/oss/taxonomy/term/805/all en /oss/article/medical-student-contributors-technology/nanogold-ruby-red-glass-possible-cancer-treatment <p>Though aesthetically pleasing, gold is scientifically quite boring. It is chemically inert, meaning it doesn’t easily react with other chemicals and remains shiny for long periods which is why it is prized in jewelry. But when it comes to tiny pieces of gold, only nanometers long, the science becomes far more interesting. These mini metal flecks of gold nanoparticles have potentially far-reaching applications.</p> Fri, 04 Aug 2023 15:53:48 +0000 Maya McKeown, B.Sc. 9594 at /oss /oss/article/controversial-science-environment-health/cleaning-air-jeans <p>You may want them in your jeans, but you probably want to keep them away from your genes. They’re “nano” particles of titanium dioxide, about ten billionths of a meter in diameter that can exhibit beneficial properties not possessed by their larger cousins, but they may also have a darker side.</p> Wed, 18 Nov 2015 01:02:27 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 2294 at /oss /oss/article/history-news-technology/nanotechnology <p style="text-align:justify"><a href="http://blogs.mcgill.ca/oss/?p=3705" rel="attachment wp-att-3706"><img alt="younger" height="150" src="http://blogs.mcgill.ca/oss/files/2012/12/Feynman-150x150.jpg" width="150" /></a>Richard Feynman, Nobel prize winning physicist and science popularizer par excellence liked practical jokes, but I doubt he would have enjoyed watching people in the buff parade on Chicago’s Michigan Avenue with the title of one of his most famous lectures painted on their butt. There they were, exhibiting their derriers, adorned with the words “There’s Plenty of Room at the Bottom.” They were not exactly paying homage to Feynman’s famous lecture that introduced the concept of nanotechnology; they were protesting the use of the technology by the Eddie Bauer Company to make stain free pants. As if we didn’t have enough things to worry about, activists are now taking aim at nanotechnology, claiming that its risks have not been properly evaluated. So what is nanotechnology? Basically, it is the use of extremely small particles for practical purposes. How small? By consensus, at least one dimension of these particles must be less than 100 nanometers, a nanometer being one billionth of a meter. To put this into perspective, you would need a thousand of these particles side by side to make up the width of a human hair. And why is nanotechnology a field to itself? <a href="http://blogs.mcgill.ca/oss/2012/12/01/nanotechnology/">Read more</a></p> Sun, 02 Dec 2012 04:47:01 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 1837 at /oss /oss/article/news/self-cleaning-toilets-and-self-cleaning-clothes <p style="text-align:justify"><a href="http://blogs.mcgill.ca/oss/?attachment_id=3696" rel="attachment wp-att-3696"><img alt="laundry" height="150" src="http://blogs.mcgill.ca/oss/files/2012/12/clothes-150x150.jpg" width="150" /></a>Nobody looks forward to cleaning toilets. And maybe in the future you won’t have to. That may be one of the benefits of nanotechnology, a burgeoning field of science that everyone is talking about. “Nano” comes from the Greek meaning dwarf, and nano is small indeed. A nanometer is one billionth of a meter. To put this into perspective, the width of a human hair is at least 10,000 nanometers. So on a nano scale, the diameter of a hair is positively gigantic. Nanotechnology deals with substances that are less than 100 nanometers in size. And on this scale, the properties of substances can differ dramatically from what they may exhibit on a larger scale. Take titanium dioxide, for example.</p> <p style="text-align:justify">You may have heard of titanium dioxide in various connections. Tiny crystals of this stuff make white paint white and can also be incorporated into suntan lotions to reflect ultraviolet light. But they have another property as well. Titanium dioxide crystals can act as photocatalysts. <a href="http://blogs.mcgill.ca/oss/2012/12/01/self-cleaning-toilets-and-self-cleaning-clothes/">Read more</a></p> Sun, 02 Dec 2012 04:39:16 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 1836 at /oss