November 2021 show notes
Story 1: New Experimental Hi-tech wooden flooring can turn footsteps into electricity
Source: The Guardian Story by Natalie Grover
Scientists at the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology have developed an experimental, energy-harvesting device that uses wood with a combination of a silicone coating and embedded nanocrystals to generate electricity.
The approximately one-foot square proof-of-concept test wood floor module the scientists created produces enough energy to power LED lightbulbs and small electronics.
What the researchers created is a nanogenerator based on sandwiching two pieces of spruce wood between electrodes.
The wood pieces become electrically charged when your step compresses the wood
layers together and then separates. This causes something called the triboelectric effect.
This triboelectric effect occurs when electrons can transfer from one object to another, akin to the static electricity produced when you rub a balloon on your hair for a few seconds.
Imagine if someday the floors in our homes, shopping malls, offices, you name it, could be transformed to generate electricity!
Story 2: Virtual Reality lets scientists shrink down and ‘walk around’ inside their own cells
Source: DigitalTrends.com Story by Luke Dormehl
Link: https://www.digitaltrends.com/news/vr-lets-scientists-walk-around-cells/
Investigators from the U.K.’s University of Cambridge and 3D image analysis software company Lume VR have come up with a method that uses virtual reality to allow researchers to “walk around” inside individual cells.
It’s based on using a Virtual Reality display headset that covers a user’s eyes combined with handheld motion controls, just like the VR gear used for sophisticated 3D video gaming.
The goal is to help medical researchers better understand some fundamental problems in biology and, in the process, learn to develop better treatments.
For example, with this system you could take a 2D image of an immune cell from your own blood and transform it into a giant-sized 3D cell you could move around in virtually.
The approach uses a technique called super-resolution imaging, which transforms a flat microscope image into an explorable, 3D one by building up an image one point at a time.
With this capability researchers could do things like watch how antigen cells trigger immune responses in the body on a hitherto unimaginable scale.
Story 3: Scientists Create First 3-D Printed Wagyu Beef
Source: Smithsonian Magazine Story by Corryn Wetzel
Link: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/scientists-create-first-3-d-printed-wagyu-beef-180978565/
Scientists in Japan successfully 3-D printed a cut of Wagyu beef that looks just like the real thing.
Wagyu beef is an expensive cut prized for its tenderness, flavor and delicate fat marbling.
The team at Osaka University in Japan used three dimensional bioprinting to replicate the cut’s specific arrangement of muscle, fat and blood vessels.
Like traditional 3-D printing, bioprinting uses a computer-generated model that deposits layers of material to create a final three-dimensional object.
But unlike standard 3D printing methods which use materials like plastic or metal, 3-D bioprinting stacks living cells to build complex structures like blood vessels and muscle tissue.
This is not the first time 3-D printed beef has been achieved.
Earlier this year we talked about an Israeli company that announced their 3-D printed ribeye steak—but lab producED Wagyu meat presented a much more challenging task.
Story 4: Warm Springs tribe collects drinking water from the air with solar powered panels
Source: Portland Tribune Story by Pat Kruis
Oregon’s Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs have teamed up with SOURCE Global, a company that has created a remarkable solar-powered water collecting system, to help combat chronic water shortages.
It’s all based on the use of SOURCE Global’s Hydropanel [which we first talked about back in July].
Here’s how the system, which looks like an ordinary solar panel, works:
Solar energy provides all the power needed to run the panel system.
Fans draw in ambient air and push it through a water-absorbing material that traps water vapor from the air
The water vapor is extracted and passively condenses into liquid that is collected in a storage tank
Minerals are then added to make perfect drinking water
Earlier this year they turned on an array of 200 panels at the Warm Springs Reservation that generates 150 gallons of water a day.
Each of the 200 solar panels cost $2,000. A private donor paid the $400,000 for the original installation.
The next big step is to expand the array, so it produces 750 gallons of water a day and ultimately provides 6,000 gallons of water storage for the Warm Springs Reservation community.
Story 5: An experimental custom brain implant lifted a woman’s severe depression
Source: Science News Story by Laura Sanders
Link: https://www.sciencenews.org/article/brain-implant-severe-depression-activity-stimulation
Recently researchers at the University of California, San Francisco implanted temporary thin wire electrodes into the brain of a 36-year-old woman who had suffered from severe depression for years.
These electrodes allowed researchers to monitor the brain activity that corresponded to the woman’s depression symptoms.
In this woman’s individual case, a particular sign emerged: a fast brain wave
called a gamma wave in her amygdala, a brain structure known to be involved in emotions.
With this biomarker identified, the researchers then figured out where to stimulate the brain to interrupt her distressing depression symptoms.
When researchers applied tiny jolts of electrical current to this region of her brain, her mood improved.
Based on the success of this initial experiment, surgeons then implanted a more permanent experimental device into her brain this past June.
