David Coleiro

The future of biosensors and nanotechnology: A conversation with Sonia Contera

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nanotechnologyImag­ine a future where dia­betes is mon­i­tored and man­aged, not with fin­ger prick blood tests and reg­u­lar insulin injec­tions, but with a small sen­sor implant­ed under the skin that mon­i­tors blood sug­ar lev­els, releas­es insulin as need­ed and com­mu­ni­cates the details to a smart phone. Wel­come to the sub­atom­ic world of nan­otech­nol­o­gy. With devel­op­ments in the field, it is a future that we could be liv­ing in not too far from now. As I heard dur­ing my recent con­ver­sa­tion with Dr Sonia Con­tera, Co- Direc­tor of the Oxford Mar­tin Pro­gramme on Nan­otech­nol­o­gy, biosen­sors are one of the most promis­ing med­ical appli­ca­tions of nan­otech­nol­o­gy, and like­ly to be one of the first to be realised. [Read more…] about The future of biosen­sors and nan­otech­nol­o­gy: A con­ver­sa­tion with Sonia Contera

Using Your Head: What is the Future of Brain Health? (Interview Part 2)

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Into_The_Future(Edi­tor’s Note: this is Part 2 of the con­ver­sa­tion between David Coleiro and Alvaro Fer­nan­dez on the future of brain health. You can read Part 1 Here)

Non-inva­sive technologies
There is now a grow­ing toolk­it of non-inva­sive tech­nolo­gies which can be used in brain train­ing. Exam­ples of these include: [Read more…] about Using Your Head: What is the Future of Brain Health? (Inter­view Part 2)

Using Your Head: What is the Future of Brain Health? (Interview Part 1)

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Much of health­care deliv­ery has tra­di­tion­al­ly been set-up to deal with a ‘brain­less body’; yet we con­sis­tent­ly com­plain that we can­not change patient and con­sumer behav­iours and main­tain adher­ence to treat­ment pro­grammes. Health­care sys­tems are now recog­nis­ing the lim­its of this mod­el and that there are major ben­e­fits to bet­ter com­pre­hend­ing and engag­ing cog­ni­tive func­tion [Read more…] about Using Your Head: What is the Future of Brain Health? (Inter­view Part 1)

The Science of Optimism: a Conversation on ‘The Optimism Bias’ with neuroscientist Tali Sharot

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I like to think of myself as a pos­i­tive and opti­mistic per­son. It seems to me to make for an eas­i­er and more enjoy­able jour­ney through life. So I was intrigued when I read of neu­ro­sci­en­tist Tali Sharot’s research into the Opti­mism Bias, which has shown that despite all the bad news sto­ries we are bom­bard­ed with on a dai­ly basis: war, vio­lence, wrong-doing and finan­cial melt­down, the major­i­ty of us are opti­mistic by nature; our brains are hard­wired to be so. It’s a fas­ci­nat­ing con­cept and one I had to find out more about, so I bought the book and met with Tali in her office at Uni­ver­si­ty Col­lege Lon­don for an enthralling dis­cus­sion. [Read more…] about The Sci­ence of Opti­mism: a Con­ver­sa­tion on ‘The Opti­mism Bias’ with neu­ro­sci­en­tist Tali Sharot