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Writer Fuel: Scientists Use “Ice Printing” to Create Scaffold for Constructing Blood Vessels

A 3D-printed ice template (left) was used a scaffolding to later grow cells (right) in a blood vessel-like structure. (Image credit: Image courtesy of Feimo Yang.)

Scientists are working to build blood vessels from human cells using tiny ice sculptures — these frigid 3D forms twist and branch like real arteries and can be used as temporary scaffolds that later get melted away, to be replaced by living cells. The researchers demonstrated the first step of this blood-vessel-building process in a … Read more

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Writer Fuel: Scientists Print Human Brain Tissue. What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

man holding a glowing human brain - deposit photos

For the first time, scientists have generated functional human brain tissue using a 3D printer. Scientists printed the tissue to be less than 0.01 inch (0.02 centimeter) thick, and it contains both nerve cells and supporting cells called glia. All of these cells can communicate with one another and form networks, as they would in … Read more

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Writer Fuel: Scientists Discover Four Guant Seamounts, Thanks to Gravitational Anomalies

The tallest of the newly discovered seamounts is more than 8,000 feet tall. (Image credit: Schmidt Ocean Institute)

Researchers have discovered four gigantic seamounts towering above the seafloor surrounding South America after detecting “gravitational anomalies” given off by the massive underwater mountains. The tallest rises more than 1.5 miles (2.4 kilometers) from the seafloor, making it three times taller than the world’s tallest building Scientists aboard the Schmidt Ocean Institute’s Falkor (too) research … Read more

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Writer Fuel: Testing an mRNA Cancer Vaccine

vaccine - deposit photos

An 81-year-old man from Surrey became the first patient in the U.K. to receive a new “vaccine” designed to treat solid-tumor cancers, such as the skin cancer melanoma. Therapeutic cancer vaccines act as a kind of immunotherapy, meaning they help train the immune system to fight cancer cells. They’re different from vaccines that prevent cancer, … Read more

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Writer Fuel: Asteroid Bennu May Have Come From an Ocean World, Samples Suggest

his mosaic image of asteroid Bennu is composed of 12 PolyCam images collected on Dec. 2, 2018 by the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft from a range of 15 miles (24 km). NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona

Scientists are now inspecting snagged, bagged and tagged bits and pieces from asteroid Bennu, the cosmic mother lode delivered by NASA’s Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification and Security — Regolith Explorer mission. Known in acronymic astro-speak as OSIRIS-REx, that seven-year-long voyage brought home the goods via a sample return canister that came to full stop … Read more

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Writer Fuel: Dog Spontaneously Regrows a Jawbone After Surgery

3D scan of Tyson show his jaw eight weeks after surgery with the mandible regrown. (Image credit: Cornell's Dentistry and Oral Surgery Service)

A puppy has spontaneously regrown his jawbone after part of it was surgically removed because of a cancerous tumor. It is believed to be the first reported case of a dog regenerating its mandible. Veterinarians at Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine’s Dentistry and Oral Surgery Service first diagnosed Tyson, a 3-month-old French bulldog, with … Read more

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Writer Fuel: Have We Already Blown Past 1.5 Degrees C?

sea sponges - deposit photos

A new study has claimed that we may breach the 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) climate change increase threshold by the late 2020s — almost two decades earlier than current projections. The study, published Feb. 5 in the journal Nature Climate Change, claims global surface temperatures had increased by 1.7 C (3 F) above … Read more

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Writer Fuel: NASA to Test Robotic Surgeon Aboard International Space Station

NASA robotic surgeon

Very soon, a robot surgeon may begin its practice in orbit — and though it won’t quite be a metallic, humanoid machine wearing a white coat and holding a scalpel, its mission is fascinating nonetheless. On Tuesday (Jan. 30), scientists sent a slew of innovative experiments to the International Space Station (ISS) via Northrop Grumman’s … Read more

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Writer Fuel: Researchers Show Self Driving Cars Can Be Made to Hallucinate

blue self-driving car with radar - deposit photos

A malicious technology can trick self-driving cars into “hallucinating” phantom vehicles and veering dangerously off-course to get out of their way, researchers have discovered. The new hack, dubbed “MadRadar,” can also hide real cars from on-vehicle radar sensors and fool a self-driving car into thinking a real car has jerked off course. The scientists reported … Read more

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Writer Fuel: Jewelry Study Reveals Nine Distinct Cultures in Stone Age Europe

A selection of beads dating to the Gravettian period in Europe. (Image credit: J. Baker, et al)

Tens of thousands of years ago, prehistoric humans in Europe adorned themselves with such a wide variety of beads that researchers have classified nine distinct cultural groups across the continent based on their location and distinctive styles. The researchers focused on the Gravettian period, which stretched between 34,000 and 24,000 years ago and was defined … Read more