Nanooze

Itty bitty bit

2012-01-15T09:23:00.000-05:00

Scientists at IBM report that they are able to store data on the smallest set of atoms ever. They can store a bit of data on just 12 atoms. Probably not ready for your thumb drive (or even your pinkie drive) this new approach will still lead to revolutionary ways of thinking about storing data. The new approach uses an antiferromagnetic structure which means the atoms point in opposite directions. Because of that they can also pack a lot more of them together. The work uses the scanning tunneling microscope which was invented at IBM 30 years ago and used to create the famous IBM logo spelled out with just 35 atoms.
http://tinyurl.com/87p5hfn

All we need are nano-hamsters

2012-01-07T09:39:00.001-05:00

This showed up on one of the nano RSS feeds. It has nothing to do with nano but it is funny and clever. In the quest for renewable energy why not harness the energy hamsters expend running around their wheels. There are hamster-powered floor cleaners, nanogenerators and my favorite a hamster-powered submarine. It isn't exactly clear how much you have to feed the hamster and how much energy you get, but they are cute.
http://tinyurl.com/6uu5cjz

A dog's best friend

2012-01-02T09:42:00.000-05:00

Right! Man's best friend, the dog, now has his/her own best friend, 'Dirty Dog, Door Mat'. A nanotech inspired product that according the manufacturer:
"Dog Gone Smart's Dirty Dog Doormat is based on its Advanced Microfiber Technology that entraps dirt, mud and water immediately. The doormat made of microfiber strands provides a super-sponge effect. It can soak up to seven folds of its mass in water and mud and dries five folds quicker when compared to the other doormats. The machine-washable doormat finds application in water and food bowls, under litter boxes, crates and cars."
arrrfff!
http://www.doggonesmartbed.com/

Paint your house in sunshine

2011-12-30T08:57:00.000-05:00

Solar panels are pretty common and you find them on houses on top of building all trying to capture a bit of sunshine and make some electricity. Now some research is suggesting that you can make paint that is able to do the same thing as solar panels---generate electricity. The work from University of Notre Dame is just beginning and the paint is about 10 times less efficient than solar panels but it is a start. They used tiny particles of titanium dioxide (the same stuff as in most white paint) and coated them with cadmium salts that help convert the sunlight into electricity.

See more at http://tinyurl.com/82yk95b

Nanooze Labs opens at Disneyland

2011-10-31T16:07:00.001-04:00

On the West Coast and needing your Nanooze fix? Stop by Nanooze Labs in Disneyland! This new 1500 square foot exhibit features, RopeScope, Zoom and Touch a Molecule. Located within Innoventions in Tomorrowland at Disneyland in Anaheim CA, Nanooze Labs is a fun spot to hang out, explore, watch some outstanding videos and even pick up a copy of the magazine Nanooze. Nanooze Labs is celebrating the International Year of Chemistry and will be on display till September 2012.

Your nano-Benz

2011-09-05T09:30:00.000-04:00

NANOSLIDE coating on a Mercedes Benz engine

Sure maybe it is your grandfather's car. But Mercedes Benz is now nano. Not a nano car but has a nanomaterial. NANOSLIDE technology involves spraying a thin layer of carbon and iron 'wires' on the cylinder surfaces inside of the engine. How thin? About 100 micrometers or 100,000 nanometers. The NANOSLIDE surface looks shiny but it has tiny pores that trap enough oil to lubricate the surface. The technology reduces the engine weight by 4.3 kilograms which they say saves 3% on fuel consumption.

An answer to mankind's most pressing problem.

2011-08-06T10:46:00.000-04:00

Odour tags made by Odegon Technology

Maybe underarm odor isn't the most pressing problem to the planet what with global warming and hunger but it isn't something to be ignored. Especially when nanotechnology has a solution. 'Odour tags' (the British spelling) are placed in garments and supposed to stay there forever. So where is the nano? In the nanoporous activated carbon that is in the pads. They soak up the stink by the stinking chemical binding to the carbon through very weak but effective bonds, leaving you odor (or odour)-free. The company that makes them claims they can be washed or dried so I suppose you can get one for every shirt you have. Activated carbon isn't new, it was discovered by the British Ministry of Defence (aka Defense) in the 1940's for use in gas masks. Maybe instead of odour tags we could all just wear gas masks.

DO NOT SMOKE

2011-08-03T16:39:00.000-04:00

Artificial windpipe

Well that is the most important thing. Smoking kills. But if you are shopping for a new windpipe nanotechnology has the answer. Doctors at University College London have developed a synthetic nanometer-scale material that can be fashioned into a windpipe. Not to be content with making another piece of synthetic tubing, it was transplanted into a patient in Sweden. First doctors took a 3D scans of the patient's windpipe and used that to create a new artificial one. The nanomaterial was designed to attract cells that were taken from the patient's bone marrow. Then the whole thing was reinserted into back into the patient. As of about a month ago the patient was doing well returning to his home country of Eritrea. To be honest I don't know what the cause of his cancer was, but still do not smoke.

Makes sense to me

2011-08-03T16:11:00.000-04:00

UC tiny heavy metal sensor

Sensors, sensors everywhere and not a drop to drink. So what good is a really rapid sensor if you have send the sample to the laboratory to be tested. Researchers at the University of Cincinnati have developed a sensor to detect heavy metals in humans. Why? well heavy metals are found in the soil and other places and sometimes they find their way into your bodies. This is a special problem in young kids where heavy metals can cause all sorts of problems. The sensor works with just a small drop of blood and a set of electrodes. The metal is bound to the sensor and then stripped off by changing the voltage. It is kind of like the way we electroplate metals on to different things like car bumpers only on a nanometer-scale

Keeping the world safe

2011-08-03T15:59:00.000-04:00

Scientists at Cornell University have developed a suitcase sized detector for anthrax. Work done by Nate Cady who is now a professor at University of Albany began almost seven years ago when he first set out to make a lab on a chip that could extract DNA and then inspect it for different kinds of deadly bugs. That chip was less than a postage stamp in size. From there it was a matter of getting all the other stuff into a suitcase that you might be able to lug around to detect anthrax (or Salmonella or anything). The biggest pain was making pumps that could move around liquids. "while we are really good at making nanometer-scale electronics, we aren't so good at making things to pump liquids".

nano money

2011-01-18T16:14:00.000-05:00

Gucci pocketbooks, Rolex watches and banknotes. What do they all have in common? They have value and there are a lot of fake ones around. In the US over the past couple of years, there are new banknotes that have things in them to reduce the problems of counterfeiting. Now some scientists at Simon Fraser University in Canada are trying to use nanotechnology to prevent bad guys from counterfeiting money. Their inspiration is the blue morpho butterfly which has a cool iridescent blue color. The color is produced when light reflects off the surface---a surface that has nanoscale features which diffract only a narrow spectrum of light. No color pigment that can be copied but only features that can be fabricated into the banknote. Some day these things to prevent counterfeiters could be used in a lot of different kinds of objects.

Start your engines

2010-09-15T05:44:00.001-04:00

The impact of nanotechnology on all parts of our lives is growing. And people are worried about how things might change. There are all sorts of rules for things like professional cycling and automobile racing. Mostly stuff like what you can make bicycles and race cares out of. Weight is really important because the less something weighs the easier it is to move around. So it isn't surprising that lots of meetings will be held to talk about this. One at Cranfield University will focus on what race cars are made of and how that might important for the rules about racing. Carbon nanotubes are strong and lightweight. So putting them into all sorts of stuff like the chasis of a car can help make race cars faster. But along the way many are interested in making sure there are rules to keep them safe.

