Show notes for 11 March 2022
Story 1: Scientists are using sound waves could help regrow bone
Source: MedicalXpress.com RMIT University announcement
Link: https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-02-regrow-bones.html
Magnified image showing adult stem cells in the process of turning into bone cells after treatment with high-frequency sound waves
Magnified image showing adult stem cells in the process of turning into bone cells after treatment with high-frequency sound waves. Purple spots indicate the presence of a “bone marker” known as RUNX2. Magnification: 60X. Credit: RMIT University
- Researchers at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology recently announced the use of sound waves to turn stem cells into bone cells.
- This is an exciting tissue engineering advance that could one day help patients regrow bone lost to cancer or degenerative disease.
- The new innovative stem cell treatment uses the precision power of high-frequency sound waves.
- Time out, here’s a refresh on stem cells:
- Stem cells are the body’s raw materials — cells from which all other cells with specialized functions are generated. Under the right conditions in the body or a laboratory, stem cells divide to form more cells called daughter cells.
- These daughter cells either become new stem cells or become specialized cells with a more specific function, such as blood cells, brain cells, heart muscle cells or bone cells. No other cell in the body has the natural ability to generate new cell types.
- A key challenge in regrowing bone is the need for large amounts of bone cells that will thrive, and flourish once implanted in the target area.
- To date, experimental processes to change adult stem cells into bone cells have used complicated and expensive equipment and have struggled with mass production, making widespread clinical application unrealistic.
- And also, to date, the few clinical trials attempting to regrow bone have used stem cells extracted from a patient’s bone marrow—a highly painful procedure.
- Recently researchers at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology introduced a great alternative – treating stem cells with high-frequency sound waves turning them into bone cells quickly and efficiently.
- And the treatment was effective on multiple types of cells including fat-derived stem cells, which are far less painful to extract from a patient.
- Here are some interesting comments from the research team:
- This method also doesn’t require any special ‘bone-inducing’ drugs and it’s very easy to apply to the stem cells.
- Our study found this new approach has strong potential to be used for treating the stem cells before we either coat them onto an implant or inject them directly into the body for tissue engineering.
- The high-frequency sound waves used in the stem cell treatment were generated by a low-cost microchip device developed by the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology.
- The team spent over a decade researching the interaction of sound waves at frequencies above 10 MHz with different materials.
Story 2: Scientists discover rare asteroid that will follow Earth in orbit for the next 4,000 years
Source 1: CBS News Story by Alexandra Larkin
Link: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/asteroid-trojan-orbit-earth-space-4000-years/
Source 2: SciNews.com Story by Enrico de Lazaro
Link: http://www.sci-news.com/astronomy/second-earth-trojan-asteroid-2020-xl5-10512.html
- Scientists recently proved the existence of what researchers call an Earth Trojan asteroid that will be following us for 4,000 years.
- An Earth Trojan is an object that shares the same orbit as our planet
- Although Trojan asteroids have been known for decades orbiting planets such as Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune, it wasn’t until 2011 that the asteroid 2010 TK7 was found to be the first Earth Trojan asteroid.
- Recently, an international team of astronomers, led by the Institute of Cosmos Sciences at the University of Barcelona, announced the existence of the second Earth Trojan ever confirmed, called 2020 XL5, after a decade of searching for this elusive object.
- The researchers estimate that the asteroid’s size — around 0.7 miles in diameter will keep the asteroid in the sweet spot of gravitational pull, letting it orbit the Earth for the next 4,000 years.
Story 3: California is About to Test Its First Solar Panel Covered Water Canals
Source: Smithsonian Magazine Story by Roger Bales
Source: TID Water and Power
Link: https://www.tid.org/about-tid/current-projects/project-nexus/
- About 4,000 miles of canals transport water to some 35 million Californians and 5.7 million acres of farmland across the state.
- Researchers at the University of California Merced proposed last year to start covering these canals with solar panels to reduce evaporation of precious water, and help meet the state’s renewable energy goals, while also saving money.
- This first experiment in the U.S. to use solar panels to cover water canals will begin this fall in the Turlock Irrigation District of California’s Central Valley.
- The goal is to determine if this might be a viable large-scale solution.
- If yes, then the research team says that covering all 4,000 miles of California’s canals with solar panels would save more than 65 billion gallons of water annually by reducing evaporation.
- That’s enough to irrigate 50,000 acres of farmland or meet the residential water needs of more than 2 million people
Story 4: Startup turns “unrecyclable” plastic trash into indestructible construction blocks
Source: Futurism.com Story by Noor Al-Sibai
Source: ByFusion Global website: https://www.byfusion.com/byblock/
Source: apartmenttherapy.com Story by Olivia Harvey
Link: https://www.apartmenttherapy.com/recycled-plastic-concrete-37041922
See video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3J-rD3xlmkg
- An LA-based startup called ByFusion Global has developed a way for governments, companies, and communities to recycle previously “unrecyclable plastics” into large, virtually indestructible building blocks.
- Known as “ByBlocks,” the building blocks are made using a three-step process:
- First plastic waste is collected
- Then shredded
- And then the plastic materials are superheated and fused to make the ByBlocks that look like multi-colored interlocking Lego blocks.
- The building blocks produced by this process are:
- 16″ x 8″ x 8″
- Weigh 22lbs
- And like Lego blocks no adhesives are needed to snap the blocks together
- And making these recycled plastic blocks produces 41% fewer greenhouse gas emissions than making concrete blocks
- The ByFusion Global team claims their new ByBlocks are the first construction-grade building material made entirely from recycled plastic waste.
- And they claim that making them “does not require any chemicals, additives, adhesives, or fillers.”
- Plastics don’t even have to be sorted, cleaned, or processed before turning them into ByBlock.
- ByBlock can be swapped in for retaining walls, foundations, inner walls, terraces, and any other project where a concrete block may be found.
- The block-making machinery is now available for waste management companies, governments, and corporations to install to begin creating more sustainable building materials.
- Early deployment experiment in Boise, Idaho:
- The company received a Dow grant and has partnered with the Hefty trash bag company’s EnergyBag recycling program to run a pilot program in Boise, Idaho.
- Along with providing the tech, the pilot program is slated to help Boise residents divert up to 72 tons of otherwise unrecyclable plastics from the local landfill and has already used the blocks to build a bench in a city park, with more planned structures set to be built in the coming years.