Show Notes 30 May 2025
Story 1: Superwood: A potentially revolutionary material that could replace steel
Source: Robotics & Automation News Story by Mai Tao
- Superwood is an innovative engineered wood developed by InventWood, a startup spun off from the University of Maryland. This material is designed to be stronger than steel while remaining significantly lighter.
- Key Highlights:
- Superwood is up to 12 times stronger and 10 times tougher than regular wood, with a strength-to-weight ratio nearly ten times that of steel.
- During the manufacturing process it undergoes a molecular-level transformation, involving chemical treatment to modify lignin and compression to enhance hydrogen bonding between cellulose fibers.
- Side note – Lignin is a complex organic polymer found in the cell walls of plants, particularly in wood and bark. It plays a crucial role in providing structural support, rigidity, and resistance to decay. Lignin is second only to cellulose as the most abundant organic material on Earth.
- The material is fire-resistant (Class A rating), water-repellent, rot-proof, and pest-resistant, making it highly durable.
- Superwood offers an eco-friendly alternative to steel and concrete, helping reduce carbon emissions in construction.
- InventWood plans to begin commercial shipments from its first manufacturing facility in Frederick, Maryland, in Q3 2025.
- From the company’s website: Today, after seven years of intense development work, substantial investment, and over 140 patents, SUPERWOOD is ready to reshape how we build our world.
- This breakthrough material could revolutionize construction and manufacturing, providing a sustainable, high-performance alternative to traditional building materials.
Story 2: Hydrogen From Human Waste: Urine-Based Fuel Tech Slashes Electricity Use by 27% in Stunning Green Energy Revolution
Source: Sustainability Times Story by Noah Bennett
- Researchers from the University of Adelaide have unveiled a groundbreaking electrolysis system that transforms urine into low-cost hydrogen, significantly reducing electricity consumption and offering a sustainable alternative to traditional hydrogen production methods.
- The University of Adelaide team, in collaboration with the ARC Centre of Excellence for Carbon Science and Innovation, have developed two breakthrough electrolysis systems.
- These systems utilize urea found in human urine and wastewater to generate hydrogen more efficiently than traditional methods.
- The process cuts electricity consumption by 20 to 27% compared to conventional water electrolysis, a significant reduction that could make hydrogen production more feasible and environmentally friendly.
- A lead researcher on the project emphasizes the environmental benefits of these systems:
- Not only do they significantly reduce electricity use, but they also eliminate the production of toxic by-products, instead generating harmless nitrogen gas.
- Should these systems be scaled up, they could pave the way for more sustainable hydrogen production, offering a compelling alternative to the environmentally detrimental gray hydrogen derived from fossil fuels.
Story 3: Eldercare robot helps people sit and stand, and catches them if they fall – The new design could assist the elderly as they age in place at home
Source: MIT News Story by Jennifer Chu
Link: https://news.mit.edu/2025/eldercare-robot-helps-people-sit-stand-catches-them-fall-0513
See video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DlT6vHx4Dz4 Be sure to check out this video as it contains a wealth of information about the flexibility of the robot, and its specific design features.
- The challenge of caring for the elderly, amid shortages in care workers, rising health care costs, and evolving family structures, is an increasingly urgent societal issue.
- To help address the eldercare challenge, a team of MIT engineers is looking to robotics. They have built and tested the Elderly Bodily Assistance Robot, or E-BAR, a mobile robot designed to physically support the elderly and prevent them from falling as they move around their homes.
- E-BAR acts as a set of robotic handlebars that follows a person from behind. A user can walk independently or lean on the robot’s arms for support. The robot can support the person’s full weight, lifting them from sitting to standing and vice versa along a natural trajectory. And the arms of the robot can catch them by rapidly inflating side airbags if they begin to fall.
- With their design, the researchers hope to prevent falls, which today are the leading cause of injury in adults who are 65 and older.
- Harry Asada, the Ford Professor of Engineering at MIT noted, “Our design concept is to provide older adults having balance impairment with robotic handlebars for stabilizing their body. The handlebars go anywhere and provide support anytime, whenever they need.”
- In its current version, the robot is operated via remote control. In future iterations, the team plans to automate much of the bot’s functionality, enabling it to autonomously follow and physically assist a user. The researchers are also working on streamlining the device to make it slimmer and more maneuverable in small spaces.
Story 4: Novel nanoparticle could make ultrasound-based cancer treatments more effective and safer
Source: News Medical Life Sciences By Oregon Health & Science University
See also: https://phys.org/news/2025-05-drug-nanoparticles-precision-safety-ultrasound.html
- My comment – last week we covered another medical tech advancement involving ultrasound and micro bubbles. Could be a trend to watch!
- Researchers at Oregon Health & Science University have created a new kind of nanoparticle that could make ultrasound-based cancer treatments more effective and safer, while also helping prevent tumors from coming back.
- The study, published in the journal Nano Letters, explores a way to make high-intensity focused ultrasound less harmful to healthy tissues.
- The goal of the research effort is to improve a category of focused ultrasound known as mechanical tumor ablation.
- Side note – Mechanical tumor ablation is a non-invasive technique that uses focused ultrasound energy to destroy solid tumors without surgery. This method physically disrupts tumor cells, breaking them apart while minimizing damage to surrounding healthy tissue.