Just like Mother Nature

2010-08-18T12:00:00.000-04:00

Sea urchins that could be a new kind of solar cell

Sometimes the answer lies with a very simple observation. In this case scientists in Switzerland have looked for solar cell designs by peering into the oceans. Sea urchins have a a very high surface area because they are rough. If you look closely the roughness is a very regular structure that is repeating. Using sea urchins as a design these scientists made similar structures from polystyrene and used them to mold nanowires. The array of wires are able to efficiently absorb sunlight more efficiently.
http://www.empa.ch/

Forget about the TV, remote control the worm

2010-07-13T10:39:00.000-04:00

Every want to have a little critter that you could direct like a remote control car? Scientists at the University of Buffalo have put tiny nanoparticles into the worm Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans because nobody wants to pronounce "Caenorhabditis"). These particles can heat up different parts of the worm and cause them to recoil. The localized heating opens channels that permit calcium to flow into the cells and that causes the worms to react.

For more information

Don't blow your gasket

2010-07-13T10:30:00.000-04:00

But if you do, there is a product to fix that. The people at CRC who make a lot of different products to fix your car have a new product to fix gaskets. Normally if you blow a gasket in a car engine you have to take everything apart and replace the gasket. This stuff apparently eliminates that problem "Using Nanotechnology, this product fills in cracks and crevices other products can't, making a stronger, more solid bond that's permanently hardened to the surface area." Nanooze hasn't tried this but hey nanotechnology saves the day (again).http://tinyurl.com/nanogasket

How smart are your drawers?

2010-06-24T10:31:00.000-04:00

Smart phones, smart refrigerators, how about smart underwear? Researchers at University of California-San Diego have been making boxer shorts with tiny sensors that can measure biomarkers that are found in sweat. Biomarkers like glucose, lactic acid are all important things to measure. The sensors are made of tiny flexible electrodes that are tucked under the waist band and they can measure stress or performance levels. This is important for athletes or soldiers or perhaps even you?. The researchers are working with their colleagues at Clarkson University, no word if they are available in colors or just plain white.

for more info http://tinyurl.com/smartshorts

Nano tattoo

2010-06-11T10:42:00.001-04:00

Scientists at MIT have developed a tattoo that can measure the amount of sugar in your blood. Read more about it in the upcoming issue of Nanooze due out in July 2010.

calling Nemo

2010-06-09T14:15:00.003-04:00

Communicating underwater is tough since sound waves travel differently in water than in air. Researchers at the University of Texas at Dallas have discovered that sheets of carbon nanotubes can act as speakers 100x more effectively than they predicted. The carbon nanotubes are very hydrophobic (meaning they don't like water) so there is a very thin layer of air which helps transmit sound. Maybe in the future you can call up a fish for dinner.
for more information

It's different up there

2010-05-13T11:57:00.002-04:00

So nano is different but so is space. Space or more likely microgravity changes a lot of things in addition to drinking and eating and walking around. Scientists have done a lot of experiments in space looking at how cells behave. With more sophisticated tools to study the molecular changes scientists are now discovering just how different things in space are for terrestrial biology. The latest work is using stem cells, those interesting cells in your body that have the ability to form different tissues and bone. They are really important for a lot of therapies to cure diseases such as cancer, diabetes and other stuff. Taking a bit of mouse stem cells into space, scientists discovered that about 64% of the proteins that these cells made in space weren't there when the same cells were grown on the Earth. That is a nanometer kind of change since most proteins are a few nanometers across. Stem cells are around 10,000 nanometers in size. One of the scientists, Elizabeth Blaber talked about this work in Houston, Texas at the astrobiology conference. She is a young scientist at the University of New South Wales in Australia working in a field she calls bioastronautics. Going from Australia to Texas (about 14 trillion nanometers) isn't quite like going into space but a neat opportunity for a young scientist.

Ouch

2010-04-30T12:41:00.000-04:00

Getting a shot, a vaccination or something that your doctor uses a needle to give you can hurt. But does it have to hurt? Maybe not according to scientists in Australia. For a few years now they have been working on something they call the nanopatch. It has a lot of very small projections (like needles) that help to deliver the vaccine to a special group of cells that helps you develop immunity. These tiny projections are coated with the vaccine and the patch is applied to your skin. So far they have tested it on mice but sometime in the near future they should be testing it on humans. It takes a lot of time for any kind of new medicine or device to be approved for use in humans. That is because there is a lot of safety testing that needs to happen and then proof that it really does work. It is sometimes frustrating because a great discovery in the lab takes a few years to make it into the clinic. Even nanotechnology can't make that happen any faster.
http://tinyurl.com/nanopatch

Sensing things around us

2010-04-12T06:37:00.002-04:00

For a while there has been talk about distributed sensors. Planting tiny sensors all around to get an idea about what might be going on. Going on with the Earth, maybe predicting earthquakes and things like that. Why distributed? Because this way you don't take a chance on planing one sensor and then picking the wrong spot. HP has taken a step toward distributed sensing by developing the CeNSE network and they are using it to help find oil. These tiny microelectromechanical sensors (MEMS) can detect vibrations. Now they are pretty big but someday scientists hope to make them the size of a pin head. If you install a few million or billion you can get an idea of what is going on over a large area. The challenge is powering them and then collecting all of the data. But someday they will be installed in everything like buildings, bridges, roads and tell us all about how these things are doing and sensing lots of different things.

Seeing is believing

2010-04-08T16:18:00.002-04:00

It was more than 50 years ago that scientists first figured out that DNA was a double helix. Figured out using some indirect measurements like the way X-rays bounced off of DNA and other things like that. Can we see DNA? Sure now with some pretty powerful microscopes. And just recently some scientists in Japan took a look at double stranded DNA and could tell the difference between that and single stranded DNA. The work could have a big impact on things like DNA sequencing.
To learn more go to:
http://tinyurl.com/DNAview

Build your own (not so nano but fun) bot

2010-03-30T06:17:00.000-04:00

Everyone wants to be an evil scientist and create their own little nanobot. Well that is hard but building something cool and entertaining with a few parts isn't. The bristle bot is a self-propelled little thing that scoots along the floor. It isn't hard to build and you can find the parts in a lot of different places. The motor is the same one that you find in a cell phone that can vibrate (we don't recommend tearing into a cell phone, especially one that works). This activity was developed by Windell Oskay at Evil Mad Scientist. Check him out. http://www.evilmadscientist.com/article.php?story=bristlebot

Keeping 'em honest

2010-03-28T10:26:00.000-04:00

A warning from the International Cycling Union, no nanotech at the Olympic games in London 2012. "At London in 2012 we can guarantee there will be no-one using bikes, equipment and not even clothing (that is illegal) - because we are aware of developments in nanotechnology that can aid athletes in ways that would be outside the rules." said Pat McQuaid, chief of the UCI. Maybe we need to sponsor a nanotech olympics and give out nano gold medals.
http://tinyurl.com/olympicnano

One hair at a time

2010-03-07T11:52:00.001-05:00

Little machines, so small they can enter your body and zoom around fixing stuff. The great scifi classic 'Fantastic Voyage' was all about that, shrinking not just a space ship but all of the folks inside and then zooming around the blood stream. While that will never happen, building tools so small that they can work inside the body without cutting big holes in you is an important area. Scientists are building all sorts of devices that will hold and cut and mend small parts in your body. The big challenge is building them and then powering them. One way to provide power is to use polymers that respond to heating or some external chemicals. The polymer changes its shape and causes the parts that the polymer is attached to---in this case the arms of a gripper---to close. These tiny grippers might be used to grab cancer cells and then bring back samples for analysis. For more information: http://tinyurl.com/tinycutters

