The inventor of a hand-cranked washing machine has traveled to Iraq to distribute the low-cost device to refugees.
Navjot Sawhney created the ‘Divya’ to allow those living in poverty to be able to wash their clothes more easily.
It is thought around 70 percent of the world’s population does not have access to electric washing machines.
The machines are created in the UK and sent to those without access to electricity and water, who would otherwise need to wash clothes by hand.
Former Bath University student Navjot told the BBC the two-week trip to northern Iraq to hand out the machines has been a “completely humbling experience.”
“To give them the dignity of clean clothes is very fulfilling,” he said.
“Some of these families still have members missing, some of these women have suffered major trauma and abuse. It’s just really heartbreaking stuff.
“Handwashing clothes is restrictive and painful. The Divya means women, who are usually the primary washers, have more time to rest.”
Navjot was inspired to create the machine after witnessing the struggles of his neighbour while volunteering in India, after quitting his engineering job in Wiltshire.
“When you read the news, places like this can seem really daunting but the people here are like everyone else in the world,” he said.
“They just want their lives to go back to normal.
“This is my third trip to Iraq and each time I come it is unique and I learn so much. Every time I’m reminded of the dignity and pride people have in clean clothes.”
The engineer set up the Washing Machine Project in 2018 and it now has orders from 15 countries around the world. He is working towards rolling the device out in Uganda, India, Lebanon, and Jordan.
“We’re really proud to be here to do our part.”
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Quote of the Day: “We must adjust to changing times and still hold to unchanging principles.” – Jimmy Carter (turns 97 today)
Photo: by Joshua Rawson-Harris
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Adults can learn a second language as fast as children, reports a new study—and it’s only the conditions in which a child learns a second language that’s given kids a reputation as such fast learners.
This means that adults can develop the increased neural connections typical of bilingual individuals that can, by themselves, stave off dementia by four years, as well as make traveling a heck of a lot easier.
For children, learning a second language increases the number of neural pathways between grey matter areas, and more rapidly breaks down and rebuilds existing pathways with more conceptual capacity.
This translates at home and in the classroom to better memory, increased focus, reduced vulnerability to distractions, and even earlier aptitudes at multi-tasking.
Beyond that, it gives parents more reason to dive into a second language as part of a family effort, as further research has shown learning a language as a family improves everyone’s abilities and gives opportunities for learning that are mostly absent from classroom settings.
Nature vs nurture
Many studies have shown that children’s propensity for learning a second language far exceeds that of adults, but recent research from the University of Kansas’ department of linguistics has demonstrated that’s not necessarily true.
In an examination of Spanish second-language learners, the researchers found that after minimal training, the brain activity between sentences that relied on grammatical features unique to each language resembled that of native speakers.
In other words, the brain activity within an English speaker saying, writing, and reading: “Las flores son hermosas,” or “the flowers are beautiful,” is identical to that found in the brain of a Spanish speaker, despite the fact that this target sentence uses grammatical features not found in English, such as gender and number agreements.
“I think it’s cause for optimism for university foreign language instruction. It shows that, even with limited exposure in the college classroom, learning can happen quite quickly and efficiently,” said KU linguistics professor Alison Gabriele, the co-author of the paper, to Language Magazine.
Another study published in the Journal of Child Languagefound that adults aged forty and children responded exactly the same to explicit language-learning instruction, reinforcing the hypothesis stated earlier that it’s the environment in which the child and the adult learn that has created the difference.
In my experience, teaching English to children in China, and also speaking Italian at a fluent level, children learn by playing games, watching videos, and switching between listening, writing, reading, and speaking. The emphasis on the class is often about fun, or at least takes place in a relaxed setting.
Adults on the other hand tend to learn languages in more traditionally academic ways, as well as being much more susceptible to fear of making mistakes.
Learning a language as a family, then, improves the level of immersion needed to truly grasp a second language, as it brings the learning methods which characterize the perception of children’s more rapid development into the home for the benefit of the adults as well.
Language learners need to be brave and ready to make mistakes and receive feedback. Most people will be far more comfortable making mistakes around family members than in a classroom setting.
Furthermore, any home activity, whether that’s gardening, playing in the yard, watching movies, going shopping, cleaning, or cooking a meal, becomes an opportunity for language learning.
Jernigan recommends preparing vocabulary before an activity and using it as short coursework.
Going shopping? Make the list in your target language. Playing board games? Use the target language to explain the rules. Tending to the garden? Make signs for every plant in the target language. Family movie night? Watch the movie in your target language; Jernigan recommends using subtitles too, so you can see which words are being used.
A language is also about writing, so try and exchange text messages in the target language for a day, or for a week.
If a family is trying to take the learning to a higher level, join a speaking group at a community center or university, where one can meet other people in the area practicing the target language.
Learning a second language is one of the three most common New Years resolutions in America, and now this research essentially removes the major barrier to entry: the idea that if you’re older than 16, you’ve missed your chance.
