Technology: Hopefully Your Bones Aren’t Made From Glass
By now you’ll have heard us talk about Google Glass a few times (we’re just going to call it Glass).
This ‘disruptive technology’ is getting ever so close to our excited little hands. Over in the US we’re finally seeing the first ‘normal user’ images. Google also released the specifications this week. One of the coolest parts of Glass is the bone conduction audio.
When we first heard about bone conduction audio a couple years back we pictured Fred Flintstone and his mates rocking out on some instruments made from dinosaur bones. Well that’s not what it is.
Bone conduction replicates the normal audio hearing process. Of course, soundwaves enter our ear and vibrate our eardrums. But sounds vibrate through the ears’ surrounding bone too. And that’s the process this technology is artificially creating.
There are bone conduction devices already on the market like AfterShokz range of bone conduction headphones. We’re not quite sure how well it all works though.
But there must be something in the technology. Panasonic have been dipping their toes into bone conduction audio for a few years now.
From what we understand, the number one benefit is hearing your audio without taking away ambient sound. So you still hear important sounds such as cars, sirens, or cyclists.
Google have cottoned on to the fact that if you’re wearing your Glass, you’ll need to hear your surrounding environment and also your Glass audio.
Bone conduction audio is something that is slowly finding its way into more and more audio devices, and we’re going to keep an eye on it. It’s hasn’t taken off yet, but we think it just might soon. Because it’s certainly different and a little bit crazy. And we like it when those two words go together.
Energy: How the Artificial Leaf Continues to Grow
We wrote a few weeks back about the Artificial Leaf as a new renewable energy. (If you missed it have a look here).
The aim of its inventor, Professor Daniel Nocera, is to bring cheap renewable energy to poor nations.
Unfortunately, it’s not as effective as some high-tech alternatives like solar. But the technology works. And the key point is the production process is cost-effective.
Over the space of the last few weeks, the evolution of the Artificial Leaf has accelerated.
In a report Nocera and his team completed a few months back they identified a number of problems with the artificial leaf. One problem they found was with the leaf’s real-world application.
For it to work, the leaf needs water to separate Oxygen and Hydrogen. So far tests have only been under laboratory conditions using purified water.
But water in the real world is not pure. That is, real-world-water is dirty and has muck in it that damages the leaf.
The new breakthrough is the Leaf can heal itself. Prof. Nocera has described the discovery at a meeting of the American Chemical Society,
‘Self-Healing enables the artificial leaf to run on impure, bacteria-contaminated water found in nature…we figured out a way to tweak the conditions so that part of the catalyst falls apart, denying bacteria the smooth surface needed to form a biofilm. Then the catalyst can heal and re-assemble.’
Sun Catalytix, the spin-off company from the research, has the end goal to mass-produce cost effective units. And this latest breakthrough means they’re getting closer.
They have a lofty goal of solving the world’s energy problem. But we suspect their motivation comes from the real potential to bring this to market. And make a few dollars out of it as well.
This latest breakthrough puts the artificial leaf that little bit closer to a fully functional device. And a tangible power alternative for poorer nations.
Health: The Living-Dead Organs
We’re going to keep banging on about the potential for 3D Biofabricated artificial organs. As a quick recap, the potential is in the technology of 3D printing using stem cells and other tissues to create (print) artificial organs. It could be the game-changer for modern medicine. And we believe it’s going to happen.
Here’s more evidence that lab created, artificial organs are closer to reality than you think.
At the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, innovative research is allowing scientists to bring dead organs back to life. Typically these dead organs would be useless for transplants.
The lead researcher, Dr. Harald Otts explains,
‘What we tried to do here is regenerate organs for transplantation. Organs for patients with end stage organ failure. What’s fascinating is that you, you’re able to, with that process, preserve the blueprint of the organ but it’s completely washed empty. It’s a mere shadow of the original tissue. The major hurdle was to get the cells, the viable building blocks back into the right spots within that viable organ.’
And that’s exactly what they figured out. Using kidney cells from newborn rats they were able to ‘suck’ cells into the washed-clean kidney structure. After a few days in an environment that simulates the body, the kidneys became functional.
What this means is with a bit of science and forward thinking, Dr. Ott has brought organs back to life. For rats at the moment. But the next step could be humans.
Let’s look at it logically. The kidney structure plus the right kind of cells to fill the structure equals a synthetic kidney.
What if we could copy that process by 3D printing the structure and filling it with stem cells? We just could have real synthetic organs, made from scratch.
Sam Volkering
Technology Analyst, Money Weekend
Ed Note: Sam Volkering is assistant editor and analyst for a new breakthrough technology investment service to be launched by Money Morning editor Kris Sayce. The breakthrough technology service will introduce cutting edge investment ideas from the technologies of the future, including medicine, science, energy, mining, and more.
From the Archives…
Australia: The Home of World Beating Dividend Stocks
12-04-2013 – Kris Sayce
Investors: Ignore Japan’s Yen Devaluation Game
11-04-2013 – Murray Dawes
What Japan’s Economic Disaster Means for Australia
10-04-2013 – Dr. Alex Cowie
Gold Bulls About to Win the War
9-04-2013 – Dr. Alex Cowie
A Better Inflation Bet Than Gold…Stock Market Investing
8-04-2013 – Kris Sayce
