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Science

Submission + - Sniffing Out Signs of Life After Disasters (acs.org)

Submitted by
MTorrice
MTorrice writes: "With every breath, people exhale a plume of chemicals. Now German researchers have developed a method to quickly and easily detect this chemical signature of life with a portable device. The team hopes that the approach can help firefighters and other first responders find people trapped inside rubble after earthquakes, terrorist attacks, or other calamities."
Science

Submission + - Flexible Circuits By The Slice (acs.org)

Submitted by
MTorrice
MTorrice writes: "Researchers have demonstrated a way to make high performance, flexible integrated circuits using almost exclusively standard equipment and materials already needed to make conventional chips. Such a method could allow electronics manufacturers to build new devices, such as smart medical implants and flexible displays, without needing to significantly overhaul current production protocols. The method, developed by researchers at the University of Texas, Austin, started with researchers patterning integrated circuits on silicon wafers using a standard production line. They then cut off the top 20 to 30 micrometers of the wafer using a thin wire—like slicing a block of cheese—to produce a thin, flexible platter of circuits."
Science

Submission + - Electronic Tweezers Grab Nanoparticles (acs.org)

Submitted by
MTorrice
MTorrice writes: "A beam of electrons can pick up and carry nanoparticles, according to a new study. The so-called electronic tweezers could help scientists in diverse tasks, such as building up new materials nanoparticle by nanoparticle, and measuring the forces between nanoparticles and living cells, the researchers say. In the past, scientists have manipulated microsized particles, including single cells, using a beam of laser light called optical tweezers. But the force required to trap a particle with optical tweezers increases as the particle gets smaller, making grappling with nanoparticles difficult. Researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory developed an alternative to optical tweezers by modifying a transmission electron microscope, which produces images by passing a stream of electrons through a sample."
Science

Submission + - Biodiesel From Sewage Sludge (acs.org) 1

Submitted by
MTorrice
MTorrice writes: "Scientists have developed a way to convert lipids from sewage sludge into biodiesel. The low cost and high yield of the sludge process may make it economically feasible as a source of biofuel, the researchers say. Today, biofuel producers use lipids in vegetable oils to derive biodiesel, a mixture of fatty-acid-like molecules. Biodiesel is compatible with existing diesel engines, burns with less pollution than petroleum-derived diesel does, and comes from renewable resources. But current biodiesel feedstocks are expensive, limiting the fuel’s widespread use. The researchers from South Korea found that sewage sludge, the semisolid material left over from wastewater treatment, can yield 2,200 times more lipids than soybeans and costs 96% less to process. To turn the sludge lipids into biodiesel, the researchers heated them with methanol."
Science

Submission + - Micromotors Race About by Turning Water into Hydrogen Gas (acs.org)

Submitted by
MTorrice
MTorrice writes: "Microscopic particles of aluminum and gallium rocket around using water as their fuel. The particles, which are 20 m in diameter, are asymmetric: A chemical reaction on the back side of the particle forms hydrogen gas bubbles that propel the motor forward. Over the past several years, bioengineers have built micro- and nanosized rockets that zip through liquids, fueled by chemical reactions between the materials that make up the rockets and their environments. The engineers hope someday these tiny motors could help deliver cargo, such as drugs, in people. Unfortunately, many of these motors require toxic hydrogen peroxide as fuel source, limiting their use in the body. To overcome that constraint, the new micromotors harness a well-known reaction between aluminum and water to produce hydrogen gas."

Submission + - Debate Simmers over Science of Food Pairing (acs.org)

Submitted by
carmendrahl
carmendrahl writes: "Why do foods taste good together? Scientists aren't anywhere near figuring it out, but that hasn't stopped one popular idea from spawning a company dedicated to discovering avant-garde new pairings. The idea, called flavor-pairing theory, says that if foods share a key odor molecule, they'll pair well. But some scientists say the idea can't explain all cuisines, and another contends his work with tomato flavor shows that flavor pairing is "a gimmick by a chef who is practicing biology without a license.""
Science

Submission + - Tracking Designer Drugs, Many At Once (acs.org)

Submitted by LilaG
LilaG writes: Drug tests spot banned substances based on their chemical structures, but a new breed of narcotics is designed to evade such tests. These synthetic marijuana drugs, found in "herbal incense," are mere chemical tweaks of each other, allowing them to escape detection each time researchers develop a new test for one of the compounds. Now chemists have developed a method that can screen for multiple designer drugs at once, without knowing their structures. The test may help law enforcement crack down on the substances.

The researchers used a technique called "mass defect filtering," which can detect related compounds all at once. That's because related compounds have almost equal numbers to the right of the decimal point in their molecular masses.

