By Ed Cara Published March 26, 2025 | Comments (0) | Scientists have successfully transplanted gene-edited pig kidneys, hearts, and now livers into the human body. l i g h t p o e t via Shutterstock Weve reached a new frontier in organ transplantation. In a medical first, scientists announced this week that they successfully kept a genetically modified pig liver functioning inside a human bodyat least for a short while. Researchers in China detailed their groundbreaking accomplishment in a study published today in Nature. They transplanted the liver into a brain-dead recipient, where it was able to survive and even perform some basic functions for over a week. The findings are the latest to suggest that animal-to-human transplantation, or xenotransplantation, can someday become a viable option for the many people in need of donated organs. There are over 100,000 Americans currently on the waiting list for an organ, with a new person added every eight minutes. Yet only 48,000 transplants take place annually, creating a significant shortfall. Its estimated that 17 people die every day waiting on the transplant list. Scientists have been exploring various ways to extend the pool of available organs or to lengthen peoples survival while waiting for one, such as artificial devices or xenotransplantation. But its only recently that the latter has emerged as a feasible reality, thanks to advances in gene-editing technology. These advances have made it possible for scientists to create pigs with organs that are more compatible with human biology, thus reducing the chances of rejection. One common edit, for instance, removes a pigs ability to produce alpha-gal, a sugar that the human body doesnt make. As with other early tests of xenotransplantation, the researchers performed the procedure on a brain-dead recipient whose family agreed to help. They transplanted a liver from a Bama miniature piga breed thats commonly used in researchthat had six gene edits, while the recipient was given immune-suppressing drugs to prevent rejection. They monitored both recipient and organ for 10 days, terminating the study at the familys request.Things appeared to go smoothly during the experiment. The researchers, including a team from Xijing Hospital at Fourth Military Medical University, found no signs of immediate rejection, while the liver remained functional through the entire 10 days. Within two hours of the transplantation, it began to produce bile and maintained acceptable blood flow. Last year, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania reported that they successfully attached a donor pig liver to a brain-dead recipient via a machine outside the body, keeping the organ alive for three days. But the researchers note that theirs is the first peer-reviewed study to document the bona fide transplantation of a gene-edited pig liver into a person. Its a great achievement, said study researcher Lin Wang at a press conference held on Tuesday. That said, were still far from seeing pig-derived livers and other organs becoming commonplace. In recent years, scientists have begun to transplant pig kidneys and hearts as a last resort treatment for otherwise terminally ill recipients. But only two recipients are still alive, with 53-year-old Towana Looney currently being the longest-living recipient at roughly four months (she received a pig kidney transplant in late November 2024). Larger clinical trials are expected to start very soon, but even if successful, outside scientists have cautioned that it may take a long time before animal-derived organs can approach the survivability of human donated organs.Still, xenotransplantation could become an important option even before that lofty goal is achieved. The scientists note that the recipients own liver remained intact the entire time. So its possible that gene-edited pig organs could be used as a sort of bridging therapy for people on the transplant waiting list or for people whose organs need time to recover before becoming functional again.Daily NewsletterYou May Also Like By Ed Cara Published March 20, 2025 By Ed Cara Published March 15, 2025 By Ed Cara Published March 10, 2025 By Ed Cara Published March 5, 2025 By Ed Cara Published February 27, 2025 By Margherita Bassi Published February 15, 2025

