Posts tagged engineering

One World Trade Center, more simply known as 1 WTC and previously known as the Freedom Tower, is the lead building of the new World Trade Center complex in Lower Manhattan, New York City. The 104-story supertall skyscraper is being constructed in the northwest corner of the 16-acre World Trade Center site, occupying the location where the original 8-story 6 World Trade Center once stood.

(Source: futurenow321)

As some experts quickly pointed out, the new gel could be used to engineer human tissue. No doubt, that would be huge. We could someday use a version for skin grafts for burn victims, or to grow tissue for other needs, like organ transplants. But I’m more excited about a much more immediate use for the hydrogel one that could benefit the nearly 30 million Americans who suffer from osteoarthritis.

This is a painful condition in which cartilage wears out around the joints such as the knees and elbows. The risk of osteoarthritis onset grows with age, particularly for people over the age of 45.

Not only that, but it can actually heal itself, too. Given time to relax between stretches, the bonds in the compound are able to “re-zip,” self-repairing any cuts or breaks. Think about the major impact this could have on medicine. As I see it, in the very near future, doctors will be able to go in and actually remove the bad or torn cartilage that’s causing you pain. They’ll replace it with a hydrogel that is much stronger and more resilient than the original organic substance with which you were born.

In the Era of Radical Change, we will continue to see a steady stream of advances like this, breakthroughs that will help us live longer and healthier lives.

(Source: futurenow321)

The four-story, $77 million Molecular Engineering & Sciences building opened this month, just south of Gerberding Hall. And unlike old labs of the past, which tended to be dark and isolating, this one is filled with sunlight and designed with collaborative spaces for scientists to work together across a range of disciplines.

Baker said the most promising discoveries are licensed to private companies to carry on the research and find out if the proteins really do what researchers thought they would do. “We do simple things, then license the results to a pharmaceutical company,” he said.

Of those 400 proteins being investigated each month, about 25 to 50 a month are inspired by an unusual source: Online gamers playing Foldit, a free protein-folding game (www.fold.it), that was developed in collaboration between the UW’s molecular biology department and the UW’s Center for Game Science, Baker said.

About 230,000 players worldwide have downloaded the game, and use intuition and spatial reasoning to try to design proteins with stable, efficient designs.

(Source: futurenow321)

Last year, two teams of gamers co-authored a paper describing an HIV-related protein that had long stumped scientists. Not only did they puzzle out the protein’s elusive shape, they did it in just three weeks. Their scientific method: Play a multiplayer online game called Foldit.

Protein folding is one of the hardest computational problems in biology. The get-it-done chemicals of life, proteins power muscles, transport signals through the brain, and defend against germs. A protein’s function partially depends on how its long chains of chemical building blocks fold into a compact and chemically stable shape. And determining that shape can lead to new treatments for diseases such as cancer, AIDS, and Alzheimer’s. Surprisingly, it seems that teams of human beings motivated by curiosity and competition might do this better than the most sophisticated computers.

(Source: futurenow321)

Science magazine and the National Science Foundation have just announced the winners of the 2010 International Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge. The annual international competition is set up to award outstanding artistic efforts to visualize complex scientific concepts. The event also highlights the innovation and technical expertise of scientists who have abilities to visually attract a large number of audiences and encourage them to experience the complex nature as well as beauty of science. The 3-D images of HIV virus, plant-gene map, centipede robot, rough waters, tomato-seed “hair” and so on are some among the best science images of 2010

(Source: futurenow321)

A woman with an artificial arm has been given the sense of touch following a pioneering operation to reroute some of her nerves. Claudia Mitchell, 27, lost her left arm in a motorcycle accident three years ago, but can now feel her missing hand after having nerves from her lost limb rerouted to her chest.

Now, when she touches something with her artificial hand she can feel it through a device attached to her chest.

During a four-hour operation, surgeons moved nerves from her shoulder, which normally ferry signals from the hand to the brain, and redirected them to muscles in her chest area.

Four months after surgery, a patch of skin on her chest was able to feel touch, temperature and pain sensations as if they were coming from different parts of her hand and wrist.

(Source: futurenow321)

A parachute destined for Mars experiences 81,250 pounds of drag force in the world’s largest wind tunnel at NASA Ames Research Center. Scientists went on to deploy the parachute 13 more times this past spring before deeming the 51-foot-diameter mammoth fit to land the next Red Planet rover, the Mars Science Laboratory. Cushioning a 2,000-pound rover from a supersonic descent in the thin Martian atmosphere demands special stamina. The chute gets its strength from stronger synthetic fiber, called Technora, in its suspension lines. Now a parachute identical to the one that was tested is packed and ready for the 2011 launch of the MSL mission, which will explore Mars for signs that it could have once supported life. “The parachute’s got a tough job,” says Douglas S. Adams, the MSL parachute senior engineer. “It passed [the tests] with flying colors.”

(Source: futurenow321)