[1º Bachillerato] 3D Printed Body Parts Are Almost Here

Watch the video and answer the questions.
To stop the video, just click on it. Click again to continue watching.

1. What problem did the 9-year-old girl have?

2. What was the price of a 3D printed hand compared to a robotic one?

3. What operation did the doctors in Holland do?

4. Can people using 3D printed eyes really see?

5. What other products does the Fripp Company make?

6. When will skin graft machines(*) be ready?

7. What other uses of 3D printed organs are mentioned in the video? Give at least two.

(*) máquina de injerto de piel.

The TomTato: tomatoes and potatoes in just one plant

Have you ever seen anything like this? A plant which is half a tomato plant and half a potato one! The TomTato can grow more than 500 sweet cherry tomatoes while producing white potatoes. The plants can be grown either outside or inside, as long as they are in a large pot or bag. The hybrid plants were individually hand-crafted and not a product of genetic engineering. 

Well, now you can make a salad with just one plant... :)

Read more

 -----------
*sweet cherry tomatoes: pequeños tomates dulces, llamados también cherry (cereza) en España.
*pot: maceta, cacharro.
*hybrid: híbrido, creado a partir de plantas distintas.
*hand-crafted: realizado a mano, mediante injertos, como en los rosales, limoneros, etc.y no en un laboratorio.

[Science] How does space sound?

Space is not silent, it really sounds!. This is a fascinating recording of Jupiter sounds (electromagnetic "voices") by NASA's Voyager 1. The complex interactions of charged electromagnetic particles from the solar wind , planetary magnetosphere etc. create vibration. It sounds very interesting, even spooky.

• And check this link too where you can listen to sounds from different planets and satellites after the introduction.

-------------
*magnetosphere: magnetosfera. Región alrededor de un planeta en la que el campo magnético de éste desvía la mayor parte del viento solar formando un escudo protector contra las partículas cargadas de alta energía procedentes del Sol.
*spooky: fantasmal, escalofriante.

[Science] Has Voyager 1 really left the solar system?

Scientists still don't know for sure whether Voyager 1, a spacecraft launched in 1977 (!) with an insterstellar mission to study Jupiter's atmosphere and the moons of Saturn among other tasks, is beyond the limits of the solar system. If this is true, it would be the first time that a man-made machine has travelled out of the limits of our Solar System and into the outer space.

Last week some experts published a study in Astrophysical Journal, a scientific magazine, claiming that Voyager 1 was out of our system. NASA experts, however, say that it has yet to pass beyond the reach of our sun's radiation.

Conceived of to take advantage of a rare alignment of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune that occurs once every 175 years, NASA's original programme was designed to travel in the solar system using the gravity of one planet to jump to the next. The complete mission consists of two probes, Voyager 1 and 2, that used satellites designed to last just five years. Yet they sail on, at 55,000 km/h, using only essential instruments to ration power from their plutonium batteries that are expected to last until around 2020.

Check these interesting links:

•  NASA's Voyager Mission website
•  Where are the Voyagers?
  [Real-time counters in kilometres (Km) and astronomical units (AU) that show the distance of Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 from Earth]

-------------
*beyond: (prep.) más allá de.
*claim: (v) asegurar, afirmar.
*reach: (n) alcance.
*take advantage of: (v) aprovecharse de.
*alignment: (n) alineación.
*probe: (n) sonda.
*last: (v) durar.