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"Nature is an Incredible Teacher": Jenny Sabin on the Fusion of the Digital, Biological and Physical in Louisiana Channel Interview Jenny E. Sabin is an American architect, designer, and educator known for her work at the intersection of architecture, computation, and biomaterials. She integrates digital fabrication, responsive materials, and bio-inspired design into her architectural practice and runs an experimental architecture studio, Jenny Sabin Studio, based in Ithaca, NY. In this interview with Louisiana Channel, she shares her personal journey from artist to scientist, explains how biological and material systems can be applied at an architectural scale, and discusses her teaching and research roles at Cornell University. She elaborates on her interest in bringing people together through new strategies for responsive and adaptive architecture. In her view, the connections between the digital, the physical, and the biological define a paradigm shift in the evolution of architecture, converging with other realms of physical experience to create a more interconnected future. So, one of the fundamental questions that drive all of our collaborative work with scientists, including cell and molecular biologists, material scientists, mechanical engineers, physicists, mathematicians, plant biologists, and beyond, is to look at how buildings and their integrated material systems may behave more like organisms do, interacting and responding and adapting to their natural environments. Save this picture!Jenny Sabin is the Arthur L. and Isabel B. Wiesenberger Professor in Architecture and the inaugural Chair of the Department of Design Tech at Cornell AAP, where she established a research degree in Matter Design Computation. She is the principal of Jenny Sabin Studio, Director of the Sabin Design Lab, and co-founder of the Sabin+Jones LabStudio with biologist Peter Lloyd Jones. Holding degrees in ceramics and interdisciplinary visual art from the University of Washington and a Master of Architecture from the University of Pennsylvania, Sabin has received numerous accolades, including a Pew Fellowship (2010), the Architectural League Prize (2014), and Architectural Record's Innovator in Design Award (2016). Her work has been exhibited globally, including at FRAC Centre, the Cooper Hewitt Design Triennial, and the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art. She authored LabStudio: Design Research Between Architecture and Biology (2017) and won MoMA PS1's Young Architects Program with Lumen (2017). Related Article How Might Buildings and Their Integrated Materials Systems Behave Like Organisms? In Conversation With Jenny E. Sabin Lumen is an immersive installation that evolves throughout the day. Made of responsive tubular structures in a lightweight knitted fabric, it features a canopy of recycled, photo-luminescent, and solar-active textiles that absorb, collect, and emit light. A misting system responds to visitors' proximity, activating fabric stalactites that create a refreshing microclimate. Inspired by collective levity, play, and interaction, Lumen's multisensory environment transforms throughout the day and night, adapting to the densities of bodies, heat, and sunlight. During the interview, Sabin states that the materiality of the project is incomplete without engagement and interaction, describing it as "an architecture that's much more informal and lateral and situated in its context."Save this picture!Save this picture!She expresses similar ideas regarding PolyForm, another responsive architecture project. PolyForm is a permanent public installation consisting of four perforated, crystalline metal forms framing a high-traffic thoroughfare on the Cornell University campus. For Sabin, the project raises fundamental questions about how buildings can behave more like organisms, responding and adapting to their environments. This reflection informs broader discussions on climate change, emphasizing the need for architecture to adopt a more responsive and integrated model to enhance resilience. PolyForm serves as an architectural prototype, demonstrating systems that could be scaled toward more permanent structures. As Sabin puts it, "It's not sculpture. It's design. It's an architectural prototype for the future."Save this picture!Save this picture! Architects are terrible at seeing the value of what we have to offer. And design is elusive, but it is a skill, and it is taught, and it takes time to hone. And I think we're now at a point where we are realizing the value of design and others are realizing the value of design. [...] The opportunity for collaboration across disciplines has always been there, but I think there are radical new approaches happening that are so exciting where the role of the architect maybe isn't just about buildings, but maybe it's about working on cancer biology. Maybe it's about working on entirely new material systems that can become adaptive building skins. And I think that's not only the future, it's the now. Louisiana Channel is a series of video interviews on art, literature, architecture, design, and music produced by the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art. Other representatives from the field of architecture include Mexican architect Gabriela Carrillo, who explores public space design and the