Impact Lab – Page 391 – A Laboratory of the Future Human Experience

NASA Extracts Breathable Oxygen on Mars In Historic First

May 3, 2021

NASA achieved another first this week thanks to a small box attached to its Mars Perseverance rover.

NASA added to its ever-growing list of “firsts” this week by converting carbon dioxide extracted from Mars’ atmosphere into pure, breathable oxygen, the US space agency said in a statement on Wednesday, April 22.

The achievement comes days after NASA conducted the first controlled flight on Mars, and constitutes another step in the agency’s plans for future human exploration of the red planet in the 2030s.

The extraction of oxygen from Mars’ carbon-rich atmosphere was carried out by a small experimental instrument, called MOXIE — the first device to ever extract oxygen from the Martian atmosphere.

Food, Science & Technology News

LAB-GROWN MEAT IS NOW AVAILABLE FOR DELIVERY FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER

May 3, 2021

by ANNA STAROSTINETSKAYA

SINGAPOREANS CAN NOW ORDER KATSU CHICKEN CURRY, CHICKEN & RICE, AND CHICKEN CAESAR SALAD MADE WITH EAT JUST’S INNOVATIVE CELL-BASED CHICKEN THROUGH DELIVERY APP FOODPANDA.

Today, cell-based (also known as “lab-grown” and “cultured”) meat became available for home delivery for the first time in history thanks to a partnership between California-based startup Eat Just and delivery platform Foodpanda. Customers can now order three dishes made with GOOD Meat chicken (a brand under which Eat Just is innovating its cell-based meats) from Singapore-based restaurant 1880: Chicken & Rice with coconut rice, pak choi, sweet chili, chrysanthemums, and microgreens; Katsu Chicken Curry with jasmine rice, heritage carrots, micro shiso, and edible flowers; and Chicken Caesar Salad with kale, romaine, edible flowers, shaved radish, and plant-based Caesar dressing.

To further promote the eco-friendly nature of growing meat from cells rather than slaughtering animals for meat en masse, each order—delivered by electric bicycles in 1880’s delivery zone—will come packed in sustainable packaging made with bamboo fiber and resin. Each order will also include a Google Cardboard headset that plays a film about GOOD Meat’s connection to the importance of preserving the planet.

“Food is at the core of our business, and ensuring that we have a sustainable food ecosystem is an important agenda for us. Foodpanda is thrilled to be the first platform in the world to deliver cultured meat dishes so that customers in Singapore can be the world’s first diners to enjoy them from the comforts of their home,” Jakob Angele, CEO of Foodpanda APAC, said. “Together with Eat Just, we hope to bring this to more markets—not just in Asia but also in every country in the world where Delivery Hero [its parent company and an Eat Just investor] brands operate.”

Cancer, Science & Technology News

DNA-BASED CANCER VACCINE TRIGGERS IMMUNE ATTACK ON TUMORS

May 3, 2021

BY JIM GOODWIN-WUSTL

“We think this is the first report of the use of a neoantigen DNA vaccine in a human, and our monitoring confirms the vaccine was successful in prompting an immune response that targeted specific neoantigens in the patient’s tumor,” William Gillanders says.

Researchers have shown that personalized cancer vaccines made using DNA can program the immune system to attack malignant tumors, including breast and pancreatic cancers.

The researchers conducted the study in mice with breast cancer and one patient with late-stage pancreatic cancer.

The COVID-19 vaccines—designed using bits of genetic information that prime our immune systems to recognize and fight off viral infections—have become lifesavers in the global fight to end the pandemic.

Now, the new research has shown that a similar vaccine approach can be used to create personalized vaccines that program the immune system to attack malignant tumors, including breast and pancreatic cancers.

The tailor-made vaccines are designed to target mutated proteins called neoantigens that are unique to a patient’s tumors. Unlike the COVID-19 vaccines made by Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech that rely on genetic material called mRNA, the personalized cancer vaccines are made using DNA.

Science & Technology News, Space Flight

Russia wants to launch its own space station by 2025

May 3, 2021

By Shane McGlaun

Russian space agency Roscosmos has announced this week that it hopes to launch its own orbiting space station by 2025. The agency is considering withdrawing from the ISS program and operating its own space station. Roscosmos head Dmitry Rogozin says that work has already begun on the first module for the space station.

Officials also warned that they are considering removing themselves from the international space station, one of the few successful cooperation attempts that Russia has made with the US. The first module for the space station is being built by the Russian Energia space Corporation with the goal of having it ready to launch in 2025.

