That‘s Cool News | A weekly breakdown of positive Science & Tech news.

140. Medical AI Chatbot, Solving Rheumatoid Arthritis, Getting to Mars in 45 Days (Engine Concept)

Headlines:
Google Research and DeepMind develop AI medical chatbot | Digital Health (01:25)
MIT researchers develop an AI model that can detect future lung cancer risk | MIT news (09:22)
Major breakthrough as scientists produce first-ever rheumatoid arthritis gene therapy | Brighter Side News (18:54)
New Nanoparticles Deliver Therapy Brain-Wide and Edit Alzheimer’s Gene | Neuroscience News (24:02)
NASA nuclear propulsion concept could reach Mars in just 45 days | Interesting Engineering (31:10)

139. Competing with ChatGPT, Building Objects in Space, Affecting Brain Health With The Gut

Notes:
Anthropic’s Claude improves on ChatGPT but still suffers from limitations | TechCrunch (01:10)
A startup co-founded by ex-OpenAI employees called Anthropic has raised over $700 million in funding to date, and has developed an AI system similar to OpenAI’s ChatGPT.System is called Claude and is accessible through a Slack integration as part of a closed beta
Developed with a technique call constitutional AI
The company explains:This learning is a principle based approach  to aligning AI systems with human intentions, letting AI similar to ChatGPT respond to questions using a simple set of principles as a guide.
Anthropic started with a list of around ten private principles that formed the constitution in the AI.  
The company says the principles are grounded in the concepts of beneficence (maximizing positive impact), nonmaleficence (avoiding giving harmful advice) and autonomy (respecting freedom of choice).
Claude is fed an enormous number of examples of text from the web, and learns how likely words are to occur based on patterns such as the semantic context of surrounding text.Therefore it can hold an open-ended conversation, tell jokes and be philosophical, etc. 
Yann Dubois, a Ph.D. student at Stanford’s AI Lab, also did a comparison of Claude and ChatGPT, writing that Claude “generally follows closer [to] what it’s asked for” but is “less concise,” as it tends to explain what it said and ask how it can further help.
Claude isn’t perfect, however. It’s susceptible to some of the same flaws as ChatGPT, including giving answers that aren’t in keeping with its programmed constraints.Flaw example: asking the system in Base64, an encoding scheme that represents binary data in ASCII format, bypasses its built-in filters for harmful content.
Anthropic says that it plans to refine Claude and potentially open the beta to more people down the line.
The first CRISPR gene-edited meat is coming—and this is the CEO making sci-fi a reality | FastCompany (11:09)
Joshua March is the CEO of SciFi Foods who are using CRISPR to hasten its advances.The gene-editing technology
According to the Good Food Institute, there are 152 cultivated meat companies as of the end of 2022, operating in 29 countries.SciFi Foods is different because of the fact they are using CRISPR
March got into the cultivated meats a reality because of these companies:“​​I honestly became pretty disenchanted with the companies in the space and all the arm waving about how the costs would be solved.”
For their meat creation they have a simple process that sounds like natural selection:The key is engineering cycles that enable rapid prototyping. 
The best cell lines will go on to create the next round of modifications.
Cost parity with traditional meat is every lab grown meat founder’s goal, one that sets a seemingly unattainable target. 2022 - the average price of ground beef was $4.81/lb
SciFi is betting that the only way to economically scale cultivated meat is with CRISPR, and that by making iterative tweaks they can create dependable cell lines with rich, meat-y flavor. CEO March stated, “We have an eventual target of $1 per burger at commercial scale.”
Once harvested, beef cells will be formulated into a blended burger that is mostly like the plant-based burgers you may already know—soy protein and coconut oil.Adding a small percentage of SciFi cells (5% to 20%, according to March) to give “beefy” notes.
According to the Good Food Institute, $2.6 billion has been invested in these alternative proteins since 2010. 
ISS astronauts are building objects not possible on Earth | Popular Science (20:49)
Aboard the International Space Station (ISS) right now is a metal box, the size of a desktop PC tower.Inside, a nozzle is helping build little test parts that aren’t possible to make on Earth. 
Fail under Earth’s gravity.
The Box is scheduled to spend 45 days aboard the ISS
The MIT group behind this process explains it’ll be the “first results for a really novel process in microgravity.” It involves taking a flexible silicone skin, shaped like the part it will eventually create, and filling it with a liquid resin. 
Like how you fill a balloon with air, this will just be resin
The resin is sensitive to ultraviolet light. Once UV light reaches the resin it’ll cure and stiffen, hardening into a solid structure.
Remove the skin and you have your part
If everything is successful, the ISS will ship some experimental parts back to Earth for the MIT researchers to test. Ensuring that the parts they’ve made are structurally sound.
The benefit of building parts like this in orbit is that Earth’s single most fundamental stressor—the planet’s gravity—is no longer a limiting factor. If the experiment is successful, you would be able to produce test parts that are too long to make on Earth.
Long-term thinking, if astronauts can make very long parts in space, those pieces could  speed up large construction projects, such as the structures of space habitats. used to form the structural frames for solar panels or radiators
Another benefit if you can make stuff in space means less things you need to pack into your rocket Every pound of cargo can still cost over $1,000 to put into space.
Ultimately the MIT group wants to “make this manufacturing process available and accessible to other researchers.”
 
3D printing reaches new heights with two-story home | Nasdaq (25:39)
A 3D printer weighing more than 12 tons is creating what is believed to be the first 3D-printed, two-story home in the United States.Producing layers of concrete to build the 4,000-square-foot home in Houston.
Construction will take a total of 330 hours of printing
The project is a two-year collaboration by Hannah, Peri 3D Construction and Cive, a construction engineering company.
Hikmat Zerbe, Cive's head of structural engineering, hopes the innovative technique can one day help more quickly and cheaply build multi-family homes.
Zerbe talks on the newest for the construction industry:“Traditional construction, you know the rules, you know the game, you know the material properties, the material behavior. In here, everything is new … The material is new, although concrete is an old material in general, but 3D printing concrete is something new.”
Since the printer does all the heavy lifting, less workers are needed at the construction site.
Gut Bacteria Affect Brain Health | Neuroscience News (31:39)
A growing pile of evidence indicates that the tens of trillions of microbes that normally live in our gut microbiome have far-reaching effects on how our bodies function. Produce vitamins, 
Help digest food,
Prevent the overgrowth of harmful bacteria 
Regulate the immune system
According to researchers from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, findings from a new study suggests that the gut microbiome also plays a key role in the health of our brains.
To determine whether the gut microbiome may be playing a causal role, the researchers altered the gut microbiomes of mice.Mice were genetically modified to more likely develop Alzheimer’s-like brain damage and cognitive impairment.
The mice were given a course of antibiotics at 2 weeks of age, permanently changing the composition of bacteria in their microbiomes. For male mice, it reduced the amount of brain damage evident at 40 weeks of age.
No significant effect on neurodegeneration in female mice.
From other studies we know that male and female brains respond differently to different stimuli.For instance visual stimuli.
The composition of our brains are different as well.
Further experiments linked three specific short-chain fatty acids — compounds produced by certain types of gut bacteria as products of their metabolism — to neurodegeneration.Were scarce in mice with gut microbiomes altered by antibiotic treatment
They appeared to trigger neurodegeneration by activating immune cells in the bloodstream, which in turn activated immune cells in the brain to damage brain tissue. 
The findings suggest a new approach to preventing and treating neurodegenerative diseases by modifying the gut microbiome with antibiotics, probiotics, specialized diets or other means.

