Impact Lab – Page 303 – A Laboratory of the Future Human Experience

Robots

Your Next Surgeon Could Be a Slime Robot

April 22, 2022

Like an octopus, it wraps around objects. It can also swallow things inside your stomach and even “self heal.” This ooze could be the future of surgery.

By Claire Reilly

When you think of robotic surgery, you might think of remotely controlled robotic arms whirring over a patient, or tiny endoscopic cameras that help surgeons navigate with precise instruments.

You probably don’t think of a magnetically controlled slime robot slithering through your gastrointestinal tract and swallowing objects, like some kind of sci-fi ooze.

But that’s the exact idea behind the Reconfigurable Magnetic Slime Robot — a stretchy, sluglike robot that can squeeze through tight spaces, wrap around objects and even “self heal” after it’s been cut in two.

Energy

A new heat engine with no moving parts is as efficient as a steam turbine

April 21, 2022

A thermophotovoltaic (TPV) cell (size 1 cm x 1 cm) mounted on a heat sink designed to measure the TPV cell efficiency. To measure the efficiency, the cell is exposed to an emitter and simultaneous measurements of electric power and heat flow through the device are taken.

by Jennifer Chu, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Engineers at MIT and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) have designed a heat engine with no moving parts. Their new demonstrations show that it converts heat to electricity with over 40 percent efficiency—a performance better than that of traditional steam turbines.

The heat engine is a thermophotovoltaic (TPV) cell, similar to a solar panel’s photovoltaic cells, that passively captures high-energy photons from a white-hot heat source and converts them into electricity. The team’s design can generate electricity from a heat source of between 1,900 to 2,400 degrees Celsius, or up to about 4,300 degrees Fahrenheit.

The researchers plan to incorporate the TPV cell into a grid-scale thermal battery. The system would absorb excess energy from renewable sources such as the sun and store that energy in heavily insulated banks of hot graphite. When the energy is needed, such as on overcast days, TPV cells would convert the heat into electricity, and dispatch the energy to a power grid.

Medical Breakthrough

Scientists Use New Ultrasound Tech To Treat Type 2 Diabetes Without Insulin

April 21, 2022

By Bharat Sharma

Scientists claim to have found a way to treat diabetes without insulinA new study published in the journal Nature Biomedical Engineering in late March deployed a special type of ultrasound called peripheral focused ultrasound stimulationThe treatment was able to treat type 2 diabetes in three animal species without requiring any additional medicines

Scientists claim to have found a way to treat diabetes without insulin. Apparently, the treatment worked in animals and human trials are on the cards next.

A new study published in the journal Nature Biomedical Engineering in late March deployed a special type of ultrasound called peripheral focused ultrasound stimulation(pFUS) to treat diabetes. It focused on the livers of subjects to assess whether sugar levels could be reduced.

The treatment was able to treat type 2 diabetes in three animal species without requiring any additional medicines.

Crypto-Technology

Nexo, Mastercard Launch World’s First Crypto-Backed Card

April 21, 2022

The Nexo Card allows you to spend the value of your cryptocurrency without selling it.

By Matthew Humphries

If you dabble in cryptocurrency, a new payment card has just launched with the support of Mastercard that allows you to spend the value of your crypto without actually selling it.

As Reuters reports, the card was created through a partnership between Mastercard and digital finance lending company Nexo. The so-called Nexo Card is being touted as the world’s first “crypto-backed” payment card.

Futurati Podcast, Science & Technology News

Episode 81 with nathan young

April 20, 2022

Watch our interview with Nathan Young on Youtube or listen on the Futurati Podcast website.

Nathan Young. Nathan is a corporate strategist and marketing expert who has been exceptionally active in the Effective Altruism movement, the prediction markets community, and in discussions around designing good policy.

Related

Robots

Ford Accomplishes Lights-out Manufacturing with Javier, an Autonomous Robot

April 20, 2022

David Mantey

Javier is an autonomous mobile robot, specifically a KUKA robot on wheels. Named by Ford’s additive manufacturing operators, the mobile robot autonomously operates 3D Carbon printers without any human interaction.

