RIP: Heinrich Rohrer Father of the Scanning Tunneling Microscope

Heinrich Rohrer is often called the father of nanotechnology.  Rohrer with the help of his research partner Gerd Binnig of the IBM Research Laboratory in Zurich, Switzerland, in 1979, patented the  Scanning Tunneling Microscope which for the first time in history allowed scientists to see individual atoms.  The pair shared the 1986 Nobel prize in physics which they also shared with physicist Ernst Ruska, who designed the first electron microscope in the 1930s.

Not only did the microscope allow scientists to see atoms,  it also allowed the construction and manipulation of extremely small objects — because their device could be used to move atoms around on a surface.

Heinrich Rohrer - the father of nanotechnology, died of natural causes - May 16 at his home in Wollerau, Switzerland, at the age of 79.

Read more at the LA Times article HERE

Thanks to listener Dan for the heads up

Nanoparticle Breakthrough Could Save Million of Cancer Patients

Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine has developed a nano-particle application expected to allow doctors to examine up to 100 distinct features in individual cancer cells.

This is similar to radioactive dyes that are now used to highlight organs for more traditional scanning technologies, but a whole magnitude more sensitive and therefor much more effective.

The real genius here is how this was acomplished. The team combined signal emitting molecules with composite organic-inorganic nanoparticles which boosted the signal strength and allow the team to track changes in certain proteins in cancer causing cells.

Read complete article here

Rat Power: Nanogenerators Produce Electricity from Running Rodents

Nanotech Pied Pipers? “...we have demonstrated ways to convert even irregular biomechanical energy into electricity,” said Zhong Lin Wang, a Regent’s professor in the Georgia Tech School of Materials Science and Engineering. “This technology can convert any mechanical disturbance into electrical energy.”

The demonstrations of harnessing biomechanical energy to produce electricity were reported February 11 in the online version of the American Chemical Society journal Nano Letters. The research was supported by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the U.S. Department of Energy, the U.S. Air Force, and the Emory-Georgia Tech Center for Cancer Nanotechnology Excellence.

The study demonstrates that nanogenerators – which Wang’s team has been developing since 2005 – can be driven by irregular mechanical motion, such as the vibration of vocal cords, flapping of a flag in the breeze, tapping of fingers or hamsters running on exercise wheels. Scavenging such low-frequency energy from irregular motion is significant because much biomechanical energy is variable, unlike the regular mechanical motion used to generate most large-scale electricity today. Complete story

Georgia tech image

Nanotech ain't living up to the hype!

Yep as IO9 puts it: Gray Goo Can't do all the things you say it can do. Science fiction authors give too much credit to nanotech, which hasn't achieved all that much in real life. But science fiction authors claim it can do everything, from destroying the world to turning you into a superhuman. Complains Santa Cruz SF writer Christopher Bradley:

• Never before has a technology that's done so little gone so far in literature. We can basically do almost nothing useful with nanotechnology, but sci-fi writers dream up these magical scenarios where nanotechnology can do anything and everything. It can make people gods or destroy the world in a variety of gray goo scenarios.
  

Bradley's core observation and angst stems from the fact that there exists very little actual nano technology, but the very mention in a story and it adds weight and depth, which he says happens a lot in today's SF literature.

And that is what gave me pause in reading this article - my whole supposition rests on that very observation. A good author will see the science and technology of today and be able to extrapolate it into the future. Some authors have seen with amazing clarity! All I have to say is Arthur Clarke. Here is an author that envisioned geostationary orbits and telecommunications in an era where space travel was a pipe-dream and commercial utilization was pie in the sky. The reasoning was sound for arguing against Clarke's dream. Why spend fiendish amounts of money doing something that land lines, antennas and undersea cables was doing quite well. Today we think nothing of placing international phone calls by ourselves and we have come to expect television, phone and data served to us fast anywhere in the world from anywhere and we expect it instantly.

If someone can see possible tech from the nano research and extrapolate it....that to me is the heart of science fiction. Of course there are those authors that treat fringe tech as window dressing, not significantly adding to the work what so ever, then again it comes down to comfort ' expertise and expertise. An example here is Pern for one. Space travel, AI and advanced genetics are virtual window dressing in McCaffree's Dragon Riders...somebody has got to say so what here.... As her series progressed these elements were added to yes add some depth and believability but otherwise it means a world without Dragons....I am not ready for a world like that yet...you?

Nanotechnology cancer risk found

The LA Times reports some disturbing news of health risks associated with nano-tech.

