polympart :In the future, smart clothing might monitor our posture, communicate with smartphones and manage our body temperature. But first, scientists need to find a way to cost-effectively print intricate, flexible and durable circuits onto a variety of fabrics. Now, researchers reporting in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces have developed a conductive 3D printing ink made of liquid metal droplets coated with alginate, a polymer derived from algae. Conventional electronics are rigid and unable to withstand the twisting and stretching motions that clothing undergoes during typical daily activities. Because of their fluid nature and excellent conductivity, gallium-based liquid metals (LMs) are promising materials for flexible electronics. However, ...
polympart: Scientists have built a school of robot fish that are powered through the water by human heart cells. Researchers at Harvard University developed the bio-hybrid fish, which is based on a zebrafish, from plastic, paper, gelatin and two strips of living heart muscle. One strip of the muscle is on the left side of the fish’s body, and another on the right side, so when one side contracts, the other stretches, and vice-versa, causing the tail fin to create a swimming motion. “My interest is in paediatric heart disease,” Kit Parker, a Harvard bioengineer and a lead researcher of the project, told The Daily Beast. “I want to build a tissue engineered heart for a sick kid born with a malformed heart. But I can’t put ...
polympart :Quantifying the dangers of plastic pollution in the seas and nature, a team of researchers in a new study estimates that about half of the world’s seabirds have ingested plastic additives. The researchers from Japan, the United States and other countries studied 145 seafowls of 32 species from 16 areas of the world. They found brominated flame retardants and ultraviolet absorbers--the latter being used to prevent sunlight-induced degradation of plastics--in 76 of these, including in three streaked shearwaters from Awashima island in Niigata Prefecture, which were found polluted at mild concentrations. Their findings appeared in the English-language journal of the Japan Society for Environmental Chemistry in October In addition ...