Dispatches from a rapidly changing, rapidly improving world

#39 11/01/2008

We're just 11 Better All the Time's away from our 50th edition. It's probably time to start planning some kind of major celebration...

Today's Good Stuff:

Quote of the Day The Matter of the Heart Third Eye for Cars This is Your Brain on the Internet It's All in the Wiring RoboMower Buckypaper Unflapabble Solar Chill Music of the Fruit

  Quote of the Day

Hope is a state of mind, not of the world. Hope, in this deep and powerful sense, is not the same as joy that things are going well, or willingness to invest in enterprises that are obviously heading for success, but rather an ability to work for something because it is good.

Vaclav Havel

Item 1
Need a New Heart? Print One

The technology is the same as that of the simple inkjet printer found in homes and offices, but Japanese scientist Makoto Nakamura is on a mission to see if it can also produce human organs.

The idea is for the printer to jet out thousands of cells per second, rather than ink droplets, and to build them up into a three-dimensional organ.

A heart made of cells originating from the patient could eliminate fears that the body would reject it.

In the emerging field of organ printing, Dr Nakamura bills his work as the world's finest printed 3D structure with living cells.

The technology works a bit like dealing with sliced fruit: an organ is cut horizontally, allowing researchers to see an array of cells on the surface.

If a printer drops cells one by one into the right spots and repeats the process for many layers, it creates a 3D organ.

The Good News

We are not too far away from a world in which there is no shortage of transplant organs for those who need them, and where transplanted organs are never rejected. This technology will not only ensure than anyone who needs a new heart or kidney will have it, it may ultimately have a role to play in the extension of healthy human lifespan. Might we not one day replace worn-down body parts the way we currently put a new set of tires on our car?

We reported similar developments here and here.

Item 2
Mobileye develops a third eye for your car

A computer chip and a tiny camera not much bigger than a dime installed on the windshield behind your car's rear-view mirror may now make the difference between life and death.

The Netherlands-based Mobileye Vision Technologies has developed an inexpensive hi-tech driver assistance system called Mobileye AWS (advance warning system), which can provide drivers with early warnings of potential road hazards.

Founded by an Israeli, with its R&D based in Israel, the company says the system has the potential to lower accident rates and teach people how to be "smarter" drivers.

The images generated from a front-facing camera are analyzed by the system's computer chip, which has been "taught" to recognize potential hazards such as cars, buses, trucks, motorcycles and pedestrians, and uses audio warnings to aid the driver in recognizing and maintaining safe distances from these threats.

The Good News

This development brings us a little closer to something I've been wishing for for a long time -- a comprehensive, real-time tactical interface for driving. Why do we have to crane our heads around when backing up, or shift our attention from one mirror with a partial and unreliable view to another mirror with a partial and unreliable view when making a lane change?

I want my dashboard to show me everything that is in front of, behind, and beside my vehicle at all times. As the linked article points out, automobile accidents are the world's leading cause of accidental death. Many accidents are due to bad judgment, which such a system can counter by recommending against a bad move. Many others are caused by bad decisions resulting from incomplete information. The more complete the picture we have of our situation, the safer we are likely to be.

Item 3
Internet 'speeds up decision making and brain function'

A study of the use of areas of the brain during different activities found that it is markedly more active when carrying out an internet search than when reading a book.

The stimulation was concentrated in the frontal, temporal and cingulate areas, which control visual imagery, decision-making and memory.

The areas associated with abstract thinking and empathy showed virtually no increase in stimulation.

The study's authors say it shows how our brains could evolve over the long term with the increased use of technology.

The Good News

Here we see evolution occurring in real time. We are adapting to our new environment, and it isn't just a matter of making use of the technology that surrounds us. We live in an era of accelerating change and we are learning the best way to think so that we can not only survive, but thrive in such an era.

The Downside

But while the Internet brings benefits for the brain, they warned against its overuse, which could come at the expense of other brain functions linked to human interaction.

Previous studies have warned that too much computer use could be responsible for increasing levels of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).

We need to find ways to gain brain speed and power without losing little bits of our humanity in the process. That's why, at the Speculist, we throw in a lot of fine art and poetry and mythological references and that kind of stuff with all of our geeky technology blogging. Let the research continue!

