Nanotechnology against Terrorism
Friday, September 24th, 2010
Terrorists often come in the guise of ordinary persons and strike at unexpected places. The traditional terrorism prevention strategy is to subject people to rigorous security checks at sensitive places, and to generally limit their democratic rights. Security and democratic freedom often become incompatible under such an environment.
Can this situation be changed? According to the authors of “Nanotechnology and Homeland Security”, it can. For example, nanotechnology-based sensors can detect a range of threats from food contamination to weapons of mass destruction. Nanomaterials can protect homes, offices and people on the scene. And nanotechnology-based remediation technologies can heal the effects of environmental damage.
The book discusses the above and other topics to propose that the new technology can help in “fighting terrorism without sacrificing our open, free, and democratic society.” As the cited possibilities hint, nanotech can be used to prevent terrorist actions, and also to mitigate the impact of incidents that do occur.
Nanotechnology affects practically every field of life and promises solutions that are completely different from what we are accustomed to, from perennial sources of energy to new cancer treatment. Fighting terrorism is another of the new possibilities of this technology, according to the authors.
Tags: democratic freedoms, fighting terrorism, nanotechnology
Posted in emerging technologies, forensics, nanotechnology | No Comments »
Nanoscience Helps in Heritage Conservation
Tuesday, September 21st, 2010
Wall paintings at heritage sites, such as the Mayan wall paintings at the archaeological site of Calakmul (Mexico), tend to degrade owing to the transformation of calcium carbonate into gypsum. Such degradation has been sought to be prevented in recent decades by consolidating the paintings with polymers such as acrylic and vinyl resins. This solution has not worked; in fact, the polymer induced further degradation; and could also not be removed easily owing to their cross linking.
In France, a group pioneered the use of calcium hydroxide nanoparticles to restore wall paintings. Nanoparticles of calcium hydroxide efficiently interact with carbon dioxide to reform calcium carbonate, which otherwise gets transformed into gypsum and causes degradation of the art work, and replace the degraded original ligand, leading to the re-cohesion of the paint layer.
However, calcium carbonate might not be sufficiently effective when large amounts of soluble sulfates (i.e., sodium or magnesium sulfates) are present in a wall painting. Calcium hydroxide can react with the sulfate ions producing slightly soluble gypsum. Barium hydroxide nanoparticles can hinder this process and now a mixture calcium and barium nanoparticles is considered a highly efficient tool to combat the degradation process.
Read the report Nanoparticles for Cultural Heritage Conservation at Nanotech-Now.com.
Tags: nanoscience, nanotech in conservation, nanotechnology
Posted in conservation, nanotechnology | No Comments »
Nanotechnology in Dermatology
Sunday, September 19th, 2010
Nanotechnology is a ubiquitous technology that has applications in a wide range of areas. Medicine is one of these areas and dermatologists are also exploring the potential of this technology to treat skin problems and diseases. For example, the Nanodermatology Society says that “a vast number of patents have been issued for nanotechnology as a means of enhancing topical delivery of a broad range of cosmetics and cutaneous therapeutics.”
The Nanodermatology Society (NDS) was formed this year. It is a nonprofit organization that seeks to “promote and enable a greater understanding of the scientific and medical aspects of nanotechnology in health and disease.” It will monitor developments in nanotechnology as they relate to dermatology, facilitate exchange of information about the developments, sponsor research and develop policies that benefit consumers and industry, among others.
“Nanotechnology represents a novel medium through which the diagnosis and treatment of disease may be forever altered. The skin represents a phenomenal vehicle through which these materials can be investigated, both with respect to active ingredient delivery and efficacy. Advances in nanotechnology must be balanced with due consideration of potential toxicity,” comments Dr. Adnan Nasir, assistant clinical professor of dermatology, University of North Carolina, and President of the NDS.
Read the news report at AzoNano.com.
Tags: dermatology, nanomedicine, nanotechnology
Posted in nanomedicine, nanotechnology | No Comments »
Nanoscience Research and ICPCNanoNet
Tuesday, September 14th, 2010
ICPCNanoNet is a European Union funded project that brings together scientists from EU, China, India, Russia and Africa. The goal is to provide wider access to published nanoscience research, and explore opportunities for cooperation between scientists of EU and International Cooperation Partner Countries (ICPC). The goal is sought to be achieved through an open access electronic archive of nanoscience publications and tools to facilitate networking between scientists in different regions of the world.
The open access Electronic Archive lists the latest additions and allows searching or browsing the archive for fields of interest. In addition to accessing published material, users can also upload their own articles. The goal of the archive is to maximize information availability to researchers, particularly those in developing countries.
