Newfangled nanoscale scanning technique could improve heart health

Oh, nanotechnology — your wonders never cease. Boffins at Imperial College London have been able to use live nanoscale microscopy (a technique called scanning ion conductance microscopy) in order to see the surface of the cardiac muscle cell at more detailed levels than those possible using conventional live microscopy. Without getting too gross on you, the new process could lead to improved designs of beta-blockers, the drugs that can retard the development of heart failure. Researchers are hoping that the findings could also lead to “improvements in current therapeutic approaches to treating heart failure and abnormal heart rhythms,” and while these exceptionally detailed images are helping the cardiac muscle right now, we’re hoping that this stuff could also bleed over to other fields of medicine. Ventricles crossed!

Newfangled nanoscale scanning technique could improve heart health originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 27 Feb 2010 11:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Cal researchers create ‘energy-scavenging nanofibers,’ look to energize your next A&F sweater

We’ve seen the magic of piezoelectrics before, but if a team of Cal Bears can really deliver, their spin on things will actually make a difference in the retail realm. Engineers at the University of California, Berkeley have concocted so-called “energy-scavenging nanofibers,” which could one day be “woven into clothing and textiles” in order to convert into electricity the energy created through mechanical stress, stretches and twists. If everything works out, these movement-lovin’ clothes could theoretically power your phone and / or PMP as you walk, and for those concerned with cost, we’re told that the organic polyvinylidene fluoride materials use to make the nanofibers are easy and cheap to manufacture. Too bad there’s no direct confirmation that PVDFs are machine washable, but hey, that’s why you’ve got the local dry cleaners on speed dial.

Cal researchers create ‘energy-scavenging nanofibers,’ look to energize your next A&F sweater originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Feb 2010 08:39:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Rice University nanodragster rolls on carbon buckeyball wheels, lives life .0005 inch at a time

Drag racing and nanotech seemingly go together like peanut butter and… very small rocks, but that hasn’t stopped a team of researchers at Rice University from creating a microscopic car dubbed a “nanodragster.” Its wheels are buckeyballs, the rear composed of 60 carbon atoms each, while its front wheels are made of p-carborane. This gives the car more grip at the back, meaning it’ll pop wheelies just like a real dragster — though only when running on a road paved with gold. Even then it doesn’t go very fast, just .0005 inches per hour, meaning for those 1,327,000 days it takes to cover a quarter-mile its driver is free.

Rice University nanodragster rolls on carbon buckeyball wheels, lives life .0005 inch at a time originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 25 Jan 2010 10:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nanosys and LG Innotek agree deal for newfangled LED-backlit displays

For the nitty gritty of how Nanosys’ proprietary LED backlighting technology works, check out our earlier coverage here — what you really need to know is that the company promises a significantly wider color gamut from its displays, while reducing power consumption by up to 50 percent. Quantum dot LEDs have shown their faces before, but now there’s the big hulking heft of LG Innotek — LG’s component manufacturing arm — behind what Nanosys is offering, which indicates we might actually see the release of nanotech-infused displays within the first half of this year as promised. The early focus appears to be on mobile phones, which gives us yet another next-gen feature to add to our list of requirements for our next phone. Check out the full PR after the break.

Continue reading Nanosys and LG Innotek agree deal for newfangled LED-backlit displays

Nanosys and LG Innotek agree deal for newfangled LED-backlit displays originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 22 Jan 2010 21:49:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Self-assembling solar cells built using ancient wisdom, modern technology

var digg_url = ‘http://digg.com/general_sciences/Self_assembling_Solar_Cells_built_using_Ancient_Wisdom’; Alright, so self-assembling electronics are hardly new in and of themselves, and nanoscale tech tends to always come with bombastic promises, but you don’t wanna miss how this latest innovation is built. Two professors from the University of Minnesota have successfully demonstrated a self-assembly technique that arranges microscopic electronic elements in their proper order thanks to the absolute enmity that exists between water and oil. By coating elements with a hydrophilic layer on one side and some hypdrophobic goo on the other, they’ve achieved the proper element orientation, and the final step in their work was the insertion of a pre-drilled, pre-soldered sheet, which picks up each element while being slowly drawn out of the liquid non-mixture. The achievement here is in finding the perfect densities of water and oil to make the magic happen, and a working device of 64,000 elements has been shown off — taking only three minutes to put together. If the method’s future proves successful, we’ll all be using electronics built on flexible, plastic, metal, or otherwise unconventional substrates sometime soon.

