Zombie Cells
By David Freeman/ February 21, 2013 (http://www.huffingtonpost.com)
Think the only zombies out there are the ones you see in science fiction movies? Think again.
P2: Researchers in New Mexico say they've created zombie cells -- near-perfect replicas of mammalian cells that can perform many of the same functions despite the fact that they're not actually alive. But instead of pursuing and eating people as sci-fi zombies often do, these experimental cells may someday do our bidding -- finding use in commercial applications ranging from sensors to catalysts to fuel cells.
P3: Not quite sure you understand? Think of the cells as a possible next step in nanotechnology, in which scientists create machines not from big hunks of metal but from individual atoms and molecules.
P4: "It's very challenging for researchers to build structures at the nanometer scale," lead researcher Dr. Bryan Kaehr, a materials scientist at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, said in a written statement. "We can make particles and wires, but 3-D arbitrary structures haven't been achieved yet. With this technique, we don't need to build those structures -- nature does it for us."
P5: The technique involves first depositing silica -- the stuff sand is made of -- onto the tiny structures inside living cells. Then the cells are heated to burn away the proteins they're made of, leaving behind the nonliving but structurally similar zombies.
P6: And like the lumbering zombies dreamed up by Hollywood screenwriters, these cellular zombies are very hard to get rid of.
P7: Dr. Jeffrey Brinker, a University of New Mexico professor and another member of the research team, said in the statement that the zombie cells exist in a "robust, three-dimensionally stable form that resists shrinkage even upon heating to over 500 degrees Centigrade [932 degrees Fahrenheit]. The refractoriness of these delicate structures is amazing."
P8: Let's just hope these zombies don't swell up, sprout legs, and start following us around.