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Category Archives: Chemistry

Pint of science

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Last week a new science festival came to town. For 3 days, 15 different pubs in London, Oxford and Cambridge invited local scientists to share their work with the punters for a Pint of Science. Each city hosted talks on the brain, the body and biotechnology and I attended two of the biotechnology evenings held in Cambridge.

pint of science

On Wednesday, Colin Davidson and Chris Lowe asked ‘Can you live without your mobile?’

With the UN predicting that there will be more phones than people in the world by the end of 2014, and the majority of the growth in mobile phone use now in the developing world, both Colin and Chris are interested in exploiting the concept of mobile healthcare for the benefit of society.

Their talks reminded me of some of the research we’ve covered in Chemistry World, including this app for detecting food allergens.  Mobile phone based technologies are (obviously) more portable and often easier to use, so ideal for improving or monitoring health in traditionally poorly served hard-to-reach areas.

Apparently Android is ahead of Apple when it comes to the development of mobile technology for science – good to know; I’m in the market for a new smartphone…

The overriding conclusion of the evening was that the role smartphones play in helping to alleviate modern healthcare problems is only going to increase, so for mobile healthcare at least, the future really is bright.

On Thursday, Annabel Murphy and Alison Smith discussed generating energy and chemicals using microorganisms.

Oil-derived petrochemicals are used to make a lot of things other than fuel by the pharmaceutical and chemical industry but Annabel made a good case for using microorganisms to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels. Chemical production using microorganisms is already a well established technology and she mentioned how very recently yeast has been used to make the antimalarial drug, artemisinin. There are a number of advantages to this approach, as ‘nature is a much better chemist than we are.’

There was a mini-pub quiz in the interval, and I’m sorry to admit that we did very badly. Do you know which country has had a mandatory blending of biofuel with gasoline since 1976? Despite our abysmal performance, it did get us all thinking and led nicely into Alison’s talk.

Alison spoke about the potential for using algae to sustainably generate energy. Plants and algae have been photosynthesising for millions of years so it makes sense to harness this process. Cultivating algae at scale is, however, a major challenge, as is public acceptance of the idea. (On a side note, Alison provided some comments for the feature on algae biofactories in the May issue of Chemistry World  – it’s definitely worth a read.)

 

Both evenings were very much focussed on the background to the topics, and although this offered a really good grounding in each subjects, I was a little disappointed not to hear more about the researchers’ actual work. It left me unclear as to who the target audience was – the mildly science literate person, as I would class myself, or an interested lay person. Personally, I found the presentations quite long and would have preferred more time for discussion – this is when the audience really became engaged with the science.

Despite these small quibbles, the events were very enjoyable and I came away feeling like I had learnt something. Hearing about research direct from the researchers is more than just learning facts and figures – we’re given a view into the personalities and the lives of the real people behind the science.  It would be wrong to underestimate how worthwhile it can be for the public to hear about research first-hand.

According to their twitter account, @pintofscience, the organisers have already started planning the events for next year. Follow them there or visit their website for news of future events.

Who else had a pint of science last week?

Jennifer Newton

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Source:
http://prospect.rsc.org/blogs/cw/2013/05/23/pint-of-science/

How a lab-on-a-chip could keep you fresh and dry

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The potential applications of scientific processes are not always obvious at the time of their development…

Microfluidics, the precise control of fluids used in lab-on-a-chip applications, could wick away sweat to help keep you fresh and dry, according to engineers at the University of California, Davis.

Lab-on-a-chip devices rely on being able to move, mix or separate extremely small volumes of fluid to perform combinations of laboratory tasks in a very compact space, often no larger than a few square centimetres. Developing new devices requires a good understanding of how fluids will move through defined channels, and how to manipulate this flow to maintain the required reactions.

Inspired by this, graduate students Siyuan Xing and Jia Jiang in the Micro-Nano Innovations lab (cleverly abbreviated to MiNI) developed a new textile that incorporates hydrophilic threads into a highly-water repelling fabric. The threads attract and channel water, or sweat, allowing it to be moved from its source (in this case, perhaps your armpits) to another location on the outside of the garment. From there, it can simply run off or evaporate, meaning the fabric can remain dry, comfortable and breathable.

