Information teleported between two computer chips for the first time

By Michael Irving

Researchers have managed to quantum teleport information between two computer chips for the first time

nicholashan/Depositphotos

Scientists at the University of Bristol and the Technical University of Denmark have achieved quantum teleportation between two computer chips for the first time. The team managed to send information from one chip to another instantly without them being physically or electronically connected, in a feat that opens the door for quantum computers and quantum internet.

This kind of teleportation is made possible by a phenomenon called quantum entanglement, where two particles become so entwined with each other that they can “communicate” over long distances. Changing the properties of one particle will cause the other to instantly change too, no matter how much space separates the two of them. In essence, information is being teleported between them.

Hypothetically, there’s no limit to the distance over which quantum teleportation can operate – and that raises some strange implications that puzzled even Einstein himself. Our current understanding of physics says that nothing can travel faster than the speed of light, and yet, with quantum teleportation, information appears to break that speed limit. Einstein dubbed it “spooky action at a distance.”

Harnessing this phenomenon could clearly be beneficial, and the new study helps bring that closer to reality. The team generated pairs of entangled photons on the chips, and then made a quantum measurement of one. This observation changes the state of the photon, and those changes are then instantly applied to the partner photon in the other chip.

“We were able to demonstrate a high-quality entanglement link across two chips in the lab, where photons on either chip share a single quantum state,” says Dan Llewellyn, co-author of the study. “Each chip was then fully programmed to perform a range of demonstrations which utilize the entanglement. The flagship demonstration was a two-chip teleportation experiment, whereby the individual quantum state of a particle is transmitted across the two chips after a quantum measurement is performed. This measurement utilizes the strange behavior of quantum physics, which simultaneously collapses the entanglement link and transfers the particle state to another particle already on the receiver chip.”

The team reported a teleportation success rate of 91 percent, and managed to perform some other functions that will be important for quantum computing. That includes entanglement swapping (where states can be passed between particles that have never directly interacted via a mediator), and entangling as many as four photons together.

Information has been teleported over much longer distances before – first across a room, then 25 km (15.5 mi), then 100 km (62 mi), and eventually over 1,200 km (746 mi) via satellite. It’s also been done between different parts of a single computer chip before, but teleporting between two different chips is a major breakthrough for quantum computing.

• The research was published in the journal Nature Physics.

Source: University of Bristol

We recommend

1. Quantum teleportation on a chip
   Phys.org
2. First chip-to-chip quantum teleportation harnessing silicon photonic chip fabrication
   Phys.org, 2019
3. Teleported by electronic circuit: Physicists 'beam' information
   Phys.org, 2013
4. Teleportation with engineered quantum systems
   Phys.org, 201
5. Complex quantum teleportation achieved for the first time
   Phys.org, 2019
6. 'Quantum Internet': Towards realization of solid-state quantum network
   Phys.org, 2013

{ https://newatlas.com/ }

30-12-2019 om 22:23 geschreven door peter  

Nasa building supersonic plane that goes as fast as Concorde – without the sound

Nasa's X-59 space plane, capable of flying faster than the speed of sound without the loud boom that comes with supersonic flight, is finally nearing completion, reports The Independent.

The plane will be the first large scale, piloted X-plane that Nasa has launched in more than 30 years when it is finally put together.

It could also herald a new era in fast space travel, as it attempts to overcome the problems that have blighted previous attempts like Concorde. 

Normally, supersonic planes create a loud boom when they reach the speed of sound and have as a result been banned from flying over populated areas – but the creators of the X-59 claim it will be almost silent.

And the space agency has announced that it is cleared for final assembly and "integration of its systems" after being looked over by senior managers.

The plane – which has the full name X-59 Quiet SuperSonic Technology (QueSST) – is being put together by Lockheed Martin, which will now work to complete it ahead of testing.

It should be approved for its first flight in 2020, and the actual launch will come a year after that.

“With the completion of KDP-D we’ve shown the project is on schedule, it’s well planned and on track. We have everything in place to continue this historic research mission for the nation’s air-traveling public,” said Bob Pearce, Nasa’s associate administrator for aeronautics, in a statement.

Nasa says that the new plane will make a boom that will only be audible as a "gentle thump", or might be entirely silent. It is able to do because of its precise shape, which looks something like an even more sharp version of the Concorde.

It will fly nearly as fast as its lookalike, with a cruising speed of 1.42.

That will be put to the test when the plane is ready to fly. The trials will see it sent over "select US communities" in test flights that will allow Nasa to measure it using sensors and people on the ground who will "gauge public perception" of the sound of the plane.

{https://www.dhakatribune.com/ }

26-12-2019 om 23:57 geschreven door peter  

Kunstmatige intelligentie is de mens steeds vaker te slim af

Bron: De Volkskrant

{ https://www.volkskrant.nl/wetenschap }

26-12-2019 om 21:49 geschreven door peter  

Scientists are trying to open a portal to a parallel universe

By THE SUN

Noah Schnapp as Will in “Stranger Things.”

(THE SUN) — Scientists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in eastern Tennessee are trying to open a portal to a parallel universe.

The project — which has been compared to the Upside Down in the Netflix blockbuster “Stranger Things” — hopes to show a world identical to ours where life is mirrored.

Leah Broussard, the physicist leading the experiment, told NBC the plan is “pretty wacky” but will “totally change the game,” ahead of a series of experiments she plans to run this summer.

Broussard’s experiment will fire a beam of subatomic particles down a 50-foot tunnel. The beam will pass a powerful magnet and hit an impenetrable wall, with a neutron detector behind it.

If the experiment is successful, particles will transform into mirror images of themselves, allowing them to burrow right through the impenetrable wall.

This would prove that the visible universe is only half of what is out there, Broussard said, but she also admitted that she expects the test to “measure zero.”

In “Stranger Things,” portals began opening, connecting a US town to a dark alternate dimension called the Upside Down.

In reality, if a mirror world exists, it would have its own laws of mirror physics and its own mirror history, according to NBC.

However, there wouldn’t be an alternate version of you. Current theory, the outlet explains, only hypothesizes that mirror atoms and mirror rocks are possible — and perhaps even mirror planets and stars.

{ https://stlucianewsonline.com/ }

23-12-2019 om 23:16 geschreven door peter  

World's first monkey-pig hybrids are born in Chinese lab as part of ground-breaking bid to grow human organs inside animals for transplants

• Chimera piglets contained DNA from both pigs and cynomolgus monkeys
• They died within a week of being born at a laboratory in Beijing, China
• Scientists claimed the research aimed to find a way of growing human organs

By LUKE ANDREWS FOR MAILONLINE

Two chimera piglets containing monkey DNA have been born in China.

Although both died within a week and appeared to be normal, the baby animals had genetic material from cynomolgus monkeys in their heart, liver, spleen, lung and skin.

Scientists said the research, which required more than 4,000 embryos to get the piglets, aims to find ways of growing human organs in animals for transplantation.

The two piglets, born in Beijing, China, died within a week. They were made from both pig and monkey DNA. Scientists said the research aimed to find a way of growing human organs inside animals for transplantation

'This is the first report of full-term monkey-pig chimeras', Tang Hai at the State Key Laboratory of Stem Cell and Reproductive Biology in Beijing told New Scientist.

Five-day old piglet embryos had monkey stem cells injected into them that had been adjusted to produce a flourescent protein, allowing researchers to find out where the cells ended up.

The scientists said it was unclear why the two chimera piglets died, but as eight other normal piglets that were implanted also died, they think this is a problem with the IVF process rather than chimerism.

Despite the research, some members of the scientific community have warned against creating chimeras due to ethical concerns. 

Neuroscientist Douglas Munoz at Queen's University in Kingston, Canada, said that research projects like this 'just really ethically scares me'.

