Cool STEM News:

New Study Reveals Why Whales Don’t Get Cancer | Interesting Engineering & Inverse (02:11)

• The large cetaceans (si-ˈtā-shən) experience lower rates of cancer than many animals including humans. Now, in a new study, researchers have sought to understand why this is happening.

• They speculated that since whales live for so long they are exposed to numerous pathogens. 
  • They evolve genes enhanced to protect against these diseases such as DNA repair mechanisms and other biological processes.

• They used DNA sequencing to create a genetic map of whales’ tumor suppressor genes and those of 15 other mammal species….They then compared them all.
  • Sequencing DNA: determining the order of the four chemical building blocks – called “bases” – that make up the DNA molecule. (ATCG)

• Found 71 tumor suppressor genes that were duplicated in the whales studied. 

• Relates to: A study published in 2018 showed large pachyderms (pa-ki-ˌdərm) (e.g. elephants) have a tumor-suppressing gene that allows their bodies to stop cancer from forming….Humans have this gene. However, while humans have only one copy of it, elephants have as many as 20 copies.

• They additionally discovered CXCR2, a gene believed to regulate immune function, the spread of tumors, and DNA damage.

• “One of the main processes which has already been demonstrated to play an important role in ageing and cancer suppression is the irreversible arrest of normally dividing cells, or cell senescence,” wrote the scientists.

• Overall, researchers identified the positive natural selection or evolution of whale genes linked to regulation or suppression of the following human disorders:
  • Cancer
  • Leukemia
  • Brain lesions
  • Nervous system hyperactivity

• “The increase in the number of copies of aging genes in cetaceans could provide additional protection against the development of several types of cancer as well as aging-related diseases,” the team writes.

• Further research is required to fully understand how the duplication of these tumor suppressor genes — and how their discovery could help with medical interventions for humans.

These six patents may shed light on the possible key features of Apple’s car| Business Insider (11:07)

• Apple has been talking with lidar suppliers about its electric vehicle project, according to reports.

• One big unanswered question was whether Apple would have complete control over the vehicle design, according to Morgan Stanley analysts. Allowing Apple to control every aspect of the product itself.
  • “This means designing the components and designing every part of the product… how it looks and feels to the consumer, the software and the ecosystem that surrounds those products,” said Morgan Stanley analyst Katy Huberty

• Patents may offer insight to what final features may look like, there is no guarantee that every or any patented idea will make it into a final product. 

• Here are the 6 recent patents filed by Apple related to vehicle design:

1. 1. Holographic images on the windshield
      • US Patent 10,866,414 B2,  “System with Holographic Head-Up Display.”
      • A system that would project holographic images onto the windshield or other windows, which would then be reflected back to the driver and passengers.
      • Possible Information: speed, direction, and location
   2. Concealed touch controls
      • US Patent 10,656,777 B1, “Concealed User Interfaces.” 
      • Passengers could tap, touch, or pinch their surroundings, and the display would light up from behind the surface concealing it.
   3. Solutions for motion sickness
      • US Patent 10,825,255 B2, “Augmented Virtual Display.”
      • A virtual reality system to project stabilized content for passengers who experience motion sickness. 
   4. An “intelligent” window-tinting system
      • US Patent 10,843,535 B1, “System and Method for Dynamic Privacy and Window Tinting.” 
   5. New alerts for drivers
      •  US Patent 10,878,699 B2, “Wireless Vehicle System for Enhancing Situational Awareness.” 
      • Possible Alerts: Locations of nearby vehicles, vehicle type information, and other information regarding traffic in the vicinity of the driver.
   6. A new climate control system
      • US Patent 10,875,380 B2, “Climate Control.” 
      • Way to determine the optimal temperature conditions for a wide range of situations. (e.g. window assemblies, sunroof assemblies, etc.)

Graphene ‘nano-origami’ creates tiniest microchips | Phys.org (23:56)

• The tiniest microchips yet can be made from graphene and other 2-D-materials, using a form of “nano-origami,” physicists at the University of Sussex have found. 
  • First time this has ever been done!

• Talked about Graphene in Episode 42 of the podcast, in terms of its use in water filtration. Remember, wonder material: Super strong, and just made of carbon molecules stacked on top of each other.

• By creating kinks in the structure of graphene, researchers at the University of Sussex have made the nanomaterial behave like a transistor, and have shown that when a strip of graphene is crinkled in this way, it can behave like a microchip, which is around 100 times smaller than conventional microchips.

