New Era of Organ Transplant dawns

                In a first-of-its-kind procedure, doctors in the United States have successfully transplanted a “composite” skull and scalp flap, along with kidney and pancreas – all from the same donor – in a 55 year old patient. The patient was suffering from a non-healing scalp defect and declining organ kidney and pancreas function. Hopefully, this case and others like it will help to widen the narrow indications for this fascinating new field of reconstructive surgery.

                The experience may open the way to further procedures combining “vascularised composite allotransplantation” (VCA) with organ transplants, in patients who have already accepted the need for lifelong immunosuppressive therapy. VCA refers to transplant procedures combining different type of tissues, such as skin, muscle, blood vessels, nerves and bone.

                However, they have a major drawback – the need for immunosuppressive drugs to prevent the recipient’s immune system from rejecting the transplant. Two decade earlier, the 55 year old patient had undergone kidney transplantation for diabetic kidney disease, but that kidney was now failing.

                He also had a large, unstable wound of the scalp and skull – a complication of surgery and radiation therapy for a scalp tumour. Since the patient was already receiving immunosuppressive therapy and would need another organ transplant in any case, doctors suggested a procedure in which a VCA of scalp and skull would be performed at the same time as a kidney/pancreas transplant, all coming from the same door.

World's first 3D-printed aircraft THOR

                On 1^st June 2016, Airbus displayed the world’s first 3D-printed aircraft THOR at the International Aerospace Exhibition in Schoenefe. The drone THOR is short for Test of High-tech Objectives in Reality and it resembles a large, white model airplane.

Key Features:

•          Is the world’s first 3D-printed aircraft with just 3 parts.
•          It is windowless, weighs 21 kilograms (46 pounds) and less than four metres (13 feet) long. It is Lighter, faster and cheaper.
•          Except the electrical elements, all other parts are printed (3D) from a substance called polyamide.
•          Thor’s inaugural flight was conducted in November 2015 near the northern German city of Hamburg.
•          Airbus and Boeing are already using 3D printing, notably to make parts for their huge passenger jets the A350 and B787 Dreamliner.

Space probe finds building blocks of life on comet

                ESA’s (European Space Agency) Rosetta comet-hunting spacecraft has attained a major breakthrough by discovering that comet 67/P Churyumov-Gerasimenko contains ingredients regarded as crucial for the origin of life, the space agency said on 27 May.

                According to ESA, the ingredients include amino acid glycine which is commonly found in protein, a key component of DNA and cell membranes. “This is the first unambiguous detection of glycine at a comet,” said Kathrin Alwegg, principal investigator of the ROSINA instrument on Rosetta which made the measurements and lead author of the paper published in ‘Science Advances’. Rosina was designed and developed at the University of Bern in Switzerland.

                Hints of the simplest amino acid Glycine were found in samples returned to earth in 2006 from Comet Wild-2 by Nasa’s Stardust mission. However, possible terrestrial contamination of the dust samples made the analysis extremely difficult, says ESA. “Now, Rosetta has made direct repeated detections of glycine in the fuzzy atmosphere or ‘coma’ of its comet,” according to the announcement.

Bug-Zapping lasers to kill flying insects

                Scientists have developed a novel laser system which can effectively identify, track and kill flying insects, including malaria causing mosquitoes, without harming other organisms, animals or humans. Originally invented for controlling certain types of mosquitoes that carry malaria, the system called Photonic Fence, has been adapted for more general applications in pest control for agriculture. The Photonic Fence is an electro-optical system that employs lasers, detectors and sophisticated computer software to search, detect, identify and shoot down insects in flight in real-time.