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US and French scientists say the term 'nanoparticle' needs to be redefined to provide a focus for environmental, health and safety studies, and future regulation. According to the researchers, nanomaterials should be categorised based on novel properties that are related to their small size - not, crucially, their size alone.In most countries, few or no specific regulations exist to govern the safe use of nanoparticles, despite their wide use in cosmetics, sun screens and some drug products. Until a decision can be reached on what exactly constitutes a nanoparticle, however, there can be no clear path forward. Although traditionally thought...

The world's smallest laser, contained in a silica sphere just 44 nanometres across, has been unveiled. At about 10 times smaller than the wavelength of light, however, this is no ordinary laser, it is the first ever 'spaser'. Whereas a laser amplifies light, using a mirrored cavity to intensify it, a spaser amplifies surface plasmons — tiny oscillations in the density of free electrons on the surface of metals, which, in turn, produce light waves. The spaser could be used as a light source for scanning near-field optical microscopes, which can resolve details beyond the reach of standard light microscopy,...

Nanoscience milestone opens up new possibilities in molecular electronics ZURICH, June 12 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- IBM (NYSE: IBM) scientists in collaboration with the University of Regensburg, Germany, and Utrecht University, Netherlands, for the first time demonstrated the ability to measure the charge state of individual atoms using noncontact atomic force microscopy. View video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plMkPtwEMRM (Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20090416/IBMLOGO ) Measuring with the precision of a single electron charge and nanometer lateral resolution, researchers succeeded in distinguishing neutral atoms from positively or negatively charged ones. This represents a milestone in nanoscale science and opens up new possibilities in the exploration of nanoscale structures and...

Enlarge ImageNever forget. Microscopic iron crystals moving within carbon nanotubes could hold computer data permanently. Credit: Zettl Research Group/LBNL/UC Berkeley That embarrassing home movie of you naked in the tub could still be around millions of years from now, along with your less-than-eloquent posts on Facebook and Twitter. Researchers have developed a new technology based on carbon nanotubes that promises to permanently preserve individual bits of data, such as those found on computer hard drives and DVDs. If so, the technology could lead to data archives holding the entirety of human thought and communications potentially forever. As our technological...

Science 22 May 2009: Vol. 324. no. 5930, pp. 1051 - 1055 DOI: 10.1126/science.1171541 Fabricating Genetically Engineered High-Power Lithium-Ion Batteries Using Multiple Virus Genes Yun Jung Lee,1,* Hyunjung Yi,1,* Woo-Jae Kim,2 Kisuk Kang,3,4 Dong Soo Yun,1 Michael S. Strano,2 Gerbrand Ceder,1 Angela M. Belcher1,5,$ ABSTRACT Development of materials that deliver more energy at high rates is important for high-power applications, including portable electronic devices and hybrid electric vehicles [obligatory green reference]. For lithium-ion (Li+) batteries, reducing material dimensions can boost Li+ ion and electron transfer in nanostructured electrodes. By manipulating two genes, we equipped viruses with peptide groups having affinity...

Imagine if all you had to do to charge your iPod or your BlackBerry was to wave your hand, or stretch your arm, or take a walk? You could say goodbye to batteries and never have to plug those devices into a power source again. In research presented here today at the American Chemical Society’s 237th National Meeting, scientists from Georgia describe technology that converts mechanical energy from body movements or even the flow of blood in the body into electric energy that can be used to power a broad range of electronic devices without using batteries. “This research...

When it comes to the world of the very, very small — nanotechnology — Americans have a big problem: Nano and its capacity to alter the fundamentals of nature, it seems, are failing the moral litmus test of religion. In a report published today (Dec. 7) in the journal Nature Nanotechnology, survey results from the United States and Europe reveal a sharp contrast in the perception that nanotechnology is morally acceptable. Those views, according to the report, correlate directly with aggregate levels of religious views in each country surveyed. In the United States and a few European countries where religion...

President-elect Barack Obama's image looms larger than ever in the media these days, but now his face has been rendered in 3-D portraits smaller than a grain of salt, using nanotechnology. The mini-Barack Obamas were made by John Hart, an engineering professor at the University of Michigan, who dubbed them "nanobamas." Each nanobama contains about 150 million carbon nanotubes stacked vertically like trees in a forest. A carbon nanotube is an extraordinarily strong hollow cylinder about 1/50,000th the width of a human hair. Hart created the "nano art" to raise awareness of nanotechnology and science. "Developments like this are an...

