3D-printed bioreactor offers a new high-tech way to brew the perfect pint

Why it matters to you

A 3D-printed bioreactor offers a new, easier method for fermenting beer. And maybe one day pharmaceuticals, too.

Researchers at Seattle’s University of Washington have invented a new, cheaper, and more efficient way to ferment yeast that involves using a 3D printer. The 3D-printed bioreactor can be created in just five minutes, although it has the ability to continue fermenting for months at a time. It opens up new possibilities for brewing beer and, further down the line, potentially developing new drugs as well.

“We have developed the materials and a process to 3D print hydrogels embedded with yeast cells,” Dr. Alshakim Nelson, lead researcher on the project, told Digital Trends. “Hydrogels are materials that are comprised of a significant volume of water, [like] Jell-O. Our hydrogels are about 70 percent water by weight, and the yeast cells appear to exist quite comfortably inside the hydrogel. Not only are the yeast cells viable within the hydrogel, but they are also metabolically active for extended periods of time. We are excited by the fact that we can use the yeast residing within the 3D-printed structures to actively convert glucose into ethanol for months and months at a time.”

Nelson Research Lab

The cube is printed in thin latticed layers, before the hydrogel is cured with ultraviolet light so that it retains its shape. Each cube is around 1 cubic centimeter in each dimension. Once printed, they’re placed in a glucose solution to ferment and transform the solution into alcohol. At present, the 3D-printed cubes have been continuing to ferment for upwards of four months — with no sign of that abating in the immediate future.

“Fermentation of pharmaceuticals, vitamins, and alcohol is a standard practice in industry,” Nelson continued. “We believe that our 3D-printed structures can help improve the efficiency of fermentation processes — for example, keeping the yeast cells trapped inside the hydrogel may simplify their removal at the end of the fermentation process.”

Should this process ever be upscaled to an industrial level, it could be used to replace the batch processing used in today’s fermentation process. “We believe this can become a real technology,” Nelson said. “We are speaking with potential partners to help take this to the next level.”

Have we mentioned that we love it when cutting-edge tech crosses over with beer?

Windows Insiders can now grab Ubuntu Linux via the Windows 10 Store

Why it matters to you

It’s now a lot easier and faster to install Ubuntu Linux for the Windows Subsystem for Linux — as long as you’re a Windows Insider.

The Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) was introduced as a beta feature in Windows 10 Anniversary Edition and then officially rolled out in the Creators Update earlier this year. The WSL lets Windows 10 users easily run Linux apps from within Windows 10 64-bit, a unique capability that otherwise requires a dual-boot configuration. So far, Windows 10 supports Ubuntu Linux via the WSL, and Microsoft announced at its Build 2017 conference in March 2017 that other Linux distributions would make their way to the WSL with the upcoming Windows 10 Fall Creators Update.

Most important, they will be even easier to install via the Windows Store, and Ubuntu is now available in the Windows Store app for Windows Insiders.

If you’re running Windows Insider preview build 16215 or later, including the just-released build 16237, you can now head over to the Windows Store and download Ubuntu for the WSL. This will allow you to access the Ubuntu Terminal and to kick off Ubuntu command line utilities such as bash, ssh, git, apt, and more — information that’s provided in the Windows Store listing.

You’ll need to first open up the Control Panel, then click on “Turn Windows features on or off” to access the Windows Features dialog box. Once there, select “Windows Subsystem for Linux,” then click “OK” and reboot your system when prompted. Once you’ve rebooted, then you can go to the Windows Store and install Ubuntu and start working.

Microsoft is implementing the Windows Store installation method for the Linux distributions for a few reasons. First, it provides for faster and more reliable downloads. Second, it allows users to install more than one distro side-by-side. And third, it allows multiple distros to be run simultaneously.

SUSE and Fedora will also be making their way to the Windows Store over the next couple of weeks. As a reminder, if you want to install Ubuntu from the Windows Store, then you’ll need to be running as a Windows Insider in the Fast Ring and be updated to at least build 16215. Once Windows 10 Fall Creators Update is released later in the year, then anyone will be able to gain faster and easier access to different distros via the WSL.

