Researchers revolutionize vital conservation tool with use of gold nanotechnology and lasers Cryopreservation study results have sweeping implications for wildlife conservation and human health

For more than 60 years, researchers have tried to successfully cryopreserve (or freeze) the embryo of zebrafish, a species that is an important medical model for human health. In a new study, researchers at the University of Minnesota and the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute (SCBI) provide the first-ever reproducible evidence for the successful cryopreservation of zebrafish embryos.

The study uses new gold nanotechnology and lasers to warm the embryothe stumbling block in previous studies. The results have profound implications for human health, wildlife conservation, and aquaculture.

The research is published today in ACS Nano, a leading scientific journal published by the American Chemical Society.

Theres no doubt that the use of this technology, in this way, marks a paradigm shift for cryopreservation and the conservation of many wildlife species, said MaryHagedorn, an SCBI research scientist and paper co-author who has been working on cryopreserving zebrafish embryos since 1992.

To get anything to work at such cold temperatures, you usually have to get creative. Here we take a unique approach by combining biology with an exciting engineering technology to do what has been impossible previously: to successfully freeze and thaw a fish embryo so that the embryo begins to develop, rather than falls apart, Hagedorn added.

By freezing sperm, eggs and embryos, conservationists can safeguard at-risk species and their genetic diversity, making it possible to bolster the genetic pool and therefore health of wild populations yearsor even centurieslater. Although scientists have successfully cryopreserved the embryos of many mammal species and the sperm of many species of fish, freezing fish embryos proved infinitely more complicated.

Successful cryopreservation of an embryo requires cooling the embryo to a cryogenically stable state, then warming it at a rate faster than it was cooled, and using an antifreeze (or cryoprotectant) to stop the growth of ice crystals, which are like pins in a balloon that pop the membrane and cause the embryo to fall apart. Fish embryos, however, are very large, making it difficult to thaw them quickly and avoid ice crystal development. In addition, because aquatic animals need to survive harsh environments, their embryonic membranes are mostly impenetrable, blocking the cryoprotectants out.

Enter laser gold nanotechnology, a rapidly growing technological field being developed for cryopreservation applications by University of Minnesota Mechanical Engineering John Bischof that was critical for the success of the study and has a wide variety of biomedical applications.

Lasers have the exciting ability to act like a light switch that can turn biological activity on and off within gold nanoparticle laden biomaterials, said Bischof, senior author of the study. In this case, by careful engineering and deployment of gold nanoparticles within a cryogenically stored and biological inactive embryo, we can use a laser pulse to quickly warm the embryo back to ambient temperatures and switch biological activity, and therefore life, back on.

Gold nanorods are tiny cylinders of gold that convert absorbed light (from a laser, for example) into heat. The studys authors injected both the cryoprotectant and nanogold particles into the embryos. The gold particles transferred heat uniformly throughout the embryo when hit with a laser, warming the embryo from -196 degrees C to 20 degrees C in just one thousandth of a second. The amazingly fast warming rate, in combination with the cryoprotectant, prevented the formation of lethal ice crystals.

Embryos that underwent this process went on to develop at least to the 24-hour stage where they developed a heart, gills, tail musculature and movedproving their post-thaw viability.

The studys authors next aim to fine-tune the process to ensure that they can increase the survival rate of the embryos. They will also investigate the use of automation to bolster how many embryos they can successfully thaw at once.

Because the embryos of other aquatic animalsfish, amphibians and coralare very similar to those of zebrafish, this technology is directly applicable to the cryopreservation of many species embryos. The technology may also be customized to cryopreserve reptile and bird embryos and enhance the process of cryopreserving mammalian embryos, including giant pandas and large cats. In addition, the technology can help aquaculture farms become more efficient and cost effective, putting less pressure on wild populations.

Human health researchers use zebrafishwhich have a genome similar to that of humansas important disease models to study melanoma, heart disease and blood disorders, among other health issues. Cryopreserved zebrafish embryos will prevent the scientists from losing entire research lines and will give them the flexibility to bring the lines back as needed.

In addition to Hagedorn and Bischof, the lead authors of the paper are University of Minnesota Ph.D. students Kanav Khosla and Yiru Wang with help from former University of Minnesota Ph.D. student Zhenpeng Qin.

To read the full research paper, visit the ACS Nano website.

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Researchers transform conservation tool with gold nanotechnology, lasers - UMN News

10Jul2017

Video game technique encodes 3D images into wafer-thin surfaces; method could benefit phone cameras, TV screens, security.

The research has been carried out by Kings College London alongside Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universitt Bonn, Germany, and is published in Nano Letters.

When light hits an object, the colour, texture, and shape of that object affect how the light is absorbed and reflected, allowing a viewer to perceive the object. By altering the surface to change how light is reflected, it is possible to manipulate how it appears.

The KCL and Bonn researchers developed layered materials, incorporating precisely designed nano-features smaller than the wavelength of light, called metasurfaces. This allowed them to precisely control how light is reflected, so that a 2D surface reflects light just as a 3D object would.

Borrowing a technique from 3D computer graphics called Normal Mapping, researchers encoded shadow effects into the image, creating 3D images said to be more realistic than holograms or 3D cinema. As a proof of concept, the researchers fabricated a flat metasurface imitating lighting and shading effects of a 3D cube (see above).

The researchers commented that the technique could have huge implications for the optical industries, including in TV screens and photography, as well as in security labels for protecting goods and banknotes from counterfeiting.

Amazing surface

Professor Anatoly Zayats of KCL said, Metasurfaces are amazing. They open up unprecedented freedom in directing and manipulating light. One might ultimately imagine a TV screen which appears exactly the same as you move around it, or a new movement of 3D art.

The ability to control light could bring new functionality to small camera lenses. A flat surface can be made to appear optically convex by designing appropriate metasurface properties. Future generations of smartphone cameras could use the tiny flat metasurfaces to mimic the properties of sophisticated curved camera lenses, allowing much greater control of angle and depth field.

Metasurfaces could also replace heavy optical lenses in applications such as satellites, where weight and size have a big impact on efficiency.

More immediately, the novel nano-materials can already be used to create unique complex 3D images for security and anti-counterfeiting applications, as well as for new measurement applications requiring precise control of light.

The researchers added that the metalens-formed image is much more than a hologram. Unlike holograms, which require a coherent light source such as a laser to be viewed, these surfaces manipulate the reflection of normal light so they appear as a realistic 3D object in any light condition and from any angle.

For the proof of concept, the researchers designed a cube using the normal mapping technique, which was encoded into the metasurface. When illuminated, the metasurface instantaneously computes how a 3D representation of the image should look and displays it.

Dr Alexander Minovich, The Royal Society Newton International Fellow at Kings College London, commented, The normal mapping demonstrated with our metasurface is a completely new concept, but it could have very important implications for a wide range of optical industries, both in introducing new functionality and making products smaller and lighter.

Excerpt from:

Light manipulated to make 2D surfaces appear as 3D objects - Optics.org

Its much touted USP finally turned out to be the millstone around its neck

Reports have it that the peoples car which Tata Motors launched with much fanfare at the 2008 Delhi Auto Expo will now be consigned to the archives. This is a sad end to what could have been a potential game-changer in Indias automobile industry. When Rata Tata announced over a decade ago that his company was working on a 1-lakh peoples car, the world sat up and took notice. This kind of pricing was unheard of for a full-fledged automobile and even while there were sceptics such as Osamu Suzuki, chief of Suzuki Motor Corporation, the likes of Carlos Ghosn, CEO of Renault-Nissan, were visibly impressed. And Tata kept true to his word with the now immortal line at the Auto Expo: A promise is a promise when the 1-lakh price was announced for the base version. It was a heady moment for the then Tata Motors chairman who had, exactly a decade earlier, unveiled the Indica at the same venue to a rapturous audience. The Nano had taken the stakes to a new level with its astonishing price tag.

