3 things you should know about beets, satellites, and robotic surgery

A new way to “beet” slippery winter roads 

Canadians are familiar with the wintry ritual of spreading de-icing salt on walkways and roads, to keep them from getting too slippery. Though it's effective for preventing falls and accidents, there are many drawbacks to road salt. Beyond staining our boots and rusting our cars and bikes, salty water can cause serious environmental degradation. Now, in an effort to reduce their use of salt, some Canadian cities have started using beet molasses — a by-product of the sugar refining industry — to boost salt's de-icing power. 
 
Our table sugar, also known as sucrose, mainly comes from sugar cane and sugar beets. Much larger than the garden variety beets some of us love to eat, sugar beets are white in colour. To extract the sugar, processors mash up the beets to make juice, which is then thickened through evaporation. As the liquid becomes more concentrated, the sugar crystalizes and can be collected. The leftover pulp becomes pelleted animal feed, while the beet molasses (the final syrup with most of its sugar extracted) can become the magic ingredient to make road salt more effective.
 
Calcium chloride, or road salt, is effective in temperatures down to -10 C, and becomes ineffective below -20 C. But by pre-wetting the salt with diluted beet molasses, the mixture will work to about -32 C. A pre-application of beet fluid also helps salt stick to the road longer, reducing salt bounce and runoff. While it is about three times more expensive than road salt, the higher efficacy and reduced need for reapplication cuts the costs of labour, fuel for trucks, and salt. Due to the high cost of the beet juice solution, those cities testing it currently reserve it for higher-risk areas that freeze up more easily, such as bridges and overpasses. 
 
This new application for a food by-product shows promise for reducing the environmental impact of our de-icing operations. However, research efforts are still ongoing to determine whether this substance has any unintended environmental effects, such as affecting the aquatic food chain. If beet molasses proves to be viable on the environmental side — and if a domestic supply can be secured (currently, there is just one sugar beet factory in Canada) — we may see more cities adopt this unexpected ingredient in their de-icing arsenal in the future. 

By Renée-Claude Goulet

Domo arigato, Dr. Roboto

“Thank you very much, Mr. Roboto…For doing the jobs nobody wants to.” 

These renowned lyrics — from the classic 80s hit song, Mr. Roboto by Styx — still ring true today. Humans rely on robots for the tasks that people can’t, shouldn’t, or simply don’t want to do. Robots are very good at performing repetitive tasks, since they don’t get bored, distracted, or slow down. They are also ideal for hazardous or intensive tasks, since they don’t get carpal tunnel syndrome, experience toxicity, or need to take breaks. More precise than humans, robots can perform tasks at a consistent level of speed and accuracy. 

As technology improves, robots are also becoming more important and widespread in jobs where there are simply not enough people to accomplish the work that needs doing. In the wake of COVID-19, wait times for surgical procedures have skyrocketed. Imagine if robots could take some of the pressure off health care professionals. As it turns out, that future might not be very far away. 

In January 2022, a team from Johns Hopkins University reported that their Smart Tissue Autonomous Robot (STAR) successfully reconnected a severed pig intestine without help from a human. Their STAR performed a procedure called a laparoscopic small-bowel anastomosis. The name helps explain why this particular procedure is so challenging for humans, and such a good candidate for a robotic surgery:

• Laparoscopic: instead of cutting someone wide open to perform a surgical procedure, a laparoscopic surgery is performed through a tiny hole. This means that the surgeon has very little space to move, and can’t directly see what is going on. 
• Small-bowel: the surgery is to repair the small intestine. Any mistake could cause a leak in the intestine, which could kill the patient.
• Anastomosis: reconnecting two ends of an intestine is an extremely challenging and repetitive task. As the surgeon sews the intestine together, the stitches must be absolutely precise and consistent — otherwise they could leave a hole in their repair. 

Not only did STAR successfully complete the procedure, it did a better job than the human surgeons. This result is exciting and the implications even more so. Robotic surgeons allow doctors to perform delicate and complex procedures that may be difficult or impossible with other methods. Robotic surgery also allows more procedures to be done laparoscopically — leading to fewer patient complications, quicker recovery times, less pain, and shorter wait times.

At this rate, Styx may have to release a new song — in honour of Doctor Roboto.

By Michelle Campbell Mekarski