Four years ago, words like “impossible,” “futuristic,” and “science fiction” filled discussions about nanotechnology. Since the announcement of the US National Nanotechnology Initiative in 2000, though, worldwide investment in nano research and development has raced forward, with $8 billion invested in 2004 alone. That kind of growth has leaders at major companies sitting up and [...]
Columns, pipes, bearings and springs are a few common ways that engineers have made use of the geometric shape known as a ‘cylinder.’ The utility of this shape is apparent in architecture, plumbing and mechanical devices. Carbon nanotubes are molecular cylinders that are rapidly extending our ability to fabricate nanoscale devices by providing molecular probes, [...]
The challenge with all emerging liabilities is to identify risk potentialities at an early stage, and well before they become the subject of court action.
Technology is no exception and with rapid innovation companies can find it difficult to keep up with the risks.
Nanotechnology is a good example.
And it’s one where you get a [...]
One of the promises of medical nanotechnology is a drug-delivery nanodevice that can image, target, and deliver drugs to a specific cancer location inside the body and monitor and if necessary adjust the drug release at the target location. Researchers in Taiwan have now designed a nanodevice that comes pretty close to this vision.
“We have [...]
A newly published antibacterial activity mechanism study demonstrates how a single walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT) kills bacteria by the physical puncture of bacterial membranes. The nanotubes would constantly attack the bacteria in solution, degrading the bacterial cell integrity and causing the cell death. This work elucidates several factors controlling the antibacterial activity of pristine SWCNTs [...]