Full Version: Nano Technology
its hard to find where this topic goes, but it is science.. anyways, i think its very interesting.. i read where you can have it spread over your shirt, to the point where if you got shot by a bullet or something it would break and spread over your body... and how you can live by many years.... and more interestingly, how they program these cells into your body and the cells go after what they are programed for and either help or kill it... like HIV or something, the cells go straight to it.. but what do you all think about this?
They are one the next 'big' things. So much can be done with them, military and medically wise.
However, I assume they would not be able to cure someone from a virus (projection of technology in the near future). The reason being that the virus infects the cell, which means the only way to kill the virus is to kill the cell. This kills you.
However, I assume they would not be able to cure someone from a virus (projection of technology in the near future). The reason being that the virus infects the cell, which means the only way to kill the virus is to kill the cell. This kills you.
They are one the next 'big' things. So much can be done with them, military and medically wise.
However, I assume they would not be able to cure someone from a virus (projection of technology in the near future). The reason being that the virus infects the cell, which means the only way to kill the virus is to kill the cell. This kills you.
They can change the cell.
I think nanotechnology isn t the best idea.If it falls in the wrong hands , what will happen?Anyone with access to such an technology could wipe out humanity and nobody could stop him,propably not even with the same technology.I guess it CAN go well, as long as they stay away from AIs.
However, I assume they would not be able to cure someone from a virus (projection of technology in the near future). The reason being that the virus infects the cell, which means the only way to kill the virus is to kill the cell. This kills you.
They can change the cell.
I think nanotechnology isn t the best idea.If it falls in the wrong hands , what will happen?Anyone with access to such an technology could wipe out humanity and nobody could stop him,propably not even with the same technology.I guess it CAN go well, as long as they stay away from AIs.
Nano tech's will be smaller then cell's. The nano bot's will enter the cell and repair it or alter it to what we want. Very cool stuff will change the way humans live forever.
They can do all this, theoretically. Theoretically I can win the marathon.
It will kill the Virus inside the Cell Mr.Ed... that is what it is programmed to do, it will whip out the bad cell and replace it with a new one.. such as if u have HIV.. the programmed cells go in and wipe out the infected cells leaving your body replenshed =).
QUOTE(Mr Ed @ May 30 2005, 03:20 PM)
They can do all this, theoretically. Theoretically I can win the marathon.
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Major studies using Nanotechnology enabled medical devices are going on all over the world. Tests are already being done in animals called " targeted therapy"
One exciting use of nanotechnology are things called Nanoshells and they are expected to arrive in doctors office by 2006-7.
I'll briefly explain how it works;
You go to the doctors and if you are worried that you have cancer the doctor will inject millions or billions of nanoshells into your body. These will then pass all through any organ, artery, bone etc.. the amazing thing is, is that they are NON TOXIC and biodegradable, they don't stay in your body.
When a mass of nanoshells attach to the tumor the doctor will grab his hand held scanning device than uses near infrared light and wave it over you. A virtual image of your body will appear on the computer screen and highlight the cancer cells or tumor ( it will glow )
They then use the same hand held device and point it at the cancer cells and/or tumor and burn it without harming any healthy cells (131 degrees Fahrenheit but can go hotter). This being used in animals studies have shown that it has an extremely high success rate and animals are cured of cancer within 10 days with no reoccurance.
and believe me, that is nothing compared to what you are going to see in the near future.
Most people on these forums will be treated using nanoshells or similar method at some point
The rapid pace of nanotechnology is amazing. Breakthrough happen everyday and more frequent. This is consistant with the 'law of acceleration returns'
Here is a good site for all nanotechnology breakthroughs everyday
http://www.nanotech-now.com/current-months-news.htm
Here is a good site for all nanotechnology breakthroughs everyday
http://www.nanotech-now.com/current-months-news.htm
Not mentioning curing cancer, nanotechnology can is essential for what Alcor plans with their cryo-preservation.
Cryo preservation is when they 'freeze' you (not really), but they preserve your body (or more efficiently, just your brain, they will be able to regrow your body), and such. This is helpful for curing anything...
Just get cryo-preserved, wait in stasis for a cure, they use nanotechnology to 'unfreeze' you, and then they administer the cure.
Its very luckily that nanotechology will (help) cure old age.
