Synthetic Biology

Rudy Rucker has a humorous look at the ludicrous extremes of nanotechnology, at Newsweek. Man, I wish I was that imaginative. Although, now that I think about it, considering some of what he's describing, I really hope his gift is only imagination, and not prophecy. I just can't get enthusiastic about some of the potential places he sees humanity's nano-roads enabling us to go:

But, feckless creatures that we are, we may cast caution to the winds. Why would starlets settle for breast implants when they can grow supplementary mammaries? Hipsters will install living tattoo colonies of algae under their skin. Punk rockers can get a shocking dog-collar effect by grafting on a spiky necklace of extra fingers with colored nails. Or what about giving one of your fingers a treelike architecture? Work 10 two-way branchings into each tapering fingerlet of this special finger, and you’ll have a thousand or so fingertips, and the fine touch of a sea anemone.

Can you imagine your teenager coming home with a spiky collar of living fingers around his neck? Eeeww. And you thought his haircut was bad...

Hat tip: Futurismic

Carbon Nanotubes: Web 2.0

In case you thought there's anything that carbon nanotubes can't do, have a look at this article at NewScientist.com about the ongoing research into developing a fully functional carbon nanotube Spiderman suit. It'll have you climbing the walls.

More Nano Power!!

Last week I told you all about the thrilling new nanotechnology development that may soon let your walking shoes power your iPod. It was such an exciting thing to learn that I know that you are dying to find out what else is going on in the wonderful world of nanotech. The yearning for more nano-knowledge is probably gnawing at you even now, and you feel very much like the desperate person who has been given a single tantalizing bite of cheesecake, only to see the rest of the delightful dessert accidentally upended onto an anthill. The suffering is, no doubt, intense. I simply can't be responsible for that kind of discomfort. The mere thought pains me, so today I will ease our mutual misery by bringing you news of yet another new nanoventure, only this one will be "better, stronger, faster," like Steve Austin after the upgrade. Last week's nanopower invention could run a cellphone; today's nanopower invention could possibly run satellites, or other spacecraft.

Our old friends, carbon nanotubes, having achieved near-universal-usefulness status with their extreme strength and lightness, are trying to further their foothold on ubiquity, by making their way into the realm of solar power. John Toon, writing at Georgia Tech Research News, explains how 3D solar cells, constructed using carbon nanotubes, could change the shape of solar, and thus of spacecraft power:

Unique three-dimensional solar cells that capture nearly all of the light that strikes them could boost the efficiency of photovoltaic (PV) systems while reducing their size, weight and mechanical complexity.

The new 3D solar cells capture photons from sunlight using an array of miniature "tower” structures that resemble high-rise buildings in a city street grid. The cells could find near-term applications for powering spacecraft, and by enabling efficiency improvements in photovoltaic coating materials, could also change the way solar cells are designed for a broad range of applications.

“Our goal is to harvest every last photon that is available to our cells,” said Jud Ready, a senior research engineer in the Electro-Optical Systems Laboratory at the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI). “By capturing more of the light in our 3D structures, we can use much smaller photovoltaic arrays. On a satellite or other spacecraft, that would mean less weight and less space taken up with the PV system.”

You caught how the 3D nature of the little solar towers catches more of the light, right? Not only is there more surface area to absorb the photons, but the grid "traps" the light, rather than letting it bounce off the surface, as occurs now with standard solar panels. Light can bounce within the towers, allowing the new system to capture more of the photons--"virtually all of the light that strikes them." The towers also absorb sunlight coming from any angle, so the sun doesn't have to be directly overhead for peak efficiency. In fact, according to Ready, these towers become more efficient when the Sun's light isn't coming directly at them.

Satellites could see a major upgrade as a result of this directional versatility. Since their solar panels would no longer have to face the light directly, the mechanisms wouldn't have to be in place to turn them all day long, like a giant photon-collecting rotisserie. This is a big improvement. The Air Force, aware of the advantage this new system could provide, has been funding some of the research related to this project. Satellites that don't need extra bells and whistles to keep their solar collectors turned to where the Sun shines could be smaller, lighter, and cheaper than their ancestors. ("Smaller, lighter, cheaper" is the carbon nanotube addendum to "better, stronger, faster.") All of the above applies to other Sun-fueled spacecraft as well. Probes, cameras, space stations, commercial spaceliners and space hotels could all benefit from harvesting more of those useful photons emanating from the Sun.

