• Pots This ball is actually one of the most sophisticated cameras in the world
  • Crimes.The Police alert on a dangerous scam to rob you through the computer

In 1962 Stan Lee and Steve Ditko created the most famous Marvel character, Spider-Man. His main characteristic is his cobwebs with which he is capable of performing all kinds of superhuman feats (he is also a photojournalist, although this is not so spectacular). Thanks to these networks, Peter Parker ('real' identity of Spider-Man) sways between skyscrapers, rescues damsels in distress and even for subway trains. Outside of the comic book, spiders are not far behind, on a smaller scale (because fortunately there are no eighty-meter spiders) they share with the superhero the enormous force and what we are talking about, the ability to generate cobwebs .

Spiders weave different types of silk, with unique functions and properties. For example, dragline silk has a refractive index of about 1.55 (by comparison, the refractive index of glass is about 1.5), which would make it a great natural fiber optic . Also, compared to its weight, the resistance of this silk is greater than steel, so the mechanical properties of this material are superior to those of synthetic fibers, and they are not toxic, so they can be used safely within the Body.

Captivated by the multiple uses that this silk could have, a team of researchers from the University of Tamkang and the National Yang-Ming University, both in Taiwan, describe the feasibility of creating lenses to capture high-resolution images of the interior of biological tissues. . The finding, published in the Journal of Applied Physics, demonstrates that dragline silk is especially useful for biophotonic applications by combining biocompatibility and flexibility .

"Dragline silk is an interesting natural material due to characteristics such as high elasticity, toughness and tensile strength, " explains Cheng-Yang Liu, one of the study's authors and professor at the Yang-Ming National University, in the publication .

Liu together with the rest of the team, gathered silk from Pholcus phalangioides, also called long-legged spider. To create the lens, they waxed a silk thread from the spider and then added transparent resin that formed a drop-shaped dome hanging from the fiber. Then the researchers took the structure to an ultraviolet oven to harden. The resulting lenses, which are a few micrometers in diameter, are so small that they resemble the size of a red blood cell.

The next step was to laser-point the lens , generating a high-quality photonic nanojet, a type of beam that can provide high-resolution images for biomedical applications. After various tests, the scientists also concluded that by adjusting the time that the silk spends under the resin drip, the size of the lens of the dome or dome can be changed. In this way, optimizing photonic nanoinjectors, as a high magnification lens, for the type of image desired.

"A flexible photon nanometer dome lens is suitable for viewing nanoscale objects within biological tissue, " says Liu.

The mechanisms that generate photonic nanojets (NPCs) are used in scientific investigations to obtain images of cells and microorganisms, also in the field of surgery. The techniques that existed to obtain an optimal level of NPC were too expensive, so this discovery may be key to lowering the costs of this type of procedure .

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

Know more

See links of interest

  • Last News
  • TV programming
  • English translator
  • Work calendar
  • Daily horoscope
  • Santander League Ranking
  • League calendar
  • TV Movies
  • Themes
  • Burnley - Sheffield United
  • Athletic Club - Real Madrid, live
  • Formula 1 Austrian Grand Prix, live
  • Newcastle United - West Ham United
  • Villarreal - Barcelona