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Category: nanotechnology – Page 247

New technique increases 3D printing speed by 1,000 to 10,000 times

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Ultraprecise 3D printing technology is a key enabler for manufacturing precision biomedical and photonic devices. However, the existing printing technology is limited by its low efficiency and high cost. Professor Shih-Chi Chen and his team from the Department of Mechanical and Automation Engineering, The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), collaborated with the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory to develop the Femtosecond Projection Two-photon Lithography (FP-TPL) printing technology.

By controlling the spectrum via temporal focusing, the laser 3D printing process is performed in a parallel layer-by-layer fashion instead of point-by-point writing. This new technique substantially increases the printing speed by 1,000—10,000 times, and reduces the cost by 98 percent. The achievement has recently been published in Science, affirming its technological breakthrough that leads nanoscale 3D printing into a new era.

The conventional nanoscale 3D , i.e., two-photon polymerization (TPP), operates in a point-by-point scanning fashion. As such, even a centimeter-sized object can take several days to weeks to fabricate (build rate ~ 0.1 mm3/hour). The process is time-consuming and expensive, which prevents practical and industrial applications. To increase speed, the resolution of the finished product is often sacrificed. Professor Chen and his team have overcome the challenging problem by exploiting the concept of temporal focusing, where a programmable femtosecond light sheet is formed at the focal plane for parallel nanowriting; this is equivalent to simultaneously projecting millions of laser foci at the , replacing the traditional method of focusing and scanning laser at one point only. In other words, the FP-TPL technology can fabricate a whole plane within the time that the point-scanning system fabricates a point.

A new Gene Therapy Strategy, courtesy of Nature

Scientists have developed a new gene-therapy technique by transforming human cells into mass producers of tiny nano-sized particles full of genetic material that has the potential to reverse disease processes.

Though the research was intended as a proof of concept, the experimental therapy slowed tumor growth and prolonged survival in mice with gliomas, which constitute about 80 percent of malignant brain tumors in humans.

The technique takes advantage of exosomes, fluid-filled sacs that cells release as a way to communicate with other cells.

Engineers develop a less invasive way to study the brain

Optogenetics, a tool for controlling neurons with light, has given neuroscientists the ability to flip brain cells on and off more or less at will, revolutionizing neuroscience.

Yet the technique faces a fundamental challenge: To study all but the outermost part of the brain, researchers need to implant fiber optics or other invasive devices to deliver deep into the brain.

Now, in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Stanford researchers report that they’ve found a less invasive way to do so: injectable nanoparticles that convert , which can easily penetrate into the brain, into light.

Researchers observe brain-like behavior in nanoscale device

UCLA scientists James Gimzewski and Adam Stieg are part of an international research team that has taken a significant stride toward the goal of creating thinking machines.

Led by researchers at Japan’s National Institute for Materials Science, the team created an that exhibited characteristics analogous to certain behaviors of the —learning, memorization, forgetting, wakefulness and sleep. The paper, published in Scientific Reports, describes a network in a state of continuous flux.

“This is a system between order and chaos, on the edge of chaos,” said Gimzewski, a UCLA distinguished professor of chemistry and biochemistry, a member of the California NanoSystems Institute at UCLA and a co-author of the study. “The way that the constantly evolves and shifts mimics the . It can come up with different types of behavior patterns that don’t repeat themselves.”

A new gene therapy strategy, courtesy of Mother Nature

Scientists have developed a new gene-therapy technique by transforming human cells into mass producers of tiny nano-sized particles full of genetic material that has the potential to reverse disease processes.

Though the research was intended as a proof of concept, the experimental therapy slowed and prolonged survival in mice with gliomas, which constitute about 80 percent of in humans.

The technique takes advantage of exosomes, fluid-filled sacs that release as a way to communicate with other cells.

Scientists explain why some molecules spontaneously arrange themselves into five slices of nanoscale pie

Materials formed on vanishingly small scales are being used in medicine, electronics, manufacturing and a host of other applications. But scientists have only scratched the surface of understanding how to control building blocks on the nanoscale, where simple machines the size of a virus operate.

Now, a team of researchers led by Dongsheng Li, a materials scientist at PNNL, and collaborators at the University of Michigan and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, have unlocked the secret to one of the most useful nanostructures: the five-fold twin. Their study describing why and how this shape forms is detailed in the journal Science and was presented at the Materials Research Society annual meeting on December 5, 2019.

A cross section of a five-fold twin structure looks for all the world like a pie sliced into five perfectly symmetrical pieces. Nanomaterials with this structure have already been shown to have useful properties and are deployed in for precisely tagging cancerous tumors for imaging and tracking, and in electronics, where they are valued for their mechanical strength.

Nanoscience breakthrough: Probing particles smaller than a billionth of a meter

Scientists at Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo Tech) have developed a new methodology that allows researchers to assess the chemical composition and structure of metallic particles with a diameter of only 0.5 to 2 nm. This breakthrough in analytical techniques will enable the development and application of minuscule materials in the fields of electronics, biomedicine, chemistry, and more.

The study and development of novel materials have enabled countless technological breakthroughs and are essential across most fields of science, from medicine and bioengineering to cutting-edge electronics. The rational design and analysis of innovative materials at nanoscopic scales allows us to push through the limits of previous devices and methodologies to reach unprecedented levels of efficiency and new capabilities. Such is the case for metal nanoparticles, which are currently in the spotlight of modern research because of their myriad potential applications. A recently developed synthesis method using dendrimer molecules as a template allows researchers to create metallic nanocrystals with diameters of 0.5 to 2 nm (billionths of a meter).

Cheers! Maxwell’s electromagnetism extended to smaller scales

On Dec. 11, 2019, a general framework for incorporating and correcting for nonclassical electromagnetic phenomena in nanoscale systems will be presented in the journal Nature.

More than 150 years have passed since the publication of James Clerk Maxwell’s “A Dynamical Theory of the Electromagnetic Field” (1865). His treatise revolutionized the fundamental understanding of electric fields, magnetic fields and light. The 20 original equations (elegantly reduced to four today), their boundary conditions at interfaces, and the bulk electronic response functions (dielectric permitivity and magnetic permeability) are at the root of the ability to manipulate electromagnetic fields and light.

Life without Maxwell’s equations would lack most current science, communications and technology.

Nanotech Suggests To Have Found A Way To Combat Age Related Diseases

NaNotics, in another breakthrough, is promising a new kind of medication, and suggests to have found a way to combat age related diseases; boldly going where no nanotech has gone before.

Lou Hawthorne of NaNotics, LLC opened his presentation at a recent longevity investor event using a clip from Star Trek that shows captain Kirk being giving a shot that restores him to his younger years.

“It’s tempting to assume it’s a drug, but what if the content of that syringe was something new?” NaNotics’ CEO Hawthorne asked. “NaNots are a new class of medicine. They are engineered to do just one thing and that’s the holy grail of medicine design, because most drugs do two things: something you want them to do, and something you don’t. In other words, side effects.”