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Archive for the ‘nanotechnology’ category: Page 237

Dec 19, 2017

Bio-programming toolkit maker Asimov launches with $4.7M from Andreessen Horowitz

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, computing, nanotechnology

Biotech is one of today’s many hot frontiers of technology, but one thing holding it back is that it’s significantly less amenable to traditional computing techniques than other areas. A new startup called Asimov, spun off from research at MIT, is working on bridging the gap between the digital and the biological by creating, essentially, a set of computer-aided biology design tools. It’s a prescient enough idea that it has attracted $4.7 million in seed funding.

The problem that Asimov addresses is this. Say you’re a pharmaceutical company trying to make a tiny biocompatible machine that holds a certain amount of medication and releases it when it senses some other molecule.

In order to do so, you’d have to — well, among about a million other things — design what amounts to a logic gate and signal processor that works at the molecular scale. This is a daunting prospect, as creating molecular machinery is a labor-intensive process often involving creating thousands of variations of a given structure and testing them repeatedly to see which works.

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Dec 18, 2017

Using Nanotechnology, not Water, to Clean Solar Panels

Posted by in categories: nanotechnology, particle physics, solar power, space, sustainability

Although solar panels might appear bright and shiny, in desert environments, where they are most frequently installed, layers of dust and other particles can quickly coat their surface. These coatings can affect the panels’ ability to absorb sunlight and drastically reduce the conversion of the sun’s rays into energy, making it necessary to periodically wash the panels with water. But often, in areas like Nevada, water resources are scarce.

Consequently, NEXUS scientists have turned their attention toward developing technologies for waterless cleaning. NASA has already been using such techniques to wash panels in the lunar and Mars missions, but their developed methodologies prove too expensive for widespread public application. NEXUS scientist Biswajit Das of UNLV and his team are aiming to develop a water-free cleaning technology that will be cost-effective for large-scale photovoltaic generation, whereby they look to nanotechnology, rather than water, to clean the panels. “Our mission is to develop a waterless, or at least a less-water cleaning technique to address the effect of dust on solar panels,” Das says. “Once developed, this method will significantly reduce water use for the future PV generation.”

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Dec 16, 2017

IBM Stuffs a Whopping 330TB of Data into a Tiny Cartridge

Posted by in categories: computing, nanotechnology, particle physics

Some of the earliest computers relied upon tape drives for storage, but we’ve since moved on to faster and more versatile storage technologies. Still, tape drives continue to exist in enterprise, and they’ve been advancing by leaps and bounds while you haven’t been paying attention. IBM just announced a new record in data storage density — 201 gigabits per square inch on a magnetic tape (that’s one square inch of it above). That works out to a whopping 330TB of uncompressed data on a single tape drive cartridge.

IBM reached this plateau in magnetic tape density by developing several new technologies. Older versions of IBM’s magnetic tape used a thin film of barium ferrite particles applied to the surface like paint. “Sputtered tape” uses several layers of thin metal film that are applied using a new vacuum technology. A layer of lubricant is also applied to the reading surface of the tape to keep the tape in good working order as it’s run through the drive. The higher density arrangement of magnetic nanoparticles will, of course, require new drive technology to read.

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Dec 16, 2017

First-of-its-kind chemical oscillator offers new level of molecular control

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, nanotechnology

Researchers successfully constructed a first-of-its-kind chemical oscillator that uses DNA components. DNA molecules that follow specific instructions could offer more precise molecular control of synthetic chemical systems, a discovery that opens the door for engineers to create molecular machines…

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Dec 13, 2017

Engineers create plants that glow

Posted by in categories: engineering, nanotechnology

Imagine that instead of switching on a lamp when it gets dark, you could read by the light of a glowing plant on your desk.

MIT engineers have taken a critical first step toward making that vision a reality. By embedding specialized nanoparticles into the leaves of a watercress plant, they induced the plants to give off dim for nearly four hours. They believe that, with further optimization, such plants will one day be bright enough to illuminate a workspace.

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Dec 8, 2017

Have You Ever Seen an Atom? Now You Have

Posted by in categories: nanotechnology, particle physics

Researchers at the University of California Los Angeles have figured out a way to generate strikingly detailed 3D reconstructing of platinum nanoparticles at the very atomic scale. These are being used to study minute structural anomalies called dislocations. You can read the research paper here. Watch the video below for more.[no-sidebar].

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Nov 23, 2017

CRISPR Can Now Hitch a Ride on Nanoparticles to Battle Disease

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, nanotechnology

Yet CRISPR has a dirty secret: there’s really no perfect way to deliver the “molecular scissors” safely into cells. Most methods currently rely on viruses: the DNA that encodes the CRISPR machinery is spliced into a “viral vector” then injected into the troubled tissue.

That’s all well and good for diseases that affect blood and muscle. But for destinations buried deep within the body, delivery becomes a serious issue.

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Nov 11, 2017

Lamborghini creates world’s first ‘self-healing’ sports car

Posted by in categories: health, nanotechnology, transportation

L amborghini has created the world’s first self-healing sports car. The Terzo Millennio, which translates as third millennium in Italian, has the ability to detect and repair cracks in its body work.

Using sensors the car can conduct its own health check to detect any damages and self-repair itself by filling the crack with nanotubes to prevent it spreading.

The super car was created in collaboration with researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Boston.

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Nov 6, 2017

Researchers develop wallpaper bio-solar panel

Posted by in categories: nanotechnology, solar power, sustainability

A two-in-one solar bio-battery and solar panel has been created by researchers who printed living cyanobacteria and circuitry onto paper.

Cyanobacteria are photosynthetic micro-organisms that have been on Earth for billions of years. They are thought to be the primary reason why the Earth’s atmosphere is oxygen rich.

Now, a team has demonstrated that cyanobacteria could be used as an ink and printed from an in precise patterns onto electrically conductive carbon nanotubes, which were also inkjet-printed onto the piece of paper. The team showed that the cyanobacteria survived the printing process and were able to perform photosynthesis so that small amounts of electrical energy could be harvested over a period of 100 hours.

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Nov 6, 2017

Boeing Invests in Advanced Nanotechnology

Posted by in categories: materials, nanotechnology

This post is also available in: he עברית ( Hebrew )

Boeing announced its investment in Gamma Alloys, which specializes in aluminum alloys focused on developing advanced metal-matrix composites for use in aerospace, automotive and other industries.

This investment by Boeing HorizonX Ventures, which was established earlier this year, is its first in advanced materials and machining development and applications.

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