News
The latest news and blog posts from the World Nano Foundation.
Technology investment will transform global healthcare away from an illness service
Healthcare must become a genuine health service, not an illness service, according to Robert Stern, chairman of digital health champion Future Perfect.
It was currently too reactive instead of preventive, he argued further in an article for the influential multi-media Health Tech Digital outlet:
“The journey a patient takes is, in theory, a simple, step-by-step process. When no more care is needed, the journey ends – until the next problem arises.
“It waits for problems to appear before action is taken. It doesn’t make use of the active, digitally enabled patient.”
Technology investment will transform global healthcare away from an illness service
Stern advocates a two-prong approach to creating a preventive healthcare system: empowering the patient to prevent illness and then breaking down barriers to prevention over cure.
He urges increased use of healthcare apps to empower patients while integrating them with patient journey records. With patients managing their own care, problems could be spotted sooner, helping to avoid crisis while giving patients greater access to their GPs and specialists.
“These apps could become a staple part of the patient journey that often traverses beyond the pathway of any one particular condition. This would allow both patient and clinicians to have a view of the patient’s history to date and, also, keep an eye on the future,” he added.
Stern also wants interconnected electronic records tracking a patient’s complete healthcare history and journey through the system – past, present, and future:
“Person-based illness prevention is already known to be ‘investible’ and pursuing prevention by leveraging joined-up records could offer so much more.”
But Stern stresses that investment is critical:
“Take public healthcare and apply it to person-based illness prevention. Organise and synergise existing collection systems and apply the data to the person. It changes the dynamic of the patient journey from being focused on the extremes of acute illness to being about health – the whole cycle.”
“There are so many examples you can think of where this might work, from asthma to diabetes, and we need investment in this area to make it happen.”
World Nano Foundation chairman Paul Sheedy agrees strongly with Stern that investment into healthtech and nanomedicines has to be accelerated, as we cannot afford the hugely inefficient centralised healthcare systems that we have. We have to move to a point of care model that supports early intervention and protection:
“A prevention-based healthcare system would drastically reduce healthcare costs, prevent suffering for many individuals, and free up time for healthcare professionals to save more lives. The benefits are undeniable – we simply must invest.
“We need to back emerging therapies too. No healthcare system can completely prevent illness, so we need the best treatments available to us when needed. Investing in therapies will help to create more accessible, portable treatments, further decentralising healthcare worldwide.”
Paul Stannard a general partner of the Vector Innovation Fund, which recently launched a sub-fund raising an initial $300m for future healthcare, as well as pandemic protection and preparedness, focusing on precision medicine, advanced point of care, early intervention diagnostics and AI technologies that support sustainable healthcare, the global economy, and human longevity.
“Over 50% of the world’s healthcare budgets go on putting a sticky plaster on people’s health, but most of it is spent on the last six weeks of our lives, essentially end of life care, which cannot be the best model for a healthy world. We have been tracking these advanced technologies for five years and are seeing huge potential upsides for global health, which will deliver much more affordable and accessible technology solutions that deliver better outcomes and, ultimately, a more sustainable healthcare ecosystem.
“The recent pandemic has profoundly highlighted that early intervention is key to solving the biggest health challenges we face and moving to a more decentralised model based on technology investment is the key to sustainable health and improving life longevity.”
Top five tech growth sectors forecast to quadruple over next five years
Five key tech sectors will enjoy a combined growth of more than 400% over the next five years, according to market reports.
These innovation pacesetters – nanotechnology, AI, Digital Twins, genomics and other biotech life sciences – attracted a combined $892.63 billion of investment in 2020, set to rocket to $2.44 trillion by 2025.
Top five tech growth sectors forecast to quadruple over next few years
Paul Stannard, Chairman of the Vector Innovation Fund (VIF) – an international alternative investment vehicle for advancing enabling technologies globally – said:
“These top five tech growth sectors are the ones currently lighting up investment opportunities, and we have specifically aligned our investment pipeline to them. They hold the key to solving major global challenges relating to sustainability, healthcare, energy, food resources and equal and fair distribution of innovation worldwide.
“Most tech sectors are growing, but these game-changers attracting that $2+ trillion investment won’t be companies enhancing things that already exist, like simply making your TV screen sharper.
“We are backing tech companies that transform how we deal with healthcare and future pandemics, sustainable clean energy, food production and combine these opportunities with AI and machine learning.
“Our fund’s first key target is health tech, which has enjoyed record levels of investment in the wake of COVID, so we would focus on potential nanomedicine breakthroughs such as reversing degenerative diseases and cancers or creating a multi-vaccine to protect us from a range of diseases.
“And while funds like ours can supply management expertise, our target companies are also those showing the skill to commercialise and monetise their offering to a willing market.
“What we have seen with the pandemic as well as Climate Change is a global realisation that we must also accelerate investment in enabling technologies supporting environmental, social & corporate governance (ESG) and the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) principles where impact can deliver better outcomes for everyone.”
