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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!
..., 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?
It replenishes the energy gauge, allowing the insects to engage Maximum Armor
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."
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
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?