October 4, 2025 • 21 mins
Imagine fixing a fracture with a steady hand and a smart pen. We open the lab door on a handheld “bone printer” that lays down bio‑ink directly at the injury site, promising faster healing, fewer imaging steps, and the chance to customize strength and shape in minutes. If you’ve ever waited days for scans and fabrication, the appeal is obvious: hydroxyapatite to encourage bone growth, PCL as a biocompatible scaffold that melts at low heat, cools fast, and slowly yields to living tissue. Early tests on rabbit femurs outperformed bone cement and showed no infections over 12 weeks, and the potential to embed antibiotics or growth factors hints at on‑the‑spot, personalized implants that could transform orthopedics, trauma care, and remote medicine.
Then we pivot from bones to benevolence with one big question: do pets change how people give? Using a decade of 787,877,198 donation transactions, we map the patterns. Non‑pet owners tend to donate larger totals, yet pet owners give more frequently, keeping support flowing between big gifts. Cat owners spread donations across more causes and contribute more overall than dog owners, while dog people still outpace non‑owners in cadence. A machine‑learning model puts pet ownership as the fourth strongest predictor of giving—behind income, education, and gender—suggesting pets reflect social ties and daily acts of care that nudge generosity. We also unpack identity signals and what they mean for smarter, kinder fundraising that respects budgets and habits.
It’s a journey from bio‑materials to behavioral data, but the throughline is practical empathy: tools that speed healing, and insights that make community support steadier and more inclusive. If you enjoy science that touches daily life—medicine you can hold, and generosity you can measure—this one’s for you.
Our all links to social media and more!
For Science, Empathy, and Cuteness!
Being Kind is a Superpower.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:09):
Hello, science enthusiasts.
I'm Jason Zakoski.
SPEAKER_01 (00:12):
And I'm Chris Zikoski.
SPEAKER_00 (00:14):
We're the pet parents of Bunsen, Beaker,
Bernoulli, and Ginger.
SPEAKER_01 (00:18):
The science animals on social media.
If you love science, and youlove pets, you've come to the
right spot.
SPEAKER_00 (00:25):
So put on your safety glasses.
SPEAKER_01 (00:27):
And hold on to your tail.
SPEAKER_00 (00:29):
This is the Science Podcast.
Hi, welcome back to the SciencePodcast.
We hope you're happy and healthyout there.
This is episode 28 of seasonseven.
Chris, how are you doing?
SPEAKER_01 (00:41):
I'm okay.
How are you?
SPEAKER_00 (00:43):
We're heading into some pretty uncertain time, you
and I in our day job asteachers.
SPEAKER_01 (00:49):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (00:49):
So I thought we could just talk about that real
fast.
It really looks like on Monday,our entire province, Alberta,
all the teachers will be onstrike.
So I just thought I shouldmention that.
Like it's a big thing for usright now.
SPEAKER_01 (01:03):
It's unprecedented.
But we did receive an email thatthere are some talks happening,
which I'm excited about.
But the email also said thatstrike action does commence on
Monday.
But again, my crystal ball isbroken.
I don't know how to fix itbecause I cannot predict the
future.
SPEAKER_00 (01:22):
No, not at all.
We can just hope for the best,and I really hope it's over
soon.
But that's just what happens inlife sometimes.
Sometimes you've got to fightfor your rights, and that's
what's happening right now.
Yep.
If you're an Alberta teacherlistening, we're standing with
you in solidarity.
All right, let's get on with theshow, Chris.
SPEAKER_01 (01:42):
Let's get on with the show.
SPEAKER_00 (01:44):
Yeah.
In Science News, we've got ahopeful article that is talking
about a kind of a breakthrough,but a future breakthrough about
3D printing bones, which iscrazy, actually.
And in pet science, we're goingto be talking about how pet
ownership may or may notinfluence your don't your where
(02:06):
pet ownership may or may notinfluence your philanthropy.
So what you choose to give away.
Which is interesting when youbreak it down.
All right, let's get to theshow.
SPEAKER_01 (02:15):
There's no time like Science Time.
SPEAKER_00 (02:19):
This week in Science News, we're gonna talk about 3D
printing bone graphs, which iswild.
Do you know why I picked thisarticle, Chris?
SPEAKER_01 (02:29):
Because you've never broken a bone in your body.
SPEAKER_00 (02:31):
That too, but because of the word 3D printing.
SPEAKER_01 (02:35):
Oh, yes.
You are an avid 3D printer, andwhen you get talking about it,
you talk about your 3D printingbed, you call it a sling bed.
SPEAKER_00 (02:46):
No, that's a bed slinger?
No, that's what they used to be.
SPEAKER_01 (02:50):
Oh, what is it now?
SPEAKER_00 (02:53):
It's a core XY.
It's okay.
Everybody's eyes glaze over whenI get excited and start talking
about 3D printers, except forthe robotics teacher at my
school.
When I talk to her, we getgoing, and I love it's so fun,
but everybody just wants us toshut up, I think, because they
don't care.
SPEAKER_01 (03:12):
But you are so excited when new models come
out.
You you go over the specs withme, and you're like, but this
one and this one's print bed issmaller, but it prints faster,
and then you can print in colorall the things you're just so
excited, and I listen, but it'svery similar to when Adam was
talking about CPUs and GPUs, andhe was drawing pictures of
(03:35):
schematics of the computer, andI was just like, Oh, yes.
