Nanotechblog

Nanotechnology, creeping into almost all fields of science is now showing its magical powers at the service of the soldiers. Injured at the battle fields, most soldiers have remote chances to avail immediate medical assistance, mostly because of their inability to be carried to difficult terrains.

So, now nanotechnology has gifted the war-zones with ‘easily supply-able’ super-small nanoparticle-painkillers that can be delivered to injured soldiers - thanks to a team of impertinent University of Michigan-researchers. For the cause, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has granted them with a $1.3 million grant for conducting the study.

The researchers are up with arms developing tiny painkiller-bearing particles, which can be injected into injured soldiers’ comrades or even injured soldiers themselves on the battlefield straightaway.

To inject it, a pen-like device will be used which would provide both safe as well as, importantly, effective pain relief especially when no immediate expert medical help can be extended to a wounded soldier.

Research team leader James R. Baker Jr. said,

This proposal provides an approach to achieve sustained, safe pain control on the battlefield.

Since, painkiller-morphine can cause breathing problems and needs careful monitoring, the new application of nanotechnology will thus, importantly, be used in controlling the morphine’s release over extended periods.

Soldiers, get ready for a nanoparticle-injection before heading for the battlefield in the near-future.

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It is being said that nanotechnology could prove effective in treatment of spinal cord injuries and also reverse paralysis. This would be possible as nanotechnology could help in repair of damaged organs and tissues. There is a very good chance that nanotechnology could prove vital in the treatment of diseases such as Parkinson’s disease or heart attacks or even diabetes.

With the aid of injection of molecules which have been designed for self assembling into nanostructures in the spinal tissue it has become possible to rescue and re grow rapidly damaged neurons. The research has already been published in science magazines and the latest findings on reversing paralysis have been also been reviewed for publication. The clinical trials for spinal cord treatment are expected to begin within a few years. There is unlikely to be any side effects since the materials used are those which one consumes during breakfast. An approval from FDA would be required before nanotechnology is applied for medical applications.

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Via rawstory

University of Pennsylvania researchers have found out that by using a cylindrical shaped carrier drugs can be delivered in a better manner to an animal model of lung cancer for a duration which is ten times longer as compared to what can be achieved using spherical shaped carriers. The study will lead to an improvement in the drug delivery coupled with a better understanding of the cylinder shaped viruses such as H5N1 and Ebola.

In this case since the blood stream is constantly pumping blood the cylindrical nanoparticles line up with the flow and persist in circulation for a longer period of time as compared to any known spherical particles. Cylindrical nanoparticles were used which comprised of synthetic polymers for delivering paclitaxel which is an anticancer drug to a human lung tumor tissue implanted in the mice. Nanoparticles comprising of chain of polymer called polyethyleneglycol was used for this purpose. This study is expected to impact the treatment of lung cancer and cardiovascular diseases.

Via nanowerk

Next time you board a train in Taiwan you won’t have to face any bad odor or dust as the Taiwan Railway Administration or TRA is implementing nanotechnology in its trains to combat all these problems. The technology will be implemented on Taroko Express which will travel between Taipei and Hualien.

People traveling on Taroko Express will no longer have to encounter bad smell in the restrooms aboard the train. Around $84.84 million have been invested in this train which would also bring down the journey time. Industrial Technology Research Institute has used nanotechnology for sterilizing the restroom of the train and cleaning its glass windows. Dust-fighting coating material will be used for preventing dust from getting deposited on the glass and results have shown that the amount of dust came down by half. Later on this technology will be used in other trains too.

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Via: cna

If you are one of those who will soon require either a hip replacement, dental reconstruction or vascular stenting, here is ‘nanotechnology’ to your rescue. Yes, this is yet another introduction of nanotechnology in the field of medical sciences.

Scientists have designed an effective nanowire coating for creating more effective surfaces for such medical replacements or reconstructions. They have created this coating on biocompatible titanium surface.

What is of your interest is its creating process being cost-effective. And, for the manufacturers, the process of designing it is simpler in comparison to the existing methods.

For developing the titanium oxide-based ceramic nanowires, researchers used an alkali and heat, used for effectively coating the surface of a titanium medical device.

By simply varying the time, temperature and the concentration of alkali in the reaction, the length, height, the pore openings and their volumes can be controlled within the nanowire scaffolds - that’s amazing!

