Gold Nanoparticles – Helping in the AIDS War

Research from scientists at Imperial College in London published in the journal Nature Nanotechnology their findings that with the use of gold nanoparticles and nanotechnology they are able to have an HIV test that is 10 times more sensitive and at a fraction of the cost of previous methods. Here is the article where I saw this information.

This is great news where 2/3 of all AIDS cases are and in isolated poor populations in the Sub-Saharan Africa. The tests are also able to test for other diseases and enables the HIV community, at large, to get the proper help to those affected quicker when previous tests might not have been able to detect the disease early enough. It’s encouraging and I hope that nanotechnology can one day play an important part in finding a cure for disease as well as so many others.

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La. Tech – Nanotechnolgy helping Oil Dependency

I read an interesting article this morning on nanotechnology that can speed up the process and lower the cost to produce liquified natural gas. A partnership between La. Tech and Jupiter Fuels (read full article here) is about taking research at the higher level and partnering with private enterprise to improve upon 70 year old technology. The idea and process to liquify natural gas goes back to before WWII in Germany. What La. Tech has done is to use proprietary nanotechnology as a catalyst to convert natural gas at a lower pressure to the end product. This enables production plants to be built at half the cost of current build costs and takes a huge chunk of the risk away from investment ventures into the area. It’s still an exorbitant cost but half price is still…half price. Once I figure out the price dynamics of converting 9000 cubic feet of natural gas to the equivalent to a barrel of crude oil I will post it on here. If anyone has that information and would like to save me the trouble I would not complain.

The entire idea behind it is to create liquid fuel from a cheap and abundant resource. It will help our country’s dependence on foreign oil and move us in the right direction. Personally, I prefer a greener technology but that doesn’t mean that this isn’t a great accomplishment and very useful for the next umpteen years.

IBM hits it Big on Nanotechnology

If you didn’t get it I used a play on words for the title. If you did…you are getting my sense of humor:)

The big brains from big blue used 8 very smart guys to come up with a chip test that made over 10,000 working transistors on a single chip using carbon nanotubes. For you that are new to carbon nanotubes, this is the Mac Daddy of nanotechnology. People have been touting carbon nanotubes for sometime but it’s taking some time to really start reaching some of the pent up potential. The entire article can be found here.

Carbon fiber planes, cars, and yes…even boats are appearing in the marketplace as a replacement to steel as it is stronger and lighter. The carbon nanotubes are smaller and more efficient. Now, if they can only get it cheaper and easier to process is the $64 million question (inflation, you know). I know we are a long way off but this is a fabulous job and kudos to the guys at IBM!

IBM Comes up Big in Nanotechnology

If you didn’t get it I used a play on words for the title. If you did…you are getting my sense of humor:)

The big brains from big blue used 8 very smart guys to come up with a chip test that made over 10,000 working transistors on a single chip using carbon nanotubes. For you that are new to carbon nanotubes, this is the Mac Daddy of nanotechnology. People have been touting carbon nanotubes for sometime but it’s taking some time to really start reaching some of the pent up potential. The entire article can be found here.

Carbon fiber planes, cars, and yes…even boats are appearing in the marketplace as a replacement to steel as it is stronger and lighter. The carbon nanotubes are smaller and more efficient. Now, if they can only get it cheaper and easier to process is the $64 million question (inflation, you know). I know we are a long way off but this is a fabulous job and kudos to the guys at IBM!

Nano-technology Push in Zimbabwe

There is great news on the horizon…just recently Zimbabwe announced they will begin a nano-technology initiative to help grow their economy as well as improve three fundamental areas: water purification, energy, and medicine. These are all fabulous areas to concentrate on and I’m sure it will be an astounding success.
Click here for the entire story.

As many of the emerging countries focused on raw materials as export this is a positive trend for Zimbabwe, Africa, and the entire world. Countries like Brazil have done very well with alternative energy sources as well as becoming oil independent from other countries. This has given Brazil a strong boost and the kind of progressive and difficult decisions they made, as well as Zimbabwe’s are wonderful to hear. If I hear more about these types of situations I’ll fill you in.

Copper Nanotechnology to the Rescue!

As the environmental movement is gaining ground for good reason the electronics industry is no stranger to that as well as improvements for all of mankind. Since the electronics industry wants to limit the use of lead and other potentially harmful materials from their products they need a way to replace lead solder that takes place on circuit boards and other areas. Tin is a substitute but causes problems at higher temperatures that can short-circuit boards as well as other issues. Scientists in the Advanced Materials and Nanosystems directorate at the Lockheed Martin Space Systems Advanced Technology Center (ATC) in Palo Alto have developed a revolutionary nanotechnology copper-based electrical interconnect material, or solder, that can be processed at high temperatures and once fully optimized, the CuantumFuse solder material is expected to produce joints with up to 10 times the electrical and thermal conductivity compared to tin-based materials currently in use. Read the entire article here.