Space isn't the only place where this technology could improve photon collection. Earthly solar panels could get a big boost from the improvement to their efficiency. According to Maria Surma Manka, at Green Options, the new way of structuring solar cells could up their juice output significantly--"These three-dimensional panels produce about 60 times more current than regular solar cells. " Wow. 60 times more current? That could give solar power a much higher usefulness quotient, don't you think? All those panels mushrooming on the roofs of Californians might soon get a whole lot more effective at powering the houses below them. It might even make the mushrooming spread to other territories. I wonder if the nano-enhancements would make solar power have potential even in soggy places like Oregon? (Don't mushrooms like it damp?) Wouldn't that be an incredible feat? A solar-powered Oregon. Only carbon nanotubes could pull that off.

God did a good thing when He invented carbon nanotubes.

Hat tip: Green Options, via Bill Hobbs at Ecotality

Nano Power!!

It's been a while since I read anything fun about nanotechnology, so I went hunting today. Searching high and low, I combed the Internet for any signs of life in the nanoworld. Okay, that's a massive exaggeration. All I did was head over to LiveScience.com and peruse their latest headlines. This one by Bill Christensen--"Tiny Generator Would Make Electricity While You Walk"--sounded promising. What's the first thing anyone learns about nanotech? It's tiny. So, I clicked my way on over to see whether these "tiny generators" were small enough to qualify for nano-status.

They do, indeed. What I found was a nifty new accomplishment by Professor Zhong Lin Wang of the Georgia Institute of Technology:

Wang has created a tiny nanogenerator that produces a continuous flow of electricity by harvesting mechanical energy from its surroundings. It can produce energy from ultrasonic waves, mechanical movement or even blood flow.

Christensen explains that Wang's tiny power plants are constructed of lots of little wires which flex with the motion around them. The flexing builds an electric charge in the wires, which when moved enough to contact a "collection plate," deposit their electric load. Enough of those wires added together can gather tiny amounts of direct current. We are not looking at lighting Chicago with this method of electrical generation. We're not even talking about lighting your house. However, some of the little electronic devices most of us rely on every day to ease our way through the modern world, like cellphones and iPods? These we might have a shot at juicing with nanogenerators.

So many things that we do every day create force that goes to waste. We stand up. We sit down. We turn our heads. We drum our fingers. We breathe and blink our eyes. All that movement could certainly wiggle a few wires. Of course, there's the question of how you place those wires and collection plates where they can reap this power whirlwind. No one is going to want eyelid power stations, are they? (Well, some people might, judging by the body piercing craze.) Running electronic devices off of various body implants might be edging us a little closer than we'd like into Borg territory--merging man with machine. However, there are other options. Putting aside the notion of implants, how would you like to charge your phone just by taking a stroll?

Wang and his group believe that the nanowires could produce as much as 4 watts per cubic centimeter. "If you had a device like this in your shoes when you walked, you would be able to generate your own small current to power small electronics," Wang noted. "Anything that makes the nanowires move within the generator can be used for generating power. Very little force is required to move them."

Here's a scenario for you: You crash your car in the middle of nowhere, barely escaping the Hollywoodesque inferno. Miraculously, you are completely unharmed. The miracle is not all-inclusive, however. You go to call for help, only to discover your cellphone is dead--no hope of charging it in your recently-exploded Subaru. (Oh wait, Subarus are supposed to be really safe. Let's make it a Pinto.) What do you do? Why, you start walking toward the nearest town, of course. The phone charges while you're hoofing it, and the rescue team meets you before you can make it a quarter of the way to the local hamlet. (By the way, the walking toward town is a good idea even if it's not going to charge your phone. I mean what else are you going to do, sit there listening to soothing music on your iPod? That's going to have to be charged eventually too, so you might as well get going.)

