Smart Insulin, Electricity Generation by Squeezing and Listening to Alien Radio Signals
October 24
This week we investigate a new smart insulin that can maintain blood sugar levels automatically. We examine a new material that can generate electricity via the piezoelectric effect where electricity is generated from mechanical stress on the material. We discover the gene that is involved in hearing loss opening the way for possible drug intervention to reduce the impact of noise on our hearing. We look at a new method for listening into narrow band width radio signals that might be being used by alien civilizations to communicate with their satellites and space ships.
Finally Google has released a test version of NotebookLM which creates podcasts and audio summaries from text. I have feed this week’s edition into their system and you can now listen to the newsletter as discussed by two AI presenters. It is worth a listen even for a short time to see how far AI has progressed in the two years since the first release of ChatGPT (November 22). You can listen here.
Smart Insulin
For anyone with diabetes keeping control of their insulin levels is critical. It requires constant monitoring and management. There are many long term complications that can arise from high blood sugar including cardiovascular disease, chronic kidney disease, stroke and blindness. Low blood sugar is also a problem and can cause loss of consciousness, seizures and death. An estimated 422 million people worldwide have diabetes and a high proportion need insulin injections.
A team from Novo Nordisk, a pharmaceutical company in Denmark have engineered an insulin molecule (NNC2215) with a switch that can turn its’ activity on and off in response to glucose levels in the blood. The switch is based on a ring shaped structure known as a macrocycle and a glucoside which is a molecule derived from glucose. When glucose levels in the blood are low, the glucose binds to the ring keeping the insulin in a closed inactive state. When glucose levels rise the sugar displaces the glycoside and changes the shape of the insulin so that it is turned on.
In animal testing on rats and pigs, the team found NNC225 to be as good as normal human insulin at lowering blood sugar. Additionally it was able to prevent the drop in blood glucose levels that occurs with current insulin treatments.
The study is a proof of principle however further work will focus on the safety and cost of the drug. More work will help optimize the molecule and ultimately result in a suite of smart insulin drugs that may allow individualized therapy for patients.
Generating Electricity by Squeezing
Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York State have developed a polymer film infused with a chalcogenide perovskite compound that produces electricity when squeezed or stressed. This phenomenon is known as the piezoelectric effect.
There are other compounds that have similar properties however this is one of the few that does not contain lead, meaning it can be used in machines, infrastructure and biomedical applications. The material contains barium, zirconium and sulfur.
The energy harvesting film is 0.3 millimeters thick and generates electricity by converting mechanical energy into electrical energy. The greater the applied pressure load and the greater the surface area over which the pressure is applied, the greater the effect.
The film could be used beneath highways to generate electricity as cars drive over it. It could be used in building materials to make electricity when buildings vibrate or on car tyres and streetlights. The team tested the material using various bodily movements such as walking, running, clapping and tapping fingers. These experiments created enough electricity to power banks of LEDs.
Could a Drug Prevent Hearing Loss
Our hearing can be damaged by listening to too much loud music, noise, aging and some medications. There is little that can be done other than various types of hearing aids. A team at University of California San Francisco has found out what is happening in the ear during hearing loss. This opens the door for doing something about it.
The team were able to link animal studies on hearing loss with a rare type of inherited deafness in humans. In both cases, mutations to the TMTC4 gene trigger a molecular domino effect known as the unfolded protein response (UPR) leading to the death of hair cells in the inner ear. Hearing loss from loud noise exposure or drugs such as cisplatin (a common form of chemotherapy) also stems from the activation of UPR in hair cells in the inner ear.
There are several drugs that block UPR in laboratory animals. This finding may make the case for testing these drugs on people that are at risk of losing their hearing. In the future, people who must take Cisplatin or who are exposed to loud noise as part of their jobs or even heavy metal fans that go to a few too many concerts each week might be able to take a drug that dampens UPR and keeps the hair cells in their ears from withering away.
Intercepting Alien Radio Signals
A team at Penn State University have developed a new technique that would allow astronomers to home in on planets beyond our solar system and listen into the radio signals that alien civilizations send to each other. On Earth we send signals to Mars to control the Mars rover. This system will allow us to pick on these types of signals so that we can eavesdrop on alien civilizations sending messages to their nearby planets.
If other civilizations are like us (and as advanced) they will be sending many radio signals between their planet and their off world probes (we have many thousands and millions of signals). These signals are sent over narrow band radio which requires less power to send than interstellar messages. As these signals are smaller it makes them much more difficult to detect over long distances.
The team used planet occulations to test their theory. This is when one planet passes in front of another from our perspective on Earth. When the 3 planets are in syzergy there is the opportunity to catch any spillover of the radio signals being sent between the two alien worlds.
The team tested the system on the TRAPPIST-1 star system which is 41 light years away. The star system contains a red dwarf and seven rocky planets including 3 that orbit within the habitable zone (which means that they may contain water and therefore life). No alien signals were intercepted however they were able to demonstrate that their technique worked.
To date all of our searches for alien intelligence have concentrated on finding powerful signals that have deliberately been sent into deep space (we do this to try and communicate with anyone that is out there). The upcoming Square Kilometer Array in Western Australia and South Africa may allow us to detect signals from an alien civilization communicating with their own spacecraft and nearby planets.
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.
Sounds like the UPR drug needs to arrive before Cold Chisels final farewell tour in 2064...