In retrospect, the cars USP of affordability would itself became a factor in its failure. The well-intentioned Tata who wanted to help middle-class families migrate to a car from a two-wheeler did not factor in their aspirations. Not for them a small box with four wheels that got them around the city. The aspirational middle-class car buyer desired bells and whistles to go with the basic functional features and there the Nano came unstuck. At its price point, the car could not obviously boast of features that even the next higher model did. With competitors flooding the market with affordable cars with all value-added features at only a slightly higher cost to the Nano, the fate of the car was sealed. It could be argued here though that the delay in the market entry of the car by more than a year due to the troubles at Singur proved crucial. With the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress staging massive protests against the then Left governments decision to allocate fertile farmland at Singur, Tata Motors was forced to abandon its plans for a factory there that was to produce the Nano.Valuable time was lost and even while Tata Motors began producing small numbers of the Nano at its Pantnagar facility, the initial momentum had slowed down.

There was more trouble in store when stories began doing the rounds of Nanos catching fire. Suddenly, the peoples car did not look so alluring with people wondering if this was the fallout of a 1-lakh price tag, never mind that the top-end version actually cost nearly twice as much. Tata Motors did attempt to reposition the car steering clear of the cheap car tag but the damage had been done. When the history of Indias automobile industry is written, the Nano will have a special place for sure. It may have failed in the market for various reasons but it certainly showcased Indias frugal engineering prowess.

(This article was published on July 12, 2017)

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Ta-ta Nano - Hindu Business Line

July 10, 2017 Nature inspired the design of silicone and gallium composites created in Rice Universitys the Nanomaterials Laboratory. Credit: Jeff Fitlow/Rice University

Materials scientists at Rice University are looking to natureat the discs in human spines and the skin in ocean-diving fish, for examplefor clues about designing materials with seemingly contradictory propertiesflexibility and stiffness.

In research appearing online in the journal Advanced Materials Interfaces, graduate student Peter Owuor, research scientist Chandra Sekhar Tiwary and colleagues from the laboratories of Rice Professor Pulickel Ajayan and Jun Lou found they could increase the stiffness, or "elastic modulus," of a soft silicon-based polymer by infusing it with tiny pockets of liquid gallium.

Such composites could find use in high-energy absorption materials and shock absorbers and in biomimetic structures like artificial intervertebral discs, they said.

Owuor said conventional wisdom in composite design for the past 60 years has been that adding a harder substance increases modulus and adding a softer one decreases modulus. In most instances, that's correct.

"People had not really looked at it from the other way around," he said. "Is it possible to add something soft inside something else that is also soft and get something that has a higher modulus? If you look at the natural world, there are plenty of examples where you find exactly that. As materials scientists, we wanted to study this, not from a biological perspective but rather from a mechanical one."

For example, the discs between the vertebrae in human spines, which act like both shock absorbers and ligaments, are made of a tough outer layer of cartilage and a soft, jelly-like interior. And the outer skin of deep-diving ocean fish and mammals contain myriad tiny oil-filled chamberssome no larger than a virus and others larger than entire cellsthat allow the animals to withstand the intense pressures that exist thousands of feet below the ocean's surface.

Choosing the basic materials to model these living systems was relatively easy, but finding a way to bring them together to mimic nature proved difficult, said Tiwary, a postdoctoral research associate in Rice's Department of Materials Science and NanoEngineering.

Polydimethylsiloxane, or PDMS, was chosen as the soft encapsulating layer for a number of reasons: It's cheap, inert, nontoxic and widely used in everything from caulk and aquarium sealants to cosmetics and food additives. It also dries clear, which made it easy to see the bubbles of liquid the team wanted to encapsulate. For that, the researchers chose gallium, which like mercury is liquid at room temperature, but unlike mercury is nontoxic and relatively easy to work with.

Owuor said it took nearly four months to find a recipe for encapsulating bubbles of gallium inside PDMS. His test samples are about the diameter of a small coin and as much as a quarter-inch thick. By curing the PDMS slowly, Owuor developed a process by which he could add gallium droplets of various sizes. Some samples contained one large inner chamber, and others contained up to a dozen discrete droplets.

Each sample was subjected to dozens of tests. A dynamic mechanical analysis instrument was used to measure how much the material deformed under load, and various measures like stiffness, toughness and elasticity were measured under a variety of conditions. For example, with a relatively small amount of cooling, gallium can be turned into a solid. So the team was able to compare some measurements taken when the gallium spheres were liquid with measures taken when the spheres were solid.

Collaborators Roy Mahapatra and Shashishekarayya Hiremath of the Indian Institute of Science at Bangalore used finite element modeling and hydrodynamic simulations to help the team analyze how the materials behaved under mechanical stress. Based on this, the researchers determined that pockets of liquid gallium gave the composite higher energy absorption and dissipation characteristics than plain PDMS or PDMS with air-filled pockets.

"What we've shown is that putting liquid inside a solid is not always going to make it softer, and thanks to our collaborators we are able to explain why this is the case," Tiwary said. "Next we hope to use this understanding to try to engineer materials to take advantage of these properties."

Owuor and Tiwary said just using nanoengineering alone may not provide a maximum effect. Instead, nature employs hierarchical structures with features of varying sizes that repeat at larger scales, like those found in the oil-filled chambers in fish skin.

"If you look at (the fish's) membrane and you section it, there is a layer where you have spheres with big diameters, and as you move, the diameters keep decreasing," Owuor said. "The chambers are seen across the whole scale, from the nano- all the way out to the microscale.

Tiwary said, "There are important nanoscale features in nature, but it's not all nano. We may find that engineering at the nanoscale alone isn't enough. We want to see if we can start designing in a hierarchical way."

Explore further: Self-adaptive material heals itself, stays tough

More information: Peter Samora Owuor et al. Nature Inspired Strategy to Enhance Mechanical Properties via Liquid Reinforcement, Advanced Materials Interfaces (2017). DOI: 10.1002/admi.201700240

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Nature-inspired material uses liquid reinforcement - Phys.Org

July 6, 2017 by David Lewis Credit: ACS

Scientists have created new 2-D nanostructured surfaces which appear as realistic 3-D objects including shading and shadows - using cutting edge nano-engineering.

The research was carried out by King's College London alongside Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universitt Bonn, and is published in the American Chemical Society journal Nano Letters.

When light hits an object, the colour, texture, and shape affect how light is absorbed and reflected, allowing you to make out the object in front of you. By altering the surface to change how light is reflected, it is possible to manipulate how it appears.

The researchers developed layered materials, incorporating precisely designed nano-features smaller than the wavelength of light, called metasurfaces. This allowed them to control how light is reflected in highly precise ways, so that a 2-D surface reflects light just as a 3-D object would.

Borrowing a technique from 3-D computer graphics called Normal Mapping, researchers encoded shadow effects into the image, creating 3-D images more realistic than holograms or 3-D cinema. As a proof of concept, the researchers fabricated a flat metasurface imitating lighting and shading effects of a 3-D cube.

Changing the way we see light

The technique could have huge implications for the optical industries, including in TV screens and photography, as well as in security labels for protecting goods and banknotes from counterfeiting.

Professor Anatoly Zayats of King's College says: "Metasurfaces are amazing. They open up unprecedented freedom in directing and manipulating light. One might ultimately imagine a TV screen which appears exactly the same as you move around it, or a new movement of 3-D art."

The ability to control light could bring new functionality to small camera lenses. A flat surface can be made to appear optically convex by designing appropriate metasurface properties. Future generations of smartphone cameras could use the tiny flat metasurfaces which mimic the properties of sophisticated curved camera lenses, allowing much greater control of angle and depth field.

Metasurfaces could also replace heavy optical lenses in applications such as satellites, where weight and size have a big impact on efficiency.

More immediately, the novel nano-materials can already be used to create unique complex 3-D images for security and anti-counterfeiting applications, as well as for new measurement applications requiring precise control of light.

Much more than a hologram

Unlike holograms, which require a coherent light source such as a laser to be viewed, these surfaces manipulate the reflection of normal light so they appear as a realistic 3-D object in any light condition and from any angle.

Existing holographic approaches rely on 'specular reection' ie the light coming from a particular direction is reflected in a unique outgoing direction, as with a mirror. In order to achieve dynamic light shading eects, a metasurface design involves 'diuse reection' which allows control of its scattering properties so that the image can be seen directly on it.

For the proof of concept, the researchers designed a cube using the normal mapping technique, which was encoded into the metasurface. When illuminated, the metasurface instantaneously "computes" how a 3-D representation of the image should look and displays it.