'For us to start to manipulate life functions in this kind of way without fully knowing how to turn it off, or stop it if something goes awry really scares me.'

Monkey stem cells were injected into five-day-old pig embryos before they were implanted into sows. Only ten embryos developed

However, China shows no sign of stopping after proposing in July to create monkeys with partially human-derived brains in order to better study diseases like alzheimer's.

And Yale University stem cell expert Alejandro De Los Angeles has written that the search for a better animal model to stimulate human disease has been a 'holy grail' of biomedical research for decades.

'Realising the promise of human-monkey chimera research in an ethically and scientifically appropriate manner will require a coordinated approach', he said.

A human-pig hybrid embryo was created in January 2017, at the Salk Institute in San Diego, but died 28 days later.

It is hoped the research could offer an alternative to organ donation.

Around three people a day die in the UK according to the NHS and 12 in the US because replacement organs cannot be found.

Read more:

• Exclusive: First ever piglets containing monkey cells born in China | New Scientist

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

07-12-2019 om 20:51 geschreven door peter  

“The findings could pave the way toward overcoming the obstacles in the re-engineering of heterogeneous organs and achieve the ultimate goal of human organ reconstruction in a large animal.”

Sometimes when you read “noble cause” statements like that one in scientific papers about research that border on, crosses over or flat-out erases the line of ethics, you can almost hear their eyes winking and their fingers straining to stay crossed from across the ocean. That seems to be the case with most recent stories out of China where scientists have already genetically-edited human embryos, with the twins being born last year and, as far as we know, are still alive. Unfortunately, that may not be the case with the researcher who did the embryo editing – he disappeared for a time and is said to be under constant surveillance. Now, a new report announces that other Chinese researchers have edited pig embryos and, unlike in previous experiments, the embryos were not destroyed and pig-monkey chimeras have been born. How soon before they’re creating pig-human chimeras?

“We believe this work will facilitate future developments in xenogeneic organogenesis, bringing us one step closer to producing tissue-specific functional cells and organs in a large animal model through interspecies blastocyst complementation.”

In China, “one step closer” seems to mean “we may be already doing it (wink-wink).” In a paper published in the journal Protein & Cell and reviewed by New Scientist, co-author Tang Hai, a researcher at the State Key Laboratory of Stem Cell and Reproductive Biology, confirms these are the first full-term pig-monkey chimeras. (In a chimera, each cell is from a separate parent while hybrids cells have combined genetics from both.)

The team modified monkey cells to make them fluorescent, then took embryonic stem cells and injected them into over 4000 pig embryos which were then injected into sows. Ten piglets were born and two were confirmed to be chimeras, with multiple tissues – heart, liver, spleen, lung and skin – partly made of monkey cells. The two piglets died within a week, but so did all of the piglets born alive, which leads Hai to believe the problem had to do with the in-vitro fertilization, not the fact that they were chimeras.

“Interspecies chimerism still has a long way to go before clinical application is possible.”

Does it? This experiment created living pig-monkey chimeras. An experiment in Japan in August 2019 created human-rat chimeras, but the embryos were destroyed early in the process. The same was said to have happened with a human-monkey chimera in China. The latest experiment allowed the embryos to live – albeit without human cells being involved. How long before a human-monkey chimera arrives?

“What happens if the tem cells escape and form human neurons in the brain of the animal? Would it have consciousness? And what happens if these stem cells turn into sperm cells?”

he asks. Núñez assures that Izpisuá’s research team has created mechanisms “so that if human cells migrate to the brain, they will self-destruct.”

Doctor Ángel Raya, the director of the Barcelona Regenerative Medicine Center, asked that question of Estrella Núñez, who worked on the human-monkey experiment and was told they had created mechanisms “so that if human cells migrate to the brain, they will self-destruct.”

When the shortage of human organs for transplants becomes acute, what decision will those with money make? Past experience tells us that in these situations, the first thing to “self-destruct” is ethics.

Do you hear the wink-winking?

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

07-12-2019 om 20:35 geschreven door peter  

01-12-2019 om 17:22 geschreven door peter  

The Next Goal in AI: Robots Who Fear Death

by Matthew Hart

In his 1942 short story “Runaround,” legendary science fiction author Isaac Asimov clearly outlined his “Three Laws of Robotics,” which could, at least in fictional worlds, fundamentally underpin autonomous robots’ behavior. The last of the three laws states, in part, that, “A robot must protect its own existence…” This may turn out to be quite necessary for the development of real-life autonomous robots as well, especially when it comes to their ability to feel. At least that’s the argument being made in a recently published white paper outlining the significance of self-preservation in robots.

The paper, which comes via Futurism, was recently published in the journal Nature Machine Inteligence by Antonio Damasio and Kingson Man of the University of Southern California’s Brain and Creativity Institute (BCI); Damasio is one of the institute’s directors, and Man is one of its research scientists. In the paper, available in full here for free, Damasio and Man argue that in order to develop “feeling machines,” they must be programmed with the task of maintaining homeostasis. So if engineers want to build machines that feel and empathize with what people feel, the machines are going to have to care about their own health.

The paper is about seven pages long and is rich with the logical sequence of steps that comes to the conclusion that machines need to worry about their own state of “mind” and “body” in order to interact effectively with we meat bags (a term borrowed from the greatest fictional robot of all time). In essence, Damasio and Man are saying that just as biological life needs to be concerned with its own well-being to have meaningful interactions with its environment, so too will genuinely autonomous robots.

That is to say, caring about one’s own self—one’s own temperature, level of hunger, amount of sleep, etc.—is a critical part of what gives life any meaning at all. The researchers say as much, in regards to robots, when they note, “This elementary concern would infuse meaning into [a machine’s] particular information processing” capabilities.

This intuitively makes sense because maintaining homeostasis is a significant impetus for—perhaps the only impetus for—biological organisms having any goals whatsoever. If you’re cold, your goal is to find some way to get warm; if you’re hungry, your goal is to find food; if you’re tired, your goal is to find somewhere to sleep; if you’re bored, your goal is to use any one of the bazillion streaming services currently available until you’re hungry or sleepy, at which point you circle back to goal two or three. (We’re kidding to some extent with that last one, of course, but you get the point.)

The paper describes the concept succinctly when it notes that “machines capable of implementing a process resembling homeostasis might… acquire a source of motivation and a new means to evaluate behaviour, akin to that of feelings in living organisms.”

In terms of how robots could develop their own intuitive sense of homeostasis, Damasio and Man write that sensors, in a very real sense just like our own biological ones (eyeballs, ears, taste buds, etc.), are the answer to that problem. They specifically discuss human skin as an example of a biological sensor, or more specifically, an amalgam of biological sensors, that could be duplicated in robotic builds by utilizing “soft robotic” materials. They note that “a soft electronic ‘skin'” made with an “elastomer base with droplets of liquid metal that, on rupture, cause changes in electrical conductivity across the damaged surface,” have already been developed by researchers and could be deployed on robots as one way of monitoring homeostasis.

But even though a robot covered in “skin” that senses tears or leaks may be able to develop a sense of homeostasis, and thusly some kind of “feeling,” it seems that this evolution would inevitably lead to what can only be described as vulnerability. This is exactly what Damasio and Man are aiming for, however, and it seems they believe that vulnerability necessarily goes hand-in-hand with sensing homeostasis. This would mean vulnerability, for both robots and people, necessarily goes hand-in-hand with having feelings. “Rather than up-armouring or adding raw processing power to achieve resilience,” the authors write, “we begin the design of these [feeling] robots by, paradoxically, introducing vulnerability.”

A video demonstrating a soft robotic sensor skin developed by researchers at UC San Diego. 

