On the road to quantum world with spoke wheels
How heavy or how big can an object be before losing its quantum properties and obeying to the laws of classical physics? This question drives many research groups all around the globe. Answers still remain to be given as currently there are no systems which allow observing the expected tiny signatures of quantum effects in macroscopic objects.
Posted: Sep 28th, 2008
Read moreReversible 3-D nanocomposite gel could revolutionize cell culture
Singapore's Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (IBN) has invented a unique user-friendly gel that can liquefy on demand, with the potential to revolutionize three-dimensional (3D) cell culture for medical research.
Posted: Sep 28th, 2008
Read moreBacterial nanoinjectors promise for drug delivery
Bacterial nanoinjectors transport proteins across three membranes: the inner and outer bacterial membranes plus the host cell membrane. Nanoinjectors essentially connect the bacterial cell contents with the host cell's and form a conduit for delivering bacterial effector proteins into the host. Once inside, these proteins reprogram the host's cellular functions to promote survival, growth, and bacterial propagation
Posted: Sep 27th, 2008
Read moreGreen nanotechnology - producing environmentally friendly nanoparticles
Until recently, scientists couldn't create the nanoparticles without producing synthetic chemicals that had negative impacts on the environment. A new method, created by a University of Missouri research team, not only eliminates any negative environmental impact, but also has resulted in national and international recognition for the lead scientist.
Posted: Sep 26th, 2008
Read morePaclitaxel triggers nanoparticle formation and improves in vivo stability
Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have developed a new process for making nanoparticles that relies on paclitaxel itself to serve as the initiator that triggers polymer synthesis. The result is not only a stable nanoparticle formulation of paclitaxel but also one with very high and very controlled amounts of drug being incorporated in the nanoparticle.
Posted: Sep 26th, 2008
Read moreUsing ultrasound and nanobubbles to damage cancer cells
Using a combination of polymers that respond to temperature, a research team at the University of Utah has developed a multifunctional nanoparticle that can image tumors using ultrasound and simultaneously deliver cell-damaging energy and anticancer drugs to those tumors. In addition, these nanoparticles appear to act specifically on tumors and not on healthy tissue.
Posted: Sep 26th, 2008
Read moreMultifunctional nanoparticles trick drug-resistant cell into committing suicide
In an effort to overcome the drug resistance that often occurs in cancer, a team of investigators has developed a nanoparticle made of a blend of polymers that first releases a powerful anticancer drug and then delivers an agent that tricks a drug-resistant cell into committing suicide. Now, tests in mice with human breast cancer have shown that these blended nanoparticles are effective in maintaining high levels of both drugs in the vicinity of tumors.
Posted: Sep 26th, 2008
Read moreCarbon nanotubes get more drugs into cancer cells
Researchers at the Center for Cancer Nanotechnology Excellence Focused on Therapy Response (CCNE-TR), based at Stanford University, have found a new way to target cancer cells while leaving healthy cells untouched.
Posted: Sep 26th, 2008
Read moreMapping tumor blood supply in 3-D with targeted nanoparticles
New research describes the development of a perfluorinated nanoparticle loaded with gadolinium ions, which boost magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) signals, and then coating this nanoparticle with a peptide that targets new blood vessels.
Posted: Sep 26th, 2008
Read moreHybrid stealth nanoparticle mothership to image and kill cancer cells
By combining a magnetic nanoparticle, a fluorescent quantum dot, and an anticancer drug within a lipid-based nanoparticle, a multi-institutional research team headed by members of the National Cancer Institute?s (NCI) Alliance for Nanotechnology in Cancer has created a single agent that can image and treat tumors.
Posted: Sep 26th, 2008
Read moreBridges, pipelines expected to benefit from research on preventing corrosion
Rice University has established a National Corrosion Center where researchers will develop better technology for preventing corrosion - a problem that is estimated to cost $276 billion a year in the U.S.
Posted: Sep 26th, 2008
Read moreFirst concrete results of ISO work on nanotechnology definitions
The first concrete result of the work ISO launched in 2005 to develop standards to support the innovative field of nanotechnologies comes with the publication of ISO/TS 27687:2008, which provides terms and definitions related to particles in the field of nanotechnologies.
Posted: Sep 26th, 2008
Read moreMeta-screens: Squeezing light into sub-wavelength spots
In a new study, physicists at the University of Toronto have invented a simple structure called a meta-screen, designed to focus light into tiny spots smaller than the wavelength of the photons in use.
Posted: Sep 26th, 2008
Read moreOptical tweezers trap nanotubes by color
Physicists at Osaka University in Japan used colored light to selectively manipulate different types of carbon nanotubes. They found that some of nanotubes displayed a tendency to cluster at the focal area of a focused laser beam.
Posted: Sep 26th, 2008
Read moreA new imaging method for breast cancer using near infrared nanoparticles
A new imaging method for breast cancer has been developed by a team of scientists from Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center and Penn State College of Medicine and the departments of Materials Science and Engineering and Physics at Penn State. Their researche utilizes encapsulated fluorescent molecules in calcium phosphate nanoparticles and non-toxic near infrared imaging.
Posted: Sep 26th, 2008
Read moreA four-dimensional picture of our three-dimensional world
An international team of scientists from RIKEN at Brookhaven National Laboratory and elsewhere in the USA, Japan and the UK are testing the Standard Model - the foundation of high-energy physics that unifies three of the four known forces found in nature - by calculating a well-known nuclear decay process.
Posted: Sep 26th, 2008
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