Alcor
Cryo preservation is when they 'freeze' you (not really), but they preserve your body (or more efficiently, just your brain, they will be able to regrow your body), and such. This is helpful for curing anything...
Just get cryo-preserved, wait in stasis for a cure, they use nanotechnology to 'unfreeze' you, and then they administer the cure.
Its very luckily that nanotechology will (help) cure old age.
Alcor
I am looking foward to the massive benefits nano technology will bring, I just hope they don't research life extending treatment.
The only downside is it is going to be sooo pricy its going to suck ya no... but in time it will be cheaper and most likely just a regular shot eh?
Researching treatment for living significantly longer cannot be good overall. The rich will live longer, abuse their power possibly. No one needs to live that long...
The rich will pay a 1000 times or more for what the treatment would be worth enabling middle class people to afford the treatments. That how things work. So infact, I thank the rich for buying all these technologies to enable me to have them at a later date.
Life extension is one of the things that will come with nanotechnology. Extreme life extension. Mr Ed, no one will force you to live. While everyone is enjoying their lives you can grow old and frail and die, if you wish.
There will also be an incredible amount of demand for such treatments.
Like I said, We are already extending life span with treatments already available, I mean what is the ultimate goal of medicine? It is to *cure* diseases and human suffering. Otherwise we would just be making some good pain killers if we didn't want to improve the human condition or extend ones life.
Life extension is one of the things that will come with nanotechnology. Extreme life extension. Mr Ed, no one will force you to live. While everyone is enjoying their lives you can grow old and frail and die, if you wish.
There will also be an incredible amount of demand for such treatments.
Like I said, We are already extending life span with treatments already available, I mean what is the ultimate goal of medicine? It is to *cure* diseases and human suffering. Otherwise we would just be making some good pain killers if we didn't want to improve the human condition or extend ones life.
I think you are missing my point 102. Over population would be at a great risk of occuring.
I don't believe in the gods of organised religion, so my response is not a religious one. The idea of extreme life extension seems to be another way of avoiding death for a while, maybe something that should be welcomed after a while.
To me it just seems to represent people's greed.
I would probably take the medication though, I just don't think researching it is a good idea. Once it is there it will be very hard to say no.
I don't believe in the gods of organised religion, so my response is not a religious one. The idea of extreme life extension seems to be another way of avoiding death for a while, maybe something that should be welcomed after a while.
To me it just seems to represent people's greed.
I would probably take the medication though, I just don't think researching it is a good idea. Once it is there it will be very hard to say no.
QUOTE(Mr Ed @ May 30 2005, 10:03 AM)
They are one the next 'big' things. So much can be done with them, military and medically wise.
However, I assume they would not be able to cure someone from a virus (projection of technology in the near future). The reason being that the virus infects the cell, which means the only way to kill the virus is to kill the cell. This kills you.
[right][snapback]647158[/snapback][/right]
However, I assume they would not be able to cure someone from a virus (projection of technology in the near future). The reason being that the virus infects the cell, which means the only way to kill the virus is to kill the cell. This kills you.
[right][snapback]647158[/snapback][/right]
Firm stumbles upon virus killer
http://www.detnews.com/2005/technology/0502/06/B06-80530.htm
Sunday, February 6, 2005
Besides nail fungus and cold sores, Ann Arbor's NanoBio is on way to find remedies for flu and HIV.
NanoBio Corp. didn't set out to develop a substance so powerful it can kill viruses and bacteria -- some potentially lethal -- on contact.
"We found this technology by serendipity," said NanoBio founder Dr. James Baker, director of the University of Michigan's Center for Biologic Nanotechnology.
Nearly a decade ago, Baker and his researchers were looking for a medium to deliver genetic material into bacteria.
They came up with an emulsion of very tiny droplets -- each about 150 nanometers in diameter, or one-six-hundredth the width of an average human hair -- made of soybean oil and solvent and coated with a lubricant. But instead of delivering the genetic material into the targeted bacteria, the emulsion instantly killed it on contact.
"It was salad dressing that kills," Baker joked.
Today, NanoBio is poised to market treatments for cold sores and toenail fungus, and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security may be a source for funding to develop an emulsion to kill anthrax.
