quarta-feira, 19 de fevereiro de 2014
What Does Your Handwriting Say About You?
Throughout our lives we have all heard myths about how handwriting has a direct correlation to our personalities.
If you use curvy letters you must be unruly and over confident. If your hand writing is messy then you must not be smart or care about being presentable. If you write big you must be loud and if you write small you must be quiet.
When it comes to character nothing is ever black and white. Nothing is ever so clean cut that it becomes a definite in regards to the human condition. If these myths were true I’d be a recluse with no friends little self-esteem and poor hygiene.
However, the myths are not true but it is interesting to see how close some of the following findings are true. Just like artwork and text tell some truth about an artist or writer, handwriting will tell some truth about the person who put the pen to paper.
We all want to know ourselves better and honestly the better you do the more successful you will be. Be more self aware and you will be more aware of those around you.
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Florence – Intelligent Travel
The Florence skyline, with the famous Duomo in the center (Photograph by Barbara Noe)
From Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore, topped by Filippo Brunelleschi’s magnificent dome, I pound cobbled streets through the Piazza della Signoria and its replica of David.
Along the arched colonnade of the Uffizi, a line of Renaissance-era glitterati stare down from stone perches—Michelangelo Buonarroti, Leonardo da Vinci, Galileo Galilei, Lorenzo de’ Medici among them—reminding me of this part of the world’s lavish hoard of artists, scientists, poets, and downright geniuses.
At the Arno River, a quick right and left and I’m on the Ponte Vecchio, the picturesque old bridge where the gold vendors have not yet opened their shutters.
Left along the river to Piazza Giuseppe Poggi and up I go, climbing quiet tree-shaded steps and pathways to Piazzale Michelangelo. The anticipation is mine alone, and I’m not disappointed as the lovely city of Florence spreads beneath me in all her Renaissance glory.
I pick out the slim steeples and Tuscan Gothic facades of Santa Croce (where many great Florentines are buried) and Santa Maria Novella, the Jewish Synagogue, and, lording above them all, Brunelleschi’s revolutionary red-and-white dome.
Run Stats
Mileage: three-mile loop
Best Time: Early morning, before the city crowds clog the streets
Start and End: Santa Maria dei Fiori, Piazza del Duomo
Route
- From Santa Maria del Fiore, go down Via dei Calzaiuoli to Piazza della Signoria
- Leave the square via Piazzale degli Uffizi
- At Lungarno Generale Diaz, go right to Ponte Vecchio
- Cross the bridge
- Go left on Via de’ Bardi following the river downstream (the street name changes to Lungarno Torrigiani then to Lungarno Serristori)
- At Piazza Giuseppe Poggi, follow the staircases and pathways up Monte alle Croci to Piazzale Michelangelo
Barbara A. Noe is senior editor at National Geographic Travel Books.
How the Brain Benefits from Being Bilingual
Being bilingual definitely has its benefits when it comes to jobs. Most employers are willing to pay you a higher salary for being fluent in two or more languages, but this isn’t the only perk. Your brain also benefits from bilingualism. Believe it or not, being bilingual makes you smarter and greatly improves your cognitive skills.
Along with excellent puzzle skills, some of the other benefits from being bilingual include improved memory, improved decision making skills, better multitasking skills and a better focus on tasks. These benefits alone make it worth your while to learn another language or more. As you can imagine, for children the benefits are even greater; they’ll have higher test schools in school and do really well in math. Although your child may not like learning a new language, they’re sure to be more appreciative once they get older and start making the big bucks.
Now that you know some of the brain benefits from being bilingual, it’s time to get smarter. It’s never too late to learn a new language. Are you bilingual?
How the Brain Benefits from Being Bilingual – Infographic | Beverly Hills Lingual Institute
10 Things Extraordinary People Do Differently
Communication Motivation February 17 by Braden Thompson
There are ordinary people and then there are extraordinary people. The cool thing is, there’s no limit to how many extraordinary people there can be. You have the power to leave ordinary behind and join the ranks of the extraordinary. While this isn’t an exhaustive list, these 10 things should give you a pretty good idea of what it takes to become an extraordinary person.
1. They give sincere support to others
Think back to the best teacher(s) or mentor(s) you ever had. I’d be willing to bet they were genuinely interested in your success. That’s because extraordinary people want other people to become extraordinary as well. If you want to become extraordinary, make an extra effort to support the people around you.
