Hot Science of the Week | The world's first living robot gives birth to a baby

2021 Week 48 Issue 13 Total Issue 359

This week, we selected the most popular or discussed scientific topics from Weibo, WeChat, Zhihu, Baidu, Toutiao and other information websites:

#The world's first living robot "gives birth"#

#Existing vaccines are still effective against the Omicron variant#

#Canada Goose was fined 450,000 for false advertising#

#Correctly understand the transmission routes of AIDS#

1. The world's first living robot gives birth

In January 2020, scientists from the University of Vermont, Tufts University, and the Wyss Institute of Harvard University created the world's first living robot Xenobots using stem cells extracted from African clawed frog embryos. Now, they have allowed this robot to "give birth". The experimental process is roughly like this. First, they let the stem cells develop freely in 14-degree salt water (the cells themselves will stick to each other), and then the clawed frog robot parent consisting of about 3,000 cells forms a sphere. After about 3 days, cilia will form on the outer surface of the sphere. When the resulting mature cell group is in about 60,000 separate stem cells in a culture dish, their collective movement pushes some cells into a pile. If this "pile" is large enough, these cell groups can develop into swimming, ciliated offspring.

Hotspot sources:

https://www.zhihu.com/question/502665186

Image source:

https://www.pnas.org/content/pnas/118/49/e2112672118.full.pdf

The editor has something to say: To be precise, this is far worse than "giving birth to a baby" and can be considered an organoid at best.

2. Existing vaccines are still effective against Omicron

Produced by Bambino Gesù Hospital, Rome (AFP)

First images of the Omicron and Delta variants

On November 9, 2021, South Africa detected a new coronavirus B.1.1.529 variant from case samples for the first time. In just two weeks, the variant became the absolute dominant variant of new crown infection cases in Gauteng Province, South Africa, and grew rapidly. On November 26, the WHO defined it as the fifth "variant of concern" (VOC), named after the Greek letter Omicron (Omicron) variant. As of November 28, South Africa, Israel, Belgium, Italy, the United Kingdom, Austria and Hong Kong, China, have monitored the import of this variant. Regarding the Omicron variant, Xu Wenbo, director of the Institute of Viral Disease Prevention and Control of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, pointed out that the new crown vaccine is still effective, can effectively reduce severe illness and death, and can reduce the scale of infection. However, the role of the vaccine in terms of the transmissibility of different mutant strains and their immune evasion ability remains to be seen. Therefore, the development and technical reserves of second-generation vaccines or vaccines for new mutants are being made.

Hotspot sources:

https://www.guancha.cn/politics/2021_11_29_616653.shtml?s=zwytt

Image source:

https://www.timesofisrael.com/first-image-of-omicron-shows-many-more-mutations-than-delta/

The editor has something to say: The speed at which the virus mutates is obvious to all, so you still need to take protective measures when going out, and wear masks.

3. Canada Goose was fined 450,000 yuan for false advertising

Pictures speak louder than words. The story goes something like this: the well-known down jacket brand "Canada Goose" advertises that its down jackets are made from duck and goose down from the Hutterite breeding area in northern Canada, which is the best quality down in Canada. But in fact, the quality of down is determined by the growth cycle of birds. The longer the growth cycle, the larger and more mature their down grows, and the better the corresponding warmth retention. Therefore, if there is not much difference in the breed of birds, the quality of down is related to the maturity of the birds, and has nothing to do with the origin or climate. In addition, the warmth retention of down is also related to the down content and fluffiness. The higher the down content (the mass percentage of down in feathers and down) and fluffiness (the ability to store air volume per ounce (30 grams) of down under specified conditions), the better the warmth retention of down.

Hotspot sources:

https://www.sciencealert.com/us-lobsterman-pulls-up-one-in-a-100-million-species-the-color-of-cotton-candy

Image source:

http://jinzhang.com/linving_in_Canada/canadian_goose.html

The editor has something to say: Wow, the authentic "Canada Goose" (the goose from the Hutterite region of northern Canada mentioned in the article is actually a Canadian goose) said, please don't try to blackmail me, pirates!

4. Correctly understand the transmission routes of AIDS

December 1, 2021 is the 34th "World AIDS Day". Each of us knows something about AIDS, but perhaps not enough. The half-understanding of the spread of AIDS is the root cause of everyone's fear and discrimination. Therefore, only by correctly understanding the transmission routes of AIDS can we better prevent it. There are three main transmission routes of AIDS: mother-to-child transmission, blood transmission and sexual transmission. Common sources of infection include infected people's blood, semen, vaginal secretions, breast milk and wound exudate. In addition to the three typical transmission routes. Other situations such as hugging, shaking hands, kissing, public tableware, toilets, and mosquito bites will not lead to the spread of AIDS, because the HIV virus can only survive in blood and body fluids. Once it leaves the human body, it survives for a very short time and quickly loses its infectiousness. (But it should be noted that if the items used by AIDS patients come into direct contact with the wound, there is still a chance of transmission)

Hotspot sources:

https://s.weibo.com/weibo

Image source:

https://prtimes.jp/main/html/rd/p/000000799.000059861.html

The editor has something to say: There are currently about 1.045 million AIDS patients in my country. Please do not panic when dealing with these patients. Treating them like ordinary people is the minimum respect.

Okay, friends, let's review this week's knowledge points:

① Unlike the traditional way of giving birth, living robots are developed from stem cells through cell replication;

② Omicron has more gene mutations than Delta, so it is more transmissible, but the current vaccine can still achieve preventive effects;

③ “Canada goose” ≠ “Canada goose”;

④ Effectively cutting off the transmission routes of AIDS can ultimately make the goal of “zero AIDS” possible; Having read this far, if you find it troublesome, you can directly copy the above paragraph when posting on your Moments.