Researchers Construct Tiny, Floating 'Eyeballs,' On Microchip

[Dover]

Researchers Construct Tiny, Floating 'Eyeballs,' 'Billiard Balls' On Microchip

North Carolina State University chemical engineers have discovered a way to construct new microscopic devices that can act like tiny factories for materials with potential for a wide variety of chemical and biological uses.


One of the anisotropic “eyeball” particles created by NC State researchers. (Image courtesy of North Carolina State University)

The NC State researchers, advised by Dr. Orlin Velev, assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering, include undergraduate student Jeffrey R. Millman and graduate students Ketan H. Bhatt and Brian G. Prevo. They created different types of tiny particles that could eventually be used in everything from drug delivery to determinations of the presence or concentration of
biological molecules.

Some types of new particles look like microscopic eyeballs, but are really made of tiny particles of gold and latex. Others look like billiard balls, but are slivers of gold, silica and colored latex beads.

The research is published in the January edition of Nature Materials.

“We’re looking at scaling down microfabrication by making special microfluidic chips that can serve as microscopic factories,” Velev says. “All sorts of particulate materials – electrically conductive, magnetic, polymer, metallic, fluorescent – can be combined for special high-tech applications.”..cont'd

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/01/050123212331.htm

[On the Road]

1. They Badly Need a Killer App

to bring some cash flow in, raise expectations, and keep funding the research. Otherwise, it will eventually get pushed out by new hot areas.