Baker said that clinical tests for a product called NanoHPX to cure cold sores are under way with 265 patients in 19 locations in the United States. He estimates the potential U.S. market to be $1 billion.
Discussions also are under way with major pharmaceutical companies to license the technology if the test results mirror early trials. Baker said a product could be on the market by late 2007
Because this thread is called "nanotechnology" I can post breakthroughs in this one thread instead of making multiple threads. if thats ok.
QUOTE
Nanotechnology's everywhere
http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/t...-nanotech_x.htm
NEW YORK — If you're worried that nanotechnology is going to contaminate the Earth and needs to be stopped before it destroys the human species, well ... heh-heh ... too late!
Last week, I stopped by the NanoBusiness 2005 conference just off Wall Street. The overarching theme: Nanotech isn't just a lab experiment anymore. It's spreading fast and in some surprising ways.
For that matter, you'll probably slather nanotech all over your face this summer. It's in sunscreens and sun-blocking lotions. It's in quick-drying paint. It might be in your pants.
Perhaps most dazzling of all, nanotechnology can be used to manufacture diamonds that are all but indistinguishable from mined diamonds — a profound development that could eventually cut into traditional diamond sales the way Tylenol pushed aside aspirin.
And the impression is that there is so much more right around the corner. Nanotech is finding its way into drugs, diapers, walls and pesticides. A study by Lux Research found that 3,800 nanotech patents have been issued so far, and 1,777 more are pending.
One nanotech product, carbon nanotubes, has become so common that a company at the conference hawks them like a used car salesman. The company is called Cheap Tubes, and its slogan is: "We search the world for the highest quality, lowest cost carbon nanotubes so YOU don't have to!" Which is helpful, because I wouldn't know a carbon nanotube if it bit one of my skin cells.
Nanotech really is becoming this generation's plastic. If you're over 40, you remember when everyday stuff was made of metal or wood: car dashboards, the players in table hockey games, office desks, golf clubs. Plastics turned out to do most of those jobs better and cheaper, and so plastics spread to every part of our lives.
In a lot of cases, that's what nanotech is doing, but on a more sophisticated level.
Nanotech refers to any substance that is engineered at the scale of a nanometer, which is about three to five atoms across. By messing with atoms, an engineer can alter a substance so it does new tricks.
Take paint. I met Rich Stromback, who runs Ecology Coatings and is perhaps the only nanotech CEO who used to be a minor league ice hockey goon (1989-90 Erie Panthers stats: 7 goals, 18 assists, 130 penalty minutes). As Stromback says, paint has worked the same for centuries: You put it on, then wait for it to dry. In a factory, the wait translates into a major holdup.
Ecology Coatings uses nanotech to create a "liquid solid." It flows but will not evaporate. Spill it on the floor, and it will be the same three weeks later — sort of like a McDonald's milkshake.
In a factory, the coating can be sprayed on like paint and then dried with an ultraviolet light in three seconds. "We're solving one of the last manufacturing bottlenecks," Stromback says
Also, paint has long served one main purpose: to add color. Michael Riedlinger, president of NaturalNano, says his company is working on paints with a property that could be turned on or off to block cell phone signals. It could be used in a concert hall, for instance.
Among other companies here, Nanophase makes nanotech particles that go into "everyday" sunscreens like Oil of Olay's Complete line of UV moisturizers. The particles block the sun but don't interfere with the lotion's feel and look.
Nucryst Pharmaceuticals engineers silver particles into infection-fighting bandages for burn victims. Products from Nano-Tex make cotton pants that repel water, now sold by Gap and Eddie Bauer. In a development that could truly improve the lives of millions, companies here talk of engineering diapers that never smell.
Then there's Apollo Diamond, which makes perhaps the most tangible of all nanotech products. The 20-employee Boston company spent 15 years figuring out how to construct a real diamond, one atomic layer at a time. Apollo seems to be the only company that can do this. Finding the right recipe is the equivalent of finding a particular grain of sand on a beach.
Now Apollo can make what it calls "cultured diamonds." They aren't fake. They are real diamonds, but man-made instead of forged over millions of years by intense underground pressure and heat. Jewelers can't tell the difference. The only way to know is to use sophisticated equipment recently developed just for that purpose by — surprise! — DeBeers, which controls about half the world's diamond market.
