From an article by
You would be hard pressed today to find a technology more versatile than 3D printing. Making significant impacts that span nearly every industry worldwide, whether you are considering dental 3D printers, titanium spinal implants, luxury car components, or futuristic buildings, we’re witnessing many changes we just never expected. But 3D printing also offers versatility in materials, from metal to PEEK—as well as shapes and sizes and properties. There is a machine for every job it would seem, from the macro- to the micro-level. And while we certainly see innovations emerging from the tiny to the enormous, there is a great deal of interest in 3D printing at the super tiny level—as in nano.
Smaller than tiny and tinier than micro, the nanoscale operates at one billionth of a meter or better yet, as 25,400,000 nanometers in an inch. And this is where the hearts of many researchers lie as they work diligently, innovating in the realm of materials science and 3D printing. At Virginia Tech, however, researchers are not content with operating with nanos. They want to see if they can scale them right back up as well and still retain the use of their special qualities.
Image Credit: Virginia Tech News
Recent News
A Promising New Pathway in the Battle Against Aggressive Prostate Cancer
Neuronal Molecule Makes Prostate Cancer More Aggressive Researchers discover a potential therapeutic avenue against an aggressive form of prostate cancer. Prostate cancer is the second most common cancer and [...]
Nasal Vaccines: Stopping the COVID-19 Virus Before It Reaches the Lungs
The Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna mRNA vaccines have played a large role in preventing deaths and severe infections from COVID-19. But researchers are still in the process of developing alternative [...]
NASA Tracking a Huge, Growing Anomaly in Earth’s Magnetic Field – with video
NASA is actively monitoring a strange anomaly in Earth's magnetic field: a giant region of lower magnetic intensity in the skies above the planet, stretching out between South America and [...]
New, Better Models Show How Infectious Diseases Like COVID-19 Spread
Infectious diseases such as COVID-19 can spread rapidly across the globe. Models that can predict how such diseases spread will strengthen national surveillance systems and improve public health decision-making. [...]
Human Antibodies Discovered That Can Block Multiple Coronaviruses Including COVID-19
Results from a Scripps Research and UNC team pave the way for a vaccine and therapeutic antibodies that could be stockpiled to fight future coronavirus pandemics. A team of [...]
Nanotechnology could be used to treat lymphedema
The human body is made up of thousands of tiny lymphatic vessels that ferry white blood cells and proteins around the body, like a superhighway of the immune system. [...]
DNA Nanotechnology Tools – From Design to Applications
Suite of DNA nanotechnology devices engineered to overcome specific bottlenecks in the development of new therapies, diagnostics, and understanding of molecular structures. DNA nanostructures with their potential for cell [...]
Regenerating bone with deer antler stem cells
Scientists from a collection of Chinese research institutions collaborated on a study of organ regeneration in mammals, finding deer antler blastema progenitor cells are a possible source of conserved [...]
AI Takes On Cancer: Analysis of Mutations Could Lead to Improved Therapy
Cancer is a complex and diverse disease, and its range of associated mutations is vast. The combination of these genomic changes in an individual is referred to as their [...]
Exposing tumours to bacteria converts immune cells to cancer killers
New research on inflammation could lead to better treatments to improve outcomes for people with advanced or previously untreatable cancers. Introducing bacteria to a tumour’s microenvironment creates a state [...]
Smart nanotechnology for more accurate delivery of insulin
More efficient and longer lasting glucose-responsive insulin that eliminates the need for people with type 1 diabetes to measure their glucose levels could be a step closer thanks to [...]
Efficiently Harvesting Rare Earth Elements From Wastewater Using Exotic Bacteria
The novel strains of cyanobacteria exhibit a fast and efficient “biosorption” of rare earth elements, making recycling possible. Rare earth elements (REEs) are a set of 17 metallic elements [...]
Resisting Treatment: Cancer Cells Shrink or Super-Size To Survive
A new approach to image analysis has uncovered how cancer cells manipulate their size as a means of resisting treatment. Researchers have discovered that cancer cells are capable of [...]
New Research Explains Why Children Avoid Severe COVID-19 Symptoms
According to new research, children exhibit a robust initial immune response to the coronavirus, however, they are unable to transfer this response to long-lasting memory T cells like adults [...]
Scientists Unravel Protein Map of Mitochondria
A new study sheds light on the organization of proteins within mitochondria. Mitochondria, the “powerhouses” of cells, play a crucial role in the energy production of organisms and are [...]
Mystifying Trapping Phenomenon: A Surprising Way To Catch a Microparticle
New insights could advance microfluidics and drug delivery systems. New study finds obstacles can trap rolling microparticles in fluid Through simulations and experiments, physicists attribute the trapping effect to [...]
