Tag Archives: nanotechnology

green roots, nano numbers

designer solar panels

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Designer screen printed solar cells are possible now with the new technique developed by researches at Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems ISE.

Instead of mounting the solar module on the roof, it could be integrated in the glass façade of a building. It is possible to produce it in desired colours, print images or text on the module.

These design options open up an entirely new range of possible applications. It can be used as shade, window or even as company’s logo while generating electricity.

The key component of the new module is an organic dye which in combination with nanoparticles converts sunlight into electricity.

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nano numbers

nanotech & Nobel

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nanoart1.gifHow it is possible to store reams of data on ever-shrinking hard drives. How is billions of bits of information stored on something the size of a dime. The miniature your device (specially the hard disk) gets – Blame it on nanotech!

Blame it on a very specific discovery called ‘Giant Magnet-o-resistance’.

The MP3 and iPod industry would not have existed without this discovery.

In 1988 the scientists, Frenchman Albert Fert and the German Peter Grünberg each independently discovered a totally new physical effect called- Giant Magnetoresistance or GMR.

The first real application of the promising field of nanoart2.gifnanotechnology was ushered in by using GMR effect, the technology that is used to read data on hard disks. In this effect, very weak changes in magnetism generate larger changes in electrical resistance. If GMR is to work, structures consisting of layers that are only a few atoms thick have to be produced. So the nanotech owes it real application to these two scientists who has won the 2007 Nobel Prize in physics only minutes ago!

(nano art images via northwestern edu.)

nano numbers

nano sun – tiniest art

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This is one of the tiniest pieces of art ever made – an image of the sun made from 20,000 microscopic particles of gold.

The recreation of Robert Fludd’s 17th century drawing of the Sun – the alchemists’ symbol for gold – is shown being created by precisely placing 20,000 gold particles, each about 60 nanometers in diameter, etched on a silicon chip “wafer”.(60 nanometers is 60 billionths of a meter; a human hair is about 80,000 nanometers wide.)

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GpDn2qOHl8U]

This is not only a piece of art but it is also micro-engineering. It is nanotechnology racing ahead. This creation means 2 things:-1st this is a new nano “printing” technique and 2nd the scientists believe this will lead to breakthroughs in ultra-miniature; ultra-tiny chips, lenses, and biosensors.

IBM researchers in collaboration with scientists from the ETH Zurich have achieved this breakthrough.

The achievement, published in the September issue of the journal Nature Nanotechnology, offers a promising and powerful new tool for use in a wide range of fields and industries such as biomedicine, electronics and IT .

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nano numbers

fresh air

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I am obsessed with nanotechnology. I dream of a home where I would be running everything with the help of this technology. I would let you in for a secret dream, I infact marry nanotech to quantum physics and believe me! their are magical instruments which when and as needed change shapes and functions. But these are too distant dreams. As nanotech machines are steadily becoming a reality can I have this air purifier as my first nano machine? The germ guardian has developed this personal air purifier. It is like a necklace .

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It uses negative ions to force away various pollutants. It uses rechargeable lithium batteries.

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The site says you can” wear it on airplanes, buses, elevators and more. I want to try this in Mumbai’s traffic jams. The price is $39.99. Are there any free trials?