Scientists at Israel’s Tel Aviv University say they have created the world’s first 3D-printed heart with human tissue and blood vessels. Although the organ is only as big as a rabbit’s heart, the researchers are hoping the technology could one day be developed enough to help human patients in need of a heart transplant.

Lead researcher Tal Dvir said that while other scientists have managed to 3D-print the structure of a heart in the past, this is the first time anyone has printed an entire heart. “Our results demonstrate the potential of our approach for engineering personalized tissue and organ replacement in the future,” Dvir said in a press statement.

Scientists used fatty tissue taken from human patients to create the heart. Some material in the tissue was reprogrammed to become stem cells. The remaining material was processed into a hydrogel. They used the hydrogel as a printing: “ink”. This method plays a key role in removing the risk that the implant will be rejected by the patient’s body. The team’s next step is to cultivate the organs in a lab and to teach them how to “behave” like hearts. Dvir’s 3D-printed hearts can currently contract, but the cells still need to develop a pumping ability. His team eventually plans to test the hearts in animals.

“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. Heart disease is the leading cause of death for both men and women, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About 610,000 people die of this disease in America every year─amounting to about 1 in every 4 deaths. There are currently more than 3, 700 people waiting for a heart transplant in the United States, according to data from the United States Department of Health and Human Services.

The stuff (要素) of science fiction has landed on our plates. Meat grown in a lab, instead of inside the body of an animal, has been approved for sale for the first time. The US startup took a biopsy (细胞活组织切片) of cells from a live chicken, bathed them in a nutrient medium and grew them in a bioreactor (生物反应器), where they grew until the meat was harvested.

Cultured meat is eye catching technology. But it is also an over engineered solution to a problem that we can solve by changing our diets. If we simply stopped eating meat, or ate it far less often, then there would be no need for either harmful animal agriculture or meat grown in a lab.

The cultured meat industry rests on a view of human beings as greedy and incapable of change. But the coronavirus pandemic has shown that we are able to make enormous changes to our behaviour when faced with crisis.

The startups growing meat in labs might be motivated by noble intentions: to save animals and save the planet. But giant meat producers such as Cargill and Tyson are already investing heavily in cultured protein. Who knows which companies will run the industry in decades to come.

If we move into a world where eating meat remains normal but killing animals is forbidden, we will become ever more dependent on remote companies with highly specialized technology to meet our basic needs. But we don’t have to. We can just choose to eat less meat. That’s where real power lies-not in using this new technology but in being prepared to change our behaviour.

A 23-year-old British woman has invented a product that she hopes will one day replace single-use plastic. The new product is made by combining fishing waste and algae (海藻). It could be used to replace plastic bags or containers that people use once and throw away.

Lucy Hughes created the material, called MarinaTex, for her final year project at the University of Sussex. The Reuters news agency says she continued her research after she left the university. MarinaTex is edible, meaning it can be eaten without danger. Hughes says it is also strong and stable. But unlike plastic, MarinaTex biodegrades (生物降解) in four to six weeks under normal conditions and does not pollute the soil.

The inventor said she is concerned about the growing amounts of plastics in ocean waters. She noted one report that there would be more plastic than fish in the world's oceans by the year 2050. The United Nations estimates that 100 million tons of plastic waste has already been dumped in the oceans.

Hughes also was investigating ways to reduce the amount of waste from the fishing industry. The industry produces an estimated 50 million tons of waste worldwide each year, UN officials say. Examining fish parts left over from processing helped to give her the idea for a material that was useful and did no harm to the environment. To create a strong material, Hughes added the molecule (分子) chitosan, which comes from sea creatures. After months of testing, Hughes produced a strong, flexible sheet that forms at temperatures below 100℃.

Inventor James Dyson said that MarinaTex is “stronger, safer and much more sustainable” than the material that single-use plastic bags are made of. It is also easier to break down. Hughes will receive about $ 41,000 in prize money as the first place winner of the James Dyson Award. She told Reuters that she plans to use the money to further develop I the product and ways to mass produce it.