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Listening to just 30 seconds of Mozart calms areas of the brain and can prevent seizures in people with medication-resistant epilepsy, reveals a new study.
Researchers found the Sonata for Two Pianos in D Major (K 448) might have the power reduce the epilepsy-associated electrical activity spikes in the brain.
People who enjoyed the piece of classical music were noted to have substantial increases to its therapeutic effects, the findings discovered.
The piece for “four hands,” written in 1781, first came to the fore in the early 1990s when a study found listening to the Mozart sonata led to an increase in spatial reasoning ability.
This result, which became known as the Mozart Effect, was studied in a range of fields over the past decades—including epilepsy.
In this study, the researchers used electroencephalograms on 16 adults with medication-resistant epilepsy as they listened to a series of 15 or 90 second clips—including the Mozart piece.
Listening to K 448, but not any other music clip, was linked with a 66.5 percent average reduction in the number of epilepsy-associated electrical activity spikes throughout the brain.
These reductions were found to the greatest extent in the brain’s left and right frontal coertices, parts of the brain involved in regulating emotional responses.
Mozart’s sole sonata for two pianos was written at the age of 25 for Josepha von Auernhammer—one of his most promising students—who went on to become one of Austria’s leading female performing pianists and composers.
The findings were published in the journal Scientific Reports.
(LISTEN to the famous Mozart song in the video below.)
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Making a connection on the dating app Tinder can lead to anything from a casual hookup to a lifetime commitment. For one lucky couple, a fateful swipe led not only to true love but to a second chance at a happy, healthy life together.
Reid Alexander was diagnosed with the genetic kidney disease Alport syndrome at age 17. By the time he graduated college, his symptoms had progressed to the point that his kidneys were only functioning at 20% capacity.
Alexander began dialysis and was put on the transplant list, however, determined not to let the illness rule his life, the Kokomo, Indiana native went forward with plans to move from his home state to Denver, Colorado.
He’d only been resettled for a little while when he and Rafael Dìaz—the man who would eventually become both his future husband and kidney donor—met via Tinder.
“We really just hit it off,” Alexander told PEOPLE. “And we were together every day ever since. It felt like we knew each other for a really long time. And it still feels like that to us.”
Alexander was upfront with Dìaz about his medical prognosis. His new Prince Charming took the news in his stride. Already a registered organ donor, Dìaz began investigating what it would take to learn if he and Alexander were a donor match as well as a love match.
Their engagement announcement was followed a few months later by news that Dìaz was indeed a viable donor for Alexander’s kidney transplant. Rather than a lavish wedding ceremony, the couple opted to pool their resources to finance the lifesaving surgical procedure.
REID ALEXANDER AND RAFAEL DÌAZ
Alexander and Dìaz got hitched in a small ceremony this past April; the transplant went off without a hitch in June. Both men are extremely grateful not only to have found one another but to have participated in what amounts to something of a real-life miracle.
“Expect the unexpected,” Alexander told PEOPLE. “I never would’ve thought that I would move across the country and meet the love of my life, and then the love of my life would also be a perfect match, and I would get a kidney. [I] never would’ve expected that.”
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A Canadian nuclear fusion power company has garnered a $400 million investment to build a demonstration energy plant in the UK.
They will showcase their proprietary method for generating electricity through the fusion of hydrogen atoms in the hopes of attracting additional private investors that can kickstart the last great revolution in energy technology.
The fusion plant, illustrated as a glittering cylindrical building of glass and curved hanger-bay doors, will be constructed in Culham, and construction is set to begin next summer in collaboration with the UK’s Atomic Energy Authority.
The Fusion Demonstration Plant will verify that General Fusion’s MTF technology can create fusion conditions in a practical and cost-effective manner at power plant relevant scales, as well as refine the economics of fusion energy production that would lead to a commercial fusion plant.
The Culham demonstration plant would be about 70% the size of a commercial facility.
GNN has reported extensively on nuclear fusion, a process that generates unlimited, clean, on-demand electricity that uses the same process that powers our Sun.
A field that twenty years ago was exclusively the domain of government-funded research has blossomed into a budding private industry rapidly growing in size, variation, and opportunity.
The pistons power the fusion process—creating a magnetic field that causes hydrogen atoms inside a superheated gas known as a plasma to overcome their electromagnetic resistance and fuse together.
General Fusion reactor
The fusion requires temperatures of at least 100 million Celsius, and existing fusion technologies are struggling to find a way to keep the plasma at that temperature for long periods.
For other methods and companies, it’s not a question of “can we generate electricity from fusion,” or even even “can we keep the plasma heated to generate electricity continuously,” but “how can we generate more electricity than we use?”
Ringing out hydrogen
General Fusion has focused on commercializing the technology which, for example, cost ITER over $20 billion for a prototype.
Instead of using magnets to heat and contain the plasma, General Fusion uses a plasma injector—a separate machine—to create a plasma under more economical conditions, and inject it into the fusion reactor’s main chamber.