New Alzheimer’s Treatment: Blocking T Cells To Prevent Neurodegeneration
Findings, in mice, open up drug development possibilities for brain diseases linked to tau protein. Nearly two dozen experimental therapies targeting the immune system are in clinical trials for Alzheimer’s disease, [...]
Advancing the Way for the Brain to Be Able to Control Devices in Real Time
Just a few decades ago, the possibility of connecting the brain with a computer to convert neural signals into concrete actions would have seemed like something from science fiction. [...]
Real AI Will Need Biology: Computers Powered by Human Brain Cells
In an article published today in Frontiers in Science, the team outlines how biological computers could surpass today’s electronic computers for certain applications while using a small fraction of [...]
CRISPR for the Masses – Genetic Vaccines Are In Our Very Near Future
In 2017, I sat down to read a book entitled, A Crack in Creation: Gene Editing and the Unthinkable Power to Control Evolution. Written by Jennifer Doudna it described a new tool called [...]
Scientists Solve Cell Survival Mystery
The new findings have the potential to improve our understanding of cancers and a multitude of other diseases. Researchers at La Jolla Institute for Immunology (LJI) have finally discovered the role [...]
Chemotherapy Chaos: Tumor Cells’ Response to Treatment Is Driven by Randomness
Inherent ‘noise’ in the system of gene expression in tumor cell death, is another tool cancer cells use to resist chemotherapy treatment. Cancer cells have an innate randomness in [...]
Revolutionary Testing Method Diagnoses COVID-19 With Near-Perfect Accuracy
By monitoring the body’s molecular response to a viral attack, the new method developed by Flatiron Institute researchers and their colleagues can diagnose even asymptomatic patients with 98.4 percent accuracy. [...]
Chemical imaging could help predict efficacy of radiation therapy for cancer patients
Decisions on cancer treatment could become better tailored to individual patients with the adoption of a new imaging method being developed by University of Michigan researchers that maps the [...]
Study Finds Omega-3 May Be Protective Against COVID-19 Infection
Study Shows Those With a Higher Omega-3 Index Are More Protected From Severe COVID Infection Omega-3 fatty acids, especially EPA and DHA, might be protective against contracting and/or suffering adverse [...]
Superhydrophobic biosensor could measure sweat vapors on the body
Sweat contains biomarkers that help doctors make health diagnoses. Wearable sensors can be used to monitor a person's perspiration rate and provide information about the skin, nervous system activity [...]
New blood test for prostate cancer could end the ordeal of biopsies for thousands of men
A blood test for prostate cancer could spare thousands of men from unnecessary biopsies. Experts say the breakthrough offers 'great promise' for detection of the disease, which is the most common [...]
Building a Better Opioid: Scientists Take Another Step Forward
A group of scientists collaborated to release comprehensive structures of the entire human opioid receptor family, with the aim of facilitating the development of more precise pain medications. In [...]
Johns Hopkins Machine-Learning Model Predicts COVID-19 Resistance
A research team from Johns Hopkins Medicine and Johns Hopkins University has developed a machine-learning (ML) tool capable of predicting who has the highest probability of being naturally resistant to COVID-19 [...]
New Investigational Drug Could Combat Brain Tumors
In mouse studies, the drug was found to delay the growth of tumors and enhance the sensitivity of glioblastoma cells to anticancer treatments. Due to its highly aggressive and [...]
Twin-bioengine self-adaptive micro/nanorobots developed
Developed for gastrointestinal inflammation therapy... Micro/nanorobots with self-propelling and self-navigating capabilities have attracted extensive attention in from researchers in drug delivery and therapy due to their controllable locomotion in [...]
Quantum Physicists Make Nanoscopic Breakthrough of Colossal Significance
In a new breakthrough, researchers at the University of Copenhagen, in collaboration with Ruhr University Bochum, have solved a problem that has caused quantum researchers headaches for years. The [...]
Making nanoparticle building blocks for new materials
Some researchers are driven by the quest to improve a specific product, like a battery or a semiconductor. Others are motivated by tackling questions faced by a given industry. [...]
The haunting brain science of long Covid
Matt Fitzgerald used to bike up and down 3,500 feet through the Santa Ana Mountains on three-hour rides just for fun. Now, nine months after being infected with SARS-CoV-2, [...]
Achieving a better understanding of how the blood-brain barrier works
Up to now, the use of models to research the barrier that separates the circulatory from the nervous system has proven to be either limited or extremely complicated. Researchers [...]
Nanoparticles drill holes at will in silicon
A Hamburg-based research team has developed a new method for producing a network of large to very fine pores in silicon and glass. At DESY’s X-ray source PETRA III, [...]