Self-assembling solar cells built using ancient wisdom, modern technology originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 15 Jan 2010 09:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nanosys offers better saturation of LED-backlit displays with nanoscale coating

While we all wait around for larger-sized OLED displays to become feasible for the consumer market, Nanosys has stolen in and demonstrated a new LED coating technique that proposes to radically improve color saturation in LED-backlit screens. Based on standard blue LEDs — the most efficient kind — this works by applying nanoparticles to the light and thereby endowing it with the desired hue. While the nano-coating can make standalone LED lights far richer in color, the real potential is in its deployment in LED-backlit displays, such as those becoming dominant on laptops today. By employing a coated array of blue LEDs instead of the standard white stuff, this can deliver greater color saturation while fitting within the same energy profile of current LED tech. Products boasting Nanosys’ new hotness are said to be coming out later this year, with some appropriate premium slapped on the price for the fancier output.

Nanosys offers better saturation of LED-backlit displays with nanoscale coating originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 12 Jan 2010 09:09:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Quantum batteries are theoretically awesome, practically non-existent

Today’s dose of overly ambitious tech research comes from the physics lab over at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, in a proposal titled “Digital quantum batteries: Energy and information storage in nano vacuum tube arrays.” It’s like a who’s who of undelivered promises got together and united to form one giant and impossible dream, but it’s one we’d prefer to believe in regardless. Aiming to improve battery performance by “orders of magnitude,” the project’s fundamental premise is that when capacitors — and we’re talking billions of them — are taken to a small enough scale and packed to within 10nm of one another, quantum effects act to prevent energy loss. The projected result is a wonderful world of rapid recharges and storage of up to ten times the energy current lithium-ion packs can hold, as well as the potential for data retention. The only problem? It would take a year just to build a prototype, meaning we can expect market availability somewhere between a score from now and just prior to the underworld morphing into an ice rink.

Quantum batteries are theoretically awesome, practically non-existent originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 22 Dec 2009 10:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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UCLA nanowire discovery could lead to faster, stronger, smaller electronics

Advancements in silicon-germanium have been going on for years now, but a team at UCLA is convinced that their discovery really is “the next big thing.” For scores now, microchip makers have struggled with miniaturizing transistors as the public at large demands that things get smaller and smaller. Thanks to researchers at the aforesaid university, it’s looking like silicon-germanium nanowires could be the key to making the process a whole lot easier. According to study co-author Suneel Kodambaka, the new nanowires could “help speed the development of smaller, faster and more powerful electronics,” also noting that they’re so small that they can be “placed in virtually anything.” Which is great, because the Adamo XPS is just entirely too pudgy.

UCLA nanowire discovery could lead to faster, stronger, smaller electronics originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 15 Dec 2009 10:09:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Researchers craft all-electric spintronics, vie for guest spot on Mindfreak

Unfortunately for us, we’ve no certified rocket scientist on staff. That said, we’re absolutely convinced that the whiz-kids over at the University of Cincinnati are more than up to the task of improving a science that may or may not actually be useful in real things before 3028. As we continue to hear more about spintronics (described as “transistors that function by controlling an electron’s spin instead of its charge”), a team of UC researchers have stumbled upon a novel way to control an electron’s spin orientation using purely electrical means. In fact, one member calls this discovery the “holy grail of semiconductor spintronics,” though we’re guessing it’ll still be a few years centuries before our hard drives are fetching data 100,000x faster and our batteries last longer than our desire to use them.

Filed under: Science

Researchers craft all-electric spintronics, vie for guest spot on Mindfreak originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 04 Nov 2009 23:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Planet’s smallest model train set revealed to macro lenses, microscopes (video)

New Jersey’s own David Smith is enjoying his 15 minutes right about now, as the world is finally talking about his model train set. You see, this model train set isn’t just any model train set. No — it’s probably the world’s smallest, most ridiculous and most awesome all at once (all at once). The so-called James River Branch community has been in the works for months on end, and the $11 working locomotive is 35,200 times smaller than a real one. Of course, the moving trains are really just attached to the top of a rotating tube, but you can certainly pretend you never heard that spoiler if you’d like. Check the video after the break — the kid in you will thank us.

Continue reading Planet’s smallest model train set revealed to macro lenses, microscopes (video)

Filed under: Misc. Gadgets

Planet’s smallest model train set revealed to macro lenses, microscopes (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 26 Oct 2009 08:21:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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