SciTech #ScienceSunday Digest - 28/2016.
SciTech #ScienceSunday Digest - 28/2016.
Permalink here: http://www.scitechdigest.net/2016/07/programmable-rna-vaccines-high-res-rna.html
Programmable RNA vaccines, High-res RNA mapping, Robot pick-and-grasp, The six story arcs, Printing electronics, Cyborg insect sensors, Sensitive gravity sensors, Big data cancer, Regenerative tooth fillings, In-ear EEG.
1. Programmable RNA Vaccines
Effective RNA vaccines are now being made from messenger RNA molecules that are packaged into dendrimer nanoparticles measuring 150nm that are able to enter cells after being injected into the body http://news.mit.edu/2016/programmable-rna-vaccines-0704. Once in the cell the mRNA is delivered and translated into specific protein antigens that drive both T-cell and antibody immune responses. Tests in mice demonstrated effective immunity to ebola, influenza, and toxoplasma. This platform might tackle a huge range of infectious diseases and is also being used to develop destructive cell therapies such as cancer vaccines and removing other unwanted cells.
2. Mapping RNAs in Whole Tissues
Meanwhile, expansion microscopy - new technique covered last year - has improved and can now be used to precisely map the location and distribution of RNA molecules throughout a cell in whole tissues http://news.mit.edu/2016/rna-nanoscale-brain-0704. Different RNAs can be tagged to distinguish their identity and questions about the transport of RNAs and their storage throughout the cell - such as in neurons responding to signalling and memory formation - can now be better answered, as well as differentiating between different cell types and healthy vs unhealthy cells and the effects they have on gene transcription and their environment.
3. Robotic Picking is Getting Very Good
Team Delft won Amazon’s latest Picking Challenge, designed to award prizes to the best performing robots able to pick things off shelves and put them into boxes, which will ultimately allow the company to significantly reduce its warehouse human work force http://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/industrial-robots/team-delft-wins-amazon-picking-challenge. Robots had to master Stow and Pick tasks with complex environments, occluded target items, and items demanding different grasping techniques. The winner currently performs at 25% of the output of a human and with a 16% error rate. Far more teams than predicted passed the minimum performance threshold suggesting that the rate of improvement in this area is picking up (sic).
4. Data Mining Reveals the Six Story Arcs
Data mining techniques and sentiment analysis on 1,700 stories have revealed a set of six core trajectories that form the building blocks of complex narratives in our stories https://www.technologyreview.com/s/601848/data-mining-novels-reveals-the-six-basic-emotional-arcs-of-storytelling/. In summary these are: rags-to-riches rise, tragedy decline, fall then rise, rise then fall, rise-fall-rise, and fall-rise-fall. Further, the most popular stories follow more complex arcs that use the basic building blocks in sequence. This provides some insight into human psychology and might also help build future novel storytelling systems and coaches.
5. Printing Electronics & Sensors
New inks and materials can be loaded into conventional inkjet printers to enable simple and quick printing of flexible electronic circuits, batteries, and supercapacitors in arbitrary designs https://www.technologyreview.com/s/601800/hacking-a-desktop-printer-to-make-batteries-and-circuits/. In one demonstration a printed label attaches to a coffee mug and depending on the temperature activates a blue light if cold and a red light if hot. Meanwhile laser printers can be used to form patterns on cellulose paper that act as cheap and convenient supports for further biochemical functionalisation, which was demonstrated via simple biosensors http://phys.org/news/2016-07-laser-printed-patterns-cellulose-paper-biochemical.html.
6. Distributed Cyborg Insect Sensors
A new cyborg insect platform based on locusts is being developed that co-opts insect olfaction, trains insects to seek out specific scents, functionalises insects with materials that collect specific molecules and others that can impart limited remote control, and finally equips the insects with electronics for monitoring brain signals https://source.wustl.edu/2016/06/engineers-use-cyborg-insects-biorobotic-sensing-machines/. In the first instance the group hopes to create and demonstrate the system in explosives detection applications.
