#2,967 – Even More Nuclear Fusion

There’s been a lot going on in 2023 from the explosion of AI and the popularity of Barbenheimer to UFOs going mainstream but we may have to make room for one more game-changing story: nuclear fusion taking one more step closer to fruition. With the promising results from last December’s breakthrough getting repeated.

Smithsonian Mag sums it up best:

“California researchers have successfully completed a nuclear fusion reaction that achieved ‘ignition’—or yielded more energy than was put into it—for only the second time in history, report Tom Wilson and Alice Hancock for the Financial Times. With this feat, the team has repeated their breakthrough results from an experiment in December.

Nuclear scientists say this is a key step toward producing clean and potentially cheap power—though they warn the fledgling form of energy still has a long way to go before it becomes a viable option. 

‘Since demonstrating fusion ignition for the first time at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) in December 2022, we have continued to perform experiments to study this exciting new scientific regime. In an experiment conducted on July 30, we repeated ignition at NIF,’ a spokesperson from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) tells the Financial Times. ‘As is our standard practice, we plan on reporting those results at upcoming scientific conferences and in peer-reviewed publications.’

Nuclear power plants across the globe currently produce energy through a process called fission, which involves the splitting of an atom’s nucleus into two parts. While fission generates a substantial amount of energy with almost no greenhouse gas emissions, it also produces long-lived radioactive waste as a byproduct. 

Scientists have long been aware of another process called fusion, in which two light nuclei combine together and release vast amounts of energy. Fusion is the reaction that powers the sun and other stars, and it has the potential to create enormous amounts of energy with less dangerous byproducts. But for decades, researchers have struggled to recreate and harness it. 

‘It’s super hard,’ Omar Hurricane, chief scientist for the inertial confinement fusion program at LLNL, told Scientific American’s Philip Ball in June. ‘We’re basically making stars on Earth.’ 

Then, in December 2022, a team at LLNL in California announced they had, for the first time ever, created a fusion reaction with a net energy gain. Using 192 giant lasers, the team delivered 2.05 megajoules to their target, which subsequently released 3.15 megajoules of energy output.

Now, just eight months later, a spokesperson for the lab tells Reutersthat the reaction has been repeated, and this time, it produced an even higher energy output. 

‘We are witnessing a moment in history: controlling the power source of the stars is the greatest technological challenge humanity has ever undertaken,’ physicist Arthur Turrell tells Anthony Cuthbertson of the Independent. ‘This experimental result will electrify efforts to eventually power the planet with nuclear fusion—at a time when we’ve never needed a plentiful source of carbon-free energy more.'”

I couldn’t agree more. Maui just got wiped out by Climate Change. Clearly, we need to pivot to new energy sources before it’s too late. It’ll take a while before fusion becomes a fully viable option but if we can wait it out it could be our savior. Hopefully, we can make it that long.

Is Nuclear Fusion the Greatest Idea Ever?

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#2,966 – Living Buildings

It may soon be possible to design living, breathing buildings inspired by termites. Wait. What?

The cooldown explains:

“Nobody wants termites in their home. But it turns out that aspects of a termite’s home might very well make our human habitats cooler and more efficient.

Researchers at Sweden’s Lund University are studying airflow in termite mounds to see how the little Euclids are utilizing geometry for better ventilation.

If humans can successfully borrow from the insectoid designs, it could cut air pollution, lower cooling costs, and have other benefits in future builds.

They are smart builders, according to Lund researchers. Termite mounds have a ‘sophisticated’ system of thousands of tunnels, channels, and air chambers, which maximize airflow to keep the temperature cool inside.

‘It’s fascinating how the termites’ building process manages to create extremely complex, well-functioning ‘engineering masterpieces,’ without having the centralized control or drawings to refer to that we would need,’ David Andréen, a senior lecturer at Lund who wrote the article on the research, said in a university report.

Now, the experts are studying how geometry can be used in buildings to generate cooler airflow without energy-consuming fans.

The experts took CT scans to look at channels in termite mounds from Namibia and used 2D and 3D models to study airflow, according to Lund. The scans revealed a network of ‘smooth, curved channels.’

They moved air, carbon dioxide, and water mixed with dye through the models to see how the flow reacted.

‘The results show that the tunnel networks in the outer walls of the termite mound can capture wind and create interior turbulence, which leads to increased air exchange with the surroundings and helps to control the indoor climate,’ according to Lund’s report.

Air conditioners suck up about 6% of the power generated in the U.S., according to the Energy Department. That power supply costs Americans $29 billion each year, producing about 129 million tons of air pollution, the department reported.

The Lund experts said that 3D printing will be key to replicating termite tech in homes and buildings. But recreating the complex termite structures won’t be easy. The researchers envision walls filled with networks of channels, using sensors and actuators to move air — requiring far less energy than common fans, Frontiers reported.

