Nanoscopy: This week saw the Nobel prize for Chemistry go to Eric Betzig, Stefan W. Hell and William E. Moerner "for the development of super-resolved fluorescence microscopy". Traditional light microscopy is governed by the law of optics and cannot differentiate objects smaller than half the wavelength of visible light. Fluorescence microscopy circumnavigates this problem to produce amazing images at the nanoscale. Read more about this here.
Nanoparticle Toxicity Studies: A recent article in Small (paywalled) reports the penetration of NPs through different layers of skin. This adds to our growing body of knowledge on how NPs are adsorbed via the skin. Recent news articles such as this one and this one proposing NP as drug carriers via the skin that are trending on social media- all stem from this article.
More Nanotoxicology: Reporting in Nanotechnology this week researchers systematically investigated the cyctotoxicity of Iron Oxide nanoparticles and they report particle size and surface coating play a key role in particle genotoxicity. And even more nanotoxicology: Coating carbon nanotubes with aluminum oxide reduces the risk of lung scarring, or pulmonary fibrosis, in mice.
Ebola and Silver Nanoparticles: As Ebola is still trending online this week is a good time to revisit the story of Ebola and the silver nanoparticle issue. This article is a good overview of the topic.
More from the Wonderful World of Graphene: This week Nature Nanotechnology (online) brings together all the articles on different aspects of graphene that have been published in Nature Nanotechnology.
Forensic Science meet Nanotechnology: As reported in Nanotechnology this week a new precise fingerprinting method. The paper also argues electrostatic interaction is not the driving force behind fingerprint detection, they put forward a theory that it is caused by compounds on the surface of nanoparticles bonding with a complex cocktail of compounds present in fingermark residue. They go on to say that ‘a more fundamental understanding of the interactions between nanoparticles and fingermarks will promote the development of more precise targeting methods and increase the chances of detecting previously undetectable fingermarks’.
Remotely controlling brain cells with nanoparticle based ‘radiogenetics’: So this story is only in the proposal stage but sounds too good to leave out! The Obama BRAIN initiative have provided funding for research into a technique (radiogenetics)that combines the use of radio waves or magnetic fields with nanoparticles to turn neurons on or off!