109. Hydrogen Gas Turbine, 3D Printed Ear, Nasa Investigates UFO/UAPs

That‘s Cool News | A weekly breakdown of positive Science & Tech news.

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Researchers run a gas turbine on pure hydrogen in world first | New Atlas (01:51)

• Gas turbines are found in aircraft, trains, ships, generators, pumps, compressors and all sorts of other places.
  • 90% currently run on natural gas, which produces carbon dioxide when you burn it
• In the race to zero emissions by 2050, several organizations, including General Electric, have been looking into transitioning gas turbines to burn green hydrogen as a clean fuel source.
  • As of now, GE has more than 100 turbines running on at least 5 percent hydrogen fuel by volume, and they say they are on the path to 100 percent.
• Researchers at the University of Stavinger in Norway say they've beaten everyone to the punch, claiming that they've had a 100 percent hydrogen-burning gas turbine running since mid-May this year.
  • Runs its own micro gas power plant, and its gas turbine produces heat, electricity and hot water for hydronic heating.
• Professor Mohsen Assadi, leader of the research team, states:
  • “We have set a world record in hydrogen combustion in micro gas turbines. No one has been able to produce at this level before … The efficiency of running the gas turbine with hydrogen will be somewhat less. The big gain though, is to be able to utilize the infrastructure that already exists.”
• Eventually, these kinds of projects will lead to conversion kits that can keep old turbine equipment alive while moving it to zero-emissions fuel sources.
  • But this process needs to become economically viable, which means the price of green hydrogen needs to come down substantially.

First successful treatment of severe pulmonary hypertension with umbilical cord stem cells | MedicalXPress (05:27)

• Clinical researchers at Hannover Medical School (MHH) have succeeded for the first time in stopping the usually fatal course of pulmonary hypertension thanks to a novel therapeutic approach.
  • Pulmonary hypertension is a type of high blood pressure that affects the arteries in the lungs and the right side of the heart.
  • Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), blood vessels in the lungs are narrowed, blocked or destroyed.
  • In some people, pulmonary hypertension slowly gets worse and can be life-threatening.
• A three-year-old girl suffering from so-called pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) was treated a total of five times with mesenchymal stem cell products obtained from a human umbilical cord.
• The researchers' analysis showed that the products of the stem cells from the umbilical cord were able to improve regeneration in the damaged blood vessels, inhibit inflammation of the blood vessels and curb damage to certain parts of the cells.
• Professor Dr. Georg Hansmann, head of the Translational Cardiopulmonary Biomedicine research group, talked on the treatment’s success:
  • “The treatment led to a significant improvement in growth, exercise tolerance and clinical cardiovascular variables and reduced the number of plasma markers in the blood that can be detected in vascular constriction and inflammation."
• After six months, not only was there a clear improvement in health, but there were also no undesirable side effects.
  • First time there is a therapy for people suffering from pronounced forms of pulmonary hypertension
• The team assumes that such a therapy must be repeated at regular intervals in order to be successful long term, in the case of chronically progressive, often therapy-resistant pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH).

Japan Is Dropping a Gargantuan Turbine Into The Ocean to Harness 'Limitless' Energy | ScienceAlert (08:53)

• Japanese engineers have constructed a true leviathan, a beast capable of withstanding the strongest of ocean currents to transform its flow into a virtually limitless supply of electricity.
  • IHI Corporation – has been tinkering with the technology for over a decade now, partnering with New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) in 2017 to put their designs to the test.
• In February, the project passed a major milestone with the completion of a successful three-and-a-half year field test in the waters off Japan's southwestern coast.
• Prototype called Kairyu
  • 330 tons
  • 20 meter (66 foot) long fuselage flanked by a pair of similar-sized cylinders
  • Housing a power generation system attached to an 11 meter long turbine blade.
• The device can orient itself to find the most efficient position to generate power from the push of a deep-water current, and channel it into a grid.
• IHI estimates that if the energy present in the current could be harnessed, it could feasibly generate around 205 gigawatts of electricity, an amount it claims is in the same ballpark as the country's current power generation.
  • Enormous amount of potential in the ocean's tumultuous movements
• Kairyu was designed to hover roughly 50 meters below the waves – as it floats towards the surface, the drag created provides the necessary torque on the turbines.
  • The turbine blades rotate in an opposing direction keeping the device relatively stable.
  • Churning out a total of 100 kilowatts of power.
• With demonstrated success at withstanding what nature can throw at it, Kairyu could soon have a monster sibling swinging 20-meter-long turbines to generate a more respectable 2 megawatts.
  • I covered another tidal turbine The Orbital 02 developed a Scottish Engineering Company back in episode 55 that was able to generate 2 MW of power.

Woman receives 3D-printed ear made from her own cells | The Verge (12:23)

• Around 1,500 babies born in the United States each year have microtia, a condition where one or both ears are underdeveloped or missing entirely.
• A regenerative medicine company, 3DBio Therapeutic, announced in a press release doctors successfully transplanted a 3D-printed ear made from human cells onto a woman born with the rare ear deformity microtia.
  • Part of the first clinical trial of the technology,
  • Marks a major step forward for tissue engineering.
• 3DBio Therapeutics has an ongoing clinical trial with 11 participants testing its AuriNovo ear, a personalized tissue implant to replace the missing ear in these patients.
  • This experimental process involves taking a biopsy from the patient’s existing ear and pulling out cartilage cells.
  • Those cells are then grown and 3D printed into the shape of the patient’s ear.
  • The ear keeps regenerating cartilage over patients’ lifetimes, and because it is made from their own cells, it’s less likely to be rejected.
• Executives from 3DBio Therapeutics told The New York Times they thought their technology could potentially print other body parts like noses and rotator cuffs and, eventually, complex organs like livers and kidneys.
  • Ears are simpler than organs and, unlike livers, aren’t necessary to keep people alive, so it’ll be a long road toward that potential future.

NASA assembles a UFO research team to study ‘unidentified aerial phenomena’ | TechCrunch (16:22)

• NASA has announced the formation of a study team dedicated to UFOs — or unidentified aerial phenomena (UAPs)
• Starting this fall, the study will have researchers identify what UAP data already exists, determine how best to collect UAP data moving forward and develop methods to study the nature of UAPs, for both scientific and aerospace defense reasons.
• Part of the team will be Daniel Evans, the assistant deputy associate administrator for research at NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, who stated:
  • “Over the decades, NASA has answered the call to tackle some of the most perplexing mysteries we know of, and this is no different … I do want to underscore that NASA is uniquely positioned to address UAPs, because who other than us can use the power of data and science to look at what’s happening in our skies? And quite frankly, this is why we do what we do.”
• This isn’t the first program dedicated to UAP research:
  • 1952 and 1969, the United States Air Force (USAF) studied UAPs under Project Blue Book.
  • In 2017, The New York Times revealed a Pentagon UAP research program called the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP), which ended in 2012 due to lack of funding.
• NASA will not be seeking to develop explanations for UAPs, extraterrestrial or otherwise
  • This is more of an information-gathering mission — one whose results will be shared publicly, unlike many findings of the DoD — that may open the door for further UAP research and analysis.