Science

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Light in the Moebius strip: A Moebius strip created from laser light opens up new possibilities for material processing and for micro- and nanotechnology

Physics sometimes borders on light art. An international team headed by researchers from the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light and Friedrich-Alexander-Universitaet Erlangen-Nuremberg (FAU), can easily compete with the light artists, at least as far as the skill of forming light is concerned. In their most recent work they have wound a light wave into a Moebius strip: a strip that is formed into a closed loop, one of its ends being twisted through 180° with respect to the other one so that the strip has only one edge and one surface. The physicists use these tricks not only to prove how precisely they can meanwhile manipulate light, they are also creating tools which could be interesting for nanotechnology.

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UK to lead development of driverless car technology

Testing driverless cars on public roads given green light.

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'Pale Blue Dot' Images Turn 25

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These six narrow-angle color images were made from the first ever 'portrait' of the solar system taken by Voyager 1, which was more than 4 billion miles from Earth and about 32 degrees above the ecliptic. The spacecraft acquired a total of 60 frames for a mosaic of the solar system which shows six of the planets. Mercury is too close to the sun to be seen. Mars was not detectable by the Voyager cameras due to scattered sunlight in the optics, and Pluto was not included in the mosaic because of its small size and distance from the sun. These blown-up images, left to right and top to bottom are Venus, Earth, Jupiter, and Saturn, Uranus, Neptune. The background features in the images are artifacts resulting from the magnification. The images were taken through three color filters -- violet, blue and green -- and recombined to produce the color images. Jupiter and Saturn were resolved by the camera but Uranus and Neptune appear larger than they really are because of image smear due to spacecraft motion during the long (15 second) exposure times. Earth appears to be in a band of light because it coincidentally lies right in the center of the scattered light rays resulting from taking the image so close to the sun. Earth was a crescent only 0.12 pixels in size. Venus was 0.11 pixel in diameter. The planetary images were taken with the narrow-angle camera (1500 mm focal length).

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Plasma Treatment, of PTFE

PTFE is a chemically inert and highly hydrophobic fluoropolymer due to the high electronegativity of fluorine. It is not readily modified by standard plasma processes but the may be altered to render the surface hydrophilic by the use of hydrogen plasma. The action of atomic hydrogen, generated by the plasma, is to react with surface fluorine and remove this into the gas phase where it is pumped away by the vacuum system. Hydrogen then terminates the free surface bonds to produce a CHx polymer surface which is readily wettable. The resulting surface is also ‘etched' on a microscopic scale which produces a microscopically structured surface. Both actions in combination result in a modified surface which may be glued, painted etc.

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Heating targeted cancer drugs increases uptake in tumour cells

Manchester scientists have found that gentle heating of targeted nano-sized drug parcels more effectively in deliver them to tumour cells - resulting in an improvement in survival rates.

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Liposomes

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Production of Biosensor Based on Graphene-Gold Nanoparticles to Detect Glucose

Iranian researchers designed a biosensor to detect very small amount of glucose in urine sample.

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Iranian Scientists Use Nanotechnology to Boost Oil Extraction

Iranian researchers from Sahand University of Technology and Islamic Azad University studied the effect of using nanoparticles on increasing oil extraction from reservoirs.

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Making a better wound dressing -- with fish skin

With a low price tag and mild flavor, tilapia has become a staple dinnertime fish for many Americans. Now it could have another use: helping to heal our wounds. Scientists have shown that a protein found in this fish can promote skin repair in rats without an immune reaction, suggesting possible future use for human patients.

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A protein found in fish skin could promote wound healing.

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Novel non-stick material joins portfolio of slippery surface technologies: Infusing liquids into polymers makes long lasting, self-replenishing material that repels deadly bacterial build-up

More than 80 percent of microbial infections in the human body are caused by a build-up of bacteria, according to the National Institutes of Health. Bacteria cells gain a foothold in the body by accumulating and forming into adhesive colonies called biofilms, which help them to thrive and survive but cause infections and associated life-threatening risks to their human hosts. These biofilms commonly form on medical surfaces including those of mechanical heart valves, urinary catheters, intravenous catheters, and implants. But a new study reported in the inaugural issue of ACS Biomaterials Science and Engineering demonstrates a powerful, long-lasting repellent surface technology that can be used with medical materials to prevent infections caused by biofilms.

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Liquid–infused polymers absorb slippery lubricants like a sponge, rendering surfaces continuously slippery for long–lasting preventative effects against deadly infections caused by bacterial biofilms. In this experiment, biofilm formation on the right side of medical tubing is visible after being stained, whereas the treated section of the tubing on the left remains free of biofilms.

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Iranian Scientists Introduce Simple Method to Eliminate Nitrate, Nitrite from Water, Soil

Iranian researchers from Islamic Azad University in association with a researcher from Finland produced a magnetic nanosorbent that adsorbs 60-100% of nitrate and nitrite existing in the sample.

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