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AI

New Biocompatible AI May Aid Medicine and Healthcare

September 6, 2021

European scientists apply optoelectronics to create an implantable AI platform.

A new study published in Science Advances by European scientists working in optoelectronics have created a biocompatible artificial intelligence (AI) platform that may enable a novel way for the early detection, monitoring, and treatment of diseases and medical conditions.

“We prove the usefulness of the organic networks on a diverse set of computational tasks such as a flower classification using the Iris dataset (accuracy of 96%), time-series prediction (97%), and biofluids monitoring,” wrote the study authors led by the Technische Universität Dresden in collaboration with the Dresden Integrated Center for Applied Physics and Photonic Materials (IAPP) in Germany, the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy in the Ukraine, and Alysophil SAS in France.

Optoelectronics is the field of study and application of the quantum mechanical effects of light used in electronic devices such as pharmaceutics, batteries, cosmetics, lasers, optical fiber, solar cells (photovoltaics), photodiodes, LED traffic lights, consumer electronics, and nanoscale devices.

“Early detection of malign patterns in patients’ biological signals can save millions of lives,” wrote the researchers.

Healthcare

Next-gen wheelchairs are modular and shapeshifting

September 6, 2021

Next-generation wheelchairs are pushing the boundaries of mobility

Wheelchairs provide valuable independence to their owners. Designs vary according to the terrain and user needs. Both of these can change over time. However, their price makes it difficult to afford more than one chair. In response, designers are taking cues from bikes and robotics to make wheelchairs that adapt to the varied user needs.

The UNAwheel Maxi device is a wheelchair add-on. It hooks onto the front of an existing chair and is compatible with basic and active wheelchairs without adding extra weight. It comes with button steering to accelerate, decelerate, and turn.

The steering section is made of a combination of metal (hydroforming/cutting technology) and plastic (injection molding), the handles are made of rubber, and the main body of plastic (RIM). It is easy to operate and can be easily and quickly attached to and detached from the wheelchair.

Space Flight

Silicon Valley’s most successful incubator is doubling down on space tugs

September 5, 2021

TransAstra CEO Joel Sercel with a prototype of a solar thermal engine.

By Tim Fernholz

TransAstra was founded in 2015 with the goal of mining asteroids. Yet harvesting resources out in the solar system, for all its appeal, is still far from feasible. Moving orbiting spacecraft around Earth? That is a service companies are willing to pay for, right now.

The trick of space business might be developing a lucrative path to a far-off vision. Elon Musk may want to retire on Mars and SpaceX may enable him to do so, but what’s significant about the firm is that it earns money providing space services in demand right now.

TransAstra founder and CEO Joel Sercel will, in theory, perform a similar sleight of hand: When its first spacecraft, dubbed Worker Bee, reaches orbit in 2023, it will show off a novel thruster technology called solar thermal propulsion, and earn money by precisely positioning satellites launched on larger rockets. And if that succeeds, it will launch a fleet of solar-powered spacecraft into orbit—and perhaps realize a larger vision of harvesting commodities from asteroids.

Science & Technology News, Space

Astroscale successfully demos in-space capture-and-release system to clear orbital debris

September 5, 2021

By Aria Alamalhodaei

Astroscale hit a major milestone Wednesday, when its space junk removal demo satellite that’s currently in orbit successfully captured and released a client spacecraft using a magnetic system.

The End-of-Life Services by Astroscale-demonstration (ELSA-d) mission was launched in March, with the goal of validating the company’s orbital debris removal tech. The demonstrator package, which was sent up on a Soyuz rocket that launched from Kazakhstan, included two separate spacecraft: a “servicer” designed to remove space junk, and a “client” that poses as said space junk.

“A major challenge of debris removal, and on-orbit servicing in general, is docking with or capturing a client object; this test demonstration served as a successful validation of ELSA-d’s ability to dock with a client, such as a defunct satellite,” the company explained.

The demonstration today showed that the servicer — a model of Astroscale’s future product — can successfully magnetically capture and release other spacecraft.

Batteries

3D-printed solid-state batteries near production

September 5, 2021

Batteries that are lighter, cheaper and easier to produce could result from a convergence of modern approaches

By Freddie Holmes

A company that plans to produce 3D-printed solid-state batteries is readying to launch its first pilot line. California-based Sakuu is targeting not only electric vehicles (EVs) but also other sectors such as aerospace, consumer electronics and medical devices. The new battery line is expected to be operational by the end of 2021 and will have a capacity of up to 2.5 megawatt hours (MWh) per year.

Once up and running, the plan is to begin issuing batteries to strategic customers and ‘early access partners’ who can perform their own development and testing. One other solid-state battery start-up QuantumScape recently ran a similar initiative, where its pouch cells were issued to third parties. The results were presented in Decemberalongside its joint venture partner, Volkswagen Group.

