For centuries, blades made of Damascus steel were know to be among the sharpest and strongest in the world. The steel itself, called wootz, bears distinctive patterns created during the forging of the metal, and the understanding was that impurities in the iron ore used to make the steel were the cause of these patterns. The technique for making Damascus steel was discontinued in the 18th century, but many examples of the metal and the craftsmanship involved in turning it into blades remain.

The journal “Nature” reports that researchers at Dreseden University in Germany have subjected some sample blades to electron microscopy and have discovered that the steel actually contains a type of carbon nanotubes and also nanowires that come from the use of the mineral cementite. The nanostructures are responsible for the added strength of the material, according to the researchers, however there are critics who discount the findings.

On a much smaller scale than the massive retail presence of Tesco, a grocery in London called “Unpackaged” promises just that: no packaging of the goods sold in their shop. Their store is similar to the bulk food sections found in Whole Foods in the U.S.; customers are encouraged to bring their own refillable containers for dry goods, oils, and even cleaning products. Where packaging is unavoidable, they’ve made efforts to make sure that the packaging is recyclable, as you can see in the photo above. Needless to say, one little boutique grocery doesn’t make a huge impact the way a supermarket chain like Tesco does, but certainly retailers who can throw their weight around like Tesco or Wal-Mart could embrace this particular concept.

Over the last couple of years, many American supermarkets big and small have tried to get consumers to move away from one of the other scourges of landfills: plastic shopping bags. Just about every supermarket you go into now has reusable shopping bags featured prominently at the checkouts. The extent to which people actually use them is somewhat questionable; we must have at least a dozen reusable bags from all of the various supermarket chains in our area, and yet I’ll be damned if I can remember to bring them to the store with me when I go grocery shopping. Personally, I think the supermarkets could force the issue by charging a sufficiently painful fee for using plastic bags that would coerce the desired behavior, and probably nothing less than that will achieve the goal. But I digress. What I wanted to point out is that scientists at the Argonne National Laboratory have developed a process for converting the HDPE and LDPE plastics used in those bags into…you guessed it…carbon nanotubes! YAY NANOTUBES!!! This “upcycling” process is not really ready for widespread application because it’s very energy inefficient, but if that issue can be solved, it could result in a very inexpensive process for reducing waste and providing a source of a fundamental material for many electronic devices.

I haven’t been reading much on the nanotechnology front lately, but this article in The Economist’s technology section was worth a quick look: researchers at the University of Michigan have developed a process for applying a solution containing nanotubes made out of a chemical called Nafion (which is a derivative of Teflon) to cotton fabric. Multiple applications to the fabric allow the nanotube solution to bind to individual cotton fibers. Nafion is conductive, and so the adherence of the nanotubes to the cotton fibers makes the fabric itself conductive. In tests, the researchers have discovered that the coated fabric can detect the presence of blood from its albumin levels, suggesting the possible application for the fabric in sensor garments that can monitor the physical status of medical patients or even soldiers in the field.

The fabric conducts enough electricity to power a single LED, so it doesn’t take much imagination to come up with all the stupid and frivolous applications of “electric cotton”. It also doesn’t take much to think up a variety of scenarios where wearing electrically conductive clothing might be rather less than desirable. So I hope this particular breakthrough gets a good, long, hard look before electric underpants start selling at Sears.

I’ve posted previously about the potential biological hazards of nanotechnology and how little is understood about the possible dangers that could result from indiscriminate use of this technology.

Now there is evidence that long, straight nanowires can cause mesothelioma exactly in the same way that asbestos fibers do. Nanotubes in other form factors do not seem to pose the same threat, so clearly there is something about the physical properties of the nanowires and not some underlying molecular-level chemical reaction, but this should put the brakes on a lot of R&D work trying to commercialize nanotube-based innovations while studies are done to determine what sort of exposure risk there really is. In the case of asbestos, natural degradation of asbestos-containing materials over time caused the release of fibers, and the widespread use of asbestos in insulating and fire-proofing materials made the risk of exposure very high. It may be possible that the ways in which long, straight nanotubes could be applied could be restricted to uses which reduced the likelihood of exposure. With asbestos, even a single inhaled fiber is sufficient to cause mesothelioma, so total prevention is impossible. I presume much the same will be true of nanotubes.

The science journal Nature reports that this company in nearby Concord, NH has announced that they were able to produce the largest single sheet made up completely of carbon nanotubes. The sheet, which measures about 2 meters in length and 1 meter wide and is about as thick as a sheet of paper, has almost half the breaking strength of a similar-sized sheet of aluminum. The company says that they expect to find markets in companies that make EMI shielding, electrical conductors, and thermal dissipating devices. There’s probably some future use for materials like this in the space program, I would imagine.