Power up while you boggie

2010-03-01T17:10:00.000-05:00

It takes energy to move. Move to the kitchen, to school, to the couch. And there is a lot of energy that can be captured from these movements. Maybe you have a pair of those sneakers with the lights? They capture the energy from walking and uses it to power a few tiny light bulbs. Now scientists are trying to take it to the next level by developing more sophisticated nanodevices and make them cheaper. They use these things called piezoelectric crystals. Piezoelectric things have been around since the mid-18th century but these new ones are printed and they can be printed onto flexible materials that are also biocompatible. So maybe you don't want them stitched to the bottom of your feet but perhaps they can be stuck onto a lot of different things making energy for all sorts of devices. No more need to change the battery unless you become a couch potato.
http://tinyurl.com/ygbr3g3
read about the original science http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/nl903377u

Lab on a stamp

2010-02-26T11:35:00.002-05:00

Lab on a chip, how common. How about lab on a stamp. Scientists at Harvard are experimenting with paper as a material for making tiny sensors. Paper is cheap and it turns out it can do a lot of things like separating different molecules. You've probably done some experiments looking at the way colors separate using paper like the one used to make coffee filters. Now add in some inks that are hydrophobic and can be used to direct liquids to different parts of the paper sensor and you are going a long way to make sensors that can test for different diseases. These cheap sensors will have a lot of use in developing countries.http://tiny.cc/w20oj

Nanooze the exhibit opens at EPCOT, Walt Disney World

2010-02-22T20:41:00.000-05:00

So it started as a web site, next a magazine and now an exhibit. On February 22, 'Take a Nanooze Break' opened at EPCOT Walt Disney World in Florida. The interactive exhibit has a number of opportunities for guests to explore the nanoworld and get a feel for things that are too small to see. The exhibit is on long term display located in Innoventions where new science and technology is showcased. You can sit and listen to stories about nanotechnology, play with a simple to use hand-held microscope, take molecules for a spin and zoom into the nanometer scale structure of a number of different common objects.

Tiny layer of glass

2010-02-07T07:32:00.003-05:00

Nanotechnology is all about making things small----and thin. So sometimes the magic is not making it tiny but making it incredibly thin, only a few atoms or molecules thick. The big thing about making thin things is making sure that even though it is thin, it is uniform, meaning no holes. And that is hard. Imagine spreading peanut butter just a few molecules thick? Tough. Now scientists have figured out how to make layers of glass only a few molecules thick. Glass is made of silicon dioxide and is pretty impermeable. A layer 15 to 30 molecules thick (about 1/500 the width of a hair) prevents bacteria from penetrating and so you could make a bacteria proof coating. It is also impermeable to water meaning it doesn't stain. What is neat is that glass at that thickness is transparent (well that is not surprising) but it is also flexible! Meaning you could coat lots of different things. Maybe you wouldn't want to eat it but it is might be useful for stain resistance or to make things really slick like the front end of a high speed train. http://tiny.cc/0uhtC

Plants do it already

2010-01-31T09:33:00.000-05:00

Plants are able to generate energy using photosynthesis. It is kind of the same general idea as what solar cells do except instead of generating electricity, plants generate chemical energy and store it for later use. Scientists have taken tobacco and by genetic engineering started to assemble the pieces that would be needed to make plants into solar energy generators. Still a long way away from their ultimate goal, the idea of using plants is neat and could be a more ecofriendly way of producing solar power. Some time you might be able to plant your own solar cells and power that iPod.
for more see
http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2010/01/tobacco-plants-used-to-grow-cheap-solar-cells/

Your brain as a mold.

2010-01-31T09:16:00.000-05:00

You see them all the time. On bread left around for a while, between your toes. Molds. Dumb fuzzy things. Well not really. Scientists in Japan have taken tiny bits of food and made a map that was just like Japan. Then they took a blob of mold and put it in one place and watched the mold grow. It grew out looking for the food and creating a network that looked kind of like a communications or a transportation network. All without a central brain. Want to read all about it http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/sci;327/5964/419

Tis the season

2009-12-07T13:32:00.000-05:00

Sometimes nanotechnology is used for good, sometimes just for silly. Scientists in England have created the world's smallest snowman. It follows along with the smallest book, musical instrument and even US flag. The world's smallest snowman was made by sticking two beads together using a little bit of platinum which is used a lot in nanotechnology to bond other metals together. Then they carved a pair of eyes and a mouth using an ion beam which is usually used to etch nanometer-sized holes and trenches into metals. They put this snowman on a tiny cantilever that used to image very small objects.
There is a neat video shows you how big (or small) this little snowman really is.

A lot of people wonder how scientists can find the time to do stuff like making the world's smallest snowman. Lots of times it is to demonstrate a new technology and why not make something that lots of folks might recognize. It makes science a bit more human and it also makes the scientists a bit more human. See scientists also have a sense of humor and making a little snowman at this time of the year is kind of funny.

Happy holidays.

No more dirty windows

2009-12-07T07:54:00.000-05:00

Nanotechnology can potentially cure disease or lift a person into space, but on to more important stuff. Clean windows. Scientists from Israel have been working on a coating that is self-cleaning. Using peptides which are short pieces of protein, coatings could be made on a whole bunch of different kinds of things. So what makes this stuff so neat? By carefully designing the peptides, scientists could make them very hydrophobic, meaning that they don't like water. If you can keep the water off the surface you can also keep the dirt. So when it rains everything comes washing off and what is left is nice and clean. Same kind of peptide coating is also useful for solar cells and even rechargeable batteries.

The bionic eye (well contact lens)

2009-11-28T11:50:00.000-05:00

Imagine this, off in the distance something barely visible. Hit 'zoom' and it enlarges the image so that you can see it clearly. Great new digital thing? sure but it is built into a contact lens. Scientists at the University of Washington are looking at ways to integrate new features into contact lenses but building in micro-sized circuits. These circuits could help process images and maybe even give you a 'heads up' display of what is going on with your body. Some of this might sound creepy but the concept is cool. The biggest challenge with most of these devices is the power and then also how to make sure it is compatible with your eyes. Long way to go but they have started looking at how they might make these devices biocompatible.

Save that pond scum

2009-11-27T09:53:00.000-05:00

The slimy stuff that gunks up the bench or gives you that yucky feeling when you jump into a pond could be powering your iPod in the future. Algae are being studied to see if they can form the basis for a 'conducting polymer' a material that like metals can conduct electricity. Scientists at Uppsala a university in Sweden have been using that algae that make better cellulose, the same material that is used to make paper. It holds a lot more charge and it is flexible meaning that it could also be used in clothing. Now all they have to do it get rid of the nasty odor and figure out some other things to make it work.

Skating along

2009-11-08T12:08:00.000-05:00

No doubt. Sliding down the street on a layer of ice is fun until you find yourself doing it in a car. All by yourself, it might be a tough stop but for a while it is pretty cool. Ice on the wing of a plane is bad news, and that is why in the winter time, airplanes need to be 'de-iced' which is where they pull the plane over and a person squirts lots of soapy stuff all over the plane.

Scientists from the University of Pittsburgh have been looking at nanoparticles as a way to prevent ice build up on just about any surface. These particles make the surface 'superhydrophobic' meaning that they repeal water like a duck's back (and in fact that is the same kind of idea). Ice is different than liquid water so these scientists needed to make a special coating, mainly a coating with nanoparticles that were less than 50 nanometers in size. That means that about 2000 could fit across the width of a hair. Outdoors this special nanoparticle coating prevented ice build up in chilly Pittsburgh. (see video). So someday if this stuff can be made cheap enough it could be a great solution for a lot of surfaces.

