Pinch me! Am I Dreaming?

Have you ever thought about all the things that you can make with a 3D Printer? In 2017, Spanish researchers at Charles III University in Madrid (UC3M) demonstrated that they could make human skin using bio-ink with patient cells. Think of your favorite "Band-Aid", except this one is printed with bio-ink.

I was curious, so I dug a little deeper. I found in 2019, a team of researchers from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in New York and Yale University in Connecticut were able to print living skin, complete with blood vessels. I had no idea!

Without the blood vessels, the "Band-Aid" eventually would just fall off. The blood vessels added to the skin was the game changer because it allowed the 3D printed skin to actually integrate with living skin. Professor Pankaj Karande at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute explains the process in this video. The initial research was performed on mice, so the next step will need to potentially introduce CRISPR technology (definitely a future BLOG article) to reduce rejection by the human body. Some day soon, this will help burn victims, diabetic and bed sore patients or others who face the threat of having dangerously painful exposed wounds receive fast necessary treatment all from a 3D printer. WOW!

Don't look now, but your epidermis is showing!

#RPI #Yale #UC3M #Epidermis #3DPrint

Cuckoo for CubeSats

Mini satellites. Tiny but mighty! Just like me.

Who doesn't like miniature versions of things? I am really into CubeSats. These petite aluminum boxes can do a variety of tasks when launched into space. From communications to imaging to even finding a good place for a moon base. At a size of about two Rubik's cubes and capable of valuable research, what's not to love? I'd love to build and launch one of these myself one day. Helping to advance research would be incredible. If I built one, I would probably create one that would be used for earth imaging. The possibilities are endless!

On January 17, Virgin Orbit launched Demo-2 with 10 CubeSats built by university students and NASA. One of the satellites, CAPE-3 built by the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, will allow grade school students access to the satellite via a smartphone app to perform their own experiment. How cool is that? My hope is that more universities bring this science to lower school students to spark their passion. I cannot wait to build my own CubeSat!

The SpaceX launch of Transporter 1 on January 24 was huge with the delivery of a record-setting 140+ small microsatellites and nanosatellites into a sun-synchronous orbit. I can only imagine all of the work and science being conducted by these tiny but mighty CubeSats.

The only downside I can see is that the CubeSat can only do one task per mission, but maybe that's just the point.

#SpaceX #VirginOrbit #GeauxCajuns #CAPE3 #CubeSat

From the Force Ghost of Obi Wan

The truth. It is clear to me that everyone seems to have an opinion about the truth.

In this polarized world, is it even possible to know the truth, the real truth? I was recently inspired by something said by the Force Ghost of Obi Wan Kenobi in the movie Return of the Jedi. I had to rewind the movie to hear Obi Wan say, "Many of the truths we cling to depend greatly on our own point of view". So wise, right? This sure seemed true for today. Perhaps the Jedi Master is speaking to our current events, but I have a New Hope for events in the days to come.

#TheTruth #ObiWan #StarWars