2. They focus on people
Gary Vaynerchuk is one of my favorite examples of this. The man has a ton on his plate but he is constantly focused on the people in his life. For example, Gary has over a million followers on Twitter and often asks if there is anything (within reason) that he can do for them. What’s more impressive is that he actually follows through on a lot of the requests. The man is simply extraordinary in everything he does because he understands focusing on people is a worthwhile endeavor.
3. They aren’t afraid to be wrong
When ordinary people are wrong and find themselves at a dead end, they give up. They become frustrated and mad that they failed. Extraordinary people thrive in these situations. Why? Because every dead end eliminates a wrong path in their search for the road to success. They turn around from those dead ends and get busy exploring every other road until they find the right one. Failing just means they are one step closer to succeeding. It’s OK to be wrong.
4. They give credit where it’s deserved
How much does it cost to compliment someone? Absolutely nothing. Even though giving someone the credit they deserve is free, it does wonders for the recipient. Try it. You literally have nothing to lose.
5. They are considerate of others
It’s selfish to live your life without caring about those around you. We all have to share the same planet. Being considerate of others makes it enjoyable for everyone.
6. They love life
Life is the most precious gift you have. Extraordinary people understand they only get one life to live and it’s up to them to make it great. When you choose to love life, anything feels possible.
7. They push their limits
Travis Rice, world renowned snowboarder, once said:
“We will never know our full potential unless we push ourselves to find it. It’s this self discovery that inevitably takes us to the wildest places on earth.”
Extraordinary people understand their potential because they are constantly pushing themselves to find it. We are the only ones who define our limits. If you push yourself, I promise you will be amazed at how much you can actually do. But you’ll never know until you try.
8. They believe in themselves
Your mind is a fascinating thing. When doubt enters your mind, it can have seriously damning effects. Extraordinary people will often have thoughts of doubt creep in, but they never entertain them. Pardon my nostalgia, but remember The Little Engine That Could? While it’s a fictitious children’s story, it illustrates the undeniable fact that when you believe in yourself, you can accomplish extraordinary things.
9. They know their purpose in life
Whenever I think about finding purpose in life, I can’t help but think of Viktor Frankl. Viktor survived three horrifying years in holocaust concentration camps. What kept him from committing suicide, as many of his camp mates did, was the idea that his suffering had to have meaning. His life had to have a purpose. Viktor truly was an extraordinary person because he understood his purpose in life. By the way, I highly suggest reading his book. It’s a life changer.
10. They put thoughts and words into action
You have to do something! The Wright Brothers had an extraordinary idea that man could fly. Had they left it at that, who knows where we would be today. It’s because they busted their butts trying every possibility they could think of that the world today is so easily connected. They turned their thoughts into action, and in so doing, engraved their names on the wall of extraordinary people.
What traits have you observed in the extraordinary people around you? Help me add to this list by leaving a comment below!
Don't want to be another average person? How to go From Ordinary to Extraordinary
How Science Mimics Faith
People may use trust in science as others use religious faith to cope with life's uncertainties
Mar 1, 2014 |By Tori Rodriguez
Credit: Getty Images
Religion provides a sense of meaning and comfort for believers, and studies show that such beliefs intensify during threatening situations. Now research suggests that some people's faith in science may serve the same role.
Miguel Farias and other researchers at the University of Oxford and Yale University investigated whether it is belief in religion that is beneficial or in fact any belief about the world's order and our place in it. In two related experiments published in November 2013 in the Journal of Experimental Psychology, the scientists developed a scale to measure belief in science—the view that scientific inquiry offers a superior guide to reality. As expected, belief in science was inversely correlated with religious beliefs. Next the researchers assessed whether belief in science increased in threatening situations. The first experiment compared a group of rowers at a low-stress training session with a group of rowers just about to compete in a high-stress regatta. The second experiment manipulated some participants' existential anxiety by having them write about their thoughts and feelings regarding their own death. Participants reported greater belief in science in both threatening situations, just as subjects in past studies have displayed an increase in religiosity in similar scenarios.
“It is likely that some people use their ideas about science to make sense of the world and for emotional compensation in difficult situations in the same way that religious people use their supernatural beliefs,” Farias says. “Our findings suggest that it may be belief itself, regardless of its content, that helps people deal with adverse situations.”
