tagged w/ Nanotechnology
-
Over 1.1 billion people in the world don't have access to clean drinking water. When I heard of a water purifier that uses nanotechnology to purify water even from fecal matter contaminated water sources, I couldn't help but test it out the "uncultured" way.Over 1.1 billion people in the world don't have access to clean drinking water.... more
-
-
Barack Obama is larger than life these days.
Except, that is, at the University of Michigan, where the president-elect has become remarkably small.
A team of researchers has created carbon nanotube images of Obama that can be seen only through electron microscopes.Barack Obama is larger than life these days.
Except, that is, at the University of... more
-
-
Moopak
-
added this
-
3 years ago
- |
-
The Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution has recently recommended "urgent regulatory action" over the nanoparticles found in consumer products such as sun creams, sports clothing and medicines, since we have an "almost complete lack of knowledge" over what their long term effects on us and the environment could be, to the extent that scientists often don't even know /how/ to check they're safe. Of course, while these materials have proved to be hugely useful, there has also not been any evidence that they actually cause any harm, so could a blanket ban or scuffling of developments in nanotechnology for consumer goods be overly cautious, or is it better to be safe than sorry?The Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution has recently recommended "urgent... more
-
-
Dear Mr. Gore
Amongst the science and engineering community, the potential frontiers of scientific innovation related to Nanotechnology pose great opportunities and risks in a global society. Some have argued that Nanotechnology may even have a socioeconomic impact greater than the industrial revolution - with great technological disruption in medicine, energy, infrastructure, information technology, manufacturing, and related National Security issues. Recently, the Project for Emerging Nanotechnologies at the Pew Charitable Trusts published several studies showing that the American Public is ill prepared in understanding the scientific and social challenges poised by Nanotechnology applications. Do you feel that America's current structure of the National Nanotechnology Initiative is adequately addressing the challenges presented by other Nations who are actively investing in Nanotechnology research? How should we mobilize the public to safely invest time, energy, and resources in order to help solve 21st century challenges with Nanotechnology applications?Dear Mr. Gore
Amongst the science and engineering community, the potential... more
-
-
A team from the University of California, Berkeley have designed a system that allows nonoparticles to self-assemble into complex optical structures. The self-assembly of the nanoparticle silver crystals can be controlled to produce different nano "devices" and it's a a neat way of putting together nanotech that is more typically produced top-down by lithography. The devices can be as diverse as color-changing paint, optical computer elements, and ultrasensitive chemical sensors.
There is also the possibility of using the nanoparticles to construct metamaterials, such as 'invisibility coats' (that bend light).A team from the University of California, Berkeley have designed a system that allows... more
-
-
Video: The CNT thin film was put on a flag to make a flexible flag loudspeaker with dimensions of 8 cm by 14.5 cm.
(Nanowerk Spotlight) Forget boxy loudspeakers. Researchers have now found that just a piece of carbon nanotube (CNT) thin film could be a practical magnet-free loudspeaker simply by applying an audio frequency current through it. These nanotechnology loudspeakers – which are only tens of nanometers thick, transparent, flexible, and stretchable – can be tailored into many shapes and mounted on a variety of insulating surfaces, such as room walls, ceilings, pillars, windows, flags, and clothes without area limitations. The scientists demonstrated that their CNT loudspeakers can generate sound with wide frequency range, high sound pressure level, and low total harmonic distortion.
Full story: http://www.nanowerk.com/spotlight/spotid=8007.phpVideo: The CNT thin film was put on a flag to make a flexible flag loudspeaker with... more
-
-
borymp
-
added this
-
3 years ago
- |
-
Have you ever picked up a cold, frosty beer on a hot summer's day and thought that it simply couldn't get any better?
Well, you may have to think again.
A team of researchers at Rice University in Houston is working to create a beer that could fight cancer and heart disease. Taylor Stevenson, a member of the six-student research team and a junior at Rice, said the team is using genetic engineering to create a beer that includes resveratrol, the disease-fighting chemical that's been found in red wine.
Scientists at the University of Wisconsin in June had called resveratrol, which is a natural component of grapes, pomegranates and red wine, a key reason for the so-called French Paradox -- the observation that French people have lower rates of heart disease despite a cuisine known for its cream sauces and decadent cheeses, all loaded with heart-clogging saturated fats.
The Wisconsin researchers had noted that adding small doses of resveratrol to the diet of middle-aged mice significantly slows their aging and keeps their hearts healthy. And they added that giving high doses to invertebrates extends their life spans, and high doses also stave off premature death in mice fed a high-fat diet.