7. Very Sensitive Gravity Detectors
A new gravity sensor, or gravity gradiometer, developed by Lockheed Martin is 20 times as sensitive and provides 10 times greater bandwidth than existing systems http://www.worldoil.com/news/2016/7/6/neos-lockheed-martin-develop-new-sensor-to-seek-out-oil-gas. Applications include resource exploration via gravity-mapping fly-overs of areas to look for interesting geological formations that indicate minerals and other resources buried beneath the ground; the sensor is apparently capable of finding a truck full of gold 20m underground.
8. Big Data Cancer Characterisation
The latest big data analysis of cancer successfully catalogued 1,000 different types of tumours, their alterations, and susceptibility to a range of different cancer drugs http://www.idibell.cat/modul/noticies/en/906/a-big-data-approach-to-developing-cancer-drugs. The 1,000 tumours came from 29 different cell lines from different organs and produced a precise map of both genetic and epigenetic modifications and differences, screened each against 265 different antitumour drugs, and then validated the results against 11,000 additional tumour samples. This amazing resource has been made available via open access and once personalise genome (and tumour) sequencing gets underway will become ever more useful to patients for personalised medicine applications.
9. Regenerative Tooth Fillings
A new dental filling material is made from a type of biomaterial that, when placed into a prepared cavity and hardened with UV light like a conventional filling, subsequently works to stimulate local populations of stem cells in the pulp of the tooth http://www.popsci.com.au/science/medicine/the-end-of-root-canals-,430104. In tests the stem cells proliferated and differentiated into dentin, helping to actually heal the damage caused by tooth decay and cavity preparation. Such a material would not only drastically lower the rate of filling failures but possibly prevent root canals too.
10. Ear-Based Brain EEG Recordings
New in-ear earbud-based EEG sensors have been developed that can sit in the user’s ear and accurately pick up EEG signals from the brain for transmission to a device http://spectrum.ieee.org/the-human-os/biomedical/devices/in-ear-eeg-makes-unobtrusive-brain-hacking-gadgets-a-real-possibility. EEG signals are typically difficult to distinguish but in testing the device the group tested a range of mental states that produced the most clearly distinguishable signals and then used these two states as a binary choice to control some particular computing device function. An in-ear device is discrete and would allow continuous monitoring including sleep and disease states.
SciTech Tip Jar: http://www.scitechdigest.net/p/donate.html
Permalink here: http://www.scitechdigest.net/2016/07/programmable-rna-vaccines-high-res-rna.html
Programmable RNA vaccines, High-res RNA mapping, Robot pick-and-grasp, The six story arcs, Printing electronics, Cyborg insect sensors, Sensitive gravity sensors, Big data cancer, Regenerative tooth fillings, In-ear EEG.
1. Programmable RNA Vaccines
Effective RNA vaccines are now being made from messenger RNA molecules that are packaged into dendrimer nanoparticles measuring 150nm that are able to enter cells after being injected into the body http://news.mit.edu/2016/programmable-rna-vaccines-0704. Once in the cell the mRNA is delivered and translated into specific protein antigens that drive both T-cell and antibody immune responses. Tests in mice demonstrated effective immunity to ebola, influenza, and toxoplasma. This platform might tackle a huge range of infectious diseases and is also being used to develop destructive cell therapies such as cancer vaccines and removing other unwanted cells.
2. Mapping RNAs in Whole Tissues
Meanwhile, expansion microscopy - new technique covered last year - has improved and can now be used to precisely map the location and distribution of RNA molecules throughout a cell in whole tissues http://news.mit.edu/2016/rna-nanoscale-brain-0704. Different RNAs can be tagged to distinguish their identity and questions about the transport of RNAs and their storage throughout the cell - such as in neurons responding to signalling and memory formation - can now be better answered, as well as differentiating between different cell types and healthy vs unhealthy cells and the effects they have on gene transcription and their environment.
3. Robotic Picking is Getting Very Good
Team Delft won Amazon’s latest Picking Challenge, designed to award prizes to the best performing robots able to pick things off shelves and put them into boxes, which will ultimately allow the company to significantly reduce its warehouse human work force http://spectrum.ieee.org/automaton/robotics/industrial-robots/team-delft-wins-amazon-picking-challenge. Robots had to master Stow and Pick tasks with complex environments, occluded target items, and items demanding different grasping techniques. The winner currently performs at 25% of the output of a human and with a 16% error rate. Far more teams than predicted passed the minimum performance threshold suggesting that the rate of improvement in this area is picking up (sic).
