Stem cell therapy hope for kidney transplant patients
A kidney donor’s stem cells can help suppress the automatic rejection of donated kidneys in transplant patients.
BioNews 10 October 2011
Image: Gotham Gazette
Small is big in drug delivery
A Uni of Melbourne research group’s quest to design nano-particle-based delivery systems for a range of biomedical applications that ultimately will lead to more effective medicines, vaccines, and even tissue regeneration strategies.
Australian Life Scientist Feature: July/August 2011
More on Prof Frank Caruso’s research on UniMelb Upclose Podcast
Image: from MIT news
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2008/nanoparticles-tt0213.html
Monkeys use mind control to move a virtual arm and experience touch
A brain implant that allows monkeys to move an avatar’s arm and feel objects in a virtual world has been demonstrated for the first time.
The Guardian: 5 October 2011
Image: A brain implant allowed monkeys not only to move a virtual arm but also to experience tactile sensations. Photograph: Katie Zhuang
Cloned human embryo makes working stem cells
Scientists have reprogrammed an human egg cell to an embryonic state using cloning technology and created a line of embryonic stem cells from the developing embryo.
Nature News: 5 October 2011
ABC The World Today: 6 October 2011
And a pictorial graphic of how it was done from Washington Post National
Turning waste heat into power
Australian scientists have developed thermoelectric nanomaterials that can turn waste heat into electricity.
University of Wollongong: 5 October 2011
Ethics of revealing bad news DNA to study subjects
Should people be told about any nasty surprises that scientists discover in their DNA during research projects?
Scientific American: 4 October 2011
From the mouths of babes. The brave new world, as predicted by children
By Jason Major
TechNyou
Back in August I attended the Gold Coast Science fair, a community event with loads of activities and fun stuff related to science. Part of TechNyou’s stand had a survey running on an iPad asking people to think into the future and outside the square and answer two questions: What technologies would you like to see developed, and what would be bad ideas for us to use our scientific knowledge for?
There answers are below. Remember, that nearly all of these answers came from children aged between 8 and 12 years
The good
Transport
Smarter, greener, cooler transport is the go. Most fitted into the cooler transport, namely flying cars and hoverboards. Hollywood, if nothing else, fires the imagination. Other suggestions included self-driving or guiding cars – ie no driver required, solar-powered cars, cars that run on air, water or something other than petrol.
And flying humans…I guess that fits here?
Energy
This largely involved development of cheap solar power, development of hydrogen from solar power, or as one person suggested an unlimited source of energy. I am unsure if an anti-gravitational device fits here, but here it is.
Health
Large numbers of people wanted cures for human ailments from disease in general to the more specific including cancer and diabetes. One person asked for us to be able to genetically enhance humans to stop us getting diseases. Others requested advances in stem cells including, organ replacement. I will include “cure” for world hunger in here as it fits into the human health category.
Finally, there was a lone call for being able to stay young. Not sure if that means they wanted to live forever, or just avoid getting wrinkly and decrepit before they popped their clogs.
Travel
Different from transport, this involved loads of requests for teleportation and time machines. Add to this travel to other planets and discovery of wormholes to do the same thing. Maybe the LHC (Large Hadron Collider) can come up with the goods.
AI (artificial intelligence)
There were a number of ideas here such as holograms, robots with artificial intelligence, brain-controlled computers and a few requests for flying robots.
Food
Throw into this the desperate need for chocolate trees and caramel weeds, purple oranges and tablets that can be food.
The bad
There were three broad categories here that nearly all ideas fell into: War and weapons; genetically modified humans; and destruction of the environment.
War and weapons
There were loads of calls for banning nuclear weapons along with guns, bombs or just any new way to kill people more effectively. Included in this is developing lasers for weapons.
Genetically modified humans
Using the technology to cure disease is OK, but not much else. Out of favour is creation of artificial humans, genetically modifying us to be better athletes, any unnecessary genetic modification (this leaves room for interpretation maybe it includes one person’s more specific request to disallow changing human features), cloning and designer babies, microchips that can control humans and finally super-enhanced animals. I guess this means ones person’s request that flying pigs is a bad idea.
Destruction of the environment
Burning coal topped the list here along with any polluting machine including cars that use petrol. Burning plastic bags was bad along with mining and chopping down trees. I wonder if the person wanting a ban on mining wore any jewelry?
Random stuff
Strangely there were a few that didn’t like the idea of time travel and funny coloured oranges (in this case blue ones).
Sex and the city is apparently also a bad idea. Not sure what a kid this age was doing watching that movie, but even he judged it a lemon.
So if we oldies live long enough to see these kids grow up and become the next scientists, this is the brave new world we may have to look forward to. I will be pushing hard for the chocolate tree.
Secrets of an artifical leaf revealed
Sunlight falling on a catalyst-coated silicon wafer splits water into hydrogen and oxygen.
Nature News: 29 September 2011
Energy-storage membrane to boost battery power
A soft, foldable membrane made from organic waste with superior charge-holding capacity could lead to inexpensive batteries for solar and electric car systems