“Homeostatic robots might reap behavioural benefits by acting as if they have feeling,” Damasio and Man write in their conclusion, adding that “Even if they would never achieve full-blown inner experience in the human sense, their properly motivated behaviour would result in expanded intelligence and better-behaved autonomy.” And even if robots never understand why something feels good, or whether they experience a feeling of “goodness” at all, creating better-behaved autonomous robots seems like a worthwhile goal: It could potentially work to help preserve the homeostasis of our entire species, after all.

What do you think of Damasio and Man’s paper on “feeling machines”? Do you think robots need to have a sense of homeostasis in order to develop empathy, or do they just need to do what they’re told? Give us your thoughts in the comments if that action will help you maintain homeostasis!

• Feature image: Dick Thomas Johnson

{ https://nerdist.com/ }

24-11-2019 om 23:09 geschreven door peter  

05-11-2019 om 00:19 geschreven door peter  

I’m sure that most of us have, at some point in our lives, wished we could have been invisible. Whether it was to sneak up on an unsuspecting friend or just to escape the stresses of everyday life, being temporarily invisible seemed like a fun idea although it wasn’t possible. Now, however, a Canadian company has turned that fantasy into reality by creating an “invisibility cloak”.

The Canadian camouflage design company is named Hyperstealth and they have created this new invisibility technology called Quantum Stealth. The “cloak” is as thin as paper and doesn’t need a power source. It’s also very inexpensive to make, using lenticular lenses which are commonly used in photographs that can sometimes, depending on how you look at the pictures, appear as though they’re in 3D.

The fascinating fact about the material is that it bends light in a certain manner that makes the objects that are either very close or very far from it the only things that are visible while the other objects become invisible. The invisible objects would have to be place at a certain distance where the light wouldn’t allow them to be seen.

The color and shape of what is being hidden does not affect the material, but it still somewhat distorts the background so that whoever would be looking at it would know that something was there, but they’d have no idea what (or who) it was because of the lack of details.

Hyperstealth’s Guy Cramer began creating this invisibility technology back in 2010 and has since filed four patents for it as well as other associated technologies. Additionally, he has been working with organizations from the military in order to get this technology developed.

The company isn’t revealing much information about the how they created material, but they did use a physics principle called Snell’s law. Every material has a refractive index and while light travels in a straight line through empty space, when it travels from one medium to another, the light bends which is called refraction. A perfect example of this is when you put a spoon in a glass of water and the spoon appears to be bent. By figuring out where the “blind spot” is depending on how the light is moving based on the refractive index,  the objects can appear to vanish while the background is still visible.

An example of how the material creates invisibility.

© Hyperstealth Corp.

A video of this incredible technology showing how people and objects can become invisible behind the material can be seen here.

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

22-10-2019 om 23:37 geschreven door peter  

'I'm not dying, I'm transforming': Doctor diagnosed with terminal motor neurone disease hopes to become the world's first true cyborg

• Dr Peter Scott-Morgan, 61, diagnosed with motor neurone disease two years ago
• He decided to challenge what it meant to be human by becoming fully robotic
• The Dr has an avatar of his face to show expressions if he loses muscle control

By MILLY VINCENT FOR MAILONLINE

A scientist who is dying from a muscle wasting disease is taking drastic steps in his bid to become the world's first true cyborg.

Dr Peter Scott-Morgan, 61, from Torquay, Devon, was diagnosed with motor neurone disease two years ago and told it would only take until this year to kill him.

But instead of accepting his fate he decided to challenge what it meant to be human and now hopes to create Peter 2.0.

He is gradually replacing his bodily functions with machinery – an electric wheelchair now enables to him to be upright, sitting or laid down; he has banked his voice on a computer and had his voicebox removed; and is fed through a tube and has a catheter and colostomy bag attached so he doesn't eat or excrete. 

Scroll down for video 

Dr Peter Scott-Morgan, 61, with his husband Francis. Dr Scott-Morgan shared the photo on social media with the caption: 'This is my last post as Peter 1.0. Tomorrow I trade my voice for potentially decades of life'

Dr Scott-Morgan shared the picture with the caption: 'CORE OF CHARLIE (my Cyborg Harness And Robotic Locked-In Exoskeleton), the brilliantly engineered Permobil F5 Corpus VS. As a top-end wheelchair, it stands, lies flat, rises, goes fast. Soon, with lots of added robotic hi-tech, it’ll boldly go where no wheelchair has gone before!'

The most recent phase of Dr Scott-Morgan's transformation has been to make a computer avatar of his face.

The avatar – a computer rendering of his face – is designed to be controlled with artificial intelligence and look like him before he became ill.

He has also rigged up various machines so he can control them with the movement of his eyes, among them a hoist and a motorised bed.   

And this week he announced the final procedure in his transition into a robot where he traded his voice for potentially decades of life.

He underwent a laryngectomy, meaning he lost his physical voice, but in doing so, he has removed the danger of saliva entering his lungs and suffocating him.

Dr Scott-Morgan labelled this final procedure as the end of Peter 1.0 with a post this week on Twitter, and wrote: 'This is my last post as Peter 1.0.

'Tomorrow (Thursday October 10) I trade my voice for potentially decades of life as we complete the final medical procedure for my transition to Full Cyborg, the month I was told statistically I would be dead.

'I'm not dying, I'm transforming. Oh, how I love science.'

Dr Scott-Morgan has throughout his career been granted 'unparalleled confidential access' to government organisations, banks and major corporations.

The avatar will help Dr Scott-Morgan express himself with facial expressions when he loses motion in his face

He has been using this scientific expertise to work with cutting-edge technology experts to become Peter 2.0.

Speaking of his transition, he said: 'I'm about to be turned into Peter 2.0. And when I say 'Peter 2.0', I mean 'a Cyborg'.

'And when I say 'Cyborg', I don't just mean any old cyborg, you understand, but by far the most advanced human cybernetic organism ever created in 13.8 billion years.

'I'm scheduled to become the world's very first full Cyborg.

This week he announced the final procedure in his transition into a robot where he traded his voice for potentially decades of life

'Almost everything about me is going to be irreversibly changed - body and brain.

'It goes without saying that all my physical interaction with the world will become robotic. And naturally, my existing five senses are going to be enhanced. But far more importantly, part of my brain, and all of my external persona, will soon be electronic - totally synthetic.

'From then on, I'll be part hardware / part wetware, part digital / part analogue.

'And it won't stop there; I've got more upgrades in progress than Microsoft.. Mine isn't just a version change. It's a metamorphosis.'

The scientist has also been exploring eye-tracking technology, to enable him to control multiple computers using just his eyes.

Among other things, this would mean he could control his own electronic bed and a hoist to help him move.

This eye-tracking technology, means that he could no longer wear contact lenses, and so he has undergone laser eye surgery to enable him to have perfect vision at 70cm- the distance from his computer screen.

The scientist also has a remarkable top-end wheelchair, which he said on Twitter is 'brilliantly engineered' and allows him to stand, lie flat and go fast.

He has undergone further pioneering surgery in what he believes to be the first ever operation of its kind, to insert a feeding tube directly into his stomach, a catheter directly into his bladder and a colostomy bag directly onto his colon.

These procedures will help him to deal with any potential feeding and toileting problems, helping him to maintain his independence.

However, he stressed online that this is an incredibly risky procedure for somebody with MND.

Despite the risks of operations and being terminally ill, Dr Scott-Morgan says he is not interested in how to survive his condition, he intends to 'thrive.'

He remains positive and often, humorous, seeing his situation as a chance to truly embrace scientific capabilities.

In fact, The Scott-Morgan Foundation which he set up with his husband, Francis, seeks to use artificial intelligence, robotics and other high-technology systems to transform the lives of those 'restricted by age, ill-health, disability, or other physical or mental disadvantage.'

On his website Dr Scott-Morgan said this vision is far from just a dream: 'We are within touching distance of changing - everything. I'm not dying - I'm transforming!

