In The News & Current Events
Nanotechnology & Material Science News and Discussions
Started by wjfox , May 08 2011 07:09 AM
nanotechnology nano microtechnology micro material science metamaterials graphene atomic engineering molecular manufacturing nanobots
Locationmidwest
http://www.kurzweila...d-human-tissues Harvard scientists have created a type of "cyborg" tissue for the first time by embedding a three-dimensional network of functional, biocompatible, nanoscale wires into engineered human tissues. yowza.
Raklian
An Immortal In The Making
Yeah, I read that this morning. I wonder what this actually means functionally. Things are starting to speed up towards a world that is alien to us.
What are you without the sum of your parts?
Elephant in the forest
LocationPoland, Cracow
http://io9.com/59382...its-environment
Yeah, this shit is impressive.
"I walk alone and do no evil, having only a few wishes, just like an elephant in the forest."
"Laugh, and the world laughs with you. Weep, and you weep alone."
kjaggard
Locationwhere fanciful imaginings and hard won knowledge meet to genesis the future.
If you guys are anything like me, then you'll want to sit down for this one.
ready? okay.
http://www.scienceda...20829172104.htm
A new "nano machine shop" that shapes nanowires and ultrathin films could represent a future manufacturing method for tiny structures with potentially revolutionary properties.
The structures might be tuned for applications ranging from high-speed electronics to solar cells and also may have greater strength and unusual traits such as ultrahigh magnetism and "plasmonic resonance," which could lead to improved optics, computers and electronics.
The researchers used their technique to stamp nano- and microgears; form tiny circular shapes out of a material called graphene, an ultrathin sheet of carbon that holds promise for advanced technologies; and change the shape of silver nanowires, said Gary Cheng, an associate professor of industrial engineering at Purdue University.
"We do this shaping at room temperature and atmospheric pressure, like a nano-machine shop," ...
..."The process could be scaled up for an industrial roll-to-roll manufacturing process by changing laser beam size and scanning speed," Cheng said. "The laser shock-induced shaping approach is fast and low-cost."...
pardon me but, FUCK YEAH!
Edit: Oh and also http://io9.com/59390...ng-a-laser-beam
Scientists at the Vienna University of Technology have developed a brand new method for positioning molecules in space with micrometer precision. They call it "3D-photografting," and it uses laser beams to place microscopic chemical structures in the nooks and crannies of a macromolecular meshwork known as hydrogel.
Edited by kjaggard, 30 August 2012 - 01:11 AM.
Craven, Raklian, eacao and 1 other like this
Live content within small means. Seek elegance rather than luxury, Grace over fashion and wealth over riches.
Listen to clouds and mountains, children and sages. Act bravely, think boldly.
Await occasions, never make haste. Find wonder and awe, by experiencing the everyday.
LocationIllinois
New, less expensive nanolithography technique.
Sciencerocks
Researchers make first all-optical nanowire switch
Laser light is emitted from the end of a cadmium sulfide nanowire.
(Phys.org)—Computers may be getting faster every year, but those advances in computer speed could be dwarfed if their 1's and 0's were represented by bursts of light, instead of electricity.
Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have made an important advance in this frontier of photonics, fashioning the first all-optical photonic switch out of cadmium sulfide nanowires. Moreover, they combined these photonic switches into a logic gate, a fundamental component of computer chips that process information. The research was conducted by associate professor Ritesh Agarwal and graduate student Brian Piccione of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering in Penn's School of Engineering and Applied Science. Post-doctoral fellows Chang-Hee Cho and Lambert van Vugt, also of the Materials Science Department, contributed to the study.
It was published in the journal Nature Nanotechnology. The research team's innovation built upon their earlier research, which showed that their cadmium sulfide nanowires exhibited extremely strong light-matter coupling, making them especially efficient at manipulating light. This quality is crucial for the development of nanoscale photonic circuits, as existing mechanisms for controlling the flow of light are bulkier and require more energy than their electronic analogs. "The biggest challenges for photonic structures on the nanoscale is getting the light in, manipulating it once it's there and then getting it out," Agarwal said. "Our major innovation was how we solved the first problem, in that it allowed us to use the nanowires themselves for an on-chip light source."
