The results of Geoffrey von Maltzahn et al. in their Nature Materials publication reveal that nanoparticles that communicate with each other can deliver more than 40-fold higher doses of chemotherapeutics (anti-cancer drugs) to tumors than nanoparticles that do not communicate can deliver. These results show the potential for nanoparticle communication to amplify drug delivery over that achievable by nanoparticles that work alone, similar to how insect swarms perform better as a group than the individual insects do on their own.
Scientific American: Learning from Insect Swarms: Smart Cancer Targeting
(via Social Physicist)
From http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Technoccult/~3/EUAmsJjMdjM/
Bold claim from Jamais Cascio:
This is likely the biggest technological breakthrough of the year, arguably even of the decade.
A team of researcher from the University of Texas, Dallas, and Australia’s CSIRO has come up with a way to make strong, stable macroscale sheets and ribbons of multiwall nanotubes at a rate of seven meters per minute. These ribbons and sheets, moreover, already display — without optimization of the process — important electronic and physical properties, making them suitable for use in an enormous variety of settings, including artificial muscles, transparent antennas, video displays and solar cells — and many, many more. The breakthrough was announced in the latest edition of Science.
WorldChanging: Ribbons, Sheets and the Nanofuture
(via Chris Arkenberg)
From http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Technoccult/~3/m7YxT-Vxyww/
By emulating nature’s design principles, a team at Harvard’s Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, Harvard Medical School and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute has created nanodevices made of DNA that self-assemble and can be programmed to move and change shape on demand. In contrast to existing nanotechnologies, these programmable nanodevices are highly suitable for medical applications because DNA is both biocompatible and biodegradable.
Harvard Medical School: Researchers create self-assembling nanodevices that move and change shape on demand
(via Edge of Tomorrow)
Related posts:
- Researchers rapidly turn E. coli into biotech factories
- Computer-Controlled Swarm of Bacteria Builds Tiny Pyramid
- Researchers discover that stress isn’t a modern invention
From http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Technoccult/~3/WWczyQOBNkI/