138. AI-Voiced Audiobooks, Protein Created Out of Thin Air, Supersonic Shock Absorbing Gel

Notes:
Death of the narrator? Apple unveils suite of AI-voiced audiobooks | The Guardian (01:14)
Apple has quietly launched a catalog of books narrated by artificial intelligence in a move that may mark the beginning of the end for human narrators.
The audiobook market has exploded in recent yearSales last year jumped 25%, bringing in more than $1.5bn
Insiders believe the global market could be worth more than $35bn by 2030.
In recent months, Apple approached independent publishers as potential partners, but not all agreed to participate.Publishers involved in the project were required to sign non-disclosure agreements
This comes directly from Apple’s site on digital narration:“Apple Books digital narration brings together advanced speech synthesis technology with important work by teams of linguists, quality control specialists, and audio engineers to produce high-quality audiobooks from an ebook file.”
More information that is of interest on their site:Distribution solely via Apple Books and to public/academic libraries 
Publisher/author retains audiobook rights, and there are no restrictions on producing and distributing other versions of the audiobook 
Some don’t see the point of AI narration, and that audiobooks are not all about rapidly producing the content, take Carly Watters statement for instance:“Companies see the audiobooks market and that there’s money to be made. They want to make content. But that’s all it is. It’s not what customers want to listen to. There’s so much value in the narration and the storytelling.”
Producing an audiobook with a human voice can take weeks and can cost publishers thousands of dollars. The draw of AI promises to significantly cut the costs.
Apple’s launch into AI audiobooks is rather interesting especially with the battle going on with Spotify in the recent months.Spotify announced plans to bring 300,000 audiobook titles to customers, and has clashed with Apple over app store policies after its own app was rejected three times.
First "virovore" discovered: An organism that eats viruses | New Atlas (11:21)
Researcher John DeLong at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln wanted to find out if there were any microbes which actively ate viruses.Could a microbe exist on a diet of viruses?
They do contain stuff like nucleic acids, a lot of nitrogen and phosphorous
Virus exclusive diet termed “virovory.”
DeLong and his team collected samples of pond water, isolated different microbes, and then added large amounts of chlorovirus, a freshwater inhabitant that infects green algae.The team tracked the population size of the viruses and the other microbes
And sure enough, one particular microbe seemed to be snacking on the viruses – a ciliate known as Halteria.Ciliates are single-celled organisms that, at some stage in their life cycle, possess cilia, short hairlike organelles used for locomotion and food gathering.
Halteria populations grew by about 15 times within two days, while chlorovirus levels dropped 100-fold.
These viruses play an important part in shaping freshwater environments in the way that they recycle carbon and other nutrients and this recycling can prevent the energy from reaching other, larger forms of life. If something is consuming these viruses then that means those nutrients get passed up the food chain instead of being recycled
The researchers plan to go back to the pond to see if virovory is occurring in the wild, not just a lab setting.
This startup makes high-tech protein from thin air by using solar energy | Interesting Engineering (15:21)
A Finnish food tech company, Solar Foods, has created an alternative protein - made of microbes cultured with electricity and air.Now in 2023, they plan to build its first commercial-scale factory near Helsinki, Finland, that can make food directly from carbon dioxide
Alternative protein = Solein, tested in a pilot factory for two years.It resembles yellow powder that can be added to food. 
Pasi Vainikka, CEO of Solar Foods, told New Scientist that the factory will be able to produce 100 tons per year, which will suffice for four or five million meals.
Recently, Business Finland approved a €34 million grant funding to Solar Foods, making it the largest public grant funding for cellular agriculture in the world.
Vainikka told Food Matters Live:“We are here to replace animal-based nutrition, that’s the big mission I would say, for all plant-based and similar companies … The problem in the food system is, broadly speaking, [using] animals and industrialized animal keeping. Like it or not, it’s a fact. Growing and harvesting that kind of nourishment with significantly fewer resources [and without animals] is what we’re doing." 
Created by first selecting a soil sample that is examined for “best-quality organisms”. The suitable microbes are then placed in a bioreactor where gas fermentation occurs.
It feeds on dissolved hydrogen, and carbon dioxide is split from water by electricity during the process. 
Provided with mineral nutrients that permit it to make amino acids, carbohydrates, lipids, and vitamins. 
Effects of formerly incurable liver disease may be reversed with drug | Jpost (22:56)
A drug may have been found to combat the effects of Alagille syndrome, which has been considered to be an incurable liver disease. 
Alagille syndrome is a genetic syndrome that can affect the liver and other parts of the body. The liver problems result from having fewer small bile ducts than normal in the liver.
Leading to bile building-up inside the liver, which in turn causes liver scarring and damage.
Affects more than 4,000 babies that are born every year.
A drug known as NoRA1 activates the Notch pathway that helps orchestrate fundamental biological processes. In the liver, the Notch pathway plays a role in the development and maintenance of the liver during embryonic development and in the adult liver.
Dysregulation of the Notch pathway has been implicated in the development of liver cancer and other liver diseases. 
Animals with mutations in the same gene affected in Alagille see the NoRA1 drug increasing the Notch signaling and triggering duct cells to regenerate in the liver. Important because it could reverse liver damage.
This New Shock-Absorbing Gel Can Withstand Supersonic Impacts | Smithsonian Magazine (26:33)
Current problems with Body Armor:Doesn’t absorb a projectile’s kinetic energy
Bulky
One time use once struck with a projectile
Researchers at the University of Kent in England may have developed a promising new solution to these problems.Using a protein called talin, scientists have created a material that can absorb the impact of projectiles—even those flying faster than the speed of sound.
Acts a natural shock absorber
Talin molecules contain structures that, when put under tension, unfold and stretch out. Once the tension is released, they fold back up again. Can do this shock-absorbing maneuver over and over without harming the cell.
Testing the effectiveness:Scientists placed the gel on an aluminum plate and fired tiny basalt (type of rock) particles and larger bits of aluminum at it.
Small projectiles traveled at speeds of more than 3,350 miles per hour (3x the speed of a handgun bullet)
It absorbed the projectile's shockwave, successfully protected the plate, and captured the particles without destroying them.
Paper co-author Jennifer Hiscock stating:“Our material perfectly caught and ‘cuddled’ with the projectile … keeping it beautifully preserved.”
Plenty of expected uses and unexpected:Stop a bullet without destroying it
Capturing space debris—without destroying it. 
Maybe one day reap the shock-absorbing benefits of talin in their running shoes, vehicle bumpers and cell phone cases.

