Skip to main content

Scientists Discover Way to Send Information into Black Holes Without Using Energy

3 comments

Scientists Grow Human Ears in the Lab—Closer Than Ever to Reality

Imagine a world where someone who loses an ear in an accident—or is born with a congenital deformity—could have a new, fully functional ear grown in a lab. This futuristic vision is coming closer to reality, thanks to a groundbreaking study by researchers from ETH Zurich, the Friedrich Miescher Institute in Basel, and the Cantonal Hospital of Lucerne.

For more than 30 years, scientists have sought ways to grow human ears using a patient’s own cells. The challenge has always been to create tissue that is not only the right shape but also elastic, durable, and biologically compatible. In 2016, ETH Professor Marcy Zenobi-Wong and her team made headlines with a 3D-printed ear. Now, the same group, collaborating with other Swiss institutions, has moved another step forward, producing ear cartilage in the laboratory that maintains its structure and shows promising elasticity in animal models.

The research, published in Advanced Functional Materials under the title “Tissue Engineered Human Elastic Cartilage From Primary Auricular Chondrocytes for Ear Reconstruction,” demonstrates how human ear cartilage cells can be expanded, matured, and shaped to resemble natural ear tissue. While a key component—fully matured elastin—is still missing, the findings mark a significant milestone for tissue engineering.

Why This Research Matters

The need for artificial ear reconstruction is pressing. Fires, accidents, and other injuries often leave people with partial or total ear loss. Moreover, some children are born with congenital malformations of the outer ear, a condition called microtia, which affects about four in every 10,000 births. Currently, reconstruction typically relies on harvesting cartilage from a patient’s rib. While effective, this method is invasive, painful, and can leave scars or deformities in the chest area. Additionally, the reconstructed ear often feels stiffer than a natural ear, limiting its flexibility.

Philipp Fisch, lead author of the study and senior researcher in the Tissue Engineering and Biofabrication Group at ETH Zurich, explains the central goal of their work: “We aren’t implanting soft tissue in the hope that it remains stable in the body. Instead, we want to achieve that stability in the laboratory.” Achieving this stability requires reproducing the elasticity of natural ear cartilage, a property largely determined by a protein called elastin.

From Tissue Sample to 3D-Printed Ear

The journey begins with a tiny sample of ear cartilage, often taken during corrective surgeries. From just a three-millimeter piece, researchers can isolate around 100,000 cells. However, a full-sized ear requires several hundred million cells, so the cells are cultured and multiplied in the lab. They are placed in a specialized nutrient solution that supplies oxygen and nutrients, while researchers carefully control the growth environment to ensure uniform tissue development.

Growth factors are used to encourage the cells to divide, but another challenge arises: preventing the cells from turning into fibroblasts. Fibroblasts, a type of connective tissue cell, produce type I collagen and can form soft, scar-like fibrocartilage. Natural ear cartilage, on the other hand, contains type II collagen and elastin, which provide its characteristic stiffness and flexibility. The researchers needed the cells to develop along the correct pathway.

Once the cell population is large enough, the cells are mixed with a gel-like substance called bioink. Using a 3D printer, the researchers shape the material into the complex contours of the human ear. Immediately after printing, the tissue is very soft, but the process does not end there. The printed ears are placed in incubators for several weeks, receiving a continuous supply of nutrients to allow the tissue to mature. During this period, the cells begin producing type II collagen, elastin, and glycosaminoglycans—sugar-like molecules that help bind water and strengthen cartilage.

Testing in Animal Models

After roughly nine weeks of lab maturation, the researchers implanted the printed ear constructs under the skin of rats to test their stability and elasticity. Over six weeks, the artificial ears maintained their shape and demonstrated mechanical properties similar to natural cartilage. Fisch points out, “We optimized cell proliferation, adjusted material properties, increased cell density, and controlled the maturation environment more effectively. This combination of factors was decisive for our success.”

Despite this achievement, fully mature elastin—a crucial component for long-term flexibility—remains elusive. The tissue displayed changes over time, indicating that the elastin network needs further stabilization. Creating a stable elastin network is essential for ensuring that the artificial ear can maintain its shape and resilience for years.

