Nanotechnology

Nanotechnology Advances Regenerative Medicine: Bone Formation Comes Down to the Nanowire

A cell cultured on top of the nanowire scaffold.

New nanotechnology that accelerates the transition of stem cells into bone could transform regenerative medicine.

A nanotechnology platform developed by King Abdullah University of Science & Technology (KAUST) scientists could lead to new treatments for degenerative bone diseases.

The technique relies on iron nanowires that bend in response to magnetic fields. Bone-forming stem cells grown on a mesh of these tiny wires get a kind of physical workout on the moving substrate. They subsequently grow into adult bone considerably quicker than in conventional culturing settings, with a differentiation protocol that lasts only a few days rather than a few weeks.

“This is a remarkable finding,” says Jasmeen Merzaban, associate Professor of bioscience. “We can achieve efficient bone cell formation in a shorter amount of time,” potentially paving the way for more efficient regeneration of bone. Merzaban co-led the study together with sensor scientist Jürgen Kosel and colleagues from their labs.

The scientists analyzed the bone-producing capability of their nanowire scaffold, both with and without magnetic signals. They patterned the tiny wires in an evenly spaced grid and then layered bone marrow-derived human mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) on top. Each of the tiny wires is about the size of the tail-like appendage found on some bacteria.

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drones

Drones can now scan terrain and excavations without human intervention

Drone pilots may become superfluous in the future.

New research from Aarhus University has allowed artificial intelligence to take over control of drones scanning and measuring terrain.

A research project at Aarhus University (AU) in collaboration with the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) aims to make measuring and documenting gravel and limestone quarries much faster, cheaper and easier in the future.

The project has allowed artificial intelligence to take over the human-controlled drones currently being used for the task.

“We’ve made the entire process completely automatic.

We tell the drone where to start, and the width of the wall or rock face we want to photograph, and then it flies zig-zag all the way along and lands automatically,” says Associate Professor Erdal Kayacan, an expert in artificial intelligence and drones at the Department of Engineering at Aarhus University.

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Space

Fleets of ‘nanocardboard’ aircraft could explore Mars

A fleet of tiny “nanocardboard” aircraft could help explore Mars, researchers say.

They each weigh about as much as a fruit fly and have no moving parts.

This summer, NASA plans to launch its next Mars rover, Perseverance, which will carry with it the first aircraft to ever fly on another planet, the Mars Helicopter.

As the first of its kind, the Mars Helicopter will carry no instruments and collect no data—NASA describes merely flying it at all as “high-risk, high-reward” research.

With the risks of extraterrestrial flight in mind, researchers are suggesting a different approach to exploring the skies of other worlds.

Their flyers are plates of nanocardboard, which levitate when bright light hits them.

As one side of the plate heats up, the temperature differential gets air circulating through its hollow structure and shooting out of the corrugated channels that give it its name, thrusting it off the ground.

A new study shows nanocardboard’s flying and payload-carrying abilities in an environment similar to that of Mars.

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Stem cells

A Newly Discovered Type of Stem Cell Could Allow Scientists To Make Organs in a Dish

Traditionally, researchers create stem cells by either placing an embryo in a dish or employing molecules found in pluripotent cells to reprogram differentiated cells and create induced pluripotent cells. This new study explores other possibilities.

The University of Copenhagen researchers utilized a mouse model to discover an alternate path that some cells follow to build organs and used that information to exploit a new kind of stem cells as a possible supply of organs in a dish

Imagine being able to restore damaged organ tissue. Because stem cells have the incredible ability to create the cells of organs such as the liver, pancreas, and intestine, that is what stem cell research is aiming to do. 

For many years, researchers have worked to duplicate the process by which embryonic stem cells develop into organs and other parts of the body. However, despite several attempts, it has proven to be incredibly challenging to get lab-grown cells to mature correctly. However, recent research from the University of Copenhagen reveals that they could have missed a crucial step and perhaps another kind of stem cell.

“Very simply put, a number of recent studies have attempted to make a gut from stem cells in a dish. We have found a new way to do this, a way that follows different aspects of what happens in the embryo. Here, we found a new route that the embryo uses, and we describe the intermediate stage that different types of stem cells could use to make the gut and other organs,” says Ph.D. student at Martin Proks, one of the primary authors of the study from Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Stem Cell Medicine at the University of Copenhagen (reNEW).

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Bitcoin

Why Do Bitcoins Have Value?

By JOHN P. KELLEHER

Bitcoin (BTCUSD) is often referred to as digital currency and as an alternative to central bank-controlled fiat money. However, the latter is valuable because it is issued by a monetary authority and is widely used in an economy. Bitcoin’s network is decentralized, and the cryptocurrency is not used much in retail transactions.

