MetaFilter posts tagged with nanotechnology

Good things come in small packages. And in Threes.

Hardcore Poser — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 23:50:37 -0800

Nanoparticles often get a bad rap in popular media. From discredited scenarios (grey goo) to more plausible concerns (cancer), often the emphasis in reporting is on its risks rather than its potential rewards. But this has been a good week for the tiny science. The discovery at Harvard of a new technique for making alcohol esters at room temperature with gold nanoparticles may result in much cleaner, greener fabric production. A new method of gel electrophoresis patented by researchers at Bath University creates a molecular sieve to sort proteins by size and shape, raising the possibility of a blood test for Alzheimers or similar conditions. And a group at MIT have performed analyses on a new way to create stable Casimir molecules that could potentially solve problems that have hindered the creation of complex moving nanostructures.

Cancer cells, covered in bees!

msalt — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 09:28:11 -0800

Nanobees! (trained to kill cancer cells) A nanoparticle carries melittin -- a toxic peptide found in bee venom that does not produce allergic reactions -- throughout the body. The ligand (chemical that binds two compounds, in this case the nanoparticle and the melittin) has an affinity for attaching to a receptor plentiful in newly formed blood vessels, which are plentiful around tumors. Plus, it kills the cells via apoptosis (natural cell death), not necrosis, which should reduce side effects. So far only animal studies. The scientific paper itself. Another take on it.

The Nano Song

homunculus — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 18:50:34 -0800

The Nano Song. Teaching the wonders of nanotechnology to puppets. This is one of the submissions to the NanoTube Contest. [Via]

What is a human being? An acorn that is unafraid to destroy itself in growing into a tree.

ageispolis — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 15:27:12 -0800

H+ Magazine is an online quarterly publication focusing on trans humanism, a product of the futurist movement that supports science and technology to enhance the mental and physical capacities of the human being. Sometimes referred to as posthumanism, Francis Fukuyama calls it one of the world's most dangerous ideas. If you feel like you're lagging behind, George Dvorsky is kind enough to inform us ~>H's of the must-know transhumanist terms for today's intelligentsia. Previ ously, are you afraid of death?

Nanobliss: now with extra audacity, hope and change!

kosem — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 17:31:29 -0800

Nanobliss "Nanobliss is a gallery of visualizations of small-scale structures of carbon nanotubes and silicon, created by John Hart." I came for the awesome Nanobamas [Flickr set here], but was impressed enough with the rest to share the whole. Enjoy---particularly the informative techniques page. At the very least, have a look at some of the pretty nano pictures.

ANTS in Space

Kronos_to_Earth — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 23:22:09 -0800

The Autonomous NanoTechnology Swarm (ANTS) "...is a generic mission architecture consisting of miniaturized, autonomous, self-similar, reconfigurable, addressable components forming structures. The components/structures have wide spatial distribution and multi-level organization. This ‘swarm’ behavior is inspired by the success of social insect colonies...." ANTS may one day teem through the solar system.... (last two links large QT files) There's quite a number of video clips on the site, collected here.

Microchip microscope

Kronos_to_Earth — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 14:04:02 -0800

Researchers working on optofluidic microscopy at the California Institute of Technology have developed a minuscule microscope that works without lenses.... (via) "Developing optofluidic technology through the fusion of microfluidics and optics"[pdf]

Nanotube City

Kronos_to_Earth — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 14:41:20 -0800

Nanotube Radio. "We have constructed a fully functional, fully integrated radio receiver, orders-of-magnitude smaller than any previous radio, from a single carbon nanotube". (via)

Kanzius Machine: A Cancer Cure?

stbalbach — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 06:32:35 -0800

The Kanzius Machine: A Cancer Cure? 60 minutes (12:38) investigates an amateurs garage technology that some are saying "in 20 years of research this is the most exciting thing that I’ve encountered" and one Nobel Prize winner said it "will change medicine forever." The nanotechnology-based cancer therapy without side effects is nearing trials.

Phone Porn

chuckdarwin — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 06:56:15 -0800

The Nokia Morph concept phone is currently featured in The Museum of Modern Art “Design and The Elastic Mind” exhibition (warning: flash interface). This 'self-cleaning' shape-shifting mobile follows Nokia's other recent phone concept, the environmentally-friendly Remade, unveiled at Mobile World Congress earlier this month.

A Map of the Cat

Poolio — Sun, 16 Sep 2007 11:04:55 -0800

Richard P. Feynman { Information Junkie → PhD → Atomic Bomber → Professor/Lecturer on Physics + Mathematical Artist [DIY] + Nanotech Knowledgist → 33.3% Nobel laureate + QEDynamic Speaker + Tiny Machinist + Challenger of Conclusions + Best-Selling Writer –X– Busted [outside Tuva] → Star Trek TNG Shuttlecraft ↓ Pepsi Black/Blue ↑ U.S. Postage Stamp } ∞

nanohub rulz ok!

sergeant sandwich — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 14:30:47 -0800

nanoHUB is an information goldmine, aimed primarily at scientists and engineers engaged under the broad umbrella of nanotechnology research, funded by the NSF, and based at Purdue University. Start with a series of nano tutorial lessons at the undergraduate or graduate level. Move on to seminars from top researchers on a variety of topics, or try some self-paced learning modules. Then run (real, useful) simulations in your browser. [some stuff requires free registration]