Inside the chamber is a spinning wall of liquid lithium, which is compressed into a tiny sphere by the pistons. The compression heats the plasma to fusion temperatures, releasing huge amounts of heat, which the liquid metal absorbs easily. It is that heat that is exacted to create steam, which is used to power a turbine, which creates electricity with only helium as the waste product.
“This is incredibly exciting news for not only General Fusion, but also the global effort to develop practical fusion energy,” stated Christofer Mowry, CEO of General Fusion, who predicts the fusion market to be worth $1 trillion in the next decade.
One of the best parts of fusion is it’s completely safe, as there’s no radioactive anything, and helium is the only byproduct. While 100 million Celsius seems dangerous, “if you were to blow on this thing, it just turns itself off,” Dennis Whyte, a Canadian scientist who is director of plasma science fusion center at MIT, explained to the Financial Post.
Furthermore, it uses a tiny amount of fuel, and Commonwealth Fusion Systems estimate a cup of something as simple as seawater would generate enough electricity to take care of the power usage of one human for their entire lifetime. Just 70 grams of the hydrogen isotopes deuterium and tritium, which are captured during the fusion reaction is enough to power a small city.
“It’s probably the last energy source we’ll ever tame,” said Whyte. “I think of the trajectory from taming fire and it finally completes in fusion, because we’ll have tamed the energy source of the stars.”
(WATCH the videos for this story below.)
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A lot of work is being done in the fields of CRISPR gene-editing, and recently the revolutionary therapy was used to partially restore the vision in patients with a rare genetic disorder.
55-year-old Carlene Knight is now able to move around her call center office without the aid of her walking stick, easily locate objects, and can see colors much more vividly now.
43-year-old Michael Kalberer also learned he could see colors again while on the dancefloor of his cousin’s wedding, and he has gradually regained some of the peripheral field of vision.
They were two of seven patients who received CRISPR injected directly into their eye, a procedural method never before done with CRISPIR, which normally involves removing cells, editing them in vitro, and injecting them back where they were found.
Both patients are far from cured of their Leber congenital amaurosis, or LCA, a rare mutation in the retina, but they’re no longer legally blind, and while the treatment failed to work for some patients during the three- and nine-month followups, no side effects were reported.
“I’ve always loved colors,” said Knight, who lives near Portland. “Since I was a kid it’s one of those things I could enjoy with just a small amount of vision. But now I realize how much brighter they were as a kid because I can see them a lot more brilliantly now; it’s just amazing.”
Mark Pennesi, a professor of ophthalmology holding an MD and a Ph.D. from the Baylor College of Medicine, presented the results at a recent symposium, calling it “a really amazing technology and very powerful,” according to NPR.
Like all scientists, Pennesi urges caution, as a lot more follow-up research needs to be conducted before the true value of the CRISPR trial can be measured.
However, the early success was so significant and clear for people like Knight and Kalberer, the researchers are already moving on to the next group of patients.
CRISPR works by injecting harmless viruses taught to carry edited genes into the retina, where cells cannot be removed, thus facilitating the in vivo approach. To ensure the highly-experimental treatment wouldn’t ruin what limited vision the patients did have, only one eye received the injection, and doses were varied.
The fact that some patients didn’t regain any vision could have been the dose size, or the limit to the single retina. Pennesi believes some may continue to improve even after nine months as a matter of course, while the brain begins to gradually figure out what to do with all these extra images.
CRISPR has been used to treat sickle-cell disease, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, and even to create an antidote to the Australian box jellyfish sting, and the number of potential uses for CRISPR could be huge if it’s shown safe to apply in vivo, as genetic disorders inherent to organs that are difficult to draw samples from, such as the brain, could be approached.
“We’re thrilled to see early signs of efficacy because that means gene editing is working. This is the first time we’re having evidence that gene editing is functioning inside somebody and it’s improving—in this case—their visual function,” said Dr. Eric Pierce, another professor of ophthalmology at Harvard Medical School who’s assisting with the trials.
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Quote of the Day: “There is a candle in your heart, ready to be kindled. There is a void in your soul, ready to be filled. You feel it, don’t you?” – Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi (Persian poet and Sufi mystic born 814 years ago today)
Photo: by Lilya Alis
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Illustration shows a glowing stream of material from a star, torn to shreds as it was being devoured by a supermassive black hole. The feeding black hole is surrounded by a ring of dust NASA/JPL-Caltech
While black holes and toddlers don’t seem to have much in common, they are remarkably similar in one aspect: Both are messy eaters, generating ample evidence that a meal has taken place.
But whereas one might leave behind droppings of pasta or splatters of yogurt, the other creates an aftermath of mind-boggling proportions. When a black hole gobbles up a star, it produces what astronomers call a “tidal disruption event.” The shredding of the hapless star is accompanied by an outburst of radiation that can outshine the combined light of every star in the black hole’s host galaxy for months, even years.
