Prism: Obama's Brain Initiative and RIP Jane Henson

The National Parks, the Manhatten Project, our interstate highways, the Apollo Missions, the Human Genome Project every so often the government decides to do something big. Something that will have a legacy that will impact us for generations for good or ill.

On this week's show, I look at President Obama's BRAIN Initiative and ask does it fit the bill and is the timing right.

http://voicerussia.com/radio_broadcast/72430379/110019946.html

Then, an homage to Jane Henson.

Sometimes, you meet someone only once, but they still had a profound effect. I met Jane Henson about 7 years ago. Meeting the widow of Jim Henson was cool, but dangerous. After all, she was a muppeteer once too and I loved the Muppets as a kid. There's the threat that a cherished memory would be spoiled.

Here's a commentary I delivered on yesteday's show relaying that visit and why seven years later I still remember it in detail. Strangely, what I remember best is the knock on the door.

http://voicerussia.com/radio_broadcast/72430379/110020197.html

This week's show looks at what happens inside the brain during meditation and if prayer or meditation really do have positive health benefits, how "mutant champions" are necessary of evolution and adaptation, but also how they are reliant on relay runners, and a look at the musical Spring Awakenings.

I'll put the pieces up when I can.

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This just blows my mind. Not only can they build structures this 3-D Printer, over 90% of the cells are viable after the process. Think Star Trek Replicators, but real.

http://voicerussia.com/radio_broadcast/72430379/104975580.html

On a different note, scientists at Harvard have found a new way to attack antibiotic resistant bacteria and it seems to be working. The key... Oxygen.

http://voicerussia.com/radio_broadcast/72430379/104975736.html

Holy ****.

I knew they could make mechanical devices, but had no idea they could make living tissue??

wow.

~Bang

Holy ****.

I knew they could make mechanical devices, but had no idea they could make living tissue??

wow.

~Bang

This is absolutely cutting edge stuff as far as I understand, but according to Utkan Demirci it really holds amazing promise and has been incredibly successful so far.

Holy ****.

I knew they could make mechanical devices, but had no idea they could make living tissue??

wow.

~Bang

They are just using living cells to make living tissue

the embryologist are gonna take to the streets

They are just using living cells to make living tissue

the embryologist are gonna take to the streets

Well yeah, but they're replicating them, right?

are they able to then transmit them? one of the coolest things about 3-d printers is the ability to say. send a wrench to the space station.

~Bang

3D printing is absolutely amazing.

They are just using living cells to make living tissue

the embryologist are gonna take to the streets

It's a little bit more than that. Their using living cells as a medium and by using these pipettes in a 3-D printer able to order them to take on the forms and shapes they desire. The potential therefore, in drug testing as wll as genetics is enormous.

It's a little bit more than that. Their using living cells as a medium and by using these pipettes in a 3-D printer able to order them to take on the forms and shapes they desire. The potential therefore, in drug testing as wll as genetics is enormous.

It differs from the same thing done by technicians in a lab how?

more automation and efficiency certainly......living tissue is just living cells directed that way

Confession: I saw the beginning of the title of this thread ("No more scaffolding") and got really excited for a second because I thought it was about FedEx Field.

They've been culturing cells in 3D for a while now ... I've got a family member whose involved with that (their method uses magnetic levitation) I don't know if anyone's found any real application for it though.

Confession: I saw the beginning of the title of this thread ("No more scaffolding") and got really excited for a second because I thought it was about FedEx Field.

That's really funny. Sorry to disappoint. It's happened to me more than a few times. Hopefully, the interview alleviated was interesting to you anyway. Honestly, the idea of using a printer to create3-D organic materials is just incredible to me.

They've been culturing cells in 3D for a while now ... I've got a family member whose involved with that (their method uses magnetic levitation) I don't know if anyone's found any real application for it though.

That's pretty cool too. Would you mind PMing me some info. I would probably enjoy chatting with them and building a Prism around that too! This whole area amazes me though part of me is a little nervous at how rapidly its developing. Just think about how far the field has moved in ten years!

There was a Discovery Channel episode about 3-D printing your organs using your own cells. When your heart, liver or lungs go, just print new ones.

Future something was the name of the Discovery series. At least 2 or 3 years old.

Holy ****.

I knew they could make mechanical devices, but had no idea they could make living tissue??

wow.

~Bang

I spit my coffee out through my nose when I read that..

Really? Unless they have found a way around fundimental laws of Science they haven't created living tissue on a three D printer... Come on man you are smarter than that. You are smarter than me, and I'm smarter than that..

---------- Post added February-19th-2013 at 12:59 PM ----------

Well yeah, but they're replicating them, right?

No.. They are doing with a lot more fan fair, what I do when I spread pate on a cracker..

are they able to then transmit them? one of the coolest things about 3-d printers is the ability to say. send a wrench to the space station.

~Bang

Yes a plastic wrench. made out of PLA or ABS..

Starship Troopers medical technology in our lifetimes! :pfft:

Almost 15 years ago we printed a lot of our grad school design projects on 3D printers. Production-model devices largely used crappy materials like starch, which you then had to coat with resin and finish by hand to get any strength. Various lithography methods were out there, using toxic materials. I did some fundamental research for laser sintering of metal dust into large solid parts, then the unique province of the military. There were some newer layer-build technologies just coming around in metal. All of them required a lot of post-processing to get anything truly useful (and many still do). Unless you directed a particular research lab or were one of a handful of bleeding-edge pioneers, the idea of having any of this stuff in your garage was purely fictional.

