Our subject in this episode is the idea that the body uses electricity in more ways than are presently fully understood. We consider ways in which electricity, applied with care, might at some point in the future help to improve the performance of the brain, to heal wounds, to stimulate the regeneration of limbs or organs, to turn the tide against cancer, and maybe even to reverse aspects of aging.
To guide us through these possibilities, who better than the science and technology journalist Sally Adee? She is the author of the book “We Are Electric: Inside the 200-Year Hunt for Our Body's Bioelectric Code, and What the Future Holds”. That book gave David so many insights on his first reading, that he went back to it a few months later and read it all the way through again.
Sally was a technology features and news editor at the New Scientist from 2010 to 2017, and her research into bioelectricity was featured in Yuval Noah Harari’s book “Homo Deus”.
Selected follow-ups:
Sally Adee's website
The book "We are Electric"
Article: "An ALS patient set a record for communicating via a brain implant: 62 words per minute"
tDCS (Transcranial direct-current stimulation)
The conference "Anticipating 2025" (held in 2014)
Article: "Brain implants help people to recover after severe head injury"
Article on enhancing memory in older people
Bioelectricity cancer researcher Mustafa Djamgoz
Article on Tumour Treating Fields
Article on "Motile Living Biobots"
Music: Spike Protein, by Koi Discovery, available under CC0 1.0 Public Domain Declaration