Nanotechblog

Knauf, a German building manufacturer is creating a villa on the Greek mountainside and the best thing about this villa is that it is earthquake resistant and is being constructed using nanotechnology based seal healing walls. The walls of the villa are not being constructed using cement but new load bearing steel frames along with high strength gypsum board consisting of nanopolymer particles which liquidizes when subjected to pressure, fills up the cracks and reconstitutes as solid material.

Besides the villa will also be having monitors for the purpose of keeping a tab on the building along with the temperatures, stresses, vibrations, gas levels and humidity it is subjected to. In case some problem erupts the sensor will automatically issue an alert to the household so that they get ample time to escape.

If this particular villa produces encouraging results then we will be able to save hundreds of lives from being trapped in their destroyed houses in case an earthquake occurs. The project is called Intelligent Safe and Secure Buildings and will be completed by 2010.

Via merid

Nanoparticles containing iron could be toxic for nerve cells and may even interfere with signal transmitting extensions formation. Iron is considered healthy for human beings and even iron oxide nanoparticles were thought to be good for human health but some recent reports have pointed out that nanoparticles might be turn out to be toxic for some cell types. If this turns out to be true then progress of nanotechnology could suffer a serious setback.

As a part of the studies UCSD researchers exposed PC12 cells to high concentrations of iron oxide nanoparticles along with nerve growth factor and found out that a number of cells died and the ones which survived showed reduced ability for producing neurites.

This research will surely result in a heated debate as to whether nanotechnology is safe enough and why enough studies aren’t being conducted before adopting it wholly.

Via nanowerk

This discovery would surely help in churning out better drugs for treatment of diseases. U.S researchers have found out that string like nanoparticles equal to viruses which move in the blood for up to ten times longer as compared to spherical nanoparticles, the shape could help in creating better drug delivery vehicles for cancer treatment. This may turn out to be really beneficial for researchers involved in creating cancer drugs.

Soft filamentous polymers have been found to circulate for more than a week in the case of rats but this is a fairly long time as compared to spherical nanoparticles which get cleared from the body within hours. The circulation time has been found out to depend upon how the filaments fragment as a result of liquid flow and interaction with the cells and therefore this research has found a place in the Nature Nanotechnology journal issue of April.

Via scienceahead

In the field of space rocket engines are dependant on chemical propulsion and almost all of the spacecrafts are using some kind of chemical rocket for launching and attitude control. Researchers have been studying electric propulsion and EP systems have been found out to being down the required propellant mass as compared to traditional chemical rockets.

Researchers are working on a new EP system which utilizes electrostatically charged and accelerated nanoparticles as propellant. Fitting into one square cm of space these micron sized nanoparticle enable fabrication of highly scaleable thruster arrays.

University of Michigan researchers are utilizing nanoparticles as propellant with micro and nano-electromechanical systems. The technology is named nanoparticle field extraction thruster or nanoFET and as per this concept the highly efficient and variable specific engine type can be scaled for a number of space and exploration missions. If this experiment turned out to be successful then nanotechnology would adorn the world of space exploration.

Via nanowerk

Up till now fabrication of small features was quite difficult and expensive too but now researchers have come up with a nanotechnology fabrication method under which production of 3 D polymer line structures has become easier with two new photon absorbing molecules responsive to laser light at shorter wavelengths. Fabrication was quite expensive due to the requirement of costly electronic beam or UV lithography equipment but now researchers have figured out a technique known as 3D multi-photon lithography which leads to simplification of the overall process and brings down the costs. This technique could offer competition to the existing processes.

Under this technique a laser beam is canned across a substrate coated with polymer resin having a unique dye which leads to creation of the desired hardened polymer structure and since the absorption rate of two photon comes down drastically therefore just molecules at the focal point get light for absorption of two photons.

Via nanowerk

The idea that measuring nanomechanical oscillations, that of the tiny vibrating silicon strips, only a few hundred atoms thick is not that easy, is no more true. Researchers at the Cornell University have designed a solution - defining as ‘reach out and touch them.’

