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Science & Technology News, Virtual Reality

Korea launches ‘metaverse’ alliance

May 26, 2021

South Korea’s ICT ministry said Tuesday the country has launched an industry alliance to bolster the development of “metaverse” technology and ecosystems.

The metaverse refers to a shared virtual space, in which users interact with each other through digital avatars and experience a virtual reality (VR) world.

The new alliance is composed of 17 companies, including major wireless carrier SK Telecom Co, as well as auto giant Hyundai Motor Co., and eight industry groups, such as the Korea Mobile Internet Business Association, according to the Ministry of Science and ICT.

The companies and industry groups will work together to share metaverse trends and technology, and form a consultative group for ethical and cultural issues related to the metaverse market. The alliance will also undertake joint metaverse development projects.

Science & Technology News, Space Flight

Virgin Galactic unveils new spaceship ahead of 1st manned flight this year

May 26, 2021

After unveiling Virgin Galactic’s third spacecraft, SIR Richard Branson is installing rocket boosters as part of his cosmic plans.

The VSS Imagine sports a mirror-like coating that reflects the surrounding environment, allowing it to change color and appearance when traveling from Earth to space.9Virgin Galactic’s third spacecraft was unveiled on TuesdayCredit: Reuters

It is faster and easier to maintain than the previous two spaceships of the New Mexico-based firm.

Speaking after the craft’s unveiling on Tuesday, 70-year-old billionaire Sir Richard praised Virgin Galactic’s “growing fleet of spacecraft”.

VSS Imagine is part of the company’s third-generation rocket aircraft – which the group says will “lay the foundation for the design and manufacture of future vehicles”.

Virgin Galactic said the aircraft was “built to enable improved performance in terms of maintenance reach and flight rate”.

Science & Technology News, Stem cells

In new study, stem cells self-organize into a mini model of a beating heart

May 26, 2021

A collection of cardioids

By Shraddha Chakradhar

Researchers have worked for years to create organoids — miniature cellular structures that recapitulate features of larger organs — for nearly every organ in the body, in the hope that these tissue samples can serve as models in which to study everything from how diseases develop to which drugs could potentially work to combat a host of conditions.

In a new study published Thursday in Cell (and previously posted to the preprint server bioRxiv), researchers describe a new mini model of the heart, one they call a cardioid. In a departure from other efforts to recreate heart muscles and function in a dish, this latest attempt did not use external scaffolding around which heart cells organized themselves.

Instead, scientists relied on self-organization, in which stem cells that usually precede the creation of heart muscle were coaxed into becoming heart cells, also known as cardiomyocytes, with the help of six known signaling pathways.

To the scientists’ surprise, not only did this approach yield heart cells, but the cells organized themselves into a three-dimensional structure, complete with a single chamber reminiscent of a human heart (although a real one has four chambers) and a heartbeat that showed liquid being pumped around the chamber. The proof of concept came when the team injured these structures to mimic a heart attack: Cells tasked with repair migrated to the site of the injury to rebuild damaged tissue, much like what happens with full-fledged hearts.

Science & Technology News, Virtual Reality

Get to know Google’s Starline project to make video calls with life-size 3D holograms

May 25, 2021

Soon you could talk ‘face to face’ with other people at a distance, thanks to the Starline project, the system that Google is developing to project 3D holograms in video calls.

Technology is getting closer to realizing what once seemed like futuristic fantasies in the style of ‘Star Wars’, ‘Back to the Future’ and ‘The Jetsons’. Google is already working on the Starline project , a system for making video calls that project 3D holograms of people in real size.

Project Starline was unveiled this week, during the Google I / O event , where the ‘Big Tech’ presented its next news. The company assured that it is a step towards approaching the future of conversations, as it seeks to make the most realistic video calls in the history of humanity.

Google indicated that Project Starline is made up of hardware comprised of multiple cameras, sensors, and a screen or frame. Of course, it will also include revolutionary smart software.

DNA, Science & Technology News

CRISPR Study Is First to Change DNA in Participants

May 25, 2021

Written by Meagan Drillinger

For the first time, scientists are altering DNA in a living human.
With more research this study could help lead to the development of procedures that can help to correct other genetic disorders.
The study uses CRISPR technology, which can alter DNA.

