NEWS : TECH (NFPC)

Gel and Light Beam Could Starve Tumors

A gel that expands and contracts when hit with light could work to cut off the blood supply to a tumor.

Developed by Akira Harada, a professor of Macromolecular Science and his team at Osaka University in Japan, the gel could also be used inside a person's body to pump drugs in a specific location at a specific time.

The gel is made from a polymer called a hydrogel and two chemicals -- alpha-cyclodextrin and azobenzene -- that work similar to muscle-contracting enzymes in the body. When exposed to ultraviolet light, the gel expands. When exposed to red light, it contracts.

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Hitting a strip of the gel with UV light from different directions makes it bend away from the light. "Only the surface irradiated by UV absorbs the light, while the other side does not," Harada told Discovery News. "Therefore, the [strip of] gel bends. The same is true for irradiation by visible light." After exposure to UV light for 15 minutes, the gel formed curly shapes like spirals.

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The gel expands and contracts because of the way the two added chemicals change when the light hits them. When inside the gel, the cyclodextrin and azobenzene molecules are bound to each other and molecules that make up the gel. Ultraviolet light disturbs those bonds and changes the shape of the azobenzene molecule. The azobenzene breaks from the cyclodextrin. This allows the gel molecules to spread out, expanding the volume. Red light restores the molecules' original shapes, which makes them bind tightly again, which shrinks the gel.

Harada said that he was able to repeat the expansion and contraction at least five times without the gel losing its ability to do it, and there's no reason it couldn't continue.

Using the light to alter the chemical bonds and change the shape of the gel is new, said Albert Schenning, an associate professor of chemistry at the Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands.

Mysterious Material Remembers Its Shape

Using the gel in a medical situation might involve a doctor injecting the gel into a vein and then running an very thin optical fiber to the location to deliver the light. A gel laced with drugs would theoretically release them at the sight as it expanded. Or it could be expanded inside a blood vessel feeding a tumor to cut off the supply.

There is still some work to do. The reaction is still slow -- to get the gel to expand or contract took an hour. Schenning said future experiments might show how to speed that up.

Harada's work appears in the Dec. 11 edition of Nature Communications.

Photo: Blood vessels feed cancer cells, but a new technique could choke those vessels off and stop cancerous growth. Credit: Sciepro/Science Photo Library/Corbis

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Contact Lenses Could Send Texts to Your Eyes

Belgian technologists just created curved liquid crystal display for contact lenses, a novel step toward having augmented reality literally right before our eyes. They've got an eye on displaying text messages this way.

Unlike previous developments in contact lens displays, University of Ghent researcher Jelle De Smet focused on creating a curved LCD that would be incorporated into a contact lens rather than embedding LED technology into one. This approach means De Smet and his colleagues at the Center of Microsystems Technology have a larger display area, according to the university.

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The group achieved their curved display by using extremely thin conductive polymer films that were integrated into a smooth spherical cell. Resembling an old-school calculator display, their first prototype can show basic patterns like a dollar sign that recalls cartoon characters thinking about money.

While onlookers could potentially see the symbols being displayed in someone else's contacts, the wearer would still have problems viewing them. As University of Washington's Babak Amir Parviz explained to me last year while describing his computerized contact lens development, humans have a mimimum focal distance for even seeing a single pixel.

The Belgian team seems to understand that limitation, indicating in a university press release that the initial applications for their liquid crystal-based contact lens display might be to help control light transmission in people with damaged irises or replace colored contacts, allowing wearers to change the color or pattern on the go. They also imagine these contacts working as adaptable sunglasses.

Here's a video from De Smet that shows the thin, curved display working in the lab:

Since the lenses can project images sent to them wirelessly, the potential is there for these displays to show directions or even texts from a smart phones. "This is not science fiction," De Smet told The Telegraph's Bruno Waterfield recently, adding he expects commercial applications will be available within five years.

Being so myopic myself, I'm cautious about the prospect of extra functionality in my contacts. At least if there's a problem with your phone you can restart it. Removing contacts would get really annoying, especially if you're on the road.

