Gizmorama - April 9, 2014

Good Morning,

Scientists in Iowa are developing what can only be described as "dissolvable electronics". If you'd like to learn what "dissolvable electronics" are then the first of today's two stories may interest you.

Learn about this interesting story and more from the scientific community in today's issue.

Until Next Time,
Erin

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*-- Scientists develop dissolvable electronics --*
AMES, Iowa, (UPI) -- A materials scientist at Iowa has developed electronics and materials able to dissolve on command. Reza Montazami, assistant professor of mechanical engineering Iowa State University, calls the technology "transient materials" or "transient electronics." He says it could be used to create medical devices that disappear inside the body and are disposed of once they've done their jobs. Or the materials could be used by the military to send and receive top secret information. No such prototypes are yet in existence, but Montazami says his team's research shows that such a development isn't that far off. His team has already built a degradable polymer composite material that could host small electronic components. They also created a degradable antenna able to transmit data. "You don't expect your cell phone to dissolve someday, right?" said Montazami. "The resistors, capacitors and electronics, you don't expect everything to dissolve in such a manner that there's no trace of it." Montazami and his team think such expectations will eventually change. "Investigation of electronic devices based on transient materials (transient electronics) is a new and rarely addressed technology with paramount potentials in both medical and military applications," Montazami and his fello researchers wrote in the paper, which was published this week in the online journal Advanced Functional Materials. Montazami thinks that in the future, if you lose your credit card, you may be able to just make it self-destruct with the press of a button.


*-- 'Love hormone' Oxytocin moves groups to lie --*
NEGEV, Israel, (UPI) -- Oxytocin is a natural hormone and neurotransmitter produced in the brain's hypothalamus. It plays an important role in the neuroanatomy of intimacy and has been shown to stimulate human bonding -- especially between mates and between parents and children. Now, researchers have shown that same hormone is powerful enough to encourage humans to lie for the benefit of their group members. Previous studies have shown increased levels of oxytocin are associated with greater empathy, lower social anxiety and other pro-social behaviors. The hormone has also been linked with a reduction in fear response, increased interpersonal trust, and a tendency toward defense-related aggression. In this latest study, researchers at the University of Amsterdam gave 60 male participants either a dose of oxytocin or placebo. Participants were then split into teams and challenged to predict coin tosses in order to win money. Aware that they could fudge the results -- dishonestly recording correct prediction -- for the benefit of their group, those given oxytocin at the beginning were more likely to do so. Researchers at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU), in Israel, collaborated with the Amsterdam researchers in carrying out the study -- which was published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science. "Our results suggest people are willing to bend ethical rules to help the people close to us, like our team or family," explained Dr. Shaul Shalvi of BGU's Department of Psychology. "Together, these findings fit a functional perspective on morality revealing dishonesty to be plastic and rooted in evolved neurobiological circuitries, and align with work showing that oxytocin shifts the decision-maker's focus from self to group interests." In another recent study in Germany, the same oxytocin nasal spray used in the BGU study was shown to increase the strength of orgasms between couples.

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