Cell-sized robots can sense their environment

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Made of electronic circuits coupled to minute particles, the devices could flow through intestines or pipelines to detect problems.

Researchers at MIT have created what may be the smallest robots yet that can sense their environment, store data, and even carry out computational tasks. These devices, which are about the size of a human egg cell, consist of tiny electronic circuits made of two-dimensional materials, piggybacking on minuscule particles called colloids.

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Ultrasound-powered nanorobots clear bacteria and toxins from blood

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The U.S. Defense Threat Reduction Agency aims to create a broad-spectrum detoxification robotic platform.

MRSA bacterium captured by a hybrid cell membrane-coated nanorobot (colored scanning electron microscope image and black and white image below) (credit: Esteban-Fernández de Ávila/Science Robotics)

Engineers at the University of California San Diego have developed tiny ultrasound-powered nanorobots that can swim through blood, removing harmful bacteria and the toxins they produce.

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Nanosize batteries could revolutionize green energy

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The latest breakthrough in the search for lighter, more potent batteries is small battery made up of a billion nanopores, or microscopic holes capable of producing electric current.

Nanosize batteries that are 80,000 times thinner than a human hair could revolutionize green energy. They could advance the use of electric vehicles, now limited by short driving ranges, and of renewable energy, which needs storage for times when the wind doesn’t blow or the sun doesn’t shine.

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Japanese company Obayashi plans to have a space elevator up and running by 2050

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Space elevator

The Japanese construction giant Obayashi has announced they will have a space elevator up and running by the year 2050. If successful it would revolutionize space travel and potentially transform the global economy. (Video)

 

 

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New nanobots hunt down and destroy cancerous tumors

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Small weaponized robots, swarm into the human body, hunt down malignant tumors and destroy them.

An army of tiny weaponized robots traveling around a human body, hunting down malignant tumors and destroying them from within sounds like a scene from a science fiction novel. But research in Nature Communications today from the University of California Davis Cancer Center shows the prospect of that being a realistic scenario may not be far off.

 

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Top 10 ways nanotechnology is transforming the world around us

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Nanotechnology might be outside your window at this very moment in the form of a gecko-like human scaling a self-cleaning, nano-enhanced solar window.

A pair of hand-held, gecko-inspired paddles that can help you ascend a 25-foot sheet of glass might not seem like the most impressive use of nanotechnology but this real-world advance aptly demonstrates how quickly the field of nanotechnology is climbing into our lives. Below are ten additional examples of how nanotechnology is already changing the world, followed by 10 ways it may help society scale even greater heights in the near future.

 

 

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Edible batteries could power smart medicine pills

A flexible biodegradable battery just may be what the doctor ordered.

What happens when you forget a dose of medication your doctor has prescribed for a condition that relies on the timed delivery of your medicine? Enter the smart pill, a sensor-equipped capsule that you only need to take just once. The smart pill releases medicine on a schedule or as your body needs it. But what would power that pill? The answer is simple: an edible battery.

 

 

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Researchers demonstrate new method for harvesting energy from light

Hybrid optoelectronic nanostructures with controlled variation in photoconduction properties.

University of Pennsylvania reasearchers have demonstrated a new mechanism for extracting energy from light, a finding that could improve technologies for generating electricity from solar energy and lead to more efficient optoelectronic devices used in communications.

 

 

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Adding more artificial intelligence to online learning could make it faster and more fun

More artificial intelligence will make online learning faster and fun.

Udacity has evolved the MOOC (massive open online courses) concept into one that really helps people throughout the course; to complete the course. The most recent completion rates in pilots we’ve been running have been 85 percent, as opposed to 5 percent or 4 percent, which is common in MOOC-land.

 

 

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