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nanotech
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Nanotech
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nanotech
materials science art
It looks like an alien city on the edge of a canal. But this is actually just a few microns across — it's a scanning electron microscope image by Fatih Buyukserin. What you're seeing are polymers stuck to a silicon mold full of beehive-like cells. This nano-city even has its own flowers made of wire.
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A Natural Landscape in Microns
It looks like an alien city on the edge of a canal. But this is actually just a few microns across — it's a scanning electron microscope image by Fatih Buyukserin. What you're seeing are polymers stuck to a silicon mold full of beehive-like cells. This nano-city even has its own flowers made of wire.
More »
Nanogauze Uses Ancient Tech to Staunch Blood
One of the main reasons why people with deep wounds die is blood loss. But now a company is marketing an amazing new form of gauze, made with nanotech, that can induce fast blood-clotting in a wound to stop bleeding and save lives. The truly weird part? The nanotech involved is actually an ancient technology: kaolin clay, integrated into the gauze. Wired's Aaron Rowe explains that the clay is rich in aluminosilicate nanoparticles, which cause human blood to clot. This is one form of nano medicine that has gone through nature's own trial trials already. Humans have been working with this kind of clay for thousands of years. [Wired]
One of the main reasons why people with deep wounds die is blood loss. But now a company is marketing an amazing new form of gauze, made with nanotech, that can induce fast blood-clotting in a wound to stop bleeding and save lives. The truly weird part? The nanotech involved is actually an ancient technology: kaolin clay, integrated into the gauze. Wired's Aaron Rowe explains that the clay is rich in aluminosilicate nanoparticles, which cause human blood to clot. This is one form of nano medicine that has gone through nature's own trial trials already. Humans have been working with this kind of clay for thousands of years. [Wired]
nanotech
All the Nanotech You Can Eat
Right now you can buy over 600 consumer products that contain some kind of nanomaterial or nanotechnology, and it turns out that a lot of them are edible. The Emerging Nanotechnology Project has compiled a comprehensive list of consumer items that companies are billing as "nanotech," grouping them into categories like "health" (which includes food) and "electronics." Here you can see their chart showing the breakdown of which products you can buy that contain something that can be called "nano." The E-Nano site also lets you search the products for all kinds of keywords. Needless to say, you can find some pretty bizarre shit if you search under "food." More »
g.i. joe
Starship Troopers 3 may finally show us a glimpse of the powered armor Heinlein talks about in the novel — but we'll get our real power armor fix from the G.I. Joe movie, coming in 2009. I haven't been sure whether Joe really counted as science fiction, but a new script review gives plenty of reasons to accept it as belonging to the genre, including armor with invisibility powers, miraculous nano-technology, and super-soldiers created by a mad scientist. The costumes may look a bit Batman And Robin-esque (power-armor-breasts!) but the storyline sounds awesomely pulpy enough for ten sawmills. Spoilers, and a gallery, below.
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Power-Armor Vs. Nano-Tech Super Soldiers, In G.I. Joe
Starship Troopers 3 may finally show us a glimpse of the powered armor Heinlein talks about in the novel — but we'll get our real power armor fix from the G.I. Joe movie, coming in 2009. I haven't been sure whether Joe really counted as science fiction, but a new script review gives plenty of reasons to accept it as belonging to the genre, including armor with invisibility powers, miraculous nano-technology, and super-soldiers created by a mad scientist. The costumes may look a bit Batman And Robin-esque (power-armor-breasts!) but the storyline sounds awesomely pulpy enough for ten sawmills. Spoilers, and a gallery, below.
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mad nano-engineering
A Gonorrhea-Based Molecular Machine
Gonorrhea, a bacteria that's transmitted via sexual intercourse and causes painful swelling, may turn out to be the perfect molecular machine. A group of researchers at Columbia University have announced findings proving that the bacteria can use its pili, long filaments that act like limbs, to pull with a force equivalent to 100,000 times its weight, and hold it for hours. Here you can see a video of a gonorrhea bacterium pulling on tiny, flexible columns around it (the pili, which you can't see, can stretch up to ten times the length of the bacterium, and you can see several columns moving rather far away from the bacteria). I've added some music by Honest Bob and the Factory-to-Dealer Incentives that might express what the bacteria is secretly thinking. More »
nanotech
Nanoparticles Causing Heart Attacks, Kidney Stones?
