This week in Nano: Week 1 (Dec 29th- Jan4th)

An international research group based in Tel Aviv University have reported in the journal NANOletters (paywalled: SemiconductorNanorod–Carbon Nanotube Biomimetic Films for Wire-Free Photostimulation ofBlind Retinas) a material (semiconductor nanorods and carbon nanotubes) that can create a wireless, light-sensitive, flexible film that could potentially help those with age related macular degeneration 

The New Yorker ran a nice article on Graphene last month. See it here

Rice University published results of a bioaccumulation food chain study. They looked at uptake and accumulation of quantum dots from water to plants to caterpillars. They found that accumulation did occur up the chain but that nanoparticle accumulation in both plants and animals varied significantly depending upon the type of surface coating applied to the particles. The research is available online in the American Chemical Society’s journal Environmental Science & Technology.

In other news the EU commission published guidance for employers and workers on the safe use of nano in the workplace See it here.

This week in Nano (Week 47: 17th Nov-23rd Nov)

Scientists X-ray nanoscale organelles of bacteria. An international research team have obtained 'the highest resolution reconstructions on the small biological objects'using this novel x-ray laser method. Reported in Nature Photonics ("High-throughput imaging of heterogeneous cell organelles with an X-ray laser").

For all the open access advocates out there here is a link to a great tool we can all use. The open access button from www.openaccessbutton.org.

This Week in Nano: (Week 46: 10th Nov-16th Nov)

As the online world was reporting the Rosetta landing/mission and all the drama that went with it (#shirtgate) it was announced that the role of the chief scientific advisor was made defunct. Yes I know its not nano but it is important to European Science that Professor Anne Glover's position is no more. The gaurdian ran a report on it - it can be read here. Junker axes chef scientific advisor

This Week in Nano (Week 45: 3 November - 9th November)

Elsevier announced the publication of a new peer reviewed journal. Materials Today Communications. It will focus primary on research covering all areas of materials science. The editor is Tomas Martin of Oxford University (Atom Probe Group).

The Centre for BioNano Interactions (Dublin) group published 'Surfactant titration of nanoparticle protein corona' last week (paywalled). Where the protein stability and composition of the corona was evaluated over time. As corona characterisation is important in understanding the biological effects of nanomaterials this may be an interesting analytical tool for corona characterisation. 

Open Access opinion article of interest from June 2014- A strategy for grouping nanomaterials based on key physco-chemical descriptors as a basis for safer-by-design NMs.

I will leave you with this video from RiskBites '7 surprising facts about silver nanoparticles and health.

This Week in Nano (Week 44: 27th Oct - 2nd Nov)

A no nonsense article (at last!) entitled: Nanosafety Research—Are We on the Right Track? was published this week and is available open access here. The article highlights the ‘significant’ weaknesses of studies addressing possible for human toxicological end points of engineered nanomaterials. This quote will give you an idea of where the author is coming from: 

 ‘One of the most important outcomes of this literature study is the fact that most of the studies are not toxicological, but mechanistic studies, even though the authors discuss “toxicologically relevant” results! This aspect is very puzzling and confusing to the reader of such publications, because this is generally not pointed out. Moreover, the discussions on toxicological end points are very often misleading, as the experiments have been carried out with high concentrations or in a too high a dose range and so only provide mechanistic insights but are not useful for a toxicological assessment of the hazard.’

Google and Nanoparticles: The Life Science department of Google’s research/experimental facility (Google[x]) has discussed its interest in nanoparticles. See this link for the article and to hear the head of the Google[X] Life Science department Andrew Conrad talk about nano. In particular they are interested in using nanoparticles to detect cancer.

NanoResource: A virtual open access issue focusing on the toxicological impact of engineered nanomaterials was published via the Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications journal. It can be found here, it is available until 15th May 2015.

This Week in Nano (Week 43: 20th-26th October)

A great resource from the American Institute of Physics has been created on the 20th October. It is a list of the oral history interviews from the Niels Bohr Library & Archives. Find it here, it includes a lot of Feynman interviews as well as audio clips. 

Results published this week in the Journal of Biomacromolecules describes the fabrication of engineered microfibre proteins ("Engineered Coiled-Coil Protein Microfibers pay walled). The group at NYU report the fabrication of proteins that can self-assemble on the nano- meso-length scales. This is important in the development of biomaterials in the nano field. The group also reports that these fibres can also can bind hydrophobic small molecules (curcumin). They suggest that this can be useful for encapsulation and delivery of other substances. 

Sunshine may increase nanoparticle toxicity. This is the latest headline from the UBA (Umweltbundesamt the German environmental agency). They investigated the ecotoxicological hazard of 2 types of nano (15-25nm) Ti02  and one non nano version ( 200-220nm). It is interesting to note they also recommend guidance with regard to the standard criteria for the test composition.  This is a point ecotoxicologists have been making for some time now.  Read the report here