Up, up and away

2009-11-05T20:22:00.000-05:00

So you can jump on a rocket and get blasted into outer space or you can hit a button and take an elevator ride up into orbit. Whoa. A space elevator? Well the idea is cool but practically it isn't quite there yet but someday in the future it might be possible. Scientists have been thinking for a while about the idea of having a satellite up in space in something called a 'geosynchronous' orbit. Meaning that the satellite stays in one place. Then you drop a line from the satellite to the Earth and pull yourself up! What you need are long very very strong lines and that is where nanotechnology comes in. Carbon nanotubes! stronger than steel.

A bunch of engineers who got a robot to climb up a cable hung down from a helicopter that was almost a mile off the ground. They used solar cells to power the robot and qualified to win the $2,000,000 prize. Who says science doesn't pay!

Nothing lasts forever

2009-11-04T10:00:00.000-05:00

You can buy socks that have tiny nanoparticles of silver. The nanoparticles are a few hundred nanometers in size and made up of mostly silver atoms. The silver prevents microbes from growing which is what makes your feet stink. Scientists have found that washing these socks releases some of these nanoparticles which might not be good for the environment. It also means that the socks might someday become stinky because there are no more nanoparticles to kill the microbes.

2009-08-28T10:29:00.005-04:00

Naked molecule exposed!!!

Did that attract your attention? Scientists at IBM using a very powerful microscope took a picture of a molecule. That might not seem like much but we are talking about a picture where you can 'see' things that are less than a nanometer. The molecule is pentacene which is important for organic transistors. Those are switches made of things that aren't like the current ones which are made from silicon. Pentacene is a hydrocarbon, so a bunch of carbon atoms arranged in rings. The microscope that they used is an atomic force microscope which doesn't have a lens but has a very sharp tip. On the tip these scientists put a molecule of carbon monoxide. The carbon monoxide as it was dragged across the pentacene interacted with it and the result is a picture of pentacene. Is this useful? For sure. Useful for making tiny transistors out of single molecules. (for more info go to www.ibm.com)

2009-08-26T14:15:00.003-04:00

Energy sipping chips
We don't think about energy when it comes to computers. Yea it gets warm especially those laptops. But energy is a big concern for computer makers because where there is energy there is heat and heat is not good. In the last year nanotechnology has made it possible to create parts of computers that are about 45 nanometers. That means that about 2000 would fit across the width of a hair. Not only are they making these computer chips with smaller parts but they are consuming less energy? How much? If you figure how much progress has been made in computer chips and figure the same amount of progress in cars----your car would get 100,000 miles to the gallon. That is about four times around the world on a gallon of gas. (from Intel)

Amazing Nano Masterpieces

2009-06-22T12:37:00.008-04:00

At the Materials Research Society December 2008 and April 2009 meetings, the popular "Science as Art" competition yielded some amazing images from the fields of nanotechnology. Some of prize winners include:

1. The Nano Teddy Bear which shows zinc oxide nanostructures deposited on an indium oxide coated glass substrate using an electrochemical deposition technique.

2. Carbon NanoEden

3. Nano Spaghetti and Meatballs where the 'spaghetti' is a collection of electrodeposited gold nanowires and the 'meatballs' are silicon nanoparticles.

4. Nanoflower made of crystalline wurtzite indium nitride made using a molecular bean epitaxy process.

5. The Nano-Grip composed of thick epoxy crystals self-assembled onto a 2.5 micron polystyrene sphere.

6. Modern Stonehenge consists of silicon nanopillars created using gallium implantation and deep reactive-ion etching.

Source: Nanowerk

Lookin' at DNA Nanostructures

2009-06-22T12:22:00.004-04:00

Many DNA nanostructures have been constructed by scientists for many different kinds of applications, such as drug delivery, medical diagnosis, and DNA-based computers. But in order to be successful in designing these nanostructures, we must first find out what exactly the 3D structure of DNA looks like!

But how can we look at the structure DNA helix? It's so small! Well, scientists have built powerful microscopes to try and visualize DNA. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) is a powerful technique but does not visualize in 3D very well. Another powerful tool that has been built is called the electron cryomicroscopy (cryoEM).

CryoEM can be used to look at the structure of a 7 nm self-assembled DNA tetrahedron, which is an incredible achievenment for scientists. Never before has such a small biological molecule been looked at with such high resolution!

Source: Nano Letters

The Creepy Crawling Nano-Fiber Vacuum

2009-05-26T01:05:00.004-04:00

Tired of mopping and sweeping your floors? Now cleaning has become so much easier!

Let this new crawling vacuum introduced by Panasonic do all the dirty work! It's called Fukitorimushi, which means "Wipe-up Bug" in japanese. Working with textile maker Teijin, they have developed an autonomous floor-cleaning robot that crawls around like an inchworm. The robot is covered in a super-absorbent polyester nanofiber cloth that picks up microscopic dust and residue that ordinary vacuums leave behind.

The specially designed nanofibers significantly increase the fabric's surface area and porosity, giving it super wiping characteristics and the ability to absorb oil and ultra-fine dust particles less than one micrometer in diameter. How small is a micrometer? Well, to give you an idea, a single human hair is approximately 100 micrometers in diameter. So it's really small! The large surface contact area also increases the fabric's friction with the floor, allowing it to use this friction to push itself forward while wiping the floor. Check out the cool video!

Playing Pinball with Atoms

2009-05-22T18:53:00.003-04:00

Many of you may have played pinball in an arcade before. How small is that pinball be? The size of a marble? The size of an ant? What if you could play pinball with something much much smaller? What's the smallest thing you can think of?

Researchers in the Netherlands have developed an atomic scale mechanical device by using electrical current to make two atom pairs behave like the flippers on a atomic-sized pinball machine.

On a piece of germanium, platinum atoms heated under a very high vacuum, which causes them to form dimer chains. Platinum dimers are structures that consist of two platinum atoms linked together. When electrons are injected into the platinum dimers using a scanning tunneling microscope tip, the atom pairs can switch to as many as six different configurations!

Source: ACS Publications

Nano Tattoo for Diabetics

2009-05-22T16:45:00.004-04:00

For many, tattoos allow people to express their style. But did you know that in the near future, tattoos may become a means of treating disease? Diabetics who monitor their blood sugar levels often have endure many needle pricks every day. However, Heather Clark of Draper Laboratory in Massachusetts is developing a new tattoo ink that changes color based on glucose levels inside the skin.

So how does it work? The dye is made up of tiny plastic nanoparticles. When the glucose is low, the particle is yellow and fluorescent, but when glucose levels increase, the fluorescence goes away and the particles turn purple. Though this tattoo would have to be periodically re-injected because it would shed along with the skin, it's a major step up from the daily needle pricks!

Scientists hope that this technology will be up and running in the next five to ten years.

Source: Earth and Sky

My head is in the clouds...

2009-05-19T13:22:00.005-04:00

... and what do I see? Bacteria! Pollen! Fungi! What's going on? A team of atmospheric chemists at University of California at San Diego have performed the first-ever direct detections of biological particles inside ice clouds. Taking samples of water droplets and ice crystal residues using a mass spectrometer while flying at high speeds through clouds in the skies of Wyoming, these researchers have revealed that the growth ice crystals were initiated almost entirely of dust or biological material, such as bacteria, fungal spores, and plant material.

Though it has long been known that microorganisms become airborne and travel great distances, this is the first study that analyzes their influence on cloud formation. Researchers have found that the ice crystal residues were half made up of mineral dust and a third were made up of inorganic ions mixed with nitrogen, phosphorus, and carbon - the signature elements of biological matter.

If we can understand how these particles cause cloud formation, we can then determine the impact they have on the climate. For example, some scientists believe that the dust transported from Asia could be impacting the rainfall in North America!

