3D printed synthetic tissue folds itself into shapes
From David Pescovitz on BoingBoing:
University of Oxford chemists custom-built a 3D printer that fabricates “synthetic tissue,” or rather structures with tissue-like functions. Eventually, the technology could be used to crank out replacement tissue that could replace damaged human tissue or be used in new drug delivery systems. The material consist of a network of water droplets encapsulated in lipids, or fat molecules.
“The droplets… form pathways through the network that mimic nerves and are able to transmit electrical signals from one side of a network to the other,” says Oxford University chemistry professor Hagan Bayley.
Amazingly, the material can be chemically “programmed” to fold into various shapes as water is transferred around in the network.
[via boingboing] [paper] [University of Oxford]
Scottish Scientists 3D-Print Embryonic Stem Cells: Next Stop, Lab-Grown Organs
A team at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, Scotland has developed a method for 3D-printing clusters of human embryonic stem cells in a variety of sizes. Researchers have successfully printed 3D cells before, but this is the first time that embryonic cell cultures, which are especially delicate, have been built in three dimensions. Human embryonic stem cells can replicate almost any type of tissue in the human body — and the scientists at Heriot-Watt believe that lab-made versions could one day be used to make organ transplants, thereby rendering donors unnecessary. In the nearer future, 3D-printed stem cells could be used to make human tissue models for drug testing; effectively eliminating the need for animal testing.
(via Scientists 3D-print embryonic stem cells, pave the way for lab-made organ transplants)
Advances in Absorbent Materials Makes Direct Capture of CO2 from Air Economically Feasible
With a series of papers published in chemistry and chemical engineering journals, researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology have advanced the case for extracting carbon dioxide directly from the air using newly developed adsorbent materials.
The technique might initially be used to supply carbon dioxide for such industrial applications as fuel production from algae or enhanced oil recovery. But the method could later be used to supplement the capture of CO2 from power plant flue gases as part of efforts to reduce concentrations of the atmospheric warming chemical.(via http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news-Capturing-CO2-from-Air-is-Possible-072412.aspx ht laboratoryequipment)
The Future is ours
via io9:
Filmmaker Michael Marantz has just released The Future is Ours, a rousing two-minute tribute to the people and companies pushing humanity forward. Full screen, HD, headphones if you’ve got ‘em. Fair warning: this will, at a minimum, give you chills — but don’t be surprised if you feel your eyes start to well up.
[via] [by Michael Marantz]
![joshbyard:
“Google and Stanford have created the [digital equivalent of the] visual cortex of an infant human”
Jeff Dean and his team from Google, working with Andrew Ng and Quoc Le from Stanford University, have effectively created a rudimentary, low-resolution digital version of the brain’s visual cortex.
The system, which comprises of a cluster of 1,000 computers (totaling 16,000 processor cores), analyzes 10 million 200×200 still frames from YouTube. Over 3 days, the system’s software builds up a network of hundreds of neurons and thousands (millions?) of synapses. During this period, the system tries to identify features — edges, lines, colors — and then creates object categories based on these features.
The rather intriguing result is that, when the system looks at an image of a cat, a specific (digital) neuron fires — just like in a human brain. Watching the system in action — watching the neurons light up — is almost like performing a virtual, digital MRI scan. In the picture below, you can see the contents of the “human face” neuron, alongside some of the stimuli that successfully trigger the neuron.
(via Google and Stanford create a digital brain that, like an infant, learns to identify a human face from scratch | ExtremeTech)](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m68od0U8Wt1qgpcs1o1_500.jpg)
“Google and Stanford have created the [digital equivalent of the] visual cortex of an infant human”
Jeff Dean and his team from Google, working with Andrew Ng and Quoc Le from Stanford University, have effectively created a rudimentary, low-resolution digital version of the brain’s visual cortex.
