Science
How Long do Tortoises Live and Why are They so Important?
Table of Contents
Tortoises are Important to Ecosystems
There was a great deal of celebration when Jonathan the Seychelles Giant Tortoise turned 190 years old in 2022.
Although his exact date of hatching isn’t known, he was fully mature when he was taken from his home on the Seychelles Islands on the East coast of Africa. A Giant Seychelles reaches adulthood at about 50 years of age. That would place his hatching date sometime in the 1830s.
However, some of his caregivers believe that he’s actually much older than that.
Jonathan is celebrated for being the world’s oldest-known tortoise, but he’s not alone. Tortoises all over the world are known for their long stay on this Earth. This is more important than we may ever fully know because tortoises are one of the few animals on earth that have the power to create, change, protect, and even destroy a habitat.
That’s a big thing for such a slow creature, and it’s the reason why Galapagos tortoise projects are very a very big deal to tortoise protection projects are very big in Galapagos islands. It turns out that keeping this amazing species alive for hundreds of years could have some profound benefits to ecosystems.
How Long do Tortoises Live?
It can be difficult to tell the age of tortoises because these creatures routinely outlive most human beings. Moreover, hatching dates for wild tortoises are rarely known. Scientists place the average lifespan of a tortoise at anywhere between 80 and 150 years. Some are even thought to be as much as 250 years old.
Although these are all estimates, they are far from wild guesses. Tortoises provide several different clues about how long they’ve been around.
How to Tell a Tortoises Age
It is much easier to track the age of a captive tortoises because their conditions can be monitored and scientists generally have a lot of information to go on. This was the case with Jonathan the Seychelles giant tortoise.
When tortoises are not monitored, other methods are required to help scientists determine the age of a tortoise.
- The Shell: Scientists can study a tortoise’s shell for clues. Older individuals will have smoother, less detailed shells than younger tortoises. This is because they’ve experienced decades of weather and wear-and-tear. However, this may not be so in tortoises who have lived in the shelter of captivity.
- Behaviour: Like most creatures, older tortoises will be less energetic than they were when they were young. Scientists can watch a tortoise to see how much time it spends resting. The more rest periods a tortoise takes, the older it likely is (looks like we might have more in common with tortoises that we originally thought).
- Tagging: Scientists have also made a study of the aging process of the tortoise. Scientists catch wild tortoises at less than two years old. They release it back into the wild with a mark on its shell so they can recognize it later. When they catch it again, they can make observations and notes about how it’s changed as it’s aged. This data can be used to estimate the growth of other individuals.
- Fungal Growth: Wild tortoises often have fungal growth on their shells. How much fungus is present and what kind can provide clues as to how long a tortoise has been around. This method is most accurate when used along with other age-determining methods.
- Bones: Scientists can study the layers of growth in a tortoise’s bones for a pretty accurate age estimate. Of course, this study can only be done on deceased tortoises since it requires dissection of the animal to retrieve the bones.
All of these methods help scientists tell the age of tortoises. Perhaps the more important questions, however, are what allows them to live that long.
Why Do Tortoises Live So Long?
Researchers have developed several theories as to why tortoises live so long and age so slowly. This includes genetic variances, the metabolism of tortoises, it’s shell, as well as its environment.
- Genetic Variances: Scientists have discovered a genetic variance in tortoises. This difference provides an enhanced immune system. It also provides them with the amazing ability to suppress cancer. This genetic difference simply makes it less likely that a tortoise will die of illness.
- Continued Growth: Tortoises never stop growing through their lives. Research finds that species that continue to grow tend to be around longer on average than those that don’t. This is because of the cell renewal and regeneration which continues as long as growth is happening.
- Metabolism: The slower metabolism of a tortoise allows them to burn energy at a slower rate. They breathe more slowly and their heart rate is lower than many other animals. This allows their inner organs to work more slowly, and last longer.
- Shell: Scientists have observed that animals with shells will often tend to live longer. This hard armour protects them from predators. Since they don’t have to work at protecting themselves, they have more energy to devote to living longer.
- Environment: Studies have shown that turtles in captivity do not experience a higher mortality as they age, as those living in the wild do. In captivity, they don’t have to spend energy in foraging for food or water. That leaves more energy for replenishing their cells.
Whatever causes their long lives, it’s allowed them to stay around long enough to be one of the most important species on earth.
Why are Tortoises Important?
