Cry me a river of possibility: Scientists design new adaptive material inspired by tears

Apr. 8, 2013 ? Imagine a tent that blocks light on a dry and sunny day, and becomes transparent and water-repellent on a dim, rainy day. Or highly precise, self-adjusting contact lenses that also clean themselves. Or pipelines that can optimize the rate of flow depending on the volume of fluid coming through them and the environmental conditions outside.

A team of researchers at the Wyss Institute at Harvard University and Harvard's School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) just moved these enticing notions much closer to reality by designing a new kind of adaptive material with tunable transparency and wettability features, as reported yesterday in the online version of Nature Materials.

"The beauty of this system is that it's adaptive and multifunctional," said senior author Joanna Aizenberg, Ph.D., a Core Faculty member at the Wyss Institute and the Amy Smith Berylson Professor of Materials Science at SEAS.

The new material was inspired by dynamic, self-restoring systems in Nature, such as the liquid film that coats your eyes. Individual tears join up to form a dynamic liquid film with an obviously significant optical function that maintains clarity, while keeping the eye moist, protecting it against dust and bacteria, and helping to transport away any wastes -- doing all of this and more in literally the blink of an eye.

The bioinspired material is a continuous liquid film that coats, and is infused in, an elastic porous substrate -- which is what makes it so versatile. It is based on a core concept: any deformation of the substrate -- such as stretching, poking, or swelling -- changes the size of the pores, which causes the liquid surface to change its shape.

With this design architecture in place, the team has thus far demonstrated the ability to dynamically control -- with great precision -- two key functions: transparency and wettability, said Xi Yao, Ph.D, Wyss Institute and SEAS postdoctoral fellow, and lead author of the study.

Sitting at rest, the material is smooth, clear and flat; droplets of water or oil on its surface flow freely off of the material. Stretching the material makes the fluid surface rougher, Yao explained. The rough surface makes it opaque for one thing, and enables one to do something never possible before: It offers the ability to make every droplet of oil or water that is placed on it reversibly start and stop in their tracks. This capability is far superior to the "switchable wettability" of other adaptive materials that exist today, Yao said, which simply switch between two states -- from hydrophobic (water-hating) to hydrophilic (water-loving).

"In addition to transparency and wettability, we can fine-tune basically anything that would respond to a change in surface topography, such as adhesive or anti-fouling behavior," Yao said. They can also design the porous elastic solid such that it responds dynamically to temperature, light, magnetic or electric fields, chemical signals, pressure, or other environmental conditions, he said.

The material is a next generation of a materials platform that Aizenberg pioneered a few years ago called SLIPS. SLIPS stands for Slippery Liquid-Infused Porous Surfaces, and is a coating that repels just about anything with which it comes into contact -- from oil to water and blood.

But whereas SLIPS is a liquid-infused rigid porous surface, "the new material is a liquid-infused elastic porous surface, which is what allows for the fine control over so many adaptive responses above and beyond its ability to repel a wide range of substances. A whole range of surface properties can now be tuned, or switched on and off on demand, through stimulus-induced deformation of the elastic material," Aizenberg said.

"This sophisticated new class of adaptive materials being designed by the Institute's Adaptive Materials Technologies platform led by Joanna Aizenberg have the potential to be game-changers in everything from oil and gas pipelines, to microfluidic and optical systems, building design and construction, textiles, and more," said Wyss Founding Director Donald Ingber, M.D., Ph.D.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Journal Reference:

1. Xi Yao, Yuhang Hu, Alison Grinthal, Tak-Sing Wong, L. Mahadevan, Joanna Aizenberg. Adaptive fluid-infused porous films with tunable transparency and wettability. Nature Materials, 2013; DOI: 10.1038/nmat3598

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/strange_science/~3/A0jhz_88ZzI/130408085127.htm

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Hillary Clinton's every public move generates buzz

NEW YORK (AP) ? Young supporters hold signs outside Hillary Rodham Clinton's speeches urging her to run for president. Audiences listen with rapt attention as she discusses the plight of women and girls in developing countries.

Even a long-expected book deal announcement generates lots of chatter.

Not long after Clinton stepped down as President Barack Obama's secretary of state, the "will she or won't she" question is already following her around like the activists who held dark blue "Ready for Hillary" signs outside speeches at the Kennedy Center in Washington and New York's Lincoln Center.

This past week, Clinton came off a two-month break with a soft roll-out of sorts. She gave her first two public speeches since leaving the State Department, released details of a book scheduled for June 2014 and plans to join an advisory board of the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition.