The Top Five tech growth sectors highlighted by market reports are:
1. Artificial Intelligence has the most far-reaching potential, and the market is forecast to grow 16-fold from $62.35 billion in 2020 to $997.77 billion by 2028 at a 40.2% CAGR, being the catalyst for accelerating almost all tech sectors and has already shown how it can enhance food science, lower retail and banking costs, and develop medical advances such as remote patient monitoring and more intelligent clinical diagnosis.
AI is transforming future healthcare, food, energy, transport, construction, aviation, and many other sectors. Combining AI with nanotechnologies, for instance, allows platform technologies to re-invent the industries over this decade.
According to data gathered by StockApps.com, in the last quarter of 2020, there was a massive surge in investment in AI technology companies totalling $73.4 billion, which was a $15 billion increase on the start of 2020. In the first half of 2021, we have seen 4,080 investment deals in AI technology companies, according to the investment monitoring platform Pitchbook. The average investment deal flow value has increased nearly three-fold in 2020.
2. Nanotechnology is set to grow its market from $54.2 billion in 2020 to $126.8 billion by 2027, which has enabled significant advances in medicine, electronics, environmental solutions, and materials, with the potential to improve drug delivery procedure and storage, and renewable energy. For example, COVID-19 accelerated both vaccine and virus testing and also drove specific developments such as nanotech material masks that filter out 99.9% of bacteria, viruses, and particulates.
According to the investment monitoring platform, Pitchbook, in 2020, $5.56 billion was invested in nanotechnology companies. In the first half of 2021, there has already been $7.72 billion of investment in nanotechnology companies, from 775 deals, with the average deal size value increasing three-fold in just the last six months.
Paul Sheedy, a co-founder of the World Nano Foundation (WNF), said: “The COVID pandemic is fuelling an investment trend behind the nanoscale tech that is already being billed as the ‘COVID Decade’ and driven by the fear of human and economic devastation from another pandemic.
“And that risk is high: there are only ten clinically approved solutions to over 220 viruses known to affect humans, and we can expect at least two new viruses to spill from their natural hosts into humans annually, but nanotech and biotech can help counter this threat.”
3. Biotechnology is the biggest and most mature market here, forecast to grow from $752.88 billion in 2020 to $2.44 trillion by 2028 at a 15.83% CAGR through significant effects on agriculture, improving the nutritional value and preservation of foods, minimising waste, and healthcare advances – the last being highlighted by the record-breaking speed of the Pfizer COVID vaccine development last year.
According to Nature magazine, global biotech funding in 2020 had its best year ever: 73 life science firms alone raised a collective $22 billion. Private fund-raising also mushroomed by 37% on the previous year - already a stellar year. This is being further fuelled with the COVID-19 mitigation market and the advent of a surge of investment in pandemic protection and preparedness using multi vaccines, autoimmune treatments and early intervention testing. Pitchbook has recorded 3,800 deals in biotechnology companies in the first half of 2021, totalling $34.48 billion in investment in these companies. Again, the average investment level is nearly three times what it was the previous year, and post valuations of invested biotech companies have doubled from 2020.
4. Digital Twins are a new up and coming high growth tech sector, forecast to grow 15-fold from $3.1 billion in 2020 to $48.2 billion by 2026 at a 58% CAGR, with the technology already widely used in the construction, energy, healthcare, automotive, and aerospace sectors, and new fields opening up all the time.
According to Pitchbook, last year, there was $103.8 million of capital invested from just 53 investors into the Digital Twins technology start-ups. One company, Cityzenith, has added over 5000 new investors in the last 18 months, raising $10 million to date.
Cityzenith uses its Digital Twin SmartWorldProOS™ software platform to enable architects, planners, and energy providers to track, manage, and reduce emissions and energy waste from individual buildings, infrastructure, and even whole cities and has just reported major contract wins and seen its share price rocket 161% in early 2021. The company is partway through a $15 million Regulation A+ investment raise to scale up its international commercial opportunities.
The Digital Twin sector is an interesting space with tremendous growth opportunities for nimble, fast-moving start-ups who have the opportunity to compete with major conglomerates in this dynamic field such as Microsoft, Siemens, Phillips and Bentley.
5. Genomics is a market set to grow from $20.1 billion in 2020 to $62.9 billion by 2028 through its key role in healthcare innovation and tailoring care to an individual patient while providing more data on diseases and human genetics. The World Health Organisation reports that gene sequencing was critical to the rapid development of COVID-19 tests and other tools used to manage the virus outbreak.
According to Pitchbook, investment capital in genomics companies has more than doubled in value per deal in 2021 over the previous year. So far in 2021, post-investment valuations have also more than doubled against the whole of 2020.
Paul Stannard added: “The accelerated innovation since the COVID-19 pandemic is astonishing – some experts say we witnessed ten years’ growth in the last 18 months of the outbreak – giving us a glimpse of even greater possibilities, especially when some of these pacesetters, such as nanotech, genomics and Digital Twins are able to advance, accelerate and complement each other.
“If it is backed by astute and enlightened investment, our future is looking bright!”
