I have heard of phytomining in soil remediation efforts (reclaiming nanoscale metals in plants near mining operations; you can find a more detailed definition here at Wiktionary) but, in this case, scientists have discovered plant tissues with nanoscale gold in an area which has no known deposits of gold. From a June 14, 2018 news item on Nanowwerk (Note: A link has been removed), Plants containing the element gold are already widely known. The flowering…

Continue reading

This research isn’t quite as exciting as the title promises but it is important as it attempts to answer some fundamental questions about Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR)-CRISPR-Associated (Cas).proteins. From a June 13, 2018 news item on phys.org, Recently published research from the University of Georgia and UConn Health [University of Connecticu Health Center] provides new insight about the basic biological mechanisms of the RNA-based viral immune system known as CRISPR-Cas. CRISPR-Cas, short…

Continue reading

A daguerreotype plate with the photograph hidden by the tarnish (left) yet visible when imaged with synchrotron X-rays (right). Courtesy of Madalena Kozachuk. Amazing, yes? Especially when you consider how devastating the inadvertent destruction of important daguerreotypes in an exhibition of US Civil War photography must have been to the curators and owners of the images. The ‘destruction’ occurred in 2005 and inspired research into the cause of the destruction, which was first covered here…

Continue reading

“Feeling no pain” can be a euphemism for being drunk. However, there are some people for whom it’s not a euphemism and they literally feel no pain for one reason or another. One group of people who feel no pain are amputees and a researcher at Johns Hopkins University (Maryland, US) has found a way so they can feel pain again. A June 20, 2018 news item on ScienceDaily provides an introduction to the research…

Continue reading

Caption: Novel nanolaser leverages the same color-changing mechanism that a chameleon uses to camouflage its skin. Credit: Egor Kamelev Courtesy: Northwestern University I wish there was some detail included about how those colo(u)rs were achieved in that photograph. Strangely, Northwestern University (Chicago, Illinois, US) is more interested in describing the technology that chameleons have inspired. A June 20, 2018 news item on ScienceDaily announces the research, As a chameleon shifts its color from turquoise to…

Continue reading

A June 11, 2018 news item on ScienceDaily announces a development of interest to people with diabetes or those who treat them, A simple scrape or sore might not cause alarm for most people. But for diabetic patients, an untreated scratch can turn into an open wound that could potentially lead to a limb amputation or even death. A Northwestern University team has developed a new device, called a regenerative bandage, that quickly heals these…

Continue reading

The Australians have had quite the struggle over whether or not to use nanotechnology-enabled sunscreens (see my Feb. 9, 2012 posting about an Australian nanosunscreen debacle and I believe the reverberations continue even ’til today). This latest research will hopefully help calm the waters. From a Dec. 4, 2018 news item on ScienceDaily, Zinc oxide (ZnO) has long been recognized as an effective sunscreen agent. However, there have been calls for sunscreens containing ZnO nanoparticles…

Continue reading

If you’re planning on using nanostructured materials in a nuclear facility, you might want to check out this work (from a June 8, 2018 Purdue University (Indiana, US) news release by Brian L. Huchel, A professor in the Purdue College of Engineering examined the potential use of various materials in nuclear reactors in an extensive review article in the journal Progress in Materials Science. The article, titled “Radiation Damage in Nanostructured Materials,” was led by…

Continue reading

It’s a bit of a stretch but I really appreciate how the nanoscale (specifically a fullerene) is being paired with the second largest planet (the largest is Jupiter) in our solar system. (See Nola Taylor Redd’s November 14, 2012 article on space.com for more about the planet Saturn.) From a June 8, 2018 news item on ScienceDaily, Saturn is the second largest planet in our solar system and has a characteristic ring. Japanese researchers have…

Continue reading

Nanoscale drug delivery systems developed by the biomedical community may prove useful to farmers. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) featured the story in a May 26, 2018 online news item (with audio file; Note: A link has been removed), Thanks to a fortuitous conversation between an Israeli chemical engineer who works on medical nanotechnology and his farmer friend, there’s a new way to deliver nourishment to nutrient-starved crops. Avi Schroeder, the chemical engineer and cancer…

Continue reading