And you thought the nanotoxic gym socks were bad. Researchers from the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine have found nanoparticles in kidney stones, gall stones, and in the hardened arteries which can lead to heart attacks. All of these conditions are caused by calcium build up, and researchers believe nanoparticles may be the seeds that set the calcium deposits growing. More »
nanotech
Nanoparticle Gym Socks Poison Wildlife
Your socks are creating an insidious form of nanotech pollution. Sure, nanotechnology holds great promise for everything from treating cancer to making cloaking devices a reality. But critics have argued for a while it poses huge risks to the environment, and now engineers from Arizona State University are reporting that silver nanoparticles are almost certainly finding their way into local waterways courtesy of our washing machines. The source? Socks impregnated with the silver bits, which are known for their anti-microbial and anti-odor properties. More »
nanotech
Nanopaper Can Identify Deadly Bacteria in the Water
Worried about the bacteria in your water? Just dip a test-strip coated with a special mix of nanoparticles into your glass, and watch the result. If the strip changes color, don't drink. Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology and the University of Massachusetts have devised a way to instantly identify several species of bacteria using a blend of charged polymers and gold dust. The implications are fairly staggering for medicine, but also for national security. More »
sci fashion
Nanowire Power Shirt Generates Electricity While You Wear It
Now you can power your cell phone just by wearing a special shirt made of two tiny layers of nanowires that rub against each other as you move. These super-conductive wires are "piezoelectric," generating energy through pressure and movement. The result is a shirt that generates more electricity the more you move around. A few weeks ago, a research team at Georgia Tech announced the first generation power shirt (you can see the two layers of nano wires above), speculating that it could someday power small electronic devices like iPods or mobiles. More »
nanotech
This image looks like an explosion in space, but it's actually gold nanorods bonding with a cancer cell. This type of gold nanoparticle could help researchers to watch a tumor grow in real time, within a few years, according to a new study. Researchers at Stanford implanted nanoparticles into living mice and were able to image their tumors in 1,000 times more detail than you could with current imaging techniques. And the technique, using Raman spectroscopy, will allow doctors to measure 10, 20 or even 30 molecular targets simultaneously, instead of just one or two. Researchers say it'll revolutionize cancer diagnosis and treatment within a decade. Image from Cancer.gov. [Science Daily]
A View Of Tumors, From The Inside Out
This image looks like an explosion in space, but it's actually gold nanorods bonding with a cancer cell. This type of gold nanoparticle could help researchers to watch a tumor grow in real time, within a few years, according to a new study. Researchers at Stanford implanted nanoparticles into living mice and were able to image their tumors in 1,000 times more detail than you could with current imaging techniques. And the technique, using Raman spectroscopy, will allow doctors to measure 10, 20 or even 30 molecular targets simultaneously, instead of just one or two. Researchers say it'll revolutionize cancer diagnosis and treatment within a decade. Image from Cancer.gov. [Science Daily]
nanotech
NASA Wants To Slice Your Brain With Nanoknife
Carbon nano-tubes aren't just gorgeous, they might also save your brain one day. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory is teaming up with a cancer center, City Of Hope, to develop a new minimally invasive type of brain surgery using carbon nanotubes. Researchers hope that these sharp-tipped tubes, 50,000 times narrower than a human hair, can deliver cancer-fighting agents directly to the brain. Tests in mice found the nanotubes were non-toxic and could deliver actual genetic information to the brain. Here's an image of the first "nanoknife," developed by NIST and University of Colorado in 2006. [ScienceDaily]
nanotech
Get Your Cheap Nanotubes Right Here!