137. Synthetic Gas Factory, Curing Bubble-Boy Disease, Alzheimer’s Blood Test

Porsche’s synthetic gasoline factory comes online today in Chile | Ars Technica (01:07)
A Chilean startup called Highly Innovative Fuels officially opened its first synthetic gasoline production facility.  Result of a collaboration between the automaker Porsche, Siemens Energy, Exxon Mobil, Enel Green Power, the Chilean state energy company ENAP, and Empresas Gasco. 
What is synthetic fuel or synfuel?
A feedstock is a raw material that is used as a source of energy or as a starting material for the production of a product.
A type of fuel that is made from synthetic hydrocarbons
Typically produced from coal, natural gas, or biomass through a process known as the Fischer-Tropsch process. 
Synthetic fuel is a direct drop-in for pump gasoline
Initially, the site will produce around 34,000 gallons (130,000 L) a year, Scaling up to 14.5 million gallons (55 million L) a year by 2024.
Plans to increase that tenfold to 145 million gallons (550 million L) a year by 2026. 
The site, located in Punta Arenas in Southern Chile, will use wind to power the processThe area sees high winds roughly 270 days a year, and a wind turbine can expect to produce up to four times as much energy as one in Europe.
Conversion process of the plant:The e-fuel plant will use wind power to electrolyze water into hydrogen and oxygen. 
The hydrogen is then combined with carbon captured from the air or industrial sources to synthesize methanol.
The methanol in turn can then be converted into longer hydrocarbons to be used as fuel.
HIF has long-term plans to build out 12 synthetic fuel plants worldwide, including locations in the US and Australia, with a goal of each site capturing 2 million metric tons of CO2 per year.Could be an incentive for CO2 capture!
It is NOT CHEAPAt current prices, it works out to around $8 per gallon ($2/L), although that obviously doesn't include any taxes or duties
NASA Discovers Pair of Super-Earths With 1,000-Mile-Deep Oceans | SciTechDaily (08:24)
Astronomers have uncovered a pair of planets that are water worlds unlike any planet found in our solar system.Slightly larger than Earth, they don’t have the density of rock, but they are denser than gas giants in our solar system
What are they made of? The best answer is that these exoplanets have global oceans at least 500 times deeper than the average depth of Earth’s oceans, which simply are a wet veneer on a rocky ball.
They orbit the red dwarf star Kepler-138, located 218 light-years away in the constellation Lyra.Called Kepler-138 c and Kepler-138 d
Planets were initially found in 2014 with NASA’s Kepler Space Observatory. 
But with follow-up observations with the Spitzer and Hubble space telescopes they found that the planets must be composed largely of water. 
The discovery was made by a team of researchers at the University of Montreal lead by Caroline Piaulet.By comparing the sizes and masses of the planets to models, the astronomers concluded that a significant fraction of their volume should be made of materials that are lighter than rock but heavier than hydrogen or helium.
Most common being water. 
The closest size comparison, say researchers, would be some of the icy moons in the outer solar system (i.e. Europa, Enceladus) that are also largely composed of water surrounding a rocky core.
But don’t expect the water to be the same as the water you see here. According to Piaulet:“The temperature in Kepler-138 d’s atmosphere is likely above the boiling point of water, and we expect a thick dense atmosphere made of steam on this planet. Only under that steam atmosphere there could potentially be liquid water at high pressure, or even water in another phase that occurs at high pressures, called a supercritical fluid.”
A supercritical fluid is a substance that is in a state between a gas and a liquid and exhibits unique properties that are intermediate between the two phases. (Not a pressure to be solid)
Gene therapy cures kids with rare “bubble-boy” disease in new trial | New Atlas (12:18)
A rare genetic disease, called Severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID), renders children without a functioning immune system from birth has been effectively cured by an experimental gene therapy. SCID is a collection of genetic diseases that result in impaired immune functions. 
Informally known as the "bubble-boy" disease
The study is reporting on the first 10 children treated with the therapy, all of whom are now healthy and living normal lives.
The two most common forms of SCID – X-SCID and ADA-SCID – have been successfully treated with an experimental gene therapy.The patient's bone marrow stem cells are harvested, modified with a healthy copy of the targeted gene, and then infused back into their bodies.
This form of gene therapy uses a modified virus to deliver its healthy gene payload.
Sometimes cancerous side effects.
Because those viruses can only enter a cell's nuclei when it's dividing they can potentially generate adverse side effects. 
Many researchers have shifted to using modified lentiviruses as the optimal viral vector for gene therapies.Enter the nuclei of non-dividing cells meaning they should be safer and more effective.
In 2021, a more long-term study tracking 50 children with ADA-SCID treated with lentiviral gene therapy found every subject was alive and healthy three years later.
The 10 children in this latest study were treated for ART-SCID, which is an extremely rare version of SCID and difficult to treat. Over two years after the initial treatment all 10 children are reported as healthy and living normal lives.
Jennifer Puck, co-lead investigator on the study, discusses the results:“All of the results are better than those previously seen with Artemis-SCID patients who received donor bone marrow transplants … Having patients in the trial achieve full T-cell immunity is outstanding. B-cell recovery takes longer, but so far it looks as if the patients also have a far better chance for B-cell reconstitution than they would with a regular bone marrow transplant. Successfully using less chemotherapy is also a big win, minimizing the harmful side effects of full dose busulfan in small infants.”
Larger studies are needed (as always), but the results are extraordinarily promising, pointing to a future where this genetic disease can be cured soon after birth.
Proof-of-concept drone flight delivers transplant lung to patient in Toronto | TechXplore (17:37)
A team of researchers have demonstrated the feasibility of using drones to carry human organs for transplantation to nearby locales.  A drone carried a human lung donated by a deceased patient at one hospital in downtown Toronto, Canada, to another patient needing a new lung waiting in another hospital, also in downtown Toronto.
This feasibility study was meant to test the use of drones for carrying donated organs on a regular basis.Drone used was the Chinese-made M600 Pro
Added new electronics designed specifically for strong connectivity—the drone is steered on its path by a human pilot.
Added a parachute, lights, several cameras, GPS trackers and a recovery system.
Finally, they removed the landing gear and replaced it with a container box specifically designed to keep organs cool during transport.
They had the drone carry objects from point to point, testing all of its features. After 400 such test flights, they deemed their drone ready
The proof-of-concept flight:Took off from Toronto Western Hospital with the drone carrying a donated lung
Flew to Toronto General Hospital, just two kilometers away
The lung was delivered and safely implanted into the waiting patient. 
The researchers suggest their approach can be used for short-distance transfers in densely populated areas, such as across a city, greatly reducing delivery time.Ground vehicles can take a lot of time due to congestion and unforeseen tie-ups.
Blood test detects 'toxic' protein years before Alzheimer's symptoms emerge |  ScienceDaily (22:55)
Seeds of Alzheimer's are planted years -- even decades – before the cognitive impairments surface that make a diagnosis possible. Amyloid beta proteins that misfold and clump together, forming small aggregates called oligomers.
Those oligomers through a process scientists still do not understand become “toxic,” which then are thought of to cause Alzheimer's.
University of Washington researchers have developed a laboratory test that can measure levels of amyloid beta oligomers in blood samples. Detected in the blood of patients with Alzheimer's disease
But did not detect them in most members of a control group who showed no signs of cognitive impairment
Their test, known by the acronym SOBA, did detect oligomers in the blood of 11 individuals from the control group.10 of these individuals had follow-up examinations where all were diagnosed years later with mild cognitive impairment or brain pathology consistent with Alzheimer's disease.
 Senior author professor Valerie Daggett stated:“What clinicians and researchers have wanted is a reliable diagnostic test for Alzheimer's disease -- and not just an assay that confirms a diagnosis of Alzheimer's, but one that can also detect signs of the disease before cognitive impairment happens. That's important for individuals' health and for all the research into how toxic oligomers of amyloid beta go on and cause the damage that they do … What we show here is that SOBA may be the basis of such a test."
In the study, the team also showed that SOBA easily could be modified to detect toxic oligomers of another type of protein associated with Parkinson's disease and Lewy body dementia.
Dagget stating:"We are finding that many human diseases are associated with the accumulation of toxic oligomers that form these alpha sheet structures … Not just Alzheimer's, but also Parkinson's, type 2 diabetes and more. SOBA is picking up that unique alpha sheet structure, so we hope that this method can help in diagnosing and studying many other 'protein misfolding' diseases."

