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Researchers at the University of Exeter – United Kingdom – have developed a new photoelectric device that is both flexible and transparent. The device, described in a paper in the journal ACS Nano, converts light into electrical signals by exploiting the unique properties of the recently discovered materials graphene and graphExeter. GraphExeter is the best known room temperature transparent conductor and graphene is the thinnest conductive material. At just a few atoms thick, the newly developed photoelectric device is ultra-lightweight. This, along with the flexibility of its constituent graphene materials, makes it perfect for incorporating into clothing. Such devices could be used to develop photovoltaic textiles enabling clothes to act as solar panels and charge mobile phones while they are being worn.

Saverio Russo, Professor of Physics at the University of Exeter said: “This new flexible and transparent photosensitive device uses graphene and graphExeter to convert light into electrical signals with efficiency comparable to that found in opaque devices based on graphene and metals.
“We are only just starting to explore the interfaces between different materials at very small scales and, as this research shows, we are revealing unique properties that we never knew existed. Who knows what surprises are just around the corner.”

Source: http://www.exeter.ac.uk/

The body’s immune system exists to identify and destroy foreign objects, whether they are bacteria, viruses, flecks of dirt or splinters. Unfortunately, nanoparticles designed to deliver drugs, and implanted devices like pacemakers or artificial joints, are just as foreign and subject to the same response. Now, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Engineering and Applied Science and Penn’s Institute for Translational Medicine and Therapeutics have figured out a way to provide a “passport” for such therapeutic devices, enabling them to get past the body’s security system.

“From your body’s perspective,” said the student Rodriguez, member of the research team led by professor Dennis Discher, “an arrowhead a thousand years ago and a pacemaker today are treated the same — as a foreign invader. “We’d really like things like pacemakers, sutures and drug-delivery vehicles to not cause an inflammatory response from the innate immune system.”

Source: http://www.upenn.edu/

Researchers from North Carolina State University have developed a new nanolithography technique that is less expensive than other approaches and can be used to create technologies with biomedical applications.

“Among other things, this type of lithography can be used to manufacture chips for use in biological sensors that can identify target molecules, such as proteins or genetic material associated with specific medical conditions,” says Dr. Albena Ivanisevic, co-author of a paper describing the research. Ivanisevic is an associate professor of materials science and engineering at NC State and associate professor of the joint biomedical engineering program at NC State and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Nanolithography is a way of printing patterns at the nanoscale.
Source: http://news.ncsu.edu/releases/wms-ivanisevic-nanolithography/

Strawberry tree leaf (Arbutus unedo) and silver nitrate (AgNO3). With just these two ingredients scientists can now produce silver nanoparticles, a material that is used in advanced technologies from compounds for distributing medicines through to electronic devices, catalysts, contaminant solvents. The technique has been developed by scientists at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (Greece) and Madrid's Carlos III University (UC3M) and consists of adding an extract of the leaf to a silver nitrate aqueous solution. Silver nanoparticles form immediately after stirring the mixture for some minutes.

"There are other methods for producing them but this process is the most simple, low cost and easy to implement given that a non-toxic plant is used at a temperature of between 25ºC and 80ºC," outlines Sophia Tsipas, UC3M researcher and coauthor of the study, which is published on the Materials Letters journal.

Source: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167577X1200211X: 

Sophia Tsipas. http://www.uc3m.es/portal/page/portal/grupos_investigacion/tecnologia_polvos/listado_personal/Sophia%20Alexandra%20Tsipas

Silver Nitrates price: http://www.saltlakemetals.com/Silver_Nitrate.htm)

The US federal government says a former scientist,  Jianyu Huang, stole research at the highly  strategic Sandia National Labs in New Mexico to share it with China.  Jianyu Huang will be arraigned Tuesday on five counts of federal program fraud and one count of making false statements. He was arrested over the weekend.

Authorities say Huang passed off nanotechnology research that belongs to the U.S. as his own. They say he went online to share the data with state-run schools in China. Huang is also accused of lying about taking a lab-owned laptop computer there. Sandia Lab says Huang was fired in April for violating procedures and that he never had access to classified national security information. A message left for Huang’s public defender, Brian Pori, was not immediately returned.

Source: http://www.sandia.gov/
http://www.krqe.com/dpp/news/crime/sandia-national-labs-scientist-indicted

Several studies have demonstrated that the average life of organisms, including that of mammals, can be lengthened by acting on different genes. Until now this has included permanent modifications in animal genes starting in the embryonic phase, something which is not intended to be carried out with humans. Researchers at CNIO and CBATEG now have proved it possible to prolong the life of mice using a treatment which acts directly on the genes, but is used in adult animals and is applied only once. This is achieved through gene therapy, a strategy never before used to fight the aging process.

The therapy demonstrated to be safe and effective in mice. Researchers worked with adult mice aged one year and older mice aged two. In both cases the gene therapy had a "rejuvenating" effect. The mice which were treated at one year of age on average lived 24% longer.

This research is led at the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO) by director Maria A. Blasco, in collaboration with Eduard Ayuso and Fátima Bosch, of the Centre for Animal Biotechnology and Gene Therapy (CBATEG) at the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona UAB, Spain.

Source: http://www.uab.es/servlet/Satellite/latest-news/news-detail/lifespan-of-mice-grows-by-24–1096476786473.html?noticiaid=1337064121411

Raytheon Company has developed a counter measure system using quantum dots to protect space assets such as satellites from missile attacks. They have developed a decoy consisting of quantum dots of different sizes and shapes that are engineered to emit radiation having a radiation profile similar to that of the asset.

The decoy is found to be more accurate in mimicking the radiation profile of the asset from the target  diverting the anti-satellite weapons more efficiently than the existing conventional counter measure systems.
Let's remember that  In January 2007, China successfully tested an Anti-satellite (ASAT) missile system by destroying their own defunct LEO satellite, which generated huge amounts of space debris. This ASAT test raised worldwide concerns about the vulnerability of satellites and other space assets and possibility of triggering an arms race in space. In order to meet emerging challenges posed by such ASAT missile systems, military strategists and researchers are developing novel technologies to protect their space assets.

Source: http://nanolity.com/index.php/nanomaterials/nanomaterials-news/quantum-dots

Raytheon is an US company based in  Waltham, Massachusett,  a major American defense contractor.

By tweaking the smallest of parts, a trio of  engineers is hoping to dramatically increase the amount of sunlight that solar cells convert into electricity. The researchers from the University at Buffalo, Army Research Laboratory and Air Force Office of Scientific Research have developed a new, nanomaterials-based technology that has the potential to increase the efficiency of photovoltaic cells up to 45 percent.

Specifically, the scientists have shown that embedding charged quantum dots into solar cells can improve electrical output by enabling the cells to harvest infrared light, and by increasing the lifetime of photoelectrons. The technology can be applied to many different photovoltaic structures.

A new company the researchers founded, OPtoElectronic Nanodevices LLC. (OPEN LLC), is commercializing this technology.

Source: http://www.buffalo.edu/news/13138