‘We are on the brink of the transition toward nature-like construction,’ study co-author Dr. Rupert Soar, who works at Nottingham Trent University, said in the Frontiers story. ‘For the first time, it may be possible to design a true living, breathing building.'”

When I first read this I immediately thought of the living ships in Battlestar Galactica. Somehow utilizing termites instead of alien technology actually made me feel better about the prospect.

Could termite mounds inspire living, breathing buildings?

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#2,965 – Freeze Ray Gun

I’m currently reading Ryan North’s book How to Take Over the World which details what aspiring supervillains would have to do to pull off science fiction schemes in reality.

Which makes this the perfect time to tell you that we may soon have a real-life freeze ray gun just like in Batman.

Sci Tech Daily explains:

“The discovery – surprisingly based on heat-generating plasma – is not meant for weaponry, however. Mechanical and aerospace engineering professor Patrick Hopkins wants to create on-demand surface cooling for electronics inside spacecraft and high-altitude jets.

‘That’s the primary problem right now,’ Hopkins said. ‘A lot of electronics on board heat up, but they have no way to cool down.’

The U.S. Air Force likes the prospect of a freeze ray enough that it has granted the professor’s ExSiTE Lab (Experiments and Simulations in Thermal Engineering) $750,000 over three years to study how to maximize the technology.”

As disappointing as it is that we’re not bringing a Batman villain to life it’s even more disappointing that we can’t use it to cool ourselves down either as the planet warms. But I guess cooling down electronics has it’s merits too.

Is a Freeze Ray Gun the Greatest Idea Ever?

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#2,964 – Training Bacteria

There is so much bacteria living on us and in us that it’s hard to tell where the bacteria ends and we begin. And soon we may able to use this fact to our advantage. By training bacteria to do our bidding for us and help us detect disease from deep in our bowels.

Science Alert explains:

“Wherever cancer may lurk in the bowels of the human body, an engineered microbe could one day detect it.

That’s the hope of an international team of researchers who have shown how, with a few instructions, one species of bacterium might expose bowel cancer as it forms in cell and animal models of the disease.

Although the approach is still years away from clinical trials, requiring more research to test its efficacy and safety, the idea of using modified microbes as diagnostic tools is not as out-there as you might think.

Our gastrointestinal tract is lined with bacteria, and scientists have been trying to harness the natural abilities of specific strains to make them work as probiotic sensors. These ‘biosensors’ have already shown promise in monitoring gut health and detecting intestinal bleeding, infections, and liver tumors – at least in mice and pigs.

In this new study, a team led by biologist Robert Cooper at the University of California, San Diego, engineered bacteria to detect snippets of DNA shed from lab-grown colorectal cancer cells and mice harboring colorectal tumors.

‘This study demonstrates how bacteria can be designed to detect specific DNA sequences to diagnose disease in hard-to-reach places,’ says biomedical scientist and study author Susan Woods of the University of Adelaide in Australia.”

Hey, if we’re stuck living together we might as well make the most of it.

Is training bacteria the Greatest Idea Ever?

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#2,963 – Electrogenetic Interface

In addition to electrifying cement we may also be on the verge of electrifying human DNA as well to control genes.

As Popular Mechanics puts it:

“Electricity can be a powerful tool if you use it wisely—and a team of researchers from ETH Zurich seems to really know how to use it. The scientists claim that they have developed a revolutionary new model of something called an ‘electrogenetic interface,’ which uses electricity to control genes.

In a study published in Nature, the team says the research offers the ‘missing link’ that will allow for the creation of wearable devices capable of controlling genes—with a focus on treating human disease through gene or cell therapy.

‘We believe this technology will enable wearable electrogenetic devices to directly program metabolic interventions,’ the authors wrote.

‘Electronic and biological systems function in radically different ways and are largely incompatible due to the lack of a functional communication interface,’ explained the authors. ‘While biological systems are analog, programmed by genetics, updated slowly be evolution and controlled by ions flowing through insulated membranes, electronic systems are digital, programmed by readily updatable software and controlled by electrons flowing through insulated wires.’

The two meet in the form of direct current-actuated regulation technology (DART), an electrogenetic interface that connects the digital with the analog by using electric current to activate specific gene responses. ‘Electrogenetic interfaces that would enable electronic devices to control gene expression remain the missing link in the path to full compatibility and interoperability of the electronic and genetic worlds,’ the study said.

The work build upon a 2020 study published in Science that showed how implanted human pancreatic cells in mice with type 1 diabetes could be impacted by electricity. The goals of both the 2020 device and the new one were to returning mice blood glucose levels to acceptable levels—and they worked.

According to Vice, however, the new design is a serious upgrade. It still uses electrically stimulating acupuncture needles to switch on the exact genes involved in regulating doses of insulin, but it’s both more efficient and easy to use.

