It looks like science fiction, but thanks to scientists from the Technical University, it will already be realized to some extent in 2022: robots that print structures while they are floating.
(Photo: Imperial College London)
Flying robot as a 3D printer
Why is? About drones, i.e. remote-controlled flying robots. This technique was combined with a process that is becoming increasingly important in the construction industry: 3D printing. In factories and on construction sites, this type of material is being used more and more to manufacture complex parts made of steel or concrete with a precise fit. Why shouldn’t this also be possible in flight, the researchers asked themselves. They took their inspiration from master builders in nature – from bees and wasps that cooperate with each other in flight to create something new. This resulted in two types of drones that were sent together: “BuilDrones”, which apply the material, and “ScanDrones”, which continuously measure and specify the next steps. The drones work on the basis of a given blueprint, but constantly adapt their actions. During the flight they are autonomous and are only monitored by a human. In the laboratory, the research team managed to print a two-metre-high cylinder with foam and a cylinder almost 20 centimeters high with a specially developed cement. An accuracy of up to five millimeters is aimed for.
Why is that important? Building in hard-to-reach or dangerous places requires intensive security measures. It could be easier with the printer drones. Accommodation for refugees or those affected by natural disasters could also be created more quickly in this way. The same applies to the construction of tall buildings – or when such repairs become necessary.
Who invented it? An international research team led by Imperial College London and Empa, the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Testing and Research. One of the main people responsible was Stefan Leutenegger, Professor of Machine Leaning for Robotics at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) since 2021. He says: “The biggest challenge was to enable the drones to navigate very precisely.”
What’s next? Together with Kathrin Dörfler, Professor of Digital Fabrication at TUM, Leutenegger has started a project to research what spatial artificial intelligence can bring to cooperative construction robotics. One of the goals is to teach robots to move around real construction sites – in the midst of people and machines that are constantly moving and between structures that change daily.
Mini fuel cell with endogenous sugar
Why is? About grape sugar, also called glucose. The substance is one of the most important suppliers of energy in the body. Now it has been possible to convert this energy source into electricity thanks to a mini fuel cell.
Why is that important? Medical implants require reliable power sources that are as small as possible: sensors that measure vital functions, electrodes that are used in Parkinson’s patients for deep brain stimulation, or even pacemakers – without power, they fail. Batteries need to be changed, and: They can’t keep getting smaller because they need a certain volume to store energy. The idea of using glucose fuel cells as a power source has been around for a long time. So far, experiments have mostly been done with plastics. The transition to ceramics now promises a breakthrough. The researchers produced 150 glucose fuel cells on a chip, each about 400 nanometers thick – one-hundredth the diameter of a human hair. They found that many of the cells produced a peak voltage of around 80 millivolts. That’s enough to power sensors and many other electronic devices for implants.
Who invented it? A research team led by Jennifer Rupp, Professor of Solid Electrolyte Chemistry at the Technical University of Munich (TUM), and Philipp Simons from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
Jennifer Rupp, Professor for the Chemistry of Solid Electrolytes at the TU, in her laboratory.
(Photo: Uli Benz/TUM)
What’s next? Rupp’s team wants to put the invention into practical use in the long term. Their goal: “Instead of using a battery that takes up 90 percent of the volume of an implant, our device could be applied in the form of thin films on a silicon chip or, in the future, even on the surface of the implants.”
New atherosclerosis findings
Why is? Atherosclerosis – the deposits of cholesterol, fibrous tissue and immune cells inside arteries (atherosclerotic plaques) which result in less oxygen getting to the body’s tissues. The consequences are a heart attack, a stroke or a smoker’s leg. The researchers have now succeeded in detecting signals that are transmitted from the blood vessel with plaques via nerves to the brain – and signals from there back to the blood vessel.
Why is that important? Atherosclerosis is being researched in a number of laboratories worldwide. Whether there is a direct connection between the affected artery and the brain was not considered for a long time. The reason for this: The plaques that are inside the artery are – as has been known for a long time – not criss-crossed by nerve cords. However, a working group is now looking at the outside of the artery. Their assumption: Atherosclerosis is more than just a plaque. The research group looked at the inflammation of the artery, which is also evident on the outside. It was possible to prove that molecular feelers, so-called receptors, use messenger substances to identify where vessels are inflamed and plaques are located. The receptors then send electrical signals through the nerve tracts to the brain. The brain processes the signals and sends a stress signal back to the inflamed blood vessel. As a result, inflammation is negatively affected, atherosclerosis worsens. This newly discovered electrical circuit between the arteries and the brain has an important meaning. In animal experiments, it has already been possible to sever the connection between a diseased artery and the brain in mice. After eight months, atherosclerosis was less pronounced in animals treated in this way than in untreated conspecifics.
Who found out? Sarajo K. Mohanta, Andreas Habenicht and Christian Weber from the LMU Institute for Prophylaxis and Epidemiology of Circulatory Diseases, together with an international team that also included Daniela Carnevale and Giuseppe Lembo from the University of La Sapienza in Rome.
What’s next? In the next step, the scientists want to find out exactly how the peripheral nervous system is organized – and what role other receptors play. There is also a lot of evidence that the interface between the brain and diseased blood vessels is regulated by stress. It is therefore planned to investigate neurobiological aspects: Which cells in the brain react to signals from diseased blood vessels? And which regions of the brain are these cells connected to? “In the long term, we hope that atherosclerosis can finally be treated causally,” says Sarajo K. Mohanta, “but that may take a while.”
The origin of life
Why is? A new concept of how life could have arisen on early Earth.
Why is that important? In order to understand how – about four billion years ago – the first building blocks for the emergence of life were formed. Before biological evolution, phylogenetic history, there was what is called chemical evolution. In 1986, the molecular biologist Walter Gilbert formulated the so-called RNA world idea. After that, short ribonucleic acid molecules (RNA) formed in a kind of primordial soup. The genetic material as it is known today could have developed from these later. However, important questions remained unanswered for a long time: How did the RNA molecules remain stable? And how did it come to be linked to the world of proteins, colloquially called proteins? Now a way has been discovered as to how this could have arisen. For this purpose, the RNA molecules were examined closely – especially the parts that do not code for genetic information. The conjecture: These could be relics of the early RNA world. The researchers put the RNA in a solution that also contained amino acids and observed how some of the molecular fossils attached to individual amino acids or even small chains of them – called peptides. The peptides even grew at several points on some RNA strands. In this way, RNA particles were created in the laboratory that can encode genetic information and form peptides that become longer.
Who found out? A group of chemists from the Ludwig-Maximilians-University (LMU) led by Thomas Carell, who holds the chair for organic chemistry.
Suggests a new concept of how evolution into more complex life forms got underway: LMU chemist Thomas Carell.
(Photo: LMU)
What’s next? “It’s possible that there never was a pure RNA world, but RNA and peptides were present in a common molecule from the beginning,” says Thomas Carell. One must expand the concept of an RNA world to an RNA-peptide world concept. “The new idea creates a foundation on which the origin of life can slowly be explained.”