Brain, Bone And Blood Vessels Coming Hot Off The Press

One of the many data-driven projects to make the world a better place over at DataKind.

Question

Information can be very valuable. But it loses value with age. It becomes history, and less of a tool for change.

What value does information about poverty have? Well, when it’s timely—which historically poverty data has not been—that information can trigger reactions: in monetary policy, in foreign aid, in any imaginable channel of support. Time can mitigate starvation and disease, and save untold lives.

So we wanted to know: What kind of data could be secured easily, cheaply, and quickly that might provide nearly real time analysis on poverty? We thought the answer might be written in the lights.

Check out their findings: (via DataKind | Shining a Light on Poverty)

 This is just great.

A good way to remember the human bones in the body. Dope pic

www.learninghumananatomy.com

Brain, Bone and Blood Vessels Coming Hot Off the Press

Could the days of custom clavicles and bespoke bladders produced just in the knick of time for suffering patients be around the corner?

While keeping an eye on tissue engineering studies, we’ve been seeing some significant wins in the lab that are bringing the sci-fi future of on-demand 3-D printed organs, bone and blood vessels closer. 

Harvard and Brown bioengineers are taking their own routes to build complex tissues in customized 3-D printers. And just the other week, we reported on newly unveiled work at the University of Florida to print complex soft structures in baths that could one day birth replacement human parts along with soft robots.

Now, Carnegie Mellon engineers reported on Friday that they had successfully printed simplified proof-of-concept anatomical structures like mini femurs, blood vessels and brains suspended in soft gelatin. Learn more and see a video below.

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Three quarters of Britain’s juniper is found in Scotland, where it’s important not only to local gin production but also to wildlife, such as the juniper shield bug. Plantlife Scotland has published a free guide to help both professional and amateur botanists and horticulturalists identify, survey and protect the plants. Anyone can participate in the group’s survey and guardianship project.

(via Protect British juniper or risk losing gin’s distinctive flavour (Wired UK))

This is our demand, our request to all the responsible people – that instead of sending weapons, instead of sending tanks to Afghanistan and all these countries that are suffering from terrorism, send books. Instead of sending tanks, send pens. Instead of sending soldiers, send teachers. This is the only way we can fight for education.

Education activist Malala Yousafzai at today’s #UNGA event on Global Education First.

For more on the event see here.

(via united-nations)

How To Build More Resilient Cities

Watch: A haircut may not solve homelessness — but it can make all the difference for these women.

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Digital mapping + solar = sustainable cities?

A new tool combines Google satellite imagery with light detection and ranging data, calculating the potential hourly solar energy production of a city.