The research team began by precisely cutting a gap into a nanowire. They then pumped enough energy into the first nanowire segment that it began to emit laser light from its end and through the gap. Because the researchers started with a single nanowire, the two segment ends were perfectly matched, allowing the second segment to efficiently absorb and transmit the light down its length. "Once we have the light in the second segment, we shine another light through the structure and turn off what is being transported through that wire," Agarwal said. "That's what makes it a switch." The researchers were able to measure the intensity of the light coming out of the end of the second nanowire and to show that the switch could effectively represent the binary states used in logic devices. "Putting switches together lets you make logic gates, and assembling logic gates allows you to do computation," Piccione said. "We used these optical switches to construct a NAND gate, which is a fundamental building block of modern computer processing." A NAND gate, which stands for "not and," returns a "0" output when all its inputs are "1." It was constructed by the researchers by combining two nanowire switches into a Y-shaped configuration. NAND gates are important for computation because they are "functionally complete," which means that, when put in the right sequence, they can do any kind of logical operation and thus form the basis for general-purpose computer processors. "We see a future where 'consumer electronics' become 'consumer photonics'," Agarwal said. "And this study shows that is possible."
<p>Read more at: http://phys.org/news...nowire.html#jCp
Edited by Matthew, 11 September 2012 - 01:45 AM.
https://imagizer.ima.../923/ccltnX.jpg
DNA origami for assembling nanomachines
Cells, receptor proteins, enzymes and DNA have outstanding properties. The question is, can they also be used as building blocks in computer processors, sensor systems and other micromachines in next generation microelectronics? In cooperation with his research group at the University of Kyoto and his partners in Freiburg, Prof. Dr. Osamu Tabata, microengineer and External Senior Fellow at the Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies (FRIAS) is working on the development of a new generation of micromachines based on folded DNA molecules that is smaller, more intelligent and better than the previous generation.
Nanoengineers can print 3D microstructure blood vessels in mere seconds
Nanoengineers at the University of California, San Diego have developed a novel technology that can fabricate, in mere seconds, microscale three dimensional (3D) structures out of soft, biocompatible hydrogels. Near term, the technology could lead to better systems for growing and studying cells, including stem cells, in the laboratory. Long-term, the goal is to be able to print biological tissues for regenerative medicine. For example, in the future, doctors may repair the damage caused by heart attack by replacing it with tissue that rolled off of a printer.
Impressive. With recent developements where they flush cells from actual organs to grow recipents cells on remaining scaffold I thought 3d organ printing would be gone.
http://www.scienceda...20919103138.htm self assembling computer chips are almost here.
Chemists create nanotube structures that can expand and contract without breaking down
September 21, 2012 by Bob Yirka (Phys.org)—
A group of chemists from China, Japan and Korea have succeeded in creating nanotubes that can be made to expand and contract in response to warm or cold water. Led by Myongsoo Lee of Seoul University, the team, as they describe in their paper published in the journal Science, manipulated a series of molecules into forming hexagons, which when stacked resulted in the formation of a nanotube. Upon subjecting the nanotube to warm or cold water, the nanotube was made to expand or contract on demand.
To create the nanotubes, researchers bent six molecules which caused them to automatically assemble themselves into a hexagon. Several of the hexagons were then stacked, creating a nanotube which displayed properties of expanding and contracting in the presence of warm or cold water. The expanding and contracting occurs due to the central molecule being a hydrocarbon called pyridine, which has a nitrogen atom attached to it. That atom attracts water molecules, causing some degree of expansion until the water is heated to 60 °C. At that point, the water molecule attraction is disrupted causing contraction.
Read more at: Chemists create nanotube structures that can expand and contract without breaking down
Nanotubes used to create smallest ever hologram pixels
Hologram. Credit: Dr Haider Butt (Phys.org)—A breakthrough in the use of carbon nanotubes as optical projectors has enabled scientists to generate holograms using the smallest ever pixels.