Merging Technologies to Tackle Brain Tumors
Recently, researchers at Yale University and the University of Connecticut collaborated to develop a nanoparticle-based treatment to fight glioblastoma (GBM), one of the most harmful malignancies with a high [...]
How a graphene-nanowire ‘sandwich’ is transforming electronics
As devices get smaller and more powerful, the risk of them overheating and burning out increases substantially. Despite advancements in cooling solutions, the interface between an electronic chip and [...]
Nanowire Assay Detects Brain Tumor Biomarkers in Urine
A recent study conducted at Nagoya University has focussed on developing an all-in-one nanowire assay system that can capture and evaluate extracellular vesicles useful for early cancer diagnosis. Extracellular vesicles are [...]
When the light is neither ‘on’ nor ‘off’ in the nanoworld
Whether the light in our living spaces is on or off can be regulated in everyday life simply by reaching for the light switch. However, when the space for [...]
Noninvasive nano test can detect even trace elements of prostate cancer
Cedars-Sinai Cancer investigators have developed a new nanotechnology-based test that can detect and profile prostate cancers—even in microscopic amounts. Their work, published in the journal Nano Today, suggests that this [...]
An ultra-stable protein nanowire made by bacteria provides clues to combating climate change
Accelerated climate change is a major and acute threat to life on Earth. Rising temperatures are caused by microbes producing 50% of atmospheric methane which is 30 times more [...]
New biomarker for disease progression in multiple sclerosis
The autoimmune disease multiple sclerosis can take a variety of courses. Determining the current and future progression of the disease is important in order to slow down its course [...]
Extracts From Two Wild Plants Inhibit COVID-19 Virus
Two common wild plants contain extracts that inhibit the ability of the virus that causes COVID-19 to infect living cells, an Emory University study finds. Scientific Reports published the results—the [...]
Mushrooms Magnify Memory by Boosting Nerve Growth
Researchers from The University of Queensland have discovered the active compound from an edible mushroom that boosts nerve growth and enhances memory. Professor Frederic Meunier from the Queensland Brain Institute said the [...]
Scientists discover receptor that blocks COVID-19 infection
The receptor sticks to the virus and pulls it away from the target cells University of Sydney scientists have discovered a protein in the lung that blocks SARS-CoV-2 infection [...]
New diagnostic test is 1,000 times more sensitive than conventional tests
When Srikanth Singamaneni and Guy Genin, both professors of mechanical engineering and materials science at the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis, established a new [...]
Novel Nanotechnology-Based Blood Test can Detect and Profile Prostate Cancers
Cedars-Sinai Cancer investigators have developed a new nanotechnology-based test that can detect and profile prostate cancers-;even in microscopic amounts. Their work, published in the peer-reviewed journal nanotoday, suggests that this "liquid biopsy" test [...]
Treat Untreatable Infections? Princeton Researchers Have Created a New Bacteria-Killing Compound
A mechanism used by bacteria to defend themselves could lead to the development of new antibiotics. Princeton Engineering researchers have found a compound that can kill bacteria that cause incurable [...]
Tuning Into Brainwave Rhythms Dramatically Accelerates Learning in Adults
First study to show that delivering information at the natural tempo of our neural pulses accelerates our ability to learn. Participants who received a simple 1.5-second visual cue at [...]
Can Neuroimaging Reveal the Roots of Psychiatric Disorders Like PTSD?
A Yale study says not yet. A recent study led by Yale University highlights that while neuroimaging holds great potential in connecting specific symptoms of mental health disorders to abnormal brain [...]
Immune Response to COVID-19 Strengthens Over Time – Important Implications for Vaccine Boosters
Study suggests people who have had COVID-19 benefit from vaccination, even if they’ve delayed it. Immunity from COVID-19 appears to gather strength with more time between vaccination and infection, a new [...]
Scientists Use Exotic DNA To Help Create “Climate-Proof” Crops
The incorporation of exotic DNA from wild relatives into wheat results in a remarkable yield increase of up to 50%, even in hot weather, surpassing elite lines without these [...]
Australia becomes first country to recognise psychedelics as medicines
Australia has become the first country to recognise psychedelics as medicines, after the Therapeutic Goods Administration took researchers by surprise and approved the psychedelic substances in magic mushrooms and [...]
Silver nanoparticles show promise in fighting antibiotic-resistant bacteria
In a new study, scientists with the University of Florida have found that a combination of silver nanoparticles and antibiotics is effective against antibiotic-resistant bacteria. The researchers hope to [...]