136. Overdose Stopping Compound, VR Haptic Hydrogel Skin, Fast Water-based Switch

Experimental compound shown to block effects of multiple harmful drugs | New Atlas (01:20)
Naloxone is a medication used to reverse or reduce the effects of opioids, which is commonly used to counter decreased breathing in an opioid overdose.
A new chemical shows promise for serving a similar role, but it also works on non-opioid drugs.Known as Pillar[6]MaxQ (P6AS)
It was developed at the University of Maryland, and it was recently tested on lab animals for the first time.
Once P6AS is injected into the bloodstream, it binds with the molecules of certain other compounds and sequesters them into its central cavity, where they're surrounded by an outer layer of water.Altering the bound compound’s chemical, physical and biological qualities.Resulting in blocking their effects on the body.
In the mice model tests, P6AS proved to be highly effective at mitigating the effects of fentanyl – which is an opioid – but also on methamphetamine, which is not.Additionally it showed to do well at neutralizing non-opioid drugs such as PCP, ecstasy and mephedrone.
Captured drug molecules were subsequently passed in the urine
It should be noted that in the case of methamphetamine dosing, P6AS had to be injected within five minutes in order to be effective. Would likely be too small of a window in the real world
The scientists are now working on lengthening those times, for opioids and non-opioids alike. It’ll be several years before P6AS is available for general use.
 
'Mars' interior is not behaving,' active mantle plume reveals | Live Science (06:30)
NASA's InSight mission has detected quakes and even evidence of recent volcanism around one Martian region, known as Elysium Planitia. Now, they think they know why this activity is occuring.
This study appears to be the first active mantle plume discovered on the Martian surface.Findings suggest that Mars may be cooling significantly more slowly than scientists had anticipated. 
Mars lacks separate tectonic plates; instead, its crust is a single continuous sheet sitting atop the mantle.Therefore scientists think the volcanic activity on Mars must be the result of mantle plumes.
Mantle plumes are columns of hot, rising material in the Earth's mantle that can cause volcanic activity and create hotspots on the Earth's surface.Mantle lies between the crust and the core.
In short this finding suggests that Mars is still cooling, just more gradually than scientists had assumed.
The study concludes by stating:“A plume beneath Elysium Planitia indicates that the surface volcanic flows and seismic activity are not isolated events, but part of a long-lived, actively sustained, regional system, with implications for the longevity and astrobiological potential of subsurface habitable environments.”
In other words, the presence of this regional system suggests that there may be areas below the surface of Mars that have conditions that could be suitable for life to exist.
 
Haptic hydrogel "skin" simulates touch in VR and AR | New Atlas (10:36)
Engineers at the City University of Hong Kong have developed a thin, wearable electronic "skin" that provides tactile feedback to users in VR and AR.Called WeTac
Most haptic feedback devices are big and bulky, and require complex setups and tangles of wires.WeTac system looks like one of the neatest iterations
The system is made of a rubbery hydrogel that sticks to the palm and front of the fingers, connected to a small battery and Bluetooth communication system located in a 5-cm2 (0.8-sq-in) patch on the forearm. That battery can be recharged wirelessly.
The hydrogel is dotted with 32 electrodes spread across the palm, thumb and fingers, and electrical currents are sent through these to produce tactile sensations.Can simulate a range of experiences: catching a tennis ball, feeling a virtual mouse walk across your hand, or a negative feedback such as touching a digital cactus.
Not interested in the video game applications, but this device could even help users remotely control robots, transmitting the tactile sensation of what the robot is grasping to its human operator.
 
Pill technology releases molecules by exposure to UV light | Brighter Side News (15:37)
Researchers from Tel Aviv University developed a new technology that will allow controlled encapsulation and release of molecules by exposure to UV light.
The researchers estimate that the technology will lead to further development of delivery systems for controlled release of biomolecules and drugs in the body by external stimuli, using light.
Development was inspired by viral compartments formed by the measles virus.The virus forms compartments that host all the reactions involved in the formation of new viral particles called viral factories. Dynamic and liquid-like structures that are formed inside the host cell
The researchers designed a peptide (short minimalistic protein) which forms compartments that resemble viral factories for encapsulation of biomolecules. 
Additionally, they incorporated a unique element to the peptide sequence that enables a control of the encapsulation and release of molecules by irradiating the compartments using UV light.
Dr. Ayala Lampel, who supervised this study stated on the potential of this technology:“This technology opens opportunities for biomedical and biotechnological applications including encapsulation, delivery and release of drugs, protein, antibodies or other therapeutic molecules.” 
 
A new water-based switch is thousands of times faster than current semiconductors | Interesting Engineering (21:04)
Researchers have developed a water-based switch that becomes conductive thousands of times faster than current state-of-art semiconductor-based switches. Used in computers, smartphones, and wireless communications.
Transistors are a crucial component in electronic devices because they can control the flow of electricity through a circuit, effectively acting as a switch. The building block of modern electronics, allowing for the amplification and switching of electronic signals.
The faster a transistor can switch, the faster a computer system can perform tasks.
To create this water-based switch:The researchers used a highly concentrated sodium iodide dissolved water and sprayed this salty water from a custom-made nozzle as a thin sheet only a few microns (micrometers) thick.
Next, the water jet was excited with a short but powerful laser pulse at 400 nanometers (nm).This bumps electrons out of the dissolved salts, increasing the conductivity of water.
Since the laser pulse is so fast, the water becomes conductive and behaves almost like a metal.
All of this happens in less than one trillionth of a second, which translates to potential computer speeds in the terahertz (THz) range.Making this water-based switch faster than the fastest semiconductor switching speed currently known.
Terahertz devices could someday enable much faster computing, and water-based technology could offer a more environmentally friendly alternative to rare-earth metals. 
 

135. ChatGPT The Advanced Chatbot, Paper-thin Solar Cell, AI Creating Code

What is ChatGPT and why does it matter? | ZDNET (00:57)
ChatGPT was created by OpenAI, an AI and research company. Launched on November 30, 2022. 
ChatGPT is a natural language processing tool driven by AI technology that allows you to have human-like conversations and much more with a chatbot.It answers questions and can assist you with tasks
Open to the public
“ChatGPT is scary good. We are not far from dangerously strong AI," said nonother than Elon Musk
Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, stated on twitter the success of their chatbot:“ChatGPT launched on wednesday. Today it crossed 1 million users!”
Altman tweeted that just 5 days after ChatGPT went online
One twitter thread that I’ve seen that shows the power of this sophisticated chatbot was posted by Ben Tossell (@bentossell)One tweet in the thread was a quote tweeting @jdjkelly post stating: “Google is done. Compare the quality of these responses (ChatGPT)”
The tweet has pictures comparing the question asked in Google Search and ChatGPT. GPT was straightforward, explained thoroughly, and had examples.
It should be noted when comparing GPT to a search engineChatGPT does not have the ability to search the internet for information and rather, uses the information it learned from training data to generate a response, which leaves room for error. 
One issue I have encountered with GPT is that the responses it generates are not always of high quality. Responses may sound plausible, but they lack practical sense or are overly verbose.
 
NASA’s TBIRD Mission Demonstrates 1.4TB Optical Downlink | Via Satellite (06:18)
NASA’s TBIRD mission recently achieved a record for optical communications in spaceThe satellite downlinked 1.4 terabytes of data over laser communications links in a single pass that lasted about five minutes.
TBIRD = TeraByte InfraRed Delivery
According to NASA, the goal of the TBIRD program was to “establish a communication link from a nanosatellite in low-Earth orbit to a ground station at burst rates up to 200 Gbps.”Built by the MIT Lincoln Laboratory 
Integrated into NASA’s Pathfinder Technology Demonstrator 3 Satellite (PTD-3)
NASA confirmed this amazing data transfer milestone on Twitter:“Our tiny TBIRD payload just achieved a major milestone! The @NASA_Technology mission downlinked a record-setting data volume of 1.4 terabytes over laser comm links in a single, ~5-minute pass. TBIRD is showing the benefits laser comm can have for missions.”
 
