University College London has created the world’s thinnest spaghetti

A team of chemists at University College London have created the world’s thinnest spaghetti.

The spaghetti’s nanofibers, which are made of flour and water, are roughly 200 times thinner than a human hair and would reportedly “overcook in less than a second”.

Whilst not intended to be eaten, these nanofibers could have a range of practical applications in medicine and industry.

According to Dr Adam Clancy, the co-author of the study, to make the spaghetti the researchers pulled a “flour mixture through with an electrical charge.” 

The strands created by the research team were 1000 times smaller than the next thinnest pasta, su filindeu or “threads of God”, a recipe which has been passed down for generations in the town of Nuoro, Sardinia.

On the uses of these fibers, Professor Gareth Williams said: “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 extracellular matrix – a network of proteins and other molecules that cells build to support themselves.”

Dr Clancy added: “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.

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“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.”

Because of its small size, the nanofibers “would not be useful as pasta” according to Professor Williams, “as it would overcook in less than a second, before you could take it out of the pan.”

Chemistry Master’s student and lead author of the project, Beatrice Britton, said she “really enjoyed” the process of making the extremely skinny pasta, adding: “I didn’t think I would form fibres but I did. Thank you to Adam and Gareth for being so helpful and ready to answer the questions I had.”

Featured image via Google Maps and Unsplash