This Smart Material Can De-Ice Any Surface

Researchers have discovered a ‘smart’ material that can be applied to any surface to repel ice and outperform all other currently in use. Icy conditions can be deadly, whether you are flying into bad weather or too close to power transmission lines during a storm, researchers said. One side of the surface of the material known as a magnetic slippery surface (MAGSS) is coated with a magnetic material, while a thin layer of magnetic fluid – a mixture of fluid and iron oxide nanoparticles – is deposited on the other side. The magnetic fluid faces outside. When a droplet of water hits the surface, the magnetic fluid acts as a barrier, stopping the droplet from reaching the solid surface. There’s no adhesion of the ice to the solid surface, so it basically slides off the surface. Anti-icing surfaces have a critical footprint on daily lives of humans ranging from transportation systems and infrastructure to energy systems, but creation of these surfaces for low temperatures remain elusive, researchers said. Researcher hopes to develop the coating as a spray that can be applied to any surface.

Soon, You Can Conduct HIV Test With A USB Stick

Scientists in Britain have developed a type of HIV test using a USB stick that can give a fast and highly accurate reading of how much virus is in a patient’s blood. The device, created by scientists at Imperial College London and US firm DNA Electronics, requires a drop of blood to detect HIV and then creates an electrical signal that can be read by a handheld device. Researchers said that the device could be useful in remote settings to help patients manage their treatments effectively, since current tests to detect virus levels take three days and involve sending a blood sample to a laboratory. Researchers have taken the job done by this equipment, which is the size of a large photocopier, and shrunk it down to a USB chip. The tests, which uses a mobile phone chip, requires a drop of blood to be placed onto a spot on the USB stick. Any HIV in the sample triggers an acidity change, which the chip transforms into an electrical signal. This is sent to the USB stick, which shows the result on a computer or electronic device. Results showed the stick test was 95% accurate over 991 blood samples, and the average time to produce a reading was 20.8 minutes.

Nanowires Made From DNA Strands To Power e-Devices

Scientists have successfully created gold plated nanowires assembled from DNA strands that can conduct current, an advance that may pave the way for tiny electronic devices made from genetic material. Currently, the circumference of the smallest transistors is tinier than the AIDS virus. The industry has shrunk the central elements of their computer chips to 14 nanometers in the last 60 years. Researchers at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden Rossendorf (HZDR) and Paderborn University in Germany combined a long single strand of genetic material with shorter DNA segments through the base pairs to form a stable double strand. Using this method, the structures independently take on the desired form. Genetic matter doesn’t conduct a current particularly well. Researchers have therefore placed gold-plated nanoparticles on the DNA wires using chemical bonds. With the help of this approach, which resembles the Japanese paper folding technique origami and is therefore referred to as DNA origami, researchers can create tiny patterns. Extremely small circuits made of molecules and atoms are also conceivable here. This strategy, which scientists call the “bottom-up” method, aims to turn conventional production of electronic components on its head.

Wireless Implant Could Cure Paralysis In Future

Monkey with spinal cord damage that paralyzed one leg quickly regained the ability to walk with a wireless connection from the brain to the spinal cord below the injury. In recent years, scientists have achieved brain control of robotic hands, helped a paralyzed man regain use of a hand through a chip in his brain and used electrical stimulation of nerves in heal paralyzed rats. The system is unusual because it concentrates on the lower body, and is wireless rather than tethered to a computer. It utilizes new developments in brain recording and in nerve stimulation. It does require a computer to decode and translate brain signals and send them to the spinal cord. Researchers of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology said that he hoped the system he and his colleagues developed could be transferred “in the next 10 years” to humans for therapy that would aid in rehabilitation. He emphasized the goal was better rehabilitation, not a science fiction fix for paralysis. People are not going to walk in the streets with a brain spine interface. Among the reasons why the system is not a miracle fix for paralysis is that it relays only impulses to extend and bend the leg at the right time to fit into a four legged gait, not other, more subtle movements involving changes in direction or navigating through obstacles. Humans present different challenges, for instance, in terms of balance in two legs. Researcher said that prior to this development 10 years of research in rodents was necessary. One of the reasons that only one leg was paralyzed is that four legged animals can function even without the use of one leg and retain bladder and bowel control, whereas complete severing of the spinal cord can be devastating for an animal’s life. The wireless sensor was developed by David Broton of Brown University. Combined with microelectrodes, it records and transmits impulses in the part of the brain where signals to move the leg originate. He said that one of the reasons the system might be helpful in rehabilitation was that it strengthened remaining connections between parts of the spinal cord and the injured limb. The brain recording device was combined with electrical stimulation to an area just outside the spinal cord that conveyed signals to the reflex system. The spinal cord has its own system for receiving input from the legs and responding. Researcher said that one crucial part was timing. “If the brain says it wants that limb to move, it must happen within milliseconds for that connection to strengthen.”