You and I can smell things like pizza and chicken soup. But can you tell the difference between chicken soup with carrots and without carrots? How good is your sense of smell? -- Can you smell a termite? How about a bedbug?
Termites and bedbugs both release distinctive smells in the form of molecules that are released into the air. Normally, we wouldn't be able to smell this unless there was a major infestation. But dogs can!
At the University of Florida, researchers are training dogs to detect termites and bedbugs. Termites cause about $5 billion in damages every year in the U.S. and bedbug infestations have gone up 71% in the past 5 years. The dogs are trained using a combination of the U.S. Customs method and a food-reward system, and thus far, have an 96% accuracy rate with false positives of less than 3%.
Source: University of Florida
Image Source: Advanced K9 Detectives
Sniffing things too small to see
Into the Jaws of a Sandworm
Nereis virens, commonly known as sandworms, have a set of fang-like jaws with remarkable mechanical properties. These worms may be small, but they have a strong jaw for grasping, piercing, and tearing prey. The jaw material is high in protein with little mineralization, but despite this, the hardness and stiffness properties in the jaw tip are comparable to human dentin -- which is pretty strong!
The material in the jaw tips of sandworms is even better than synthetic polymers. Though scientists have long studied the mechanical and structural properties of these jaws, the organic composition has previously been overlooked. Scientists are now interested in finding the organic composition and protein structures of the cutting edge of the Nereis jaw. They have found that zinc plays an important role in the mechanical properties of Nereis jaws, by binding to bundles of protein fibers rich in histidine (an important amino acid), and that removing the zinc decreases the hardness by over 65%.
By learning about these sandworm jaws, scientists hope to use this knowledge to design stronger and better materials.
Sources: Journal of Experimental Biology American Chemical Society
Beetle Fog-Catchers
How does a desert beetle living in the Namib Desert in southwest Africa survive in one of the hottest environments in the world? The only water there is available in the form of a morning fog, which travels rapidly across the desert only a few times each month. Zoologists at Oxford University have discovered regions of hydrophilic (water-loving) ridges and hydrophobic (water-avoiding) furrows on the back of the Stenocara beeetle. This pattern of hydrophilic and hydrophobic regions allows the fog to condense into droplets that run down into the beetle's mouth!
But how is this useful? In Chile's Atacama desert, fog nets are being used to harvest moisture. Today, scientists are mimicking the stenocara beetle to create man-made surfaces that can be used to make artificial fog nets and more effective de-humidifiers and distillation equipment.
Source: New Scientist American Chemical Society
Image Source: Squarecirclez
The Amazing Disappearing Stain
Accidental spills happen all the time. One minute that glass of grape juice was steady in your hand, and the next minute, you're wearing it all the way down the front of your white dry-clean-only suit. Sounds familiar? Well, soon you'll no longer have to worry about the hassle of taking your clothes to the dry-cleaners...
Researchers in Australia and China have developed a non-toxic nanoparticle coating that could leading to "self-cleaning" wool and silk fabrics. Wool and skil are made up of natural proteins called keratins which are hard to keep clean and easily damaged by harsh cleaning agents. Nanoparticles have been created with a coating of anatase titanium dioxide, a substance that has been shown destroy stains, dirt, and harmful bacteria by exposure to sunlight.
From Top to Bottom: Images of red wine stains on Plain Wool (PO), Wool coated with a generic stain-fighting chemical (TO), Wool coated with the new nanoparticle coating (TS) after 0, 8, and 24 hours under simulated sunlight.
Fabrics coated with these nanoparticles show almost no sign of red wine stains after 20 hours of exposure to simulated sunlight. And, they retain their texture and feel. Amazing!
Source: Nanotechnology to fight red wine stains
Hot and Spicy!
So how hot is hot? You can measure the heat of a chili pepper with your tongue, but how accurate is that? Everyone's definition of "hot" is different. Scientists are now using a new carbon nanotube-based sensor to quantify the "heat" of chili peppers.
Capsaicin is the chemical responsible to the hot taste of chili peppers and ban be detected using electrochemical methods. The carbon nanotubes are used as tiny electrodes to measure the amount of capsaicin in the sample. This biosensor makes testing how hot a chili pepper is easy, precise, and inexpensive.
Article Source: The Analyst
Image Source: bamasteelmagnolia
Nanotechnology... on the runway?
Fashion designers and fiber scientists at Cornell University have teamed up to bring "functional clothing" to a whole new level. The garments are infused with synthetic nanoparticles by fiber scientist Juan Hinestroza and his colleagues. The resulting colors of the fabric depend on the size and arrangement of the nanoparticles.
Source: Student designer and fiber scientists create a dress that prevents colds and a jacket that destroys noxious gases
How Much Force Does It Take...
... to move a single atom?
Scientists at IBM have collaborated with the University of Regensburg in Germany to measure the tiny forces it takes to move individual atoms on a surface. About twenty years ago, IBM's Don Eigler made history by writing I-B-M with individual Xenon atoms. Today, a new set of researchers are looking at the forces required to move atoms over different surfaces. A cobalt atom requires 210 piconewtons to move across a smooth platinum surface, but only requires 17 piconewtons to move across a copper surface. How much is a piconewton? Well, the force required to lift a copper penny that weighs only three grams is nearly 30 billion piconewtons! So the forces needed to move atoms are really tiny!
Researchers use a powerful microscope called an atomic force microscope to measure the strength and direction of the force applied on an atom. A sharp tip on the end of a flexible beam (like a tiny diving board!) is used to move the atoms and make sensitive measurements.
Why is it important to understand these forces? The key to future nanotechnologies lies in being able to manipulate tiny atoms to create atomic-scale structures for future computer chips, medical devices, and more!
Source: IBM Scientists First to Measure Force Required to Move Individual Atoms
Building Gold Crystals... with DNA?
Researchers at Northwestern University have recently been able to create 3D structures from particles of gold by using DNA. How exactly? The technique involves getting incredibly small particles to self-assemble to a predetermined design. DNA is made up of four basic building blocks - adenine, guanine, cytosine, and thymine (A, G, C, and T), and one strand of DNA can bind with a complementary strand. By using different DNA strands and modifying these strands with gold particles, new nano nuggets of gold of different shapes and sizes can be created.
This process could be used with other materials, with wide applications in therapeutics, diagnostics, optics, and electronics. Scientists are a step closer to the dream of breaking everything down into simple particles and reassembling them into "designer" structures.
Source: DNA does the work: Building new gold crystals
