Spinal injuries can be devastating with the loss of movement in arms and legs. The primary problem is damage to neurons, those cells that transmit signals to and from the brain. There have been many attempts to fix neurons. Scientists at MIT have developed a ... Read More...
Nature provides a lot of inspiration for making things on the nanoscale. We have evolution to help get the design right and then if we are smart enough we can go into the lab figure out how it works and copy it. Things like gecko ... Read More...
Scientists come in all shapes, sizes and colors. One of the super heros of nanotechnology died last week. Mildred Dresselhaus. Who? Dresselhaus was one of the pioneers in the discovery of carbon nanotubes and predicted their existence long before anyone even saw one. Carbon ... Read More...
Windows! they let us look out on the world from our room and see all sorts of stuff. But could windows do more? Researchers have used nanotechnology to create efficient solar collectors which can collect energy from the sun. They make tiny silicon nanoparticles that ... Read More...
Scientists at Vanderbilt University have discovered a new use for the machine that is used to make cotton candy. Cotton candy is basically sugar that is spun into thin fibers. The cotton candy machine was invented by William Morrison a dentist in collaboration with a ... Read More...
Tiny bubbles are fun things when you find them in soft drinks where they tickle your nose. Tiny bubble can also be used to clean fruits and vegetables removing bacteria that might cause food-borne illness. Scientists at Virginia Tech University have used cavitation ... Read More...
To celebrate the holiday season, why not some art? The image is gold nanowires that are being 'grown' on silicon. Nanowires are important for a variety of microelectronics. To grow them scientists have to perfect the recipe by trying different combinations of ... Read More...
Fishing is a tricky business because fish are smart. Well maybe not 'smart' but they can do things to protect themselves from predators who are trying eat them. Scientists at the University of Texas have discovered that the skin of certain ... Read More...
Sometimes the best solutions come out of unlikely sources. Deep within what most folks would consider muck, scientists have found a way to trick a special kind of bacteria to make tiny wires that are made up of just amino acids. Non-toxic ... Read More...
Sometimes nature provides the best examples of how to make new nanometer scale materials especially where there is a particular function. Think about how geckos can climb up walls and you can imagine how studying their feet might lead to new adhesives (including things ... Read More...
Clean energy is a good thing. We need energy to power a lot of things around us (like cars and iPhones) but we also don't want to harm the environment by putting things like carbon monoxide into the atmosphere. A number of energy producing devices ... Read More...
Scientists often use things in nature to design nanometer-scale tools. Things in nature are the result of years (and years) of evolution providing scientists with a final design that has undergone a lot of testing and refinement. The butterfly proboscis is an ... Read More...
Nanotechnology can be used to create new materials with superior properties. Solar cells, cancer drugs and now the visit to the dentist office could be a bit better (well still no fun!). New dental materials are being created. “These resin-based composites (RBCs) containing nanoparticles exhibit ... Read More...
Each year the National Nanotechnology Coordination Office (a friend of Nanooze) hosts a contest for the best nano images. This years winner was taken by Elizabeth Sawicki from the University of Illinois. The images are of nanometer-sized gold nanoparticles in the brain after being whiffed ... Read More...
The National Science Foundation has awarded approximately $81M over the next five years to support a total of 16 different research sites to serve nanotechnologists across the US and the world. The National Nanotechnology Coordinated Infrastructure will give researchers the tools to make a bunch ... Read More...
Scientists at the University of Pennsylvania have developed a new nano-gripper that is based upon a gecko's foot. Gecko's are able to climb walls because their feet are covered with tiny nanostructures that stick to all sorts of surfaces. Think Spiderman. These new nano-grippers ... Read More...
Chameleons change their color to hide from the bad guys but also to fight off other chameleons for their territory. How do they do that? New research suggests they can quickly change tiny nanocrystals made out of guanine. One layer in their skin cells ... Read More...
At some time or another (or another, and another) we get the dreaded food-borne illness. Stomach aches and yes diarrhea. There are many different culprits from bacteria to viruses to parasites. Scientists have developed a way of killing some of these agents on foods using ... Read More...
Scientists have determined that it is harder to spill a latte than just a regular cup of coffee. The first question is----wow scientists have a lot of time on their hands. OK forget about the first question. The real question is why? The layers of ... Read More...
Moore’s Law named for Gordon Moore the founder of Intel describes the idea that the size of transistors will continue to decrease so that we can put more of them into a single chip. Back in the 1970s, there were about 2,000 transistors in your ... Read More...
