STUNNING IMAGE: POLYMER MICRO-SEA
By Nina Sen, Life's Little Mysteries, 16 January 2012.
Tiny polymer fingers, each with a diameter 1/500th of a human hair, assemble around and hold tiny spheres. The image looks like marine plants in the sea. Scientists Sung Hoon Kang and Joanna Aizenberg, Harvard University created the image with a scanning electron microscope and then digitally enhanced for colour.
The hairs aren't attracted to the sphere chemically or magnetically but instead through capillary action. Capillary action occurs when fluids are drawn into other substances through cohesion. For example, when a towel is dipped into water, capillary action is the principle behind how the water gets absorbed or drawn into the towel. The finding demonstrates a new way of controlling the self-assembly of polymer hairs. This process can be potentially used in controlled drug delivery, or in self-cleaning materials, where these tiny fingers can capture or release dust particles/bacteria.
Photo credit: Sung Hoon Kang and Joanna Aizenberg, Harvard University.
[Source: Life's Little Mysteries]
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