If you’re looking for someone to make a realistic, three-dimensional (3D) portrait of your pet cat using felted wool, you’ll have a tough time finding someone better than Wakuneco, a Japanese artist who started creating needle felt art back in 2015. Using different colored wool, this artist creates life-like cat portraits. Just have a look at what she can do with a needle and wool thread.

Looking at some of the cat portraits created by the talented Japanese artist, it’s hard to believe they are made of felted wool and not taxidermy (动物标本剥制术) masterpieces. To achieve this level of realism, which translates as “frame cat”, Wakuneco spends hours on end poking wool with a needle to create solid layers that imitate cat fur, applying realistic glass eyes and finally adding the whiskers. After everything is just as she wants, the 3D portrait is framed and sent to the owner who ordered it.

Losing a beloved pet is never easy, but Wakuneco’s realistic cat portraits — made using photographs of real cats as a reference — help owners deal with their loss. And while not all of her customers are owners looking for something special to remember their pets, many of her portraits are ordered as a means of copying.

Wakuneco currently offers her amazing wool felting skills through Yahoo Auctions, but only to Japanese customers. However, after photos of her amazingly detailed portraits spread quickly online, she did express her intention to start taking international orders in the near future. In the meantime, you can admire her amazing creations on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, and watch videos of the creative process on YouTube.

For more amazing felted wool artworks, check out the creations of Gardenia Miru and Terumi Ohta, two other very talented Japanese artists, as well as the felted wool animal portraits of Dani Ives.

Unlike thousands of tourists who hike in Yellowstone National Park to admire its natural landscape and hot springs every year, Abdelrhman Mohamed was traveling with a team of scientists to hunt for life within the hot springs.

After several hours of hiking in the Heart Lake Geyser Basin area, the team found four unpolluted pools of hot water. They carefully left a few electrodes (电极) placed into the land next to the water, hoping to attract little-known creatures out of hiding — bacteria (细菌) that can “ eat and breathe ” electricity.

After 32 days, the team returned to the hot springs to collect the electrodes. Working with other scientists, Mohamed had a look at the electrodes and found that they had succeeded in catching their small game: heat-loving bacteria that “ breathe ” electricity through the hard surface of the electrodes. These tiny creatures are not only of research interest, they may also hold a key to solving some of the biggest challenges facing humans.

As a means of fighting environmental pollution and creating more energy sources, such bacteria can “ eat ” pollution by changing deadly pollutants into less harmful matter and producing electricity in the process. “ As these bacteria pass their electrons (电子) into metals or other hard surfaces, they can produce a stream of electricity that can be used for low power applications, ” said Haluk Beyenal, a famous university professor of chemistry.

Though the researchers did not detail exactly how they would be continuing their work with the bacteria, it will hopefully lead to an exciting new tool for fighting climate change and pollution in the near future.

Researchers have 3D printed a heart using a patient's cells, providing hope that the technique could be used to heal hearts or engineer new ones for transplants.

“This is the first time anyone anywhere has successfully engineered and printed an entire heart,” Professor Tal Dvir said in a statement. Dvir is the senior author of the research, published on Monday in the journal Advanced Science.

The cells that made the heart came from a donor's fat tissue. Researchers separated the cells in the tissue from the rest of the contents. The cells were reprogrammed to become stem cells with the ability into heart cells. The cells and hydrogel were first used to create heart patches with blood vessels (血管) and, from there, an entire heart.

At this stage, our 3D heart is small, the size of a rabbit's heart,” Dvir said. “But larger human require the same technology.” Previously, scientists had been able to print only simple tissues without blood vessels.

Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the developing world. Heart transplantation is the only way to treat end-stage heart failure, highlighting the importance of developing techniques such as 3D printing, according to the authors.

Dvir also explained that using the patient's own cells is key to engineering the tissues and organs. “It's important because it prevents the possibility of rejection,” he said.

Next, the researchers plan to train the hearts to behave like real ones. Dvir explained, “The cells need to form a pumping ability; they can contract, but we need them to work together.”

If researchers are successful, they plan to transplant the 3D-printed heart in animal models and, after that, humans. “Maybe, in ten years ,there will be organ printers in the finest hospitals around the world ,and these procedures will be conducted routinely,” Dvir said.