Needless to say, at some point we'll get over our Borgaphobia and submit to the implants. After all, eventually we're going to find it inconvenient to have those little generators limited to our shoes. What if we want to go for a walk on the beach--barefoot, of course--and we need to make an important call? No, the shoe thing just won't work long-term. Christensen did mention that the nanogenerators could collect power from flowing blood. I think the answer will be miniature floating power stations, circulating around in our bloodstreams. While they're at it, they can check our blood sugar, and clean our arteries, and balance our hormones, and... You get the picture. I think we should put them in dogs, too. The power they generate could run yet-to-be invented electro-gadget dog collars that keep Phydeaux from running away, and peeing on the carpet, and other important pet/pet-owner bones of contention. I'm sure if we think about it hard enough, we will also find a way to use these bloodstream nanogenerators to solve all the world's other problems, including terrorism and halitosis. There is just no limit to the benefits of nanotech.

Wow!!

Okay, I wasn't going to blog this--I was just doing a little reading for my own pleasure, but I said "Wow!!" so many times that I had to pass it on. Popular Mechanics November issue has its "Breakthrough Awards" for 2006, in an article written by Logan Ward, and some of the winners are really astounding. Anyone who reads the Meow will not be surprised that my favorite breakthrough was the nanotech innovation. I am a fan of all things nano, and have written about enough of the future miracles and current achievements that some of you probably get sick of the topic, but what they're doing is so cool I know you'll be enthusiastic too. Ward writes:

THE GOAL OF nanofabrication is to make tiny machines build themselves using molecules they grab from their surroundings. It's easy to dismiss the concept as science fiction — or hype. Until you hear what's been going on in the lab of MIT materials scientist Angela Belcher, a star in nanotechnology circles.

Working with colleagues Paula Hammond and Yet-Ming Chiang, Belcher genetically altered a virus, the M-13 bacteriophage, inducing it to grab a pair of conductive metals — cobalt oxide and gold — from a solution. As the viruses rearrange themselves, they form highly aligned organic nanowires that can be used as a lithium-ion battery electrode — one so densely packed it can store two or three times the energy of conventional electrodes of the same size and weight. So far, the team has grown an anode. The next steps-which could be completed in two years-will be to grow a cathode, and to perfect the Saran Wrap-thin polymer electrolyte that separates the electrodes.

"What we want to do is have a beaker where you mix everything together and out comes the functional device," Belcher says. "Toy boxes often say 'some assembly required.' These will be no assembly required. My dream is to have a DNA sequence that codes for the synthesis of any material you want to make."

If that doesn't make you at least a little giddy for the fun and adventure that is nanotechnology, well, I don't know what to say. Perhaps science just isn't your thing, and you should read farther down the page to other Meow posts where the topic is more political. I will warn you, though--science, technology, and science fiction rear their lovely heads frequently around here, so if you keep reading, you won't be able to avoid them for long. As for those of you who get just as happy as I do at a good examination of the future of space flight, or a glimpse at the hope of growing human organs in a lab, the PM article is right up your alley, and sure to be a fun way for you to spend a few minutes of your time. Enjoy...

Hat tip: Instapundit

A Nano-Factory In Every Home

Sioux Lady, who knows my affection for all things nano, left a comment sending me to this fun and fascinating animation, about future advances in nanotechnology, in which a household appliance builds products, molecule by molecule. The animation showed the general workings of how your own personal "nano-factory" could build you a laptop, or other desirable worldly goods, right there in the comfort of your own home. Need a new dress for this evening's outing? How about a skillet to replace the one that keeps burning dinner? Heck, how about dinner itself? (The video didn't mention these items; I just like to take an idea and run with it.) It did mention the laptop, however, so we're talking here about pretty sophisticated product manufacture, and I assume one would have to plug in some sort of design schematic from which the mini nano-factory would work. It would start at the molecular level, and using a nano-conveyor belt system, would assembly-line the structures up to larger and larger combinations, until finally assembling the whole, with (I'm quoting the video, here) no waste products other than warm air, and water.

