Lifeboat Foundation

Credit: University of New Mexico For years, scientists have long wrestled with the control and manipulation of light, a long-standing scientific ambition with major implications for the development of technology. With the growth in nanophotonics, scientists are making gains faster than ever exploiting structures with dimensions comparable to the wavelength of light. Scientists at The University of New Mexico studying the field of nanophotonics are developing new perspectives never seen before through their research. In turn, the understanding of these theoretical concepts is enabling physic…

Many of the previously dumb devices in our homes are getting smarter with the advent of internet-connected lights, thermostats, and more. Surely the windows can’t be smart, can they? A team of engineers from the German Friedrich-Schiller University Jena have created just that — a smart window that can alter its opacity and harvest energy from the sun’s rays.

There have been a number of “smart” electrochromatic window designs over the years, but these are mostly aimed at changing tint or opacity only. The windows designed by Friedrich-Schiller University researchers are vastly more functional. The so-called Large-Area Fluidic Windows (LaWin) design uses a fluid suspension of iron particles. This fluid is contained within the window in a series of long vertical channels. These “functional fluids” allow the window to change opacity, but also absorb and distribute heat.

The iron-infused fluid remains diffused until you switch the window on — the nanoparticles cloud up the channels and block light. When you flip the switch, magnets drag the nanoparticles out of the liquid to make the window fully transparent. When the magnet is switched off, the nanoparticles are resuspended to darken the panel. In general, the more nanoparticles you add, the darker the window becomes. You can even completely black it out with enough iron.

Continue reading “Smart Windows Use Iron Nanoparticles to Harvest Heat” »

Looking back at best of 2017)

Summary: Nanotechnology meets gene editing. MIT researchers use nanoparticles instead of viruses to deliver the CRISPR gene editing system. This article first appeared on LongevityFacts. Author: Brady Hartman]

In a new study, MIT scientists have developed nanoparticles that deliver the CRISPR gene editing system, eliminating the need to use viruses for delivery.

Continue reading “Revolutionary CRISPR Gene Editing with Nanoparticles” »

Why aren’t holograms or related optical devices part of our everyday lives yet? The technologies can be created by using magnetic fields to alter the path of light, but the materials that can do that are expensive, brittle and opaque. Some only work in temperatures as cold as the vacuum of space.

Minjeong Cha, MSE PhD Student, applies a gel made up of chiromagnetic nanoparticles that are a conduit for modulating light to a laser apparatus. Image credit: Joseph Xu, Michigan Engineering

Continue reading “Nanoparticle gel could make mass-market low-cost Holography, LIDAR” »

A DNA machine with a high-speed arm could pave the way for nanoscale factories.

The dozen people working at CSER itself—little more than a large room in an out-of-the-way building near the university’s occupational health service—organize talks, convene scientists to discuss future developments, and publish on topics from regulation of synthetic biology to ecological tipping points. A lot of their time is spent pondering end-of-the-world scenarios and potential safeguards.

A small cadre of scientists worries that lab-made viruses, AI, or nanobots could drive humans to extinction.

Continue reading “Could science destroy the world? These scholars want to save us from a modern-day Frankenstein” »

Dennis Kowalski, the president of Cryonics Institute in the United States, has made the incredible announcement that cryonics is advancing so fast that he is unable to keep up with the demand for it. The institute spearheads the process of freezing human beings by cryogenics.

Dennis spoke exclusively and said that technology is making huge advances and went on to talk about CPR and said that it would have seemed not possible only 100 years ago. He said that today people take technology for granted. Dennis used to work as a paramedic and said that the reason he got into cryogenics was thanks to a book with the title of Engines of Creation by J Robert Freitas which has the focus on nanotechnology.

Continue reading “First Human FROZEN” »

Feathers on birds of paradise contain light-trapping nanotechnology that makes some of the deepest blacks in the world.

Using detailed 3D images, researchers have shown how bacteria have evolved molecular motors of different powers to optimize their swimming.

The discovery, by a team from Imperial College London, provides insights into evolution at the molecular scale.

Bacteria use molecular motors just tens of nanometres wide to spin a tail (or ‘flagellum’) that pushes them through their habitat. Like human-made motors, the structure of these nanoscale machines determines their power and the bacteria’s swimming ability.