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Have you ever experienced a stadium so loud that the concrete shakes? Gyeongyun Lily Min, a high school senior from Lake Charles, Louisiana, was inspired by Pixar’s Monsters, Inc. to explore how this noise could be converted into electricity.

The film features monsters who power their world by harnessing children’s screams. Gyeongyun was intrigued by the idea of converting sound into usable energy and wondered if the noise in sports arenas could be used to generate electricity.

Her approach uses the piezoelectric effect, where certain materials generate electricity under pressure. This principle has been used in applications like electricity-generating roads and cochlear implants. In 2021, Jeremiah Thoronka was recognized for creating a piezoelectric machine that generates electricity from vehicles passing over roads, powering 150 homes without relying on weather or external power sources.

Gyeongyun’s idea was to harness soundwaves rather than direct kinetic force. She built a 22 by 12-inch model of an NBA arena and tested various placements of her harvester modules using sounds at 70 and 100 decibels. Although the results were limited due to the quality of the equipment—producing electricity in milliwatts rather than watts—she believes that with better equipment and on a larger scale, it could significantly reduce energy consumption in sports arenas.

Gyeongyun suggests that this technology could also be applied in urban environments. “In cities with heavy traffic, constant noise could be used to generate electricity for city infrastructure,” she told Smithsonian Magazine. “Manufacturing plants with continuous machinery noise could also use piezoelectric devices to capture sound vibrations and improve sustainability.”

In the shallow tropical reefs off Palau are enormous clams of the genus Tridacna. While very beautiful, they might seem otherwise unremarkable. However, a closer look at the shimmering blue flesh within their four-foot-long shells reveals an astonishing discovery: these clams host the most efficient solar panels ever found, according to new research.

“The fact that nobody could explain why a clam was iridescent really just stuck with me,” says Alison Sweeney, a Yale University biophysicist and co-author of the study.

In previous research, Sweeney and her colleagues found that despite their impressive iridescence, the clams’ fleshy mantles reflect only about 5 percent of the bright sunlight that hits them. The rest of the light is absorbed and directed to photosynthetic algae within the clam’s body, serving as a food source. This absorption rate is remarkably efficient for photosynthesis; by comparison, terrestrial forests like the Amazon reflect much more light, reducing their photosynthetic efficiency. Specialized cells called iridocytes line the mantle’s surface, containing transparent, protein-rich platelets that diffuse light inward.

In new research published in PRX Energy, Sweeney’s team examined the arrangement of the clams’ symbiotic algae, which are neatly organized in modified tubes extending from the digestive system. Unlike the random distribution of photosynthetic machinery in leaves, the clam’s algae form orderly columns stretching from the iridocyte layer into the flesh. “The clam basically plants them as if it were an agricultural field,” Sweeney explains. (The algae also travel between clams in pellets of feces.)

Modeling this system, the team calculated that its theoretical efficiency at the first step of photosynthesis, where chlorophyll absorbs a photon, is 43 percent—more than twice the efficiency of most current solar panels and three times that of a tropical leaf. Previous measurements in the wild suggested an even higher efficiency of over 60 percent. The new study resolved this discrepancy by considering that clams might inflate and deflate their mantles throughout the day to optimize sunlight exposure, bringing the modeled efficiency to 67 percent.

Sweeney hopes this work can inspire the design of algae-stocked bioreactors, demonstrating how biological solutions can address technological challenges.

Here is a video that shows some of these amazing clams. The best footage starts at 8:32.

The Texas Heart Institute has successfully implanted an artificial titanium heart using the same technology as bullet trains to pump blood mechanically throughout the body. Called the Total Artificial Heart (TAH), this development represents a significant advancement in extending patients’ lives while they wait for heart transplants.

In collaboration with medical tech company BiVACOR, Texas Heart developed the TAH. It’s a titanium biventricular rotary blood pump with a single moving part, utilizing a magnetically levitated rotor to pump blood and replace both ventricles of a failing heart.

Magnetic levitation reduces friction by preventing moving parts from scraping or sliding against each other, greatly increasing the device’s lifespan. The TAH can pump blood at a rate of 12 liters per minute, sufficient for an adult male to engage in exercise.

The first-in-human clinical study, closely monitored by the FDA, aims to evaluate the safety and performance of the BiVACOR TAH as a bridge-to-transplant solution for patients with severe bi or univentricular heart failure. Following the first implantation at Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center in the Texas Medical Center, four more patients will be enrolled in the study.

Dr. Joseph Rogers, President and CEO of The Texas Heart Institute, stated, “With heart failure as a leading cause of death worldwide, the BiVACOR TAH offers hope for many patients awaiting a heart transplant. We are proud to be leading this medical breakthrough with BiVACOR, Baylor College of Medicine, and Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center.”

Heart failure affects at least 26 million people worldwide, including 6.2 million adults in the US, and is on the rise. Heart transplants are limited to fewer than 6,000 procedures annually, despite an estimated 100,000 patients in the US alone who could benefit from mechanical alternatives.

The successful implantation of BiVACOR’s TAH underscores the potential of new technologies to address critical challenges in cardiac care, such as long transplant waitlists.

Daniel Timms, founder and CTO of BiVACOR, acknowledged the courage of the first patient and their family, the dedication of the team, and the expertise of collaborators at The Texas Heart Institute in making this achievement possible.

Scientists have confirmed the existence of a sizable cave on the moon near where Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed 55 years ago. They suspect there are hundreds more that could house future astronauts.

An Italian-led team reported that evidence points to a large cave accessible from the deepest known pit on the moon, located at the Sea of Tranquility, just 250 miles (400 kilometers) from the Apollo 11 landing site. This pit, like over 200 others discovered, was formed by the collapse of a lava tube.

Researchers used radar measurements from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and compared them with Earth’s lava tubes. Their findings, published in Nature Astronomy, indicate that the cave is at least 130 feet (40 meters) wide and several tens of yards long, likely more.

Most of these pits are located in the moon’s ancient lava plains, though there could be some at the moon’s south pole, where NASA plans astronaut landings later this decade. Permanently shadowed craters at the south pole are believed to contain frozen water, which could be used for drinking and rocket fuel.

The findings suggest there could be hundreds of pits and thousands of lava tubes on the moon. These structures could provide natural shelter for astronauts, protecting them from cosmic rays, solar radiation, and micrometeorite strikes. Building habitats from scratch would be more time-consuming and challenging, even considering the need to reinforce cave walls to prevent collapse.

Additionally, the unaltered rocks and materials inside these caves could help scientists better understand the moon’s history, particularly its volcanic activity.

If you have never heard about this enormous stone “castle” that was built all by one man, then you will really want to check this video out.

It is absolutely incredible! Not just because it was built by one person, but because it is a genuinely amazing structure.