Breakthroughs and trends in the world of technology
Biomedical Engineering
Bye Bye Biopsies?
Before cancer surgery and many other medical procedures, patients often must undergo a biopsy, in which tiny tissue samples are extracted for evaluation and examination under a microscope. It’s a slow process that can take days to complete, and doctors are loath to remove even minute slices from highly sensitive areas, including the brain, spinal cord, and eyes. Moreover, biopsies can miss areas of disease. While some surgical-guidance microscopes can produce a small, two-dimensional image, they’re time-consuming to use and require injecting a fluorescent dye into patients. Now biomedical engineers at Columbia University have invented the first high-speed 3D microscope that can provide real-time images of tumors in living tissue. The device, called MediSCAPE, could enable surgeons to better navigate the malignancy’s boundaries and figure out the best way to remove it, confident that no cancerous tissue remains. After successfully testing the device on animal tumors and human kidneys that had been removed for transplant, the researchers conducted the first trial on a living human. MediSCAPE collected images in and around a volunteer’s mouth and was able to produce 3D images of the papillae on the person’s tongue. The team is now seeking approval from the US Food and Drug Administration to conduct a larger clinical trial en route to commercializing the invention. – Thomas K. Grose
© Columbia University
Synthetic Chemistry
Snap-On Particles
More than fifteen years ago, Martin D. Burke, a chemistry professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, pioneered a LEGO-like technology that allows basic chemical building blocks—called MIDA boronates—to snap together sequentially. The process, which utilizes a molecule-making machine Burke and his collaborators invented that automates chemical synthesis using the MIDA blocks, has proved popular. Some 270 of the blocks are now in wide use, and more than 250 academic and industrial labs have used them to make discoveries involving 200 patent applications. But the MIDA blocks can only produce flat, two-dimensional molecules. Burke and his team have now developed a new class of blocks, called TIDA boronates, that can form 3D molecules with twists and turns. The team has also invented a new automated assembly machine that works like a 3D printer for molecules. Three-dimensionality will allow researchers to build much more complex molecules. Moreover, the TIDA blocks are up to 1,000 times more stable than MIDA blocks, even in water, enabling the synthesis of more classes of chemicals under a wider array of conditions. Burke’s team says the TIDA technology could help researchers develop products ranging from new drugs and materials to catalysts, perfumes, and sweeteners. – T. G.
© Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois
Augmented Reality
Past Menagerie
The La Brea Tar Pits and Museum, an excavation site and popular Los Angeles tourist attraction, is situated near naturally occurring pools of asphalt that have percolated from deep underground for millennia. During the Ice Age, mammoths, ground sloths, dire wolves, and other critters stumbled into the gooey pools and died. To bring some of those long-extinct animals to virtual life, museum researchers tested a basic artificial-reality app and found that visitors who used it did a better job of recalling the animals’ names and habitats than those who relied on printed material, Science reports. That prompted a collaboration with the University of California to develop a new app with more realistic images, but there was a hitch: no scientifically accurate models exist in the digital world. So researchers constructed their own, drawing on detailed information—including photos of mounted skeletons and videos of the behavior of modern-day related species—for mastodons, saber-toothed cats, and other animals that have been excavated from the La Brea pits. An artist for a video game developer created virtual 3D skeletons of nearly two dozen creatures, added fur and skin, and animated them. Visitors who use the smartphone app now can focus on the museum’s lawn and “see” a young mammoth fall into a tar pit while a scientist provides narration. – T. G.
