Impact Lab – Page 363 – A Laboratory of the Future Human Experience

Sperm-on-a-Postcard Breakthrough Opens Door to Massive ‘Sperm Books’

August 9, 2021

Scientists mailed freeze-dried mouse sperm on a postcard and birthed pups on the other side, a major advance for affordable long-distance sperm transfer.

By Becky Ferreira

It’s always a delight to receive a thoughtful letter in the mail, but scientists in Japan have added a whole new layer to the experience by sending each other postcards containing freeze-dried mouse sperm. What’s more, the researchers were able to produce viable mouse offspring with the sperm that landed in their mailboxes after days in the post.

The unprecedented experiment could transform the way that sperm from many different species is transported, pioneering applications for “infertility treatments, livestock production, maintenance of strains of genetically modified individuals, and conservation of genetic resources, including those of endangered species,” according to a study published on iScience on Thursday.

“This is the first report in the world [to show] that freeze-dried mouse sperm can be preserved in a thin plastic sheet (0.2 millimeters) instead of conventional glass ampoules,” said Daiyu Ito, a PhD student at the University of Yamanashi who led the new study, in an email.

“We went through various trials and errors and finally succeeded,” he continued. “When we were able to develop a method of preservation of mouse sperm freeze-drying on a sheet, we thought that mouse sperm should be able to be mailed on a postcard by this method” which is the “absolute cheapest” technique ever developed to transport sperm.

Medical Breakthrough

Artificial pancreas and smartphone app could revolutionise type 2 diabetes treatment

August 9, 2021

Artificial pancreas helps patients with type 2 diabetes manage blood sugar levels © University of Cambridge

The wearable ‘pancreas’ connects to a patient’s smartphone, using an algorithm to monitor blood glucose levels and automatically give insulin as needed.

By Amy Barrett

Patients with type 2 diabetes benefit from wearing an ‘artificial pancreas’ run by a computer algorithm, a new study has found.

The device helped people monitor how much sugar was in their blood and automatically administered the exact amount of insulin needed to bring high sugar levels down. It even learned their eating habits to find patterns in glucose intake.

After 20 days with the artificial pancreas, patients had a more consistently safe blood glucose level and had reduced their risk of lengthy ‘hypos’ – serious symptoms that occur when a person has dangerously low sugar levels.

The study focussed on patients living with type 2 diabetes and kidney failure, a ‘particularly vulnerable group’ according to Dr Charlotte Boughton from the Wellcome Trust-MRC Institute of Metabolic Science at the University of Cambridge, who led the research.

“Managing their condition – trying to prevent potentially dangerous highs or lows of blood sugar levels – can be a challenge,” she said.

“There’s a real unmet need for new approaches to help them manage their condition safely and effectively.”

Fashion

Fashion And Tech Join Forces To Create A Dress That Signals When People Get Too Close

August 9, 2021

By KELLEY DICKENS

Would you wear a dress that signals to people that they’re standing too close to you?

Or how about a shirt that changes color when it senses a change in your mood?

Those are actual creations Dutch fashion designer and engineer Anouk Wipprecht has been working on for 20 years.

Her distinctive “fashion tech” designs combine couture, interactive technology and artificial intelligence.

“So, on a day I am coding and designing, I am sewing and anything and everything that has to do with the body and technology and electronics,” Wipprecht told Morning Edition.

Driverless cars, Science & Technology News

How Ground-Penetrating Radar Could Help Self-Driving Cars ‘See’ Better

August 8, 2021

This could be the next frontier in autonomous tech, but it has a lot of mapping to do.

BY KRISTIN V. SHAW

First patented in the early 1900s, ground-penetrating radar has been used by geologists, archaeologists, and aeronautics engineers ever since. Notably, the Apollo 17 mission used a GPR to record depth information about the moon. GPR is not new technology, but it’s new to the application of advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS).

Some companies are betting on GPR to get ahead of their competitors in the field by improving the reliability and accuracy of autonomous features. Within the hot ADAS segment, everyone is looking for the panacea that will make billions of dollars and solve all of the autonomous driving challenges.

Driverless vehicles, Science & Technology News

Cleveron Rolls Out Semi-Autonomous Last-Mile Delivery Vehicle

August 8, 2021

Concept: Estonia-based parcel delivery robotics company Cleveron has launched a new unmanned semi-autonomous robotic last-mile delivery vehicle, the Cleveron 701. It is designed for retailers and logistics companies that intend to boost last-mile delivery efficiencies. The company aims to allow businesses to meet the mounting demand for same-day delivery or same-hour delivery cost-effectively.