Now, I am an optimist, and can see potential for global transformation in something as mundane as a slipper, if you give me a good reason, but I have to admit, this goes into my "highly probably too good to be true" file. Something for practically nothing, with no bad side effects? Dream, dream, dream. On the other hand, there are so many impossible things in the world: space shuttles, television, the human body, heck, carrots, that I can't categorically dismiss this as impossible, and boy, wouldn't it be a world changer if it ever came to be? Can you imagine shipping a few thousand--or a few hundred thousand, since ultimately they could manufacture themselves-- of these babies to poverty-stricken locations around the globe? Once we got past the inevitable confiscation by corrupt and tyrannical regimes, overcome entirely by the machines' self-manufactured ubiquity, there would be no going back. Governments would no longer be able to imprison their people in poverty and ignorance. World transformation would ensue. Okay, I let the optimist out of the box, and now there's no holding her back. Anyway, despite her over-abundant enthusiasm, it is still fun to speculate. Check out the video; let it manufacture a few speculations of your own.

Nanotubes And The Inkjet Printer

My abiding love for carbon nanotubes only deepens with time. Every new advance impresses me more with the unlimited capacity that these tiny building blocks seem to have to turn our world into a science fiction adventure. I would like to live in a science fiction adventure--one of the nice ones, like Star Trek TNG, or Stargate SG 1, but without the built-in bad guys. My life has enough problems without adding in Romulans, Borg, or evil alien symbiotes. Cloaking devices, food replicators, and transporters, on the other hand, could be awfully useful. Anyway, I've got another nanotech breakthrough to report, so let's get to it.

One question I'm sure we've all got nagging at us regularly is, "What would take nanotech one step closer to ubiquity?" Answer: An easier method of fabricating nanotech devices, of course! Science Daily has a report from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, which says that a group of scientists at Rensselaer (with campuses in Troy N.Y., as well as Hartford, Conn.), along with other researchers working in Finland, have come up with a new way to make nanotube electronic devices. How, you ask? (I'm so glad you did ask, otherwise this post would have to be a lot shorter. Very anticlimactic.) They suspended carbon nanotubes in a water solution, filled an ink cartridge with them, plugged it into a commercial inkjet printer, and viola--instant nano printing press. The nanotubes are printed on the paper, just like ink, except they are such excellent electrical conductors, that the result is basically printed nanocircuits.

So, what does this mean in real life terms? The article at Science Daily quotes "...Robert Vajtai, a researcher with the Rensselaer Nanotechnology Center at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute":

"Printed carbon nanotube structures could be useful in many ways," Vajtai said. "Some potential applications based on their electrical conductivity include flexible electronics for displays, antennas, and batteries that can be integrated into paper or cloth." Printing electronics on cloth could allow people to actually "wear" the battery for their laptop computer or the entire electronic system for their cell phone, according to Vajtai.

That sci fi enough for you? But wait, there's more. How would you like a newspaper that you keep from day to day? Now, you're not going to keep it because you really like that article from May of 2002, but because every day the words change, thanks to the conductive nano-ink. Same paper, new articles. (Don't ask me how it works; it's all part of the nanotech miracle.) Cool, huh? Of course, they better come out with something a little sturdier than standard newsprint, don't you think? (It also wouldn't hurt if they could get the journalism part a little more up to snuff, if you ask me.) Needless to say, we would all miss the other functions that newspapers serve. Birdcages will still need lining. Fish will still need wrapping, and moving might never be as easy again without something on hand that's convenient for wrapping breakables. However, I'm sure the moving part will stop being a problem once they invent that transporter. We'll eliminate the need to wrap things at all. We'll just beam them to their new location.

There are myriad advantages to this inkjet method of producing conductive surfaces:

The approach is simple, versatile, and inexpensive, which makes it superior to other methods for producing conductive surfaces, according to Vajtai. "A great advantage of our process is that the printed patterns do not require curing, which is known to be a limiting factor for conventional conductive ink applications," he said. "And since our ink is a simple water-based dispersion of nanotubes, it is environmentally friendly and easy to handle and store."

According to the article, while it's already cheap, this method will be getting cheaper as carbon nanotubes become more widely used, and thus more widely manufactured. As the article states, this nano-ink is environmentally friendly, which is always a plus with electronics, and not easy to come by, as our recent forays into Greenpeace rankings for electronics manufacturers demonstrated. Another thing that should keep the cost down is that most of the components used in printing with the nano-ink are standard off-the-shelf items: printer, cartridges, and even the paper and plastic used as the printing surface. The only specialty item are the water-soluble nanotubes. The scientists at Rensselaer made their own, but it looks like future entrepreneurs will be able to skip this step. You know how it works in free markets. Where there's a demand, there's usually a supply.

