Smile of science

WRITTEN BY SANDOR HABETS

Communicating with plants

Plants emit electrical signals to sense and respond to their environment. These signals, however, tend to be very weak and not observable for humans. Scientists have developed a device to communicate with plants comprising an electrode and a type of hydrogel. The device can detect these weak signals. The electrode was attached to the surface of a Venus flytrap in lab tests. Using a smartphone, electric pulses were transmitted to the device telling the plant to close its leaves on demand. The flytrap’s leaves were then used in combination with a robotic arm to pick up a thin hair. The 3-millimetre device is completely harmless to the plant and does not affect its ability to perform photosynthesis. By monitoring the electrical signals that plants emit, the device has the potential to be used for plant health monitoring. By looking at abnormal signals, farmers could find out if a disease is afflicting their crops even before the symptoms show up. This means that this technology can be used for enhancing food security around the world.

Smarter exercising

While the gyms have been closed for quite a while during the pandemic, a lot of students have been struggling with the ‘studentenkilos’ that come along. This makes it all the more important to exercise efficiently when the gyms reopen again. Exercising for weight loss could be enhanced with a new, lowcost device that measures how the human body metabolises fat. As breath holds the key to monitoring fat burning, this device uses an ultraviolet lamp to determine the acetone gas concentration which is produced in your blood as a reaction to the burning of fat. The UV-light is absorbed by the acetone gas, because of its extremely short wavelength. Exhaled air is trapped in a hollow optical fibre (small volume gas cell) that has been exposed to vacuum ultraviolet light. To ascertain the acetone gas concentration, the degree to which the light is weakened due to acetone absorption is measured. The device is much more compact than the large mass spectrometer that was required to monitor fat metabolisation until now. Besides, we can use it to develop exercise methods for efficient fat burning, so we can all say goodbye to the ‘coronakilos’!

Wildlife tracking from space

Even though the international ivory trade is banned, thousands of elephants are killed each year for their valuable tusks. To keep aware of the current elephant population, researchers have used satellite cameras and artificial intelligence to count the elephants travelling through Africa. High-resolution imagery is processed with an algorithm that allows vast areas of land to be scanned in a couple of minutes. This is much more efficient than the current method of using low-flying aircraft with human observers. This is the first time that this technique is applied to a heterogeneous landscape in which animals are much harder to track. Next to being an endangered species, the elephant has also been chosen since, obviously, their size allows them to be spotted easier. Therefore, the next step is to make it possible to detect smaller animals as well, even in heterogeneous environments.

Self-cleaning metal

A new laser system is currently being developed to create a selfcleaning metal. This technology aims to create fluid-repellent surfaces inside your home appliance such as dishwashers and refrigerators. A high-powered laser system will be used to treat the metal. The surface of the metal will consist of minuscule spikes and ridges that prevent any dirt or liquids to attach themselves to the material. It creates an amphiphobic surface meaning water or oil will just roll off the surface. This reduces the build-up of bacteria so your fridge will stay clean for a longer time! This particular laser technique is also being tested to see if it would work on materials such as plastic and glass. If this proves successful, then the technique can be used for a lot of relevant applications in which hygiene is crucial such as the medical industry or the food processing sector.

Modelling mosquito flight behaviour

Most students can probably recognize the situation in which you were trying to sleep peacefully and all of a sudden you hear a buzzing sound next to your ear. When you try the catch the responsible mosquito, you have no clue where it went. A group of researchers will now use large field-of-view digital holography for accurate 3D tracking of mosquito flight in an elongated flight chamber. The effects of a range of chemicals on the flight path will be quantified and also some devices to eliminate them can be successfully tested. By capturing the diffraction pattern of mosquitoes in a telecentric volume, the position of the mosquito in the z-axis can be found mathematically and a pattern of accurate 3D coordinates for tracking and analyzing can be seen. The research group is currently busy with speeding up the development of new vector control products and hopes that this technology can contribute a lot in the fight against the Malaria virus.