Russia has been a participant in the ISS program since the space station launched in 1998. The ISS was a project involving Russia, the US, Canada, Japan, and the ESA. Russian Deputy Prime Minister Yuri Borisov said recently that Russia was considering removing itself from the ISS in 2025 due to the space station’s age. Russia has made statements that it would work with China on an orbiting space station near the moon and potentially on a lunar base.

Robots, Science & Technology News

Robots to fan out across world’s oceans to monitor their health

May 3, 2021

The top of a robotic near-shore ocean float is seen floating in a test tank at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute in Moss Landing

By Nathan Frandino

MOSS LANDING, California (Reuters) – After years studying the icy waters of the Southern Ocean with floating robotic monitors, a consortium of oceanographers and other researchers is deploying them across the planet, from the north Pacific to the Indian Ocean.

The project known as the Global Ocean Biogeochemistry Array, or GO-BGC, started in March with the launch of the first of 500 new floating robotic monitors containing computers, hydraulics, batteries and an array of sensors scientists say will relay a more comprehensive picture of the ocean and its health.

“The ocean is extremely important to the climate, to the sustainability of the earth, its supply of food, protein to enormous numbers of people. We don’t monitor it very well,” said Ken Johnson, GO-BGC’s project director and a senior scientist at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) in Moss Landing, California.

Science & Technology News, Tom Frey

Incheon’s World Aviation Conference watched by 27,000 viewers on YouTube

May 2, 2021

Aviation leaders from across the globe and an impressive 27,000 viewers virtually watched the recent World Aviation Conference (WAC) in South Korea, hosted by Incheon International Airport Corporation (IIAC).

This year’s event was staged a few weeks ahead of the upcoming 20th anniversary of Incheon International Airport, which within five years of its opening was firmly established as one of the world’s leading hubs and a customer service champion.

Thomas Frey, founder and executive director of the Davinci Institute, joined in a special session titled ‘Recalibrating the aviation industry for the coming era of dramatic change’, where he noted that “COVID-19 had accelerated the adaptation of technologies into our daily lives which would have taken long time otherwise.”

He described the introduction of new transportation technologies such as drones, digital twins and autonomous vehicles as a new “sunrise period”.

Alternative Transportation, Science & Technology News

This flying electric ferry could revolutionize coastal travel

May 2, 2021

By Trevor Mogg

Imagine living in a coastal community and heading to the harbor for an ultra-low-altitude flight aboard an electric aircraft to a neighboring town just along the water.

Boston-based startup Regent is already working toward such a reality with its 10-passenger “seaglider” that it says could be carrying paying passengers as early as 2025.

Co-founders CEO Billy Thalheimer and CTO Michael Klinker, both of whom previously worked for a Boeing-linked company, told CNBC this week that the zero-emissions plane would begin a journey by leaving a harbor on a hydrofoil before lifting off the water to reach speeds of up to 180 mph — way faster than a lumbering ferry plying the same waters.

Robots, Science & Technology News

Barney the Swiss robot bartender ready to shake up cocktails

May 2, 2021

A robotic arm serves a Campari Soda at the Barney Cocktail Bar

ZURICH (Reuters) – Barney is a bit different from your usual Swiss bartender. He is fully automated, mixes dozens of cocktails and even makes terrible jokes.

Developer F & P Robotics says it is seeing rising interest in “The Barney Bar” and hopes it will be a hit among hotels, bars and shopping centres looking to reduce human contact during and after the coronavirus pandemic.

Barney can mix 16 different spirits and eight different sodas for customers who place their orders via their mobile phones, as well as offering beer and prosecco. The robot, who can disinfect his own robotic arm, tells them their drink is ready via a large video display above the bar.

A barista version making different coffees has also been developed. Both versions can be loaded up with conversations, so Barney can make “jokes” about being offered a role in the latest Terminator film, for example.

“We are getting quite a bit of interest,” Chief Sales Officer Gery Colombo told Reuters. “We think Barney can be a fun attraction, that can bring people to a bar because he’s constantly moving and is so different.”

Healthcare, Science & Technology News

Tattoo made of gold nanoparticles revolutionizes medical diagnostics

May 1, 2021

Gold nanoparticles embedded in a porous hydrogel can be implanted under the skin and used as medical sensors. The sensor is like an invisible tattoo revealing concentration changes of substances in the blood by color change. Credit: Nanobiotechnology Group, JGU Department of Chemistry

By Universitaet Mainz

The idea of implantable sensors that continuously transmit information on vital values and concentrations of substances or drugs in the body has fascinated physicians and scientists for a long time. Such sensors enable the constant monitoring of disease progression and therapeutic success. However, until now, implantable sensors have not been suitable to remain in the body permanently and require replacement after a few days or weeks.