Dr Alexander Minovich, The Royal Society Newton International Fellow at King's College London, said: "The normal mapping demonstrated with our metasurface is a completely new concept, but it could have very important implications for a wide range of optical industries, both in introducing new functionality and making products smaller and lighter."

Explore further: Electrically tunable metasurfaces pave the way toward dynamic holograms

More information: Alexander E. Minovich et al. Reflective Metasurfaces for Incoherent Light To Bring Computer Graphics Tricks to Optical Systems, Nano Letters (2017). DOI: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.7b01003

Journal reference: Nano Letters

Provided by: King's College London

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In today's increasingly powerful electronics, tiny materials are a must as manufacturers seek to increase performance without adding bulk.

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So I guess 3D movies and tv without glasses may be coming soon.

It could be also utilized for breasts and another organs visual enlargement. I think.

First they are going to have to make the meta material 'changeable' on the fly, otherwise it will only be useful for still images.

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Scientists manipulate light to make flat surfaces appear as 3-D objects - Phys.Org

July 7, 2017 by Renee Meiller Shrinking photodetectors like this one, created and tested in the laboratory of UW-Madison engineering Professor Zhenqiang (Jack) Ma, help make consumer electronics smaller. Credit: Stephanie Precourt/UW-Madison

In today's increasingly powerful electronics, tiny materials are a must as manufacturers seek to increase performance without adding bulk.

Smaller also is better for optoelectronic deviceslike camera sensors or solar cellswhich collect light and convert it to electrical energy. Think, for example, about reducing the size and weight of a series of solar panels, producing a higher-quality photo in low lighting conditions, or even transmitting data more quickly.

However, two major challenges have stood in the way: First, shrinking the size of conventionally used "amorphous" thin-film materials also reduces their quality. And second, when ultrathin materials become too thin, they become almost transparent and actually lose some ability to gather or absorb light.

Now, in a nanoscale photodetector that combines a unique fabrication method and light-trapping structures, a team of engineers from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University at Buffalo has overcome both of those obstacles.

The researcherselectrical engineering professors Zhenqiang (Jack) Ma and Zongfu Yu at UW-Madison and Qiaoqiang Gan at Buffalodescribed their device, a single-crystalline germanium nano-membrane photodetector on a nano-cavity substrate, today (July 7, 2017) in the journal Science Advances.

"The idea, basically, is you want to use a very thin material to realize the same function of devices in which you need to use a very thick material," says Ma.

The device consists of nano-cavities sandwiched between a top layer of ultrathin single-crystal germanium and a reflecting layer of silver.

"Because of the nano-cavities, the photons are 'recycled' so light absorption is substantially increasedeven in very thin layers of material," says Ma.

Nano-cavities are made up of an orderly series of tiny, interconnected molecules that essentially reflect, or circulate, light. Gan already has shown that his nano-cavity structures increase the amount of light that thin semiconducting materials like germanium can absorb.

However, most germanium thin films begin as germanium in its amorphous formmeaning the material's atomic arrangement lacks the regular, repeating order of a crystal. That also means its quality isn't sufficient for increasingly smaller optoelectronics applications.

That's where Ma's expertise comes into play. A world expert in semiconductor nano-membrane devices, Ma used a revolutionary membrane-transfer technology that allows him to easily integrate single crystalline semiconducting materials onto a substrate.

The result is a very thin, yet very effective, light-absorbing photodetectora building block for the future of optoelectronics.

"It is an enabling technology that allows you to look at a wide variety of optoelectronics that can go to even smaller footprints, smaller sizes," says Yu, who conducted computational analysis of the detectors.

While the researchers demonstrated their advance using a germanium semiconductor, they also can apply their method to other semiconductors.

"And importantly, by tuning the nano-cavity, we can control what wavelength we actually absorb," says Gan. "This will open the way to develop lots of different optoelectronic devices."

Explore further: This 'nanocavity' may improve ultrathin solar panels, video cameras and more

More information: "Single-crystalline germanium nanomembrane photodetectors on foreign nanocavities" Science Advances (2017). advances.sciencemag.org/content/3/7/e1602783

The future of movies and manufacturing may be in 3-D, but electronics and photonics are going 2-D; specifically, two-dimensional semiconducting materials.

Associated with unhappy visits to the dentist, "cavity" means something else in the branch of physics known as optics.

New thin-film semiconductor techniques invented by University of Wisconsin-Madison engineers promise to add sensing, computing and imaging capability to an amazing array of materials.

University of Michigan chemists have developed a greener, cheaper way to make single-crystalline semiconductor films, components at the heart of all of our electric gadgetry.

DGIST announced that Professor Kyung-in Jang's research team succeeded in developing a technology that can control various color changes by coating several nanometers of semiconducting materials on a metal substrate through ...

In the past decade, two-dimensional, 2-D, materials have captured the fascination of a steadily increasing number of scientists. These materials, whose defining feature is having a thickness of only one to very few atoms, ...

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To enhance the visibility of organs as they are scanned with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), patients are usually injected with a compound known as a contrast agent before going into the scanner. The most commonly used ...

From checkout counters at supermarkets to light shows at concerts, lasers are everywhere, and they're a much more efficient light source than incandescent bulbs. But they're not cheap to produce.

A world-first non-destructive quality control method from the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) has enabled Oxford Instruments to commercialise wafer-scale fabrication technology for 2-D material MoS2.

Although scientists have for decades been able to synthesize nanoparticles in the lab, the process is mostly trial and error, and how the formation actually takes place is obscure. However, a study recently published in Nature ...

In today's increasingly powerful electronics, tiny materials are a must as manufacturers seek to increase performance without adding bulk.

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Powerful new photodetector can enable optoelectronics advances - Phys.Org

Both novices and pros are embracing the nano tank trend, thanks to improved technology and emerging consumer trends.

By LaRue Palmer

Published: 2017.07.12 09:22 AM

Although theyve been around for years, nano tanks are growing in popularity these days, as manufacturers in the segment seek to grab the attention of both seasoned and entry-level aquarists with equipment that is easier to use and more efficient than ever.

Definitely, the nano tanks are driving the business on both ends of the spectrum, said Frank Kudla, vice president of sales and marketing for Aquatop, based in Brea, Calif. Were seeing more people getting into the hobby for the first time because the threshold to entry has gotten dramatically lower from a price standpoint, and theyre successful in the hobby.

Among the most notable developments to occur in the segment in recent years is the fact that manufacturers are making better-quality equipment at more affordable prices.

There have always been cheap kits out there through big-box stores, but they really had very poor equipment, so your chances for success in the hobby were pretty limited, Kudla said. Nowadays, you go into an independent retailer or even a national retailer to buy a nano kit and the equipment it comes with is pretty good. The filtration is pretty good and the lighting is pretty good, so your chances for success now at the entry level are much greater than 10 or 15 years ago.

The nano tank trend is also being driven by the increasing number of consumers who want the beauty of an aquarium in their homes without the hassles often associated with keeping one.

Nano tanks are becoming a lifestyle, said Bill Wymard, a marine biologist and the owner of Aquarium Adventure in Hilliard, Ohio. A nano tank makes a lot nicer statement from an aesthetic standpoint, because when you look at an aquarium as part of your lifestyle in the home, you see a self-contained unit with a neater, cleaner look.

Still, consumers should know that maintenance is necessary for the upkeep of all tanks.

You have two maintenance chores with any aquarium; one is partial water exchanges, and the other is cleaning algae, Wymard said. Those chores become a little bit easier with a self-contained, all-in-one aquarium, but theyre all the same job. Youre going to have to do it no matter what size aquarium [you have].

Manufacturers are focusing on the functionality of nano aquariums while at the same time creating beautiful pieces of living furniture that fit into the consumers lifestyle. However, new aquarists often require some guidance from the experts in order to have a successful entry into the hobby.

The initial step of choosing an aquarium can be daunting. Sean Raines, market specialist for Spectrum Brands in Blacksburg, Va., understands this very well.

