Nanowerk reports that the German branch of Friends of the Earth (BUND) is calling for Samsung to withdraw from the market its washing machine using silver nanoparticles: …BUND criticized that considerable amounts of silver could enter sewage plants and seriously trouble the biologic purification process of the waste water. In addition, silver nanoparticles were blaimed… Continue reading Common sense about Samsung silver nanotechnology
Medical News Today tells of an advance by teams at Rutgers, UCLA, and Institut Jacques Monod in Paris on figuring out how an important molecular machine in nature does its job. Some excerpts: Two papers by Ebright and collaborators in the Nov. 17 issue of the journal Science define for the first time the mechanisms… Continue reading Nanotechnology shows dynamics of nature's molecular machines
It had to happen somewhere: the first country to publicly state they are planning to use nanotechnology in weapons is…Israel. Before now, to my knowledge, only defensive uses have been discussed in public. From the Sydney Morning Herald: Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has given the green light for Israel to set up a special office… Continue reading Israel to pursue nanotechnology weapons
We at Foresight are big fans of researchers with ambitious nanotech goals, and today we introduce to you Prof. Shuguang Zhang, associate director of the Center for Biomedical Engineering at MIT. In eJournal USA he wrote of his vision for the future of nanotechnology via molecular machines: By imitating nature, scientists are designing completely new… Continue reading Visionary nanotechnology molecular machines pursued at MIT
Researchers at UCSF and UC Berkeley have found a way to combine a drug with a dendrimer to give a treatment that cures colon cancer in mice — in one treatment. From Phys.org: Single-Dose Drug-Loaded Dendrimer Cures Mice of Colon Cancer In a dramatic demonstration of the power of nanotechnology, a team of investigators has… Continue reading One-shot nanotechnology treatment *cures* colon cancer in mice
For decades we’ve heard of the horrific difficulty of the protein folding problem: how to go from knowledge of a linear sequence of amino acids to the three-dimensional structure of a folded, useful protein? This is needed if we are to use proteins to build 3D structures that we want for nanotechnology. From Physorg.com we… Continue reading Atomically-precise protein folding software aids nanotechnology
From Nature.com, news of nanotechnology advances at Hebrew University: Tiny machines that patrol the body for invaders are one of nanotechnology’s favourite dreams. But a device made from a single molecule by a team of researchers in Israel sounds remarkably similar. They have built a ‘DNA machine’ that detects a virus by reading its genome,… Continue reading Israel's nanotechnology DNA machine detects viruses
We are only in the very early stages of nanotechnology bringing new abilities to DNA reading, but the latest such nanotech advance comes from New Mexico Tech profs Peng Zhang and Snezna Rogelj, described in an article by George Zamora: NM Tech Researchers Develop Nanomaterial Bio-sensor New Mexico Tech researchers have developed a highly sensitive… Continue reading Nanotechnology DNA sensor promises benefits, possible downsides
A team from Belgium, Italy, and France has achieved inspiring nanotech results in bonding single molecules to a surface using an AFM (atomic force microscope). From Nature Nanotechnology, which — as of today at least — is kindly giving free access to the full text of the article: Mechanochemistry: targeted delivery of single molecules The… Continue reading Europe pulls ahead on single-molecule nanotechnology construction
It can be hard to tell whether a given piece of research is nanotechnology or “just” chemistry. In this case, I would’ve said the latter, but Nanoforum carried the story (free reg. reg’d), so it’s honorary nanotech at least. In any case, it could be important. For years we at Foresight have theorized that nanotech… Continue reading Nanotechnology — or maybe chemistry — to make greenhouse gas into feedstock
