Solid-state optical nanoengine. Free Technical Library News

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Solid state optical nanodrive

27.07.2022

Engines of various types are a fairly common thing in our daily lives, they are present in cars, washing machines, computers and many other things. There are also tiny nanomotors that are used to power nanobots, microelectromechanical systems, and other devices that can only be seen under a microscope. However, most of the previously created flooders, especially those driven by light, are capable of operating only in a liquid medium, which significantly narrows the scope of their practical application.

Researchers at the University of Texas at Austin have demonstrated a first-of-its-kind solid-state optical nanodrive that can be built into any device, even an electronic chip chip.

This new tiny engine is less than 100 nanometers wide. It is a substrate made of a special energy-intensive material that changes its phase state (from solid to gas-liquid) under the influence of light, and one or two metal nanoparticles acting as a rotor, moving along a circle in the region of the phase transition of the substrate material.

Similar motors, placed on chip crystals, can convert light energy into kinetic energy of motion and, then, electrical energy. This, in turn, will allow the creation of electronic devices capable of operating under natural or artificial light without the use of any type of fuel, batteries or other external energy sources.

In their future work, the Texas researchers will try to improve the nanoengine they have created by using other materials for the substrate and nanoparticles. This, in their opinion, will increase the stability of the engine, improve controllability and increase the efficiency of converting light energy into energy of mechanical motion.

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Replacement of experimental animals with organelles 16.04.2023

Organoid technology can reduce the need for animal testing in vaccine development by allowing large numbers of antigens to be screened at a lower cost.

B cell-producing organelles are perhaps the hottest topic today when it comes to screening vaccine candidates for rabbit fever, also known as tularemia. This exciting development is a step towards the long-awaited goal of replacing animals for vaccine testing before clinical trials.

Animal testing has been the subject of controversy over the years, with animal rights and environmental activists leading the fight against this controversial practice. But it seems that with the help of organoids, the need for animal testing may soon become a thing of the past.

Organelles are collections of cells that behave like real organs. They are grown in the laboratory and kept alive in conditions that mimic the body's natural environment. Although the use of organoids instead of transplants is still a long way off, we can already create hundreds of such organs from the spleen of a single animal.

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As the technology of organoids improves, it may be possible to use them to replace the increasing amount of testing currently being done on animals. Not only is this a more moral approach, but also that organelles made from human cells could reduce the number of times vaccines work against other species but fail when used in humans.

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