Source: NSF Press Release 09-100

The Physics of Pizza Tossing

2009-04-27T16:55:00.003-04:00

Interested in learning the art of a perfect pizza toss? Well, so are Monash University scientists who are studying the pizza toss in order to design the next generation of micro motors thinner than a single human hair. How does the dough travel through the air? How much does the dough rotate? How quickly does it spin?

The Monash's team of scientists are modeling the pizza toss mathematically, and have found that tossing pizza dough continuously without stopping to catch it requires your hands to move in circles. This model could help researchers design better ultrasonic motors, which operate on similar principles as pizza tossing. In the future, these tiny motors could be used in minimally invasive neuro-microsurgery procedures, giving surgeons more control and precision during brain surgery.

Source: EurekAlert!
Image Source: Seattlepi.com

Harnessing the Power of Viruses

2009-04-27T16:37:00.006-04:00

Researchers at MIT have genetically engineered viruses to build the positively and negatively charged ends of a lithium ion battery. With the same energy capacity and power performance as state-of-the-art rechargeable batteries, they could be used to power plug-in hybrid cars and a range of personal electronics.

For the cathode, these genetically engineered viruses are built to coat themselves with iron phosphate, then self-assemble onto carbon nanotbues to create a network of highly conductive material. These viruses are a common bacteriophage, which infect bacteria but art harmless to humans.

Part of a recent wave of clean-energy technologies, these battery prototypes are lightweight, flexible, and pending commercial production.

Source: Eurekaalert

Who dunnit?

2009-04-13T16:27:00.006-04:00

One of the most important clues at a crime scene investigation are latent fingerprints left behind by the criminal. No two fingerprints are alike - every individual has unique fingerprint ridges that do not change throughout one's lifetime. Over the years, forensic scientists have developed many ways to look at these fingerprints. Today, the most commonly used method is still fingerprint dusting where powder is spread lightly over a fingerprint surface using a brush, and clear tape is placed over the latent print in order to transfer and preserve the fingerprint pattern.

Scientists have developed special polymer films to improve the transfer of the fingerprint from the crime scene surfaces to the laboratory. This new polymer is conjugated with highly fluorescent particles so that interaction with oil would cause swelling and increased fluoresence intensity. This allows fingerprints to show up more clearly. Below are two fluorescent images showing (a) a fingerprint transferred to a polymer film from a glass surface and (b) the same fingerprint image after digital contrast enhancement.

Source: Chemical Communications
Image Sources: Teachcops Chemical Communications

Nano-Obama

2008-11-06T00:04:00.005-05:00

At the University of Michigan, professor John Hart has used nanotechnology to create images of Barack Obama, the next president of the United States. Each Obama face is made up of 150 million vertically-aligned carbon nanotubes grown at really high temperatures and imaged with a scanning electron microscope.

Carbon nanotubes are tiny hollow cylinders of carbon that are tens of thousands of times smaller than a human hair, but several times stronger and stiffer than steel. Interested in seeing more images? Click here! And, read about how they are made here! Apparently, there have been no nanoMcCains made as of yet....

Source: Nanotechnology Nanobama

Stained Glass Purifies Air

2008-09-17T14:48:00.001-04:00

A team of experts at Queensland University of Technology have found that stained glass windows - the ones painted with gold - help purify the air when lit up with sunlight. People in medieval times were already using nanotechnology to produce colors with gold nanoparticles of different sizes. Numerous church windows across Europe were decorated with glass painted with gold nanoparticles. For centuries, people have appreciated the beautiful works of art, but little did they know that these windows also made the air cleaner!

The tiny gold particles would be energized by the sun and were able to destroy pollutants in the air. Sunlight enhances the magnetic field on the nanoparticles up to 100 times, which causes nearby pollutant molecules in the air to break apart. This process produces small amounts of carbon dioxide, which is safe and environmentally friendly. Since this technology is solar-powered, it opens a lot of exciting possibilities for scientific research in renewable energy!

Source: Air-purifying Church Windows Were Early Nanotechnology

Volcanoes Spout Nanomaterials

2008-09-17T14:35:00.000-04:00

Nanotechnology materials are hot hot hot - nanoparticles, carbon nanotubes, fullerenes, quantum dots are all in high demand - and chemical companies can barely keep up! Sooner or later, we will be running out of resources!

Researchers in Germany have found that the natural nanostructures found in lava rocks are also suitable for making nanomaterials. They are able to stick 1.05 grams of nanocarbons onto 0.2 grams of lava rock - which is amazingly efficient. Lava rocks may be the next big thing in nanotechnology!

Source: Nanotechnology production materials come flowing out of volcanoes

Adidas' Nanotech Shoe for the Beijing Olympics

2008-09-16T15:04:00.001-04:00

Adidas worked with Olympic 400-meter runner Jeremy Wariner for over two years to create the revolutionary Adidas Lone Star spike - which features the first full-length carbon nanotube reinforced plate.

This plate is stronger and thinner and gives the runner more stability, comfort, safety, and flexibility. It also weighs 50% less than previous plates. With this new nanotechnology-enhanced shoe, Jeremy Wariner will be able to perform even better!

Source: Adidas' revolutionary nanotechnology shoe for Beijing Olympics

When Fido Goes Nano

2008-08-08T16:25:00.000-04:00

Want to make sure your pet is experiencing top-of-the-line cutting-edge care?

Have no fear! A Connecticut-based company, Nano Pet Products, LLC, has expanded it's distribution of cleaner and healthier pet products worldwide and partnered with one of Canada's largest pet supply distributors, Anipet Animal Supplies Inc. The Dog Gone Smart (TM) products range from dog beds to crate pads to apparel are enhanced with NanoSphere (R) technology, which makes fabric resistant to stain, oil, and liquid. The technology also inhibit growth of odor-causing bacteria while leaving the natural flora of your pet's skin unaffected.

Source: Nano Pet Products, LLC Expands Distsribution Into Canada to Meet Increased Demand for Its Revolutionary Nanotechnology-Based Pet Products Dog Gone Smart

Armor of the Future -- Fish Scales?

2008-08-08T15:30:00.001-04:00

Imagine living in a world with fearsome predators - large fearsome predators with sharp teeth, claws, and spiked tails! To survive, the Polypterus senagelus fish evolved special armor scales to protect itself during territorial fighting and feeding. Today, these fish can be found at the bottom of freshwater, muddy shallows and estuaries in Africa. The scales protect the quarrelsome fish from the bites of its fellow fish, as well as predators, and are the new hot topic in designing the armor of the future. U. S. researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have been studying the light, multilayered design of the Polypterus senegalus and have finally figured out how it works!

The scales are layered on top of each other so that the pressure of a crunching enemy bite is deflected. And when cracks do occur, they don't travel far! The clever design of the scales forces cracks to run in a circle instead of spreading throughout. This allows the puncture wound to be localized and kept to a minimum. Scientists and researchers hope to incorporate this clever design into lightweight and effective human armor systems.

Source: Fish scales may point to armor of the future

Sniffing things too small to see

2008-06-06T13:47:00.000-04:00

You and I can smell things like pizza and chicken soup. But can you tell the difference between chicken soup with carrots and without carrots? How good is your sense of smell? -- Can you smell a termite? How about a bedbug?

Termites and bedbugs both release distinctive smells in the form of molecules that are released into the air. Normally, we wouldn't be able to smell this unless there was a major infestation. But dogs can!

At the University of Florida, researchers are training dogs to detect termites and bedbugs. Termites cause about $5 billion in damages every year in the U.S. and bedbug infestations have gone up 71% in the past 5 years. The dogs are trained using a combination of the U.S. Customs method and a food-reward system, and thus far, have an 96% accuracy rate with false positives of less than 3%.