The system, which comprises of a cluster of 1,000 computers (totaling 16,000 processor cores), analyzes 10 million 200×200 still frames from YouTube. Over 3 days, the system’s software builds up a network of hundreds of neurons and thousands (millions?) of synapses. During this period, the system tries to identify features — edges, lines, colors — and then creates object categories based on these features.
The rather intriguing result is that, when the system looks at an image of a cat, a specific (digital) neuron fires — just like in a human brain. Watching the system in action — watching the neurons light up — is almost like performing a virtual, digital MRI scan. In the picture below, you can see the contents of the “human face” neuron, alongside some of the stimuli that successfully trigger the neuron.
Playing God - A BBC Documentary About Genetic Engineering (Watch full online)
With great power comes great responsibility. Join Adam Rutherford in this full-hour exploration (The whole thing! Online!) of the progress and perils of our ability to cut and splice the very fabric of life on command.
“Life itself has become a programmable machine.”
That statement is a bit of an exaggeration, maybe, but certainly genes, DNA, etc. (the stuff that life is made of) can be synthesized, cut and glued back together with such ease these days that a first-week undergrad can do it (even without help from a seasoned veteran biologist such as myself). You could do it in your garage if you wanted. And where the genetic engineering of yesterday was all about putting a gene or two from one organism into another (like this paper, the precursor to Monsanto’s methods), the ease and cheapness of manipulating the tools of synthetic biology create an infinite pool of possibilities for completely human-designed life forms.
Rest easy, though. When it comes to completely synthetic life, we are still looking at a field in its infancy. Although smart dudes like Craig Venter have succeeded in creating a completely synthetic bacterium, it is an enormously difficult, sensitive and expensive thing to do. I really can’t emphasize how difficult it is, actually. But now is the time, in the early days of meaningful synthetic biology, as prices drop and methods improve, to ask ourselves what is appropriate and what is not.
This will be a global question, and a difficult one. For every drought-resistant strain of wheat that allows us to feed millions of starving children, we can not create another seed monopoly that promotes irresponsible use of herbicides. How do we ensure that the methods used to make plastic-producing bacteria are not the same methods that can produce dangerous bioterrorism strains? How do you feel about having “biohackers” able to order genes and bacteria at will, maybe around the corner from where you live?
Scientists will need to have open discussions. Nonscientists will have to be part of that discussion. This documentary is a must-watch for anyone who wants to know where the future of synthetic biology is headed.
(via EvolutionDocumentary)
Quantum Levitation at the World Science Festival
via popsci:
Enthusiastic crowds jostled to get a better view of the quantum levitation display at Innovation Square on Saturday, a day-long celebration of science held at MetroTech Plaza in Brooklyn as part of the World Science Festival. Run by Boaz Almog, an inventor and physicist at Tel Aviv University, it was the first public demonstration of its kind in the U.S. and by far one of the most popular events at the Square. Almog carefully dunked puck-sized discs into jars of liquid nitrogen and allowed onlookers to nudge them into hovering orbits. To the touch, the disc felt like a rough piece of ice. […] Beyond the science fiction aesthetic of the display, Almog expects quantum levitation to have many practical consequences, such as levitating trains and more efficient communication systems. And, we hope, hoverboards.
Scientists Create the Smallest Possible Five-Ringed Molecule, Photograph It, and Call It Olympicene
A collaboration between the Royal Society of Chemistry, the University of Warwick and IBM has allowed scientists to bring a single 5-ringed molecule to life in a picture, using a combination of clever synthetic chemistry and state-of-the-art imaging techniques.
Once just a doodle on a piece of paper by an RSC scientist, the molecule has been imaged for the first time at an unprecedented resolution using a complex technique known as non-contact atomic force microscopy.
Known as olympicene it is related to single-layer graphite, also known as graphene, and is one of a number of related compounds which potentially have interesting electronic and optical properties, potentially for the next generation of solar cells and high-tech lighting sources such as LEDs.
[via popsci] [IBM press release] [more images]