Investors attracted by healthcare’s robot revolution
Can robot doctors and nurses ever replace humans? The jury is still out on that, but an artificial intelligence (AI) ‘robot revolution’ is already sweeping through healthcare.
And even as debate rages in the UK over a post-COVID return to normal face-to-face consultations with family doctors, Dr Alan Stout, of the British Medical Association, said:
“It’s highly unlikely that we will have the desire or the capacity to return to a 100% face-to-face model. The phone-first model and the use of technology will allow surgeries to remain sustainable and accessible and provides a better service than pre-Covid.”
Caption – The future is here, with a ‘robot revolution’ sweeping through healthcare.
MarketsandMarkets says the AI in healthcare market was worth $4.9 billion in 2020 also creating substantially more value for an overall healthcare industry worth up to $410 billion per year by 2025.
Highlighted failures within traditional healthcare systems during the COVID-19 pandemic have driven AI advances on many fronts towards a better and more sustainable healthcare model.
For instance, health issues can be prevented in the first place by wearables and apps, which can make health recommendations for patients. Devices such as smartwatches and biosensors could also help detect health issues before conditions become critical.
But the next big step is virtual assistants, a market expected to take off in the next decade $2.8 billion by 2027 AI offers healthcare workers more time to focus on patient care and, with more patients willing to use home diagnostics, should enable a more decentralised healthcare system.
Paul Stannard, Chairman of the not-for-profit World Nano Foundation that fosters the nanotechnology sector, which has enabled so many healthcare breakthroughs, said:
“We may be resistant at first but virtual assistance and robotics are the future of healthcare. Japan is leading the way with a government-funded national initiative to develop data-driven AI and internet of things technologies that will increase the efficiency and quality of healthcare delivery.
“AI also offers more precision as it can automate the analysis of test results, while robotics can increase the success rate of surgeries.
Stannard also co-founded the Vector Innovation Fund, which recently launched a $300 million sub-fund for pandemic protection and future healthcare, and he added:
“This pandemic has taught us a lot; we can learn from the flaws it identified and maintain investment in technologies for a more sustainable future in healthcare and prepare and protect ourselves against future pandemics so that we can meet them in a timely, systematic, and calm manner.”
Healthcare is just part of a trend towards more use of AI following the COVID outbreak. According to the Global AI Adoption Index 2021, 43% of IT professionals surveyed say their company has accelerated the rollout of AI due to the pandemic. An NHSX survey of 368 AI developers and procurers also found that the pandemic had helped accelerate progress in some areas.
Surging nanomedicine investments improve global healthcare and pandemic protection
COVID-19’s outbreak has coincided with investments flooding into nanomedicine healthcare companies, according to the latest data.
Nano Magazine have highlighted a report by marketdataforecast.com that the global nanomedicine market worth $141.34 billion in 2020, will rise to $258.11bn by 2025.
The report also highlights a huge upsurge of investment support from governments and funds to develop nano therapies for vaccines, diagnostic imaging, regenerative medicine, and drug delivery following the impact of COVID-19.
Furthermore, nanomedicines offer huge advantages for wider healthcare also impacted by the pandemic and Long-COVID after-effects upon cardiovascular, respiratory, neurological, immunological-related diseases.
This aligns with investment monitoring platform Pitchbook’s forecast that health tech investment overall will top $10 trillion by 2022 and that nanomedicine investment has grown the sector by 250% in the last five years.
Median nanotech healthcare deal sizes have also doubled since 2019, from £1 million to £2m in 2021, while the number of deals in 2020 was greater than ever, overtaking 100 deals in a single year for the first time.
Nanomedicine is transforming healthcare innovation and delivering early intervention and targeted drug delivery and testing
Investment is already aiding innovation as nanotech researchers and scientists work to improve biomedical devices such as prosthetics, provide new cancer treatments, and develop bone healing therapies, along with more innovations that could transform global healthcare.
Nanotech researchers have found nanobodies that block the COVID-19 and, potentially, other coronaviruses from entering cells and developed mask designs at nanoscale making them both cheaper and more effective.
The fast global response to the pandemic was also enabled by nanotechnology, being pivotal in Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccine development and Innova Medical Group’s 30-minute lateral flow COVID tests.
World Nano Foundation co-founder Paul Stannard said COVID-19 highlighted weaknesses in healthcare systems across the developed world, proving that long-term, innovative solutions are needed to enable change and prevent future pandemics, with nanomedicine playing an ever greater role in this transformation of global healthcare.
And while impressed by rising investments in and recognition for the nanotech sector, he warned against any let-up in this trend:
“Nanotechnology is not only crucial to our current healthcare systems, but researchers and scientists in this field are on the cusp of therapies, devices, and innovation that will revolutionise how we move forward.”
“To ensure pandemic preparedness, high-quality healthcare, and longevity, we must invest in nano healthtech and care innovations.”
His message was echoed by Kojo Annan (son of late and former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan) who is a general partner in the Luxembourg-based Vector Innovation Fund, which recently launched a sub-fund raising an initial $300m for pandemic protection and preparedness.
Annan said: “A virtuous circle is developing between investment and healthtech.
