Python to our Rescue

For us humans, snakes have been in the   enemy camp,  from the  time of Genesis.   And there are no indications that  this may  change in future either.  Anything associated with snakes, and  our antennas are up with suspicion.  For example the term “Snake oil”  has always been synonymous with quackery and fraud. Recently Prince Charles was branded "Snake Oil salesman" when he put in a few sympathetic words in favor of homeopathy and other alternate modes of medical practices.  The snake, it seems has taken it all in its loops (?) with   a large heart literally;  at least as far as the  python is concerned.  Indeed,  they  may actually be holding a  recipe for instant large hearts. 

Ha before you think I am delving into quackery, let me tell you about   the paper that appeared in the 28th October 2011  issue of  the leading  international journal "Science".  A group of scientists from two U.S.  universities,  (University of Colorado, Boulder and University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa ) has been studying the feeding habits of the Burmese python.   Pythons are  not set to a daily rhythm of breakfast, lunch and dinner. In fact  it has a very irregular eating pattern.  After feasting on say an adult  deer,  for example, it may not eat for weeks; because it takes that  long to digest  and assimilate the food.  

So what happens after the meal?  The scientists focused their attention on that.  Python’s metabolic activities shoot up to  the zenith  to the accompaniment of  several rapid physiological changes.  The leader in the orchestra is the  gut, which  demands elevated blood flow to put  the digestive machinery in operation, and heart  meekly complies with 4-5 fold increase in cardiac output.  The research team recorded a 40% increase in the heart mass!.

 

Technical term for  the increased  capacity and output of the heart  is cardiac hypertrophy and the underlying reasons could be either  physiological ( read Good) or pathological(read Bad)  The physiological variety   often termed "athletic heart",   is an enhancement of cardiac size and function due to exercise and  indicative of a healthy heart . On the other hand   pathological hypertrophy  is due to stress, hypertension  and clearly suggests heart disease. In the case of python, post feast,  it is purely physiological.  Since stress induced  cardiac disease figures top in the lists of  human ailments, it only made sense that the researchers probe  deeper  to understand the way python does it.  

They were in for several surprises.  During the elevated levels of metabolic process the circulating blood was  rich in a variety of  lipids. However post digestion analysis showed that ,  these never  got deposited anywhere; but  were quickly and efficiently disposed off. Along with the  increased production of the  cardioprotective enzyme  superoxide dismutase, the team also found  a special package of fatty acids in the python  blood which facilitated cardiac enlargement.   Do I hear Snake Oil? 

Here is the charmer: when this recipe  was injected into lab animals  they too had a change of heart for the better. Snake oil indeed ! It may take a while before clinical trials are done on humans. But     I am afraid the snake charmers will be in great demand now and the python  soon  an endangered species.

Reference

Science 28^th October 2011, Vol. 334, pages 528-531

Clinical and Experimental Pharmacology and Physiology (2007) 34, 255– 262

Time for a Medical Tattoo

Tattoo stickers are very much in vogue now.  While kids sport the superman/ batman/ Harry Potter variety, the youth have inclination for   intricate and abstract  patterns. Peel off the protective layer and stick it to anywhere on your body  and they stay put for a couple of days, and then quickly  wash  away  to the great relief  of parents.  The permanent tattoos of yesteryear, on the other hand  were done with a special ink through a painful pricking process, and  they stuck with you faithfully  for ever.  

This tattoo/ sticker concept had captured the imagination of science fiction writers a long long time ago,  but remained confined to that realm till now. There have been characters who held two way communications through electronic or bionic skin.   But it appears now that the  forerunners of medical tattoos are here.  Epidermal Electronic Skin (ESS) which can monitor, as of now brain, (EEG), cardiac(ECG) and muscle (EMG) activities has  been developed by a team of scientists(1).