Paper-thin solar cell can turn any surface into a power source | TechXplore (09:34)
MIT engineers have developed ultralight fabric solar cells that can quickly and easily turn any surface into a power source.These durable, flexible solar cells are much thinner than a human hair.
Are glued to a strong, lightweight fabric, making them easy to install on a fixed surface.
Because they are so thin and lightweight, these solar cells can be laminated onto many different surfaces.Could be integrated onto the sails of a boat to provide power while at sea,
Adhered onto tents and tarps that are deployed in disaster recovery operations
Applied onto the wings of drones to extend their flying range. 
They are one-hundredth the weight of conventional solar panels, generate 18 times more power-per-kilogram, and are made from semiconducting inks.Uses printing processes that can be scaled in the future to large-area manufacturing.
When they tested the device, the MIT researchers found it could generate 730 watts of power per kilogram when freestanding and about 370 watts-per-kilogram if deployed on the high-strength fabric. 18 times more power-per-kilogram than conventional solar cells.
After rolling and unrolling a fabric solar panel more than 500 times, the researchers saw that the cells still retained more than 90 percent of their initial power generation.
Jeremiah Mwaura, a co-author on the study, explains why the team is looking at the encasing method next:“Encasing these solar cells in heavy glass, as is standard with the traditional silicon solar cells, would minimize the value of the present advancement, so the team is currently developing ultrathin packaging solutions that would only fractionally increase the weight of the present ultralight devices." 
 
Cheap sodium-sulfur battery boasts 4x the capacity of lithium-ion | New Atlas (16:21)
An international team of scientists eyeing next-generation energy storage solutions have demonstrated an eco-friendly and low-cost battery with some exciting potential.Sodium-sulfur battery design offers a fourfold increase on energy capacity compared to a typical lithium-ion battery
The creation falls into a category of batteries known as molten-salt batteries.Energy storage system that uses a molten salt electrolyte to store electrical energy.
Molten salt: Is solid at standard temperature and pressure but enters the liquid phase due to elevated temperature. Regular table salt has a melting point of 801 °C (1474°F).
These batteries are theoretically attractive for use in grid-scale energy storage systems. Capable of storing large amounts of energy for long periods of time
Also be discharged very quickly to meet sudden increases in demand. 
The research team set out to address a couple of shortcomings with current sodium-sulfur batteries:Short life cycles and limited capacities
The team’s design makes use of carbon-based electrodes and a thermal degradation process known as pyrolysis to alter the reactions between the sulfur and sodium.Pyrolysis: The thermal decomposition of materials at elevated temperatures in an inert atmosphere.
Result: a sodium-sulfur battery with a high capacity of 1,017 mAh/g  at room temperatureThe unit mAh/g stands for milliampere-hours per gram, and it is used to express the amount of electrical charge that a battery can store per unit of mass. 
Importantly, the battery demonstrated good stability and retained around half of this capacity after 1,000 cycles, described in the team’s paper as “unprecedented.”
End on a quote from lead researcher Dr Shenlong Zhao: “Our sodium battery has the potential to dramatically reduce costs while providing four times as much storage capacity … This is a significant breakthrough for renewable energy development which, although reduces costs in the long term, has had several financial barriers to entry.”
AlphaCode can solve complex problems and create code using AI | Interesting Engineering (22:33)
A novel system called AlphaCode, created by DeepMind,uses artificial intelligence (AI) to create computer code.Recently participated in programming competitions, using critical thinking, algorithms, and natural language comprehension.
The software generates code in Python or C++, while filtering out any bad coding. 
Generates code at an exceptional rate
The system was trained to solve problems and generate code solutions. It filters out bad code through a process that involves keeping only 1% of the programs that pass the test cases.
There are a few AI coding systems, with another well-known system for coders called Codex. Codex was created by OpenAI, the makers of DALL-E and ChatGPT.
Proficient in a dozen programming languages and powers GitHub copilot
 AlphaCode was created to assist programmers by generating code, while also solving more complicated problems.Trying to solve issues that arose in other AI coding systems, such as solving difficult problems that require analysis and logic on a deeper level.
 DeepMind discovered three key points that needed to be incorporated:An extensive and clean competitive programming dataset for training and evaluation, 
Large and efficient-to-sample transformer-based architectures, and large-scale model sampling to explore the search space, 
Followed by filtering based on program behavior to a small set of submissions
AlphaCode in the study, solved about 34.2% of the problems:“With up to a million samples per problem, we can solve 34.2% of problems in our validation set; and with one hundred thousand samples, we solve 31.8% of problems in our validation set”
DeepMind entered AlphaCode into online coding competitions. In competitions with 5000 programmers or more, AlphaCode ranked in the top 54.3%.
Yujia Li, a computer scientist at DeepMind and paper co-author stated:“AI coding might have applications beyond winning competitions … It could do software grunt work, freeing up developers to work at a higher, or more abstract level, or it could help noncoders create simple programs.”
  

134. Neuralink In Humans Next Year, Approaching Fusion Breakthrough, Hydrogen Jet Engine Test

Elon Musk says he's confident Neuralink will be ready to put chips into human brains in the next 6 months | Business Insider (00:51)
Neuralink hosted an event in California this past Wednesday (Nov. 30th), and Musk expects the wireless brain chip developed by Neuralink to begin human clinical trials in six months.
After the event on Twitter stating:“We are now confident that the Neuralink device is ready for humans, so timing is a function of working through the FDA approval process”
Neuralink has in recent years been conducting tests on animals as it seeks approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to begin clinical trials in people.At the event, they demonstrated the brain-computer interface technology by showing a video of a monkey apparently fitted with a Neuralink brain chip, "telepathically typing."
Neuralink's brain chip, which is around the size of a coin, has tiny wires embedded with electrodes that aim to monitor brain activity and electrically stimulate the brain. Goal to help treat a variety of conditions, such as neurological disorders, paralysis, and other conditions that affect the nervous system. 
Little skeptical of the 6 months timeline:Musk said in a 2019 presentation he was aiming to receive regulatory approval by the end of 2020. 
Then said at a conference in late 2021 that he hoped to start human trials this year (2022).
Elon does believe the progress will continue to more rapidly than before:“The progress at first, particularly as it applies to humans, will seem perhaps agonizingly slow, but we are doing all of the things to bring it to scale in parallel … So, in theory, progress should be exponential."
 
GM’s Cruise pursuing permit to test its custom-built ‘Origin’ robotaxi in San Francisco | TechCrunch (08:01)
Cruise, GM’s self-driving technology subsidiary, has started the regulatory process to test its next-generation “Origin” robotaxi on public roads in San Francisco.
The company applied for a permit with the California Department of Motor Vehicles to test its custom-built driverless vehicle on public roads. Already charging the public for rides in its autonomous Chevy Bolt EVs
The driverless Origin, the product of a multiyear collaboration with parent company GM and investor Honda that is designed for a ridesharing serviceHas no steering wheel or pedals and is designed to travel at highway speeds.
The Origin doesn’t meet a handful of federal motor vehicle safety standards (known as FMVSS) because it lacks certain parts like a steering wheel that are currently required in human-driven vehicles.Filed for temporary exemption 
Cruise has previously said it expects to begin production of the Origin in 2023, a date that gives some guidance on when the automaker expects to have an exemption and other permits that would allow it to ramp from testing to commercial operations.
 