“Lately, we have seen the development of multiple vaccines, acceleration of technologies linked to decoding the genome, the rise of nanomedicine and the use of artificial intelligence to monitor infectious diseases and new pathogens.
“More investment in sustainable healthtech funding can only accelerate this trend, bringing fairer and global distribution of healthcare, greater affordability, and preventive and early intervention healthcare, all ultimately improving the longevity of life.
“The pandemic has also transformed telemedicine investment and demonstrated that nanoscience and innovation could deliver more resilient societies and ecosystems for healthcare.”
Nanotechnologies are poised to have a huge impact on agriculture
Science is about big ideas that change the world. But sometimes, big impacts come from the tiniest of objects.
Nanotechnology might sound like science fiction, but it represents technologies that have been developed for decades. Nanotechnological approaches have found real-world applications in a wide range of areas, from composite materials in textiles to agriculture.
Agriculture is one of the oldest human inventions, but nanotech provides modern innovations that could dramatically improve the efficiency of our food supply and reduce the environmental impact of its production.
Agriculture comes with costs that farmers are only too familiar with: Crops require substantial amounts of water, land and fuel to produce. Fertilizers and pesticides are needed to achieve the necessary high crop yields, but their use comes with environmental side effects, even as many farmers explore how new technologies can reduce their impact.
The tiniest of objects
Nanotechnology is the science of objects that are a few nanometres—billionths of a meter—across. At this size, objects acquire unique properties. For example, the surface area of a swarm of nanoscale particles is enormous compared to the same mass collected into single large-scale clump.
Varying the size and other properties of nanoscale objects gives us an unprecedented ability to create precision surfaces with highly customized properties.
Employing particles
Traditionally, applying chemicals involves first mixing the active ingredients in water and then spraying the mixture on crops. But the ingredients do not mix easily, making this an inefficient process that requires large quantities of water.
To improve efficiency and reduce environmental impact, farmers need their fertilizers and pesticides to reach their crops and be absorbed into the plant exactly where they're needed—into the roots or the leaves, for example. Ideally, they could use just enough of the chemical to enhance the crop's yield or protect it from attack or infection, which would prevent excess from being wasted.
Custom-made nanoscale systems can use precision chemistry to achieve high-efficiency delivery of fertilizers or pesticides. These active ingredients can be encapsulated in a fashion similar to what happens in targeted drug delivery. The encapsulation technique can also be used to increase the amount dissolved in water, reducing the need for large amounts.
Current applications
Starpharma, a pharmaceutical company, got into this game a few years ago, when it set up a division to apply its nanotechnological innovations to the agriculture sector. The company has since sold its agrochemical business.
Psigryph is another innovative nanotech company in agriculture. Its technology uses biodegradable nanostructures derived from Montmonercy sour cherries extract to deliver bioactive molecules across cell membranes in plants, animals and humans.
My lab has spent years working in nanoscience, and I am proud to see our fundamental understanding of manipulating polymer encapsulation at the nanoscale make its way to applications in agriculture. A former student, Darren Anderson, is the CEO of Vive Crop Protection, named one of Canada's top growing firms: they take chemical and biological pesticides and suspend them in "nanopackets"—which act as incredibly small polymer shuttles—to make them easily reach their target. The ingredients can be controlled and precisely directed when applied on crops.
Existing infrastructure
One bonus of these nanotech developments is that they don't actually require any new equipment whatsoever, which is a tremendous advantage in the financially challenging agricultural industry. Farmers simply mix these products using less water and fuel to make efficiency gains.
Other agricultural uses for nanotech include animal health products, food packaging materials and nanobiosensors for detecting pathogens, toxins and heavy metals in soil. It wouldn't be a surprise to see the widespread use of these new applications in the near future.
As nanotechnologies take flight, this kind of productivity gain will be critical for farmers and a big deal for the rest of us, as the Earth's population continues to grow and the effects of climate change become increasingly obvious. Farmers will need to do more with less.
Fortunately, a few billionths of a meter is the very definition of less. With the help of tiny nanotech, global agriculture is on the verge of some very big things.
Image: Shutterstock - Vadym Zaitsev
WORLD EXPERTS GET BEHIND UK’S STRATEGY FOR RAPID MASS TESTING
Holding back on rapid mass testing is now a global public health emergency extending the war against COVID-19, say experts.
The UK was first to recognise the large-scale potential and is now deploying 400 million lateral flow rapid antigen test kits alongside the strategy for vaccinations as well as public guidance on masks, hand cleansing and social distancing.
Image – Generic example of a Rapid Lateral Flow antigen test
But the lateral flow test (LFT) message is fast going global with World Health Organisation Special Envoy on COVID-19, David Nabarro, now commenting:
"We’ve seen it (rapid mass testing) used in many different locations, particularly for example in trying to keep aircraft free of people who’ve got COVID or looking after major events.”
Using LFTs will keep economies open, health systems safe and allow audiences to attend entertainment and sporting events, he added.
