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Category: physics – Page 361

Innovative Transient Battery Is Designed To Self-Destruct In 30 Minutes

A Mission Impossible Battery that self destructs.

Here at HEXAPOLIS, we have talked about biodegradable electronics that are designed to automatically dissolve once their job is done. Such self-destructing devices could be especially useful in the world of medicine, where implants currently have to be surgically removed, as well as the military. As part of a new research, scientists at the Iowa State University have devised an innovative transient battery, which as its name suggests can melt away in less than 30 minutes.

Technological advancements in recent years have allowed researchers to develop an array of self-destructing electronics that are capable of performing specific functions. Up until now, however, these devices were driven by external power sources. Previous attempts to create transient batteries largely gave birth to contraptions that lacked power, stability and a substantial shelf life. More often than not, they were also quite slow in demolishing themselves. Speaking about the research, recently published in the Journal of Polymer Science, Part B: Polymer Physics, the team stated:

Unlike conventional electronics that are designed to last for extensive periods of time, a key and unique attribute of transient electronics is to operate over a typically short and well-defined period, and undergo fast and, ideally, complete self-deconstruction and vanish when transiency is triggered. Any device without a transient power source isn’t really transient. This is a battery with all the working components. It’s much more complex than our previous work with transient electronics.

Second layer of information in DNA confirmed

Leiden theoretical physicists have proven that DNA mechanics, in addition to genetic information in DNA, determines who we are. Helmut Schiessel and his group simulated many DNA sequences and found a correlation between mechanical cues and the way DNA is folded. They have published their results in PLoS One.

When James Watson and Francis Crick identified the structure of DNA molecules in 1953, they revealed that DNA information determines who we are. The sequence of the letters G, A, T and C in the famous double helix determines what proteins are made ny our cells. If you have brown eyes, for example, this is because a series of letters in your DNA encodes for proteins that build brown eyes. Each cell contains the exact same letter sequence, and yet every organ behaves differently. How is this possible?

DNA dominos on a chip: Carriers of genetic information packed together on a biochip like in nature

Abstract: Normally, individual molecules of genetic material repel each other. However, when space is limited DNA molecules must be packed together more tightly. This case arises in sperm, cell nuclei and the protein shells of viruses. An international team of physicists has now succeeded in artificially recreating this so-called DNA condensation on a biochip.

Recreating important biological processes in cells to better understand them currently is a major topic of research. Now, physicists at TU Munich and the Weizmann Institute in Rehovot have for the first time managed to carry out controlled, so-called DNA condensation on a biochip. This process comes into play whenever DNA molecules are closely packed into tight spaces, for example in circumstances that limit the available volume.

This situation arises in cell nuclei and in the protein shells of viruses, as well as in the heads of sperm cells. The phenomenon is also interesting from a physical perspective because it represents a phase transition, of sorts. DNA double helices, which normally repel each other because of their negative charges, are then packed together tightly. “In this condensed state they take on a nearly crystalline structure,” says co-author and TU professor Friedrich Simmel.

The laws of nature make life on other planets inevitable — according to this groundbreaking theory

According to theoretical physicist and super-genius Stephen Hawking, “The human race is just a chemical scum on a moderate-sized planet orbiting round a very average star in the outer suburb of one among a hundred billion galaxies.” Indeed, to most modern scientists we are nothing more than an entirely random ‘happy accident’ that likely would not occur if we were to rewind the tape of the universe and play it again. But what if that is completely wrong? What if life is not simply a statistical anomaly, but instead an inevitable consequence of the laws of physics and chemistry?

A new theory of the origin of life, based firmly on well-defined physics principles, provides hefty support for the notion that biological life is a “cosmic imperative”. In other words, organic life had to eventually emerge. If such a theory were true, it would mean that it is very likely that life is widespread throughout the universe.

Chemical Switch Engineered into a Light-Driven Proton Pump

Synthetic biology is an emerging and rapidly evolving engineering discipline. Within the NCCR Molecular Systems Engineering, Scientists from Bernese have developed a version of the light-driven proton pump proteorhodopsin, which is chemically switchable and it is also an essential tool to efficiently power synthetic cells and molecular factories.

Synthetic biology is a highly complex field with numerous knowledge branches that incorporate physics, biology, and chemistry into engineering. It aims to design synthetic cells and molecular factories with innovative functions or properties that can be applied in medical and biological research or healthcare, industry research.

These artificial systems are available in the nanometer scale and are developed by assembling and combining current, synthetic or engineered building blocks (e.g., proteins). Molecular systems are applicable for a wide range of applications, for instance these systems can be used for waste disposal, medical treatment or diagnosis, energy supply and chemical compound synthesis.

Lab 2.0: Will Computers Replace Experimental Science?

We spend our lives surrounded by hi-tech materials and chemicals that make our batteries, solar cells and mobile phones work. But developing new technologies requires time-consuming, expensive and even dangerous experiments.

Luckily we now have a secret weapon that allows us to save time, money and risk by avoiding some of these experiments: computers.

Thanks to Moore’s law and a number of developments in physics, chemistry, computer science and mathematics over the past 50 years (leading to Nobel Prizes in Chemistry in 1998 and 2013) we can now carry out many experiments entirely on computers using modelling.

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