SciTech #ScienceSunday Digest - 08/2016.
SciTech #ScienceSunday Digest - 08/2016.
Permalink here: http://www.scitechdigest.net/2016/02/cancer-immunotherapies-radio.html
Cancer immunotherapies, Radio invisibility mesh, Sophisticated robot hand, Nanostructured glass memory, Biosensing plasmonic interferometry, Implantable antennas, DNA insertion protocols, Neuromorphic silicon cochlea, Amazing drone applications, Variable negative stiffness.
1. Latest Results for Cancer Immunotherapies
Cancer immunotherapies that involve reprogramming a person’s own immune cells to attack and destroy cancer cells continue to be developed to ever-greater effectiveness and sophistication. Latest clinical trial results show a long sustained multi-year remission (I wonder when they can claim “cure”?) in 27 out of 29 patients originally expected to live 3 months https://www.fredhutch.org/en/news/center-news/2016/02/immunotherapy-remission-blood-cancer-AAAS-riddell.html. Cancer immunotherapy platforms like this lend themselves to being repurposed to treat a wide range of conditions including cancer clearance and removing senescent cells. The group hope to move from blood into lung and breast cancers next.
2. Copper Mesh Provides Radio Invisibility
A simple mesh of regularly spaced 4mm copper cubes forms sheets that are invisible to long wavelengths such as radio waves regardless of propagation direction http://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/semiconductors/materials/metallic-mesh-becomes-invisible-to-antenna-signals. Radio waves pass through the material completely unaltered as if it wasn’t there. Applications include better protective shielding for antennas, to protect antennas from observation and damage, as well as tuning the specific frequency of interest so that only that band can pass through to be received and transmitted by the antenna. The group believe they can adapt the design to microwaves, terahertz, and possibly the infrared.
3. Sophisticated Biomimetic Anthropomorphic Robot Hand
This is without doubt the most incredible robot hand I’ve seen http://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/medical-robots/biomimetic-anthropomorphic-robot-hand. Made from 3D printed plastics, laser-cut rubber, springs, cables, and motors, this robotic hand can impressively mimic natural human hand structure, function, and motions - check out the video to see it mimic a human hand movement in real time. A great prototype platform for further development for robotics and prosthetics.
4. Nanostructured Glass Memory Could Last Billions of Years
New nanostructured glass memory discs can have data written to them in 5 dimensions (3D location + orientation + size) using femtosecond lasers, and achieving a memory capacity of 360 Terabytes in a form thermally stable up to 1,000 degrees C and potentially lasting billions of years http://www.southampton.ac.uk/news/2016/02/5d-data-storage-update.page. The pattern recorded in the glass can then be read out using an optical microscope and polariser. Prototypes were made to store famous important documents.
5. Plasmonic Interferometry & Biosensors
Newly developed plasmonic interferometers no longer need expensive complicated coherent light sources; not needing coherent light is a game changing paradigm shift for the field and is enabled by incorporating fluorescent atoms integrated directly into the tiny hole at the centre of each interferometer https://news.brown.edu/articles/2016/02/plasmons. Each concentric interferometer on the surface of the chip can be tuned to be sensitive to particular fluids or compounds and producing distinct signals if a particular chemical is present or not - very promising for cheap, quick, easy, reliable biosensing applications.
6. Better Implantable Antennas & Radios
A new injectable / implantable antenna radio measuring 1cm long and 1mm wide can efficiently transmit radio signals half a meter away and through 3cm of tissue http://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/biomedical/devices/injectable-radios-to-broadcast-from-inside-the-body, with transmission bursts being powered by a tiny capacitor that is drip-charged by a tiny battery. The group has designed their system in a modular fashion, to be in and out with other systems for different applications, e.g. temperature, pH, pressure, etc.
7. Rapid Protocol Development for Inserting DNA into Cells
A simple new microfluidic device enables rapid screening for the correct electroporation conditions required to open up membrane pores in different types of cells and organisms in order to introduce DNA and other molecules successfully into cells without killing the cells http://news.mit.edu/2016/microfluidic-device-dna-insertion-bacteria-genetic-engineering-0219. Simple proofs of concept each time with fluorescent molecules or antibiotic resistance genes allows rapid screening for cells successfully engineered with the technique.
