Showing Spotlights 1561 - 1568 of 2778 in category All (newest first):
In nanomedicine, nanoparticles are used as vehicles for efficiently delivering therapeutic nucleic acids, such as disease-fighting genes and small interfering RNA (siRNA) molecules, into cells. But getting nanomedicines to their target sites inside cells is not the only challenge. It also is necessary to assess the intracellular processing of nanomedicines and the efficacy of their payload delivery - a task that is not exactly trivial given the complexity and dynamics of the mechanisms of endocytosis and intracellular trafficking. Researchers are therefore trying to develop robust and reliable tools to characterize and evaluate the intracellular processing of administered nanomedicines. As part of this effort, scientists have now introduced a quantitative approach to study live-cell endosomal colocalization dynamics of nanomedicines for gene delivery, based on single-particle tracking and trajectory-correlation.
Nov 21st, 2011
While the current solar panel market is still dominated by crystalline silicon solar cells, thin-film solar cell technologies based on chalcogenides are dramatically increasing their market penetration. Apart from device performance, price volatility issues, rare earth elements scarcity issues, and potential environmental issues have raised some concerns about both CdTe and CIGS. A frontrunner in the search for the next generation of thin film photovoltaic materials are low-cost quaternary copper-zinc-tin-sulfide (CZTS) and copper-zinc-tin-chalcogenide (CZTSSe). Notably, these materials are composed of naturally abundant elements in the Earth's crust and have very low toxicity. New research show that there are other chemical routes that use much more benign solvents by demonstrating a simple and facile solution phase method to form CZTS thin film solar cell using commercially available precursors and non-toxic solvents with high yield.
Nov 18th, 2011
There is a lot of buzz in the computer industry about so-called three-dimensional (3D) chips, promising higher performance with lower energy consumption, and paving the way for exascale computers (which would represent a thousandfold increase in performance over the current petascale architecture). However, these chips are not intrinsically built, true 3D chips; rather, they are stacked layers of up to 100 separate chips. In a major breakthrough in the field of photonic crystals, researchers in The Netherlands have developed a novel process that allows for rapid fabrication of large 3D photonic crystals in mono-crystalline silicon using CMOS compatible processes.
Nov 17th, 2011
Survey research indicates that religious belief will be a powerful influence in shaping public views about nanotechnology, while knowledge about nanotech will be less influential. And yet religious thought about nanotech has received little attention. We know that nanotechnology has evoked a large body of literature on moral and ethical issues, but almost all of this is expressed in secular voices, e.g., those of philosophers, ethicists, and scientists. Religious commentaries about nanotechnology have been much more rare. Now it is worth knowing what religious voices have said about nanotechnology, so that we might anticipate future religious reactions.
Nov 16th, 2011
Conventional microfluidic devices are fabricated in inherently planar, block-like devices. In contrast, an important feature of naturally self-assembled systems such as leaves and tissues is that they are curved and have embedded fluidic channels that enable the transport of nutrients to, or removal of waste from, specific three-dimensional regions. Since most microfluidic devices are created using layer-by-layer lithographic patterning and molding methods, it is challenging to create microfluidic networks in curved or folded geometries. However, such networks are important to pattern chemicals in 3D and also to create realistic models of tissues. Researchers have now demonstrated, for the first time, a strategy to self-assemble curved and folded microfluidic polymeric devices with materials used in conventional planar, microfluidics namely SU8 and PDMS.
Nov 14th, 2011
Uncertainty evaluation is an often overlooked factor in many AFM material property measurement work - nevertheless it is critical for obtaining truly quantitative measurements. The atomic force microscope is used extensively for measuring the material properties of nanomaterials with nanometer resolution, unfortunately there is a lack of standards and uncertainty quantification in these measurements. Other fields, such as six sigma standards in industry and beam corrections in scanning electron microscopy, have developed thorough methods for quantifying the uncertainty in a given measurement, model, or system. Broadly speaking these methods can be classified as uncertainty quantification. Without applying the methods of uncertainty quantification to AFM measurements it is impossible to say if the measurements are accurate within 5% or 100%.
Nov 11th, 2011
Fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster) are the workhorses in countless biomedical research laboratories around the world. The bioimaging of live specimens, ideally through all the stages of the fruit fly life cycle, is a tricky and often complicated undertaking. Researchers in India have now developed a relatively simple way to introduce fluorescent nanomaterials into fruit flies: They prepared carbon nanoparticles from wood waste and added them to the flies' food supply. The fluorescent fruit flies showed no toxic effects - upon withdrawal of the nanoparticles from their food, they excreted the fluorescing material and continued to proliferate to the next generation, demonstrating a return to their normal lives.
Nov 8th, 2011
Colloidal silver is not a health elixir and should not be taken orally. Still, dubious online resources that sell silver dispersions or explain how to synthesize colloidal silver for nutritional purposes keep propagating mystic health effects of nano-silver. Whoever considers to "treat" themselves by taking colloidal silver certainly don't know what they want to treat themselves for. They should be aware that drinking an antimicrobial agent at any effectual dosage must inevitably cause harm to innumerable bacteria that are vital to our organism - especially in the alimentary canal. Drinking colloidal silver will either be noneffective or harmful. It is not medicine.
Nov 4th, 2011
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