The thought of how surgery will look in the future is something millions of people are always discussing. The amount of hours spent on surgery certainly can take a toll on a doctors schedule. If the population increases, how will doctors be able to keep up with more surgeries? Here is a post from CNN.com discussing the possibilities of surguries in the future:

LONDON, England (CNN) -- Over the past 20 years, robotics have revolutionized surgery, and new innovations are continuing to push the boundaries of medicine.

The "da Vinci" system revolutionized keyhole surgery.

 Mike Rustic, senior lecturer at the mechanical engineering department at Imperial College, London, says machines such as the "da Vinci" system have had a huge impact on surgery.

The "da Vinci" first appeared in 1991 and lets surgeons carry out keyhole surgery remotely, allowing them to control robot arms from a console that also provides a three-dimensional image of the proceedings.

While the "da Vinci" system is the most widespread robotic surgery tool, Rustic says the "Sensei Robotic Catheter System" is also starting to be used for electrophysiology procedures on the heart.  Take a look at the past, present and future of surgery »

A new exhibition at London's Royal College of Surgeons called "Sci-Fi Surgery: Medical Robots" has displays ranging from the "da Vinci" system to prototype microbots designed to be swallowed and self-assembled in the human body.

Rustic says there is much ongoing research into micro machines -- miniaturized robots that could be placed in a patient's body to gather information or carry out medical procedures.

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But he says that although pill cameras -- cameras that are swallowed by a patient to provide images of their digestive system -- are already in common use, micro machines remain some way off.

"Micro machines are basically one of the holy grails, but it will take a while before we see something," he told CNN.

"The difficulty is that even if you can make little motors you need to power them up and you have to be able to communicate with them and direct them."

Rustic says one innovation on the horizon is a device being developed by Imperial College that would allow a surgeon to remotely control an endoscope while a patient is inside a Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) machine, which would give real-time image feedback during gastric procedures and prostate biopsies.

But he adds that currently, robotic surgery devices are often prohibitively expensive and tend to be used for a narrow range of procedures. He told CNN that he would like to see an economical robot that can be reconfigured to perform a wide range of procedures in a standardized way, so that training can be simplified.

"There is currently a gap. We are trying to produce complex machines to replace surgical tools, which are hand tools. It's like when industry moved from a chisel and hammer to machine tools."

Pier Cristoforo Giulianotti is a professor at the University of Illinois department of surgery. He told CNN that as more manufacturers join the medical robotics marketplace, innovation will speed up and prices will come down.

He sees the future as bringing extreme miniaturization of tools, as well as developments in augmented reality, where visual displays show computer-generated images and information overlaid onto images of the real world.

Giulianotti cannot foresee a time when robots replace surgeons, but he has no doubts over the importance of robotics. "Robot surgery is the future of medicine," he said.

Here is an interesting post to check out on this very speacial day coming from Yahoo:

Have special plans this 09/09/09?

Everyone from brides and grooms to movie studio execs are celebrating the upcoming calendrical anomaly in their own way.

In Florida, at least one county clerk's office is offering a one-day wedding special for $99.99. The rarity of this Sept. 9 hasn't been lost on the creators of the iPod, who have moved their traditional Tuesday release day to Wednesday to take advantage of the special date. Focus Features is releasing their new film "9," an animated tale about the apocalypse, on the 9th.

Not only does the date look good in marketing promotions, but it also represents the last set of repeating, single-digit dates that we'll see for almost a century (until January 1, 2101), or a millennium (mark your calendars for January 1, 3001), depending on how you want to count it.

Though technically there's nothing special about the symmetrical date, some concerned with the history and meaning of numbers ascribe powerful significance to 09/09/09.

For cultures in which the number nine is lucky, Sept. 9 is anticipated - while others might see the date as an ominous warning.

Math magic

Modern numerologists - who operate outside the realm of real science - believe that mystical significance or vibrations can be assigned to each numeral one through nine, and different combinations of the digits produce tangible results in life depending on their application.

As the final numeral, the number nine holds special rank. It is associated with forgiveness, compassion and success on the positive side as well as arrogance and self-righteousness on the negative, according to numerologists.

Though usually discredited as bogus, numerologists do have a famous predecessor to look to. Pythagoras, the Greek mathematician and father of the famous theorem, is also credited with popularizing numerology in ancient times.

"Pythagoras most of all seems to have honored and advanced the study concerned with numbers, having taken it away from the use of merchants and likening all things to numbers," wrote Aristoxenus, an ancient Greek historian, in the 4th century B.C.

As part of his obsession with numbers both mathematically and divine, and like many mathematicians before and since, Pythagoras noted that nine in particular had many unique properties.

Any grade-schooler could tell you, for example, that the sum of the two-digits resulting from nine multiplied by any other single-digit number will equal nine. So 9x3=27, and 2+7=9.

Multiply nine by any two, three or four-digit number and the sums of those will also break down to nine. For example: 9x62 = 558; 5+5+8=18; 1+8=9.

Sept. 9 also happens to be the 252nd day of the year (2 + 5 +2)...

Loving 9

Both China and Japan have strong feelings about the number nine. Those feelings just happen to be on opposite ends of the spectrum.

The Chinese pulled out all the stops to celebrate their lucky number eight during last year's Summer Olympics, ringing the games in at 8 p.m. on 08/08/08. What many might not realize is that nine comes in second on their list of auspicious digits and is associated with long life, due to how similar its pronunciation is to the local word for long-lasting (eight sounds like wealth).

Historically, ancient Chinese emperors associated themselves closely with the number nine, which appeared prominently in architecture and royal dress, often in the form of nine fearsome dragons. The imperial dynasties were so convinced of the power of the number nine that the palace complex at Beijing's Forbidden City is rumored to have been built with 9,999 rooms.

Japanese emperors would have never worn a robe with nine dragons, however.

In Japanese, the word for nine is a homophone for the word for suffering, so the number is considered highly unlucky - second only to four, which sounds like death.

Many Japanese will go so far as to avoid room numbers including nine at hotels or hospitals, if the building planners haven't already eliminated them altogether.

Social Media. Two words that are familiar with people from age 5 to 95. As children we were taught never to talk to strangers, but things have changed. Perhaps maybe we have evolved.  We, as Twitter/Facebook/MySpace users thrive on meeting new people and sharing some of our most intimate information.  “I can barely get out of bed, man this Mono sucks…” “Wish me luck, I am going to try and get a job so I can pay for all of my debt!” This type of information can be seen as very personal but Facebook’s famous status updates are showing us that people are willing to take off the mask and show us their real colors.

So when do you draw the line? When does it become an issue of you should monitor what you put on the web? Well here is a story about how a Facebook status got someone Facing unemployment.

    Kimberly Swann, a former employee for Ivell Marketing and Logistics of Clacton, U.K., thought her job was boring -- and she said so on her Facebook page, according to an article in The Daily Telegraph. Swann was called into her manager's office and handed a letter that cited her Facebook comments as the reason for dismissal:

"Following your comments made on Facebook about your job and the company we feel it is better that, as you are not happy and do not enjoy your work we end your employment with Ivell Marketing & Logistics with immediate effect."

So what do you think? Do you believe Kimberly Swann should have been fired? Perhaps she was warned a few times about her posting things on her Facebook about work or maybe she was meant to be an example to other employees. Give us a shout back and post what you think about the decision.