Show Notes:

Supercooling advances human tissue preservation | MedicalXPress (01:44)

• Researchers at UC Berkeley successfully revived human heart tissue after it had been preserved in a subfreezing, supercooled state for one to three days.
  • Preventing the formation of ice crystals that could have damaged the micro heart muscle cells. 
  • Key proof-of-concept of supercooled tissue cryopreservation.
• The method they used, called isochoric supercooling
• Study co-lead author Matt Powell-Palm discusses this first:
  • “To our knowledge, this is the first-ever report of the supercooling and revival of an autonomously beating, engineered human cardiac muscle”
• Near-term implications
  • Preservation and transport of organ-on-a-chip platforms, expanding access beyond the select few labs that can manufacture them for research and industry
• Organ-on-a-chip 
  • Mimic the dynamic conditions of the cardiovascular system-in particular, heart and general vasculature for testing clinical drugs.
  • Mimicking structural organization, shear stress, transmural pressure, mechanical stretching, and electrical stimulation.
• Future implications
  • May be a viable technique for preserving donor tissue and organs, which is a current challenge.
  • Seven out of 10 thoracic donor organs are discarded each year because of the inability to preserve them long enough to reach patients in need.
• Senior author of the study Kevin E. Healy, emphasizes the further work needed:
  • “The technology used to cool the tissue is sound and robust, but we now need to develop techniques to warm things up consistently … That was easier with the mini heart muscles we used for this study. Working on whole organs will require more work.”

DeepMind develops AI that can forecast the weather | Silicon Angle (08:12)

• DeepMind, the artificial intelligence research arm of Google LLC parent Alphabet Inc., this past Wednesday (Sept. 29th) detailed a new project that seeks to harness machine learning to generate better weather forecasts.
  • Collaboration between DeepMind and the Met Office, the U.K.’s national weather service.
• The researchers involved in the initiative developed an AI system capable of forecasting rainfall up to two hours ahead of time. 
  • What is called Nowcasting
• According to DeepMind, 50 meteorologists from the Met Office who compared the AI system with existing forecasting methods rated it as their first choice in 89% of cases.
• Meteorologists have multiple algorithms at their disposal for predicting rainfall. 
  • Can make predictions several days into the future, but often struggle to make shorter-term forecasts. 
  • Usually, the probability and location of future rainfall is calculated using complex physics equations that take a fairly long time to solve.
• DeepMind’s AI system speeds up forecasting by swapping the physics equations with machine learning
  • Analyzes weather data from the past 20 minutes and, using statistical techniques, estimates whether there will be rainfall in the next two hours.
• According to the Alphabet unit, its researchers have demonstrated that the system more accurately predicts small-scale weather events than earlier software. 
• Deepmind wraps up talking about this technology in a blog post:
  • “By using statistical, economic, and cognitive analyses we were able to demonstrate a new and competitive approach for precipitation nowcasting from radar. No method is without limitations, and more work is needed to improve the accuracy of long-term predictions and accuracy on rare and intense events. Future work will require us to develop additional ways of assessing performance, and further specialising these methods for specific real-world applications.”

The Kidney Project successfully tests a prototype bioartificial kidney | UCSF (13:57)

• Suggested by the Discord Community, join here
• The Kidney Project earned a $650,000 prize from KidneyX for its first-ever demonstration of a functional prototype of its implantable artificial kidney.
  • Has the promise to free kidney disease patients from dialysis machines and transplant waiting lists.
• The Kidney Project is a national research collaboration project with a goal to create a small, surgically implanted, and free-standing bioartificial kidney to treat kidney failure.
  • Led by Shuvo Roy, PhD of UC San Francisco and William Fissell, MD of Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC)
• KidneyX is a public-private partnership between the US Department of Health and Human Services and the American Society of Nephrology to accelerate innovation in the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of kidney diseases. 
• Why were they 1 of 6 awarded this prize?
  • Successfully tested their hemofilter, which removes waste products and toxins from blood, and the bioreactor, which replicates other kidney functions, like the balance of electrolytes in blood, in separate experiments.
• Their devices worked in tandem, powered by blood pressure alone, and without the need for blood thinning or immunosuppressant drugs.
• Roy gives insight into the importance of artificial kidneys:
  • “The vision for the artificial kidney is to provide patients with complete mobility and better physiological outcomes than dialysis … It promises a much higher quality of life for millions worldwide with kidney failure.”
• His comments are in regards to patients with kidney failure who must visit dialysis clinics multiple times every week to have their blood filtered, a process that is time-consuming, uncomfortable, and risky.
• Additionally, if you do get a donor kidney, you have to deal with a lifetime on immunosuppressant drugs that can have severe side effects.
• Roy continues discussing the awarded units and the future of their research:
  • “Our team engineered the artificial kidney to sustainably support a culture of human kidney cells without provoking an immune response … Now that we have demonstrated the feasibility of combining the hemofilter and bioreactor, we can focus on upscaling the technology for more rigorous preclinical testing, and ultimately, clinical trials.”

World’s Fastest Electric Car Charger Offers a Full Charge in 15 Minutes | PCMag (21:23)

• Swiss engineering company ABB has launched what it claims to be the fastest electric car charger in the world, capable of recharging any electric car in just 15 minutes.
  • Terra 360 (360 kW) modular charger.
• According to a press release, it can:
  • Recharge up to four vehicles at once
  • Can deliver 62 miles (100 km) of range in under three minutes when focused on a single vehicle
  • Capable of fully charging any electric car in 15 minutes or less 
• The company makes the claim that their charger is ideal for refueling stations, urban charging stations, retail parking and fleet applications.
• ABB is hoping to have Terra 360 available in Europe by the end of this year before bringing the modular charger to the US, Latin America, and Asia Pacific regions in 2022.
• Goal of these charging stations is to have a similar land footprint to that of traditional gas pumps.

Scientists May Have Discovered The First Planet Orbiting Three Stars At Once | Interesting Engineering (25:29)

• In the constellation of Orion, a star system named GW Ori stands 1,300 light years away from Earth, surrounded by a massive disk of dust and gas.
  • This system has three stars rather than one.
• The mystery doesn’t end there either: GW Ori’s disk is divided in two, resembling Saturn’s rings if there was a vast gap between them, and the outer ring is inclined at around 38 degrees.
  • Speculated to be caused by the formation of one or more planets in the system
• According to an European Southern Observatory (ESO) press release, that would mean this planet would be the first known planet to orbit three stars at the same time.
  • Take that Tatooine!!!
• Now, a team of astronomers have modeled the GW Ori system in greater detail, and according to their research, a gassy planet could be the cause for the gap.
  • Think of a planet like Jupiter
• IF you could somehow be on the surface of this planet you wouldn’t actually be able to see the three stars. You would only see a pair.
  • Two of the innermost stars orbit so close together that they seem like a single point of light.
• The question of whether the planet exists is still being debated, but observations from the ALMA telescope and the Very Large Telescope in Chile in the next months may provide an answer.