ICPCNanoNet also provides access to two databases, one of research organizations in ICPC and the other listing researchers. The first one lists the facilities, capabilities and contact details of the organizations. The second database lists the research experience, application areas and expertise of the researchers.
NanoForum.org provides regular updates on research activities within the ICPC countries. A recent report mentioned about the availability of free DVDs of the 2nd Annual Workshop, Beijing.
The project is for a period of four years from 2008.
Tags: access to nanoscience publications, nano research, nano science
Posted in nanotechnology, research cooperation | No Comments »
Fuel Cells: Significance and Markets
Monday, September 13th, 2010
Fuel cells can theoretically provide energy for everything from running a power plant to running your computer. And they provide it with high efficiency, low emissions and quietly, with the byproducts being heat and water, not carbon dioxide. It is no wonder that governments, businesses and academic institutions are working towards producing this green source of energy.
In essence, a fuel cell combines hydrogen and oxygen to make water, and generates electricity in the process. And unlike a battery, the chemicals needed for a fuel cell, viz. hydrogen and oxygen, do not get exhausted all that easily. What this means is that the fuel cell is not likely to go dead, unlike the battery.
Fuel cell technologies come in different varieties such as PEMFC, SOFC, AFC, MCFC, PAFC and DMFC. Some are more suited for one purpose while others are best in other contexts, such as transportation systems, large power plants and stationary power generators.
Honda’s concept car based on fuel cells has a reported energy efficiency of 60 percent, i.e. 60 percent of the energy that goes in comes out in the form of moving the car. Compare this to the 20 percent efficiency of the fossil fuel burning car, where most of the energy is wasted as heat and for powering incidentals.
Though a battery-powered electric car has an efficiency of 72 percent, the battery has to be charged using AC power, which has a low efficiency, and the charging process itself causes some loss of efficiency. Compared to the 60 percent overall efficiency of the fuel cell, the net battery efficiency is just 26 percent.(See How Fuel Cells Work).
The research report Fuel Cell Technologies Worldwide provides insights into the end user markets for fuel cells and also the various technologies used for making fuel cells.
Tags: energy efficiency, fuel cell technology, green energy, nanotechnology
Posted in business, clean technology, energy efficiency, energy generation, environment, innovation, nanomaterials, renewable energy | No Comments »
Targeted Drug Delivery that Minimizes Side Effects
Friday, September 10th, 2010
Drugs delivered orally or through intravascular injection are distributed throughout the body and only a small portion reaches the desired organ. Targeted drug delivery seeks to release the drug only in that part of the body where it is needed, at least in greater concentrations there than other parts. Not only has this the result of increasing treatment efficacy but it also reduces the side effects of the drug affecting healthy cells.
Targeted drug delivery is particularly important in treating cancerous tumors though it is also used for cardiovascular diseases and diabetes. Some of the traditional methods used for targeted drug delivery are effective but not safe, while others are safe but ineffective.
A recent report suggests that researchers at Mayo Clinic might have found a way to deliver drugs on target safely and effectively. They visualize calcium phosphate nanoparticles carrying a cargo of drugs along the bloodstream. Cells around tumors have an acidic environment and the calcium phosphate particles will be dissolved by the acid and the drugs released. What this means is that the drug reaches the diseased cells without being distributed all through the body.
The Mayo Clinic researchers used a dye as the cargo and used high speed lasers to measure the size of the dye-containing particles in a blood-like solution. They found that an acidic environment reduced the size of the particles to practically the size of the dye, indicating that the particles themselves have been dissolved.
Read the news at Science Centric.
Tags: cancer treatment, nanomedicine, nanotechnology, targeted drug delivery
Posted in nanomedicine, nanotechnology | No Comments »
Nanotech Impulse Radar Promises several Breakthroughs
Wednesday, September 8th, 2010
Novelda AS is a semiconductor company in Norway that has been invited by Norwegian government and Innovation Norway to exhibit its impulse radar technology at EXPO 2010 in Shanghai, China. The technology has a wide variety of applications and is being currently used and evaluated by companies around the world, according to the company’s Chief Marketing Officer.
Impulse radar is used to sense proximate objects and measure distances to them. It can, for example, be used to avoid collision with other vehicles during parking, detect intruders into homes by sensing motion and locate living persons in disaster sites by sensing breathing and heartbeat.