Researchers from the OHSU Casey Eye Institute in Portland, Oregon, have broken new ground in science, medicine, and surgery — the first gene editing procedure in a living person.

For the first time, scientists are altering DNA in a living human. With more research the study could lead to the development of procedures that can help to correct other genetic disorders.

Known as the BRILLIANCE clinical trial, the procedure is designed to repair mutations in a particular gene that causes Leber congenital amaurosis type 10, also known as retinal dystrophy. It is a genetic condition that results in vision deterioration and has previously been untreatable.

“The Casey Eye Institute performed the first gene editing surgical procedure in a human being in an attempt to prevent blindness from a known genetic mutation,” said Dr. Mark Fromer, ophthalmologist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York. “The abnormal DNA is removed from a cell with the generating mutation. This will potentially offer sight to people with a form of previously untreatable blindness.”

Medical Breakthrough, Science & Technology News

Bio-Inspired Scaffolds Help Promote Muscle Growth

May 25, 2021

Aligned myotubes formed on electrospun extracellular matrix scaffolds produced at Rice University. The staining with fluorescent tags shows cells’ expression of myogenic marker desmin (green), actin (red) and nuclei (blue) after seven days of growth. Credit: Mikos

Original story from Rice University

Rice University bioengineers are fabricating and testing tunable electrospun scaffolds completely derived from decellularized skeletal muscle to promote the regeneration of injured skeletal muscle.

Their paper in Science Advances shows how natural extracellular matrix can be made to mimic native skeletal muscle and direct the alignment, growth and differentiation of myotubes, one of the building blocks of skeletal muscle. The bioactive scaffolds are made in the lab via electrospinning, a high-throughput process that can produce single micron-scale fibers.

The research could ease the burden of performing an estimated 4.5 million reconstructive surgeries per year to repair injuries suffered by civilians and military personnel.

Current methods of electrospinning decellularized muscle require a copolymer to aid in scaffold fabrication. The Rice process does not.

“The major innovation is the ability to prepare scaffolds that are 100% extracellular matrix,” said Rice bioengineer and principal investigator Antonios Mikos. “That’s very important because the matrix includes all the signaling motifs that are important for the formation of the particular tissue.”

Science & Technology News, Space

Why NASA is building a gigantic telescope on the far side of the Moon

May 24, 2021

NASA’s Lunar Crater Radio Telescope could help us study the cosmic dark ages

STORY BY The Cosmic Companion, Exploring the wonders of the Cosmos, one mystery at a time.

Following the Big Bang, our budding Universe slowly cooled, and the first atoms took shape. Gravity gradually pulled on clumps of hydrogen and helium gas, forming the earliest stars. This era, lasting a few hundred million years prior to the large-scale formation of stars, is called the cosmic dark ages.

The Lunar Crater Radio Telescope (LCRT), an ambitious concept to place a massive radio telescope on the far side of the Moon, would study the Universe during this ancient era in detail for the very first time.

“While there were no stars, there was ample hydrogen during the universe’s Dark Ages — hydrogen that would eventually serve as the raw material for the first stars. With a sufficiently large radio telescope off Earth, we could track the processes that would lead to the formation of the first stars, maybe even find clues to the nature of dark matter,” explained Joseph Lazio, radio astronomer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and a member of the LCRT team.

Electric Vehicles, Science & Technology News

Canoo’s first consumer ‘lifestyle vehicle’ will cost almost $35,000

May 24, 2021

By Nicole Lee

Back in 2019, Canoo had a bold plan to sell a subscription-only EV. Now, however, it appears that plan has been shelved, at least temporarily. The company announced today that the futuristic-looking van, officially called the “Lifestyle Vehicle,” will have a starting price of $34,750. The price can be as high as $49,950 before incentives or optional equipment. Starting today, you can reserve one of your own for a $100 deposit. The Lifestyle Vehicle will arrive in 2022.

