Breakthrough Thinking – Page 9

Breakthrough Thinking, Inventions, New Inventions

Who needs ink cartridges? Harvard’s acoustic printer can spit out honey or cells

September 13, 2018

We’re all about innovative printing methods here at Digital Trends and, boy, have the folks at Harvard not disappointed with their latest piece of research. It involves using sound waves to make it possible to print with virtually any liquid imaginable. That includes everything from human cells and liquid metal to optical resins and even honey. Needless to say, these aren’t the usual water-like printing materials found in ordinary inkjet printers. The results could prove useful in fields including pharmaceutical development, cosmetics, or even the food industry.

“We have developed a new drop-on-demand printing method that is conducive to printing liquids with low to very high viscosity,” Jennifer Lewis, the Hansjorg Wyss Professor of Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard’s John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, told Digital Trends. “It’s exciting, because it can be applied to a very broad range of liquids.”

Continue reading… “Who needs ink cartridges? Harvard’s acoustic printer can spit out honey or cells”

Aviation, Breakthrough Thinking, new technology, Record Breaker, Science & Technology News

Record-breaking Perlan 2 glider soars ever closer to the edge of space

September 7, 2018

The Perlan 2 glider in action during a record-breaking flight last week.

Airbus’ Perlan 2 glider is continuing to push the limits of engineless flight, hitting a succession of record altitudes throughout the last week, culminating in a unprecedented 76,000-ft (23,000-m) climb on Sunday.

The overarching objective of the Perlan project is to harness what are known as stratospheric mountain waves to soar upwards to the edge of space without using an engine. These powerful airstreams are created when winds collide with tall mountain ranges and are diverted upwards.

The Perlan 2 engineless glider is built to leverage these waves with an ultralight construction that tips the scales at just 1,100 lb (500 kg) when empty, and a generous wingspan of 84 ft (27 m). Following its maiden flight in Oregon in 2015, when it reached an altitude of 5,000 ft (1,524 m) after being released from its towplane, the team promptly set its sights on far, far greater heights.

Continue reading… “Record-breaking Perlan 2 glider soars ever closer to the edge of space”

Alternative Transportation, Breakthrough Thinking, Engineering, Science & Technology News, Space, Space Flight

Can we get into space without big rockets?

September 4, 2018

Since humans began putting satellites into orbit in the 1950s, we’ve relied upon big, powerful rockets to escape Earth’s gravity and get into space. But big rockets have a major downside, in that they make space launches expensive. Case in point: NASA’s Space Launch System heavy lift rocket, which is scheduled for its maiden flight in December 2019, will cost an estimated $1 billion per launch, according to a 2017 report by NASA’s Office of Inspector General (OIG). Launch costs for SpaceX’s far more economical Falcon Heavy, which launched successfully from Kennedy Space Center in February 2018, still range between $90 million and $150 million for a fully expendable, maxed-out version, according to CNBC.

For decades, however, visionaries have looked for ways to get into space without relying — at least not primarily — upon rocket power.

Continue reading… “Can we get into space without big rockets?”

Biotech, Breakthrough Thinking, DNA, Medicine, Nanotechnology

Genetically engineered bacteria paint microscopic masterpieces

September 3, 2018

Scientists have used genetically engineered bacteria to recreate a masterpiece at a microscopic scale. By engineering E. coli bacteria to respond to light, they’ve guided the bacteria like tiny drones toward patterns that depict Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa. It’s not artistic recognition they’re after. Rather, the researchers want to show that these engineered organisms may someday be used as “microbricks” and living propellors.

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Augmented Reality, brain-computer interfaces, Breakthrough Thinking, Healthcare, Medical Breakthrough

VR is helping amputees feel their prosthetics as if they belonged to their bodies

September 2, 2018

Researchers at EPFL developed a system that combines virtual reality with artificial tactile sensations to help amputees feel their prosthetics as if they are a part of their body.

Via Mashable

Architecture, Breakthrough Thinking, Engineering, Great New Product, Housing

New “Super Wood” is as strong as steel

September 3, 2018

Wood is great. It looks nice as a building material. It grows right out of the ground. But compared to things like concrete, marble, and steel, it’s not all that strong. Well, it didn’t used to be, anyway. Scientists have now created a “super wood” that’s strong enough to stop a bullet.

