Nano-Suits Shield Tiny Bugs from the Harsh Conditions of a Space-like Vacuum (Video)

Scientists have tried to study organisms in a vacuum before. Unfortunately for the organisms, though, they tend to shrivel up and die almost immediately after being placed inside. Now, researchers have found a way to place living larva within a high vacuum without having them completely collapse. The larvae are outfitted with a tiny nano-suit that can withstand the harsh conditions of a space-like vacuum.

Why would they create these nano-suits in the first place? Scientists are interested in using scanning electron microscopes (SEMs) in order to study the minute structures in organisms. However, these SEMs can only work in a high vacuum environment. This, in turn, presents a problem since organisms can't survive the harsh conditions. Instead, scientists have had to satisfy themselves with dead specimens.

The nano-suits aren't actual suits. Instead, they're an electron coating. When researchers placed the fruit fly larvae into a high vacuum observation chamber, they bombarded the creatures with electrons. The energy from the electrons changed the thin film on the larvae's skin, which caused its molecules to link together--a process called polymerization. This, in turn, made an ultra-thin layer that was flexible enough for the fruit fly larva to move, but solid enough to protect it from the vacuum.

Yet this wasn't enough for the researchers. Since most insects do not have natural layers on their surfaces that become nano-suits when exposed to electrons, the scientists had to come up with another method to create different nano-suits. In order to accomplish this goal, they dunked mosquito larvae in a pool of water mixed with a chemical called Tween 20, which is a non-toxic found in detergents, cosmetics and hard candy. The researchers then coated each larva in plasma so that the chemical would polymerize and become a nano-suit.

It turned out that the chemical nano-suit was almost as effective as the electron one; it allowed the mosquito larvae to survive in the vacuum for about 30 minutes. The new technique could allow researchers to observe the microscopic functions of insect organs while they're still in motion.

"It's quite an ingenious set of conditions they've come up with," says microscopist Jeremy Skepper, of Cambridge and not involved with the work, in an interview with Wired magazine.  "It's the equivalent of you or I sunbathing naked on the top of Everest under a hole in the ozone."

The findings are published in the journal the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Want to see the larvae in action? Check them out here.