8. Neuromorphic Silicon Cochlea
A silicon cochlea, using just 55 microwatts of power to run, processes sound as a neuromorphic auditory system in a similar fashion to humans http://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/biomedical/devices/silicon-cochlea-mimics-human-hearing. The system possesses two independent ears, each sensitive to 64 channels (humans have 1,000 or so) and can efficiently filter out different channels. More channels and integration with neuromorphic imaging systems are planned. I’m wondering if you could use this in smartphone SOCs for better speech recognition and ultimately better human hearing prosthetics?
9. Recent Advances in Drone Applications
We had several interesting drone advances this week. First, the Russian military now have an autonomous / remote-operated drone that carries an RPG / missile launcher to seek and destroy tanks and other targets https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b93H5U6bcVI. Second, Dronebox is a set-and-forget platform for storing a drone out in the field in a protective box that recharges the drone (solar power) and communicates to home base, allowing the drone to perform autonomous sentry duty patrols around the box on a daily basis https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8NJLtcJy_Q. Third, a deep neural image recognition network allows drones to autonomously follow and navigate forest and mountain trails for patrol and search-and-rescue purposes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umRdt3zGgpU; the training method is pretty cool and long-term applications for this are amazing. Finally, we have dextrous flying drones equipped with a flexible manipulator arm for grasping, carrying, and interacting with the environment https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7l3pF8K_ow.
10. Dynamically Variable Negative Stiffness
A dynamically active variable negative stiffness system has been developed with millisecond actuation times and capable of 100x stiffness changes http://www.hrl.com/news/2016/0219/ and be sure to check the video. This is interesting for robotic biomimicry applications seeking to impart onto robots the benefits humans enjoy from a wide range of variable stiffness structures present in our joints and muscles that help us accomplish a much wider range of strength and precision tasks than would otherwise be possible. It’ll be interesting when we start to see advances like this become more prevalent in robotics.
SciTech Tip Jar: http://www.scitechdigest.net/p/donate.html
Permalink here: http://www.scitechdigest.net/2016/02/cancer-immunotherapies-radio.html
Cancer immunotherapies, Radio invisibility mesh, Sophisticated robot hand, Nanostructured glass memory, Biosensing plasmonic interferometry, Implantable antennas, DNA insertion protocols, Neuromorphic silicon cochlea, Amazing drone applications, Variable negative stiffness.
1. Latest Results for Cancer Immunotherapies
Cancer immunotherapies that involve reprogramming a person’s own immune cells to attack and destroy cancer cells continue to be developed to ever-greater effectiveness and sophistication. Latest clinical trial results show a long sustained multi-year remission (I wonder when they can claim “cure”?) in 27 out of 29 patients originally expected to live 3 months https://www.fredhutch.org/en/news/center-news/2016/02/immunotherapy-remission-blood-cancer-AAAS-riddell.html. Cancer immunotherapy platforms like this lend themselves to being repurposed to treat a wide range of conditions including cancer clearance and removing senescent cells. The group hope to move from blood into lung and breast cancers next.
2. Copper Mesh Provides Radio Invisibility
A simple mesh of regularly spaced 4mm copper cubes forms sheets that are invisible to long wavelengths such as radio waves regardless of propagation direction http://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/semiconductors/materials/metallic-mesh-becomes-invisible-to-antenna-signals. Radio waves pass through the material completely unaltered as if it wasn’t there. Applications include better protective shielding for antennas, to protect antennas from observation and damage, as well as tuning the specific frequency of interest so that only that band can pass through to be received and transmitted by the antenna. The group believe they can adapt the design to microwaves, terahertz, and possibly the infrared.
3. Sophisticated Biomimetic Anthropomorphic Robot Hand
This is without doubt the most incredible robot hand I’ve seen http://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/medical-robots/biomimetic-anthropomorphic-robot-hand. Made from 3D printed plastics, laser-cut rubber, springs, cables, and motors, this robotic hand can impressively mimic natural human hand structure, function, and motions - check out the video to see it mimic a human hand movement in real time. A great prototype platform for further development for robotics and prosthetics.