Tortoises are all around us. They exist on every continent except Australia and the Antarctic. It’s not surprising, then, that they’ve made their way into the hearts of so many cultures around the world.
The most famous instance of this, of course, is Aesop’s ancient Greek fable of the Tortoise and the Hare.
The tortoise has appeared in cave drawings, ancient literature, and in legends and creation stories all around the world. India, China, and Indigenous North America all have myths depicting the tortoise helping to build the world or holding it up on its back. The tortoise is also featured in the ancient stories of Greece, ancient Egypt, and Polynesia.
However, their most important place in the modern world is in their role as a keystone species.
Tortoises are a Keystone Species
The Galapagos Tortoise has been identified as a keystone species. This is any species that has a significant impact on its environment. When a keystone species is removed, the environment is altered substantially.
Specifically, the Galapagos Tortoise is known as an ecosystem engineer. Ecosystem engineers are animals that create, change, or protect a habitat. Tortoises make their habitat livable for other creatures, so its absence can even destroy a habitat.
Tortoises disperse and germinate seeds while grazing on plants. They trample down vegetation, opening up new spaces for fresh plants to grow using these seeds.
Tortoises are Endangered
Isla Santa Fe, one of the Islands in the Galapagos, was stripped of its population of native tortoises in the mid-1800s. Between their loss and the introduction of feral goats, the island suffered severe damage to both plants and soil.
The goats were removed by the 1970’s. However, the island ecosystem was unable to recover until a new population of tortoises from another island was released in Isla Santa Fe. Both local plant and animal life began to thrive again.
It’s through events like this that we can see how important the tortoise truly is to our world. This is also why it’s so important that every effort is put into projects designed to protect them.
Galapagos Tortoise Projects
Since Charles Darwin first set foot on the Galapagos Islands in 1835, there has been a dramatic change. It was once a haven of biodiversity that allowed Darwin to begin developing his theory of evolution. He described it as “very remarkable: it seems to be a little world within itself; the greater number of its inhabitants, both vegetable and animal, being found nowhere else.”
Today, Darwin would be disappointed.
The population of giant tortoises that once thrived all over the Galapagos is now down to 10% of its former numbers. However, they’ve also been the subject of one of the most successful and inspiring conservation efforts in history.
In the last six decades, some 9000 tortoises have been raised in captivity and returned to the Galapagos wilderness. Once free, they’ve healed the damaged ecosystem and begun the work of repopulating their own species.
Why are Galapagos Tortoise Projects Important?
Galapagos Tortoise Projects are Important because there are more species of tortoises in the Galapagos than anywhere else on Earth. The Galapagos population is critical to understanding these creatures. What scientists learn there can even have a positive impact on repopulation projects of other species around the world.
Tortoises are Making a Strong Comeback
Among the most amazing and exciting accomplishments is the recovery of the Espanola Giant Tortoise. Due to hunting and invasive species, these tortoises were reduced to only 15 surviving species. Through the conservancy program, the population has now increased to over 2300 individuals.
Most recently, 136 young tortoises were rewilded to their ancestral home on Isabela Island in the Galapagos. These tortoises will live for a hundred years or more. As a keystone species, they represent 136 opportunities to restore the ecology of the Galapagos Islands for the next century and beyond.
That’s an exciting and hopeful promise for the future of our planet.
IC Inspiration
Diego, the Espanola Saddleback Tortoise, last tasted freedom the better part of a century ago.
He was taken from his home on Espanola Island during the 1930s. He spent years entertaining people at zoos in New York and California.
While Diego was doing that, tremendous changes were happening to his home island. The population of tortoises was disappearing. The estimated 2400 individuals that he had left behind had been reduced to a mere 14 adults. These few remaining animals were so far dispersed that they weren’t going to be able to reproduce.
The Espanola Tortoise was in immediate danger of vanishing forever.
So, the remaining adults, including Diego, were gathered and placed in a captive breeding center on Santa Cruz Island in the Galapagos. There were twelve females and three males.
Of these, Diego was by far the most productive. He’s fathered about 1000 baby tortoises. This amounts to nearly half the number of baby turtles produced in the breeding center to date.
Diego had almost single-handedly saved his species.
Today, around 860 Espanola Tortoises have been released back into the wild and the population is well on its way to recovery.