Not knowing what to buy when first starting in this hobby can be a barrier to entry, Raines said. Some newcomers find themselves overwhelmed by the number of choices, while others may make choices that lead to problems; both can be formulas for early dropout. Thats why we offer kits that supply the basics theyll need for a successful start. Its important to include the essentialsso that they can concentrate on the fun part of decorating and choosing their favorite fish.

Jesse Stach, aquatic manager for Dennys Pet World in Kirkland, Wash., said he focuses on educating customers according to the type of aquarium they want, and what type of fish theyve already decided they want.

However, getting shoppers who are new to the hobby to understand the nuances of fishkeeping is not always easy.

The challenge is being sure to give them enough information so that they can make that aquarium work, because most people come at me and say, Its just a fish!

I physically show them how to maintain their new tank, and I try to teach them that its not just furniture, that fish have personalities and a hierarchy, and that theyre dealing with a miniature ecosystem, Stach said.

Functioning displays are another way to show customers exactly what is involved in maintaining an aquarium.

We actually developed a special rack for our stores just to hold and display all three sizes of our smaller tanks so that their customers could see all the equipment thats being used in the setup, said Kyle Thaman, customer service manager for Cobalt Aquatics, based in Rockhill, S.C. The tanks were stocked with plants and fish, and theres also a spot on the rack for fish food and heaters and so on, so that in one spot they could see everything they would need to set themselves up at home.

Freshwater planted tanks are trending strongly, and manufacturers are providing the equipment and technology necessary for their continued success. JBJs Dennerle brand recently introduced the Scapers Tank, marketed specifically to aquascapers. It is designed to provide enhanced LED lighting and optimal panoramic viewing ideal for enjoying aquascapes.

Another JBJ offering is a line of nano tanks called Cubey.

This line of nano kits has a great price point, and they meet all the requirements to support a wide variety of livestock, said Dan Gilboa, president of Age of Aquariums in Signal Hill, Calif. Available in 10-gallon, 15-gallon and 20-gallon sizes, theyve been a really nice addition to the products we carry in our store. They have a sleek, modern look that people seem to like. The low-profile LED lighting provides for a form-fitting hood thats not too obtrusive, and they come in white, which seems to be the most popular color at the moment.

Cobalt Aquatics, based in Rockhill, S.C., recently released its Microvue series of aquariums, and Kyle Thaman, customer service manager, said the line has been a hit.

Its been pretty big to the point where we actually ran out of one of the sizes because we didnt anticipate this great a demand, Thaman said. The Microvue series was engineered specifically for that freshwater aquasacaping category, with the high clarity and nearly invisible silicone seals that provide an unobstructed view, along with a compact filter chamber thats not obtrusive.

One of the latest nano tank offerings from The Hagen Group is the Flex, which features a distinctive top-to-bottom, curved-front design, and comes in 9-gallon and 15-gallon versions.

We unveiled a white version of the Flex this year at Global Pet Expo, said Damian Hall, senior marketing manager for the Mansfield, Mass.-based manufacturer.

One attractive feature is the printed honeycomb application around the top of the aquarium that camouflages the water line as well as the side filtration compartment, he added. The fully integrated tank with multistage filtration chamber in the back makes for a very impressive design. But the most unique features are the vertically oriented bow front that was an engineering challenge for our manufacturing team to ensure a tight seal with no viewing distortion, and the built-in full spectrum 7500 K LED lamp that supports plant growth and enhances fish color.

BioBubble Pets released the WonderBubble some time ago, but the company has since added features to the line.

Weve added The Bubble Tunnel Kit to the WonderBubble, said Philip Root, vice president of sales and marketing for the Boca Raton, Fla.-based company. This innovative design of a transparent tunnel filled with water allows your freshwater fish to swim through it, often doing very fast loops. Its pretty amazing to see.

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A Nano for Everyone - PetProductNews.com

Written by Johnson T A | Bengaluru | Published:July 8, 2017 4:49 am To come up at IIScs Centre for Nano Science and Engineering

The Indian Institute of Science (IISc) has received initial approvals from the government to set up a Rs 3,000-crore foundry to produce a wonder nano material, gallium nitride, that is emerging as one of the most efficient semiconductors for next-generation strategic technologies, including radars and communication systems.

The foundry is proposed to be developed around an existing facility for producing gallium nitride transistors on silicon wafers, at the IIScs Centre for Nano Science and Engineering (CeNSE), under the leadership of associate professor Srinivasan Raghavan.

The proposal is currently at the highest level of the government. It needs about Rs 3,000 crore and is seen as a strategic-sector investment, Prof S A Shivashankar of the CeNSE said.

The nano material Gallium Nitride, or GaN, is a superior alternative to silica-based semiconductors and is expected to generate revenues in the range of $700 million by 2020, from the current range of $300 million, according to experts in the field.

The proposal to set up a foundry at the IISc for producing GaN is a good development. Gallium nitride technology will substantially help in the development of next-generation radars, seekers and communication systems, and will be useful in systems like Light Combat Aircraft, said R K Sharma, the director of the DRDOs (Defence Research and Development Organisation) Solid State Physics Lab.

The CeNSE facility at the IISc, which was inaugurated in 2015 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is attempting to create an ecosystem of GaN electronics, including materials, devices and systems. GaN-based transistors from the CeNSE are already being sold to researchers in the country. The creation of a commercial GaN foundry would service industry demand for the emerging technology.

What we need for strategic purposes is efficient energy consumption systems, and gallium nitride conductors are the answer. Unmanned vehicles, for example, which are the future of security systems, are dependent on energy efficiency, Director Sharma said, adding that with countries like China investing in a very strategic manner in semi-conductor systems, India also needs to do so.

Among the areas where GaN semi-conductors can be used are phased array radars for electronic warfare, like AESA radars that are fitted on ultra-modern fighter jets.

The foundation for the development of GaN technologies was laid by the 2014 Nobel Physics Prize-winning work on blue Lighting Emitting Diodes using GaN, by Japanese-origin scientists Isamu Akasaki, Hiroshi Amano and Shuji Nakamura. The techonologies have also been used in blue ray information storage systems and are being utilised increasingly now in high-power and high-speed electronics.

GaN is described as a wide-gap semiconductor with unique electronic properties. It is tough and can operate at high temperatures at high switching speeds with power flows much superior to silica.

In every device, be it a laptop, an AC, or an automobile, there are electronic circuits that have to handle very high power and voltages. It is these circuits that constitute the field of power electronics, Prof Srinivasan Raghavan says in a section on GaN at the CeNSE website.

The worldwide power electronics device market is $36 billion. As power consumption goes up, the requirement for power electronics will go up. So when you start working on GaN-based materials, you are looking at potential impact on a much larger power electronics market. What we have set up here in the IISc is a GaN platform where many of these things can mushroom, he states.

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IISc to get Rs 3000-crore foundry to produce 'wonder' nano material - The Indian Express

Written by AZoNanoJul 11 2017

The process of synthesizing nanoparticles is mostly trial and error, even though Scientists have been able to synthesize nanoparticles in the lab for decades, and it is still difficult to understand how the formation actually takes place.

However, an explanation on how metal nanoparticles form has been presented by Chemical Engineers at the University of Pittsburghs Swanson School of Engineering through a study published in Nature Communications.

This is a structure of a ligand-protected Au25 nanocluster. CREDIT Computer-Aided Nano and Energy Lab (C.A.N.E.LA.)

Giannis Mpourmpakis, Assistant Professor of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, and PhD Candidate Michael G. Taylor Co-Authored Thermodynamic Stability of Ligand-Protected Metal Nanoclusters (DOI: 10.1038/ncomms15988). The research, completed in Mpourmpakis Computer-Aided Nano and Energy Lab (C.A.N.E.LA.), is funded through a National Science Foundation CAREER award and bridges previous research focused on designing nanoparticles for catalytic applications.

Even though there is extensive research into metal nanoparticle synthesis, there really isnt a rational explanation why a nanoparticle is formed. We wanted to investigate not just the catalytic applications of nanoparticles, but to make a step further and understand nanoparticle stability and formation. This new thermodynamic stability theory explains why ligand-protected metal nanoclusters are stabilized at specific sizes.

