MedWorm.com provides a medical RSS filtering service. Over 6000 RSS medical sources are combined and output via different filters. This feed contains the latest items from the 'Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology' source. Tue, 07 Feb 2012 10:30:14 +0100 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5618460&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Frss.sciam.com%2Fclick.phdo%3Fi%3D9b2cc14697503211998f14efbcc46c75 There may be a bit more room at the bottom, after all. [More] (Source: Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology) Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5618460 Thu, 05 Jan 2012 20:05:00 +0100 5618460 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5618461&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Frss.sciam.com%2Fclick.phdo%3Fi%3D99eedd07cdb938f57186d878f05e17c6 The contenders for the Republican nomination in the 2012 U.S. presidential election may appear to be a fairly uniform group of middle-aged white conservatives, but when it comes to issues of science, technology and overall geek cred, none of these candidates is cut from the same cloth. In fact, Newt Gingrich nudges out Mitt Romney and Ron Paul in Scientific American 's overall ranking, based on the former Congressman's engagement in issues related to energy, the Internet and military weapons, combined with his mastery of top online tools such as Twitter and a healthy appetite for science nonfiction. [More] (Source: Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology) Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5618461 Tue, 03 Jan 2012 10:00:00 +0100 5618461 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5550953&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Frss.sciam.com%2Fclick.phdo%3Fi%3D7d1fbbe13c293022bcad0ec9e4c89cc9 When Shirley Ann Jackson was in elementary school in the 1950s, she would prowl her family’s backyard, collecting bumblebees, yellow jackets and wasps. She would bottle them in mayonnaise jars and test which flowers they liked best and which species were the most aggressive. She dutifully recorded her observations in a notebook, discovering, for instance, that she could alter their daily rhythms by putting them under the dark porch in the middle of the day. The most important lesson she took away from these experiments was not about science but compassion. “Don’t imprison any living thing for very long,” she says in a mellow drawl that belies her reputation as a lightning-fast thinker and influential physicist. “I have never been a fan of dead insect collectio... Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5550953 Fri, 16 Dec 2011 13:00:00 +0100 5550953 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5420115&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Frss.sciam.com%2Fclick.phdo%3Fi%3D8fb8b2ae8c92ec1bfa21c214e394b845 Revolutions often spring from the simplest of ideas. When a young inventor named Steve Jobs wanted to provide computing power to “people who have no computer experience and don’t particularly care to gain any,” he ushered us from the cumbersome technology of mainframes and command-line prompts to the breezy advances of the Macintosh and iPhone. His idea helped to forever change our relationship with technology. [More] (Source: Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology) Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5420115 Tue, 15 Nov 2011 16:30:00 +0100 5420115 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5420116&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Frss.sciam.com%2Fclick.phdo%3Fi%3D00f6d914a2fda2d98153513bcc3e8524 Artificial muscles already help human eyes blink , robotic fish swim and mechanical arms in space replace solar panels. Now a new, potentially wearable type of artificial muscle is expected to do all of those things while being lighter, smaller, softer and cheaper. [More] (Source: Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology) Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5420116 Wed, 09 Nov 2011 20:00:00 +0100 5420116 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5398577&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Frss.sciam.com%2Fclick.phdo%3Fi%3Da67437b320845788ac881033cf4828f9 The tweet, posted on September 1, 2011, by @qikipedia, read in its entirety: “It would take an elephant, balanced on a pencil to break through a sheet of graphene the thickness of cling film.” Some detective work revealed that the statement originated with mechanical engineering professor James Hone of Columbia University, who said in 2008, “Our research establishes graphene as the strongest material ever measured, some 200 times stronger than structural steel. It would take an elephant, balanced on a pencil, to break through a sheet of graphene the thickness of Saran Wrap.”The professor’s contention raises numerous questions, the first one being “What is graphene?” Microsoft Word doesn’t know--it keeps giving graphene the red squiggly underl... Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5398577 Mon, 07 Nov 2011 14:00:00 +0100 5398577 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5398578&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Frss.sciam.com%2Fclick.phdo%3Fi%3D63fc32cd5f0f05bf54a27995a274ae29 A pioneering research institute that introduced the computer world to the mouse , hypertext and networks is now setting its sights a bit lower. A team of engineers at SRI International , a nonprofit contract research and development lab in Menlo Park, Calif., has harnessed simple, magnetically levitated microbots to build structures and perform other sophisticated tasks at small size scales. [More] (Source: Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology) Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5398578 Fri, 21 Oct 2011 15:40:00 +0100 5398578 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5398579&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Frss.sciam.com%2Fclick.phdo%3Fi%3D2b44e6f790af3dfdd63fb082409c3a09 1 How Did Life Begin? The moment when the first living beings arose from inanimate matter almost four billion years ago is still shrouded in mystery. How did relatively simple molecules in the primordial broth give rise to more and more complex compounds? And how did some of those compounds begin to process energy and replicate (two of the defining characteristics of life)? At the molecular level, all of those steps are, of course, chemical reactions, which makes the question of how life began one of chemistry. [More] (Source: Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology) Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5398579 Mon, 10 Oct 2011 12:05:00 +0100 5398579 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5398580&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Frss.sciam.com%2Fclick.phdo%3Fi%3Dd4384bafbf99c2fbb3a86241338c0be0 The shortest distance between two points may be a straight line, but try telling that to electrons: when current flows down a wire, these particles zig and zag, moving indirectly from one end to the other. But now researchers have sped single electrons straight to their destinations using sound. The work is in the journal Nature. [Rob McNeil et al., " On-demand single-electron transfer between distant quantum dots "]An electron’s quantum state carries information, making it important for a viable quantum computer. As the particle staggers down a wire, however, its state loses coherence--the electron “forgets” the information it carried. [More] (Source: Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology) Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5398580 Tue, 27 Sep 2011 10:00:08 +0100 5398580 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5398581&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Frss.sciam.com%2Fclick.phdo%3Fi%3D70c15b8ab5d218963e648718f5500088 Asbestos increases the risk for certain cancers. The fibers are thought to do so by skewering cells, setting off chemical reactions that lead to inflammation, DNA damage and cell death. Some studies have suggested carbon nanotubes might have similar effects--because they're long and spiky, like asbestos. But why would a cell draw in a nanotube, essentially impaling itself on a microscopic lance? [More] (Source: Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology) Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5398581 Tue, 20 Sep 2011 18:55:08 +0100 5398581 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5398582&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Frss.sciam.com%2Fclick.phdo%3Fi%3D0cbdc6df5b49002b0a5792b2efdb93ba From Nature magazine. Hair-like filaments called pili enable some bacteria to remove uranium from contaminated groundwater. The discovery, published today in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , could aid in the development of radioactivity clean-up technologies. [More] (Source: Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology) Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5398582 Mon, 05 Sep 2011 23:10:00 +0100 5398582 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5398583&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Frss.sciam.com%2Fclick.phdo%3Fi%3D8d3e359adc12e75c3ff96aa9937c1482 The carbon molecule known as a buckyball, a member of the fullerene family, can act as a cage for a variety of other chemicals. And now researchers have used one to trap a single molecule of water. The work appears in the journal Science . [Kei Kurotobi and Yasujiro Murata, "A Single Molecule of Water Encapsulated in Fullerene C60 "]Placing a molecule that's essential to life within a spherically symmetrical one could let researchers learn more about each. [More] (Source: Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology) Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5398583 Thu, 04 Aug 2011 22:44:08 +0100 5398583 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5095872&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Frss.sciam.com%2Fclick.phdo%3Fi%3Dd62dfbae6ff5d59f95d9d316cd1613e8 Two decades after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, modernization is the watchword in Russia--with science as a vital means to that end.* During the spring meeting of the 14 international editions of Scientific American , we gathered in Moscow, and our hosts introduced us to many of the surrounding issues. Scientific American has had a long history in this country, where it has been available in translation for 28 years. The edition’s head, Sergei Kapitza, is a beloved researcher, science popularizer and TV personality--the Carl Sagan of Russia. When the Soviet system unraveled, however, science took a backseat to other domestic matters. Researchers lost funding and social status, crippling the former science powerhouse. Up to 35,000 scientists emigrated--a loss that the governme... Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5095872 Tue, 19 Jul 2011 15:15:00 +0100 5095872 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4975686&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Frss.sciam.com%2Fclick.phdo%3Fi%3D7771c5b6c36170779ddc359d69c9439f LINDAU, Germany--Microsoft founder Bill Gates thrilled a crowd of 566 young researchers from 77 countries gathered here June 26 for opening ceremony of the 61st Meeting of Nobel Laureates, and he wasted no time in telling them what to do. [More] (Source: Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology) Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4975686 Mon, 27 Jun 2011 00:10:00 +0100 4975686 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4975687&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Frss.sciam.com%2Fclick.phdo%3Fi%3D8f574c225c2d2277d9a4d00dc34bbbd4 The panel on global health at the opening ceremony of the 61st Meeting of Nobel Laureates in Lindau well and truly laid the gauntlet down to young researchers from around the world. On the panel was: Bill Gates, chairman of Microsoft and co-founder of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; Ada Yonath, Noble Laureate in Chemistry 2009 for her groundbreaking crystallography work revealing the structure and function of the ribosome; Sandra Chishimba , a malaria researcher from Zambia; and Jonathan Carlson, a researcher into HIV/AIDS at Microsoft Research.Bill Gates said that we must pay more attention to the 'silent voices' in poor countries, who don't have their medical needs met by funding from their governments or companies. It sounds unbelievable, but he told us that 10 times more researc... Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4975687 Sun, 26 Jun 2011 23:00:00 +0100 4975687 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4975688&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Frss.sciam.com%2Fclick.phdo%3Fi%3Da6d703e78d777cc63c8f5b54eb17f53c I don’t believe you can put a price on inspiration. It is invaluable for the hundreds of medical and physiology researchers from around the world that are swooping into town for the 61st Lindau meetings in Germany. How can being surrounded by 23 Nobel Laureates not be inspiring? And, I expect that the stimulus goes both ways - a panel of up-and-coming scientists that will be quizzed by the Nobel Laureates in a turn of the tables.But, although encouragement and awe is difficult to measure, it is a truism that the combination of different scientific fields can create new breakthroughs and new technologies, or even birth whole new fields. This phenomenon is called cross-pollination. An apt metaphor, because in the vast majority of cases, the seed from cross-pollinated plants are ‘... Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4975688 Fri, 24 Jun 2011 16:25:00 +0100 4975688 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4933872&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Frss.sciam.com%2Fclick.phdo%3Fi%3De858666038da512b498cffebd9724c37 Quantum mechanics is one of the most successful theories in all of science; at the same time, it's one of the most challenging to comprehend and one about which a great deal of nonsense has been written. However, a paper from Science, titled " Observing the Average Trajectories of Single Photons in a Two-Slit Interferometer ", holds out hope that we might be able to get closer to understanding how nature works on the smallest scales. The authors – Sacha Kocsis, Boris Braverman, Sylvain Ravets, Martin J. Stevens, Richard P. Mirin, L. Krister Shalm, and Aephraim M. Steinberg – have measured both the trajectory and the interference pattern from photons, a difficult feat to say the least, and one with interesting implications. (Scientific American also has a brief article... Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4933872 Tue, 07 Jun 2011 19:17:00 +0100 4933872 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4902268&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Frss.sciam.com%2Fclick.phdo%3Fi%3D5da5e74080cb4c9c942959c6550d70ca MOSCOW, RUSSIA. “As has often happened in Russia, we have had the priority in scientific invention, but completely lose the market,” Anatoly Chubais, chief executive of the Russian Corporation of Nanotechnologies, Rusnano[www.rusnano.com], told members of the Scientific American international editions during a visit today. The state-owned venture-capital company aims to change that, intending to grow Russian-made nanotechnology products , now just 2 percent of the international market, into large-scale domestic industry by 2015 .He added that Russia intends to move from a “minor league” player in global nanotechnology efforts into the “major league” with a total of $30 billion per year in annual sales in five years. [More] (Source: Scientific American T... Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4902268 Mon, 30 May 2011 16:17:00 +0100 4902268 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4871958&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Frss.sciam.com%2Fclick.phdo%3Fi%3De98c4a482ff9591ec6f60fd62e0f7471 The search for ways to prevent or treat Alzheimer's disease has been stymied in part by difficulties in reliably delivering therapeutics into the brain to prevent proteins there from depositing fibrous plaques that damage synapses and ultimately wreck one's cognitive abilities. Researchers have experimented with antibodies, peptides and even nanoparticles to find some way of effectively preventing plaque formation but these efforts have yet to yield an anti-Alzheimer's drug. [More] (Source: Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology) Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4871958 Wed, 25 May 2011 19:00:00 +0100 4871958 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4871959&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Frss.sciam.com%2Fclick.phdo%3Fi%3D4d19f80e88a6b982c9ad3c8ecbe65ad3 Nanoparticles have been investigated in recent years as tools for defending the brain against neurotoxic proteins that may contribute to the onset of several different neurodegenerative disorders including Alzheimer's disease . Such proteins, in particular amyloid-beta peptides, are thought to play a role depositing fibrous plaques on the brain that damage synapses (the contact points between neurons) and lead to a decline in cognitive capabilities . [More] (Source: Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology) Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4871959 Fri, 20 May 2011 11:00:00 +0100 4871959 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4871960&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Frss.sciam.com%2Fclick.phdo%3Fi%3D86257e410d90147cba95c2d85b7fd762 » Giant page of links to all sorts of quantum experiments [More] (Source: Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology) Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4871960 Wed, 18 May 2011 12:30:00 +0100 4871960 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=5345175&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Frss.sciam.com%2Fclick.phdo%3Fi%3D1f3d3e23f574865fba64085de05028b7 Many people are working to harness renewable energy sources more effectively and to enhance energy efficiency. All good. Most of the efforts will probably result in welcomed but incremental improvements, however. Radical innovations are needed to drastically change the energy game.For years scientists and engineers have touted some fantastic schemes: satellites that beam solar power to receivers on land; wind machines that hover in the atmosphere, generating electricity. Down on earth, however, researchers have recently received substantial government or private funding for a remarkable variety of long-shot technologies in a few key areas. The projects we profile here are leading examples of the payoffs that are possible--if, of course, the inventors manage to overcome daunting hurdles to ... Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=5345175 Mon, 16 May 2011 11:02:00 +0100 5345175 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4841288&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Frss.sciam.com%2Fclick.phdo%3Fi%3D1f3d3e23f574865fba64085de05028b7 Many people are working to harness renewable energy sources more effectively and to enhance energy efficiency. All good. Most of the efforts will probably result in welcomed but incremental improvements, however. Radical innovations are needed to drastically change the energy game.For years scientists and engineers have touted some fantastic schemes: satellites that beam solar power to receivers on land; wind machines that hover in the atmosphere, generating electricity. Down on earth, however, researchers have recently received substantial government or private funding for a remarkable variety of long-shot technologies in a few key areas. The projects we profile here are leading examples of the payoffs that are possible--if, of course, the inventors manage to overcome daunting hurdles to ... Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4841288 Mon, 16 May 2011 11:02:00 +0100 4841288 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4753572&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Frss.sciam.com%2Fclick.phdo%3Fi%3D2d0c1f495d22ecb49fe457c8a76ed588 Following the motions of a specific molecule inside a cell is no easy task In "Too Hard for Science?" I interview scientists about ideas they would love to explore that they don't think could be investigated. For instance, they might involve machines beyond the realm of possibility, such as particle accelerators as big as the sun, or they might be completely unethical, such as lethal experiments involving people. This feature aims to look at the impossible dreams, the seemingly intractable problems in science. However, the question mark at the end of "Too Hard for Science?" suggests that nothing might be impossible. [More] (Source: Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology) Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4753572 Thu, 14 Apr 2011 22:16:00 +0100 4753572 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4684131&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Frss.sciam.com%2Fclick.phdo%3Fi%3D1b86b9c5b91444fcbd71581cb28e1c71 Antibiotics have proved to be a valuable weapon in the fight against infection, but their popularity has also become their undoing. Although the drugs cripple harmful microbes from within, bacteria that survive such sabotage tend to develop resistance that makes them even more dangerous . To counter this, a team of researchers led by IBM Research–Almaden in San Jose, Calif., and Singapore's Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology are developing a technique that enlists polymer-based nanoparticles to supplement antibiotics by destroying bacteria protective membranes, ensuring that their morphing days are through. Just as important, upon completing their mission these nanoassassins would biodegrade harmlessly within the body. [More] (Source: Scientific American Topic - Nanotech... Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4684131 Mon, 04 Apr 2011 20:00:00 +0100 4684131 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4653180&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Frss.sciam.com%2Fclick.phdo%3Fi%3D11289122d8ec9b9168a0ec6ac249f382 Airplane manufacturers have been changing over from aluminum to advanced composite materials. These lighter, stronger composites are made of fibers of carbon or glass embedded in a second material, often plastic.One advantage is that composite-based planes use significantly less fuel. But there’s an important disadvantage. When aluminum is hit, you can see a dent. Composites, though, spring back to the original shape, which could hide internal damage. [More] (Source: Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology) Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4653180 Mon, 28 Mar 2011 16:32:08 +0100 4653180 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4600437&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Frss.sciam.com%2Fclick.phdo%3Fi%3Dc179d7de232d2bd71e97b8929e488237 NATIONAL HARBOR, Md.--Silicon translates sunshine into electricity--and Earth receives enough sunshine in a daylight hour to supply all of humanity's energy needs for a year. But despite being as common as sand, photovoltaic panels made from silicon--or any of a host of other semiconducting materials --are not cheap, especially when compared with the cost of electricity produced by burning coal or natural gas. The U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) aims to change that by bringing down the cost of solar electricity via a new program dubbed " SunShot ," an homage to President John Kennedy's "moon shot" pledge in 1961. [More] (Source: Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology) Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4600437 Mon, 14 Mar 2011 14:01:00 +0100 4600437 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4489537&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Frss.sciam.com%2Fclick.phdo%3Fi%3D003465b713ece79152be649f3c70bd3b Against a swirling montage of cosmic birth and destruction, and newsreel-style stills from his personal history, the celebrated inventor and futurist Ray Kurzweil sits in silhouette, contemplating death. He broods over mortality's toll in waste and pain, and the hopelessness and loss that people must experience in their last moments of life. "It's such a profoundly sad, lonely feeling that I really can't bear it," he admits.Then, cheerfully, he adds, "So I go back to thinking about how I'm not going to die." [More] (Source: Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology) Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4489537 Tue, 15 Feb 2011 11:00:00 +0100 4489537 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4482675&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Frss.sciam.com%2Fclick.phdo%3Fi%3D823cbb336bac92e9af74746718cd2f5a If it stinks, it's chemistry--that's one memory trick some smart-aleck high-school students might recommend to identify the core sciences. But chemistry goes far beyond noxious fumes. It serves as the backbone of our modern society and is essential for a sustainable future and an improved standard of living for all. [More] (Source: Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology) Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4482675 Mon, 14 Feb 2011 21:45:00 +0100 4482675 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4477543&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Frss.sciam.com%2Fclick.phdo%3Fi%3Dbf63b26f74b52bd0ad7408f216e95d3a In the race to build ever-smaller microchips, researchers have tinkered for more than a dozen years with an end-run technique that would shrink things to previously unrealizable scales. Rather than etching away semiconductors with photolithography to create circuits and processors--a top-down process that is limited by the light wavelength used--bottom-up fabrication could yield even smaller processors by stringing together nanoscale building blocks into functional devices. [More] (Source: Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology) Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4477543 Wed, 09 Feb 2011 23:10:00 +0100 4477543 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4252998&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Frss.sciam.com%2Fclick.phdo%3Fi%3Ddf9d373a4229802028b2dfeae19afab8 Two years ago deceased Star Trek actor James “Scotty” Doohan was granted one last adventure, courtesy of Space Exploration Technologies Corporation. SpaceX, a privately funded company based in Hawthorne, Calif., had been formed in 2002 with the mission of going where no start-up had gone before: Earth orbit. In August 2008 SpaceX loaded Doohan’s cremated remains onto the third test flight of its Falcon 1, a liquid oxygen- and kerosene-fueled rocket bound for orbit. Yet about two minutes into the flight Doohan’s final voyage ended prematurely when the rocket’s first stage crashed into the second stage during separation. It was SpaceX’s third failure in three attempts.Well, what did you expect? sneered old NASA hands, aerospace executives and the many othe... Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4252998 Wed, 08 Dec 2010 13:00:00 +0100 4252998 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4183205&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Frss.sciam.com%2Fclick.phdo%3Fi%3Da637b1f61215be3c508657f6f3d68810 Technology is all around us, expanding the limits of what is possible. but every once in a while, some invention or insight has an outsize effect; it creates a large dis­continuity, dividing history into “before” and “after.” The steam engine, the transistor, the World Wide Web--each of these ideas seemed to emerge from nowhere to change our world in fundamental ways. Which key technology will arise fromtoday’s vast cauldron of innovation to become tomorrow’s world changing idea? It’s impossible to know, of course, but we know it will come.Here are 10 candidates--10 new ideas and technologies that could rewrite the rules. What if we could build robots that turn waste into fuel? Or harness the power of video games (yes, video games) to make ours... Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4183205 Thu, 18 Nov 2010 13:00:00 +0100 4183205 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4162874&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Frss.sciam.com%2Fclick.phdo%3Fi%3D0bca91560cf66144580cc5cd185b1357 One morning a few years back Roman Stocker was watching his cat, Cutta Cutta, drink, and began to wonder about the mechanism by which cats lap fluid into their mouths. [More] (Source: Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology) Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4162874 Thu, 11 Nov 2010 19:01:00 +0100 4162874 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4105546&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Frss.sciam.com%2Fclick.phdo%3Fi%3Dca363be5cca8b2b63049219d9c8c218d It's common knowledge that the U.S. no longer produces enough scientists and engineers to keep pace with the rest of the world. Now, the organizers of the USA Science & Engineering Festival are doing something about it, with a two-week, nationwide extravaganza for left-brain-leaning young people that culminates this weekend in Washington, D.C. A grand finale expo will feature hands-on exhibits, science-inspired songs and educational workshops. Scientific American is a media sponsor of the event. [More] (Source: Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology) Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4105546 Thu, 21 Oct 2010 22:30:00 +0100 4105546 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4097759&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Frss.sciam.com%2Fclick.phdo%3Fi%3D9d3bd8ca97ad4b9d88e976fcecbfb174 Ask a random person on the street to name his or her five favorite scientists, chances are you would hear a litany of familiar names--perhaps Marie Curie, Albert Einstein or Louis Pasteur--all of them instrumental in casting the world in which we live. Much less likely would be a recital of contemporary researchers hard at work shaping the work in which we will live. [More] (Source: Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology) Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4097759 Thu, 21 Oct 2010 21:50:00 +0100 4097759 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4549691&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Frss.sciam.com%2Fclick.phdo%3Fi%3Db361bc740267adc3e4582ea1a35827fe Molecular geneticist Sat Bhattacharya talks about his creation, the Harlem Children Society, which gets underprivileged kids involved in scientific research. And 13-year-olds Mitchell Haverty and Angus Fung talk about their research on algae as alternative fuel. Plus, we test your knowledge about some recent science in the news. Web sites related to this episode include www.harlemchildrensociety.org Podcast Transcription [More] (Source: Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology) Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4549691 Fri, 15 Oct 2010 18:52:08 +0100 4549691 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4060480&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Frss.sciam.com%2Fclick.phdo%3Fi%3D25176248fe984750b90d21f8f5d100b8 For years researchers have held out hope that graphene would be the material to pick up the mantle in the electronics industry when silicon hits its limits as the material of choice for making devices smaller, faster and cheaper. Yet, turning graphene's promise into a reality has been difficult to say the least, in part because of the inherent difficulty of working with a substance one atom thick. [More] (Source: Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology) Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4060480 Thu, 07 Oct 2010 22:35:00 +0100 4060480 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=4013018&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Frss.sciam.com%2Fclick.phdo%3Fi%3D78c036441530111b3f691714ffb266bb Scientists have had a rough year. The leaked “Climategate” e-mails painted researchers as censorious. The mild H1N1 flu out­break led to charges that health officials exaggerated the danger to help Big Pharma sell more drugs. And Harvard University in­vestigators found shocking holes in a star professor’s data. As policy decisions on climate, energy, health and technology loom large, it’s important to ask: How badly have recent events shaken people’s faith in science? Does the public still trust scientists?To find out, Scientific American partnered with our sister publication, Nature , the international journal of science, to poll readers online. More than 21,000 people responded via the Web sites of Nature and of Scientific American and its internatio... Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=4013018 Wed, 22 Sep 2010 18:00:00 +0100 4013018 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3972798&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Frss.sciam.com%2Fclick.phdo%3Fi%3D347003570da24208521fb8cc5153c098 Processor chips are the brains of today's consumer digital devices, but memory is actually at their heart , with flash memory being the favored approach for cards that plug into mobile phones, cameras and PCs. Whereas hard drives store large amounts of long-term data, RAM--also called "solid state" memory--retains information outside the hard drive, where it can be accessed quickly and repeatedly. Flash memory , the cheapest RAM variety at only about $1.50 per gigabyte (after that is dynamic RAM , or DRAM, more than a dozen times more expensive), does not require much power and can retain data after a device is powered down, key to gadget-makers ability to turn out smaller, more powerful devices. [More] Presented By: HBO: Real Time with Bill Maher Real Time With ... Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3972798 Tue, 14 Sep 2010 16:30:00 +0100 3972798 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3920700&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Frss.sciam.com%2Fclick.phdo%3Fi%3D8f3a218c696f03af80b571fc183d1cb5 Transhumanists!  Singularitarians! Listen up! You who harbor a fervent faith in science’s imminent transformation of our frail, fleshy selves. The conquest of all our physical and mental ailments, cancer, Alzheimer’s, schizophrenia, depression, senescence--death itself. You who exult over every “breakthrough” in nanotech, biotech, neuro-prostheses, artificial intelligence bearing you closer to eternal life. [More] Schizophrenia - Artificial intelligence - Major depressive disorder - Cancer - Singularitarianism (Source: Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology) Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3920700 Mon, 30 Aug 2010 14:30:00 +0100 3920700 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3920701&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Frss.sciam.com%2Fclick.phdo%3Fi%3D5770d0a7cfbe41a0c0ec2843e17bef22 It looks like a solar-powered treadmill, but researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.) say they have created a flat, conveyor belt–like device that could clean up oil slicks far more efficiently than anything used at the Deepwater Horizon site. They key is a nanoparticle-infused, water-repelling mesh coating a conveyor belt. As important is the device's ability to work autonomously as part of a larger team of devices, which M.I.T. calls a Seaswarm . [More] Massachusetts Institute of Technology - Oil spill - Conveyor belt - Oil - Seaswarm (Source: Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology) Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3920701 Fri, 27 Aug 2010 15:00:00 +0100 3920701 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3895760&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Frss.sciam.com%2Fclick.phdo%3Fi%3D1be5ddc9592c6eaa9672714dad4b6f7c The best places to collect solar energy are also some of the dustiest on Earth and beyond, a quandary that leads to inefficiencies in how well the cells are able to convert strong sunlight into renewable electricity. The solution, according to new research, is to coat solar cells with material that enables them to chase away dirt particles on their own with the help of dust-repelling electrical charges. [More] Middle East - Electricity - Solar power - Arizona - Mars (Source: Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology) Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3895760 Sun, 22 Aug 2010 16:30:00 +0100 3895760 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3889010&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Frss.sciam.com%2Fclick.phdo%3Fi%3Dc7f0bfe288eba62c5be3d3221a17ab7e Nearly a decade after the U.S. launched its National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI) , the program's $12 billion in funding has helped place the country at the head of the pack regarding the development of science and technology measured in billionths of meters . Yet, despite the U.S.'s unrivaled adeptness at patenting nanotech inventions, the country's lackluster track record of bringing nano-scale technology products to market leaves the door open for China, Russia and other tech-savvy countries to challenge U.S. nanotech supremacy, according to a new report by Boston's Lux Research . [More] Nanotechnology - Technology - China - Lux Research - United States (Source: Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology) Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3889010 Wed, 18 Aug 2010 21:21:00 +0100 3889010 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3876541&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Frss.sciam.com%2Fclick.phdo%3Fi%3D4020b3a64b77ba9c71e77d89e1d64236 The human eye is limited in its vision. We cannot see objects much thinner than a human hair (a fraction of a millimeter) or resolve motions quicker than a blink (a tenth of a second). Advances in optics and microscopy over the past millennium have, of course, let us peer far beyond the limits of the naked eye, to view exquisite images such as a micrograph of a virus or a stroboscopic photograph of a bullet at the millisecond it punched through a lightbulb. But if we were shown a movie depicting atoms jiggling around, until recently we could be reasonably sure we were looking at a cartoon, an artist’s impression or a simulation of some sort.In the past 10 years my research group at the California Institute of Technology has developed a new form of imaging, unveiling motions that occu... Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3876541 Mon, 16 Aug 2010 14:00:00 +0100 3876541 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3854456&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Frss.sciam.com%2Fclick.phdo%3Fi%3D3846829e8c9f7ea38e8519b10643578a Silver nanoparticles, used for their potent antimicrobial properties in hospitals and consumer products, may negatively impact plant growth as they make their way into the environment, according to a new study. Whereas it may not spell the end of all flora as we know it, the findings suggest that the nanomaterial has environmental impacts worthy of further investigation.The antimicrobial properties of silver in its ionized form have been recognized for centuries. When it is nanosize--between one and 100 nanometers, which is smaller than many viruses (a nanometer is one billionth of a meter)--silver is even more effective at killing microbes. This antimicrobial potency has prompted manufacturers to include silver nanoparticles in a wide variety of consumer products, such as odor-resistant c... Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3854456 Mon, 09 Aug 2010 16:20:00 +0100 3854456 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3776279&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Frss.sciam.com%2Fclick.phdo%3Fi%3Dd1fd81bc6048fda1e1eeff4e8b07d677 The transistors at the heart of every computer, today numbering in the billions on a single chip, have generally been based on the concept John Bardeen, Walter Brattain and William Shockley first turned into a prototype at the Bell Labs in 1947. Physicists have now demonstrated a radically simpler transistor design, first patented by Austrian physicist Julius Edgar Lilienfeld in 1925 but never turned into a practical device until now. This simpler version could push computers to become faster and to consume less power.In every transistor, an electrode, called the gate, governs whether current can run along a semiconductor strip, thereby defining an on or off state essential to a computer’s binary function. Traditionally, the semiconductor strip is structured like a sandwich, with one... Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3776279 Tue, 20 Jul 2010 13:00:00 +0100 3776279 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3772139&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Frss.sciam.com%2Fclick.phdo%3Fi%3D514c02f69e8903d68fb38e845e590f2a The power to control living things and objects from a distance is a popular supernatural talent in science fiction and fantasy: Witches fling spells at foes and X-Men send chairs and tables flying with telekinesis, for example. But when it comes to remotely controlling biological organisms, science has a few tricks up its sleeve, too--although there's nothing metaphysical about them. Manipulating biological processes with minimal interference, from the cellular level to the behavior of whole organisms, is a burgeoning scientific effort to better understand how living things work and to develop more effective treatments for a range of medical disorders. [More] Science fiction - Organism - Shopping - University at Buffalo The State University of New York - Physics (Source:... Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3772139 Mon, 19 Jul 2010 15:00:00 +0100 3772139 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3706569&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Frss.sciam.com%2Fclick.phdo%3Fi%3D44ec01f1f36cc082e4b2afb38e6f2e8d Three-dimensional movies are everywhere these days, and the novelty is poised to become a big-screen mainstay. Now the field of microscopy is getting into the act, too, but the end product is very different from 3-D movies such as Toy Story 3 or Avatar . [More] Toy Story - Film - Animation - Avatar - Toy Story 3 (Source: Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology) Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3706569 Fri, 25 Jun 2010 15:01:00 +0100 3706569 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3695484&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Frss.sciam.com%2Fclick.phdo%3Fi%3D7b75597856ff1c143f944d7e5dd8daf1 The New York Times Sunday business section recently ran an enormous puff piece on Ray Kurzweil and the "Singularity" cult (my term, not the Times 's). Kurzweil is a successful inventor–entrepreneur best known lately for his sci-tech prophecies. He claims that advances in AI, nanotech, biotech, computer science and neuroscience are bearing us toward a radical transformation of our minds and bodies called the Singularity--aka "rapture of the geeks". [More] Raymond Kurzweil - New York Times - Singularity Is Near - Artificial intelligence - Ray Kurzweil (Source: Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology) Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3695484 Wed, 23 Jun 2010 12:00:00 +0100 3695484 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3686989&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Frss.sciam.com%2Fclick.phdo%3Fi%3D0ca64e18f6e867edc20ec50aad414e9e Energy can neither be created nor destroyed. This principle, called conservation of energy, is one of our most cherished laws of physics. It governs every part of our lives: the heat it takes to warm up a cup of coffee; the chemical reactions that produce oxygen in the leaves of trees; the orbit of Earth around the sun; the food we need to keep our hearts beating. We cannot live without eating, cars do not run without fuel, and perpetual-motion machines are just a mirage. So when an experiment seems to violate the law of energy conservation, we are rightfully suspicious. What happens when our observations seem to contradict one of science’s most deeply held notions: that energy is always conserved?Skip for a moment outside our Earthly sphere and consider the wider universe. Almost al... Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3686989 Mon, 21 Jun 2010 16:30:00 +0100 3686989 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3683478&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Frss.sciam.com%2Fclick.phdo%3Fi%3Deef8cb9825bca8c8424ba87af889a660 Photovoltaic cells remain woefully inefficient at converting sunlight into electricity . Although layered cells composed of various elements can convert more than 40 percent of (lens-concentrated) sunlight into electricity, more simple semiconducting materials such as silicon hover around 20 percent when mass-produced. And, at best, such cells could convert only a third of incoming sunlight due to physical limits. [More] Solar cell - Energy - Quantum dot - Solar - Renewable (Source: Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology) Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3683478 Fri, 18 Jun 2010 19:01:00 +0100 3683478 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3648384&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Frss.sciam.com%2Fclick.phdo%3Fi%3Dd52af97ca1ba0ebf17ef3cbb8800f585 Counterfeiters and money minters constantly try to outsmart each other. But money could become much harder to forge--thanks to butterfly wings.Butterflies that flit through tropical forests often have brightly colored wings that irridesce in the sun. But it’s not pigments that create those eye-catching shades. It’s microscopic structures on the insects’ wings that reflect the light. [More] Insect - Butterfly - Butterflies - Recreation - Shopping (Source: Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology) Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3648384 Mon, 07 Jun 2010 13:24:08 +0100 3648384 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3648385&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Frss.sciam.com%2Fclick.phdo%3Fi%3Ddd27020e1b1e6759cc3d08022ee3e5b9 One thing that's both disconcerting and exhilarating about physics is how many seemingly simple questions remain unanswered. When you hear the questions that physicists struggle with, you sometimes say to yourself, Wait, you mean they don't even know that? Physics might be defined as the subject that tries to figure out why the world may look incomprehensibly complex at first, but on closer examination is governed by simple laws. Those laws, applied repeatedly, build up the complexity. From this definition, you'd presume that physicists have at least sorted out what they mean by "law".Sorry. [More] Physics - Physical law - Education - Law - Tutorials (Source: Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology) Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3648385 Fri, 04 Jun 2010 23:10:00 +0100 3648385 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3648386&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Frss.sciam.com%2Fclick.phdo%3Fi%3Db7f0547d4b4782145711a2e7bfd5ebba Eight scientists will share three million-dollar Kavli Prizes for their contributions in the fields of astrophysics, nanoscience and neuroscience. The announcement was made today in Oslo, Norway, by Nils Christian Stenseth , president of the Nor­wegian Academy of Science and Letters, and broadcast live at the opening of the World Science Festival in New York City. The laureates will each receive a scroll, a gold medal and a share of the $1 million prize for each of the three fields. Jerry Nelson from the University of California, Santa Cruz, Ray Wilson formerly of Imperial College London in the U.K., and Roger Angel from the University of Arizona will share the astrophysics prize for their innovations in giant tele­scope design. Donald Eigler from IBM’s Almaden Research ... Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3648386 Thu, 03 Jun 2010 20:19:00 +0100 3648386 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3617758&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Frss.sciam.com%2Fclick.phdo%3Fi%3D4a33bdcad15186a2f02b79821fda123f Back in the days when better living through chemistry was a promise, not a bitter irony, nylon stockings replaced silk, refrigerators edged out iceboxes, and Americans became increasingly dependent on man-made materials. Today nearly everything we touch--clothing, furniture, carpeting, cabinets, lightbulbs, paper, toothpaste, baby teethers, iPhones , you name it--is synthetic. The harmful side effects of industrialization--smoggy air, Superfund sites, mercury-tainted fish, and on and on--have often seemed a necessary trade-off. [More] Chemistry - United States - Green chemistry - Education - Journal (Source: Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology) Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3617758 Fri, 28 May 2010 17:45:00 +0100 3617758 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3577279&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Frss.sciam.com%2Fclick.phdo%3Fi%3D4bdfff00eec874988e689ab996d6fd5a Researchers have devised a way to fabricate tiny electrodes from glass, harnessing a phenomenon by which nanoscale glass walls can be transformed from insulators to conductors and back again. At larger scales, that phenomenon, known as " dielectric breakdown ," leads to excess heating and structural damage, but at the nanoscale the process appears to be harmless and reversible. [More] (Source: Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology) Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3577279 Sun, 16 May 2010 18:01:00 +0100 3577279 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3549241&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Frss.sciam.com%2Fclick.phdo%3Fi%3D03c0b0aa23e550ac7ad52cb783953544 Life, the Multiverse and Everything In “ Looking for Life in the Multiverse ,” Alejandro Jenkins and Gilad Perez say that life would be possible in a universe without the weak nuclear force. But they fail to note that the weak force is unique in treating matter and antimatter asymmetrically. Only because of this asymmetry did matter slightly outweigh antimatter before nearly all antimatter annihilated with an equal amount of matter, within the first seconds after the big bang. Everything we see--including stars, which are essential to life--is composed of that slight excess of matter. A universe without the asymmetric weak force would have virtually no normal matter and hence no life in any form we might recognize. [More] Big Bang - Antimatter - Matter - Weak... Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3549241 Fri, 07 May 2010 13:00:00 +0100 3549241 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3475707&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Frss.sciam.com%2Fclick.phdo%3Fi%3Db44e6d90d76c0c28c7a0cd11210f26c9 One main goal in the renewable energy field is to find an efficient, inexpensive way to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. The hydrogen could then be used as a fuel source for vehicles or fuel cells. Typically, an electric current breaks the water down. Now, there’s a new water-splitter: a virus. M.I.T.’s Angela Belcher took her cue from plants, where special pigments capture solar energy in photosynthesis, involving the splitting of water. [More] (Source: Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology) Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3475707 Wed, 14 Apr 2010 15:05:08 +0100 3475707 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3440688&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Frss.sciam.com%2Fclick.phdo%3Fi%3D1facbbdf31c57b364616fc9fdb19a5eb Dear EarthTalk: What is the potential for carbon “nanotubes” in battery technology? I heard them referred to as the biggest battery breakthrough to come along in years. And what else can we expect to see in terms of new battery technology in coming years? --R. M. Koncan, via e-mail [More] (Source: Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology) Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3440688 Thu, 01 Apr 2010 18:00:00 +0100 3440688 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3420319&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Frss.sciam.com%2Fclick.phdo%3Fi%3D678c00a04933b653e91bacbda243c503 Advances in science and technology can launch from unassuming springboards. In 1609 Galileo tweaked a toylike spyglass , pointed it at the moon and Jupiter (not the neighbors), and astronomy took a quantum leap. About 150 years later, Benjamin Franklin reportedly used a kite to experiment with one of the earliest-known electrical capacitors. Continuing that tradition, these researchers prove toys inspire more than child's play. [More] (Source: Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology) Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3420319 Wed, 24 Mar 2010 15:00:00 +0100 3420319 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3420320&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Frss.sciam.com%2Fclick.phdo%3Fi%3Dcd658ee731c6d6931750dc9840fc18ee Semiconductor crystals known as quantum dots have long held the promise of improving solar cells, lasers and lighting fixtures, but the reality is that integrating these fluorescent nanoparticles into existing technologies has proved difficult. One Silicon Valley start-up now aims to change this by the end of next year using quantum dots to vastly improve the picture-taking quality of cell phone cameras. [More] (Source: Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology) Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3420320 Mon, 22 Mar 2010 21:10:00 +0100 3420320 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3331181&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Frss.sciam.com%2Fclick.phdo%3Fi%3D49743b2fe420f4b89ff35867d09259b6 Superconductivity is one of those nearly magical properties that seem to defy all intuition for how the physical world ought to work. In a superconductor, electric currents flow without resistance --an electron passes unimpeded through the material like a torpedo through some frictionless ocean. After discovering the phenomenon in 1911 Dutch physicist Heike Kamerlingh Onnes showed that an electric current in a closed superconducting loop of mercury would keep flowing long after the driving potential was removed; he demonstrated his discovery by carrying such a persistent current from the Netherlands to England. [More] (Source: Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology) Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3331181 Wed, 03 Mar 2010 20:48:00 +0100 3331181 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3283435&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Frss.sciam.com%2Fclick.phdo%3Fi%3Daf8bfb226b405a94313f14fb004c3448 I have seen the future, and it is now.Those words came to mind again as I recently listened to Craig Venter, one of those leading the new areas of synthetic genomics and synthetic biology. Every time I hear a talk on this subject, it seems a new threshold in the artificial manipulation and, ultimately, creation of life has been passed. [More] (Source: Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology) Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3283435 Tue, 16 Feb 2010 13:00:00 +0100 3283435 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3153282&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Frss.sciam.com%2Fclick.phdo%3Fi%3Df37c4a2fcfad6b679267dec41f54b400  In 1975 electronics pioneer Gordon Moore famously predicted that the complexity of integrated-circuit chips would double every two years. Manufacturing advances would allow the chip’s transistors to shrink and shrink, so electrical signals would have to travel less distance to process information. To the electronics industry and to consumers, Moore’s Law, as it became known, meant computerized devices would relentlessly become smaller, faster and cheaper. Thanks to ceaseless innovation in semiconductor design and fabrication, chips have followed remarkably close to that trajectory for 35 years.Engineers knew, however, they would hit a wall at some point. Transistors would become only tens of atoms thick. At that scale, basic laws of physics would impose limits. Even befor... Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3153282 Wed, 06 Jan 2010 13:00:00 +0100 3153282 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3153283&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Frss.sciam.com%2Fclick.phdo%3Fi%3D4eef6838f0e3c46966dc2e712fc988c0 A decade ago the great worry about nanotechnology was that it could quite literally destroy the planet. As Sun Microsystems co-founder Bill Joy warned in his essay “Why the Future Doesn’t Need Us,” self-assembling nanobots could potentially spread out of our control (Mis-)programmed to replicate ad infinitum, these subsentient bots would spread across the landscape as a gray goo of devastation, consuming the earth and every unlucky creature who called it home.Nowadays we can only wish that our planet-dooming scenarios were so far-fetched. Our existential worries revolve around the all too immediate problems of global warming and disease, and nanotechnology--incorporated into improved solar panels, wind turbines or drug delivery mechanisms--could, if anything, emerge as an... Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3153283 Wed, 23 Dec 2009 13:00:00 +0100 3153283 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3153284&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Frss.sciam.com%2Fclick.phdo%3Fi%3D3dac6401f5107cfad0f51724c5e8c0a5 Lockheed Martin Corp. is joining forces with a new trade association to promote the commercialization of innovative clean-energy technologies.The NanoAssociation for Natural Resources and Energy Security (NANRES), which launched yesterday, plans to work on developing and commercializing nano-projects that focus on alternative domestic energy sources, with the goal of strengthening the country's resource security. It has members in the defense, clean energy, nanotechnology , finance and environmental sectors. [More] (Source: Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology) Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3153284 Tue, 15 Dec 2009 21:10:00 +0100 3153284 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3071015&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Frss.sciam.com%2Fclick.phdo%3Fi%3D58720904d6392d24a0a2f46efe16773e (Source: Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology) Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3071015 Mon, 07 Dec 2009 23:00:00 +0100 3071015 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3026574&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Frss.sciam.com%2Fclick.phdo%3Fi%3Dc0089674ec0b3d99ee0ab1823532b354 Smaller than a virus and used in more than 200 consumer products, silver nanoparticles can kill and mutate fish embryos, new research shows.Tiny particles of silver –  potent anti-microbial agents that can kill bacteria on contact –  are becoming increasingly popular in consumer goods, including washing machines, refrigerators, clothing and toys. [More] (Source: Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology) Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3026574 Tue, 17 Nov 2009 15:44:00 +0100 3026574 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=3026575&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Frss.sciam.com%2Fclick.phdo%3Fi%3D91ddf6db90cd27fcfb852547b44914f4 A team of researchers has fabricated a micron-scale device that deforms significantly under the force of light, a technology that could form the basis for tiny light-actuated switches or filters in future optical devices. [More] (Source: Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology) Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=3026575 Sun, 15 Nov 2009 18:01:00 +0100 3026575 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2943681&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Frss.sciam.com%2Fclick.phdo%3Fi%3Dda96fe619782748fb6eaa6cf89b3087f Aerospace and aircraft companies as well as the military have been challenged to find ways of effectively shielding sensitive electronic equipment such as radar and radios from electromagnetic interference (EMI) without adding a lot of weight to aircraft and satellites (the more massive they are, the more fuel they need to stay in the air or achieve orbit, respectively). Whereas EMI can lead to headaches like erased data and loss of connectivity for casual computer and cell phone users, the problem is far more serious in aircraft, where interference can jam cockpit radio and radar signals, preventing pilots from sending and receiving crucial information. [More] (Source: Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology) Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2943681 Mon, 26 Oct 2009 21:10:00 +0100 2943681 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2894432&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Frss.sciam.com%2Fclick.phdo%3Fi%3D07ca3d2e3d3f2072dc7af89bc85c2919 Named for a Dutch physicist, the Casimir effect governs interactions of matter with the energy that is present in a vacuum. Success in harnessing this force could someday help researchers develop low-friction ballistics and even levitating objects that defy gravity. For now, the U.S. Defense Department's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has launched a two-year, $10-million project encouraging scientists to work on ways to manipulate this quirk of quantum electrodynamics. [More] (Source: Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology) Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2894432 Mon, 12 Oct 2009 14:00:00 +0100 2894432 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2851658&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Frss.sciam.com%2Fclick.phdo%3Fi%3D08eb6069c9bce704522bab73be99aeb5 Current cancer screening often requires painful procedures and weeks of waiting to obtain results. But what if doctors could read a biological sample with a small hand-held device and come back with an answer in less than an hour? [More] (Source: Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology) Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2851658 Mon, 28 Sep 2009 21:02:00 +0100 2851658 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2832048&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Frss.sciam.com%2Fclick.phdo%3Fi%3Dab33da07a32a4f85c2dd96c357ead1bc The symbol H+ is the code sign used by some futurists to denote an enhanced version of humanity. The plus version of the human race would deploy a mix of advanced technologies, including stem cells, robotics, cognition-enhancing drugs, and the like, to overcome basic mental and physical limitations.The notion of enhancing mental functions by gulping down a pill that improves attention, memory and planning--the very foundations of cognition--is no longer just a fantasy shared by futurists. The 1990s, proclaimed the decade of the brain by President George H. W. Bush, has been followed by what might be labeled “the decade of the better brain.” [More] (Source: Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology) Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2832048 Mon, 21 Sep 2009 13:00:00 +0100 2832048 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2846237&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Frss.sciam.com%2Fclick.phdo%3Fi%3Df6b5dcfc85f0b15a10ed7116884e41c3 Miners had canaries; physicists and medical technicians get radiation badges. But for those in other labs or factories with toxic chemicals, there has long been a need for practical sensors to warn workers when chemical concentrations get dangerous. [More] (Source: Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology) Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2846237 Mon, 14 Sep 2009 15:18:00 +0100 2846237 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2832050&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Frss.sciam.com%2Fclick.phdo%3Fi%3D4afb3d723bd0ef6b4d316d7424de660c [ The following is an exact transcript of this podcast. ]If scientists have their way, we may someday be tapping maples--not for pancake fixin’s, but for power. Because researchers from the University of Washington in Seattle have found there’s enough electricity flowing in trees to run an electronic circuit. [More] (Source: Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology) Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2832050 Mon, 14 Sep 2009 11:43:08 +0100 2832050 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2832051&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Frss.sciam.com%2Fclick.phdo%3Fi%3D40be99df5f0824d29ffef6f852002ac8 Our deep need to delve into how things began is the inspiration for a new academic initiative. Scientific American columnist ( Critical Mass , which begins with the September 2009 issue) and theoretical astrophysicist Lawrence M. Krauss, head of the Origins Initiative at Arizona State University, organized the first Origins Symposium, held in April 2009. The event drew 80 scientists from a variety of disciplines, many of them Nobel Prizewinners. We asked Krauss to describe the results of the symposium. You can also read Scientific American ’s reports about panels held during that event in stories about the origin of the universe and the origin of humankind . Check out the ASU Origins Symposium video archive of all the talks, too.--The Editors [More] (Source: Scientific American To... Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2832051 Tue, 18 Aug 2009 12:00:00 +0100 2832051 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2846238&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Frss.sciam.com%2Fclick.phdo%3Fi%3D9e9b1a30736c203fd7fc77cbeb828512 [More] (Source: Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology) Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2846238 Mon, 17 Aug 2009 22:30:00 +0100 2846238 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2709025&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Frss.sciam.com%2Fclick.phdo%3Fi%3D4082b5b9fb9fde1ac93761a4f8af076b [More] (Source: Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology) Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2709025 Mon, 17 Aug 2009 22:30:00 +0100 2709025 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2832052&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Frss.sciam.com%2Fclick.phdo%3Fi%3D2007a2d757c1a729ac599c6cdf6bdd3f Eye drops often provide quick relief to those suffering from minor eye problems such as redness, itching and dryness, but doctors have found that such dollops of medicine do not work very well for more serious conditions such as glaucoma, chronic dry-eye and corneal ulcers. Help may be on the way for those suffering from these or other ocular ailments in the form of a contact lens that sandwiches medicine between two layers of polymer film and administers large doses of medication at constant rates over extended periods. [More] (Source: Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology) Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2832052 Wed, 12 Aug 2009 20:30:00 +0100 2832052 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2688556&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Frss.sciam.com%2Fclick.phdo%3Fi%3D3f92e1e3fa0f1fd4c0ebf6eb5ec10697 The chemistry skills and know-how needed to extract pigment from a plant or insect and create a solid dye date back some 4,000 years to ancient Egypt, new research concludes. Previous analysis had only confirmed such techniques to about 1200 B.C. [More] (Source: Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology) Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2688556 Tue, 11 Aug 2009 00:00:00 +0100 2688556 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2681813&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Frss.sciam.com%2Fclick.phdo%3Fi%3D6088d11076dc3103a66ee24b22b6e0ba A fruit fly walked into a test tube, got coated in carbon black, and lost its ability to climb. Sound like the set up for some bad science-based joke? Nope, it's the premise of a preliminary safety test for carbon nanoparticles . [More] (Source: Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology) Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2681813 Fri, 07 Aug 2009 19:10:00 +0100 2681813 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2674175&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Frss.sciam.com%2Fclick.phdo%3Fi%3De8652a90f86aec37411cb7d7c3ee701f Natural Quasicrystals First cooked up in the lab in 1984, quasicrystals are unusual substances that lie somewhere between the crystalline and the amorphous. Specifically, they display ordered arrangements and symmetries but are not periodic--that is, they are not defined by a single unit cell (such as a cube) that repeats itself in three dimensions [see “Quasicrystals”; SciAm, August 1986]. [More] (Source: Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology) Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2674175 Thu, 06 Aug 2009 12:41:18 +0100 2674175 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2832053&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Frss.sciam.com%2Fclick.phdo%3Fi%3Da6659808e9711f24f57b35c41f9afe83 Earth's molten mantle is a potentially inexhaustible source of energy that could meet 10 percent of our nation's energy needs, but cost and safety concerns have hampered the growth of geothermal energy. Now, researchers have announced plans to test a more efficient way to tap into safer, low-temperature geothermal stores using nanotechnology. [More] (Source: Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology) Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2832053 Mon, 20 Jul 2009 20:40:00 +0100 