All the Nanotech You Can Eat - io9 Comments

All the Nanotech You Can Eat

denisegp — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 21:46:38 PDT

@Annalee Newitz: Done.
"This Ain Supplio pencil lead from Pentel uses nanotechnology to release allegedly mind-expanding aromas, letting you smell your way to smartness while you scribble your meandering prose on a piece of paper."

"The fragrance is encapsulated using nanotechnology, where microscopic bubbles containing the fragrance are blended in with the lead. When you write, the fresh fragrance pops out of those tiny nanocapsules, filling the room with sweetness and enlightenment for all within noseshot."

denisegp

All the Nanotech You Can Eat

RAHfanboy — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 19:35:38 PDT

Hang on a minute, I'm getting a fax.

RAHfanboy

All the Nanotech You Can Eat

Castle1914 — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 14:36:04 PDT

@Ghede: Yeah I thought about the sharp object problem. I figure that the system would automatically encapsulate any dangerous bits so that it doesn't harm you.

Castle1914

All the Nanotech You Can Eat

Ghede — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 14:21:26 PDT

@Castle1914: I was actually just thinking of having a buttscanner. It would pretty much just print a 2d image of your butt, and change depending whether you were sitting or standing. Not sure how it would work, but it would be convenient. Slightly less so than shitting scissors.

Ghede

All the Nanotech You Can Eat

Castle1914 — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 14:15:58 PDT

@Ghede: hmm, scanner? That's a little tougher to accomplish unless you're tying into the eyes/brain. If you can tie into the brain, then you could defecate any object you could think of.

Castle1914

All the Nanotech You Can Eat

Ghede — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 13:39:34 PDT

@Annalee Newitz: Yeah! ... A scanner/printer would be funnier! Simply activate, and you eliminate the middleman! Celebrate by plastering self-made (and I mean self-made) photocopies of your ass around the office, classroom, home, and town!

Ghede

All the Nanotech You Can Eat

rocza — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 13:35:43 PDT

The Women's Bioethics Blog

rocza

All the Nanotech You Can Eat

monkity — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 13:33:24 PDT

@russdanger: "Hey Maw! I'm crappin' legos!"

monkity

All the Nanotech You Can Eat

russdanger — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 13:11:15 PDT

It would come in handy on those long interstellar space voyages...
"Mr. LaForge, we need a new hyper-spanner."
"OK, Cap'm. just let me grab something to read in there.."

russdanger

All the Nanotech You Can Eat

Castle1914 — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 12:21:43 PDT

@Annalee Newitz: Hey russdanger started it.

Castle1914

All the Nanotech You Can Eat

Annalee Newitz — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 12:05:33 PDT

@Castle1914: I do not want my ass to be a printer. That is all.

Annalee Newitz

All the Nanotech You Can Eat

Castle1914 — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 11:57:52 PDT

@russdanger: WOW! What a concept! Can you imagine if you could get nanotech to restructure your fecal matter into a product? In a very wrong way you could be your own 3d printer!

But then theres all types of problems that jump into the picture. What if you ate at McDonalds and some kid gave you a nanotech virus to make you manufacture something. Or companies could pay you to manufacture items for them.

Okay thats all very very wrong, but possible.

Castle1914

All the Nanotech You Can Eat

designguybrown — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 11:56:00 PDT

i think that perhaps we are straying from the pure and wondrous connotations of nano-stuff being machines at a small scale (and ideally self-replicating machines) rather than stuff that is just simply small and does interesting, yet inert-ish, things...
ohh- well no grey goo in the foreseeable...

designguybrown

All the Nanotech You Can Eat

Log1c — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 11:55:41 PDT

@Annalee Newitz: Damnit! Snortable! I didn't think of that, we could do it without needles!

I think we need some nanotubes to replace neurons, and nanotube linear actuators to replace muscles and BAM! NanoMan!

Log1c

All the Nanotech You Can Eat

icelight — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 11:47:34 PDT

Micelles are pretty close to legitimate nanotech. Constructed of either natural components, the phopholipids that make up cell walls, or synthetic polymers, they're a major candidate for new drug delivery technologies. Their large cousins, liposomes, are already used in delivery tasks, although mostly in the lab. In and of themselves, they're entirely natural, and form any time you blend up cells. Oh, and they can only carry fat-soluble things in water- not things that are insoluble in both fat and water (nothing you want in your diet falls under that description anyway.)

(Full disclosure, my senior undergrad thesis was designing and synthesizing new polymers to make artificial micelles, with the eventual goal of a commercial drug-delivery vehicle.)

The products claims, however, sound like bunk. It is true that bile salts, in association with phospholipids and free fatty acids, form their own micelles in the gut to facilitate cholesterol and fat absorption. However, this system is very, very difficult to overload, and the phytosterols (plant-derived cholesterol) of ther supplement certainly isn't going to be able to fill up all the available micelles. There are drugs that act through a similar manner, such as colesevelam (brand name: WelChol) which block micelle reabsorption in the small intestine. However, one dose is six giant pills per day, and it can cause some rather nasty GI distress (diarhea, bloating, foul-smelling stool etc...).

(Further disclosure, I have a cardiologist mentor who's given promotional talks for Daiichi Sankyo for WelChol, and I once had a delicious free dinner at one of the talks.)

icelight

All the Nanotech You Can Eat

Priam — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 11:45:32 PDT

Woohoo! We are Borg in T minus 10...9...8...

Priam

All the Nanotech You Can Eat

Simon Piper — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 11:44:09 PDT

NutraLease is the company using the Canola Active oil in their supplements.

Their website says this:

OLD NEWS IS SO EXCITING!

Simon Piper

All the Nanotech You Can Eat

Annalee Newitz — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 11:41:57 PDT

@Log1c: Waiting for the snortable nano-neurons to make my brain super-fast.

Annalee Newitz

All the Nanotech You Can Eat

russdanger — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 11:40:22 PDT

I guess that explains why my crap is starting to look like legos...

russdanger

All the Nanotech You Can Eat

Log1c — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 11:36:47 PDT

I'm pretty sure oil is a fat, so they have developed a product that doesn't even work!

I'm still waiting for nanotube brain enhancement something-or-other.

Log1c