Dr. Giannis Mpourmpakis, Assistant Professor of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering

A ligand refers to a molecule that attaches itself to metal atoms in order to develop metal cores that are stabilized by a shell of ligands, and so understanding how the ligands contribute to nanoparticle stabilization is vital for all processes using nanoparticles. Dr. Mpourmpakis explained that earlier theories explaining why nanoclusters stabilized at particular sizes were based on empirical electron counting rules the number of electrons that form a closed shell electronic structure, but show restrictions as there have been metal nanoclusters experimentally synthesized that do not essentially follow these rules.

The novelty of our contribution is that we revealed that for experimentally synthesizable nanoclusters there has to be a fine balance between the average bond strength of the nanoclusters metal core, and the binding strength of the ligands to the metal core. We could then relate this to the structural and compositional characteristic of the nanoclusters, like size, number of metal atoms, and number of ligands. Now that we have a more complete understanding of this stability, we can better tailor the nanoparticle morphologies and in turn properties, to applications from biolabeling of individual cells and targeted drug delivery to catalytic reactions, thereby creating more efficient and sustainable production processes.

Dr. Giannis Mpourmpakis, Assistant Professor of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering

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Pitt Chemical Engineering Researchers Explain the Formation of ... - AZoNano

Some of today's biggest science innovations are happening at the smallest scales.

Nanotech "nano" is short for "nanometer," referring to length scales in billionths of a meter describes technologies that are built to perform complex tasks, but at the scale of molecules or even atoms. To put that into perspective, a structure called a nanotube is 1 nanometer in diameter about 100,000 times smaller than the width of a human hair, according to the National Nanotechnology Initiative.

Thanks to nanotech, engineers can design microprocessors for your smartphone that are smaller and more efficient than ever. In addition, gadgets in the not-too-distant future could incorporate sophisticated security safeguards powered by nanotech. Scientists are also exploring how nanotech can deliver medical treatments that target genes themselves. Or build cables strong enough to support an elevator in space, according to a panel of experts at Future Con, a conference highlighting the intersection between sci-fi and cutting-edge science that was held June 16-18 in Washington, D.C. [5 Amazing Technologies That Are Revolutionizing Biotech]

Medical researchers who are looking to build machines that can operate at the nanoscale need to "follow the blueprints of biology," Lloyd Whitman, chief scientist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, told the audience at the panel titled "Indistinguishable from Magic: Nanotech in Sci-Fi" on June 17.

Any type of robot crafted at the nanoscale won't look like a typical robot it'll look more like a virus, Whitman said. Evolution has already figured out how to construct functional, autonomous forms even at the microscopic level, and engineers can learn much from studying these minuscule success stories to inform their own work on particles that perform on the nanoscale, Whitman said.

Looking to viruses for inspiration can be particularly helpful for scientists investigating potential nanotech uses in medicine and human health, according to panelist Jordan Green, an associate professor of biomedical engineering, ophthalmology, oncology, neurosurgery, and materials science and engineering at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Maryland.

Viruses affect our genome by inserting their own genes into our cells in order to replicate themselves, Green said. Could researchers perhaps design a synthetic particle capable of delivering genetic information the same way? Particles made of non-toxic and water-soluble materials could be engineered to deliver DNA directly to cells, coding them into RNA molecules outside the nucleus, where they would be translated into proteins to convey a function, according to Green.

"This could change a cell's genetic makeup, or it could have a short-term therapeutic effect," he said.

For people with genetic diseases, such as hemophilia or cystic fibrosis, this approach could deliver healthy genes to target cells and repair the errors in their DNA that cause the disease, Green told the panel audience.

Nanotech could also inform more effective cancer treatments, Green said. A mutation in cancer cells deactivates the control switch that tells them to stop growing, but targeted gene therapy using nanoparticles could reactivate their self-destruct button, halting cancerous growths in their tracks, according to Green.

By directing nanoparticles to specific tissues and delivering precise instructions to just the right cells, "nanoengineering and nanotech in medicine can help medicines be more precise," he explained.

Nanotech could also help to realize an idea that has fascinated and stymied engineers since at least the late 19th century how to build an elevator that extends from Earth into space, Lourdes Salamanca-Riba, a professor in the A. James Clark School of Engineering at the University of Maryland, told the Future Con audience.

In a carbon nanotube, tube-shaped material made of carbon has a diameter that can be measured on the nanometer scale one-billionth of a meter. NASA

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One type of space elevator could run up a long cable anchored at the equator and attached to a floating "base" outside Earth's atmosphere and in geosynchronous orbit, Salamanca-Riba said. The cable would need to cover approximately 10,000 miles (66,000 kilometers) in length, and it would have to be made from a substance that's exceptionally strong and light or it would collapse under its own weight, she added.

Carbon nanotubes cylindrical nanostructures made from carbon atoms are extremely strong and only one atomic layer thick, and could be a suitable material for these cables, Salamanca-Riba said.

A floating space station that's accessible by elevator would make it significantly easier for astronauts to travel to the moon or other cosmic regions, Salamanca-Riba said. And while a space elevator would be expensive to build, once in place, it would significantly reduce the cost of transporting payloads into orbit from thousands of dollars per kilogram to just a few hundred dollars per kilo, she added.

However, it may be some time before researchers can produce the thousands of miles of carbon nanotubes that would be required to tether a space elevator currently, they exist only in lengths of a few centimeters, Salamanca-Riba said at the panel.

Original article on Live Science.

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Nanotech's Big Ideas: From Tumor Zappers to Space Elevators - Yahoo Singapore News

Written by AZoNanoJul 3 2017

Ten people dress up in bunny suits, many of them for the first time in their lives. Under the hoods, hair nets keep their hair in place. Goggles are provided to cover their eyes, and their gloves are secured into their sleeves. Any facial hair is also netted.

Students from California State University, East Bay, watch Uli Thumser prepare silicon photovoltaic cells during a tour of the Stanford Nanofabrication Facility. (Image credit: Angela Hwang)

With all hair, dust, and lint securely tucked out of the way, the Students are all set to enter the Stanford Nanofabrication Facility. This specific group was part of a class from California State University, East Bay, co-taught by Ryan Smith, Assistant Professor of Physics at CSU-EB, and Erik Helgren, Associate Professor and Chair of Physics at CSU-EB. The class visited as part of a partnership between the two schools, designed to introduce Cal State Students to nanoscale Science and Engineering.

Many of these students have never seen a clean room. Many have an image from commercials or movies but theyve never seen one firsthand. Having that up-close experience has been very formative for some of the students. Its helped them get a deeper picture of what science is about and how that relates to industry and technology.

Ryan Smith, Assistant Professor of Physics, CSU-EB

The National Science Foundation awarded $81 million to 16 nanotechnology facilities in 2015 to support cost-effective access to outside Engineers and Scientists from research institutions, companies and schools. At Stanford University, this has aided in funding the [emailprotected] initiative, which comprises of the Nanofabrication facility, the Stanford Nano Shared Facilities (SNSF), the Environmental Measurements Facility and the Mineral Analysis Facility.

The staff at these nano facilities have been providing tours of the facilities and hands-on demonstrations of instruments over the years. Using this grant, staff members are improving their outreach efforts to include summer workshops for local Middle School Teachers and a research partnership with CSU-EB, a partnership that is expected to result in a journal paper in the coming months.

Up-close experience

In order to manipulate matter at the atomic scale, one needs to work in a space that regulates tiny disruptions, which a person would not even notice. The cleanroom suits worn by the Students prevent hair and skin from being shed into the nanofabrication facility cleanroom. Other areas of the facilities are sheltered 18 feet underground to provide an environment free from undesirable vibrations, electromagnetic interference, acoustics and light for working with extremely sensitive instruments, such as advanced electron microscopes. For Students, direct experiences, like touring these facilities and getting practical practice with some of the instrumentation, can make known what it means and what it entails to conduct research at such an incredibly small scale.

When you have a transmission electron microscope and you can point to the screen and tell visiting students thats an atom, the reaction is, 'Whoa!' Because they are familiar with atoms, it makes the scale so much more real.

Tobi Beetz, Associate Director of the SNSF

The tours include descriptions of relevant work going on at Stanford, educational information about Nanoscience and overviews of the broad array of equipment available to Researchers. For a few Students, nanoscience conjures Fantastic Voyage technology that enters into the human body to sort medical problems. But tours like this can exhibit that the field includes a wide range of research, including sensor technologies, energy conversion and information processing.