Scientists then programmed the implanted device to detect when gamma signals were high in her amygdala and respond with a tiny electrical jolt.
On average, she got 300 jolts a day to stave off depression.
The stimulation was calibrated so she didn’t feel any of the hundreds of electrical zaps, and she said they even left her feeling a little more energetic.
Story 6: Cereal box-sized satellite going to space to explore “Hot” Jupiters
Source: UK’s Daily Mail Story by Chris Ciaccia
A $4 million NASA satellite about the size of a ‘jumbo or family-sized box of cereal’ was launched into space in September.
The mission of this groundbreaking effort is to look at the physics of distant exoplanets known as ‘hot Jupiters,’ including the hottest planet ever found.
An exoplanet planet is a planet outside our Solar System.
Hot Jupiters are a class of giant gaseous exoplanets that orbit close to their stars, and the high surface-atmosphere temperatures that result gave them the nickname “hot Jupiters”.
The tiny box shaped satellite, which is called Colorado Ultraviolet Transit Experiment, is the first small, box-shaped satellite mission funded by NASA.
Story 7: Canon Releases World’s First Video Virtual Reality Interchangeable Lens for 35 Millimeter Cameras
Source: EXT Daily Up
Link: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/the-lens-that-films-in-virtual-reality/ar-AAPhAFa
See video here: https://binged.it/3AVKhYs
Virtual reality videos are video recordings where a view in every direction is recorded at the same time.
To date there have been a number of dedicated, single purpose 3D virtual reality video capture devices, such as Samsung’s 360 Round VR Camera, which sells for $10,499.
Recently Canon announced the world’s first interchangeable dual fisheye lens for virtual reality video capture designed to be used with one of their high-end handheld 35 millimeter-type camera bodies.
Priced at $1,999, and available by the end of this year, the new Canon 3D VR Lens can capture stereoscopic 3D 180-degree virtual reality videos in ultra-high definition – and is designed to be used with Canon’s EOS R5 camera body [which sells for about $3,800].
The new lens incorporates twin fisheye lenses with two separate optical systems, each with an ultra-wide field of view for optimal image capture in virtual-reality
mode.
Sophisticated technology built into the new lens makes it possible to integrate the input from the two fisheye lenses and create a single ultra-high resolution video file up to 8K in resolution.
8K resolution refers to an image or display with a width of approximately 8,000 pixels.
Story 8: The Navy’s Next Laser Weapon Is Basically a Real-Life Ray Gun
Source: Popular Mechanics Story by Kyle Mizokami
The U.S. Office of Naval Research recently ordered a “compact, portable” laser weapon system.
The Navy will use the weapon, known as the Counter-Unmanned Air Systems High Energy Laser Weapon System, to shoot down drones.
MZA Associates, based in Albuquerque, will design the laser gun according to the $18.7 million contract.
Lasers are very effective against drones. For example, a focused beam of light can quickly heat up a drone’s exterior, inducing structural failure and causing it to crash.
But, if this laser gun is truly portable and compact, other targets are possible!
Story 9: Scientists engineer nasal cartilage cells to repair arthritic knees
Source: StatNews.com Story by Elizabeth Cooney
Link: https://www.statnews.com/2021/09/01/engineered-nasal-cartilage-cells-knee-osteoarthritis/
When it comes to arthritis of the knee, cartilage that should cushion the bones erodes, leaving people in pain.
Joint replacement gets people moving again, but their implants must eventually be replaced.
A new possible permanent solution might be found in your nose!
A team of biomedicine researchers from the University of Basel in Switzerland recently announced that they were able to bioengineer nasal cells that form cartilage, and then implant them in the knees of two patients to grow new cartilage.
For 15 years the team has been studying three-dimensional culture systems for cells to understand:
how tissues develop,
how to control tissue formation,
and how to turn tissues generated in the lab into possible grafts for tissue repair.
After a decade-and-a-half of work the team was able to generate human-engineered nasal cartilage tissue in a three-dimensional size and shape with viable functional properties to repair arthritic knees.
Story 10: MIT develops an artificial intelligence-based robot arm that can find and retrieve lost items
Source: MIT News Story by Adam Zewe
Link: https://news.mit.edu/2021/robot-finds-items-camera-antenna-1005
See video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqehzw_aLc0
Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have created a robotic arm system that can sift through a pile of objects and find a specific target.
The system, called RFusion, is a robotic arm with a camera and radio frequency antenna attached to its gripper.
It combines signals from a Radio Frequency antenna with visual input from the camera to locate and retrieve an item, even if the item is buried under a pile of random objects and completely out of view.
The RFusion prototype robotic arm relies on Radio Frequency ID tags, which are cheap, don’t require batteries, and can be stuck to an item and then bounce back, or reflect, signals sent by the antenna.