Source: University of Florida
Image Source: Advanced K9 Detectives

Into the Jaws of a Sandworm

2008-05-23T17:06:00.000-04:00

Nereis virens, commonly known as sandworms, have a set of fang-like jaws with remarkable mechanical properties. These worms may be small, but they have a strong jaw for grasping, piercing, and tearing prey. The jaw material is high in protein with little mineralization, but despite this, the hardness and stiffness properties in the jaw tip are comparable to human dentin -- which is pretty strong!

The material in the jaw tips of sandworms is even better than synthetic polymers. Though scientists have long studied the mechanical and structural properties of these jaws, the organic composition has previously been overlooked. Scientists are now interested in finding the organic composition and protein structures of the cutting edge of the Nereis jaw. They have found that zinc plays an important role in the mechanical properties of Nereis jaws, by binding to bundles of protein fibers rich in histidine (an important amino acid), and that removing the zinc decreases the hardness by over 65%.

By learning about these sandworm jaws, scientists hope to use this knowledge to design stronger and better materials.

Sources: Journal of Experimental Biology American Chemical Society

Beetle Fog-Catchers

2008-05-21T12:29:00.000-04:00

How does a desert beetle living in the Namib Desert in southwest Africa survive in one of the hottest environments in the world? The only water there is available in the form of a morning fog, which travels rapidly across the desert only a few times each month. Zoologists at Oxford University have discovered regions of hydrophilic (water-loving) ridges and hydrophobic (water-avoiding) furrows on the back of the Stenocara beeetle. This pattern of hydrophilic and hydrophobic regions allows the fog to condense into droplets that run down into the beetle's mouth!

But how is this useful? In Chile's Atacama desert, fog nets are being used to harvest moisture. Today, scientists are mimicking the stenocara beetle to create man-made surfaces that can be used to make artificial fog nets and more effective de-humidifiers and distillation equipment.

Source: New Scientist American Chemical Society
Image Source: Squarecirclez

The Amazing Disappearing Stain

2008-05-19T16:01:00.001-04:00

Accidental spills happen all the time. One minute that glass of grape juice was steady in your hand, and the next minute, you're wearing it all the way down the front of your white dry-clean-only suit. Sounds familiar? Well, soon you'll no longer have to worry about the hassle of taking your clothes to the dry-cleaners...

Researchers in Australia and China have developed a non-toxic nanoparticle coating that could leading to "self-cleaning" wool and silk fabrics. Wool and skil are made up of natural proteins called keratins which are hard to keep clean and easily damaged by harsh cleaning agents. Nanoparticles have been created with a coating of anatase titanium dioxide, a substance that has been shown destroy stains, dirt, and harmful bacteria by exposure to sunlight.

From Top to Bottom: Images of red wine stains on Plain Wool (PO), Wool coated with a generic stain-fighting chemical (TO), Wool coated with the new nanoparticle coating (TS) after 0, 8, and 24 hours under simulated sunlight.

Fabrics coated with these nanoparticles show almost no sign of red wine stains after 20 hours of exposure to simulated sunlight. And, they retain their texture and feel. Amazing!

Source: Nanotechnology to fight red wine stains

Hot and Spicy!

2008-05-19T13:34:00.000-04:00

So how hot is hot? You can measure the heat of a chili pepper with your tongue, but how accurate is that? Everyone's definition of "hot" is different. Scientists are now using a new carbon nanotube-based sensor to quantify the "heat" of chili peppers.

Capsaicin is the chemical responsible to the hot taste of chili peppers and ban be detected using electrochemical methods. The carbon nanotubes are used as tiny electrodes to measure the amount of capsaicin in the sample. This biosensor makes testing how hot a chili pepper is easy, precise, and inexpensive.

Article Source: The Analyst
Image Source: bamasteelmagnolia

Nanotechnology... on the runway?

2008-03-13T15:55:00.001-04:00

Fashion designers and fiber scientists at Cornell University have teamed up to bring "functional clothing" to a whole new level. The garments are infused with synthetic nanoparticles by fiber scientist Juan Hinestroza and his colleagues. The resulting colors of the fabric depend on the size and arrangement of the nanoparticles.

How are these fabrics made? First, the cotton fibers are positively charged using some ammonium and epoxy-based chemistries, and then dipped into a solution of silver nanoparticles that are 10-20 nanometers across. The negatively charged silver nanoparticles will end up clinging to the positively charged cotton fibers.

So, what is so great about this fabric? Well, silver has natural antibacterial qualities that are strengthened at the nanoscale, which allows these new fabrics to deactivate many harmful bacteria and viruses. Nanoparticle-treated clothes would allow people to alleviate allergies, protect themselves from harmful air contaminations, and prevent colds and flu.

It's the fashion of the future!

Source: Student designer and fiber scientists create a dress that prevents colds and a jacket that destroys noxious gases

How Much Force Does It Take...

2008-02-22T13:23:00.000-05:00

... to move a single atom?

Scientists at IBM have collaborated with the University of Regensburg in Germany to measure the tiny forces it takes to move individual atoms on a surface. About twenty years ago, IBM's Don Eigler made history by writing I-B-M with individual Xenon atoms. Today, a new set of researchers are looking at the forces required to move atoms over different surfaces. A cobalt atom requires 210 piconewtons to move across a smooth platinum surface, but only requires 17 piconewtons to move across a copper surface. How much is a piconewton? Well, the force required to lift a copper penny that weighs only three grams is nearly 30 billion piconewtons! So the forces needed to move atoms are really tiny!

Researchers use a powerful microscope called an atomic force microscope to measure the strength and direction of the force applied on an atom. A sharp tip on the end of a flexible beam (like a tiny diving board!) is used to move the atoms and make sensitive measurements.

Why is it important to understand these forces? The key to future nanotechnologies lies in being able to manipulate tiny atoms to create atomic-scale structures for future computer chips, medical devices, and more!

Source: IBM Scientists First to Measure Force Required to Move Individual Atoms

Building Gold Crystals... with DNA?

2008-01-31T12:27:00.000-05:00

Researchers at Northwestern University have recently been able to create 3D structures from particles of gold by using DNA. How exactly? The technique involves getting incredibly small particles to self-assemble to a predetermined design. DNA is made up of four basic building blocks - adenine, guanine, cytosine, and thymine (A, G, C, and T), and one strand of DNA can bind with a complementary strand. By using different DNA strands and modifying these strands with gold particles, new nano nuggets of gold of different shapes and sizes can be created.

This process could be used with other materials, with wide applications in therapeutics, diagnostics, optics, and electronics. Scientists are a step closer to the dream of breaking everything down into simple particles and reassembling them into "designer" structures.

Source: DNA does the work: Building new gold crystals

Pitter Patter of Little Feet . . .

2008-01-30T17:04:00.000-05:00

Going where? Up the wall! The uncanny ability of geckos to climb shear walls has fascinated scientists for years. Researchers at the University of California - Berkeley, have developed an adhesive that mimics the easy attach and easy release of the reptile's padded feet. This new material is made up of millions of tiny plastic fibers that establish grip, and a mere square two centimeters on a side can support close to a pound! When the tape presses into a surface and slides downwards, it sticks. When the tape is lifted, it releases!

The trick behind a gecko's speedy vertical escape has been exposed! The new material could prove useful for a range of products, from climbing equipment to medical devices.

Source: The Pitter Patter of Little Feet . . . Climbing Straight Up a Wall

Master Chief Vacuum Cleaner

2008-01-22T15:52:00.000-05:00

In today's high-tech world of Dysons and Roombas, how is a new vacuum going to stand out? Samsung is trying to appeal to the gaming crowd by designing a model that looks like the Master Chief character from the Halo universe.