Meanwhile, this story in EETimes says that a California company has announced that they’ve perfected a manufacturing process to make catalytic nanoparticles that could be used in place of metals in hydrogen fuel cells and other things that use electrolysis to produce energy. They claim that due to the vastly increased surface area created by using millions of nanoparticles, the efficiency of the electrolysis can be improved to 85%, besting the Department of Energy’s 75% efficiency 2010 goal for hydrogen fuel cells, and holds the potential of reaching an unheardof 96% efficiency. Efficiency of energy production is critical in taking alternative fuel technologies beyond the experimental stage, and the relative inefficiency of standard electrolysis has been a serious stumbling block for hydrogen-based fuel cells.

I recently received an Apple iPod Touch as a present. On one hand, it’s a serious fun gadget to have; we took it with us on our recent trip to New York City and used the Google Map location feature to find our way around all over Manhattan (thanks to all the unsecured wireless networks people have in NYC), as well as looking up restaurants, bus schedules, and other points of interest. On the other hand, the limitations built into the iPhone/iTouch by Apple are sometimes infuriating (no Flash player, no Windows support, etc). I will undoubtedly go the route of “jailbreaking” my iTouch in the very near future so that I can make use of some of the third-party apps that work when you wrest control from Steverino’s icy clutches.

I read this morning that Apple says it won’t prevent VoIP applications from working on the iPhone/iTouch, which means that I should be able to install Skype or some Skype-like application and add the ability to make phone calls from my otherwise phone-less iTouch. I purposely did not want an iPhone because I wasn’t interested in having to sign on for a 2-year contract with AT&T (or to have to try getting it to work with some other provider), but if I can use Skype, I definitely would give that a go.

I also came across this post at OpenCulture that says that all incoming freshmen at Abilene Christian University in Texas this fall will receive either an iPhone or an iTouch and be able to use the school’s online services via the device to check food service accounts, class schedules, look up faculty/staff directory information and eventually even register for classes and purchase textbooks. They’ll also have access to podcasts of their lecture classes, be able to submit homework, and potentially even participate in class by submitting questions in writing (though I think this means the professors need to brush up on their IM-speak to be able to read the questions). While most colleges and universities have computer requirements these days, and many of them give their students a computer, this is certainly an interesting step up from those kinds of programs.

Remember the satellite that the Navy shot down a couple of weeks ago? Space expert James Oberg posted this article at MSNBC debunking some of the rumors that have already emerged about the shootdown and clearing up some other technical misconceptions that were widely mentioned in the MSM.

Lastly, Science Daily reported that researchers at the University of Alberta have found that humans have a gene that is capable of preventing HIV from assembling inside cells, effectively shutting down the disease. However, the gene is “turned off” by default in our DNA. They don’t expect to be able to turn that gene “on” (might I suggest some soft music, flowers, and dancing?), but they do hope to be able to develop drugs that mimic the effect of the gene and could indeed halt the progression of HIV. If you’re the sort who likes to read this stuff for yourself, the full report can be found here. (I read the abstract, but gave up after that)

Researchers at Purdue University are working on creating a heat sink substrate that use “forests” of nanotubes which can dissipate the heat from electronic components more efficiently than the thermal grease that is presently used.

If you’ve opened up the chassis of your desktop PC lately, you know that the single largest object inside the case is the honking big heat sink/fan assembly that’s required to keep the computer’s processor from losing its magic smoke. In between the heat sink and the chip is a squiggle of thermal grease, usually made out of titanium, and a bit of iridium foil. The grease doesn’t last indefinitely, and the foil provides uneven contact, which doesn’t transfer heat consistently. But they’re developing a process for laying a substrate on the chip and then “growing” carbon nanotubes in high density. The tubes make better contact between the uneven surfaces and do not wear out.

Item #2 is the recent news that it may be possible to treat some cancers by injecting carbon nanotubes into cancerous growths and using radio frequency waves to excite the nanotubes, which heat up and destroy the cancer cells. The work is very preliminary, but promising.

More nanotech wonders to regale you with!

Here’s an article in the journal of the IEEE, “Spectrum”, that discusses a breakthrough in ultracapacitor technology using carbon nanotubes.

Luckily for us all, the article is written in plain English and not only tells you all about this amazing “electric shag” technology, it also explains exactly what the hell an ultracapacitor is and why any of us should care. To condense it for you, capacitors are devices that store up and then discharge electricity that other electronic components can then use. Normal capacitors can’t hold a lot of charge, so they aren’t as practical as normal chemical batteries for powering electric devices, but they do get used in a variety of electronics. Ultracapacitors are capable of holding much, much more electricity, but scaling issues make them also impractical. Nano-ultracapacitors make it possible to store lots of electricity in very small arrays, so that they can be used in place of chemical batteries, offering many more recharges than a chemical battery while delivering just as much power in a smaller form factor.

The author of the article is the MIT research professor who has been developing this technology and he feels it could replace the large battery packs in electric and hybrid cars, as well as reduce the size needed for battery space in many modern electronics.

They see the first uses for such batteries in implantable medical devices, but if this technology is scalable, there would be any number of consumer electronics applications where a small, flexible, custom-shaped battery would be an enormously desirable change from present battery technology.