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| This image shows two electrodes connected via an external voltage source splitting water into oxygen (O2) and hydrogen (H2). The illuminated silicon electrode (left) uses light energy to assist in the water-splitting process and is protected from the surrounding electrolyte by a 2-nm film of nickel. |
Tape, glue, staples. No not a variation on rock, paper, scissors, this is the way that doctors hold things in place in your body. Inspired by those fun loving parasites that attach in your digestive organs and hold on while they eat, scientists at Brigham Women's Hospital have engineered tiny needles based upon the way that parasites attach to the intestines. The needles swell when they are exposed to water and then hold on. This approach is 3-5 times better than surgical tape and could be used to attach patches that deliver different medicines. Ouch, it might hurt to remove it though
Science even when it is serious is kind of funny. Looking at things on the nanometer-scale is a problem and requires very powerful microscopes. Some of these microscopes that use electrons instead of light are able to see very small things but also usually kill anything that it 'sees'. Basically the electron beam dries out the cells and leaves those critters dead. Scientists at the Japan Science and Technology Agency have devised a clever solution---coat the living thing that you want to see in a polymer suit. These nanosuits are made of a polymer and some detergent but it is flexible and protects the critter while it is being zapped with electrons. Because the nanosuit is polymerized right on the critter, it is a nice custom fit. Oh and does it come in colors? of course not because at the nanometer-scale there is no color.
Sometimes it is rocket science and other times it isn't. How to get rid of toxic stuff in the blood? Suck it up using nanosponges. Scientists at the University of California in San Diego have made tiny sponges---so small about 3000 can fit into a blood cell. These nanosponges suck up molecules that are toxic because they form pores membranes. Bacteria like E. coli and Staphylococcus produce these toxin and disease like toxic shock syndrome. A bit too soon to get a nanosponge treatment but the idea is exciting.
Smaller is better, if you are a nanotechnologist. So the challenge is to make things smaller and smaller. Sometimes it is useful, other times it is for fun. Like the smallest American flag, or the smallest space ship! Right a space ship. One printed using a high resolution 3D printer. Scientists at the University of Austria have used a 3D printer to make a tiny space ship (and a tiny race car) using a lithographic printing technique that builds things up on a layer by layer basis. The space ship was about 100,000 nanometers or about the width of a hair. It took only 50 seconds to make. Does it fly? Not on its own but it is still cool to see.
Nanotechnology is all about making unique useful materials. Now the worlds lightest material has been recorded. According to these scientists the material a carbon aerogel, if it were the size of a human body it would be less than 0.5 ounces. So light a glob of it can dance on the tip of a flower! Being lightweight isn't always great but it is if the material is strong and durable. This carbon aerogel stuff can also absorb 900 times its weight in liquid. How is it made? The process is more or less the freeze drying of carbon nanotubes and graphene. 
Like the fashion industry, nanotechnology has the latest hottest material. These days for the fashion industry it might be stretch denim but for nanoscale science and engineering it is graphene, a material that has great potential for a variety of electronic applications. Graphene? sounds like graphite, the stuff that is found in pencils? Sort of? Graphene like graphite is made of carbon, but graphene is made only of carbon and only one atom thick. The carbon atoms are arranged where each carbon atom is bound to three other carbon atoms the same way they are bonded in carbon nanotubes or buckyballs. Scientists who worked on graphene won the Nobel Prize in 2010. Because graphene is a semiconductor it has lots of potential in electronics and because it is only a single atom think, sheets of it can be used to make flexible electronics. 