A Happy Life May not be a Meaningful Life
Tasks that seem mundane, or even difficult, can bring a sense of meaning over time
Feb 18, 2014 |By Daisy Grewal
Cooking dinner, a mundane task associated with a meaningful life. Credit: Digital Vision/ThinkStock
Psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl once wrote, “Life is never made unbearable by circumstances, but only by lack of meaning and purpose.” For most people, feeling happy and finding life meaningful are both important and related goals. But do happiness and meaning always go together? It seems unlikely, given that many of the things that we regularly choose to do – from running marathons to raising children – are unlikely to increase our day-to-day happiness. Recent research suggests that while happiness and a sense of meaning often overlap, they also diverge in important and surprising ways.
Roy Baumeister and his colleagues recently published a study in the Journal of Positive Psychology that helps explain some of the key differences between a happy life and a meaningful one. They asked almost 400 American adults to fill out three surveys over a period of weeks. The surveys asked people to answer a series of questions their happiness levels, the degree to which they saw their lives as meaningful, and their general lifestyle and circumstances.
As one might expect, people’s happiness levels were positively correlated with whether they saw their lives as meaningful. However, the two measures were not identical – suggesting that what makes us happy may not always bring more meaning, and vice versa. To probe for differences between the two, the researchers examined the survey items that asked detailed questions about people’s feelings and moods, their relationships with others, and their day-to-day activities. Feeling happy was strongly correlated with seeing life as easy, pleasant, and free from difficult or troubling events. Happiness was also correlated with being in good health and generally feeling well most of the time. However, none of these things were correlated with a greater sense of meaning. Feeling good most of the time might help us feel happier, but it doesn’t necessarily bring a sense of purpose to our lives.
Interestingly, their findings suggest that money, contrary to popular sayings, can indeed buy happiness. Having enough money to buy what one needs in life, as well as what one desires, were also positively correlated with greater levels of happiness. However, having enough money seemed to make little difference in life’s sense of meaning. This same disconnect was recently found in a multi-national study conducted by Shigehiro Oishi and Ed Diener, who show that people from wealthy countries tend to be happier, however, they don’t see their lives as more meaningful. In fact, Oishi and Diener found that people from poorer countries tend to see their lives as more meaningful. Although the reasons are not totally clear, this might be related to greater religious belief, having more children, and stronger social ties among those living in poorer countries. Perhaps instead of saying that “money doesn’t buy happiness,” we ought to say instead that “money doesn’t buy meaning.”
Not too surprisingly, our relationships with other people are related to both how happy we are as well as how meaningful we see our lives. In Baumeister’s study, feeling more connected to others improved both happiness and meaning. However, the role we adopt in our relationships makes an important difference. Participants in the study who were more likely to agree with the statement, “I am a giver,” reported less happiness than people who were more likely to agree with, “I am a taker.” However, the “givers” reported higher levels of meaning in their lives compared to the “takers.” In addition, spending more time with friends was related to greater happiness but not more meaning. In contrast, spending more time with people one loves was correlated with greater meaning but not with more happiness. The researchers suspect that spending time with loved ones is often more difficult, but ultimately more satisfying, than spending time with friends.
When it comes to thinking about how to be happier, many of us fantasize about taking more vacations or finding ways to avoid mundane tasks. We may dream about skipping housework and instead doing something fun and pleasurable. However, tasks which don’t make us happy can, over time, add up to a meaningful life. Even routine activities — talking on the phone, cooking, cleaning, housework, meditating, emailing, praying, waiting on others, and balancing finances — appeared to bring more meaning to people’s lives, but not happiness in the moment.
More broadly, the findings suggest that pure happiness is about getting what we want in life—whether through people, money, or life circumstances. Meaningfulness, in contrast, seems to have more to do with giving, effort, and sacrifice. It is clear that a highly meaningful life may not always include a great deal of day-to-day happiness. And, the study suggests, our American obsession with happiness may be intimately related to a feeling of emptiness, or a life that lacks meaning.
Are you a scientist who specializes in neuroscience, cognitive science, or psychology? And have you read a recent peer-reviewed paper that you would like to write about? Please send suggestions to Mind Matters editor Gareth Cook, a Pulitzer prize-winning journalist and regular contributor to NewYorker.com. Gareth is also the series editor of Best American Infographics, and can be reached at garethideas AT gmail.com or Twitter @garethideas.
We Work Remotely
Click on the link above, good luck.
Sinceramente, não sei como isto funciona, mas parece ser muito bom, pelo menos para os nossos irmãos do norte.
