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A Utah university is forming a new institute with the "smallest" research charter ever. What scientists there hope to discover could revolutionize, in a big way, everything from communications to health care.
The Nano Institute of Utah, as it will be known, will only develop things measuring one-billionth of a meter in size. How small is that?
"If you take the thickness of your hair and divide it into about a thousandth, that's the scale we're talking about," explained Dr. Hamid Ghandehari, of the University of Utah pharmaceutics and bioengineering departments.
Ghandehari says Nano devices could flow inside the smallest of our vessels. As implants, they can help someone like Matthew Nagle control things in his room by just thinking about it.
Though Nagle is paralyzed from the neck down, he turned lights and TVs on and off, adjusted channels and volume, controlled his computer and read his e-mail.
"I can't put it into words. I use my brain. I just thought it. I said to the cursor, 'Go up to the top right,' and it did. And now, I can control the vid all over the screen. It's wild," Nagle said.
Small sensors picked up signals from his brain that normally would have been sent to his arms and hands. They were dispatched to a prosthetic hand. Again, he moves it by just thinking about it.
Matthew did this four years ago. Imagine where the technology is now!
The University of Utah's Nano Institute will bring chemists, physicists, biologists, engineers, doctors and pharmacists together under one roof, so to speak. They'll share ideas that, on the laboratory bench, will transform into all kinds of microscopic products.
"Scientists are now beginning to understand more so that, not only does the size of the material matter, we can think of a rod-like shape versus a spherical shape," Ghandehari said.
Some examples: In the bloodstream, they could monitor and control blood glucose. How about as miniature missiles targeting cancer cells or other diseases?
Nanoscience, as it's called, is a new frontier with millions of possibilities.
The Nano Institute is part of the Utah Science Technology and Research Initiative, which is investing $15 million annually into several research projects. Nanotechnology is high on the priority list.
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