Official Nanotechnology Thread

[Type Username Here]

Feel free to post articles, questions, ethical conundrums, pictures, videos, etc..

This is (I.M.O.) one of the most important scientific/engineering fields going forward and it will render a lot of things obselete. I thought it would be a good idea to consolidate it into one thread.

 

[Mr. Somebody]

It sure is. Technosorcery at its finest. I remember when i first researched this 10 years ago they were talking about having diamond encrusted bones so you could fall off a building without breaking anything. Still doesnt help internal organs but ok.

 

[you're NOT "n!ggas"]

I don't have any working knowledge but if anything Ray Kurzweil has been saying turns out even remotely accurate

 

[BlvdBrawler]

I don't have any working knowledge but if anything Ray Kurzweil has been saying turns out even remotely accurate

Some of his shyt is pretty farfetched... replacing our bodies with nanoswarms, for example, but we will see.

 

[Vandelay]

I don't have any working knowledge but if anything Ray Kurzweil has been saying turns out even remotely accurate

I subscribe to a newsletter from his website...I'll post some of the more interesting articles I have read over the years.

Personally, I love the thought of never getting sick again if you can program a nanobot to just eat that virus or bacteria.

I personally hate the idea that if that nanobot is programmed incorrectly it will eat my body from the inside out.


Cheers to this brave new world we all are about to enter whether we like it or not.

 

[Mr. Somebody]

I subscribe to a newsletter from his website...I'll post some of the more interesting articles I have read over the years.

Personally, I love the thought of never getting sick again if you can program a nanobot to just eat that virus or bacteria.

I personally hate the idea that if that nanobot is programmed incorrectly it will eat my body from the inside out.


Cheers to this brave new world we all are about to enter whether we like it or not.

What about the idea of a kid hacking your body and programming those nano bots to eat your eyes because he was bored.

 

[Vandelay]

What about the idea of a kid hacking your body and programming those nano bots to eat your eyes because he was bored.

Read the 3rd line in my post.

 

[Type Username Here]

It's interesting how much gold (Au) plays a part in nanotechnology, especially bio-medical applications. Carbon every one pretty much expected, but I don't know if they saw all the possibilities with gold.

 

[Mr. Somebody]

Read the 3rd line in my post.

I got that but im thinkin of how frivilously someone could take a life for kicks. Programmed incorrectly is like a factory error. A bored teenager destroying you because he didnt like someone you said on the internet, is different.

 

[Vandelay]

I got that but im thinkin of how frivilously someone could take a life for kicks. Programmed incorrectly is like a factory error. A bored teenager destroying you because he didnt like someone you said on the internet, is different.

Personally, I don't care about the subject...only the predicate; my body being destroyed from the inside out.

 

[Mr. Somebody]

Personally, I don't care about the subject...only the predicate; my body being destroyed from the inside out.

Good for you.

 

[Vandelay]

Time to put this thread back on the tracks...


Not all are exactly Nanotechnology, but nanotechnology related.

9 Ways Quantum Computing Will Change Everything

Computers built on the principles of quantum physics—as opposed to ‘classical’ physics—promise a revolution on the order of the invention of the microprocessor or the splitting of the atom. D-Wave, a small Canadian company backed by Jeff Bezos, NASA, and the CIA among others, is the first firm to sell a so-called quantum computer—at roughly $10 million a pop. The vast increase in power could revolutionize fields as disparate as medicine, space exploration, and artificial intelligence.

In this week’s TIME cover story, Lev Grossman writes that D-Wave’s machines are “so radical and strange, people are still trying to figure out what it’s for and how to use it.” We live in the age of Big Data, burying ourselves in information—search queries, genomes, credit-card purchases, phone records, retail transactions, social media, geological surveys, climate data, surveillance videos, movie recommendations—and D-Wave just happens to be selling “a very shiny new shovel.” (Read it here.)

The company has plenty of critics, some of whom claim its machines aren’t quantum computers at all. And yet, the technology could herald radical changes for the following areas, to name a few:

1. Safer airplanes—Lockheed Martin plans to use its D-Wave to test jet software that is currently too complex for classical computers.