World’s largest solar thermal plant now fully operational
The world's largest solar thermal generation plant, Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System, is now fully operational
After three years of construction, the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System (ISEGS) is now operational. The 392 MW plant, funded by NRG, Google, and BrightSource Energy, is expected to generate enough electricity to power 140,000 homes, each year. NRG announced last week that each of the plant's three units is now supplying electricity to California’s grid.
The Ivanpah plant cost US$2.2 billion to build and stretches over 3,500 acres (more than 1,400 hectares). ISEGS is the largest solar power plant of its kind, accounting for nearly 30 percent of solar power generated in the US. It uses 173,500 heliostats (computer-controlled mirrors) that follow the sun’s trajectory and reflect its light towards three solar receiving water boiler towers. The boilers superheat steam to temperatures of up to 550° C (over 1,000° F), which drives standard turbines to generate electricity.
The electricity produced by Units 1 and 3 at Ivanpah, accounting for 259 MW, is being sold to Pacific Gas & Electric under two "long-term power purchase agreements.." The remaining 133 MW generated by Unit 2 is being sold to Southern California Edison with similar terms.
"Cleantech innovations such as Ivanpah are critical to establishing America’s leadership in large-scale, clean-energy technology that will keep our economy globally competitive over the next several decades," says NRG Solar's president Tom Doyle. "We see Ivanpah changing the energy landscape by proving that utility-scale solar is not only possible, but incredibly beneficial to both the economy and in how we produce and consume energy."
Ivanpah's construction has not been without controversy. Its huge scale means that a great deal of open land has been used, which had previously been the preserve of the native flora and fauna. Furthermore, there are continued reports of birds being killed by flying into the mirrors or being scorched to death as they fly over the plant.
Eric Davis, assistant regional director for migratory birds at the US Fish and Wildlife Service’s Sacramento office has been reported as saying, "We're trying to figure out how big the problem is and what we can do to minimize bird mortalities. When you have new technologies, you don't know what the impacts are going to be."
The California Energy Commission has stated that while Ivanpah will impact the local environment, its benefits outweigh the disadvantages.
Sources: NRG, BrightSource Energy
"Living liquid crystal" could be used to detect diseases earlier
Patterns created by bacteria swimming through the living liquid crystal
With any medical condition, the earlier it's detected, the better the chances are of successfully treating it. When assessing biological samples from a patient, however, it's often quite difficult to see the indicators of a disease when it's still in its early stages. That could be about to change, thanks to the development of a solution known as "living liquid crystal."
The biomechanical hybrid substance consists of a water-based nontoxic liquid crystal, combined with live, swimming bacteria. It possesses "highly desirable optical properties," and moves in a very easy-to-see fashion in response to external stimuli such as the amount of oxygen available to the bacteria, the concentration of given compounds within a sample, or the temperature.
In this way, it serves as a sort of visual amplifier, allowing clinicians to see reactions or other images that might ordinarily be too subtle to detect.
The research was conducted by scientists at Ohio's Kent State University and Illinois' Argonne National Laboratory.
Source: American Institute of Physics
3-D model of filaments during contraction of muscle
A 3-D computer model of filaments of myosin (in red) reaching out and tugging along filaments of actin (in blue, looking like stands of pearls twined together) during the contraction of a muscle. The model, created by C. David Williams as part of his research into force regulation and the length-tension relationship in muscle, enables researchers to consider the geometry and physics at work on the filaments when a muscle bulges. Williams earned his doctorate at the University of Washington (UW) while conducting this research and is currently a postdoctorate at Harvard University.
This visualization let's researchers see how the individual motor proteins generating force interact with each other to regulate the overall level of force the system develops. The 3-D nature of such models also allows researchers to investigate how the spatial arrangement of a muscles contractile filaments alter the force generated as the muscle goes from very long to very short lengths.
The work was supported by the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation (grant IOS 10-22471, awarded to T.L. Daniel and T.I. Irving to support non-modeling aspects of this research) and with cloud computer access provided by an Amazon.com grant for research.
To learn more, see the UW news story Biceps bulge, calves curve, 50-year-old assumptions muscled aside. (Date of Image: May 2013)
Nachrüstbare E-Bike-Motoren
14.02.2014 – Ben Schwan
Superpedestrian Copenhagen Wheel und Flykly Smart Wheel geben regulären Drahteseln elektrischen Zusatzschub.