role of preexisting elements in spatial transformation. Similarly, ecoLogic Studio discusses a new approach to architecture that examines the relationship between nature and urban design. Renowned architects such as Shigeru Ban, David Chipperfield, and Rafael Moneo have also shared their perspectives on the interplay between architecture, society, and the physical environment.Image gallerySee allShow lessAbout this authorCite: Antonia Pieiro. ""Nature is an Incredible Teacher": Jenny Sabin on the Fusion of the Digital, Biological and Physical in Louisiana Channel Interview" 26 Mar 2025. ArchDaily. Accessed . <https://www.archdaily.com/1028420/nature-is-an-incredible-teacher-jenny-sabin-on-the-fusion-of-the-digital-biological-and-physical-in-louisiana-channel-interview&gt ISSN 0719-8884Save!ArchDaily?You've started following your first account!Did you know?You'll now receive updates based on what you follow! Personalize your stream and start following your favorite authors, offices and users.Go to my stream

Here is a tip to add depth to your 3D shots in a quick and simple way.More tips in this videohttps://youtu.be/C-sAcPM0B6Q?si=rmCZ4izDKbB0hyrD #blender3d #b3d #3d #storytelling #composition #shortfilm #3dshort #3dart

In this issue:We examine a new conversation segmentation method that delivers more coherent and personalized agent conversation, and we review efforts to improve MLLMs understanding of geologic maps. Check out the latest research and other updates.NEW RESEARCHResearchers from Microsoft and Tsinghua University propose a new method to help conversational AI agents deliver more coherent and personalized responses during complex long-term dialogue.Large language models (LLMs) are widely used to enable more complicated discussions across a broader range of topics than traditional dialogue systems. However, managing excessively long context that contains irrelevant information is a major challenge. Existing solutions typically perform retrieval augmented response generation by constructing memory banks from conversation history at either the turn-level, session-level, or through summarization.The proposed new approach, SeCom, constructs the memory bank at segment level by introducing a conversation Segmentation model that partitions long-term conversations into topically coherent segments, while applying Compression based denoising on memory units to enhance memory retrieval. Experimental results show that SeCom exhibits a significant performance advantage over baselines on long-term conversation benchmarks LOCOMO and Long-MT-Bench+. Additionally, the proposed conversation segmentation method demonstrates superior performance on dialogue segmentation datasets such as DialSeg711, TIAGE, and SuperDialSeg.Read the paperNEW RESEARCHPEACE: Empowering Geologic Map Holistic Understanding with MLLMsMicrosoft Researchers and external colleagues introduce GeoMap-Agent, an AI system specifically designed for geologic map understanding and analysis. In the lab, they measure its effectiveness using a new benchmark called GeoMap-Bench, a novel gauge for evaluating multimodal large language models (MLLMs) in geologic map understanding. Geologic maps provide critical insights into the structure and composition of Earths surface and subsurface. They are indispensable in fields including disaster detection, resource exploration, and civil engineering.Current MLLMs often fall short in understanding geologic maps, largely due to the challenging nature of cartographic generalization, which involves handling high-resolution maps, managing multiple associated components, and requiring domain-specific knowledge.This paper presents results of experiments in which GeoMap-Agent achieves an overall score of 0.811 on GeoMap-Bench, significantly outperforming the 0.369 score of GPT-4o. The researchers intend to enable advanced AI applications in geology, powering more efficient and accurate geological investigations.Read the paperNEW RESEARCHThe future of the industrial AI edge is cellularReliable, high-bandwidth wireless connectivity and local processing at the edge are crucial enablers for emerging industrial AI applications. This work proposes that cellular networking is the ideal connectivity solution for these applications, due to its virtualization and support for open APIs. The researchers project the emergence of a converged industrial AI edge encompassing both computing and connectivity, in which application developers leverage the API to implement advanced functionalities. They present a case study showing evidence of the effectiveness of this approach, evaluated on an enterprise-grade 5G testbed.Read the paperNEW RESEARCHRE#: High Performance Derivative-Based Regex Matching with Intersection, Complement, and Restricted LookaroundsA regular expression (regex or RE) is a sequence of