2832053 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2509542&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Frss.sciam.com%2Fclick.phdo%3Fi%3D9ec9abf33033c2a250d29e35aec71921 Streams of falling water tend to clump into droplets as surface tension attracts globules of liquid in midair. Even though solid objects are presumed not to have surface tension, the same phenomenon has been observed with grains or sand or tiny beads. But so far, no one has been able to explain exactly what and how much force is at work drawing these objects together. [More] (Source: Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology) Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2509542 Wed, 24 Jun 2009 18:01:00 +0100 2509542 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2832054&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Frss.sciam.com%2Fclick.phdo%3Fi%3D592e9d9a929011677c6106edb01a835c Dear EarthTalk: What is "nanotechnology?" I’ve heard that nanoparticles are already in consumer products, yet we haven't really studied their potential health impacts. -- Dan Zeff, San Francisco, CA [More] (Source: Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology) Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2832054 Fri, 12 Jun 2009 18:00:00 +0100 2832054 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2709026&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Frss.sciam.com%2Fclick.phdo%3Fi%3D721cb294eb36602bb460923474e5f7f5 The world today is very different from that of just a decade ago, thanks to our ability to readily access enormous quantities of information. Tools that we take for granted--social networks, Internet search engines, online maps with point-to-point directions, and online libraries of songs, movies, books and photographs--were unavailable just a few years ago. We owe the arrival of this information age to the rapid development of remarkable technologies in high-speed communications, data processing and--perhaps most important of all but least appreciated--digital data storage.Each type of data storage has its Achilles’ heel, however, which is why computers use several types for different purposes. Most digital data today, such as the information that makes up the Internet, resides in v... Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2709026 Tue, 26 May 2009 13:00:00 +0100 2709026 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2437019&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Frss.sciam.com%2Fclick.phdo%3Fi%3D721cb294eb36602bb460923474e5f7f5 The world today is very different from that of just a decade ago, thanks to our ability to readily access enormous quantities of information. Tools that we take for granted--social networks, Internet search engines, online maps with point-to-point directions, and online libraries of songs, movies, books and photographs--were unavailable just a few years ago. We owe the arrival of this information age to the rapid development of remarkable technologies in high-speed communications, data processing and--perhaps most important of all but least appreciated--digital data storage.Each type of data storage has its Achilles’ heel, however, which is why computers use several types for different purposes. Most digital data today, such as the information that makes up the Internet, resides in v... Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2437019 Tue, 26 May 2009 13:00:00 +0100 2437019 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2832055&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Frss.sciam.com%2Fclick.phdo%3Fi%3D644fe6c3e590e10e5ad284ba24e4ea1e Podcast Transcription Steve: Welcome to Science Talk , the weekly podcast of Scientific American posted on May 19, 2009. I'm Steve Mirsky. This week we'll talk to high school scientists, who have done some really fascinating research with the added benefit that I could actually understand most of it. At the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science back in February, I ran into a few dozen high school students, who were presenting their research in a big poster session. The kids had won their state science competitions, sponsored by the American Junior Academy of Sciences. As I wandered through the posters, I wound up interviewing five of the winners whose research just grabbed me. We'll hear from Sruti Swaminathan, Maia ten Brink, Alyssa Bailey, Moyukh C... Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2832055 Tue, 19 May 2009 21:00:08 +0100 2832055 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2709027&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Frss.sciam.com%2Fclick.phdo%3Fi%3D3760f20752db964ae810cb6e07d8c6fc Imagine that we could make cars, aircraft and submarines as small as bacteria or molecules. Microscopic robotic surgeons, injected in the body, could locate and neutralize the causes of disease--for example, the plaque inside arteries or the protein deposits that may cause Alzheimer’s disease. And nanomachines--robots having features and components at the nanometer scale--could penetrate the steel beams of bridges or the wings of airplanes, fixing invisible cracks before they propagate and cause catastrophic failures.In recent years chemists have created an array of remarkable molecular-scale structures that could become parts of minute machines. James Tour and his co-workers at Rice University, for instance, have synthesized a molecular-scale car that features as wheels four buckyba... Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2709027 Wed, 06 May 2009 14:00:00 +0100 2709027 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2397847&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Frss.sciam.com%2Fclick.phdo%3Fi%3D3760f20752db964ae810cb6e07d8c6fc Imagine that we could make cars, aircraft and submarines as small as bacteria or molecules. Microscopic robotic surgeons, injected in the body, could locate and neutralize the causes of disease--for example, the plaque inside arteries or the protein deposits that may cause Alzheimer’s disease. And nanomachines--robots having features and components at the nanometer scale--could penetrate the steel beams of bridges or the wings of airplanes, fixing invisible cracks before they propagate and cause catastrophic failures.In recent years chemists have created an array of remarkable molecular-scale structures that could become parts of minute machines. James Tour and his co-workers at Rice University, for instance, have synthesized a molecular-scale car that features as wheels four buckyba... Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2397847 Wed, 06 May 2009 14:00:00 +0100 2397847 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2846239&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Frss.sciam.com%2Fclick.phdo%3Fi%3Daabd37d0da0df329cebb7d1c7f620eb1 Researchers have already demonstrated in the lab that the materials the body uses to make proteins can also successfully suppress several different types of viruses, including HIV and influenza A , by disrupting the formation of viral proteins . Less clear, however, was how to get these virus-busting molecules where they needed to be in the body in order to keep viruses from spreading. Now a team of Yale University researchers believe they have found an effective way of delivering these special, short-interfering RNA ( siRNA ) molecules to specific locations within the body's biological battlefield. [More] (Source: Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology) Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2846239 Mon, 04 May 2009 23:08:00 +0100 2846239 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2832056&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Frss.sciam.com%2Fclick.phdo%3Fi%3D897f90f11cf2b0faab9e874534cff2d9 When two of us (Langer and Vacanti) last wrote in this magazine 10 years ago about prospects for tissue engineering, the very idea that living flesh could be “constructed” by following engineering principles and combining nonliving materials with cells sounded fantastical to many. Yet the need for such transplantable human tissues to replace, restore or enhance organ function was, and remains, urgent. Today nearly 50 million people in the U.S. are alive because of various forms of artificial organ therapy, and one in every five people older than 65 in developed nations is very likely to benefit from organ replacement technology during the remainder of their lives.Current technologies for organ substitution, such as whole-organ transplants and kidney dialysis machines, have save... Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2832056 Mon, 04 May 2009 14:00:00 +0100 2832056 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2832057&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Frss.sciam.com%2Fclick.phdo%3Fi%3D9d011e224ef104991468627df207361b In his first major science address since taking office, President Obama promised today to increase U.S. public and private spending to historic highs for science research and development."I'm here today to set this goal: We will devote more than 3 percent of our GDP to research and development," Obama said during a speech at the National Academy of Sciences. [More] (Source: Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology) Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2832057 Mon, 27 Apr 2009 19:00:00 +0100 2832057 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2388335&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Frss.sciam.com%2Fclick.phdo%3Fi%3D7688b263f5432637d74753dd73f108b1 Editor’s Note: In mid-May, Scientific American will announce the winners of this year’s Scientific American 10. Every Monday we will profile a previous Scientific American 50 winner.Year in Scientific American 50: 2006 [More] (Source: Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology) Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2388335 Mon, 20 Apr 2009 12:00:00 +0100 2388335 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2846240&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Frss.sciam.com%2Fclick.phdo%3Fi%3D1c92b4ab76e3614c0420a64851148f78 John Maddox, who in two stints as Nature 's editor helped transform the influential journal, died yesterday in Abergavenny, Wales, at the age of 83. The cause of death was cumulative heart and lung problems following a broken hip, according to his daughter, Bronwen Maddox, a columnist for the Times of London. [More] (Source: Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology) Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2846240 Mon, 13 Apr 2009 21:00:00 +0100 2846240 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2832059&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Frss.sciam.com%2Fclick.phdo%3Fi%3D5e973ab8330531ff5c10bbedf03c5714 Nanotechnology 's image is sleek, modern and clean. But that's not its reality. [More] (Source: Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology) Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2832059 Mon, 13 Apr 2009 18:50:00 +0100 2832059 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2509543&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Frss.sciam.com%2Fclick.phdo%3Fi%3D1db483b02916ed6df641cbf572c6732c [The following is an exact transcript of this podcast.]Batteries of the future need to deliver more energy, and they need to be smaller. Researchers at M.I.T. think they have developed a technology that can, as they say, pave the way for these batteries of the future--using viruses. The development was peer-reviewed in the April 3 issue of the journal Science. [More] (Source: Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology) Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2509543 Mon, 06 Apr 2009 05:08:08 +0100 2509543 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2846241&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Frss.sciam.com%2Fclick.phdo%3Fi%3D5e92e8a63c2db1a4bb342507798fa2ed Biology – you, me, and the tree – is all based on chemical energy, yet batteries for our electronic devices have mostly relied on non-lifelike arrangements such as lead-acid and nickel-cadmium hybrids to produce power. But that may soon change. Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T) report in Science today that they constructed a battery that uses biological matter – namely a virus dubbed M13 – as a key component. The virus essentially acts as a “biological scaffold,” the scientists write, to support elements of a lithium ion-type battery . [More] (Source: Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology) Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2846241 Thu, 02 Apr 2009 23:30:00 +0100 2846241 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2836139&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Frss.sciam.com%2Fclick.phdo%3Fi%3D949ee8547bb4b0ee88a4681114098ead Like millions of Americans, I suffer from a common, and thankfully mild, heart rhythm problem. Fortunately, it is now possible to diagnose and treat this problem with a high degree of precision and effectiveness. It is easy to imagine how frightening this condition must have been before we had modern medical facilities for monitoring heart rate and for addressing anomalies. How can you effectively treat a condition without the means to understand the nature of the problem or the impact of your treatment? You clearly cannot and it would be folly, if not downright dangerous, to undertake the remediation of a condition that you could not adequately measure. [More] (Source: Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology) Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2836139 Thu, 02 Apr 2009 17:00:00 +0100 2836139 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2832060&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Frss.sciam.com%2Fclick.phdo%3Fi%3De77a18aeac22fbe83ce348e2998305be Editor's Note: We are posting this feature from our September 2006 issue in light of the Obama administration's renewed focus on how to power the country without overloading the atmosphere with greenhouse gases. To keep this world tolerable for life as we like it, humanity must complete a marathon of technological change whose finish line lies far over the horizon. Robert H. Socolow and Stephen W. Pacala of Princeton University have compared the feat to a multigenerational relay race. They outline a strategy to win the first 50-year leg by reining back carbon dioxide emissions from a century of unbridled acceleration. Existing technologies, applied both wisely and promptly, should carry us to this first milestone without trampling the global economy. That is a sound plan A. [More] (Source:... Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2832060 Thu, 02 Apr 2009 17:00:00 +0100 2832060 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2838841&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Frss.sciam.com%2Fclick.phdo%3Fi%3D1bc45b46dc27b308656b8212a2d222e6 I Know That Nose When you’re trying to recognize a face, the first thing you look at is the nose--whether you know it or not. Researchers at the University of California, San Diego, showed subjects faces on a computer screen and tracked their eye movements. They found that most people look first just to the left of the nose, then to the center of the nose, then to the eyes. The first look was enough for people to recognize a face more than half the time, the second look increased accuracy, but the third did not--those two glances at the nose were enough. The researchers speculate that glancing at the center of the face makes it easiest to take in enough information about the whole face to enable recognition.  --Kurt Kleiner [More] (Source: Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnol... Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2838841 Tue, 31 Mar 2009 12:00:00 +0100 2838841 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2709028&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Frss.sciam.com%2Fclick.phdo%3Fi%3Dcf55cf819025e6bed325e41e9f9cddb7 Nanotechnology is arguably one of the most overhyped “next big things” in the recent history of applied science. According to its most radical advocates, nanotechnology is a molecular manufacturing system that will allow us to fabricate objects of practically any arbitrary complexity by mechanically joining molecule to molecule, one after another, until the final, atomically correct product emerges before our eyes.The reality has been somewhat different: today the word “nano” has been diluted to the point that it applies to essentially anything small, even down to the “nanoparticles” in commodities as diverse as motor oil, sunscreen, lipstick and ski wax. Who, then, would have expected that one of the first truly functional nanoscale devices--one that wo... Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2709028 Mon, 09 Mar 2009 14:00:00 +0100 2709028 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2509545&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Frss.sciam.com%2Fclick.phdo%3Fi%3Dcf55cf819025e6bed325e41e9f9cddb7 Nanotechnology is arguably one of the most overhyped “next big things” in the recent history of applied science. According to its most radical advocates, nanotechnology is a molecular manufacturing system that will allow us to fabricate objects of practically any arbitrary complexity by mechanically joining molecule to molecule, one after another, until the final, atomically correct product emerges before our eyes.The reality has been somewhat different: today the word “nano” has been diluted to the point that it applies to essentially anything small, even down to the “nanoparticles” in commodities as diverse as motor oil, sunscreen, lipstick and ski wax. Who, then, would have expected that one of the first truly functional nanoscale devices--one that wo... Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2509545 Mon, 09 Mar 2009 14:00:00 +0100 2509545 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2509546&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Frss.sciam.com%2Fclick.phdo%3Fi%3D64bd47337c957d5467c17824fafee878 Amnio Alternative Amniocentesis and other prenatal tests designed to assess fetal health carry a small risk of miscarriage. Now Chinese researchers may have found an alternative diagnostic method based on a technique that distinguishes maternal DNA from fetal DNA in the mother’s blood. That ability could lead to simple, no-risk blood tests that determine whether a fetus has a problem caused by single-gene mutations, such as cystic fibrosis and sickle cell anemia. The fetal DNA, which tends to be shorter than that of the mother, is duplicated and subjected to a “molecular counting” technique that tallies both mutant and normal genetic material. Researchers can use the data to determine whether the fetus has inherited a monogenetic disease. The San Diego–based biotech... Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2509546 Fri, 06 Feb 2009 11:00:00 +0100 2509546 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2709029&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Frss.sciam.com%2Fclick.phdo%3Fi%3D2b3cb846edeb32581d9e534674a8c0c5 Before going to the gym for a workout or after indulging in cake at the office party, people with diabetes can use a portable monitor to take a quick blood glucose measurement and adjust their food or insulin intake to prevent extreme dips or spikes in blood sugar. The inexpensive finger-prick testing devices that allow diabetics to check their glucose levels throughout the day may sound like small conveniences. That is unless you are diabetic and can remember back a decade or more, when having that disease came with far more fear and guessing and far less control over your own well-being.The quality of life afforded to diabetics by technologies that easily and inexpensively extract information from the body offers a glimpse of what all medicine could be like: more predictive and preventiv... Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2709029 Mon, 19 Jan 2009 13:00:00 +0100 2709029 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2509547&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Frss.sciam.com%2Fclick.phdo%3Fi%3D2b3cb846edeb32581d9e534674a8c0c5 Before going to the gym for a workout or after indulging in cake at the office party, people with diabetes can use a portable monitor to take a quick blood glucose measurement and adjust their food or insulin intake to prevent extreme dips or spikes in blood sugar. The inexpensive finger-prick testing devices that allow diabetics to check their glucose levels throughout the day may sound like small conveniences. That is unless you are diabetic and can remember back a decade or more, when having that disease came with far more fear and guessing and far less control over your own well-being.The quality of life afforded to diabetics by technologies that easily and inexpensively extract information from the body offers a glimpse of what all medicine could be like: more predictive and preventiv... Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2509547 Mon, 19 Jan 2009 13:00:00 +0100 2509547 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2509548&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Frss.sciam.com%2Fclick.phdo%3Fi%3D21db96e3f8bc23e58f6e9a3ef1190b5a Not long ago cancer medicine in the U.S. passed a hopeful milestone: for the first time, the incidence rates for both new cases and deaths in men and women declined, according to an annual report issued in late November from the National Cancer Institute, the American Cancer Society and other leading organizations. Between 1999 and 2005 diagnosis rates dropped annually by about 0.8 percent. Although deaths from some specific conditions have gone up, overall mortality from cancer is on the decline for both men and women of almost all ethnic groups, as it has been since the early 1990s, in large part because of a shrinking toll from malignancies of the lung, prostate, breast and colon.That good news invites some cautious interpretation. Incidence rates might have fallen because fewer patient... Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2509548 Mon, 19 Jan 2009 12:00:00 +0100 2509548 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2509549&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Frss.sciam.com%2Fclick.phdo%3Fi%3De501e8935534738e483c4882c8fe7263 In nanotechnology, the position of a single atom can make all the difference--whether a material functions as a semiconductor or an insulator, whether it triggers a vital chemical process or stops it cold. The ability to define every atom in a nanoparticle precisely would permit full control of the properties and behavior of a nanomaterial. But deep-down atomic imaging techniques, such as electron microscopy and scanning tunneling microscopy, are not enough for nanoengineering, because they do not provide the precise mathematical coordinates of every atom that nanotechnologists need.“Beautiful pictures of nanostructures capture the imagination, but if a picture is worth 1,000 words, then a table, filled with accurate atomic coordinates, is worth 1,000 pictures,” says Simon Bill... Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2509549 Tue, 13 Jan 2009 13:00:00 +0100 2509549 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2509550&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Frss.sciam.com%2Fclick.phdo%3Fi%3D219bdaf43a4aa65d040baf8a956b8ca8 Most artists use a paintbrush or a camera, but Michael Oliveri sometimes prefers a scanning electron microscope. [More] (Source: Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology) Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2509550 Mon, 29 Dec 2008 17:30:00 +0100 2509550 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2509551&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Frss.sciam.com%2Fclick.phdo%3Fi%3Dfbfa8c9cdfc146164afd6cf9d2681394 Take Two Pills and Don’t Call Me in the MorningUp to 58 percent of physicians in the U.S. regularly prescribe placebos, according to a survey of 679 rheumatologists and general internists conducted by Jon C. Tilburt of the National Institutes of Health and his colleagues. Even though placebos may contain no active ingredients, many ailments still respond positively to them [see “The Placebo Effect,” by Walter A. Brown; Scientific American, January 1998]. [More] (Source: Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology) Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2509551 Wed, 24 Dec 2008 05:00:00 +0100 2509551 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2509552&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Frss.sciam.com%2Fclick.phdo%3Fi%3De404c03bac1bdac2cdf10e243802f874 Overcast days are the enemy of solar energy. Most photovoltaic cells respond to only a relatively narrow part of the sun’s spectrum--and it just happens to be the one that clouds tend to block out. Manufacturers deal with the problem by layering different materials in the cell, but that approach makes them more expensive.Led by chemist Malcolm Chisholm, a team at Ohio State University took a different tack. They doped a polymer commonly used for semiconductor applications, called oligothiophene, with atoms of the metals molybdenum and tungsten. The result was a substance that generates power in response to light of wavelengths from 300 (ultraviolet) to 1,000 nanometers (the near infrared). In contrast, traditional, silicon-based cells function best starting from 600 (orange) to 900 n... Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2509552 Tue, 23 Dec 2008 13:00:00 +0100 2509552 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2509553&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Frss.sciam.com%2Fclick.phdo%3Fi%3D6ef09e7061424e1b700c7143e917f013 As teensy nanotech devices get even tinier, the question of how to supply them with power becomes more pressing. Zhong Lin Wang, a nano-engineer at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, is committed to finding the answer. As he described in a January Scientific American article, these devices (measured in nanometers, or billionths of a meter) could rely on nanoscale power plants, which would harvest waste energy from the ambient atmosphere or even from the human body. Now Wang's team has a new addition to the nanogenerator family: zinc oxide wires that produce an alternating current when stretched and released like a rubber band. (Wang is pictured holding a large-scale prototype at the left.) [More] (Source: Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology) Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2509553 Sun, 09 Nov 2008 18:05:00 +0100 2509553 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2509554&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Frss.sciam.com%2Fclick.phdo%3Fi%3D54e200d9582632e8d0230d312d4c7095 Editor's Note: This story was originally printed in the January 2008 issue of Scientific American. We're reposting it because of new research out today by author Zhong Lin Wang. [More] (Source: Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology) Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2509554 Sun, 09 Nov 2008 06:05:00 +0100 2509554 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2509555&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Frss.sciam.com%2Fclick.phdo%3Fi%3D067eb828024a8ecd09637bbfa3b34ea5 As devices shrink to microscopic proportions they need similarly-sized batteries to make them run. Although no such batteries exist today, a team of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) researchers this week reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) a breakthrough in their work to create a microbattery that's small enough (yet powerful enough) to run a range of miniature devices, including labs-on-a-chip and implantable medical sensors.