Secrets of the ancients, revealed! ... or never bring a knife to a nanotube fight.

blahblahblah — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 23:12:03 -0800

It took a long time for many achievements of the ancient world to be duplicated. The first city to reach one million people was Baghdad in 775 CE (or possibly Rome nine hundred years before), a feat that would not be duplicated until London and Beijing grew in the 19th century. The largest building in the world was the Great Pyramid for forty centuries until the 19th, and the world's current longest canal is over two millenia old. Some mysteries still remain, such as the formula of Greek Fire, but it looks like a different ancient weapon's secret has been discovered, that of Damascus steel. The key ingredient -- nanotech!

LEGO building LEGO

cgc373 — Thu, 04 Jan 2007 18:24:22 -0800

While thinking about nanotechnology, Jamais Cascio found a six-minute YouTube video of a LEGO Mindstorms factory that builds a LEGO car.

Your Replicator is Ready

Burhanistan — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 06:53:52 -0800

Productive Nanosystems (youtube) is an animation visualizing how a nano-factory manufacturing devices with atomic precision might work. Artist's page on Nanotechnology Now here. Production model here (though it looks much bigger than what the video hints at).

QuIET is the New Loud

terrapin — Tue, 28 Nov 2006 10:14:24 -0800

University of Arizona physicists have discovered how to turn single molecules into working transistors. The research could result in much smaller, more powerful computers and other devices with the ability to process many more channels of high-resolution audio and video than current products can manage. The abstract is available in PDF.

Welcome to the 21st century

jason's_planet — Tue, 24 Oct 2006 13:44:02 -0800

"We are living in science fiction." --William Burroughs

Miracles You’ll See In The Next Fifty Years

MetaMonkey — Thu, 05 Oct 2006 23:24:03 -0800

Miracles You’ll See In The Next Fifty Years (Feb, 1950)
Some more up-to-date predictions: science, invention, space travel, colonisation, immortality, water shortage, flooding, nanotech, techno-apocalypse, extinction, mental health, smart machines, robots, mind uploading, AI, Asia, economics, demographics, goverance, cities. What is your prediction?

Never work.

jason's_planet — Sun, 25 Jun 2006 21:08:06 -0800

Never wanna work/Always wanna play/Pleasure, pleasure every day. What happens when the jobs go away and don't return? Should we take the surpluses generated and pay people not to work? What happens to the assumption of scarcity when nanotechology allows us to generate potentially anything we want from grass clippings? Maybe Marx had it wrong all along. Maybe, instead of fetishizing work and the authoritarian mindset that it generates, we should have been reading Paul Lafargue instead. Just as a thought experiment, what would you do if your job category disappeared? How would you spend your time? Would you invest more time and energy in friendships and other relationships? Hobbies? If you were your employer, what technologies would you use to get rid of your position and save money?

Nanogoose

Mr. Six — Thu, 01 Jun 2006 11:28:05 -0800

On the heels of microscopic jewelry rides golden buckyballs (full text).

MIT researchers play Borg God

rob511 — Tue, 14 Mar 2006 02:36:30 -0800

New hope for blind hamsters. According to the Guardian, scientists at MIT have repaired brain damage and restored eyesight to rodents using nanotechnology. In the study, minute particles were injected into damaged parts of the brain, and subsequently arranged themselves into a "scaffold" gel throughout the damaged area. The scaffold allowed severed nerves to regrow and form new connections. 75% of test animals' injuries were improved with the new technique. (The article did not note if the test subjects offered any resistance to the therapeutic measures.)

"In the long run, we'd like to power the world:" Nanotech and solar energy

expialidocious — Mon, 13 Mar 2006 13:57:30 -0800

Nanocrystal technology shows promise for cheaper, more efficient solar energy generation [more inside]

How would this work with the pron?

fenriq — Thu, 29 Sep 2005 16:29:31 -0800

Dermal Displays
Building on a Robert A. Frietas theory (4th paragraph down) from his book, Nanomedicines, Vol 1: Basic Capabilities, a 6 cm x 5 cm programmable display embedded into your skin made up of 3 billion display pixel nanorobots could be used to monitor and direct medical nanobots within your body.
Nanogirl has recently completed work on a three minute animation of the concept, available in both QT (8.1 megs) or WMV (10.4 megs).

Nanotechnology to power F1 cars.

Jazznoisehere — Wed, 24 Aug 2005 14:03:26 -0800

Formula One car "skin" provides it's own power. A potentially very cool application of nanotechnology might appear on F1 cars as early as next season.

Fungal remixes

Johnny Assay — Mon, 01 Aug 2005 11:45:46 -0800

Australian scientist Cameron Jones puts nanocrystals on the bottom of his CDs. And prints fractals on them. And grows bacteria, yeasts, and fungi on them. What's perhaps the most surprising about this is that when these CDs are actually played, they sound pretty cool. More details can be found here and here. [Last four links are MP3, MP3, PDF, and PDF, respectively.]