As for Diego, the old centenarian has finally been allowed to retire. In 2020, he was returned to his home on Espanola Island and released to live in the wild. He’s still carefully monitored by conservationists via a GPS tag attached to his shell.
He is a wild tortoise once again.
10 Amazing Facts About Stars
I’ll argue that the biggest mystery is not what was, or what will be—it’s what is.
For thousands of years people have looked at the sky and asked that very question—it’s even in one of the world’s most famous lullabies.
Because that’s what stars do: they fill us with awe and intrigue. They make us wonder about the nature of the universe and ourselves, and although we might not have all our questions answered, we still feel hope and inspiration when we look up… Almost as though being here is enough.
Well, we don’t have all the answers for you, but we’ve got some, and their sure to leave you with the same curiosity that science never fails to deliver. At the very least, these 10 amazing facts about stars will make you the most interesting person in the room.
Oh, and they might also blow your mind.
1. Almost All Matter in The Universe Comes From Stars
The oxygen you breathe in, the calcium that strengthens your bones, and even the nitrogen that forms your DNA—they were all formed in stars long before galaxies even existed.
Stars spend their entire life building elements within themselves, then when they reach the end of their life, they explode and scatter the elements throughout space.
These elements are responsible for creating matter (anything that’s physical).
The only known elements that were not formed in stars are Hydrogen, Helium, and Lithium. These three elements were formed minutes after the big bang, long before stars.
2. Planets Are Born from Stars—and Depend on Them. The Ones That Don’t, Go Rogue
Planets are created from the leftover gas and dust in a spinning cloud that surrounds young stars.
Incredibly, there are around 100 billion stars in the galaxy, and it’s likely that for every star there are one or more planets. This means that there are more planets than stars, which makes sense because planets sometimes orbit stars—just like the Earth orbits the Sun.
Do Planets Orbit Stars?
It’s a common misconception that planets orbit stars, but they don’t. Planets orbit around the point where the mass between them and another object is balanced enough to allow for an orbit. Sometimes, that object just happens to be a star, but it also be other celestial bodies. This point of mass is called the a barrycenter.
Rouge Planets
Planets Can Be Players Too
Planets that aren’t bound to a star will not be in an orbit; therefor, they will float aimlessly around space. These planets are called rogue planets.
Some of these loner planets may have been part of a planetary system once, but for whatever reason, they were ejected from their orbit (or kicked out if you’re feeling comedic).
We’re not really certain why planets go rogue, but an idea is that other stars who are in close proximity can pull a planet off it’s orbit with it’s strong gravitational pull (or prowess, if you want to keep the comedy going).
What’s The Deal with Rouge Planets?
Imagine being a planet who is part of a planetary system.
For millions of years, you’re dancing in an orbit around your star—the light of you’re life. Then one day, another star with bright red and orange colors comes by and pulls you away from your orbit, and just when you think you’re about to enter a dance with this new star, you end floating aimlessly into space.
The first star won’t have you back, and it would it seem that the newest star never wanted to tango in the first place.
Now, everybody calls you a loner and a nomad. But you know what? It doesn’t matter, because although you’re not in an orbit with any particular star, you still interact with other celestial bodies you pass by; in fact, sometimes the gravitational force from these bodies changes your direction and keep you moving into different places (or spaces)—your just not tied down to any particular one.
Yes, you are the rouge planet.
3. You Can Never Actually See A Star; You Can Only See The Light They Give Off
One of the most interesting facts about stars is that we don’t actually see them.
It’s easy to think that you are seeing a star when you look up into the night sky, but don’t be fooled—what you are really looking at is the light that stars give off.
In reality, stars are too far away to see with your naked eye, and even if you were to look through a telescope, you are not actually seeing the sun, moon, or any other celestial object—all you are seeing is their light.
You can only see objects that light has reached the surface of. For example, If you can view Mars with a telescope, then it is only because the light reflected from Mars has reached the distance your telescope can show you. In reality, Mars is way too see with your naked eyes.
A light year is the distance light travels in one year. The stars you see when you look up at the night sky is about 1000 light years away; therefor, they take about 1000 years to reach the Earth, and when they do, they reach your eyes.
But space as a huge place, and some stars are much further than that.
4. The light From Some Stars Travel For Billions of Years and Still Haven’t Reached Us
Light has a speed of 186,000 miles per second.
To put that into perspective, light can travel from the Earth to the Moon in 1.28 seconds, and in that same amount of time, it could travel back and forth between New York and Los Angeles 36 times!