A team of astronomers led by Sixiang Wen, a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Arizona Steward Observatory, use the X-rays emitted by a tidal disruption event known as J2150 to make the first measurements of both the black hole’s mass and spin. This black hole is of a particular type—an intermediate-mass black hole—which has long eluded observation.
“The fact that we were able to catch this black hole while it was devouring a star offers a remarkable opportunity to observe what otherwise would be invisible,” said Ann Zabludoff, UArizona professor of astronomy and co-author on the paper. “Not only that, by analyzing the flare we were able to better understand this elusive category of black holes, which may well account for the majority of black holes in the centers of galaxies.”
By re-analyzing the X-ray data used to observe the J2150 flare, and comparing it with sophisticated theoretical models, the authors showed that this flare did indeed originate from an encounter between an unlucky star and an intermediate-mass black hole. The intermediate black hole in question is of particularly low mass—for a black hole, that is—weighing in at roughly 10,000 times the mass of the sun.
“The X-ray emissions from the inner disk formed by the debris of the dead star made it possible for us to infer the mass and spin of this black hole and classify it as an intermediate black hole,” Wen said.
Dozens of tidal disruption events have been seen in the centers of large galaxies hosting supermassive black holes, and a handful have also been observed in the centers of small galaxies that might contain intermediate black holes. However, past data has never been detailed enough to prove that an individual tidal disruption flare was powered by an intermediate black hole.
“Thanks to modern astronomical observations, we know that the centers of almost all galaxies that are similar to or larger in size than our Milky Way host central supermassive black holes,” said study co-author Nicholas Stone, a senior lecturer at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. “These behemoths range in size from 1 million to 10 billion times the mass of our sun, and they become powerful sources of electromagnetic radiation when too much interstellar gas falls into their vicinity.”
The mass of these black holes correlates closely with the total mass of their host galaxies; the largest galaxies host the largest supermassive black holes.
“We still know very little about the existence of black holes in the centers of galaxies smaller than the Milky Way,” said co-author Peter Jonker of Radboud University and SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research, both in the Netherlands. “Due to observational limitations, it is challenging to discover central black holes much smaller than 1 million solar masses.”
Despite their presumed abundance, the origins of supermassive black holes remain unknown, and many different theories currently vie to explain them, according to Jonker. Intermediate-mass black holes could be the seeds from which supermassive black holes grow.
“Therefore, if we get a better handle of how many bona fide intermediate black holes are out there, it can help determine which theories of supermassive black hole formation are correct,” he said.
Even more exciting, according to Zabludoff, is the measurement of J2150’s spin that the group was able to obtain. The spin measurement holds clues as to how black holes grow, and possibly to particle physics.
This black hole has a fast spin, but not the fastest possible spin, Zabludoff explained, begging the question of how the black hole ends up with a spin in this range.
“It’s possible that the black hole formed that way and hasn’t changed much since, or that two intermediate-mass black holes merged recently to form this one,” she said. “We do know that the spin we measured excludes scenarios where the black hole grows over a long time from steadily eating gas or from many quick gas snacks that arrive from random directions.”
In addition, the spin measurement allows astrophysicists to test hypotheses about the nature of dark matter, which is thought to make up most of the matter in the universe. Dark matter may consist of unknown elementary particles not yet seen in laboratory experiments. Among the candidates are hypothetical particles known as ultralight bosons, Stone explained.
“If those particles exist and have masses in a certain range, they will prevent an intermediate-mass black hole from having a fast spin,” he said. “Yet J2150’s black hole is spinning fast. So, our spin measurement rules out a broad class of ultralight boson theories, showcasing the value of black holes as extraterrestrial laboratories for particle physics.”
In the future, new observations of tidal disruption flares might let astronomers fill in the gaps in the black hole mass distribution, the authors—whose paper is published in The Astrophysical Journal—hope.
“If it turns out that most dwarf galaxies contain intermediate-mass black holes, then they will dominate the rate of stellar tidal disruption,” Stone said. “By fitting the X-ray emission from these flares to theoretical models, we can conduct a census of the intermediate-mass black hole population in the universe,” Wen added.
To do that, however, more tidal disruption events have to be observed. That’s why astronomers hold high hopes for new telescopes coming online soon, both on Earth and in space, including the Vera C. Rubin Observatory, also known as the Legacy Survey of Space and Time, or LSST, which is expected to discover thousands of tidal disruption events per year.
Source: University of Arizona
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In times of war and crisis, it’s important to remember that for every story of loss and tragedy, there is a story of courage and generosity—such is the case with Afghanistan’s Youth Scout program.
PARSA
The country has been embroiled in conflict for more than 40 years, and growing up in that turmoil, Mohammad Hamkar decided to revive Afghanistan’s fledgling scout program in the 2010s from a compound of almond and peach trees on the outskirts of Kabul.
