Bacteria and viruses spread over long distances by aerosols. However, on a drop of aerosol
It is impossible to focus a microscope to find out how traveling microorganisms behave, but a droplet cluster makes it possible to study them.Mikhail Nosonovsky, seniorResearcher, Laboratory of Microhydrodynamic Technologies, Institute of Environmental and Agricultural Biology (X-BIO), Tyumen State University, Professor, University of Wisconsin (USA)
Researchers from Tyumen State University formed clustersmicrodroplets, heating the water surface with a laser beam. Their attention was attracted by clusters of several (no more than three dozen) drops. It turned out that the shape of such small clusters can be not only hexagonal (like a honeycomb).
We saw atypical and "forbidden" forcolloidal crystals of the form: square, pentahedron and heptahedron. Moreover, it is enough to add one drop, and the structure of the entire cluster will be rebuilt. It is much more convenient to work with such small clusters in individual tasks - there are fewer drops, it is easier to track them.
Mikhail Nosonovsky, Senior ResearcherLaboratory of Microfluidic Technologies of the Institute of Ecological and Agricultural Biology (X-BIO), Tyumen State University, Professor of the University of Wisconsin (USA)
Now among the priority tasks of scientists -create unique technologies for studying microorganisms at the level of a separate aerosol microdroplet tracked in time. The research was supported by the Russian Science Foundation.
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