all George Whitesides stories

From overviews of landscapes to inner views of cells

404132862 — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 11:24:17 -0400

The photographs are stunning abstracts that look as though they should be hung above a mantle or in a fine art gallery. But these aren’t primarily works of art; they are images of scientific phenomena. The images were made by Felice Frankel, a senior research fellow at Harvard University’s Initiative in Innovative Computing.

Frankel brings an artistic perspective to science, enabling the world to see the work with a fresh perspective. Even her fellow researchers gain new insights.

Biohybrid of elastic film and muscle cells packs a punch

50443248 — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 16:04:05 -0400

In an innovative marriage of living cells and a synthetic substrate, bioengineers at Harvard University have found that a rubberlike, elastic film coated with a single layer of cardiac muscle cells can semi-autonomously engage in lifelike gripping, pumping, walking, and swimming. The tissue engineering feat was reported in the Sept. 7 issue of the journal Science.

The researchers, led by Kevin Kit Parker and Adam W. Feinberg, report that the exact movement undertaken by these hybrid muscular thin films (MTFs) can be tailored by controlling muscle alignment relative to the shape of the flexible film. Some of the MTFs even contract spontaneously, an intrinsic property of cardiac muscle that allows the devices to move around without user intervention.

Nanotechnology: Big issues from small stuff

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 05:29:51 -0400

Discoveries in nanotechnology could change the future. Where will such discoveries most likely to take place? Don't assume it'll be the United States, cautions Mallinckrodt Professor of Chemistry George Whitesides. Japan's and Western Europe's investments in nanotech R&D are on par with the United States, and China is coming up quickly. "We don't yet know how we will compete" in this ratcheted-up environment. "If we don't figure this out," he says, "the U.S. will lose a major competitive advantage." The country's challenges seem daunting, especially when Whitesides points out that U.S. students are not given enough of a basic scientific education. As a result, countries like China and India are moving far ahead of the United States in technological literacy. To turn the tide and cultivate a culture of continuing nano-brilliance, universities should play a role in helping the United States gain back the scientific ground it has lost. After all, says Whitesides, "much of our country's wealth has come from technology." Harvard and other institutions of higher learning should help increase the country's scientific literacy by "giving students obligatory doses of technology and science. We have to help students understand how it all fits together. It's a complex issue."

Letting nature do the work

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 05:20:10 -0400

It's called self-assembly, and essentially it's the study of how tiny structures assemble themselves, such as happens in living organisms. At present, researchers who study self-assembly are working with nonliving or static devices. Professor George Whitesides' team, for instance, oversaw the autonomous coming together of 1,500 tiny cubes of silicon on a surface smaller than 1 square inch in less than three minutes. In the same building at Harvard, Charles Lieber, Hyman Professor of Chemistry, uses similar techniques to put together devices measured in millionths of an inch, which may find application in tomorrow's computers and as detectors of disease or bioterrorist toxins. These static devices, however, have already begun to evolve into structures that closely mimic living things, including proteins, DNA, viruses, and even a somewhat humanlike brain.

Novel anthrax treatments explored

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 05:16:32 -0400

R. John Collier, Presley Professor of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics at Harvard Medical School, has been working on anthrax toxin for 15 years. He started his research because he found the workings of the anthrax bacterium interesting from a biological point of view. The events of the fall of 2001, when anthrax-laced letters killed several people in the United States and scared millions more, suddenly made his work of vital importance to the world. Working with several different research teams, Collier and colleagues have made several discoveries that could lead to new anti-anthrax treatments. The most interesting discovery involves the way that anthrax attacks healthy cells.

A strategy to neutralize anthrax toxin in the body

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 05:16:12 -0400

A Harvard Medical School research team has developed a strategy to neutralize anthrax toxin in the body. So far they have tried the treatment in rats. Normally, rats die within hours after being injected with anthrax toxin. But when the toxin was followed minutes later with an injection of an inhibiting agent known as a polyvalent ligand -- itself completely innocuous -- the rats were protected from the toxin's effects. Asked if the polyvalent ligand can be tested in humans, research team leader R.