Even though a full 82% of American adults take at least one medication prescribed to them by a doctor, they may soon be turning to search engine giant Google for medical help.
Googles’s parent company, Alphabet, has just announced a partnership with GlaxoSmithKline, Britain’s biggest drug company. This alliance is set to propel Google into the world of biotechnological engineering, bringing futuristic innovations to its users all in the name of science.
Alphabet has also worked with Verily Life Sciences on the production of some innovative medical products. Take the smart contact lenses, for example.
These contact lenses are designed to help those who suffer from diabetes. They include a wireless chip with a tiny glucose sensor in the lens. This is meant to monitor the amount of glucose in one’s tears, and it will send this information to a separate device to make the patient aware of their too high or too low levels.
Then there is the “tricorder,” the Star Trek-esque device capable of diagnosing diseases within seconds. Verily has been working on this technology for the past few years, and is hoping Google’s technology can help them develop it for patient use.
Even more impressive is the Liftware spoon, fitted with a vibrating unit that will help lessen the effect of tremors. Already being used in the medical field, this device’s cause is near and dear to Google co-founder Sergey Brin, as his mother suffers from Parkinson’s Disease.
According to The Guardian, Brin has donated more than $50 million dollars to help fight Parkinson’s Disease.
All in all, this special spoon can reduce the side effect of tremors by 76%.
For Google, it seems that nothing is impossible. In a particularly unusual project, the tech company has teamed up with Calico, another biotechnology company, in hopes to learn how the biology of the human body controls each individual’s lifespan.