Impact Lab – Page 286 – A Laboratory of the Future Human Experience

Space

Could this be the first human outpost on the MOON? Bunker made from 3D-printed Romanesque arches topped with 8ft of lunar soil could protect astronauts from radiation, meteorites and moonquakes

July 15, 2022

US company AI SpaceFactory has released designs for 3D-printed human bunker that could be built on moon
Outpost has Romanesque arches that would be topped with 8ft of lunar soil, along with three separate units
The 3D-printed shell design also incorporates a photovoltaic tree to capture and harvest solar energy
It has been designed to protect astronauts from radiation, meteorites and moonquakes when on the moon

When NASA returns humans to the moon later this decade, its wider vision will be to set up a lunar outpost for people to survive for longer periods.

To support that goal, a US company has unveiled its design for a 3D-printed bunker that could protect astronauts from radiation, meteorites and moonquakes.

AI SpaceFactory’s outpost would feature Romanesque arches topped with over 8ft of lunar soil, along with three separate units that share a communal courtyard.

Each unit area is 807 square feet (75 square metres), while the central staging area is 968 square feet (90 square metres).

AI

Harvard Developed AI Identifies the Shortest Path to Human Happiness

July 14, 2022

The researchers created a digital model of psychology aimed to improve mental health. The system offers superior personalization and identifies the shortest path toward a cluster of mental stability for any individual.

Deep Longevity, in collaboration with Harvard Medical School, presents a deep learning approach to mental health.

Deep Longevity has published a paper in Aging-US outlining a machine learning approach to human psychology in collaboration with Nancy Etcoff, Ph.D., Harvard Medical School, an authority on happiness and beauty.

The authors created two digital models of human psychology based on data from the Midlife in the United States study.

The first model is an ensemble of deep neural networks that predicts respondents’ chronological age and psychological well-being in 10 years using information from a psychological survey. This model depicts the trajectories of the human mind as it ages. It also demonstrates that the capacity to form meaningful connections, as well as mental autonomy and environmental mastery, develops with age. It also suggests that the emphasis on personal progress is constantly declining, but the sense of having a purpose in life only fades after 40-50 years. These results add to the growing body of knowledge on socioemotional selectivity and hedonic adaptation in the context of adult personality development.

Medical Breakthrough, Science & Technology News

This Dissolvable Implant Could Revolutionize Pain Management

July 14, 2022

Researchers at Northwestern University created an implantable device that attaches to a nerve to deliver pain relief.

By Margaret Osborne

After some success on rats, researchers are hopeful this device could provide humans a more targeted and less addictive alternative to opioids.

Millions of Americans live with pain. While pain can be an important indicator of health, it can also be debilitating, causing fatigue, depression and a decreased quality of life. Researchers from Johns Hopkins University and George Washington University estimated that pain cost the United States $560 billion to $635 billion in 2011.

In the 1990s, pharmaceutical companies claimed they had the answer: opioids. After being assured these drugs were not addictive, doctors prescribed opioids liberally, hoping to relieve their patients’ suffering.

But opioids are highly addictive, and as doctors prescribed more and more, drug abuse escalated. Some patients turned to heroin and synthetic opioids when they couldn’t get ahold of prescription drugs, and between 1999 and 2019, opioid overdoses killed nearly 500,000 people in the U.S. In 2017, the United States Department of Health and Human Services declared the opioid epidemic a public health emergency.

Since discovering the addictive properties of opioids, scientists have been searching for safer alternatives to relieve pain. Biomedical engineer John A. Rogers, of Northwestern University, thinks he may have created one—an implantable, dissolvable device that cools nerves in the body.

Medicine, Science & Technology News

Combining AI and Zebrafish to Accelerate Drug Discovery

July 14, 2022

As part of our SLAS Europe 2022 coverage, we speak to Dr. Javier Terriente, Co-founder and Chief of Drug Development at ZeClinics, about how zebrafish could be the future for discovering new therapeutics.