Besides the usual facility tours, the CSU-EB visitors watched a staff member perform a hydrofluoric acid dip to remove the oxide layer, an important step in the manufacture of solar cells. Directly after, Students performed four-point probe and ellipsometry measurements, processes central to the fabrication of solar cells as well as computing technology. Since hydrofluoric acid is not used at CSU-EB, visiting Stanford gave the Students a chance to learn about how the wafer processing process works in an advanced laboratory.

By experiencing this process, students can actually begin to see the connection between their research projects and the things that they see that are happening at Stanford, and that helps complete the picture for them about what nanoscience is about.

Ryan Smith, Assistant Professor of Physics, CSU-EB

Extending outreach

The nano facilities staff considers that accessibility goes further than physical access whether Students enter into the field can also be impacted by how early in their education they study about it. Among Undergraduates, outreach can be particularly meaningful for transfer Students because it can reveal to them that Nanoscience is a field they should contemplate studying, even if their first institution does not have classes on the subject.

Usually people transfer from community college after their second year but by the time they do that, even if they come to Stanford, its often too late to get them thinking about this kind of research, said Angela Hwang, the Academic Program Manager for the NSF-funded program.

The research paper that Smith and the Stanford staff plan to publish will describe the details of how this interactive tour can stimulate student education, in this case around solar cell technology. Overall, Smith said, the visits inspire his Students and have encouraged many to choose careers in Nanotechnology and Nanoscience.

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Local Students Learn About Nanoscale Science and Engineering During Stanford Tours - AZoNano

Scientists have created a durable catalyst for high-performance fuel cells by attaching single ruthenium atoms to graphene.

Catalysts that drive the oxygen reduction reaction that lets fuel cells turn chemical energy into electricity are usually made of platinum, which stands up to the acidic nature of the cells charge-carrying electrolyte. But platinum is expensive, and scientists have searched for decades for a suitable replacement.

The ruthenium-graphene combination may fit the bill, says chemist James Tour, a professor of computer science and of materials science and nanoengineering at Rice University, whose lab developed the material. In tests, its performance easily matched that of traditional platinum-based alloys and bested iron and nitrogen-doped graphene, another contender.

Ruthenium is often a highly active catalyst when fixed between arrays of four nitrogen atoms, yet it is one-tenth the cost of traditional platinum, Tour says. And since we are using single atomic sites rather than small particles, there are no buried atoms that cannot react. All the atoms are available for reaction.

Spreading single ruthenium atoms across a sheet of graphene, the atom-thick form of carbon, turned out to be fairly straightforward, Tour says. It involved dispersing graphene oxide in a solution, loading in a small amount of ruthenium, and then freeze-drying the new solution and turning it into a foam.

Baking that at 750 degrees Celsius (1,382 degrees Fahrenheit) in the presence of nitrogen and hydrogen gas reduced the graphene and locked nitrogen atoms to the surface, providing sites where ruthenium atoms could bind.

Materials made at higher and lower temperatures werent as good, and those made at the proper temperature but without either ruthenium or nitrogen proved the quality of the reaction depended on the presence of both.

The material showed excellent tolerance against methanol crossover and carbon monoxide poisoning in an acidic medium, both of which degrade the efficiency of fuel cells; such degradation is a persistent problem with traditional platinum fuel cells.

A paper on the discovery appears in the journal ACS Nano.

Additional authors of the paper are from Rice University; the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai; Tianjin University; and the Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemical Science and Engineering, Tianjin, China.

The Air Force Office of Scientific Research and its Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative; the China Scholarship Council; the American Chemical Society Petroleum Research Fund; the Department of Energy; the Robert Welch Foundation; the National Natural Science Foundation of China; and the Jianlin Xie Foundation of the Institute of High Energy Physics, Chinese Academy of Science supported the research.

Source: Rice University

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For cheaper fuel cells, spread these atoms over graphene - Futurity: Research News

William Hogan

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LOWELL -- William Hogan, known as the "father of UMass Lowell" -- leading the the university for 25 years and working there for more than four decades -- recently passed away.

Hoga was 84.

Hogan is credited with making the school competitive on a national level, and for having a significant influence throughout Greater Lowell. He was succeeded by Marty Meehan.

Hogan started as a professor of mechanical engineering at the Lowell Technological Institute. Over the next 10 years, he moved up the ranks to become head of the Mechanical Engineering Department, acting dean of engineering, and dean of the newly formed College of Engineering in 1973.

In 1975, Lowell Tech merged with Lowell State College to create the University of Lowell. Hogan was appointed the first vice president of academic affairs and served as president of the school for a decade.

He became chancellor when the school became part of the UMass system in 1991. In 2003, he initiated a 10-year plan to improve the way the faculty teaches and the students learn.

Then he helped develop plans for a $266 million renovation of the school's three campuses. The renovation aimed to transform it into a bio- and nano-tech research and development center.

Hogan, a former Chelmsford resident, never hesitated to give back to the community. He was involved in the creation of LeLacheur Park, helped support the city's American League hockey team and developed a partnership between the university and the Lowell school system.

At the end of his retirement ceremony in 2006, Hogan told the faculty and administration who helped him build the university, "I have one request. Continue to do it."

Pine Crest Funeral Home in Mobile, Ala. is arranging his funeral.

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William Hogan, 'father of UMass Lowell' passes away - Lowell Sun

BENGALURU: If the legacies of Nalanda and Takshashila had continued, by now India would have been on top in terms of education, Union minister Prakash Javadekar told students at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) on Saturday. Javadekar was at the premier institution on a follow-up visit to CeNSE (Centre for Nano Science and Engineering), set up in 2010.CeNSE students enthralled the minister with several innovative projects, including portable and affordable lab-on-a-chip devices and LED lights used for water purification, among others. "Real prosperity comes through innovation," he said. "In the next two decades, nanotechnology, internet of things (IOT) and related fields will become key areas for research in the country." "The only area for improvement is to expand further. Institutions like IISc are truly promoting the Make in India initiative. We are already in the process of setting up 20 world-class institutions, and the interaction with CeNSE students has given much-needed confidence to us," the minister said.

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Real prosperity comes through innovation: Prakash Javadekar - Times of India

It is never a good sign when a popular online wallet service provider gets hijacked. Ethereum Classic enthusiasts may have heard about what happened to ClassicEtherWallet. It appears cybercriminals successfully hijacked the website, which means users could risk losing funds. For the time being, those who run the software client on their computer should not be affected by this problem.

Late last night, the ClassicEtherwallet domain and website were successfully hijacked by an unknown attacker. A new piece of code had been implemented on the website, which is a clear attempt to steal users private keys. It is unclear who is behind this attack, but it is evident a lot of Ethereum Classic enthusiasts had funds at risk. Rest assured there will be a fair bit of speculation regarding this attack over the coming days.

It is important to note this hijacking never affected the API on MyEtherWallet, the projects GitHub page or the associated Chrome extension. This particular issue only affects the ClassicEtherWallet website, and anyone who was unfortunate enough to pass their wallets private key on the platform during the time of this attack. There are still a lot of uncertainties regarding whether or not the issue has been rectified so far, although a cautious approach remains more than warranted for now.

According to various sources, someone successfully hijacked the ClassicEtherWallet domain name through social engineering. This means someone has been in contact with the domain registrar and successfully provided enough information to gain ownership of the domain name. No one knows for sure what information has been provided or how it was obtained in the first place, though. Social engineering attacks are not all that uncommon, unfortunately.

All of this highlights the importance of using a proper cryptocurrency wallet at all times. We recently highlighted different Ethereum Classic wallet solutions, including ClassicEtherWallet. All of the other alternatives are still safe from harm for the time being. A hardware wallet solution, such as the Ledger Nano S, will always be the best option, though. It keeps private keys and funds safe from harm at any given time.

