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Innovation

Welcome to the world of hyper-realistic silicone masks

The amazing disguises in "Mission Impossible" aren't as unrealistic as you think.

Canva Photos

Masks have gotten so good, 1 in 5 people can't even identify one.

In the Mission Impossible movies, you can never quite trust anything you see. That's because the films make liberal use of futuristic and wild fictional mask technology. At least, I thought it was fictional.

With a simple scan or photo of someone's face and a machine that fits in a briefcase, Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and his team can 3D print a mask that's 100% indistinguishable from the real thing. Add in a little extra technology that helps the spies mimic others' voices and you've got the perfect disguise. Cruise can walk amongst the bad guys without fear, and his costars get the fun challenge of playing Tom Cruise playing themselves! It makes for incredible entertainment.

I've always loved the movies and understood that part of the viewing experience is learning to suspend my disbelief. The gadgets, stunts, and disguises are a lot of fun, but pretty out there.

And then I saw this video, and it opened the door to the new, and more than a little frightening, world of hyper-realistic silicone masks.

In the clip shared by Science Girl on X, a man tries on a lifelike mask in real time, sliding it over his head, and in just a moment and with one small wiggle of the nose, he's completely transformed. I thought for sure the whole thing had to be AI-assisted, but no. The clip originated from a mask manufacturer called FL Silicone Mask. They've got tons of demonstrations all over their Instagram page.

The final result of this mask in particular is a little unnerving, a little uncanny valley. There's something off with the way it looks but it's really hard to say what. The details are incredible, the eye-sockets seamless. The mouth can even move open and closed.

In passing, without looking for it, you'd probably never have any idea that this person was wearing a mask. Just see for yourself. It's no wonder the post clocked over 27 million views on social media.

Realistic masks like this one have actually been researched. Studies have shown that about one in five people can be fooled by someone in a realistic silicone mask.

A research study out of the Universities of York and Kyoto asked volunteers to look at photographs of people wearing a realistic mask, and photos of people not wearing a mask. They had to guess which was which, and an astonishing 20% of the selections turned out to be wrong. Considering this was a controlled environment where participants were actively looking to see if someone was wearing a disguise, it's even scarier to Imagine how easy it would be to get fooled in real life when you aren't on your guard.

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

The technology for hyper-realistic masks has grown by leaps in bounds in recent years. The fit and detail work on them is astonishing, so much so that it's becoming cause for concern.

While Tom Cruise uses his disguises to save the world, not everyone is so altruistic. Police forces all over the world are facing more and more challenges with criminals using creative camouflage.

The "Geezer Bandit" once terrorized San Diego banks for years, robbing them while disguised as an old man. He or she was never caught.

Realistic silicone masks are expensive, usually costing several thousand dollars, and good ones are hard to find. Mesh masks that can be worn under a hoodie are a lot more cost-effective and incredible at fooling security cameras from a distance. Worse yet, masks can be made in the likeness of almost any person, making identity theft a serious concern.

There might be a bright side to this bizarre technological advancement, though.

For years now, wigs have been helping people with various forms and causes of hair loss find their confidence again. It's a chance to blend in with the public and not feel othered by stares or field any questions. It allows people to just exist the same way anyone else does.

Masks haven't been able to do the same thing because, well, they've always looked like masks. But you have to wonder if the technology has finally reached a tipping point where they too could become a source of confidence and normalcy for people with facial deformities or disfigurations.

When mangled soldiers were returning from WWI by the hundreds, a British sculptor named Francis Derwent Wood opened up a shop that specialized in creating masks that would hide their scars. According to Forces News, "Wood's painted metal mask work was an attempt to give back to veterans the sense of self-worth and pride they once had in their appearance and help them 'fit in' back on civvy street."

Maybe these stunningly-accurate silicone creations could do that for a new generation of people who could use a little help feeling like themselves again. No one should ever feel like they have to wear a mask or hide their face. But if you're going to wear one, it might as well be the best quality you can find!

Innovation

7 mindblowing medical breakthroughs that could occur in our lifetime

One day soon, you might be able to grow new teeth. Seriously.

Canva Photos

My family has a history of Parkinson's Disease, so I always see the headlines that promise some major scientific breakthrough in regards to the disease based on small, lab-based experiments or trials run on animals. They give us a glimmer of hope but, far too often, these treatments never see the light of day. The road from promising idea to having a real treatment available for patients is extremely long and arduous. Most potential new medications and therapies don't survive.

