self-assembly
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Self-assembling nanodevices could advance medicine one tiny leap at a time
Seems like Harvard wasn't content with making robotic bees, and has taken its quest for miniaturization right down to the nanoscale level. One nanometer-wide, single-stranded DNA molecules are the topic of the university's latest research, which sets out a way they can be used to create "3D prestressed tensegrity structures." Should these theoretical scribblings ever pan out in the real world, we could see the resulting self-assembled nanodevices facilitating drug delivery targeted directly at the diseased cells, and even the reprogramming of human stem cells. Infusing a nanodevice with the relevant DNA data passes instructions on to your stem cells, which consequently turn into, for example, new bone tissue or neurons to augment your fleshy CPU. Yes, we're kinda freaked out, but what's cooler than being able to say you're going to the doctor for a shot of nanotransformers?
Self-assembling solar cells built using ancient wisdom, modern technology
Alright, so self-assembling electronics are hardly new in and of themselves, and nanoscale tech tends to always come with bombastic promises, but you don't wanna miss how this latest innovation is built. Two professors from the University of Minnesota have successfully demonstrated a self-assembly technique that arranges microscopic electronic elements in their proper order thanks to the absolute enmity that exists between water and oil. By coating elements with a hydrophilic layer on one side and some hypdrophobic goo on the other, they've achieved the proper element orientation, and the final step in their work was the insertion of a pre-drilled, pre-soldered sheet, which picks up each element while being slowly drawn out of the liquid non-mixture. The achievement here is in finding the perfect densities of water and oil to make the magic happen, and a working device of 64,000 elements has been shown off -- taking only three minutes to put together. If the method's future proves successful, we'll all be using electronics built on flexible, plastic, metal, or otherwise unconventional substrates sometime soon.
MIT gurus concoct Li-ion batteries that build themself
It's fairly reassuring that if those rollable, water-powered, paper, and ultracapacitor-based battery ideas don't exactly pan out, we've got yet another idea coming out of MIT that just might gain traction. Apparently, scientists at the university are working on self-assembling Li-ion cells when not thinking about what witty remark they'll plaster on their own spacecraft, and it seems that Yet-Ming Chiang and his colleagues have selected electrode and electrolyte materials that, when combined, "organize themselves into the structure of a working battery." By measuring various forces with "ultraprecise atomic-force microscope probes," the researchers were able to choose materials with just the right combination of attractive and repulsive forces, essentially creating a perfect environment for batteries that could build themselves. Additionally, a current prototype has displayed the ability to be discharged and recharged "multiple times," and while commercial uses aren't nailed down just yet, the backers are already envisioning how the technology could be used in minuscule devices where standard cells won't exactly fit in. Let's just hope this stuff doesn't cause too much friction whilst building itself up, eh?[Via TheRawFeed]