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I admire De Smet's enthusiasm about one day getting text sent straight into our eyes. Whether we'll actually be able to read them remains to be seen.

Photo: A prototype contact lens display shows dollar signs over the eyes, like a cartoon. Credit: University of Ghent.

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Friction And Static Could Charge Smartphones

Static electricity is good for sticking balloons to walls, but who knew it could be used to prolong the battery life of a smartphone. Sihong Wang and Long Lin, graduate students in Georgia Tech's materials science department have developed a two-layered material that generates power from static electricity and flexing.

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They've used a thin film made of a layer of polymer and another of aluminum. Both layers have tiny structures etched on them at the nanometer scale. When the plastic and the metal come in contact with each other, they accumulate a static electric charge. Flexing them generates a current.

The etched nanostructures increase the surface area, which gives electrons a lot more room to gather and boosts the charge accumulated. The efficiency with which the material turns the mechanical motion of flexing into electricity can go as high as 40 percent, according to the paper.

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Wang has done similar work before: in 2009 he demonstrated that a hamster could wear a jacket that generated power in a similar way.

So how much power can it make? In a paper in the journal Nano Letters, Wang and his team say they have hit 230 volts, at 15.5 microamperes per square centimeter, with a power output of 128 milliwatts per cubic centimeter. That means a sheet the size of the latest iPod Nano –- about three inches by 1.6 inches –- would generate just enough to charge the iPod as it is being flexed.

If it were used in the real world, odds are this wouldn't replace a battery, but it could extend the time between charges.

Via Technology Review

Credit: Danilo Calilung/Corbis

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Eat Your Vegetables, and Their Wrappers

One of the fun things about eating ice cream cones in the summer is munching down the cone itself. (The brown sugar cones were always my favorite).

Harvard professor David Edwards wants to extend that idea to other foods. He's invented a product called WikiCells, an edible packaging that mimics many of the properties of plastic without the environmental problems.

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Most foods come in plastic packaging that is not only inedible, but ends up in landfills and the oceans. Most plastics never biodegrade; they just break down into smaller and smaller pieces. The results can be pretty devastating to sea animals and and other wildlife that eat the plastic, can't digest it and die of starvation when it accumulates in their stomachs.

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The edible packaging is made of a sugar processing by-product called bagasse, mixed with chitosan and alginate. Bagasse is what is left over once sugar cane is crushed for the juice. Chitosan is made from the shells of shrimp (it's used in agriculture and even winemaking). Alginate is derived from algae. All three compounds are bound with electrostatic charges and turned into an edible shell membrane. The shell can also be made into a compostable, quickly biodegradable covering that, if you don't want to eat, will break down very fast in the environment the way fruit peelings do.

Edwards unveiled WikiCells bottles in February at Harvard's Wyss Institute, and made appearances in Paris last week showing some of the ways food might be packaged. One of his ideas was ice cream inside a chocolate membrane.

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One thing that makes these shells easy to commercialize is that the technology isn't new – the ingredients are all well known and have been manufactured for a century or more. The down side is that this packaging would have a sell by date, just like the food in it. People might also resist eating the packaging of their food this way – eating a water bottle is a bit of an alien idea. But the fact that the package is biodegradable makes a big difference, and at the very least might mean the great garbage patches in the ocean won't get any larger.

Via Fast Company, Wyss Institute

Image: WikiCells.com

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Coating Kills Superbugs

A simple coating could contain the biological bullet that kills the toughest germs.

The polymer coating, developed by biomedical engineer Mary Chan of Singapore's Nanyang Technological University and her colleagues, is already being used on contact lenses by two manufacturers. When used, the coating kills 99 percent of the bacteria and fungi it comes in contact with. It could also be used for medical devices such as catheters, reducing the need for harsh disinfectants and antibiotics, which helps slow the development of resistance in the bacteria that colonize those surfaces.