characters used to match, search, and manipulate strings in text based on specific criteria. REs are used in programming languages for data validation, text parsing, and search operations.This paper presents a tool and theory built onsymbolic derivatives that does not use backtracking, while supporting both classical operators and complement, intersection, and restricted lookarounds. The researchers show that the main matching algorithm hasinput-linearcomplexity both in theory as well as experimentally. They apply thorough evaluation on popular benchmarks that show that RE# is over 71% faster than the next fastest regex engine in Rust on the baseline, andoutperforms all state-of-the-art engines on extensions of the benchmarks, often by several orders of magnitude.This work could potentially enable new applications in LLM prompt engineering frameworks, new applications in medical research and bioinformatics, and new opportunities in access and resource policy language design by web service providers.Read the paperNEW RESEARCHToward deep learning sequencestructure co-generation for protein designResearchers review recent advances in deep generative models for protein design, with a focus on sequence-structure co-generation methods. They describe the key methodological and evaluation principles underlying these methods, highlight recent advances from the literature, and discuss opportunities for continued development of sequence-structure co-generation approaches.Deep generative models that learn from the distribution of natural protein sequences and structures may enable the design of new proteins with valuable functions. While most of todays models focus on generating either sequences or structures, emerging co-generation methods promise more accurate and controllable protein design, ideally achieved by modeling both modalities simultaneously.Read the paperMicrosoft research podcastCollaborators: Silica in space with Richard Black and Dexter GreeneCollege freshman Dexter Greene and Microsoft research manager Richard Black discuss how technology that stores data in glass is supporting students as they expand earlier efforts to communicate what it means to be human to extraterrestrials.Listen nowOpens in a new tab PODCASTNew Series: The AI Revolution in Medicine, RevisitedTwo years ago, OpenAIs GPT-4 kick-started a new era in AI. In the months leading up to its public release, Peter Lee, president of Microsoft Research, cowrote The AI Revolution in Medicine: GPT-4 and Beyond, a book full of optimism for the potential of advanced AI models to transform the world of healthcare. In this special Microsoft Research Podcast series, Lee revisits the book, exploring how patients, providers, and other medical professionals are experiencing and using generative AI today while examining what he and his coauthors got rightand what they didnt foresee.Watch the seriesPODCASTThe future of generative AI for scientific discoveryMost of us think of generative AI in the context of text or image generation, but its also a powerful tool for scientific discovery. In this episode of the Leading the Shift podcast (opens in new tab), host Susan Etlinger speaks with Ade Famoti, a senior leader on the Microsoft Research Accelerator team. Ade discusses what he calls AIs physics moment, and why he believes generative AI feels fundamentally different from past platform shifts. Ade shares examples of the work Microsoft Research is doing to uncover the opportunities of generative AI for materials discoveryto improve energy efficiency and carbon capture, and for drug discovery, to fight disease. Ade also highlights the role of culture in building trust, informing priorities and driving adoption of emerging technologies.VIDEOMicrosoft Researchs Chris Bishop talks AI for Science (what it really means)In this interview, the director of Microsoft Research AI for Science, Chris Bishop, discusses how AI is unlocking new scientific outcomes, from drug creation to materials generation to improved climate modeling.Microsoft Research | In case you missed itTech Life The doctor will see you nowBBC Sounds | March 4, 2025An update on live trials in Ghana of 3D telemedicine technology, developed by Microsoft Research and external collaborators. Using portable equipment and holoportation technology, patients in remote locations can connect with a doctor many miles away. The BBC speaks to Spencer Fowers, who is the lead engineer on the project, as well as a patient and a doctor benefiting from the program. Katja Hofmann: Why we're training AI on video gamesTED Talk | October 2024In a recent TED Talk: Why were training AI on video games, Microsoft researcher Katja Hofmann discusses the work the Game Intelligence team at Microsoft Research is doing to develop AI that can transform video games. Using AI trained on years of human gameplay data, the team built World and Human Action Model, which can learn to think, play and innovate alongside humans, enabling video game creators to build more robust games. Hoffmann was also interviewed in a related article: Microsofts Muse AI Edits Video Games on the Fly. View more news and awards Opens in a new tab