It’s cheaper, better, and more environmentally friendly. What’s not to love??? Remember, this nanotechnology doesn’t work without nano materials. SkySpring Nanomaterials is one of the best places to get them.

Nano or Macro Innovation

Today’s blog is simply about innovation. Now innovation is innovation whether it comes at the nano level or the macro level. Most of the time the true ground breaking innovation comes from small companies or individuals because larger corporations, the bigger they get, have a buearocratic approach that often kills innovation because someone with a larger payscale “thinks” it’s a bad idea.

Xerox had a million great ideas that were used by Microsoft, Apple, and the similar nimble smaller companies but never brought to market by themselves. Heck, Xerox invented email. Imagine if all of their ideas (that others’ used), let alone ideas that never escaped Xerox’s compounds but were never used, were tested and even remotely successful. They might be what everyone is talking about instead of Apple, Facebook and the likes. Instead they end up being the poster boy for what not to do.

To truly benefit from innovation there must be a fostering environment and the ability for that idea to be tested instead of being shot down. If someone will pay over $1 million for a baseball card of a player less than 1% of the population ever heard that was originally wrapped next to a piece of bubble gum, anything is possible. The reason I wrote this was I was watching one of those car shows on cable and there is a 3rd generation of custom car builders that transforms vision into reality. Yes, it comes at a price…a price probably so steep they never mentioned it. But the meaning is here is a car that has a million pieces that’s almost entirely hand made. I’m sure those guys never say “we can’t do it” but rather “how can we do this”. The end result was simply amazing. Never seen anything like it and it goes to show what true innovation not only mean, but what it represents.

Nanotechnology is Feeling Cancer???

It’s breast cancer awareness month and I acknowledge that it is very important. For men, prostate cancer is also very serious so it makes me wonder why the NFL doesn’t support that but that’s another topic.

A Swiss company has developed nanotechnology that will analyze tissue via a technology they invented called ARTIDIS (Automated and Reliable Tissue Diagnostics). ARTIDIS is used to feel the tissue structure of a tumor biopsy by a nanometer-sized atomic force microscope tip. Subsequent analysis of over one hundred patient biopsies could confirm that the fingerprint of malignant breast tumors is markedly different as compared to healthy tissue and benign tumors. Instead of taking one week to get results back from a biopsy it now can be as little as four hours. This technology may also find the real danger as it lies in the lack of knowing whether metastasis, the spread of cancer, has already occurred. Nevertheless, important clues may be hidden in how metastasis is linked to specific structural alterations in both cancer cells and the surrounding extracellular matrix.

Here is the link to the entire article from Medical Express.

Efficiency improvements on Combustion Engines

Yesterday I discussed a little about the Solar Cell improvements reaching 18.2%. Since combustion engines have been around for about 160 years or so we should note that 20% is its norm.  A few twists on old concepts have inventors and the marketplace alike buzzing. I’m only going to mention two of them for this blog today.

1)      Liquid Piston is a small company that created an engine that has 3 moving parts and 13 total parts. A typical engine has about 240 parts. Well, this little baby can theoretically make the engine 75% efficient although it’s settling for 57% for commercial applications. It can be found at http://www.liquidpiston.com

2)      The Hüttlin Kugelmotor is a revolutionary motor that is round and within itself it can be a electric engine, combustion engine, or even compressor pump. Now, I read it twice but not sure what it all means but it’s very efficient, very intriguing, and more interesting than reading poetry (no offense to poetry readers). It can be found at www.innomot.org

The idea is to improve drastically upon what we already have and have something that is able to be mass produced. I don’t buy the theory that Detroit or the large oil companies wouldn’t want this or those types of theories that were probably reality 50 years ago. I do buy that they want the leading edge over their counterparts and having a game changer in their portfolios would be that edge. It will be interesting how soon some of these types of ideas can be made reality for the masses and which ones they will be.

Solar Cell Efficiency gains via Nanotechnology

There was an interesting improvement in the solar space. The full article is located here. As the typical solar cell has an efficiency of 11-15% which doesn’t seem like a lot but it has come a long way. Besides, a 20% improvement on the top-end of the efficiency curve is a big accomplishment. Remember the automotive gasoline engine has been around forever and that is in the 20-30% efficiency range.  I would say more on that but you’ll have to wait for tomorrow’s blog.