Graphene + Membrane Cholesterol = Miracle

Qi Zhang, PhD, Kristina Kitko and colleagues are studying the way graphene impacts nerve cell signaling in the brain. Credit: Vanderbilt University

Many discoveries are accidental. Take this one for instance. A Vanderbilt University graduate student and her professor were trying to measure electrical activity in the brain, but what they discovered came as “as a complete surprise”.

The Vanderbilt researchers discovered that the wonder substance graphene, “… may enable researchers to change how cells communicate with each other by manipulating the cholesterol content in the cell membrane”.

And the miracle? The Vanderbilt team demonstrated that graphene can affect “G protein-coupled receptors, whose activity are mediated by cholesterol… and, half of all drugs target these receptors.”

Here's the story:

Graphene material strengthens nerve signaling in the brain, Bill Snyder, Vanderbilt University, physorg.com, 2 Mar 2018.

Less than 20 years after it was developed, a thin, resilient sheet of carbon atoms with remarkable properties known as graphene is transforming biomedical fields as far flung as tissue engineering, neuroprosthetics and drug discovery.

Because it readily conducts heat and electricity, graphene also may be a good biosensor. But it's not neutral. When Vanderbilt University scientists tried to use graphene to measure electrical activity in the brain, they found that it actually enhanced nerve cell signaling.

It did so by enabling nerve cell membranes to pull in more cholesterol. The fatty substance was used to make more of the vesicles that package neurotransmitters, the chemical messengers that relay signals between nerve cells. More vesicles and more neurotransmitter meant stronger signals.

These findings, reported last week in the journal Nature Communications, came as a complete surprise to the investigators. They raise the possibility that graphene may enable researchers to change how cells communicate with each other by manipulating the cholesterol content in the cell membrane.

Graphene "not only may be a very good vehicle to deliver drugs but also a way to potentiate the drug effect," said the paper's senior author, Qi Zhang, Ph.D., assistant professor of Pharmacology in the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine.

Please go here for  the rest of the story.

Unspoken - Miracle - 2016

Thirsty for Clean Water

Graphair sample water filter. Photo credit: CSIRO

After a while I get thirsty for a drink of good old H20, especially if there's none at hand. But, unless you have been without safe water to drink you may not understand how essential potable water is.

Floods, earthquakes, drought, severe weather events all of these “natural” happenings, plus, war, polluted ground water, failed municipal water treatment systems – leaching lead pipes – can turn previously safe water into poison in seconds. That's why this development is important to you.

This New Graphene Invention Makes Filthy Seawater Drinkable in One Simple Step, Michelle Starr, sciencealert.com, 16 Feb 2018.

“Using a type of graphene called Graphair, scientists from Australia have created a water filter that can make highly polluted seawater drinkable after just one pass.”

The technology could be used to cheaply provide safe drinking water to regions of the world without access to it.

"Almost a third of the world's population, some 2.1 billion people, don't have clean and safe drinking water," said lead author Dong Han Seo.

"As a result, millions - mostly children - die from diseases associated with inadequate water supply, sanitation and hygiene every year. In Graphair we've found a perfect filter for water purification.

"It can replace the complex, time consuming and multi-stage processes currently needed with a single step."

Developed by researchers at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Graphair is a form of graphene made out of soybean oil.

Graphene - a one-atom-thick, ultrastrong carbon material - might be touted as a supermaterial, but it's been relatively expensive to produce, which has been limiting its use in broader applications.

Graphair is cheaper and simpler to produce than more traditional graphene manufacturing methods, while retaining the properties of graphene. Here is the rest of the story…

Water Facts - water.org

• Today, 1 in 9 people lack access to safe water; 1 in 3 people lack access to a toilet. More people have a mobile phone than a toilet.
• 844 million people live without access to safe water
• 2.3 billion people live without access to improved sanitation
• Every 90 seconds a child dies from a water-related disease
• 1 million people killed by water, sanitation and hygiene-related disease each year
• 3rd leading cause of child death is diarrhea

Please go here for more info: https://water.org/our-impact/water-crisis/

More about graphene? Please go here: Superman's Envy.

Graphene: water filter of the future

CSIRO finds a way to make Sydney Harbour drinkable - and it could save lives.

