Self Healing Robot Grippers, what is in the Center of the Earth and Universal Blood type for Organ Transplants
February 24
This week we will examine a new type of Robot Gripper that can self heal. We also investigate a new way of converting Organs into a blood type more suitable for transplant. We discover an AI that can control the magnets needed for Fusion reactions and we speculate on the composition of the center of the Earth. Finally we have something for the Rev Heads that are fearing the disappearance of their beloved V8 engines.
Self Healing Robotic Grippers
Researchers at the University of Cambridge have developed a low cost salt and gelatin material that can sense strain, temperature and humidity through soft sensors and repair themselves at room temperature.
Soft sensors in robotic hands allows us to get a lot more information from the hands. Our own hands allow our brains to understand the strain on our muscles and the state of our bodies.
Soft grippers have previously been developed however the breakthrough here is the ability for the sensors to self heal at room temperature. Previously the materials needed to be heated to repair. Additionally the grippers can autonomously detect when they are damaged, proceed to temporarily heal themselves and then resume their activities.
The materials are cheap and easy to make (3D printing or casting), stronger and more durable and will last a long time without drying out. The materials bond well with a variety of different materials, meaning they can be incorporated within many types of robotics.
The breakthrough should allow the development of realistic artificial hands and other soft robotics applications. It may revolutionize the field of robotics and open up many wider applications.
Controlling Fusion Reactions
Fusion is rapidly developing as an alternative energy source however there are still many hurdles to overcome. Google’s Deep Mind has just leaped over one such hurdle.
Current technology uses a tokamak reactor to create the plasma for a fusion reaction. The temperatures that we currently use are approximately 150 million degrees C. We don’t have any materials that can contain plasma at that temperature so we use magnetic fields instead.
In a Tokamak reactor the magnetic field needs constant monitoring as it changes rapidly with the ultra high temperatures. The Deep Mind team was able to train their reinforcement learning algorithm to control a virtual plasma in a computer simulation. Once this was successfully completed the algorithm was used to control the magnets in the Variable Configuration Tokamak experimental reactor in Lausanne, Switzerland. The algorithm controlled the plasma for 2 seconds, the maximum amount of time before the current experimental reactor overheats.
The algorithm takes 90 different measurements, 10,000 times per second and then adjusts the voltage (and thus the magnetic field) as required for the reactor’s 19 magnets. This added control of the plasma will allow researchers to experiment with a wider range of conditions and hopefully reach further breakthroughs more quickly.
The Center of the Earth
We have long wondered what exactly makes up the center of the Earth. It is (currently) impossible to drill down the the Earth’s core so a team from the Chinese Academy of Sciences has used a computer simulation to predict the makeup of the core.
We once thought that the extreme temperatures and pressure found at the center of the Earth formed a solid, mostly comprised of iron. This is what gives the planet the magnetic field which shields us from solar radiation (thus allowing life to exist).
The team has theorized that the inner core is a weird composition of superheated elements making it both liquid and solid at the same time. Various lighter elements are likely present in a stew of superheated solid and liquid states known as “superionic”.
The heat of the core of the Earth is thought to be over 5,500 degrees C, approximately the same as the temperature on the surface of the sun (the core of the sun is much hotter). This causes some light elements such as carbon, hydrogen and oxygen to behave like liquids and defuse freely in the lattice of solid iron.
The superheated solids in the inner core produce strong convection currents giving buoyancy for lighter elements, these in turn float and produce the convection currents of the outer core that drives the liquid metal found there in motion. This motion combines with the inner core to give Earth its’ magnetic field.
The inner core structure and geomagnetic field have shown observable changes over the past few decades. The core structure may change with the geomagnetic field. This knowledge may help us understand better how the Earth’s core is changing and what affect it may have on seismic activity and volcanos on the surface.
Universal Blood Type for Organ Transport
Currently people with type O blood are 20% more likely to die while waiting for a lung than patients with type A blood. 45% of people in the US have type O blood. The reason for this disparity is that the immune system for someone with type O blood will attack a transplanted organ that comes from a donor of any other blood type.
Waitlists for organs are separated by blood type. If a type B organ becomes available and no type B patient is in immediate need, the organ is wasted. There are 100,000 people in the US on the waitlist for organ transplants.
Professor Marcelo Cypel, Professor of Surgery at University of Toronto has developed a process where he can turn a type A blood lung into a type O lung. Type O lungs are far less likely to be attacked by the patient’s immune system regardless of blood type. This may be the first step towards Universal Donor Organs.
Blood type is one way that our immune system keeps track of which tissues belong to us and which don’t. The body uses 20 different blood typing systems but the most important one for organ transplants is the ABO system. A blood transfusion of as little as 50 milliliters of incompatible blood can kill a person. The problem are the sugars on the outside of the cells. They are different for each blood type.
People with type O blood are very useful organ donors as their antigens don’t trigger immune responses in people with any blood type. This is why type O blood donors are called universal donors. Professor Cypel’s study showed that it is possible to convert lungs to type O by removing the extra sugars found in type A and type B. The process uses enzymes to remove the unwanted sugars.
This process is not a new idea. It has been in development for 10 years. Recent advances in genomics and new laboratory technologies have made it possible to quickly and inexpensively sift through enough enzymes to find the one enzyme that is efficient enough to do the job.
It is likely to be some time before the process becomes routine. The problem is that the ABO blood typing system is not found in animals. The approval processes use data from experiments in animals before approving human trials. It will be a difficult decision to start the testing process with just human trials.
Hydrogen V8 Engine
Finally something for the rev heads that live in fear in this world of rapid change and electrification. Toyota and Yamaha have combined to develop a hydrogen fueled 5 liter V8 engine. This is not an entirely new engine, it is based upon the model used in the Lexus RC F sports coupe. The engine delivers 449brake horse power at 6800rpm.
Fear not young rev heads, “the world that was once powered by the black fuel and the deserts that once sprouted great cites of pipe and steel will no longer force the mighty warrior tribes to go to war when the fuel ends. The thundering machines that would have sputtered and stopped, instead turned to hydrogen” (Mad Max 2 badly paraphrased).
Paying it Forward
If you have a start-up or know of a start-up that has a product ready for market please let me know. I would be happy to have a look and feature the startup in this newsletter. Also if any startups need introductions please get in touch and I will help where I can.
If you have any questions or comments please comment below.
I would also appreciate it if you could forward this newsletter to anyone that you think might be interested.
Till next week.
Or Just need to put a large speaker in the boot of a Tesla, playing V8 sounds..