On top of that, the company also announced that its MPDV (which starts at $33,000) and pickup truck can be reserved for a $100 deposit as well. Deliveries for those vehicles, however, are slated for 2023.

3D Printer, Science & Technology News

NCSU researchers’ 3D-printable jelly could boost biomedical materials

May 24, 2021

Researchers develop a 3D-printable jelly that is strong and flexible. Photo courtesy of Orlin Velev, NC State University.

by Mick Kulikowski .

RALEIGH – 3D-printable gels with improved and highly controlled properties can be created by merging micro- and nano-sized networks of the same materials harnessed from seaweed, according to new research from North Carolina State University. The findings could have applications in biomedical materials – think of biological scaffolds for growing cells – and soft robotics.

Described in the journal Nature Communications, the findings show that these water-based gels – called homocomposite hydrogels – are both strong and flexible. They are composed of alginates – chemical compounds found in seaweed and algae that are commonly used as thickening agents and in wound dressings.

Merging different-size scale networks of the same alginate together eliminates the fragility that can sometimes occur when differing materials are merged together in a hydrogel, says Orlin Velev, S. Frank and Doris Culberson Distinguished Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at NC State and corresponding author of the paper.

Ford Motor Company, Science & Technology News

Ford follows Tesla into in-car gaming with new software update, also adds Amazon Alexa

May 24, 2021

Updates available to about 100,000 owners of 2021 model year F-150s, Mustang Mach-Es and the upcoming Bronco

By Frank Miles

Ford says it is starting to send out in-car gaming with over-the-internet software updates to some of its newer models as the auto giant moves to offer technology to match electric car maker Tesla.

For now, the updates are only available to about 100,000 owners of 2021 model year F-150s, Mustang Mach-Es and the upcoming Bronco, but Ford plans to spread the tech across its entire lineup as models are updated. It plans to make 33 million vehicles with the capability by 2028.

Aviation, Science & Technology News

World’s First Electric Luxury Commuter Plane Alice Aims to Reinvent Air Mobility

May 23, 2021

By Elena Gorgan

The electric revolution is slow in coming to the automotive industry, but that’s nothing compared to the snail-like crawl it’s displaying in aviation. Alice wants to change all that and, in the process, shake up the game.

Alice is dubbed the world’s first electric luxury commuter airplane. It’s the first aircraft from Israeli-American company Eviation, and it comes with an estimated delivery date for 2024. This year, Eviation hopes to take Alice on its first test flights ahead of a 2023 certification.

Alice has been around for years, in one form or another, and it’s one of those few projects of this type that are both instantly memorable and extremely promising. It’s a proper passenger plane, so not an eVTOL (electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft), and it’s meant for commuting across short distances. It’s also very luxurious and quite beautiful.

First announced in 2017, Alice is now officially gearing up to take to the skies. A prototype was developed and unveiled in 2019, but it burned down in a fire in 2020. A static model was presented at the Paris Air Show and, had it not been for the health crisis of 2020, Alice would have started test flights. Not that 2020 was able to put a damper on its progress: Eviation has been working hard to advance the project and, at the same time, keep investors and potential customers in the loop.

Augmented Reality, Science & Technology News

First spinal surgery with augmented reality headset takes place

May 23, 2021

Dr. Kornelis Poelstra, director of The Robotic Spine Institute of Las Vegas, recently led the first-ever spinal surgery procedure using an xvision augmented reality headset paired with a surgical robot.

Dr. Poelstra and his practice, in partnership with The Nevada Spine Clinic, completed the posterior lumbar fusion procedure on a patient using a combination of Medtronic’s Mazor X robotic platform integrated with Augmedics’ newly FDA-approved xvision.

Normally a fairly invasive and lengthy surgery lasting anywhere between six to seven hours, this particular patient’s procedure using the xvision headset in tandem with the Mazor X robot brought the surgery time down to just under two hours.

This is because the xvision headset allows for the surgeon and his team to more precisely identify and pinpoint where to place the implants, in this case a proprietary superalloy MoRe (Molybdenum-Rhenium) lower-profile 4.5mm rod, paired with the MiRusEuropa Pedicle Screw System.