【推荐1】Israeli Company Develops 3D Printed Beef

If there were an award for the funniest company name of 2022, then the 3D printed meat company “Steakholder” would win that award.

Israeli company Steakholder Foods Ltd. has introduced its new product, Omakase Beef Morsels, which are bioprinted with cultured meat. The bites are inspired by the world-famous Wagyu beef, famous for its fat marbling patterns (大理石花纹) in the meat, which is also very expensive.

The company was formed in 2019 and has an office in Israel and Belgium, and is now expanding its operations to the US.     1    

Stakeholder uses stem cells from cattle for the production of its printed beef, and the muscle tissue and fat are printed from two separate bio-inks.     2     A bite can be made juicier, chewier, and the taste can also be altered.

The process works by first selecting the animals to extract (提取) the stem cells from. The cells are selected from animals that will provide the best meat and yield. The next step is proliferation, in which the cells are placed into a nutrient rich reactor to multiply. When the cells reach appropriate numbers, the stem cells change into muscle cells and fat cells.     3    

“This product marks a major step forward for us and for the cultured meat industry in general,” said Arik Kaufman, CEO of Steakholder Foods. “It is the result of a lot of hard work and our desire to achieve the highest level of meat possible through bioprinting and cell culture processes.”

    4     Its patent for 3D-bioprinting technology is the result of intensive cooperation between its 3D printing engineers and cell biologists. “We see Omakase Beef Morsels as the combination of food, technology and fine art,” Kaufman said. “We want to inspire chefs around the world to create delicious masterpieces and unforgettable dining experiences.”

So there you have it, guilt-free meat eating may be just around the corner.

【推荐2】The first commercial airliner to cross the Atlantic on a purely high-fat, low-emissions fuel flew Tuesday from London to New York in a step toward achieving what supporters called “jet zero”.

The Virgin Atlantic Boeing 787 flight was powered without using fossil fuels, relying on so-called sustainable aviation (航空) fuel made up largely of tallow (动物油脂) and other waste fats and plant sugars. “The world will always assume something can’t be done, until you do it.” said Virgin founder Richard Branson, who was aboard the flight with government officials, engineers and journalists.

The UK Transport Department, which provided 1 million pounds to plan and operate the flight, called the test a “huge step towards j et zero” to make air travel more environmentally friendly, though large challenges remain in making the fuel widely available.

Sustainable aviation fuel, which reduces greenhouse gas emissions by about 70%, is the best near-term way for the international aviation industry to achieve its net zero target by 2050, the US Energy Department said.

Holly Boyd-Boland, president of corporate development at Virgin Atlantic, said the flight shows the fuel can power existing aircraft but said the challenge is enlarging production to get to enough volume so that they are using more sustainable aviation fuel every day.

While this is the first jetliner to make the trans-Atlantic journey using only the sustainable fuel, it is not a commercial flight and not the first jet to do so. Gulfstream Aerospace was the first to make the crossing earlier this month with a business jet powered only by the eco-fuel. Air France-KLM flew from Paris to Montreal two years ago using a mix of petroleum-based jet fuel and a synthetic (合成物) made from waste cooking oils.

“This flight somehow gets us closer to guilt-free flying. Sustainable aviation fuel represents around 0.1% of aviation fuel globally and will be very hard to expand sustainably, but the flight is a valuable try,” said policy director Cait Hewitt.

【推荐3】In a high-tech lab on John’s Hopkins University’s Homewood campus in Maryland, engineers have been building a robot that may be able to stitch (缝针) back together the broken tissues in your stomach and even your brain, no doctor needed.

The robot has a high-tech camera on one arm and a high-tech sewing machine on a second arm. The goal is to develop, in the next several years, a robot that makes the delicate work more consistent.

The robot, known as Smart Tissue Autonomous Robot, or STAR, which is run by a highly advanced computer program, will advance technology currently in wide use in operating rooms. The robot completes about a stitch a minute, slightly slower than a human surgeon. But the tests so far have shown more consistency than what the humans can achieve.