But... things do sometimes happen! There are massive medical breakthroughs being achieved all the time. Sometimes it's a new discovery, sometimes it's a successful clinical trial, and sometimes it's the fruit of all that labor finally becoming publicly available to people who need it the most. For example, an RSV vaccine just became available in 2023 for the first time. A powerful non-opioid pain killer was approved in 2024. A new drug came out to treat schizophrenia that was completely different than anything that had come before. Progress is being made every single year.

In our lifetime, say the next five to 20 years, we could see unbelievable advancements in treating certain medical conditions. Here are a few pretty amazing potential developments that are on the horizon.

Scientist working in a laboratory setting. Photo by Adam Bezer on Unsplash

1. Growing new teeth

Unlike sharks, humans are known to grow only two sets of teeth, our baby teeth and permanent adult teeth. If one gets knocked out or lost due to decay or infection, you're out of luck!

But researchers say growth buds exist in our gums for a third set, and scientists in Japan have had success in activating them to grow naturally. It could be a major gamechanger that could one day replace dentures and prosthetics. The team has moved onto human trials and has a target date of having a drug ready by 2030.

2. Cancer vaccines

Medical scientists have made amazing strides in cancer research, especially in the field of vaccines.

Did you know that lung cancer is considered to be the most deadly of the bunch? A lung cancer vaccine could be available very soon. If a cancer vaccine sounds odd, think of it this way: Cancer can be treated by chemotherapy and radiation, but there's always a chance of it coming back. People who have survived cancer could theoretically take the vaccine and massively improve their chances of reoccurrence.

A similar vaccine is showing promising results in clinical trials for pancreatic cancer.

3. Better treatment for Alzheimers

Alzheimer's Disease is one of the most destructive and heartbreaking conditions imaginable. It's also extremely difficult to treat, with most currently available therapies and medications focusing on slowing or temporarily relieving certain symptoms.

One new avenue scientists are exploring is a vaccine that could target a protein called tau, which clumps together and tangles up crucial neurofibers that deliver information in the brain. One such medication aims to activate a patient's immune system and produce "a strong antibody response against both pTau and its harmful aggregated form." The drug was recently fast-tracked by the FDA and has shown promising results in human clinical trials.

Another relatively new development is the availability of monoclonal antibody treatment, which helps slow the progression of the disease. Currently, the treatments are not particularly cost-effective but may become moreso in the near future.


smiling woman in gray cardigan Photo by Tatiana Zanon on Unsplash

4. Breakthrough treatment for Huntington's Disease

Huntington's is a fatal central nervous system disorder that shuts down key brain functions in patients like speech, walking, and cognitive function. Some of the symptoms can be treated but, so far, little can be done to slow or stop the progression of the disease.

However, a new drug known as PTC518 was recently fast-tracked by the FDA due to promising results in clinical trials. It attacks mutant Huntington protein in blood cells and in cerebrospinal fluid and has been shown to improve symptoms of the disease in a 12-month trial run. What's especially exciting is that this drug attacks the disease itself rather than just treating symptoms at the surface level.

5. Targeted viruses that kill antibiotic-resistant bacteria

Bacteria is getting smarter and evolving. Antimicrobial resistance is a grave threat to the global population as well-known antibiotics become less effective against infection and new antibiotics are expensive and difficult to develop.

(If you've ever dealt with a staph infection, you know how scary it is when drugs just... don't work.)

This is where special viruses, called bacteriophages or just phages, come into play. These viruses selectively target and kill bacteria, and were actually first used about 100 years ago. Scientist are coming around to using them again. In select settings, they've proven to be incredibly effective against resistant infections, but will need more testing before they become widely available. However, it's definitely possible that this become a viable alternative to antibiotics in some cases in the next few decades!

6. Synthetic and bioprinted organs


human heart Photo by camilo jimenez on Unsplash

There are simply not enough donor organs going around for all the people who need a healthy liver, heart, or kidney.

Luckily, incredible strides have been made in creating artificial organs that can function like the real thing. A man in Australia just lived for 100 days with a titanium heart while he awaited a transplant! And bioprinting technology – quite literally 3D printing using real tissue and living cells — has the potential to create new working organs from scratch in the near future. Genetically modifying animal organs to function in humans temporarily or maybe even permanently has also come an extremely long way and is a process that will drastically improve in the coming years.

7. A one-pill cure for Hepatitis B

Hepatitis B is a potentially fatal infection of the liver that affects hundreds of millions of people worldwide. There is a safe and effective vaccine available to some people, but it's only preventative and won't treat active infections.

