I have also walked in the mud at low tide, losing more than one sandal to the thick ooze of the mangrove substrate that can sink you thigh-deep in places.
Millions of hectares of coastal wetlands, including mangroves, have been cleared to make room for shrimp ponds excavated a meter deep into the wetland substrate then filled with briny water and shrimp.
For this transfer to take place successfully, the materials have to be chosen so that the ink is more attracted to the substrate than it is to the stencil.
But it is a step on the road to the much-discussed idea of plastic electronics, and probably an important one.The substrate of the chip is a film of polyethylene naphthalate, a plastic similar to the material used to make bottles and wrap sandwiches.
Its thin substrate is more flexible than existing electrodes and contains position sensors that will allow the surgeon to place it more accurately.
Paradoxically, though thin-film printing needs liquid precursor chemicals to act as the "ink" which is sprayed onto the metal or plastic substrate, it works well only when those precursors react to form a solid final product.
Shin-Etsu has 50% of the market for the photomask substrate, used to place patterns on semiconductors, but the other producers Covalent, NSG, AGC and Tosoh all hail from Japan too.
The motor proteins and tubules are deposited on to a glass substrate which has two wires on it, arranged as a cross.
By fixing tubules to a glass sheet, or similar substrate, it is possible to get the motors to "walk" along them.
Alternatively, fixing the motors to the substrate causes them to pass the tubules overhead, rather like a conveyor belt.This sounds promising, but until recently there was no way to vary the direction of movement, or to load and unload the stuff being transported.
Like a sticky thread of cotton candy, a single tube unravelled itself from the mess, one end sticking to the tip and one end remaining in contact with the substrate.