One can argue that Bitcoin’s value is similar to that of precious metals. Both are limited in quantity and have select use cases. Precious metals like gold are used in industrial applications, while Bitcoin’s underlying technology, the blockchain, has some applications across the financial services industries. Bitcoin’s digital provenance means that it might even serve as a medium for retail transactions one day.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

  • Currencies have value because they can function as a store of value and a unit of exchange. They also demonstrate six key attributes to enable their use in an economy.
  • The definition of value in a currency has changed over centuries from physical attributes to the velocity of its use in an economy.
  • Bitcoin demonstrates some attributes for a currency, but its main source of value lies in its restricted supply and increasing demand.
  • If the price of one bitcoin were to reach $514,000, Bitcoin’s market capitalization would reach approximately 15% of the global currency market.
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Tesla

TESLA UNVEILS TRAILER WITH POP-OUT SOLAR PANELS

SOLAR TRAILER

COMPLETE WITH SPACEX STARLINK INTERNET.

While we’re not expecting to see it hitting store shelves any time soon, Tesla has shown off a massive solar trailer during an exposition in Germany, as seen in new images shared online.

The bulky range-extending trailer even includes a SpaceX Starlink internet satellite dish in the back. In short, it’s the ultimate off-grid accessory for your Tesla — if it ever were to go into production, that is.

The car company showed off the trailer at the IdeenExpo in Hannover, Germany this week. It’s a fun demo, but probably less of a finished consumer product than an effort to draw attention at the expo.

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NASA

NASA Prize-Winning Experiment Could Be The Future of Artificial Photosynthesis

By DAVID NIELD

The process of turning water, carbon dioxide, and sunlight into oxygen and energy helps plants to grow naturally – and it’s a process that scientists are looking to harness and adapt in order to produce food, fuel, and more besides.

In a new study, scientists outline an experimental artificial photosynthesis technique, which deploys a two-step electrocatalytic process to turn carbon dioxide, water, and electricity generated by solar panels into acetate (the main component of vinegar). This acetate can then be harnessed by plants in order to grow.

In fact, the system that the researchers have designed here is intended not just to mimic the photosynthesis that happens in nature, but to actually improve on it – in plants, only around 1 percent of the sunlight’s energy is actually turned into plant biomass, whereas here the efficiency can be multiplied by about fourfold.

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Energy

This ‘sand’ battery stores renewable energy as heat

The heat can then be used to warm water in the winter when energy is more expensive.

By M. Moon

A company in Finland has created an an unusual storage solution for renewable energy: One that uses sand instead of lithium ion or other battery technologies. Polar Night Energy and Vatajankoski, an energy utility in Western Finland, have built a storage system that can store electricity as heat in the sand. While there are other organizations researching the use of sand for energy storage, including the US National Renewable Energy Laboratory, the Finns say theirs is the first fully working commercial installation of a battery made from sand.

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Driverless vehicles

EU plans to approve sales of fully self-driving cars

A Vision Urbanetic self-driving van by Mercedes-Benz | John MacDougall AFP via Getty Images

BY JOSHUA POSANER

Europe aims to be the first-mover when it comes to letting so-called Level 4 autonomous cars on the road.

The European Commission is ready to let robots take the wheel.

The EU’s executive plans to propose by the end of September what it reckons will be the world’s first technical legislation that will allow member countries to approve the registration and sale of up to 1,500 vehicles per carmaker model each year installed with advanced self-driving technology, an EU official involved in drafting the rules told POLITICO.

Such vehicles, where motorists are no longer required to supervise driving, are still very much in the development stage. The aim is to fix Europe’s position as a first mover for next-generation cars able to navigate road networks and traffic autonomously, said two officials briefed on the plan.

“We are moving from the experimentation phase to the commercial phase,” the EU official said.

The legislation will include 17 separate pieces of technical rule-making that will amend how EU countries approve vehicles for sale. It’s part of a much broader revamp of car safety standards called the General Safety Regulation (GSR) — part of which enters into force on Wednesday.

The EU aims to reach zero road deaths by 2050, but to do that it has to boost safety features in cars, as human error is estimated to be at fault in 95 percent of vehicular accidents.

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Augmented Reality

Mojo Vision shows off mind-blowing new augmented reality contact lens

By Joshua Hawkins

Smart contact lenses could soon put an augmented reality display directly on your eyeball. At least, that’s the basic idea behind Mojo Vision’s prototype augmented reality contact lens. If successful, and able to do everything the company claims, these smart contact lenses could make a lot of ongoing AR headset development redundant before most of it is even released.

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