The study says that DART provides a reversible and tunable eletrogenetic interface that operates with readily available batteries. ‘Notably,’ they wrote, ‘DART requires very little power and overall energy to control target gene expression.'”

We’ve long known about wearables but an electrogoenetic interface wearable sounds infinitely cooler and far more helpful. Hopefully, this technology continues to progress and delivers upon its initial promise.

Is an electrogenetic interface the Greatest Idea Ever?

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#2,962 – Electrified Cement

By combining some classic materials in a new way we may have invented a new material with the potential to turn our roads and the foundations of our very homes into giant batteries.

Science Alert explains:

“Scientists are constantly searching for better ways to store renewable energy, and MIT researchers have now found a way to turn cement and an ancient material into a giant supercapacitor.

Potentially, this electrified cement could turn building foundations and roads into almost limitless batteries.

To create the new substance, a team from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Harvard University in the US mixed together cement, water and carbon black – a material like a fine charcoal that is created from incomplete combustion processes.

‘The material is fascinating, because you have the most-used human made material in the world, cement, that is combined with carbon black, that is a well-known historical material – the Dead Sea Scrolls were written with it,’ says Admir Masic, a materials scientist at MIT.

‘You have these at least two-millennia-old materials that when you combine them in a specific manner you come up with a conductive nanocomposite, and that’s when things get really interesting.’

The particles of carbon black tend to clump together in voids left as water is absorbed by the reacting cement, forming tendril-like shapes in the cement that can act as wires.

That aids conductivity, meaning that the modified cement is able to act as a supercapacitor – a power source that works in a similar way to a battery, but which stores and releases electrical energy much faster.

A standard electrolyte material, such as potassium chloride, can then be added to the material, providing the charged particles that separate – thus allowing the supercapacitor to store and release energy.”

Making this discovery truly electrifying.

Is Electrified Cement the Greatest Idea Ever?

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#2,961 – Self-Healing Metal

In a materials science breakthrough a metal has been seen healing itself much like human skin. At least on a nanoscale level.

New Atlas sums it up best:

“It’s long been assumed that when a metal structure like a bridge or an engine develops a crack, it will only get worse over time. But that might not be the case, based on what researchers have just observed happening in a tiny piece of platinum.

From ceramics to car coatings to concrete and even a bioplastic inspired by squid teeth, the scientific community has been busy creating materials that can repair themselves after damage, a property known as self healing. But when it comes to metals, self-healing from the tiny fractures wrought by time known as fatigue damage has remained elusive.

‘Cracks in metals were only ever expected to get bigger, not smaller,’ said Brad Boyce, a scientist at Sandia National Laboratories. ‘Even some of the basic equations we use to describe crack growth preclude the possibility of such healing processes.’

That’s why Boyce and his colleagues from Texas A&M University were stunned when they saw a nanoscale piece of platinum mend itself back together after it had been fractured.

The team was trying to investigate how cracks formed in the metal using an electron microscope technique that involved pulling on the material 200 times per second. While the technique led to breaks in the platinum, about 40 minutes into the experiment, the unexpected happened: a small section of damage knitted itself back together without any interference from the researchers, in much the same way human skin heals after a cut.

‘This was absolutely stunning to watch first-hand,’ said Boyce, who is the lead author on a paper describing the finding. ‘What we have confirmed is that metals have their own intrinsic, natural ability to heal themselves, at least in the case of fatigue damage at the nanoscale.’

The finding has the researchers believing that if the mechanism behind the spontaneous repair can be understood and harnessed, it could change the fundamental way engineers design for and think about stress fractures caused by wear and tear in metal-based structures.

Of course, the researchers are also quick to point out that not only do they not quite understand how the platinum ‘cold welded’ itself back together, but that their discovery took place at the nanoscale in a vacuum, so there’s no telling if the findings will translate to larger-scale structures in the real world.”

But if it does that would be pretty metal of it .

Is a self-healing metal the Greatest Idea Ever?

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#2,960 – Cancer Pill

After decades of research and millions of dollars in cancer research we have still yet to cure this terrible disease. Sure, we’ve made lots of progress for certain types of cancer but nothing that stops all cancers in their tracks. Is it impossible to cure? Or have just not found the right approach yet? We might be about to find out.

The City of Hope website explains:

“Researchers at City of Hope, one of the largest cancer research and treatment organizations in the United States, today published a new study explaining how they took a protein once thought to be too challenging for targeted therapy, proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA), and developed a targeted chemotherapy that appears to annihilate all solid tumors in preclinical research. As the scientists continue to investigate the foundational mechanisms that make this cancer-stopping pill work in animal models, they note that there is an ongoing Phase 1 clinical trial testing the City of Hope-developed therapeutic in humans. 

