Lifeboat Foundation

More than 4 million people in the U.S. have glaucoma, a group of eye diseases that can damage the optic nerve and lead to vision loss. It’s the second-leading cause of blindness worldwide and there’s currently no cure, but there’s a way to help prevent vision loss through early detection and treatment.

The two main treatment options, however, are inefficient and have downsides. Medicated eyedrops are noninvasive but can’t be absorbed for full effectiveness. Repeated injections into the eye can lead to infections or inflammation, not to mention patient discomfort.

Researchers at Binghamton University are exploring several new glaucoma treatments that would be less invasive. In a study recently published in the Journal of Materials Chemistry B, Assistant Professor Qianbin Wang and Ph.D. student Dorcas Matuwana from the Thomas J. Watson College of Engineering and Applied Science’s Department of Biomedical Engineering shared their findings for drug-carrying liposomes that could be activated in the eye using near-infrared light.

Genes aren’t the sole driver instructing cells to build multicellular structures, tissues, and organs. In a paper published in Nature Communications, USC Stem Cell scientist Leonardo Morsut and Caltech computational biologist Matt Thomson characterize the influence of another important developmental driver: cell density, or how loosely or tightly cells are packed into a given space.

In both computational models and laboratory experiments, the team of scientists used cell density as an effective tool for controlling how mouse cells pattern themselves into complex structures.

“This paper represents progress towards our big picture goal of engineering synthetic tissues,” said Morsut, an assistant professor of stem cell biology and regenerative medicine, and biomedical engineering at the Keck School of Medicine of USC.

A team of researchers from Jilin University, NYU Abu Dhabi’s Smart Materials Lab, and the Center for Smart Engineering Materials, led by Professor of Chemistry Pance Naumov, has developed a new crystalline material that can harvest water from fog without any energy input.

The design of the novel type of smart crystals, which the researchers named Janus crystals, is inspired by desert plants and animals, which can survive in arid conditions. Desert beetles and lizards, for example, have evolved to develop surface structures that have both hydrophilic and hydrophobic areas and effectively capture moisture from the air. Water is attracted to the hydrophilic areas and droplets are accumulated and transported through the hydrophobic areas.

The findings are presented in the paper titled “Efficient Aerial Water Harvesting with Self-Sensing Dynamic Janus Crystals,” recently published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.

Revolutionary research tool will dial up gravity to mimic natural events and help to tap future energy reserves, solve engineering puzzles.

It allows multiple users to walk in any direction without colliding, enhancing VR immersion. Developed by Disney Imagineer Lanny Smoot, this innovation could revolutionize VR experiences and stage performances. (Video Credit: Disney Parks/YouTube)

102K likes, — concept_bytes on November 14, 2024: The best tool for engineers! 👀 #Holomat #engineering #3dprinting #xtool #f1ultra.

Thanks to you all for your feedback and support on this project!

If you want tutorials, code, 3D print files and more for this project comment “holomat” below and I’ll send you the information!”

I believe that nanotechnology could be imbedded into paper so a paper computer could give one the same information as a smartphone but at pennies per smartphone. Right now we can print out 3D copies of paper phones and other things next would be nanotechnology made of paper with quantum mechanical engineering.

Irish company Mcor’s unique paper-based 3D printers make some very compelling arguments. For starters, instead of expensive plastics, they build objects out of cut-and-glued sheets of standard 80 GSM office paper. That means printed objects come out at between 10–20 percent of the price of other 3D prints, and with none of the toxic fumes or solvent dips that some other processes require.

Secondly, because it’s standard paper, you can print onto it in full color before it’s cut and assembled, giving you a high quality, high resolution color “skin” all over your final object. Additionally, if the standard hard-glued object texture isn’t good enough, you can dip the final print in solid glue, to make it extra durable and strong enough to be drilled and tapped, or in a flexible outer coating that enables moving parts — if you don’t mind losing a little of your object’s precision shape.

Continue reading “Layered paper 3D printers: Full color, durable objects at a fraction of the cost” »

Researchers have characterized the naturally occurring background radiation hitting a typical quantum circuit—a result that might help with the engineering of devices that are less vulnerable to radiation-induced decoherence.

A theoretical model shows that exchange of information plays a key role in the molecular machines found in biological cells.

Molecular machines perform mechanical functions in cells such as locomotion and chemical assembly, but these “tiny engines” don’t operate under the same thermodynamic design principles as more traditional engines. A new theoretical model relates molecular-scale heat engines to information engines, which are systems that use information to generate work, like the famous “Maxwell’s demon” [1]. The results suggest that a flow of information lies at the heart of molecular machines and of larger heat engines such as thermoelectric devices.

The prototypical engine is a steam engine, in which work is produced by a fluid exposed to a cycle of hot and cold temperatures. But there are other engine designs, such as the bipartite engine, which has two separate parts held at different temperatures. This design is similar to that of some molecular machines, such as the kinesin motor, which carries “molecular cargo” across biological cells. “Bipartite heat engines are common in biology and engineering, but they really haven’t been studied through a thermodynamics lens,” says Matthew Leighton from Simon Fraser University (SFU) in Canada. He and his colleagues have now analyzed bipartite heat engines in a way that reveals a connection to information engines.