Blog @ NanoVic - Nanotechnology Blog

The Age has published an overview of nanotechnology in Australia ahead of the COMS2007 conference to be held in Melbourne next week.  Science Reporter Chee Chee Leung has written the in-depth article titled ‘Think Small’ and included a range of perspectives from different organisations (including NanoVic) as well as considering different viewpoints as to the benefits and risks of nanotechnology.

A team from Imperial College London’s Department of Chemical Engineering, has devised a technique which collects fingerprints along with their chemical residue and keeps them intact for future reference. 

It was found that the use of gel tapes, commercial gelatine based tape, provided a simple method for collection and transportation of prints for chemical imaging analysis. The prints, once lifted, were analysed in a spectroscopic microscope. The sample is irradiated with infrared rays to identify individual molecules within the print to give a detailed chemical composition.  The information is then processed by an infrared array detector which chemically maps the residue. This process builds up a chemical photograph which allows for the most comprehensive information obtained from a fingerprint.

Details of the research were recently published in the August edition of the journal Analytical Chemistry.

I guess we will be seeing this soon on CSI!

Australia’s public TV network, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) ran a story in their Australian Story segment on Monday evening (6^th August) called “For the Holy Grail”. This is a remarkable and very personal story about a pair of scientists working on veterinary diseases who were affected by the loss of colleagues to cancer, and ultimately directed their attention to a cancer cure based on nanotechnology. Their ambition was to “deliver anti-cancer drugs to the body in a way that avoids the need for chemotherapy”. Their technique targets the cancer with a nano-cell called an ‘EDV’ or Engeneic Delivery Vehicle. The ex-CSIRO scientists, Dr Jennifer MacDiarmid and Dr Himanshu Brahmbhatt, are now part of startup company EnGeneIC.

The focus of the story is not nanotechnology, but the motivation and energy of scientists seeking to address very human issues. One of the most touching aspects is the support of their peers to pursue their “Holy Grail”. The story is profiled at www.abc.net.au/austory. Australian Story is televised on Mondays at 8.00 pm, and repeated on Saturdays at 12.30 pm, on ABC-TV, and on ABC 2 on Thursdays at 8:45pm, Fridays at 5:30pm and Saturdays at 7:30am and 8:00pm. Worth seeing!

The unique manner in which Gecko’s can stick themselves to surfaces is often discussed in relation to nanotechnology, with the mechanism being a function of Casimir Forces arising from quantum-mechanical effects.  Scientists in the UK are now using the same principle but in reverse, which can cause objects to levitate rather than stick together!  Professor Ulf Leonhardt and Dr Thomas Philbin from St Andrews University say that by reversing the effects of Casimir Forces, friction between objects can be significantly reduced or eliminated, thereby enabling micro- and nano-machinery to run more smoothly. This could potentially improve the performance of everyday objects such as car airbags, computer chips and even those medical devices using lab-on-a-chip technology.  Unfortunately, due to the small scale of the quantum forces, this effect is currently only seen at the micro- and nano-scale.  I’m still holding out for the time when human levitation is on the horizon!

Now if Harry Potter is really a figment of the imagination then why would someone take the trouble to write to the Ministry of Magic?  I found this article on the Nanotechnology Now website.  Andrew Maynard, Chief Science Advisor, Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies has written a letter to Arthur Weasley of the Ministry of Magic to enquire what they might make of our more advanced technologies, such as nanotechnology. 

The muggles of this world look forward to seeing how Mr Weasley responds!

A recent online poll by COSMOS magazine asked people what they thought would be the most likely cause to the end of humanity. In a good sign for nanotechnology, only 4% of people thought that nano “grey goo” would be the catastrophic cause. The term “grey goo” referes to the potential exponential growth of self-replicating nanobots, highlighted in many science fiction stories incorporating nanotechnology such as Michael Crichton’s Prey. The man who coined the term, Eric Drexler, has said that “An obsession with obsolete science-fiction images of swarms of replicating nanobugs has diverted attention from the real issues raised by the coming revolution in molecular nanotechnologies,” said Drexler. “We need to focus on the issues that matter—how to deal with these powerful new capabilities in a competitive world.”

In perhaps not such a great sign for humanity, the leading predicted cause of our eventual downfall was human induced climate change (35%), which for me personally is certainly a much more concerning problem which requires immediate action than the sci-fi version of swarms of marauding nanobots!

Following a recent blog by Lisa on hayfever sufferers, here’s a product that might help.  Daewoo have produced a vacuum cleaner which includes a nano silver coated canister created using nano silver poly technology.  This has the effect of removing bacteria and a plethora of dust particles, inhibiting odour, allergy-inducing spores, and other harmful debris. 

All sounds good to me.  If only they could invent a vacuum cleaner that was capable of doing the vacuuming without any assistance from me, now that would be brilliant technology!