News in Brief

Pokémon Holocards Still Holding Their Value

A rare Pokémon holographic card, that could sell for thousands of dollars, will be open for bids this month at Hansons Auctioneers (UK). The holographic Charizard trading card will be part of a collection up for auction in the auction house's specialist toy and trading cards event in July.

Charizard holographic trading card ©Hansons Auctioneers

 

The rare card is part of the base set of Pokémon cards, the first set released in the UK in 1999. The original set contains 102 cards with different artworks of Pokémon from the popular Japanese game.

The attraction of Pokémon holographic trading cards is still very strong, as shown by the 2021 McDonald’s celebration of the 25th anniversary of Pokémon with a special Happy Meal promotion.

Select locations sold Happy Meal boxes that look like one of the Pokémon character’s face. They also came with 50 collectible Pokémon cards, including some rare holographic ones, leading some collectors to buy large amounts of the children’s meals so they could collect the complete set (see HN March 2021).

Some fans apparently bought the boxes, threw away the food and sold the cards online in the boxed packaging for up to $1,000.

Pokémon cards remain extremely popular, with rare holographic cards often going for tens of thousands of dollars at auction houses. Recently, a Charizard #4 first edition base set rare hologram trading card sold for over $105,000, while a Secret Super Battle No 1 Trainer hologram promo trading card went for $90,000!

(editor note: please do not ask for clarification of ‘Secret Super Battle No 1 Trainer hologram’ – I have no idea!)

On the Move

Meta Materials Inc (previously Nanotech Security Corp) has announced the appointment of Alan Newman as Chief Product Officer for Authentication and Managing Director of the Banknote and Authentication new Business Unit, reporting to META's President and CEO.

Alan Newman has had a long and illustrious career at De La Rue, which he joined from the Bank of England in 2008 andwhere he was credited with assembling a banknote design team that created over 600 banknote designs, many of which include holograms, that have been circulated worldwide. Under his stewardship the team have won 14 international design awards and a remarkable feat of launching 30% of the world's new banknote designs.

Sustainable Viridian Eco-Paperboard for Registered Holograms

In a blog from K Laser Technology, makers of Viridian™ Eco-Paper and Eco-Paperboard®, the experience of one US print shop vouches for the ease in achieving registered holograms.

A registered hologram is an image that is placed in the exact same spot relative to each sheet, and then overprinted with layers of opaque white and the remaining process artwork to create the finished product. Registered holograms themselves can also be overprinted with various colours to add highlights and dimensions or designate product lines or limited editions.

Doug, lead offset pressman from Palm Printing (Florida) uses the Viridian Eco-Paperboard sheets from K Laser Technology to achieve custom hologram printing. In his experience, ‘I customarily print four layers of white ink to achieve enough opacity for printing the process colours and hiding the base material. We also will print the process inks directly on the material and achieve some really wild effects. We have created various levels of opacity in the white ink by using different images overlaying each other.’ 

Formulated to be eco-friendly, Viridian™ Eco-Paper and Eco-Paperboard® eliminates the laminating film previously required to print metallic effects on paper and paperboard. By doing away with the plastic film, packaging produced with Viridian™ can now be 100% recycled. Minimal metal is transferred to the paper or paperboard, which does not affect the re-pulping process, making it a fully renewable solution.

According to Doug: ‘the first time I printed on it I must admit I was a little intimidated, but once I got started with the make ready, all my fears were cast aside. The Viridian sheets fed, printed, and delivered very smoothly.’ 

Holograms Improve IVF Success

Researchers from the University of Adelaide (Australia) have created 3D holographic images of an embryo using miniscule amounts of light in a fraction of a second ¹.

Currently, in vitro fertilization (IVF) clinics assess embryo quality by visual inspection or an invasive biopsy. However, these approaches have failed to improve the success rate of IVF, which has remained static for more than a decade.

The new 3D holographic images provide insights into the embryo by identifying detailed features. The researchers say this could augment conventional visual assessment for embryo quality in an IVF clinic, allowing an embryologist to make an informed decision on the selection of the best quality embryos.

Early-stage embryo © University of Adelaide.

 

‘Optical technologies hold immense promise to unravel the metabolism and health of the embryo. This gentle, non-invasive approach could lead to improved IVF success,’ said lead author Kylie Dunning.

The 3D holographic method is also non-invasive, a benefit over current conventional methods.

‘This technology uses miniscule amounts of light - less than that from your smartphone - to allow rapid visualization of the embryo in a fraction of a second,’ said team member Kishan Dholakia.

Data from 2020 show that the success rates of IVF range from a live birth rate of 39% per embryo transfer for patients under 34 years, to a live birth rate of 6% per embryo transfer for patients over 43 years. In 2018, it was estimated that 8 million babies had been born through IVF since the world’s first in 1978.

The team aims to have the technology, which is being developed through research using a preclinical model, available in five years.

1 - https://opg.optica.org/boe/fulltext.cfm?uri=boe-14-7-3327&id=531650