September: Harvesting Stem Cells and Hydrogen Cars

I've been writing a lot about the new and exciting capabilities of stem cells, but without a big enough supply of them, there is no hope that any of the treatments will ever be applied. When left to their own devices on a plastic culture dish, they do reproduce, but rather than into the useful pluripotent stem cells, they create other body cells, which cannot be used in therapies. So when, in September, a new type of plastic was devised that allowed stem cells to grow and still keep their characteristics, it got us one step closer to the clinical use of these new treatments.

Following on from August's discovery of an enzyme that produces hydrogen from water, the start of the new school year also was the start of MEC technology, or Microbial Electrolysis Cells. Osmotic power stations already capitalise on the potential difference between salt- and freshwater, but these new cells also add a bacteria that produces hydrogen gas to create a self sustaining, relatively cheap method of producing hydrogen for use in cars and other technologies.

In other science: a detector is released that can tell when we're lying, blood vessels are printed on a 3D printer, and a single molecule motor is engineered.

August: Spermatogenesis and Skin That Stops Bullets

Other than the two titular breakthroughs, late in the summer of last year, a new method of fighting cancer was being pioneered: the use of a modified smallpox virus to target cancer. The main problem with using biological agents to combat tumours is that they are destructive and can harm the healthy cells as well as the cancerous ones. However, a team has managed to change the vaccinia virus, which gets its name from being the virus used as a virus against smallpox, to only replicate in the presence of a chemical pathway found in cancer. Seven out of the eight patients on the highest dose were found to have it reproducing in their tumour only. While it is a long way from 'curing' cancer, this could be used as a carrier to deliver drugs to the affected areas in the future.

A Dutch artist used silk from engineered silkworms to create semi-bulletproof skin. By weaving the silk between the layers of human skin cells, she created a membrane that was able to withstand a .22 bullet fired at reduced speeds without breaking. The round still went 2 inches into the gel model she was using, but there is some hope that the technology could be used to create 'bioarmour' eventually.

In Japan, mice stem cells were manipulated into primordial germ cells, which can produce sperm. The sperm was normal looking and even fertilised female mice to produce healthy offspring. The aim of this project was to help infertile men, and could have very real and useful implications in today's world.

In other science: near death experiences are explained away as symptoms of oxygen starvation, it is speculated that nucleotides may have come from meteorites, where they are often found, the dark side of the moon's rough surface may be due to a collision with a second moon, and hydrogen is made from water using an enzyme.