And bump
New coating turns ordinary glass into super glass
http://phys.org/news/2013-08-coating-or ... super.html
>A new transparent, bioinspired coating makes ordinary glass tough, self-cleaning and incredibly slippery, a team from the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University and Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) reported online.
>The new coating could be used to create durable, scratch-resistant lenses for eyeglasses, self-cleaning windows, improved solar panels and new medical diagnostic devices
>The team is now honing its method to better coat curved pieces of glass as well as clear plastics such as Plexiglas, and to adapt the method for the rigors of manufacturing.
New Form of Carbon is Stronger Than Graphene and Diamond
http://www.technologyreview.com/view/51 ... d-diamond/
>Chemists have calculated that chains of double or triple-bonded carbon atoms, known as carbyne, should be stronger and stiffer than any known material
>Carbyne is something of a mystery. Astronomers believe they have detected its signature in interstellar space but chemists have been bickering for decades over whether they had ever created this stuff on Earth. A couple of years ago, however, they synthesised carbyne chains up to 44 atoms long in solution.
>Just as impressive is the new material’s strength. Liu and co calculate that it takes around 10 nanoNewtons to break a single strand of carbyne. “This force translates into a specific strength of 6.0–7.5×10^7 N∙m/kg, again significantly outperforming every known material including graphene (4.7–5.5×10^7 N∙m/ kg), carbon nanotubes (4.3–5.0×10^7 N∙m/ kg), and diamond (2.5–6.5×10”7 N∙m/kg4),” they say.
>Carbyne has other interesting properties too. Its flexibility is somewhere between that of a typical polymer and double-stranded DNA. And when twisted, it can either rotate freely or become torsionally stiff depending on the chemical group attached to its end.
Gadget genius
http://phys.org/news/2013-07-gadget-genius.html
>University of Akron researchers have developed new materials that function on a nanoscale, which could lead to the creation of lighter laptops, slimmer televisions and crisper smartphone visual displays.
>Known as "giant surfactants" – or surface films and liquid solutions – the researchers, led by Stephen Z. D. Cheng, dean of UA's College of Polymer Science and Polymer Engineering, used a technique known as nanopatterning to combine functioning molecular nanoparticles with polymers to build these novel materials.
>The giant surfactants developed at UA are large, similar to macromolecules, yet they function like molecular surfactants on a nanoscale, Cheng says. The outcome? Nanostructures that guide the size of electronic products.
>"This is exactly what we are pursuing—self-assembling materials that organize at smaller sizes, say, less than 20 or even 10 nanometers," says Cheng, equating 20 nanometers to 1 /4,000th the diameter of a human hair.
Scientists Just Grew Human Heart Tissue That Beats With Total Autonomy
http://gizmodo.com/scientists-just-grew ... 1124490309
>Coming fresh on the heels of the news that scientists are successfully 3D printing live, working, mini human kidneys, a new report in Nature is giving another burst of hope to the future of organ transplants. For the very first time, a research team has been able to grow human heart tissue that beats totally autonomously in its petri dish home.
>This process makes MCPs, which are precursor cells that can further differentiate into three kinds of cells the heart uses, including cardiomyocytes, endothelial cells, and smooth muscle cells. Nobody has tried using these MCPs for heart regeneration before. It turns out that the heart's extracellular matrix – the material that is the substrate of heart scaffold – can send signals to guide the MCPs into becoming the specialized cells that are needed for proper heart function.
Japanese patients successfully received 3D printed bone transplants
http://www.3ders.org/articles/20130813- ... lants.html
>According to Japanese media, Kyoto University Graduate School of Medicine announced that it can now create artificial bones using 3D printing technology and has transplanted the bones into four patients with cervical spine (cervical) disc herniation. After the transplants, their symptoms such as gait disturbance and hand numbness were improved.
>This transplant surgery is Kyoto University's surgical clinical trials. The cost of making such artificial bones is only several thousand yen (1000 yen = 10 US dollars).
Microelectronics: Automating cancer detection
http://phys.org/news/2013-08-microelect ... r.html#jCp
>Microelectronic engineers in Singapore have developed and tested sensor technology that can detect and measure a chemical signature of bladder cancer. The light-based sensor could eventually be used for the early diagnosis and subsequent tracking of the progression and treatment of many different tumors
>Shin and co-workers tested the capacity of silicon micro-ring resonators to discriminate between methylated and unmethylated forms of genes known to trigger cancer in bladder cells. They fashioned separate DNA probes to capture one or other form when they passed a solution of the genes, amplified by the polymerase chain reaction, over a silicon chip to which the probes were attached. The resonators clearly distinguished between the forms within five minutes. Moreover, the method allowed the team to quantify the density of methylation, which means the technique should be able to track changes in patterns of methylation.
>"Our sensors could be widely useful for DNA methylation detection specifically and rapidly in the field," says Shin.
Virus-derived particles target blood cancer
http://www.ohri.ca/newsroom/newsstory.asp?ID=355
>Ottawa researchers have developed unique virus-derived particles that can kill human blood cancer cells in the laboratory and eradicate the disease in mice with few side effects.
>The researchers used a specific method and dose of UV light to transform regular replicating viruses into unique particles that could no longer replicate and spread, but could still enter cancer cells efficiently, kill them and stimulate a strong immune response against the cancer. These particles were able to kill multiple forms of leukemia in the laboratory, including samples taken from local patients who had failed all other therapies. Normal blood cells were not affected. This novel treatment was also successful in mouse models of leukemia. In fact, 80 per cent of the mice that received the therapy had markedly prolonged survival and 60 per cent were eventually cured, while all of the untreated mice died of their leukemia within 20 days.
> I think this therapy holds a lot of promise because it appears to have a potent, long-lasting effect on leukemia without the debilitating side effects of many cancer therapies used in the clinic right now. We will likely see even better results once we optimize the dose in our preparations to advance this research into human clinical trials.”
Researchers Slow Light to a Crawl in Liquid Crystal Matrix
http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Resea ... x_999.html
>Light traveling in a vacuum is the Universe's ultimate speed demon, racing along at approximately 300,000 kilometers per second. Now scientists have found an effective new way to put a speed bump in light's path. Reported in The Optical Society's (OSA) open-access journal Optics Express, researchers from France and China embedded dye molecules in a liquid crystal matrix to throttle the group velocity of light back to less than one billionth of its top speed.
>The team says the ability to slow light in this manner may one day lead to new technologies in remote sensing and measurement science.
>The key to achieving a significant drop-off in speed is to take advantage of the fact that when light travels as a pulse it is really a collection of waves, each having a slightly different frequency, says Bortolozzo.
New technology could revolutionize satellite use
http://phys.org/news/2013-08-technology ... llite.html
>New technology being tested by the University of Maryland's Space Power and Propulsion Laboratory on the International Space Station could revolutionize the capabilities of satellites and future spacecraft by extending their lifecycle through the use of a renewable power source.
>a new propulsion method that uses a renewable, onboard electromagnetic power source, and does not rely on propellants, could exponentially extend a satellite's useful life span and provide greater scientific return on investment.
>In addition to EMFF, the RINGS project is also being used to test a second technology demonstrating wireless power transfer. WPT may offer a means to wirelessly transfer power between spacecraft and in turn power a fleet of smaller vessels or satellites.