Scientists print 1st 3D Heart using patient’s Biological Materials

A 3D-printed, small-scaled human heart engineered from the patient’s own materials and cells.
Credit: Advanced Science. © 2019 The Authors.

Engineered heart completely matches the immunological, cellular, biochemical and anatomical properties of the patient. In a major medical breakthrough, Tel Aviv University researchers have “printed” the world’s first 3D vascularised engineered heart using a patient’s own cells and biological materials.

Until now, scientists in regenerative medicine – a field positioned at the crossroads of biology and technology – have been successful in printing only simple tissues without blood vessels.

“This is the first time anyone anywhere has successfully engineered and printed an entire heart replete with cells, blood vessels, ventricles and chambers,” says...

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Best in snow: New Scientific Device creates Electricity from Snowfall

Hiking shoe with device attached

The first-of-its-kind nanogenerator also acts as a weather station. UCLA researchers and colleagues have designed a new device that creates electricity from falling snow. The first of its kind, this device is inexpensive, small, thin and flexible like a sheet of plastic.

“The device can work in remote areas because it provides its own power and does not need batteries,” said senior author Richard Kaner, who holds UCLA’s Dr. Myung Ki Hong Endowed Chair in Materials Innovation. “It’s a very clever device – a weather station that can tell you how much snow is falling, the direction the snow is falling, and the direction and speed of the wind.”

The researchers call it a snow-based triboelectric nanogenerator, or snow TENG...

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TESS finds its 1st Earth-sized Planet

This is an artist’s conception of HD 21749c, the first Earth-sized planet found by NASA’s Transiting Exoplanets Survey Satellite (TESS), as well as its sibling, HD 21749b, a warm sub-Neptune-sized world.
Credit: Illustration by Robin Dienel, courtesy of the Carnegie Institution for Science

A nearby system hosts the first Earth-sized planet discovered by NASA’s Transiting Exoplanets Survey Satellite, as well as a warm sub-Neptune-sized world, according to a new paper from a team of astronomers that includes Carnegie’s Johanna Teske, Paul Butler, Steve Shectman, Jeff Crane, and Sharon Wang.

“It’s so exciting that TESS, which launched just about a year ago, is already a game-changer in the planet-hunting business,” said Teske, who is second author on the paper...

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World’s Fastest Hydrogen Sensor could pave the way for Clean Hydrogen Energy

Fast and accurate sensors will be crucial in a sustainable society where hydrogen is an energy carrier. Hydrogen gas is produced by water that is split with the help of electricity from wind power or solar energy. The sensors are needed both when the hydrogen is produced and when it is used, for example in cars powered by a fuel cell. In order to avoid the formation of flammable and explosive gas when hydrogen is mixed with air, the hydrogen sensors need to be able to quickly detect leaks.
Credit: Yen Strandqvist/Chalmers University of Technology

Hydrogen is a clean and renewable energy carrier that can power vehicles, with water as the only emission. Unfortunately, hydrogen gas is highly flammable when mixed with air, so very efficient and effective sensors are needed...

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