Government Scientists ‘Approaching What is Required for Fusion’ in Breakthrough Energy Research | Vice (12:05)
Researchers have confirmed that magnetic fields can enhance the energy output of their experiments, reports a new study. Suggest that magnets may play a key role in the development of this futuristic form of power
Sort of knew the importance of magnets already since they are used to contain and control the plasma in a nuclear fusion reactor, preventing it from touching the walls of the and cooling down.
National Ignition Facility (NIF) scientists have reported that the magnetic fields can boost the temperature of the fusion “hot spot” in experiments by 40 percent and more than triple its energy output.“temperature approaching what is required for fusion ignition”
Remember, in a fusion reaction, hydrogen atoms are combined to form helium, releasing a large amount of energy. Can only take place at extremely high temperatures, on the order of millions of degrees Celsius. 
The hot spots in the NIF’s fusion experiments are created by shooting nearly 200 lasers at a tiny pellet of fuel made of heavier isotopes of hydrogen, such as deuterium and tritium. Isotope – variant of a chemical element that has the same number of protons in its nucleus, but a different number of neutrons
The lasers generate X-rays that make the small capsule implodeProducing extreme pressures and temperatures that are necessary for the isotopes to fuse together and release their enormous stores of energy. 
NIF has already brought their experiments to the brink of ignition.The point at which fusion reactions become self-sustaining in plasmas.
Achieving ignition is an important step toward creating a possible “breakeven” system that produces more energy output than input.
The advances at NIF, and at other fusion experiments around the world, can at times seem painstakingly incremental, but this slow progress may have an incalculable payoff down the line.
 
SpaceX Is Preparing to Launch The World's First Private Lunar Lander | ScienceAlert (17:47)
SpaceX is set to launch the first private – and Japanese – lander to the Moon.Scheduled for this past Wednesday and Thursday but was postponed 
According to SpaceX account on Twitter:“After further inspections of the launch vehicle and data review, we're standing down from [Thursday’s] launch of @ispace_inc's HAKUTO-R Mission 1; a new target launch date will be shared once confirmed."
Until now, only the United States, Russia, and China have managed to put a robot on the lunar surface.
The lander would touch down around April 2023 on the visible side of the Moon, in the Atlas crater.The mission, by Japanese company ispace, is the first of a program called Hakuto-R.
Carries on board a 10-kilogram rover named Rashid, built by the United Arab Emirates.
Ispace says it "aims to extend the sphere of human life into space and create a sustainable world by providing high-frequency, low-cost transportation services to the Moon".
World’s first test run of a hydrogen jet engine a success | The Verge (22:04)
Rolls-Royce and European airline easyJet announced that they’ve successfully tested a hydrogen jet engine.Hope to erase aviation’s greenhouse gas emissions
Rolls-Royce said in a press release: “[They] have set a new aviation milestone with the world’s first run of a modern aero engine on hydrogen.”
The two companies used a converted Rolls-Royce AE 2100-A regional aircraft engine for the ground test conducted in the UK. The hydrogen provided was made with wind and tidal power, it’s called green hydrogen.
A major hurdle for hydrogen-fueled flight, according to the International Air Transport Association, will be to introduce and certify new aircraft designs. Aircraft need to be redesigned to incorporate larger fuel tanks.
Need at least 4x larger tank, so shorter flights may be what green hydrogen will initially be most useful for.
Funny enough, easyJet, is primarily a short-haul airline
Rolls-Royce and easyJet are planning more ground tests before moving on to a longer-term ambition of carrying out flight tests.

133. Robots Building Robots, Amazon’s Health Care Push, Tesla’s FSD Beta Available Now

Researchers are building robots that can build themselves | Tech Crunch (00:52)
MIT researchers are working on a project to develop robots that effectively self-assemble.Team admits this technology is “years away”
Work so far has shown positive results
At the system’s center are voxels, which carry power and data that can be shared between pieces.
The pieces form the foundation of the robot by grabbing and attaching additional voxels before moving across the grid for further assembly.Currently working on building stronger connectors to keep the voxels together.
States in their paper:“Our approach challenges the convention that larger constructions need larger machines to build them, and could be applied in areas that today either require substantial capital investments for fixed infrastructure or are altogether unfeasible.”
The team suggests that using the robots to determine the optimal build could save on a lot of time spent prototyping.“While there has been increasing interest in 3-D-printed houses, today those require printing machinery as large or larger than the house being built. Again, the potential for such structures to instead be assembled by swarms of tiny robots could provide benefits. And the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is also interested in the work for the possibility of building structures for coastal protection against erosion and sea level rise.”
 
A game-changing new hybrid EV battery recharges in only 72 seconds | Interesting Engineering (06:03)
Swiss startup Morand, has developed new battery technology that could see electric vehicle (EV) batteries charge in less time than it takes to fill an internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicle at a gas station.  Called eTechnology
The new technology, which can charge electric cars in only 72 seconds, is a hybrid system that uses technology from traditional batteries and ultracapacitors.ULTRACAPACITORS deliver quick bursts of energy during peak power demands, then quickly store energy and capture excess power that is otherwise lost.
The startup says that, during testing, a prototype of its eTechnology solution was able to recharge at up to 900 A/360 kW:80 percent in just 72 seconds, 
98 percent in 120 seconds, and 
100 percent in 2.5 minutes. 
The company also states that Geo Technology performed independent testing.
Morand says it has tested its eTechnology prototype over more than 50,000 cycles and claims the technology shows potential for retaining power over far more charge/discharge cycles than a traditional lithium-ion battery.
The company is looking to bring the technology to market, no word on the exact date.It will likely be more expensive than lithium-ion battery technology, to begin with.
Morand aims to scale production to lower the cost of its potentially game-changing hybrid technology.
 
Amazon makes a new push into health care | The Economist (13:05)
Andy Jassy, CEO of Amazon, highlighted a big opportunity for the company moving forwards.Health care
Many tech firms are already diving into this health marketApple tracks wellbeing through the iPhone
Microsoft offers cloud-computing services to health firms
Alphabet sells wearable devices and is pumping money into biotech research
Amazon is taking a different route with Amazon Clinic, an online service operating in 32 states that offers virtual health care for over 20 conditions from acne to allergies.Described as a virtual storefront that connects users with third-party health providers.
The launch follows the $3.9bn takeover, announced in July, of One Medical, a primary care provider that offers telehealth services online and runs bricks-and-mortar clinics
Neil Linsday, formerly responsible for Prime,  has said health care “is high on the list of experiences that need reinvention”.
This is the latest move the complement previous moves Amazon has made into this space:2021: Amazon Web Services launched specific cloud services for health care
2020: Launched Halo band, which is a wearable device that monitors the user’s health status.
2018: Acquired PillPack, a digital pharmacy that is now part of Amazon Pharmacy
Amazon Clinic will accept cash for its services, rather than relying on America’s insurance system to recoup costs.The company is betting that primary care will become more digital. 
Amazon’s health push comes with several risks:
CVS  reportedly outbid Amazon for Signify Health, a large primary-care provider
Walgreens increased its stake in Villagemd
JPMorgan recently opened primary-care centers of its own
Previous track record in healthcare not 100% success (Amazon Care & Haven)
Competition:
Worst of all regulators
Amazon’s jump into this industry should have a positive effect. Its experience at keeping customers happy while generating thin margins could improve primary care and force other providers to up their game.
 
MRI reveals never-seen-before spaces in brains of migraine sufferers | New Atlas (19:49)
Though they are common and can have severely debilitating effects, the precise cause of migraines remains a mystery.From the web MD,  “Doctors aren’t totally sure what causes migraine headaches, but they think imbalances in certain brain chemicals may play a role.”
A study by researchers at the University of Southern California has shed important new light migraines by leveraging cutting-edge imaging technology to gain a new perspective on structures in the brain.Advanced imaging technology called 7T MRI
The research centers on what are known as perivascular spaces, which are gaps around the blood vessels that help clear fluids from the brain. The images of the brain revealed that those spaces were enlarged.
Inflammation and abnormalities in the blood-brain barrier can impact their shape and size.
The team enlisted five healthy controls, 10 subjects with chronic migraines and 10 subjects with episodic migraines without aura.Without aura means migraines without tingling and visual disturbances.
The 7T MRI images compared tiny differences in the participants’ brains.“Because 7T MRI is able to create images of the brain with much higher resolution and better quality than other MRI types, it can be used to demonstrate much smaller changes that happen in brain tissue after a migraine,” said study co-author Wilson Xu.
Among these changes were cerebral microbleeds, along with enlarged perivascular spaces in the centrum semiovale region of the brain, in the migraine sufferers.Centrum Semiovale – a mass consisting of white matter that is on top of the lateral ventricles or corpus collosum found in each of the cerebral hemispheres at the bottom of the cerebral cortex.
According to the researchers these “significant changes” of the perivascular spaces  have never been reported before. 
The team hypothesizes that the differences in the perivascular spaces may be indicative of disruption to the glymphatic system, which works with the perivascular spaces to clear waste from the brain.Hope to resolve these mysteries through larger studies on more diverse cohorts, over longer time frames.
Xu thinks this could “help us develop new, personalized ways to diagnose and treat migraines.”
 