Continue reading… “New “Super Wood” is as strong as steel”

Breakthrough Thinking, communication, Military

MITdevelops water-to-air wireless Communication

August 28, 2018

You can wirelessly communicate with people on the other side of the world in real time, but it’s still impossible for a submarine to talk to an airplane. They both use systems designed for their environment, and those systems aren’t compatible. At least, they weren’t until now. Researchers from MIT have developed a technology to link the underwater world with the open air.

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Biotech, Breakthrough Thinking, Engineering, Medical Breakthrough

The high-stakes race to create the world’s first artificial heart

August 26, 2018

World-famous Houston surgeon Bud Frazier spent decades developing a revolutionary device that could save millions of lives. In this exclusive excerpt from ‘Ticker: The Quest to Create an Artificial Heart,’ he attempts to implant it in a human for the first

The kids fell in love with him first. Back in the late eighties, Craig Lewis lived three houses down from Linda Sanders. He was a quiet, solitary beanpole of a man with a copper-colored golden retriever named Shogun. He looked to be in his late thirties, and Linda knew from neighborhood gossip that he had one marriage behind him, just like she did. Back then, Shogun seemed to be his constant companion. Craig had taught that dog to do just about anything; of course he could sit, stay, and fetch, but he also knew how to play hide-and-seek with even the canniest kid. That was why, as soon as Linda’s children saw Craig’s pickup pull into his driveway in the early evenings, they were out the door. Leslie was six and Eddie four, two blond-haired kids on the run, raising small clouds of dust as their feet slapped the parched summer grass. “Don’t wear out your welcome!” Linda warned to the sliding door they slammed behind them.

Continue reading… “The high-stakes race to create the world’s first artificial heart”

Biotech, Breakthrough Thinking, Engineering, new technology

A new way to ‘freeze’ water could help transform organ preservation

August 21, 2018

Freezing can be a great way of preserving assorted foodstuffs or biological tissues and organs, but it’s not without its risks. The formation of sharp ice crystals can damage cell membranes, while the defrosting process comes with its own potential dangers.

Scientists from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), the original and largest teaching hospital at Harvard Medical School, may have changed the game with a new piece of research, however. They have developed a method of maintaining water and water-based solutions in their liquid form for long periods of time, at temperatures far below the usual freezing point. The breakthrough could have major implications for long-term safe preservation of everything from blood cells and organs to the food we eat.

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Biotech, Breakthrough Thinking, Environment, Green Friendly

Drink that! An edible water orb

August 15, 2018

Using reverse spherification, a biotech researcher in Bengaluru is making edible water orbs.

Bengaluru-based biotechnology researcher Richard Gomes, who has created an “edible water orb” from natural materials, has a modest disclaimer: the technique used by his team is not unique or even particularly new; it’s used in many biotech labs to hold delicate cells together. “The orb provides a stable and sterile environment for cells to grow,” says Gomes, resident biologist at Workbench Projects, a co-working makerspace in Bengaluru. Gomes and his team wanted to take the idea forward and create an alternative to plastic water bottles, potentially replacing them with edible and biodegradable globules that can hold around 50ml of water. They are exploring options to make these orbs bigger, so that they can hold around 100ml, and manufacture them commercially and at scale.

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Breakthrough Thinking, Engineering, Inventions, new technology

Cell-sized robots can sense their environment

August 4, 2018

Made of electronic circuits coupled to minute particles, the devices could flow through intestines or pipelines to detect problems.

Researchers at MIT have created what may be the smallest robots yet that can sense their environment, store data, and even carry out computational tasks. These devices, which are about the size of a human egg cell, consist of tiny electronic circuits made of two-dimensional materials, piggybacking on minuscule particles called colloids.

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Breakthrough Thinking, Energy, Engineering, new technology

Will Lockheed Martin change the world with its new fusion reactor?

August 1, 2018

TEXAS, USA – JUNE 21: A F-35 fighter jet is seen as Turkey takes delivery of its first F-35 fighter jet with a ceremony at the Lockheed Martin in Forth Worth, Texas, United States on June 21, 2018. (Photo by Atilgan Ozdil/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)

Lockheed Martin’s secretive Skunkworks laboratory registered a patent in March for a revolutionary technology that could solve the world’s energy problems for good – but don’t pop the champagne yet. The design is for a compact fusion reactor (CFR) which theoretically produces cheap, clean, near limitless energy – all from a device that could fit on the back of a semi. If it sounds far-fetched, that’s because it is. The sustained generation of a fusion reaction has evaded scientists since the idea was first conceived over 70 years ago.

Lockheed Martin thinks they can change that.

Continue reading… “Will Lockheed Martin change the world with its new fusion reactor?”