Samsung Bixby’s Open Q&A serves up answers to simple questions

Why it matters to you

Want to know LeBron James’ exact height or the capital of North Korea? Bixby’s Q&A feature has you covered.

Bixby, Samsung’s artificially intelligent digital assistant, may not be quite as capable as the competition but it is getting better every day. Case in point? Bixby’s newest feature, Open Q&A.

Open Q&A, a component of Bixby Voice, is sort of like the Google Assistant on Android, or Siri on the iPhone: It offers quick, single-sentence answers to specific questions about people, places, and things. It launches with the trigger phrase, “Open Q&A session,” and draws from a growing database of crowd-sourced factoids about celebrities, food, politics, and more. In the U.S., it’s only available to members of the Bixby Voice early-access program, but Samsung says Open Q&A will roll out more widely in the coming months.

If you own a Galaxy S8 and enrolled in the preview program, head into Bixby — you should receive the update there.

Unfortunately for Galaxy S8 owners who have not signed up to preview Bixby Voice, it might be a while before Open Q&A feature makes its way to more devices. Bixby Voice, which launched in South Korea but missed its U.S. target launch date of “spring,” is reportedly struggling to understand the English language because it lacks the data needed to develop Bixby’s deep learning technology.

“Developing Bixby in other languages is taking more time than we expected mainly because of the lack of the accumulation of big data,” a Samsung spokesperson told The Verge in June.

It’s unclear what effect the Bixby Voice preview program, which launched a few weeks ago, has had on Samsung’s efforts to jumpstart Bixby’s machine learning algorithms, and how long it will take before Samsung engineers feel comfortable releasing it publicly.

That is not the only impediment to Bixby Voice’s software development, apparently. Language and geographical barriers between Samsung’s U.S. and Korea offices have contributed to delays, according to the Korea Herald, and it has split attention between English and Bixby’s other supported languages.

Despite the challenges Samsung faces with Bixby, the company’s fully committed to its future. In June, Samsung announced that it would begin preloading Bixby in its Family Hub 2.0 refrigerator and that it would roll out an over-the-air update for units that have already shipped. Rumor has it that Samsung’s working on a smart speaker code-named Vega, powered by Bixby.

Best Prime Day Deals

Ubuntu Linux is available in the Windows Store

Here’s a statement that would have been unimaginable in previous years: Ubuntu has arrived in the Windows Store. As promised back in May, you can now download a flavor of the popular Linux distribution to run inside Windows 10. It won’t compare to a conventional Ubuntu installation, as it’s sandboxed (it has limited interaction with Windows) and is focused on running command line utilities like bash or SSH. However, it also makes running a form of Linux relatively trivial. You don’t have to dual boot, install a virtual machine or otherwise jump through any hoops beyond a download and ticking a checkbox.

Microsoft hasn’t said exactly when you can expect to see Fedora and SUSE Linux, the other two distributions coming to the Windows Store. Nonetheless, this is a big milestone that reflects Microsoft’s dramatic shift in attitude over the years. Where it used to be interested in protecting Windows sales at all costs, it’s now much more interested in pushing services. The addition of Linux is a logical extension of that strategy — developers and IT managers might be more likely to use Microsoft cloud offerings if they know that familiar Linux commands are a few clicks away.

Via: The Verge

Source: Windows Store

Researchers are closer to working capillaries in 3D-printed organs

Researchers have brought 3D-printed organ and tissue capabilities a long way, but the technology still faces a few challenges. A major one is how to incorporate blood vessels into bioprinted tissue. Living tissue needs a blood supply nearby because without blood to bring in nutrients and take away waste, biological cells will die. Researchers have been able to print larger blood vessels, but functional small vessels like capillaries have been much harder to create and sustain. However, researchers at Rice University and Baylor College of Medicine have developed a new technique, published in Biomaterials Science, that might make it possible.