Tesla Full Self-Driving Beta is now available to all owners in North America | Electrek (26:09)
Tesla Full Self-Driving (FSD) Beta is now available to all owners who ordered the Full Self-Driving package in North America, according to Elon Musk’s Twitter announcement:“Tesla Full Self-Driving Beta is now available to anyone in North America who requests it from the car screen, assuming you have bought this option. Congrats to [the] Tesla Autopilot/AI team on achieving a major milestone!”
This enables Tesla vehicles to drive autonomously to a destination entered in the car’s navigation system.
Since the responsibility rests with the driver and not Tesla’s system, it is still considered a level-two driver-assist system, despite its name.
Twitter user @WholeMarsBlog posted about his experience with FSD:“Guys. I drove all around LA today and yesterday. Used FSD 100% of the time. Had zero takeovers. Recorded all today’s drives to Petersen museum, LA auto show, and then back”
Reminder the FSD package subscription price:Basic Autopilot to FSD capability - $199.00 per month
Enhanced Autopilot to FSD capability - $99.00 per month

132. Tinnitus Treatment on Your Phone, Nanoscale 3D Printing Sped Up, Lab-Grown Meat

"Polytherapeutic" tinnitus treatment app delivers impressive results | New Atlas (00:49)
Tinnitus is when you experience ringing or other noises in one or both of your ears. 
5% of people experience tinnitus at some point in their lives
A team of researchers at the University of Auckland has found it's new smartphone app treatment is getting strong results
This polytherapeutic “combines goal-based counseling with personalized passive and active game-based sound therapy." 
It has tailored the digital tools in the app to the user's own experience of tinnitus.
The primary measurement of effectiveness was the Tinnitus Functional Index, a standard scale used to quantify a person's experience of tinnitus
A 13 point change is regarded as a clinically meaningful difference.
It is a survey so take this with a grain of salt
The group using the polytherapeutic reported an average improvement of 16.36 points after six weeks, and 17.83 points after 12 weeks
55% of participants experiencing a clinically meaningful improvement after six weeks
65% at 12 weeks.
The Auckland team is working on obtaining regulatory approval for the polytherapeutic app, and hope to have it clinically available within six months or so.
Rare Elephant Twins are Born in 'Historic Moment’ at Syracuse Zoo | Today (05:54)
Twin Asian elephant calves were born at the Rosamond Gifford Zoo in Syracuse, New York, in what the zoo is calling a “miracle.”
Born on Oct. 24
Ten hours after Mali’s (Mama Elephant obviously) first male calf was born, weighing in at 220 pounds, a second male calf arrived, weighing 237 pounds. 
The zoo commented on this improbability and rarity:
“To date, there has never been a recorded case of surviving elephant twins in the United States …  The few successful twin births have only taken place in their range countries in Asia and Africa and nowhere else in the world.”
Additionally, less than 1% of elephant births worldwide are twins
When twins do occur, the calves are often stillborn or do not survive long after birth.
Engineers designed a new nanoscale 3D printing material that can be printed at a speed of 100 mm/s | Interesting Engineering (09:43)
A new nanoscale 3D printing material developed by Stanford University engineers may provide superior structural protection for satellites, drones, and microelectronics
An improved lightweight, a protective lattice that can absorb twice as much energy as previous materials of a similar density
Nanoscale 3D printing material creates structures that are a fraction of the width of a human hair.
Enabling the printing at very small scales.
The engineers added metal nanoclusters (tiny groupings of atoms) to their printing medium to create a superior 3D printing material.
Effective in kicking off the reaction to harden the material 
Produced a substance that was a mixture of the metal and the polymer printing medium.
The printing process was accelerated by the nanoclusters.
They were able to print at a speed of 100 millimeters per second using the nanoclusters and proteins.
Roughly 100 times faster than what had previously been possible with nanoscale protein printing.
The engineers are in some ways imitating what nature has already mastered.
For instance, the mix of a hard exterior, nanoscale porosity, and trace amounts of soft substance gives bone its durability.
Where to go from here? Wendy Gu, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering and a corresponding author on the paper stated:
“Since the nanoclusters are able to polymerize these different classes of chemicals, we may be able to use them to print multiple materials in one structure … That’s one thing we’d like to aim for.”
Researchers develop a new method for analyzing rock glaciers | Phys.org (15:20)
Scientists at the University of Arizona developed a new method to determine rock glaciers' ice thickness and the ratio of ice to debris, allowing for more precise measurements of these glaciers than previously possible. 
Lead by Tyler Meng who is pursuing a doctoral degree in planetary science
This new method will allow scientists to better understand water resources on both Earth and Mars, as well as how resilient this type of buried ice will be to the changing climate on both planets.
Both pure ice glaciers and rock glaciers can move across landscapes—very slowly. 
The debris in rock glaciers causes them to flow even more slowly than ice glaciers, as the inclusion of rocks makes them much stiffer.
Using two different antenna configurations, the researchers used ground-penetrating radar to measure both the radar wave speed and the angle at which the wave was reflected from the subsurface. 
The two antenna configurations allowed the researchers to better calculate the dimensions of the rock glacier.
According to Meng, understanding rock glaciers on Earth is important because they are essentially water reservoirs. To continue:
“Our research gives us a better idea of the total water budget in mountainous regions, where major rivers have headwaters … By having a map of the debris thickness and ice concentration, we can essentially characterize the ability of rock glaciers to withstand effects of a warming climate compared to clean ice glaciers"
The whole goal of the research is to use Earth rock glaciers as an analog to processing them on Mars.
Meng stated: "By mapping the patterns of debris thickness on Earth, we're trying to understand how that debris thickness may also vary on Mars. Also, by learning about the differences in flow parameters between clean ice and debris-rich ice, that will help simulations for the Martian case as well."
Moving forward, the research group will continue to make similar measurements using surface-based radar while also collecting new data using drones. 
Drone-based data collection will help the group to gain a more complete understanding of rock glacier flow and subsurface characteristics
A Lab-Grown Meat Startup Gets the FDA’s Stamp of Approval | MIT Tech Review (20:00)
A company called Upside Foods will soon be able to sell chicken made from real animal cells grown in bioreactors instead of requiring the slaughter of live animals.  
Cultivated meat has been greenlit in the United States for the first time.
There are just two smaller regulatory steps remaining until cultivated meat can be made available to the public. 
Require a grant of inspection from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) 
The food itself will need a mark of inspection before it can enter the US market
Different startups are focusing on a range of cultivated meats, including:
beef, chicken, salmon, and tuna
It’s likely that tasting these meats will be limited to a very small number of exclusive restaurants.
With the CEO Uma Valeti wanting chefs to initially bring this to people’s attention with well made meals.
In December 2020, Singaporean regulators gave the green light to cultivated chicken from the San Francisco–based startup Eat Just. 
The chicken nuggets were sold at a members-only restaurant called 1880 and later made available for delivery.
Cultivated meat is different from plant-based meats because it contains real animal cells and is—theoretically—indistinguishable from real meat itself.
The process:
Cell line: a single cell is stimulated to allow it to expand into multiple cells
Cells are initially isolated from an animal and developed into cell lines that are then frozen. 
Small samples from these cell lines can then be transferred to bioreactors
Bioreactors are where cells are fed growth media containing the nutrients that cells need to divide.
Once grown, the cells are differentiated into the correct kind of tissue where they can be harvested and used in cultivated meat products.
Startups keep the exact cost of growing their cells tightly under wraps, but it’s likely that pure cultivated meat will still be several times the cost of conventional meat.
But this has dropped considerably from when this method was first used.
In August 2013, Dr Mark Post from the Netherlands created the world’s first hamburger made from the stem cells of a cow for $325,000 USD at a taste testing and cooking demonstration in London, United Kingdom.
Some projections for future facilities suggest that even large facilities will produce meat at a cost of $17 per pound.
Translation: higher prices in restaurants and grocery stores.
Current production facilities are very small, and many in the industry have serious reservations about lab-grown meat’s ability to eventually put a dent in global meat consumption. 
 

