Science

Scientists Create Super-Thin Flowing Water that Shimmers Like Soap Bubbles

SLAC: The liquid sheets – less than 100 water molecules thick – will let researchers probe chemical, physical and biological processes, and even the nature of water itself, in a way they could never do before.

This tiny glass chip creates super-thin sheets of flowing liquid for X-ray experiments at SLAC’s X-ray laser, LCLS. A stream of liquid flowing through the middle channel is shaped by flows of gas coming in from the channels on either side. (Dawn Harmer/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory.)

Water is an essential ingredient for life as we know it, making up more than half of the adult human body and up to 90 percent of some other living things. But scientists trying to examine tiny biological samples with certain wavelengths of light haven’t been able to observe them in their natural, watery environments because the water absorbs too much of the light. Now there’s a way around that problem: A team led by scientists at the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory turned tiny liquid jets that carry samples into the path of an X-ray beam into thin, free-flowing sheets, 100 times thinner than any produced before.

They’re so thin that X-rays pass […]

Summary
Article Name
Scientists Create Super-Thin Flowing Water that Shimmers Like Soap Bubbles
Description
Scientists trying to examine tiny biological samples with certain wavelengths of light haven't been able to see them in their watery environments because the water absorbs too much of the light. Now liquid sheets less than 100 molecules thick will let researchers probe many processes, even the nature of water itself.
Author
Publisher Name
Science Sprints
Publisher Logo

Recent Posts

Scathing report released detailing Navy’s handling of Red Hill fuel spill

The Inspector General of the Department of Defense released some scathing reports Thursday over the…

5 days ago

Growing Food Instead of Grass Lawns in California Front Yards

Photo: Morgan Boone, a volunteer with Crop Swap LA, harvested lettuce at the La Salle…

2 weeks ago

LA River restoration connects us back to ‘the life force of our city’

Los Angeles residents at a section of the Los Angeles River cleanup in Los Angeles,…

3 weeks ago

LAist: New study raises questions about heavy metals in fire retardants

Over the past decade, about 67 million gallons of fire retardant have been dropped on…

3 weeks ago

Meadow and watershed restoration in the Golden Trout Wilderness

Photo: Golden Trout Wilderness Seeking blue, seeing gold The Kern Plateau features a chain of…

3 weeks ago

First sighting of salmon in 100 years marks key milestone for California dam removal

For the first time in more than a century, a salmon was observed swimming through Klamath…

4 weeks ago