2. Discover distant planets—Quantum computers will be able to analyze the vast amount of data collected by telescopes and seek out Earth-like planets.

3. Win elections—Campaigners will comb through reams of marketing information to best exploit individual voter preferences.

4. Boost GDP—Hyper-personalized advertising, based on quantum computation, will stimulate consumer spending.

5. Detect cancer earlier—Computational models will help determine how diseases develop.

6. Help automobiles drive themselves—Google is using a quantum computer to design software that can distinguish cars from landmarks.

7. Reduce weather-related deaths—Precision forecasting will give people more time to take cover.

8. Cut back on travel time—Sophisticated analysis of traffic patterns in the air and on the ground will forestall bottlenecks and snarls.

9. Develop more effective drugs—By mapping amino acids,for example, or analyzing DNA-sequencing data, doctors will discover and design superior drug-based treatments.

For the full story, please click here.

 

[Vandelay]

Cyborg swarm maps unknown environments

Remember the much-debated “biobots” (remotely controlled cockroaches — see How to remotely control cockroach cyborgs and Kinect tracks bionic rescue roaches) created by researchers from North Carolina State University?


Well, here’s an update: they have now developed software that allows for mapping unknown environments — such as collapsed buildings — based on the movement of a swarm of the insect cyborgs.


“We focused on how to map areas where you have little or no precise information on where each biobot is, such as a collapsed building where you can’t use GPS technology,” says Dr. Edgar Lobaton, an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at NC State and senior author of a paper on the research.


“One characteristic of biobots is that their movement can be somewhat random,” Lobaton says. “We’re exploiting that random movement to work in our favor.”


Here’s how the process would work in the field.

1. A swarm of biobots would be equipped with electronic sensors and released into a collapsed building or other hard-to-reach area.
2. The biobots would initially be allowed to move about randomly. Because the biobots couldn’t be tracked by GPS, their precise locations would be unknown. However, the sensors would signal researchers via radio waves whenever biobots got close to each other.
3. Once the swarm has had a chance to spread out, the researchers would send a signal commanding the biobots to keep moving until they find a wall or other unbroken surface — and then continue moving along the wall. This is called “wall following.”
4. The researchers repeat this cycle of random movement and “wall following” several times, continually collecting data from the sensors whenever the biobots are near each other. The new software then uses an algorithm to translate the biobot sensor data into a rough map of the unknown environment.

“This would give first responders a good idea of the layout in a previously unmapped area,” Lobaton says.


The software would also allow public safety officials to determine the location of radioactive or chemical threats, if the biobots have been equipped with the relevant sensors.


The researchers have tested the software using computer simulations and are currently testing the program with robots. They next plan to work with fellow NC State researcher Dr. Alper Bozkurt to test the program with biobots.


The paper, “Topological Mapping of Unknown Environments using an Unlocalized Robotic Swarm,” will be presented at the International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems to held Nov. 3–8 in Tokyo, Japan. Lead author of the paper is Alireza Dirafzoon, a Ph.D. student at NC State.


The work was supported by National Science Foundation grant CNS-1239243.

 

[Vandelay]

Nanoparticle vaccine offers better protection

MIT engineers have developed a new type of nanoparticle that protects a vaccine long enough to generate a strong immune response in mucosal surfaces far from the vaccination site, such as the gastrointestinal and reproductive tracts, as well as in the lungs.


Such vaccines could help protect against influenza and other respiratory viruses, or prevent sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV, herpes simplex virus and human papilloma virus, says Darrell Irvine, an MIT professor of materials science and engineering and biological engineering and the leader of the research team. He is also exploring use of the particles to deliver cancer vaccines.


Many viruses and bacteria infect humans through mucosal surfaces, such as those in the lungs, gastrointestinal tract, and reproductive tract. Vaccines can be delivered to the lungs via an aerosol spray, but the lungs often clear away the vaccine before it can provoke an immune response.