Additionally, the upcoming Ethereum Classic Emerald Wallet may alleviate a lot of these concerns as well. We will know more once the beta version of the wallet is released, which is expected to take place in the coming weeks. Secure solutions are in high demand, that much is evident. Anyone who keeps funds in ClassicEtherWallet is still safe, as long as they have not logged in by pasting their private key over the past 24 hours. For now, it is anybodys guess if and how much ETC may have been stolen due to this hijacking attack.

Thankfully, the Classic Ether Wallet team has gotten some help from Cloudflare to resolve this issue. More specifically, the ClassicEtherWallet.com website is now marked as a suspected phishing site, until the platform is fully operational again. It is always better to warn people about a potential phishing site even if the threat has subsided. For now, the ETC community is anxiously waiting to see how this situation will develop.

If you liked this article, follow us on Twitter @themerklenews and make sure to subscribe to our newsletter to receive the latest bitcoin, cryptocurrency, and technology news.

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ClassicEtherWallet Domain Hijacked Through Social Engineering by an Unknown Assailant - The Merkle

GREENSBORO A High Point-based plastic injection molding company will anchor a new building planned for Gateway University Research Park.

Core Technology Molding Corp. will move to the new site with help from a $1.2 million economic development investment grant from Greensboro, the city said Thursday in a news release.

The company will bring its headquarters and 25 jobs to the new space initially and has promised to add 25 more,John Merrill, executive director of the research park, said in early June before the company had been publicly identified.

This is a major endeavor for District 1 and East Greensboro as this project is the result of the City designating funds from the 2006 and 2016 bonds earmarked specifically for the enhancement of the east side of town, Councilwoman Sharon Hightower said in a prepared statement.

The new 70,000-square-foot building on the research park's south campus will go up next to the Joint School of Nanoscience and Nanoengineering.

Construction could start as soon as August, and the building could be occupied in late 2018.

The $11.7 million, two-story building will have research labs and offices as well as manufacturing and distribution spaces. Core Technology will occupy between a third and half of the new building. The remaining spaces will be for lease.

The Gateway research park, a joint venture of N.C. A&T and UNC-Greensboro, has two campuses. TheNorth Campuscovers 75 acres along U.S. 29 near Bryan Park. TheSouth Campus, also 75 acres, sits along Gate City Boulevard near Interstate 40/85.

Contact Jennifer Fernandez at 336-373-7064.

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High Point company to expand at Gateway University Research Park - Greensboro News & Record

Artist's concept of a space elevator system, looking down at Earth from 22,000 miles (36,000 kilometers) up.

Some of today's biggest science innovations are happening at the smallest scales.

Nanotech "nano" is short for "nanometer," referring to length scales in billionths of a meter describes technologies that are built to perform complex tasks, but at the scale of molecules or even atoms. To put that into perspective, a structure called a nanotube is 1 nanometer in diameter about 100,000 times smaller than the width of a human hair, according to the National Nanotechnology Initiative.

Thanks to nanotech, engineers can design microprocessors for your smartphone that are smaller and more efficient than ever. In addition, gadgets in the not-too-distant future could incorporate sophisticated security safeguards powered by nanotech. Scientists are also exploring how nanotech can deliver medical treatments that target genes themselves. Or build cables strong enough to support an elevator in space, according to a panel of experts at Future Con, a conference highlighting the intersection between sci-fi and cutting-edge science that was held June 16-18 in Washington, D.C. [5 Amazing Technologies That Are Revolutionizing Biotech]

Medical researchers who are looking to build machines that can operate at the nanoscale need to "follow the blueprints of biology," Lloyd Whitman, chief scientist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, told the audience at the panel titled "Indistinguishable from Magic: Nanotech in Sci-Fi" on June 17.

Any type of robot crafted at the nanoscale won't look like a typical robot it'll look more like a virus, Whitman said. Evolution has already figured out how to construct functional, autonomous forms even at the microscopic level, and engineers can learn much from studying these minuscule success stories to inform their own work on particles that perform on the nanoscale, Whitman said.

Looking to viruses for inspiration can be particularly helpful for scientists investigating potential nanotech uses in medicine and human health, according to panelist Jordan Green, an associate professor of biomedical engineering, ophthalmology, oncology, neurosurgery, and materials science and engineering at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Maryland.

Viruses affect our genome by inserting their own genes into our cells in order to replicate themselves, Green said. Could researchers perhaps design a synthetic particle capable of delivering genetic information the same way? Particles made of non-toxic and water-soluble materials could be engineered to deliver DNA directly to cells, coding them into RNA molecules outside the nucleus, where they would be translated into proteins to convey a function, according to Green.

"This could change a cell's genetic makeup, or it could have a short-term therapeutic effect," he said.

For people with genetic diseases, such as hemophilia or cystic fibrosis, this approach could deliver healthy genes to target cells and repair the errors in their DNA that cause the disease, Green told the panel audience.

Nanotech could also inform more effective cancer treatments, Green said. A mutation in cancer cells deactivates the control switch that tells them to stop growing, but targeted gene therapy using nanoparticles could reactivate their self-destruct button, halting cancerous growths in their tracks, according to Green.

By directing nanoparticles to specific tissues and delivering precise instructions to just the right cells, "nanoengineering and nanotech in medicine can help medicines be more precise," he explained.

Nanotech could also help to realize an idea that has fascinated and stymied engineers since at least the late 19th century how to build an elevator that extends from Earth into space, Lourdes Salamanca-Riba, a professor in the A. James Clark School of Engineering at the University of Maryland, told the Future Con audience.

In a carbon nanotube, tube-shaped material made of carbon has a diameter that can be measured on the nanometer scale one-billionth of a meter.

One type of space elevator could run up a long cable anchored at the equator and attached to a floating "base" outside Earth's atmosphere and in geosynchronous orbit, Salamanca-Riba said. The cable would need to cover approximately 10,000 miles (66,000 kilometers) in length, and it would have to be made from a substance that's exceptionally strong and light or it would collapse under its own weight, she added.

Carbon nanotubes cylindrical nanostructures made from carbon atoms are extremely strong and only one atomic layer thick, and could be a suitable material for these cables, Salamanca-Riba said.

A floating space station that's accessible by elevator would make it significantly easier for astronauts to travel to the moon or other cosmic regions, Salamanca-Riba said. And while a space elevator would be expensive to build, once in place, it would significantly reduce the cost of transporting payloads into orbit from thousands of dollars per kilogram to just a few hundred dollars per kilo, she added.

However, it may be some time before researchers can produce the thousands of miles of carbon nanotubes that would be required to tether a space elevator currently, they exist only in lengths of a few centimeters, Salamanca-Riba said at the panel.

Original article on Live Science.

See original here:

Nanotech's Big Ideas: From Tumor Zappers to Space Elevators - Live Science

Ten people get into bunny suits, many for the first time in their lives. Under the hoods, their hair is in hair nets. Goggles cover their eyes, their gloves are tucked into their sleeves. For those with facial hair, thats netted too.

Students from California State University, East Bay, watch Uli Thumser prepare silicon photovoltaic cells during a tour of the Stanford Nanofabrication Facility. (Image credit: Angela Hwang)

With all hair, lint and dust safely tucked out of the way, the students are ready to enter the Stanford Nanofabrication Facility. This particular group was part of a class from California State University, East Bay, co-taught by Ryan Smith, assistant professor of physics at CSU-EB, and Erik Helgren, associate professor and chair of physics at CSU-EB. The class visited as part of a collaboration between the two schools, designed to expose Cal State students to nanoscale science and engineering.

Many of these students have never seen a clean room. Many have an image from commercials or movies but theyve never seen one firsthand, Smith said. Having that up-close experience has been very formative for some of the students. Its helped them get a deeper picture of what science is about and how that relates to industry and technology.

In 2015, the National Science Foundation awarded $81 million to 16 nanotechnology facilities to support cost-effective access to outside scientists and engineers from schools, research institutions and companies. At Stanford University, this has helped fund the nano@Stanford initiative, which consists of the nanofabrication facility, the Stanford Nano Shared Facilities (SNSF), the Mineral Analysis Facility and the Environmental Measurements Facility.

The staff at the nano facilities has provided tours of the facilities and hands-on demonstrations of instruments for years. With this grant, staff members are boosting their outreach efforts to include summer workshops for local middle school teachers and a research collaboration with CSU-EB, a partnership that is likely to result in a journal paper in the coming months.

