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: Hierarchical Systems and Natural Strength

One of the unexpected benefits of nanotechnology is that it is making us appreciate the amazing sophistication of naturally evolved materials. You may not have thought much of it the last time your arm was in a cast, but bone is one of the most remarkable materials in nature, combining strength and resilience with a range of biological functions.

Bone is the scaffold of most life on earth and the secret to its success lies at the nanoscale. Nanowerk has a fascinating article on the molecular properties of bone and how they use hierarchies of flexible and strong components to build up a material that's able to absorb huge amounts of stress without failure.

In biology, universality generates robustness, while diversity enables optimality. Materials like bone, being a nano-composite of strong but brittle and soft but ductile materials, illustrate this unification of components with disparate properties within a hierarchical structure.

Nature's toolbox begins with nanotechnology. By slowly unraveling the molecular structures of natural materials like bones, researchers are learning principals that can be applied to human-made materials in order to make them stronger, lighter and more efficient.

The Nanotech BC Blog: Learning from Geckos

Not only is Mother Nature inventive, she's had a very long time to add to her tool box. A case in point is the humble gecko -- able to scamper up walls and hang upside-down on ceilings thanks to the tiny fibers on its feet.

Now nanotechnology is about to let us do the same thing by using carbon nanotubes to develop tape based on the same principle that makes a gecko's feet sticky -- but with four times the adhesive power. Ars Technica and PHYSORG.com report on the cutting edge of stickiness.

Better tape might seem prosaic, but it will be advances like gecko-tape that bring nanotechnology into the mainstream by providing large jumps in effectiveness in materials with huge numbers of uses.