Back to the RadioSpace™ home page
NewsDirect story topics:
Consumer, Business & General Interest
Current Events & Public Affairs
Entertainment & Sports
Health & Medicine
"Discovery Files" Features from the National Science Foundation
"Fluid Motion"
Fully produced report in MP3 format:
48 kbps |
96 kbps
(90 seconds)
-- How Will You Use This Story? --
READER SCRIPT
(DOES NOT FULLY MATCH AUDIO)
A VERY MOVING SOUND... THE "DISCOVERY FILES": NEW ADVANCES IN SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING, FROM THE NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION. A NOVEL METHOD FOR MOVING FLUIDS USING SOUND IS BEING PIONEERED AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN. WHAT'S THE BIG DEAL ABOUT ALL THESE BLIPS AND BLEEPS? ACTUALLY, IT'S A SMALL DEAL THAT COULD SIGNIFICANTLY SIMPLIFY CONDUCTING EXPERIMENTS IN MICRO-FLUIDIC DEVICES. THINK OF A LAB ON A CHIP--A TINY LABORATORY, MAYBE A FEW CENTIMETERS IN SIZE, THAT PERFORMS SEVERAL DIFFERENT TESTS ON JUST ONE VERY SMALL SAMPLE. YOU MIGHT SOMEDAY SEE A DEVICE THE SIZE OF AN "I-PHONE" THAT YOU COULD SNEEZE INTO--AND IT WOULD TELL YOU IF YOU HAVE THE FLU. WHAT HASN'T BEEN DEVELOPED FOR SUCH A SMALL SYSTEM IS THE MECHANISM FOR MOVING CHEMICALS AND SAMPLES AROUND, INSIDE IT. BUT NOW, U-M RESEARCHERS ARE USING THE SOUND-WAVES CREATED BY MUSICAL-NOTES TO NUDGE DROPLETS THROUGH THE DEVICE'S MICROSCOPIC CHANNELS. FOR EXAMPLE, A DROPLET CAN BE SLOWLY MOVED TO ITS DESTINATION; USING MULTIPLE TONES, FLUIDS CAN BE MIXED IN A GRADIENT; AND DIFFERENT TONES CAN BE USED TO MOVE DIFFERENT FLUIDS. SCIENTISTS HOPE THAT THIS NEW MICRO-TECHNOLOGY COULD EVENTUALLY LEAD TO A HOME-TEST FOR OTHER ILLNESSES; IT COULD ALSO BE A HANDY PORTABLE DEVICE FOR TESTING FOR FOOD-CONTAMINANTS OR TOXIC GASES. EVEN THOUGH WE'RE A STEP CLOSER TO THAT, IT WOULDN'T BE A GOOD IDEA, RIGHT NOW, TO SNEEZE INTO YOUR "I-PHONE". THE "DISCOVERY FILES" COVERS PROJECTS FUNDED BY THE GOVERNMENT'S NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION: FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH BROUGHT TO YOU BY YOU! LEARN MORE AT "N-S-F"-DOT-GOV--OR ON THEIR PODCAST.
For additional "Discovery Files" features from the National Science Foundation, click here.
