Tag: nanotechnology

I have personally experimented with three lab experiments that deal with photolithography: microfluidics, microletters, and 2-photon lithography. Microfluidics is the field of science that encompasses fluid manipulation, taking advantage of the fact that fluids act differently at a microscale. One example of this is how water acts as a non-Newtonian fluid at a microscale, meaning that unlike at the macroscale, water‚viscosity depends on the force applied to it. It would then be useful to explain how there are many biological applications for microfluidics. My experiments with micro-letters provide insight into the process with which we transcribe letters, writing, or any other patterns onto microchips using photolithography. Ben Chen is a junior at Deerfield Academy and an aspiring engineer who discovered the wonders of nanotechnology this past summer. Ben is a well-rounded person with many interests, but his core passions lie in STEM and certain sports. He hopes you’ll be able to learn something new through his talk about photolithography (one of the processes behind nanotechnology’s success), its uses in our current day and age, and its potential in our future. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community.

What’s the tiniest technology you can imagine? As small as a grain of rice? Or a grain of sand? Perhaps the width of an individual strand of spider web? Smaller still. Nanotechnology is so small, in fact, it is narrower than a single wavelength of visible light. To put that in perspective, it’s about the length your fingernails have grown since you started reading this overview. But when we talk about nanotechnology, we don’t mean anything with a circuit board, but the application of scientific knowledge for practical purposes. By utilising carbon nanotubes in a certain way, it’s possible to create tiny computer chips. With tiny chips come tiny computers and tiny robots. And with tiny robots – or nanobots, if you will – a whole world of possibilities opens up… 3D printers, invisibility cloaks, space elevators – you name it! Of course, with all exciting, experimental and potentially disruptive innovations come areas for concern. What impact could such technology have on our security, or the economy? How can it be regulated? Find out more in the latest video from iluli by Mike Lamb. Making sense of technology, one byte at a time.

Author Andrew Maynard reads from Films from the Future: The Technology and Morality of Sci-Fi Movies

A short introduction to nanotechnology, and why you should care about it – from author of Films from the Future and ASU professor Andrew Maynard. The video dives into materials science and advanced materials, and looks at how designing and engineering substances from the atoms they’re made of upward allows novel properties to be developed and used. It also looks at responsible innovation when it comes to grappling with the benefits as well as the health and environmental risks of nanoparticles and nanomaterials.

Nanostructured coatings and layers, only billionths of a meter thick, can be applied to an object to protect against water, dirt, wear, and even bacteria. Working at the nanoscale, scientists and engineers are developing new and innovative applications in the fields of energy, electronics, and medicine. “Nanotechnology: Super Small Science” is produced by NBC News Learn in partnership with the National Science Foundation.

Plastics often get a bad rap – but Dr. Lewis Blackman from the CSIRO is here to convince you that while many are catastrophic for our environment, there’s also a whole world of “good plastics” out there! Clever plastics that can help save children from cancer, allow amputees to walk and as weapons to kill superbugs. This talk ventures into the nanoworld to focus on how smart, shape-changing, nanosized plastic vehicles can allow us to tackle some of the world’s nastiest diseases more effectively and with fewer side effects than ever before! Bio: Lewis is a Londoner who fancied a change from the Big Smoke to the Land Down Under. After spending a year teaching science in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, he completed a PhD in polymer chemistry at the University of Warwick. Lewis is currently a postdoctoral fellow at CSIRO working on developing new polymer biomaterials to combat microbial infections.

Nanotechnology incorporates techniques that involve the structure and composition of materials on a nanoscale. Based on the nanometer, which is one billionth of a meter, it has become an exciting development in many fields. For example, scientists are working on miniature devices that can unclog arteries, detect and eradicate cancer cells, filter water pollution, and more. Its use in treating heart attack and stroke victims is garnering close attention in recent years. Researchers are developing nanocapsules for a “clot-busting” drug. The nanocapsule can target a specific clot, break open and release the medicine exactly at the site it’s needed. This is far more accurate than the traditional methods, such as when a drug is administered through an IV. Nanotechnology is also being developed to make computers much faster and smaller, with more memory. However, nanotechnology is currently too expensive to justify its use in many applications. Further research and development should reduce its cost in the future. In the field of information systems, the current technology for miniaturizing transistors and other micro-processor components might reach its limit in the next decade. New technologies, including nanotechnology, will be necessary.

This video looks at nanotechnology and how it’s being used in the medical field from drug delivery to cancer treatments as well as get a small glimpse of how it can shape the medical field through things such as gold nano-particles as well as learn about where it’s being used in the industry in companies like 3M and NASA.