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Nano-Suit Protects Bugs From Vacuums
sciencehabit writes "Put a fruit fly larva in a spacelike vacuum, and the results aren't pretty. Within a matter of minutes, the animal will collapse into a crinkled, lifeless husk. Now, researchers have found a way to protect the bugs: Bombard them with electrons, which form a 'nano-suit' around their bodies. The advance could help scientists take high-resolution photographs of tiny living organisms. It also suggests a new way that creatures could survive the harsh conditions of outer space and may even lead to new space travel technology for humans."
Work is also being done on electron "suits" that protect against radiation.
Read tittle, imagined tiny insect Gundam warriors battling the ferocious Gigga Vacuum cleaners. Can't bring myself to read the submission and destroy this newfound fun.
What exactly is a "spacelike vacuum"? Is it different from other vacuums? Are there vacuums that are unlike space?
Lemon curry???
So what you're saying is, fry them a little to seal in the juicy goodness?
Apparently not:
They found that the energy from the electrons changed the thin film on the larvae's skin, causing its molecules to link together—a process called polymerization. The result was a layer—only 50- to 100-billionths of a meter thick—that was flexible enough to allow the larva to move, but solid enough to keep its gasses and liquids from escaping.
Stay sentient. Don't drink bad milk.
Insects breathe through their skin. Covering it in a polymer is like putting a plastic bag over your head: You might not be dead yet, but lifeless-huskiness is just a few moments away.
Python coder | PyQt Applications | Writer
Let's fire off fruit-flies in every direction in space and watch every other planet's agriculture industry crumble!
I for one welcome our electron suited fruit fly larvae overlords
..., they found that the young fly wiggled in place for an hour as if everything was fine. When they put another larva in the same vacuum and let it sit there for an hour before bombarding it with the microscope's electrons, it predictably dehydrated to death. Somehow, the electron stream was keeping the larva alive and so unscathed that it later grew to become a healthy fruit fly.
Sig?
Me, I got the Sears Craftsman Shop Vac and vacuumed up all the Box Elders bugs I could find.
It replenishes the energy gauge, allowing the insects to engage Maximum Armor
I figure that the high vacuum would make breathing difficult as well.
Insects breathe through their skin. Covering it in a polymer is like putting a plastic bag over your head:
Which - in "a spacelike vacuum" - would also be an advantage compared suffocate immedeatly.
bickerdyke
to force field space suits like the Flickinger Field, from Jack McDevitts' Deep Six series.
tittle (tit - tel) n. - portmanteau of 'titillating' and 'title'.
Typically used to describe news headlines that are more interesting than the article.
Unlike other portmanteau, the morphemes being combined are heterophonic -- having the same initially spellings, but different meanings;
Thus, a double t is introduced as a form of self referential onomatopoeia; The word is spelled the way it ought to sound.
"'Twasn't a typo; The tittle they typed told a more titillatious tale than the total text transmitted."
welcome our electron-bombarded-protected overlords!
Karnal
No wonder we keep getting bit by bedbugs, even after we vacuum the apartment... I'll bet the bedbug section of the NYC subway trains has little bedbug sized ads for nano-suits, matching the human sized ads for mattress covers.
now bugs can go on a spacewalk... tiny step for a bug, but huge step for bug-kind :p
Never antropomorphize computers, they do not like that
Ooooh, I like it. Is this real (ref please) or did you make it up?
...scientists discover how to make fruit fly larvae develop Maximum Armor, Maximum Strength, and Invisibility Cloak powers, just not all at the same time.
In the end they will lay their freedom at our feet and say to us, Make us your slaves, but feed us. - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
This lamenes filter is anoying
If something is being trapped by the lameness filter, it is because it was lame.
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
What about these? They could be useful.
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
little insects which can survive space and radiation, almost sounds like the making of a sci-fi horror flick as they mutant into space monsters! :)
Insects don't need to go into space. They don't need to survive a vacuum. They die in a vacuum for a reason. This will only lead to bugs on spacecraft, which will be a nuisance, or even dangerous.
When humans colonize other planets, there is no need to bring bugs with us. That will just be another planet for them to infest.
If bugs want to go into space, let them develop their own space suits, but got god's sake, DON'T DO IT FOR THEM!
..., they found that the young fly wiggled in place for an hour as if everything was fine.
This is the part that gets me. I don't know if there is a electron microscopy equivalent of shutter speed, but if your subject is moving around while you're trying to image it, do you get a blurry picture? If it isn't a problem (or an easy to solve problem) perhaps in the near future we can look forward to electron micro-cinema....in 3D...HD...with Dolby surround.
Stay sentient. Don't drink bad milk.
Also lots of problems with DX11 implementation.
The British feel the need to pluralize everything.
I am pretty sure you can only have one kind of vacuum, so it is redundant to use vacuums.
Unless this story is about protecting bugs from Hoovers and Dysons.
I haven't thought of anything clever to put here, but then again most of you haven't either.
so the human spacesuit of the future will be a thick coating of fruit flies dipped in honey while the mother ship sprays you with electrons? I'm not sure where to invest my stock money at this point! Electrons?
Have you fscked your local propeller head today?
"Power Levels Now at 400%"