Published on Feb 25, 2018

Sydney’s iconic harbour has played a starring role in the development of new CSIRO technology that could save lives around the world. Using their own specially designed form of graphene, ‘Graphair’, CSIRO scientists have supercharged water purification, making it simpler, more effective and quicker.

Find out more here: https://research.csiro.au/graphene

Faith Inspired

Image above: Bullwinkle inspired. Alas, still no rabbit.

Hard working researchers inspire my faith that we can overcome our self-limiting ignorance, institutional inertia, corporate avarice, and retro-dark-ages political shortsightedness. Here are just a few recent postings:

Image above: The colors in this cell culture show action taken by pancreas cancer when it recruits harmful cells to the tumor that suppress the body’s natural immune system. Credit: University of Rochester Medical Center.

Pancreatic tumors may require a one-two-three punch, University of Rochester Medical Center, medicalxpress.com,15 Jan 2018.

“One of the many difficult things about pancreatic cancer is that tumors are resistant to most treatments because of their unique density and cell composition. However, in a new Wilmot Cancer Institute study, scientists discovered that a three-drug combination can simultaneously target the cancer cells as well as the other harmful, inflammatory cells within the tumor, to improve survival.”

“The research builds on previous scientific data from the lab of David C. Linehan, M.D., and may define a more personalized approach to treating pancreatic cancer. Ultimately, physicians will use information from the pancreas tumor biopsy about volume and predominance of cancer cells and non-cancerous inflammatory cells that impact the immune system, and then plan the best treatment.”

"People with pancreatic cancer don't have 10 years to wait for the next new drug," said Linehan, a surgical oncologist, director of clinical operations at Wilmot, and the Seymour I. Schwartz Professor and Chair of the Department of Surgery at the University of Rochester Medical Center.

"Our approach is based on evidence that this disease has particular characteristics involving both the tumor and the immune response," he said, "and we believe that treatment must address all sides of the problem."

Please go here for the whole story.

Image above: Charlie Brown, junior king worrywart.

Anxiety: An Early Indicator of Alzheimer’s Disease?, Brigham and Women's Hospital, 18 Jan 2018.

“Alzheimer’s disease is a neurodegenerative condition that causes the decline of cognitive function and the inability to carry out daily life activities. Past studies have suggested depression and other neuropsychiatric symptoms may be predictors of AD’s progression during its “preclinical” phase, during which time brain deposits of fibrillar amyloid and pathological tau accumulate in a patient’s brain. This phase can occur more than a decade before a patient’s onset of mild cognitive impairment. Investigators at Brigham and Women’s Hospital examined the association of brain amyloid beta and longitudinal measures of depression and depressive symptoms in cognitively normal, older adults. Their findings, published today by The American Journal of Psychiatry, suggest that higher levels of amyloid beta may be associated with increasing symptoms of anxiety in these individuals. These results support the theory that neuropsychiatric symptoms could be an early indicator of AD.”

“Rather than just looking at depression as a total score, we looked at specific symptoms such as anxiety. When compared to other symptoms of depression such as sadness or loss of interest, anxiety symptoms increased over time in those with higher amyloid beta levels in the brain,” said first author Nancy Donovan, MD, a geriatric psychiatrist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. “This suggests that anxiety symptoms could be a manifestation of Alzheimer’s disease prior to the onset of cognitive impairment. If further research substantiates anxiety as an early indicator, it would be important for not only identifying people early on with the disease, but also, treating it and potentially slowing or preventing the disease process early on.” As anxiety is common in older people, rising anxiety symptoms may prove to be most useful as a risk marker in older adults with other genetic, biological or clinical indicators of high AD risk.”

Please go here for the whole story.

Image above: UCF researchers have developed a way to make graphene absorb more light (Credit: Paul Fleet/Deposit photos)

UCF researchers have developed a way to make graphene absorb more light, Michael Irving, New Atlas, 14 Jan 2018.

“Graphene, the 2D wonder material made up of a sheet of carbon one atom thick, has a long list of superpowers, but one thing it hasn't been great at is absorbing light. Now, a study from the University of Central Florida (UCF) has found a way to boost graphene's light absorption, allowing it to make better use of that energy.”