The Global Challenge

Worldwide, only a handful of research groups are attempting to produce elastic ear cartilage. The work is painstaking and time-intensive. A single experiment can last three to four months, involving complex trials to test different conditions and understand how cells behave in three dimensions. Finding the biological “blueprint” for elastin formation is the critical step that remains unsolved.

Fisch and his team have been pursuing this challenge for more than a decade. “Swift progress is rare to see in tissue engineering,” he notes. Yet, the research has immediate relevance. Parents of children with microtia have already contacted the team, eager to know when lab-grown ears might become available for clinical trials.

Looking Ahead

The researchers are optimistic. If they can decode the blueprint for elastin network formation within the next five years, clinical studies could follow. This would involve structured testing procedures, regulatory approvals, and careful trials to ensure safety and efficacy.

“Our current study provides a snapshot of how close we are to recreating the human ear,” Fisch concludes. “It shows the progress made and highlights what remains to be solved—primarily the stabilization of elastin. Once we achieve this, lab-grown ears could become a life-changing solution for many patients.”

The implications of this research extend beyond ear reconstruction. Success in producing stable, elastic tissue could pave the way for creating other complex organs and tissues, bringing regenerative medicine closer to everyday clinical practice. For those who have suffered trauma or congenital deformities, the promise of a fully functional, lab-grown ear is now closer than ever.

Reference:
Philipp Fisch et al., Tissue Engineered Human Elastic Cartilage From Primary Auricular Chondrocytes for Ear Reconstruction, Advanced Functional Materials (2026). DOI: 10.1002/adfm.202530253

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular

Scientists Discover Way to Send Information into Black Holes Without Using Energy

For years, scientists believed that adding even one qubit (a unit of quantum information) to a black hole needed energy. This was based on the idea that a black hole’s entropy must increase with more information, which means it must gain energy. But a new study by Jonah Kudler-Flam and Geoff Penington changes that thinking. They found that quantum information can be teleported into a black hole without adding energy or increasing entropy . This works through a process called black hole decoherence , where “soft” radiation — very low-energy signals — carry information into the black hole. In their method, the qubit enters the black hole while a new pair of entangled particles (like Hawking radiation) is created. This keeps the total information balanced, so there's no violation of the laws of physics. The energy cost only shows up when information is erased from the outside — these are called zerobits . According to Landauer’s principle, erasing information always needs energy. But ...
3 comments
Read more

Black Holes That Never Dies

Black holes are powerful objects in space with gravity so strong that nothing can escape them. In the 1970s, Stephen Hawking showed that black holes can slowly lose energy by giving off tiny particles. This process is called Hawking radiation . Over time, the black hole gets smaller and hotter, and in the end, it disappears completely. But new research by Menezes and his team shows something different. Using a theory called Loop Quantum Gravity (LQG) , they studied black holes with quantum corrections. In their model, the black hole does not vanish completely. Instead, it stops shrinking when it reaches a very small size. This leftover is called a black hole remnant . They also studied something called grey-body factors , which affect how much energy escapes from a black hole. Their findings show that the black hole cools down and stops losing mass once it reaches a minimum mass . This new model removes the idea of a “singularity” at the center of the black hole and gives us a better ...
Post a Comment
Read more

How Planetary Movements Might Explain Sunspot Cycles and Solar Phenomena

Sunspots, dark patches on the Sun's surface, follow a cycle of increasing and decreasing activity every 11 years. For years, scientists have relied on the dynamo model to explain this cycle. According to this model, the Sun's magnetic field is generated by the movement of plasma and the Sun's rotation. However, this model does not fully explain why the sunspot cycle is sometimes unpredictable. Lauri Jetsu, a researcher, has proposed a new approach. Jetsu’s analysis, using a method called the Discrete Chi-square Method (DCM), suggests that planetary movements, especially those of Earth, Jupiter, and Mercury, play a key role in driving the sunspot cycle. His theory focuses on Flux Transfer Events (FTEs), where the magnetic fields of these planets interact with the Sun’s magnetic field. These interactions could create the sunspots and explain other solar phenomena like the Sun’s magnetic polarity reversing every 11 years. The Sun, our closest star, has been a subject of scient...
Post a Comment
Read more