“This is a good example of a project where the same technology can be applied in cancer and in infectious disease. It’s a platform technology to deliver a vaccine of interest,” says Irvine, who is a member of MIT’s Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research and the Ragon Institute of Massachusetts General Hospital, MIT and Harvard University.


Sturdier vaccines


Only a handful of mucosal vaccines have been approved for human use; the best-known example is the Sabin polio vaccine, which is given orally and absorbed in the digestive tract. There is also a flu vaccine delivered by nasal spray, and mucosal vaccines against cholera, rotavirus and typhoid fever.


To create better ways of delivering such vaccines, Irvine and his colleagues built upon a nanoparticle they developed two years ago. The protein fragments that make up the vaccine are encased in a sphere made of several layers of lipids that are chemically “stapled” to one another, making the particles more durable inside the body.


“It’s like going from a soap bubble to a rubber tire. You have something that’s chemically much more resistant to disassembly,” Irvine says.


This allows the particles to resist disintegration once they reach the lungs. With this sturdier packaging, the protein vaccine remains in the lungs long enough for immune cells lining the surface of the lungs to grab them and deliver them to T cells. Activating T cells is a critical step for the immune system to form a memory of the vaccine particles so it will be primed to respond again during an infection.


Stopping the spread of infection


In studies of mice, the researchers found that HIV or cancer antigens encapsulated in nanoparticles were taken up by immune cells much more successfully than vaccine delivered to the lungs or under the skin without being trapped in nanoparticles.


HIV does not infect mice, so to test the immune response generated by the vaccines, the researchers infected the mice with a version of the vaccinia virus that was engineered to produce the HIV protein delivered by the vaccine.


Mice vaccinated with nanoparticles were able to quickly contain the virus and prevent it from escaping the lungs. Vaccinia virus usually spreads to the ovaries soon after infection, but the researchers found that the vaccinia virus in the ovaries of mice vaccinated with nanoparticles was undetectable, while substantial viral concentrations were found in mice that received other forms of the vaccine.


Mice that received the nanoparticle vaccine lost a small amount of weight after infection but then fully recovered, whereas the viral challenge was 100 percent lethal to mice who received the non-nanoparticle vaccine.


“Giving the vaccine at the mucosal surface in the nanocapsule form allowed us to completely block that systemic infection,” Irvine says.


The researchers also found a strong memory T cell presence at distant mucosal surfaces, including in the digestive and reproductive tracts. “An important caveat is that although immunity at distant mucus membranes following vaccination at one mucosal surface has been seen in humans as well, it’s still being worked out whether the patterns seen in mice are fully reproduced in humans,” Irvine says. “It might be that it’s a different mucosal surface that gets stimulated from the lungs or from oral delivery in humans.”


Melissa Herbst-Kralovetz, an assistant professor of basic medical sciences at the University of Arizona College of Medicine, says the nanoparticles are “an exciting and effective strategy for inducing effector-memory T-cell responses to nonreplicating subunit vaccines through mucosal vaccination.”


“More research will need to be conducted to determine the delivery approach to be used in humans, but this vaccination strategy is particularly important for diseases that may require significant T cell-mediated protection, such as HIV,” says Herbst-Kralovetz, who was not part of the research team.


Tumor defense


The particles also hold promise for delivering cancer vaccines, which stimulate the body’s own immune system to destroy tumors.


To test this, the researchers first implanted the mice with melanoma tumors that were engineered to express ovalbumin, a protein found in egg whites. Three days later, they vaccinated the mice with ovalbumin. They found that mice given the nanoparticle form of the vaccine completely rejected the tumors, while mice given the uncoated vaccine did not.


Further studies need to be done with more challenging tumor models, Irvine says. In the future, tests with vaccines targeted to proteins expressed by cancer cells would be necessary.


The research was funded by the National Cancer Institute, the Ragon Institute, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the U.S. Department of Defense and the National Institutes of Health.


The nanoparticle technology has been patented and licensed to a company called Vedantra, which is now developing infectious-disease and cancer vaccines.

 

[Vandelay]

A Future Made of Glass