A leading US mass testing expert, Dr Michael Mina of Harvard University, insisted rapid mass testing had been misunderstood by some: “The UK is one of the only countries that genuinely listened to the science and I spoke with Downing Street about the value of getting mass testing right.”
The UK Government initiative led the way offering LFTs, to essential health workers, the education sector, and local authorities. This mass rapid testing approach to suppressing transmission has now been extended to the workplace, via private sector and industry groups. Early adopters in the UK include the Royal Mail, DVLA and Tate & Lyle Sugars. This is expected to be significant in reducing the need for future lockdowns. Slovakia, like the UK, uses rapid lateral flow antigen tests with great success in their mass testing initiative, with extremely positive results.
Britain’s Health Secretary Matt Hancock said that around one in three infected people do not show symptoms, so testing was vital to break the chains of transmission; workplace testing offers peace of mind to those unable to work from home during lockdown.
He added: “LFTs have already been hugely successful in finding positive cases we would not otherwise find, and I encourage employers and workers to take up this offer to help protect essential services and businesses.”
Globally renowned journal, The Lancet, supports this approach after publishing an exhaustive study of quarantine and testing measures, and leading UK scientists and clinical experts have added their weight.
Senior researchers at Oxford University found that most sensitive LFTs detected 83-90% of all infectious cases of COVID-19 and, with the UK investing more than £1.5bn in these test kits so far, Oxford’s Regius Professor of Medicine Sir John Bell underlined the benefit of these removing infectious people from high-risk environments: “They’ve found 25,000 cases just in healthcare, which may have prevented tens of thousands of cases of the disease.”
Tim Peto, Professor of Medicine, Infectious Disease, Nuffield Department of Clinical Medicine, Oxford University addressed the contrasts between PCR (polymerase chain reaction) swab testing and lateral flow kits:
“PCR is very good at telling you’ve had the virus or got the virus, but it doesn’t tell you whether you are infectious or not and the other problem about the swab test is that it takes a day or two…to get the answer back. The LFT has the enormous advantage of giving you an answer in about 30 minutes.”
He said this allows immediate self-isolation and individuals can also quickly advise their contacts so, “within a few hours, a local outbreak can be detected. This can’t be done with the swab (PCR) tests” adding that LFTs “detect people with high viral loads…the very people who are infectious.
The World Nano Foundation (WNF) promotes healthcare technology and has modelled this form of technology, predicting that mass testing is central to future pandemic protection.
The not-for-profit organisation’s Co-founder Paul Sheedy said: “Our research shows how healthcare diagnostics technology will shift dramatically to a more decentralised community early intervention model, against potential epidemics and pandemics.
“The Test2Suppress™ campaign shows that intensive front-line initiatives using rapid test kits available to the individual will allow early detection and immediate isolation, reducing the need for lockdowns.
“And our simulation maps how consecutive daily tests for three days can rapidly identify and isolate infectious people. Weekly testing can then sustain a low infection rate even in a large population.
“A key point previously missed by some experts is that high quality rapid lateral flow tests are not for people who already think they have COVID-19; it’s about everyone else testing frequently to check they are not infectious.
“Used alongside vaccines, hand-cleansing, and social distancing, these simple tests are a vital component in the battle to defeat COVID-19, future variants or other viruses.
“Rapid community testing is simpler, faster, cheaper, ultimately more effective and mobilises everyone to help themselves and their relatives, friends, and colleagues – we can all play a part in keeping everyone safe.
“As West Africa reeled under the impact of Ebola (2014-16) the world watched with bated breath to see if the ‘beast’ would go global, but frequent mass rapid testing was deployed at community level multiple times over a few weeks - stopping that terrible disease in its tracks.
“With the work that we do, we know that there are even more exciting technologies on the way that will be central to the world’s fight for pandemic protection and future healthcare.
“We have already seen the danger from not being on our guard against renewed viral threats. Spanish Flu struck in 1918 and ultimately killed up to 50 million people in four successive waves, the last two being most deadly because public health warnings were not adhered to.
“The UK Government’s foresight in being first to secure large stocks of rapid lateral flow antigen test supplies by Innova Medical (USA) and SureScreen Diagnostics (UK) may prove to have been a human and economic lifesaver.”
INNOVA Medical Group leads in the manufacture and distribution of rapid antigen and antibody test kits for COVID-19 disease detection. INNOVA’s integrated solution provides a best-in-class portfolio of diagnostic and screening tests. QMC HealthID™ secure app captures test results and creates a “health passport” for the user. Analytics, powered by real-time data, assist in tailoring protocols to individual use cases: entertainment, government, manufacturing, nursing and care homes, schools and universities and transportation.
The four pillars of success: TIME – Testing, Implementation, Monitoring, and Engagement
SureScreen believes that early, accurate diagnosis is better than waiting for problems to arise, and a proactive approach greatly benefits people's health, identifies issues early in their development, prevents accidents from happening and has a positive effect on performance, productivity and reputation.
How Nanotechnology Can Impact Space Travel and Exploration
Nanotechnology will play a big role in future space missions and challenges, here are a few examples of how nanotechnology will impact space travel and exploration.