131. Lab-Grown Blood Transfusion, Breast Cancer Vaccine Trials, Microplastic Eating Robot Fish

Show Notes:
First human patients receive transfusions of lab-grown blood cells | New Atlas (01:01) 
For the first time ever, human patients have received transfusions of blood cells that were grown from stem cells in a lab
 Revolutionize blood transfusions
Blood donations are life saving, but the demand outweighs the supply
But only 13.6 million units of whole blood and red blood cells are collected in the U.S. in a year.
According to the Red Cross, only about 3% of age-eligible people donate blood yearly.
Nearly 16 million blood components are transfused each year in the U.S.
Approximately 29,000 units of red blood cells are needed every day in the U. S. 
An attractive alternative would be large-scale production of red blood cells in labs, which can be tuned to have whichever blood type is needed. 
The new clinical trial, named RESTORE, is designed to test the safety of transfusions of these manufactured blood cells, as well as how long they last in the body.
Lab-grown blood  is all made “fresh,” so it should all reliably last up to 120 days.
For people with conditions that require regular blood transfusions, such as sickle cell, the longer lifespan of the cells should help give them longer gaps between transfusions. 
The RESTORE trial will involve at least 10 participants receiving “mini” transfusions of blood, containing just 5 to 10 ml (one to two teaspoons) of red blood cells.
So far, two participants have received transfusions of lab-grown blood cells as part of the trial, with the scientists reporting that they have shown no untoward side effects.
While this is a major milestone towards that goal, there’s still much more work to do before blood transfusions are regularly lab-grown
This clear window coating could cool buildings without using energy | Electrek (06:41)
Scientists have used advanced computing tech and AI to design a clear window coating that could lower the temperature inside buildings.
Saving a whole lot of cooling energy.
Cooling accounts for about 15% of global energy consumption, and it’s only going to get hotter, especially in more tropical climates.
The sun’s ultraviolet and near-infrared light are the parts of the solar spectrum that pass through window glass to heat an enclosed room.
Why a car gets hot sitting in the sun.
If you block that light energy the amount of cooling needed would be reduced
According to their new paper, researchers from University of Notre Dame in Indiana and Kyung Hee University in Seoul, successfully designed a clear window coating, or “transparent radiative cooler” (TRC).
According to the report, 
“[The team] optimized the type, order, and combination of layers using an iterative approach guided by machine learning and quantum computing, which stores data using subatomic particles”
Using this quantum method allowed the team to carry out the optimization process faster. Which eventually, “produced a coating design that, when fabricated, beat the performance of conventionally designed TRCs in addition to one of the best commercial heat-reduction glasses on the market.”
Through heat simulations of the TRC as a potential window material for a standard office with two windows they were able to figure out roughly the heat savings.
31.1% of the cooling energy consumption when conventional windows are used.
The average annual energy saving over the surveyed U.S. cities is 50 MJ/m2
In cities with hot, dry weather the TRC can potentially save around 86.3 MJ/m2 per year.
There’s no indication of commercial scaling in the study, but the researchers write that the film “can be potentially scaled up for practical applications because their fabrication can be achieved using state-of-the-art deposition techniques.”
Experimental breast cancer vaccine passes first human trials   | New Atlas (12:19)
I don’t like using the term vaccine for these types of treatments. It is more of cell/protein therapy so I’ll put that out there before I get into this.
Up to 30% of breast cancers involve the overproduction of a protein called human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2). 
HER2-positive cancers are often more aggressive than other types of breast cancer
These treatments deliver DNA blueprints for the production of certain proteins into the nucleus of a cell.
The protein is then produced by the cell, triggering an immune response. 
This treatment in question prompts cells to produce a specific fragment of the HER2 protein.
Note another reason I don’t call it a vaccine: 
These are known as “therapeutic vaccines”, given to patients after they are diagnosed with a cancer in the hopes they help the immune system better seek and destroy certain tumors.
The trial was not geared to evaluate how effective the experimental treatment is at treating breast cancer. 
But still in the trial there were promising signs of efficacy, with 80% of the treated trial participants surviving the full 10-year follow-up
Only around 50% of patients with advanced HER2 breast cancer would generally be expected to survive more than five year
Looking into the survival rate:
95.8% of females survive breast cancer for at least one year, this falls to 85.0% surviving for five years or more, and continues to fall to roughly 75% for 10 years,  as shown by age-standardized net survival for patients diagnosed with breast cancer during 2013-2017 in England.
A Phase 2 trial is currently underway, testing the treatment’s efficacy in a larger cohort of HER2-positive patients.
Scientists are working on an official 'alien contact protocol' for when ET phones Earth | Live Science (19:01)
For the first time in 35 years, a team of policy experts and scientists have united to establish a set of alien-contact protocols for the entire world to follow in the event of a sudden encounter with E.T. 
What better use of “policy experts” … unless they know something
Currently, the only alien contact protocol that humans have was established by the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute (SETI) community in 1989.
vague when it comes to the international response to extraterrestrial communication
mainly focuses on the importance of sharing discoveries with the public and broader scientific community.
The new SETI Detection Hub will scan signals for potential messages sent from alien lifeforms and will develop a framework for attaching meaning to those signals.
End it with John Elliot, a computer scientist at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, and coordinator of the SETI Detection Hub, talking on the preparedness effort:
“Will we ever get a message from E.T.? We don't know. We also don't know when this is going to happen … But we do know that we cannot afford to be ill-prepared — scientifically, socially, and politically rudderless — for an event that could turn into reality as early as tomorrow."
Open-source fish robot starts collecting microplastics from UK lakes | The Next Web (24:20)
Microplastics in the water is a problem:
A new study from Stanford University found that blue whales, the biggest creatures on Earth, ingest about 10 million pieces of microplastics per day.
What could be the solution? Maybe a plastic eating robot fish?
A robot fish that collects microplastics from waterways has been turned from an idea into a working prototype. 
The design was brought to life after it won the University of Surrey’s public competition, the Natural Robotics Contest.
Competition was to submit an idea for a bio-inspired robot that could help the world.
The robotics panelists and researchers, led by Dr. Robert Siddall, turned the design into a 3D-printed prototype about the size of a salmon.
consists of a flooded head unit and a watertight tail unit.
Set of gills on its sides and a fine mesh in between them that can sieve about two-millimeter particles
Filters the water and keeps the microplastics inside its container as it swims.
The robot fist has already been tested in the lab and local lakes 
Going Forward, according to Siddall, the team is envisioning a range of improvements for the robot:
Making It faster and smarter
Operate autonomously, rather than being remote controlled.