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from the in-utero-fertilization-often-involves-diamonds-too dept.
http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/04/diamond-dishes-could-boost-ivf-success-rates
For women looking to become pregnant through in vitro fertilization (IVF), a diamond petri dish could be a girl's best friend. That's one conclusion from a new study, which finds that human sperm cells live longer and move more efficiently on diamond surfaces compared with traditional polystyrene petri dishes. The researchers also discovered that shining a red light on the sperm cells improved their performance. Combining these techniques might significantly increase the chances of IVF success.
During IVF procedures, sperm is introduced to an egg in a petri dish. If the egg is successfully fertilized, the resulting zygote is implanted into the woman's uterus. The critical fertilization stage usually takes place on polystyrene, a plastic from which almost all petri dishes are made. Sperm, like most cells, exude harmful, cell-disrupting molecules known as reactive oxygen species (ROS). Inside the body, these ROS last only fractions of a second and are quickly neutralized as they bind with nearby molecules. But polystyrene naturally forms a thin, gluelike nano-layer of water on its surface, which traps the ROS.
"The sperm is stewing in its own ROS," says Andrei Sommer, a physicist who led the study while working at Ulm University in Germany and who is currently working as an independent scientist. "This longer exposure is highly, highly, highly destructive to the cell."
Genesis on diamonds II: contact with diamond enhances human sperm performance by 300% (open, DOI: 10.21037/atm.2016.08.18) (DX)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 22 2017, @02:40PM
diamond like coatings - first page hit:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diamond-like_carbon [wikipedia.org]
Diamond-like carbon (DLC) is a class of amorphous carbon material that displays some of the typical properties of diamond. DLC is usually applied as coatings to other materials that could benefit from some of those properties.[1]
DLC exists in seven different forms.[2] All seven contain significant amounts of sp3 hybridized carbon atoms. The reason that there are different types is that even diamond can be found in two crystalline polytypes. The more common one has its carbon atoms arranged in a cubic lattice, while the less common one, lonsdaleite, has a hexagonal lattice. By mixing these polytypes in various ways at the nanoscale level of structure, DLC coatings can be made that at the same time are amorphous, flexible, and yet purely sp3 bonded "diamond". The hardest, strongest, and slickest is such a mixture, known as tetrahedral amorphous carbon (ta-C).
...
The wear, friction, and electrical properties of DLC make it an appealing material for medical applications. Fortunately, DLC has proved to have excellent bio-compatibility as well.
Similar coatings are also offered for plastic eye glasses.