A biodegradable sea wall is cheaper than a concrete wall. In addition, it’s easy for local people to replicate.
Meat of the future might be quite different from meat of the past.
Stanley Kubrick, photographer, LOOK Magazine Photograph Collection, Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, LC-USZ6-2352.
It’s relatively easy to grow a bunch of animal cells to turn into a burger. But to grow a steak made of cultured meat is a trickier task. Bioengineers must create organized, three-dimensional tissues.
A robot’s hand holds an artificial heart.
Ociacia / Shutterstock.com
Health care relies on increasingly sophisticated devices for implanting into the body or monitoring it. Yet most med school graduates are not versed in engineering. That needs to change.
The colour of gold nanoparticles in suspension varies according to the size of the nanoparticles.
Valeg96
If Mary Shelley wrote the book today, Victor would surely be a synthetic biologist. But those fiddling with living things in 2018 have hopefully learned from her cautionary tale.
Delivering genetic material is a key challenge in gene therapy.
Invitation image created by Kstudio
One big challenge for gene therapies is delivering DNA or RNA safely to cells inside patients’ bodies. New nanoparticles could be an improvement over the current standard – repurposed viruses.
Will your cellphone be able to communicate with bacteria in your body?
Bacteria image via www.shutterstock.com.
New research works out how to translate between the language of biology – molecules – and the language of microelectronics – electrons. It could open the door to new kinds of biosensors and therapeutics.
Filter-feeding fish have had 150 million years to improve filtration.
Rob Holm / USFWS
Even the best engineered filters get clogged eventually. Fish mouths have evolved structures that create unique fluid dynamics patterns that solve that problem.
Biofabrication takes place at the intersection of biology and technology.
Vern Hart/Flickr
A company plans to flood the market with synthetic rhinoceros horn in an effort to slow poaching but these types of commercially driven conservation efforts are fraught with problems.
It won’t look quite like that, though.
Josef Stuefer
Scientists in the US have developed a calculator from living cells, using old-fashioned analog programming. Their hope is that the technology could be used in the future to program cells to kill cancer…
More than 600 kidney transplants were performed in Australia last year.
Image from shutterstock.com
Made-to-order kidneys have come a step closer to reality, with scientists successfully bioengineering a functioning kidney, which was transplanted into a live rat. In a study published in Nature this week…
Executive Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Electromaterials Science and Director of the Intelligent Polymer Research Institute, University of Wollongong
Professor of Intellectual Property and Innovation Law; Director Centre for Intellectual Property Policy and Managament (CIPPM), Bournemouth University, Bournemouth University