Ford has filed several patents over the technology, which, unlike traditional stationary robots that tend a lone machine, can service multiple.

According to Jason Ryska, director of global manufacturing technology development at Ford, Javier is going to change the way the carmaker uses robotics in its manufacturing facilities. The robot will not only scale 3D printing operations but the technology will be moved into other parts of the manufacturing and assembly processes.

Ford is learning from the robot; improving accuracy by using Javier’s feedback to reduce errors. Ford has filed several patents regarding the robot’s communication interfaces and positioning. For example, Javier doesn’t need a camera vision system to see.

Robots

California Startup Bionaut Labs Wants to Send Tiny Robots Inside Human Skull to Treat Brain Disorders

April 20, 2022

Tiny robots can be carefully guided through the brain using magnets

By Agence France-Presse

BIONAUT LABS PLANS ITS FIRST CLINICAL TRIALS ON HUMANS IN JUST TWO YEARS.

The robit is a metal cylinder in the shape of a bullet
It will follow a pre-programed trajectory through a gel-filled container
Robots could offer advantages over existing treatments for brain disorder

Sending miniature robots deep inside the human skull to treat brain disorders has long been the stuff of science fiction — but it could soon become reality, according to a California start-up.

Bionaut Labs plans its first clinical trials on humans in just two years for its tiny injectable robots, which can be carefully guided through the brain using magnets.

“The idea of the micro robot came about way before I was born,” said co-founder and CEO Michael Shpigelmacher.

“One of the most famous examples is a book by Isaac Asimov and a film called ‘Fantastic Voyage,’ where a crew of scientists goes inside a miniaturised spaceship into the brain, to treat a blood clot.”

Just as cellphones now contain extremely powerful components that are smaller than a grain of rice, the tech behind micro-robots “that used to be science fiction in the 1950s and 60s” is now “science fact,” said Shpigelmacher.

“We want to take that old idea and turn it into reality,” the 53-year-old scientist told AFP during a tour of his company’s Los Angeles research and development center.

Medicine, Science & Technology News

Abundant “Secret Doors” on Human Proteins Could Be Game-Changer for Drug Discovery

April 20, 2022

A three-dimensional animation of the human protein PSD95-PDZ3 showing the binding partner CRIPT (yellow) in the active site with the blue-to-red color gradient indicating increasing potential for allosteric effects. Based on PDB accession 1BE9.

By CENTER FOR GENOMIC REGULATION

Identification of hidden vulnerabilities on surface of ‘undruggable’ proteins could transform treatment of disease.

The number of potential therapeutic targets on the surfaces of human proteins is much greater than previously thought, according to the findings of a new study in the journal Nature.

A ground-breaking new technique developed by researchers at the Center for Genomic Regulation (CRG) in Barcelona has revealed the existence of a multitude of previously secret doors that control protein function and which could, in theory, be targeted to dramatically change the course of conditions as varied as dementia, cancer and infectious diseases.

The method, in which tens of thousands of experiments are performed at the same time, has been used to chart the first ever map of these elusive targets, also known as allosteric sites, in two of the most common human proteins, revealing they are abundant and identifiable.Official HCP Treatment Website – Partial-Onset Seizure InfoA Therapy Option May Reduce Your Patient’s Seizures. Learn Treatment Info Now.Prescription Treatment Website

The approach could be a game-changer for drug discovery, leading to safer, smarter and more effective medicines. It enables research labs around the world to find and exploit vulnerabilities in any protein – including those previously thought ‘undruggable’.

Aviation

Maker of $1 million flying motorbike prepares for IPO in Japan

April 19, 2022

The US$777,000 (S$1.1 million) single-person transporter can hit a max speed of 80kmh and travel up to 40 minutes per charge.

TOKYO (BLOOMBERG) – A former Merrill Lynch derivatives trader with a passion for Star Wars is preparing to take his flying motorbike start-up public in Japan.

