Bottled water can contain hundreds of thousands of previously uncounted tiny plastic bits

A new microscopic technique zeroes in on the poorly explored world of nanoplastics, which can pass into blood, cells and your brain

11-Jan-2024 - In recent years, there has been rising concern that tiny particles known as microplastics are showing up basically everywhere on Earth, from polar ice to soil, drinking water and food. Formed when plastics break down into progressively smaller bits, these particles are being consumed by humans ...

Tiny fibers create unseen plastic pollution

18-Feb-2019 - While the polyester leisure suit was a 1970s mistake, polyester and other synthetic fibers like nylon are still around and are a major contributor to the microplastics load in the environment, according to a Penn State materials scientist, who suggests switching to biosynthetic fibers to solve ...

Color me purple, or red, or green, or ...

10-Nov-2017 - Imagine a miniature device that suffuses each room in your house with a different hue of the rainbow--purple for the living room, perhaps, blue for the bedroom, green for the kitchen. A team led by scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has, for the first time, ...

Tiny lasers from a gallery of whispers

21-Sep-2017 - Whispering gallery mode (WGM) resonators are used to make tiny micro-lasers, sensors, switches, routers and other devices. These tiny structures rely on a phenomenon similar to an effect observed in circular galleries, such as in some cathedrals or museums, where sound waves travel across the ...

New technique enables drugs tests via exhaled breath

20-May-2010 - A new study from Karolinska Institutet presents a new technique that makes drug testing possible through exhaled air for the first time. By examining people who had received emergency care for an amphetamine overdose, the researchers found that in all cases there were traces of amphetamine and ...

Sculptured materials allow multiple channel plasmonic sensors

12-Nov-2009 - Sensors, communications devices and imaging equipment that use a prism and a special form of light -- a surface plasmon-polariton -- may incorporate multiple channels or redundant applications if manufacturers use sculptured thin films. "Everyone uses surface plasmon resonance sensors. They are ...

Portable and precise gas sensor could monitor pollution and detect disease

22-Sep-2009 - In the air, it is a serious pollutant. In the body, it plays a role in heart rate, blood flow, nerve signals and immune function. Nitric oxide, a gas well known to scientists for its myriad functions, has proven challenging to measure accurately outside the laboratory. A team of Princeton and ...

Under observation - restless atoms cause materials to age

15-Sep-2009 - Atoms have the habit of jumping through solids - a practice that physicists have recently been able to follow for the first time using a brand new method. This scientific advance was made possible thanks to the utilisation of electron synchrotrons. The detailed findings of the project, backed by ...

A pregnancy test for Lynxes

06-Aug-2009 - Experts of the Program for the captive breeding of the Iberian lynx and the Leibniz-Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (in Berlin, Germany) have validated a pregnancy test using urine and plasma samples to detect pregnant female lynxes. With this technique, that complements the most used ...

Scientists moving closer to 'artificial noses'

More than one nanostring to their bow

27-Apr-2009 - Quick, certain and cheap detection of single molecules is a task that chemical analysts are now expected to perform. Luckily, there is a method they can employ for this, which uses nanotechnology: Specifically, they use "nano-electromechanical systems", or NEMS. These systems involve strings with ...