The Art in Science of MicroTAS: the 2013 edition

Abstract

The 6th annual μTAS Art in Science Award was presented to Ye Wang of Eindhoven University of Technology at the 17th International Conference of Miniaturized Systems for Chemistry and Life Sciences held in Freiburg, Germany, on October 27–31, 2013. The winning image captivated the hearts and minds of the judges and is featured on the front cover of this issue. “Artificial Life”, as the author of the work that produced this image named it, was taken with a scanning electron microscope (SEM) and shows cilia-like structures (or “microhairs”) generated from PDMS (polydimethylsiloxane) and magnetic nanoparticles (Y. Wang, Y. Gao, H. M. Wyss, P. D. Anderson and J. M. J. den Toonder, “Out of Cleanroom, Self-assembled Magnetic Artificial Cilia”, micro-TAS, 2013, 787–789). To produce the structure the author used a glass mold produced by femtolaser modification and hydrofluoric acid etching. As the title implies, the features produced by this procedure resemble cilia-like structures as seen in a number of eukaryotic cells.