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The idea came to Chan when she was trying to find a way to combat bacteria on lenses, which are often a source of infections that can damage eyes. For example, Pseudomonas aeruginosa is one bacteria that can actually digest the cornea.

Under a microscope, the structure of the polymer coating resembles a sponge. Positive charges on the surface attract bacteria like a magnetic because their surface has a negative charge. The pores in the polymer then pull the bacteria in, rupturing the organism's cellular walls and killing them. 

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The coating has been tested on Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus.

Chan has been working on antibacterial coatings for some time. She and a graduate student, Li Peng, built another polymer that was more liquid than solid and killed bacteria without harming human cells. That work was published in the journal Advanced Materials in March. An earlier version of Chan's polymer coating for lenses was first developed last year, with the work published in Nature Materials.

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Nanyang University's press release says that Chan's newest coating could reduce the spread of diseases in hospitals and even kitchens, where bacteria and drug-resistant bugs are a serious problem.

Credit: Nanyang Technical University

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Seismic Wallpaper Stabilizes Walls in an Earthquake

During an earthquake, regular walls get shaken much like humans do. The side-to-side strain causes the masonry to crumble. This year, German materials scientists are producing seismic wallpaper that can hold a wall together.

Karlsruhe Institute of Technology's Institute of Solid Construction and Construction Material Technology has been simulating quake conditions to find better ways to shore up walls since the 1990s. Early attempts involved bonding thin carbon fiber slats to masonry, but that only made the crumbling worse.

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Several years ago, they came up with another approach, one in which the surface of a whole wall could be reinforced using special wallpaper. In 2010, the institute's director, Lothar Stempniewski, and his colleagues began perfecting the material.

They used stiff, high-strength glass fibers woven together to form a strong, elastic covering. The fibers run in four directions to distribute energy evenly when the walls are shaking, according to an article by Brigitte Osterath in Deutsche Welle.

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This special spun-glass covering alone isn't enough, though. Standard wallpaper glue can't hold up to an earthquake, so the KIT group collaborated with the polymer makers in the materials science division of the chemical company Bayer. They made a flexible, soft adhesive from water and a large amount of polyurethane beads.

Once the adhesive penetrates grooves in the masonry, the water evaporates to anchor the substance in the wall. Similarly, when the wallpaper goes on, it gets completely surrounded by the beads. Together the whole setup won't tear during an earthquake.

To find out just how well it works, the seismic fabric was tested on a replica house in an earthquake simulator.

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"Because of the earthquake wallpaper, we were unable to make the building collapse," KIT researcher Mortiz Urban told Deutsche Welle. In a recent press video, Bayer indicated that the wallpaper will start going into commercial production this year through partner companies. It's expected to cost more than regular wallpaper, but the drastic difference for people living in earthquake-prone areas should be well worth the price.

Photo: The earthquake wallpaper is fixed to walls with a special adhesive. Credit: Bayer Material Science.

 

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Paper Laptops: Sturdy as Plastic

Laptops fill landfills, it's a fact. But what if there was one made of recycled material, and it was paper?

That may be the future if PEGA D&E, a Chinese design consultancy, has its way. The idea is to make a laptop shell -– the part that's usually made of non-recyclable ABS plastic -- out of a paper substance called Paper PP Alloy, a combination of recycled paper and polypropylene. Polypropylene is the same plastic used in some furniture and food containers (it's popular for the latter because it can go in a hot dishwasher without melting).

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The paper and plastic are joined in a composite but not mixed like a metal alloy. PEGA says the Paper PP Alloy is just as strong as ABS, and it can even be injection-molded.

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PEGA has thrown out laptop designs before, one inspired by Italian furniture, which exposes some of the metal frame to reduce the amount of plastic used. PEGA has also designed laptops using bamboo and cellulose acetate.

Both the paper and the plastic in the composite are recyclable -- polypropylene has the "5" symbol you see on containers – so this could end up being the way to go for laptop manufacturers, especially as it doesn't require any new fabrication methods.

