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WWatt’s TechnologyFit your hearing aidonto your molarsAnew type of hearing aid that transmits sound through aperson’s teeth has been approved for use in Europe. Thedevice, known as SoundBite, directs sounds through thejawbone and into the inner ear.It is placed onto one of the molars on the right or left handside. The Royal National Institute for Deaf People warned that thetechnology may not be suitable for everyone.Conventional hearing aids use air conduction to increase thevolume of sound travelling through the air while SoundBite usesbone conduction to amplify the volume.The sound is transmitted wirelessly to the prosthetic that isfitted in the mouth. It works by sending vibrations through theteeth and bones directly to the cochlea, bypassing the middle andouter ear.SoundBite is made by Sonitus Medical and is the first nonsurgicaldevice to use boneconduction to improve hearing. Thesystem allows users to hear in stereo.There are about nine million deafor partially deaf people in Britainand according to statistics from theRoyal National Institute about sixmillion of them require a hearingaid though only two million peopleactually use one.SoundBit is just one of the newsolutions for deaf and partiallydeaf people. In February this year anew middle-ear implant device wassuccessfully implanted under theskin.The Otologics Carina middleeardevice is connected to anelectromagnetic vibrator inside themastoid bone behind the affectedear and attaches to the hearingbones.The device is completely invisibleas it is buried beneath a thin layer ofskin and has no external components.Long live Discoveryin its permanent retirementThe Shuttle Discovery has landed after its last mission intospace was completed successfully. It has had an excellentflying career and is NASA’s most successful spaceship.As it was coming in to make its final landing, Commander StevenLindsey circled the Kennedy Space Centre to reduce Discovery’sspeed before it landed on the marsh-encircled runway.Its final mission was to carry a load of cargo to the InternationalSpace Station. All in all the shuttle accumulated 365 days in orbitspread over 39 missions and racked up almost 150-million miles(241-million kilometres).Having landed Discovery safely on the tarmac and brought it toa halt, Lindsey radioed Mission Control in Houston with his finalwords: “Houston, Discovery. For the final time, wheels stop,” hesaid as the space shuttle stopped.“Great job by you and your crew,” replied astronaut CharlieHobaugh from Mission Control.Discovery’s sister ships Endeavour and Atlantis will have theirfinal missions in April and June respectively and will delivera $2-billion Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer particledetector and a year’s worth of supplies to theInternational Space Station.The space shuttles have been running missionsto space for more than 30 years but becauseof their high operating costs it was decided tostop using them so budget can be freed-upto develop a new range of crafts that cancarry goods and people into space.The new spaceships will be capable oftravelling to the International SpaceStation and will also be able to reachthe moon and even travel to distantasteroids.The last people to fly on theDiscovery included Lindseyand pilot Eric Boe along withastronauts Stephen Bowenand Alvin Drew, who madetwo space walks, and twoother astronauts NicoleStott and MichaelBarratt.March 2011 29