'This is terminal disease like you've never seen it before. And as far as I'm concerned, bring it on.

'MND hasn't even begun to bring me to my knees. And even long after I'm locked In, I will still be standing tall.

'Thanks to HiTech - I will talk again. I will convey Emotion and Personality. And I'll reach out and touch the people I love. And I will not be the only one.

'Over time, more and more with MND, with extreme disability, with old age, with a passion simply to break free from their physical straight-jacket, will choose to stand beside me.

And we will all stand tall. And we will stand proud. And we will stand unbowed. And we will keep standing, year after year after year after year after year*

'Because we refuse simply to 'Stay Alive'. We choose to thrive.'

WHAT IS MOTOR NEURONE DISEASE (ALS)?

History 

The NHS describes motor neurone disease (MND) as: 'An uncommon condition that affects the brain and nerves. It causes weakness that gets worse over time.'

The weakness is caused by the deterioration of motor neurons, upper motor neurons that travel from the brain down the spinal cord, and lower motor neurons that spread out to the face, throat and limbs. 

It was first discovered in 1865 by a French neurologist, Jean-Martin Charcot, hence why MND is sometimes known as Charcot's disease. 

In the UK, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) is referred to as Motor Neurone Disease, while in the US, ALS is referred to as a specific subset of MND, which is defined as a group of neurological disorders.

However, according to Oxford University Hospitals: 'Nearly 90 per cent of patients with MND have the mixed ALS form of the disease, so that the terms MND and ALS are commonly used to mean the same thing.' 

Symptoms

Weakness in the ankle or leg, which may manifest itself with trips or difficulty ascending stairs, and a weakness in the ability to grip things.

Slurred speech is an early symptom and may later worsen to include difficulty swallowing food.

Muscle cramps or twitches are also a symptom, as is weight loss due to leg and arm muscles growing thinner over time.  

Diagnosis

MND is difficult to diagnose in its early stages because several conditions may cause similar symptoms. There is also no one test used to ascertain its presence.

However, the disease is usually diagnosed through a process of exclusion, whereby diseases that manifest similar symptoms to ALS are excluded. 

Causes

The NHS says that MND is an 'uncommon condition' that predominantly affects older people. However, it caveats that it can affect adults of any age.

The NHS says that, as of yet, 'it is not yet known why' the disease happens. The ALS Association says that MND occurs throughout the world 'with no racial, ethnic or socioeconomic boundaries and can affect anyone'.

It says that war veterans are twice as likely to develop ALS and that men are 20 per cent more likely to get it. 

Treatment

There is no cure for MND and the disease is fatal, however the disease progresses at different speeds in patients.

People with MND are expected to live two to five years after the symptoms first manifest, although 10 per cent of sufferers live at least 10 years. 

Occupational therapy, physiotherapy and medicines such as riluzole are used to palliate the effects of the the disease. 

Lou Gehrig was a hugely popular baseball player, who played for the New York Yankees between 1923 and 1939. He was famous for his strength and was nicknamed 'The Iron Horse'

Lou Gehrig's Disease

As well as being known as ALS and Charcot's disease, MND is frequently referred to as Lou Gehrig's disease.

Lou Gehrig was a hugely popular baseball player, who played for the New York Yankees between 1923 and 1939.

He was famous for his strength and was nicknamed 'The Iron Horse'. 

His strength, popularity and fame transcended the sport of baseball and the condition adopted the name of the sportsman. 

He died two years after his diagnosis.  

Dr Peter Scott-Morgan 

(Image: @DrScottMorgan /Twitter)

{ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/ }

15-10-2019 om 18:38 geschreven door peter  

While the quest to perform the world’s first successful human head transplant seems to have stalled, a man with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as motor neurone disease (MND) or Lou Gehrig’s disease, is set to become the world’s first ‘full cyborg’, saving him from a life of full paralysis. Will it work?

“I’m about to be turned into Peter 2.0. And when I say ‘Peter 2.0’, I mean ‘a Cyborg’. And when I say ‘Cyborg’, I don’t just mean any old cyborg, you understand, but by far the most advanced human cybernetic organism ever created in 13.8 billion years. I’m scheduled to become the world’s very first full Cyborg. Almost everything about me is going to be irreversibly changed – body and brain.”

Dr Peter Scott-Morgan 

(Image: @DrScottMorgan /Twitter)

Dr Peter Scott-Morgan might also be called Stephen Hawking 2.0. Hawking also had ALS and lived far longer than most people with the disease. His genius, celebrity status and profits from books allowed him to test and use advanced tools such as a speech-generating device. Sixty-one-year-old Dr. Scott-Morgan learned of his disease much later in life than Hawking (just two years ago) and his knowledge and status as a world-renowned roboticist gave him the ideas and connections to conceive and begin to implement a radical combination of flesh and metal that will turn him into cyborg that is “part hardware, part wetware, part digital, part analogue.” All that will be left of the physical Scott-Morgan is part of his brain — the wetware.

Morgan’s website details his life and what happened after his ALS diagnosis. While he has already been using a state-of-the-art wheelchair that allows him to stand, lie flat and hit high speeds, the first alteration of his body was to have a colostomy for his bowels, a catheter for his bladder and a feeding tube directly into his stomach that eliminate his need to eat or go to the toilet. The first real cyborg operation occurred on October 10th when he solved the breathing problem that kills most people with ALS.

“So he did some more research and found that people with throat cancer sometimes undergo a laryngectomy, in which the oesophagus and trachea are separated. The good news? Nothing that’s not meant to be in his lungs will get into his lungs. The bad news? He will no longer be able to speak.”

He created a remarkably life-like avatar of his face before he lost any muscle 

(Image: Embody Digital/Youtube)

Well, bad news for a little while. Scott-Morgan designed an avatar of his face that will duplicate a full range of facial expressions. Next, he teamed with tech companies to replace Hawking’s eye-controlled speech-generator with an AI generator that will learn a variety of responses connected to appropriate facial expressions and vocal inflections that will give emotion to the voice that was revolutionary yet robotic for Hawking.

“When somebody walks into the room, the AI will listen to what they say to me and suggest different options. ‘Wonderful to see you!’ ‘How was your trip?’ ‘You’re looking good!’ And within two seconds I can carry on a spontaneous conversation.”

The avatar also knows what you’re thinking … how is Scott-Morgan paying for all of this leading-edge technology? He says many of the companies are working with him for free and will open-source the technology when it’s completed.

If Peter Scott-Morgan reaches his goal of becoming the first real human cyborg, freed from a body destroyed by a debilitating disease, his story will undoubtedly be made into a feel-good high-tech movie, complete with a romance – Scott-Morgan is supported by his longtime gay partner, Francis. In fact, in an interview with TIME, Scott-Morgan has already written the movie’s ending.

“Here I am, trapped only because of the physical limitations of my body. You imagine how liberating it will be to spend maybe most of my time in virtual reality. Really, really good virtual reality. And suddenly I can walk again. I can fly. I can be anywhere I want to be. And so can you. You can join me. We can explore universes that don’t exist. This is for all of us. I just get the chance to go to some of the places first. But one day, you’ll be there, too.”

Bring plenty of tissues.

{ https://mysteriousuniverse.org/ }

15-10-2019 om 18:19 geschreven door peter  

Special Report: Clones (The Missing and the Human Genome Project)

This Report was only accomplished through my tireless efforts to uphold my indigenous rights and freedoms to practice my culture privately and unimpeded. – Sovereign Crown Denderah

(Note on LQ video: Those labels on the children in the playground were superimposed on to them. It was not on the original video. They are NOT Citizens. They Are Indigenous!)

The Human Genome Project (HGP) was the international, collaborative research program whose goal was the complete mapping and understanding of all the genes of human beings. All our genes together are known as our "genome."

