Nanotechnology

(Newser) - Cleaning up oil might soon get faster and cheaper, thanks to nanotechnology. Scientists at MIT have crafted a paper-like substance that can absorb up to 20 times its weight, the Economist reports. The mesh of nanowires, each 1/1,000th the diameter of a human hair, feels and looks like paper—and can repel water, making absorption of oil more efficient. More »

(Newser) - Researchers have found that microscopic “wonder particles” used in a small number of materials, including bicycle parts and bumpers, have asbestos-like effects if inhaled, the Los Angeles Times reports. Consumers aren’t really at risk from the carbon nanotubes, but factory workers making the products could be, the researchers concluded. More »

(Newser) - Berkeley and Stanford University will help choose faculty and develop curricula for a new university in Saudi Arabia, reports the San Jose Mercury News . The graduate-level King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, funded by a $10 billion gift from the king, will focus on fields like petrochemicals and nano-technology when it opens in September 2009. University of California administrators said they agreed to the deal only with assurances that women would be treated equally. More »

(Newser) - Hewlett Packard is reorganizing its HP Labs in an effort to move more of the projects from the famed idea generator to market—and add to the company’s bottom line—more quickly,  Therese Poletti writes at MarketWatch. But even as HP looks for more commercial results from its legendary R&D facility, HP Labs continues to conduct theoretical research—its one-time core—as well. More »

(Newser) - One engineer and futurist says it’s only a matter of time before machines are as smart as people, and people are part machine, the BBC reports. Ray Kurzweil claims that artificial intelligence will produce human-level smarts and even emotions by 2029. Humans, meanwhile, will inject nanobots into their brains to improve intelligence. More »

(Newser) - What's the blackest thing you can think of? If you said a carpet of carbon nanotubes, you probably work with a Rice University team of scientists whose current project is "pushing the limit of how much light can be absorbed into one material." Their new material could lead to big advances in energy production and defense, Reuters reports. More »

(Newser) - Silicon could turn heat into electricity for cheaper than current technologies based on other materials, reports Technology Review . Researchers made nanowires out of silicon so that it would conduct electricity, but not heat. Normal silicon conducts both very well. The specially-made wires, however, convert heat applied at one end to electricity at the other end. More »

(Newser) - Israeli scientists have crammed the entire Hebrew Bible onto a chip that is half the size of a grain of sugar, the AP reports. They used a particle beam to etch it onto the 0.01-square inch surface “like a hammer and chisel," one scientist said. The new Bible appears to be the world’s smallest; the previous record holder, reportedly from Australia, ran 1,514 pages and measured about an inch high. More »

(Newser) - A UC Berkeley team has invented the world's smallest radio, composed of a single carbon nanotube 10,000 times thinner than a human hair. The San Francisco Chronicle reports that the device is the first fully functional radio to qualify as a piece of nanotechnology -- inventions no larger than a 100 billionths of a meter. More »

(Newser) - Biosensors that monitor cancer in the body and pathogens in water are one step closer to realization, after experiments revealed a newly efficient microscopic power supply. The sensors themselves have already been engineered in tiny dimensions, but power has been the sticking point, Technology Review reports. New nanogenerators could power the sensors using blood flow, muscle contractions, even acoustic waves. More »

(Newser) - Silicon ink, a new innovation in nanotechnology, may revolutionize the way that solar panels are produced and dramatically cut solar energy costs. The company that makes the ink, Innovalight, will announce today $28 million in new funding from Norwegian corporation Convexa Capital, as well as plans for a 30,000-square-foot manufacturing facility, writes the San Jose Mercury News. More »

(Newser) - Proving physics isn’t just theoretical black-hole gazing, this year’s Nobel Prize went to a discovery that paved the way for radically shrinking the size of computers. Albert Fert and Peter Grunberg won for uncovering “giant magnetoresistance,” the phenomenon that big electrical resistance variances can be produced from weak magnetic ones. In practical terms? “Without it you would not be able to store more than one song on your iPod!” one scientist told the BBC. More »

(Newser) - Scientists have come up with a paper-like substance that can act as a power source, Scientific American reports. The thin, flexible substance—composed of cellulose, carbon nanotubes, and liquid salts—can be used as both a battery and a supercapacitor, which can deliver quick bursts of high power. What's more, it can be cut, rolled up, or bent just like paper. More »

(Newser) - Two Scottish physics professors have published a report on forces of attraction that could be used to make objects levitate, writes the Telegraph . They've engineered a way to reverse the Casimir force, which normally causes elements to stick together. The discovery may lead to frictionless levitating parts in small mechanical systems. More »