I’ve been increasingly absorbed into solving the world’s energy problems for the past six months. Almost every week I am surprised at the depth of this problem. The more I look at it; the problem just doesn’t get easier. But I believe that within this problem lies a magnificent opportunity for our nation, and the world. The title my my talk “Nanotechnology, Energy and People” has the word “people” in it; and the more I’ve gotten into this, the more I think it is mostly a people problem. Let me just jump to the chase here and tell you what...

Best known as the blueprint for life, DNA is also a marvel of architecture that can be used to build 3-D structures measured in billionths of a foot, according to a study released Wednesday. A team of scientists in the United States has shown in experiments how to construct complex, spherical objects with tiny strings of DNA that assemble by themselves. DNA nanotechnology uses the building blocks of living organisms not as a repository for biological data, but as a structural material instead. These molecular-scale biomaterials hold tremendous promise in fields ranging from robotics to electronics to computation, scientists say....

Atomic-Sized Graphene Double Layer Holds Nanoelectronics Promise YORKTOWN HEIGHTS, NY, Mar 06, 2008 (MARKET WIRE via COMTEX) -- IBM Researchers today announced a discovery that combats one of the industry's most perplexing problems in using graphite -- the same material found inside pencils -- as a material for building nanoelectonic circuits vastly smaller than those found in today's silicon based computer chips. For the first time anywhere, IBM scientists have found a way to suppress unwanted interference of electrical signals created when shrinking graphene, a two-dimensional, single-atomic layer thick form of graphite, to dimensions just a few atoms long. Scientists...

Carbon nanotubes-cylinders so tiny that it takes 50,000 lying side by side to equal the width of a human hair-are packed with the potential to be highly accurate vehicles for administering medicines and other therapeutic agents to patients. But a dearth of data about what happens to the tubes after they discharge their medical payloads has been a major stumbling block to progress. Now, Stanford researchers, who spent months tracking the tiny tubes inside mice, have found some answers. Studies in mice already had shown that most nanomaterials tend to accumulate in organs such as the liver and spleen, which...

BriefingAs big as a bed sheet, and the carbon won't rub off.NANOCOMP TECHNOLOGIES A company in the United States has made a sheet from tiny carbon nanotubes. Nature News finds out whether bigger is better when it comes to the very small. I thought the whole point about carbon nanotubes was that they are 'nano' — really, really small. True. As the name implies, nanotubes are on the order of 10-9 metres in size: they are famed for being thinner than human hair, and are typically less than a millimetre long. But they pack a lot of punch into such...

BOSTON, MA - China aims to leapfrog the United States in technological development with substantial investment in nanotechnology, but whether those efforts will actually pay off is still unclear. That was the message from University of California at Santa Barbara researchers presenting their findings on the state of Chinese nanotechnology here at the AAAS annual meeting. Richard Applebaum and Rachel Parker from the Center for Nanotechnology in Society at UCSB conducted about sixty interviews with Chinese officials to piece together a picture of the current state of Chinese nanotechnology. Applebaum set the specific research effort within the context of China's...

Researchers have recently built an x-ray microscope that has a pixel resolution of just 15 nanometers, allowing scientists to study the properties of materials at the molecular scale and beyond.he collaborative team, led by Jianwei Miao and Changyong Song from the University of California at Los Angeles, also includes researchers from the Australian Synchotron, and Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois. The ultimate resolution of the x-ray images, the scientists say, is limited only by the x-ray wavelengths, and can in principle reach the near-atomic level (the diameter of an average atom is around 0.1 nanometers). The study is published in...

By mixing nanomaterials that act as fuel and oxidizer, researchers have created a combustible nano explosive that can generate shock waves with Mach numbers up to 3. The team of researchers, a collaboration from the University of Missouri-Columbia (UMC) and the U.S. Army, hope that this nano-sized “smart bomb” can target drug delivery to cancer cells, and leave healthy cells unharmed. Their study is published in a recent issue of Applied Physics Letters. “Nanoengineered thermites can produce shock waves, and their properties are similar to some primary lead-based explosives,” Shubhra Gangopadhyay, Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at UMC, told...