So, if you're going to be wearing your cell phone, or laptop battery as a piece of clothing, you'll want to have multiple fashion options, right? Not everyone looks good in basic black. Well, right now the fashion-friendly scientists at Rensselaer are working on chemical modifications so that their nano-ink can come in a variety of colors. Isn't that thoughtful of them? Colored nano-ink could have so many uses. Pretty soon, I'm sure I'll be writing in the Meow about some new trend in nano-art--a field not yet invented to my knowledge, but sure to be coming to a future near you. It will produce wonders of incredible usefulness and functionality, combined with a rare beauty, all because scientists found a way to make nano-ink in lots of pretty colors. What that nano-art will be I can't even imagine right now. I can't, but you can bet someone else will.

The whole flexible electronics idea makes me wonder if someday we'll be able to roll up the TV, and the laptop, and tuck them in our luggage when we're heading out on vacation, say to a remote cabin in the mountains. We won't have to worry about a power supply way out in the wilderness. We'll be wearing it.

Hat tip: Futurismic

Nano Power

If you read the Meow at all, you know I'm completely enamored with all things nano: carbon nanotubes, nanoparticles, nanobots, nanotech. There's just something magical about them. These incredibly tiny workhorses (the width of a few atoms) do such an amazing array of things. Carbon nanotubes can deliver minuscule amounts of cancer fighting chemo medicine to exactly the spot where cancer lies in the body. They're working on nanobots that will act as an in-body monitoring system to diagnose and display individual health stats through the equivalent of "arm TV." Nanotubes can regrow bone, and reconnect severed nerves, and let's not forget that they are the miracle on which we're pinning our hopes for a space elevator. There are more applications of nanotech than I can even begin to list, and more being thought up every day.

A comment on the "Cool and Interesting" post from yesterday brought up another nano miracle; a nanofiber battery, which doesn't use chemicals to store and release energy. No using chemicals hopefully means less pollution, eh? This got my curiosity up and led me to do a little research this morning, and guess what I found? Nanotech earns another blue ribbon at the "cool and interesting" fair. According to Massachusetts Institute of Technology's News Office, researchers at MIT are charging ahead (pardon the pun) with work on this battery breakthrough:

Work at MIT's Laboratory for Electromagnetic and Electronic Systems (LEES) holds out the promise of the first technologically significant and economically viable alternative to conventional batteries in more than 200 years.

Joel E. Schindall, the Bernard Gordon Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) and associate director of the Laboratory for Electromagnetic and Electronic Systems; John G. Kassakian, EECS professor and director of LEES; and Ph.D. candidate Riccardo Signorelli are using nanotube structures to improve on an energy storage device called an ultracapacitor.

Capacitors store energy as an electrical field, making them more efficient than standard batteries, which get their energy from chemical reactions. Ultracapacitors are capacitor-based storage cells that provide quick, massive bursts of instant energy. They are sometimes used in fuel-cell vehicles to provide an extra burst for accelerating into traffic and climbing hills.

However, ultracapacitors need to be much larger than batteries to hold the same charge.

The LEES invention would increase the storage capacity of existing commercial ultracapacitors by storing electrical fields at the atomic level.

Okay, quick and easy: Ultra capacitors have some advantages and disadvantages over regular batteries. They have "--a 10-year-plus lifetime, indifference to temperature change, high immunity to shock and vibration and high charging and discharging efficiency." Those are the advantages. However, they traditionally also have "...an energy storage capacity around 25 times less than a similarly sized lithium-ion battery." This makes them pretty impractical for putting in your portable radio. MIT's article goes into the particulars of why the ultracapacitors have to be so big, but suffice it to say that the materials used before now made them too big to be practical for cell phones and iPods. Enter the nanotubes--nanotubes are minuscule, and very organized. They conduct electricity extremely well. Aligning them in the ultracapacitors gives the battery a whole lot more surface area, which means they can hold a whole lot more energy. The nanotube ultracapacitors can be made in all the battery sizes we have now. All of this sums up to a best of both worlds scenario. What's on the horizon is a small "battery", that's based on electrical fields rather than chemicals, is durable, works in heat or cold, has more power than your lithium-ion rechargeables, and lasts for ten years.