"If there's any example of how our material world can be turned upside down by nanotechnology, this is it," says nanotech consultant Jim Hurd.
Apollo has made gem-quality diamonds bigger than 5 carats. President Robert Sennott says Apollo is close to striking deals with major retailers, though he wouldn't say which ones. An Apollo diamond might cost one-third less than a similar mined diamond.
"The retail gemstone business is $60 billion," Sennott says. "We'd be happy with 2% to 3% of that, and we think we can get there."
If that's not wild enough, the real passion of Apollo is to make inexpensive diamonds to put into computer microchips. Turns out that properties of diamonds could help computers run far faster than they do today — at speeds that would melt silicon chips into goo.
Speaking of goo, that word didn't come up at the conference. A few years ago, a lot of people feared that nano-size machines would learn to replicate themselves in a process that could spin out of control until the Earth was covered in a gray goo, suffocating all life. Maybe that fear is subsiding.
A couple of times, though, someone in the audience raised health concerns about, for example, spreading nanoparticles on your skin day in and day out. But so far, no studies have shown that nanotech is harmful.
So instead of killing us, nanotech is bringing diamonds and odorless diapers. That's progress.
http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/t...-nanotech_x.htm
NEW YORK — If you're worried that nanotechnology is going to contaminate the Earth and needs to be stopped before it destroys the human species, well ... heh-heh ... too late!
Last week, I stopped by the NanoBusiness 2005 conference just off Wall Street. The overarching theme: Nanotech isn't just a lab experiment anymore. It's spreading fast and in some surprising ways.
For that matter, you'll probably slather nanotech all over your face this summer. It's in sunscreens and sun-blocking lotions. It's in quick-drying paint. It might be in your pants.
Perhaps most dazzling of all, nanotechnology can be used to manufacture diamonds that are all but indistinguishable from mined diamonds — a profound development that could eventually cut into traditional diamond sales the way Tylenol pushed aside aspirin.
And the impression is that there is so much more right around the corner. Nanotech is finding its way into drugs, diapers, walls and pesticides. A study by Lux Research found that 3,800 nanotech patents have been issued so far, and 1,777 more are pending.
One nanotech product, carbon nanotubes, has become so common that a company at the conference hawks them like a used car salesman. The company is called Cheap Tubes, and its slogan is: "We search the world for the highest quality, lowest cost carbon nanotubes so YOU don't have to!" Which is helpful, because I wouldn't know a carbon nanotube if it bit one of my skin cells.
Nanotech really is becoming this generation's plastic. If you're over 40, you remember when everyday stuff was made of metal or wood: car dashboards, the players in table hockey games, office desks, golf clubs. Plastics turned out to do most of those jobs better and cheaper, and so plastics spread to every part of our lives.
In a lot of cases, that's what nanotech is doing, but on a more sophisticated level.
Nanotech refers to any substance that is engineered at the scale of a nanometer, which is about three to five atoms across. By messing with atoms, an engineer can alter a substance so it does new tricks.
Take paint. I met Rich Stromback, who runs Ecology Coatings and is perhaps the only nanotech CEO who used to be a minor league ice hockey goon (1989-90 Erie Panthers stats: 7 goals, 18 assists, 130 penalty minutes). As Stromback says, paint has worked the same for centuries: You put it on, then wait for it to dry. In a factory, the wait translates into a major holdup.
Ecology Coatings uses nanotech to create a "liquid solid." It flows but will not evaporate. Spill it on the floor, and it will be the same three weeks later — sort of like a McDonald's milkshake.
In a factory, the coating can be sprayed on like paint and then dried with an ultraviolet light in three seconds. "We're solving one of the last manufacturing bottlenecks," Stromback says
Also, paint has long served one main purpose: to add color. Michael Riedlinger, president of NaturalNano, says his company is working on paints with a property that could be turned on or off to block cell phone signals. It could be used in a concert hall, for instance.
Among other companies here, Nanophase makes nanotech particles that go into "everyday" sunscreens like Oil of Olay's Complete line of UV moisturizers. The particles block the sun but don't interfere with the lotion's feel and look.
Nucryst Pharmaceuticals engineers silver particles into infection-fighting bandages for burn victims. Products from Nano-Tex make cotton pants that repel water, now sold by Gap and Eddie Bauer. In a development that could truly improve the lives of millions, companies here talk of engineering diapers that never smell.