Stanford researchers have found a way to use silicon nanowires to reinvent the rechargeable lithium-ion batteries that power laptops, iPods, video cameras, cell phones, and countless other devices. The new version, developed through research led by Yi Cui, assistant professor of materials science and engineering, produces 10 times the amount of electricity of existing lithium-ion, known as Li-ion, batteries. A laptop that now runs on battery for two hours could operate for 20 hours, a boon to ocean-hopping business travelers. "It's not a small improvement," Cui said. "It's a revolutionary development." The breakthrough is described in a paper, "High-performance...

SNIP: The nanotechnology experts at the Technion institute in Haifa say the book was etched on a surface that measures less than 0.01 square inch. They chose the Jewish Bible to highlight how vast quantities of information can be stored on minimum amounts of space. "It took us about an hour to etch the 300,000 words of the Bible onto a tiny silicon surface," Ohad Zohar, the university's scientific adviser for educational programs, told the Associated Press.

(A) The thin film transistor array on a glass substrate. Inset: A magnified transparent transistor. (B) Scanning electron microscope image of the network of SWNTs. Image credit: Eun Ju Bae, et al. The ability to create flexible, transparent electronics could lead to a host of novel applications, such as e-paper and electronic car windshields. Now, scientists have constructed a transistor made of a network of nanotubes that may serve as an essential component in a trans-flex device. Such devices require two main components: light displays and current-controlling transistors. While scientists have found that OLEDs and LCDs work well as...

BERKELEY – Physicists at the University of California, Berkeley, have built the smallest radio yet - a single carbon nanotube one ten-thousandth the diameter of a human hair that requires only a battery and earphones to tune in to your favorite station. The scientists successfully received their first FM broadcast last year - Derek & The Dominos' "Layla" and the Beach Boys' "Good Vibrations" transmitted from across the room. In homage to last year's 100th anniversary of the first voice and music radio transmission, they also transmitted and successfully tuned in to the first music piece broadcast in 1906, the...

October 1, 2007 A Californian based company has produced the world’s first disposable photonic lab-on-a-chip solution for next-generation water and food analysis, chemical and biological agent detection, and point-of-care diagnostics. The PhotonicLab Platform from Bioident Technology Inc. enables rapid in-vitro diagnostics, chemical and biological threat detection, and environmental testing without the need for off-site lab analysis. This offers greater mobility and sensitivity compared to existing biological and chemical assays and delivers a cost-effective disposable lab-on-a-chip solution by eliminating the need for complex and expensive readout systems. To produce the device Bioident utilized the latest breakthroughs in nanotechnology and leveraged...

An illustration of I.B.M.'s technique for storing data on a single atom. An iron atom on a copper surface could store a single bit of binary data, with "0" or "1" indicated by the orientation of the atom's magnetic field.************************************************ SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 30 — Researchers at I.B.M. laboratories say they have made progress toward storing information and computing at the level of individual atoms.The scientists documented their work in two papers appearing on Friday in the journal Science. Both papers are focused on new understanding of the behavior of magnetism at the tiny scale of nanotechnology, where scientists hope...

ARMONK, N.Y., Aug. 30 (UPI) -- IBM announced two major scientific achievements Thursday, both in the field of nanotechnology. Researchers said the breakthroughs will enable scientists to further explore the building of structures and devices out of ultra-tiny components as small as a few atoms or molecules. In the first report, scientists at IBM's Almaden Research Center in San Jose, Calif., describe major progress in identifying a property called magnetic anisotropy, which determines an atom’s ability to store information. That research, said IBM, could lead to storage of as many as 30,000 movies in a device the size of an...

Using metal nanoshells designed to both absorb and scatter near-infrared light, a team of investigators at Rice University has shown that such nanoparticles can both image and treat tumors in animals. Their experiments revealed complete tumor destruction in more than 80 percent of animals treated with these nanoshells. Jennifer West, Ph.D., and Rebekah Drezek, Ph.D., led the team of investigators that developed and tested these nanoshells, constructed with a 120-nanometer-diameter silica core, a 12-nanometer-thick gold shell, and a surface coating of poly(ethylene glycol). To image the nanoshells in animals, the investigators used optical coherence tomography (OCT), which measures light scattered...