Nanotubes are so cool.

p.s. Thanks Sioux Lady!!

Nano Alert

Here's some really good news on the medical diagnoses and nanotech front--if you can get past all the high-faluting, scientific mumbo-jumbo speak. It lost me when it got to "Godel's incompleteness theorem", but up till then it was really fascinating.

Update: One thing of note in this piece is that the author talks about the way medicine will change in the near future, not just in improved diagnosis, but improved treatment. With the new technology he describes, he says doctors will actually be able to cure many of the diseases the nanotech advances help diagnose, something he says is rare at this point. He points to a day of truly individualized medicine, where doctors have real answers for each patient, and not just educated guesses drawn from general observation. Sounds good to me.

Electricians, Nanoparticles, And Dancing

We’ve had electricians buzzing around here for the last couple of days. They’ve been amazing. Because we’re building a garage this summer (also known as a power tool recreation area), we needed to beef up our electrical system. We had to reroute the power where it comes into the house, because if you do any upgrading the city likes you to commit to a total overhaul. We put in a new meter with a main circuit shutoff up at the front of the house (the old one was in the back, with open wires that looped all the way around the building—scary and messy), and then ran a giant cable through the attic to a new circuit panel in the basement. By putting in a bigger panel, we will have room to expand the service into the garage, thus providing power to lots of lovely tools. Power tools. My eyes are glowing even as I type this.

This electrical upgrade went so smoothly. It was fun watching the experts at work. We had already replaced the panel once ourselves, about fifteen years ago. (We obviously did not upgrade enough, or we wouldn’t have had to repeat the process.) At the time, poverty made us brave, so my husband did most of the work himself, with a little consulting from an electrician we were acquainted with back then. The projects then and the project now were night and day. Ours took days, and we had to deal with the power being down for long stretches, some trial and error, a lot of frustrations, some damage to other systems on the side (plaster specifically), and an adequate, but not outstanding result. Theirs flowed like a waltz, intricate and precise. They were so fast, and so competent, and the results are so clean and orderly. They didn’t waste any effort, or damage any other parts of the house. Everything was purposeful and directed toward a specific goal. There was nothing random about how they did their job, and it made them an object lesson in efficiency. Our power was off for a sum total of two hours. Two hours--that’s efficiency for you.

So anyway, I started reading this article that I couldn’t help relating to the difference between our electrical fumblings and the productivity of the experts that we’ve witnessed over the last couple of days. It’s on a completely different subject, medical nanotech applications, but the lessons of efficiency hold, and the comparison to an intricate dance. In a report titled “Magnetic Field Acts as 'Remote Control' to Deliver Nanomedicine", Physorg.com reports on advances in efficiency in the fight against cancer (with potential applications for neurological and cardiac diseases as well), being developed at the University of Buffalo. It looks at nanoparticles as a delivery method for cancer fighting medicine, but with some interesting twists. As with any complicated dance, there are several steps involved.

The first is the development of the cancer treatment, in this case, photodynamic therapy. According to Physorg.com, Paras Prasad, Ph.D., is the executive director of UB's Institute for Lasers, Photonics and Biophotonics, SUNY Distinguished Professor in the Department of Chemistry in the UB College of Arts and Sciences:

According to Prasad, photodynamic therapy is one of the most promising treatments for cancer; it's also being investigated as a treatment method for cardiovascular, dermatological and ophthalmic diseases.

PDT exploits the propensity of tumors to retain higher concentrations of photosensitive drugs than normal tissues. When exposed to laser light, these drugs generate toxic molecules that destroy the cancer cells.

Interesting, huh? The drug makes toxins when lasered, and tumors hold onto the drug more than normal tissue, so the toxins get concentrated in the tumors when the laser is applied, thus sparing the normal tissue to a certain degree. Cool. The photosensitive drug is not totally limited to the cancerous tissue, though, which does result in some side effects, the main one being that the patient has a strong sensitivity to light for four to six weeks after treatment, from the drug accumulating in the skin. The article doesn't go into how that manifests, but I would assume we're at least talking about a high risk of sunburn. No doubt there is damage to non-cancerous tissue from the toxins released by the photosensitive drugs when the skin, and probably the eyes, are exposed to light. Finding a way to keep the drug from wandering to parts hither and yon would be a good thing.

