The Cutting Edge: Computing / Technology / Innovation : IN DEVELOPMENT : How to Farm Faster-Growing Carats

Stronger than any other stone, resistant to heat, wear and electricity, diamonds are indeed forever. That’s why diamond films are used to coat tools for machining aluminum-silicon alloys, the hard, lightweight materials that are critical to the auto industry. A new technology developed at the Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory can “grow” diamond films at least six times faster than current methods, thus reducing their cost and making new applications--such as faster computer hard drives or new types of computer chips that operate at higher temperatures--economically attractive. The usual process for growing diamond films involves hydrogen and methane. The latter, which is made of one carbon atom and four hydrogen atoms, provides the carbon, which is what diamonds are made of. When the elements are mixed together, a carbon atom separates and attaches itself to a film made of a neutral element--but only after the hydrogen carries out a series of reactions.

Argonne’s method is faster because it eliminates hydrogen, methane and the associated intermediate steps. Argonne relies on “buckyballs” as a direct source of carbon. Buckyballs, also known as fullerenes, are recently discovered carbon molecules consisting of 60 carbon atoms arranged in a hollow shape, like a soccer ball. Microwaves excite a mixture of argon gas and buckyball vapor to break the buckyballs into carbon atoms that bond directly to the film.

Now Hear This: While most of us feel assaulted by the noise pollution of airplanes roaring overhead, dogs barking and car alarms blasting, these everyday noises could help with hearing tests for hard-to-test patients.

For small children and some adults, the pure tones of a standard hearing test often produce little response. Small children get bored or their minds wander, while some adults, such as stroke victims, also have difficulty paying attention.

But researchers at Pennsylvania State University have found that everyday sounds might elicit a response from these hard-to-test groups. In a study, the researchers filtered 25 sound effects to a narrow, one-octave bandwidth.

Some sounds, including those of cats, frogs and roosters, came from natural sources. Others, such as car horns and planes, were environmental noises. The sounds were tested on normal-hearing adults first. Researchers will test children next, who will probably pay more attention to yowling cats than to rarefied notes.

Plastics Surgery: Oil and water, as every schoolchild knows, don’t mix. Neither do the molecules of different types of plastic. The more different the molecules, the less compatible they are, and that makes it very difficult to create certain kinds of composite plastics. But composites can be very valuable. They are often stronger and stiffer than metals, weigh less, don’t corrode and are impervious to temperature changes and other types of stress.

Now scientists at the University of Dayton Research Institute and Wright-Patterson Air Force Base have come up with a way to chemically graft plastic molecules to form a strong, lightweight material. The problem they confronted was a very strong plastic, known as a rigid-rod polymer, that had a major flaw. When heated for molding, it darkened and decomposed instead of softening. If the scientists could mix it at the molecular level with a strong but flexible resin, they could create a molecular composite that, when heated, could be formed into shapes.

My Dotrong, a polymer research scientist at the University of Dayton, has patented a complex chemical process that breaks down the two plastics’ tendency to repel one another, making possible a composite that retains strength and stiffness and can be molded. Though research is still in its early stages, scientists believe that the composites hold potential for the aerospace, automobile, housing and other industries.

Collagen Blocker: Glaucoma, a cause of blindness in nearly 80,000 Americans, is the nation’s second-most-common cause of blindness. While it can be treated with surgery, one of the complications is the scarring caused by the production of collagen, the main component of scar tissue.

Researchers at UCLA’s Jules Stein Eye Institute have found that gamma-interferon, a natural product of the body’s white blood cells, inhibits the production of collagen. Most ophthalmologists use drugs after surgery to prevent scarring, but these drugs are toxic and can prevent cells from dividing, creating complications in other parts of the eye. While human clinical application is still a few years away, researchers found that gamma-interferon specifically inhibits collagen production.