Putting together such a device obviously demands close cooperation among scientists from multiple disciplines: material scientists, mechanical, electrical and electronic engineers and   of  course physicians  and skin specialists, to name a few.  Sure enough, it took a team of  26 scientists working in 6 different laboratories scattered across the globe  to come up with an electronic sticker, powered by ultra thin solar cells  to monitor these vital bio statistics. Electronic materials  such as silicon and gallium arsenide were made into  nanoribbons, nanowires  or nano membranes. These  could  then be easily  assembled as   winding or serpentine folds so that  they are flexible enough to deform and reform with the skin and  would cause least discomfiture to the wearer.    Radio frequency(RF) components were the choice for wireless communication. 

The team successfully recorded ECG, EMG and EEG signals and also found the reliability was matched  those obtained with conventional devices. With  the sticker on the forehead, the team could monitor brain activities through EEG signals and they observed a subtle difference in the signals with eyes open and shut. 

This indeed is a great step forward for continuous, non-invasive way of monitoring  physiological activities.  Once made commercially viable, the device will spell the end of bulky devices and lead wires that are cumbersome and uncomfortable.   In  one experiment with  the device mounted on the throat, the team demonstrates how it could enable speech impaired patients  to communicate. Great possibilities and greater hope for  quite a few.

  

Besides being a great medical help  this now opens up a whole new world of  amusing opportunities. The EEG, ECG and EMG signals are color coded; the medical tattoo then changes  colors in patches as the tempo of your physiological activities change.  If the wearer chooses to conceal the tattoo  under his/her sleeve then all the fun is lost, though.  

1. Science , p838-842,  Volume 333, 12^th August 2011 

SLIPS: A new material concept ?

In the realms of philosophy as well as science, lotus leaf has a unique position.  In philosophy it is an excellent allegory for being  pristine,  incorruptible, by the surroundings. In material science, it is the supreme example of  water repelling (hydrophobic) surface. Material scientists have gone with their  typical tongs and tools of   Electron Microscopy and Atomic Force Microscopy to unravel the mystery of this special feature(1).  The lotus leaf looks, polished, smooth  and shiny, but has actually myriads of micro sized  (10-20 microns in size) pimples.   The pimples are crowned with a veil of ( nano layer)   a water resistant waxy material. Armed with this knowledge scientists are in the process of recreating this effect and  there have been a series of patents too. 

What about a  surface that is slippery and  repels both oil and water?    Now  Wong and his team from the Wyss Institute for for Biologically Inspired Engineering,  (School of Engineering,  Harvard University)  are attempting to achieve  just that.   Their model again comes from the plant kingdom, the Pitcher plants(2). Pitcher plants are the nonvegetarians of the  vegetarian kingdom. They   roll up their leaves  to make contraptions which look like pitchers and hence the name. Into these  colorful   traps   they  ensnare small insects and make a nice meal of them.   So what is special about the pitcher leaf surface?  Wong and his team found that these do have a textured surface just like the lotus leaf, but then the cavities in between the pimples  are filled with a self spreading watery slurry.  And it is this combination that does the trick. 

 With this model in mind Wang's team   went to work.   Their efforts are   reported   in the 22nd September issue of  Nature (3).    They call the technique  SLIPS short for Slippery Liquid Infused Porous Surface.  So how did they achieve this ?  They focused mainly on the miscibility criteria. This was essentially  a three component system:  a surface, a slippery  liquid  which wets the surface, and  the   third the immiscible  impinging liquid   Wang and his team  reduced the complexity of the system to one of  surface energy and surface tension calculations.  

This simple approach   allowed them to design  several sets of surface/slippery liquid combinations which could repel liquids of a wide range of surface tensions.  In the Nature paper 

the  demonstrates the design of a surface   from commercially available materials such as teflon and epoxy membranes  and perfluorinated  fluids which could repel, water, ice, blood, crude oil and above all inability of a carpenter ant to hold onto the surface. 

The two component SLIPS could have very interesting variations. Imagine it to be composed of not a solid surface and a fluid but two  nonNewtonian fluids : thixotropic ( liquids which gel on standing and flow when stirred).  and rheopectic ( liquids which flow  on standing and gel  when stirred).  This could spell novel ideas for the materials of Sports world indeed.

1.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pitcher_plant; Planta 202, 1-8(1997). 

2. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, (U.S.A.) 101, 14138-14143 (2004)

3.  Nature 477 pages 443-447 (2011)