Scientists have generated holograms from carbon nanotubes for the first time, which could lead to much sharper holograms with a vastly increased field of view. The researchers from the University's Centre of Molecular Materials for Photonics and Electronics (CMMPE) have harnessed the extraordinary conductive and light scattering abilities of these tubes – made from several sheets of carbon atoms rolled into a cylinder – to diffract high resolution holograms. Carbon nanotubes are one billionth of a metre wide, only a few nanometres, and the scientists have used them as the smallest ever scattering elements to create a static holographic projection of the word CAMBRIDGE. Many scientists believe that carbon nanotubes will be at the heart of future industry and human endeavour, with anticipated impact on everything from solar cells to cancer treatments, as well as optical imaging.
One of their most astonishing features is strength – about 100 times stronger than steel at one-sixth the weight. The work on using these nanotubes to project holograms, the 2D images that optically render as three-dimensional, has been published in the journal Advanced Materials. "Smaller pixels allow the diffraction of light at larger angles – increasing the field of view. Essentially, the smaller the pixel, the higher the resolution of the hologram," said Dr Haider Butt from CMMPE, who conducted the work along with Yunuen Montelongo. "We used carbon nanotubes as diffractive elements – or pixels – to produce high resolution and wide field of view holograms." The multi-walled nanotubes used for this work are around 700 times thinner than a human hair, and grown vertically on a layer of silicon in the manner of atomic chimney stacks.
The researchers were able to calculate a placement pattern that expressed the name of this institution using various colours of laser light – all channelled out (scattered) from the nano-scale structures. For Haider Butt this is just the start – as these pixels and their subsequent displays are not only of the highest resolution, but ultra-sensitive to changes in material and incoming light. "A new class of highly sensitive holographic sensors can be developed that could sense distance, motion, tilt, temperature and density of biological materials," said Butt. "What's certain is that these results pave the way towards utilising nanostructures to producing 3D holograms with wide field of view and the very highest resolution."
For the researchers, there are two key next steps for this emerging technology. One is to find a less expensive alternative to nanotubes, which are financially prohibitive: "Alternative materials should be explored and researched, we are going to try zinc oxide nanowires to achieve the same effects." The other is to investigate movement in the projections. Currently, these atomic scale pixels can only render static holograms. Butt and his team will look at different techniques such as combining these pixels with the liquid crystals found in flat-screen technology to create fluid displays – possibly leading to changeable pictures and even razor-sharp holographic video.
Read more at: Nanotubes used to create smallest ever hologram pixels
TDK sees hard drive breakthrough in areal density	October 3, 2012 by Nancy Owano The magnetic head for thermal assist recording. Credit: via Tech-on. (Phys.org)—TDK has realized increased areal density of its hard disk drives. TDK has set a new record, compared to previous areal density at 1Tbit/inch2, with the new stat of increased density to 1.5Tbits/inch2. The point of all this is that TDK can say it will offer 1TB of storage per platter in a 2.5-inch hard drive, and 2TB of storage per platter in a 3.5-inch drive. TDK used a technique that combines platter technology from Japanese firm Showa Denko (Showa Denko Platters) with their refined read-write heads. Showa Denko's disk platter is based on perpendicular magnetic recording with discrete track recording (DTR) superimposed on it.
Perpendicular magnetic recording was an idea that languished for many years, says a TDK technology backgrounder, because the complexity of high-density magnetic recording technology stymied commercial development. "This method demands highly sophisticated thin-film process technologies to form microscopic single poles between multiple thin layers. Beyond that, a number of complex issues arise when trying to miniaturize single poles," said TDK. "One particularly difficult problem is overcoming pole erasure, the deletion of magnetic data due to remanent magnetization at the tip of the pole." As magnetic head manufacturers, TDK says it is now drawing on nano-level thin-film multilayering and processing technologies that clear the technological hurdles one by one. TDK features a Tunneling Magneto-Resistance (TMR) head , which uses thermal assist recording and a near-light field. (Researchers from Hitachi describe thermally assisted recording as an extension to perpendicular magnetic recording. In thermally-assisted recording, says Hitachi, magnetic grains can be made smaller while still resisting thermal fluctuations at room temperature.) Consumers are to see these hard drives using thermal assisted magnetic heads in 2014. Before that, though, TDK will officially unveil its new hard-drive technology this week at CEATEC Japan 2012. At CEATEC, the company will also show a thermal assist recording method based on near-field light by using an actual HDD supporting the method.
