Google has announced a new technology, powered by an acquisition called Socratic, that will let students take photos of their math homework in order to get the solutions. Google says it wants the Lens-powered technology to help parents and caretakers who are homeschooling, likely for the first time, as a result of the global COVID-19 pandemic.
Bay Area based artist-inventor and amateur mycologist Phil Ross has an international patent pending on a method of producing fungus as a sustainable construction material. It may be surprising to hear that a biodegradable, durable, and non-toxic building material is on sale in the vegetable aisle at the supermarket. However, it’s not the tasty caps that Ross is after, but the root-like fibers of mushrooms form an enormous underground tangle called mycelium. Dried mycelium forms a lightweight mold and water resistant fire-proof material that is an effective insulator. It is also very sturdy stuff. Bob Engels of Gourmet Mushrooms notes, “Hardened steel blades on equipment at our farm need regular attention following their encounters with these massed threads of hyphae.”
Ross reported that multiple saw blades and metal files were destroyed while shaping the five hundred mycelium bricks he grew into an archway. The archway was a 6×6 foot sculpture titled Mycotectural Alpha, and was likely the first man-made structure made entirely out of mushrooms. Others have taken notice of the potential of fungus—a new start-up called Evocative Design producing mycelium alternatives to styrofoam and insulation material has received grants from the National Science Foundation, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Department of Agriculture.
Ross’s “biotechnical” artwork encompasses drawings, paintings, sculptures, prototypes, and extensive materials research. Over the past 15 years he has been experimenting with fungus, growing and shaping mushrooms in sterile laboratory-like environments, even learning to make his own air filters to provide the necessary clean air. He says mycelium bricks can be grown in about a week from a mixture poured into a mold, but the more organic-looking mushroom sculptures that are created by adding or subtracting gas or air from their growing environment can take years to create. the artist explains how the “myotecture” bricks are made:
In a bitter paradox, antibiotics fuelled the growth of the twentieth century’s most profitable pharmaceutical companies, and are one of society’s most desperately needed classes of drug. Yet the market for them is broken. For almost two decades, the large corporations that once dominated antibiotic discovery have been fleeing the business, saying that the prices they can charge for these life-saving medicines are too low to support the cost of developing them. Most of the companies now working on antibiotics are small biotechnology firms, many of them running on credit, and many are failing.
Paratek Pharmaceuticals successfully brought a new antibiotic to the market. So why is the company’s long-term survival in question?
Circa 2016
A super-hard metal has been made in the laboratory by melting together titanium and gold.
The alloy is the hardest known metallic substance compatible with living tissues, say US physicists.
Circa 2018
Measuring one million times less than the width of a human hair, graphene is harder than diamonds and 200 times stronger than steel. Small, strong, and flexible, it is the most conductive material on earth and has the potential to charge a cell phone in just five seconds or to upload a terabit of data in one. It can be used to filter salt from water, develop bullet-stopping body armor, and create biomicrorobots.
These incredible properties have captured the attention of scientists and industry specialists around the world, all seeking to harness graphene’s potential for applications in electronics, energy, composites and coatings, biomedicine, and other industries.
Continue reading “A Wood Product Stronger than Steel that Could Change the World” »
Multiple human organ chips that quantitatively predict drug pharmacokinetics may offer better, accelerated drug testing.
My latest blood test results are in-how’s my biological age?
In the video I discuss my dietary approach prior to my latest blood test, the blood test results, and my plan to improve them going forward.
A breakthrough COVID-19 treatment using pineapples has been accidently discovered by Australian scientists, but how does it compare to a vaccine?
Angela Cox speaks with Professor David Morris, the man behind the discovery.
“Observations of metastasising cells revealed something intriguing—a high level of something called methylmalonic acid (MMA), a metabolic byproduct that appears to accumulate as we get older.”
“So how does MMA induce these changes in cancer cells? The key seems to be in a sort of reprogramming that “switches on” a gene called SOX4.
Prior research has shown SOX4 encourages cancer cells to become more aggressive and prone to metastasis.
Continue reading “Study finds cancer-boosting culprit that multiplies with age” »
Research is showing a strong link between handgrip strength, walking speed, and cognition, indicating how improved physical health could boost elderly minds.
Based at Barwon Health, in the heart of Geelong’s clinical health precinct, researchers are working to identify the risk factors —such as changes in muscle mass, muscle strength and physical performance—for developing sarcopenia (loss of muscle mass, strength and function with advancing age) across the lifespan.
This testing involves the Geelong Osteoporosis Study (GOS) which began in the early 1990s, gathering adult participants from the electoral roll in the Barwon Statistical Division. During recent follow-up testing, researchers also measured cognitive function through a computer-based program, in tandem with physical health evaluations.