Want some of those cool carbon nanotubes we showed you earlier? Get some dirt cheap at Cheap Tubes Inc., a site that specializes in selling CNTs at bargain basement prices. They're practically giving them away! More »
nanotech
Carbon nanotubes can conduct sensations through artificial skin back to the brain, making prosthetic limbs feel like the real thing. A nanotube like this one, delicately balanced on top of gold filaments, is threaded through a rubbery polymer. This nanotube-infused polymer generates electricity in response to pressure or force, creating signals that can be routed to your brain. That's why this synthetic skin can "feel." Researchers want to build a prosthetic limb out of this stuff by 2010. Click through for more images of carbon nanotubes, the artificial nervous systems of tomorrow.
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Nanotubes Make Synthetic Skin Feel Your Pain
Carbon nanotubes can conduct sensations through artificial skin back to the brain, making prosthetic limbs feel like the real thing. A nanotube like this one, delicately balanced on top of gold filaments, is threaded through a rubbery polymer. This nanotube-infused polymer generates electricity in response to pressure or force, creating signals that can be routed to your brain. That's why this synthetic skin can "feel." Researchers want to build a prosthetic limb out of this stuff by 2010. Click through for more images of carbon nanotubes, the artificial nervous systems of tomorrow.
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science art
This image of "Nano-Explosions" won first prize in this year's "Science As Art" competition. Fanny Beron from the École Polytechnique de Montréal used an electron scanning micrograph to record the explosion that happened when a CoFeB magnetic array was overloaded. The chaotic blasts are a "reminder that nanoscale research can have unpredicted consequences at a high level." Beron has also been a star soccer goalie. [NanoWerk]
When Nano-Wires Explode
This image of "Nano-Explosions" won first prize in this year's "Science As Art" competition. Fanny Beron from the École Polytechnique de Montréal used an electron scanning micrograph to record the explosion that happened when a CoFeB magnetic array was overloaded. The chaotic blasts are a "reminder that nanoscale research can have unpredicted consequences at a high level." Beron has also been a star soccer goalie. [NanoWerk]
invisibility
One Step Closer to a True Cloaking Device
Last year, a team at Duke announced a beta cloaking material whose special nano-properties make it "invisible" to microwaves. Today, however, researchers in Stuttgart have got something even better — a "metamaterial" that can cloak objects in the visible light spectrum. Made of gold nano-mesh, the material has a negative refraction index for visible light — that means it doesn't reflect light, and could give the illusion of blending into the background. I can't wait for my metamaterial full body suit for doing futuristic spy shit. Towards Cloaking Visible Light [Science Daily]
nanotech
March of the Spermbots
Spunk-seeking nanotechnology experts at Cornell say that sperm would make the perfect nanobots of the future. Robot sperm (pictured here in an artist's rendering) would deliver new DNA or other molecules to your body by scooting through your bloodstream using a tail powered by its own energy source. Find out why sperm are self-contained power-houses after the jump. More »
bionic woman
If I was a high-paid Hollywood writer, this is what my version of the Bionic Woman would look like. Upon realizing that her boyfriend has not only been keeping a dossier on her but apparently waiting to pounce upon her first near fatal mishap to implant her with $50 million of his employer's goods, Jamie Sommers tells Will and his boss Jonas they can stick it in their bionic ear. Then she and Sarah Corvus declare a truce. They meet for cocktails and decide to form their own alliance. The rest of the series would turn upon their feats of daring as they fight crime, the military-industrial complex, the Berkut Group, and men who underestimate or are afraid of true female power. More »
The 50 Million Dollar Dame. Episode 3.
If I was a high-paid Hollywood writer, this is what my version of the Bionic Woman would look like. Upon realizing that her boyfriend has not only been keeping a dossier on her but apparently waiting to pounce upon her first near fatal mishap to implant her with $50 million of his employer's goods, Jamie Sommers tells Will and his boss Jonas they can stick it in their bionic ear. Then she and Sarah Corvus declare a truce. They meet for cocktails and decide to form their own alliance. The rest of the series would turn upon their feats of daring as they fight crime, the military-industrial complex, the Berkut Group, and men who underestimate or are afraid of true female power. More »
