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Jailhouse Mock
23 January 2016

Jailhouse Mock

Why go to the trouble of making a microscopic prison out tiny shards of platinum? Well, this prison was built with bacteria in mind – each fence is one million times smaller than the walls of Alcatraz, the famous island prison off the coast of San Francisco. The truth is that bacteria, even the bad ones, don’t wear stripy overalls or huddle together planning a jailbreak – many of the design features here aim simply to showcase the cutting-edge techniques involved in building at such a miniature scale. Researchers fired a beam of electrons into a cloud of metallic particles turning them solid in very precise 3D patterns (such as a prison guard tower). The technique, called focused electron beam induced deposition, may soon be used to create more practical nano-scale devices as 'prisons' for bacteria, or even as 'safe houses' protecting precious drugs travelling to specific targets inside the human body.

Written by John Ankers

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BPoD stands for Biomedical Picture of the Day. Managed by the MRC Laboratory of Medical Sciences until Jul 2023, it is now run independently by a dedicated team of scientists and writers. The website aims to engage everyone, young and old, in the wonders of biology, and its influence on medicine. The ever-growing archive of more than 4000 research images documents over a decade of progress. Explore the collection and see what you discover. Images are kindly provided for inclusion on this website through the generosity of scientists across the globe.

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