Bacteria-sized robots take on microplastics and win by breaking them down

Scientists have developed microbots to eliminate potentially dangerous and difficult-to-filter microplastics. This first attempt has been deemed successful, though it takes a considerable amount of time.

Note from the archivist: But how do you filter out the microbots?

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A Bee Cloned Itself Millions of Times Over the Last 30 Years

A South African bee has "recloned itself" (it has really just laid eggs that are genetic copies of itself again and again) several million times over the past few decades. While scientists find this remarkable, they deplore the impact on colonies: bees that clone themselves just keep laying instead of working, slowly destroying the colony. The bees then migrate to a new colony, start laying again, and undermine the queen. One scientist referred to it as "transmissible social cancer".

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Experimental Brain Implant Lets Man With Paralysis Turn His Thoughts Into Words

Scientists placed a sensor on the surface (more specificially on the area tied to language) of the brain of a man who has been completely paralyzed for 15 years and unaple to speak. Using new equipment, they have been able to decode 50 words and have conversations with him via a screen that displays his decoded sentences. The vocabulary is still limited and the pace (15 words per minute) is slow, but the team is proud of the success of BRAVO (Brain-Computer Interface Restoration of Arm and Voice).

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Animals ‘shapeshifting’ in response to climate crisis, research finds

A scientific study indicates that several warm-blooded animals have already begun to evolve to adaot ti global warming via "shapeshifting": larger beaks for certain birds and bigger wings for bats in warm climates.

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A Bioartificial Pancreas Could Substantially Enhance Type-1 Diabetes Treatment

A team of biomedical engineers has developed an artificial pancreas that functions autonomously. Since it operates using human cells, it does not require refilling and could potentially replace current Type 1 diabetes treatments like insulin pumps.

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Firm raises $15m to bring back woolly mammoth from extinction

In September 2021, a firm raised the funds necessary to launch a project which aims to reintroduce extinct wooly mammoths to the earth, in the Arctic. The team hopes to achieve this by mixing the genome of frozen mammoth specimens with that of an elephant. The first births are planned for 2027 if all goes well. The article highlights the many potential problems that could plague the project and its justifications.

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How a Bunch of Lava Lamps Protect Us From Hackers

Lava lamps are more than just kitsch decorations, they're also objects in constant, unpredictable motion. This is precisely why a hundred lava lamps cover a wall at tech company Cloudflare. The lamps are constantly being filmed, and the constantly changing image provides the company's encryption codes--Cloudflare provides website protection services. To make them even more random and harder to crack, a pendulum in London and a Geiger computer in Singapore also impact the encryption process.

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Scientists 3D print living brain cells

A team of scientists has successfully 3D printed living mouse braincells. "Most" of the neurons survived. The researchers tempered their success, explaining that while the long-term goal is to 3D print cells to treat neurodegenerative diseases, for example, they are currently far from being able to do so. In the meantime, the experiment aims to help advance research.

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Pig Kidney Successfully Transplanted From Hog to Human

A medical advance in xenotransplants: a pig kidney was transplanted to a braindead woman and functioned normally for 54 hours. The patient's ventilator was unplugged after that, leading to her death. The operation was carried out in New York City at an NYU facility thanks to a grant from United Therapeutics. The company's CEO, Martine Rothblatt, is a self-avowed transhumanist who hopes to build pig farms for transplant purposes.

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A New Origami Lunar Habitat Can Unfold Into 750 Times Its Own Size

Danish architecture firm Saga has become a specialist in designing habitats for the Moon and Mars. One of its projects, Lunark, could house two people on the Moon. It is foldable, for easy transporation, but can nevertheless withstand high pressure. The Lunark testers, who spent 60 days inside the module in Greenland, found that it intrigued a polar bear.

Note from the archivist: Since then, Saga has unveiled a new prototype: Rosie. This time it's not foldable; it can be 3D printed in a single piece and is designed to be transported by space shuttle.

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