Then there's Apollo Diamond, which makes perhaps the most tangible of all nanotech products. The 20-employee Boston company spent 15 years figuring out how to construct a real diamond, one atomic layer at a time. Apollo seems to be the only company that can do this. Finding the right recipe is the equivalent of finding a particular grain of sand on a beach.
Now Apollo can make what it calls "cultured diamonds." They aren't fake. They are real diamonds, but man-made instead of forged over millions of years by intense underground pressure and heat. Jewelers can't tell the difference. The only way to know is to use sophisticated equipment recently developed just for that purpose by — surprise! — DeBeers, which controls about half the world's diamond market.
"If there's any example of how our material world can be turned upside down by nanotechnology, this is it," says nanotech consultant Jim Hurd.
Apollo has made gem-quality diamonds bigger than 5 carats. President Robert Sennott says Apollo is close to striking deals with major retailers, though he wouldn't say which ones. An Apollo diamond might cost one-third less than a similar mined diamond.
"The retail gemstone business is $60 billion," Sennott says. "We'd be happy with 2% to 3% of that, and we think we can get there."
If that's not wild enough, the real passion of Apollo is to make inexpensive diamonds to put into computer microchips. Turns out that properties of diamonds could help computers run far faster than they do today — at speeds that would melt silicon chips into goo.
Speaking of goo, that word didn't come up at the conference. A few years ago, a lot of people feared that nano-size machines would learn to replicate themselves in a process that could spin out of control until the Earth was covered in a gray goo, suffocating all life. Maybe that fear is subsiding.
A couple of times, though, someone in the audience raised health concerns about, for example, spreading nanoparticles on your skin day in and day out. But so far, no studies have shown that nanotech is harmful.
So instead of killing us, nanotech is bringing diamonds and odorless diapers. That's progress.
QUOTE
Nanofuture: What's Next
http://crnano.typepad.com/crnblog/2005/06/...uture_what.html
Flying cars, space travel for everyone, the elimination of poverty and hunger, and powerful new tools to combat disease, and even aging. These are some of the amazing predicted developments of nanotechnology, the coming science of designing and building machines at the molecular and atomic levels. Will this new scientific revolution be for better or worse? Some commentators have described utopias; others have prophesied disaster. Find out the likely reality from an expert, Dr. J. Storrs Hall, in this absorbing insider’s guide to the near future.
That's from the jacket of Nanofuture: What's Next for Nanotechnology, on sale now at Barnes & Noble, Borders, Walmart, Amazon, and better bookstores everywhere.
This may be the book I wish I'd written. I haven't read it yet, but based on the description and the reviews, I can't wait.
"...excellent introduction to nanotechnology...can be enjoyed and appreciated by the interested layman as well as the professional scientist." - Saul Levy, Department of Computer Science, Rutgers University
"...the best introduction to our nanotechnological future published in the last 10 years...I loved this book! Buy it!" - Robert A. Freitas Jr., author of Nanomedicine
"Readers excited by the promises of nanotechnology will find this book a gripping read." - Publishers Weekly
"If you thought the present century will bring less change than the industrial revolution did, think again." - Nick Bostrom, Faculty of Philosophy, Oxford University
http://crnano.typepad.com/crnblog/2005/06/...uture_what.html
Flying cars, space travel for everyone, the elimination of poverty and hunger, and powerful new tools to combat disease, and even aging. These are some of the amazing predicted developments of nanotechnology, the coming science of designing and building machines at the molecular and atomic levels. Will this new scientific revolution be for better or worse? Some commentators have described utopias; others have prophesied disaster. Find out the likely reality from an expert, Dr. J. Storrs Hall, in this absorbing insider’s guide to the near future.
That's from the jacket of Nanofuture: What's Next for Nanotechnology, on sale now at Barnes & Noble, Borders, Walmart, Amazon, and better bookstores everywhere.
This may be the book I wish I'd written. I haven't read it yet, but based on the description and the reviews, I can't wait.