{ https://beforeitsnews.com/ }

14-10-2019 om 13:35 geschreven door peter  

2,000 Atoms Exist in Two Places at Once in Unprecedented Quantum Experiment

By Rafi Letzter - Staff Writer 

The new experiment demonstrated a bizarre quantum effect from the double-slit experiment at an unprecedented scale.

An illustration suggests the behavior of big, complex molecules spreading out like ripples across space.

(Image: © Yaakov Fein, Universität Wien)

Giant molecules can be in two places at once, thanks to quantum physics.

That's something that scientists have long known is theoretically true based on a few facts: Every particle or group of particles in the universe is also a wave — even large particles, even bacteria, even human beings, even planets and stars. And waves occupy multiple places in space at once. So any chunk of matter can also occupy two places at once. Physicists call this phenomenon "quantum superposition," and for decades, they have demonstrated it using small particles.

But in recent years, physicists have scaled up their experiments, demonstrating quantum superposition using larger and larger particles. Now, in a paper published Sept. 23 in the journal Nature Physics, an international team of researchers has caused molecule made up of up to 2,000 atoms to occupy two places at the same time.

• Related: How Quantum Entanglement Works (Infographic)

To pull it off, the researchers built a complicated, modernized version of a series of famous old experiments that first demonstrated quantum superposition.

Researchers had long known that light, fired through a sheet with two slits in it, would create an interference pattern, or a series of light and dark fringes, on the wall behind the sheet. But light was understood as a massless wave, not something made of particles, so this wasn't surprising. However, in a series of famous experiments in the 1920s, physicists showed that electrons fired through thin films or crystals would behave in a similar way, forming patterns like light does on the wall behind the diffracting material.

If electrons were simply particles, and so could occupy only one point in space at a time, they would form two strips, roughly the shape of the slits, on the wall behind the film or crystal. But instead, the electrons hit that wall in complex patterns suggesting the electrons had  interfered with themselves . That is a telltale sign of a wave; in some spots, the peaks of the waves coincide, creating brighter regions, while in other spots, the peaks coincide with troughs, so the two cancel each other out and create a dark region. Because physicists already knew that electrons had mass and were definitely particles, the experiment showed that matter acts both as individual particles and as waves.

(Image credit: Johannes Kalliauer/CC BY-SA 4.0)

But it's one thing to create an interference pattern with electrons. Doing it with giant molecules is a lot trickier. Bigger molecules have less-easily detected waves, because more massive objects have shorter wavelengths that can lead to barely-perceptible interference patterns. And these 2,000-atom particles have wavelengths smaller than the diameter of a single hydrogen atom, so their interference pattern is much less dramatic.

• Related: The 18 Biggest Unsolved Mysteries in Physics

To pull off the double-slit experiment for big things, the researchers built a machine that could fire a beam of molecules (hulking things called "oligo-tetraphenylporphyrins enriched with fluoroalkylsulfanyl chains," some more than 25,000 times the mass of a simple hydrogen atom) through a series of grates and sheets bearing multiple slits. The beam was about 6.5 feet (2 meters) long. That's big enough that the researchers had to account for factors like gravity and the rotation of the Earth in designing the beam emitter, the scientists wrote in the paper. They also kept the molecules fairly warm for a quantum physics experiment, so they had to account for heat jostling the particles.

But still, when the researchers switched the machine on, the detectors at the far end of the beam revealed an interference pattern. The molecules were occupying multiple points in space at once.

It's an exciting result, the researchers wrote, proving quantum interference at larger scales than had ever before been detected.

"The next generation of matter-wave experiments will push the mass by an order of magnitude," the authors  wrote.

So, even bigger demonstrations of quantum interference are coming, though it probably won't be possible to fire yourself through an interferometer anytime soon. (First of all, the vacuum in the machine would probably kill you.) Us giant beings are just going to have to sit in one place and watch the particles have all the fun.

• 18 Times Quantum Particles Blew Our Minds
• What's That? Your Physics Questions Answered
• Twisted Physics: 7 Mind-Blowing Findings

Originally published on Live Science.

{ https://www.livescience.com/ }

07-10-2019 om 23:54 geschreven door peter  

Photo courtesy of Raytheon

As reported by the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory, military scientists have developed a “Terminator-like” liquid metal that can autonomously change the structure, just like in a Hollywood movie.

The scientists developed liquid metal systems for stretchable electronics – that can be bent, folded, crumpled and stretched – are major research areas towards next-generation military devices.

Conductive materials change their properties as they are strained or stretched. Typically, electrical conductivity decreases and resistance increases with stretching.

The material recently developed by Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) scientists, called Polymerized Liquid Metal Networks, does just the opposite. These liquid metal networks can be strained up to 700%, autonomously respond to that strain to keep the resistance between those two states virtually the same, and still return to their original state. It is all due to the self-organized nanostructure within the material that performs these responses automatically.

“This response to stretching is the exact opposite of what you would expect,” said Dr. Christopher Tabor, AFRL lead research scientist on the project. “Typically a material will increase in resistance as it is stretched simply because the current has to pass through more material. Experimenting with these liquid metal systems and seeing the opposite response was completely unexpected and frankly unbelievable until we understood what was going on.”

Wires maintaining their properties under these different kinds of mechanical conditions have many applications, such as next-generation wearable electronics. For instance, the material could be integrated into a long-sleeve garment and used for transferring power through the shirt and across the body in a way that bending an elbow or rotating a shoulder won’t change the power transferred.

AFRL researchers also evaluated the material’s heating properties in a form factor resembling a heated glove. They measured thermal response with sustained finger movement and retained a nearly constant temperature with a constant applied voltage, unlike current state-of-the-art stretchable heaters that lose substantial thermal power generation when strained due to the resistance changes.

This project started within the last year and was developed in AFRL with fundamental research dollars from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research. It is currently being explored for further development in partnership with both private companies and universities. Working with companies on cooperative research is beneficial because they take early systems that function well in the lab and optimize them for potential scale up. In this case, they will enable integration of these materials into textiles that can serve to monitor and augment human performance.

The researchers start with individual particles of liquid metal enclosed in a shell, which resemble water balloons. Each particle is then chemically tethered to the next one through a polymerization process, akin to adding links into a chain; in that way all of the particles are connected to each other.

As the connected liquid metal particles are strained, the particles tear open and liquid metal spills out. Connections form to give the system both conductivity and inherent stretchability. During each stretching cycle after the first, the conductivity increases and returns back to normal. To top it off, there is no detection of fatigue after 10,000 cycles.

“The discovery of Polymerized Liquid Metal Networks is ideal for stretchable power delivery, sensing and circuitry,” said Capt. Carl Thrasher, research chemist within the Materials and Manufacturing Directorate at AFRL and lead author on the Journal Article. “Human interfacing systems will be able to operate continuously, weigh less, and deliver more power with this technology.”

“We think this is really exciting for a multitude of applications,” he added. “This is something that isn’t available on the market today so we are really excited to introduce this to the world and spread the word.”

{ https://defence-blog.com/ }

07-10-2019 om 23:31 geschreven door peter  

Boeing's planned hypersonic airliner could fly from NYC to London in two hours

The ultra-fast plane would be capable of flying five times the speed of sound.

By Denise Chow

Boeing has unveiled plans for what could be the world’s first hypersonic airliner, a sleek, futuristic-looking craft that the Seattle-based company said would be capable of flying five times the speed of sound, or about 3,800 miles per hour.

At that speed — Mach 5 in aviation parlance — it would be possible to travel from New York City to London in about two hours instead of the eight hours the trip takes on a conventional airliner.

That means someone could conceivably fly overseas for a meeting and return home in a single day.