The mere makings of a pubic schedule for the runner-up of the 2008 Democratic presidential race is enough to get political tongues wagging over what it all means for the 2016 campaign. The speeches and news coverage offered an early indication of some of what awaits her as she considers whether to seek the White House again in three years: adoring supporters young and old, former political advisers to her husband, Bill, begging her to run, and potential rivals sizing her up.

Tina Brown, editor in chief of Newsweek and the Daily Beast, which sponsored the meeting where Clinton spoke Friday, captured the buzz when introducing her.

"Of course," Brown said, "the big question now about Hillary is, what's next?" That elicited loud cheers ? but no answer from the woman beside her on the stage.

Clinton avoided presidential politics, devoting a half-hour speech at the annual Women in the World conference in New York to the status of women across the globe.

Pointing to the U.S., she said America's position as a world leader demands that it devote full attention to empowering women to participate in the economy and society fully. She called for equal pay for women, allowing women to take advantage of family and medical leave from their jobs and encouraging women and girls to pursue careers in math and science.

"This truly is the unfinished business of the 21st century, and it is the work we are called to do," Clinton said. "I look forward to being your partner in all the days and years ahead. Let's keep fighting for opportunity and dignity."

The 65-year-old former first lady has said she has no plans to pursue the White House again but has refrained from ruling anything out. That's the standard disclaimer of people who very often decide to make such plans later, or sometimes don't.

Many Democrats view her as a worthy successor to Obama, with whom she waged a fierce struggle for the party's nomination in 2008. Her popularity soared as secretary of state, although that may have been in part because she cast aside the sharp brand of politics that made her a polarizing figure at times in the past, in favor of diligent diplomacy.

Some Clinton loyalists have tried to tamp down the speculation, noting that the last presidential election was only six months ago. But James Carville, a former adviser to Bill Clinton, signed on with the Ready for Hillary political action committee on Thursday, urging supporters to help lay the groundwork for a Clinton campaign. Carville said the "enthusiasm and hunger" for a Clinton presidency was "unlike anything I've ever seen."

"It isn't worth squat to have the fastest car at the racetrack if there ain't any gas in the tank ? and that's why the work that Ready for Hillary PAC is doing is absolutely critical," Carville said. "We need to convert the hunger that's out there for Hillary's candidacy into a real grassroots organization."

Clinton is not expected to make a decision anytime soon and has outlined plans to write a memoir about her time at the State Department, advocate on behalf of women and girls and give speeches. With her book due out in the middle of 2014, she'll have an opportunity to travel the country in the months before the midterm elections.

Her biggest splash was her video announcement in support of gay marriage last month, a move that put her in line with most Democrats. Clinton had limited her comments on domestic policy as secretary of state and her departure has freed her to speak more openly about the issues.

Yet for the first time in 20 years, Clinton's schedule is open-ended. Her first paid speech will be April 24 in suburban Dallas, a day before she joins her husband Bill, Obama and political luminaries at the dedication of President George W. Bush's presidential library. Another paid speech in Grand Rapids, Mich., is on the books for June 17.

What remains clear is that until she makes a choice, her every word, appearance and association will be scrutinized. And she'll get plenty of encouragement.

About 50 young supporters, including many George Washington University students, gathered outside Clinton's first post-State Department speech at the annual Vital Voices Global Leadership Awards on Tuesday at the Kennedy Center. About a dozen Hillary backers gathered along Amsterdam Avenue for the New York speech. One of them, Aaron James Darr, a 22-year-old actor, held a homemade sign that showed Clinton's image in front of yellow and orange beams and proclaimed "Hillary 2016."

"I've been waiting for five years ? all of us have been waiting for five years," said Darr. He recently formed a Broadway for Hillary 2016 group and said he wants to plan a "flash mob" in Times Square with supporters holding Hillary signs.

Democrats see Clinton in a uniquely powerful spot and are willing to wait ? for now.

"It's the most enviable position to be in because all you have to do is breathe the air every day," said Hank Sheinkopf, a Democratic strategist who advised her husband's presidential campaign. "What political figure has that luxury?"

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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/hillary-clintons-every-public-move-generates-buzz-080718394--election.html

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Authorities: Escaped Texas inmates now in custody

SULPHUR SPRINGS, Texas (AP) ? Officials say someone trying to pawn stolen jewelry led them to the hideout of two inmates who escaped from an East Texas jail.

Capital murder suspect Brian Allen Tucker and admitted drug offender John Marlin King were returned Thursday to the Hopkins County Jail in Sulphur Springs.

Ricky Smith is the sheriff of nearby Delta County, where the arrests were made.

Smith says authorities were led to the men after a pawn shop clerk reported that someone had been trying to pawn jewelry left in a vehicle that had been stolen. Investigators believed the fugitives had stolen the vehicle.