Please could you introduce yourself and tell us about your role at ZeClinics?

My name is Javier Terriente, and I have a PhD in molecular biology. I spent 15 years in academia, and in 2013 we founded ZeClinics. I am the co-founder of ZeClinics, but I have also been leading the scientific side of the company. I was the scientific director until a couple of years ago, and today I am the chief of drug development.

Essentially, my role now within the company is to lead our internal drug development programs, and I also help with the implementation of new technologies like artificial intelligence and so on. In a way, I would say that I am the chief innovative officer in the company.

ZeClinics is a contract research organization (CRO) specializing in zebrafish research. Why was ZeClinics founded, and what are some of its core missions and values?

First and foremost, ZeClinics was founded on the basis of our expertise, which we felt could bring something new to the industry. As an academic, I had a lot of experience working with zebrafish. I was very much focused on basic research problems, but we understood from early on that the zebrafish could bring a lot of biological and experimental advantages to the industry that may be useful for drug discovery, target discovery, and understanding the safety of new compounds and more. So, we thought, ‘Why not?’. Why not create a company that can bring that expertise to the industry? Our company started small and has grown to 40 people – and we hope to grow more in the future.

In terms of core missions and values, I would say that our main mission is excellence and quality. We think – and hope – that we are always providing the best scientific output with the best quality, in terms of data management, in terms of scientific quality, and in terms of translatability of the results to humans.

I would say this excellence is what really drives us. The second mission that we have is to accelerate research. Within everything that we do, we seek to get drugs to patients earlier and at the lowest possible cost.

Tesla

Elon Musk’s ‘Teslas in Tunnels’ Las Vegas project is still happening, and here’s the first station

July 13, 2022

It looks like your run-of-the-mill underground parking garage

By Andrew J. Hawkins

The first passenger station in the “Vegas Loop” network of vehicle tunnels that’s being built by Elon Musk’s Boring Company was revealed Thursday. The station is situated underneath Resorts World Las Vegas, the first in what is expected to be 55 stops along 29 miles of tunnels.

The Boring Company already operates a small version of this “Teslas in Tunnels” system underneath the Las Vegas Convention Center, which opened in early 2021 and involves two 0.8-mile tunnels. Afterward, Musk’s startup proposed a massive citywide expansion that was eventually approved by Clark County officials last year. The system uses human-controlled Model X and Y vehicles to transport passengers, despite Musk’s previous statements about using sleds to carry cars through the tunnels.

DUBBED THE VEGAS LOOP, THE SYSTEM WILL ALLOW PASSENGERS TO HITCH RIDES IN TESLAS TO AND FROM PLACES LIKE THE HOTEL CASINOS ON THE LAS VEGAS STRIP.

Dubbed the Vegas Loop, the system will allow passengers to hitch rides in Teslas to and from places like the hotel casinos on the Las Vegas Strip, the city’s new football stadium, the Las Vegas Convention Center, and McCarran International Airport. The Resorts World casino station is the first station opened. The company recently received unanimous approval to expand its Vegas Loop project to include stops at landmarks like the Stratosphere and Fremont Street.

“Today marks a monumental moment not only for our resort, but for Las Vegas,” said Scott Sibella, president of Resorts World Las Vegas, in a statement. “Our passenger station will make a visit to our resort from the Las Vegas Convention Center easier than ever, and eventually connect us to key destinations throughout the city.”

Food

New Artificial Photosynthesis Method Grows Food With No Sunshine

July 13, 2022

By Vanessa Bates Ramirez

How can we grow more food using fewer resources? Scientists have been focused on this question for decades if not centuries, as an ever-growing global population necessitates constantly seeking new ways to produce food in sustainable and affordable ways.

Here’s a question most of us have never contemplated, because it seems so unfathomable: what if crops could grow without sunlight—not vertical farm-style, where LED light replaces the sun, but in total darkness?

A paper published last week in Nature Food details a method for doing just that.

