3D printing and Hollywood special FX could improve brain surgeons’ training
US researchers have combined 3D printing with special effects seen in films to train neurosurgeons.
Led by Alan Cohen at John Hopkins Hospital in Maryland, US, the team developed a simulation that uses a 3D model that mimics the head and brain of a 14-year-old patient, imaged from MRI scans.
Hollywood special-effects technicians then cast it with prosthetic skin. They also produced internal brain structures for the model, including life-like arteries that pulsate and cerebral fluids that move around – just as they do during a real operation.
The study involved a focus group of students who each drilled a small hole in the 3D printed head. They then inserted a miniature video camera into the ‘brain’ that sent direct visual feedback to monitors in the room.
The model enables plug-and-play components for different diseased or injured brain scenarios.
The study was published in the Journal of Neurosurgery: Pediatrics.
Freezing batteries to make them safer
Freezing lithium batteries could make them bendable, safer and longer-lasting for use in flexible smartphones.
Electrolyte in a battery is a chemical medium that allows the flow of electric charge. Usually, liquid electrolyte is used, but it has recently been in the news because of exploding phones, raising fears of flammability in other portable devices. So Yuan Yang from Columbia University in New York experimented with solid electrolyte as a substitute.
His team grew ice crystals in the microstructure of commercial lithium batteries to create vertical channels that control the directionality of the solid electrolyte.
Combining this with polymer material gave the batteries a bendable and highly conductive pathway for ions, according to the scientists. Without the freezing technique, particles in the material are randomly distributed, which can hinder efficient conductivity.
Using solid electrolyte could also allow lithium metal to be used as an anode instead of graphite, which can increase the battery’s energy by up to 70%, say the researchers. The solid electrolyte batteries could also be used in electric cars, they add.
The team described the results in Nano Letters.
Nanoscale technique ‘could damage materials’
Researchers at Oxford University in the UK have discovered that an engineering technique allowing scientists to manipulate and study materials at the nanoscale may have damaging effects.
Focused Ion Beam (FIB) uses highly energetic particles to cut and analyse nanomaterials, and is an essential tool in several applications, including research for high-performance alloys for nuclear and aerospace engineering.
FIB is known to cause dismissible damage to a thin surface layer of the material sample. The team, led by Felix Hofmann, has now shown that the beam could dramatically alter a material’s microstructure.
The researchers are currently trying to understand how the damage can be controlled. Their study has been published in the journal Scientific Reports.
Scientists use diamond to ‘see’ electric current in graphene
Scientists have found a way to visualise electric currents in graphene to boost the performance of quantum computers – using a diamond.
A team led by Lloyd Hollenberg at the University of Melbourne, Australia, imaged the movement of electrons within a sample of graphene to understand its electrical conductivity better.
One-atom thick materials can be susceptible to defects that interrupt the flow of electric current, and being able to see and predict those flaws could help scientists to improve the technology.
The scientists turned to the nitrogen vacancy colour centre to tackle this issue; this is a point defect in diamonds used in quantum applications for the electron spin within it, when light or a magnetic field is applied. The researchers exposed a diamond to a green laser, causing it to emit red light from the colour centre. The current and imperfections in the material were then imaged using the magnetic field created by the intensity of the red light.
The study appears in Science Advances.