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Category: nanotechnology

Today, magnets have many applications being used for energy generation, data storage, and computing. But magnetic computing devices in two-dimensional systems are quickly approaching their shrinking limit.

That’s why, we have witnessed a growing trend in moving to three dimensions, where higher densities can be achieved and three-dimensional geometries can offer new functionalities.

Now, an international team led by Cambridge University’s Cavendish Laboratory has used an advanced 3D printing method they developed to create magnetic double helices that produce nanoscale topological textures in the magnetic field, opening the door to the next generation magnetic devices.

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The U.S. Army is expected to announce that it has developed a vaccine that protects against omicron and other COVID-19 variants. The Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR) has been developing a Spike Ferritin Nanoparticle (SpFN) since early 2020, and began early-stage human trials of the vaccine in early April. Kayvon Modjarrad, director of WRAIR’s infections disease branch, said that the early-stage trials ended this month, and yielded positive results that are currently under review.

-a slight correction, but still promising.

Correction: This headline and story have been corrected to reflect that the COVID-19 vaccine the Army is developing has not been tested against omicron.

The U.S. Army is expected to announce that it has developed a vaccine that protects against an array of COVID-19 variants, Defense One reported.

The Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR) has been developing a spike ferritin nanoparticle (SpFN) vaccine since early 2020 and began early-stage human trials of the vaccine in early April.

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4D printing works the same as 3D printing, the only difference is that the printing material allows the object to change shape based on environmental factors.

In this case, the bots’ hydrogel material allows them to morph into different shapes when they encounter a change in pH levels — and cancer cells, as it happens, are usually more acidic than normal cells.

The microrobots were then placed in an iron oxide solution, to give them a magnetic charge.

This combination of shape-shifting and magnetism means the bots could become assassins for cancer — destroying tumors without the usual collateral damage on the rest of the body.

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A school of fish-y microbots could one day swim through your veins and deliver medicine to precise locations in your body — and cancer patients may be the first people to benefit from this revolution in nanotechnology.

How it works: Scientists recently printed teeny tiny microbots in the shape of different animals, like fish, crabs, and even butterflies. But the coolest thing with these bots is that they don’t stay in one shape — they can morph into different shapes because they are 4D-printed.

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An international team of researchers have used a unique tool inserted into an electron microscope to create a transistor that’s 25,000 times smaller than the width of a human hair.

The research, published in the journal Science, involves researchers from Japan, China, Russia and Australia who have worked on the project that began five years ago.

QUT Center for Materials Science co-director Professor Dmitri Golberg, who led the research project, said the result was a “very interesting fundamental discovery” which could lead a way for the future development of tiny for future generations of advanced computing devices.

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A new vaccine for COVID-19, using a multi-faced nanoparticle, could offer protection against many different strains of the virus simultaneously.

The news has been filled with doom and gloom lately, as the latest variant of COVID-19, called Omicron, becomes dominant in many countries. This follows the previous Delta variant, which followed earlier strains such as Alpha, which derived from the original “wildtype” virus. As 2021 draws to a close and the world prepares for yet another year of the pandemic, many people are understandably anxious and weary.

There is reason for optimism, however. Scientists are now talking about a pan-coronavirus vaccine development strategy, to offer protection from all current and even future variants of COVID-19. Last week, the U.S. National Institute of Health published a commentary in The New England Journal of Medicine calling for such an approach, as a way of breaking the cycle of new strains emerging.

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The 2021 Lifeboat Foundation Guardian Award has been given to Martine Rothblatt who has devoted her life to moving humanity towards a positive future.

Martine was the 500th person to join our Advisory Board, has contributed to our blog, and has generously supported the Lifeboat Foundation’s goal of “Safeguarding Humanity”.

Martine is cofounder of the Terasem Movement Foundation. Their mission is to promote the geoethical (world ethical) use of nanotechnology for human life extension. They conduct educational programs and support scientific research and development in the areas of cryonics, biotechnology, and cyber consciousness. This foundation is related to the Lifeboat Foundation programs LifePreserver and PersonalityPreserver (which Martine contributed text to).

The Terasem Movement Foundation publishes “The Journal of Personal Cyberconsciousness” and “The Journal of Geoethical Nanotechnology”.

Martine Rothblatt is winner of the 2021 Guardian Award.

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Scientists and institutions dedicate more resources each year to the discovery of novel materials to fuel the world. As natural resources diminish and the demand for higher value and advanced performance products grows, researchers have increasingly looked to nanomaterials.

Nanoparticles have already found their way into applications ranging from energy storage and conversion to quantum computing and therapeutics. But given the vast compositional and structural tunability nanochemistry enables, serial experimental approaches to identify impose insurmountable limits on discovery.

Now, researchers at Northwestern University and the Toyota Research Institute (TRI) have successfully applied to guide the synthesis of new nanomaterials, eliminating barriers associated with materials discovery. The highly trained algorithm combed through a defined dataset to accurately predict new structures that could fuel processes in clean energy, chemical and automotive industries.

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AI machine learning presents a roadmap to define new materials for any need, with implications in green energy and waste reduction.

Scientists and institutions dedicate more resources each year to the discovery of novel materials to fuel the world. As natural resources diminish and the demand for higher value and advanced performance products grows, researchers have increasingly looked to nanomaterials.

Nanoparticles have already found their way into applications ranging from energy storage and conversion to quantum computing and therapeutics. But given the vast compositional and structural tunability nanochemistry enables, serial experimental approaches to identify new materials impose insurmountable limits on discovery.

Read more | >

Scientists have used state-of-the-art 3D printing and microscopy to provide a new glimpse of what happens when taking magnets to three-dimensions on the nanoscale—1000 times smaller than a human hair.

The international team led by Cambridge University’s Cavendish Laboratory used an advanced 3D printing technique they developed to create magnetic double helices—like the double helix of DNA—which twist around one another, combining curvature, chirality, and strong magnetic interactions between the helices. Doing so, the scientists discovered that these magnetic double helices produce nanoscale topological textures in the magnetic field, something that had never been seen before, opening the door to the next generation of magnetic devices. The results are published in Nature Nanotechnology.

Magnetic devices impact many different parts of our societies, magnets are used for the generation of energy, for data storage and computing. But magnetic computing devices are fast approaching their shrinking limit in two-dimensional systems. For the next generation of computing, there is growing interest in moving to three dimensions, where not only can higher densities be achieved with 3D nanowire architectures, but three-dimensional geometries can change the and offer new functionalities.

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