Lisa has authored the following posts:
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A better way to profile nanotoxicity
The recent reports of the potential medical risks associated with carbon nanotubes, with a study in Nature showing asbestos-like responses in mice, has highlighted the urgent need for toxicity studies with nanomaterials. But with so many new materials being created, and a huge variety of ways which toxicity can be measured, what is the best way [...]
Filed in Health, Nanomaterials | 08 Jun 2008 | no comments -
Nano for the wounded
The use of nanotechnology in wound healing has been reported before, with the anti-microbial properties of nanoparticles (see here for a big selection of the literature) of silver being incorporated into band-aids by companies such as Nucryst. Another spin-out company Arch therapeutics has just started up coming out of research performed in the US, [...]
Filed in Health, Nanomaterials | 03 Jun 2008 | no comments -
Countdown to the end of the world?
The Large Hadron Collider, or LHC, is due to fire up later this year. Dubbed ‘the biggest experiment ever’, it’s hoped the LHC will help answer the question of what the universe is made of, by recreating conditions similar to those a fraction of a second after the Big Bang, smashing particles together to [...]
Filed in Electronics, Energy | 17 May 2008 | 5 comments -
Clean, safe drinking water. Just add beads and stir.
The people of South Australia, faced with living in the driest state on the driest continent on earth, know the value of clean fresh water. Researchers at the Ian Wark Research Institute at the University of South Australia have used a nano approach to produce clean, safe drinking water. Billions of people around the world [...]
Filed in Environment, Health, Nanomaterials, Social Impacts, Water | 11 May 2008 | no comments -
A eulogy for nanobacteria (which turn out to have never been alive at all, it seems)
The wikipedia entry on nanobacteria still cautiously starts by defining them as ‘a possible class of living organisms’, but two recently published, independent studies have given increased weight to the hypothesis that they are not living creatures after all. Image credit: Martel and Young. PNAS. The nanoscale structures containing calcium and protein were first termed ‘nanobacteria’ by [...]
Filed in Environment, Mol. Manufacturing, Nanomaterials | 02 May 2008 | no comments -
The new hands-free
I’ve joked with friends at how I’d love the RFID chip from my Oyster card (tube ticket for those outside the UK) embedded in my wrist, so I could just wave over the touch pads at the entrance and exits to tube stations and stroll on through instead of rummaging through my bag for [...]
Filed in Electronics, Social Impacts | 30 Apr 2008 | no comments -
Designer DNA
Forget manipulating your chromosomes to make you better, faster, stronger…. What about just manipulating DNA to make you smile? This image (credit to Paul Rothemund) shows a shape made by researchers from DNA. It was created a couple of years ago by researchers developing what has been termed Structural DNA Nanotechnology (SDN), but which [...]
Filed in Biotechnology | 30 Apr 2008 | no comments -
Hypercolour roads
After experiencing my first proper snowfall in London, which oddly occurred just last week when we’re already halfway through spring and into daylight savings time, I spotted an article on New Scientist that may help in these types of icy conditions. A French company called Eurovia has developed a thermochromic paint that changes colour when conditions [...]
Filed in Consumer Products | 12 Apr 2008 | no comments -
Accidental art
Found a great picture posted up on the Wired Science blog, showing an electron micrograph taken by scientist Geoff Brennecka. Intending to take photos of a tantalum oxide crystal, the person before him on the microscope hadn’t quite managed to get rid of some polystyrene beads, which ended up sticking to the edge of [...]
Filed in The Arts | 05 Apr 2008 | no comments -
Wobble factor
The space elevator sounds like a simple and elegant idea on paper. Tether a (very long and strong) cable to earth, and then vehicles can use it as a ‘ladder’ to space. Although the idea has been around for a while, it was only thought that it might be possible after the discovery [...]
Filed in Nanomaterials | 29 Mar 2008 | one comment