- This technique uses energy to destroy solid tumors without surgery. However, using focused ultrasound to treat solid tumors has two major challenges: it usually needs a lot of energy, which can create heat and harm healthy tissue, and even if the tumor is broken up, some cancer cells might survive and allow the cancer to come back.
- Here’s how the new approach works:
- These nanoparticles are engineered with small bubbles on their surface – which help reduce the energy needed for ultrasound treatment by up to 100-fold.
- When targeted with focused ultrasound, the bubbles pop and release energy that helps destroy tumors more precisely.
- The particles are also coated with a special molecule called a peptide, which helps them stick to tumors and enter cancer cells more easily.
- To make the therapy even more powerful, the scientists also attached a potent chemotherapy drug to the peptide on the nanoparticle’s surface.
- The ultrasound physically destroys the tumor, and the drug helps eliminate any leftover cancer cells that might cause the tumor to return.
Honorable Mentions
Story: Using perovskite to make LED pixels as small as a virus
Source: TechXplore.com Story by Bob Yirka
Link: https://techxplore.com/news/2025-03-perovskite-pixels-small-virus.html
- Researchers from Zhejiang University in China and the University of Cambridge in the UK have developed LED pixels as small as a virus using perovskite, a mineral also being explored for solar cells.
- Their goal was to create smaller, cost-effective, and efficient pixels for digital displays, surpassing the limitations of current micro-LED technology.
- By using perovskite, they fabricated semiconductors that emit light when electricity is applied, achieving a record-high pixel density of 127,000 pixels per inch.
- Their smallest LED measured just 90 nanometers wide, maintaining brightness and efficiency comparable to traditional LEDs.
- However, the LEDs are currently monochrome, and further research is needed to determine their longevity and feasibility for real-world applications.
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Story: Your Next International Flight Could Be Powered by Pig Fat Biodiesel
Source: Motor Trend Story by Andrew Beckford
- Animal Fat Biodiesel Growth: The use of animal fats as a biodiesel source has surged, with demand expected to triple by 2030 compared to 2021 levels.
- Airline Adoption: Major European airlines, including Ryanair and Wizz Air, have signed deals for sustainable aviation fuels (SAFs), which may include animal fat biodiesel.
- Supply Pressures & Sustainability Concerns: While repurposing animal fats for fuel is beneficial, growing demand could lead to shortages or shift reliance to palm oil, which may increase carbon emissions.
- Environmental Impact: Substituting animal fats with virgin palm oil could result in 1.7 times higher CO₂ emissions than conventional diesel.
- Ethical Considerations: Using animal fats for large-scale fuel production raises concerns about sustainability—harvesting more animals specifically for fuel isn’t an ideal long-term solution.
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Story: Researchers [at Oregon State University] find new species of electricity-conducting organism [i.e. bacteria], name it after Tribe
Source: OSU website
- Scientists at Oregon State University have discovered a new species of electricity-conducting bacteria, named Ca. Electrothrix yaqonensis, in honor of the Native American tribes of the region where it was found.
- This cable bacteria, identified in the Yaquina Bay estuary, forms long filaments that act like electrical wiring, enabling electron transport over significant distances.
- The bacteria’s unique metabolic pathways and genes combine traits from two known cable bacteria genera, Ca. Electrothrix and Ca. Electronema, making it an evolutionary bridge between them.
- It features highly conductive fibers made of nickel-based molecules, which could inspire new bioelectronic technologies.
- Researchers believe its ability to transfer electrons could be used for environmental cleanup, removing pollutants from sediments.
- This discovery opens new possibilities for bioelectronics, medicine, and environmental monitoring.
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Story: Tiny 3D Printed Robot Uses Magnets to Fly
Source: ExtremeTech.com Story by Adrianna Nine
Link: https://www.extremetech.com/science/tiny-3d-printed-robot-uses-magnets-to-fly
See research paper here: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.ads6858
- Researchers in California have created an incredibly small robot that needs no battery or wired power supply to zip through the air. Instead, it uses magnets to fly. A magnetic field produced by an external device offers invisible axes on which the lightweight bot can travel, eliminating the need for batteries or tethers.
- In a paper for Science Advances, engineers at the University of California, Berkeley debut their tiny, unnamed robot, which measures just 9.4 millimeters across and weighs 21 milligrams—less than a single grain of white rice. The bot owes its weightlessness to its 3D-printed frame, which consists of white or clear photopolymers that harden when exposed to light. Its heaviest components are its two ultra-strong N52 magnets, which are 1 millimeter across and sit inside notches in the robot’s frame.
- Those magnets are essential to the bot’s mobility. Hoping to avoid the bulky batteries and frustrating tethers associated with other bug-sized robots, the engineers elected to experiment with an external magnetic field, which offers the “push and pull” necessary for the robot to move. A low-strength, 3.1 millitesla (mT) field—a mere third of a refrigerator magnet’s strength—enables the robot to maintain flight. But to get the bot into the air, an alternating frequency of 310Hz has to join in. When that frequency reaches 340Hz, the bot zooms skyward, and when the magnetic field is adjusted, so is the bot’s flight path.