Read more at: http://phys.org/news...ensity.html#jCp
New IBM Microscope Technique Has Resolution 100 Times Smaller Than An Atom
Building on their impressive microscopy work over the last few years, a team from IBM has refined their method to precisely measure the structural details of a single molecule. With their technique, they managed to measure very subtle differences in the distribution of electrons within the molecule's bonds. How subtle? We're talking 3 picometers or 0.000000000003 meters.
That's one-hundredth the diameter of an atom!
Seeing how far the IBM research alone has come in just a few years, the future of this "extreme microscopy" could empower scientists to unravel the properties of many more systems of interest to materials science and nanotechnology. The anatomy of molecules long relegated to the realm of quantum mechanics could be thoroughly explored experimentally, and that is a huge step toward an era of molecular machines. We take for granted the ability to manipulate, inspect, and test objects on our scale, but in order to engineer real machines at the nanoscale, molecular components must stand up to the same quality control. This is true for proposed technologies, such as quantum computing and carbon nanotube space elevators.
http://singularityhu...r-than-an-atom/
eacao likes this
wjfox
MIT creates carbon nanotube pencil, doodles some electronic circuits
http://www.extremete...tronic-circuits
the world is crazy
Secret to Making Cheap, High-Density Data Storage Discovered
Self-assembly is a a cheap, high-volume, high-density patterning technique. It allows manufacturers to use the method on a variety of different surfaces. This discovery paves the way for the development of next generation data storage devices, with capacities of up to 10 Terabits/in2 which could lead to significantly greater storage on much smaller data devices.
It's inevitable in the not-too distant future, smartphones and wearable computing will allow terabytes of data to be stored.
Sponge-like graphene makes promising supercapacitor electrodes
(Phys.org)—While most of today's electric vehicles rely on batteries to store energy, supercapacitors have enjoyed significant improvements that have made them serious competitors to batteries. Batteries traditionally have the upper hand in terms of capacity, since supercapacitors' low capacities mean very short driving ranges for electric vehicles. Supercapacitors' biggest advantage lies in their much higher power density compared to batteries, enabling a quicker charge time and the ability to quickly discharge for fast acceleration.
http://phys.org/news...electrodes.html
Can cobalt nanoparticles replace platinum in fuel cells?
(Phys.org)—Platinum works well as a catalyst in hydrogen fuel cells, but it has at least two drawbacks: It is expensive, and it degrades over time. Brown chemists have engineered a cheaper and more durable catalyst using graphene, cobalt, and cobalt-oxide—the best nonplatinum catalyst yet. Their report appears in the journal Angewandte Chemie International Edition.
http://phys.org/news...fuel-cells.html
Craven and eacao like this
Back to In The News & Current Events
Also tagged with one or more of these keywords: nanotechnology, nano, microtechnology, micro, material science, metamaterials, graphene, atomic engineering, molecular manufacturing, nanobots
Website → Introductions →
Started by quantumdoc , 28 Oct 2019 quantum physics, doctor and 7 more...
caltrek
On Topic → Fictional Future →
Bloodshot (2020)
Started by wjfox , 23 Oct 2019 nanobots, nanites, bloodshot
On Topic → Science & Technology of the Future →
Which of these applications of nanoparticles have NOT been realized yet?
Started by Maximum7 , 06 May 2019 nanotechnology
Maximum7
Beyond endohedral fullerenes
Started by Hyndal_Halcyon , 08 Nov 2018 endofullerenes and 4 more...
Hyndal_Halcyon
On Topic → In The News & Current Events →
The World's Cheapest Car is kaput
Started by funkervogt , 14 Jul 2018 tata, nano, car
funkervogt
→ On Topic
→ In The News & Current Events