A research team in Israel recently discovered that a low dose of well-known chemotherapy drug, Curaxin-137, completely destroyed a crucial and mysterious protein that the Hepatitis virus depends on. The testing was done in a lab setting, so the next step is clinical trials. The team hopes that one day in the not-so-distant future, patients could take a single dose and completely eradicate the virus in their system. That's about as close to a miracle-cure as you can get!

Not all of these potential breakthroughs will come to fruition, but it's pretty amazing to dig into the advancements and discoveries that are being made every day. This list is just scratching the surface, to say nothing of robotic surgeons that will make major surgeries less invasive, new treatments for baldness, nanotechnologies that can deliver medicine to specific parts of the body, and more. Ultimately, good news is coming relatively soon for people who need it.


A demonstration of the Satellite Shelter.

When blizzards line up to rip through the Northeast, schools close, flights are canceled, and people even board up their houses. Though missions and homeless shelters do what they can to provide safety to those who have no homes to go to, thousands of people still have to weather the cold outside.

At Carnegie Mellon University's 2015 Impact-a-Thon, students were challenged to provide a temporary low-cost shelter for homeless people during the winter.

One team of students came up with the "Satellite Shelter," an insulated sleeping bag that converts into a tented structure. The students used mylar, a reflective material frequently used in greenhouses and space blankets, and wool blankets to ensure the shelter would keep anyone in it safe from the cold.

"We wanted to make sure it was super-portable and durable so that it's easy to carry," said student Linh Thi Do, who worked on the project. "We have wheels on it so it's easy to move from place to place."

Solutions like this one are handy in an emergency. Perhaps, however, other cities should take note of the city of New Orleans' success in providing long-term housing solutions for its homeless veterans. The only perfect solution to homelessness is giving people permanent homes to go to at night.


This article originally appeared on 01.26.15

Two for dinner?

One man from the Detroit area put his quarantine creativity to great use. James Vreeland used his newfound free time to, as he put it on Instagram, "get into the restaurant game."

He did that, of course, by building an entire tiny restaurant in his yard specifically for squirrels. It's hilarious and also weirdly very impressive.



It's an open-air concept with communal picnic-style tables and natural grass floors, which really brings a sense of connection to the earth and the source of the squirrel food. It's a brilliant design.

It's called Maison de Noix, or "The Nut House" in English, and it's the newest, hottest neighborhood spot that all the squirrels are chattering about. If they didn't have to social distance, there would be lines out on the sidewalk every day to get a table. It's very exclusive.

communal, neighborhood, creativity

A picnic style lay out for the squirrel restaurant.

James Vreeland/Instagram

It has a tiny coat rack with wire hangers for squirrel jackets and everything! And even though the restaurant is aimed at its squirrel patrons, it's open to all sorts of creatures. James said that the blue jays in the area are also loving the new place.

Not only did James build an innovative restaurant, but his menu is like nothing I've ever seen. It's so diverse, and yet, so streamlined. And don't worry; he's printed out the menu and stationed it at the front of the restaurant for those who might be interested.

Let's take a closer look, shall we?

menus, nuts, comedy, nut house

What’s on the menu?

James Vreeland/Instagram

So simple, yet so sophisticated, you know? A mixed seed trio! How intriguing. And you can't go wrong with stale bread or pizza crust. I appreciate that the chef leads with what he has on hand and fresh (I mean, stale) that day, instead of shoehorning out-of-season ingredients into a year-round menu.

Raw peanuts on the shell are a known squirrel favorite, and counter-softened apples, well, that's an application you don't see very often, mainly because they're so hard to get just right. But I have faith in the kitchen staff of Maison de Noix.

peanuts, Facebook Live, shaky cam, streaming

Business is nutty.

James Vreeland/Instagram

For a brand new restaurant that opened during a global pandemic, Maison de Noix is doing very well. It helps when you are the only restaurant that caters to squirrels in the whole United States. They really cornered the market.

He has even started doing Facebook Live videos that are just a live stream of the restaurant. You can tune in each day to see the animals stop by. At one point during the last live stream, James commented, "Sorry for the shaky cam — there is a bluejay sitting on the camera."

A time-lapse of the "brunch rush" can be found on his Instagram, and it's just delightful. This whole venture is just entirely lovely, and I thank James for his efforts. I hope things like squirrel restaurants don't go away once the pandemic ends. We need them now, and we'll need them then.


This article originally appeared on 4.5.20