Upper-Intermediate |
Medical Miracle?

Warm-Up | Biomedical Science

  • How much control do you think individuals should have to modify own genetic information and that of their children?
  • It may be possible to prevent children from growing up deaf, but the deaf community are mainly against this development (loss of community, feeling different, etc.). Should we push forward to prevent birth defects before they occur?
    • How do you think society should handle the potential divide between those who can afford biohacking interventions and those who cannot?
    • How do you think biohacking might influence societal attitudes towards aging, homosexuality, the disabled, and mortality?
  • If offered a chance to enhance your cognitive abilities through biohacking, would you be open to it? 
    • What about for athletic abilities?  To enhance military performance?

Warm-Up | Medical Science or Science Fiction?

  1. Blind people can see with a camera that transmits images to the back of their eyes.
  2. A person's genes can be changed, so they stop eating food which makes them overweight.
  3. Hospital patients can wear and electronic skin to send radiowaves from their bodies to machines.
  4. During an operation, it's likely that a computer tablet will take care of you. 
  5. Medical scientists are close to finding a vaccine against the common cold.
  6. It'll soon be possible to prevent people from suffering from food allergies.
  7. Electronic devices placed in the chests of Asthma sufferers can permanently cure illness.
  8. A small electronic device put in the brain of  an epilepsy sufferer can stop them from having seizures.

Reading | Too Good to be True

Reading | Too Good to be True

  1. Anyone who's blind is able to get some sight back with the new glasses and almost see perfectly.
  2. Electronic skin can be used to monitor patients and speed their healing process.
  3. The tablet now means that the anaesthetist can leave the patient once the operation begins.
  4. Scientists hope that it'll be possible to turn off allergies in the future.
  5. The epilepsy device has two functions: prediction and prevention.

Post-Reading | Too Good to be True

  1. Which of the inventions do you think is the biggest breakthrough in medical science?
  2. What medical invention would you like to exist? What would it do?

Vocabulary | Health

Vocabulary | Health