There are stars in deep space—not within our galaxy—that are so far away, that their light has not reached the Earth yet.
If you’re ever feeling down just remember: a star couldn’t reach you by itself, so it sent off its light to travel for thousands of years—just to give you motivation and wonder when you need it most.
5. When You Look at a Star, You Are Looking at The Past
Let’s say that you go outside and begin to look at a star in the night sky.
Since you’ve read our 10 interesting facts about stars, you know that you are only seeing the light of that star, and not the star itself.
If you can only see the light that a star gives off, and it takes a thousand years for that light to reach the Earth, then you are actually seeing that star as it was 1000 years ago.
For you to see what that star looks like right now, you’d need to wait another thousand years—because the light it’s emitting right now would take another thousand years to reach you.
6. It’s Theoretically Possible That Some Stars You See Might Not Exist Anymore
Some stars in deep space are millions of light years away meaning that it will take millions of years for their light to reach the point where you can see them with a telescope.
Stars typically live for a few million years, and If some stars sent out their light a few million years ago, it’s theoretically possible that some of these stars have died and aren’t there anymore. Why?
Because the light has already left the star and is travelling into space, but the star is still in its orbit in a galaxy far far away (unless the poor sucker went rouge).
The light and the star are two independent things. So, you can be looking at a star, but for all you know, that star might have died.
But although it may be gone, you are still able to look at it’s light—it gives you inspiration and leaves you in wonder for as long as you live.
| Star Size | Lifespan |
| Massive Stars | A few million years |
| Medium-sized Stars | Approx. 10 billion years |
| Small Stars | Tens to hundreds of billions of years |
8. Stars Are One of The Few Things in Existence That Give Off Their Own Light
Planets, moons, asteroids, and even most living things don’t produce light on their own; they reflect light from celestial objects that give off light—like stars.
In other word’s, you can only see other objects largely because stars exist. Without light from stars, your eyes would never be able to capture these objects (or people or thing’s).
Here’s a bonus to go with our 10 facts about stars:
the only reason we can see anything on Earth is because light reflects off objects and into our eyes, and before we invented light bulbs, most of that light came from stars.
Other than infrared and thermal radiation—which can only be seen with some cameras—we as human beings don’t even produce our own light.
9. Stars Are Constantly Battling Gravity, and Gravity Always Wins (Thankfully)
Stars are in a constant battle with gravity throughout their lives.
The core of a star burns hydrogen, and this fuel keeps the star stable by generating an outward pressure. At the same time, gravity is always trying to crush the star by pulling matter inward—creating inward pressure.
Eventually, the star runs out of energy and gives into the pressure where it is swallowed by gravity and implodes.
This explosion spreads elements throughout the galaxy, and elements were responsible for the creation of all matter.
A star literally had to die for you to be here right now.
10. The Final Fact About Stars: A Star Created the Largest Ocean In The Universe—and it’s Floating In Space
The largest body of water in the universe is 140 trillion times the size of all of Earth’s oceans combined, and it’s floating in space around a quasar.
What does this have to do with stars?
Sometimes when stars explode, they create a region in space where gravity is so strong that nothing—not even light—can escape it. This is called a black hole—a term you’re probably familiar with.
The largest body of water in the universe is surrounding a type of black hole called a quasar and it’s moving through space at this very moment.
If Light Cannot Escape a Black Hole, Then How Do We See it?
Nothing can escape a black hole, not even light.
This means that black holes neither produce their own light nor can they reflect it; however, we can see black holes from the lights that are close to it.
This is exactly what happened in 2019 when the first image of a black hole was captured in a galaxy 53.49 million light years away (Galaxy M87).
You see how the red colour looks as though it’s moving? That’s because the gravitational force of the black hole is bending the light passing near it.
In this way, we are able to view black holes because of the lights around it.
IC Inspiration
There are so many cool things about stars, but the most amazing is that although they give off a finite amount of light, they still manage to give an infinite amount of knowledge and wisdom.
If I had to make the comparison, knowledge is like the light that stars shoot out, and wisdom is the star itself.
The pursuit of knowledge gives everything a visual—just like the pursuit of light allows us to see everything.
In knowledge there is always another thing to learn—just like there is always another object that light touches.
Every time you see something, you see another thing with it, did you notice?
