Take a closer look

This is perhaps the smallest toilet in the world!
This nanotoilet is the winner of the Most Bizarre prize at The 49th International Conference on Electron, Ion and Photon Beam Technology and Nanofabrication Bizarre/Beautiful Micrograph Contest.

Here is the 2004 winner...




Fishing with Nanotubes – These micro fish appear hooked on nanotubes with a catalyst bait.
Check out the rest of the images here.

Flying Nano Wonders

Butterflies are probably the most beautiful creatures on earth. Those colorful wings captivates you with its beauty.

Have you ever thought whether those magical patterns are formed by true colors??? In fact, these clever insects trick you into believing that their wings possess true colors. The wings have what can be called biophotonic crystals that scatter light in some intriguing ways. Something our 21st century physicists have hard time replicating in labs!

These are some ridges of nano dimensions found on the surface of the wings. These creatures have been exploiting the potentials of nanotechnology for the past 30 million years!!!!

What you see here is not some fabric... but the wings of a butter fly.



I found more details about this here. You may want to take a look at this site!

Nano in the Eyes

At John Hopkins, researchers have developed a nanoparticle as a new biosensor to treat damaged retinal cells.

Biosensor detects oxidative stress inside the cells. It responds by regulating therapeutic gene expression. This reduces the damage caused by the free radicals.

Biosensor has an outer lipid layer. This layer also has some targeting proteins. These proteins recognize the endothelial cells lining the eye's blood vessels. The lipid outer layer ensures easy entry of the biosensor into the cell.

Once inside the cells, the DNA is exposed. If there is oxidative stress, the promoters are activated and two proteins are expressed. One, a fluorescent protein that helps in detection of the damaged cells; two, a therapeutic protein that reduces the damage.

They have tested the biosensor in animal models like mouse, rabbits, and dogs. These nanoparticles were also found to be nontoxic on cells but animals showed varied levels of toxicity.

You will find more info here.

Toxin - Nanoparticle Combine Defeats Cancer

Diptheria toxin is a protein secreted by Corynebacterium diphtheriae.



The protein has three domains - A, B and T. The B domain is believed to be responsible for recognizing the cell surface receptors. The toxin is found to show affinity for heparin binding epidermal like growth factor like precursors, which are found on the cell surface. T domain aids the protein to gain entry into the cell.



The A chain has the enzymatic activity. It catalyzes the ADP ribosylation of eukaryotic aminoacyl transferase II. This prevents protein biosynthesis in the cells leading to cell death.

The diphtheria toxin A (DT - A) chain's toxic properties can be exploited by properly guiding them to the cells that need to be killed.

This is exactly what the researchers have done using nanotechnology.

A nanoparticulate system made of Poly(beta amino ester) polymer and poly( butane diol diacrylate co amino pentanol) was used to deliver the diphtheria toxin A (DT - A) gene. This gene is linked to a regulatory sequence that gets activated only in prostate cancer cells. While the specificity is taken care of by the gene regulator, safe delivery of the toxin into these cells is the responsibility of the nanoparticulate system. Now, the diphtheria toxin does the rest.

Studies in the laboratory show promising results. Well, I guess we can expect efficient nano based injectable or ingestible drugs to treat cancer in the near future.