(From left, professors Yet-Ming Chiang, Angela Belcher and Paula Hammond display a virus-loaded film that can serve as the anode of a battery in 2006. Photo courtesy of Donna Coveney, MIT) [More] (Source: Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology) Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2509555 Wed, 20 Aug 2008 19:52:00 +0100 2509555 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2509556&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Frss.sciam.com%2Fclick.phdo%3Fi%3Dcbfba8d30afb86ad69b32f8c9581c087 As nanotechnology to ferry drugs to their destinations is tested in both the laboratory and in clinical trials, scientists have made a surprising discovery about the kinds of nanoparticles that might be most effective for eventually transporting a number of different cancer-fighting therapies throughout the body.The conventional wisdom is that the smaller, the better. But that may not be true, according to a team of scientists led by University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (U.N.C.) chemistry professor Joseph DeSimone. DeSimone and his colleagues have shown that the shape of these microscopic drug carriers is much more important than size and can even mean the difference between whether a drug penetrates target cells effectively or ends up as a target itself, only to be destroyed by the... Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2509556 Thu, 07 Aug 2008 14:15:00 +0100 2509556 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=2509557&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Frss.sciam.com%2Fclick.phdo%3Fi%3D5f06fa53ece97c111917f7bd0b5b66a2 LHC gets its own rap song [More] (Source: Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology) Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=2509557 Fri, 01 Aug 2008 22:00:00 +0100 2509557 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1783895&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sciam.com%2Farticle.cfm%3Fid%3Dsandia-nano-ice-crystals Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories in Livermore, Calif., recently snapped the first photos of nanometer-thick ice films taken by a scanning tunneling microscope (STM). By capturing in detail how water molecules deposited on a cold solid surface (platinum in this case) aggregate into an ice film, the scientists are hoping to enhance understanding of how water and solids interact. Such basic knowledge might aid the design of better fuel cells and water purification membranes and help to decipher the complex processes in the earth's atmosphere leading to rain and snowfall.View slide show [More] (Source: Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology) Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1783895 Fri, 01 Aug 2008 21:30:00 +0100 1783895 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1783896&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sciam.com%2Farticle.cfm%3Fid%3Dself-cleaning-materials  Wilhelm Barthlott of the University of Bonn in Germany, discoverer and developer of the “lotus effect,” has a vision of a self-cleaning Manhattan, where a little rain washes the windows and walls of skyscrapers as clean as the immaculate lotus. Elsewhere, he sees tents and marquees using new textiles that stay equally spotless with no intervention from a human cleaner. He is not the only one with his sights set on a future populated with objects that rarely if ever need washing: in Japan, technologists are developing self-deodorizing and disinfectant surfaces for bathrooms and hospitals. Michael Rubner and Robert Cohen of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology envisage similar technologies keeping bathroom mirrors unfogged and controlling microfluidic “labs on a ... Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1783896 Wed, 30 Jul 2008 05:00:00 +0100 1783896 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1783897&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sciam.com%2Farticle.cfm%3Fid%3Dpot-boiler-a-new-faster-way-to-heat-water Many recipes and procedures call for bringing water to a roiling boil--from making the perfect cup of tea to generating electric power. But the bubbles that denote the rapid transformation of water from a liquid to a vapor, otherwise known as steam, actually slow the process. The normal, microscopic imperfections--holes, gaps and voids--on the surfaces of everything from industrial boilers to pots and pans create pockets where air is trapped and liquid water can become steam. But the process in each void ends after a steam bubble develops and travels to the surface, because water subsequently fills the gap where it formed. [More] (Source: Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology) Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1783897 Tue, 08 Jul 2008 19:00:00 +0100 1783897 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1783898&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sciam.com%2Farticle.cfm%3Fid%3Dnanotech-cartilage Researchers say they may soon be able to repair injured and worn-out cartilage with the help of nanotubes. Currently, patients must either go under the knife to mend faulty cartilage (connective tissue that normally pads the ends of bones at joints to keep them from grinding against one another). But scientists say they may one day be able to insert microscopic carbon nanotubes into injured joints--such as knees--encouraging new, stronger cartilage cells to grow in place damaged or thinning ones. [More] (Source: Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology) Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1783898 Mon, 16 Jun 2008 23:00:00 +0100 1783898 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1783899&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sciam.com%2Farticle.cfm%3Fid%3Dgold-nanoparticles-hiv Researchers believe that gold nanoparticles may breathe new life into once-promising drug candidates, in particular a compound designed to stop the spread of HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) that was shelved because of side effects. The compound--TAK-779--was first proposed by researchers in 1996 and proved effective at blocking the virus from infiltrating body's immune system. But it was scuttled by 2005, because recipients suffered severe irritation at injection sites and oral doses were ineffective. [More] (Source: Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology) Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1783899 Tue, 10 Jun 2008 21:00:00 +0100 1783899 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1783900&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sciam.com%2Fpodcast%2Fepisode.cfm%3Fid%3D70589C06-9782-F888-517426CED8B1ADA6 [The following is an exact transcript of this podcast.]It might look and even feel like paper, but a new material created by scientists at MIT is designed to be an oil spill super-absorber. This technology debuted in a recent issue of Nature Biotechnology. Scientists designed a mesh of nanowires made of potassium manganese oxide. The mesh is dried in much the same manner as cellulose is treated to make paper. Between the nanowires are tiny pores that act like capillaries to absorb liquid--again, like a paper towel. [More] (Source: Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology) Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1783900 Tue, 10 Jun 2008 05:01:08 +0100 1783900 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1783901&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sciam.com%2Farticle.cfm%3Fid%3Dupdates-jun-08 Good-bye, LaundryTalk of clothing that keeps itself clean, or that at least does not need conventional washing, has percolated for decades. Manufacturers have expressed interest in the technologies underlying such garments, but so far the only advance available commercially is clothing treated with nanoparticles that change the natural characteristics of the fabric to keep stains from soaking into it. That makes dirt easier to wash away. The technology, created by textile company Nano-Tex in 2001, appears in clothing today by retailers Eddie Bauer, Gap and Hugo Boss, to name a few. [More] (Source: Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology) Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1783901 Fri, 06 Jun 2008 11:53:00 +0100 1783901 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1783902&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sciam.com%2Farticle.cfm%3Fid%3Dcarbon-nanotube-danger Inhaling carbon nanotubes could be as harmful as breathing in asbestos, and its use should be regulated lest it lead to the same cancer and breathing problems that prompted a ban on the use of asbestos as insulation in buildings, according a new study posted online today by Nature Nanotechnology. [More] (Source: Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology) Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1783902 Tue, 20 May 2008 20:00:00 +0100 1783902 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1783903&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sciam.com%2Farticle.cfm%3Fid%3Dthermal-barrier-coating-zirconia Hard to believe, but a grain of sand--or rather millions of them traveling at high velocity--can have a devastating effect on aircraft and industrial gas-turbine engines. The granules eat into the zirconium dioxide ceramic thermal-barrier coatings that insulate and protect engine components from extremely high temperatures. In an effort to protect these coatings and ensure that turbine engines continue to operate properly, a team of Ohio State University engineers is testing a new formulation of zirconium dioxide, more commonly known as zirconia. [More] (Source: Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology) Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1783903 Fri, 21 Mar 2008 20:00:00 +0100 1783903 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1783904&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sciam.com%2Farticle.cfm%3Fid%3Dcarbon-wonderland Consider the humble pencil. [More] (Source: Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology) Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1783904 Mon, 17 Mar 2008 05:00:00 +0100 1783904 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1783905&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sciam.com%2Farticle.cfm%3Fid%3Ddo-nanoparticles-in-food-pose-health-risk Plastic imbued with clay nanoparticles helps make Miller Brewing Co. beer bottles less likely to break as well as improves how long the brew lasts in storage. Simply H's Toddler Health nutritional drink mix includes 300-nanometer (300 billionths of a meter) iron particles. And a wide range of cooking and cleaning items now employ nanosize silver particles to kill microbes. [More] (Source: Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology) Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1783905 Thu, 13 Mar 2008 18:00:00 +0100 1783905 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1783906&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sciam.com%2Fpodcast%2Fepisode.cfm%3Fid%3D84C395C3-C1BE-28EA-95684A1B57F5C336 The lure of gold can be electric to some people, even though the element is chemically inert--on the large scale. But researchers from Georgia Tech report that, down at the level of atoms, gold can conduct electricity and act as an insulator as well. [More] (Source: Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology) Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1783906 Thu, 06 Mar 2008 05:00:08 +0100 1783906 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1783907&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sciam.com%2Fpodcast%2Fepisode.cfm%3Fid%3D3E0E600F-F7B2-4F1F-DA377027B8FDC443 On February 8, we told you about scientists who had created a device, worn over the knees, that could harvest the energy you otherwise waste while walking. But if high-tech kneepads aren’t your style, perhaps you’d be interested in a power-producing sport shirt? Maybe something in a literal  electric blue? Because in the February 14 issue of Nature, scientists from Georgia Tech describe a fabric that converts low-frequency vibrations into electricity.  [More] (Source: Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology) Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1783907 Fri, 22 Feb 2008 05:00:08 +0100 1783907 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1783909&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sciam.com%2Farticle.cfm%3Fid%3Dself-powered-nanotech The watchmaker in the 1920s who de­vised the self-winding wristwatch was on to a great idea: mechanically harvesting energy from the wearer’s moving arm and putting it to work rewinding the watch spring.Today we are beginning to create extremely small energy harvesters that can supply electrical power to the tiny world of nano­scale devices, where things are measured in billionths of a meter. [More] (Source: Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology) Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1783909 Sun, 16 Dec 2007 23:00:00 +0100 1783909 http://www.medworm.com/index.php?rid=1783908&cid=s_37979_174_f&fid=37979&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sciam.com%2Farticle.cfm%3Fid%3Dbig-and-small-solutions With oil nearing $100 a barrel and atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations steadily rising, the U.S. must commit seriously to a long-term plan that will improve the nation’s energy security and address climate change threats. To date, national leaders have expended a lot of rhetoric on the importance of those goals, but relative to the country’s magnitude as both a consumer of energy and a producer of carbon dioxide, they have taken few meaningful steps to reach them. The U.S. needs to get off the sidelines and put some skin into the game.A business-as-usual approach will not work. Over time, economies and policies may spontaneously migrate to more efficient, more environmentally benign energy technologies, but those responses will almost certainly be too slow to stave off ma... Scientific American Topic - Nanotechnology news http://www.medworm.com/rss/comments.php?id=1783908 Sun, 16 Dec 2007 23:00:00 +0100 1783908