When was the last time you felt spangled? Even if you dont know the phrase, you know the feeling. Its grappling with realities while wrestling with fantasies. Finding grace in everyday grit. Not letting disrepair turn into despair. Becoming overwhelmed by the smallest details. Becoming so unfocused you see the bigger picture. Sharing smokes and whiskey-fueled hubris. Writing a history of the future in real-time.Great music lets you bridge the gap between insider and outsider. Great audio products let you walk the divide between going delirious and getting serious. Im thinking about this as I listen to songs of weariness and endurance. Im thinking of this as I listen to the new Focal Bathys MG.Building on 2022s Bathysan incisive pair of $699 Bluetooth ANC headphones that found immediate success among audiophilesthe Bathys MG introduces an even more premium experience. As with the Focal Clear MG headphones, the MG stands for magnesium (or Magnsium if youre French, like Focal). Whereas the original Bathys had an M-shaped driver made primarily of more affordable, less eloquent aluminum with a small percentage of magnesium, the dome in the Bathys MG is, you guessed it, pure MG. This material contributes to a lighter, more rigid membrane. And that, in theory, translates to unrestricted clarity and precision.Having spent a weekend with the Bathys MG, I can say the sonic signature is, in a word, effortless. In my first impressions, its not so much about greater separation as it is greater immersion. While the original Bathys may appear to hit harder, the Bathys MG feels like it reaches deeper. You can look at the frequency ranges and confirm (15Hz to 22kHz versus 10Hz to 22kHz), or think of it like the difference between a little edgy and more organic, linear vs. lithe. The soundstage of the Clear MG is more spatial, less confined to a single plane. I find myself paying close attention less and being present more. Its not that detail isnt present; its that the expression is so fluid Im not obsessed with flaws. Whether thats right for you depends on how much you like sweating the small stuff and how spicy you like your treble. Sometimes perceived purity is pleasing.As for the rest of the experience, its equally plush. New memory foam ear cushions and improved active noise cancellation help create your heady havenand the illusion that the headphone is actually lighter than the Bathys OG, though both are around 345g. Ive done my listening primarily with an iPhone 16 Pro through USB (yes, I wired a wireless headphone), which uses an internal DAC to decode hi-res, lossless material up to 24-bit/192 kHz. If you prefer to operate untethered, theres Bluetooth 5.2 with the SBC, AAC, aptX, and aptX Adaptive codecs. And if you have an external DAC/amp you like, an analog input is available. The Focal&Naim mobile app gives you access to EQ and other personalization options. As for battery life, the Bathys MG is rated at 30 hours wireless, 35 via jack, and 42 with the USB-DAC.The Bathys MG, only available in the Chestnut finish shown for the time being, will go on sale in May for $1,299.

This slice of semi-transparent wood is made with natural materials and could be used in applications from wearable sensors to energy-efficient windows. Credit: Bharat BaruahGlass is a vital component to construction projects, but its also one of the most environmentally troublesome. It isnt naturally biodegradable, often difficult to recycle, and sometimes more harmful to the environment than plastic. Experts have spent years experimenting with eco-friendly updates to glassmaking, but the basic manufacturing methods have remained largely the same for thousands of years. Instead of attempting to improve glass itself, researchers are testing how to replace it entirely with alternative transparent materialsincluding chemically modified wood.In the modern day, plastic is everywhere, including our devices that we carry around. And its a problem when we reach the end of that devices life. Its not biodegradable, Kennesaw State University chemistry professor Bharat Baruah said ahead of the American Chemical Societys spring meeting.Baruah, a woodworking hobbyist, recently wondered if his pastimes principal material could serve as a viable glass replacement. Of course, theres likely a glaring issue when you try envisioning a wood windowpane: its probably pretty opaque.This is where Baruahs chemistry expertise came into play. Wood consists of three main components: cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin. But