Janus Particles as Body Submarines?

Roland Piquepaille writes "Janus particles, which take their name from a Roman god with two faces, are microscopic 'two-faced' spheres whose halves are physically or chemically different. Now, U.S. researchers have shown that some of these Janus microparticles can move like stealthy submarines when an alternating electrical field is applied to liquid surrounding them. This could lead to new kinds of self-propelling microsensors or means of targeted drug delivery."

Comments

Cut the jibba jabba!

[BadAnalogyGuy]

From the article:

The application of ac electric fields in aqueous suspensions of anisotropic particles leads to unbalanced liquid flows and nonlinear, induced-charge electrophoretic motion.

Well, duh. Everyone *already* knew that!

Re:Cut the jibba jabba!

[Vlad_the_Inhaler]

I am more interested in the legal implications of targeted drug delivery - who is responsible if these couriers are arrested? Janus is not within the jurisdiction of the US so my guess is that the researchers will be held to account.

Re:Cut the jibba jabba!

[rbanffy]

Actually, the part that deserved the informative mod is the one that said that everyone knew that. I had no idea, before reading the post, that so many people knew about anisotropic particles and unbalanced liquid flows caused by electric fields applied to aqueous suspensions of them. ;-P

Finally!

[jovius]

Two faced particles that stealthy move in a liquid. Pick up any government, and you can make the same observation. I wonder if the findings of the research team are applicable to macroscopic solutions?

Re:Medical use?!

[pimpimpim]

Indeed, or the scheme to do the steering of such microamp fields through your body would be so damned complicated that developing this system would be either impossible or overly expensive. And at that point you still haven't thought of a decent take-up mechanism. As I said before, I am ok with Roland Piquepaille giving a shot on popular science articles, but please add some well-thought-through criticism to the PR shit that comes from universities. "Submarine" in-body medicine has been a dream since Asimov wrote about it, but please stop the unreasonable extrapolations from any nano-particle to a submarine that can save us from cancer LOL OMG!

In the mean time that these people are looking for a problem that fits their solution, a lot of REAL scientific innovation has been going on, e.g. microsensorics and subcutaneous pumps to help diabetes patients in a life-improving way.

Re:Soap?

[Schiphol]

Soap molecules are not spherical, really. They are more of like a match, with a lipophobic head and a lipophile body. Now, when they help dissolve fat in water, a number of molecules tend to form spheres, leaving the fat inside, This phenomenon has been exploited for ages to, ehm, wash dishes and the like. Also, a more sophisticated version of this idea has also been around for quite some time: liposomes.

The idea behind TFA is using spheres with two halves. Sort of a dipole that may move around under the effect of an electric field (if I got it right).

Re:Hmmm

[owlnation]

But will pilots have to use revealing clothing? After all, that's what turns a mediocre journey into an amaaaazzzing journey.

I think you mean a Fantastic Voyage. And beware of the Janus particle that looks a little like Donald Pleasance.

Your Body Is a Submarine

[Doc Ruby]

"Body Submarines"? That doesn't mean some drug, it means a nanothin film I can wear on my body that lets me dive to thousands of meters under the sea!

AC current flows across the surface of human skin without chemically or physically affecting the human, if cycled at the proper frequencies. Let's see them gin up some hydrophilic/phobic janus particles that can lock together with titanium strength, but contour their shape to the body surface as defined by the AC flows across the skin. Modulating the AC flow pattern to expand out and contract again as we breathe from an air tank. We wouldn't even need special diving NOx mixes, because we wouldn't be pressured anymore into the bends.

And since the diameter of the "hull" would be only something like a half meter or so, instead of the several meters of submarine ships, we might keep structural integrity to really vast depths at which the relatively cavernous submarine ships would be crushed without internal support, given their surface:volume ratio. It all depends on the physics of the janus particle made for this app.

And given a thin dynamic surface modulated with AC across the dynamics of our flexible skin, we could even preserve our sense of touch, and even let our noncompressible hairs stick out, so we can feel the water and whatever we touch in it. Though we could selectively armor areas into gloves or other protected areas, again by modulating the AC.

On land, these sheaths could be invisible body shields, that weigh practically nothing, but redistribute force of incoming blows.

Science is cool. Science fiction, given the good science, is fun!