Tag Archives: Nanotechnology

Star of David-shaped nanoparticles better than the rest

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Photo: zeevveez/Flickr CC

Hebrew University researchers in Israel have created Star of David-shaped, hexagonal “nano-cages,” which help make chemical sensors more sensitive than other materials have:

The researchers generated a three-dimensional image of the tiny nanoparticles using a powerful electron microscope and found that the Stars of David are, remarkably, “nano-cages.” The particles are nano-sized, hexagonal crystals, each with a tiny metal frame wrapping around and encasing them just like a bird’s cage, but 100 million times smaller. Because the nano-cage is hexagonal, when looking at pictures of them from above, they appear as Stars of David. No one had ever seen hybrid nanoparticles form with such a cage structure before.

via New nanomaterial, shaped like Stars of David, discovered at Hebrew University.

Zinc sunscreens increase disease risk, scientists report

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South Boston sunbathers. Photo: Scott LaPierre

The whole point of investigating nanomaterials is that we know that metals behave differently on the nanoscale (<100 nanometers).
Still, the makers of sunscreens did think it was necessary to wait for research such as this (excerpt and link, below), which finds that nano-zinc is highly toxic, before stuffing it into their products.
Robust markers of apoptosis, Annexin V staining, loss of mitochondrial potential, and increased generation of superoxide were observed when cells were treated with ZnO particulate matter but not when treated with comparable concentration of a soluble Zn salt. Both ZnO samples induced similar mechanisms of toxicity, but there was a statistically significant increase in potency per unit mass with the smaller particles.

via ZnO Particulate Matter Requires Cell Contact for Toxicity in Human Colon Cancer Cells – Chemical Research in Toxicology ACS Publications.

Georgia Tech nanomagnets snag cancer cells

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Incredible. Another nano-therapy that might be available in the short term:

Scientists at Georgia Tech and the Ovarian Cancer Institute have further developed a potential new treatment againsat cancer that uses magnetic nanoparticles to attach to cancer cells, removing them from the body. The treatment, tested in mice in 2008, has now been tested using samples from human cancer patients. The results appear online in the journal Nanomedicine.

via Magnetic Nanoparticles Show Promise for Combating Human Cancer.

You might also recall this mind-blowing interview on NPR, in which Georgetown researcher Esther Chang reports a method for using nanoparticles to deliver tumor suppressor genes to kill tumors.

Argonne's chip fights nano-forces of evil

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One of the challenges vexing nanotechnologists is that materials behave differently on the nan0scale, than on the micro- and macro- levels. Now, Argonne National Laboratory scientists have developed a chip to detect the Casimir Force, which throws nanoparticles out of alignment.

“Oh father of the four winds, fill my sails…”

MEMS used to detect the presence of the Casimir Force on Flickr – Photo Sharing!.

Flies spread deadly nanoparticles

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es-2009-01079z_0001Study finds that nanoparticles, now present in cosmetics and sunscreens, and destined for the food supply, are lethal. Not only that, they stick to flies, who spread them to other flies (and, presumably, whatever flies alight upon).

The strongly adhering nanomaterials (CB, toluene washed CB and SWNT) significantly reduced survivorship (Figure 4A) relative to unexposed controls. Survivorship for the less-adhering nanomaterials (C60, MWNT arrays, toluene washed SWNTs), was statistically indistinguishable from unexposed control flies (for six treatments excluding CB, W CB and SWNT, χ2 = 7.3, df = 5, P > 0.19). This experiment was repeated in two other assays using slightly different scoring times, with qualitatively similar results. The estimate of time to complete mortality for CB and SWNT (Figure 4A) is conservative, as all such flies were dead within 6 h in repeat experiments where mortality was scored more frequently (not shown).

via Differential Toxicity of Carbon Nanomaterials in Drosophila: Larval Dietary Uptake Is Benign, but Adult Exposure Causes Locomotor Impairment and Mortality – Environmental Science & Technology (ACS Publications).

