Show Notes 30 June 2023
Story 1: Solar-powered fuel cell recycles plastic waste and carbon dioxide
Source: New Scientist Story by Chen Ly
- What if you could have a solar-powered device that could help remove carbon dioxide from the air and convert plastic waste into sustainable fuel and useful chemicals, in a double-whammy of recycling.
- Previous research on solar fuel cells, a technology that uses sunlight to drive chemical reactions that produce fuels, have used pure CO2.
- Now, Erwin Reisner at the University of Cambridge and his colleagues have developed a device that utilizes CO2 captured from industrial sources or directly from the air, filtering out other gases as needed.
- According to the research team this is the first-time carbon capture and the conversion of plastic waste into sustainable fuel have been combined into one system.
- The device is split into two compartments.
- One filters air though an alkaline solution that catches CO2, then converts it into syngas, a fuel that is usually used to make ammonia or methanol.
- In the other compartment, a solution derived from PET plastic waste gets converted into glycolic acid, a chemical that is commonly used in cosmetics.
- Side note: Polyethylene terephthalate, also called PET, is the name of a type of clear, strong, lightweight and 100% recyclable plastic. Unlike other types of plastic, PET plastic is not single-use — it is 100% recyclable, versatile, and made to be remade. Source: https://www.americanbeverage.org/education-resources/blog/post/what-is-pet/
- Combining the two compartments of the system isn’t just a case of creating a two-in-one gadget because the pair actually work together. They have a symbiotic relationship.
- For CO2 to transform into syngas, it needs to gain some electrons. Typically, this is done by breaking up water molecules, but that process is energy intensive. Instead, the two compartments act like a battery, with the CO2 side [being like] the cathode and the plastic side [being like] the anode, transferring electrons between them.
- Reality Check: As a proof-of-concept prototype, the technology still has a long way to go before it can be deployed at a large scale.
Story 2: A Danish Artist Has Debuted an AI ‘Camera’ That Generates Images Using Your Geolocation Data
Source: News.artnet.com Story by Adam Schrader
Link: https://news.artnet.com/art-world/bjorn-karmann-ai-camera-paragraphica-2313584
See video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zug3eXYapP8 and
- What if you had a camera that takes [or more accurately creates] photos using location data. It describes the place you are at and then converts it into an AI-generated “photo”.
- Bjørn Karmann’s camera, named the Paragraphica, uses sensors and geolocation data—including weather conditions—to create a stream of text that is displayed on a screen on the “camera’s” back side and then converts the information into a “photo.”
- The camera looks like a typical point-and-shoot, but replaces the lens with a red device, described by the photography website Digital Camera World as looking like a “TV aerial stuffed where the lens should be.”
- Karmann says this bizarre [decorative] element is simply a sculpture inspired by the star-nosed mole, an animal that is blind but visualizes its environment using its snout.
- “The viewfinder displays a real-time description of your current location, and by pressing the trigger, the camera will create a scintigraphic representation of the description,” Karmann wrote on his website.
- Time out! What is scintigraphic? [Information I found was medical related – Scintigraphy is a procedure that produces pictures (scans) of structures inside the body, including areas where there are cancer cells. Scintigraphy is used to diagnose, stage, and monitor disease. Source: https://www.cancer.gov/publications/dictionaries/cancer-terms/def/scintigraphy
- Users can control the outcome of the image with three physical dials on top of the camera body where knobs that would normally control such things as shutter speed and film speed would be.
- The first knob, Karmann wrote, operates similarly to focal length in a traditional camera lens but is used to limit the radius in which the camera searches for data. A diagram of the dial shows that the distance appears to range from nearly 10 feet to an infinite distance.
- The second knob controls the noise seed for the AI image diffusion. In the AI image generation process, models add Gaussian noise through which the image emerges.
- Time out! What is Gaussian noise? Within digital imaging, Gaussian noise occurs as a result of sensor limitations during image acquisition under low-light conditions, which make it difficult for the visible light sensors to efficiently capture details of the scene. Source: https://medium.com/image-vision/noise-in-digital-image-processing-55357c9fab71
- Karmann described the third knob as a “guidance scale” which provides an input for how closely the AI model follows the generated text prompt.