And I was trying to keep up, butbecause I am passionate about
whatever you're passionateabout, like listening to your
passion, that's what I love.
And Adam loves computers, sohe's talking about them, and I'm
trying to share in that joybecause I think that's
important.
I may never know what a CPU GPUis ever again, but you know
(03:58):
what?
I shared in that moment, and Ivalue I value people talking
about what brings them joy.
SPEAKER_00 (04:03):
There you go.
3D printing has taken a hugeleap forward in the last year or
two with these box printers.
They look like a box, and thismay relate to what we're gonna
be talking about in the sciencearticle.
But the reason why there's beenthis huge leap forward is the
print time has been drasticallyreduced because these new
(04:24):
printers just fly.
Every time I watch this, I'vegot one of the newer ones, it
feels like it's just gonna flyapart and explode because the
thing is moving so quickly.
But it really cuts down thetime.
When if I want to printsomething, it prints it in a
hurry.
I have a full, I have a fullsize Walter Wedd, I have a full
size Walter Whitehead.
(04:45):
Remember when I printed that oflike when he's got the hat on
from Breaking Bad?
SPEAKER_01 (04:49):
How do you do that?
SPEAKER_00 (04:51):
That's on my front lab bench and the kids love it.
That printed overnight.
That would have taken like daysand days on the old printers.
SPEAKER_01 (04:58):
But the other thing with the old printer, when
you're talking about speed andit's going days and days, and
then it gets three-quarters ofthe way done, and then it screws
up.
SPEAKER_00 (05:08):
Oh, I hate that.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (05:10):
Yeah.
So this is much better.
SPEAKER_00 (05:12):
Yeah, way more reliable than new 3D printers.
So there have been advancementsin 3D printing of plastics,
which I do, and perhaps 3Dprinting bones.
Chris, what's going on withthis?
SPEAKER_01 (05:27):
Jason, it's so cool.
It's a handheld device and itactually applies synthetic bone
graphs directly at the site ofthe injury or defect.
So it's not like what you mightbe thinking of, where you get a
STL file of a bone and thenyou're going to put that in the
body.
But what this core innovationdoes is it eliminates the need
(05:47):
for prior imaging or actuallyfabricating of the graphs
themselves.
So what they did is theymodified a hot glue gun actually
to 3D print bio ink onto rabbitbone fractures.
And there's some pretty coolthings about the bio ink that
I'm sure that we'll get into alittle bit later in the study.
SPEAKER_00 (06:10):
So traditionally, bone graphs are there's a couple
different ways they can do it.
There's an autograph that'swhere they take a bone from the
patient's own body, and that'sbecause it's got your own cells
in it.
It doesn't obviously use thisnew system.
An allograft uses a bone from acadaver, somebody who has died.
There's lots of them, which isgreat.
(06:30):
It's not as good as theautograft.
And then, yes, as you said,Chris, they could image it and
make a synthetic graft.
That's a lab-made material.
So this is quite a bitdifferent.
The bio ink composition is whatmakes this cool.
It's made of the it's made oftwo key the bio ink comp the bio
ink composition is what makesthis really interesting and
(06:50):
cool.
Two key compounds are used inthese 3D printing implants.
One of them is hydroxyapatite,which promotes bone formation
and tissue regeneration.
And another one with the acronymPCL, which is polycaprolactone,
and that is a biocompatibleFDA-approof plastic.
So it is a plastic, and thisacts as a scaffold for bone
(07:13):
growth.
It degrades over time in thebody over several months, and
this allows the natural bonetissues to replace it over time.
So this bio ink sort of Chris,though, works like the plastic
spools that I have that kind ofgoes beepop boop and makes a
thing, but it would be replacedby bone over time.
SPEAKER_01 (07:36):
Mm-hmm.
Jason, you're absolutely right.
Now, the idea of this is todesign something that is easy to
set up and easy to equip and usein a clinical setting.
And it saves time.
So there's no multi-day wait forthe scans and taking time to
fabricate or 3D print.
(07:58):
It actually saves costs becausethere's fewer imaging and lab
steps, and it reduces actuallythe complexity of procedures.
SPEAKER_00 (08:07):
They can actually change the consistency of the
bio ink to optimize forstrength, stiffness, and other
properties, depending on wherethe bone needs to be put in.
Like maybe a leg bone needs tobe a heck of a lot stronger than
an arm bone.
The other cool thing is they canalso incorporate antibiotics
into the bio ink, and this helpsprevent postoperative
(08:28):
infections.
And this just reminds me ofMedigel from Mass Effect.
It just reminds me of someslappy goo you just slap on an
injury and it starts healing youright away.
SPEAKER_01 (08:40):
Exactly.
I like to think of it as superpolysporin.
SPEAKER_00 (08:46):
I guess.
If the polysporin melted,because it does, it needs to get
hot because it's remember, it'sin a modified glue gun.
So somebody instead of, I'm surepeople have used a glue gun
before and probably burntthemselves terribly on a glue
gun, they get hot, really hot.
But this ink melts at 60 degreesCelsius into a liquid, and then
(09:09):
it cools in the body to bodytemperature within 40 seconds.
So you're allowed what thisallows is a lot of adjustments
in direction, angle, and depthas you go.