Flexible battery is paper-thin Last Updated: 12:01pm BST 14/08/2007 Paper and nanotechnology combine to create a new kind of battery, reports Roger HighfieldWhat looks to the untrained eye like thick, black paper is a novel flexible battery that could offer new opportunities for tomorrow's gadgets, from self propelling paper planes to smart pockets that can recharge a mobile phone.   The new nanocomposite paper developed by researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Along with its ability to work in temperatures up to 150ºC (300ºF) and down to -70ºC (-100ºF), the battery can be printed like paper, rolled, twisted or folded, and even...

The first molecular keypad lock which works like by entering a series of numbers in a pre-set sequence has been designed by chemists at the Weizmann Institute. The main difference is that the Rehovot scientists created a molecule that can function like a super-miniaturized keypad locking mechanism. Their work recently appeared in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. What possible uses are there for minuscule keypads? They aren't likely to become a practical alternative to today's anti-theft devices. But Shanzer believes this first-ever design will lead to new inventions in other areas such as information security and even medicine....

It's no secret that China's economy is fast becoming an economic powerhouse, but I wasn't prepared for the signs everywhere of hyperactive growth when I landed in China last month to meet with numerous advanced materials start-ups and fellow venture capitalists. Shanghai and Beijing are cityscapes of cranes operating in every direction around the clock. Everywhere highways and buildings were being raised, and the presence of Western investors and businesspeople was ubiquitous. Clearly, change is coming to China on a massive scale. But it is also happening at the nanoscale. China is now rapidly trying to catch up to the...

Chemists at Rice University have discovered how to assemble gold and silver nanoparticle building blocks into larger structures based on a novel method that harkens back to one of nature's oldest known chemical innovations -- the self-assembly of lipid membranes that surround every living cell. The research appears in the Nov. 29 issue of the Journal of the American Chemical Society (JACS 2006, 128, 15098). Researchers believe the new method will allow them to create a wide variety of useful materials, including extra-potent cancer drugs and more efficient catalysts for the chemical industry.The method makes use of the hydrophobic effect,...

An individual "dopant" atom has been spied interfering with the flow of electrons through a silicon transistor for the first time. Researchers say the feat could help scientists squeeze more power out of conventional computers and ultimately develop silicon-based quantum computers. Dopants are chemical impurities that affect the flow of electrons through a conducting or semiconducting material. They are deliberately added to pure silicon, for example, to create different types of electronic component. To analyse a lone dopant atom in action, Sven Rogge and colleagues at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands cryogenically cooled 35-nanometre-wide silicon wires, taken from...

A way of controllably shrinking carbon nanotubes has been developed by US researchers. They say the technique could someday be used to make faster computers and other novel electronic devices. Carbon nanotubes have been used to make a variety of different nanoscale electronic devices, including sensors and transistors. These can outperform conventional components, working at higher frequencies and sensitivities, thanks to the novel physical and electronic properties of nanotubes. These properties, however, depend strongly on the dimensions of each tube. And, until now, there has been no reliable way to make nanotubes to order. This means "nanotube device fabrication is...

Stanford researchers' new etching method shows promise for bulk manufacturing of nanotube-electronics. Semiconducting carbon nanotubes could be the centerpiece of low-power, ultra-fast electronics of the future. The challenge is getting them to work with today's manufacturing processes. Now researchers at Stanford University have made an important advance toward large-scale nanotube electronics. They have created functional transistors using an etching process that can be integrated with the methods used to carve out silicon-based computer chips. A major roadblock to making carbon-nanotube transistors has been the difficulty of separating semiconducting tubes from a typical batch of nanotubes, in which about a third...

A Chiang Mai University team has developed a motor so small it will power a microscopic robot on an expedition through human blood vessels.Boffins at the university's science faculty describe their invention as a "nanomotor". It will drive a medical robot about the size of a blood cell on a tour of the maze of human veins and capillaries.A "nanobot" - or nanotechnology robot - developed at Kent State University in Ohio, United States will be powered by a motor made of an extremely fine and pure ceramic created at Chiang Mai University. In addition to powering the nanobot, the...

In an attempt to increase the sensitivity of cancer biomarker detection and to decrease the need for large samples from which to detect those molecules, a multi-institutional research team has shown that a “forest” of single-walled carbon nanotubes can be used to detect lower levels of the prostate specific antigen (PSA) than is possible using the current commercial assay. Moreover, this new system requires between 5 and 15 times less sample than does the commercial system. James Rusling, Ph.D., at the University of Connecticut, led the research team that developed this new assay system. The investigators report their findings in...