Nature of Disruption: Cleveron 701 is a lightweight electric vehicle with an option to use different rechargeable batteries. The maximum speed of the vehicle is 30 miles per hour and it can carry a load of a maximum of 500 pounds. It can drive in low traffic areas like suburbs to deliver within a 15 to 30 minutes drive radius of a retailer, fulfillment center or a dark store. It can deliver goods from a warehouse or a store to customers staying nearby within an hour when administered remotely. It reduces labor costs as only one teleoperator can supervise 10 vehicles simultaneously. Moreover, vehicle operators can customize the Cleveron 701’s adaptable, semi-autonomous platform as per diverse delivery needs. For instance, Cleveron 701 can be customized to function as a grocery delivery robot with temperature-controlled sections, a parcel delivery vehicle, an ice cream truck or even a high-tech coffee robot.

Medical Breakthrough, Science & Technology News

Insulin-Producing Implant Created for Type 1 Diabetes

August 8, 2021

Rice University bioengineers are designing a vascularized, insulin-producing implant for Type 1 diabetes. Graduate student Madison Royse demonstrates a laboratory setup for testing blood flow through 3D-printed hydrogels that can be turned into living tissue.

Rice University bioengineers are using 3D printing and smart biomaterials to create an insulin-producing implant for Type 1 diabetics.

The three-year project is a partnership between the laboratories of Omid Veiseh and Jordan Miller that’s supported by a grant from JDRF, the leading global funder of diabetes research. Veiseh and Miller will use insulin-producing beta cells made from human stem cells to create an implant that senses and regulates blood glucose levels by responding with the correct amount of insulin at a given time.

Veiseh, an assistant professor of bioengineering, has spent more than a decade developing biomaterials that protect implanted cell therapies from the immune system. Miller, an associate professor of bioengineering, has spent more than 15 years researching techniques to 3D print tissues with vasculature, or networks of blood vessels.

“If we really want to recapitulate what the pancreas normally does, we need vasculature,” Veiseh said. “And that’s the purpose of this grant with JDRF. The pancreas naturally has all these blood vessels, and cells are organized in particular ways in the pancreas. Jordan and I want to print in the same orientation that exists in nature.”

Aviation, Science & Technology News

USAF Pumps $60 Million in Quarterhorse, the Future 4,000 mph Autonomous Aircraft

August 7, 2021

· by Otilia Drăgan

Supersonic flight is old news, hypersonic is the future – we could be able to cross the Atlantic in 90 minutes sooner that we might think. Plus, the line between military and civilian applications is also getting blurred. Game-changing technology is not only available for top defense projects, but can serve a dual purpose and bring forth benefits that we can all enjoy.

If you were impressed by Virgin Galactic’s Mach 3 speed, hear this – there’s another hypersonic aircraft on the block, that takes it up to 5. That’s more than 3,800 mph (6,100 km/h), meaning that it could get from New York to London almost 7 times faster than current commercial airlines.

The small team at Hermeus Corporation, a Georgia-based aerospace start-up, wanted to develop a groundbreaking Mach 5 commercial aircraft, and they already scored partnerships with none other than NASA and the U.S. Air Force(USAF). After successfully demonstrating their Mach 5 engine last year, now it’s time for another milestone, flight testing this cutting-edge aircraft, under a $60 million contract with USAF.

Not too many details have been revealed about the Quarterhorse, other that it will become the world’s fastest aircraft (flying at Mach 5 hypersonic speeds), it will be fully reusable, and it will also be autonomous (with the option of being remotely piloted), with an outstanding 4,600-mile (7,403 km) range.

Robots

Robot Waiters Have Descended on Silicon Valley

August 7, 2021

Servi at Roger in the new Ameswell Hotel

by Clair Lorell

At a new Mountain View hotel and restaurant that pays homage to NASA, robot servers will deliver your food.

Ever wanted to glimpse into a future reality — ideal or dystopian, depending on your view — powered almost exclusively by machines? A new hotel and restaurant in Silicon Valley (where else?) gives guests the chance to do just that.

