Glowing plants and DIY bio succeed on Kickstarter In the last week, over 3,000 people on Kickstarter ignored the fact it's next to impossible to keep a houseplant alive and backed the now fully-funded "Glowing Plants: Natural Lighting with no Electricity" campaign. The funds will be used to build upon existing technology and create a transgenic plant that has a soft blue-green glow to act as an electricity-free nightlight. Backer rewards, each glowing, include an arabidopsis plant, a rose plant, and arabidopsis seeds. We check in as the Glowing Plants team heads towards their first stretch goal and look at how this project is part of a bigger trend in DIY biology. But be warned: this is not your grandma's seed catalog. View all Arabidopsis thaliana is a small unassuming plant, but is as famous in science circles as any plant has a hope of achieving. The process is like building a custom hot rod. Some of the backer rewards also encourage this DIY biology ethic. Source: Glowing Plant, Kickstarter
Can Glowing Trees One Day Replace Electric Streetlights? “We don’t live in nature any more – we put boxes around it. But now we can actually engineer nature to sustain our needs. All we have to do is design the code and it will self-create. Our visions today – if we can encapsulate them in a seed – [will] grow to actually fulfill that vision.” - Andrew Hessel in a recent ArchDaily interview “Engineering nature to sustain our needs” is exactly what the Glowing Plant Project aims to do. How is this possible? Bioluminescence – the production and emission of light by a living organism – is the overarching concept of the Glowing Plant Project, whose team members are essentially injecting flowering plants with genes for bioluminescence. “The Glowing Plant is a symbol of the future, a symbol of sustainability and a symbol to inspire others to create new, living things,” says project leader Antony Evans. To read more about the Glowing Plant project and to donate to the cause, click here. References: Kickstarter, PRWeb, TIME
Solar Roadways Artist's rendition of Sandpoint, Idaho - Home of Solar Roadways Graphic artist: Sam Cornett Artist's rendition of a sidewalk/parking lot application. Thanks to Sam Cornett and Craig Fine Solar Roadways is a modular paving system of solar panels that can withstand the heaviest of trucks (250,000 pounds). Solar Roadways has received two phases of funding from the U.S. Our glass surface has been tested for traction, load testing, and impact resistance testing in civil engineering laboratories around the country, and exceeded all requirements.Solar Roadways is a modular system that will modernize our aging infrastructure with an intelligent system that can become the new Smart Grid. Please visit our FAQ page on our website: Solar Roadways FAQ Perks: To thank you for helping make our dream a reality, we're offering some perks we hope you will enjoy. We'll ship all items free of charge. For the $5 Facebook thank you perk, please provide us with your name or organization. Bumper stickers - set 1 FAQs
Organs on Demand RENAL RECONSTRUCTION: Wake Forest postdoctoral fellow Hyun-Wook Kang operates a 3-D printer that is making a kidney prototype with cells and biomaterials.IMAGE COURTESY OF WAKE FOREST INSTITUTE FOR REGENERATIVE MEDICINE On a stage in front of an audience of thousands, a futuristic-looking machine squirted gel from a nozzle. Layer by layer, it built up the material, shaping it into a curved, pink, kidney-shape structure based on a medical CT scan of a real organ. It was 2011, and Anthony Atala, director of the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine, was demonstrating his progress in using three-dimensional (3-D) printing to make a kidney during his TED Talk. But Atala had not made a functional human kidney, as he at times seemed to imply and as the Agence France-Presse reported in a widely disseminated article. Atala’s kidney prototype represents both the promise of 3-D printing in a medical context and the hurdles that tissue engineers have yet to clear. Blood trouble References
iGem Synthetic Biology based on standard parts iGEM 2016 Registration for iGEM 2016 is now open! Visit 2016.igem.org for more information. The International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM) Foundation is an independent, non-profit organization dedicated to education and competition, the advancement of synthetic biology, and the development of an open community and collaboration. iGEM runs three main programs: the iGEM Competition - an international competition for students interested in the field of synthetic biology; the Labs Program - a program for academic labs to use the same resources as the competition teams; and the Registry of Standard Biological Parts - a growing collection of genetic parts use for building biological devices and systems. Programs Click bellow to find more information about each program. Competition iGEM runs the premiere student competition in synthetic biology. Labs Program Academic labs can also be part of the iGEM community. Registry Values Facets Previous Years Note