The Silencio SC950 has all the high-end features you'd expect: cyclonic suction, HEPA filter, and a super-special silver nanoparticle coating. Samsung's Silver Nano technology uses the anti-bacterial properties of silver to the dust, pre-motor filter, and post-motor filter of the vacuum cleaner. What do these silver nanoparticles do? They help the build up of bacteria and odors so that the air emitted from the vacuum is odor-free and bacteria-free.

Samsung's Master Chief Vacuum Cleaner: Kills Bacteria. Dead.

Source: Nanotechnology, sci-fi, master chief vacuum cleaner

Watch nanotubes grow!

2008-01-15T09:40:00.000-05:00

Scientists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory have used in situ time-lapse photography and laser irradiation to watch and record the growth of carbon nanotubes. Laser irradiation of the growing nanotubes help prove that the nanotubes grow from catalyst particles at their bases. Researchers are interested in finding ways to grow the longest tubes in the fastest amount of time while still maintaining good nanotube quality. Irradiating the nanotubes with a laser during growth has also been shown to increase the growth rate of the arrays.

Watch cool videos of growing nanotubes HERE!

Why are carbon nanotubes so interesting? They can be used to make things lighter and stronger, build space elevators, and even combat cancer!

Oh My Aching Knees!

2008-01-07T16:46:00.000-05:00

Understanding of the human body at the cellular and molecular level can help develop new and improved treatments for diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis. At the University of Leeds, scientists have discovered a new mechenism involving a naturally-occurring protein, thioredoxin, that controls ion channels. Ion channels are proteins on the surface of the cell that act as doorways in and out of the cell. These doorways can let electrically charged atoms (ions) across the cell membrane to carry out different functions, such as blood glucose regulating, heart beat timing, and pain transmission.

Thioredoxin has been found to activate these doorways by donating electrons to it, in a process that Professor Beech compares to "an electronic on-switch". People with inflammatory diseases have high production levels of this thioredoxin protein to protect the body from the stressful and damaging chemical reactions that occur with inflammation. By studying and mimicking this protein, scientists may be able to develop safer and more effective therapeutics.

Source: ‘Electronic switch’ opens doors in rheumatoid joints
Image Source: Wikipedia

Nano Barcodes

2008-01-07T15:57:00.000-05:00

Researchers at Northwestern University have been studying how to use nanometer sized disks of gold and nickel to encrypt information. These nanodisks can form a pattern much like a barcode, which means that each pattern would have a unique response to a stimulus, such as electromagnetic radiation or light, depending on what type of molecule (or molecules) are attached to the disks. Their small size would also allow them to be invisible to the naked eye, and easily hidden in different materials or objects.

Chad Mirkin and his research group have made nanodisk arrays as long as 12 micrometers, which can support as many as 10 disk pairs, which yields 287 physical nanodisk codes. The researchers have functionalized these disks with dye molecules called chromophores that emit a unique light spectrum when illuminated with a laser beam. These disks could be used as biological labels in applications such as DNA detection, or as tags for tracking goods and personal.

Source: Nanodisk Codes

Solving Crimes with Nanotechnology

2007-11-05T17:08:00.000-05:00

How does nanotechnology help solve crimes? A revolutionary new technique developed by researchers in Israel now allows us to see hidden fingerprints more easily and quickly. Using gold nanoparticles dissolved in stable organic solution, fingerprints produced by the new solution are high-quality and can be developed just after three minutes. The gold nanoparticles stick to the fingerprint residues through hydrophobic interactions.

The standard way of finding hidden fingerprints currently used by investsigators involves coating the surface with gold particles and developing with a reagent called silver physical developer which reacts to create a black silver precipitate along the fingermark ridges. This developer is unstable and results can vary. With the new gold nanoparticle technique, the recovery of prints on evidence can be greatly improved.

Now it remains to be seen when this technology starts to be used on TV — and in the real world.

Source: Nanotechnology reveals hidden fingerprints

The Real Nanopod

2007-11-05T05:25:00.000-05:00

Radios have had a huge impact on civilization in the past century. The invention of radios allowed for communications between ships and later, as an outlet for news and entertainment. More recently, they are being used in cellular phones, wireless computers, and global-positioning systems (GPS). As technology improves, the size of radios have become smaller and smaller. But how small can you get?

Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of California at Berkeley have teamed together to create the first fully functional radio... using a single carbon nanotube! This makes it the smallest radio ever made! This new technology could be useful for wireless communicaion devices as well as medical applications, such as samller hearing aids. Since the entire radio is small enough to "easily fit inside a living cell" and exists in a human's bloodstream, researchers hope to use the tool to interface with brain and muscle functions.

Source: Make Way for the Real Nanopod: Berkeley Researchers Create First Fully Functional Nanotube Radio

Medieval Artefacts Glimmer with Metal Nanoparticles

2007-07-03T17:41:00.000-04:00

Researchers from Spain have discovered what makes lustre (a metal/glass mixture produced in medieval times) shine. Researchers have found that lustre is made up of a thin layer of densely packed copper and silver nanoparticles in a glassy matrix. In medieval times, lustres were made in a wide variety of colors, such as red, brown, green, and yellow.

Trinitat Pradell and her colleagues used Rutherford backscattering spectroscopy and other techniques to show that the metallic shine of lustre comes from these nanoparticles. To understand the physical and chemical process involved in making lustre, Pradell's group have reproduced lustre layers following the procedures listed in historical records. These metal/nanoparticle/glass layers will also be useful to today's material scientists because they have many interesting non-linear properties.

Source:Metal nanoparticles lend glimmer to medieval artefacts | Nature

The "Nano" Lisa

2007-07-03T17:32:00.000-04:00

What is the smallest picture you can paint? At IBM, researchers have created one of the tiniest pieces of art ever made - an image of the sun made from 20,000 microscopic particles of gold. The sun paining was etched onto a silicon wafer by manipulating gold particles. These gold particles are just 60 nanometers in diameter - that's 60 billionths of a meter and that's really small!

Scientists at IBM have been working to make super-small circuits for many years - they showed long ago that they could spell out the company's name in individual atoms. This new sun painting is different because it uses a method that is much cheaper and more efficient than previous methods. These super-small structures could be used in the future to make really small circuits or to test for really small traces of a disease.

Source: IBM Claims Ultra-Tiny Art Project Nature Nanotechnology

The World's Smallest Book

2007-04-18T11:34:00.000-04:00

A new Guinness record has been broken at Simon Fraser University's Nano Imaging Lab - the world's smallest published book! It even has it's own International Standard Book Number (ISBN-978 -1-894897-17-4)!! How small? Well, a head of a pin is about 2 mm. At 0.07 mm x 0.10 mm, “Teeny Ted from Turnip Town” is a tinier read than the two smallest books cited by the Guinness Book of World Records: the New Testament of the King James Bible (5 x 5 mm, produced by MIT in 2001) and Chekhov’s Chameleon (0.9 x 0.9 mm, Palkovic, 2002).

What's the catch? Well, you're going to need a scanning electron microscope to read it!

Publisher Robert Chaplin, with the help of SFU scientists Li Yang and Karen Kavanagh, produced a nanoscale book made up of 30 silicon microtablets. The story, written by Malcolm Douglas Chaplin, is a fable about Teeny Ted’s victory in the turnip contest at the annual county fair. These scientists used electron microscopes and a focused-gallium-ion beam of only seven nanometers in diameter to carve the space surrounding each letter of the book. Since this book is considered an intricate work of contemporary art, the book is available in a signature edition (100 copies) from the publisher, through the SFU lab.

Source:Nano lab produces world’s smallest book

The Longest Carbon Nanotubes You've Ever Seen!