He and his NGO-partner Marnie Gustavson, an American who remembers living in Kabul during earlier peaceful days, have been working to uplift the lives of rural boys and girls through worldwide scouting mandates—especially encouraging a sense of responsibility and service to the community, particularly during the last two months.
As members of the nonprofit PARSA—(Physiotherapy And Rehabilitation Services for Afghanistan) which focuses on rebuilding Afghan communities—Hamkar and Gustavson realized the power of the Merit Badge in giving young people a worthwhile path to follow in life.
Hamkar has trained 600 volunteers to be scoutmasters, and was proud to regain membership in the World Organization of Scout Movements, restoring scouting as a national pursuit that dated back to 1931.
“We have about 10,000 scouts around the country,” PARSA director Marnie Gustavson, who left the country during the Taliban’s recent victory in Kabul, told KUOW.
“What the scouts accomplish across the country—particularly their focus on community service—is just remarkable.”
After the Taliban resumed power, refugees poured into parks around Kabul. It was a situation Hamkar and his scouts were born to solve.
Gathering up tents, sleeping bags, and other emergency supplies, they created a safe, functioning campsite where 45 displaced families could get shelter, and receive food and water.
When the Taliban heard about what was going on, they accused Hamkar of teaching Christianity, an allegation that was easy enough for him to disprove.
Soon after, the Taliban government issued the all-clear for PARSA to continue its work, which included the scouts returning to the streets and outskirts of Kabul to lend a helping hand, and presumably, to continue stacking up their merit badges.
A great way to show support for your fellow scouts is by making a donations to help PARSA continue the program that offers role models for Afghan youth.
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1.3 million people in the Netherlands are older than 75 years—and one large supermarket chain is making sure they’re not getting too lonely in their elder years.
The Dutch government with its campaign, ‘One Against Loneliness’, has galvanized organizations, towns, companies, and individuals to find solutions. The grocer giant, Jumbo, is doing their part with its innovative chatty check outs.
The idea for the ‘Kletskassa’, which translates to ‘chat checkout’, originated more than two years ago—and in the summer of 2019 the first Kletskassa was opened in Vlijmen in Brabant.
This resulted in many positive reactions from customers—and now Jumbo is expanding the initiative further: By this time next year, there will be chat checkouts in 200 stores across the country where people can go for a conversation. When choosing the stores, areas where loneliness is a major factor are carefully considered.
Colette Cloosterman-van Eerd, CCO of Jumbo and the driving force behind the National Coalition against Loneliness, is closely involved in the initiative. She says, “Many people, especially the elderly, sometimes feel lonely. As a family business and supermarket chain, we are at the heart of society.”
“Our stores are an important meeting place for many people and we want to play a role in identifying and reducing loneliness. We do this in various ways, including our Kletskassas. We are proud that many of our cashiers like to take a seat behind a Kletskassa. They support the initiative and want to help people to make real contact with them out of genuine interest.”
“It is a small gesture, but very valuable, especially in a world that is digitizing and getting faster and faster.”
Jumbo
Local approach to loneliness
In addition to the Kletskassas, Jumbo has various other initiatives to establish personal contact between people.
Cloosterman-van Eerd explained that, “At Jumbo we want to be more than just a place where you do your shopping. For example, we help our stores by means of a manual to signal loneliness among customers and to set up local initiatives… Several stores also have a chat corner where customers can grab a nice cup of coffee and chat with neighbors.”
The Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport has supported the establishment of local coalitions against loneliness in each of the 355 municipalities across the country for organizing programs such as home visits, telephone hotlines, and creating maps of activities for nearby seniors.
Rivian Automobiles has just launched a pair of all-electric outdoor adventure vehicles following years of subjecting them to the harshest testing and explorers’ feedback.
On September 14th, their first models were driven off the assembly line in their Illinois production plant.
The R1T and the R1S are super-loaded with features specialized for road-tripping to off-road adventure, and they have a range 80 miles greater than Ford’s electric pickup.
“A trail to the middle of nowhere. A great mountain road. A long weekend with the family. We are focused on building products that inspire and enable you to see the world, on-road and way off,” the website reads, and that’s no understatement.
The robustness and capability of these vehicles is dramatic, as were the rigors Rivian put their SUV and pickup through on the way to the dealership.
The battery system was built and tested in environments as varied as 130ºF to -25ºF to ensure the car starts no matter where you left it. The four-wheel drive system will do 0-60 in 3 seconds, can crawl up rocks at inclines as steep as you care to attempt, and the models can wade through three feet of water.
To get some early durability testing, two pickups were sent on a 13,000-mile trip from the tip of Argentina up to Los Angeles, which spanned 100 days and every type of terrain and weather imaginable.
Rivian
With a price tag starting at $67,500 the vehicles are not exactly cheap, but for the most capable nature-lover who is interested in enjoying the great outdoors as much as they are in saving it, there’s just no other choice out there.