And as you mentioned, Chris, theapplication is crazy fast, just
a few minutes to get it done.
SPEAKER_01 (09:27):
Yeah, but there is a there is some skeptics saying
even 40 seconds is too long withthat kind of heat for cells and
tissues.
So this is still in a prototypestage where they've had success
testing on the femur fracturesin rabbits.
And they compared that with theregular bone cement controls in
(09:51):
the study.
And the rabbits treated with thebio ink showed better bone
healing and re and regeneration.
And actually, no infections wereobserved during the 12 weeks
following the surgery.
SPEAKER_00 (10:05):
One of the things they're hoping to add to this is
to increase its effectiveness.
You could add growth factorslike hormones to it, other
antibiotics, and therapeuticdrugs.
But as you said, Chris, it'svery much in proof of concept.
And it's not like you can go toMichael's or your local craft
store and pick up a bioink gunwhen Timmy falls off the tire
(10:27):
swing with a broken leg and fixhim that way.
The promise of it is very cool.
That's very super, very sci-fi,very futuristic.
And perhaps in the next decadewe might see parts of that
implemented in hospitals aroundthe world.
SPEAKER_01 (10:41):
I was just gonna say, instead of a 3D printer,
it's a bone printer pen.
SPEAKER_00 (10:45):
Oh.
SPEAKER_01 (10:46):
That's science news for this week.
SPEAKER_00 (10:48):
This week in Pet Science, we're gonna talk about
pet ownership and giving.
Chris, you're generally a moregiving person than me.
I don't think so.
Oh, I think so.
I think so.
I grew up, I grew up, and everydollar I made to buy something,
I had to work very hard for as akid, like mowing lawns all
(11:11):
summer, and I would get twocents.
So when I actually saved upenough money, I was not in a
very giving mood to people thatneeded it.
Um because I had broken my backmowing all summer.
Some of that has actually formedmy opinion as an adult, and I
need to do better at that.
Get in a better giving mood nowthat we're much better off than
(11:32):
we were when we were young.
SPEAKER_01 (11:34):
When we were starving students, yeah, we were
pinching pennies until theyscreamed.
That's definitely for sure.
SPEAKER_00 (11:40):
Yeah, the best we could do was do the odd
fundraiser for the school forAdam and Duncan's things, buy
some girl girl guide cookies and50 minutes.
SPEAKER_01 (11:49):
Jason, I bought all the girl guide cookies this
year, I'm sure.
And then I took them to myschool.
Yes, I had six boxes.
That's sure we did.
And I got boxes for Adam.
He wanted boxes because he lovesthe girl guide cookies, and then
I bought uh another round ofgirl guide cookies, and I took
them to the school, and they'relike, Where are all these girl
(12:09):
guide cookies coming from?
It's quite funny.
SPEAKER_00 (12:12):
I brought some to my school too, and people teachers
love that.
Yeah, so we uh we definitelyhelped fund the girl guides this
year with that.
And then, of course, we did areally fun fundraiser that made
us feel so good, which wedonated like over a hundred
Bunsen stuffies to the CentralAlberto Child Advocacy Center
for the kids there.
(12:32):
That that was that mean that wasreally cool.
SPEAKER_01 (12:36):
That was very good.
SPEAKER_00 (12:37):
We were so glad to do that.
So the study comes in and asksthe question Does pet ownership
influence giving?
So, what we know in previousstudies is that social ties
strongly influence how much youwant to give and your giving
behavior.
There is almost no research onwhether pet ownership can be an
(12:59):
indicator of giving.
And this study took a massivedata set of donor transactions,
and the number is astounding.
787 million.
Did I get that number correct?
Like 787 million donationtransact transactions?
SPEAKER_01 (13:16):
Yeah, but it's close, it's higher than that.
787 million eight hundredseventy-seven thousand one
hundred and ninety-eight.
SPEAKER_00 (13:23):
I can't say numbers that big.
SPEAKER_01 (13:25):
Oh, really?
I've been firing them off allday.
SPEAKER_00 (13:32):
And then it's lot.
That's what I say.
So let's just round, let's justround it to two sig figs.
7.8 times 10 to the 8.
So there we go.
SPEAKER_01 (13:41):
The donations were specifically given to charities
and nonprofits across 10 years.
SPEAKER_00 (13:46):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (13:48):
So the key findings of the study are very
interesting.
The donation amounts, what theyfound is non-pet owners donate
the largest total amounts.
Pet owners actually donatesmaller amounts comparatively to
the non-pet owners, which isinteresting.
They also looked at donationfrequency.
(14:09):
Pet owners donate mostfrequently, even if the amounts
are smaller.
And the donation they looked atdiversity, where cat owners
donated to the widest variety ofcharities, and cat owners also
donate more overall than dogowners.
SPEAKER_00 (14:27):
Oh man.
SPEAKER_01 (14:28):
So dog owners give less than cat owners, but they
still give more frequently thannon-pet owners.
SPEAKER_00 (14:35):
Huh.
That's I do see that becausedogs are expensive.
Maybe you don't have the samekind of money as you would if
you didn't have a dog.
Um, and a lot of people keeplike a slush fund or an
emergency fund for dogs ifsomething goes wrong.
Um, because vet bills can wipeyou out if your dog gets sick.
(14:57):
I don't know.
That's just my hypothesis.
