Australasian Science 11-1

10 | JAN/FEB 2016

CSIRO has developed an innovative coating

for medical devices and implants made from

prebiotic “goo” that can be traced back

billions of years to the origin of life.

Dr Richard Evans of CSIRO said

hundreds of thousands of Australians

receive medical implants like bone replace-

ments, catheters and pacemakers every year.

“Reducing the likelihood of infection, and

ensuring the body doesn’t reject implants,

are ongoing medical challenges,” he said.

“That’s why coatings on these implants are

needed to help them to do their job.

“We wanted to use these prehistoric

molecules, which are believed to have been

the source of all life evolving on Earth, to see

if we could apply the chemistry in a practical

way.”

The team discovered that the nitroge-

nous polymer aminomalononitrile is bio-

friendly, and cells readily grow and colonise

it. “The non-toxic coating is adhesive and

will coat almost any material, making its

potential biomedical applications really

broad,” Evans said.

The researchers also tried adding silver

compounds to produce an antibacterial

coating that can be used on devices such as

catheters to avoid infections. “Other

compounds can also be added to implants

to reduce friction, make them more durable

and resistant to wear,” Evans said.

The coating process is very simple and

uses methods and substances that are readily

available, making devices more cost-effective

for biomedical manufacturers.

The findings from the research were

published inAsia Materials(tinyurl.com/

nqmhylb).

Primordial Goo Improves Implants

f

p

n

Dr Richard Evans has developed a

bio-friendly coating for medical implants

that improves their performance and

acceptance by the body.

Microplate Discovery Dates

Birth of Himalayas

The discovery of the first oceanic microplate in the Indian Ocean

is helping an international team of scientists to identify when the

initial collision between India and Eurasia led to the birth of the

Himalayas.

At least seven microplates are known in the Pacific Ocean, but

this is the first ancient Indian Ocean microplate discovered. Radar

beam images from an orbiting satellite have helped put together

pieces of this plate tectonic jigsaw and pinpointed the age for the

collision, whose precise date has divided scientists for decades.

Reported in Earth and Planetary Science Letters(tinyurl.com/

onutrlv), the team believes the collision occurred 47 million years

ago when India and Eurasia initially smashed into each other.

“The age of the largest continental collision on Earth has long been

controversial, with age estimates ranging from at least 59 to 34

million years ago,” said lead author Dr Kara Matthews of The Univer-

sity of Sydney. “Knowing this age is particularly important for under-

standing the link between the growth of mountain belts and major

climate change.”

The researchers discovered that crustal stresses caused by the

initial collision cracked the Antarctic Plate far away from the colli-

sional zone and broke off a fragment the size of Tasmania in a

remote patch of the central Indian Ocean. The authors have named

this the Mammerickx Microplate after Dr Jacqueline Mammerickx,

a pioneer in seafloor mapping.

Rotation of the Mammerickx Microplate is revealed by a rotating

pattern of grooves and hills that turn the topography of the ocean

floor into a jagged landscape. These “abyssal hills” record a sudden

increase in crustal stress that date the birth of the Himalayan

mountains to 47 million years ago.

The new research shows that 50 million years ago, India was trav-

elling northwards at speeds of 15 cm/year. Soon after it slammed

into Eurasia, crustal stresses along the mid-ocean ridge between

India and Antarctica intensified to breaking point. A chunk of

Antarctica’s crust broke off and started rotating like a ball bearing,

creating the Mammerickx Microplate.