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PECA Plastics, Thought-Controlled Robot Dog, Potatoes On Mars w/ Ralph Bond

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Show Notes 7 April 2023

Story 1: Surprising alternative to crude oil used to make a new recyclable plastic

Source: ScienceAlert.com Story by Clare Watson

Link: https://tinyurl.com/4tdabteh

Cutlery made from PECA. (Allison Christy/Boise State University)
  • It’s estimated that less than 10 percent of the estimated 6 billion metric tons of plastic humans have ever made has been recycled.
  • To help increase recycling, two materials scientists from Boise State University recently developed a new kind of recyclable plastic that, unlike existing plastics, isn’t made from crude oil and its derivatives.
  • The new type of plastic is based on a surprising ingredient used to make something you probably have at home, that is Super Glue!
  • In specific, the new plastic is based on poly(ethyl cyanoacrylate) or PECA, which is prepared from the monomer used to make Super Glue.
  • Time out, what’s a “monomer”? A “monomer” is a molecule that can be bonded to other identical molecules to form a polymer.
  • If manufactured at industrial scales,  the researchers suggest their new, recyclable plastic could replace polystyrene plastics that are not accepted by most curbside recycling programs.
  • Polystyrene plastics come in a few forms: expanded polystyrene, also known as Styrofoam, which is used as a lightweight packaging material or to make takeaway food containers; and thermally molded polystyrene, used to make disposable plates, cups, and cutlery.
  • Polystyrene plastics may only account for 6 percent of plastic waste, but the Boise State University team believes with further research their new formula could be used to make other forms of plastic in the future.   

Story 2: Amazing proof-of-concept demonstration shows a soldier controlling a robot surveillance dog with his thoughts!

Source: UK’s Daily Mail Story by Stacy Liberatore

Link: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-11896135/Killer-robot-dogs-controlled-soldiers-MINDS-trialed-Australian-army.html

See video here: https://tinyurl.com/4h4sey32

  • Imagine a patrol of soldiers moving down a roadway, or searching a building, aided by a surveillance robot dog.  Now picture one of the soldiers commanding and guiding the robot dog with his or her thoughts!
  • It’s not a scene from a Sci-Fi movie.  Instead, it’s what happened recently in a proof-of-concept demonstration.
  • The Australian Army has perfected commanding the movements of a sophisticated quadruped robot designed for combat missions using the brain waves of a soldier trained to be its operator.
  • The remarkable mind-controlling capabilities are achieved by using eight brain wave sensors in the operator’s helmet that work in tandem with a Microsoft HoloLens – which is an augmented and mixed reality headset.
  • Quick tutorial: 
  • Augmented reality (AR): a view of the real world—physical world—with an overlay of digital elements. 
  • Mixed Reality (MR): a view of the real world—physical world—with an overlay of digital elements where physical and digital elements can interact.
  • The mind control system features an artificial intelligence-decoder that translates a soldier’s brain wave signals into instructions that are wirelessly sent to the dog-like robot, freeing the soldiers to stay focused on their surroundings.  
  • A demonstration video from the Australian Army shows military personnel conducting a simulated patrol using the robot dog, which was instructed to inspect a facility guided only by what it detected from the operator’s brain waves.
  • And, get this, the robot dog responded to commands with 94 percent accuracy!

Story 3: Scientists say habitats on Mars could be made from potato-based building materials

Source: Popular Science Story by Andrew Paul

Link: https://www.popsci.com/technology/mars-starcrete-potato/

  • When humans arrive on Mars building shelters will obviously be a top priority for long-term occupation.  
  • But transporting traditional building materials from the Earth to Mars would be costly and impractical. 
  • To help provide a “doable” building materials solution, researchers from the University of Manchester in England have developed a new super strong building material primarily composed of just potato starch, a bit of salt, and simulated Martian regolith [a.k.a. dirt]. 
  • The researchers call it StarCrete.
  • The University of Manchester team contends that potato starches are likely to be transported to Mars as a food source for the astronauts. 
  • With this in mind, and according to the team’s estimates, a 55-pound sack of dehydrated potatoes includes enough starch for half a metric ton of their StarCrete—enough to make around 213 bricks for structures. 
  • In experiments combining the potato starch with salt and magnesium chloride taken from simulated Martian soil, they discovered that their StarCrete formula offered twice the compressive strength of traditional concrete.  
  • And the StarCrete can even be baked at normal microwave- or home-oven temperatures.

Story 4: New app uses smartphone selfies to screen for pancreatic cancer

Source: University of Washington Press Release

Link: https://www.washington.edu/news/2017/08/28/new-app-uses-smartphone-selfies-to-screen-for-pancreatic-cancer/

See video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAI-95DSZi8

  • Pancreatic cancer has one of the worst prospects — with a five-year survival rate of 9 percent. 
  • And deadly pancreatic cancer is hard to predict — in part because there are no telltale symptoms or non-invasive screening tools to catch a tumor before it spreads.
  • But an early symptom is jaundice, a yellow discoloration of the skin and eyes caused by a buildup of bilirubin in the blood.
  • Bilirubin is an orange-yellow pigment formed in the liver.
  • University of Washington researchers recently announced a smartphone app to detect bilirubin called BiliScreen.
  • The BiliScreen app uses:
    • a smartphone’s camera, 
    • computer vision algorithms,
    • and artificial intelligence-based machine learning tools to analyze a close-up selfie to detect increased bilirubin levels in the white part of an eye. 
  • The goal of the new BiliScreen app is to detect signs of jaundice when bilirubin levels are slightly elevated — before they’re even visible to the naked eye — giving doctors an entirely new proactive screening tool for individuals deemed to be at risk for pancreatic cancer.
  • In a clinical study the researchers asked 70 people to use their smartphones, the BiliScreen app, and a 3D printed box to hold the phone in the correct position to take a close-up selfie of each eye.   In specific, to ensure the camera is in the correct position to control the eye’s exposure to light.
  • And the results were impressive, with the BiliScreen app correctly identifying cases of concern 89.7 percent of the time, as compared to the blood test currently used. 
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