All of our blood vessels are lined with a type of cell called endothelial cells. To form vessels, individual endothelial cells begin to create empty holes in themselves, called vacuoles. They then connect with other endothelial cells that have done the same thing and the linked vacuoles form tubes, which ultimately become capillaries. Here, the researchers took endothelial cells and mixed them with either fibrin — a protein involved in blood clotting — or a semi-synthetic material called gelatin methacrylate (GelMA), which can be easily 3D-printed. When mixed with fibrin, the endothelial cells formed tubes fairly easily, but that wasn’t the case with the GelMA. However, when the researchers added in another type of cell, a stem cell found in bone marrow, the endothelial cells were then able to form tubes in the GelMA.

“We’ve confirmed that these cells have the capacity to form capillary-like structures, both in a natural material called fibrin and in a semi-synthetic material called gelatin methacrylate, or GelMA,” Gisele Calderon, the lead author of the study, said in a statement, “The GelMA finding is particularly interesting because it is something we can readily 3D print for future tissue-engineering applications.”

The benefits of this method over others include cells that can be patient-specific, reducing the risk of immune system complications, and growth environments that are well suited for organ and vasculature growth — they’re reproducible, not likely to induce immune responses and help boost cell growth and vessel development. Along with making 3D-printed organs more viable, this method will also allow for the development of tissue that could make for more effective and efficient drug testing. In a statement, Jordan Miller, whose lab the work was done in, said, “Preclinical human testing of new drugs today is done with flat two-dimensional human tissue cultures. But it is well-known that cells often behave differently in three-dimensional tissues than they do in two-dimensional cultures. There’s hope that testing drugs in more realistic three-dimensional cultures will lower overall drug development costs.”

You can watch a video of the cells beginning to form tubes here and Calderon explaining her work in the video below.

Via: Rice University

Source: Biomaterials Science

An iOS app can help you create an ambient music masterpiece

Getting into electronic music is a breeze these days with all the great iOS apps out there. Ripplemaker, for example, is a fantastic modular synth app that even newbies can use, while veteran synthesizer manufacturers like Korg, Electro-Harmonics and Moog regularly update their apps with the best in modern and retro sounds. If you’re looking for more, you might want to give SynthScaper a look. It promises to turn your iOS device into an ambient music creation studio, with a library of presets that you can customize (or create yourself) to lay down those mellow soundscapes on the go.

Unlike some music apps, you won’t be trying to imitate real instruments with SynthScaper. The developer wants to encourage you to experiment with sounds, musical and otherwise, including weird noises and odd samples to create textured soundscapes. The app has a ton of independent oscillators, layer voices, envelope generators, and arpeggiators to create your aural masterpiece. If playing on the touchscreen isn’t your thing, you can connect up to two MIDI keyboards to your iPad or iPhone. The launch price is right, too: $10 for all of this functionality is half the usual price for similarly-equipped music apps.

You’ll need a 64-bit capable iOS device for SynthScaper, thanks to all the processing going on, especially when all the voices and oscillators are going at once. While you can start the app on iPad Air, iPad Mini 2 or 3 with an A7 chip, the developer recommends using at least an iPhone 6, iPad Mini 4, or iPad Air 2 and higher for the best experience.

Via: Fact Mag

Source: App Store

NASA seeks Jupiter’s secrets with historic spacecraft flyover

Every planet in our solar system is famous for something. Saturn has its rings, Mars has its soil, Uranus that unfortunate name, and Jupiter has the Great Red Spot: a titanic storm that has been spinning for over 350 years. And though we’ve peered at the distant gas giants’ iconic feature since the 1830s, we still know very little about its inner workings. That could change on Monday night when the Juno spacecraft flies directly over the Great Red Spot for the first time in human history.

“Jupiter’s mysterious Great Red Spot is probably the best-known feature of Jupiter,” Scott Bolton, leader of the Juno program, said in a statement. “This monumental storm has raged on the solar system’s biggest planet for centuries.” This however, will be the first time that we’ll be able to observe the storm’s inner workings, thanks to Juno’s cloud-penetrating instrument payload.

“We might try to understand what’s happening in the roots of this storm,” Dr. Jared Espley, a Juno Program Scientist, said. “This is something that is literally unknown so we’re not quite sure what we’ll get.”

The Juno spacecraft is the second orbital probe that NASA has sent to Jupiter. The Galileo program studied the planet during the mid-1990s while two Pioneer spacecraft, as well as a pair of Voyagers, all performed earlier flybys on their way towards the outer solar system.

