Solar Powered annual report

“I SING the body electric,” Walt Whitman wrote in 1855, inspired by the novelty of useful electricity, which he would live to see power streetlights and telephones, locomotives and dynamos. In “Leaves of Grass,” his ecstatic epic poem of American life, he depicted himself as a live wire, a relay station for all the voices of the earth, natural or invented, human or mineral. “I have instant conductors all over me,” he wrote. “They seize every object and lead it harmlessly through me… My flesh and blood playing out lightning to strike what is hardly different from myself.”

Uses nanoparticles to trigger an immune response. Selecta. Uses synthetic nanoparticles to prompt the immune system into creating specialized antibodies that bind to nicotine molecules, making the nicotine molecules large enough to initiate an immune response. Antibodies instigated by the nanoparticles automatically attach to the surface of the modified nicotine molecule because their shape fits exactly. The resulting supersized nicotine compound is thereby prevented from crossing the blood-brain barrier and delivering the normal smoking kick. Phase I trial. The nicotine vaccine does not eliminate the craving for nicotine—instead, it diminishes the effect from smoking the cigarette. As a result, smokers who are given the vaccine will find that they can’t alleviate their nicotine withdrawal symptoms by smoking. Chantix, a type of antipsychotic drug that blocks nicotine from binding with receptors once nicotine has entered the brain, has a smoking cessation success rate below 25 percent,. A nicotine vaccine should also work for several years.

Fine-tuning Nanotech to Target Cancer The idea is that a nanoparticle containing a drug compound could selectively target tumor cells or otherwise diseased cells, and avoid healthy ones. Antibodies or other molecules can be attached to the nanoparticle and used to precisely identify target cells. One challenge: a drug’s behavior in the body can change dramatically when it’s combined with nanoparticles. A nanoparticle can change a drug’s solubility, toxicity, speed of action, and more. Bind synthesizes its drug-carrying nanoparticles using self-assembly. Bind Biosciences in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

A team of bioengineers have created the first cavity-filling composite that destroys harmful bacteria and restores tooth enamel lost by decay.

Welcome to Nanowerk – Enjoy exploring the world's most comprehensive nanotechnology and nanoscience resources

Genspace is a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting citizen science and access to biotechnology. Since 2009 we have served the greater New York area by providing educational outreach, cultural events, and a platform for science innovation at the grassroots level.

Until now, this concept has been little more than science fiction. But that is beginning to change. In a recent press release, The DoE’s SLAC laboratory discusses how they have managed to create what appears to be a precursor to Welstone. This “Molecular Carbon” has enabled researchers to perform a variety of experiments in which the properties of graphene are duplicated by using electrons to create “virtual graphene” which can be manipulated in ways that cannot be done with real graphene.

“To make the structure, which Manoharan calls molecular graphene, the scientists use a scanning tunneling microscope to place individual carbon monoxide molecules on a perfectly smooth copper surface. The carbon monoxide repels the free-flowing electrons on the copper surface and forces them into a honeycomb pattern, where they behave like graphene electrons.

To tune the electrons’ properties, the researchers repositioned the carbon monoxide molecules on the surface; this changed the symmetry of the electron flow. In some configurations, electrons acted as if they had been exposed to a magnetic or electric field. In others, researchers were able to finely tune the density of electrons on the surface by introducing defects or impurities. By writing complex patterns that mimicked changes in carbon-carbon bond lengths and strengths in graphene, the researchers were able to restore the electrons’ mass in small, selected areas.”

By using the ability to create “virtual carbon atoms” composed only of electrons, the researchers can much more freely play with the properties of graphene, and study how it reacts under conditions ranging from high bond stress to levels of magnetic fields even beyond those currently achievable by even the strongest of our current magnets — all this despite the fact that those magnetic fields don’t actually exist. (For further information I recommend Next Big Future’s follow up with links to the researcher’s publications.)

Researchers at the Vienna University of Technology (TU Vienna) have created the first complex works of nanoarchitecture. Using their own custom made high-precision 3-D printer, the team recreated models of Vienna’s St. Stephen’s Cathedral and London’s Tower Bridge at the scale of a dust mite. The feat was made possible through two-photon lithography, whereby a laser is guided by a chain of controllable mirrors through a liquid resin to form a solid polymer line only several hundred nanometers wide.

While hydrogen is considered a "clean" fuel because the only waste product it generates is water, the conventional way to produce it relies on electricity, which is usually produced through the burning of fossil fuels. Researchers at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), have now developed a "3D branched nanowire array" that they claim could cheaply and cleanly deliver hydrogen fuel on a mass scale.

The nanowires, which are made from abundant natural materials such as silicon and zinc oxide, mimic the structure of a forest of trees, with individual vertical "trees" sprouting hundreds of nano-sized "branches." Like forests, this structure maximizes the amount of solar energy that can be captured, with the vertical structures trapping and absorbing the light, while the flat surfaces reflect it.

Using this nanotree structure, the researchers were able to maximize the amount of solar energy captured for use in producing hydrogen in a process called photoelectrochemical water-splitting. This process usually uses planar solar cells to produce hydrogen in a process similar to the electrolysis of water, but the UCSD team says their nanowire arrays produce more hydrogen fuel efficiently.

Researchers from the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Massachusetts have proposed a “repair-and-go” approach for fixing cracks on digital devices such as cell phones. This interesting development in technology uses microcapsules filled with a solution of nanoparticles that repair damaged surfaces and could extend the lifetime of a device.

Feynmann introduces nanotechnology in 1960 - lecture script

"Imaging the charge distribution within a single molecule" (Kelvin probe force miscroscopy) #weLiveInAnAgeOfMarvels