Fahrräder mit Elektroantrieb liegen voll im Trend. Gleich zwei Firmen aus den USA, Superpedestrian und FlyKly, wollen die Technik nun auch Nutzern nahebringen, die bereits über einen konventionellen Drahtesel verfügen. Dazu bieten sie Laufräder an, in denen ein Radnabenmotor samt Akku steckt.
Das FlyKly Smart Wheel unterstützt das Treten bis zu einer Maximalgeschwindigkeit von 25 km/h. Seine Reichweite soll 50 Kilometer betragen. Der Fahrer steuert und überwacht den Motor via Bluetooth über eine Smartphone-App. Im Falle eines Diebstahls kann man das Rad sperren und sogar orten, da das Smart Wheel einen GPS-Tracker besitzt. Es wird in 20, 26 und 28 Zoll sowie neun Farben angeboten und wiegt vier Kilogramm.
Das Copenhagen Wheel von Superpedestrian (Foto) ist zwei Kilogramm schwerer, läuft bis zu 48 Kilometer weit und ebenfalls bis 25 km/h schnell. Beide Produkte werden ab Sommer 2014 ausgeliefert.
Produkte: Copenhagen Wheel und Smart Wheel
Anbieter: Superpedestrian und Flykly
Preise: 800 Dollar und 590 Dollar (Ben Schwan) / (bsc)
Manufacturing Organs
Harvard Bioscience spin-off is stepping up its production of synthetic tracheas to supply clinical trials.
Why It Matters
A shortage of donor organs means that people die every day waiting for transplants.
Breathe in: A lab-grown trachea sits in a rotating incubator, ready for transplantation into a toddler.
Since 2008, eight patients have been given a new chance at life when surgeons replaced their badly damaged tracheas with man-made versions. This highly experimental technology is now moving from research labs to a manufacturing facility as a Boston-area company prepares to produce the scaffolds for growing the synthetic organs on a large scale.
Harvard Apparatus Regenerative Technology, or HART, is testing its synthetic trachea system in Russia and has plans for similar tests in the European Union this year. The company is working with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to set up a trial in the United States as well.
The synthetic windpipes are made by growing a patient’s own stem cells on a lab-made scaffold. In the future, this technique could be adapted to create other organs, such as a replacement esophagus, heart valve, or kidney.
If expanded into more body parts, the synthetic organ technology could help meet a dire medical need. Transplant waiting lists for vital organs such as hearts, lungs, livers, and kidneys are distressingly long. Every day, patients die waiting for donor organs. In the U.S. alone, 120,000 people are on waiting lists for an organ, estimates the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. And waiting lists underestimate the true need, says Joseph Vacanti, a surgeon-scientist at Massachusetts General Hospital and a leader in tissue-engineering research. “The only way we are going to meet that real need is to manufacture living organs,” says Vacanti, who is not affiliated with HART.
Breathe out: A synthetic trachea scaffold made by spinning extremely fine fibers of plastic into a tube.
Researchers around the globe are finding new ways to create tissues for transplantation. “Over 25 years, the field has gone from fiction and fantasy to science and engineering,” says Vacanti. There are many different approaches, from precise ink-jet printing of cell types into an organized structure (see “Printed Eye Cells Could Help Treat Blindness”) to letting cells spontaneously self-organize into proto-organs (see “A Rudimentary Liver Is Grown from Stem Cells” and “Growing Eyeballs”).
HART’s current approach is to grow a patient’s stem cells on synthetic scaffolds. The four most recent artificial trachea surgeries have been done with these lab-made scaffolds, says David Green, CEO of HART.
Growing a patient’s own cells on a scaffold provides a good environment for bone marrow stem cells that can then develop into various cell types both in the incubator and after they are implanted into a patient.
HART creates the scaffolds by spinning fibers about a hundredth of the width of a human hair into a tube that is made to fit each patient. The result is a customized scaffold “that makes a mesh that’s the right size for the cells,” says Green. “They feel at home there.”
Stem cells taken from a patient’s bone marrow are then “rained down over the top of the scaffold, much like a chicken in a rotisserie,” says Green. The cells grow on the scaffolds in a specialized rotating incubator for about two days before they are transplanted. About five days after the transplant, new cell types appear on the organ, he says, including important cells that line the inner surface and help move mucous from the lungs by coughing. Eventually, blood vessels grow into the synthetic organ, says Green.
For Mice, and Maybe Men, Pain Is Gone in a Flash
Researchers find a way to turn pain on, and off, with a beam of light.