Combating severe cancer with a new drug delivery system
Peritoneal cancer is difficult to treat and has a poor survival prognosis. But a new and effective nanomedicine delivery system is offering some hope. The company is called NaDeNo [...]
New Research Shows How Ketamine Acts As “Switch” in the Brain
According to a new study by researchers at Penn Medicine, ketamine, which is well-known as an anesthetic and is becoming increasingly popular as an antidepressant, dramatically reorganizes activity in [...]
Supercharged T Cells: A New Way To Kill Pancreatic Cancer With Minimal Side Effects
A new immunotherapy releases cancer-killing cytokines only within the tumor. Researchers at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) have developed a new T cell-based immunotherapy that selectively targets cancer cells, [...]
AI has designed bacteria-killing proteins from scratch – and they work
An AI was tasked with creating proteins with anti-microbial properties. Researchers then created a subset of the proteins and found some did the job. An AI has designed anti-microbial [...]
Using nanoparticles, researchers can identify and deliver synergistic combinations of cancer drugs
Treating cancer with combinations of drugs can be more effective than using a single drug. However, figuring out the optimal combination of drugs, and making sure that all of [...]
Humanity May Reach Singularity Within Just 7 Years, Trend Shows
By one unique metric, we could approach technological singularity by the end of this decade, if not sooner. A translation company developed a metric, Time to Edit (TTE), to calculate the [...]
HYPER (Highly Interactive Particle Relics) – A New Model for Dark Matter
Phase transition in early universe changes strength of interaction between dark and normal matter. Dark matter remains one of the greatest mysteries of modern physics. It is clear that [...]
New Nanoparticles Deliver Therapy Brain-Wide and Edit Alzheimer’s Gene
Summary: Researchers have developed a new family of nano-scale capsules capable of carrying CRISPR gene editing tools to different organs of the body before harmlessly dissolving. The capsules were able [...]
Cancer’s Secret Weapon? Enzyme That Protects Against Viruses May Fuel Tumor Evolution
An enzyme that defends human cells against viruses can help drive cancer evolution towards greater malignancy by causing myriad mutations in cancer cells, according to a study led by [...]
Scientists Uncover Japanese Fruit Juice That May Help Prevent Lung Cancer
Using a mouse model, Japanese researchers unleash the likely mechanism of action of Actinidia arguta (sarunashi) juice on lung cancer development. Lung cancer is a leading cause of death [...]
In-place manufacturing method improves gas sensor capabilities, production time
When used as wearable medical devices, stretchy, flexible gas sensors can identify health conditions or issues by detecting oxygen or carbon dioxide levels in the breath or sweat. They [...]
In the core of the cell: New insights into the utilization of nanotechnology-based drugs
Novel drugs, such as vaccines against covid-19, among others, are based on drug transport using nanoparticles. Whether this drug transport is negatively influenced by an accumulation of blood proteins [...]
The costly lesson from COVID: why elimination should be the default global strategy for future pandemics
Imagine it is 2030. Doctors in a regional hospital in country X note an expanding cluster of individuals with severe respiratory disease. Rapid whole-genome sequencing identifies the disease-causing agent [...]
How Artificial Intelligence Found the Words To Kill Cancer Cells
A predictive model has been developed that enables researchers to encode instructions for cells to execute. Scientists at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and IBM Research have created a virtual library [...]
Next-generation, light-activated nanotech for antibiotic-resistant superbugs
It's "lights out" for antibiotic-resistant superbugs as next-generation light-activated nanotech proves it can eradicate some of the most notorious and potentially deadly bacteria in the world. Developed by the [...]
Unconventional experiments produce new nanoscale particles with big potential
Nanoparticles are complex materials smaller than 100 nanometers, or about the size of a virus, but they have a large range of potential applications, from medicine to energy to [...]
Engineers to advance nanomedicine manufacturing using AI
A novel combination of artificial intelligence and production techniques could change the future of nanomedicine, according to Cornell researchers using a new $3 million grant from the National Science [...]
Scientists Reveal How Trauma Changes the Brain
Trauma can have a profound impact on an individual’s life. Recent research has shed light on how traumatic events can alter the physical structure of our brains. These changes [...]
Artificial Organic Neurons Created – Almost Like Biological Nerve Cells
Biorealistic organic electrochemical neurons enabled by ion-tunable antiambipolarity in mixed ion-electron conducting polymers. Work to develop increasingly functional artificial nerve cells continues at the Laboratory for Organic Electronics, LOE. [...]
Repeated Stress Can Accelerate Aging of the Eye
Stress-induced retinal aging produces symptoms similar to those that occur naturally with aging. New research from the University of California, Irvine, indicates that aging plays a significant role in the [...]
Leave A Comment