Scientists advance safety of nanotechnology

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Photo: CC/US Army

Photo: CC/US Army

Nanoparticles being used in medicine are deadly if inhaled. But they’ve got a drug for that, already:

In a study published online today Thursday 11 June in the newly launched Journal of Molecular Cell Biology [1] Chinese researchers discovered that a class of nanoparticles being widely developed in medicine – ployamidoamine dendrimers PAMAMs – cause lung damage by triggering a type of programmed cell death known as autophagic cell death. They also showed that using an autophagy inhibitor prevented the cell death and counteracted nanoparticle-induced lung damage in mice.

via Scientists advance safety of nanotechnology.

Scientists turn to sun worship

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Photo: CC/Nick Thompson

"A great sign appeared in the sky, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars." Photo: CC/Nick Thompson

The verdict is in, and the sun wins: PhysOrg.com reports that biofuels and other sources of alternative energy are being derided by scientists at a meeting in Chicago. Solar panels, made with nanomaterials, are the clear favorite.

Could we be seeing a consensus forming for not-yet-efficient-enough solar, at the expense of other breakthrough technologies? The federal government is already heavily funding nanotech research. Perhaps the feds are looking for a payoff.

“The sun is absolutely a singular solution to our future energy needs,” speaker Nathan Lewis, who researches synthetic photosynthesis at the California Institute of Technology, told an audience at the meeting. “Nothing else comes close. More energy from the sun hits Earth in one hour than all the energy consumed on our planet in an entire year.”

via The sun is a star when it comes to sustainable energy.

Singularity watch: New technologies as likely to to enslave as liberate

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We might not want to live forever (emphases, below, are mine). Libertarian author David Friedman appears to be arguing in a new book (which I will be reviewing in the coming weeks) that the future will be an adapt-or-die type thing:

David Friedman, author of such books as The Machinery of Freedom and Hidden Order: The Economics of Everyday Life, now looks at a variety of technological revolutions that might happen over the next few decades, their implications, and how to deal with them. Topics range from encryption and surveillance through biotechnology and nanotechnology to life extension, mind drugs, virtual reality, and artificial intelligence. One theme of the book is that the future is radically uncertain. Technological changes already begun could lead to more or less privacy than we have ever known, freedom or slavery, effective immortality or the elimination of our species, and radical changes in life, marriage, law, medicine, work, and play. “If it can be done, it will be done,” David Friedman has said. “So the interesting thing to me is not what should you stop but how do you adapt.” We do not know which future will arrive, but it is unlikely to be much like the past. It is worth starting to think about it now.

via Cato Institute: Future Imperfect: Technology and Freedom in an Uncertain World (Book Forum)

Robot "skin jobs" in the works

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<a href=Japanese scientists say they’ve developed a fully-flexible, and stretchable, conductive skin for robots with carbon nantubes.

U.S. scientists this week also announced they have made a flexible material that might make an excellent covering for artificial eyeballs.

Material bends, stretches and conducts electricity? | Technology | Reuters
They stretched the sheet of material to nearly double its original size and it snapped back into place, without disrupting the transistors or ruining the material’s conductive properties.

The elastic conductor would allow electronic circuits to be mounted in places that would have been impossible up to now, including “arbitrary curved surfaces and movable parts, such as the joints of a robot’s arm,” Sekitani and colleagues wrote.

"Big Blue" rebuttal: No transhumanists here

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IBM researcher defends Second Life, World of Warcraft, against Parallelnormal blog posts.

from Mark:

High-profile virtual worlders are trying to correct what they see as misrepresentations by Parallelnormal of their recent meetings and events.

One of them, Second Lifer “Dale Innis,” writes a comment blasting my comparison of real and virtual versions of New England, and my description of a conference about the convergence of reality with virtual reality.

“(You) drastically misread your sources about the WoW conference and the Extropia sims, and you seem to do the same thing in many places where Second Life is involved,” Innis writes.

Innis in real life (RL) is IBM researcher David M. Chess.

IBM has built inworld stores for big box retailers.

Chess is working to develop autonomic technologies, which are self-aware and can fix themselves.

Chess, speaking for himself, and not IBM, denies that Extropia and the World of Warcraft conference “are in fact about transhumanism.”

Yet the WoW conference was organized by a transhumanist, and one who views the world’s major religions as an obstacle to the advancement of his own beliefs.

And extropians, by their own definition, are transhumanists, real or imagined.