2007-03-11T17:47:00.000-04:00

Researchers at the University of Cincinnati have grown the world's longest carbon nanotube arrays using new techniques. These nanotubes are still a little less than 2 centimeters long (which you might think is a little short), but they are 900,000 times longer than its diameter! That is really long!

To grow these tiny tubes, researchers use a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) techique with a new substrate and catalyst. Using a special furnace called the EasyTube 3000, carbon atom vapors are created and start the growth of tubes. These carbon nanotube fibers are longer, stronger, and can conduct electricity better than traditional materials like copper. We can use these nanotubes in lots of different things, such as using them in smart fabrics to make smart clothes or combatting cancer or building an elevator to space!

Source: The Longest Carbon Nanotubes You've Ever Seen!

Gecko Tape

2007-03-11T17:35:00.000-04:00

Gecko hair. It's one of the stickiest substances known to man.

Scientists at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York have developed some synthetic gecko tape by creating arrays of carbon nanotubes on flexible polymer tape. Based on the tiny structures found on the foot of a gecko lizard, these pieces of tape can support shear stress four times higher than the gecko foot and even sticks to Teflon! Another nifty property is that this tape can be easily pulled off perpendicular to the surface, but not parallel to it. The bond is about 10 pounds per square centimeters, which is quite a lot for something so small!

Since the gecko tape is reusable and won't dry out, the nanotube-based gecko tape could be used in a variety of applications, such as microelectronics, robotics, and space exploration.

Source: Carbon nanotube-based synthetic gecko tapes

New Nano-Inspired Luggage Line

2007-03-11T11:38:00.000-04:00

We've seen nanotechnology being used in all sorts of fabrics for clothing and bedsheets, so why not luggage? The Capistrano Light Luggage Line from Ricardo Beverly Hills makes use of the lightweight Nano-Tex treated fabric. The Nano-Tex fabric uses nanotechnology for waterproofing and to prevent against stains. The result? An amazing luggage line that stays clean and looks new!

Source: Nanotechnology-inspired luggage line...

Preventing Earthquakes With... Bacteria?

2007-03-01T11:40:00.000-05:00

If you live near the sea, your home is probably built over sandy soil. When earthquakes strike, deep and sandy soils can turn into liquid, causing lots of problems for the buildings sitting on top of them. The picture shows a building after the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake in San Francisco.

It is possible to inject chemicals into the ground to harden the sandy soil, but this often has toxic effects on the soil and water. Researchers have discovered a new way to turn these sandy soils into rocks... using bacteria! As an added advantage, this common bacteria has no harmful effects on the environment. THought this method is currently still limited to laboratories, researchers are working hard to expand this technique.

Source:Bacteria to protect against quakes

Hate Needles? Now NanoPass needles offer painless vaccinations...

2007-02-26T11:43:00.000-05:00

Most people would prefer to take pills over vaccination, but a new Israeli startup company, NanoPass Technologies, is hoping to erase fears of needles with a new nanotechnology product, the NanoPass needle. This needle supposedly delivers injections without the painful side effects by avoiding the nerve endings of the skin. The tips of these needles are made of pure silicone crystals and measure less than one-micrometer in diameter.

The company claims the technology to be pain-free and easier to administer. The arrays of NanoPass MicroPyramid tips are manufactured in an industrial clean room, with high precision and high yield. The electron microscope picture (shown) is enlarged to 750 times its original size

Source: NanoPass needles set to vaccinate sans pain and MicroPyramid Technology by NanoPass

Colorful Fossils

2007-02-01T11:49:00.000-05:00

Professor Andrew Parker, a scientist at the Natural History Museum, has discovered a way to discover the iridescent colors in animals from fossils of extinct animals. Tiny structures on the surface of the animal fossil cause sunlight to be split (like a prism) into the colors of a rainbow. Colors that result from these tiny structures are known as iridescent colors, like the colors that you see on a CD. These colors are very different from the chemically generated colors found in paints, skin, hair, or animal fur.

The tiny structures act as a diffraction grating (which is a reflecting surface covered in small parallel grooves), and exists in a lot of things naturally. You can find them in the antennae of seed srhimp, in the wing of a butterfly, and also in 515 million-year-old Burgess Shale fossils (shown right).

In the past, any color given to the skin, feathers, or fur of extinct animals have mostly guesswork, but now with this new discovery, we can pinpoint more accurately the color of extinct animals. But the next question that Parker wants to answer is: "Why were the animals at that time so colorful? When did the first eye exist on Earth and what happened when it did?"

Source:Colouring in the Fossil Past

Look Ma, No Light!

2007-01-21T11:55:00.000-05:00

Maybe you've heard a lot about nanotechnology in the news but haven't actually seen any products available in the market. At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Planet82 displayed new prototype cameras called the "Nano-Cam".

What is a Nano-Cam? Well, Planet82 used nanotechnology to produce imaging sensors that could give cameras "nightvision". The images aren't crystal clear, but they can spot just about anything in the dark.

One possible application of Planet82's technology is to spot children or pets that may be behind your car in a pitch black driveway.

Source: See in the dark with nanotechnology

Playing with Soap Bubbles

2007-01-06T12:02:00.000-05:00

Wouldn't it be cool to earn your living by playing with soap bubbles? Well, that's what Paul Steen does. Paul Steen, a professor in the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Cornell University studies the self assembly of thins films by surface tension. One of his latest project is an electrical switch made of water. By using electricity to create and release an adhesive bond between a droplet of water and a flat plate, Steen demonstrates the power of surface tension. A palm beetle can cling to a leaf with a strength equal to 100 times its body weight - which would be equivalent of Steen supporting six or seven cars with a bead of spit!

The device has no solid moving parts, turns on and off in under a second, runs on less than five volts and can be used either by itself or in larger arrays. If engineered down to the nanometer scale, an array of switches could allow Steen to walk across the ceiling of his office, focus the lens of a cell phone camera, or act as a microscopic, energy-efficient lab-on-a-chip.

Source: Paul Steen's latest invention makes a walk on the ceiling not so far-fetched

Anti-Fogging Windshields Through Nanotechnology

2007-01-06T12:00:00.000-05:00

On cold winter mornings, when you first start driving, your vision is often blurred by moisture fogging up the windshield. This happens when warm, humid air from your car heater comes into contact with a cold surface. There is a particular temperature called the dew point where the moisture in the air condenses and forms a layer on the colder surface. This can be prevented by opening the windows, heating the entire car interior, or by just heating the windshield to a temperature above the dew point.

Ivica Kolaric of Fraunhoger Technology Development Group TEP in Germany has developed a new process to warm up the windshield by using a transparent coat of carbon nanotubes. When attached to a power supply, this coating is transformed into a wide, flat heater. This technology, however, is not limited to car windshields. Someday, you might find carbon nanotubes in your bathroom mirrors as well!

Source:Anti-fogging windshields through nanotechnology

On The Cutting Edge

2007-01-06T10:07:00.000-05:00

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the University of Colorado at Boulder have designed a carbon nanotube knife that could theoretically work like a tight-wire cheese slicer. The conventional diamond or glass knives that biologists use to cut frozen cell samples often force samples to bend and crack. Because carbon nanotubes are extremely strong and slender in diameter, they make ideal materials for thinly cutting precise slivers of cells.

Why do we need to slice cells? Electron tomography can create 3D images of cells and tissues for scientists to stuy, but the sample needs to be less than 300 nanometers thick. The nanoknife is a carbon nanotude welded to two electrochemically sharpened tungsten needles. The research team has found that the welds were the weakest points in the nanoknife, and are now looking for new and improved welding techniques.

Source:On The Cutting Edge: Carbon Nanotube Cutlery