4. Nanostructured Glass Memory Could Last Billions of Years
New nanostructured glass memory discs can have data written to them in 5 dimensions (3D location + orientation + size) using femtosecond lasers, and achieving a memory capacity of 360 Terabytes in a form thermally stable up to 1,000 degrees C and potentially lasting billions of years http://www.southampton.ac.uk/news/2016/02/5d-data-storage-update.page. The pattern recorded in the glass can then be read out using an optical microscope and polariser. Prototypes were made to store famous important documents.
5. Plasmonic Interferometry & Biosensors
Newly developed plasmonic interferometers no longer need expensive complicated coherent light sources; not needing coherent light is a game changing paradigm shift for the field and is enabled by incorporating fluorescent atoms integrated directly into the tiny hole at the centre of each interferometer https://news.brown.edu/articles/2016/02/plasmons. Each concentric interferometer on the surface of the chip can be tuned to be sensitive to particular fluids or compounds and producing distinct signals if a particular chemical is present or not - very promising for cheap, quick, easy, reliable biosensing applications.
6. Better Implantable Antennas & Radios
A new injectable / implantable antenna radio measuring 1cm long and 1mm wide can efficiently transmit radio signals half a meter away and through 3cm of tissue http://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/biomedical/devices/injectable-radios-to-broadcast-from-inside-the-body, with transmission bursts being powered by a tiny capacitor that is drip-charged by a tiny battery. The group has designed their system in a modular fashion, to be in and out with other systems for different applications, e.g. temperature, pH, pressure, etc.
7. Rapid Protocol Development for Inserting DNA into Cells
A simple new microfluidic device enables rapid screening for the correct electroporation conditions required to open up membrane pores in different types of cells and organisms in order to introduce DNA and other molecules successfully into cells without killing the cells http://news.mit.edu/2016/microfluidic-device-dna-insertion-bacteria-genetic-engineering-0219. Simple proofs of concept each time with fluorescent molecules or antibiotic resistance genes allows rapid screening for cells successfully engineered with the technique.
8. Neuromorphic Silicon Cochlea
A silicon cochlea, using just 55 microwatts of power to run, processes sound as a neuromorphic auditory system in a similar fashion to humans http://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/biomedical/devices/silicon-cochlea-mimics-human-hearing. The system possesses two independent ears, each sensitive to 64 channels (humans have 1,000 or so) and can efficiently filter out different channels. More channels and integration with neuromorphic imaging systems are planned. I’m wondering if you could use this in smartphone SOCs for better speech recognition and ultimately better human hearing prosthetics?
9. Recent Advances in Drone Applications
We had several interesting drone advances this week. First, the Russian military now have an autonomous / remote-operated drone that carries an RPG / missile launcher to seek and destroy tanks and other targets https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b93H5U6bcVI. Second, Dronebox is a set-and-forget platform for storing a drone out in the field in a protective box that recharges the drone (solar power) and communicates to home base, allowing the drone to perform autonomous sentry duty patrols around the box on a daily basis https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8NJLtcJy_Q. Third, a deep neural image recognition network allows drones to autonomously follow and navigate forest and mountain trails for patrol and search-and-rescue purposes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umRdt3zGgpU; the training method is pretty cool and long-term applications for this are amazing. Finally, we have dextrous flying drones equipped with a flexible manipulator arm for grasping, carrying, and interacting with the environment https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7l3pF8K_ow.
10. Dynamically Variable Negative Stiffness
A dynamically active variable negative stiffness system has been developed with millisecond actuation times and capable of 100x stiffness changes http://www.hrl.com/news/2016/0219/ and be sure to check the video. This is interesting for robotic biomimicry applications seeking to impart onto robots the benefits humans enjoy from a wide range of variable stiffness structures present in our joints and muscles that help us accomplish a much wider range of strength and precision tasks than would otherwise be possible. It’ll be interesting when we start to see advances like this become more prevalent in robotics.
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