Importantly, adding on to its inexpensiveness and simpler designing, the new process is also extremely sustainable, as claimed by Z. Ryan Tian, assistant professor of chemistry and biochemistry in the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences.

What is required is just a rinse of the device in reusable water, following the heating process.

So, next time you require any such medical replacement and reconstruction, resort to the new ‘inexpensive’ nanowire-coating magic.

Image Courtesy: Z. Ryan Tian

Nanotechnology can be deployed in the arena of MRI too. IBM researchers have combined MRI with the accuracy of atomic force microscopes and created sixty thousand times small MRI images as compared to the traditional MRI where the nanometer resolution achieved was ninety which is ten times bigger as compared to the typical molecule. The researchers came up with a latest atomic force microscope probe and coupled it with high magnetic layers of cobalt, iron and rubidium. These magnetic tips are responsible for converting atomic force microscopes into little MRI machines.

The advantage of this is that the magnetic resonance force microscope just requires around thousand atom spin in their tiny sample and hence can watch till a depth of forty nanometers in samples. The researchers even have a plan of increasing the resolution of the device by ten times which could help in looking into the molecules as they undergo chemical reactions. This will surely help the medical field and make their job easier.

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Via: usatoday

Up till now altered viruses were used as common carrier vehicles for delivering therapeutic drugs but one of the side effects of this technique was that the virus infected the cells but now with the aid of nanotechnology nonviral nanocarriers it has become possible to deliver gene and drugs. Besides virus even inorganic nanomaterials and polymeric systems are being considered for nonviral delivery vehicles.

Carbon nanohorn or CNH have a dahlia flower like structure and large surface area can be fabricated with large purity and it offer benefits over and above nanorods and nnaoparticles for serving as synthetic intracellular delivery vehicles. CNHs have higher adsorbability for holding therapeutic drugs and they can dissolve quickly in water. Incubation of modified CNHs along with human cervical cancer cells was used for studying the cytotoxicity of CNHs. This has proved that CNHs are toxic and high purity can be achieved without using metallic catalysts. Further studies are being undertaken for making it a success.

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Via nanowerk

For the crazy scientists, there is nothing impossible like converging hard science with art, music and musical notes! And, with a recent work, a scientist has led the extremes merge ‘ nanotechnology and classical music!

If it means, hearing the sweeter tones of ‘nano-music’, it’s it. Milton Schlosser, a University of Alberta music professor will soon be performing music using biomolecular nanomachines. If you are a music-lover, and are ready to take up exciting challenges of refocusing your music senses, Schlosser’s ‘nanosonatas’ are just the right experiment for you.

American composer Frederic Rzewski have created the ‘Nanosonatas, Volume 1′ by essentially compressing the form of 20- to 40-minute — the 19th-century sonatas into 7 three-minute segments.

Packaging waste problem may be a thing of the past as researchers are implementing nanotechnology for bringing down carbon dioxide emissions. Researchers from Europe are working towards modified natural fibre based intelligent packaging to put brakes on environmental pollution.

Researchers are working on SustainPack packaging project in order to bring fibre based packaging in the mainstream by application of biotechnology and nanotechnology for delivering value added fibre based packaging. This is expected to bring nature based packaging into focus and besides controlling pollution it can also bring down the amount of energy required for producing packages. Additon of Nanoaddiitives is expected to add strength to the natural packaging based project.

Developing sustainable packaging that can compete effectively with packaging derived from petrochemical-based polymers is extremely challenging. Sustainpack is addressing this challenge by creating a European research community focused on sustainable packaging which will pressure retailers to accept natural packaging as the way forward.

A number of companies are showing interest in this project and it seems this nanotechnology based packaging may soon hit the streets.

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Via: nanowerk

Earlier we introduced you special light-emitting nanofibers in the size of viruses and tiny bacteria that would surely light up the nano world. Now, another breakthrough in nanoscience discovered by Professor Zhong Lin Wang is a tiny device that can be planted in your shoes to generate your own small current to power miniature electronics when you walk.

These archetype nanogenerators are made of tiny wires those are free to bend till some extent and also captures the output of large numbers of nanowires in motion to produce 4 watts per cubic centimeter miniscule direct current output.

The device can produce energy from ultrasonic waves, mechanical movement or even blood flow and can be said as another advanced exposure in today’s nanoscience.

Via: Medlaunches