“Tardigrado”, by Tagide de Carvalho, winning photography of the America Regional category of the Olympus Image of the Year Award.
“Why not?” Is the most appropriate question. The technique may once allow scientists to incorporate biosensors into living organisms, justify Chinese researchers.
They only measure half a millimeter in length, but late -late ultraresistents are tattooed by researchers at the University of Westlake in China.
Famous for their incredible adaptation and survival skills, Water Bears are everywhere By these bands, on the ground, from the bottom of the sea to the top of mountains, especially in mosses and mud. Nu Single Handbook of Moss are thousands of these microscopic animals with biological superpowers.
These bears can enter a Cryptobose state called “tun”, which allows them to bear extreme temperatures (between -272ºC and 150ºC). They enter a state of extreme dehydration, reducing their metabolism to almost zero, and they can stay for decades.
They are also tolerant of radiation at an incredibly higher level than humans and survive in space vacuum.
Now scientists have discovered a new way of using the tardigrades for research: like a living screen.
By dehydrating the animals to trigger their tun state and place them on a-one-covered carbon paper, the team coated with a thin layer of the organic compound anisol. Then they directed a low -energy electron beam over the Tardigrado. Anisol reacted with the beam to form a sticky substance that adhered to its surfaces similar to the skin, effectively creating microscopic tattoos.
It is important to emphasize that the tattoos remained intact even after the Tardigrado were rehydrated and returned to life, according to.
The shapes-some with just 72 nanometers wide, including the university logo responsible for studying at the end of March at Nanoletters-stretched, but kept their form when creatures returned to life.
Despite a mortality rate of about 60% during the dehydration process, the tardigrades that resisted showed normal behavior after the procedure.
But… what was the purpose of the experience?
The goal goes far beyond the novelty, according to the Chinese.
The technique may once allow scientists to incorporate biosensors into living organisms, so as to try to identify early signs of diseases such as cancer or infections and potentially conduct medical interventions in microscale.
So far, nanoengineering methods had been revealed incompatible with living organisms due to problems such as damage caused by radiation and load accumulation. However, this new process demonstrates that lithography needs electron beam can be adapted for biological use without harming the individuals involved, provided that the protective layers are carefully calibrated.
