scientific discoveries innovations inventions 2014-1016

7/23/2019 Scientific Discoveries Innovations Inventions 2014-1016

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Bioengineered Body Parts

On June 6th, a group of doctors at Duke University successfully implanted the first

bioengineered blood vessel into a live patient. Though bioengineering has been advancing

rapidly, this procedure was the first successful implant of any synthetically bioengineered bodypart.

mplanted into a patient suffering from the end stages of kidney disease, the vein had been

synthesi!ed from donated human cells that were then developed on a scaffold. n order to prevent

any antibodies in the patient from attacking the foreign vessel, the "ualities that could trigger theattack were removed. The vein has proved more successful in tests than synthetic or animal#

based implants because they are not prone to clotting and don$t pose risk of infection during thesurgery.

ncredibly, the veins are made of the same fle%ible materials that they$re connected to and eventake on the properties of their cellular environment and other veins. &ith the success of this

procedure, this emerging field has huge implications for further uses in the medical world. 'oon,

doctors hope to be bioengineering veins for heart disease and maybe even go on to bioengineerwhole organs or body parts.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=first-bioengineered-bloodhttp://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=first-bioengineered-blood


2/13

The Four-Quark Particle

The search for the e%planation of the birth of our universe is heating up after the June ()th

announcement of the confirmation of a particle that hasfour "uarks. &hile this may not seemthat important, to physicists, the find has given rise to new e%planations and theories of how

matter was first created. *rior to this observation, the e%planation for the creation of matter was

limited since particles with only two or three "uarks had ever been found.

'cientists have called this new particle +c-//0, and they hypothesi!e that it was made in thefirst insanely hot seconds after the 1ig 1ang. 2ollowing some years of complicated math

e"uations from the 1a1ar collaboration at the '345 ational 4ccelerator 3aboratory affiliated

with 'tanford University0, scientists working at the 1ei7ing 8lectron#*ositron 5ollider 18*5ll0noticed this particle on a number of occasions. 1ecause scientists are nothing if not generous, the

results were shared with the folks at 589 and the :igh 8nergy 4ccelerator 9esearch

Organi!ation in Tsukuba, Japan. t was the Japanese scientists who were recently able to observeand isolate (; of the particles. 4s with most scientific breakthroughs, the particle was lacking

substantiation until scientists at the 1elle detector in 1ei7ing confirmed the isolation of -/< more

particles.

'cientists claim that it took over (/ trillion trillion subatomic collisions in their detector, which istwice as big as the famous 3arge :adron 5ollider in 'wit!erland. 'ome physicists have voiced

criticism of the observation, claiming the particle is nothing more than two mesons two "uarked

particles0 bonded together. 9egardless, the knowledge of the particle$s e%istence is huge for the

world of physics and gives rise to a vast amount of ways the first pieces of matter could haveformed.
http://www.nature.com/news/quark-quartet-opens-fresh-vista-on-matter-1.13225http://www.nature.com/news/quark-quartet-opens-fresh-vista-on-matter-1.13225https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CERNhttp://www.nature.com/news/quark-quartet-opens-fresh-vista-on-matter-1.13225https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CERN


3/13

Sight For The Blind

The first bionic eye prototype was introduced by a team of 4ustralian

designers in early June. The bionic eye works by having a chipimplanted into the user$s skulland then connected to a digital camera in

the glasses. &hile the glasses currently only allow the user to see

outlines, the prototype has a lot of promise to be improved upon in the

future. Once the camera captures an image, the signal is changed and

sent wirelessly to the microchip. 2rom there, the signal activates spots

on the microchip implanted into the visual corte% of the brain. The team

of researchers is hoping to further the capabilities of the glasses while

keeping them lightweight, ad7ustable, and comfortable for the wearer. tshould be usable by ); percent of people who are legally blind.