The researchers tested their technique on 32 herbal products with names like "Mr. Nice Guy" and "Hot Hawaiian." They found that every product contained one or more synthetic cannabinoid; all told, they identified nine different compounds in them — two illegal ones and seven that are not regulated.

The news story appears in Chemical & Engineering News and the original paper is (behind a paywall) in Analytical Chemistry.

Submission + - Materials from Tough-as-Nails Crustacean Could Inspire Better Body Armor (cen-online.org)

Submitted by
carmendrahl
carmendrahl writes: "The peacock mantis shrimp, a crustacean which is neither a mantis nor a shrimp, has hammer-like clubs for smashing the shells of its prey, so strong that regular glass aquariums can’t hold them. But what’s interested researchers for some time is how the clubs stand up to all that stress. Now, a team’s figured out why- the mantis shrimp club's molecular structure is set up to resist fractures. That discovery could lead to stronger and lighter car frames or body armor."
Science

Submission + - An "Oil Strider" Device Mimics Water Strider Insects (acs.org)

Submitted by LilaG
LilaG writes: Who hasn't marveled at the ability of water bugs to skate along the surface of lakes and ponds? Now materials scientists in China have taken a cue from water striders and created a device that can coast along the surface between oil and water.

The tricky part was figuring out how to make an oil-repelling surface that worked underwater. It came down to coating copper wires with copper oxide microstructures that look like flowers made up of nanopetals.

Scientists think such coatings could enable robots that clean up oil spills, bug-proof car windshields, and ship hulls that don't build up barnacles.

Check out the photo of the device to see how technology imitates life.
Science

Submission + - Graphene Helps A Robot Creep Like An Inchworm (acs.org) 1

Submitted by LilaG
LilaG writes: To develop new materials for robotics, scientists have developed graphene-based actuators that convert electricity into motion. In robots, actuators act like muscles, driving the movement of mechanical arms and fins. Most actuator materials, such as ceramics and conductive polymers, respond slowly, require a lot of power, or provide very little force. To make speedy, strong actuators, Chinese researchers coated graphene paper with the polymer polydiacetylene. Graphene provides a highly conductive, flexible backing for the fragile polymer crystals, which deform in response to electrical current. The actuators can bend 200 times per second and generate more force than most current materials. Using a sheet of the material, the scientists built a simple inchworm robot that arches and relaxes to crawl forward.
Science

Submission + - Arrays of "Topological Insulators": A Step Towards Exotic Electronics

Submitted by LilaG
LilaG writes: Chemists in China have precisely grown arrays of ultrathin flakes of bismuth selenide and bismuth telluride on a surface. The bismuth compounds belong to a recently discovered – and weird — class of materials called topological insulators, which conduct electrons only along their surfaces, not through their insides.

Researchers think topological insulators promise a new realm of fast, energy-efficient electronic and spintronic devices. Making well-defined nanoparticle arrays such as the new study’s flakes is a key step towards such devices.
Biotech

Submission + - Magnetic Levitation Detects Proteins, Could Diagnose Disease

Submitted by LilaG
LilaG writes: Not just a way to transport trains at high speed, magnetic levitation could find use in diagnosing disease. Researchers at Harvard have shown that they can detect proteins in blood using MagLev. The researchers, led by George Whitesides, use levitation to detect a change in the density of porous gel beads that occurs when a protein binds to ligands inside the beads. The lower the bead levitates, the more protein it holds. The method (abstract of paywalled article) could work for detecting disease proteins in people’s blood samples in the developing world: The magnets cost only about $5 each, and the device requires no electricity or batteries. Because the beads are visible to the naked eye, researchers can make measurements with a simple ruler with a millimeter scale.
Science

Submission + - Cars Emit More Black Carbon Than Thought (acs.org)

Submitted by LilaG
LilaG writes: Gasoline-burning engines put out twice as much black carbon as was previously measured, according to new field methods tested in Toronto. The tiny particles known as black carbon pack a heavy punch when it comes to climate change, by trapping heat in the atmosphere and by alighting atop, and melting, Arctic ice. With an eye toward controlling these emissions, researchers have tracked black carbon production from fossil fuel combustion in gasoline-burning cars and diesel-burning trucks. Until this study was published, gas-burning vehicles had been thought to be relatively minor players.
Science

Submission + - Electrode Implants in Brain Detect What Patients Hear (singularityhub.com) 1

Submitted by
kkleiner
kkleiner writes: "A group of 15 patients suffering from either epileptic seizures or brain tumors volunteered to allow scientists to insert electrodes into their brains. After neurosurgeons cut a hole in their skulls, the research team placed 256 electrodes over the part of the brain that processes auditory signals called the temporal lobe. The scientists then played words, one at a time, to the patients while recording brain activity in the temporal lobe. A computer was able to reconstruct the original word 80 to 90 percent of the time."

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