Futurist Transhuman News Blog

Silver had already been recognized in ancient Greece and Rome for its infection-fighting properties but in modern times pharmaceutical companies made more money developing antibiotics. However, thanks to emerging nanotechnology applications, silver has made a comeback in the form of antimicrobial nanoparticle coatings for textiles, surgical instruments, lab equipment, floors or wall paints. The flip side of silver’s desired toxicity towards microbes is that it might have toxic effects for humans as well and this has raised debate about the safety of nanosilver products. Although scientists have worked to reduce the toxicity of antimicrobial nanosilver in products, concerns remain. Not helping to put these concerns to rest is a new report from a group of researchers in Germany that shows that toxicity of silver nanoparticles increases during storage because of slow dissolution under release of silver ions.

NanoHorizons Inc., a leader in the creation of nanoscale performance additives for textile, health care, and industrial applications, will provide its SmartSilver antimicrobial additives for IFS Coatings’ line of antimicrobial powder coatings.

NINT-led nanotechnology cluster supports local firms in developing world-class technology.

Replacing expensive components of solar cells with small, electronically active molecules may reduce manufacturing costs.

A simple device made from carbon nanotubes might help in detecting the presence of heroin in the human body.

Harnessing darkness for practical use, researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have developed a laser power detector coated with the world’s darkest material – a forest of carbon nanotubes that reflects almost no light across the visible and part of the infrared spectrum.

A cluster of carbon nanotubes coated with a thin layer of protein-recognizing polymer form a biosensor capable of using electrochemical signals to detect minute amounts of proteins. With further development, this biosensor could provide a crucial new diagnostic tool for the detection of cancer and other illnesses.

A team of scientists has come up with a new way to package cisplatin into nanoparticles that are too big to enter the kidneys.

In cancer research, nanotechnology holds great promise for the development of targeted, localized delivery of anticancer drugs, in which only cancer cells are affected. By carrying out comprehensive studies on mice with human tumors, scientists at the University of California, Los Angeles, have obtained results that move the research one step closer to this goal.

With a single breath, a Breathalyzer can tell a police officer when a driver has had too much to drink. Now, thanks to a team of investigators at the Israel Institute of Technology, a single breath may be enough to tell a doctor that their patient has cancer.

A normally benign protein found in the human body appears to be able – when paired with nanoparticles – to zero in on and kill certain cancer cells, without having to also load those particles with chemotherapy drugs.

One tool in the eventual armamentarium of clinical oncologists could be the new microfluidic image cytometry (MIC) platform developed by Hsian-Rong Tseng and his colleagues at the University of California, Los Angeles and the Nanosystems Biology Cancer Center.

Both certificate programs are designed to meet the growing demand for skilled professionals who can conceptualize, design and manufacture optical and optomechanical components, systems and instruments.

Synchrotron-like results now attainable in the lab.

Agilent’s high-performance liquid chromatography polymer chip (HPLC-Chip) and quadrupole time-of-flight (QTOF) LC/MS technology provided researchers a new view of the oligosaccharide (sugar) structures produced in breast milk across stages of lactation among human mothers.

Photon etc., pioneer in Bragg based hyperspectral imaging, brings new possibilities to nanotechnologists with the introduction of a turn-key Resonant Raman Spectroscopy (RRS) System.

Scientists at Tohoku University in Japan have recorded data at a density of 4 trillion bits per square inch, which is a world record for the experimental ‘ferroelectric’ data storage method.

Researchers demonstrate enhanced performance of a hybrid photovoltaic device, where poly[3-hexylthiophene] (P3HT) is used as active material and a solution-processed thin flat film of ZnO modified by a self-assembled monolayer (SAM) of phenyl-C61-butyric acid (PCBA) is used as electron extracting electrode.

A protein associated with cancer progression when abundant inside of tumors also unexpectedly regulates the creation of new blood vessels that feed the tumor outside.

24M Technologies launched today as a new venture focused on commercializing next-generation energy storage systems based on technology out of A123 Systems, a developer and manufacturer of advanced Nanophosphate lithium ion batteries and systems, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).