This article talked about nuclei of stem cells, which are the body's master cells. Stem cells are called master cells because they can change into any cell that is needed by the body. These cells have a bizarre known as auxeticity. This is means having applications as wide-ranging as soundproofing, super-absorbent sponges and bulletproof vests. This goes against usual physics saying that if you squish an object it will expand an example of this would be if you squeeze a tennis ball between your hands, the circumference around the ball gets larger, and if you stretch a material it will contract an example is if you pull on an elastic band, the elastic itself will get thinner. Using this material scientists have begun to explore auxeticity, an unusual property which has the opposite effect causing squeezing to contract, and stretching to expand. This means that auxetic materials will act as excellent shock absorbers or sponges, and will be able to have many uses.
Until this point auxeticity has only been demonstrated in manmade materials and a few types of natural sponges. However these cells are far from invincible because these auxetic properties only are found when the stem cell is changing into a tissue specific cell and goes away when this process is over. This was unexpectedly discovered at the University of Cambridge by scientists that noticed the nucleus absorbing the dye when the cell was transitioning from an embryonic cell to a tissue-specific cell. This new discovery is of great interest to material scientists and engineers and may provide clues to different methods of manufacture.
NOS Themes:
Science is based on evidence- there is evidence that the nucleus of stem cells are auxetic.
Roll of chance- It was pure chance that these researchers found this discovery.
Article:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/04/140420131808.htm
-Tyler Welder
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