I don't know if that's true ornot.
Cats generally are not asexpensive as dogs to own.
I think Ginger's entire sack ofcat food lasted months, whereas
we have to go get dog food everyweek for the dogs.
SPEAKER_01 (15:14):
My colleague has a dash hound.
Oh, and she I know she was onthe one bag of dog food she's
ever.
And I'm like, we're just back tothe store getting more food.
SPEAKER_00 (15:25):
Now, the predictive model they use was called cat
boost.
So I'd love to know moreinformation about this, but be
but the actual the cat boostregression model, I couldn't
find a lot of information about.
But it ranked pet ownershipamongst all of these donations
as the fourth most importantfactor influencing giving
(15:47):
behavior.
And what do you think the topthree predictors are?
I know you know, Chris, you'vegot the study, but I'm wondering
what people at home think theyare.
The first one is if you havelots of money, income.
Yeah, so the more money youhave, generally the more money
you will give.
(16:08):
Education also played a factor.
So the higher the educated, thehigher the education you have,
the more you gave, and gender.
And in the study it was femalegiving more than male.
SPEAKER_01 (16:19):
So pet ownership thus functions as a significant
but secondary predictor ofphilanthropy.
Income, education, and genderare the top three.
SPEAKER_00 (16:31):
Now, if you want to get into politics, which I don't
really want to, but it was partof the study, pet owners were
more likely to identify asindependents, and non-pet owners
were more likely to benon-partisans.
And I actually had to look thatup because we don't really have
those terms in Canada.
Nonpartisans in my researchreferred to people who don't
(16:54):
identify or affiliate with anypolitical party.
I know in the states there's twobig ones, like the Democrats and
the Republicans.
In Canada, depending on theyear, we've got a schwack of
different ones.
But we do have Democrats andRepublicans, they're just called
something different.
And then we've got three or fourmore parties you could vote for.
So we've got lots.
(17:14):
I'm not sure.
I don't know what you'd be inCanada as a nonpartisan.
Independents are folks thatdon't belong to a party but
generally lead their vote oneway or the other.
And again, sorry to folks whoknow about that because I didn't
know.
I actually had to do someresearch.
So pet owners were more likelyto identify as independents, and
non-pet owners were more likelyto be nonpartisans.
SPEAKER_01 (17:38):
But there's broader implications of this study.
Pet ownership may actually actas a complex personality
indicator.
So it's like a construction studsensor, except it's like beep,
this is a complex personalityindicator.
The study contributed toliterature on social ties, so
(17:58):
relationships that would bedriving the generosity and the
strength of those ties, so thedepth and durability of those
social relationships.
And lastly, the socialinformation and philanthropy,
how your personal identityinforms your giving.
SPEAKER_00 (18:17):
And that's me.
My personal identity when I wasyounger was not a very giving
person just because I didn'thave a lot to give.
And that my my perspective onthat has changed.
But maybe so has my incomebecause when we were young, as
you said, we were pennypinchers.
SPEAKER_01 (18:35):
We didn't have a lot of money.
I do remember we did participatein the kids' fundraisers, like
for Jump Road for Heart.
Um worked really hard to supportorganizations like that.
Cardiovascular health was reallyimportant to us at that time,
still is, but we the what Iloved is the kids getting
involved.
(18:56):
Adam reaching out and talkingabout the importance and then
doing the exercises, the jumpingrope.
SPEAKER_00 (19:02):
You did bring out that folder when we met with my
family, and they're all like, ohgod, here comes the money folder
for something.
SPEAKER_01 (19:09):
For something.
I always did though, Jay.
SPEAKER_00 (19:11):
But hydro ice cream or those like coupon books.
That was one thing one year.
It was like the stupid couponbook in the office they were all
having the costume contest for.
SPEAKER_01 (19:24):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (19:24):
And I was like, oh man, we like tried to flog those
to my family because we had kidsway before them.
So we just expected them to buysome coupon books.
SPEAKER_01 (19:34):
But there's only so many times you can tap into
them.
And then like we had royals, andit's I can't do every
fundraiser.
I can do the flower fundraiser,I can do the chocolate
fundraiser, I can't do them allbecause eventually the people
are gonna be like, Can you finda larger group of people to ask
to give?
SPEAKER_00 (19:52):
I tried to tap my colleagues too, and they're and
they were just so much youngerand they didn't have kids.
So, what was the one that yousent me to school to try to get?
It was like 60 pounds of meat orbacon or something.
Like you could get like copiousamounts of meat, and they're
like, we don't need we're singleteachers, we don't need that
(20:14):
kind of meat.
Who's gonna eat all that?
That'd be like for a massivefamily, like a family of six to
last you a couple months, not asingle teacher.
So I did not sell any of themeat packs to my colleagues.
SPEAKER_01 (20:25):
You didn't, but you tried, but they did enjoy the
girl guy cookies.
SPEAKER_00 (20:30):
This is true.
That's because they'rerelatively cheap and delicious.
All right, that's pet sciencefor this week.
That's it for this week's show.
Thanks for coming back weekafter week to listen to the
Science Podcast.
And a shout out to all the topdogs.
That's the top tier of ourPatreon community, the Pop Pack.
You can sign up in our shownotes.
All right, Chris, let's hearthose names that are part of the
(20:51):
top dogs.