Because RF signals can travel through most surfaces the RFusion robotic arm can quickly locate a tagged item within a pile. Such as a mound of dirty laundry that may be obscuring the target item – which the MIT team used to demonstrate the system).
Using artificial intelligence-based machine learning, the robotic arm automatically zeroes-in on the object’s exact location, removes any items on top of it, grabs the object, and then verifies that it picked up the right thing.
The camera, antenna, robotic arm, and artificial intelligence system are fully integrated, so MIT’s RFusion robotic arm can work in any environment without requiring a special set up.
Story 11: Hyundai Developing 4×4 Emergency Power Truck with Hydrogen Fuel Cell Generator
Source: Hydrogen-central.com and Fox News
Link: https://hydrogen-central.com/hyundai-4×4-emergency-power-truck-hydrogen-fuel-cell-generator/
Link: https://bit.ly/3vCxZTq
Hyundai recently revealed plans to build a Kia off-road truck equipped with a zero-carbon emissions hydrogen fuel cell generator to deliver emergency electrical power.
The automaker’s vision for the emergency power truck includes charging homes during an electrical outage and recharging all-electric vehicles that have run out of charge on the road.
Called the Rescue Hydrogen Generator Vehicle it will be able to provide 220- and 380-volt charging capability.
What makes this idea so attractive is that the power truck’s hydrogen fuel cell combines hydrogen and oxygen to produce electricity, with only water and heat as exhaust!
Looking at a photo of the prototype power truck the front end looks like a military Humvee with a pickup truck bed holding the hydrogen fuel cell generator with a charging cable connected to a passenger car.
Story 12: New Smart Cement Invented for Building More Durable Roads and Cities
Source: SciTechDaily.com Northwestern University announcement
Link: https://scitechdaily.com/new-smart-cement-invented-for-building-more-durable-roads-and-cities/
By 2050, the United Nations predicts two-thirds of the world’s population will be concentrated in cities, and the demand for cement is expected to skyrocket.
In addition to exploding demand for cement, the cost of repairing and/or replacing fractured cement in existing roads and building foundations presents a serious challenge.
By introducing graphene nanoplatelets into ordinary cement, Northwestern University researchers have created a much more fracture resistant and highly functional cement.
Until now, little was known about how adding graphene nanoplatelets to concrete might impact fracture reduction.
Time out, before we move on, we need a couple of definitions:
Graphene is a physical form of carbon consisting of a single layer of atoms arranged in a two-dimensional honeycomb lattice nanostructure.
Graphene nanoplatelet aggregates are aggregates of sub-micron platelets with a diameter of less than 2 microns [that’s less than 2 millionths of a meter] and a thickness of a few nanometers [that’s a few billionths of a meter].
In addition to significantly improved fracture resistance, adding a small amount of
graphene nanoplatelets to cement also improved water transport properties and water penetration resistance.
The goal of the Northwestern University team is to provide the world with a new form of lighter, higher-performing cement that will reduce its overall carbon footprint by dramatically reducing the need for maintenance repairs.
Story 13: Scientists Are on the Trail of Microplastic Pollution in Our Seas
Source: The Daily Beast Story by Christopher Ruf
See video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQTGOU9LiJ0
Plastic is the most common type of debris floating in the world’s oceans.
Waves and sunlight break much of it down into smaller particles called microplastics—which are fragments less than 5 millimeters across, and roughly the size of a sesame seed.
To understand how microplastic pollution is affecting the ocean, scientists need to know how much is out there and where it’s accumulating.
Two researchers at the University of Michigan have developed a new way to
detect microplastic concentrations from space!
They’re using NASA’s Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System, which is a network of eight microsatellites that help scientists predict hurricanes by analyzing tropical wind speeds.
The radars on NASA’s Satellite System are designed to measure winds over the ocean indirectly by measuring how they roughen the water’s surface.
The University of Michigan researchers knew that when there is a lot of material floating in the water, winds don’t stir up the water surface as much.
By combining all the measurements made by NASA’s cyclone navigation tracking satellites orbiting the world, they created global time-lapse images of ocean microplastic concentrations.
One immediate benefit of this research is to help guide organizations that deploy special ships to collect, recycle, and dispose of marine plastic litter.
Story 14: Planets similar to those in our solar system found around nearby star
Source: CNN.com Story by Ashley Strickland
Link: https://www.cnn.com/2021/08/05/world/nearby-star-exoplanet-discovery-scn/index.html
An array of planets with similarities to some in our solar system have been found around a nearby star by astronomers using the European Southern Observatory’s huge telescope in Chile.
The star is 35 light-years away from Earth. By the way, in one year light travels 9.46 trillion kilometers.
There may be as many as five planets orbiting the star, including a potentially habitable planet.
During these new observations of the system, astronomers determined that three of the planets include some type of water content.
Hey, maybe this is where all the UFOs are coming from!