“Normally, graphene can only absorb less than two percent of the visible light spectrum. In attempting to boost that statistic, previous studies have embedded metal particles onto sheets of graphene, but that just resulted in the metal itself absorbing the light with little benefit to the material underneath.”

“In the new study, the UCF team decided to alter the shape of the graphene but not the composition of the material. To do that, the researchers first placed it on a polymer substrate, then stamped a nanoscale pattern into the graphene. That created an optical cavity in the material, so that when light hits it, the waves bounce back and forth between the faces of the graphene. That lets the material absorb far more of the light than it normally would.”

“The researchers say that their design allowed a single layer of graphene to absorb more than 45 percent of the light that hits it, but with further optimization they believe that figure could reach almost 90 percent.”

Please go here for the whole story.

On the Trail of a Limitless Energy Source

Physics professor Paul Thibado has designed tiny graphene-powered motors that can run on ambient temperature.

Could it be that a bunch of atoms - that like to constantly move around together - connected in a sheet of graphene can be harnessed to produce energy?

Yes. It is possible.

Explained Physics professor Paul Thibado, University of Arkansas, "Unlike atoms in a liquid, which move in random directions, atoms connected in a sheet of graphene move together. This means their energy can be collected using existing nanotechnology."

“Self-powering enables smart bio-implants, which would profoundly impact society, ” he said.

Here’s the story:
Good Vibrations, Camilla Shumaker, University of Arkansas, 20 Oct 2017.

Using the Natural Motion of 2D Materials to Create a New Source of Clean Energy

Graphene is a seemingly impossible material. For years, scientists had theorized that lifting a single layer of carbon atoms from a chunk of graphite could produce the first two-dimensional material, which they called graphene. Finally, in 2004, this was accomplished by two physicists at the University of Manchester, who earned the Nobel Prize in Physics for this breakthrough.

There was a problem, however: two dimensional materials violate the laws of physics. Without the support of a substrate, physics predicts they would tear apart or melt, even at a temperature of absolute zero. Physicists had to find a loophole to explain their existence.

That loophole turned out to be related to a phenomenon known as Brownian motion, small random fluctuations of the carbon atoms that make up graphene. This causes the material to ripple into the third dimension, similar to waves moving across the surface of the ocean. These movements in and out of the flat surface allow graphene to stay comfortably within the laws of physics.

Ever since Robert Brown discovered Brownian motion in 1827, scientists have wondered whether they could harvest this motion as a source of energy. The research of Paul Thibado, professor of physics at the University of Arkansas, provides strong evidence that the motion of graphene could indeed be used as a source of clean, limitless energy.

Much more here…

A Potential Source of Clean, Limitless Energy

The Beach Boys - Good Vibrations - 1966

Super Charged Battery

While the United States seems headed into a period of neo-Dark Ages, some bright lights are still shining. For how long we do not know since the new administration appears ready to dismantle every governmental program of value, including education. Still, it is not looking good for technological progress, to say nothing about the welfare of us, the “Joe and Jane lunch buckets”, the common un-billionaires, the 99.9%.

So, reading Steve Dent’s report at www.engadget.com, about the University of Central Florida’s achievement is like mainlining a brain-boosting IV. Here’s the story:

New battery tech lasts for days, charges in seconds

Scientists from the University of Central Florida (UCF) have created a supercapacitor battery prototype that works like new even after being recharged 30,000 times. The research could yield high-capacity, ultra-fast-charging batteries that last over 20 times longer than a conventional lithium-ion cell. "You could charge your mobile phone in a few seconds and you wouldn't need to charge it again for over a week," says UCF postdoctoral associate Nitin Choudhary.

Supercapacitors can be charged quickly because they store electricity statically on the surface of a material, rather than using chemical reactions like batteries. That requires "two-dimensional" material sheets with large surface areas that can hold lots of electrons. However, much of the research, including that by EV-maker Henrik Fisker and UCLA, uses graphene as the two-dimensional material.

Yeonwoong "Eric" Jung from UCF says it's a challenge to integrate graphene with other materials used in supercapacitors, though. That's why his team wrapped 2D metal materials (TMDs) just a few atoms thick around highly-conductive 1D nanowires, letting electrons pass quickly from the core to the shell. That yielded a fast charging material with high energy and power density that's relatively simple to produce. "We developed a simple chemical synthesis approach so we can very nicely integrate the existing materials with the two-dimensional materials," Jung says.