"...excellent introduction to nanotechnology...can be enjoyed and appreciated by the interested layman as well as the professional scientist." - Saul Levy, Department of Computer Science, Rutgers University
"...the best introduction to our nanotechnological future published in the last 10 years...I loved this book! Buy it!" - Robert A. Freitas Jr., author of Nanomedicine
"Readers excited by the promises of nanotechnology will find this book a gripping read." - Publishers Weekly
"If you thought the present century will bring less change than the industrial revolution did, think again." - Nick Bostrom, Faculty of Philosophy, Oxford University
NanoFood
http://www.sciencentral.com/articles/view....le_id=218392560
Everyday foods may soon be able to carry medicines and supplements, or even take on your favorite color. As this ScienCentral News video explains, physicists are using nanotechnology to create tiny edible capsules that release their contents on demand.
Food For Thought
"Tea, earl grey, hot," commanded Captain Jean-Luc Picard aboard the starship Enterprise, and a steaming cup of tea would appear instantly in the futuristic food replicator on the wall. Having your food just the way you like it, in an instant, might not be just something from science fiction… but simply from science.
Nanotechnologists are working on adding ingredients that could one day "program" the contents of your cupboard, at a moment's notice, filling your pantry with, "Functional foods… to enhance its health value, its taste, its smell, its general quality," explains Harvard University David Weitz. Using the same technique they might even make taking your medicines as easy eating a candy bar.
But, many Americans associate the phrase "artificial ingredients" with unhealthy eating habits, so Weitz's work might turn that notion upside down. "If you drink a milkshake, you look at it and worry that you're going to gain weight because it tastes so good. You might imagine something that would limit the ability of the body to absorb all the fat, or add a nutrient or enzyme that would improve the benefits of the milkshake so you wouldn't worry about the weight you are about to gain by drinking the tasty milkshake," he says.
With the idea of perhaps one day carrying active ingredients such as fat blockers, extra nutrients or even prescription medications within ordinary food, the resereachers set out to make tiny capsules that could carry substances like nutrients or medicines into the body. "We were trying to figure out a way to create these capsules to protect nutrients and valuable drug molecules in an environment where they'd be attacked and captured otherwise," says Weitz. When the capsules reached the desired location, the contents would be released slowly into the body.
The capsules, called "colloidosomes," are made of tiny particles just one-tenth the size of a human cell, that assemble themselves into a hollow, sturdy, elastic shell with holes. "We fabricate colloidosomes by taking small drops of water and immersing them in another fluid which has little particles in it. And the particles… stick to the surface of the water drop, and then we heat them up slightly to make a solid shell of particles around the water drop," Weitz explains. "By controlling the way we produce the little particles, we can adjust the little holes in the shell that allow small molecules to go in and out of this capsule." By adjusting the size of the holes they would be able to control how long it would take for the drug or nutrient inside to escape, "so we could control the release of these nutrients," he says.
While the food and drug administration is still deciding how best to regulate these so-called "functional foods," Weitz thinks they could hit supermarket shelves by the end of the decade.
Weitz's research was published in the April 22, 2005 issue of Science, and was funded by the National Science Foundation, NASA, Kraft Foods Inc., and Unilever.
http://www.sciencentral.com/articles/view....le_id=218392560
http://www.sciencentral.com/articles/view....le_id=218392560
Everyday foods may soon be able to carry medicines and supplements, or even take on your favorite color. As this ScienCentral News video explains, physicists are using nanotechnology to create tiny edible capsules that release their contents on demand.
Food For Thought
"Tea, earl grey, hot," commanded Captain Jean-Luc Picard aboard the starship Enterprise, and a steaming cup of tea would appear instantly in the futuristic food replicator on the wall. Having your food just the way you like it, in an instant, might not be just something from science fiction… but simply from science.
Nanotechnologists are working on adding ingredients that could one day "program" the contents of your cupboard, at a moment's notice, filling your pantry with, "Functional foods… to enhance its health value, its taste, its smell, its general quality," explains Harvard University David Weitz. Using the same technique they might even make taking your medicines as easy eating a candy bar.
But, many Americans associate the phrase "artificial ingredients" with unhealthy eating habits, so Weitz's work might turn that notion upside down. "If you drink a milkshake, you look at it and worry that you're going to gain weight because it tastes so good. You might imagine something that would limit the ability of the body to absorb all the fat, or add a nutrient or enzyme that would improve the benefits of the milkshake so you wouldn't worry about the weight you are about to gain by drinking the tasty milkshake," he says.
