How nanotechnology is shaping the future
Nanotechnology — the manipulation of matter on a molecular level — to shape the future of a wide variety of industries. Consumer electronics, silicon, and health care are a few major areas where nanotechnology could provide major advances in the future, but those aren't the only places where it can make an impact — researchers at UCLA recently used nanotechnology to create a "booze pill" that lowers the intoxication level of lab rats. While it may take years for the nanotech findings to make their way into consumer-facing products, this research may lend a clue as to what kind of technology we have to look forward to.
Scientists use enzymes to sober up inebriated mice
Researchers in California have developed a way to quickly reduce the blood alcohol levels of drunken mice, potentially paving the way for a so-called "booze pill" that would instantaneously combat intoxication. The study, led by UCLA professor Yunfeng Lu and USC's Cheng Ji, involves the combination of two enzymes, wrapped in a nanoscale shell. Drunken mice injected with this enzyme nanocapsule saw their alcohol levels drop significantly faster than those in the control group.
IBM develops hydrogel to fight drug-resistant 'superbugs' like MRSA
IBM has helped to develop a new substance it says will aid in the fight against deadly infections. Superbugs like MRSA cause thousands of deaths per year thanks to their resistance to traditional antibiotics. MRSA, for example, can survive and multiply in "biofilms" — extra-cellular matrixes that can thrive on virtually any surface. Hospitals can kill MRSA using traditional disinfectants, but such ethanol- and bleach-based substances evaporate rapidly and aren't ideal for application to...
MIT researchers may have found a replacement for silicon processors with new transistor
Researchers from MIT's Microsystems Technology Laboratories claim to have created the smallest transistor ever to be made out of a material other than silicon. The transistor is made of indium gallium arsenide, a material already used in fiber-optic and radar technologies, and is just 22 nanometers thick — the size of about nine strands of human DNA. Because this is the same type of transistor typically used in microprocessors, it could mean more densely packed — and consequently higher...
IBM researchers claim breakthrough in chip-manufacturing using carbon nanotubes
Researchers at IBM's T.J. Watson Research Center claim to have made a breakthrough in chip-manufacturing technology, according to a recent study published in Nature Nanotechnology. The breakthrough centers on carbon nanotubes, which are sheets of carbon atoms rolled into cylinders. After placing the small molecules in a solution of soapy water, researchers relied on the principles of self-assembly to create patterned arrays of these nanotubes, which could be used to create chips with a...
Science
How RIM's Mike Lazaridis plans to turn Waterloo into the ‘Quantum Valley’
"What we have here is the Bell Labs of the 21st century," proclaimed Mike Lazaridis, co-founder and vice-chairman of Research In Motion, at the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the Mike & Ophelia Lazaridis Quantum-Nano Centre (QNC) last week. Nestled in the middle of the University of Waterloo's campus, the new facility is designed to bring researchers from quantum computing and nanotechnology together under one roof. "We're going to have an insight that we believe will be unique," Lazaridis says...
Eco-anarchists fight nanotechnology research with bombs
Major advances in technology often stir opposition, and as Nature reports, nanotechnology is no exception: an eco-anarchist group known as Individuals Tending Towards Savagery (ITS) has been responsible for several bombings at prominent nanotechnology universities in Mexico over the past two years. The group reportedly looks to prevent "nanocontamination" and agrees with author Derrik Jensen's view that "industrial civilization is responsible for environmental destruction and must be...
Scientists create waterproof, magnetic, and even antibacterial paper
Researchers at Italy's Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT), home of the iCub, have created a way of giving extra properties to paper, including magnetism, waterproofing, fluorescence, and even the ability to clean itself and fight bacteria. However, despite these fundamental changes, it still looks and behaves like ordinary paper, and can be printed upon in the same way. The work centers around combining liquefied cellulose molecules (monomers) from wood or other plant material with the...
Carbon nanotubes used to sniff out airborne toxins
Nosang Myung, a researcher at the University of California, Riverside has created an electronic 'nose' using nanotechnology, which he says could be integrated into portable technology like cellphones to 'smell' harmful airborne substances. Applications for the tech don't stop there, though: the same tech could also be used to measure concentrations of pesticides in agriculture, monitoring for chemical leaks in industry, or even warning of bio-terrorism. The device uses carbon nanotubes, which...
Single-atom transistor hailed as a landmark in the development of quantum computing
A team based at the University of New South Wales has created a "perfect" single atom transistor, leading the way for smaller and more powerful electronics. The active component in the device is a single phosphorus atom, which is placed onto a silicon wafer using a combination of scanning tunnelling microscope microscopy (STM) and hydrogen-resist lithography. To achieve this, a silicon wafer is coated in hydrogen, before individual hydrogen atoms are lifted away using STM. The wafer is then...
Mobile
Research team develops OLED display with built-in photovoltaic cells
Battery life is a huge issue for smartphone users, and 2012 seems to be the year that manufacturers are taking notice. Last November at the Materials Research Society fall meeting, a team led by Arman Ahnood of the London Centre for Nanotechnology demoed a prototype technology that harvests energy wasted by the display to increase battery life.
According to the team, a typical OLED panel wastes 64 percent of the light produced, a large portion of which escapes the edges of the display. Their...
Researchers create one-atom-high wire, quantum computers get a little closer
The door to practically building tomorrow's quantum computers has opened a little wider, with researchers crafting a wire just four atoms wide and one atom high that is able to conduct current just like traditional copper wiring. The team, made up of participants from Purdue University, the University of New South Wales, and Melbourne University, created the wire by etching a microscopic line into a piece of silicon and lining up phosphorous atoms along it. Previous efforts to create wires on...
Hologram-on-a-wafer may be the answer to the problem of bad 3D
Holographic displays have been tantalizing humanity ever since Dennis Gabor came up with the idea over 60 years ago, but you still won't see many of them outside of sci-fi movies and carefully constructed trade show exhibits. One seemingly promising new technique for creating holograms comes from IMEC over in Belgium, where researchers are working to create a nanoscale system of moving pixels. Measuring half a micron squared in area, these so-called pixels are used to reflect laser light and...
Single-molecule car is fully electric, gets terrible mileage
Researchers in the Netherlands have created a car, made of a single molecule, that is both fully electrical and actually drivable. They built the "car," which they say is one billionth the size of a VW Golf, by fashioning a molecule into a long body and four paddle-like structures that act like wheels. They then used a tiny stylus to direct electron pulses at the wheels, to make them move a quarter turn at a time; the wheels then tried to reset to a more molecularly optimal position, which...
Nanoscale LEDs make optical data transfers 2,000 times more efficient than lasers
Researchers from Stanford University have taken a big step forward in the development of light-based communications in computer chips. Laser optical interconnect systems already exist, but their new nanoscale LED setup improves the energy efficiency 2,000 times, sipping just 0.25 femto-joules per bit sent as compared to a laser's 500 femto-joules. In spite of this low power consumption, chips using the LEDs will reportedly be capable of transfer speeds of 10Gbps.
This data speed is achieved...
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Nanomaterial promises reconfigurable electronics
Researchers at Northwestern have developed technology to "steer" electrical currents through a solid nanomaterial, even on multiple paths in opposite directions. The material could be used as a " programmable bridge" between current technologies, allowing newer components to work in older devices just by running a program that creates new circuitry.
The substance is created with large positive particles and smaller negative ones; applying an electric charge realigns the negative parts into a...
