Scientists create the world’s thinnest spaghetti, finer than human hair!

If you’ve ever wished for spaghetti that’s so thin it practically melts into the sauce, your prayers have been answered! The Almighty, well in this case chemists have come up with the world’s thinner spaghetti.

A team of researchers led by the University College of London has created the world's thinnest spaghetti, which is about 200 times thinner than human hair.

Well, your wish is not entirely answered, because these spaghetti's are not really edible. They have been created because of the wide-ranging uses that extremely thin strands of material, called nanofibers, have in medicine and industry.

Starch-based nanofibers, made from plant-derived glucose, show promise for applications like wound-healing bandages, bone regeneration scaffolds, and drug delivery due to their porous, bacteria-blocking properties. But they rely on starch extracted from plant cells and purified, a process requiring much energy and water.

Scientists believe making nanofibers directly from starch-rich ingredients like flour, which is the basis for pasta would be a more environment-friendly approach.

“To make spaghetti, you push a mixture of water and flour through metal holes. In our study, we did the same except we pulled our flour mixture through with an electrical charge. It’s literally spaghetti but much smaller," co-author Dr. Adam Clancy (UCL Chemistry) said in a statement.

The researchers have described the next thinnest pasta as su filindeu (“threads of God”), made by hand by a pasta maker in the town of Nuoro, Sardinia. This is about 400 microns wide – 1,000 times thicker than the new electrospun creation, which, at 372 nanometres, is narrower than some wavelengths of light.

“Nanofibers, such as those made of starch, show potential for use in wound dressings as they are very porous. In addition, nanofibers are being explored for use as a scaffold to regrow tissue, as they mimic the extra-cellular matrix – a network of proteins and other molecules that cells build to support themselves," co-author Professor Gareth Williams (UCL School of Pharmacy) said.


"Starch is a promising material to use as it is abundant and renewable – it is the second largest source of biomass on Earth, behind cellulose – and it is biodegradable, meaning it can be broken down in the body. But purifying starch requires lots of processing. We’ve shown that a simpler way to make nanofibers using flour is possible. The next step would be to investigate the properties of this product. We would want to know, for instance, how quickly it disintegrates, how it interacts with cells, and if you could produce it at scale," Dr. Clancy added.

"I don’t think it’s useful as pasta, sadly, as it would overcook in less than a second, before you could take it out of the pan,” Professor Willaims said.

The paper is published in Nanoscale Advances.

(Pic courtesy: Beatrice Britton / Adam Clancy)