World’s most powerful magnet being shipped to ITER fusion reactor | New Scientist (01:45)

• The world’s most powerful magnet is being shipped to France for installation in the core of ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor).
  • Hopeful of testing the ITER by 2025
  • Goals of creating fusion energy on an industrial scale replicating the process of the Sun.

• From Episode 50 on Nuclear Fusion:
  • When the nuclei of two atoms fuse, from vast gravitational pressure, they release an incredible amount of energy.
  • Use a relatively tiny amount of energy to release an immense amount.
  • The gravitational pressure would be far lower in a man-made reactor than inside a star, so achieving the same reaction will require far higher temperatures.

• How high of a temperature?
  • 150 million °C 

• That temperature would melt all known materials on Earth, so ITER will use powerful magnets to contain the reaction in a ring away from metal surfaces.

• The magnet being shipped is known as the central solenoid. Specs below:
  • 18 meters tall (59 feet)
  • 4.2 meters wide (13.8  feet)
  • 1000 metric tons
  • Magnetic field strength of 13 tesla
    •  280,000 times stronger than Earth’s own magnetic field.

• The magnet will be constructed from six modules, each containing 43 kilometers of coiled niobium-tin superconductors. 
  • Once in place, they will be sealed with over 1000 gallons of epoxy. 
  • Shipped to the ITER construction site in France from the General Atomics factory in California. 

• The central solenoid will generate a flow of reacting plasma around the ring, while other magnets will contain the plasma within the ring and adjust its shape.

• If they can control the plasma flow around the ring, then they can convert heat into electricity.
  • Water pumped through the walls of the reactor will turn to steam and drive turbines to generate electricity.

Next-generation implants will be biodegradable and non-invasive | MedicalXpress (11:26)

• EPFL engineers have developed a neural interface that disappears harmlessly in the body after several months and allows natural tissue to grow back.  

• Diego Ghezzi, a professor at EPFL’s School of Engineering talks about the current state of neuroprosthetic:
  • “New neuroprosthetic devices are thinner, more flexible and more elastic, making them better suited to the mechanical properties of brain tissue … But that also makes them more fragile and less durable.”

• Removing these implants can be difficult, or impossible, because it generally requires invasive surgery.

• Ghezzi and his team of engineers are developing a new generation of biodegradable implants that get around this problem. 
  • First problem though is the short lifetimes of biodegradable materials, which only work for a few days

• The team was able to get around this by developing a neural interface made of polymers that deteriorate naturally after several months.  
  • Useful in medium- to long-term applications such as monitoring epileptic activity or supporting neurorehabilitation after an injury.
  • Because it’s made out of polymers rather than metal, it is less likely to cause a strong inflammatory reaction.

• What they have also found is that after the implant biodegrades, the surrounding tissue grows back naturally.

• The implant additionally eliminates the need for invasive surgery, as it can be implanted in a patient’s blood vessel instead of done through invasive surgery (i.e. craniotomy).
  • Communicates with the brain without direct contact with the nervous system.

• Adele Fanelli, a Ph.D. student at Ghezzi’s lab, says they “modeled [their] implant after stents, which are used to widen arteries and veins.” 

• A quote from Ghezzi wraps this all up:
  • “Our research shows it’s possible to develop minimally invasive neuroprostheses that interact with the surrounding tissue … This opens up new possibilities for applications in neurotechnology and expands the range of patients who can benefit from them.”

Bio-Inspired Hydrogel Protects the Heart From Adhering to Surrounding Tissue After Surgery | SciTechDaily  (19:31)

• Tissue develops when the body’s repair mechanisms respond to any tissue disturbance, such as surgery, infection, trauma, or radiation. 
  • Most common locations are within the abdomen, the pelvis, and the heart.
  • Happens in 20 percent of cases every year in cardiac surgery.
  • Has the potential to accelerate scarring, increase clot formation, impede normal blood flow, and overall increases the risk of mortality.

• A team of University of California San Diego researchers developed and tested a  hydrogel that forms a barrier to keep heart tissue from adhering to surrounding tissue after surgery.

• Currently, there are no FDA-approved products marketed for preventing adhesions after heart surgery.

• Dr. Michael M. Madani, one of the paper’s co-author, discusses the implication of this development:
  • “This product will have a significant impact on the lives of many patients who potentially require repeat operations, either on the heart or anywhere else in the body.” 

• The sprayable hydrogel developed by bioengineers is designed specifically to meet both the patients’ and surgeons’ needs.
  • Binds to the heart muscle and turns into a soft, elastic coating
  • Creating a protective barrier while still allowing for movement
  • Can be easily removed from tissue and dissolves after four to six weeks.

• Researchers also designed a device to safely and accurately spray the hydrogel inside the area where open-heart surgery is being performed. 

