Tree Electricity Runs Nano-Gadget

A report in the journal IEEE Transactions on Nanotechnology shows that maple trees generate a small, but measurable amount of electricity, which can power tiny devices. Karen Hopkin reports

If scientists have their way, we may someday be tapping maples—not for pancake fixin’s, but for power. Because researchers from the University of Washington in Seattle have found there’s enough electricity flowing in trees to run an electronic circuit.

If you’ve ever made a potato battery, you know that plant material can generate current. But the energy in trees is something else entirely. The potato experiment uses electrodes of two different metals to set up a charge difference that gets local electrons flowing.

But in the current study, researchers use electrodes made of the same material. Sticking one electrode into a tree and another in the soil, they found that big leaf maples generate a steady voltage of up to a few hundred millivolts. That’s way less than the volt-and-a-half provided by a standard AA battery. So the scientists designed a gadget so small, with parts just 130 nanometers in size, that it can run on tree power alone.

Source: SCIAM

Nanotech used to create pulsing artificial arteries

A team of British researchers are set to begin a trial program by planting nanotechnology-based artificial arteries into humans.

Scientists at London's Royal Free Hospital received a grant of more than $800,000 to move the artificial artery project from the laboratory to human trials within the next year, according to the hospital. The artificial arteries are made of a polymer material that's combined with nanomaterials. The hospital said the materials can closely mimic natural vessels by pulsing along with the beating of the patient's heart.

The grant was issued by the Wellcome Trust, which is the largest charity in the U.K.

"The new micro-graft pulses rhythmically to match the beat of the heart," said George Hamilton, a team leader and professor of vascular surgery at the Royal Free Hospital. "As well as this, the new graft material is strong, flexible, resistant to blood clotting and doesn't break down, which is a major breakthrough."

The arteries are designed to replace ruptured or diseased vessals in human hearts and legs.

Nanotechnology has been a major part of medical research in recent years.

Source