Most targeted therapies focus on a single pathway, which enables wily cancer to mutate and eventually become resistant, said Linda Malkas, Ph.D., professor in City of Hope’s Department of Molecular Diagnostics and Experimental Therapeutics and the M.T. & B.A. Ahmadinia Professor in Molecular Oncology. However, the cancer-killing pill Malkas has been developing over the past two decades, AOH1996, targets a cancerous variant of PCNA, a protein that in its mutated form is critical in DNA replication and repair of all expanding tumors.

‘PCNA is like a major airline terminal hub containing multiple plane gates. Data suggests PCNA is uniquely altered in cancer cells, and this fact allowed us to design a drug that targeted only the form of PCNA in cancer cells. Our cancer-killing pill is like a snowstorm that closes a key airline hub, shutting down all flights in and out only in planes carrying cancer cells,’ said Malkas, senior author of the new study published in Cell Chemical Biology today. ‘Results have been promising. AOH1996 can suppress tumor growth as a monotherapy or combination treatment in cell and animal models without resulting in toxicity. The investigational chemotherapeutic is currently in a Phase 1 clinical trial in humans at City of Hope.'”

Speaking of hope we now have some that cancer might soon be a thing of the past. Hopefully, this promising research continues during clinical trials and works just as effectively in humans.

Is a cancer killing pill the Greatest Idea Ever?

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#2,959 – L-K 99 Superconductor

It’s been described as the holy grail of particle physics and it might finally be possible: creating a room temperature superconductor. The race to replicate the results is on and the early results are promising. If proven true this could be a game-changing technological breakthrough that could easily transform society in several key ways. I’m prone to hyperbole but there’s no overstating the significance of what might be happening.

Vox sums it up best:

“For the past several days, I’ve been frantically reloading Twitter accounts to try to learn as much as possible about LK-99, the purported room-temperature, ambient-pressure superconductor a team of physicists based in South Korea claim to have identified.

This is maybe a week after I learned what a superconductor is, or why it matters that it’s at room temperature or ambient pressure. But within days I went from near-total ignorance to utter glee at the possibilities the technology promises. Provided, of course, it’s real.

You, too, can take this journey from ignorance to giddiness. The details of how to make and investigate superconducting materials are incredibly complex, and the work in question is done by large teams of physicists operating at the cutting edge of the field. But the science of why it matters is, by comparison, relatively simple.

Room-temperature superconducting, if possible, opens the door to staggering technological breakthroughs. It could make transmitting electricity much more efficient; result in faster-charging and higher-capacity electrical batteries; enable practical carbon-free nuclear fusion energy; and make quantum computing — computers capable of solving problems too complex for even the fastest existing computers — feasible at a much larger scale.

A widely useful, easy-to-manufacture superconductor capable of running at normal temperatures would be an enormous breakthrough. Several commentators have compared it to the 1947 invention of the transistor, a technology without which the decades of subsequent progress in computing would not have been possible. Even if LK-99 itself is not that breakthrough, its emergence has revived public interest in superconducting generally, and serves as a useful reminder of how valuable progress in this area could be.”

No wonder there’s been so much buzz around L-K 99 and this preliminary research. We could be on the verge of entering a whole new era of technological progress thanks to this breakthrough. IF it’s real. And again that’s a big if. But just imagine if it is…

A room temperature super conductor could be the Greatest Idea Ever.

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#2,958 – Black Mirror Week: Chemical Cocktails

It may soon be possible to reverse the aging process not just slow it down thanks to some newly discovered chemical cocktails.

Decrypt sums it up best:

“Researchers from Harvard and MIT have identified at least six chemical compounds that can reverse key signs of aging in cells, according to a peer-reviewed research paper published in the journal Aging. The findings may lead to advancements in the tech billionaire-backed field of longevity, which aims to extend the human life span.

The ‘chemical cocktails’ were found to restore youthful properties to cells after just four days of treatment. ‘Until recently, the best we could do was slow aging,’ lead author Dr. David Sinclair of Harvard Medical School said in a press release, ‘New discoveries suggest we can now reverse it.’

At least theoretically, the methods would not just slow aging, but make you younger. Sinclair noted that preparations are already underway for human clinical trials of “age reversal gene therapy.”

To identify the chemicals, the Harvard team screened molecules with known impacts on cells, testing their effects on aging biomarkers. They ultimately identified six compounds, used in combinations, that reverted cell samples to more youthful states within days.

Unlike risky gene therapies, these chemicals act via epigenetics—controlling gene expression without altering DNA sequences. The cocktails reprogrammed cells into immature stem cells capable of transforming into any tissue.

While the study was limited to cell cultures, tests in mice and monkeys have also shown encouraging results so far.”

If this is true society is in for a radical transformation as people not just live longer but turn younger overnight leading to some potentially confusing scenarios where you can’t tell how old someone really is.

Are we on the verge of reversing aging?

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