The Nanotech BC Blog: The Young Turks of AMPEL

Progress in science in technology is driven by many things -- money, infrastructure, as well as popular and political support, but the arguably the most important factor in innovation is people.

Recently Nanotech BC has had the opportunity to work with some of the members of the University of British Columbia's MiNa -- Micro-systems and Nanotechnology, group. They are a research group of scientists working on projects applying micro and nanotechnology to everything from bio-medical devices to energy to fabrication.

BC deserves credit for the huge investment it has made in nanotechnology researcher, but it's even more important to keep our eyes on the people behind the machines and MiNa is one of the teams that is making nanotechnology a reality.

The Nanotech BC Blog: Tougher Armor through Carbon Nanotubes

I suppose that it's inevitable that one of the first showcases for new technology is weapons. It's slightly more comforting to see that some of the new materials nanotechnology is enabling are meant to protect lives instead of kill them.

The BBC news has a good article on how carbon nanotubes are being used to create "future fibres" for use within body armor.

"Our fibre is up there with the existing high performance bibres such as Kevlar", said Professor Windle. But he added: "We've seen bits that are much better than Kevlar in all respects."

The article also has a good section explaining the process of making the super-strong material. They've convinced me that what there producing has a lot of promise, but there are a few conspicuous and unanswered questions: How much does it cost to produce, and how scalable is the manufacturing process?

The Nanotech BC Blog: Plastic? Steel? Both!

We're really just playing catch up with nature, aren't we?

Apparently, by mimicking the layered molecular grid of seashells scientists at the University of Michigan have created a new, biodegradable plastic-like material that's transparent and hard as steel.

The most impressive thing about this advance is that the researchers have managed to live up to the promise of nanotechnology -- realizing the remarkable strength of their nanoscale building-blocks at the macroscale.

Of course, as always there are questions that need to be asked. How expensive is it to create this material? How hard is it going to be to scale it up to economically viable production? This new material is a significant achievement, but the real success will come when we're using it in practical ways.

The Nanotech BC Blog: Coming Soon to a Fruit Fly Larvae Near You

The intersection of nanotechnology and biology are attracting a lot of interest for many good reasons. On the one hand nanotech seems to promise new ways of curing disease and promoting health. On the other, nobody seems very sure of the extent that nanoparticles or nanotubes are harmful.

Now the brave fruit fly looks like it's about to find out:

Nanotubes Imaged In Fruit Fly Larvae

Using near-infrared fluorescence imaging, scientists at Rice University have managed to sneak a peek at single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) inside the bodies of living fruit fly larvae (Nano Lett. 2007, 7, 2650). It's the first time anyone has observed carbon nanotubes inside a living creature, according to principal investigators Kathleen M. Beckingham and R. Bruce Weisman, who think the technique could be useful for diagnosing diseases. The Rice team first fed Drosophila melanogaster larvae a steady diet of water-solubilized SWNTs. The researchers then used a near-infrared microscope and special camera to image SWNTs without harming the larvae. Neither the adult flies' viability nor their growth was reduced by ingesting the tubes. They also found that a small fraction—approximately 10^-8—of the ingested nanotubes were incorporated into the flies' organs, which suggests that SWNTs may have a negligible physiological impact on the insects.

Personally, I'm not planning on ordering a nanotube cocktail any time too soon no mater how much the flies liked it -- but the lack of damage to the larvae seems like a hopeful sign. Nanoparticles are part of the environment every time you burn a candle, but there is a strong possibility that the type and amount of nanomaterials we will all be exposed to will change.

The Nanotech BC Blog: Spreading the Word

I've been a bit of an absentee landlord with this blog lately, but that's only because a lot has been happening.

First off, Vancouver's own Georgia Straight had a feature article on Nanotechnology that Alan Guest, the Executive Director of Nanotech BC contributed to. It's a good article and manages to present nanotechnology in a reasonable light -- as neither a world-devouring existential threat nor the key to a sci-fi utopia. Bit by bit an understanding of "nano" as a scale for technology rather than a distinct technology itself is filtering into the public.

Next, I was off to Oregon for ONAMI's Micro Nano Breakthrough Conference. The event was fascinating and a lot of fun. They had around three hundred attendees and some truly remarkable speakers. The two that stood out for me were Clayton Teague the NNCO Director and R. Stanley Williams of Hewlett-Packard Laboratories. In particular I was amazed at what Hewlett-Packard is up to. It'll be interesting to see where the memristor takes us...

The Nanotech BC Blog: Social Issues in Nanotechnology

Soft Machines is one of my favorite nanotechnology blogs -- lucid, balanced and informed. Richard Jones's latest is a two-part article on the history of nanotechnology and the social interests that are propelling it.

The first part focuses on where nanotechnology has come from. The second looks at the social issues and groups that are affecting where it's going.

What particularly impressed me was Jone's recognition that science in general and nanotechnology in particular serve as a mirror for social and cultural fears and aspirations.

Technologies don’t exist or develop in a vacuum, and nanotechnology is no exception; arguments about the likely, or indeed desirable, trajectory of the technology are as much about their protagonists’ broader aspirations for society as about nanotechnology itself.

The Nanotech BC Blog: Enabling the Enabling Technology

At Nanodot Christine Peterson briefly raises the issue of advanced software and its implications for nanotechnology. She rightly points out that nanotechnology with real molecules is difficult and expensive. The alternative is computer simulations.

Right now though even the most powerful computers are struggling to fold proteins -- the complexities of nanotechnology highlight the leap we are going to need in computing power in order to accurately model nanotech.

In her post Ms. Peterson refers to AI and the Singularity Summit, but there is no reason that AI has to be part of the ability to model nanotechnology. Perhaps the most promising means of bringing computing power to the necessary level doesn't involve AI: quantum computing.

Quantum computing is spooky stuff -- using the quantum features like superposition and entanglement to do computations that are impossible any other way. Quantum computing is farther along than most people think; D-Wave, the worlds first private quantum computing company is alive and well in British Columbia and they are well aware of how their work could accelerate nanotechnology in powerful ways.