Item 4
An End to Paralysis with Artificial Brain-to-Muscle Connectors

Using a computerized connector between the brain and muscles in the body, scientists have been able to restore movement to paralyzed limbs. A group of neuroscientists report in Nature today that they used a brain-computer interface to join the motor cortex of an ape to the muscles in its wrist. After scientists paralyzed the ape's arm temporarily, it was still able to make its wrist move by sending electrical impulses directly from its brain to the muscles, bypassing the damaged nerves in between. The study has profound implications for people whose nerves have been severed or damaged, leaving them paralyzed.

The Good News

It would be hard to overestimate the hardships and challenges that paralysis represents to millions of people worldwide -- not just the paralyzed themselves, but the people who care about them and the people who care for them. Surely one of the biggest challenges is mobility, or rather the lack thereof. Developments such as this one promise to bring mobility back to many, providing a wonderful new independence as well as health benefits associated with being able to move around. This research doesn't mention anything about restoring feeling to paralyzed limbs, although there are some hopeful (albeit puzzling) signs that this might also one day happen.

Now all we need is some better ways of connecting the human nervous system with machines. Something like this, possibly:

Scientists create organic wires for use inside the human body

Baltimore (MD) - Research chemists at Johns Hopkins University (JHU) have developed a water-soluble, organic, self-assembling electronic wire suitable for use inside the human body. Derived from carbon materials, the lightweight, flexible wires can power pacemakers, reconnect damaged nerve tissues, while also interacting with real electronic device that could augment or stimulate organic function.

Yeah. Something like that ought to just about do the trick!

Item 5
Does Everything But Bring You a Beer

Being the worlds first fully automatic, robotic lawn mower, the Auto Mower is the ultimate user friendly mower. You don’t have to lift a finger to get a perfect lawn.

Before the Automower can get to work, you will need to simply staple a wire to the perimeter of the lawn. The wire will be overgrown and become invisible within a month. This wire can be sensed by the robotic mower and will ensure that only this area of grass is cut. The Automower will then work irregularly around the lawn – whatever its shape - until all parts have been covered. This gives the lawn an even result and a carpet-like finish. ‘Islands’ can be created by laying the wire around plants and flower beds. And if the mower hits any other obstacle, such as a tree or rock, it just reverses safely and selects a new direction before continuing.

The Good News

From the moment I first heard about Roomba, I new this day was coming. A robotic lawn mower. Say it with me:

A robotic lawnmower.

Sure, we'll have to be careful about pets and toddlers, but then we were always pretty careful about those things with the old mowers, weren't we? And, yes, this will put some people out of work, but I just have to point out that one of those people is me.

And I couldn't be more delighted at the thought.

Top

Item 6
Future planes, cars may be made of `buckypaper'

It's called "buckypaper" and looks a lot like ordinary carbon paper, but don't be fooled by the cute name or flimsy appearance. It could revolutionize the way everything from airplanes to TVs are made.

Buckypaper is 10 times lighter but potentially 500 times stronger than steel when sheets of it are stacked and pressed together to form a composite. Unlike conventional composite materials, though, it conducts electricity like copper or silicon and disperses heat like steel or brass.

"All those things are what a lot of people in nanotechnology have been working toward as sort of Holy Grails," said Wade Adams, a scientist at Rice University.

The Good News

So what can one do with buckypaper? Well, you name it. Here's a partial list from Wikipedia:

• If exposed to an electric charge, buckypaper could be used to illuminate computer and television screens. It could be more energy-efficient, lighter, and could allow for a more uniform level of brightness than current cathode ray tube (CRT) and liquid crystal display (LCD) technology.
• Since carbon nanotubes are one of the most thermally conductive materials known, buckypaper lends itself to the development of heat sinks that would allow computers and other electronic equipment to disperse heat more efficiently than is currently possible. This, in turn, could lead to even greater advances in electronic miniaturization.
• Because carbon nanotubes have an unusually high current-carrying capacity, a buckypaper film could be applied to the exteriors of airplanes. Lightning strikes then could flow around the plane and dissipate without causing damage.
• Films also could protect electronic circuits and devices within airplanes from electromagnetic interference, which can damage equipment and alter settings. Similarly, such films could allow military aircraft to shield their electromagnetic "signatures", which can be detected via radar.
• Produced in high enough quantities and at an economically viable price, buckypaper composites could serve as an effective armor plating.
• Buckypaper can be used to grow biological tissue, such as nerve cells. Buckypaper can be electrified or functionalized to encourage growth of specific types of cells.
• The Poisson's ratio for carbon nanotube buckypaper can be controlled and has exhibited auxetic behaviour, capable of use as artificial muscles.