Certain types of carbon nanotubes -- microscopic graphite cylinders used in a small but growing number of Space Age applications -- could pose a cancer risk similar to that of asbestos if inhaled. Researchers found that mice injected with nanotubes quickly developed the same biological damage associated with early exposure to asbestos fibers, a known carcinogen. The nanotubes posed the greatest danger to workers who could inhale the dust-like particles during manufacturing. In finished products, the nanotubes are embedded in other material and thus pose less risk to consumers. Precautions (are) now in place in many factories, usually requiring workers to wear respirators.

Nanotechnology and the phone

I was reading through Kim Komando's online newsletter and found this short movie on Nanotech. Now yeah, it is a bit self-serving, however at the same time, it does have some intriguing prospects for tech in the near future. Here is what the article had to say in brief:

Cell phones have gotten smaller and cheaper over the years. And, new features are added regularly. But Nokia envisions a startlingly different type of phone. It’s called the Morph, and it uses nanotechnology.

Plus it has some good background music! Enjoy

IBM researchers build supercomputer-on-a-chip

From Infoworld online:

I know that most of you are familiar with Moore's Law which concerns the size of computer chips or tech in general. To simplify it : Moore basically said that every 2 years the amount of transistors that can be placed on a chip will double and do it for half the cost. Now with the research going on at IBM that very formula could happen to super computer tech.

The technology, called silicon nanophotonics, replaces some of the wires on a chip with pulses of light on tiny optical fibers for quicker and more power-efficient data transfers between cores on a chip. The technology, which can transfers data up to a distance of a few centimeters, is about 100 times faster than wires and consumes one-tenth as much power. The improved data bandwidth and power efficiency of silicon nanophotonics will bring massive computing power to desks. We'll be able to have hundreds or thousands of cores on a chip.

Now this tech is designed to bring down the total amount of "wire" inside a chip. Each chip contains millions and in the near future, billions of transistors. Now to function, each transistor needs some wire to allow it to function. So in the short term, wire will not be completely replaced. On the horizon though is a transistor or light valve if you would that will store digital information as light instead of electrical energy. This may further shrink the size of a super computer to the size of today's cell phone.

Nanophotonics is still a decade away and storing data as light is only theory and even further in the future. However it is conceivable that within a lifetime it may be possible to carry the computing power now reserved governments and thousands of square feet of space, in one's pocket. Does that sound familiar or what?

Nanothreads spun to create living tissue

From the online issue of Scientific American - Shaun Saunders sends in this story with this note:
"reminds me of the scene near the end of 'The empire strikes back' when skywalker is being repaired in a tank..."

Scientists using an electrically charged needle have electrospun nanosize threads of cells encased in plastic polymers to create living microfibers that promote tissue regrowth. Unfortunately, the electrical charge can hurt both the spun cells and the scientists doing the spinning. But now mechanical engineers at the University College in London have invented a way to spin nanothreads using only pressure and, with the help of medical colleagues, shown that they can create such nanothreads of living heart tissue, potentially revealing the way to weave an entirely new, healthy heart or even fresh, new skin. The researchers successfully used this method to spin tissue from smooth muscle cells from rabbit aortas with a special device comprising three concentric needles: an inner needle pushing out the cells, a second needle ejecting an encasing polymer, and a third, surrounding needle that applies pressure. By flowing the cells at a slow rate, the polymer at a slightly faster rate, and applying pressure researchers teased out a microthin, continuous thread. The technique may allow researchers to create living scaffolds of cells to deliver drugs as well as grow or regenerate the heart and other organs.

Nanotube textile could make super-light armour

A lightweight material made from carbon nanotubes that is stronger than steel, and conducts almost as well as aluminium, has been unveiled by Nanocomp, a start-up based in New Hampshire, US. Nanocomp representatives said about the new technology, "The trick is that our nanotubes are much longer than usual - millimetres in length rather than micrometres". This will lead to much lighter and stronger textiles as well as a possible ultralight electrical wiring technology.

click here for the complete story in NewScientist

Thanks to Shaun Saunders for the post

Nanotech Risks and Challenges

Berkeley, California becomes the first municipality in the country to regulate nanomaterials. Sci-fri podcast talks about what is known about the potential risks of nanotechnology.

Click the title link to go to the original audio recording of the Sci-Fri podcast.

Note: there will also be an excerpt from this Sci-Fri podcast on the 12/23/06 show.

Confront nanotech health risks now, experts say

Lux Research hosted talks on environmental and health safety issues related to nanotechnology at its Lux Executive Summit. Speakers recognized that there are potential risks--some involving public perceptions--and urged business people to address them early in product development, rather than as an afterthought.

nanotechnology is the science of working with materials at the nanoscale. A nanometer is a billionth of a meter. A human hair is about 80,000 nanometers wide.

Nanomaterials can be used in a broad range of products, from solar panels to golf balls to medicines.