Researchers at University College London have done what celebrity chefs and Italian nonnas can only dream of: they have created the thinnest spaghetti in the world. This achievement, called Culinary, in Nanoscale Developmentsobtained chains of starch nanofibers just 372 nanometers wide, invisible to the naked eye and smaller than some wavelengths of light.
While the “world’s thinnest spaghetti” may sound silly, starch may actually have important medical applications. For example, nanofiber starches can aid wound healing when used in dressings because they can inhibit bacteria while wicking away moisture. Instead of going through the energy-intensive process of purifying their own plant cell starch for nanofibers, these chemists decided store-bought was fine and made their fibers directly from flour. Their version of nanofibers is created by a process called electrospinning, where an electrical charge draws a mixture of flour and liquid through extremely tiny metal holes into threads that are only nanometers wide. Extrusion through a mold is the same way you would make regular spaghetti to accompany your bolognese or meatballs. a lot on a smaller scale.
There’s still a lot of work to do before the product shows up in a doctor’s office, but it’s a step toward more durable starch nanofibers. Although I’d pay good money to watch chefs try to explain invisible pasta on a reality TV show, electrospinning is hardly going to become the new molecular gastronomy hotness. As co-author Professor Gareth Williams of the UCL School of Pharmacy : “Unfortunately I don’t think it’s as useful as pasta because it will overcook in less than a second before you take it out of the pan.”
