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Apr 25, 2019

New Lifelike Biomaterial Self-Reproduces and Has a Metabolism

Posted by in categories: food, robotics/AI

Sound familiar? The team basically built molecular devices that “die” without “food.” Thanks to the laws of thermodynamics (hey ya, Newton!), that energy eventually dissipates, and the shapes automatically begin to break down, completing an artificial “circle of life.”

The new study took the system one step further: rather than just mimicking synthesis, they completed the circle by coupling the building process with dissipative assembly.

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Apr 25, 2019

This 90-Million-Year-Old Crab Chimera Is a Beautiful Mess of an Animal

Posted by in category: futurism

Scientists have discovered a new species of crab that swam the seas 95 million years ago — and behold, it could be the next Pixar character.

The small, pocket-size crab, named Callichimaera perplexa, was different than its modern cousins.

This crab sported a tiny lobster-esque shell, with legs flattened like oars, and huge Pound Puppies-style peepers that protruded from its head — a trait that indicates the creature used its eyes actively for whatever it did, researchers said.

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Apr 25, 2019

New nanomedicine slips through the cracks

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, genetics, nanotechnology, neuroscience

In a recent study in mice, researchers found a way to deliver specific drugs to parts of the body that are exceptionally difficult to access. Their Y-shaped block catiomer (YBC) binds with certain therapeutic materials forming a package 18 nanometers wide. The package is less than one-fifth the size of those produced in previous studies, so it can pass through much smaller gaps. This allows YBCs to slip through tight barriers in cancers of the brain or pancreas.

The fight against cancer is fought on many fronts. One promising field is gene therapy, which targets genetic causes of diseases to reduce their effect. The idea is to inject a nucleic acid-based drug into the bloodstream—typically small interfering RNA (siRNA)—which binds to a specific problem-causing gene and deactivates it. However, siRNA is very fragile and needs to be protected within a nanoparticle or it breaks down before reaching its target.

“siRNA can switch off specific gene expressions that may cause harm. They are the next generation of biopharmaceuticals that could treat various intractable diseases, including cancer,” explained Associate Professor Kanjiro Miyata of the University of Tokyo, who jointly supervised the study. “However, siRNA is easily eliminated from the body by enzymatic degradation or excretion. Clearly a new delivery method was called for.”

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Apr 25, 2019

Tesla has achieved one of its biggest goals

Posted by in categories: sustainability, transportation

Tesla has begun delivering the $35,000, base-priced version of its Model 3 sedan, three customers have told Business Insider. Electrek first reported on April 15 that Tesla had started delivering the $35,000 Model 3, known as the standard-range trim.

The beginning of standard-range Model 3 deliveries is a landmark for Tesla, but the electric-car maker has been unusually quiet about it. While Tesla posted on its website and social media accounts when it began allowing customers to order the standard-range trim in February, the company has only made reference to the beginning of deliveries near the bottom of an April 11 blog post about an update to its product offerings.

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Apr 25, 2019

The Origin of Consciousness

Posted by in category: neuroscience

How unaware things became aware.

Support Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell on Patreon so they can make more videos (and get cool stuff in return): https://www.patreon.com/Kurzgesagt?ty=h

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Apr 25, 2019

Scientists crack chemical code of incredibly complex ‘anti-tumor antibiotic’

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, innovation

After 20 years of dedicated research, scientists have cracked the chemical code of an incredibly complex ‘anti-tumor antibiotic’ known to be highly effective against cancer cells as well as drug-resistant bacteria, and have reproduced it synthetically in the lab for the first time.

This major breakthrough and world-first could hail a new era in the design and production of new antibiotics and anticancer agents.

The ‘super substance’ — kedarcidin — was discovered in its natural form by a pharmaceutical company when they extracted it from a soil sample in India almost 30-years-ago. Soil is the natural source of all antibiotics developed since the 1940s but in order for them to be developed as potential drug treatments they must be produced via chemical synthesis.

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Apr 25, 2019

Brains of blind people adapt to sharpen sense of hearing, study shows

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, neuroscience

Now, a pair of research papers published the week of April 22 from the University of Washington — one in the Journal of Neuroscience, the other in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences — use functional MRI to identify two differences in the brains of blind individuals that might be responsible for their abilities to make better use of auditory information.

“There’s this idea that blind people are good at auditory tasks, because they have to make their way in the world without visual information. We wanted to explore how this happens in the brain,” said Ione Fine, a UW professor of psychology and the senior author on both studies.

Instead of simply looking to see which parts of the brain were most active while listening, both studies examined the sensitivity of the brain to subtle differences in auditory frequency.

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Apr 25, 2019

What Happens Underwater During a Tidal Wave?

Posted by in category: futurism

We’ve seen the destruction a powerful tidal wave can cause above water. But what happens underwater?

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Apr 25, 2019

There’s a new $200,000,000 ‘Vessel’ building in NYC

Posted by in category: habitats

The ‘Vessel’ says it owns every photo taken on the grounds.

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Apr 25, 2019

Researchers use 3D printer to print glass

Posted by in categories: 3D printing, biotech/medical

For the first time, researchers have successfully 3D printed chalcogenide glass, a unique material used to make optical components that operate at mid-infrared wavelengths. The ability to 3D print this glass could make it possible to manufacture complex glass components and optical fibers for new types of low-cost sensors, telecommunications components and biomedical devices.

In The Optical Society (OSA) journal Optical Materials Express, researchers from the Centre d’Optique, Photonique et Laser (COPL) at Université Laval in Canada, Patrick Larochelle and his colleagues, describe how they modified a commercially available 3D printer for glass extrusion. The new method is based on the commonly used technique of fused deposition modeling, in which a plastic filament is melted and then extruded layer-by-layer to create detailed 3D objects.

“3D printing of optical materials will pave the way for a new era of designing and combining materials to produce the photonic components and fibers of the future,” said Yannick Ledemi, a member of the research team. “This new method could potentially result in a breakthrough for efficient manufacturing of infrared optical components at a low cost.”

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