This noodle is 200x thinner than a strand of hair.

The delicacy of pasta has always been appreciated by humans, but now scientists have taken it to a whole new level. In a groundbreaking discovery, researchers have successfully created spaghetti that is 200 times thinner than a human hair. That's right, you read it correctly - 200 times thinner! It is so thin that it cannot even be seen with the naked eye.

But before all you pasta lovers get too excited, I must inform you that this creation is not meant to be consumed as food. Instead, it is made up of nanofibers - a material that has potential medical uses. These nanofibers can be used to make bandages that aid in wound healing, as well as scaffolding for bone regeneration. The possibilities are endless.

The process of creating these nanofibers is also more environmentally friendly compared to traditional methods. Instead of using chemicals and water to extract starch from plants, the researchers found a way to directly create the strands from flour - the main ingredient in pasta. Co-author Dr. Adam Clancy from UCL Chemistry explains that the process is similar to making regular spaghetti, except they use an electrical charge to pull the flour mixture through metal holes.

In their latest study, published in Nanoscale Advances, the team used a technique called electrospinning to create spaghetti that was just 372 nanometers wide. This involves pulling threads of flour and liquid through a needle using an electric charge. To put things into perspective, the next thinnest known pasta called "su filindeu" is estimated to be about 400 microns wide - 1,000 times thicker than the nanofibers created by the researchers.

Although the newly created nanopasta is visible to the human eye, each individual strand is too thin to be captured by any visible light camera or microscope. Professor Gareth Williams, from UCL School of Pharmacy, explains that nanofibers have potential uses in wound dressings due to their porous nature. They also mimic the structure of the extracellular matrix, which is a network of proteins and molecules that support cells in the body.

However, Professor Williams clarifies that this pasta is not meant for cooking and eating. It would overcook in less than a second, making it inedible. The researchers used flour and formic acid to make the pasta, as the formic acid breaks down the giant stacks of spirals in starch to make it easily digestible. They also had to carefully control the temperature of the mixture to achieve the right consistency.

So while this nanopasta may not satisfy our cravings for a delicious plate of spaghetti, it certainly opens up a world of possibilities in the field of medicine. Who knows, maybe one day we'll have edible nanofibers that are just as tasty as regular pasta. But for now, let's appreciate this amazing breakthrough and its potential to revolutionize the medical world.

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