© Getty Images
Urban Farms
Heat Your Greens
Commercial greenhouses can produce crops year-round despite harsh outdoor conditions and make it easier to combat disease and pest infestations. Their reliance on artificial lighting and irrigation systems, however, drives up energy use. A group of master’s students at Spain’s Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia, working with architects Vicente Guallart and Daniel Ibáñez, developed a two-story prototype greenhouse that runs on solar power, Fast Company reports. Its panels provide so much electricity that only half is needed to power the LED lights and irrigation system; the rest goes to a nearby research lab. Guallart, Barcelona’s former chief architect, says the facility could have handled enough panels to generate 75 percent excess power, but the plan had to be scaled back due to budget restrictions. Students spent two months erecting the 130-square-foot greenhouse, which grows crops ranging from lettuce to tomatoes to eggplant. It features an angled glass roof to capture daytime sunlight, with solar panels arranged in a checkerboard pattern. Guallart’s firm is now applying lessons from the prototype to design a 1,600-square-foot version that stands 29 feet tall. The architect, who argued in his 2014 book The Self-Sufficient City that buildings should be designed to be productive, sees no reason why solar-powered, electricity-generating greenhouses can’t be placed atop existing urban buildings—as long as they have flat roofs. – T. G.
© Getty Images
Drone Technology
New Spin on a Classic Design
Leonardo da Vinci, the Italian Renaissance artist, was also a formidable engineer and scientist. In 1481, he sketched plans for a water-lifting device based on an Archimedes screw, one of the earliest hydraulic machines. Some eight years later, he extrapolated from that design to sketch an “aerial screw,” a machine that would fly like a modern helicopter. Two years ago, University of Maryland aerospace engineering master’s students won a Vertical Flight Society (VFS) student design challenge with a drone based on the decoded principles of Leonardo’s aerial screw. Though computer simulations showed their novel airship should fly, the students still had doubts. So they built a working prototype, which debuted this year at a VFS conference. Colored red and dubbed the Crimson Spin, the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) gets its lift from four spinning, spiral-shaped blades. It was crafted by student Austin Prete, who spent roughly 18 months translating the team’s theoretical paper into a functional prototype. The designers reckon that an aerial screw may create less noise and downwash than a regular rotor with similar thrust, but much remains unknown about how it works. Inderjit Chopra, the aerospace engineering professor who oversaw the students’ work, hopes to get federal funding to conduct more detailed studies on the flying screw and its potential as a vertical-lift system. – T. G.
© Getty Images
Neuroscience
Last Scene
There are many near-death accounts by people who claim that they saw long-gone family and friends before they were resuscitated. Now neurosurgeons at the University of Louisville have discovered some evidence of brain activity in a dying man that may account for some of those experiences. Their paper, published in Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience, describes an 87-year-old man who developed seizures after surgeons treated him for bleeding in the brain caused by a bad fall. He was given an electroencephalogram (EEG) test to measure his brain activity. The EEG was still running when the patient died from cardiac arrest and continued to run for a few more minutes—likely the first time that physicians have received a detailed look at the workings of a human brain as someone dies. Just before the man expired, his EEG displayed an increase in gamma waves, which are associated with learning and memory; the pattern also resembled those often seen when people are dreaming or remembering. The patient had suffered traumatic brain injury and was on anticonvulsants, which could have affected his EEG. But researchers say they’ve seen similar brain activity in lab studies of dying rats. One of the study’s authors, Ajmal Zemmar, posited that our dying loved ones “may be replaying some of the nicest moments they experienced in their lives.” – T. G.
© Getty Images
Agricultural Engineering
Spud Shields
The golden cyst nematode, Globodera rostochiensis, is a devastating ground worm that attacks the roots of young potato plants and can destroy as much as 70 percent of the entire crop. Researchers at North Carolina State University have discovered a way to foil the invasive pest: wrapping the tender roots in a paper pouch made from banana fibers, Science magazine reports. Nematode eggs are protected by a tough cyst formed by the mother’s body after she dies. In temperate climes, alternating crops, spraying pesticides, and planting infection-resistant varietals can control the worms. Those measures are too costly for many small-hold farmers in tropical developing countries, however. NC State researchers initially conceived of banana-fiber paper a decade ago as a means of slowly releasing pesticides. In field tests of abamectin-coated pouches in Kenya, however, the untreated control pouches performed almost as well as those with the pesticide. It turns out that banana fibers absorbed 94 percent of the compounds released by potato roots that signal when the nematode eggs should hatch. Further field tests showed that harvests of paper-protected potato plants were three times larger than those planted without paper. And by adding just a soupçon of abamectin to the paper, only five-thousandths of what normally would be sprayed, researchers boosted yields by another 50 percent. – T. G.