“Humankind has always wanted to go faster — always wanted to do things faster,” said Kevin Bowcutt, chief scientist of hypersonics at Boeing. “People cannot make time, so there’s an inherent value in time.”

The as-yet-unnamed plane would be much faster not only than conventional airliners, which cruise at about 550 miles an hour, but also the supersonic Concorde aircraft that flew routes across the North Atlantic Ocean from 1976 to 2003. Concorde, produced by a British-French consortium, could reach Mach 2.04, meaning the New York City-London trip took just under four hours.

Boeing’s proposed plane, described in broad strokes at an industry conference in Atlanta this week, could be used for military applications as well as commercial aviation. But it might take 20 to 30 years to take to the skies, Bowcutt said.

Related

THE FUTURE OF TRAVEL

These planes could jet you around the world at hypersonic speed

Supersonic and hypersonic (meaning five times the speed of sound or faster) have been hyped as the next era of commercial aviation since at least the 1950s. But with the exception of the Concorde, which was permanently grounded three years after a deadly crash in France, building such airplanes has proven to be an elusive goal.

“It’s been a dream for a while now,” said Stuart Craig, an assistant professor of aerospace and mechanical engineering at the University of Arizona, who is not affiliated with Boeing. “We’ve been striving for this hypersonic technology for the better part of half a century, but in recent years, advances in computational technology and materials technology have made it much more in grasp.”

One key question for Boeing and other aircraft manufacturers will be whether airline passengers would be willing to pay the higher ticket prices that hypersonic air travel would command.

High prices, along with limited routes, played a role in the demise of the Concorde, said Mike Sinnett, Boeing’s vice president of future airplane development. “We can do all kinds of cool things, but those cool things have to lead to something that creates value, or at the end of the day it’s not going to be all that successful,” he said. “In general, people flew on [the Concorde] as a novelty — it didn’t change the world, and the economics weren’t right.”

But Craig said new technologies and designs for supersonic and hypersonic aircraft are making high-speed air travel more attractive to travelers.

The Concorde’s routes were limited in part because regulators barred supersonic travel over populated areas to protect people on the ground from hearing the loud sonic booms that the plane created. But in the years since the Concorde’s retirement, Craig said researchers at NASA and elsewhere have made significant strides in mitigating sonic booms caused by supersonic and hypersonic craft.

As for what it would be like to experience a hypersonic flight, Bowcutt said it would be a lot like flying in a conventional jet — but with a few key differences.

Rather than cruising at 30,000 to 40,000 feet, as is typical for conventional airliners, a hypersonic craft like the one proposed by Boeing would cruise at 90,000 to 95,000 feet.

“At that altitude, you’re going to see the curvature of the Earth below you,” Bowcutt said. “You won’t see the entire Earth, but you will see the curvature — and above you, you’ll have the blackness of space. It’s also a very smooth ride because there isn’t atmospheric turbulence at that altitude.”

But while there would be less turbulence, more time would be needed to accelerate to Mach 5. On a conventional airline flight, passengers feel the sensation of being pushed back in their seats for about a minute or so during and shortly after takeoff. On a hypersonic flight, Bowcutt said, that sensation would last for about 12 minutes.

WANT MORE STORIES ABOUT THE FUTURE OF AVIATION?

• These planes could jet you around the world at hypersonic speed
• Electric planes promise big benefits for air passengers and the planet
• Battery-powered planes could become Ubers of the air

29-09-2019 om 23:58 geschreven door peter  

Irish Teenager Invents Magnetic Liquid Trap That Can Remove 90% of Microplastics From Water

Teenager wins Google Science award for genius invention that could cheaply remove most microplastics from the ocean

Because microplastics are so small — some as tiny as grains of sand — scientists have had a hard time figuring out to remove them from the soil and the sea.

Now, an Irish teenager has come up with a promising solution for this seemingly impossible task — a magnetic liquid that attracts microplastics to itself.

18-year-old Fionn Ferreira was kayaking one day when he spotted a rock covered in oil from a recent spill. Clinging to the oil were a bunch of tiny pieces of plastic.

“It got me thinking,” Ferreira told Business Insider. “In chemistry, like attracts like.”

Plastic and oil are nonpolar, making them likely to stick together in nature

Ferreira wondered if the effect could be recreated using ferrofluid, a magnetic, oil-based liquid invented by NASA in 1963 to keep rocket fuel moving in zero gravity.

Today ferrofluid is used to control vibrations in speakers and to seal off electronics to keep debris out.

Ferreira makes a more environmentally friendly version of the liquid than the kind used in rocket fuel, using recycled vegetable oil and magnetite powder, a mineral found naturally on Earth’s surface.

When he first drops the liquid into a container of water contaminated with microplastics, it disperses and turns the water black.

Then he dips a magnet in the water, which pulls out all the ferrofluid, plastic and all, leaving clear water behind.

“It got me thinking,” Ferreira told Business Insider. “In chemistry, like attracts like.”

The method removed 88% of the microplastics in his test samples.

The most difficult type of microplastic to remove was polypropylene, used to make all sorts of plastic packaging. Still, the ferrofluid removes 80% of polypropylene.

The easiest microplastics to remove were microfibers from plastic clothing such polyester, spandex and Lycra.

Washers and dryers are currently not equipped to filter these microfibers, which are a major source of ocean plastic pollution, so this is great news for that application.

Additionally, Ferreira‘s invention can be used at wastewater treatment plants as a sort of catch-all for microplastic pollution before it enters rivers, lakes and oceans.

Ferreira has won the Google Science  award, $50,000 and educational funding for his invention.

{ https://returntonow.net/ }

26-09-2019 om 20:58 geschreven door peter  

Carl Franzen

Illustration: Molly Dyson

If you’re a nerd like me, the image of a half-constructed, almost skeletal second Death Star from Return of the Jedi is permanently lodged in your brain as one of the most majestically ominous creations in all of cinema.

George Lucas’ vision of building massive superstructures directly in outer space is iconic, but it’s hardly the first of its kind. The idea of manufacturing whole spacecraft or space stations that never touch Earth, that are fabricated and assembled directly out in the void where they will be operating, is one of humanity’s oldest science fiction dreams, dating back to antiquity, before the genre of sci-fi as we know it was even invented.

But now, outer space manufacturing is about to become a reality, albeit at a much smaller scale than the Death Star. The real-life Florida startup Made in Space recently won a $73.7 million contract from NASA to use, over the next three years, what’s essentially an advanced space-grade 3D printer to print out wings for a spacecraft while it orbits Earth.

Made in Space is pursuing something altogether more ambitious: producing whole new pieces of working equipment from raw materials in outer space — and doing so in a matter of days.

“We’re focused on the industrialization of space and moving the means of production into space,” said Justin Kugler, vice president of advanced programs and concepts at Made in Space, in a phone interview with OneZero.

To be clear, humanity has already gotten fairly good at assembling stuff in space — connecting one craft or piece of equipment to another using specialized tools, computers, physics, and robotics. That’s how the International Space Station and orbital laboratories from China and Russia were all put together over the years. But Made in Space is pursuing something altogether more ambitious and trickier: actually producing whole new pieces of working equipment from raw materials in outer space—and doing so in a matter of days.

Made in Space was founded nearly a decade ago in Silicon Valley by a quartet of entrepreneurial dudes: Aaron Kemmer, Jason Dunn, Mike Chen, and Michael Snyder. They were all part of some of the first graduate studies programs offered by Singularity University, a “benefit corporation” focused on nurturing advanced technologies that will move humanity toward the technology singularity, started by entrepreneur Peter Diamandis and futurist Ray Kurzweil.

Fittingly, given its lofty origins, Made in Space’s ultimate goal is that its 3D-printing-like technology will eventually be used to construct entire space settlements, cities even, at relatively lower cost than would be possible if those same structures were built on the ground first and then launched into space. (You’re paying a lot more for rocket fuel in those cases.)