Stevenson said that the Rice research group, most of the members of which aren't old enough to legally drink alcoholic beverages, came up with the idea of adding resveratrol to beer during a casual conversation about potential projects to undertake. "The idea is that it may have greater effects [in beer than in wine]," he added. "The amount of red wine you'd need to drink to get the same results they get with rats in labs is about half a bottle a day."
He explained that the amount of resveratrol in wine varies from bottle to bottle, since it depends on growing conditions for the grapes and other variables. The researchers felt they could design a beer with higher and more consistent concentrations of the cancer-fighting chemical.
The students, using their own Dell, Lenovo ThinkPad and Gateway laptops, are now in the process of developing a genetically modified strain of yeast that will ferment beer and produce resveratrol at the same time. Stevenson said that as the research advances, the team will need to use one of Rice University's computer grids to run compute-heavy genetic models.
The Rice effort is the latest in a series of projects that use technology to find cures to major health concerns like cancer and heart disease.
In August, scientists at Stanford University announced that they have found a way to use nanotechnology to have chemotherapy drugs target only cancer cells, keeping healthy tissue safe from the treatment's toxic effects.
CONT'D::Have you ever picked up a cold, frosty beer on a hot summer's day and thought... more
-
-
The Singularity Summit 2008, an annual conference focused on “The Singularity”, will be held on Saturday, October 25th in San Jose, CA.
A who's who of the greatest minds in robotics, nanotechnology, artificial intelligence (AI), computer science, space exploration, and more will be on hand to discuss the notion of "the singularity" - a point in the near future where computers will surpass humans in intelligence and all existing prediction models of the future will break down.
I want to go!
The Singularity Summit 2008, an annual conference focused on “The... more
-
-
Two teams of scientists from Harvard-MIT Division of Health Science and Technology (HST) at Brigham and Women's Hospital have developed a new self-assembling hydrogel drug delivery system that is biocompatible, efficient at drug release, and easy to tailor.
Importantly, these structures can deliver clinically approved drugs in high concentrations without requiring carriers for the drug or generating toxic components, a problem with hydrogel systems until now.
"This strategy could serve as the platform technology for developing drug-based delivery carriers that can release drugs such as anti-inflammatory agents on demand in response to inflammation, for example," says Jeffrey Karp, MD, instructor of medicine at the HST Center for Biomedical Engineering at the Brigham and Women's Hospital and a co-corresponding author on this manuscript.
"Converting known, clinically-practicing drugs into amphiphilic molecules which can undergo self-assembly is the key development in our present research; this may eliminate the need for an external carrier for delivering drugs" says Praveen Kumar Vemula, PhD, research fellow in medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital.
"Enzyme triggered gel degradation has been our key strength, which played a major role in developing these delivery vehicles from drugs-based hydrogels" says another leading investigator Dr. George John, who is associate professor at City College of New York. Gregory Cruikshank, another author of the article is at present working in Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University.
The findings, which are now available on Science Direct, will be published in the Nov. 25 issue of Biomaterials.Two teams of scientists from Harvard-MIT Division of Health Science and Technology... more
-
-
It's called "buckypaper" and looks a lot like ordinary carbon paper, but don't be fooled by the cute name or flimsy appearance. It could revolutionize the way everything from airplanes to TVs are made.
Buckypaper is 10 times lighter but potentially 500 times stronger than steel when sheets of it are stacked and pressed together to form a composite. Unlike conventional composite materials, though, it conducts electricity like copper or silicon and disperses heat like steel or brass.
"All those things are what a lot of people in nanotechnology have been working toward as sort of Holy Grails," said Wade Adams, a scientist at Rice University.
That idea — that there is great future promise for buckypaper and other derivatives of the ultra-tiny cylinders known as carbon nanotubes — has been floated for years now. However, researchers at Florida State University say they have made important progress that may soon turn hype into reality.
Buckypaper is made from tube-shaped carbon molecules 50,000 times thinner than a human hair. Due to its unique properties, it is envisioned as a wondrous new material for light, energy-efficient aircraft and automobiles, more powerful computers, improved TV screens and many other products.
So far, buckypaper can be made at only a fraction of its potential strength, in small quantities and at a high price. The Florida State researchers are developing manufacturing techniques that soon may make it competitive with the best composite materials now available.
"If this thing goes into production, this very well could be a very, very game-changing or revolutionary technology to the aerospace business," said Les Kramer, chief technologist for Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control, which is helping fund the Florida State research.