© Getty Images
Cancer Treatment
Tumor Targets
A University of Virginia engineering school publication recently profiled Kimberly A. Kelly, a professor of biomedical engineering whose spin-off company, ZielBio, has entered clinical trials for a novel therapy that could cure pancreatic cancer without painful side effects. The disease, which kills 50,000 people in the United States annually, has a five-year survival rate of just 5 percent. Symptoms usually don’t occur until the tumor is inoperable. Kelly’s earlier research involved screening for peptides that could be used as drugs to treat known disease-causing proteins on the surface of cells. That led her to flip the process and instead look for disease targets. The process she invented screens live cells in situ to pinpoint where the proteins are located, then uses computational methods to look for likely targets. In 2008, Kelly published her discovery of a protein called plectin on the surface of pancreatic cancer cells. Since it is usually found inside healthy mammalian cells, its presence was a mystery her team is still investigating. Earlier research, however, had shown that plectin plays a key role in pancreatic cancer’s spread and aggressive growth. ZielBio’s team has since devised a monoclonal antibody, ZB131, that adheres to and disrupts only the plectin on tumor cells, leaving healthy cells unmolested. Early lab results showed that ZB131 was highly effective at shrinking—and even killing—pancreatic tumor cells. The drug is now in clinical trials focused on ensuring it is safe for humans and at what dose. Meanwhile, Kelly’s team has since found high levels of plectin on the surfaces of other tumor cells, including ovarian, lung, and colorectal cancers—diseases that currently have low survival rates. – T. G.
© Getty Images
Molecular Engineering
Novel Circuits
Liquid crystal displays are often used for computer and TV screens because they have a solid-like molecular structure but can morph like a liquid. Molecular engineers at the University of Chicago, working with colleagues at Stanford University, have figured out how to use liquid crystals to perform logic operations. They’ve demonstrated that the crystals could be arranged to create the foundational building blocks of a circuit—including gates, amplifiers, and conductors. The unusual structure of liquid crystals creates regions where molecules abut one another but their orientations don’t quite match. These “topological defects” move as the liquid crystal moves. Researchers have long wondered if these defects could function like electrons in a circuit and be used to carry information, but no one could come up with a way to control their movement. Until now. The Chicago team has shown that by using light focused on specific areas, they could guide the defects where they wanted. In a new paper, the researchers determined that it is theoretically possible to use those controls to make a liquid crystal perform computations. The team envisions potential applications in the field of “soft” robotics—robots made from stretchy materials that enable flexibility and dexterity—as well as in computing and ferrying small amounts of liquid or other material in synthetic cells. – T. G.
© Getty Images
Biophysical Design
Beat Generation
Bioengineering researchers at Harvard and Emory Universities have developed a cyborg fish based on the zebrafish that can swim as quickly and efficiently as its real-life counterpart, thanks to fins propelled by cardiac muscle cells derived from human stem cells. The robot fish is an early step toward the researchers’ goal of designing and building an artificial replacement for a child’s malformed heart. Each of the mechanical fish’s tail fins is coated with two layers of heart-muscle cells. Each time one side stretches, it signals the other side to contract, and vice versa. All that elongating and contracting causes the fin to flick back and forth, propelling the fish forward. The closed-loop system can work for more than 100 days. The team also built an autonomous pacing node—a pacemaker, basically—to control the contractions’ frequency and rhythm. By studying the mechano-electrical signaling between the two sets of cells, the researchers hope to learn more about the feedback mechanisms of the human heart. – T. G.