The way Kugler describes it, using Made in Space’s technology, you’ll be able to launch small spacecraft and satellites that, once in orbit, could autonomously create the kinds of equipment normally restricted to larger, heavier satellites, at least when limited to traditional, Earth-bound production processes.

“You’re talking tens of millions [of dollars] compared to hundreds of millions,” said Kugler, referring to the cost savings Made in Space is envisioning.

NASA, whose funding yo-yos quite dramatically year over year, obviously sees the appeal of the cost-savings aspect of Made in Space’s approach.

“The benefit to the taxpayer is more efficient and affordable spacecraft and space vehicle designs that are not overdesigned (for launch) and that do not require the hardware needed to deploy the spacecraft into a usable configuration,” said Dayna Ise, a program executive at NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate division, in an emailed statement.

That same Made in Space tech could and likely will be used to build space weaponry and battle stations — though hopefully not on the mass-destruction scale of the Death Star. Northrop Grumman — the aerospace and defense contractor that makes the Global Hawk military drone, among other weaponry — is one of Made in Space’s key business partners.

First, though, there needs to be a working proof-of-concept of the idea, which is coming soon.

In 2022 or shortly thereafter, a rocket made by the aptly named company Rocket Lab Electron will launch from New Zealand and release Made in Space’s smaller spacecraft, the Archinaut One, which is about the size of a small refrigerator that you’d see in a college student’s dorm room.

It’s a cylindrical craft with some complicated-looking equipment strapped to the side and two tiny solar arrays sprouting on opposite sides like square robotic bat wings. But the relatively benign appearance hides some groundbreaking technology onboard. Archinaut One will carry its own additive manufacturing facility.

Additive manufacturing refers to a wide range of technologies and building processes, among them 3D printing, that all share in common the ability to fabricate objects with relatively high precision by applying layers of material on top of one another, adding them together to form a more complex object.

Desktop 3D printers have been around for years, sold by the likes of MakerBot (a subsidiary of Stratasys) and XYZprinting.

Made in Space has already built a printer slightly larger than these desktop models. In 2014, the company launched it aboard a SpaceX Dragon commercial cargo vessel, which it sent, along with some mice, to the International Space Station.

That printer, which Made in Space called a zero-gravity printer, printed more than a dozen items and ended up serving as the basis for all of its subsequent technology. It was succeeded by Made in Space’s more advanced additive manufacturing facility printer (AMF printer), launched to the space station in 2016 and since used to print more than 100 different tools, including everything from specialized wrenches to finger splints for astronauts. (They’re prone to injuring their fingers on all the finicky equipment aboard the space station.)

Now Made in Space plans to take the success of that very same technology and run a variation of it outside of the space station—in the even more inhospitable vacuum of space, on the side of the free-flying Archinaut One spacecraft. After decoupling from the Rocket Lab rocket, the Archinaut One will enter low-earth orbit (LEO to space industry folks, defined by NASA as the first 100 to 200 miles of space above Earth’s surface) and begin circling our home planet more than 11 times per day.

A few days later, the Archinaut One will conduct the historic, first-ever free-flying additive manufacturing demonstration in space, using a spool of polymer filament to print two 32-foot-long (64 feet total) semirigid beams extending from either side of the spacecraft.

The beams will be much larger than those the Archinaut One could otherwise support if it were relying on traditional space assembly methods, such as bringing them folded up into space from Earth, and will be used to act as a kind of scaffolding for long solar arrays that extend outward. “Like Venetian blinds,” according to Kugler.

Robotic arms will weave the electrical junctions through the solar arrays and connect them back into the spacecraft, providing working power. And all of this will happen automatically, controlled by software algorithms, with humans overseeing it back on the ground in Texas and Florida.

“Space being a difficult and unusual medium is 90% of the challenge we face,” Kugler told OneZero.

Although Made in Space likes to brag that it doesn’t have any competition when it comes to its specific space-grade additive manufacturing systems, the commercial space industry at large is broadly focused on developing technologies to reduce the weight, cost, and time it takes to put craft into orbit and beyond.

SpaceX has its impressively successful Falcon reusable rockets, while other companies, including Virgin Galactic and Sierra Nevada, are working on private reusable space shuttle–type craft. Bigelow Aerospace, the company founded by billionaire hotel magnate and UFO aficionado Robert Bigelow, has launched an inflatable human habitat to the space station and proven that the concept — using fabric lighter than traditional spacecraft materials to construct tentlike rooms in orbit — is viable for reducing weight at launch and, therefore, rocket fuel and cost.

These companies all face the same challenges humanity has encountered since we first started shooting rockets up into the sky—namely, that beyond Earth’s atmosphere is an inhospitable environment for pretty much everything, even strong materials like metal and plastic.

There’s the strong force of gravity exerted on the payload of a rocket launch, then all the speed and motion to get objects into space, and once they get there, they typically move at thousands of miles per hour. The atmosphere also helps protect objects on Earth from a number of damaging space forces, like debris, cosmic radiation, and the more unfiltered radiation and heat of the sun. So, designing systems that work in space requires solving for problems in physics, math, chemistry, electromagnetism, thermodynamics, computation, and materials science, among other disciplines.

In many ways, space is fundamentally opposed to the kinds of finicky and delicate 3D-printing processes that companies have developed for Earth, with extremely precise and even fragile moving parts.

Fortunately for Made in Space, its employees have already managed to solve some of the fundamentals. The company says it prudently designed its zero-gravity additive manufacturing to work in a wide range of differing gravity environments, from “more than one G to negative G,” according to Kugler — that is, gravity both stronger and weaker than what’s felt on Earth’s surface.

“For the future of building deep-space transit vehicles that will take people to far-off destinations and land, this is vital technology.”

In fact, even though the Archinaut One demo will be the first of its kind, it may be easier in some ways to accomplish than Made in Space’s previous feat of putting a printer aboard the space station, where it was more prone to jostling and other interference (“perturbations,” as Kugler calls them) from the astronauts going about their tasks, such as running on the space station treadmill.

If the company can pull off this demo, what’s next?

“In the near term, we can directly apply the tech from the Archinaut One to making small satellites that have larger, more efficient solar arrays or larger, more efficient active arrays, like antennas, reflectors, laser arrays,” Kugler said.

Made in Space thinks that within a few years after that, it will be able to build solar collection stations that can beam power to other spacecraft or customers down on Earth.

NASA, for one, is bullish on using Made in Space’s technology to create human-crewed spacecraft. “The timeline depends on a variety of factors, but the in-space robotic manufacturing and assembly capability could be matured to this level within the next decade,” Ise said.

“For the future of building cities in space and deep-space transit vehicles that will take people to far-off destinations and land, this is vital technology,” Kugler went on. “We will need a couple of miracles between now and then, but it’s possible.”

Made in Space isn’t talking up the potential for its technology to be used in Death Star–like superweapons—or any smaller weapons, for that matter. But it is open to developing craft and technology that can be used by the U.S. military.

Asked about the possibility of using the technology for defense purposes, Made in Space spokesperson Austin Jordan provided the following statement via email: “Our vision is that Made in Space will continue to be a close partner to the U.S. government across both defense and civil organizations. As it relates to national security and defense, in-space assembly and manufacturing capabilities could address key national security space priorities, including improving asset resilience, enhancing satellite capabilities, and providing rapid-response equipment. I think innovative technology platforms like Archinaut One will open up the playbook for us to engage with various agencies within the defense community to incorporate these capabilities into future missions.”

It may take a while, but if Made in Space’s visions pan out at all close to how the company hopes, future generations may look at the Death Star scenes in Star Wars as more realistic — perhaps worryingly so — than George Lucas could have ever anticipated.

