Lifeboat Foundation

Graphene-based two-dimensional materials have recently emerged as a focus of scientific exploration due to their exceptional structural, mechanical, electrical, optical, and thermal properties. Among them, nanosheets based on graphene-oxide (GO), an oxidized derivative of graphene, with ultrathin and extra wide dimensions and oxygen-rich surfaces are quite promising.

Functional groups containing oxygen, such as carboxy and acidic hydroxy groups, generate dense negative charges, making GO nanosheets colloidally stable in water. As a result, they are valuable building blocks for next-generation functional soft materials.

In particular, thermoresponsive GO nanosheets have garnered much attention for their wide-ranging applications, from smart membranes and surfaces and recyclable systems to hydrogel actuators and biomedical platforms. However, the prevailing synthetic strategies for generating thermoresponsive behaviors entail modifying GO nanosheet surfaces with thermoresponsive polymers such as poly (N-isopropylacrylamide). This process is complex and has potential limitations in subsequent functionalization efforts.

The Koenigsegg CC850 that debuted during August’s 2022 Monterey Car Week is a re-imagination of the Swedish firm’s first production car, and one of the highlights is a transmission like no other.

The CC850 uses a version of the 9-speed Light Speed Transmission from the Koenigsegg Jesko, but with a new Engage Shifter System (ESS) that makes the automatic transmission transform into a 6-speed manual (it still maintains the full automatic mode with nine gears, though). This Engineering Explained video provides a deep dive into Koenigsegg’s reinvented manual.

Koenigsegg’s latest hypercar features an automatic transmission that can transform into a manual complete with a clutch pedal.

Continue reading “Deep dive: How Koenigsegg reinvented the manual transmission for the CC850” »

Innovative technology that creates ultra-thin layers of human cells in tube-like structures could spur development of lifelike blood vessels and intestines in the lab.

The technique, known as RIFLE – rotational internal flow layer engineering – enables the construction of separate layers as delicate as one cell thick.

Such versatility is crucial to developing accurate human models of layered tubular tissue for use in research, offering an important alternative to animal models, experts say.

Layered hybrid perovskites show diverse physical properties and exceptional functionality; however, from a materials science viewpoint, the co-existence of lattice order and structural disorder can hinder the understanding of such materials. Lattice dynamics can be affected by dimensional engineering of inorganic frameworks and interactions with molecular moieties in a process that remains unknown.

To address this problem, Zhuquan Zhang and a team of scientists in chemistry and physics at the University of Pennsylvania, University of Texas, Austin, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, U.S., used a combination of spontaneous Raman scattering, terahertz spectroscopy and molecular dynamics simulations.

The research outcomes revealed how the structural dynamics in and out of equilibrium provided unexpected observables to differentiate single-and double-layered perovskites. The study is published in Science Advances.

Michael Levin discusses his 2022 paper “Technological Approach to Mind Everywhere: An Experimentally-Grounded Framework for Understanding Diverse Bodies and Minds” and his 2023 paper with Joshua Bongard, “There’s Plenty of Room Right Here: Biological Systems as Evolved, Overloaded, Multi-scale Machines.” Links to papers flagged 🚩below.

Michael Levin is a scientist at Tufts University; his lab studies anatomical and behavioral decision-making at multiple scales of biological, artificial, and hybrid systems. He works at the intersection of developmental biology, artificial life, bioengineering, synthetic morphology, and cognitive science.

Continue reading “Agency, Attractors, & Observer-Dependent Computation in Biology & Beyond” »

What happens in femtoseconds in nature can now be observed in milliseconds in the lab.

Scientists at the university of sydney.

The University of Sydney is a public research university located in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Founded in 1,850, it is the oldest university in Australia and is consistently ranked among the top universities in the world. The University of Sydney has a strong focus on research and offers a wide range of undergraduate and postgraduate programs across a variety of disciplines, including arts, business, engineering, law, medicine, and science.

#ted.
#wifi.
#internet.

Continue reading “LiFi — This is the Fastest Internet in the World (224GBPS) — Easiest Explanation Ever!” »

The bioactivity of most near-infrared II (NIRII) fluorophores are limited, thereby conflicting the achievement of strong fluorescence and high catalytic activities, due to a lack of free electrons in the method.

To overcome this challenge, Huizhen Ma and a research team in translational medicine, neural engineering, physics, and materials at the Tianjin University China developed atomically precise gold clusters with strong near-infrared II fluorescence to show potent enzyme-mimetic activities by using atomic engineering, to form active copper single-atom sites.

These gold-copper clusters (Au₂₁ Cu₁) showed higher antioxidant nature with a 90-fold catalase-like and 3-fold higher superoxide dismutase-like activity compared to gold clusters alone. These clusters can be cleared through the kidney to monitor cisplatin-induced renal injury within a 20–120-minute window to visualize the process in 3D via near-infrared light-sheet microscopy.

Researchers from the Center for Regenerative Medicine (CReM), a joint venture between Boston University and Boston Medical Center, have discovered a novel approach for engrafting engineered cells into injured lung tissue. These findings may lead to new ways for treating lung diseases, such as emphysema, pulmonary fibrosis and COVID-19.

The two studies describing the methodologies for engineering lung stem cells and transplanting them into injured experimental lungs without immunosuppression appear online in Cell Stem Cell.

For more than 20 years, the scientists leading this work have pursued a way to engraft cells into injured lung tissues with the goal of regenerating lung airways or alveoli. They suspected that for engraftment to be long-lived and functional it would be important to reconstitute the stem or progenitor “compartments” of the lung, also sometimes known as stem cell niches.