Imagine changing the TV channel just by thinking about it,a mental remote control. What was once a science-fiction fantasy is slowly becoming reality: a team of researchers has demonstrated simple mind control of a screen image. Scientists at the California Institute of Technology and University of California, Los Angeles taught patients to consciously change images on a computer screen through the use of individual brain cells. Their study, published last year in Nature, revealed an apparent ability to control the energy of an individual neuron.

A recent breakthrough at the Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease at the University of California, San Francisco has the potential to radically change the way doctors treat neurodegenerative diseases. Sheng Ding and his lab were able to successfully convert human skin cells into functional brain cells. Published in Cell Stem Cell, the results of the study could potentially wipe out illnesses like Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and Huntington's disease.