SPEAKER_01 (20:52):
Amelia Fettig, Re Oda, Carol Hanel, Jennifer
Challenge, Linnea Janet, KarenCronister, Vicky Oteiro, Christy
Walker, Sarah Bram, Wendy,Diane, Mason and Lou, Helen
Chin, Elizabeth Bourgeois,Marianne McNally, Katherine
Jordan, Shelly Smith, LauraStephenson, Tracy Leinbaugh, Ann
(21:15):
Uchida, Heather Burbach, Kelly,Tracy Halbert, Ben Rather,
Debbie Anderson, Sandy Brimer,Mary Rader, Bianca Hyde, Andrew
Lynn, Brenda Clark, Brianne Haw,Peggy McKeel, Holly Birch, Kathy
Zirker, Susan Wagner, and LizButton.
SPEAKER_00 (21:34):
For science, empathy, and cuteness.
Hello, science enthusiasts.
I'm Jason Zakoski.
SPEAKER_01 (00:12):
And I'm Chris Zikoski.
SPEAKER_00 (00:14):
We're the pet parents of Bunsen, Beaker,
Bernoulli, and Ginger.
SPEAKER_01 (00:18):
The science animals on social media.
If you love science, and youlove pets, you've come to the
right spot.
SPEAKER_00 (00:25):
So put on your safety glasses.
SPEAKER_01 (00:27):
And hold on to your tail.
SPEAKER_00 (00:29):
This is the Science Podcast.
Hi, welcome back to the SciencePodcast.
We hope you're happy and healthyout there.
This is episode 28 of seasonseven.
Chris, how are you doing?
SPEAKER_01 (00:41):
I'm okay.
How are you?
SPEAKER_00 (00:43):
We're heading into some pretty uncertain time, you
and I in our day job asteachers.
SPEAKER_01 (00:49):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (00:49):
So I thought we could just talk about that real
fast.
It really looks like on Monday,our entire province, Alberta,
all the teachers will be onstrike.
So I just thought I shouldmention that.
Like it's a big thing for usright now.
SPEAKER_01 (01:03):
It's unprecedented.
But we did receive an email thatthere are some talks happening,
which I'm excited about.
But the email also said thatstrike action does commence on
Monday.
But again, my crystal ball isbroken.
I don't know how to fix itbecause I cannot predict the
future.
SPEAKER_00 (01:22):
No, not at all.
We can just hope for the best,and I really hope it's over
soon.
But that's just what happens inlife sometimes.
Sometimes you've got to fightfor your rights, and that's
what's happening right now.
Yep.
If you're an Alberta teacherlistening, we're standing with
you in solidarity.
All right, let's get on with theshow, Chris.
SPEAKER_01 (01:42):
Let's get on with the show.
SPEAKER_00 (01:44):
Yeah.
In Science News, we've got ahopeful article that is talking
about a kind of a breakthrough,but a future breakthrough about
3D printing bones, which iscrazy, actually.
And in pet science, we're goingto be talking about how pet
ownership may or may notinfluence your don't your where
(02:06):
pet ownership may or may notinfluence your philanthropy.
So what you choose to give away.
Which is interesting when youbreak it down.
All right, let's get to theshow.
SPEAKER_01 (02:15):
There's no time like Science Time.
SPEAKER_00 (02:19):
This week in Science News, we're gonna talk about 3D
printing bone graphs, which iswild.
Do you know why I picked thisarticle, Chris?
SPEAKER_01 (02:29):
Because you've never broken a bone in your body.
SPEAKER_00 (02:31):
That too, but because of the word 3D printing.
SPEAKER_01 (02:35):
Oh, yes.
You are an avid 3D printer, andwhen you get talking about it,
you talk about your 3D printingbed, you call it a sling bed.
SPEAKER_00 (02:46):
No, that's a bed slinger?
No, that's what they used to be.
SPEAKER_01 (02:50):
Oh, what is it now?
SPEAKER_00 (02:53):
It's a core XY.
It's okay.
Everybody's eyes glaze over whenI get excited and start talking
about 3D printers, except forthe robotics teacher at my
school.
When I talk to her, we getgoing, and I love it's so fun,
but everybody just wants us toshut up, I think, because they
don't care.
SPEAKER_01 (03:12):
But you are so excited when new models come
out.
You you go over the specs withme, and you're like, but this
one and this one's print bed issmaller, but it prints faster,
and then you can print in colorall the things you're just so
excited, and I listen, but it'svery similar to when Adam was
talking about CPUs and GPUs, andhe was drawing pictures of
(03:35):
schematics of the computer, andI was just like, Oh, yes.
And I was trying to keep up, butbecause I am passionate about
whatever you're passionateabout, like listening to your
passion, that's what I love.
And Adam loves computers, sohe's talking about them, and I'm
trying to share in that joybecause I think that's
important.
I may never know what a CPU GPUis ever again, but you know
(03:58):
what?
I shared in that moment, and Ivalue I value people talking
about what brings them joy.
SPEAKER_00 (04:03):
There you go.
3D printing has taken a hugeleap forward in the last year or
two with these box printers.
They look like a box, and thismay relate to what we're gonna
be talking about in the sciencearticle.
But the reason why there's beenthis huge leap forward is the
print time has been drasticallyreduced because these new
(04:24):
printers just fly.