Long hours of traditional surgery can cause human hands to get tired and tremble, which may cause accidents during an operation. Robert Langer, an engineer, said the robotic arm could change the way surgeries are done. He has helped found dozens of biotech companies including Galen Robotics. The robotic arm being developed by Hopkins engineers is this company’s product.

Galen CEO Bruce Lichorowic compared the robotic arm to future for surgeons, saying it increases their stability, reduces tiredness and prevents cramps (抽搐) during long surgeries, all of which lead to safer surgeries.

Galen Robotics has its roots in research from Johns Hopkins University, but the company had been based in Silicon Valley until 2019. “The company currently employs about 40 people, about half of whom have advanced degrees from Johns Hopkins,” said Lichorowic, adding that the company plans to grow to 60 positions by the end of the year.

Galen’s robotic arm is not for sale yet, but Lichorowic said the company expects to submit an application to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) later this year.

【推荐1】Human beings have a contradictory relationship with the sun. People love sunshine; however, if you stay out too long or haven’t taken enough precautions (预防措施), your skin will let you know the angry sunburn. First the heat, then the pain, then the remorse. Were people always this obsessed with sunscreens? The answer is “no”.

With only their feet to carry them, our distant ancestors didn’t move around much during their lives. Their skin adapted to subtle, seasonal changes in sunlight and UV conditions by producing more eumelanin (真黑素) and becoming darker in the summer and then losing some pigment (色素) in the fall and winter when the sun wasn’t so strong. This is not to say that the skin would have been undamaged by today’s standards. We can infer from the effects of sun exposure on modern people that the damage was similar.

As time goes by, people’s way of living changes as well. About 10, 000 years ago, human beings made their living by gathering foods, hunting and fishing. By around 6, 000 BC, many people were spending more time in walled settlements, and more time indoors. By at least 3, 000 BC, a whole industry of sun protection grew up to create equipment of all sorts — hats, tents and clothing — that would protect people from the discomfort and unavoidable darkening of the skin related to lengthy sun exposure. In some places, people even developed protective pastes — early versions of modern sunscreens — to protect their exposed skin.

As people have moved around more and faster over longer distances in recent centuries, and spend more time indoors, their skin hasn’t caught up with their locations and lifestyles. Your levels of eumelanin probably aren’t perfectly adapted to the sun conditions where you live, so they aren’t able to protect you the same way they might have protected your ancient ancestors.

People may love the sun, but we’re not our ancestors. Humanity’s relationship with the sun has changed, and this means changing your behavior to save your skin.

【推荐2】Imagine that you are a superhero. Your superpowers are activated by a special suit. The suit communicates with your brain. It allows you to do amazing things with only a thought. By concentrating on strength, for example, you can kick a soccer ball across a field. By focusing on swift actions, you can jump to the top of a tree.

Such a connection between mind and machine may sound like a fantasy. To scientists, though, it is a very real goal. They are creating machines that let disabled monkeys walk. These machines may soon help disabled humans do the same. Unlike other bionic devices, these robotic “super suits” do not communicate with muscles and nerves. Instead, they have a direct line to the brain.

In 2005, doctors drilled a hole in the skull of Hutchinson, who had lost her right arm in an accident. Then they inserted a sensor onto her motor cortex (大脑皮层运动区). Wires connected the sensor to a receiver on her head. After she recovered, researchers plugged Hutchinson’s receiver into a cable that relayed signals from her brain to computers. Then they connected a robotic arm to the computers. The computers could interpret Hutchinson’s brain signals to move the arm.

Soon, Hutchinson, the computer, and the robotic arm became a team. Hutchinson was even able to lift her hand and drink from a cup. “She smiled when she put down that drink—that’s everything.” says Donoghue, a brain scientist.

Today other scientists are building on that success. One of those scientists is Dr. Miguel Nicolelis, who designed a whole-body bionic equipment. In 2014, a disabled former athlete kicked the first ball of the World Cup Games wearing one of Miguel’s full-body exoskeletons.

The exoskeleton was connected to brain signal sensors in the man’s cap. By thinking about kicking, he sent signals to a computer on his back. The computer then translated the signal into an exoskeleton-aided kick. Such designs may become common as scientists keep merging mind and machine.