Why It Matters
By some accounts, 40 percent of adults have chronic pain.
Pain relays: A micrograph shows the nerve endings in a mouse’s paw. The lower image is a close-up of the area marked in the top.
Some of the mice squeaked in agony when researchers aimed a blue light at their paws. Other mice felt nothing at all when zapped with heat.
In the latest demonstration of optogenetics, a versatile but complex technology for controlling nerve cells, a research team at Stanford University has sketched out how patients afflicted by chronic pain might one day find relief: simply by pressing a bright flashlight to their skin.
“Patients could be given their own ability to create a pain block on demand,” says Michael Kaplitt, a neurosurgeon and chief scientific officer of Circuit Therapeutics, a three-year-old Palo Alto, California, biotechnology startup now working on a pain treatment along with some of the Stanford scientists.
Optogenetics is a breakthrough technology that is giving scientists precise control over what animals feel, how they behave, and even what they think. It relies on modifying the DNA of neurons so that they send signals—or are blocked from firing—in response to light (see “Brain Control”). The technique was invented nine years ago in the laboratory of Karl Deisseroth, one of Circuit’s cofounders and an author of the new pain study.
So far, the most striking use of optogenetics has been to produce effects directly inside animals’ brains, using light piped in with an implanted fiber-optic cable. In an earlier study, Deisseroth’s group made mice feel fear or become fearless (“An On-Off Switch for Anxiety”).
Circuit, which now has 47 employees, is working to engineer light sources and perfect genetic tools to take advantage of optogenetics. Kaplitt says that in addition to its research on pain, the company hopes to figure out how to treat serious psychiatric disease with implants that carry light into the brain.
But controlling nerves outside the brain could prove easier. The sensitive nerve endings, or nociceptors, that fire off warnings in response to heat or pressure lie only two hair-breadths beneath human skin, and could be controlled by a bright handheld light. “We have engineers thinking about what that kind of device would look like,” says Kaplitt. “Pain is a perception. So the idea is to stop the perception of it.”
In the Stanford group’s latest work, published in the journal Nature Biotechnology, they first used gene therapy to install light-sensitive molecules into the nerve endings in the skin of mice. Each animal was then placed into a small plexiglass chamber with a transparent floor.
When the researchers shined blue light through the floor, the mice “flinched,” cried out, or “engaged in prolonged paw licking,” all signs of pain. The team could also block sensation. In those tests, mice that were bathed in yellow light designed to block nerve impulses weren’t greatly bothered by a band pinching their leg. When the researchers pointed hot infra-red beams at their paws, they were slow to react.
The work builds on earlier experiments at both Stanford and by researchers at McGill University. “The reason this paper is exciting is that it raises two prospects. One is that you can essentially turn on and off nerves causing pain at will. The other is that they illuminated the animal from the outside and still got the effect,” says Kaplitt.
Pain is the main reason people seek out doctors, running up $635 billion a year in health spending in the U.S. Right now, doctors can’t do much, and pain pills can have unfortunate effects, sometimes leaving users with foggy minds or hard-to-beat addictions.
There are plenty of obstacles ahead for an optogenetics treatment. It might prove difficult to reach the right nerve cells with light. And it relies on gene modification, itself an experimental technology. A decade or more of experiments and studies lie ahead before any treatment is available.
Circuit has raised funds from investors including Stanford as well as former Google executives David Jeske and Scott Hassan. But it isn’t the only company developing a pain product. MIT researcher Ed Boyden, who helped invent optogenetics at Deisseroth’s lab, has founded a competing firm, Eos Neuroscience. That company also is working on ways to use optogenetics to treat pain, CEO Ben Matteo says.
Scientists Successfully 3D Print Embryonic Stem Cells For the First Time
by Kristine Lofgren, 02/11/13
As much fun as 3D printing can be (printed mini figurines and lampshades anyone?), it’s also a world-changing technology with the potential to save lives. Scientists at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh just successfully 3d printed embryonic stem cells for the first time, and the technology has the potential to eliminate the need for organ donation. The artificial tissue could also provide laboratories with a ready supply of material for research purposes, eliminating animal drug testing and the need to acquire embryonic stem cells.