If you want to manipulate matter at the atomic scale, you need to work in a space that controls for tiny disruptions a person wouldnt even notice. The cleanroom suits worn by the students prevent skin and hair from being shed into the nanofabrication facility cleanroom. Other parts of the facilities are sheltered 18 feet underground to provide an environment free from unwanted vibrations, acoustics, electromagnetic interference and light for working with highly sensitive instruments, such as advanced electron microscopes. For students, direct experiences, like touring these facilities and getting hands-on practice with some of the instrumentation, can reveal what it means and what it takes to do research at such an unimaginably small scale.

When you have a transmission electron microscope and you can point to the screen and tell visiting students thats an atom, the reaction is, Whoa! said Tobi Beetz, associate director of the SNSF. Because they are familiar with atoms, it makes the scale so much more real.

The tours include educational information about nanoscience, descriptions of relevant work going on at Stanford and overviews of the wide array of equipment available to researchers. For some students, nanoscience conjures Fantastic Voyage technology that goes into the human body to fix medical problems. But tours like this can demonstrate that the field includes a broad range of research, including energy conversion, sensor technologies and information processing.

In addition to the usual facility tours, the CSU-EB visitors observed a staff member perform a hydrofluoric acid dip to remove the oxide layer, a critical step in the creation of solar cells. Immediately after, students performed four-point probe and ellipsometry measurements, processes fundamental to the fabrication of solar cells as well as computing technology. Since hydrofluoric acid is not used at CSU-EB, visiting Stanford was an opportunity for the students to learn about how the wafer processing procedure works in a state-of-the-art laboratory.

By experiencing this process, students can actually begin to see the connection between their research projects and the things that they see that are happening at Stanford, and that helps complete the picture for them about what nanoscience is about, Smith said.

The nano facilities staff believes that accessibility goes beyond physical access whether students go into the field can also be influenced by how early in their education they learn about it. Among undergraduates, outreach can be especially meaningful for transfer students because it can show them that nanoscience is a field they should consider studying, even if their first institution doesnt have classes on the subject.

Usually people transfer from community college after their second year but by the time they do that, even if they come to Stanford, its often too late to get them thinking about this kind of research, said Angela Hwang, the academic program managerfor the NSF-funded program.

The paper that Smith and the Stanford staff plan to publish will explain the details of how this interactive tour can promote student education, in this case around solar cell technology. In general, Smith said, the visits are inspiring for his students and have encouraged several to pursue careers in nanoscience and nanotechnology.

Nano@Stanford provides access to world-leading facilities and expertise in nanoscale science and engineering for internal users and for external users from academic, industrial and government labs. For more information visit nanolabs.stanford.edu.

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Local students explore science at the nanoscale in Stanford tours - Stanford University News

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- An investigational compound developed by Penn State researchers that targets and destroys cancer cells while leaving healthy cells unharmed has been approved for phase one clinical human trials by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Keystone Nano, a biopharmaceutical company cofounded by James Adair, professor of materials science and engineering, biomedical engineering, and pharmacology, recently was approved to begin clinical trials to assess ceramide nanoliposome for possible use in treating cancer. The trials will seek to establish safe dosing levels and examine the compounds efficacy as an anticancer therapy. Keystone Nano was founded in 2005 with Mark Kester, former professor of pharmacology at Penn State College of Medicine in Hershey, with the goal of gaining FDA approval for nanoscale biomedical products.

The compound works by weaving ceramide a known anticancer therapeutic agent thats never been used in clinical testing to treat cancer with other fatty lipids that dramatically increase its delicate stability in the body. Upon reaching the tumor, it penetrates the cellular lining before depositing its chemotherapeutic cargo. The coating has resulted in a much greater window of effectiveness over current chemotherapy treatment because ceramide has been found harmless to noncancerous cells in dozens of preclinical animal tests.

A cancer drugs window of treatment is determined by the gap between the point in which a drug becomes an effective treatment and when it becomes harmful to the patient. Drugs with a larger window of treatment generally pose fewer risks to the patient.

An investigational compound developed by Penn State researchers that targets and destroys cancer cells while leaving healthy cells unharmed has been approved for phase one clinical human trials by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Theres a whole litany of side effects that cancer patients put up with. About three percent of all patients die from the side effects of the chemotherapy, said Adair. Were very encouraged by ceramide nanoliposomes because the study findings suggest that they could kill cancer while doing little or no harm to the patient.

Phase one of the trial will recruit patients with solid tumors for testing. If the trial reaches Phase two, it is expected to focus on liver cancer.

Kester resolved ceramides instability obstacle by protecting the compound in a proprietary fatty coating. Ceramide is then able to freely flow through the body, before eventually being sucked in by the tumor as it funnels metabolic resources from the host.

In dozens of animal tests, the researchers found that the compound remained in the body attacking cancer tumors for more than a day.

Ceramide is a bioactive lipid that selectively kills cancer cells. At equal dosing, normal cells go to sleep, cancer cells die, said Kester, now director of NanoStar Institute at the University of Virginia. The problem is it precipitates. It falls out of solution. The only way to deliver it is to turn it into a nanoformulation, which is our intellectual property. Think of it as a very small FedEX truck that delivers on time, all the time but only to the cancer cells.

The targeted delivery system if approved, may offers positive benefits over current chemotherapy, which tends to target the human body like a hatchet, delivering a few percent of the dose to the tumor, said Adair. The dose that doesnt reach the tumor causes harm to the immune system and the body. That means that the therapeutic window of treatment is narrow and rife with side effects.

According to researchers, because ceramide nanoliposome works like a more like a scalpel, it leaves healthy cells unharmed at effective dosing, the therapeutic window of treatment is much greater and potential harm to the body is much lower.

The nano formulation has been shown to preserve the bodys ability to rebuild rapidly regenerating cells found in areas such as the digestive system and scalp, which means patients likely wont experience digestive problems or hair loss from the treatment. Also, the patients immune system isnt attacked like it is with chemotherapy.

Phase one of the clinical trials, a goal of Penn State nanomedical researchers since 2003, will begin by testing patients who havent responded to treatment methods and will focus on proper dosing levels and efficacy. Phase two is anticipated to focus on liver cancer, which annually kills about 27,000 people in the United States and 700,000 worldwide. There is currently no known cure for the disease and the lone existing treatment method extends life, on average, between six to eight weeks. Testing will take place at three sites: the University of Maryland, the University of Virginia and the Medical University of South Carolina.

The compound will be given to 30 patients, increasing dosage until side effects are noticed. Adair and Kester said ceramide nanoliposome could become an FDA-approved drug within a few years if it shows promise in clinical testing.

Other formulations developed by Adair use nanojackets formed from calcium phosphate that are formulated to seek out cancer cells to deliver a chemotherapeutic agent or imaging cargo. In animal tests, thats led to similar results as ceramide nanoliposome, where chemotherapy delivers only to the cancer, ignoring healthy cells.

Its also produced another benefit: early detection. In other studies, researchers have combined nanojackets with fluorophores, which emit light, to detect cancer tumors using near infrared light. Early detection alone would dramatically increase survivor rates, which could diminish as the cancer progresses.

The targeted compound has also shown promise in treating non-tumor cancers. In lab tests, it eliminated 30 percent of chronic myeloid leukemia, a nonsolid cancer of the blood stream. Adair said he expects these technologies, now in preclinical trial phase, to reach the clinical trial stage within a few years.

With targeting, our research has shown you can have your particles hunt down and kill single cell cancers of the blood, said Adair. The particles that dont find their way to the cancer remain intact. They never deliver their cargo unless they get absorbed by the cancers cell membrane. Its a trigger that no other formulations really have.

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Investigational cancer compound receives FDA approval to begin human trials - Penn State News

Triad Business Journal

Triad manufacturer to become anchor tenant at Gateway University Research Park campus Triad Business Journal The city of Greensboro has agreed to put up $1.2 million for the project, which will be located on the east side of the Joint School of Nanoscience and Nanoengineering, he said. Core Technology Molding Corp. of High Point will soon become the anchor ...

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Triad manufacturer to become anchor tenant at Gateway University Research Park campus - Triad Business Journal