4 ms·
Researchers: We can detect life on other worlds through its vibrations
- marcosdumay 12y agoWell, how would an equipment collect single cells to place them on the instrument? Is there any procedure that could end with single cells correctly placed, but does not depend on detecting those cells beforehand?
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- XorNot 12y agoAFM tips can be scaned at fairly high speeds over fairly large radius's. More importantly, they can operate easily in aqueous or otherwise life-favoring conditions. The fact that you could use an AFM tip to both image a target sample and determine if something which looks like bacteria is actually alive, is pretty significant since you can also use an AFM for lots of other things (i.e. rock morphology, hardness testing etc.) Its a way of making one instrument on a spacecraft much more useful.
- marcosdumay 12y agoDidn't think about scanning the sample :) This thing must be way slower than a conventional AFM, but wes, it's cheap, light, and reliable to several factors that other instruments aren't. Should be a great add-on.
- Houshalter 12y agoThis sort of reminds me of the voyager experiment that some people believe confirmed the existence of life on Mars http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/04/120413-nasa-viking-program-mars-life-space-science/ http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/04/120413-nasa-...