Spider-Man it ain’t, but silk spun by a microfluidic duct built at the University of Bayreuth in Germany could still guide the regrowth of damaged nerves or weave super-strong body armour. Inside the micrometre-sized device, two proteins experience changes in flow, pH and the concentrations of certain ions that unite them into a single thread (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0709246105).
Twiddling your thumbs need no longer be a waste of time. Electrodes in an armband being developed by Microsoft researchers detect voltages generated by the wearer’s forearm muscles as they move their fingers. These…