After months of building pre-production vehicles, this morning our first customer vehicle drove off our production line in Normal! Our team's collective efforts have made this moment possible. Can't wait to get these into the hands of our customers! pic.twitter.com/8ZidwTaXRI
Automatic driving, LTE-WiFI, a booming stereo system with full tablet connectibility and 120V power outlets turns any trip a little more like an RV-one rather than an on-the-rough camping expedition.
The lack of engine block gives the R1T an extraordinary amount of storage space—68 cubic feet in total, which also allows the them to fit a full-size spare tire as standard, and the innovative “Gear Tunnel.”
Located between the cab and the backseat, the gear tunnel is a third standard storage option idea for skis, wetsuits, muddy or dirty cloths and equipment, or anything else that doesn’t have a home, as well as being the compartment for some unique add-ons.
Rivian will sell you an electric slide-out camp kitchen—complete with crockery that folds in and out of the Gear Tunnel. On top of the all-glass panoramic star-gazing roof is an equipment rack fitted with attachments suitable for most third-party products.
It’s an awful lot to fit into a car, but this month the company announced it had received more than 24,000 preorders for the R1T, which they say will be available with an extended range of 400 miles on a charge by next year.
In the Netherlands, a country famous for all manner of methods for surmounting aquatic obstacles, an engineering company recently completed the world’s largest 3D-printed bridge.
Built in Nijmegen, the bridge spans 95 feet (29 meters) across a canal, and was completed through a collaboration from the Eindhoven Institute of Technology, a pair of engineering firms, and planning aid from the government.
It surpasses by 10 feet the previous record-holding 3D-printed bridge in China, and helps demonstrate the scope of 3D printing advantages for both designers and policy makers. Among these are the facts that 3D printers use far less material than traditional construction techniques, and offer greater creative possibilities for designers.
“The city of Nijmegen is very honored to receive this innovative 3D printed bridge,” said Alderman Bert Velthuis of Nijmegen City Council. “We are a city of bridges, and this special, innovative bridge is a wonderful addition. The bridge leads to connection: in the design and construction phase it connected the different partners, and from now on the bridge connects our residents.”
The bridge is striking to look at, with sculpted conical feet that gives it a shape a little like that of a caterpillar.
The CEO of the 3D-printing firm Weber Benelux stated the bridge, that was designed on a computer and printed piece by piece before being assembled on site, required 50% less material to create as the printer only deposits concrete where it’s absolutely needed for structural integrity.
Furthermore, the mold and design will be there in the Weber Benelux Nijmegen site for years to come, meaning the bridge can be quickly commissioned and printed again with only minor tweaks, a reproducibility rare in large civic projects, and which could save tens of thousands in design, surveying, and consulting costs.
“Nijmegen has had a fantastic year as [it was named] European Green Capital,” said Alderman of the municipality of Nijmegen Harriët Tiemens, in a 2019 statement on the bridge’s announcement. “A new innovative sustainable 3D-printed bridge is a nice addition to this.”
Quote of the Day: “Diligence is the mother of good fortune, and idleness, its opposite, never brought a man to the goal of any of his best wishes.” – Miguel de Cervantes, author of Don Quixote (born 474 years ago)
Photo: by Hu Chen
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“Sometimes,” said Winnie the Pooh, “the smallest things take up the most room in your heart.”
And nowhere is that more true than the aptly named ‘Bearbnb’ that bears his name.
Tucked away in a lush corner of the Sussex countryside that inspired A. A. Milne’s original Hundred Acre Wood, Pooh’s trademark treehouse has been lovingly replicated and is set to host its inaugural guests as part of a Disney celebration marking the beloved Bear’s 95th anniversary.
The custom-built tiny home, based on E.H. Shepard’s classic drawings from Milne’s original books, is overseen by Kim Raymond.
He’s a Disney illustrator who’s been creating images of the iconic bear for three decades.
“I have been illustrating Winnie the Pooh for 30 years and I continue to be inspired by the classic decorations of E.H. Shepard and the more recent Disney stories,” Raymond said in a statement.
“The ‘Bearbnb’ is a unique experience that brings the charm of Pooh to life for fans, whilst honoring the original adventures that have been so important to many people for 95 years.”
Henry Woide, Airbnb
Per the Airbnb listing, during their visits, Pooh lovers will get “a guided tour of the original Hundred Acre Wood (a.k.a. Ashdown Forest), play Poohsticks on the iconic Poohsticks Bridge, and enjoy locally sourced hunny-inspired meals.”
As with its literary prototype, the Bearbnb’s whimsical décor includes a ‘Mr. Sanders plaque’ above the arched tree branches surrounding the front door, plenty of comfy spots for napping, and a plethora of “hunny” pots lining the kitchen shelves.
Henry Woide, Airbnb
Apart from the “bear necessities,” the new House at Pooh Corner also boasts modern amenities including yoga and wellness products designed to aid travelers in communing with the true Tao of Pooh.
This magical domicile dedicated to Piglet’s BBFF (best bear friend forever) is the perfect spot to bring a family for a once-in-a-lifetime, immersive Winnie the Pooh experience.
