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Self-Propelled Microrockets Use Water As Fuel
The incredible journey through the human body depicted in the 1966 film "Fantastic Voyage" might soon be possible.
No, humans will not operate tiny submarines injected into patients. But researchers, led by Joseph Wang, a professor of engineering at the University of California, San Diego, have created self-propelled microrockets that use their surrounding environment as fuel.
In the development of self-propelled microrockets (or micromotors), fuel systems have long presented problems, since both have previously relied on cell-damaging hydrogen peroxide or cumbersome magnetic and electrical guiding systems. This new micromotor, on the other hand, is capable of exclusively using substances in its surrounding environment such as water for fuel, preventing any tissue damage that other fuel systems may have inflicted.
The team created two types of organically self-propelled micromotors, explained Wei Gao, a graduate student in Wang’s lab. One motor is made of biocompatible zinc that reacts with hydrochloric acid in the stomach and releases a stream of hydrogen gas bubbles to propel it forward. This style of propulsion has proven quite speedy —a rocket can move 100 times its length (.0004 inches) in one second.
But Gao is even more excited about the second motor type the team created: an aluminum-alloy motor that uses water as fuel. By splitting the water, this motor generates hydrogen bubbles to propel itself forward — a finding that could have broad applications.
"Seventy percent of the human body is water … so if water can be used to propel the micromotor, that would be a perfect choice of fuel," Gao told TechNewsDaily.
Gao said the water-fueled micromotors have received attention because of their potentially wide-ranging applications, from drug delivery to environmental cleanup.
One of the most exciting potential applications for the motors is drug delivery for cancer patients, Gao said. If the micromotor were modified to include antibodies on its surface, he added, it could function as a targeted drug-delivery system far superior to current techniques.
"Common nanoparticle-based drug delivery relies on diffusion, which has limited penetration depth into tumors," Gao said. "But in our case, we can use the micromotor … [to] carry the drug particles directly to the deep tumor tissues. It’s much more efficient."
But Gao and his team have some work ahead of them. Whereas the earlier, hydrogen-peroxide-fueled motors could survive for long periods of time, the current version of Gao’s micromotor has a lifetime of about seven minutes, which is not long enough for many medical procedures.
Source: http://www.technewsdaily.com/17706-self-propelled-microrockets.html
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Founded by Russian entrepreneur Dmitry Itskov in February 2011 with the participation of leading Russian specialists in the field of neural interfaces, robotics, artificial organs and systems.
The main goals of the 2045 Initiative: the creation and realization of a new strategy for the development of humanity which meets global civilization challenges; the creation of optimale conditions promoting the spiritual enlightenment of humanity; and the realization of a new futuristic reality based on 5 principles: high spirituality, high culture, high ethics, high science and high technologies.
The main science mega-project of the 2045 Initiative aims to create technologies enabling the transfer of a individual’s personality to a more advanced non-biological carrier, and extending life, including to the point of immortality. We devote particular attention to enabling the fullest possible dialogue between the world’s major spiritual traditions, science and society.
A large-scale transformation of humanity, comparable to some of the major spiritual and sci-tech revolutions in history, will require a new strategy. We believe this to be necessary to overcome existing crises, which threaten our planetary habitat and the continued existence of humanity as a species. With the 2045 Initiative, we hope to realize a new strategy for humanity's development, and in so doing, create a more productive, fulfilling, and satisfying future.
The "2045" team is working towards creating an international research center where leading scientists will be engaged in research and development in the fields of anthropomorphic robotics, living systems modeling and brain and consciousness modeling with the goal of transferring one’s individual consciousness to an artificial carrier and achieving cybernetic immortality.
An annual congress "The Global Future 2045" is organized by the Initiative to give platform for discussing mankind's evolutionary strategy based on technologies of cybernetic immortality as well as the possible impact of such technologies on global society, politics and economies of the future.
Future prospects of "2045" Initiative for society
2015-2020
The emergence and widespread use of affordable android "avatars" controlled by a "brain-computer" interface. Coupled with related technologies “avatars’ will give people a number of new features: ability to work in dangerous environments, perform rescue operations, travel in extreme situations etc.
Avatar components will be used in medicine for the rehabilitation of fully or partially disabled patients giving them prosthetic limbs or recover lost senses.
2020-2025
Creation of an autonomous life-support system for the human brain linked to a robot, ‘avatar’, will save people whose body is completely worn out or irreversibly damaged. Any patient with an intact brain will be able to return to a fully functioning bodily life. Such technologies will greatly enlarge the possibility of hybrid bio-electronic devices, thus creating a new IT revolution and will make all kinds of superimpositions of electronic and biological systems possible.
2030-2035
Creation of a computer model of the brain and human consciousness with the subsequent development of means to transfer individual consciousness onto an artificial carrier. This development will profoundly change the world, it will not only give everyone the possibility of cybernetic immortality but will also create a friendly artificial intelligence, expand human capabilities and provide opportunities for ordinary people to restore or modify their own brain multiple times. The final result at this stage can be a real revolution in the understanding of human nature that will completely change the human and technical prospects for humanity.
2045
This is the time when substance-independent minds will receive new bodies with capacities far exceeding those of ordinary humans. A new era for humanity will arrive! Changes will occur in all spheres of human activity – energy generation, transportation, politics, medicine, psychology, sciences, and so on.
Today it is hard to imagine a future when bodies consisting of nanorobots will become affordable and capable of taking any form. It is also hard to imagine body holograms featuring controlled matter. One thing is clear however: humanity, for the first time in its history, will make a fully managed evolutionary transition and eventually become a new species. Moreover, prerequisites for a large-scale expansion into outer space will be created as well.
Key elements of the project in the future
• International social movement
• social network immortal.me
• charitable foundation "Global Future 2045" (Foundation 2045)
• scientific research centre "Immortality"
• business incubator
• University of "Immortality"
• annual award for contribution to the realization of the project of "Immortality”.
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