Just like every time you learn something, there is something else to learn that is connected to it.
Knowledge searches for answers and it all it finds is questions, but wisdom is quite different.
Wisdom searches for questions and all it finds is answers.
In time, knowledge becomes wisdom like stars become life, and I would argue that if the universe is infinite, then what we can know is also infinite.
And if the universe is finite, then it’s possible for humanity to get to the point where we have all the answers.
But What Point Am I Trying to Make?
Whatever the universe is, that’s what we are. Stars tell a story that we come from the universe. It might even be possible that we come to know whether the universe is finite or not through knowing stars, and when we do, we’ll have another question to ask…
By minds much wiser with time that has passed.
If engineers start up a hypersonic engine at the University of Central Florida (UCF) and you’re not around to hear it, does it make a sound?
Hypersonic travel is anything that travels by at least 5x more than the speed of sound. A team of aerospace engineers at UCF have created the first stable hypersonic engine, and it can have you travelling across the world at 13,000 miles per hour!
Compared to the 575 mph a typical jet flies, commercial hypersonic travel is a first-class trade-off anybody would be willing to make.
In fact, a flight from Tampa, FL to California would take nearly 5 hours on a typical commercial jet; whereas, with a commercial hypersonic aircraft, it will only take 10 minutes.
So here’s the question: When can we expect commercial hypersonic air flights?
When we stop combusting engines and start detonating them! With a little background information, you’ll be shocked to know why.
Challenges and Limitations of Commercial Hypersonic Travel
The challenge with commercial hypersonic air travel is that maintaining combustion to keep the movement of an aircraft going in a stable way becomes difficult. The difficulty comes from both the combustion and aerodynamics that happens in such high speeds.
What Engineering Challenges Arise in Controlling and Stabilizing Hypersonic Aircraft at Such High Speeds?
Combustion is the process of burning fuel. It happens when fuel mixes with air, creating a reaction that releases energy in the form of heat. This mixture of air and fuel create combustion, and combustion is what generates the thrust needed for the movement of most vehicles.
But hypersonic vehicles are quite different. A combustion engine is not very efficient for vehicles to achieve stable hypersonic speeds. For a hypersonic aircraft to fly commercially, a detonation engine is needed.
Detonation can thrust vehicles into much higher speeds than combustion, so creating a detonation engine is important for commercial hypersonic air travel. Detonation engines were thought of as impossible for a very long time, not because you couldn’t create them, but because stabilizing them is difficult.
On one hand, detonation can greatly speed up a vehicle or aircraft, but on the other hand, both the power and the speed it creates makes stabilizing the engine even harder.
How Do Aerodynamic Forces Impact the Design and Operation of Hypersonic Vehicles?
Aerodynamics relates to the motion of air around an object—in this case, an aircraft. As you can imagine, friction between an aircraft and the air it travels through generates a tremendous amount of heat. The faster the vehicle, the more heat created.
Commercial hypersonic vehicles must be able to manage the heat created at hypersonic speeds to keep from being damaged altogether.
Hypersonic aircraft do exist, but only in experimental forms such as in military application. NASA’s Hyper-X program develops some of these vehicles, one of which is the X-43A which could handle hypersonic speeds of Mach 6.8 (6.8x faster than the speed of sound).
| Mach Number Range | Name | |
| 1.0 Mach | Sonic | Exactly the seed of sound. |
| 1.2-5 Mach | Supersonic | Faster than the speed of sound, characterized by shock waves. |
| >5.0 | Hypersonic | More than 5x speed of sound, with extreme aerodynamic heating. |
But vehicles for commercial hypersonic air travel is still a work in progress
Engineers say that we will have these vehicles by 2050, but it may even be sooner that that. Here’s why.
Future Prospects and Developments in Hypersonic Travel
The worlds first stable hypersonic engine was created back in 2020 by a team of aerospace engineers at UCF, and they have continued to refine the technology since. This work is revolutionizing hypersonic technology in a way that had been thought of as impossible just a few years ago.
To create a stable engine for commercial hypersonic air travel, an engine must first be created that can handle detonation, but not only that, this engine must actually create more detonations while controlling.
This is because in order to achieve hypersonic speeds and then keep it at that level, there needs to be repeated detonations thrusting the vehicle forward.
The development at UCF did just that. They created a Rotating Detonation Engine (RDE) called the HyperReact.
What Technological Advancements are Driving the Development of Commercial Hypersonic Travel?