Henry Woide, Airbnb
But as you can imagine, guests of even an enchanted destination must observe proper house etiquette, so…
• Strictly no heffalumps inside the house
• Hands are to be kept out of the honey pots
• A snack of “a little something” encouraged at 11 o’clock in the morning
• Poohsticks is mandatory
• Multiple naps are permitted
• No pets (other than Roos, Tiggers, Eeyores, Piglets and Pooh Bears)
• No smoking, you’ll upset the bees
Even for a “silly old bear,” that seems fair enough.
ADD A Little Honey to Those Social Feeds—Share This Sweet Spot With Others…
HSD3B1, red, within a human sebaceous gland cell neclei (blue) and lipid droplets (black circular areas)/Harris Tyron/UT Southwestern Medical Center
A study led by UT Southwestern dermatologists suggests that a common inflammatory skin condition may stem from poorly regulated hormones. The finding could offer an unexpected new target to fight this condition.
Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a form of eczema. AD affects up to 13% of children and 10% of adults, with an annual treatment cost of $5.3 billion in the U.S. alone.
“We often think of eczema as a dry-skin condition and treat mild cases with moisturizers,” said corresponding author Tamia Harris-Tryon at UTSW. “Here, we’re showing that a gene that’s important for making hormones seems to play a role in the skin making its own moisturizers.
“If we could alter this gene’s activity, we could potentially provide relief to eczema patients by helping the skin make more oils and lipids to moisturize itself.”
Dr. Harris-Tryon explained that previous research has linked AD to overactivity in genes responsible for the production of two inflammatory immune molecules, interleukins 4 and 13 (IL-4 and IL-13).
A relatively new drug called dupilumab—a monoclonal antibody that reduces the amount of the inflammatory molecules—has been extremely effective in many patients with moderate to severe AD. However, the molecular mechanisms behind how IL-4 and IL-13 contribute to this form of eczema was unknown.
To investigate this question, Dr. Harris-Tryon and her colleagues focused on sebocytes, the cells that make up sebaceous glands. These glands produce an oily, waxy barrier that coats the skin, helping it retain moisture.
The researchers dosed human sebocytes growing in petri dishes with IL-4 and IL-13, then used a technique called RNA sequencing to get a readout on gene activity for the entire genome and compared it with gene activity in sebocytes that weren’t treated with these immune molecules.
They found that a gene called HSD3B1, which makes an enzyme called 3b-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase 1, became up to 60 times more active when exposed to the two interleukins.
The finding was a surprise, Dr. Harris-Tryon said, because this enzyme is well known for playing a key role in the production of hormones such as testosterone and progesterone, but it had never been linked to atopic dermatitis and skin lipid production.
Databases of human gene activity showed that HSD3B1 tends to be overactive in patients with eczema; a single study of patients on dupilumab showed that this drug appears to lower HSD3B1‘s activity. Both pieces of evidence suggest that IL-4 and IL-13 drive up the activity of this gene.
To determine how this gene affects sebum output, the researchers manipulated HSD3B1‘s activity in sebocytes growing in petri dishes. They found that when they made this gene less active, the levels of hormones decreased, and skin sebum production increased.
The reverse was also true, with more gene activity leading to higher amounts of hormones and less sebum. The researchers made similar findings in a mouse model of AD, with hormone production decreasing the production of skin lipids.
Together, Dr. Harris-Tryon said, these findings—published in TNAS, suggest that HSD3B1 could be a new target for fighting AD and potentially other forms of eczema.
“Changing the output of this gene could eventually offer a way to treat AD that’s completely different from any treatment that currently exists,” she added. That’s an exciting breakthrough indeed.
This incredible video shows a husband and wife’s amazing encounter with a group of humpback whales.
32-year-old David Edgar and his wife Alice, were diving in the beautiful crystal-clear waters off the islands of Tonga in the South Pacific.
The couple were following a group of three humpback whales—a mother, her calf, and a male escort.
Amazingly, the curious calf came right up to Alice.
Professional underwater photographer David was able to capture these gorgeous images and video that showed the ‘little’ humpback seemingly ‘dancing’ with his wife.
David, who’s from Sydney, Australia, said, “It was one of those amazing days in the South Pacific where the water was perfectly flat and there was hardly a breath of wind.”
“We followed a group of three humpback whales who were swimming slowly around a shallow reef for about an hour.
SWNS
“The video captures the moment where a young humpback calf swims toward Alice in a moment of mutual curiosity.
The Kidney Project’s implantable bioartificial kidney, one that promises to free kidney disease patients from dialysis machines and transplant waiting lists, took another big step toward becoming reality—earning a $650,000 prize from KidneyX for its first-ever demonstration of a functional prototype of its implantable artificial kidney.
KidneyX is a public–private partnership between the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the American Society of Nephrology, founded to “accelerate innovation in the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of kidney diseases.”
