Did you know... What led to the creation of today's insulin pump?

[jen_slc]

The Mars Viking space probe. NASA's research to miniaturize satellite components and technology based on a design used in the biological lab of the Mars Viking space probe made the creation of a small, implantable insulin pump reality. NASA’s work on communication was the key to how the device is programmed. In November 1986 the first programmable implantable medication system was implanted in a patient at Johns Hopkins Hospital. Quoted from Technology Innovation, NASA's magazine for business and technology.

Maybe I'm alone here, but I had no idea! Current external insulin pumps are based on a design of the biological laboratory that was flown on the Viking landers and used to detect life on Mars. What nifty little pipes and valves! :D

[MamaCat]

And I thought all they gave us was Tang!

[AGMSD]

That's something new to know :shot:

[spike]

Quoted from Technology Innovation, NASA's magazine for business and technology.

Maybe I'm alone here, but I had no idea! Current external insulin pumps are based on a design of the biological laboratory that was flown on the Viking landers and used to detect life on Mars. What nifty little pipes and valves! :D

Actually Dean Kamen is the inventor...
he gave us the Segway scooter, too.

http://www.invent.org/hall_of_fame/222.html

[duck]

Lots of space technology has been parlayed into helpful, even life-saving real life applications...as you see here, the insulin pump. Or the CD-rom (arguably one of the top inventions of the latter-half of the 20th Century). Or lightweight, reflective insulation.

So for all those people who complained that we should be doing something more worthwhile with our money, there ya go.