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
Master Chief Vacuum Cleaner
Watch nanotubes grow!
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!
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
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
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
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
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
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
