World's thinnest spaghetti is 200 times slimmer than a human hair

[Marshy]

Chemists from University College London (UCL) have cooked up the world’s thinnest spaghetti, with nanofiber strands only 372 nanometers wide, which is about 200 times thinner than a single human hair. It’s not exactly a family dinner option, but a groundbreaking achievement in material science.

 

The creation, known as “nanopasta,” isn’t destined for the lunch menu. Instead, it’s part of a larger effort to produce starch-based nanofibers that could have a wide range of applications in fields like medicine and industrial design.

 

The tiny fibers could eventually help in wound healing or bone regeneration and even assist in drug delivery. All this is thanks to their porous nature, which makes them great at letting in water and moisture while keeping bacteria at bay.

 

This feat was made possible by using a technique called electrospinning. Think of it like making pasta but with a high-voltage twist. Instead of pushing a flour and water mix through metal holes, as with regular pasta, the scientists used an electric charge to pull the mixture through a tiny needle. The resulting fibers are so thin that they require an electron microscope to even see them.

Image: Beatrice Britton / Adam Clancy / University College London / EurekAlert

 

Quote

The team used a scanning electron microscope, scanning the mat with a focused beam of electrons and creating an image based on the pattern of electrons that are deflected or knocked-off. Each individual strand is too narrow to be clearly captured by any form of visible light camera or microscope.

 

And, yes, they really do call it “spaghetti.” Dr Adam Clancy from UCL Chemistry relates, “To make spaghetti, you push a mixture of water and flour through metal holes. In our study, we did the same except we pulled our flour mixture through with an electrical charge. It’s literally spaghetti but much smaller.”

 

Image: Beatrice Britton / Adam Clancy / University College London / EurekAlert

Quote

The nanofiber mat held between two fingers.

 

But don’t get your hopes up—Professor Gareth Williams of the UCL School of Pharmacy reminds everyone that this pasta wouldn’t be much use in the kitchen, explaining, “Sadly… it would overcook in less than a second, before you could take it out of the pan.”

 

Though it may not have any culinary use, the researchers are optimistic about the broader possibilities of this nanopasta, which they’ve outlined in the Nanoscale Advances journal. Producing starch nanofibers directly from flour is a more sustainable approach compared to the traditional process of extracting starch from plant cells, which demands significant water and energy. This tiny twist on an everyday staple might just hold the key to some big advancements in medical and industrial technology.

 

• https://www.popsci.com/science/worlds-thinnest-spaghetti/ 
• https://www.iflscience.com/worlds-thinnest-spaghetti-is-200-times-narrower-than-a-hair-76893 
• https://www.engadget.com/science/chemists-have-created-the-worlds-thinnest-spaghetti-201509365.html 
• https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1065593 

 

Images: Katerina Solovyeva | Dreamstime.com and Beatrice Britton / Adam Clancy / University College London / EurekAlert