From the category archives:

Nanoscience

A Random Number and Neuroscience

December 18, 2008

My favorite random number generator evaluated the expression (+ 1 (random 47)) to the value “2”: Andy McKenzie, please send email me a suitable address (see the About page), and I’ll send you the book promised in the giveaway.
Andy suggested discussing potential applications of nanotechnology to neuroscience and noted a 2007 article in the journal [...]

Read the full article →

3D imaging of biological nanostructures

December 15, 2008

Deep-etch image of cytoskeleton, with origami inset (upper left)

“Three-dimensional reconstruction of the membrane skeleton at the plasma membrane interface by electron tomography” N Morone et al. JCB, 174:6, 851–862 (2006).

(Inset) “Folding DNA to create nanoscale shapes and patterns”
PWK Rothemund,Nature, 440:297–302 (2006). [pdf]

In an earlier post I mentioned that researchers have been hampered by difficulties with [...]

Read the full article →

Real (Photonics) Technologies

December 9, 2008

On a recent expedition to collect mail, I hauled back a box that seemed to contain a brick, but instead yielded a catalog: 3 kg, 1148 glossy pages, and descriptions of about 6000 items. It’s also available as a zero-mass 336.9 MB download (or piecemeal here). Full disclosure: I have nothing to do with the [...]

Read the full article →

Condensed-Matter Physics Condensed

December 7, 2008

In reading up on metal oxides, spin systems, and computation, I found a wonderful 19-page “Perspective of Frontiers in Modern Condensed Matter Physics” [pdf], published in the AAPPS Bulletin last April by Caltech physicist Nai-Chang Yeh. Its scope ranges from symmetry, Landau, and intellectual history, to topological orders and spin liquids, even touching on solid-phase [...]

Read the full article →

A DNA-Imaging Bottleneck

December 4, 2008

The Battelle-led roadmap, my recent talks, and Nanorex (the molecular-CAD company I’ve been advising) all emphasize structural DNA nanotechnology as a basis for developing large, complex, easily reconfigured frameworks for building composite nanosystems. This gives me a strong interest in the difficulties that hamper SDN research.

AFM images of flat DNA structures

“Folding DNA to create nanoscale [...]

Read the full article →

Combining Molecular Signals

October 27, 2008

When I discuss medical applications in my talks, I often mention the advantage of targeting cells with active agents, such as toxins, directed by adding and thresholding signals from sensors of different kinds. This is not so necessary in targeting bacteria and viruses, since they look so different from mammalian cells, but could help greatly [...]

Read the full article →

Next Entries →