This stuff has some a long way since then. Fun to watch.

Starship Troopers medical technology in our lifetimes! :pfft:

Almost 15 years ago we printed a lot of our grad school design projects on 3D printers. Production-model devices largely used crappy materials like starch, which you then had to coat with resin and finish by hand to get any strength. Various lithography methods were out there, using toxic materials. I did some fundamental research for laser sintering of metal dust into large solid parts, then the unique province of the military. There were some newer layer-build technologies just coming around in metal. All of them required a lot of post-processing to get anything truly useful (and many still do). Unless you directed a particular research lab or were one of a handful of bleeding-edge pioneers, the idea of having any of this stuff in your garage was purely fictional.

This stuff has some a long way since then. Fun to watch.

From what I've read all they've done is use stem cells in a three D printer, without rendering those cells innert. I think the advances in 3 d printing are still relegated toward reducing the price for home use.... When President Obama mentioned 3d printing technology last week in his state of the nation speech... little did he realize by tuesday of the following week 3d printing HYPE would be on the front page of the Washington Post, Featured on NPR, and on "The Voice of Russia".

Washington Post, no you can't manufacture a gun on a 3d printer, but with a lot of technical skill you could render a platic part to a gun, just not much of the firing mechanism or barrel or anthing which will draw heat.

Voice of Russia, use of 3d printing at the cellular leavel or with live tissue is still really experimental and not very interesting.

I thought NPR's story was the best one... 3d printing really is facing a big issue as it comes up against intelectual property rights which may kill the technology before it really get's going.

I spit my coffee out through my nose when I read that..

Really? Unless they have found a way around fundimental laws of Science they haven't created living tissue on a three D printer... Come on man you are smarter than that. You are smarter than me, and I'm smarter than that..

.

Everything we can do,, we used to not be able to.

Technology advances exponentially these days.

IMO, the one thing that's impossible for us to do is time travel.

Other than that. it's a matter of eventuality.

~Bang

---------- Post added February-19th-2013 at 06:22 PM ----------

Yes a plastic wrench. made out of PLA or ABS..

Everything starts somewhere. And I have to think in terms of the example of a space station, it beats building a dumb waiter to get things they may need up to them in a pinch.

The point is not whether they can do it perfectly yet.. it's that they can do it at all.

~Bang

Here's a TED talk on 3-D printing organs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4agVYJ-Kmk

And a CNN special on it over a year ago

Everything we can do,, we used to not be able to.

Technology advances exponentially these days.

IMO, the one thing that's impossible for us to do is time travel.

Other than that. it's a matter of eventuality.

~Bang

Very True.... Wilber and Orvil first powered flight was in 1903, Charles A. Lindbergh non stop crossing of the Atlantic was in 1927, and Neil Armstrong landed on the moon in 1969... And that seemed like rapid progress.. Today revolutionary technology is discovered and eclipsed by new and better ideas in a matter of months.

And you are also right about 3d printing, it's a very exciting new technology.

Very True.... Wilber and Orvil first powered flight was in 1903, Charles A. Lindbergh non stop crossing of the Atlantic was in 1927, and Neil Armstrong landed on the moon in 1969... And that seemed like rapid progress.. Today revolutionary technology is discovered and eclipsed by new and better ideas in a matter of months.

And you are also right about 3d printing, it's a very exciting new technology.

We live in amazing times. Absolutely. I LOVE it.

~Bang

What if Higgs Boson particles are all heterogeneous?

How much does light weigh?

Why is the sky blue?

Every look through the Prism provides a new answer. Welcome to the Prism on the Voice of Russia, I’m Andrew Hiller. Today, we gaze through the crystal to examine why one 18th Century German town really rocked, how mutant champions must rely on the baton of a relay team runners, and what happens in the cortex after that ... “Ohhmmm”

You are entering the world of the Prism.

Why is the sky blue?

You are entering the world of the Prism.

Particles, man.

Why is the sky blue?

Prism indeed.

Printing an ear:

http://www.kurzweilai.net/3d-printed-ears-that-look-and-act-like-the-real-thing

Printing an ear:

http://www.kurzweilai.net/3d-printed-ears-that-look-and-act-like-the-real-thing

I saw that... very cool indeed!

Ray Kurzweil's daily e-mail is a wonderful reminder that there is incredible scientific progress all around us. It's a great start to the day and part of my breakfast reading.

Ray Kurzweil's daily e-mail is a wonderful reminder that there is incredible scientific progress all around us. It's a great start to the day and part of my breakfast reading.

I may have to check into it as a resource when hunting for stories. BTW, just talked to Dr.Bonassar and it looks like we may be a go to chat as long as the communications dept okays it.

---------- Post added February-22nd-2013 at 04:19 PM ----------

Ray Kurzweil's daily e-mail is a wonderful reminder that there is incredible scientific progress all around us. It's a great start to the day and part of my breakfast reading.

I may have to check into it as a resource when hunting for stories. BTW, just talked to Dr.Bonassar and it looks like we may be a go to chat as long as the communications dept okays it.