Nanotechnology is about to emerge in the world of pesticides and pest control, and a range of new approaches are needed to understand the implications for public health, ensure that this is done safely, maximize the potential benefits and prevent possible risks, researchers say in a new report.

Within the framework of the Belgian Presidency of the EU, a conference was held on Tuesday on the development of nanomaterials management and information tools.

A recent study by researchers at National Nanotechnology Center (NANOTEC) in Thailand has provided the data on detecting silver released from antibacterial fabric products using artificial sweat as a model to represent the human skin environment.

Researchers at North Carolina State University have developed a method for predicting the ways nanoparticles will interact with biological systems – including the human body. Their work could have implications for improved human and environmental safety in the handling of nanomaterials, as well as applications for drug delivery.

A collaborative team of applied scientists from Harvard University and the University of Leeds have demonstrated a new terahertz (THz) semiconductor laser that emits beams with a much smaller divergence than conventional THz laser sources. The advance, published in the August 8th issue of Nature Materials, opens the door to a wide range of applications in terahertz science and technology. Harvard has filed a broad patent on the invention.

The European Environmental Bureau, Europe's largest federation of environmental citizens' organisations, welcomes the outcome of yesterday's vote in European Parliament, endorsing strong safety and labelling measures for food containing nanomaterials. This was decided during the second reading of the Novel Foods Regulation.

 

Available to download now from NANO Magazine, this short guide to nanotechnology gives a basic introduction to nanotechnology and its applications, perfect for anyone who is a newcomer to the nanotech world to grasp the basics fast.

 

Empa researchers have demonstrated how they can adjust process conditions to influence the properties of novel plasma polymer coatings containing silver nanoparticles. Tailor-made films can be generated through a one-step plasma process. The scientists developed these new coatings, which kill bacteria while having no negative effect on human tissue, in the frame of an EU project.

 

Irregular pores, low flow rates: The plastic membrane filters used in sterile filtration do not always ensure that conditions are really sterile. Filter membranes of aluminum oxide are more reliable – the size of the nanopores can be determined with precision. Even the smallest viruses cannot pass through the membrane.

 

Sandia National Laboratories researchers have taken the first steps toward reducing the size and enhancing the functionality of devices in the terahertz (THz) frequency spectrum.

 

INTEC, imec's associated laboratory at Ghent University, and imec have coated SOI microring resonators with films of 3.5nm ZnO nanocrystals for optical sensing of gaseous ethanol. Ethanol vapor concentrations down to 100ppm have been detected. The proposed technology meets today's demand for compact, cheap, low-power and reasonably sensitive gas detection systems. By doping metal oxides with specific functional molecules, this technique can be extended for selective detection of other gases

 

The Citizen Alliance on the ChallEnges of Nanotechnologies (CACEN) (in French "Alliance Citoyenne sur les Enjeux des Nanotechnologies": ACEN) has just opened a new websitenano.acen-cacen.org where citizens can find and share information, questions, and analyses about societal issues raised by nanotechnologies.

 

The Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) in Germany currently advises against using nanoscale silver ions in consumer products.

 

This is the first revision of the Guidance Manual for the Testing of Manufactured Nanomaterials, first published in 2009, accompanied with Annex III (Data Sharing Template Format) and Annex IV (Alternative Test Methods). This document is intended to support the testing undertaken in the context of OECD's Sponsorship Programme and to ensure that the information collected from this testing programme be reliable, accurate and consistent. It was always envisaged that this would be a living document and will be updated/amended in an iterative manner.

 

A Taiwan research team has developed a new approach for investigating the amount of nano-/microparticles taken up by mammalian cells. This project was led by Dr. Chung-Hsuan Chen, Distinguished Research Fellow and Director of the Genomics Research Center (GRC) at Academia Sinica, and Dr. Wen-Ping Peng, a Jointly-appointed Assistant Professor of the GRC and the Department of Physics at National Dong Hwa University of Taiwan, in collaboration with Dr. Alice Yu, Distinguished Research Fellow and Deputy Director of the GRC. The research was published online in the leading international journal, Angewandte Chemie International Edition ("Quantitative Measurement of Nano-/Microparticle Endocytosis by Cell Mass Spectrometry").

 

According to the United Nations, about 800 million people in the world are suffering from a shortage of food and new forecasts show that by 2020 the number of people living below the poverty line will reach over a billion. In the past decades, the emergence of first-generation agriculture technology has led to a green revolution, resulting in the transition from traditional agriculture to industrial agriculture. In this time, the quantity and quality of agricultural products improved significantly, although this success was accompanied by an excessive use of resources.

 

 

In the diverse fields of Functional Textiles, which are poised for tremendous growth in fast developing economies like that of India and China, healthcare and hygiene applications are gaining significant impor­tance because of the specificity of their end uses. Protective textiles offer protec­tion from hazardous chemicals, heat, extreme cold and radiation, and have specialized applications in today's technologically advanced world. In addition, the advent of nanotechnology has opened innumerable avenues leading to many new kinds of high performance textiles and clothing.

 

A new national survey on public attitudes toward medical applications and physical enhancements that rely on nanotechnology shows that support for the technology increases when the public is informed of the technology's risks as well as its benefits – at least among those people who have heard of nanotechnology. The survey, which was conducted by researchers at North Carolina State University and Arizona State University (ASU), also found that discussing risks decreased support among those people who had never previously heard of nanotechnology – but not by much.

 

A Los Alamos National Laboratory toxicologist and a multidisciplinary team of researchers have documented potential cellular damage from "fullerenes"—soccer-ball-shaped, cage-like molecules composed of 60 carbon atoms. The team also noted that this particular type of damage might hold hope for treatment of Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, or even cancer.

 

 

Understanding more and more about the properties of matter means that new attributes can be imparted into textiles, enabled by nanotechnology. Here, Professor Kay Obendorf of Fibre Science at the College of Human Ecology, Cornell University, provides an overview of the amazing innovations in textiles for personal protection – with some other surprising applications!