Photosynthesis uses a series of chemical reactions to convert carbon dioxide, water, and sunlight into glucose and oxygen. The light-dependent stage comes first, and relies on sunlight to transfer energy to plants, which convert it to chemical energy. The light-independent stage (also called the Calvin Cycle) follows, when this chemical energy and carbon dioxide are used to form carbohydrate molecules (like glucose).

A research team from UC Riverside and the University of Delaware found a way to leapfrog over the light-dependent stage entirely, providing plants with the chemical energy they need to complete the Calvin Cycle in total darkness. They used an electrolysis to convert carbon dioxide and water into acetate, a salt or ester form of acetic acid and a common building block for biosynthesis (it’s also the main component of vinegar). The team fed the acetate to plants in the dark, finding they were able to use it as they would have used the chemical energy they’d get from sunlight.

Virtual Reality

WEBEX HOLOGRAM: TAKING VIRTUAL MEETINGS TO A WHOLE NEW LEVEL

July 13, 2022

By PAUL BARKER

Holograms have previously been mainly restricted to the sci-fi scene, but now that Cisco is introducing them into Webex, they are indeed on the cusp of moving into the real world.

At a recent presentation held at Cisco Toronto’s Innovation Lab, a group of media experienced the Webex Hologram in action, as work on the product continues to the point where there will be a full-fledged launch that delivers what the company describes as “photorealistic, real-time holograms of actual people.”

Aruna Ravichandran, senior vice president and chief marketing officer of Webex, said that “with this particular technology, we now have the ability to basically hologram a live person in regardless of where they are located on the planet. It’s not an avatar, you actually see a live person.”

According to the Webex Hologram fact sheet, a presenter can “share both physical content and digital content that allows users to co-create and truly collaborate.

Medical Breakthrough

Israeli-developed smart fabric uses electricity to fast-track repair of nerves

July 12, 2022

Silicone-based invention being tailored for human use after proving itself on rats; it wraps damaged nerves and electrically stimulates them using energy from light shone on skin

By NATHAN JEFFAY

A magnified image of the Israeli-developed material which speeds the repair of damaged nerves using electricity (courtesy of the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology)

Israeli researchers say they have developed a material that speeds the repair of damaged nerves using electricity.

The ultra-thin material — a high-tech fabric of sorts — can be wrapped around damaged nerves inside the body and then enable electricity derived from light to flow there after the wound is closed up.

Its inventors, from Haifa’s Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, have tested the material on rats and documented its effectiveness in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Materials.

The material speeded up nerve repair in rats by 33 percent, and now heads to development and testing on humans.

3D Printer

AI SpaceFactory Presents 3D Printing Lunar Outpost LINA in Collaboration with NASA

July 12, 2022

By Michelle Codiva

AI SpaceFactory announced its first lunar outpost LINA designed to blend with the moon’s terrain. The outpost would keep the astronauts safe on the moon as it could protect them during moonquakes, cosmic radiation, lunar dust contamination, and cold nights.

The project is a collaboration between NASA Kennedy Space Center and AI SpaceFactory. It is part of NASA’s 2020 Announcement of Collaboration Opportunity (ACO).

ACO aims to partner with different companies for the moon and space technology mission. It has selected 17 companies that proposed relevant topics in the area of technology, such as small spacecraft technologies, sustainable power and intelligent system robotics. The total estimated resources to fund the projects cost $15.5 million.

3D Printer

3D-PRINTED NASA SATELLITE MARKS ‘GAME-CHANGER’ FOR SPACE EXPLORATION: MICHIO KAKU

July 12, 2022

American physicist Michio Kaku says CAPSTONE mission overcomes ‘the cost of space travel’

By Kristen Altus

American physicist and author Michio Kaku says 3D-printed rockets has lowered the cost of space exploration ten-fold.

NASA’s mission to the moon has returned – but this time, with a modern tech twist.

A 3D-printed satellite the size of a microwave oven was launched into space Tuesday, embarking on a new path around the moon in hopes of retrieving new information for future astronaut exploration.

