(Credit:
Peking University and Tsinghua University)
That tiny, plastic-looking black cube up there can absorb up to 180 times its own weight in toxic waste without absorbing any water. How? As with just about every amazing and/or inexplicable scientific breakthrough nowadays, the answer is spelled N-A-N-O.
Researchers at Peking and Tsinghua universities, both in Beijing, have adapted carbon nanotubes into a sponge-like material that can be squeezed dry, which sounds like extremely exciting news for the infomercial cleaning product industry. One minor detail:
Since carbon nanotubes are hydrophobic, there's no modification required to make them not absorb water.
For the record, that includes mysteriously blue infomercial demo water, so there goes that. If not absorbing 20 times as much water as its leading competitor, what exactly is this new type of sponge good for? Environmental cleanup, evidently. See, instead of just dropping dispersants into the middle of an oil or chemical spill--which forces the spill to simply absorb into the water--these light and porous nanosponges could float in water and be used to sop up the spill, after which they could theoretically be wrung dry and reused, like so:
The scientists detail their findings in Advanced Materials. It's an amazing idea, but I get the feeling that carbon nanotube sponges, riskily abbreviated as CNT sponges, won't exactly be cheap.
This story originally appeared on Gizmodo.
The Hidra concept car doesn't need windshield wipers.
(Credit: Fioravanti)Pininfarina automotive designer Leonardo Fioravanti's Hidra concept car uses windshields that repel water and dirt, doing away with the need for wipers. The nanotechnology-based windshield has four layers, with the titanium oxide top layer designed to quickly repel water. A second layer pushes dirt off to its sides, keeping the windshield clean. A third layer works as a sensor, while the fourth layer is charged with electricity to run the whole apparatus. An article describing the technology and concept car appeared in the Italian publication, la Repubblica, and can be read in English here, thanks to the magic of Google.
(Source: Edmunds Straightline)
Two scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have found a way to use light beams for picking up, holding, and moving around cellular and microscopic objects on a microchip, MIT announced Tuesday.
Matthew J. Lang, assistant professor of MIT's biological and mechanical engineering departments, and David C. Appleyard, graduate student in the biological engineering department, determined that using infrared light on select silicon wafers is a way to use optical tweezers as a tool for manipulating objects on microchips.
The breakthrough could have applications in both the biology and electronics industry, according to Lang.
While the idea of optical tweezers has been around for about 30 years, it has necessitated a transparent glass surface in order to work and was, therefore, not applicable to opaque silicon chips. Lang and Appleyard hypothesized that silicon wafers are transparent to infrared wavelengths of light and thought that might be a way to solve the dilemma. The only problem was that the two were initially unsure which types of silicon wafers might work with the new method.
As silicon wafers are expensive and usually only available in bulk, the scientists posted help-wanted signs around MIT. They were able to initially test their theory on used silicon wafers discarded by scientists working on other projects. Once they determined which ones worked best, they then ordered them for the next phase of the project.
The system can work on cells within the nanometer-to-micrometers range, the common range of all living cells, according to Appleyard. The scientists have also been able to move a hollow object that was 20 micrometers and manipulate 16 E. coli cells on a microchip to spell out the letters "MIT."
CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--Society-impacting technological change will increasingly come from physical sciences, such as chemistry, physics and mechanical engineering, rather than information technologies, said Matthew Nordan, the president of nanotechnology research firm Lux Research.
Nanotech at work.
(Credit: LifeStraw.com)Nordan on Monday provided an overview of nanotechnology at the firm's annual conference here, arguing that material sciences will fuel technological development and economic growth in the coming years in much the way that information sciences did in the last 20 years.
These hard sciences are also critical to addressing the global problems of providing fresh water to billions of people worldwide, as well as energy to growing economies.
Nanotechnology deals with very small-scale materials--a nanometer is a billionth of a meter. A human hair is about 80,000 nanometers wide.
A wide range of industries are already using nanotechnology in everything from consumer skin care products to golf balls. By designing custom materials, product manufacturers can create new pharmaceuticals or surfaces that are harder, yet lighter.
Nordan pointed out a few examples where nanotechnology can play a disruptive role in the economy.
The Boeing 787 plane has 15 percent titanium in its body because the material is lighter than other metals. But the worldwide supply of titanium will not be able to meet the projected orders of Boeing's planes, Nordan said.
Instead, new materials using nanotechnology are being developed, and that has significant implications for titanium suppliers and its customers.
Nordan showed off a ping pong ball covered in a nano-nickel material engineered by Integran Defense Systems. He smashed the ball between two pieces of wood with a hammer and wasn't able to dent it.
This material, which is cheaper than titanium, could be worth tens of billions of dollars, he said.
Taking a look at the global economy, Nordan said nanotechnologies are set to play an integral role in economic growth and environmental sustainability.
He argued that material sciences in fields such as chemistry, physics and mechanical engineering are increasingly the source for new technologies that fuel worker productivity and job creation.
In energy, solar photovoltaic companies are using nanotechnology to improve the efficiency of solar cells. The blades on wind turbines, meanwhile, can be covered with water-resistant material to prevent ice from forming, which slows down power generation.
Because of rising energy demand, companies with expertise in materials will increasingly make energy applications, such as large-scale storage.
"No one of these energy technologies will be required--all of them will be," Nordan said.
Water is another area where nanotechnology can be brought to bear with great impact. Companies such as Nano H20 developing membranes that act as filters to clean water.
Nordan showed off the application of nanotechnology in water purification. He had a bowl of water he got from a local pond and drank it through a straw-shaped water filter. Called LifeStraw, the filter is designed for the developing world where lack of access to clean water is a huge health problem.
"Access to water and energy have sparked wars in the past. There are big implications if we don't develop alternatives," he said.
(Credit:
Royal Society of Chemistry)
You can't accuse this robot of not having any heart.
A group of South Korean researchers from the Nano/Micro System Laboratory at Seoul National University has created a miniature robot powered by living heart tissue. The "microrobot" was designed to be injected into the human body and loaded up with a dissolving agent to clear blockages in arteries and other biological systems.
The scientists created the miniature robot by growing heart muscles from a rat on an elastic polymer called polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS).
As this video shows (AVI format), the robot scoots along on its three legs, powered by the twitching heart muscles. The self-powered robot can walk continuously for 10 days, and the polymer it's made out of is biodegradable.
Truly some amazing stuff. We're a little bummed we didn't find out about this robot sooner, or it would have been a pretty high seed in our ongoing battle of nonviolent robots.
[Via Roland Piquepaille's Technology Trends and Chemical Science]
Related stories
(Credit:
Pro-Idee)
I really wish I'd had a NanoNuno in hand when I got caught in yesterday's crazy thunderstorm with my flimsy, water-welcoming dime-store umbrella. The NanoNuno is a nanotech umbrella engineered to repel water; just give it a shake and it's dry right away.
Inventors of the NanoNuno got their idea from the rough surface of the Lotus leaf, which repels dirt and moisture. Because the NanoNuno does the same, the polyester umbrella will stay clean for years, even in light-colored fabric, say the product's makers.
The umbrella, which has a wooden handle and a 38-inch canopy, sells for a 49.95 pounds (about $98) on the U.K. site Pro-Idee. Sure, that's an expensive umbrella, but at least you get to talk like Mork whenever you mention it.
- prev
- 1
- next
