bloodvapor 's List: Nanotechnology in Life

• Nanotechnology refers broadly to a field of applied science and technology whose unifying theme is the control of matter on the atomic and molecular scale, normally 1 to 100 nanometres, and the fabrication of devices within that size range.

  • Long ago, it was almost immplausible to imagine humans going as far as we have today with technology. However, scientists are moving on. Nanotechnology is what most scientists are after. For it has proven itself a key to a new way of life. have you ever thought of having nanochips in your brain? Or have you ever thought of having nanochips cleaning your blood?
    Well, in nanotechnology it's all there. Read on if you want to know about how life is modifying with the use of nanotechnology.

• • This short video will explain to you what nanotechnology really is.
    It's not too detailed, so it's easy to understand. Yet it's informative.

• Tumors may be embedded in regions of the brain that are critical to orchestrating the body’s vital functions
• forming more tumors too small to detect using conventional imaging techniques. Brain cancer’s location and ability to spread quickly makes treatment with surgery or radiation like fighting an enemy hiding out among minefields and caves, and explains why the term “brain cancer” is all too often associated with the word “inoperable.”
• blood vessels and protective cells in the brain — the blood-brain barrier — that admits only essential nutrients and oxygen, and keeps out everything else, including about 95 percent of all drugs.
• imits on how much a patient can benefit from traditional chemotherapy and new cancer drugs.

• using nanotechnology, NCI-supported researchers at the University of Michigan, the University of Washington, the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, Virginia Polytechnic Institute, and Virginia Commonwealth University are creating ultrasmall particles that can target and destroy cancer cells in the brain, even those in tumors too small to be removed surgically.

   

    <script src="http://nano.cancer.gov/objects/js/backtotop.js" language="JavaScript1.2"></script>Back

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• Until now it has been impossible to accurately measure the levels of important chemicals in living brain cells in real time and at the level of a single cell. Scientists at the Carnegie Institution's Department of Plant Biology and Stanford University are the first to overcome this obstacle by successfully applying genetic nanotechnology using molecular sensors to view changes in brain chemical levels. The sensors alter their 3-dimensional form upon binding with the chemical, which is then visible via a process known as fluorescence resonance energy transfer, or FRET. In a new study, the nanosensors were introduced into nerve cells to measure the release of the neurotransmitter glutamate -- the major brain chemical that increases nerve-cell activity in mammalian brains.
• "The fluorescent imaging technique allows us to see living cells do their jobs live and in color,"
• FRET
• is like two musical tuning forks, which have the same tone," Okumoto continued. "If you excite one, it gives a characteristic tone. If you bring the second fork close to the first one, it will also start to give you a tone even though they do not touch. This is resonance energy transfer."
• we could see this activity under the microscope by watching the color change. We stimulated the neurons and watched them secrete glutamate in response. We also saw the removal of the glutamate as the neurons returned to normal ready to fire again."

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• Nanotechnology is not only getting big in industry, but the military is investing time and money into the field. That is why the Army just initiated the Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies (ISN)—a $50 million and 150-person initiative that will serve as the Army's center of expertise in the application of nanotechnology.
• The nanotechnology-based uniforms in development for soldiers may also protect law enforcement officers, firefighters, and other emergency responders in the future, too.

• One of the partner companies, DuPont, is exploring nanotechnology and developing protective lightweight molecular materials to equip U.S. soldiers with uniforms and gear that help protect them, shield them, and heal them in the field. Researchers are developing nanotechnology-based materials, including protective lightweight uniforms and "smart" gear. A few examples of "smart" functionality are items that can:   

   
  • Change colors on command to camouflage in changing environments—even manipulate light to make soldiers invisible in the field. 
   
  • Change a shirtsleeve into a splint or a pant leg into a rigid cast in the field if a soldier is injured.
   
  • Possess built-in sensors of each soldier's physical condition and location in the battlefield so command posts can monitor soldiers from a distance.
   
  • Weave radio communications materials directly into the uniform's fabric—providing soldiers flexibility and lighter loads.
   
  • Automatically administer medicines and transmit vital signs to distant medics—who could then potentially perform medical triage on soldiers in the field. 
   
  • Provide impact protection materials and systems including ballistic and shrapnel. 
   
  • Provide chemical and biological protection materials and systems. 

  • As much as we hate war, countries have the rights to inhance, or improve their military uniforms and weapons.
    Read on to see how the U.S is spending money extravagently in order to improve their military using nanotechnology.

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• • When you look at an MP3, you start thinking about how humans have developed in technology because that beautiful audio player is soo small.
    Well, read this short article that talks about the first fully-functionl radio that was created by a single carbon nanotube.
• A team of researchers with the US Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory [profile] and the University of California at Berkeley [profile] have created the first fully-functional radio from a single carbon nanotube, which makes it by several orders of magnitude the smallest radio ever made.

  • When you look at an MP3, you start admiring the fact that it's soo small, but yet it is a clear and a high-quality audio player.
    Well, read this short article that talks about the first fully-functional radio that was created from a single carbon nanotube.

• Nanotechnology holds great promise for the future of cancer therapy and water treatment, but concerns about the safety of nanoproducts may limit these important technological developments,

• In the food-packaging arena, nanomaterials are being developed with enhanced mechanical and thermal properties to ensure better protection of foods from exterior mechanical, thermal, chemical ormicrobiological effects.

  • Now, using anti-microbial films, food packaging is alot safer. For the food products can be protected from any external effects.
• The most prominent products in the food industry's research and development pipeline include new polymer nanocomposites for packaging and wrapping. Foils or membranes based on nanocompositesoffer adjustable gas permeability in food packaging which can help to better protect food.

• • Now nanotechnology has entered in many areas, not only labs, but also in skin care and beauty. Now scientists are creating ways of treating skin wrinkles using nanoparticles.
    

• nanotechnology is helping with teating skin wrinkles.
  - bloodvapor on 2007-10-28