When combustion happens, a large amount of energy creates a high-pressure wave known as a shockwave. This compression creates higher pressure and temperatures which inject fuel into the air stream. This mixture of air and fuel create combustion, and combustion is what generates the thrust needed for a vehicles movement.
Rotating Detonation Engines (RDEs) are quite different. The shockwave generated from the detonation are carried to the “test” section of the HyperReact where the wave repeatedly triggers detonations faster than the speed of sound (picture Wile E. Coyote lighting up his rocket to catch up to Road Runner).
Theoretically, this engine can allow for hypersonic air travel at speeds of up to 17 Mach (17x the speed of sound).
Hypersonic technology with the development of the Rotating Detonating Engine will pave the way for commercial hypersonic air travel. But even before that happens, RED engines will be used for space launches and eventually space exploration.
NASA has already begun testing 3D-printed Rotating Detonating Rocket Engines (RDRE) in 2024.
How Soon Can We Expect Commercial Hypersonic Travel to Become a Reality?
Since we now have the worlds first stable hypersonic engine, the worlds first commercial hypersonic flight won’t be far off. Professor Kareem Ahmed, UCF professor and team lead of the experimental HyperReact prototype, say’s its very likely we will have commercial hypersonic travel by 2050.
Its important to note that hypersonic air flight has happened before, but only in experimental form. NASA’s X-43A aircraft flew for nearly 8,000 miles at Mach 10 levels. The difference is that the X-43A flew on scramjets and not Rotating Detonation Engines (RDEs).
Scramjets are combustion engines also capable of hypersonic speeds but, which are less efficient than Rotating Detonation Engines (RDEs) because they rely on combustion, not continuous detonation.
This makes RDE’s the better choice for commercial hypersonic travel, and it explains why NASA has been testing them for space launches.
One thing is certain:
We can shoot for the stars but that shot needs to be made here on Earth… If we can land on the moon, we’ll probably have commercial hypersonic travel soon.
IC INSPIRATION
The first successful aviation flight took place 26 years after the first patented aviation engine was created; and the first successful spaceflight happened 35 years after the first successful rocket launch.
If the world’s first stable hypersonic engine was created in 2020, how long after until we have the world’s first Mach 5+ commercial flight?
| 1876-1903 | Nicolaus Otto developed the four-stroke combustible engine in 1876 that became the basis for the Wright brothers performing the first flight ever in 1903. |
| 1926-1961 | Robert H. Goddard’s first successful rocket launch in 1926 paved way for the first human spaceflight by Yuri Gagarin in 1961 |
| 2020-2050 | The first stable RDE was created in 2020 and history is in the making! |
Shout out to Professor Kareem Ahmed and his team at UCF. They’ve set the precedent for history in the making.
Imagine travelling overseas without the long flight and difficult hauls, or RDREs so great, they reduce costs and increase the efficiency of space travel. When time seems to be moving fast; hypersonic speeds is something I think everyone can get behind.
Would you like to know about some more amazing discoveries? Check out the largest ocean in the universe!
Motivational
3D Printed Organs Save Woman’s Life and Accidentally Pave Way for Biology-Powered Artificial Intelligence
A Great Advancement for 3D Printed Organs
3D printing in hospitals is nothing new, but for the first time in history, a woman received a 3D printed windpipe that became a fully functional without the need for immunosuppressants.
Immunosuppressants are used during organ transplants to keep the body from attacking the organ that it see’s as foreign. This means that the organ the woman received was organic and personalized for her, as if she had it her entire life.
This mind-blowing news shows that we are now closer than ever to being able to create full-scale, functional, and complicated 3D printed organs like a heart or lung.
But what about creating a brain?
3D Printing and Organoid Intelligence
Organoid Intelligence, or OI, is an emerging field of study that is focused on creating bio-computers by merging AI with real brain cells called organoids. Organoids are miniature and simplified versions of organs grown in a lab dish. They mimic some of the functions of fully grown organs, like brains. The idea behind OI is that by increase the cells organoids contain, they may begin to function like fully grown brains, and can then be used alongside computers to enhance Artificial Intelligence.
It turns out that the world’s first 3D printed windpipe was so successful that we are now closer than ever to creating the world first organoid intelligent bio-computer.
Here’s why.