There is also the problem of implant rejection as the immune system recognizes the sensor as a foreign object. With many technologies, the sensor’s color, which indicates concentration changes, is unstable and fades over time. Scientists at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) have developed a novel type of implantable sensor that can be implanted in the body for several months. The sensor is based on color-stable gold nanoparticles that are modified with receptors for specific molecules. Embedded into an artificial polymeric tissue, the nanogold is implanted under the skin, where it reports changes in drug concentrations by changing its color.

Professor Carsten Soennichsen’s research group at JGU has been using gold nanoparticles as sensors to detect tiny amounts of proteins in microscopic flow cells for many years. Gold nanoparticles act as small antennas for light: They strongly absorb and scatter it, and appear colorful. They react to alterations in their surrounding by changing color. Soennichsen’s team has exploited this concept for implanted medical sensing.

Medical Breakthrough, Science & Technology News

Researchers Develop A Technique To Produce Transplantable Livers In The Laboratory

May 1, 2021

Researchers at the Human Genome and Stem Cell Research Center (HUG-CELL), hosted by the University of São Paulo’s Institute of Biosciences (IB-USP) in Brazil, have developed a technique to reconstruct and produce livers in the laboratory.

The proof-of-concept study was conducted with rat livers. In the next stage of their research, the scientists will adapt the technique for the production of human livers in order in future to increase the supply of these organs for transplantation.

The study was supported by FAPESP and is reported in an article published in Materials Science and Engineering: C. “The plan is to produce human livers in the laboratory to scale. This will avoid having to wait a long time for a compatible donor and reduce the risk of rejection of the transplanted organ,” Luiz Carlos de Caires-Júnior, first author of the article, told Agência FAPESP. He is a postdoctoral fellow of HUG-CELL, one of the Research, Innovation and Dissemination Centers (RIDCs) funded by FAPESP.

The methodology is based on decellularization and recellularization, tissue bioengineering techniques developed in recent years to produce organs for transplantation. An organ from a deceased donor, in this case the liver, is treated with various solutions containing detergents or enzymes to remove all the cells from the tissue, leaving only the extracellular matrix with the organ’s original structure and shape. The extracellular matrix is then seeded with cells taken from the patient. The technique avoids immune system reactions and the risk of rejection in the long term.

3D Printer, Science & Technology News

Researchers Devise Rapid 3D Printing Method for Human Organs

May 1, 2021

Use of hydrogels in novel stereolithography process eyed for fabricating viable tissues for transplants and other biomedical applications.

By Elizabeth Montalbano

The Holy Grail of 3D bioprinting is to one day be able to fabricate full-sized human organs and tissues to replace the real thing in cases of transplant surgeries and other biomedical applications.

Researchers at the University at Buffalo have made a significant step not only to achieve this endeavor but to do it quickly. A team of researchers there has developed 3D-printing technology that has demonstrated rapid printing of life-sized organs and limbs such as a human hand in less than 20 minutes.

The team—co-led by Ruogang Zhao, associate professor of biomedical engineering, and Chi Zhou, associate professor of industrial and systems engineering—created a 3D-printing method based on stereolithography that uses hydrogels to produce organs quickly. Hydrogels are materials comprised mainly of water that are already used to produce contact lenses and diapers as well as in other applications.

“Our method allows for the rapid printing of centimeter-sized hydrogel models” that “signiﬁcantly reduces part deformation and cellular injuries caused by the prolonged exposure to the environmental stresses you commonly see in conventional 3D printing methods,” Zhou said in a press statement.

Money Talk, Science & Technology News

UK Launches Digital Currency Task Force to Explore the Future of Money

April 30, 2021

By Matt Novak

A British ten pound sterling and five pound sterling note are arranged in a photograph in London.Photo: Justin Tallis (Getty Images)

The Bank of England and the UK’s Treasury have launched a task force to explore the use of a national digital currency, the British government announced in several press releases early Monday as part of April 2021 Fintech Week.

The task force, formally known as the Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) Taskforce, will examine the pros and cons of issuing a new digital form of money that could be used by British consumers alongside cash. But the government is quick to note it hasn’t yet reached a final decision about issuing a digital currency that would potentially compete with cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and ether.

The British government and Bank of England laid out four primary points of interest and goals for the task force, including:

Coordinate exploration of the objectives, use cases, opportunities and risks of a potential UK CBDC.
Guide evaluation of the design features a CBDC must display to achieve our goals.
Support a rigorous, coherent and comprehensive assessment of the overall case for a UK CBDC.
Monitor international CBDC developments to ensure the UK remains at the forefront of global innovation.

The new task force will be led by the Deputy Governor for Financial Stability at the Bank of England, Jon Cunliffe, and HM Treasury’s Director General of Financial Services, Katharine Braddick, according to a press release.