The Ameswell Hotel is an independent hotel in Mountain View that debuted in mid-July along with its restaurant, Roger. Both the hotel and restaurant were developed as an homage to the nearby historic NASA Ames Research Center, and it’s living up to its tech-driven billing — it’s the first hotel in the United States to use Servi, a self-driving, indoor robot server, according to the Ameswell. Eater spoke with Jacky Li, who oversees all food and beverage at the hotel, to learn more about the technology and how it’s being used at Roger.

Medical Breakthrough, Science & Technology News

Scientists Discover a Powerful Natural Immune-Regulating Molecule

August 7, 2021

Immunofluorescence of a lymph node shows lymphatic endothelial cells contain the enzyme (labeled in green) that generates 3HKA. Image courtesy of Dr. Laura Santambrogio.

A powerful immune-suppressing molecule produced by the body may hold the key to better treatments for autoimmune and inflammatory diseases, as well as for some cancers, according to a study by researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine and the University of Perugia.

In the study, published July 21 in Nature Communications, the researchers described the properties of the newly discovered molecule, called 3-HKA. They showed that in immune cells called dendritic cells 3-HKA is produced from the amino acid tryptophan and can protect against inflammation in animal models of the skin disorder psoriasis and a degenerative kidney condition called nephrotoxic nephritis.

“Right now, there is an acute need for new ways to treat autoimmune and inflammatory diseases, and we are very excited by the possibilities opened up by the discovery of this potent molecule,” said study co-senior author Dr. Laura Santambrogio, who is professor of radiation oncology and of physiology and biophysics and associate director for precision immunology at the Caryl and Israel Englander Institute for Precision Medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine.

Driverless vehicles

Plus demos level 4 autonomous truck

August 7, 2021

DRIVERLESS SEMI TRUCK COMPLETES RUN ON CHINA HIGHWAY, WITHOUT A SAFETY DRIVER OR OTHER HUMAN INTERVENTION.

California-based self-driving truck technology provider Plus reached a milestone this week with the successful completion of a driverless Level 4 truck demonstration on a China highway, the company said Thursday.

The demo was run completely autonomously, without a safety driver, teleoperator, or any other form of human intervention, according to company leaders.The demonstration took place on the Wufengshan highway in China’s Yangtze Delta region.

It was conducted with a special permit on the newly built highway, company leaders said, adding that Plus was the first company to be granted such a permit in China. During the demonstration, the driverless truck drove safely and smoothly in typical highway traffic, the company also said.“The driverless demo highlights the ability of our Level 4 autonomous driving technology to enable driverless highway operations in a semi truck.

Electric Automobile, Science & Technology News

Electric Vehicles Could Make Up 50% of Total Car Sales by 2030

August 7, 2021

Major automakers are making changes backed by the Biden administration, pledging that half of all cars and light trucks sold in the U.S. by 2030 will be either electric, hydrogen-fuel cell, or plug-in hybrid vehicles.

General Motors Co., Ford Motor Co. , and Chrysler maker Stellantis NV will be aggressively pushing out cleaner fuel vehicles and stated that their green commitment will be contingent on federal funding for manufacturing and supply-chain research and development, purchase incentives, and a national electric vehicle charging network, the Wall Street Journal reports.

“This industry’s going to spend $330 billion over the next five years on electrification alone,” John Bozzella, president of the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, the lobbying group for auto makers and suppliers, said at a conference. “Even in Washington, D.C., that is real money.”

The auto company executives and the United Auto Workers attended a White House event Thursday afternoon where the Biden administration announced more stringent fuel-efficiency standards for the industry.

3D Printer

Terran Mars Habitat Being 3D Printed by ICON for NASA

August 7, 2021

By Sarah Saunders

Texas-based additive construction company ICON just announced that it’s been charged with creating a 3D printed habitat, called the Mars Dune Alpha, at NASA’s Johnson Space Center, also in Texas. The company received a subcontract through Jacobs supporting the NASA Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD) for its Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog (CHAPEA) sequence, and will use its next-gen Vulcan concrete 3D printing system to fabricate a 1,700 square-foot structure that will simulate a realistic Martian habitat that can support long-term exploration science missions in outer space.

The structure is being designed by architecture firm BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group, which is based in Copenhagen, Barcelona, New York, and London.

“Together with NASA and ICON, we are investigating what humanity’s home on another planet will entail from the human experience. The data gained from this habitat research will directly inform NASA’s standards for long-duration exploration missions, and as such will potentially lay the foundation for a new Martian vernacular. Mars Dune Alpha will take us one step closer to becoming a multiplanetary species,” said Bjarke Ingels, the Founder and Creative Director of BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group.