Juno launched from Cape Canaveral in 2011 and, after a 1.7 billion mile cruise through interplanetary space, it entered orbit around Jupiter July, 2016. Since then, the spacecraft has studied the planet, its magnetosphere and atmosphere — sometimes from as little as 2,600 miles above the outermost layer of planetary gas.

Monday’s flyover will put the spacecraft even closer, just 2200 miles above the planet before climbing to a distance of 5,600 miles when it actually passes over the Spot. All eight of the Juno’s instruments will be active and recording, including the JunoCam and a microwave radiometer, which will be able to peer through the storm and inspect the underlying atmosphere. “It’s possible that the roots are quite deep,” Bolton told NPR. “So we’ll be able to take a look at that and see what’s underneath the cloud tops.”

“One of the main [goals of this flyover] will be to get some spectacular images from close in,” Espley said. “I think the JunoCam has really surprised us at how beautiful those images have turned out to be — pieces of art, really. But you can get science from that as well.” These measurements will shed light on how Earth’s own atmospheric processes work, as well as hint at how they might operate on planets outside our system.

The Juno will also measure the relative magnetic field strength around the Spot, which could help explain how it’s managed to maintain 400 mph wind speeds (double those of the strongest Earth-bound hurricane) for what astronomers suspect has been for more than 350 years. “The Great Red Spot is basically the largest storm in the entire solar system,” Bolton told Newsweek. “It’s bigger than the Earth. It was even bigger decades ago. It’s very puzzling.”

Juno won’t be the only one staring at Jupiter’s spot on Monday. This historic flyby will be observed by a number of ground-based telescopes, both of the academic and amatuer varieties. It’s a good thing too, since during the flyby, Juno’s main antenna will be facing away from the Earth. It’ll take a couple of days for Juno to be in a position to downlink the images back to the JPL but we should have them by the weekend, Bolton estimated.

Waze Debuts New Feature for Recording Custom Voice Directions

Mapping app Waze was today updated with a new Voice Recorder feature, allowing users to record their own voice prompts to enable custom directions in a user’s own voice. The Voice Recorder option debuted on Android devices in May, but has now expanded to iOS devices.

Recorded voice prompts can be shared with family, friends, and fans, meaning celebrities can also record and then share Waze prompts. Waze plans to work with a network of YouTube creators to create voice packs for distribution on Waze.

Waze, the free, real-time crowdsourced traffic and navigation app, has provided custom voice prompts that have thrilled and delighted Wazers on their daily drives for years. Now, Waze is happy to announce the new Voice Recorder feature, which lets you record all your voice prompts any way you like. Add some character, pizazz, some je ne sais quoi – channel your most commanding or playful mood and let your voice guide the way.

Waze users can turn on the Voice Recorder in Settings/Sound & Voice, where multiple voice prompts can be recorded. A link to the recording can then be shared with friends. There are more than 40 total commands to record. app

Many iPhone users who commute prefer Waze because it offers up superior traffic information and warnings about nearby police officers, along with neat features like the aforementioned custom voice packs.

Waze can be downloaded from the App Store for free. [Direct Link]

Tag: Waze
Discuss this article in our forums

Moto Z2 Play review

Lenovo and Motorola brought their modular functionality concept to the mid-range with the Moto Z Play last year. This device was one of our favorite value smartphones of 2016, and now its successor, the Moto Z2 Play, features some key improvements and even more Moto Mod accessories.

However, Motorola seems to have made a few compromises this time around. The Z2 Play has a much smaller battery than before, and also went up in price. Will this be another home run like the original Z Play, or did the company make too many compromises? Find out, in our full Moto Z2 Play review!

Design

Motorola didn’t set out to redefine the Moto Z line this year. Instead, the company introduced a handful minute, yet notable changes to the Z2 Play from its predecessor. That’s especially true on the design front.

One of the most noticeable changes in terms of design is the fact that the Z2 Play is 1 mm thinner than its predecessor, giving it a much better in-hand feel. It also features a metal back plate this time around, which is a huge improvement over the fingerprint-prone glass back of the Moto Z Play.