© Michael Rosnach, Keel Yong Lee, Sung-Jin Park, Kevin Kit Parker
Climate Solutions
Leaf of Absence
Because trees absorb carbon dioxide from the air and convert the gas into sugars needed for growing wood, the idea of planting more trees to help scrub the atmosphere has taken root with environmentalists and scientists. But as Science magazine notes, trees depend on an inefficient type of photosynthesis that also produces a toxic by-product called phosphoglycolate. To rid itself of that chemical, trees rely on another process called photorespiration—but that consumes energy that could be better used to grow wood. Living Carbon, a San Francisco start-up, is experimenting with poplars that have been genetically engineered to speed their growth. In a recent paper posted on a preprint server (so it’s not yet peer reviewed), the company says the enhanced trees, grown in a greenhouse, grew 1.5 times faster than normal poplars over a four-month period and put on 53 percent more weight. A bacterium was used to introduce pumpkin and green algae genes that give the trees the ability to reduce their photorespiration rates. Outside experts say it’s a good start but stress that trees that grow well in highly controlled greenhouse conditions often fail to repeat that success outdoors. Field tests are now underway in Oregon, so we’ll know next summer if the peppy poplars have the timber to survive on the wild side. – T. G.
© Living Carbon
Experiential Learning
High Hops
Hopscotch has been enjoyed around the world for centuries. The simple pastime, in which participants draw a court on the ground in chalk and hop within the squares, is now being taken to new lengths. In April, Georgia Tech students attempted to break a Guinness World Record for the world’s longest hopscotch game. The resulting course stretched 4.2 miles, noted a university release. Physics major Ashleigh Henning led the efforts to gain the world record by members of SEE(k) D(iscomfort), or SEED, a campus leadership organization dedicated to helping students develop their potential “through unique, once-in-a-lifetime experiences.” The group chose the hopscotch record as a hands- (and feet-)on activity that could help students engage with the campus. As detailed in an article from Canadian broadcaster CBC, the group members 3D printed square stamps created by a mechanical engineering student. They then lathered the stamps in “chalk,” their own solution of corn starch and water, and pressed them down about 23,000 times. For the court to be considered for the world record, the participants had to collectively jump all the way through it. Many of the students who hopped the course, estimated at about 15,000 jumps, were distance runners or elite athletes. Henning helped optimize their movement, she explained in a video from the school, by practicing on her runs “to strategize the most efficient hopping with the least physical cost.” The team is still waiting for verification from Guinness, but all signs point to the students hopping their way to a world record. – Yara Palin
© Getty Images
Advanced Materials
Tarry Tough Stuff
Strong yet lightweight, carbon fiber is the go-to material for high-performance products from aircraft fuselages to wind-turbine blades. It’s also expensive. Kevin Hodder, a materials engineering research associate at the University of Alberta, seeks to reduce costs and expand use by creating a cheap feedstock from bitumen—the molasses-like hydrocarbon found in Canada’s massive Athabasca oil sands. Typically, carbon fiber is spun from a synthetic polymer known as PAN (polyacrylonitrile). The efforts of Hodder, one of 12 finalists competing in Alberta’s $15 million Carbon Fiber Grand Challenge, focus on replacing PAN with asphaltene, a plentiful by-product of converting bitumen into crude oil that is used in asphalt and tar. Since asphaltene “is basically free,” says Hodder, “the more uses we can find for it the better.” Processing the asphaltenes with electrolysis and thermal energy in a device Hodder likens to a hot glue gun could not only cut the cost of carbon fiber by up to 50 percent but also emit less greenhouse gas than current production methods. He says several large corporations have expressed serious interest, and his team now is determining “whether we go off and make our own company or license our technology to them.” Carbon-fiber challenge winners, to be announced in 2023, will receive government support to commercialize their research projects. – Pierre Home-Douglas
© Daniel Tzvi