This leads to steps two and three in the medical dance. Two is how to get the drug to the tumor in very small quantities, just sufficient to damage the cancer and not the surrounding tissue. Three is how to get the drug to head for and stay in the target area, and not wander off into healthy tissue, so the side effects can be minimal. Step two uses our old friends, nanoparticles. For this application the University of Buffalo team created nanocarriers, developed from polymer micelles (whatever they are), tiny receptacles designed to carry the medicine, and hold onto it well during transport. Step three is where the twist comes in. They added iron oxide nanoparticles inside the nanocarriers. So what, you say? This is where it gets neat. They discovered that if they apply a magnetic field to these iron oxide enhanced nanocarriers, they can direct them where they want them to go:

In the experiments, nanocarriers were shown to be efficiently taken up by cultured tumor cells in the area exposed to the magnetic field, as demonstrated by confocal microscopy.

While the team has demonstrated this concept with PDT drugs, Prasad said the technique would be useful in delivering gene therapy, chemotherapy or practically any kind of pharmaceutical treatment into cells.

"Because the nanocarriers proved to be significantly stable and because they retained the PDT drugs, we are optimistic that they will be able to deliver a wide range of therapies to tumors or other disease sites in the body without any significant loss in the circulatory system or in normal tissues," said Prasad.

They now move on to step four in this medical Waltz--in vivo testing, which is a fancy way of saying they're going live. Preliminary studies in animals indicate that the magnetic fields work in the body the same way as in the test tube, with the magnetic fields causing the medicine to accumulate at the tumor site. That's way exciting if you ask me. I've seen people suffering the effects of chemotherapy before, and it's really incredibly hard what some cancer patients go through. The more they develop ways to limit the effects of various drugs to just the targeted tissue, the better. Advances like these are such a blessing to the people who are already dealing with the trauma of life-threatening illness, and the pain and exhaustion that come with them. What a great thing for doctors to be able to limit the trauma of the treatment itself.

I just find it amazing all the things that science is discovering as they build more and more on existing knowledge. The dance gets more intricate and the dancers get more adept. The treatment they're developing at UB is so like the work that our electricians did this week, efficient, precise, and clean, without wasted effort, or damage to other systems. They're combining the knowledge of photodynamic drug therapy, nanoparticles, and magnetic field theory, and making the whole system work. There's more work to be done, I grant you, and it's not a two day job, like our electricians pulled off, but considering what they're doing, I think they deserve a little more time--at least a couple weeks.

Nanobots And Your Health

I got an email from a friend yesterday that said this:

Here's my idea for some scientific dudes to make millions off of: I want a pill I can swallow that contains some kind of microtechnology that will scan my system to determine which hormones are not present or at insufficient levels and just release those hormones. Every time you take the pill it determines your need of the day and provides it. Vitamins, too.

There is at least one scientific dude who has a similar notion. The futuristic medical concept I read about today is not exactly the same as what my friend asked for. There are no pills to swallow. I'm doubting pill swallowing was really her goal, though. I think what she really wants is some sort of automatic health monitoring system, something that could collect and analyse physical data, and treat imbalances it found in her system. Thus we return to a favorite Meow topic, nanotech.

Tracy Staedter, at Discovery.com last October, wrote about one man's vision for a dermal display that would report all sorts of snazzy medical data, like heart-rate and cholesterol.

The dermal display, still a theoretical idea based on fact, is being worked on by Robert A. Freitas, Jr., a senior research fellow at the Institute for Molecular Manufacturing in Palo Alto, Calif.

The display would consist of billions of light-emitting robots implanted under the skin and capable of rearranging themselves to spell out words and numbers and produce animations.

They would display data received from other nanobots in the body designed to monitor a person's vital signs. Instructions from the patient could be communicated by touch-screen-like finger taps on the skin.

There would be billions of nanobots spread throughout the body collecting readings, and communicating them to the display. One cool thing is that the nanobots would feed off the same energy we do, so they would, in effect, be self sustaining. Staedter goes on to say:

Sitting about 200 to 300 microns below the surface of the skin, the display would consist of about three billion nanorobots that cover a rectangular area on the back of hand or the forearm about six by five centimeters.