{ https://onezero.medium.com/ }

24-09-2019 om 22:08 geschreven door peter  

Brain Waves Detected in Lab Grown Mini-brains

Brain organoids in a laboratory dish.

Credit: UC San Diego Health Sciences

Brain organoids — also called mini-brains — are 3D cellular models that represent aspects of the human brain in the laboratory. Brain organoids help researchers track human development, unravel the molecular events that lead to disease and test new treatments. They aren’t prefect replicas, of course. Brain organoids do not replicate cognitive function, but researchers can check how an organoid’s physical structure or gene expression changes over time or as a result of a virus or drug.

University of California San Diego researchers have now taken brain organoids one step further, achieving an unprecedented level of neural network activity — electrical impulses that can be recorded by multi-electrode arrays. Using data from babies born up to three-and-a-half months premature, the team developed an algorithm to predict their age based upon EEG patterns. The algorithm then read lab-grown brain organoids the same way, and assigned them an age.

The electrical impulse pattern for nine-month-old brain organoids revealed similar features to those of a premature infant who had reached full-term (40 weeks gestation).

These new optimized brain organoids may make it possible for researchers to study mental illnesses that aren’t caused by or result in overt physiological changes, but instead involve disturbances in brain cell network activity, such as autism or epilepsy. For many of these conditions, there are no relevant laboratory or animal models.

“We couldn’t believe it at first — we thought our electrodes were malfunctioning,” said co-senior author Alysson R. Muotri, PhD, professor of pediatrics and cellular and molecular medicine at UC San Diego School of Medicine. “Because the data were so striking, I think many people were kind of skeptical about it, and understandably so.” Muotri led the study with Bradley Voytek, PhD, associate professor of cognitive science in the UC San Diego Division of Social Sciences.

Brain organoid construction begins with a perhaps surprising source: an adult skin sample. In the lab, researchers convert the skin cells into induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). Like most stem cells, with the right cocktail of molecular factors, iPSCs can be directed to specialize into any cell type. In this case, they become brain cells — different types of neurons and glia, for example.

At UC San Diego, brain organoids have been used to produce the first direct experimental proof that the Brazilian Zika virus can cause severe birth defects and to repurpose existing HIV drugs for a rare, inherited neurological disorder. Muotri and team also recently sent their brain organoids to the International Space Station to test microgravity’s effect on brain development — and maybe prospects for human life beyond Earth.

In the latest study, Muotri and colleagues optimized every step of brain organoid construction. For example, they started from single cells, rather than the clumps of cells used in most protocols. They also tweaked the precise timing and concentration of factors added to prompt brain cell organization. There wasn’t a single secret ingredient or innovation, he said, but rather several improvements over time.

The optimization paid off in terms of cellular diversity and cellular network activity. For example, the team detected a particular primate-specific neuron, called a cortical GABAergic neuron, that had never before been generated in a lab dish. According to Muotri, these cells are important players in the sophistication of neural networks.

To measure cellular network activity, the researchers grew their newly optimized brain organoids on multi-electrode arrays. The electrodes capture and record electrical impulses, which appear as patterns of waves and spikes in an EEG read-out. With the new protocol, the brain organoids went from producing 3,000 spikes per minute to 300,000 spikes per minute.

In humans, oscillations change with age, as brain cell connectivity develops. Newborn baby brains tend to have periods of rest (no waves) between spikes of electrical activity. Those quiet periods get shorter and shorter as the brain develops. In time, brain activity becomes constant, though levels vary. These brain oscillation patterns often correlate with human cognition and disease states.

Muotri and team compared their brain organoid electrical patterns to a publicly available dataset of 567 EEG recordings from 39 babies born prematurely, between 24 and 38 weeks gestation, and for several weeks after birth. From their initial days to nine months, the brain organoids produced similar levels of electric activity, following a similar pattern: less quiet time, more frequent electrical impulses.

Muotri said he is often asked about the ethical implications of this work, with questions like: “Are we getting too close to re-creating the human brain?” These brain organoids dramatically differ from human brains in many ways, he explained. For example, they are several times smaller than an adult human brain. They do not have hemispheres or blood vessels. And they are not surrounded by protective skulls or connected to other tissues.

“They are far from being functionally equivalent to a full cortex, even in a baby,” said Muotri, who is also director of the UC San Diego Stem Cell Program and a member of the Sanford Consortium for Regenerative Medicine. “In fact, we don’t yet have a way to even measure consciousness or sentience.”

Muotri’s brain organoids can live for years in the lab, but their activity plateaus at nine months. He said a number of reasons might apply, including the lack of blood vessels or the need for additional neurons to continue maturing.

The better brain organoids can replicate the human brain in the lab, Muotri said, the less researchers will need to rely on animal models and fetal tissue to better understand and treat human disease.

“Our work doesn’t yet replace the need for human fetal brain tissue for research, but it’s very attractive as a potential alternative,” he said.

Reference:

• Trujillo, C. A., Gao, R., Negraes, P. D., Gu, J., Buchanan, J., Preissl, S., … Muotri, A. R. (2019). Complex Oscillatory Waves Emerging from Cortical Organoids Model Early Human Brain Network Development. Cell Stem Cell. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.stem.2019.08.002
• This article has been republished from the following materials. Note: material may have been edited for length and content. For further information, please contact the cited source.

{ https://www.technologynetworks.com/neuroscience }

04-09-2019 om 15:53 geschreven door peter  

Video – 3D bioprinter patches up wounds using a patient’s own skin cells

While the advent of 3D printers is commonly thought of as a revolution for manufacturing, it could have huge benefits for medicine as well. To help patch up large wounds that might normally require a skin graft, researchers at Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine (WFIRM) have developed a new bioprinter that can print dual layers of a patient’s own skin directly into a wound.

The idea of 3D printing skin has been in development for a few years. In 2014, a prototype machine was unveiled that could print large sheets of human skin that could then be cut to size and grafted onto a patient. The tech evolved over the years into more detailed machines and eventually a handheld device that works like a tape dispenser for skin.

The new machine looks like a cross between those last two. It’s much larger than the handheld device, but it’s still relatively portable in a hospital setting. The machine can be wheeled to a bedside, and a patient lies underneath the printer nozzle while it goes to work.

Like earlier devices, the new printer uses an “ink” made up of a patient’s own cells, to minimize the risk of rejection. First a small biopsy of healthy skin is taken, and from that two types of skin cells can be isolated: fibroblasts, the cells that help build the structure to heal wounds, and keratinocytes, which are the main cells found in the outermost layer of skin.

Larger amounts of these cells are grown from the biopsy sample, then mixed into a hydrogel to form the bioprinter ink. And here’s where it differs from previous bioprinters – rather than just applying the new skin over the injury, the new machine first uses a 3D laser scanner to build a picture of the topology of the wound. Using that image, the device then fills in the deepest parts with the fibroblasts, before layering keratinocytes over the top.

That technique mimics the natural structure of skin cells, allowing the injury to heal faster. The team demonstrated that it works using mouse models, observing that new skin began to form outward from the center of the wound. Notably, it only worked when the ink was made using the patient’s own cells – in other experiments the tissue was rejected by the body.

“If you deliver the patient’s own cells, they do actively contribute to wound healing by organizing up front to start the healing process much faster,” says James Yoo, co-author of the paper. “While there are other types of wound healing products available to treat wounds and help them close, those products don’t actually contribute directly to the creation of skin.”

The researchers say that the next steps involve conducting clinical trials in humans. Eventually, the new device could be put to work treating burn victims, patients with diabetic ulcers and other large wounds that have trouble healing on their own.

• The research was published in the journal Scientific Reports.

Source: Wake Forest School of Medicine

{ https://gaf.news/ }

03-09-2019 om 21:33 geschreven door peter