The research is in early days and not ready for commercialization, but it looks promising. ""For small electronic devices, our materials are surpassing the conventional ones worldwide in terms of energy density, power density and cyclic stability," Choudhary said.

Jung calls the research "proof-of-concept," and the team is now trying to patent its new process. While it could go nowhere like many other battery developments, it's worth looking at new supercapacitor research closely. If commercialized, it could allow for longer-range EVs that can be charged in minutes rather than hours, long-lasting (non-explosive) smartphones that can be charged in seconds and grid or home energy storage solutions that drastically reduce our reliance on fossil fuels.

Read more about grapheme and other breakthroughs here: www.brkthu.org

Research Discoveries Give Reason for Optimism

Over the past few weeks several science and technology breakthroughs were announced. They give me significant reasons to be optimistic about our future. That is, of course, if we survive after the November U.S. Presidential election.

Here are two research discoveries which give me reason to be optimistic about our future:

1. Brain Diseases -  For the first time, researchers can see structures that allows brain cells to communicate. Thomas Blanpied, PhD, Associate Professor in the Department of Physiology, University of Maryland School of Medicine (UM SOM), and leader of the group that performed the work… “Now by using single-molecule imaging to map where many of the key proteins are, we have finally been able to reveal the core architectural structure of the synapse."

“… researchers turned to an innovative technology known as single-molecule imaging, which can locate and track the movement of individual protein molecules within the confines of a single synapse, even in living cells. Using this approach, the scientists identified an unexpected and precise pattern in the process of neurotransmission.”

“Understanding this architecture will help clarify how communication within the brain works, or, in the case of psychiatric or neurological disease, how it fails to work. Blanpied is also focusing on the activity of "adhesion molecules," which stretch from one cell to the other and may be important pieces of the "nano-column." He suspects that if adhesion molecules are not placed correctly at the synapse, synapse architecture will be disrupted, and neurotransmitters won't be able to do their jobs. Blanpied hypothesizes that in at least some disorders, the issue may be that even though the brain has the right amount of neurotransmitter, the synapses don't transmit these molecules efficiently.”

 “Blanpied says that this improved comprehension of synaptic architecture could lead to a better understanding of brain diseases such as depression, schizophrenia and Alzheimer's disease, and perhaps suggest new ideas for treatments.”

For the first time, researchers see structure that allows brain cells to communicate, University of Maryland School of Medicine, medicalxpress.com, 27 July 2016.

2. Fresh Water - "A new system of bi-layered biofoam may provide the means to purify vast bodies of water simply by overlaying them with sheets of a new material." The researchers claim that the material is exceptionally light, cheap to make, and can easily be produced in vast quantities. And, unlike even exceptionally simple systems designed to do similar things, the graphene biofoam material is simply laid over a body of water and does not require systems of pipes or energy to run the water through for decontamination. 

"Engineers at Washington University in St. Louis (WUSTL) have developed graphene-based biofoam sheets that can be laid on dirty or salty dams and ponds to produce clean drinking water, using the power of the sun. This new technique could be a cheap and simple way to help provide fresh water in countries where large areas of water are contaminated with suspended particles of dirt and other floating matter."

"The biofilm is created as a two-layered structure consisting of two nanocellulose layers produced by bacteria. The lower layer contains pristine cellulose, while the top layer also contains graphene oxide, which absorbs sunlight and produces heat. The system works by drawing up water from underneath like a sponge where it then evaporates in the topmost layer, leaving behind any suspended particulates or salts. Fresh water then condenses on the top, where it can be drawn off and used."

"The process is extremely simple," said Srikanth Singamaneni, associate professor of mechanical engineering and materials at WUSTL. "The beauty is that the nanoscale cellulose fiber network produced by bacteria has excellent ability to move the water from the bulk to the evaporative surface while minimizing the heat coming down, and the entire thing is produced in one shot."

Graphene-based sheets make dirty water drinkable simply and cheaply, Colin Jeffrey, Gizmag, 27 July 2016.