A new "bed-of-nails" nano-surface selectively rips apart bacteria and leaves animal cells alone.
Adam Rifkin stashed this in Nanotech!
Stashed in: Science!, Awesome, Medicine, Science Too, Nanotechnology, Medical Breakthroughs
To save this post, select a stash from drop-down menu or type in a new one:
A new "bed-of-nails" nano-surface selectively rips apart bacteria and leaves animal cells alone. This material could be used in medical devices and implants to prevent infections.
Top Reddit comments:
Interestingly, cicadas seem to do this naturally (with an exoskeleton featuring tiny pillars that kill bacteria, just like this surface). I wonder if cicadas were the inspiration?
Edit: Yep, the original paper (PDF warning) references the cicada structures.
...
dragonfly wings as well
https://sciencenews.org/article/material-inspired-dragonfly-wings-bursts-bacteria
11:46 PM Aug 09 2016