They had me almost at hello, but definitely by the time we got to “Immune cells use bungee of death to kill dangerous cells…” in the headline. One of the joys of being a science writer is the press releases that I get. Most are banal, but occasionally, something like this crosses my desk:
Immune cells ensnare dangerous cells that are on the run with a bungee-like nanotube, according to research published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The study, by researchers from Imperial College London, shows that natural killer (NK) cells use this bungee to destroy cells that could otherwise escape them…
The researchers took video footage of the cells, showing the target cells moving away and being pulled back towards the NK cells. When a target cell moves away from an NK cell, it normally moves ‘head’ first, at around eight micrometres per minute. However, today’s research shows that when the NK cell pulls its target cell back using the nanotube bungee it moves much faster, at around 14 micrometres per minute, and the cell is pulled backwards.
Membrane nanotubes increase an NK cell’s chance of killing its target cell from a distance dramatically. In today’s study, NK cells killed their target cells from a distance in 12 out of 16 cases (75 per cent) if they were connected by a membrane nanotube, compared to four out of 18 (25 per cent) if the nanotube was cut.
If only Spore were more like reality. Where are the video games based on biology? The “Fantastic Voyage” games? The “balance the endocrine system” games? The parallels to “Civilization” where your body is humming along nicely until it’s attacked by flu!
We need better batteries. Or rather, we need better ways to storing energy. If we had methods that could store more energy, with fewer energy losses, in a smaller, lighter package, we would have more cost-effective options for moving away from today’s destructive-but-cheap energy sources.
I’m not just talking about electric cars (although, yes, please! Make me a better electric car, please!), but about every bit of tech that consumes electricity — and some devices that we don’t have because adding a battery would be too much of a hassle. That includes things like a whole-house uninterruptable power supply or air-quality testers built into every urban street intersection, or Tupperware that is normally clear but turns black if it detects harmful levels of bacteria or molds in your leftovers.
Today’s alkaline Duracells use, basically, 100-year-old chemistry. You put a goopy electrolyte between two electrodes, roll it up like a jellyroll, wrap up the whole thing with just two conductors (one from each electrode) sticking out, and hope it doesn’t leak too soon. This works, and is fairly shelf-stable, which is why we’ve stuck to it for so long. (Hey, it beats Leyden jars.) And developments in lithium-ion and metal-hydrides have improved the performance of batteries, even with a few missteps that cause things like flaming laptops.
Stanford is using carbon nanotubes to make paper highly conductive, and (if I’m reading this correctly) is using it to make efficient, and light, capacitors. This isn’t what I would have predicted, but the ratio of energy that can be stored to the weight looks pretty good. Take a look at the Youtube video.
But, it gets better! They’re also using cloth. Which means you could store energy in your clothing. Think about it! Your t-shirt could power your iPod. (I’m tempted to make a rude joke about power in one’s pants.)
I found this story, by the way, while I was poking around the website for the Smart Fabrics 2010 meeting in Florida (We are suffering through March in New England: of course, I would love to be sent on assignment to Florida!).
When there’s a conflict between telling a good story and keeping the science accurate, the story wins — at least in Hollywood. I made that point in The Science of Heroes, and it comes up again in a podcast and article in ScienceNOW: Scientifically Accurate Superheroes? Don’t Count on It.
The podcast is an interview with James Kakalios, a physics professor at the University of Minnesota, author of The Physics of Superheroes, and a science consultant for the movie Watchmen.
I really enjoyed The Physics of Superheroes, by the way.
No, really, I’m a complete and utter geek for lasers. As an impressionable youngster I saw a very cute boy wearing nothing but short short cut-off jeans, a helium-neon laser in a LEGO casing, and a smile. I’ve been a laser geek ever since. I’ve been known to fangirl crystal growers, and get obsessed with the math in cascade lasers, and find delight in beam profiles and absorption spectra … I’ve had brief periods of temptation towards optical design and materials science, but I always come back to coherent light and the machines that generate it.
So I am delighted to see that the anniversary of the invention of the laser is being celebrated at LaserFest.
And, even better, the website includes a comic-book (another love of mine) with a hero who has the super-powers of light! My most extravagant praises are insufficient to express just how much I adore this idea, so I’ll just point you at: Spectra: The Original Laserfest Hero!
What could be more common than green leaves? We’re used to them, but we still really don’t understand how photosynthesis works — or how it can be so darn efficient.
By now, I assume you’ve seen pictures, or videos, of Apple’s new iPad. And I have some thoughts about it, but first I want to mention another technology that got buried by Apple’s hype: An electronic newspaper.
Full disclosure: I get paid to websurf and then tell people (hopefully entertainingly) about news on the web regarding display technologies: computer screens, sure, but also 3D movies, cell phones, projectors, HDTVs, holograms, the whole gamut! (Want a free email newsletter on the subject? Take a look at some back issues or subscribe to “Display Technologies” for free!)
So, the iPad. For what it is, I think it’s great: if you want to consume any sort of media — movies or TV shows (like Heroes), books, the New York Times, and maybe music — it provides a big screen and a long battery life, for a light weight and relatively low price. For me, a laptop is too heavy and the screen of an iTouch or iPhone is too small for things I want to look at.
This is absolutely not a machine for producing with: it’s a portable high-definition video screen. And you can check your email and Google Maps on it.
I’m pretty happy with it being what it is.
But! I’m more interested in e-paper: the black-and-white display technology in the Kindle and Sony Reader and a bunch of other e-readers, which has advantages of power economy (because it only requires power to change the display) and better ergonomics (since it isn’t shining light at you the way most computer screens do).
LG Display demonstrated a really darn big (19-inch, or in other words, newspaper-sized) e-paper display that is both very thin and flexible. Unlike most of the e-readers we’ve seen, it uses a metal foil substrate rather than glass, and the electronics are handled fairly gracefully.
I think it’s really darn neat! Okay, and I remember episodes of Babylon 5, where people were reading the Daily Universe (?Was that the name?) e-newspapers, which just makes it that much cooler.
WTF_nature is an irreverent blog that shares news stories about nature being stranger than one might expect. The most recent post is about animals appropriating genes from plants. A previous entry pointed out just how weird Ginko Biloba really is. (Although I could make a similar post about armadillos.)
It’s full of beautiful, strange, and shocking examples of natural phenomena. Pretty cool!
Currently working on: News story about cleaning art using lasers and better atomic clocks; learning about Buddhist history and a bit about Orientalism; and teaching my son to recipes-to-impress.
Currently reading: Barry Hugharts' wonderful Chronicles of Master Li and Number Ten Ox, which is delightful!
I haven’t had a chance to explore this site much, but it looks good and is run by reputable people: