Nano for Food

Nanotechnology can offer some exciting potential benefits for the quality and safety of our foods. Top 10 Uses of NanoTechnology in Food are:

1. Contamination sensor: Flash a light to reveal the presence of E.coli bacteria.

2. Antimicrobial Packaging: Edible food films made with cinnamon or oregano oil, or nano particles of zinc, calcium other materials that kill bacteria.

3. Improved Food Storage: Nano-enhanced barrier keeps oxygen-sensitive foods fresher.

4. Enhanced Nutrient Delivery: Nano-encapsulating improves solubility of vitamins, antioxidants, healthy omega oils and other ‘nutraceuticals’.

5. Green Packaging: Nano-fibers made from lobster shells or organic corn are both antimicrobial and biodegradable.

6. Pesticide Reduction: A cloth saturated with nano fibers slowly releases pesticides, eliminating need for additional spraying and reducing chemical leakage into the water supply.

7. Tracking, Tracing, Brand Protection: Nanobarcodes can be created to tag individual products and trace outbreaks.

8. Texture: Food spreadability and stability improve with nano-sized crystals and lipids for better low-fat foods.

9. Flavor: Trick the tongue with bitter blockers or sweet and salty enhancers.

10. Bacteria Identification and Elimination: Nano carbohydrate particles bind with bacteria so they can be detected and eliminated.

From Website>> http://www.environmentalleader.com/2009/02/24/top-10-uses-of-nanotechnology-in-food/

Silicon Chips in Living Cells

       Many people have ever seen the movie "Terminator". In near future, we may see a real hybrid human-robot on the street!!!

       Researches from Instituto de Microelectrónica de Barcelona, Spain have demonstrated for the first time how to integrate nanoelectronics into living cells.  (Ref>> SMALL). At First, they  fabricated different batches of polysilicon chips (a typical semiconductor material) and then they selected one with lateral dimensions between of 1.5-3 µm and a thickness of 0.5 µm. It should be note that this dimension is much bigger than nano chip that using 22 nm process technology.  Cells for the study were taken from an amoeba (Dictyostelium discoideum) and human HeLa (stem cells from the famous Henrietta Lacks line). The chips were implanted using many techniques such as lipofection, phagocytosis, and microinjection. After inserting the chips into the live cells, the researchers made sure that the cells remained alive and healthy. They found that over 90% of the chip-containing containing HeLa cell population remained viable 7 days after lipofection. The main applications of this chips will be the study of individual cells. The technology could significantly aid early detection of diseases and new cellular repair mechanisms.

Ref>> http://www.nanowerk.com/spotlight/spotid=15292.php

Nano for Vehicles

Nanotechnology will improve the performance of future hybrid cars.

(Modified Fig. from Nanotechnology innovation opportunities for tomorrow’s defence book)

Future vehicles are expected to be lightweight, multipurpose, intelligence-guided, low in energy consumption, safe and protective for the passengers and highly comfortable.

Carbon Fiber(L-side) and Camouflage (R-side)

Materials
Nanotechnology enables the following material functionalities:

• lightweight: high strength nanocomposite plastics are expected to replace metal and thus reduce weight and radar signature
• smart components: components with built-in condition and load monitoring sensors, in the long term: self-repairing or self-healing materials
• adaptive structures: active structures that adapt to changing conditions such as adaptive camouflage, suspension, flexible/rigid etc.
• stealth: radar absorption coatings, camouflage
• armour: nanoparticle, nanofiber reinforced antiballistic structures, reactive nanoparticle armour, shock absorbing nanotubes
  

Nano RFID
(More information, Please Click>> http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/03/100318113300.htm)

Information and communication technologies (ICT)
Vehicles are expected to be equipped with the following ICT features:

• position sensing and signaling: GPS for navigation and with EAS for tracking and tracing vehicles
• identification: RFID - tags for remote identification
• security: radar, bolometer (infrared) for surveillance, and acoustic arrays for sniper detection
• wireless networks: vehicle internal sensoric network will become wireless; connection to distributed external network
• directional RF communication: micro antenna arrays enable directional radio communication with reduced power and signature
  

First All-Nanowire Sensor
(More information, Please Click>>http://www.technologyreview.com/computing/21244/?a=f)

Remote and unmanned guidance
With nanotechnology advanced sensor and wireless communication capabilities are becoming possible, e.g. via distributed ad-hoc sensor networks, enabling long range guidance of all kinds of vehicles. Advanced intelligence can be built-in thanks to the expanding μ-sensor capabilities, integration of sensor functions and information processing power. Especially for military use, continuous effort is put in the development of unmanned and autonomous vehicles e.g. for surveillance. Nanotechnology is crucial here to minimize size, weight and power consumption, important for long range coverage.

Nuclear Battery
(More information, Please Click>> http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2009/10/12/a-penny-sized-nuclear-battery-could-keep-going-and-going/)

Power
Focus is on lightweight and energy-efficient powering. Reduction of thermal, radar and acoustic signature is anadditional aspect for the military. Main developments are:

• hybrid, electrical/combustion, powering, driven by civil automotive, reduces consumption and signature
• hydrogen fuel cell, preferably with diesel or biofuel (e.g. sugar) as hydrogen source via microreactor conversion
• for miniaturised, unmanned vehicles: μ-fuel cell, μ-nuclear battery
  

From Ref:>> Frank Simonis & Steven Schilthuizen, Nanotechnology innovation opportunities for tomorrow’s defence Book

Impact Factor 2009 for Nanoscience & Nanotechnology

1. Nature Nanotechnology, Impact Factor 2009 = 26.309
2. Nano Today, Impact Factor 2009 = 13.237
3. Nano Letters, Impact Factor 2009 = 9.991
4. Advanced Materials, Impact Factor 2009 = 8.379
5. ACS Nano, Impact Factor 2009 = 7.493
6. Advanced Functional Materials, Impact Factor 2009 = 6.990
7. Lab on a Chip, Impact Factor 2009 = 6.342
8. Small, Impact Factor 2009 = 6.171
9. Nanomedicine, Impact Factor 2009 = 5.982
10. Nanotoxicology, Impact Factor 2009 = 5.744
11. Nanomedicine-Nanotechnology Biology and Medicine, Impact Factor 2009 = 5.440
12. Biosensors & Bioelectronics, Impact Factor 2009 = 5.429
13. Nano Research, Impact Factor 2009 = 4.370
14. Journal of Physical Chemistry C, Impact Factor 2009 = 4.224
15. Plasmonics, Impact Factor 2009 = 3.723
16. Biomedical Microdevices, Impact Factor 2009 = 3.323
17. Microfluidics and Nanofluidics, Impact Factor 2009 = 3.286
18. Nanotechnology, Impact Factor 2009 = 3.137
19. Scripta Materialia, Impact Factor 2009 = 2.949
20. Biomicrofluidics, Impact Factor 2009 = 2.895

The 20 rank of journal impact factor 2009 in subject categories of NANOSCIENCE & NANOTECHNOLOGY comes from Journal Citation Reports (JCR) - Web Edition (2009) report.

Nano Implantable Electronics

In recent years, implantable electronics have started to interface with wearable and pervasive networks. The main application of this technology has been focused on healthcare monitoring. For examples, a flexible data-logger patch with sleep-analysis software can be used to detect sleep disorders of patients. In principle, a patient places the patch on his or her forehead to record up to nine hours of EEG (electroencephalogram) and head movement when sleeping. The patch itself integrates all the electronics (electrodes, accelerometer, amplifiers, and so forth), batteries, and up to 36 Mbytes of memory in a flexible package. When the user places the patch on its base, capacitive coupling reads the logged data and inductive coupling recharges the batteries. The data can be transmitted to computer via wireless and analyzed with software in order to diagnose the sleep disorders.

Wireless ECG Patch (Figure from http://medgadget.com/archives/2007/10/)

One of challenges for this technology is to implantation under the skin. Implanted electronics could provide a clearer picture of what's going on inside the body to help monitor chronic diseases or progress after surgery, but biocompatibility issues restrict their use. Many materials commonly used in electronics cause immune reactions when implanted. And in most cases today's implantable devices must be surgically replaced or removed at some point, so it's only worth using an implant for critical devices such as pacemakers. Prof. Fiorenzo Omenetto from Tufts University has demonstrated the use of silk substrates fitted with ultra-thin silicon transistors that can be implanted to conform to the body's tissues, opening the door for enhanced implantable medical devices of various uses.

Nano Implantable Electronics under the skin, an array of light-emitting diodes could signal the concentration in the blood of biomarkers such as insulin. (Figure from http://www.technologyreview.com/biomedicine/25086/)

He and co-workers has used silk films to hold in place arrays of tiny silicon transistors and LEDs--a possible basis for implantable devices that will help identify the concentration of disease markers. The researchers have shown that the devices function fine in small animals, with no evidence of scarring or immune response. The silk dissolves, leaving behind a small amount of silicon and other materials used in the circuits. The video that shows development of an implantable electronics is presented below.

Nano Implantable Electronics is one of ten emerging technologies 2010 published by MIT Review.

Top Ten Journals in Nanoscience & Nanotechnology

1. Nature Nanotechnology, Impact Factor = 20.571, Publisher: Nature Publishing Group
2. Nano Letters, Impact Factor = 10.371, Publisher: American Chemical Society
3. Nano Today, Impact Factor = 8.795, Publisher: Elsevier
4. Small, Impact Factor = 6.525, Publisher: Wiley InterScience
5. Lab on a Chip, Impact Factor = 6.478, Publisher: Royal Society of Chemistry
6. Nanomedicine, Impact Factor = 6.093, Publisher: Future Medicine Ltd.
7. ACS Nano, Impact Factor = 5.472, Publisher: American Chemical Society
8. Biosensors & Bioelectronics, Impact Factor = 5.143, Publisher: Elsevier
9. Nanotoxicology, Impact Factor = 3.720, Publisher: Informa Healthcare
10. Plasmonics, Impact Factor = 3.488, Publisher: Springer

The rank of top ten journals in nanoscience & nanotechnology is based on journal impact factor from Journal Citation Reports (JCR) - Web Edition (2008)

Risks of Nanotechnology

Nowadays, nanotechnology has been applied to consumer products, i.e. T-shirt with Nanosilver or Cosmetics doped with Nanoparticles. One popular question is that “Nanotechnology used has any potential risk to envelopment or to human health or not?”. Prof. Robert Schiestl from UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center reported that titanium dioxide (TiO₂) nanoparticles, found in everything from cosmetics and sunscreen to paint and vitamins, caused systemic genetic damage in mice. (TiO₂) nanoparticles can accumulate in different organs because the body has no way to eliminate them. And because they are so small, they can go everywhere in the body, even through cells, and may interfere with sub-cellular mechanisms. In his study, mice were exposed to the TiO₂ nanoparticles in their drinking water and began showing genetic damage on the fifth day. The human equivalent is about 1.6 years of exposure to the nanoparticles in a manufacturing environment.

(TiO₂) nanoparticles & Pitiful rats & Carbon nanotube

(TiO₂nanoparticles Figure from http://newsroom.ucla.edu/portal/ucla/nanoparticles-used-in-common-househould-112679.aspx
(Carbon nanotube Figure from www.zyvexlabs.com/EIPBNuG/EIPBN2008/2008.html)

Carbon nanotube is one of the most popular nanomaterials that are widely used in Lab or in real world applications because of its unique properties. But a great deal remains unknown about whether this material causes respiratory or other health problems. Researchers at North Carolina State University have found that carbon nanotubes can affect the outer lining of the lung in mice after a single inhalation. The findings raise concerns that inhaled carbon nanotubes may cause pleural fibrosis and/or mesothelioma. (Ref: Nature Nanotechnology 4, 747 - 751 (2009))

Nanosilver & Nemo fish and his friends
(Nanosilver Figure from http://www.slashgear.com/nano-silver-could-cause-environmental-pollution-1422792/)

The fabric with Nanosilver is able to move moisture away from the body, to enhance fabric drying, and to extinguish the growing of bacteria. A group of Swiss scientists tested how well silver nanoparticles stayed in treated fabrics under conditions similar to a washing machine. They found that most of the released particles were relatively large and that most came out of the fabrics during the first wash. The total released varied from 1.3 to 35 percent of the total nanosilver in the fabric. the released silver nanoparticles may not be toxic to people as other metals but silver can be deadly to many many fresh- and salt-water organisms – especially at their young stages of life. Many species of fish and shellfish, as well as their food, are susceptible to the metal. Widespread exposure to silver could impact some of these and disrupt ecosystem health. (Ref: Environ. Sci. Technol. 43, 8113–8118 (2009))
Up to now, no paper has not been reported for the effect of nanoparticles on human health directly. However, from many studies above, the nanoparticles can enter into human body via inhalation and these nanoparticles can become lodged in the lungs. Therefore, you must wear a face mask when you work with nano researches ( except with nano computational). And You should not use any products that can release a large amount of nanoparticles.