- The hardware Karmann used to create the camera included a Raspberry Pi 4, a single-board computer about the size of a credit card, and 3D-printed housing with custom electronics. The software runs on Noodl and Python coding.
- Using this link, I tried out the location-based virtual camera: https://camera.sandbox.noodl.app/
Story 3: This new scientific breakthrough could help EVs drive 10 times longer before they need a recharge
Source: The Cool Down Story by Laurelle Stelle
- Big news in the world of batteries: Researchers have discovered how to increase battery storage tenfold.
- Scientists at Pohang University of Science & Technology in Korea found a way to multiply the energy storage of a battery by ten to create the ideal EV battery.
- The part of a battery that stores power when charging and releases it during battery use is called the anode. Currently, most modern lithium batteries use an anode made of graphite.
- Other materials, like silicon, have a higher energy capacity and would make more efficient batteries, but until now, researchers have been unable to create a stable battery with a silicon anode. This is because the reactions inside the battery cause the silicon to expand dangerously.
- Professors Soojin Park and Youn Soo Kim at the Pohang University of Science & Technology, together with Professor Jaegeon Ryu of Sogang University, led a research team that solved this riddle.
- They created a binding material that will keep a high-capacity silicon anode from expanding, creating a stable lithium battery with at least ten times the capacity of one that uses a traditional graphite anode.
- The Pohang University of Science & Technology team is one of several working on advancing the world’s battery technology.
- For example, a Chinese company has produced an EV battery that uses cheap, abundant sodium instead of expensive lithium, and NASA is developing an improved solid-state battery that is smaller and lighter than traditional lithium ones. Another researcher is even creating biodegradable batteries from crab shells.
- For more information, see the announcement on the POSTECH website.
Story 4: Handheld bioprinter prints tissues and organs within the body
Source: TechExplorist.com Story by Ashwini Sakharkar
Link: https://www.techexplorist.com/handheld-bioprinter-prints-tissues-and-organs-within-the-body/62164/
See also: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1758-5090/acc42c
- Over the past few years, 3D bioprinting has been widely applied in the construction of many tissues and organs, such as skin, vessels, hearts, etc. These engineered tissues and organs are used to understand disease formation and progression or to develop biological substitutes to repair or replace damaged organs.
- Despite significant advances in this area, currently used in situ bioprinting technologies are not devoid of limitations.
- “In situ” means in the original location.
- Most devices are only compatible with specific types of bioink, while others can only create small patches of tissue at a time. In addition, their designs are often complex, which makes them expensive and limits their application.
- In a breakthrough study, a research team from the University of Victoria in Canada developed a handheld in situ bioprinter. The new device has a convenient modular design that allows the printing of complex biocompatible structures.
- The new bioprinter addresses key limitations of previous designs – including the ability to print multiple materials and control the physical chemical properties of printed tissues.
- The ergonomic design of the handheld bioprinter facilitates the shape-controlled biofabrication of multi-component fibers with different cross-sectional shapes and material compositions.
- The handheld device has multiple bioink cartridges, each independently controlled by a pneumatic system. Therefore, the device operator has ample control over the printing mixture, which makes it easy to create structures with the required properties.
- Time out, what is a bioink: Bio-inks are materials used to produce engineered/artificial live tissue using 3D printing. These inks are mostly composed of the cells that are being used but are often used in tandem with additional materials that envelope the cells. The combination of cells and usually biopolymer gels are defined as a bio-ink. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bio-ink
- The device also includes a cooling module and a light-emitting diode photocuring module that provides additional control.
- The handheld in situ bioprinter will pave the way for a wide variety of applications in regenerative medicine, drug development and testing, and custom orthotics and prosthetics.
- This portable bioprinter may help physicians match a patient’s tissue anatomy with greater accuracy and convenience, thus enhancing the functionality and aesthetic of the bioprinted construct.
- According to says Prof. Mohsen Akbari from the University of Victoria in Canada, “In situ, bioprinting is suitable for repairing large defects caused by trauma, surgery, or cancer, which requires large-scale tissue constructs. In the long term, this technology can eliminate the need for organ donors while also lowering the risks associated with transplantation, allowing patients to enjoy longer and healthier lives.”