The Kidney Project, a nationwide collaboration, combined the two essential parts of its artificial kidney, the hemofilter and the bioreactor, and successfully implanted the smartphone-sized device for preclinical evaluation.
For this advance, the team was awarded KidneyX’s Phase 1 Artificial Kidney Prize and was one of six winning teams selected out of an international field.
In the last few years, The Kidney Project successfully tested the hemofilter, which removes waste products and toxins from blood, and the bioreactor, which replicates other kidney functions, like the balance of electrolytes in blood, in separate experiments.
For the Artificial Kidney Prize, the team married the two units into a scaled-down version of the artificial kidney and evaluated its performance in a preclinical model. The units worked in tandem, powered by blood pressure alone, and without the need for blood thinning or immunosuppressant drugs.
“The vision for the artificial kidney is to provide patients with complete mobility and better physiological outcomes than dialysis,” said Roy, who is a faculty member of the UCSF Schools of Pharmacy and Medicine. “It promises a much higher quality of life for millions worldwide with kidney failure.”
Chronic kidney failure, also known as end-stage renal disease, leads to the progressive and dangerous loss of kidney function. Most patients with kidney failure must visit dialysis clinics multiple times every week to have their blood filtered, a process that is time-consuming, uncomfortable, and risky.
A minority of patients live with transplanted kidneys, thanks to a pool of donated kidneys that are constantly in high demand. But even these patients must contend with a lifetime on immunosuppressant drugs that can have severe side effects.
The Kidney Project’s artificial kidney will not only replicate the high quality of life seen in kidney transplant recipients—the “gold standard” of kidney disease treatment, according to Roy—but also spare them from needing to take immunosuppressants.
“Our team engineered the artificial kidney to sustainably support a culture of human kidney cells without provoking an immune response,” said Roy. “Now that we have demonstrated the feasibility of combining the hemofilter and bioreactor, we can focus on upscaling the technology for more rigorous preclinical testing, and ultimately, clinical trials.”
The KidneyX Artificial Kidney Prize called on scientists and engineers to submit “continuous kidney replacement therapies that provide transformational treatment options beyond current dialysis methods,” a high bar that UCSF’s artificial kidney is poised to clear in the coming years.
“This award is a testament to The Kidney Project’s bold vision and execution of a viable solution for millions of patients with kidney failure,” said UCSF School of Pharmacy Dean B. Joseph Guglielmo, PharmD.
New scientific research conducted at White Sands National Park in New Mexico has uncovered the oldest known human footprints in North America.
David Bustos, NPS
The discovery reveals evidence of human occupation in the Tularosa Basin beginning at least 23,000 years ago, thousands of years earlier than previously thought.
“These incredible discoveries illustrate that White Sands National Park is not only a world-class destination for recreation but is also a wonderful scientific laboratory that has yielded groundbreaking, fundamental research,” said Superintendent Marie Sauter.
The fossilized human footprints were buried in multiple layers of gypsum soil on a large playa in White Sands National Park.
Seeds embedded in the footprints were radiocarbon dated and analyzed by the U.S. Geological Survey to establish their age.
The research dramatically extends the range for the coexistence of humans and Pleistocene (ice age) megafauna and confirms that humans were present in North America before the major glacial advances at the height of the last ice age closed migration routes from Asia.
“This study illustrates the process of science—new evidence can shift long held paradigms,” said USGS Acting Rocky Mountain Regional Director Allison Shipp.
White Sands National Park contains the world’s largest-known collection of Pleistocene age (ice age) fossilized footprints in the world and has been recognized as a megatracksite since 2014.
Those footprints havebeen given the intriguing nickname “ghost tracks.” Each footprint marks the spot where an ancient ancestor once stood many thousands of years ago.
New stories from the past
Karen Carr, NPS
The newly discovered “ghost tracks” tell an interesting tale of what life was like at this time.
“The footprints left at White Sands give a picture of what was taking place, teenagers interacting with younger children and adults,” said lead study author, Matthew Bennett from Bournemouth University, in a statement. “We can think of our ancestors as quite functional, hunting and surviving, but what we see here is also activity of play, and of different ages coming together. A true insight into these early people.”
In addition to human footprints, tracks from the Columbian mammoth, saber-toothed cat, dire wolf, and other ice age animals have been discovered at White Sands.
Scientists from White Sands National Park, the National Park Service, U.S. Geological Survey, Bournemouth University, University of Arizona, and Cornell University, in connection with the park’s Native American partners, have collaborated and consulted on this research. The findings are detailed in an article published in the journal Science.
White Sands National Park protects and preserves the world’s largest gypsum dunefield, at least 23,000 years of archaeology, adaptive flora and fauna, as well as Works Progress Administration-era historic pueblo buildings.
Quote of the Day: “The will to win, the desire to succeed, the urge to reach your full potential… these are the keys that will unlock personal excellence.” – Confucius (born 2,571 years ago)
Photo: by Bobby Johnson
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