The scientific discovery that led to buckypaper virtually came from outer space.
In 1985, British scientist Harry Kroto joined researchers at Rice University for an experiment to create the same conditions that exist in a star. They wanted to find out how stars, the source of all carbon in the universe, make the element that is a main building block of life.
Everything went as planned with one exception.
"There was an extra character that turned up totally unexpected," recalled Kroto, now at Florida State heading a program that encourages the study of math, science and technology in public schools. "It was a discovery out of left field."
The surprise guest was a molecule with 60 carbon atoms shaped like a soccer ball. To Kroto, it also looked like the geodesic domes promoted by Buckminster Fuller, an architect, inventor and futurist. That inspired Kroto to name the new molecule buckminsterfullerene, or "buckyballs" for short.
For their discovery of the buckyball — the third form of pure carbon to be discovered after graphite and diamonds — Kroto and his Rice colleagues, Robert Curl Jr. and Richard E. Smalley, were awarded the Nobel Prize for chemistry in 1996.
-More at link. "Buckypaper" is more of a kick-ass name than "fiberglass."It's called "buckypaper" and looks a lot like ordinary carbon paper,... more
-
-
" In a breakthrough study, European physicists have developed a unique computer circuit that can build itself - a development that can lead to self-assembling computers.
Scientists took a long organic molecule with mobile electrons, called quinquethiophene that acts like a semiconductor and attached it to a long carbon chain with a silicon group at the end, which acts as an anchor. They later soaked the circuit board with preprinted electrodes into a solution of their new molecules.
The experiment showed that the molecules got attached to an insulating layer between the electrodes, forming bridges from one electrode to the next.
Scientists believe that improving the characteristics of the molecules and tweaking the technique will eventually lead to self-assembling circuits that out-perform existing technologies..."
" In a breakthrough study, European physicists have developed a unique computer... more
-
-
These are graphical representations of numerical simulations depicting four potential applications of a new field called transformation optics. Clockwise from top left are: a design for optical cloaking; a light "concentrator" for sensors and solar collectors; a "planar hyperlens" and "impedence-matched hyperlens" for applications including microscopes. (Courtesy of the journal Science)
---------------
A new research field called transformation optics may usher in a host of radical advances including a cloak of invisibility and ultra-powerful microscopes and computers by harnessing nanotechnology and "metamaterials."
These are graphical representations of numerical simulations depicting four potential... more
-
-
" The future of how the world communicates, and how we power our lives, will likely come from the same source. According to the NanoFrontiers newsletter, nanotechnolgoy will be central to developing and using new electronics and energy technologies.
In the latest installment of the podcast series Trips to the Nanofrontier, journalist Karen Schmidt interviews Dr. Jim Heath about how computers, healthcare applications and other devices will use nanotechnology to exchange and obtain information more effectively.
To power these new applications, as well as every other modern human activity, officials from industry and government are searching for new technologies that will foster more efficient and less-polluting energy sources. Nanotechnology will be Energizing the Future.
From nanotech-enabled solar panels to long-lasting automobile batteries that contain nanoparticles, each days brings closer a future where vehicles run on electricity and are equipped with clever ways of making electricity on board, making us less dependent on gasoline.
It’s the next great paradigm shift in our industry, an opportunity largely due to the rapid advancement in battery cell technology that results directly from nanotechnology science..."" The future of how the world communicates, and how we power our lives, will... more
-
-
" The problem? Bee colonies are dying, and have been decimated by 30 - 40 % since 2006 by what is called 'colony collapse disorder', threatening crops both in the United States and around the world.
Industrial Nanotech, Inc. announced the launch of new patented product for the agricultural market which has been proven to provide a solution to the growing crisis that threatens 15 billion dollars worth of crops in the US and billions more worldwide.
Nansulate® is the Company's patented product line of specialty coatings containing a nanotechnology based material and which are well-documented to provide the combined performance qualities of thermal insulation, corrosion prevention, resistance to mold growth, and lead encapsulation in an environmentally safe, water-based, coating formulation.
The Nansulate® Product Line includes both industrial and residential coatings..."" The problem? Bee colonies are dying, and have been decimated by 30 - 40 %... more
-
-
"An Australian scientist has developed a new method of manufacturing solar cells using nothing more than some nail polish remover, a pizza oven and a standard inkjet printer.
The iJET technique is so easy and cheap to carry out that it could revolutionize access to solar technology in the developing world.
a 23 year-old PhD student at the University of New South Wales, explained the process.