The process – developed by Dr. Will Shu and his colleagues at Heriot-Watt University’s Biomedical Microengineering group in partnership with Roslin Cellab – is different from previous 3D cell printing attempts because it can produce delicate embryonic cell cultures. Prior to this, printing could only produce 2D cells or cells that are tougher than human stem cells. “To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that these cells have been 3D printed. The technique will allow us to create more accurate human tissue models which are essential to in vitro drug development and toxicity-testing,” says Dr. Shu.
The technology could provide doctors with an endless supply of organs for transplantation, and it could entirely eliminate the practice of animal drug testing. According to Dr. Shu, “In the longer term, we envisage the technology being further developed to create viable 3D organs for medical implantation from a patient’s own cells, eliminating the need for organ donation, immune suppression and the problem of transplant rejection.”
Via BBC
Stretchy Solar Cells Power "Super Skin"
The "super skin" developed by Stanford University researcher Zhenan Bao is self-powering, using polymer solar cells to generate electricity. The solar cells are not just flexible, but stretchable -- they can be stretched up to 30 percent beyond their original length and snap back without any damage or loss of power.
"With artificial skin, we can basically incorporate any function we desire," says Bao, a professor of chemical engineering, who presented her work on Feb. 20 at the AAAS annual meeting in Washington, D.C. "That is why I call our skin 'super skin.' It is much more than what we think of as normal skin."
The foundation for the artificial skin is a flexible organic transistor, made with flexible polymers and carbon-based materials. To allow touch sensing, the transistor contains a thin, highly elastic rubber layer, molded into a grid of tiny inverted pyramids. When pressed, this layer changes thickness, which changes the current flow through the transistor. The sensors have from several hundred thousand to 25 million pyramids per square centimeter, corresponding to the desired level of sensitivity.
To sense a particular biological molecule, the surface of the transistor has to be coated with another molecule to which the first one will bind when it comes into contact. The coating layer only needs to be a nanometer or two thick.
"Depending on what kind of material we put on the sensors and how we modify the semiconducting material in the transistor, we can adjust the sensors to sense chemicals or biological material," she says.
Bao's team has successfully demonstrated the concept by detecting a certain kind of DNA. The researchers are now working on extending the technique to detect proteins, which could prove useful for medical diagnostics purposes.
"For any particular disease, there are usually one or more specific proteins associated with it -- called biomarkers -- that are akin to a 'smoking gun,' and detecting those protein biomarkers will allow us to diagnose the disease," Bao says.
The same approach would allow the sensors to detect chemicals, she said. By adjusting aspects of the transistor structure, the super skin can detect chemical substances in either vapor or liquid environments.
Regardless of what the sensors are detecting, they have to transmit electronic signals to get their data to the processing center, whether it is a human brain or a computer.
Having the sensors run on the sun's energy makes generating the needed power simpler than using batteries or hooking up to the electrical grid, allowing the sensors to be lighter and more mobile. And having solar cells that are stretchable opens up other applications.
A recent research paper by Bao, describing the stretchable solar cells, will appear in an upcoming issue of Advanced Materials. The paper details the ability of the cells to be stretched in one direction, but she said her group has since demonstrated that the cells can be designed to stretch along two axes.
The cells have a wavy microstructure that extends like an accordion when stretched. A liquid metal electrode conforms to the wavy surface of the device in both its relaxed and stretched states.
"One of the applications where stretchable solar cells would be useful is in fabrics for uniforms and other clothes," says Darren Lipomi, a graduate student in chemical engineering in Bao's lab and lead author of the paper.
"There are parts of the body, at the elbow for example, where movement stretches the skin and clothes," he adds. "A device that was only flexible, not stretchable, would crack if bonded to parts of machines or of the body that extend when moved."
Stretchability would be useful in bonding solar cells to curved surfaces without cracking or wrinkling, such as the exteriors of cars, lenses and architectural elements.
The solar cells continue to generate electricity while they are stretched out, producing a continuous flow of electricity for data transmission from the sensors.
Bao says she sees the super skin as much more than a super mimic of human skin; it could allow robots or other devices to perform functions beyond what human skin can do.
"You can imagine a robot hand that can be used to touch some liquid and detect certain markers or a certain protein that is associated with some kind of disease and the robot will be able to effectively say, 'Oh, this person has that disease,'" she says. "Or the robot might touch the sweat from somebody and be able to say, 'Oh, this person is drunk.'"
Finally, Bao has figured out how to replace the materials used in earlier versions of the transistor with biodegradable materials. Now, not only will the super skin be more versatile and powerful, it will also be more eco-friendly.
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