Every time I watch this, I'vegot one of the newer ones, it
feels like it's just gonna flyapart and explode because the
thing is moving so quickly.
But it really cuts down thetime.
When if I want to printsomething, it prints it in a
hurry.
I have a full, I have a fullsize Walter Wedd, I have a full
size Walter Whitehead.
(04:45):
Remember when I printed that oflike when he's got the hat on
from Breaking Bad?
SPEAKER_01 (04:49):
How do you do that?
SPEAKER_00 (04:51):
That's on my front lab bench and the kids love it.
That printed overnight.
That would have taken like daysand days on the old printers.
SPEAKER_01 (04:58):
But the other thing with the old printer, when
you're talking about speed andit's going days and days, and
then it gets three-quarters ofthe way done, and then it screws
up.
SPEAKER_00 (05:08):
Oh, I hate that.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (05:10):
Yeah.
So this is much better.
SPEAKER_00 (05:12):
Yeah, way more reliable than new 3D printers.
So there have been advancementsin 3D printing of plastics,
which I do, and perhaps 3Dprinting bones.
Chris, what's going on withthis?
SPEAKER_01 (05:27):
Jason, it's so cool.
It's a handheld device and itactually applies synthetic bone
graphs directly at the site ofthe injury or defect.
So it's not like what you mightbe thinking of, where you get a
STL file of a bone and thenyou're going to put that in the
body.
But what this core innovationdoes is it eliminates the need
(05:47):
for prior imaging or actuallyfabricating of the graphs
themselves.
So what they did is theymodified a hot glue gun actually
to 3D print bio ink onto rabbitbone fractures.
And there's some pretty coolthings about the bio ink that
I'm sure that we'll get into alittle bit later in the study.
SPEAKER_00 (06:10):
So traditionally, bone graphs are there's a couple
different ways they can do it.
There's an autograph that'swhere they take a bone from the
patient's own body, and that'sbecause it's got your own cells
in it.
It doesn't obviously use thisnew system.
An allograft uses a bone from acadaver, somebody who has died.
There's lots of them, which isgreat.
(06:30):
It's not as good as theautograft.
And then, yes, as you said,Chris, they could image it and
make a synthetic graft.
That's a lab-made material.
So this is quite a bitdifferent.
The bio ink composition is whatmakes this cool.
It's made of the it's made oftwo key the bio ink comp the bio
ink composition is what makesthis really interesting and
(06:50):
cool.
Two key compounds are used inthese 3D printing implants.
One of them is hydroxyapatite,which promotes bone formation
and tissue regeneration.
And another one with the acronymPCL, which is polycaprolactone,
and that is a biocompatibleFDA-approof plastic.
So it is a plastic, and thisacts as a scaffold for bone
(07:13):
growth.
It degrades over time in thebody over several months, and
this allows the natural bonetissues to replace it over time.
So this bio ink sort of Chris,though, works like the plastic
spools that I have that kind ofgoes beepop boop and makes a
thing, but it would be replacedby bone over time.
SPEAKER_01 (07:36):
Mm-hmm.
Jason, you're absolutely right.
Now, the idea of this is todesign something that is easy to
set up and easy to equip and usein a clinical setting.
And it saves time.
So there's no multi-day wait forthe scans and taking time to
fabricate or 3D print.
(07:58):
It actually saves costs becausethere's fewer imaging and lab
steps, and it reduces actuallythe complexity of procedures.
SPEAKER_00 (08:07):
They can actually change the consistency of the
bio ink to optimize forstrength, stiffness, and other
properties, depending on wherethe bone needs to be put in.
Like maybe a leg bone needs tobe a heck of a lot stronger than
an arm bone.
The other cool thing is they canalso incorporate antibiotics
into the bio ink, and this helpsprevent postoperative
(08:28):
infections.
And this just reminds me ofMedigel from Mass Effect.
It just reminds me of someslappy goo you just slap on an
injury and it starts healing youright away.
SPEAKER_01 (08:40):
Exactly.
I like to think of it as superpolysporin.
SPEAKER_00 (08:46):
I guess.
If the polysporin melted,because it does, it needs to get
hot because it's remember, it'sin a modified glue gun.
So somebody instead of, I'm surepeople have used a glue gun
before and probably burntthemselves terribly on a glue
gun, they get hot, really hot.
But this ink melts at 60 degreesCelsius into a liquid, and then
(09:09):
it cools in the body to bodytemperature within 40 seconds.
So you're allowed what thisallows is a lot of adjustments
in direction, angle, and depthas you go.
And as you mentioned, Chris, theapplication is crazy fast, just
a few minutes to get it done.
SPEAKER_01 (09:27):
Yeah, but there is a there is some skeptics saying
even 40 seconds is too long withthat kind of heat for cells and
tissues.
So this is still in a prototypestage where they've had success
testing on the femur fracturesin rabbits.
And they compared that with theregular bone cement controls in
(09:51):
the study.
And the rabbits treated with thebio ink showed better bone
healing and re and regeneration.
And actually, no infections wereobserved during the 12 weeks
following the surgery.
SPEAKER_00 (10:05):
One of the things they're hoping to add to this is
to increase its effectiveness.
You could add growth factorslike hormones to it, other
antibiotics, and therapeuticdrugs.
But as you said, Chris, it'svery much in proof of concept.
