Kristina Killgrove is a staff writer at Live Science with a focus on archaeology and paleoanthropology news. Her articles have also appeared in venues such as Forbes, Smithsonian, and Mental Floss. Kristina holds a Ph.D. in biological anthropology and an M.A. in classical archaeology from the University of North Carolina, as well as a B.A.
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Medicine & DrugsGoogle Glass has found yet another lease of life — but is it too little too late for smart glasses?Science history: Richard Feynman gives a fun little lecture — and dreams up an entirely new field of physics — Dec. 29, 1959Days numbered for 'risky' lithium-ion batteries, scientists say, after fast-charging breakthrough in sodium-ion alternative A prototype nail polish could turn long fingernails into a touch-screen stylus, but it's not ready to hit the market just yet.Unlock instant access to exclusive member features.Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsorsSign up for the latest discoveries, groundbreaking research and fascinating breakthroughs that impact you and the wider world direct to your inbox.Feed your curiosity with an exclusive mystery every week, solved with science and delivered direct to your inbox before it's seen anywhere else.Sign up to our free science & technology newsletter for your weekly fix of fascinating articles, quick quizzes, amazing images, and moreSign up to our monthly entertainment newsletter to keep up with all our coverage of the latest sci-fi and space movies, tv shows, games and books.Discover this week's must-see night sky events, moon phases, and stunning astrophotos. Sign up for our skywatching newsletter and explore the universe with us!A college student has created a prototype polish to turn a fingernail into a touch-screen stylus, after noticing that people with long nails and calloused fingertips struggled to work their smartphones., a student at Centenary College of Louisiana with an interest in cosmetic chemistry, launched the project with her research supervisor,, an associate professor of chemistry at Centenary. Their goal was to create a clear, nontoxic polish that would allow a nail to access a touch screen the way a human fingertip does. "Our final, clear polish could be put over any manicure or even bare nails, which could help people with calluses on their fingertips too," Desai said in aMineral sunscreen leaves an annoying white cast on skin — this new formula could change thatWho needs touchscreen polish? While touch screens are nearly ubiquitous today, some people cannot use them as easily as others. For example, guitar players and carpenters with callouses on their fingers may be unable to get the screen to register their touch because their fingertip skin prevents electrical flow — a problemcalled"zombie finger" in 2015. But touch screens are also difficult to use when a person's hand is gloved, is very dry or has long nails. After the researchers asked a phlebotomist with long nails who was struggling to operate a smartphone whether touch-screen-compatible nail polish would be useful — and got a resounding"Yes" answer — they set out to develop a new product. "Chemists are here to solve problems and to try to make your world better," Lawrence said in the statement.Get the world’s most fascinating discoveries delivered straight to your inbox.Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors The touch screens in modern tablets and smartphones work through a property called capacitance. A small electric field is created on the screen, and when a conductive material, like a finger, touches the surface, the electric field is interrupted. The screen registers the disruption — a change in capacitance — as a touch at a particular location. But tapping the screen with a nonconductive material, like a fingernail, does not register as a touch. Previous researchers' attempts at creating a capacitive nail polish focused on including carbon nanotubes or metallic particles to make the fingernail electrically conductive. However, these particles are dangerous if inhaled and limit the color range of polishes. For her project, Desai methodically tested combinations of 13 commercially available clear-coat nail polishes and more than 50 additives to find one that met three criteria: It was clear, it was nontoxic and it created a conductive top coat.Google Glass has found yet another lease of life — but is it too little too late for smart glasses?In her experiments, Desai found that the polishes that performed best included the amino acid taurine and the organic molecule ethanolamine, an amino alcohol. When combined, the taurine and ethanolamine additives created a formula that registered as a touch on a smartphone. The new polish formula was designed to work through acid-base chemistry rather than the inclusion of metal additives. With acid-base chemistry, "We think that the materials we are producing are working via protons hopping from acidic to basic groups," Lawrence told Live Science in an email, because the mixture of taurine and ethanolamine — an ammonium acid and an amine base — works well."We think we have proton exchange between acidic and basic groups at the surface of the polish, fulfilling the same role as ion mobility in skin," Lawrence said.It will be a while before their polish hits store shelves, though. The nail polish does not work long enough yet."All our formulations lose efficacy too quickly," Lawrence said."They stop working after hours or days, and we want them to work for days or weeks, minimum." Desai and Lawrence are working on tweaking their formula to find the best-performing combination of ingredients and to make the current formulation nontoxic. Currently, the least-toxic formulation they devised results in a gritty, speckled finish —"not high fashion to be sure," Lawrence said. The researchers have already submitted a provisional patent for their invention."Right now, we have a good proof of concept material, but need to do a lot more work!" Lawrence said.Kristina Killgrove is a staff writer at Live Science with a focus on archaeology and paleoanthropology news. Her articles have also appeared in venues such as Forbes, Smithsonian, and Mental Floss. Kristina holds a Ph.D. in biological anthropology and an M.A. in classical archaeology from the University of North Carolina, as well as a B.A. in Latin from the University of Virginia, and she was formerly a university professor and researcher. She has received awards from the Society for American Archaeology and the American Anthropological Association for her science writing.Medicine & DrugsGoogle Glass has found yet another lease of life — but is it too little too late for smart glasses?Planet Earth
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