No abstract

The design of artificial microswimmers is often inspired by the strategies of natural microorganisms. Many of these creatures exploit the fact that elasticity breaks the timereversal symmetry of motion at low Reynolds numbers, but this principle has been notably absent from model systems of active, self-propelled microswimmers. Here we introduce a class of microswimmer that spontaneously self-assembles and swims without using external forces, driven instead by surface phase transitions induced by temperature variations. The swimmers are made from alkane droplets dispersed in aqueous surfactant solution, which start to self-propel upon cooling, pushed by rapidly growing thin elastic tails. When heated, the same droplets recharge by retracting their tails, swimming for up to tens of minutes in each cycle. Thermal oscillations of approximately 5°C induce the swimmers to harness heat from the environment and recharge multiple times. We develop a detailed elastohydrodynamic model of these processes and highlight the molecular mechanisms involved. The system offers a convenient platform for examining symmetry breaking in the motion of swimmers exploiting flagellar elasticity. The mild conditions and biocompatible media render these microswimmers potential probes for studying biological propulsion and interactions between artificial and biological swimmers.

Deformation mechanism and mechanical property of Fe–Ni alloy nanowires are investigated through molecular dynamics simulation method.

We report a simple method to efficiently improve the detection limit of surface plasmon resonance in periodic metallic nanostructures by using small angle illumination and spectral integration analysis. The large-area gold nanoslit arrays were fabricated by thermal-annealing template-stripping method with a slit width of 60 nm and period of 500 nm. The small angle illumination induced a resonant coupling between surface plasmon mode and substrate mode. It increased ~2.24 times intensity sensitivity at 5.5° incident angle. The small-angle illumination also resulted in multiple resonant peaks. The spectral integration method integrated all changes near the resonant peaks and increased the signal to noise ratio about 5 times as compared to single-wavelength intensity analysis. Combining both small angle and spectral integration, the detection limit was increased to one order of magnitude. The improvement of the detection limit for antigen-antibody interactions was demonstrated.

COVID-19 has exposed stark inequalities between resource-rich and resource-poor countries. International UN- and WHO-led efforts, such as COVAX, have provided SARS-CoV-2 vaccines but half of African countries have less than 2% vaccinated in their population, and only 15 have reached 10% by October 2021, further disadvantaging local economic recovery. Key for this implementation and preventing further mutation and spread is the frequency of voluntary [asymptomatic] testing. It is limited by expensive PCR and LAMP tests, uncomfortable probes deep in the throat or nose, and the availability of hardware to administer in remote locations. There is an urgent need for an inexpensive “end-to-end” system to deliver sensitive and reliable, non-invasive tests in resource-poor and field-test conditions. We introduce a non-invasive saliva-based LAMP colorimetric test kit and a $51 lab-in-a-backpack system that detects as few as 4 viral RNA copies per μL. It consists of eight chemicals, a thermometer, a thermos bottle, two micropipettes and a 1000–4000 rcf electronically operated centrifuge made from recycled computer hard drives (CentriDrive). The centrifuge includes a 3D-printed rotor and a 12 V rechargeable Li-ion battery, and its 12 V standard also allows wiring directly to automobile batteries, to enable field-use of this and other tests in low infrastructure settings. The test takes 90 minutes to process 6 samples and has reagent costs of $3.5 per sample. The non-invasive nature of saliva testing would allow higher penetration of testing and wider adoption of the test across cultures and settings (including refugee camps and disaster zones). The attached graphical procedure would make the test suitable for self-testing at home, performing it in the field, or in mobile testing centers by minimally trained staff.