EVANSTON, Ill. -- Ever since the invention of the first scanning probe microscope in 1981, researchers have believed the powerful tool would someday be used for the nanofabrication and nanopatterning of surfaces in a molecule-by-molecule, bottom-up fashion. Despite 25 years of research in this area, the world has hit a brick wall in developing a technique with commercial potential -- until now. Northwestern University researchers have developed a 55,000-pen, two-dimensional array that allows them to simultaneously create 55,000 identical patterns drawn with tiny dots of molecular ink on substrates of gold or glass. Each structure is only a single molecule...

Based on a new theory, MIT scientists may be able to manipulate carbon nanotubes -- one of the strongest known materials and one of the trickiest to work with -- without destroying their extraordinary electrical properties. The work is reported in the Sept. 15 issue of Physical Review Letters, the journal of the American Physical Society. Carbon nanotubes -- cylindrical carbon molecules 50,000 times thinner than a human hair -- have properties that make them potentially useful in nanotechnology, electronics, optics and reinforcing composite materials. With an internal bonding structure rivaling that of another well-known form of carbon, diamonds, carbon...

Altair Nanotechnologies Inc., a leading provider of advanced nanomaterials and alternative energy solutions, detailed why its NanoSafe rechargeable, nano titanate battery technology provides fundamental improvements, including high power versus other rechargeable batteries. In anticipation of Altairnano's delivery of its first NanoSafe battery pack for use in an electric vehicle in September, this is the final of four planned news releases identifying features of Altairnano NanoSafe batteries that may prove advantageous in the power rechargeable battery market. In the three previous releases, Altairnano detailed why its nano titanate battery technology delivers high battery safety, rapid recharge and long battery life. The...

Heisenberg's uncertainty principle limits what we can know about the quantum world. Now the uncertainty principle is being harnessed to see if it is possible to identify a point at which matter begins to exhibit weird quantum behaviour. ... Schwab's team fabricated a nanoscale resonator - the equivalent of a tiny pendulum - on a silicon chip, which oscillates at 20 megahertz. On the same chip, they created a single-electron transistor and electrically coupled it to the resonator in such a way that any change in the resonator's position caused a change in the transistor's current. Measuring the current should...

Johns Hopkins researchers have devised a way to use a brief burst of electricity to release biomolecules and nanoparticles from a tiny gold launch pad. The technique could someday be used to dispense small amounts of medicine on command from a chip implanted in the body. The method also may be useful in chemical reactions that require the controlled release of extremely small quantities of a material.The technique was described Sept. 10 in a presentation by Peter C. Searson, a Johns Hopkins professor of materials science and engineering, during the 232nd national meeting of the American Chemical Society in San...

The touch device has been created by researchers in America who used nanoparticles to sense the contours of a coin. It is accurate enough to detect the outline of Abraham Lincoln's face on a 1c coin and the letters TY in the word Liberty. To make the sensor, the researchers built up a film consisting of alternate layers of gold and cadmium sulfide nanoparticles with a thin plastic sheet on top and glass below. An object is placed on the plastic and an image sensor beneath the glass reads the changes in electrical current and electroluminescence caused within the nanoparticle...

Scientists have yoked bacteria to power rotary motors, the first microscopic mechanical devices to successfully incorporate living microbes together with inorganic parts. "In far future plans, we would like to make micro-robots driven by biological motors," researcher Yuichi Hiratsuka, a nanobiotechnologist now at the University of Tokyo, told LiveScience. Rest of Article -> LiveScience

A single molecule, trapped between two electrodes, acts as a switch and has a ‘memory’ of the type used in data storage, Swiss and US researchers have found. Heike Riel of IBM’s research labs in Zurich says this is ‘a step along the way’ to making nanoscale electronic components a reality. Using single organic molecules as electronic components could allow researchers to miniaturise circuits far more than conventional techniques allow. They also avoid the interactions between the millions of molecules found in a standard transistor that can disrupt the conduction of charge. The scientists built their switch using a molecule...

Georgia Tech invention captures cell properties and biochemical signals in action ATLANTA (July 24, 2006) — To create drugs capable of targeting some of the most devastating human diseases, scientists must first decode exactly how a cell or a group of cells communicates with other cells and reacts to a broad spectrum of complex biomolecules surrounding it. But even the most sophisticated tools currently used for studying cell communications suffer from significant deficiencies. Typically, these tools can detect only a narrowly selected group of small molecules or, for a more sophisticated analysis, the cells must be destroyed for sample preparation....