Propulsion Systems
Rocket engines today rely on chemical propulsion. All current spacecraft use a form of rocket to launch, but scientists are researching new methods of space propulsion systems, such as electric propulsion. Electric propulsion systems instead of chemicals would significantly reduce the required propellant mass compared to conventional chemical rockets.
Using an EP system would allow an increase in payload capacity, as well as decreasing a spacecraft’s launch mass.
Radiation Shielding
The risks of exposure to space radiation is the most significant factor that limits human ability to participate in long term space missions. Advanced nanomaterials such as the newly developed, isotopically enriched boron nanotubes could pave the path to future spacecraft with nanosensor-integrated hulls that provide effective radiation shielding as well as energy storage.
These advanced nanomaterials would mean the possibilities of space exploration would widely broaden as the risk of space radiation would significantly decrease.
Space Elevator
As wacky as this sounds, there is an annual space elevator conference to discuss building the biggest elevator to exist which would transport you to space. A Japanese construction firm has even announced plans to build the first elevator by 2050.
The elevator would be built upon carbon nanotubes, and would be around 62,000 miles long in order to reach space. At the end of the elevator would be a weight that would hang in outer space and act as a terminal.
For more nanotechnology stories, visit our news page.
How Nanotechnology can be used to lower pollution
A big issue that faces our planet is pollution. Here are some of the clever solutions that nanotechnology offers or could offer in the future to help reduce pollution levels.
Nano Catalysts
Catalysts work by speeding up chemical reactions that transform harmful vapors from cars and industrial plants into harmless gases. All current Catalysts contain a nanofiber catalyst made of manganese oxide that removes volatile organic compounds from industrial smokestacks.
The use of Nano catalysts are crucial for reducing the amount of harmful gases in the air and the amount of carbon dioxide going into our atmosphere and contributing to climate change.
Nano wires to clean up oil spills
There are methods to clean up oil spills already, but there hasn’t been a method of cleaning up oil spills whilst recovering the oil lost. With Nano wires made of Potassium Manganese Oxide can clean up oil whilst making oil recovery possible. Nanowires are used to form a mesh which can absorb up to twenty times its weight in hydrophobic liquids while rejecting water with its water repellent coating.
This transforms the way oil spills and disasters can be cleaned up, meaning that even if huge amounts of oil is lost, it can be recovered.
Accelerating Digestion
Nanomaterials can be used to digest organic waste at a faster rate, helping to avoid more land and water pollution. With the acceleration of digestion, there is more efficiency in terms of the duration and enhanced production of the biogas.
Recent research showed that adding metal oxide nanoparticles to a food waste digester doubled the amount of biogas fuel produced compared to the digester without it.
For more news stories, visit our website news page.
How Nanotechnology can be used to store and create energy
We need to produce energy, and nanotechnology is becoming more and more involved in the creation of it. Here are some of the ways nanotechnology has been used to produce energy and how it could be used to produce energy in the future.
Storing Hydrogen in fuel cell powered cars
To increase the binding energy of hydrogen to a surface level of a fuel tank, researchers are using and producing graphene layers. This way, there can be a higher amount of storage in your car and a lighter weight fuel tank.
You can use these nanotube sheets to wrap around a hot pipe in your car, such as the exhaust, to generate the energy from the heat of the hot pipe which would usually be wasted.
Generating steam from sunlight
Researchers have demonstrated that sunlight, concentrated on nanoparticles, can produce steam with high energy efficiency. A ‘solar steam device’ could be used in developing countries where there is no electricity to purify water and to disinfect dental instruments.
The potential practicality of this nanoscience could be a useful tool in order to prevent less suffering in countries with unfiltered, diseased water and therefore improve the quality of life for people in developing countries.
Increased electricity generated by windmills
Using an epoxy containing carbon nanotubes can enable the creation of stronger and lower weight blades. This enables the production of longer blades, therefore increasing the amount of energy produced from each windmill.
The improved blade design through nanotechnology makes windmills more efficient, meaning that we can become more reliant on windmills to produce a larger amount of our energy rather than fossil fuels.
High efficiency light bulbs
High efficiency light bulbs can be produced through a nano engineered polymer matrix. The new bulbs are not only shatterproof, but also operate at twice the efficiency of compact, fluorescent light bulbs.
This will more efficient light bulbs help to conserve energy and electricity, and across multiple households and buildings across the world this could have a major impact on the amount of energy that we save.
Go to our news page to see more stories and find out more information about the possibilities of Nanotechnology.
How Nanotechnology can treat the brain
The brain is one of our most vital, yet complicated organs in the human body. Whilst we have learnt more and more about the brain, without nanotechnologies input we would be limited in how much we could learn and how we could treat people. These are some of the key areas where Nanotechnology will likely be involved in the future when it comes to the brain.
Graphene based implants
Scientists have been developing a graphene based implant which can track neural activity on the brain. There is little knowledge around the low frequency electric activity from the brain as the frequency has been incredibly hard to detect before. The implant is being used to study how seizures begin, and could potentially lead to improved treatment of epilepsy, whilst contributing to the future of brain computer interfaces.