Firstly, she takes a standard silicon solar cell and sprays it with a substance similar to nail polish. Then, she inkjet prints something like nail polish remover onto the wafer in a set pattern in the same way that you’d print a normal photo. This enables the creation of high-resolution patterns on the cell at a very low cost. The cell is then metallized with an aluminum spray and baked at a very low temperature of around 550 fahrenheit in “something like a pizza oven.”
Kuepper went on to explain how solar cells are currently manufactured using expensive “high-tech, high-cleanliness equipment,” too costly for many countries in the developing world, adding, “we’re trying to do away with all of that so that so we can ensure that these solar cells can actually be manufactured in a developing country’s environment that you might find in say Ghana or Laos for example.”
"An Australian scientist has developed a new method of manufacturing solar cells... more
-
-
"A problem with hydrogen that's currently being addressed is storage. Five years ago, the US Department of Energy issued a challenge for the creation of materials able to hold hydrogen that's 6 percent of the materials' weight. A team of researchers from the University of Crete led by George Froudakis has designed a sponge-like material made of layers of one atom-thick graphene separated by carbon nanotubes 1.2-nanometers tall.
The material contains positively-charged lithium ions that further strengthen the material's hold on the hydrogen. This sponge-like graphene material can hold, at room pressure and temperature, 6.1 percent of its total weight in hydrogen. Last year, the very same group of researchers developed carbon nanoscrolls capable of holding hydrogen measuring 3.31 percent of their weight. By comparison, metal hydrides which are considered to be best current solid material for hydrogen storage can only hold two percent of their weight in hydrogen...""A problem with hydrogen that's currently being addressed is storage. Five... more
-
-
"Imagine a world without yellow raincoats, umbrellas in all shapes and sizes and who knows, you will never experience what it is like to get wet ever again! This possibility is becoming a reality now, thanks to the Ion-mask enhancement which is a new plasma technology that has been developed by P2i, a company under the wing of the UK’s Ministry of Defense.
This coats various surfaces at a molecular level with an invisible layer, such that, it repels substances such as oil and water without affecting the look or feel of the treated surface. Substances that have been treated with this technology with success are polymers, ceramics, glass, metals, fabrics and paper.
The process of treatment is, by far, the most effective as compared to other processes such as dip application and spraying. This technology is very useful to a large number of areas in the industrial & consumer segment..."
"Imagine a world without yellow raincoats, umbrellas in all shapes and sizes and... more
-
-
"Istikbal, a subsidiary of leading Turkish conglomerate the Boydak Group, has developed a new fabric that blocks 98.5 percent of electromagnetic waves and heralds it as an innovative product with potential applications in both homes and industry.
The company started out with research and development at its Kayseri facilities with the aim of producing a fabric not injurious to health using nanotechnology that would provide healthier sleep for consumers. However the project yielded unexpected results, creating a fabric that can be used in a wide range of fields from construction to the defense industry.
The Biocare fabric blocks electromagnetic waves from electronic appliances such as mobile phones, microphones, microwave ovens and wireless communication devices..."
"Istikbal, a subsidiary of leading Turkish conglomerate the Boydak Group, has... more
-
-
"This won't mark the first time the US government has looked into other means for helping soldiers communicate on the battlefield, but it's one of the first instances where vocal cords aren't even necessary. The US Army has recently awarded a $4 million contract to a coalition of scientists, all of which will soon start developing a "thought helmet" to enable voiceless, secure communication between comrades. I
n theory, at least, the helmet will boast a litany of sensors that will hopefully 'lead to direct mental control of military systems by thought alone.' According to Dr. Elmar Schmoozer, the Army neuroscience overseeing the program, the system will be like "radio without a microphone...""This won't mark the first time the US government has looked into other... more
-
-
"The origin of the universe has always been shrouded in mystery. Asteroids may offer critical information in the study of formation of the Solar System. European scientists are now planning an intensive mission to collect dust and rubble from an asteroid close to earth in an attempt to learn about the evolution of the Solar system. To realize this objective, a spacecraft will be sent out as part of mission ‘Marco Polo’, which will be spearheaded by the European Space Agency (ESA). The mission will involve gathering key data on the asteroid’s shape, size, mass, spin and material composition. The sample collected by drilling into its surface will then be transported to earth in a capsule and subsequently studied for valuable insights...""The origin of the universe has always been shrouded in mystery. Asteroids may... more
-