Using a fast, low-cost fabrication technique that allows inexpensive testing of a wide variety of materials, Cornell researchers have come up with nanoscale resonators -- tiny vibrating strings -- with the highest quality factor so far obtainable at room temperature for devices so small. The work is another step toward "laboratory on a chip" applications in which vibrating strings can be used to detect and identify biological molecules. The devices also can be used as very precisely tuned oscillators in radio-frequency circuits, replacing relatively bulky quartz crystals.When you strike a bell or pluck a guitar string, it will vibrate within...

The discovery that a wide variety of bacteria can be persuaded to produce wire-like appendages that conduct electricity could prove vital to the development of more efficient biological fuel cells. Bacteria that use sugars and sewage as fuel are being investigated as a pollution-free source of electricity. They feed by plucking electrons from atoms in their fuel and dumping them onto the oxygen or metal atoms in the mixture. The transfer of the electrons creates a current, and connecting the bacteria to an electrode in a microbial fuel cell will generate electricity, although not necessarily very efficiently. A species of...

Bioengineers at Tufts University have created a new fusion protein that for the first time combines the toughness of spider silk with the intricate structure of silica. The resulting nanocomposite could be used in medical and industrial applications, such as growing bone tissue.“This is a novel genetic engineering strategy to design and develop new ‘chimeric’ materials by combining two of nature’s most remarkable materials -- spider silk and diatom glassy skeletons – that normally are not found together,” said David L. Kaplan, professor and chair of biomedical engineering and director of Tufts’ Bioengineering and Biotechnology Center. Kaplan, along with his...

Hockey players, rejoice! A team of University of Alberta researchers has created technology to regrow teeth—the first time scientists have been able to reform human dental tissue. Using low-intensity pulsed ultrasound (LIPUS), Dr. Tarak El-Bialy from the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry and Dr. Jie Chen and Dr. Ying Tsui from the Faculty of Engineering have created a miniaturized system-on-a-chip that offers a non-invasive and novel way to stimulate jaw growth and dental tissue healing. “It’s very exciting because we have shown the results and actually have something you can touch and feel that will impact the health of...

WHAT do you get if you take a set of miniature silicon helicopter blades, drop them into a beaker of water and blast them with sound waves? A remote-controlled underwater "bubble rotor" that could be used to manipulate individual cells. The rotor, developed by Daniel Attinger of Columbia University in New York, consists of a piece of silicon, 60 micrometres wide, cut into two crossed blades. It can be made to spin by placing it near a bubble of air in water and hitting the bubble with ultrasound waves. Although the bubble rotor itself is 100 times bigger than ordinary...

Scientists have created a molecular switch that could play a key role in thousands of nanotech applications. The Mol-Switch project successfully developed a demonstrator to prove the principle, despite deep scepticism from specialist colleagues in biotechnology and biophysics. "Frankly, some researchers didn't think what we were attempting was possible because standard descriptions in physics, for example the Stokes equation for viscosity indicated that the system might not work. But viscous forces do not apply at the nano-scale," says Dr Keith Firman, Reader in Molecular Biotechnology at Portsmouth University and coordinator of the Mol-Switch project, funded under the European Commission’s FET...

Researchers have installed a molecular engine into a "car" just a few billionths of a metre long. Measuring just 3 by 4 nanometres, around 20,000 of the cars could be parked on the tip of a human hair. Jim Tour and colleagues at Rice University in Houston, US, built a chassis and wheels for a nano-car from organic molecules at the end of 2005. The engineless model could only be powered remotely - using a heated gold surface to stop its wheels sticking and an electromagnetic field to drag it forwards. But the new model should be able to propel...

MONDAY, March 27 (HealthDay News) -- Extremely small, custom-designed nanoparticles show promise in improving cancer diagnosis and treatment, researchers report. Researchers at the University of North Carolina said the nanoparticles may enable a more targeted and effective delivery of anticancer drugs than current treatments and have the potential to reduce side effects associated with chemotherapy. The nanoparticles are designed at the molecular level to attack specific kinds of cancer without harming healthy cells. "I think this will transform the way one detects and treats cancer," study leader Joseph DeSimone, UNC chemistry professor and director of the school's Institute for Advanced...