The World’s First 3D Printed Windpipe
Transplant patients usually have to take a long course of immunosuppressants that help the body accept the organ. The body see’s the organ as foreign, and so the immune system begins to attack the new organ, which can lead to more complicated health problems.
The woman in her 50’s who received the 3D printed windpipe did so without any immunosuppressants. In just 6 months after the operation, the windpipe healed and began to form blood vessels, and of course, more cells.
The current goal of scientists in the field of Organoid Intelligence is to increase organoids from 100,000 cells to 10 million, and this begs the question:
Can 3D printing help build bio-computers by creating better organoids?
Can 3D Printing Help Build Bio-Computers?
The worlds first 3D printed windpipe shows that advances in 3D printing can create better functioning organs, and this implies that we can also create more intricate organoids to help in the field of Organoid Intelligence and eventually create bio-computers.
Its important to understand the distinction between 3D printing an organ and printing something like a tool or musical instrument.
The difference between printing an organ and printing a non-biological structure depends on the ink being used in the 3D printer.
3D printing non-organic structures will require ink that can be made from plastic, plastic alternatives like PLA, metal, and ceramics. On the other hand, 3D printed organs are made from ink called “bio-inks” that are a mixture of living cells and biocompatible substances like the ones mentioned above.
In the case of the 3D printed windpipe, the ink used was partly formed from the stem and cartilage cells collected from the woman’s own nose and ear. It was because of this bio-ink that the woman’s body did not reject the organ.
The Problem With 3D Printed Organs
Organs created with bioprinting need to function like real organs for the body to safely use them, and this does not happen right away.
The 3D printed organs need to go beyond just a printed structure and become living. They need to form tissues and cells that help create biological functionality, and forming these cells take time.
The problem with 3D bioprinting is that the ink used for the printer needs to be effective at doing this, and if it is not, the organ may not stay functional.
The ink used for the 3D-printed windpipe was made from part bio-ink and part polycaprolactone (PCL), a synthetic polyester material.
PCL is a used in the 3D ink for the purposes of maintain the structure of the windpipe, while the bio-ink is used to help the 3D printed organ to become fully biological in time so that the body can use it.
The PCL maintains the structure while the bio-ink does it’s thing.
The problem with PCL is that it is biodegradable and won’t last forever. In fact, doctors don’t expect the 3D-printed windpipe to last more than five years.
The Solution is Better Bio-ink
The 3D printed windpipe was not just made using PCL, but it contained bio-ink made from living cells too. The hope is that the living cells in the 3D printed organ—which came from the bio-ink—will assist the patient’s body in creating a fully functional windpipe to replace the PCL’s function.
If the organ begins to form cells and tissue by itself, then the function of PCL will be replaced by the biological function of the organ that is growing.
The organ becomes real!
Bio-Ink helps the 3D printed organ mimic it’s natural environment of cells and eventually become a real organ.
3D Printing Organs Will Save Lives
Every year, thousands of people need a lifesaving organ transplant. These transplants cost hundreds of thousand of dollars, and many people who need them don’t make it passed the waiting list.
3D Printing organs could give people the incredible opportunity to receive the help they need when they need it, saving thousands of lives annually, and millions of lives in the long run.
As advances are made in 3D Bioprinting, they will also be made in areas of Organoid and Artificial Intelligence, which shows that the progress being made in one place will once again shine its way to another.
IC Inspiration:
If we can create better forms of bio-ink and produce fully functional organs using 3D printing, we will fundamentally change the entire health care system.
17 people die every single day waiting for an organ transplant, many of whom can’t afford the transplant in the first place.
The biggest hope in the world for everyone that is affected by this is that organs can be produced when they are needed, ending the transplant shortage and saving the incredible lives of millions of people in the future.
We have seen from this story that personalized organs made from a patients own cells can stop the bodies rejection of organs. This shows us that there will come a time when there will be no need for immunosuppressants therapy.
Even more amazing is that doctors use 3D printing to practice performing a surgery so that they can sharpen their skills before the surgery. This also helps them find better pathways for performing the surgery.
Think about it… If you can’t use a real organ to practice on, then 3D organs are the next best thing.
The production of organs, the irrelevancy of immunosuppressants, and more efficient surgery will eventually drive down the prices of transplants, and 3D printing organs in the future will not only save lives, but it will also increase the quality of those lives afterwards.
That is the sort of world we can create. It’s amazing to think of all the good that is being done right here, right now.
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