American physicist and author Michio Kaku called the CAPSTONE CubeSat launch a “game changer” for spaceflight on “Varney & Co.” Thursday.

“Space travel has been haunted by a dirty four-letter word: cost,” Kaku told FOX Business’ Stuart Varney. “It costs $10,000 to put a pound of anything into orbit around the Earth. That’s your weight in solid gold. That’s the cost of space travel.”

Cancer

A Sensor Sniffs for Cancer, Using Artificial Intelligence

July 11, 2022

Biomedical engineer Daniel Heller leads the Cancer Nanomedicine Laboratory at MSK.

Researchers at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) have developed a sensor that can be trained to sniff for cancer, with the help of artificial intelligence.

Although the training doesn’t work the same way one trains a police dog to sniff for explosives or drugs, the sensor has some similarity to how the nose works. The nose can detect more than a trillion different scents, even though it has just a few hundred types of olfactory receptors. The pattern of which odor molecules bind to which receptors creates a kind of molecular signature that the brain uses to recognize a scent.

Like the nose, the cancer detection technology uses an array of multiple sensors to detect a molecular signature of the disease. Instead of the signals going to the brain, they are interpreted by machine learning — a type of computer artificial intelligence.

MSK researchers led by Kravis WiSE Postdoctoral Fellow Mijin Kim and biomedical engineer Daniel Heller, head of the Cancer Nanomedicine Laboratory at MSK, built the technology using an array of sensors composed of carbon nanotubes. Carbon nanotubes are tiny tubes, nearly 100,000 times smaller than the width of a human hair. They are fluorescent, and the light they give off is very sensitive to minute interactions with molecules in their environment.

Each nanotube sensor can detect many different molecules in a blood sample. By combining the many responses of the sensors, the technology creates a unique fluorescent pattern. The pattern can then be recognized by a machine-learning algorithm that has been trained to identify the difference between a cancer fingerprint and a normal one.

In experiments conducted on blood samples obtained from patients with ovarian cancer, the researchers found that their nanosensor detected ovarian cancer more accurately than currently available biomarker tests. (A biomarker is a particular chemical produced by tumors and spread through the blood circulation that indicates the presence of disease. In this case, the biomarker tests were ones for the ovarian cancer-related proteins CA125, HE4, and YKL40.)

The hope for patients is that researchers will develop the technology further so that it can eventually be used in the clinic to rapidly screen for early-stage ovarian cancer and many other cancers.Molecular Pharmacology ProgramOur research program serves as a conduit for bringing basic science discoveries to preclinical and clinical evaluation.

new technology

SCIENTISTS INVENT “PROFOUND” QUANTUM SENSOR THAT CAN PEER INTO THE EARTH

July 11, 2022

“THIS IS AN ‘EDISON MOMENT’ IN SENSING THAT WILL TRANSFORM SOCIETY.”

A major breakthrough in quantum sensing technology is being described as an “Edison moment” that could, scientists hope, have wide-reaching implications.

A new study in Nature describes one of the first practical applications of quantum sensing, a heretofore largely theoretical technology that marries quantum physics and the study of Earth’s gravity to peer into the ground below our feet — and the scientists involved in this research think it’s going to be huge.

Known as a quantum gravity gradiometer, this new sensor developed by the University of Birmingham under contract with the United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defense is the first time such a technology has been used outside of a lab. Scientists say it’ll allow them to explore complex underground substructures much more cheaply and efficiently than before.

While gravity sensors already exist, the difference between the traditional equipment and this quantum-powered sensor is huge because, as Physics World explains, the old tech takes a long time to detect changes in gravity, has to be recalibrated over time, and can be thrown off by any vibrations that occur nearby.

This new type of highly sensitive quantum sensor, on the other hand, is able to measure the minute changes in gravity fields from objects of different sizes and compositions that exist underground — such as human-made structures buried by the eons, tantalizingly — much faster and more accurately.