This implant will allow scientists to deeper understand the brain and measure the signals that were previously unmeasurable.
Drug delivery
Nanotechnology has been used to create acellular synthetic polymeric brain implants to deliver drugs to the central nervous system. The method delivers drugs via degradation or diffusion over long periods, such as weeks or months.
Nanotechnology has a great potential to affect the treatment of neurological disorders, mainly Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, brain tumors, and stroke through improved drug delivery to the CNS.
Nanocoated Implants
Since 2009, scientists have added nanotechnology coatings to implants, which have allowed device electrodes to interface with the brain with less resistance. This then allowed the implants to operate for longer periods.
Nanocoated implants can help to treat diseases such as Parkinson's disease, depression and epilepsy.
Go to our news page to learn more about the impact of nanotechnology.
How nanotechnology is helping to combat diabetes
Diabetes is a lifelong condition which causes a person's blood levels to rise too high. It is estimated that 415 million people around the world suffer from diabetes, one in eleven of the world's adult population. Finding more effective methods to treat diabetes, as well as moving towards finding a cure for the disease, is something where nanotechnology could be revolutionary in the future of disease treatment.
Anti diabetic drugs
Nanotechnology could enable anti diabetic drugs to become cheaper and more accessible, after a breakthrough in 2019 where there was a simpler, cleaner cost effective drug made through advanced biological and chemical engineering.
Once trialled successfully, more efficient anti diabetic drugs could be produced and the cost of production can be reduced, meaning more access to the drugs that can help more people with diabetes manage the disease.
Gene therapy
It is believed gene therapy can be used to cure diabetes in the future, the therapy has already been trialled on mice with success. Gene therapy is a strategy correcting or compensating the symptoms of diseases caused by defective or abnormal genes through introduction of exogenous normal genes. Diseases such as diabetes could be cured by a single treatment, and it is now bringing new treatment options to multiple fields of medicine.
If this method to cure diabetes could be successful on humans in the future with no adverse side effects, this would lead to a major shift in the treatment of diabetes.
Insulin patch
An insulin delivery patch is currently being developed which could one day monitor and manage glucose levels in people with diabetes and deliver the necessary insulin dosage. The patch is easy and cost effective to manufacture and would be intended for once a day use.
If this patch could be developed and brought into use after trails, this would mean people living with diabetes would have more control of their Insulin levels at all times, therefore making life with diabetes much more manageable.
For more nanotechnology news and stories, click here.
How nanotechnology can help to combat climate change
Nanotechnology is quickly becoming one of the most important elements of modern science. With the looming uncertainty around climate change ahead, nanotechnology for certain will be playing a part in helping to try and protect our planet.
Nano CO2 Harvesters
Researchers have developed Nano CO2 harvesters, which can suck atmospheric carbon dioxide and deploy it for industrial purposes, helping to slow the rise of CO2 levels in the atmosphere. Many regard this nanotechnology as the potential ‘holy grail’ of combating climate change.
There is hope that the technology in the future could be used to take CO2 from the earth’s atmosphere and convert it into useful products such as Alcohol. Despite being very early in the progress of this potentially revolutionary product, there is a real promise that this science could be crucial to protecting the planet.
Accelerated Anaerobic digestion
Digesters have been used for years to convert biodegradable waste into biogas fuels and solids that can be used as fertilizers, but the process is incredibly slow. However, using nanotechnology, this process can be sped up rapidly.
Adding metal oxide particles to food digesters can double the amount of biogas produced, This means farms and food industries can manage biodegradable waste with more, leading to less pollution into land and water.
Electricity storage and batteries
As a cheaper method of supercapacitor storage of renewable energy, Electricity storage through everyday objects like bricks could play a major role in reducing the number of emissions we need to produce.
In this research, nanoscientists have found a way to store electricity into the house brick. This way, buildings could become powerhouses of energy, meaning that we would be able to be more efficient with our electricity and could lead the way from a transition away from CO2 emissions.
Click here to see some more impacts of nanotechnology.
How Nanotechnology can help to Improve Global Public Health
With the world changing due to COVID - 19, the protection of public health has never had more importance. Here’s how Nanotechnology could be used in the future to help improve and maintain human health and wellbeing.
Vaccines
Vaccines are the most definitive solution to the Covid-19 pandemic, and nanomaterials already play a vital role in vaccine design, development, delivery, and administration.
It is believed nanotechnology can be used in the future to create vaccines which will show a significant decrease in side effects along with improved effectiveness. Without nanotechnology, the speed and effectiveness of vaccines to meet the needed demand during a pandemic will not be able to be met in the future.
Cancer Treatment
One of the most promising methods for finding a cure for cancer is through Nanotechnology. A new nanotechnology design is already providing hope for personalized vaccinations for treating cancer, and nanomotor probes are also being developed to sense cancer environments in the body and target cancer cells.
This demonstrates how nanotechnology development will be critical for the development of cancer treatment across the globe in the near future.