The nanotechnology based impulse radars can provide innovative sensor applications not possible with conventional ones. The company mentions possible applications in “human vital sign monitoring, personal security, environmental monitoring, industrial automation and other novel sensor applications.”
The Novelda Impulse Radar is a transceiver integrated into a single chip. The new technology requires no clock, thus saving on power and enhancing speed. As the sensing is done using radio waves, no lenses are required compared to technologies that require free visibility, thus saving on costs. The single chips can also be embedded into small mobile devices.
Read the news at NanotechnologyNow.
Tags: nanotech impulse radar, sensor technology
Posted in impulse radar, nanotechnology | No Comments »
Planes that Mimic Birds
Thursday, August 26th, 2010
Planes that Mimic Birds
Aerospace vehicles are currently designed for specific missions, such as space flight, reconnaissance, interdiction and aerial combat. A vehicle designed for one mission will typically have serious constraints for executing other missions. Researchers have been looking at ways to design multi-mission capable vehicles.
The solution of variable sweep wings is an example of a preliminary solution to the problem. The wings change shape to meet changing requirements, trying to mimic birds in flight. However, the existing solution is only a primitive one compared to the birds’ solution.
Things might change dramatically with the new morphing metal technology. Nanotechnology can theoretically work at molecular levels and change the properties of the building blocks of materials. Doing this “on-the-go”, adapting to changes in pressure or temperature for example, can make the materials almost “living materials.”
Wings made of such materials could then unfurl, bend and shape themselves to changing demands, just as bird wings do in flight. Such wings will be able to avoid aerodynamic destabilization caused by varying flight conditions.
Once such morphing technology has been mastered, it will be possible to design air vehicles that can be used for multiple roles, say from passenger or cargo carriage to aerial warfare.
Read the speculative report at Center for Intelligence News Study.
Tags: air vehicles, changing material properties, nanotechnology
Posted in nanomaterials, nanotechnology | 1 Comment »
Breakthrough in Scanning Probe Microscopy (SPM)
Monday, August 23rd, 2010
Scanning Probe Microscopy creates images with the help of a physical probe that scans the specimen surface. As the probe scans the specimen line by line, the position of the probe is recorded to create the image. SPM helps study invisible specimens such as individual atoms and objects of nanometer scale.
Conventional SPM operates at only one frequency at a time. This is a serious limitation because probe-specimen surface interactions are dynamic and only by knowing how the interaction varies at many frequencies can one get a fuller picture.
A breakthrough has now been achieved by Asylum Research and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in this area. Band Excitation (BE) is a new SPM technology that involves exciting and detecting the tip dynamics at many frequencies simultaneously. This has been compared to seeing in color instead of just in black and white.
Band Excitation allows more rapid probing of energy dissipation at nanoscale “enabling scientists to characterize a sample’s electrical, magnetic, and mechanical energy conversion and dissipation properties at standard imaging rates.” Information about energy dissipation is important in diverse fields such as electronics, information technology and energy storage/transport.
The inventors hope that BE will bring in a new family of SPMs.
Asylum Research and ORNL has been awarded the Microscopy Today Innovation Award for the breakthrough. Read the news at Nanowerk.
Tags: nanotechnology, scanning at multiple frequencies, SPM
Posted in electron microscopy, nanotechnology | 1 Comment »
Nanotechnology – Considerations for Safe Development
Tuesday, August 17th, 2010
Office of Technical Assistance & Technology, Massachusetts Government, has released a document with the above title. As the preamble of the document says, Nanotechnology offers great promise in different industries such as biomedical devices, clean energy technology and materials engineering. Along with the promise come indications that the invisibly small nanoparticles, both incidental and engineered, can cause harm to living beings.
The particles can cause respiratory ailments through inhalation, get absorbed into the bloodstream and even pass the blood-brain barrier with potential harm to neurological system. DNA damage has been reported from exposure to titanium dioxide nanoparticles. The overall conclusion from health and safety research is that material risks may accompany the development of nanotechnologies.
It is in this context that precautionary steps during research and development become important. This has become particularly critical as billions of dollars are being invested in nanotechnology development in US alone (not to mention many other countries across the world). Focusing only on the promise and ignoring the potential for harm that these initiatives pose are things that no responsible government or entity can allow.
Studies have indicated that while many companies have implemented nanosafety practices, several others have not. It is thus necessary to create greater awareness about the issue among managers, supervisors and health & safety officers.
You can download the nanotechnology safety considerations document from Massachusetts Government website.
Tags: engineered materials, nanoparticles, nanotech health issues, nanotechnology
Posted in health risks, nanotechnology | No Comments »