Immunity To Cancer
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-06-07/latest-bionic-eye-prototype-unveiled-in-victoria/4741190http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-06-07/latest-bionic-eye-prototype-unveiled-in-victoria/4741190


4/13

The University of 9ochester published a study on June (th suggesting the mechanism that

allows naked mole rats to be immune to cancer. These creepy subterranean rodents may get a lot

of heat for their looks, but they seem to be having the last laugh when it comes to their immunity

to cancer.

4 gooey sugar known as hyaluronan :40 has been found in the spaces between naked mole

rats$ cells, which seem to stop them from growing close together and forming tumors. The

substance, acting like a parent chaperone at a high school dance, causes early contact inhibition,which is a process that stops cells from multiplying once they reach a certain density. 4 double

mutation in the two en!ymes that promote :4$s growth and reduce its breakdown is thought to

be the reason for the elevated amount of the substance. 'cientists tested the theory by infecting

skin cells containing both high and low amounts of :4 with cancer.

t was found that in the cell with low levels of :4, the cancer multiplied rapidly, but in cells with

high :4, tumors failed to form. 'cientists are hoping to modify laboratory rats to produce high

amounts of :4 in an attempt to make mice immune to cancer.

Cardiac MRI
http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/36107/title/Molecule-Wards-Off-Mole-Rat-Cancer/http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/36107/title/Molecule-Wards-Off-Mole-Rat-Cancer/


5/13

4nthracycline is an effective form of chemotherapy, but it has been shown to

severely damage the hearts of many children who undergo treatment. Up to now,most children suffering from this heart damage find their heart walls thinning and

by the time they are diagnosed it$s usually much too late to do anything about it.

Ultrasounds would fre"uently miss the heart defect until years following the

treatment, once the irreversible damage had already taken its toll.

1ut a new techni"ue was unveiled on June (/th. Through e%tensive testing,

the T( =9 has been shown to be more accurate, more efficient, and safer than

e%isting techni"ues used to detect heart disease in children. Doctors have been able

to see childhood heart defects earlier and more effectively than with the

ultrasounds which erroneously show the hearts to be perfectly fine0. This is a greatmedical advancement for detection of early childhood heart diseases.

Human embryonic stem cells cloned.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-22814996%20target=http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-22814996%20target=


6/13

A scientist removes the nucleus from a human egg using a pipette. This is the first step to making personalized

embryonic stem cells.

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF OHSU PHOTOS

4fter more than a decade of false starts, Oregon :ealth and 'cience University

researchers announced they had cloned human embryos and collected stem cells

from them. They also grew the cells into speciali!ed skin and heart cells, a first

step toward using them in transplant medicine.

The key to the team>s success turned out to be the addition of caffeine to the

cloning process. ow researchers will seek to discover whether these cells or

similar ?induced? stem cells, made without embryos, will have the most medical

use.

CAN CREATE CST!M "EA#IN$ T%IN$S
http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2013/05/16/top-10-headlines-today-stem-cells-cloned-oldest-water-found/http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2013/05/15/human-stem-cell-cloned-mitalipov/2156325/http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2013/05/15/human-stem-cell-cloned-mitalipov/2156325/http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2013/05/16/top-10-headlines-today-stem-cells-cloned-oldest-water-found/http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2013/05/15/human-stem-cell-cloned-mitalipov/2156325/http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2013/05/15/human-stem-cell-cloned-mitalipov/2156325/


7/13

& M!RE P"ANETS IN T%E S!"AR S'STEM


8/13

NE( ANTIBI!TIC )ISC!#ERE)


9/13

NE( S!"AR S'STEM )ISC!#ERE) %A#IN$ SN-"I*E AN)EART%"I*E P"ANETS


10/13

P!SSIB"E CRE F!R BA")NESS


11/13

$ENETICA""' M!)IEFIE) BACTERIA


12/13

B"AC*%!"E )ISC!#ERE)


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scientific discoveries innovations inventions 2014-1016

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