Nanotech’s blog

An ongoing research project led by Dr. Tuan Vo-Dinh, at the Advanced Biomedical Science and Technology Group, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, has produced a “nanoneedle” capable of probing individual living cells.

More accurately described as a nanobiosensor, Vo-Dinh’s device is one among a growing class of tools designed for numerous medical applications at the cellular level. This device uses a needle-like probing tip that is a mere 40 nanometers (nm). To put this remarkably small size into perspective, the width of a human hair is approximately 100,000 nanometers. Read the rest of this entry »

Molecular Nanotechnology and National Security

By Thomas D. Vandermolen, LCDR, USN

Source: Air & Space Power Journal.

31 August 2006

In rare instances, revolutionary technology and associated military innovation can fundamentally alter long-established concepts of warfare….

Some disruptive breakthroughs…could seriously endanger our security.

—The National Defense Strategy of the United States of America1 Read the rest of this entry »

K. Eric Drexler

Dr. Drexler is a researcher concerned with emerging technologies and their consequences for the future. In the mid 1980s, he introduced the term ‘nanotechnology’ to describe atomically precise molecular manufacturing systems and their products. Advanced nanotechnologies will make possible many dreams (and nightmares) first articulated in the literature of science fiction. He is a founder and current Chairman of the Foresight Institute, a nonprofit educational organization established to help prepare for advanced technologies. He wrote Engines of Creation (1986) to introduce a broad audience to the prospect of advanced nanotechnologies — their nature, promise, and dangers — and Nanosystems (AAP 1992 Most Outstanding Computer Science Book) to provide a graduate-level introduction to the fundamental physical and engineering principles of the field. BIO & CV. Read the rest of this entry »

What kind of world do we wish to inhabit and leave for following generations? Our planet is in trouble if current trends continue into the future: environmental degradation, extinction of species, rampant diseases, chronic warfare, poverty, starvation and social injustice.

Are suffering and despair humanity’s fate? Read the rest of this entry »

Buckyball

“It is the roundest and most symmetrical large molecule known to man. Buckministerfullerine continues to astonish with one amazing property after another. Named after American architect R. Buckminister Fuller who designed a geodesic dome with the same fundamental symmetry, C60 is the third major form of pure carbon; graphite and diamond are the other two.” Bucky Balls – Andy Gion. Read the rest of this entry »

“Conceptually, single-wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) can be considered to be formed by the rolling of a single layer of graphite (called a graphene layer) into a seamless cylinder. A multiwall carbon nanotube (MWCNT) can similarly be considered to be a coaxial assembly of cylinders of SWCNTs, like a Russian doll, one within another; the separation between tubes is about equal to that between the layers in natural graphite. Hence, nanotubes are one-dimensional objects with a well-defined direction along the nanotube axis that is analogous to the in-plane directions of graphite.”
—M. S. Dresselhaus, Department of Physics and the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Read the rest of this entry »

Nanocomposites

A plastic nanocomposite is being used for “step assists” in the GM Safari and Astro Vans. It is scratch-resistant, light-weight, and rust-proof, and generates improvements in strength and reductions in weight, which lead to fuel savings and increased longevity. And in 2001, Toyota started using nanocomposites in a bumper that makes it 60% lighter and twice as resistant to denting and scratching.

Impact: Will likely be used on other GM and Toyota models soon, and in other areas of their vehicles, as well as the other auto manufactures, lowering weight, increasing milage, and creating longer-lasting autos. Likely to impact repair shops (fewer repairs needed) and auto insurance companies (fewer claims). Will also likely soon be seen everywhere weight, weather-proofing, durability, and strength are important factors. Expect NASA, the ESA, and other space-faring organizations to take a serious look, soon, which will eventually result in lower lift costs, which will result in more material being lifted into space.

The Chicago-based firm began looking into the potential of nanotechnology six years ago, but didn’t come out with a product – the NCODE series of tennis rackets – until 2004. Later in the year, it started shipping drivers and fairway woods, the Pd5, Dd5, Td5 (MSRP – $300) and FwC (MSRP – $200), whose crowns are constructed with nano carbon which, Wilson claims, creates a low-density, high-strength clubhead. Angus Moir, global business director, says use of nano materials sets Wilson apart from the competition. “They make our products more user friendly,” he says. link Read the rest of this entry »

Nano This and Nano That

We’ve all seen articles, papers, and predictions based on Nanotubes – they seem to be everywhere these days. Here is just one prediction: “Nanofibers (nanotubes) may offer the potential for creating some astoundingly large and strong space structures; they may make the prospect of rotating orbital colonies feasible.” See The Use of Nanofibers in Space Construction for one speculative view.

Over the past year or so, we have seen a myriad other varieites of nano -this and nano -that. From nanosprings and nanohorns, to nanorods and nanomesh, there are nanoscale whosits and nanoscale whatsits gallore. Why, on Google alone, there are 9,950,000 pages that contain, somewhere, the word “nano”! Read the rest of this entry »

What is Nanotechnology? Answers differ depending on who you ask, and their background. Broadly speaking however, nanotechnology is the act of purposefully manipulating matter at the atomic scale, otherwise known as the “nanoscale.”

Coined as “nano-technology” in a 1974 paper by Norio Taniguchi at the University of Tokyo, and encompassing a multitude of rapidly emerging technologies, based upon the scaling down of existing technologies to the next level of precision and miniaturization. Taniguchi approached nanotechnology from the ‘top-down’ standpoint, from the viewpoint of a precision engineer. Read the rest of this entry »