The new artificial liquid retina is biomimetic and consists of an aqueous component in which photoactive polymeric nanoparticles (whose size is of 350 nanometres, thus about 1/100 of the diameter of a hair) are suspended, going to replace the damaged photoreceptors. Credit: IIT-Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia [image downloaded from https://www.medgadget.com/2020/06/injectable-liquid-prosthesis-to-treat-retinal-diseases-developed.html] A June 29, 2020 news item on Nanowerk announces the world’s first liquid retina prosthesis, Researchers at IIT-Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (Italian Institute of Technology)…

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Carbon nanotubes, buckminsterfullerenes (also known as, buckyballs), and/or graphene are names for different carbon nanoscale structures and, as far as I’m aware,carbon is the only element that merits some distinct names at the nanoscale. By comparison, gold can be gold nanorods, gold nanostars, gold nanoparticles, and so on. In short, nanostructures made of gold (and most other elements) are always prefaced with the word ‘gold’ followed by a word with ‘nano’ in it. Scientists naming…

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This is the second neuromorphic computing chip story from MIT this summer in what has turned out to be a bumper crop of research announcements in this field. The first MIT synapse story was featured in a June 16, 2020 posting. Now, there’s a second and completely different team announcing results for their artificial brain synapse work in a June 19, 2020 news item on Nanowerk (Note: A link has been removed), Teams around the…

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Vortex Fluidic Device (VFD) is the technical name for the more familiarly known ‘unboil an egg machine’ and, these days, it’s being used in research to improve bacteria detection. A June 23, 2020 news item on Nanowerk announces the research (Note: A link has been removed), The versatility of the Vortex Fluidic Device (VFD), a device that famously unboiled an egg, continues to impress, with the innovative green chemistry device created at Flinders University having…

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The 1979 book, Laboratory Life: the Social Construction of Scientific Facts by Bruno Latour and Steve Woolgar immediately came to mind on reading about a new book (The New Architecture of Science: Learning from Graphene) linking architecture to the practice of science (research on graphene). It turns out that one of the authors studied with Latour. (For more about laboratory Life see: Bruno Latour’s Wikipedia entry; scroll down to Main Works) A June 19, 2020…

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A June 17, 2020 news item on Nanowerk trumpets research into how robots might be able to sport chameleon-like skin one day, A new film made of gold nanoparticles changes color in response to any type of movement. Its unprecedented qualities could allow robots to mimic chameleons and octopi — among other futuristic applications.Unlike other materials that try to emulate nature’s color changers, this one can respond to any type of movement, like bending or…

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McKenzie Prillaman both profiles a 2019 sci-art exhibit at Michigan State University (MSU) and publicizes a ‘call for submissions’ for the 2020 edition in a July 10, 2020 posting on artthescience.com (Note: Links have been removed), The Exploring Life Through SciArt exhibition united the science and art communities of East Lansing, Michigan. Organized by the Michigan State University Science Communication Organization (MSU SciComm) in 2019, this exhibition featured original science-art collaborations created by university science…

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I find some illustrations a little difficult to decipher, Caption: Graphene thermal smart materials. Credit: The University of Manchester I believe the red in the ‘on/off’ images, signifies heat from the surrounding environment and is not an indicator for body heat and the yellow square in the ‘on’ image indicates the shirt is working and repelling that heat. Moving on, a June 18, 2020 news item on Nanowerk describes this latest work on a smart…

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