Motorola can’t really mess with the design too much with the Moto Z line, and that’s because it wants to make all its smartphones compatible with Moto Mods. We probably won’t see a drastic redesign of the Moto Z lineup for a few years.

We won’t see a drastic redesign of the Moto Z lineup for a few years

A handful of new Moto Mods were released alongside the Moto Z2 Play, and they all fit and work perfectly with this new device, as well as with the Moto Z Play, Moto Z, and Moto Z Force. In fact, Motorola is guaranteeing Moto Mod compatibility for up to three years, so you don’t have to worry about older Mods becoming unusable with every new iteration of the phone.

See also:

Moto Z and Moto Z Force review

July 21, 2016

Display

The Moto Z2 Play comes with a 5.5-inch AMOLED display with a resolution of 1920 x 1080, resulting in a pixel density of 401 ppi. As expected from an AMOLED screen, you get to enjoy vibrant colors and deep blacks, as well as great viewing angles.

However, the display doesn’t get very bright, which makes it difficult to read under direct sunlight even with the brightness set to maximum.

Performance

Under the hood, you’ll find Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 626 Mobile Platform, backed by the Adreno 506 GPU and either 3 or 4 GB of RAM. This Verizon version of the device is the 3 GB model, which is what I’ve been using for the past week.

While the Moto Z2 Play drops frames on occasion, it’s not something that happens too often

The phone performs well with general everyday tasks such as browsing the web, reading emails, and checking social media. However, it does tend to drop frames on occasion when playing graphic-intensive games. That’s not something you will notice very often though, since the experience is very smooth for the most part. I never found the infrequent dropped frame to be much of a distraction.

Hardware

With the Z2 Play, you have the option to choose either 32 or 64 GB of onboard storage, which also dictates the amount of RAM. If you are worried about storage, the good news is that expandable storage via microSD card is available for up to an additional 256 GB.

You won’t find a whole lot of bells and whistles with the Moto Z2 Play, as it is, after all, a mid-range smartphone. There’s no IP certification for resistance to the elements, but Motorola does, as always, include a nano coating that is water repellent and provides some form of splash protection.

There’s only a single speaker embedded in the earpiece, which means the audio experience isn’t great

The audio experience is also unfortunately not that great with there being only a single speaker unit embedded in the earpiece. While I do appreciate that it is a front-facing speaker, it doesn’t get very loud and its location results in a very lopsided listening experience when you are watching videos or playing games in landscape orientation. Of course, a great way to enhance the audio experience is to get your hands on the JBL SoundBoost Moto Mod.

The fingerprint sensor has been redesigned with the same oval shape that was first introduced earlier this year with the Moto G5 Plus, and it works great at unlocking the phone with reliability and speed. In addition, you can use various gestures on the scanner to move around the user interface instead of the on-screen navigation keys. This is a great way to maximize the display real estate, but there is a bit of a learning curve when it comes to using one button for everything.

Even with the phone being a millimeter thinner than its predecessor, there was still enough room for Motorola to include a headphone jack. This design choice did result in another compromise though, with the battery capacity being reduced to 3,000 mAh from the 3,510 mAh unit that was available with the original Z Play.

As a result, the Z2 Play isn’t going to provide the two full days of battery life that was possible with the Z Play. However, it can still last at least a day and a half, which is definitely well above average and more than what you typically get with most current generation Android smartphones. Even with heavy usage, it was never a struggle to get a full day of use with this phone, and most of my days ended with 25 to 40% of battery still remaining.

If battery life was a concern to you, it certainly will not be with the Moto Z2 Play. When you do have to plug the device in to charge, Motorola’s Turbo Power charging allows for the phone to be charged up to 50% after just 30 minutes.

Camera

Another improvement that Motorola has made with the Moto Z2 Play is in the camera department. The number of pixels has been reduced this time around to 12 MP in favor of larger pixels, and the camera now features a lens with a much wider f/1.7 aperture.

The camera is slower to a capture in low light situations especially when using HDR

This certainly helps with creating brighter images in low light conditions, but the camera still has to resort to the slowest shutter speed possible which can result in a lot of noise. The camera is slower to a capture in low light situations especially when using HDR, and without optical image stabilization, don’t expect the photos to have much sharpness or detail. Colors are also very washed out, and highlights are overblown with a lot of lens flares.