Police then question the person who tried to pawn the jewelry. Smith says that person told them where the fugitives were hiding.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

A capital murder suspect and a convicted drug offender who escaped from an East Texas jail were captured Thursday, two days after they slipped past a fence only to be found in a neighboring county to the north.

Brian Allen Tucker and John Marlin King were captured in the town of Cooper, said Hopkins County sheriff's Deputy Alvin Jordan. He said they were being returned to the Hopkins County Jail in Sulphur Springs but had no other details.

Sheriff's officials said the inmates fled the jail Tuesday by scaling a fence or slipping through a gap in a perimeter fence in Sulphur Springs, about 75 miles northeast of Dallas. Officials said a maintenance person noticed a problem with the fence around a recreation yard used by female inmates. Hours later, deputies and other law enforcement were searching the woods and area east and northeast of the jail.

The men were found Thursday just 20 miles north of the jail, holed up in a barn behind a house, said Scott Cass, sheriff from nearby Lamar County, which helped in the capture.

Tucker was being held on $1 million bond in the 2011 death of Bobby Riley of Mahoney. Riley was found strangled in his home and some music instruments and firearms had been stolen. Jury selection in his murder trial was set to begin June 3. He previously was convicted of burglary and driving while intoxicated, and has been arrested several times for violating parole.

King was being held on several charges, including evading arrest, burglary and possession of a controlled substance. According to court documents, he pleaded guilty last month to the possession charge as a habitual offender and received a sentence of 40 years in prison.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/authorities-escaped-texas-inmates-captured-224431972.html

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'Mad Men' creator on criticizing Romney (CNN)

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UK's FTSE takes biggest weekly fall since Nov on U.S. jobs tally

Britain's top share index posted its worst weekly loss since November after falling for a third straight session on Friday when weak U.S. jobs data dampened expectations of steady recovery in the world's largest economy.

But traders said future market falls could be limited by sustained monetary stimulus from the U.S. Federal Reserve, which has been a key driver behind a 25 percent rally in the FTSE 100 since last summer.

The index of Britain's 100 largest shares, which derive around a quarter of their earnings from North America, fell 1.5 percent to 6,249 points, taking its weekly loss to 2.5 percent, on news that U.S. employers hired at the slowest pace in nine months in March.

The 88,000 new jobs created fell short of the lowest estimate in a Reuters poll of economists and of bearish trader expectations before the release.

"At first sight, it's very disappointing but with the Fed determined to keep (its stimulus programme) going until unemployment goes quite a lot lower, that should provide support," Richard Griffiths, associate director at Berkeley Futures, said.

The FTSE, which traded as low as 6,214 points after the data, cut losses in late trade. Traders said the Fed would have to keep pumping out money through its bond-buying programme, or quantitative easing (QE).

The Fed, which is buying $85 billion of Treasuries and mortgage-backed securities each month to boost growth and hiring, has said it will keep interest rates near zero until the unemployment rate falls to at least 6.5 percent, as long as

... contd.

Source: http://financialexpress.com/news/uks-ftse-takes-biggest-weekly-fall-since-nov-on-u.s.-jobs-tally/1098467/

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Obama said to pick mega-fundraiser Bruce Heyman for Canada (Washington Post)

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Visualized: Seattle Mariners unveil 'largest screen in Major League Baseball'

This week, the Seattle Mariners showed off a new 3,840 x 1,080, surface-mount LED display at Safeco Field -- one the team's PR department touts as the "largest in Major League Baseball and among the largest in all of sports." At 201.5 feet wide by 56.7 feet tall, its surface area of 11,425 square feet places it behind massive screens at Charlotte Motor Speedway (16,000 square feet) and Cowboys Stadium (11,520 square feet). That's good enough, the team said, to rank as the third-largest sports-venue display in North America and surpasses Kauffman Stadium's HD scoreboard as the largest in baseball. Roughly 1,200 individual panels make up the screen, offering a total of 4,147,200 pixels -- more pixels than the 2.6-megapixel Cowboys Stadium display, the team pointed out.

To feed their new HD beast, the team revamped its video control room and upgraded to high-def cameras throughout the stadium. A 64-bit operating system called VisionSOFT allows the team to mix in multiple video sources, from in-house animations and HD video feeds to out-of-town footage from broadcast partners. All told, the HD upgrade required about 3,000 each feet of power, video coax and Cat5 cables. Along with showing ads, stats and replays, the team will take advantage of the HD resolution to display social media updates from fans during games via Twitter, Google+ and other sources.

You can check out more shots of the new screen in action after the break.

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