I don't know anyone who has ever cited him not even discussed him in the field of nano medicine. Yes he's written lengthy books but from the chapters I've read of them they are woefully poor in some areas. There's plenty of interesting and presumably accurate materials science but the level of biology is shocking. He treats biological tissues as though they were modular mechanical components that you can easily strip out and replace. I remember when we wrote the vasculoid article I looked up his chapters on it and all he had to say on the problems of biocompatibility fit into a small paragraph. He didn't even mention fibrous encapsulation which is the most basic consideration of any implant.
Unless I'm missing a huge section of his writings that specifically deal with the complications of biocompatibility I find him very hard to take seriously. Great for ideas and inspiration like Todd said previously, but I'd advice anyone trading what he says to treat his writings as little more than Da Vanchi drawings.
EDIT: for clarification, there's nothing to say that this sort of thing might not be possible at some point but Freitas and others like him focus intensly on some details (like the micro mechanics of respirocytes) whilst ignoring far more basic biological concerns. This would be fine if they heavily acknowledged the latter but from what I've seen they rarely do. Certainly not enough given how their work is often quoted. They give off a false impression that these things are imminently possible and they've worked out many of the details, in reality they have some fundamental problems to address.
Unless I'm missing a huge section of his writings that specifically deal with the complications of biocompatibility I find him very hard to take seriously. Great for ideas and inspiration like Todd said previously, but I'd advice anyone trading what he says to treat his writings as little more than Da Vanchi drawings.
EDIT: for clarification, there's nothing to say that this sort of thing might not be possible at some point but Freitas and others like him focus intensly on some details (like the micro mechanics of respirocytes) whilst ignoring far more basic biological concerns. This would be fine if they heavily acknowledged the latter but from what I've seen they rarely do. Certainly not enough given how their work is often quoted. They give off a false impression that these things are imminently possible and they've worked out many of the details, in reality they have some fundamental problems to address.
OA Wish list:
- DNI
- Internal medical system
- A dormbot, because domestic chores suck!