And it's not like you can go toMichael's or your local craft
store and pick up a bioink gunwhen Timmy falls off the tire
(10:27):
swing with a broken leg and fixhim that way.
The promise of it is very cool.
That's very super, very sci-fi,very futuristic.
And perhaps in the next decadewe might see parts of that
implemented in hospitals aroundthe world.
SPEAKER_01 (10:41):
I was just gonna say, instead of a 3D printer,
it's a bone printer pen.
SPEAKER_00 (10:45):
Oh.
SPEAKER_01 (10:46):
That's science news for this week.
SPEAKER_00 (10:48):
This week in Pet Science, we're gonna talk about
pet ownership and giving.
Chris, you're generally a moregiving person than me.
I don't think so.
Oh, I think so.
I think so.
I grew up, I grew up, and everydollar I made to buy something,
I had to work very hard for as akid, like mowing lawns all
(11:11):
summer, and I would get twocents.
So when I actually saved upenough money, I was not in a
very giving mood to people thatneeded it.
Um because I had broken my backmowing all summer.
Some of that has actually formedmy opinion as an adult, and I
need to do better at that.
Get in a better giving mood nowthat we're much better off than
(11:32):
we were when we were young.
SPEAKER_01 (11:34):
When we were starving students, yeah, we were
pinching pennies until theyscreamed.
That's definitely for sure.
SPEAKER_00 (11:40):
Yeah, the best we could do was do the odd
fundraiser for the school forAdam and Duncan's things, buy
some girl girl guide cookies and50 minutes.
SPEAKER_01 (11:49):
Jason, I bought all the girl guide cookies this
year, I'm sure.
And then I took them to myschool.
Yes, I had six boxes.
That's sure we did.
And I got boxes for Adam.
He wanted boxes because he lovesthe girl guide cookies, and then
I bought uh another round ofgirl guide cookies, and I took
them to the school, and they'relike, Where are all these girl
(12:09):
guide cookies coming from?
It's quite funny.
SPEAKER_00 (12:12):
I brought some to my school too, and people teachers
love that.
Yeah, so we uh we definitelyhelped fund the girl guides this
year with that.
And then, of course, we did areally fun fundraiser that made
us feel so good, which wedonated like over a hundred
Bunsen stuffies to the CentralAlberto Child Advocacy Center
for the kids there.
(12:32):
That that was that mean that wasreally cool.
SPEAKER_01 (12:36):
That was very good.
SPEAKER_00 (12:37):
We were so glad to do that.
So the study comes in and asksthe question Does pet ownership
influence giving?
So, what we know in previousstudies is that social ties
strongly influence how much youwant to give and your giving
behavior.
There is almost no research onwhether pet ownership can be an
(12:59):
indicator of giving.
And this study took a massivedata set of donor transactions,
and the number is astounding.
787 million.
Did I get that number correct?
Like 787 million donationtransact transactions?
SPEAKER_01 (13:16):
Yeah, but it's close, it's higher than that.
787 million eight hundredseventy-seven thousand one
hundred and ninety-eight.
SPEAKER_00 (13:23):
I can't say numbers that big.
SPEAKER_01 (13:25):
Oh, really?
I've been firing them off allday.
SPEAKER_00 (13:32):
And then it's lot.
That's what I say.
So let's just round, let's justround it to two sig figs.
7.8 times 10 to the 8.
So there we go.
SPEAKER_01 (13:41):
The donations were specifically given to charities
and nonprofits across 10 years.
SPEAKER_00 (13:46):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (13:48):
So the key findings of the study are very
interesting.
The donation amounts, what theyfound is non-pet owners donate
the largest total amounts.
Pet owners actually donatesmaller amounts comparatively to
the non-pet owners, which isinteresting.
They also looked at donationfrequency.
(14:09):
Pet owners donate mostfrequently, even if the amounts
are smaller.
And the donation they looked atdiversity, where cat owners
donated to the widest variety ofcharities, and cat owners also
donate more overall than dogowners.
SPEAKER_00 (14:27):
Oh man.
SPEAKER_01 (14:28):
So dog owners give less than cat owners, but they
still give more frequently thannon-pet owners.
SPEAKER_00 (14:35):
Huh.
That's I do see that becausedogs are expensive.
Maybe you don't have the samekind of money as you would if
you didn't have a dog.
Um, and a lot of people keeplike a slush fund or an
emergency fund for dogs ifsomething goes wrong.
Um, because vet bills can wipeyou out if your dog gets sick.
(14:57):
I don't know.
That's just my hypothesis.
I don't know if that's true ornot.
Cats generally are not asexpensive as dogs to own.
I think Ginger's entire sack ofcat food lasted months, whereas
we have to go get dog food everyweek for the dogs.
SPEAKER_01 (15:14):
My colleague has a dash hound.
Oh, and she I know she was onthe one bag of dog food she's
ever.
And I'm like, we're just back tothe store getting more food.
SPEAKER_00 (15:25):
Now, the predictive model they use was called cat
boost.
So I'd love to know moreinformation about this, but be
but the actual the cat boostregression model, I couldn't
find a lot of information about.
But it ranked pet ownershipamongst all of these donations
as the fourth most importantfactor influencing giving
(15:47):
behavior.
And what do you think the topthree predictors are?
I know you know, Chris, you'vegot the study, but I'm wondering
what people at home think theyare.
The first one is if you havelots of money, income.
