Science has created the world's thinnest 'spaghetti'

Chefs around the world will always tell you that the best pasta is made by hand and not by a machine, and while we don't have much reason to dispute that, science has finally got one up on the most talented culinary artists.

Folk at the University College London have developed starch nanofibers that are so thin they are invisible to the naked eye. With a width of just 372 nanometres, these fibres (which you will really struggle to make spaghetti bolognese from, but hey it makes for a cool story!) were created in pretty much the same way that spaghetti is made. The scientists took a mixture of flour and liquid and then hit it with an electric charge before pushing it through a holed metallic structure to create the nano strands. It's a process that has been given the name of electrospinning, and is just the same as making spaghetti normally except on a nano-scale.

It's thought that this technique will become useful for advances outside the culinary world, for example in the medical area where nanofibres could be used to help wounds heal better by allowing moisture to pass through while keeping larger and more harmful bacteria from doing the same.

You can read more about the incredibly complex process to make a nanofibre here (thanks, Engadget).