Even under extremely sweaty conditions, the channels will continue to move water to the outside of the garment, as the hydrophilic nature of the fabric surrounding the channels works to pump the water through. The surface tension of droplets on the outside also establishes a pressure gradient, so even if the channels themselves are completely saturated, the pumping effect continues unabated.

Hydrophobic fabric, courtesy of Holly Ober, UC Davis

— Water droplets are vigorously repelled by the fabric — unless they are taken up by hydrophilic threads. Courtesy of Holly Ober, UC Davis

Their results, published in Lab on a Chip, demonstrate continuous pumping of 1.3 millilitres per hour for a square centimetre of fabric (1.3ml/h/cm2), far exceeding their estimated average human sweat rate of up to 0.21ml/h/cm2.

Waterproof, breathable fabrics are not a new idea. Athletes of all abilities can suffer from clothing becoming damp, clingy and uncomfortable, which can lead to painful chafing in endurance sports or hiking.

This new fabric may be high-tech, but could be low cost. The hydrophilic channels themselves could be made from cotton, simply stitched in the right pattern into existing water-resistant fabrics. So the next time you go for a run, you could be wearing lab-on-a-chip technology!

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Source:
http://prospect.rsc.org/blogs/cw/2013/05/24/how-a-lab-on-a-chip-could-keep-you-fresh-and-dry/

More than just camouflage

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Camouflage has been used by military forces since the ancient Roman Empire. It seems obvious that matching the colour of your vehicle to the environment will make you a far less visible target. But using modern scientific techniques, camouflage can be far more than simply painting a vehicle to blend into the background.

Foxhound light patrol vehicle in Army Brown. Courtesy of AkzoNobel.

Foxhound light patrol vehicle in Army Brown. Courtesy of AkzoNobel.

AkzoNobel, a paints and coatings company based in the Netherlands, has announced a new paint for British Army vehicles that not only works as camouflage, but can help to protect soldiers against chemical attacks.

British army vehicles have been painted with sand coloured camouflage since before the Second World War. Warfare has changed a lot since then, so it’s about time they were redecorated. To devise a new colour scheme, the Ministry of Defence collected samples of soil and rocks from Afghanistan, along with high resolution imagery. The new hue was given the, perhaps uninspiring, name of Army Brown.

Army Brown is similar to the tan colour used by the US and Australian militaries, and designed to work well both in arid environments and amongst vegetation.

Tasked with developing the paint, AkzoNobel decided to build in more functionality, and designed a water-based solution that would protect the vehicles from corrosion and is capable of absorbing chemical warfare agents. Thanks to the inclusion of a specific resin, the paint can also be peeled off and disposed of when contaminated or if a quick change of colour is required.

The new paint has already been applied to Foxhound light patrol vehicles, as well as some of the Warrior tracked vehicles in use in Afghanistan. Further developments in the pipeline include a bespoke molecule which builds on the current generation’s ability to absorb chemical agents by changing colour to alert vehicle operators to their presence, and will also neutralise them on contact.

This marks an evolution of the capabilities of camouflage, and should help to keep soldiers safer on the front line in some of the most challenging environments.

 

Please indulge the author…

Hello!  I’m Ben Valsler, the newest addition to the Chemistry World family. I’ve been given the newly created position of Online and Multimedia editor, so amongst other things I’ll regularly be contributing to this blog, as well as inviting posts from occasional guest bloggers.

I must confess, I’m not a chemist. I’ve studied zoology & science communication, and throughout my career so far have concentrated on topics as diverse as genetics, astronomy & materials science. Being a jack of all trades (and some would say master of none) has given me a real interest in the boundaries – the edge effects where one specialism meets another, where theory meets application and where science meets engineering.

That’s why this story caught my eye. What seems initially like a simple request – formulate a new paint of a certain colour – led to the development of a coating that can do so much more.

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Source:
http://prospect.rsc.org/blogs/cw/2013/05/20/more-than-just-camouflage/


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