Yeah, so the more money youhave, generally the more money
you will give.
(16:08):
Education also played a factor.
So the higher the educated, thehigher the education you have,
the more you gave, and gender.
And in the study it was femalegiving more than male.
SPEAKER_01 (16:19):
So pet ownership thus functions as a significant
but secondary predictor ofphilanthropy.
Income, education, and genderare the top three.
SPEAKER_00 (16:31):
Now, if you want to get into politics, which I don't
really want to, but it was partof the study, pet owners were
more likely to identify asindependents, and non-pet owners
were more likely to benon-partisans.
And I actually had to look thatup because we don't really have
those terms in Canada.
Nonpartisans in my researchreferred to people who don't
(16:54):
identify or affiliate with anypolitical party.
I know in the states there's twobig ones, like the Democrats and
the Republicans.
In Canada, depending on theyear, we've got a schwack of
different ones.
But we do have Democrats andRepublicans, they're just called
something different.
And then we've got three or fourmore parties you could vote for.
So we've got lots.
(17:14):
I'm not sure.
I don't know what you'd be inCanada as a nonpartisan.
Independents are folks thatdon't belong to a party but
generally lead their vote oneway or the other.
And again, sorry to folks whoknow about that because I didn't
know.
I actually had to do someresearch.
So pet owners were more likelyto identify as independents, and
non-pet owners were more likelyto be nonpartisans.
SPEAKER_01 (17:38):
But there's broader implications of this study.
Pet ownership may actually actas a complex personality
indicator.
So it's like a construction studsensor, except it's like beep,
this is a complex personalityindicator.
The study contributed toliterature on social ties, so
(17:58):
relationships that would bedriving the generosity and the
strength of those ties, so thedepth and durability of those
social relationships.
And lastly, the socialinformation and philanthropy,
how your personal identityinforms your giving.
SPEAKER_00 (18:17):
And that's me.
My personal identity when I wasyounger was not a very giving
person just because I didn'thave a lot to give.
And that my my perspective onthat has changed.
But maybe so has my incomebecause when we were young, as
you said, we were pennypinchers.
SPEAKER_01 (18:35):
We didn't have a lot of money.
I do remember we did participatein the kids' fundraisers, like
for Jump Road for Heart.
Um worked really hard to supportorganizations like that.
Cardiovascular health was reallyimportant to us at that time,
still is, but we the what Iloved is the kids getting
involved.
(18:56):
Adam reaching out and talkingabout the importance and then
doing the exercises, the jumpingrope.
SPEAKER_00 (19:02):
You did bring out that folder when we met with my
family, and they're all like, ohgod, here comes the money folder
for something.
SPEAKER_01 (19:09):
For something.
I always did though, Jay.
SPEAKER_00 (19:11):
But hydro ice cream or those like coupon books.
That was one thing one year.
It was like the stupid couponbook in the office they were all
having the costume contest for.
SPEAKER_01 (19:24):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (19:24):
And I was like, oh man, we like tried to flog those
to my family because we had kidsway before them.
So we just expected them to buysome coupon books.
SPEAKER_01 (19:34):
But there's only so many times you can tap into
them.
And then like we had royals, andit's I can't do every
fundraiser.
I can do the flower fundraiser,I can do the chocolate
fundraiser, I can't do them allbecause eventually the people
are gonna be like, Can you finda larger group of people to ask
to give?
SPEAKER_00 (19:52):
I tried to tap my colleagues too, and they're and
they were just so much youngerand they didn't have kids.
So, what was the one that yousent me to school to try to get?
It was like 60 pounds of meat orbacon or something.
Like you could get like copiousamounts of meat, and they're
like, we don't need we're singleteachers, we don't need that
(20:14):
kind of meat.
Who's gonna eat all that?
That'd be like for a massivefamily, like a family of six to
last you a couple months, not asingle teacher.
So I did not sell any of themeat packs to my colleagues.
SPEAKER_01 (20:25):
You didn't, but you tried, but they did enjoy the
girl guy cookies.
SPEAKER_00 (20:30):
This is true.
That's because they'rerelatively cheap and delicious.
All right, that's pet sciencefor this week.
That's it for this week's show.
Thanks for coming back weekafter week to listen to the
Science Podcast.
And a shout out to all the topdogs.
That's the top tier of ourPatreon community, the Pop Pack.
You can sign up in our shownotes.
All right, Chris, let's hearthose names that are part of the
(20:51):
top dogs.
SPEAKER_01 (20:52):
Amelia Fettig, Re Oda, Carol Hanel, Jennifer
Challenge, Linnea Janet, KarenCronister, Vicky Oteiro, Christy
Walker, Sarah Bram, Wendy,Diane, Mason and Lou, Helen
Chin, Elizabeth Bourgeois,Marianne McNally, Katherine
Jordan, Shelly Smith, LauraStephenson, Tracy Leinbaugh, Ann
(21:15):
Uchida, Heather Burbach, Kelly,Tracy Halbert, Ben Rather,
Debbie Anderson, Sandy Brimer,Mary Rader, Bianca Hyde, Andrew
Lynn, Brenda Clark, Brianne Haw,Peggy McKeel, Holly Birch, Kathy
Zirker, Susan Wagner, and LizButton.
SPEAKER_00 (21:34):
For science, empathy, and cuteness.
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