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Glow sticks are having a glow-up.
Researchers have discovered that brightly colored party favors are perfect not just for illuminating dance floors but also for identifying biothreats.
Professors at the University of Houston announced last month they are partnering with the US Navy to use the glow sticks to diagnose and detect toxins, like COVID-19.
“We are for the first time applying the shelf-stable, low-toxicity, low-cost chemistry of common glow sticks to develop bright and rapid diagnostic tests called lateral flow immunoassays (LFIs) like fluorescent-dyed nanoparticles that, when exposed to glow stick activation chemicals, emit bright visible light that can be readily imaged using a smartphone or simple camera,” said Richard Willson, a professor of the university’s Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering department, said in a statement.
“We will adapt the technology of glow sticks widely used in military signaling applications to excite fluorescent LFI particles to increase their detectability.”
The process is as simple as breaking a glow stick, Willson and teammates research assistant professor Binh Vu and research associate professor Katerina Kourentzi said.
When one bends the party favor, it breaks a small glass container inside that releases a hydrogen peroxide mixture that collides with a second substance to create the spectacular glow partygoers know and love.
Similarly, the researchers used the same acid mixture when inside the sticks to detect nanoparticles of toxins and germs, giving them the same easily detectable bright colors seen in party bracelets and necklaces. --->READ MORE HERE
About 100 Russians flew to North Korea on Friday for a private tour, becoming the first foreign group to visit the reclusive state following the COVID-19 pandemic in a landmark trip summed up by the Russian embassy as "Pyongyang opens its door."
North Korea shuttered its borders with some of the tightest restrictions during the pandemic, in one incident shooting dead a South Korean who floated unauthorized into its waters.
An Air Koryo flight, operated by North Korea with an ageing fleet of mostly Russian-made aircraft, carried the 100 visitors to the Pyongyang international airport, the Russian embassy said in a Facebook post on Friday.
The group included people in the tourism business and "travellers from literally all parts of Russia from Kaliningrad to Vladivostok" who will spend four days taking in sights in the North including a major ski resort, it said.
"We will look forward to new encounters with tourists from Russia!" it said. The ski resort it mentioned was a high-profile development project spearheaded by North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un after he took power in 2011. --->READ MORE HEREFollow links below to relevant/related stories and resources:
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