• What are the next steps?
  • A large-scale trial in pigs to refine dosage and examine how the hydrogel binds to sutures and drains.
  • The ultimate goal is to conduct a human pediatric study in 18 months to two years and bring the product to the FDA for approval in five years.

• Benefit of this tech development is it can easily translate to other organs also requiring multiple operations and susceptible to adhesions.

Mass-produced floating nuclear reactors use super-safe molten salt fuel | New Atlas  (28:04)

• Copenhagen startup Seaborg Technologies has raised an eight-figure sum of Euros to start building a fascinating new type of cheap, portable, flexible, and safe nuclear reactor. 

• Compact Molten Salt Reactors, the size of a shipping container, will be rapidly manufactured in the thousands, then placed on floating barges to be deployed worldwide.

• Like other molten salt reactors, which have been operating since the 1960s, they’re designed to minimize the consequences of accidents.

• Firstly, they use nuclear fuel that’s mixed into fluoride salts.
  • Liquid above 500 °C (932 °F), allowing it to flow through the reactor.
  • Functions as a coolant for the nuclear fuel, replacing the high-pressure water cooling.
  • Why it is safer: if the fuel is exposed to air, instead of venting explosively as steam, it acts like lava and solidifies into rock. 
    • Also doesn’t have a build-up of hydrogen (stripped from the water), which is flammable & can cause explosions like the unfortunate event at the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant.

• Secondly, if the temperature starts getting out of control, a “frozen salt” plug at the bottom of the reactor melts causing the reactor to drain into a series of cooled drainage tanks underneath.

• Seaborg’s proposal differs from the normal reactor approach in another major way.
  • They want to install these reactors on barges and float them offshore rather than buying up land to develop nuclear power plants.

• Several Advantages:
  • Manufacture them in bulk at a single facility
  • Barges can be moved just about anywhere on the planet
  • Virtually no site preparation required because fully self-contained
  • Easily connects to a power grid

• Seaborg estimates it can service 95 percent of the world’s population this way, putting no land requirements on a baseload or load-following power station.
  • Producing roughly 600 MW, which could supply nearly 100,000 homes.

• One issue with the molten salt fuel is the highly corrosiveness of it, and if you have these barges on the ocean sea you are experiencing corrosion on the exterior from the saltwater.

• Seaborg co-founder and CTO Eirik Eide Pettersen spin the corrosion issue into a new perspective:
  • “Seaborg’s core IP is based on corrosion control in the moderator salt, and applying the lessons learned since the 1950s … But it is not just a question of corrosion, it is also how easy it is to put these things together. Hands-on experience is important. They need to be welded, tested, inspected, maintained. We are working towards having perhaps 20 or 30 test loops in Copenhagen, with the experiments designed, set up and executed. The conceptual design is already done; we are now working on the basic design and in that way we are working up towards a full-scale prototype.”

• A full-scale prototype is currently scheduled to go online in 2025, at which point it’ll likely be sent to work off an island in Southeast Asia.
  • Hopes to achieve regulatory approval for its design by 2026
  • Aiming for commercial serial production by 2027.

• Despite some extremely high-profile catastrophes, nuclear is already by far the safest method of power generation, with a “deathprint” 330 times lower than coal-fired electricity, 250 times less than oil, and 38 times fewer than gas.

This Weird Straw Claims to Cure Hiccups Better Than Any Remedy You Know | Science Alert (41:46)

• Although hiccups are nothing more than a minor inconvenience to most of us, for those that suffer hiccups regularly, hope could come in the form of a specialized straw recently invented by a neurologist.

• The device is named HiccAway, and a newly published research letter in JAMA Network Open showed positive results. 

• According to the survey:
  •  249 volunteers around the world indicate that 90 percent say it works better than traditional methods.
  • Subjective reports and do not include a placebo, so there’s reason to be skeptical

• How does the straw work?
  • Mouthpiece at one end and a pressure valve at the other,
  • Requiring you to suck harder than you normally would through a straw. 

• That sucking pressure causes your diaphragm to contract, stopping the uncontrollable influxes of air which rhythmically slams your vocal cords shut and causes the hiccup. 
  •  Few as one or two attempts for the hiccups to fade.

• According to the inventor, Dr. Ali Seifi, the valve at the bottom of the straw can be adjusted for the sipping capabilities of both children and adults.

• According to the website as to why Dr. Seifi created this straw:
  • “After witnessing his patients uncomfortable with hiccups during intense recovery he realized that there had to be a simple way to relieve this unnecessary discomfort. In his 25 year profession, he had seen solutions and remedies for hundreds of pains, aches and problems, except for one…hiccups. He was determined to create a solution. And after a couple years of testing and countless variations he developed HiccAway!”