Energy

Dust-sized supercapacitor packs the same voltage as a AAA battery

September 4, 2021

An array of 90 tubular biosupercapacitors

By Nick Lavars

By combining miniaturized electronics with some origami-inspired fabrication, scientists in Germany have developed what they say is the smallest microsupercapacitor in existence. Smaller than a speck of a dust but with a similar voltage to a AAA battery, the groundbreaking energy storage device is not only safe for use in the human body, but actually makes use of key ingredients in the blood to supercharge its performance.

The scientists behind the new device were working within the realm of nano-supercapacitors (nBSC), which are conventional capacitors but scaled down to the sub-millimeter scale. Developing these types of devices is tricky enough, but the researchers sought to make one that could work safely in the human body to power tiny sensors and implants, which requires swapping out problematic materials and corrosive electrolytes for ones that are biocompatible.

These devices are known as biosupercapacitors and the smallest ones developed to date is larger than 3 mm³, but the scientists have made a huge leap forward in terms of how tiny biosupercapacitors can be. The construction starts with a stack of polymeric layers that are sandwiched together with a light-sensitive photo-resist material that acts as the current collector, a separator membrane, and electrodes made from an electrically conductive biocompatible polymer called PEDOT:PSS.

brain hacking

New Brain Implant Restores Sense of Touch on Fingertips

September 4, 2021

A chiropractor performing a nerve conduction velocity (NCV) test on a patient.

By Fabienne Lang

The little electrode brain implant has the potential to help millions of people living with paralysis and neuropathy.

Imagine not being able to feel the warmth of a hand holding yours, or the buttons of your shirt as you try and do it up.

Millions of people live with paralysis and peripheral neuropathy — when nerves in the body’s extremities, such as hands and feet, are damaged — and aren’t able to feel sensations through their fingertips and toes.

But that might all be about to change.

Researchers at The Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research managed to evoke the sense of touch in fingers using a minimally invasive electrode brain implant. The study, a first-in-human one, offers the potential to change the lives of millions of people around the world.

The details were published in the journal Brain Stimulation.

AI

Fetch.ai brings AI and machine learning to NFT creators

September 4, 2021

Fetch.ai, an artificial intelligence lab based in the British city of Cambridge, today announced the launch of its new non-fungible token(NFT) platform, Colearn Paint, that will allow creators to automatically generate NFTs using a machine learning algorithm.

Science & Technology News, Space Flight

Working in space: China’s space robotic arm in 60 seconds

September 4, 2021

Chinese astronauts, or taikonauts, completed their second extravehicular stint with the help of a giant robotic arm on August 20.

Biotech

Trailblazing Rice bioengineer is turning cells into disease fighters

September 3, 2021

Viruses come in many flavors, and Rice University bioengineer Isaac Hilton has long been fascinated by the kind that take control of cells without rewriting their genetic code.

“Some non-integrating episomal DNA viruses have evolved sophisticated ways to hide inside human immune cells without altering our DNA,” said Hilton, a geneticist, synthetic biologist and cellular engineer. “These types of viruses can exist as circular minichromosomes that we call episomes, and some of these viral episomes can silently persist in human immune cells for a person’s entire life.”

In addition to helping viruses hide from the immune system, those circles can produce molecules that viruses use to hijack host cells and alter their behavior. But as their name implies, non-integrating episomal DNA viruses accomplish their takeover without making permanent changes to their host’s genome. From an engineer’s perspective, Hilton said the ability to program immune cell behaviors and safely erase that programming when it is no longer useful or necessary “makes these viruses very attractive for use in gene– and cell-therapy platforms.”

DNA

CAN CRISPR GENE THERAPY BE A SINGLE INJECTION?

September 3, 2021

CRISPR gene editing technology is revolutionizing healthcare as we know it.

The technology, which earned two of its discoverers a Nobel Prize in 2020, can target and edit genes more easily and more precisely than its predecessors.

Yet as promising as CRISPR has been over the past several years, it’s mostly been developed in the lab.

Thankfully, that is now changing as a growing number of clinical trials are beginning to test gene therapies in humans.

Early CRISPR trials have focused on hereditary blindness and diseases of the blood, including cancer and sickle cell anemia.

The problem is that although cutting-edge, these therapies can be costly and intense. For example, in one trial for sickle cell anemia, doctors remove cells from the body, edit them in a dish, and then infuse them back into the patient.

Such a complicated approach won’t work as readily for other diseases.

What we need is a general delivery method for CRISPR, so that it can be used like any other medication.

And a recent clinical trial run by researchers at University College London (UCL) has made a key, promising step in that direction. Discussing the latest developments in biotech—using biology astechnology—is a key focus of my year-round coaching program Abundance360.

Space

Origin Space’s Robot can Capture Space Debris

September 3, 2021

Concept: China’s space exploration startup Origin Space has launched a robot prototype ‘NEO-01’ into low orbit Earth with a large net that can scoop up debris or waste left behind by other spacecraft. The 30kg robot was launched alongside other satellites on the Chinese government’s Long March 6 rocket. The aim is to forge new paths to the future of technology capable of mining elements on asteroids.