Heart Treatment
As recently as 2020, scientists discovered a way to use nanoparticles to destroy plaques that cause heart attacks. It has also been discovered how you can use nanotechnology in tissue engineering and regeneration, as well as in heart repair.
With the use of nanotechnology and the potential it has, the treatment of heart disease, attacks, and failure will become more and more effective.
For more news and information, click here.
How Nanotechnology is already impacting our lives
The future possibilities of nanotechnology are mind blowing, but nanotechnology today has already had a significant impact in different sectors and industries. Here are some examples that show how nanotechnology has helped to shape the world we live in already.
Computers
Nanotechnology has shaped a large part of what is a modern laptop or computer. Laptops have longer battery lives and can contain much more power whilst consuming less.
With nanotechnology, the potential for what a computer can become is so much more. Scientists believe it is possible to make computers of large data sizes small enough to flow through your bloodstream. nanosized computers will mean computers will be able to go almost anywhere.
Chemical sensors
Due to the use of nanotechnology, chemical sensors can be used to detect a particular chemical at astonishingly low levels, such as a single molecule out of billions. This is hugely important in military chemical detection, chemical testing in food production, and early identification of diseases in medical care.
With such a reliance on this technology in such crucial areas of our society, the future possibilities of chemical sensors due to the developments of nanotechnology will be increasingly beneficial.
Clean water
Nano filters can be used to remove nano-sized particles from drinking water, effectively removing all viruses and bacteria from the water. With the water filters only being 15 to 20 nanometers wide, all the particles and bacteria can cause serious harm are removed.
These systems are very portable and cost-efficient too, making them perfect for improving the quality of drinking water in emerging countries across the globe.
For more information about Nanotechnology and its future, click here.
How Nanotechnology can help to end Water Scarcity
With an increasing lack of fresh and clean drinking water to meet human demand, the importance for humankind to provide a sustainable and large enough amount of drinking water to meet the rising population has never been as important as now. Nanotechnology could be crucial in making sure that no more countries have to risk facing day zero.
Nano Filters
Nano filters can be used to remove nano-sized particles from drinking water. This means that all viruses and bacteria that could be harmful to someone drinking the water can be removed. These filters are cost-efficient and portable too, so they can be used in developing countries where clean drinking water is not as accessible.
Nano filters will be crucial in the future to create more fresh drinking water for the majority of the population, and water that will have been harming the health and shortening the lives of recipients will now have access to clean drinking water and no longer be at risk.
Desalination
There are many methods to desalinate water, however, one of the most effective methods is membrane desalination. Water is pushed through a thin membrane with tiny holes, water can flow through the holes but not salt ions. Therefore the only freshwater can make it to the other side.
If this method to desalinate salt water can be used more cost-efficiently and on a larger scale, a lot of issues when it comes to accessing clean drinking water can be solved. Seawater makes up 97.5% of the planet’s water while drinking water makes up 1%, so drinking water would be immensely accessible to the whole population.
Magnetic water purification
In 2019, scientists identified another way to purify water. The method is based on using magnets to attract magnetic nanoparticles coated in an ionic liquid that attracts organic and inorganic chemicals and microplastics. This way you can then remove the nanoparticles in the water.
The method at the moment is too slow and impractical to be effective at the moment, but if a cheaper and more practical way to utilize this method could be developed, clean drinking water could be more accessible to many people who need it across the world.
For more information about Nanotechnology and its future, click here.
The Future of Nanotechnology
Nanotechnology is one of the fastest emerging sciences of its time, and it is thought that Nanotechnology science will be a part of the lives of every person on the planet in 20 years. Here are some of the great things nanotechnology could be a part of in the future to better the way of human life.
Cancer treatment
Cancer therapy is currently limited to three different methods, surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy. Surgery is not always possible, and chemotherapy and radiation cause harm whilst trying to remove cancer. Nanotechnology offers an opportunity to target chemotherapies directly to cancer cells and neoplasms, guide in surgical resections of tumors, and enhance radiation-based therapy efficiency.
There is also a potential for nanotechnology to offer a cure for cancer in the future itself too. There are theories of how nanoparticles could be used to bind to tumor cells once injected into the affected area and then remove them.
Prosthetics
Nanotechnology is likely to play a huge role in the future of prosthetics. Electronic skin that can react to pain and contact in the same way as human skin has been developed, there has also been research into controlled antibiotic eluting prosthetic joints that release antibiotics post-surgery to decrease bacterial adhesion.
The use of nanotechnology and science within prosthetics could lead to closer to identical prosthetics and replicas of limbs, whilst being easier and less troublesome for amputees to maintain.
Graphene
The potential of what graphene can achieve is widely regarded as limitless. The super material has outstanding strength, flexibility, and conductivity properties making it perfect for composites and coatings, whilst having the unique properties to apply to groundbreaking biomedical applications.
Mobile phones that charge in seconds, the next generation of electronics, ‘smart’ implants, and improved brain penetration, these some of the things that graphene is capable of making an everlasting impact on in the future. Graphene is quickly becoming the most exciting technology of its era.
To find out more about the future of nanotechnology, read more of our stories here.