The mote-sized machines would maintain their respective positions in a predetermined array and draw on local sources of oxygen and glucose for power.

When turned on, they would emit light through diode-like elements embedded in their surface. When turned off by the user, the skin would resume its natural color.

Here's the part my friend will like the best, "Not only could the dermal display be used for medical purposes, but it could also be used as an embedded PDA, MP3, or video player. " Arm TV--on every kid's Christmas list.

This article didn't talk about the treatment end of things, but good grief, if the time comes when they can invent Arm TV, I'm sure they will be able to deliver vitamins, and keep your hormones in balance, along with cleaning the cholesterol out of your blood, repairing heart tissue, eradicating cancer cells...

Hat tip: Futurismic

Sci Fi Fun

I found a fun new-to-me website today, called Technovelgy.com. Its self-description is "where science meets fiction." Ahh. Two of my favorite things combined in one convenient easy-to-open package. It's an exploration of "the predictions of science fiction writers coming true in today's world," and includes databases on authors and books, a glossary of sci fi innovations, a timeline of science fiction inventions and their counterparts in reality, as well as a blog on the latest sci fi inventions to come to real life fruition. Check it out.

Update: Among the plethora of sci fi turned reality tidbits I have read about today are these: "Medical Nanotubes" designed to deliver minute quantities of medicine to precise spots in the body (if they can get the cork out of the tube), Mice with the ability to regrow parts of their bodies (including organs), Liquid Armor that could give you comfortable protection in dangerous situations, and Fabric that can protect its wearer from the effects of energy weapons. (We're not quite to the age of phasers yet, but this fabric can protect you from Tasers, stun guns and cattle prods, so it looks useful for all your urban and farm apparel needs.)

Carbon Nanotubes--What Will They Think Of Next?

Carbon nanotubes are turning into the miracle cure for all problems scientific. Wikipedia says they "are cylindrical carbon molecules with novel properties that make them potentially useful in a wide variety of applications in nanotechnology, electronics, optics, and other fields of materials science. They exhibit extraordinary strength and unique electrical properties, and are efficient conductors of heat." I've read about them as the best hope for super-strong, super-lightweight cabling for space elevators, possibly enabling mankind to reach space without the pesky problems of lift-off and g-forces. Scientists are exploring their potential for use in medical applications, such as forming minuscule latticework for rejoining/regrowing severed nerves, and such out-there concepts as making nanobots to clean our blood. They are also considered one of the keys to the future extreme miniaturization of electronics (as if we need electronics to get much smaller--I can barely dial my cell phone now.)

Today's examination of the wonders of carbon nanotubes centers around this article I read at Livescience.com. At the University of California in Riverside they're working on carbon nanotube bone grafts, structures upon which the body would grow new bone and fuse it to existing bone. There are new advancements being made in the nanotube bone graft arena by virtue of a new purification process that removes the heavy metals from the nanotubes--heavy metals that are harmful to living tissue. This is apparently necessary because the bone grafts would be permanent, and the nanotubes would stay in the body. This differs from the piece I read about advances in reconnecting severed nerves in the brain. In that case, after the nerves regrow, the lattice of nanotubes breaks down and is flushed from the body through the urinary system.

In both of these scenarios, though, the whole concept is amazing. Imagine someone who has lost some portion of their bone to an accident, or because they had to have a tumor removed. Now think of them being able to regrow their own bone to replace the lost section, not donor bone, but theirs, without the rejection factor. Imagine a person who's had to have brain surgery not losing brain functionality due to nerve damage, because doctors are able to use nanotubes to make the nerves reconnect. It really is an exciting time to be observing the strides the scientific community is making. I wonder what's next.

Update: More coolness. Here's one answer to the "what's next" question. From Physorg.com--"Thin films of carbon nanotubes deposited on transparent plastic can also serve as a surface on which cells can grow. And as researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston (UTMB) and Rice University suggest in a paper published in the May issue of the Journal of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, these nanotube films could potentially serve as an electrical interface between living tissue and prosthetic devices or biomedical instruments." They're talking about making prosthetic devices that can be controlled by nerve impulses, and send sensory data the other way. Wow.