Glow worms, Spider Silk, Light, Raman Spectroscopy and Phototherapy

Housewives (and house-husbands !) may soon have empty laundry baskets and lower water bills to look forward to thanks to researchers at Clemson University, who have discovered how to make a dirt-resistant fabric coating. The new highly water-repellant coating is made from a polymer gel (polyglycidyl methacrylate) mixed with silver nanoparticles and promises to offer superior resistance to dirt, meaning it needs cleaning much less often. Treated-clothes can be made in any colour because the coating is added after the material has been dyed. Phil Brown, one of the researchers behind the new coating, likens the concept to a lotus plant, the leaves of which are known to 'self clean' by repelling dirt and water. When water does come along, dirt is carried away much more easily. In the same way, dirt can simply by sprayed or wiped from clothes made with the new coating which, unlike conventional water-repellant coatings, is permanently bonded to the fabric so it can't wash off. The team are now working on a way to engineer antimicrobial particles into the coating which would also help to cut down odours such as cigarette smoke, and even body odours (so presumably the wearer doesn't need to wash either !).

Babies are not actually born yellow; it develops when they are first born. Every minute we make lots of red blood cells to replace those that have worn out. When old red blood cells are broken down, a yellow-coloured waste product, called bilirubin, is produced. Bilirubin is insoluble in water until it is metabolised by enzymes in the liver which add sugars to the molecule to help it dissolve meaning that it can be excreted in bile, and in urine. However, a developing baby doesn't need this biochemical pathway for metabolising bilirubin until it is born, because the mother removes the bilirubin via the placenta. But when some babies are first born and can no longer rely on their mother to help remove bilirubin for them, particularly if they are premature or have liver problems, there can be a delay in switching on this metabolic pathway and a backlog of bilirubin builds up around the body, making the child yellow. Because , until it is metabolised, bilirubin is insoluble in water but dissolves very well in fats, it accumulates in the skin, where we store most of our body fats, explaining why the babies appear yellow. If it is allowed to continue for a long time, jaundice can cause permanent damage to the brain, but if the baby is put under a blue light, a photochemical reaction occurs, breaking up the bilirubin and making it water soluble. This allows the baby to excrete the excess bilirubin in its urine. The process was discovered accidentally by Judith Ward who used to take babies into sunlight because she thought it was good for them. Having returned them to the hospital, she found that a previously-jaundiced baby had normally-coloured skin on sun-exposed areas, but yellow skin where the nappy had been. As a result the method was quickly adopted for the treatment of neonatal jaundice.

The eustacian tube is a connection from the back of your throat to your middle ear. Without this tube, your middle ear would be like a closed box, so that if you took off in a plane, the air inside your ear would expand and cause pain. The eustacian tubes allow you to equalise the pressure in your ears by letting air in and out. Swallowing several times can cause the pressure to equalise, and you know this has happened when you hear a popping sound. Divers equalise pressure in their ears by holding their noses and blowing. The tubes can get blocked by mucus left over after having a bad cold. With mucus blocking the end of the tube, air can't get past and pressure starts to build up. This is also the reason why people can't always hear very well after having a bad cold. Eventually, the mucus should clea and your ears should return to normal.