World's Smallest Nanomotor Spins as Fast as a Jet Engine

Researchers in Texas have created the nano-version of the Energizer Bunny. Their new nanomotor rotates at 18,000 RPMs for a whopping 15 hours. Previous nanomotors rotated far more slowly and sputtered out after a few minutes.

The tiny technology, also known as "Ultrahigh-Speed Rotating Nanoelectromechanical System (NEMS)" is a potential breakthrough for treating all kinds of human ailments including, you guessed it, cancer. Built by a team at Cockrell School of Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin and led by Dr. Donglei (Emma) Fan, the motor is actually a collection of nano-entities, including a nanowire and patterned nano magnets.

In their research paper, the engineers recount all the less successful previous nano-work the new nanomotor is built upon, including experiments from Cornell University where out of hundreds of synthesized nanomotors, only a few rotated and at UC Berkeley, which built an excellent nanomotor using electron-beam lithography that, unfortunately, required an overly complex fabrication procedure.

Cockrell's nanomotor, however, is built more simply and effectively in part because of another Cockrell invention, Electric Tweezers, a nano-manipulation technique that allowed the team to not only transport the nano-entities, but precisely position them within 150 nanometers and then rotate them exactly how they wanted.

Not only can these nanomotors rotate like nobody's nano-business (almost as fast as a Lear jet engine), a group of them can do it in sync.

At 500 times smaller than a grain of salt, these nanomotors could one day work inside cells and spin together to deliver cancer-killing medicines.

The future, however, is even crazier. Researchers envision building entire nano robots out of a group of these nanomotors, which can then work together to diagnose, grab and treat cells.

The nanomotor joins an ever-growing list of nano-breakthroughs. Earlier this year, researchers in Denmark built a drug-delivery cage out of DNA. Maybe one day the nanomotors will go to work while carrying these nanocages.

IMAGE: UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS DEPT. OF ENGINEERING

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A Liquid That Makes Any Pair of Gloves Touchscreen-Friendly

Touchscreen gloves are an essential accessory for smartphone addicts battling the winter chill, but the options for consumers are fairly limited. Purchasing a pair of attractive, touchscreen-compatible mittens usually means paying a pretty penny or sacrificing aesthetics for something a little easier on the wallet.

Nanotips, which is currently funding on Kickstarter, proposes a third solution: Use a conductive, polyamide liquid solution to add touchscreen capabilities to any pair of gloves.

The project has received an enthusiastic Kickstarter backing, racking up more than five times its funding goal of $10,000 CAD, or roughly $9,070.

The solution uses conductive nanoparticles to mimic the electrical conductivity of human skin, just like a normal touchscreen glove. Creator Tony Yu claims the solution will work on any material, from pricey leather to canvas gloves, for construction, golfing, cycling, skiing and snowboarding.

Yu hit upon the idea after purchasing an expensive pair of motorcycle gloves without touchscreen capabilities. Rather than buy a new pair — "touchscreen leathers are expensive and they wear down really quickly," Yu says — he searched for a solution that would integrate with his current gear.

The resulting conductive liquid is applied to the gloves' thumbs and forefingers by swiping an applicator, not unlike applying nail polish. As it dries it soaks into the fabric or forms a conductive film on each fingertip, depending on the material.

"It wasn't so hard to get a product that would interact with a touchscreen device," Yu says. "The hardest part was making it last long enough."

The Kickstarter campaign offers two separate touchscreen solutions, Nanotips Blue and Nanotips Black. The Blue solution covers standard fabrics, such as knits, while the more durable Black treats leathers, rubbers and other thick materials. Each solution leaves behind a slight color residue, however. Blue dries to a translucent blue, while the more versatile Black is, well, black. Yu is still experimenting with creating a fully transparent solution. He also warns the Black solution may alter the texture of certain fabrics.

At $22 CAD (or $20) for a single bottle, the solution is fairly inexpensive, although consumers can purchase actual touchscreen gloves for roughly the same price. The solution lasts for a few weeks (Blue) or months (Black), depending on wear, and can be re-applied. Blue treats an average of 15 fingers, while Black treats up to 30.

The Nanotips Kickstarter campaign ends Feb. 25.

Image: Nanotips

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This Robotic Muscle Is 1,000 Times Stronger Than Yours

Researchers have developed a new robotic muscle that is 1,000 times stronger than a human's, thanks to a material with a wide range of properties.

Vanadium dioxide has been the belle of the ball in the materials world, prized for its ability to change size, shape and physical identity. Now, material enthusiasts can add muscle power to the list of those extraordinary attributes.

Led by Junqiao Wu, a physicist with joint appointments at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in the material-sciences division and University of California, Berkeley’s department of material science and engineering, a team of researchers demonstrated a micro-sized robotic muscle created from vanadium dioxide, according to robotic muscle is 1,000 times more powerful than a human muscle. It can catapult objects 50 times heavier than itself over distances five times its length — all within 60 milliseconds.

Vanadium dioxide is valuable because it is one of the few known materials that is both an insulator and a conductor. At low temperatures, vanadium dioxide acts as an insulator, but at 67 degrees Celsius (152 degrees Fahrenheit), the material abruptly becomes a conductor. What's more, vanadium dioxide crystals undergo a “temperature-driven structural phase transition” when warmed, rapidly contracting along one dimension, while expanding along the other two. All of this makes vanadium dioxide the perfect material for creating artificial muscles.

However, the device's appeal doesn't stop there. Because of its ability to “remotely detect a target and respond by reconfiguring itself to a different shape,” there’s potential to create larger systems of the vanadium dioxide muscles, according to the report.

“Multiple micro-muscles can be assembled into a micro-robotic system that simulates an active neuromuscular system,” Wu said. “This simulates living bodies where neurons sense and deliver stimuli to the muscles and the muscles provide motion.”

Image: Berkeley Lab

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Nanolane SARFUS: Mapping Station

Nanolane is a French nanotechnology company providing new solutions for optical visualization of nano-objects and thickness measurement of ultra thin films.

The SARFUS Mapping Station is a complete system dedicated to the observation of nano-objects in real-time using SEEC (Surface Enhanced Ellipsometric Contrast), and the measurement of ultra-thin film thickness in dry and in liquid. Each component of this product has been carefully chosen to ensure the image quality of your samples as well as the accuracy of the nanometric measurement. This station includes:

• Research Optical Microscope, certified SARFUS measurement; 3-CCD numerical camera
• Sarfusoft software: image acquisition with timelapse, 2D-3D transformation
• Surface analysis software (Mountains Technology)
• Calibration standard, traceable to PTB standard
• PC and high resolution display
• Surfs

Key Features:

• High sensitivity (z-axis)
  • 1-D nano-object (film): down to 0.1nm
  • 2-D nano-object (tube/wire): down to 2nm across
  • 3-D nano-object (particle): down to 10nm across
• Large field of view
  • 1150µm x 870µm [10x Air]
  • 230µm x 170µm [50x Air]
  • 251µm x 189µm [40x Water]
  • 159µm x 120µm [63x Water]
  • Other magnifications available
• Direct Acquisition & Real Time
  • HD images [1360 x 1024] pixels
  • Time-lapse (up to 15 images per second)
  • Live video acquisition
• Non destructive and non-invasive
• User friendly & Fast processing
  • Familiar technology (optical microscope)
  • No need for specific training
• Fluorescence compatible
• Lateral resolution - down to 350nm
• Measurement range: 1nm to 60nm
• Repeatability: 0.2 nm (according to ISO 17025)

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