4. Data Mining Reveals the Six Story Arcs
Data mining techniques and sentiment analysis on 1,700 stories have revealed a set of six core trajectories that form the building blocks of complex narratives in our stories https://www.technologyreview.com/s/601848/data-mining-novels-reveals-the-six-basic-emotional-arcs-of-storytelling/. In summary these are: rags-to-riches rise, tragedy decline, fall then rise, rise then fall, rise-fall-rise, and fall-rise-fall. Further, the most popular stories follow more complex arcs that use the basic building blocks in sequence. This provides some insight into human psychology and might also help build future novel storytelling systems and coaches.
5. Printing Electronics & Sensors
New inks and materials can be loaded into conventional inkjet printers to enable simple and quick printing of flexible electronic circuits, batteries, and supercapacitors in arbitrary designs https://www.technologyreview.com/s/601800/hacking-a-desktop-printer-to-make-batteries-and-circuits/. In one demonstration a printed label attaches to a coffee mug and depending on the temperature activates a blue light if cold and a red light if hot. Meanwhile laser printers can be used to form patterns on cellulose paper that act as cheap and convenient supports for further biochemical functionalisation, which was demonstrated via simple biosensors http://phys.org/news/2016-07-laser-printed-patterns-cellulose-paper-biochemical.html.
6. Distributed Cyborg Insect Sensors
A new cyborg insect platform based on locusts is being developed that co-opts insect olfaction, trains insects to seek out specific scents, functionalises insects with materials that collect specific molecules and others that can impart limited remote control, and finally equips the insects with electronics for monitoring brain signals https://source.wustl.edu/2016/06/engineers-use-cyborg-insects-biorobotic-sensing-machines/. In the first instance the group hopes to create and demonstrate the system in explosives detection applications.
7. Very Sensitive Gravity Detectors
A new gravity sensor, or gravity gradiometer, developed by Lockheed Martin is 20 times as sensitive and provides 10 times greater bandwidth than existing systems http://www.worldoil.com/news/2016/7/6/neos-lockheed-martin-develop-new-sensor-to-seek-out-oil-gas. Applications include resource exploration via gravity-mapping fly-overs of areas to look for interesting geological formations that indicate minerals and other resources buried beneath the ground; the sensor is apparently capable of finding a truck full of gold 20m underground.
8. Big Data Cancer Characterisation
The latest big data analysis of cancer successfully catalogued 1,000 different types of tumours, their alterations, and susceptibility to a range of different cancer drugs http://www.idibell.cat/modul/noticies/en/906/a-big-data-approach-to-developing-cancer-drugs. The 1,000 tumours came from 29 different cell lines from different organs and produced a precise map of both genetic and epigenetic modifications and differences, screened each against 265 different antitumour drugs, and then validated the results against 11,000 additional tumour samples. This amazing resource has been made available via open access and once personalise genome (and tumour) sequencing gets underway will become ever more useful to patients for personalised medicine applications.
9. Regenerative Tooth Fillings
A new dental filling material is made from a type of biomaterial that, when placed into a prepared cavity and hardened with UV light like a conventional filling, subsequently works to stimulate local populations of stem cells in the pulp of the tooth http://www.popsci.com.au/science/medicine/the-end-of-root-canals-,430104. In tests the stem cells proliferated and differentiated into dentin, helping to actually heal the damage caused by tooth decay and cavity preparation. Such a material would not only drastically lower the rate of filling failures but possibly prevent root canals too.
10. Ear-Based Brain EEG Recordings
New in-ear earbud-based EEG sensors have been developed that can sit in the user’s ear and accurately pick up EEG signals from the brain for transmission to a device http://spectrum.ieee.org/the-human-os/biomedical/devices/in-ear-eeg-makes-unobtrusive-brain-hacking-gadgets-a-real-possibility. EEG signals are typically difficult to distinguish but in testing the device the group tested a range of mental states that produced the most clearly distinguishable signals and then used these two states as a binary choice to control some particular computing device function. An in-ear device is discrete and would allow continuous monitoring including sleep and disease states.
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