Tokyo-based ALI Technologies was founded by Mr Shuhei Komatsu as a drone maker in 2016 before moving on to more ambitious ventures, opening sales of its Xturismo Limited bike in October. The US$777,000 (S$1.1 million) single-person transporter can hit a maximum speed of 80kmh and travel up to 40 minutes per charge, according to the company.

The motorbike has so far largely figured as a curio at public events such as a recent baseball game, but ALI president Daisuke Katano said there is strong interest in it from Middle Eastern nations.

“The need for these bikes will be higher in places with desert or other difficult terrain,” Mr Katano said in an interview. “The vehicle will enable people to travel where roads are bad and inaccessible to cars, as well as across bodies of water.”

The company has selected lead underwriters for an initial public offering (IPO) on Tokyo’s Mothers market for start-ups in what will be the country’s first debut of its kind. It is presently engaged in discussions with the Tokyo Stock Exchange, Mr Katano said, declining to specify an estimated valuation or a timeline for the offering.

Flying personal vehicles have been the stuff of science fiction for decades before Star Wars, which featured a famous racing scene with pods zooming along close to ground level.

brain-computer interfaces

FRACTAL NEURON GROWTH COULD LEAD TO BIONIC EYES

April 19, 2022

BY U. OREGON

Researchers have grown rodent retinal neurons on a fractal-patterned electrode, one that mimics the repeating branching pattern in which neurons naturally grow.

It’s a step closer to making a bio-inspired bionic eye, a longstanding goal for University of Oregon physicist Richard Taylor.

Taylor hopes the tiny electrodes could someday be implanted into the eye to restore sight in people with macular degeneration or other vision disorders.

The new work provides experimental evidence supporting a hunch his team has been pursuing for years, that neurons, which themselves are fractals, will connect better to a fractal-patterned electrode than they do to more traditionally shaped electrodes, allowing better signal transmission between the implant and the brain.

DNA

Delivering genetic material with MOFs for new therapies

April 19, 2022

In biomedicine, metal-organic frameworks can be used to deliver pharmaceuticals around the human body. A KAUST-led team has developed a MOF-based system for getting DNA across cell membranes into target cells.

by King Abdullah University of Science and Technology

An emerging type of material called a metal-organic framework (MOF) could help improve the delivery of genetic material for treating disease.

MOFs are hybrid materials constructed from metal ions linked by organic molecules. In biomedicine, they have mostly been used as delivery vehicles for small-molecule pharmaceuticals, but now a KAUST-led team has developed a MOF-based system for getting DNA across cell membranes into target cells.

The researchers built their MOFs using a collection of nucleic acid and unnatural amino acid building blocks tethered together by zinc atoms, assembled in a pyramid-like array. They loaded up the resulting materials with single-stranded DNA. The structures protected the genetic cargo from enzymatic degradation and helped ferry the single-stranded DNA into cells, where it ended up inside the nucleus—the cell’s inner sanctum where all gene activity takes place.

Science & Technology News, SpaceX

Pentagon wants SpaceX delivering cargo around the globe — and a live test could come next year

April 18, 2022

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying the company’s Crew Dragon spacecraft is seen in this false color infrared exposure as it is launched on NASA’s SpaceX Demo-2 mission to the International Space Station on May 30, 2020.

By Aaron Mehta

WASHINGTON — U.S. Transportation Command is taking the potential for cargo delivery via orbit seriously enough that it hopes to test the concept with SpaceX as soon as next year, the command’s head said Wednesday.

In what he called a “provocative thought,” Gen. Stephen Lyons said: “I’m really excited about the team that’s working with SpaceX on an opportunity, even perhaps in as early as ’21, to conduct a joint proof of principle” for space-based delivery.

The dream, Lyons told the National Defense Transportation Association, is to be able to move 80 tons of cargo — the equivalent of a C-17 transport — via a space-based vehicle anywhere on the globe within one hour.

“Think about the speed associated with that, whether a small force element or other capability,” he said. “I can tell you [SpaceX is] moving very, very rapidly in this area.”

A TRANSCOM spokesman said details of the potential “proof of principle” are being worked out with SpaceX, and it will involve “delivering cargo from one place to another through space.”