The tiny oscillators’ vibration can be measured by “tapping” with an atomic force microscope (AFM). Nanomechanical oscillators are capable of replacing bulky quartz crystals in electronic circuits or even detecting and identifying bacteria and viruses. And it will be doing so commercially someday, perhaps soon.

Rob Ilic, research associate in the Cornell NanoScale Facility and lead author on the paper about the research said,

AFMs are all over the place. So this offers a simple way to study these structures.

The paper on these findings is published in the Feb. 23 online edition of the Journal of Applied Physics.

Image courtesy: Cornell University

This can be termed as a breakthrough invention in the field of nanotechnology. A protein sensor has been developed by U.S researchers which are ultra sensitive and can detect changes in concentration which are more than five orders of magnitude. In a number of biosensors there is an increased dependency on changes in intensity of fluorescence emitted which is difficult to measure and therefore University of Michigan researchers headed by Nicholas Kotov have come up with a device in which case the wavelength of the emitted light shifts reversibly.

The device has been created using gold nanoparticles which are attached to nanowires with the aid of molecular springs which carry protein binding antibodies. When the target protein attaches to the antibody it leads to the extension of the molecular spring and moves the nanospheres away from nanowires which leads to the reduction of interaction between sphere and wire. As a result a significant change in the wavelength of light emitted from nanowire was witnessed which could be deployed as molecule specific biosensor.

Via monstersandcritics

Scientists have grown metal crystal configurations that have never been seen before! These new configurations of crystal pour in promises in the field of biosensors, biological imaging, drug delivery and catalytic converters.

The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory scientists have crystallized cellulose fibers from cotton after appropriating them. The uniform size of the metal crystals must be between 2 and 200 nanometers, depending on the metal, Yongsoon Shin, a staff scientist at the Department of Energy laboratory in Richland, Wash reported.

He introduced this success on Monday at the national meeting of the American Chemical Society. Thanks to PNNL laboratory fellow Gregory Exarhos for leading the research.

Defining Shin’s experimental work, Exarhos said,

The first report of the efficacy of nanocrystalline cellulose templates in driving the formation of ordered metal and metal oxide nanoparticles at surfaces.

Exarhos has dubbed these cellulose nanocrystals as - ‘molecular factories.’

Photo Credit: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Japanese scientists have created a molecular device resembling a ’scissor’ that can be used to control genes, proteins and other molecules in the body. This scissor can be opened and closed with the effect of light.

This device, created by Takuzo Aida and his colleagues at the University of Tokyo, consists of a pivot, handles and blades which make it look like a scissor and it is just 3 nanometers long, making it the world’s smallest scissor.

Rings of carbon and hydrogen known as phenyl groups have been used to make the blades and the pivot is a molecule called chiral ferrocene, which sandwiches a round iron atom between two carbon plates which can rotate freely around the iron atom.

The handles are organic chemical structures called phenylene groups which are tethered together with azobenzene, a molecule that reacts to light.

Shining visible light on the scissors makes the azobenzene expand and drive the handles apart, closing the blades. Shining ultraviolet rays does the opposite and opens up the blade.

The device can be used as a pincer to firmly grasp molecules and manipulate them by twisting them back and forth. Takuzo Aida said:

This work is the first example where a molecular machine mechanically manipulates other molecules by light .This work is an important step for the future development of molecular robotics.

With the success met in this device, the researchers are now making a larger scissor which can be remotely manipulated and can be operated using near-infrared lights,that can find use in the body by reaching deep parts of the body.

Source.

The first comprehensive study of the properties of boron nitrite has been completed on a nanometric scale. The thorough control and knowledge boron nitride’s properties - boron’s binary compound consisting of equal proportions of boron and nitrogen - can now help design this compound-based new materials both on and, likewise, having implications in other fields like biology.

Boron is used to coat reactors and insulation materials. Thanks to ngel Rubio for leading the University of the Basque Country’s Physics of Materials team to come up with this new development.

The results of this new finding are also relevant in understanding the properties of other carbon compounds like - nanotubes, grapheme — in fields like nanoelectronics, photonics. It will also help understand materials for biomedical applications like sensors, biological labels, etc.

This research is groundbreaking as being of a great current scientific interest throughout the world. This will surely help great advancements in these fields in the short and medium term.