Asked to imagine a "what if...?" scenario that highlight some of the key issues surrounding nanoscience and nanotechnology, especially its potential impacts on society, Alice Wang decided to focus on an hypothetic negative application of nanotechnology.

In her Nanoweapon story, everyday domestic objects become dreadful weapons that make victims suffer slowly, they loose hair, are disfigured by an awful rash, their veins stiffen and pierce their skin, etc.

The symptom and the weapon

Government officials attempted to cover up these cases to save country’s future nanotechnology development; however, research shows similar attacks are starting to spin out of control. Since nanoweapons do not require special equipments to produce, experts worry information may end up illegally available as open sources online resulting in further attacks.

After all... what do we really know about nanotechnology?

The idea reminded me those stories i used to read about kings or powerful ecclesiastics who were slowly poisoned by leafing through their favourite book or breathing the arsenic poured onto their bedroom wallpaper. Arsenic was sometimes used during the Renaissance as a poison as it was undetectable when administered over a long period of time.

Before sending me a link to the video of the project, Alice wrote me "Warn your readers that they might be grossed out."

The name of the Interaction Design Department at the Royal College of Art in London has now officially changed to Design Interactions. It doesn't sound like much but the name reflects a big challenge. A meaningful and very exciting one. Some of the works i discovered in June when i visited their Summer show were already reflecting the new direction that the course is taking. It was only a transition time, the first year that Prof. Anthony Dunne was heading the department, and changes were already in the air, i'm looking forward to see what the 2007 Show will bring.

I'll quote the Head of the Department:

"The focus of the department is shifting, and although electronics and computing will remain at the heart of the course, we will begin to explore how design can connect with other technologies, such as biotechnology and nanotechnology. The course has been restructured to reflect this shift and was validated in March 2006.

Design Interactions is a small change, but we think it is significant. It reflects our emphasis on designing interactions of all kinds – not just between people and digital technologies, or even other emerging technologies, but also between people and possible futures, and between design and other fields of art and science.

At the last summer show, we characterised the thrust of the department as follows: ‘Design Interactions explores new roles, contexts and approaches for design in relation to the social, cultural and ethical impact of existing and emerging technologies. Projects, which are often speculative and critical, aim to inspire debate about the human consequences of different technological futures – both positive and negative. Students work closely with people outside the College, designing for the complex, troubled people we are, rather than the easily satisfied consumers and users we are supposed to be. Project outcomes are expressed through a variety of media including prototypes, simulations, video and photography. The students have backgrounds in art and design, computer science, engineering and psychology.'"

For a more detailed description of the department and course, and to see recent work by staff and students, go to their revamped website.

Image from a project by Michael Burton, Nanotopia.

Related: Art and design raise awareness about biotechnology.

A team, led by Joerg Lahann at the University of Michigan, have won funding to develop a breath test device which will use nanotechnology to detect breast cancer.

A woman would breathe into an over-the-counter device and cancer-indicating metabolites would be attracted into the nanopockets, causing the pored surface to fill and become dense. Then, an electrical charge would be applied so that the straight particles would bend, ejecting the metabolites so that multiple tests could be done in the same device. The metabolites could then be detected through a change in conductance or optically.

Lahann's graduate student David Pang had the idea when he discovered that certain metabolites that could mark breast cancer are present in breath and urine. "We realised that if one could put these molecules in a screening platform, they might develop a non-invasive, quick and inexpensive over-the-counter breast cancer screening test," Lahann said.

Via The Engineer.

(by Sascha)

Süddeutsche Zeitung Online features an interesting article on whether nanotech-equipped soldiers are a very likely scenario in the near future. The research, often advanced by the Institute for Soldier Nanotechnology, which is a division of MIT, was recently assessed in a study funded by the German ministry of defense. The researchers at INT Fraunhofer-institute stated that many of the concepts regularily put forward by the U.S. military as almost ready to deploy, are still completely utopian and maybe will be forever. Namely smart dust, self-healing body armor and self-reproducing nanobots.

However, the concepts do play a role in politics already, for example in one incident where the U.S. claimed that China was developing nano-ants to attack America's infastructure. Eventually, it turned out that this strategy was originally developed by RAND Corporation, a notorious U.S. think-tank.

Another scientist, Jürgen Altmann, has a different take on the subject. In a study titled "Military Nanotechnology: Potential Applications and Preventive Arms Control", he says that although nano-weapons are far from being imminent, there should be international treaties installed and the existing non-proliferation agreements extended. He also proproses a general ban on autonomous robots which are smaller than 20 centimeters.

Scarily remindful of how much this technology is related to military research. Illustration ("MIT to make nanotech army wear") picked from H. Thomas. (Update: This image was apparently used to add some bang to a MIT-proposal for a $50 million grant related to nanotech. It was allegedly taken from Radix, a comic book by two Montréal-based artists. The use of Sci-Fi imagery kind of ironically sums up some things here. Thanks csven.)

Chris Voigt’s team at the University of California have turned a bed of light-sensitive bacteria into a photographic film. Although the system takes 4 hours to take a picture, it delivers extremely high resolution.

The "living camera" uses light to switch on genes in a genetically modified bacterium that then cause an image-recording chemical to darken. The bacteria are tiny, allowing the sensor to deliver a resolution of 100 megapixels per square inch.

To make their novel biosensor, scientists chose E. Coli, the food-poisoning gut bacterium. They shuttled genes from photosynthesising blue-green algae into the cell membrane of the E. coli. One gene codes for a protein that reacts to red light. Once activated, that protein acts to shut down the action of a second gene. This switch-off turns an added indicator solution black. A monochrome image was thus "printed" on a bed of the modified E. Coli.

The experiment could lead to the development of "nano-factories" in which minuscule amounts of substances are produced at locations defined by light beams.

For instance, a different introduced gene could produce polymer-like proteins, or even precipitate a metal. "This way, the bacteria could weave a complex material," says Voigt.

Via New Scientist.

Mihri Ozkan of Electrical Engineering and Cengiz Ozkan of Mechanical Engineering at UCR’s Bourns College of Engineering are developing devices 100,000 times thinner than a human hair, that can listen to cancerous cells, deliver chemotherapy to them and leave surrounding healthy tissue intact.

Standard practice of injecting dyes into cells to find those affected by a certain disease has unintended, often unwanted, effects.

Focusing on the electrical signals cells emit is far more benign process and one that holds a great deal of promise, when coupled with nanofabrication techniques.

“You effectively listen to the cells. The ones with cancer emit a different signal than healthy ones," said Cengiz Ozkan. Using DNA and nanotube technologies, he is also developing a drug delivery system that targets the cancerous cells.

Via PhysOrg.