With the idea of perhaps one day carrying active ingredients such as fat blockers, extra nutrients or even prescription medications within ordinary food, the resereachers set out to make tiny capsules that could carry substances like nutrients or medicines into the body. "We were trying to figure out a way to create these capsules to protect nutrients and valuable drug molecules in an environment where they'd be attacked and captured otherwise," says Weitz. When the capsules reached the desired location, the contents would be released slowly into the body.
The capsules, called "colloidosomes," are made of tiny particles just one-tenth the size of a human cell, that assemble themselves into a hollow, sturdy, elastic shell with holes. "We fabricate colloidosomes by taking small drops of water and immersing them in another fluid which has little particles in it. And the particles… stick to the surface of the water drop, and then we heat them up slightly to make a solid shell of particles around the water drop," Weitz explains. "By controlling the way we produce the little particles, we can adjust the little holes in the shell that allow small molecules to go in and out of this capsule." By adjusting the size of the holes they would be able to control how long it would take for the drug or nutrient inside to escape, "so we could control the release of these nutrients," he says.
While the food and drug administration is still deciding how best to regulate these so-called "functional foods," Weitz thinks they could hit supermarket shelves by the end of the decade.
Weitz's research was published in the April 22, 2005 issue of Science, and was funded by the National Science Foundation, NASA, Kraft Foods Inc., and Unilever.
http://www.sciencentral.com/articles/view....le_id=218392560
Advance Nanotech Subsidiary Announces Beta Program for Ultra-Low Powered Wireless Biosensors
http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/g...350&newsLang=en
Bio-Nano Sensium Technologies, a subsidiary of Advance Nanotech, Inc., (OTC BB:AVNA.OB), today announced a limited beta test program of its wireless biosensor system. Under terms of the program, beta-stage versions of Bio-Nano Sensium (BNS) system will be available to potential partners and customers for evaluation. Wireless biosensors are increasingly seen as a desirable treatment for a range of chronic conditions including diabetes, cardiac conditions and asthma.
"As BNS technology becomes commercially available we anticipate a wide range of applications across the healthcare industry. Some of these applications will be developed by BNS and Advance Nanotech, others will be developed in partnership with outside organizations," said Stephanie Interbartolo, Senior Vice-President of Business Development for Advance Nanotech. "We encourage collaboration, and welcome the chance to demonstrate the technology to potential partners."
Bio-Nano Sensium Technologies is a joint venture between Advance Nanotech, Inc. and Toumaz Technology Ltd., a UK-based developer of advanced radio frequency (RF), analog and mixed signal semiconductors. The BNS technology holds great promise for integration in bio-nanosystems, where final product devices must be small, low-power, possess on-board processing capability and incorporate wireless communications.
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We should see some really good biosensors in the near future that will do more this. We will see biosensors that detect cancer at early stages. Like when its only aroud a few hundred cells rather than a full blown tumor.
http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/g...350&newsLang=en
Bio-Nano Sensium Technologies, a subsidiary of Advance Nanotech, Inc., (OTC BB:AVNA.OB), today announced a limited beta test program of its wireless biosensor system. Under terms of the program, beta-stage versions of Bio-Nano Sensium (BNS) system will be available to potential partners and customers for evaluation. Wireless biosensors are increasingly seen as a desirable treatment for a range of chronic conditions including diabetes, cardiac conditions and asthma.
"As BNS technology becomes commercially available we anticipate a wide range of applications across the healthcare industry. Some of these applications will be developed by BNS and Advance Nanotech, others will be developed in partnership with outside organizations," said Stephanie Interbartolo, Senior Vice-President of Business Development for Advance Nanotech. "We encourage collaboration, and welcome the chance to demonstrate the technology to potential partners."
Bio-Nano Sensium Technologies is a joint venture between Advance Nanotech, Inc. and Toumaz Technology Ltd., a UK-based developer of advanced radio frequency (RF), analog and mixed signal semiconductors. The BNS technology holds great promise for integration in bio-nanosystems, where final product devices must be small, low-power, possess on-board processing capability and incorporate wireless communications.
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We should see some really good biosensors in the near future that will do more this. We will see biosensors that detect cancer at early stages. Like when its only aroud a few hundred cells rather than a full blown tumor.
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