July 2, 2019
ROAD SHOW
Motorcycle racing is one of the fastest sports on earth — not one of the safest. Accidents are frequent, but riders can incur injuries like small fractures just from sitting on the bikes, and good medical care is a must along the race courses. And just like racers need speedy bikes, clinicians need fast and portable technology to do their jobs. Italy’s Clinica Mobile, the official healthcare partner of the MotoGP and Superbike World Championship, has been in this business for 40 years, operating two mobile healthcare units — minihospitals on the backs of trucks — that follow riders through 16 countries across four continents. In 2019 the clinic has some new tech on its trucks: two laptop-size, lightweight ultrasound machines from GE Healthcare that can help staff clearly and quickly scan a patient for injuries.
Ultrafast ultrasound: “These ultrasound systems allow you to examine and show any lesions on-site and immediately think of a recovery plan,” said Dr. Michele Zasa, Clinica Mobile’s owner and medical director. The system, called NextGen LOGIQ e, also helps make it easier to compare images from different scans and monitor drivers during the stages of recovery, which can help tailor that treatment plan. Because the drivers and their crews have access to the clinic almost every weekend, Dr. Zasa says, the Clinica Mobile is more like a home away from home than a traveling hospital. “Some of the drivers don’t even go to the family doctor,” he says. “They wait for the race weekend to discuss any problems with us.”
Read more here about the fast-paced world of motorcycle healthcare.
FAN CLUB
Scores of people are fond of the new GE9X jet engine, but it’s got only one really big fan — whose 16 fan blades, made from tough but lightweight carbon-fiber composite, are one of the engine’s central innovations. Along with 3D-printed parts and other advanced materials, the massive fan helps the engine achieve 100,000 pounds of thrust, or several times more than what was generated by the rocket used in America’s first manned space flight. The GE9X engine is the result of generations of industrial expertise and creative design, sure, but its much-heralded unveiling at the Paris Air Show recently also reflected countless hours of testing above the skies of Victorville, California, where GE keeps its Flying Test Bed, a modified Boeing 747. That’s also the home base of Jon Ohman, GE Aviation’s chief test pilot — whose job it was to get the GE9X ready for prime time.
First in flight: Ohman, who used to fly F-18 fighter jets, was the first person to fly a plane equipped with the GE9X engine — and sat down with a reporter to tell all about it, as well as to explain why the Boeing 747 is an ideal test platform for GE’s developmental engines, big and small. Regarding the GE9X, which is quieter, and 10% more efficient than its predecessor — while also being larger — GE Aviation’s fans on social media were particularly interested in this: How exactly do Ohman and his test engineers account for the size, weight and thrust differentials of such a massive machine?
Turns out it’s a bit of a balancing act. Learn more here about the ins and outs of flying with the world’s largest commercial aircraft engine.
STEAM PLAYER
The steam turbine was a revolutionary invention in 1884, and more than a century later engineers continue to rely on steam to operate the turbines that supply a lot of the world’s electrical energy. Still, the technology might be due for a 21st-century update. That’s the focus of work being done at GE Research in Niskayuna, New York, where Peter deBock and his colleagues are designing ways to optimize the performance of steam turbines, raising their operating temperature and increasing thermal efficiency — in short, allowing turbine operators to get more bang for their buck. To achieve this, deBock and colleagues are trading steam for CO2 (the stuff that gives fizziness to soda and Champagne) and using new materials and 3D printing. To get the most out of these materials, they take inspiration from the result of hundreds of million years of evolution: human lungs.
A lung way to go: DeBock and his GE Research team are focusing on the heat exchanger, an essential component of the cooling system. It is used to capture energy flowing from the primary gas turbine and transfer it to a secondary steam turbine power loop to generate yet more electricity. Lungs are “the ultimate heat exchanger” — they play an important role in cooling the body. That’s also where deBock and his colleagues looked for inspiration, designing an intricate heat exchanger modeled after the lungs’ system of capillaries. The part, made from an advanced nickel superalloy for use in jet engine parts, can move CO2 at higher temperatures and pressures thanks to this ingenious bio-inspired design. “With 3D printing,” deBock said, “we can build design architectures that were previously impossible.”
Learn more here about how 3D printing is making the impossible possible — and how the U.S. Department of Energy is paying attention.
COOLEST THINGS ON EARTH ?
1. Good Gut Feeling
Scientists at Harvard University have identified bacteria in the microbiomes of elite athletes that might help them perform better. They might help the rest of us perform better, too — or at least that’s what happened when the beneficial bacteria were injected into treadmill-running mice.
2. Scorpion Rising
A cross-border team of American and Mexican researchers figured out — very carefully — that the venom of a particular Mexican scorpion can kill staph infection and treatment-resistant tuberculosis bacteria.
3. Beer Goggles
Boston software company Lumii figured out a way to use regular ink and a regular printing press to create images that appear three-dimensional. The technology has much potential for creating cool product labels — including one for a beer from Massachusetts’ Portico Brewing.
Read more about this week’s Coolest Things on Earth here.
— QUOTE OF THE DAY —
“We now have the opportunity to do a treatment and see immediately how the tissue reacts.”
— Christian Giometti, physiotherapist at Clinica Mobile
Quote: GE Reports. Image: Getty Images.
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