European super grid A conceptual plan of a European super grid linking renewable energy projects like DESERTEC & Medgrid across North Africa, the Middle East and Europe and could serve as the backbone for the hypothetical supersmart grid. The European super grid is a possible future super grid that would ultimately interconnect the various European countries and the regions around Europe's borders – including North Africa, Kazakhstan, and Turkey. – with a high-voltage direct current (HVDC) power grid.[1] It is envisaged that a European super grid would:[1] Proposed schemes[edit] The most comprehensive study has been carried out by Dr Gregor Czish, of Kassel University.[2][3] His study optimised a vast grid covering North Africa, Eastern Europe, Norway, and Iceland. A number of other specific schemes have been proposed to create super grids of varying extent within Europe. Related schemes[edit] Evaluations[edit] See also[edit] External links[edit] References[edit]
Converting fat cells from liposection to liver cells in nine days — a regenerative medicine breakthrough A new method of creating liver cells does not form tumors in immunocompromised mice. Three weeks after induced pluripotent stem cells (left, magnification below) were implanted in test tissue, palpable tumors were formed in the area of implantation. In contrast, no tumors were detected 2 months after the same number of the new spherical liver-like cells were implanted (right, magnification below). (Credit: Dan Xu et al./Cell Transplantation) A fast, efficient way to turn cells extracted from routine liposuction into liver cells — a feat with huge potential for regenerative medicine — has been developed by Stanford University School of Medicine scientists The scientists performed their experiments in mice, but the adipose (fat) stem cells they used came from human liposuction and actually became human, liver-like cells that flourished inside the mice’s bodies. This method is distinct from those producing liver cells from embryonic stem cells or induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS).
La tête d’un ver décapité repousse… avec sa mémoire Visant à fabriquer de nouveaux organes pour remplacer ceux qui se révèlent défectueux, la médecine régénératrice est un domaine en pleine expansion. Un domaine qui pose aussi des questions inattendues lorsqu’il touche au cerveau : pour les personnes souffrant d’une maladie neurodégénérative comme la maladie d’Alzheimer, qu’arrivera-t-il aux souvenirs stockés depuis l’enfance lorsqu’on repeuplera le cerveau avec des neurones tout neufs issus de cellules souches ? Les informations seront-elles perdues comme des archives brûlées ou bien parviendront-elles à être conservées grâce à une sorte de mémoire dynamique en constant remodelage ? La réponse à ces questions fascinantes pourrait bien venir de… vers. Plus précisément des planaires, des vers plats d’eau douce qu’affectionnent les biologistes pour plusieurs raisons. On commence à voir où les chercheurs veulent en venir car qui dit tête, dit cerveau et mémoire. C’est ce tour de force qui est décrit dans l’article du JEB.
Solar-Powered Floating Island The citizens living off the Han River in Seoul, South Korea inaugurated the world’s largest floating island just last week with great excitement! With two more islands slated to open in September, the recently opened Viva is already drawing crowds en masse with its first-rate entertainment complex. The stunning structure includes a 700 seat convention hall, restaurants and arcades — all powered by solar energy. When the development is completed, the trio of islands will be linked together by twenty-three weather-proof chains. Seoul’s man-made islands differ from those common to Dubai, which are constructed by building up sand on the ocean floor. Supported by 24 giant airbags, Viva weighs in at 2,000 tons, but can support building facilities up to 6,400 tons. The $83.9 million dollar government project includes the 35,000 square foot Viva, 15,000 square foot Vista and nearly 4,000 square foot Tera. Via Korea Joongang Daily