if you remove the latter two parts from a sheet of wood, whats left is a paperlike, porous web of cellulose. To do this, Baruah and their undergraduate assistant Ridham Raval placed balsa wood into a vacuum chamber with an array of chemicals including the delignifying agent sodium sulfite, a type of lye, and diluted bleach.The final inspiration for transparent wood came from Baruahs childhood in northeastern India. Buildings there have stood for centuries thanks to an ancient form of cement made from mixing sand, sticky rice, and egg whites. Baruah theorized that applying the same ingredients to the balsa cellulose could harden and reinforce it enough to use in a small, test construction project. Get the Popular Science newsletter Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. By signing up you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.The duos results were a selection of semi-transparent wood slices that maintained their durability while also remaining flexible. Bringing things full-circle, Baruah then altered a wooden birdhouse to accommodate a small window made from the augmented wood. After placing the birdhouse under a heat lamp, the team recorded an internal temperature 911 degrees Fahrenheit cooler than when the small home had a glass paneimplying similar material may one day offer an energy-efficient alternative.Transparent woods utility could expand beyond construction projects, too. In a separate experiment, Baruah and Raval threaded silver nanowires into certain samples to demonstrate their potential use in solar cells, wearable sensors, and coatings. While the silver nanowires arent biodegradable, replacements like graphene could keep the design eco-friendly.Wood window panes arent ready for home installation just yet. Baruah conceded that more work needs to be done to improve its transparency. And while the small amount of hemicellulose- and lignin-removing reagents used in the experiment ensured it remained environmentally safe, scalability may be an issue. Regardless, the advances offer a promising potential path forward for sustainable, cheap glass replacements.

NewsHealth & MedicineSurgeons transplanted a pigs liver into a humanThe gene-edited organ was hooked up inside the body of a brain-dead recipient This genetically modified miniature pig served as a liver donor for a brain-dead human recipient.K-S Taoet al./Nature 2025By Meghan Rosen17 seconds agoSurgeons have now published the first report ofa gene-edited pig liver transplantedinto a person.The liver, which came from a genetically modified pig, appeared to stay active, producing bile and liver proteins inside the brain-dead transplant recipient, researchers reported March 26 inNature. Such a transplant could one day buy time for people waiting on the liver transplant list. Doctors could potentially use the pig liver as bridge until a human liver is available or the patients liver has recovered, Lin Wang, a surgeon at Xijing hospital in Xi-an, China, said in a March 25 press briefing. It is our dream to achieve this, he said. Earlier this year his team also performeda different pig-to-human liver transplant, though the results from that surgery have not yet been published.

NewsSpaceJWST spots the earliest sign yet of a distant galaxy reshaping its cosmic environsThe marker is an unexpected bubble that could signal cosmic reionization earlier than thought The extremely distant galaxy JADES-GS-z13-1 is the small red dot in the center of this image from the James Webb Space Telescope. New observations show the galaxy is emitting a surprising amount of ultraviolet light, indicating it is radically reshaping the cosmic landscape around it.JWST/ESA, NASA, STScI, CSA, JADES Collaboration, Brant Robertson/UC Santa Cruz, Ben Johnson/CfA, Sandro Tacchella/U. of Cambridge, Phill Cargile/CfA, J. Witstok, P. Jakobsen, A. Pagan/STScI, M. Zamani/JWST/ESA)By Lisa Grossman19 seconds agoThe James Webb Space Telescope has caught a distant galaxy blowing an unexpected bubble in the gas around it, just 330 million years after the Big Bang.The galaxy, dubbed JADES-GS-z13-1, marks the earliest sign yet spotted of the era of cosmic reionization, a transformative period in the universes history when the first stars and galaxies began to reshape their environment, astronomers report in the March 27 Nature.It definitely puts a pin in the map of the first point where [reionization] very likely has already started, says astrophysicist Joris Witstok at the University of Copenhagen. No one had predicted that it would be this early in the universes history.

Nature, Published online: 26 March 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-00553-xA Nature Index data set shows which countries, institutions and topic areas are making the greatest progress towards gender equity in research.