Photos captured in good lighting conditions are certainly better and feature more accurate color reproduction and detail. However, images still lack sharpness, and properly exposed highlights are just as problematic here as they are in low light. Overall, camera performance is sufficient, but is unfortunately not very close to competing with the expensive flagships out there.

The front-facing camera remains unchanged from what was available with its predecessor. The 5 MP shooter with an f/2.2 aperture and front-facing LED flash does a decent job when it comes to taking selfies. While the front flash does well to illuminate your face without being too harsh, it does cause a lot of detail to get crushed in the background, almost to a point where you might be better off not using it.

Software

On the software side of things, the Moto Z2 Play is running Android 7.1.1 Nougat. What I love about Motorola’s software is that everything is kept very close to vanilla Android, with only a few software tweaks added that further enhance the experience.

You still get all of Motorola’s software additions like the double chop to turn on the flashlight, wrist twist to launch the camera, and the ever-so-useful battery-friendly notifications that fade in and out with Moto Display. Of course, if you get the Verizon version of the device, you will have to deal their entire suite of bloatware applications as well as a few other pre-installed third-party apps like NFL Mobile and Slacker Radio. That won’t be a problem with the unlocked model when it is released.

Specifications

Display	5.5-inch Super AMOLED 1920 x 1080 resolution 401 ppi
Processor	2.2 GHz octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 626
GPU	Adreno 506
RAM	3/4 GB LPDDR3
Storage	32/64 GB
MicroSD	Yes, up to 2 TB UHS-I
Cameras	Rear: 12 MP Dual Autofocus Pixel sensor, 1.4 μm, ƒ/1.7 aperture, laser autofocus, phase detection autofocus, dual LED flash Front: 5MP sensor, 1.4 μm, ƒ/2.2 aperture, wide-angle lens
Battery	3,000 mAh Non removable TurboPower charging for up to 8 hours of use in 15 minutes (50% charge in 30 minutes)
Water resistance	Water repellant nano-coating
Connectivity	Moto Mods connector USB Type-C port with USB 3.1 support 3.5 mm headset port Bluetooth 4.2 LE + EDR Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n 2.4 GHz + 5 GHz NFC
Sensors	Fingerprint sensor Accelerometer Ambient light Gyroscope Magnetometer Proximity Ultrasonic
Network	CDMA (850, 1900 MHz) GSM/GPRS/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz) UMTS/HSPA+ (850, 900, 1700, 1900, 2100 MHz) 4G LTE (B1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 12, 13, 17, 20, 25, 26, 28, 29, 30, 38, 41, 66)
SIM	Nano
Software	Android 7.1.1 Nougat
Dimensions and weight	76.2 x 156.2 x 5.99 mm 145 g

Gallery

Pricing and final thoughts

The Moto Z2 Play is currently a Verizon exclusive, and if you buy it by July 26, the JBL SoundBoost Moto Mod is included for free. If you are not on Verizon, there is an unlocked version that will be available later this summer, priced at $500. That is a $50 hike when compared to its predecessor, and is definitely a steep ask considering that it’s a mid-range device.

More:

Where to buy the Moto Z2 Play

4 days ago

At this price point, the OnePlus 5 is a fantastic and more powerful alternative than the Z2 Play, and is certainly a better purchase when comparing the phones themselves. But your buying decision will likely boil down to one main factor: how much you need Moto Mods. If you are already invested in the Moto Mods ecosystem and have them from a previous Moto Z device, it wouldn’t make much sense to switch to another smartphone that doesn’t support them.

Your buying decision will likely boil down to one main factor: how much you need Moto Mods

Moto Mods aren’t exactly cheap, however, and there are cheaper third-party accessories that offer similar functionality and are compatible with all devices. Granted, there is nothing as sleek or unique as Moto Mods, but in the end, what you are essentially paying for is the convenience factor.

The Moto Z2 Play is not a bad smartphone by any stretch of the imagination. However, to truly make it worth your while, you will need to spend your money on more than just the phone itself.

Buy now from Verizon