Robert Jarvik, born on May 11, 1946 in Michigan and raised in Stamford, is a medical scientist and researcher, who played an important role in the invention of the artificial heart. He was interested in medicine from a young age. He watched his father perform operations and gained a patent (专利权) for a machine applied in the medical operation before he graduated from high school.

Jarvik attended Syracuse University and considered a career in art. When his father developed heart disease suddenly, he decided then to work on a medical career. He applied to medical schools, but was not admitted to any schools in the US. Before long, he was admitted to the medical school in Italy and stayed there for two years. He returned to get a degree in medicine from New York University in 1971.

After working for a period of time; Jarvik got a job in the organ transplant (器官移植) program at the University of Utah in 1972. He worked with the director of the program, Willem Kolff, who invented the kidney dialysis (肾透析) machine.

By the time Jarvik came to the University of Utah, the organ program had already developed the primary artificial heart. He improved it by creating a diaphragm (横膈膜), which solved many issues with the heart. Eventually, he created the first artificial heart in 1981, the Jarvik-7, to be placed in a human patient, which was considered one of the most important inventions in human history.

Barney Clark, a retired dentist suffering from serious heart disease, received the Jarvik-7 transplant on December 2, 1982. He lived for 112 days after the operation, but the transplant was considered a success. Though receiving criticism for the risk referred to transplant an artificial heart, the Jarvik-7 still became very important for patients who were waiting for a heart. In 1987, Jarvik moved to New York City and formed Jarvik Research Inc. He began developing a new heart — the Jarvik 2000. This smaller machine fits inside a patient’s heart rather than replacing the entire organ.

It’s mid-February and along Britain’s south coast gilt-head bream (鲷鱼) are swimming from the open sea into the river mouths. And this summer, countryside visitors throughout southern England will catch sight of blue flashes as small red-eyed damselflies fly across starry ponds. Both events are happening much further north than they would have 20 years ago.

Fingers point at climate change. As areas become too hot or dry, many wildlife populations are declining, while some species are showing up in places that were historically too cold or wet.

Our team, led by Alba Estrada, wanted to explain this phenomenon. If we could predict which species can and can’t colonise (移居于) new locations, we could decide which are most in need of conservation.

How far individual animals or plant seeds can move was long thought to be the most important factor. But according to our findings, other characteristics also turned out to be highly important. For example, how quickly plants and animals can produce, how well they can compete with other species for resources, and what kinds of food they can eat or habitat they can live in.

The result of this is that we might be able to predict which animals will survive under climate change. The wood mouse is found throughout continental Europe. As climate changes, we think the mouse will move north because it can breed quickly, live in lots of habitats, has a broad diet, and individuals can travel a long way. On the other hand, consider the European ground squirrel. We think it might stay just in southeast Europe because it can only live in grasslands — and climate change won’t suddenly turn farms and forests into meadows (草坪).

It’s encouraging to know that some species are doing well under climate change. There are some headaches, however. Those gilt-head bream are feeding on the local shellfish, which might be taking food away from the native fish. Small red-eyed damselflies look great, but they could become all too common around British ponds and outcompete native species. Climate change is once again posing us some tricky conservation questions.

Bioprinting is the medically and bio-technologically equal to 3D printing. By using the same principles, the aim is to rapidly develop living structures similar to human-grown organs and tissue that can be used to heal people or test new drugs.

Of course, printing biological tissue is much more complex than building a mechanical part. There are complex layers of cells in living tissue. Bioprinters use bioink made from cells, biochemical nutrients and biological stands to support cells in an exact order. Bioinks have to operate under conditions that are suitable for living, growing tissue, so they cannot really be printed at temperatures that top body temperature.

Perhaps the simplest form of bioprinting is inkjet printing. Bioink is sprayed through tiny tubes so it has to be almost liquid and this limits the biological materials that can be printed. Most 3D printers operate by squeezing material through a pipe and bioprinters can use squeezing too, though care has to be taken not to damage cells through extreme force. Other techniques such as laser-assisted bioprinting or electrospinning (静电纺丝) are incredibly exact and can be used with thicker bioinks, but they are more tricky to use with living cells and not as rapid or able to create large quantities of tissue.

Once the bioprinter has done its work, the post-processing stage begins. Bioreactor systems are often employed to help the tissue grow up. They can be used to copy the forces and biochemical support that tissue needs to grow and differentiate correctly.

Bioprinting may be a relatively new field but the results so far are encouraging. Stem cells, which have the potential to turn into several types of cells, are being used to create bone. Organ printing can improve the health of society in general by wiping out the problem of diseases caused by organ failure, costly treatments and social care. That promise may be years away from realization but rapid prototyping (原型技术) enabled by bioprinting is pushing medical advances forward at pace.