• Prof Alan Dalton at the University of Sussex talks about the importance of this discovery, “We’re mechanically creating kinks in a layer of graphene. It’s a bit like nano-origami. Using these nanomaterials will make our computer chips smaller and faster. It is absolutely critical that this happens as computer manufacturers are now at the limit of what they can do with traditional semiconducting technology. Ultimately, this will make our computers and phones thousands of times faster in the future. This kind of technology—’straintronics’ using nanomaterials as opposed to electronics—allows space for more chips inside any device. Everything we want to do with computers—to speed them up—can be done by crinkling graphene like this.”

• The development is a greener, more sustainable technology. 
  • No additional materials needed,
  • The process works at room temperature rather than high temperature, it uses less energy to create.

Touchdown! NASA’s Perseverance rover lands on Mars to begin hunt for signs of ancient life | Space.com (29:55)

• The car-sized Perseverance, the most advanced robot ever sent to the Red Planet, aced its “seven minutes of terror” touchdown on Feb. 18th, on an ancient lakebed inside the 28-mile-wide (45 kilometers) Jezero Crater shortly before 4 p.m. EST

• After a series of instrument and hardware checkouts, Perseverance will start doing what it crossed interplanetary space to do: hunt for signs of ancient Mars life, collect and cache rock samples for future return to Earth and demonstrate some shiny new exploration technologies, among other things.

• You can watch the rover’s descent on NASA’s Youtube page. It is amazing footage capturing it all (e.g. heat shield removed, skycrane, rover being lowered, etc.), along with Mission Control’s excitement. 

• Observations from the rover could potentially identify a convincing sign of ancient Mars life — perhaps something akin to stromatolites, structures created here on Earth by dirt-trapping microbial mats.
  • Stromatolites: layered deposit, mainly of limestone, formed by the growth of blue-green algae (primitive one-celled organisms).

NASA’s Mars helicopter reports in Feb 21, 2021 | Phys.org (35:06)

• To continue with the good NASA news, Mission controllers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California have received the first status report from the Ingenuity Mars Helicopter
  •  Attached to the belly of the Perseverance rover
• The downlink arrived at 3:30 p.m. PST (6:30 p.m. EST) via a connection through the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. 

• Indicating that both the helicopter, which will remain attached to the rover for 30 to 60 days, and its base station (an electrical box on the rover that stores and routes communications between the rotorcraft and Earth) are operating as expected.

• “There are two big-ticket items we are looking for in the data: the state of charge of Ingenuity’s batteries as well as confirmation the base station is operating as designed, commanding heaters to turn off and on to keep the helicopter’s electronics within an expected range,” said Tim Canham, Ingenuity Mars Helicopter operations lead at JPL.

• Ensuring that Ingenuity has plenty of stored energy aboard to maintain heating and other vital functions while also maintaining optimal battery health is essential to the success of the Mars Helicopter.

• While attached to the rover, it is receiving charge from the rover’s power supply, but once deployed the helicopter’s batteries will be charged solely by its own solar panel. 

• After Perseverance deploys Ingenuity to the surface, the helicopter will then have a 30-Martian-day (31-Earth-day) experimental flight test window. 

• If Ingenuity succeeds in taking off and hovering during its first flight, over 90% of the project’s goals will have been achieved.

• Why is this an important test? If it is successful the Ingenuity helicopter can be the blueprint for the next-generation rotorcrafts to explore Mars.
  • Adding an aerial dimension to future exploration of the Red Planet.

Plastic Waste turned into Bricks more Solid than Concrete | Fubiz.net (40:32)

• Nzambi Matee worked as a data analyst and engineer in the oil industry before launching her company, Gjenge Makers. 
• The company turns plastic waste combined with sand into a brick of some sort. 

• What led her to this idea?
  • Seeing the abundance of plastic waste on the streets of Nairobi.

• Nzambi decided to quit her job and set up a small laboratory in her mother’s garden to test combinations of sand and plastic to see if these polluting materials could be turned into building bricks.
  • Eventually won a scholarship from the University of Colorado Boulder, where she developed a prototype for the machine that now produces the textured bricks.

• The plastic waste is mixed with sand, heated and then compressed into bricks, which are sold at varying prices, depending on thickness and color.

• The bricks have a melting point above 350°C and are more durable than their concrete counterparts. 

• They source their raw products from factories and recyclers, sometimes free of charge, allowing them to reduce the price of the product and make it affordable for schools and homeowners.

• Her factory produces 1,500 bricks each day, made from a mix of different kinds of plastic.

• The company to date, has recycled more than 20 tons of plastic and created 112 jobs in the community. 

• Currently only making paving blocks, but want to start creating building blocks/bricks. 

• Company’s YouTube Video to see more! 
  • Quote from Nzambi on the video that says it all: “I was tired of being on the sidelines.”

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