HackingTheUniverse

You are browsing the archives of Nanotechnology.

Using an electrical signal to tell a swarm of microrobots to self-assemble into a desired structure has been demonstrated by researchers. The “artificial ant” won’t be far behind. Herding Swarms of Microrobots – [technologyreview.com] Imagine a swarm of microrobots—tiny devices a few hair widths across—swimming through your blood vessels and repairing damage, or zipping around [...]

In history, it was first Bi Sheng and then Gutenberg who used movable type blocks to revolutionize printing. Computer microchips are “printed” on silicon disks using a photo-etching and plating process to create miniature circuitry patterns. More than a few research teams have been chasing the best way to accomplish nanoprinting and using a wide [...]

Researchers have been predicting for several years that a form of graphene known as “buckypaper”, which is hundreds of times stronger than steel and much lighter, could be used to make airplanes, electronic components, batteries and hundreds of other products. A team from the University of Technology, Sydney (Australia) has announced results that bring the [...]

Microcameras may soon be built into almost everything, dramatically changing the way we collect video images and use them. As cameras become very small, they also become so cheap as to be disposable and that means they can be used in almost everything we manufacture, including our clothing and wall surfaces. Cameras out of the [...]

By using chemical vapor deposition to coat pores etched in an aluminum oxide layer, researchers have created hollow tubes that are called “microworms”. The tubes can be filled with flourescent material that provides chemical monitoring. Research update: Continuous medical monitoring – [mit.edu] Tiny ‘microworms’ could be implanted under the skin to give readout of blood [...]

A DARPA developed hummingbird drone can now fly for eight minutes and collect images with a camera. It has met or exceeded all the requirements for “hummingbird-like” flight capability. Nano Hummingbird – [avinc.com] AV is developing the Nano Air Vehicle (NAV) under a DARPA sponsored research contract to develop a new class of air vehicle [...]

Aerogel, also known as “frozen smoke” because of it’s vaporous, translucent appearance, is actually a rigid, dry and porous solid. The first aerogel was made in 1931 by Samuel Kistler, using a supercritical fluid drying process to extract the liquid component of a gel, leaving a solid matrix of silica that is highly porous and [...]

Metallic glasses were first demonstrated fifty years ago when a team from Caltech produced a paper on gold silicon alloys. Metallic glass is formed when metal atoms cool and solidify without forming a crystal structure. This makes them lightweight and elastic compared to conventional metallic structures. New versions of metallic glass containing palladium and silver [...]

Printing batteries, on paper or plastic or other substrates, has moved out of the lab and into commercial application. Processes that are more like spray painting or printing are replacing the older and more costly vacuum deposition process. This also increases the production speed. Printable Battery Benefits – [powerpaper.com] The key advantages of Power Paper’s [...]

“Invisibility” cloaking devices already exist in the lab, but only with such restrictive conditions that they are not very useful. Restrictions in the range of effective optical frequencies and the size and structure of the cloaking materials leave a large gap between laboratory performance and a functional cloaking device. A new flexible form of metamaterial [...]