Imagine this....credit cards have tiny super-secret chips inside them, just like the cool spy gadgets in movies. National mints print special marks on money to keep it safe, kind of like invisible ink. And places with super important stuff, like top-secret labs, use scanners that ... Read More...
The title is a Bob Dylan song. But in this case we are talking about renewal energy and generating electricity by harnessing the wind. Nanotechnology c an be used to create new materials with amazing functions. Wind turbines are a fairly common sight these days, enormously ... Read More...
Disease detection is a never ending challenge and the goal is to create new tests for diseases that are faster, cheaper and easier. Tests that are slow, expensive and tough to do, don't get done as often and diseases that might be cured are not ... Read More...
It is Summer and time to be outside. But there are those pesky mosquitoes that are attracted to us and bite sometimes also passing along viral diseases. Nanotechnology to the rescue. A team of researchers have invented a new self-powered generator that can zap mosquitoes. ... Read More...
Problems with your gastrointestinal tract are no laughing matter. Some are serious and can cause a life-long struggle that impacts the foods we can eat. And so no fun. Taking medications is not new but new approaches to solving the problems with your gastrointestinal tract ... Read More...
The new crop of vaccines for COVID that use something called mRNA usually require super cold storage. That makes it hard to distribute these vaccines especially in places that don't have a lot of ultra-low-temperature refrigeration. The mRNA vaccine particles are coated in lipids and ... Read More...
Most food is perishable, and food that spoils before it is consumed is a waste. Plus foods can sometimes contain dangerous microbes that can make us sick. Enter nanotechnology. There are a lot of compounds that can inhibit the growth of microorganisms in foods, but ... Read More...
We don't often think about the toilet as a source of information, but scientists at Cambridge University are developing an 'intelligent loo' that is able to analyze your urine. The toilet is engineered to contain optical sensors that detect different chemicals in your urine. ... Read More...
Nanotechnology offers new ways of diagnosing diseases. Most tests require taking a sample, like blood, or urine and then sending them to a laboratory. Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology ha ve developed a sensor that you can swallow. Inside of the sensor are bacteria ... Read More...
Researchers at Georgia Tech have made the 'World's Smallest Ad' created for Arby's, the fast food restaurants. The ad was printed on the side of a sesame seed, like the one you might find....wait for it....on a roast beef sandwich bun. The size of ... Read More...
Some medicines are more effective when they are delivered at the site where they are needed and when they are needed. Think about taking an aspirin but it works only when you have a headache. Scientists from have developed a biodegradable material with nanometer-scale ... Read More...
Nanotechnology has contributed to the advances in our ability to see different things at the nanoscale. Microscopy has advanced from the very early days of microscopes being a single glass lens to very advanced instruments with nanometer resolution. We can see lots of stuff with ... Read More...
Scientists from MIT and the University of California have figured out a way to engineer plants to glow in the dark. This isn't the first time but it is the first time that it has been on whole plants without initially do some tricky genetics. ... Read More...
Mostly everything has a nano-unit measurement including sounds. The human ear can hear things down to around 0 decibels. If you are about 100 feet from a jet as it takes off that is about 150 decibels. Your headphones can be cranked up to around ... Read More...
Before you call the typo police, we are talking mussels, not muscles. Researchers at Purdue University have developed an adhesive that is based upon the same stuff that mussels use to stay stuck to wooden poles, rocks and other places that mussels like to ... Read More...
Bees carry out important work by pollinating flowers---they move pollen from one part of the flower to another or between flowers. They contribute something like $29 billion dollars to the farm economy in the US alone. For a number of reasons the bee population is ... Read More...
Sometimes science can just be fun if not edible. Scientists at MIT have developed a process to make pasta that shape-shifts upon cooking. They claim it could save on shipping costs because you might be able to pack these flat noodles into a smaller ... Read More...
Making computer parts smaller and smaller is the reason why your average laptop is a zillion times more powerful than computers from 50 years ago that used to fill up an entire room. The basic component of a computer chip is a transistor which is ... Read More...
The world's smallest version of the Edmonton Oilers logo has been created by a group of scientists at the University of Alberta. The Oilers are the city's NHL hockey team and they are currently in the Stanley Cup playoffs. The logo is only 2400 ... Read More...
Methane is the building block of a lot of different fuels. There are a variety of methanes sources (think cows!) but on source of methane is to make it from carbon dioxide. There is lots of carbon dioxide but converting it to methane requires energy. ... Read More...