Image: PEGA D&E

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Electrified Clothing, Compliments Of Bendy Battery

You may think that tacky, light-up sweater Grandma Ethel got you last year may only be fit for an ugly Christmas sweater party, but it turns out electrified clothing is making a push to incorporate a little more function and a little less fashion faux pas.

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And we're not talking about a garment that looks like it was in a head-on collision with a Lite Brite. Thanks in part to a flexible battery that can be woven into fabric, Maksim Skorobogatiy and his colleagues at the Polytechnic School of Montreal say they've created an electrified material they believe could be used power gadgets buried in your clothes.

The team sandwiched a solid polyethylene oxide electrolyte between a lithium iron phosphate cathode and lithium titanate anode. When heated, these materials can be stretched thin enough to be woven in to fabric where conductive threads connected these batteries and illuminated LED's.

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Skorobogatiy says the smart fabric could provide hundreds of volts to deliver power to emergency applications.

"We have enough power to emit a powerful distress signal or even save a life by defibrillating a patient," he told New Scientist. Next on the team's list is waterproofing the battery and making the material washable.

[Via NewScientist]

Credit: Ecole Polytechnique Montreal

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Bubbles Propel Microrockets Through Acid

Micromotors could give "the runs" a different meaning. Researchers just designed tiny micromotors that propel themselves through acidic environments using hydrogen bubbles. That means they can work in stomach acid.

The research group, led by University of California San Diego nanoengineering professor Joseph Wang, constructed each micromotor from extremely tiny plastic tubes containing a thin layer of zinc. The structure measures nearly 10 micrometers in length. When the engineers put the little rocket in an acidic solution, the zinc lost electrons, creating hydrogen bubbles. Then, zoom.

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As the pH in the solution decreases, the rocket's speed increases. Wang and his colleagues say their micromotor can travel up to 1,050 micrometers per second, which is about 100 body lengths per second. That seems fast to me.

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Although they sound a bit like Alka-Seltzer tablets, the researchers were able to control the rocket's by adding magnetic layers to the outer structure. Through manipulation of the magnetic field, the rockets could even pick up and release tiny plastic "cargo." PhysOrg embedded a couple of videos showing the micromotor in action that look like M.C. Escher drawings.

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The researchers' work was recently published (abstract) in the Journal of the American Chemistry Society. Apparently this was the first time a micromotor has been built that didn't require extra chemical fuel. 

The researchers say they think these devices could have a bunch of biomedical and even industrial applications. Imagine putting one in your stomach to do some reconnaissance. Next, Wang has indicated that the next step is to extend the micromotor's lifetime. Much like effervescent tablets, it stops bubbling after a couple minutes.

Image: The circle highlights a microscale rocket transporting tiny plastic cargo, captured in a time-lapse video. Credit: Wei Gao, et al. and the American Chemical Society.

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World's First Self-Healing iPhone Case

Nissan recently announced they were creating the world's first self-healing iPhone case that uses their "Scratch Shield" paint originally designed for cars.

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Taking a cue from Swamp Thing sprouting new limbs and geckos regrowing their tails, Nissan originally developed their self-healing paint back in 2005, using a highly elastic resin to prevent scratches on the inner layers of a car's paint job.

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Now the company says they are doing trial runs on a batch of iPhone case prototypes, marking the first time self-healing paint has been tested on non-automotive products in Europe.

The paint is made from polyrotaxane, which has a chemical structure capable of mending itself by changing back to its original form and filling in gaps from scratches. Small scratches can "heal" in an hour, while deeper scratches might take up to a week. Nissan also says the paint offers better grip due to its more gel-like surface -- good news for all of us butter fingers out there with shattered smartphone screens.

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"We like to think laterally by taking the great innovations we've got from an automotive point of view, and looking at how they could be applied to improve everyday issues," Bob Laishley, Program Director of Business Development in Europe, said in a Nissan press release.

The Scratch Shield iPhone cases are currently compatible with the iPhone 4 and 4S. If trial runs of the prototype go well, Nissan plans to release the cases later this year.

 [Via GizMag]

Credit: Nissan

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