Wow. Whatever you do, don't taunt buckypaper!

Item 7
Wading bird travels 7,000 miles nonstop to break flying record

A bar-tailed godwit has been crowned the endurance champion of the animal kingdom after completing an epic 7,200 mile nonstop flight across the Pacific Ocean from Alaska to New Zealand.

The wading bird's journey lasted more than eight days with no rest or food, and took it into a place in the record books. Scientists tracking the bird's flight said it was unprecedented.

Theunis Piersma, a biologist at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands who worked on the study, said: "There is something special going on here. For a vertebrate this kind of endurance is just extraordinary."

The Good News

Seems to me that this little bird has a lot to teach us about endurance and making the most of available resources. The scientists agree:

Led by Bob Gill of the US Geological Survey, the scientists say: "These extraordinary nonstop flights establish new extremes for avian flight performance and have profound implications for understanding the physiological capabilities of vertebrates."

Don't forget: we're vertebrates, too. We normally think of tasks such as a Lance Armstrong Tour de France performance or swimming the English Channel as defining the limits of human endurance. But perhaps by understanding the godwit's accomplishment better, we'll learn more about our own abilities.

Solar Refrigeration: A Hot Idea for Cooling

Fishermen in the village of Maruata, which is located on the Mexican Pacific coast 18 degrees north of the equator, have no electricity. But for the past 16 years they have been able to store their fish on ice: Seven ice makers, powered by nothing but the scorching sun, churn out a half ton of ice every day.

The key is the energy exchanged when liquids turn to vapor and vice versa—the process that cools you when you sweat. By far the most common approach, the one used by the refrigerator in your house, uses an electric motor to compress a refrigerant—say, Freon—turning it into liquid. When the pressure created by the compressor is released, the liquid evaporates, absorbing heat and lowering the temperature.

Absorptive chillers like solar refrigerators use a heat source rather than a compressor to change the refrigerant from vapor to liquid. The two most common combinations are water mixed with either lithium bromide or ammonia. In each case, the refrigerating gas is absorbed until heat is applied, which raises the temperature and pressure. At higher pressure, the refrigerant condenses into liquid. Turning off the heat lowers the pressure, causing that liquid to evaporate back into a gas, thereby creating the cooling effect.

The Good News

Turning heat into cold without creating any carbon emissions is a great idea. It also raises an intriguing question -- why can't we do something like this on a larger scale? If the climate is heating up, why isn't there some global way to turn that heat into cool? Freeman Dyson has described how warming sea waters in Antarctica cause additional snow, which actually helps to mitigate the loss of glaciers. Maybe there are additional ways that the additional energy implicit in warming could help bring about cooling.

It certainly seems worth looking into, doesn't it?

Item 9

The Stink in Farts Controls Blood Pressure

A smelly rotten-egg gas in farts controls blood pressure in mice, a new study finds.

The unpleasant aroma of the gas, called hydrogen sulfide (H2S), can be a little too familiar, as it is expelled by bacteria living in the human colon and eventually makes its way, well, out.

The new research found that cells lining mice’s blood vessels naturally make the gas and this action can help keep the rodents’ blood pressure low by relaxing the blood vessels to prevent hypertension (high blood pressure). This gas is “no doubt” produced in cells lining human blood vessels too, the researchers said.

The Good News

Well, what can one say? Every cloud has a silver lining -- even invisible clouds.

I mentioned on the most recent FastForward Radio that I have been following a high-intensity weight-lifting workout recommended by Timothy Ferriss. One of the concerns I had about the workout is that it involves very long, slow exercises, and I wondered whether such activity might raise my blood pressure.

Well, not to worry. At the same time I started the workout, I also started following Ferriss's Slow Carb Diet. It's a very unusual diet plan -- one that requires eating beans with every meal.

See how things work out?

Better All The Time was compiled by Phil Bowermaster. Live to see it!