“Our use of these nanoscale field-effect transistors, or nanoFETs, represents the first totally new approach to intracellular studies in decades, as well as the first measurement of the inside of a cell with a semiconductor device”, says senior author Charles M. Lieber, the Mark Hyman Jr. Professor of Chemistry at Harvard. “The nanoFETs are the first new electrical measurement tool for intracellular studies since the 1960s, during which time electronics have advanced considerably.”

Lieber and colleagues say nanoFETs could be used to measure ion flux or electrical signals in cells, particularly neurons. The devices could also be fitted with receptors or ligands to probe for the presence of individual biochemicals within a cell.

Human cells can range in size from about 10 microns (millionths of a meter) for nerve cells to 50 microns for cardiac cells. While current probes measure up to 5 microns in diameter, nanoFETs have less than 50 nanometers in total size, with the nanowire probe itself measuring just 15 nanometers in diameter. Lieber and his team found that by coating the structures with a phospholipid bilayer (the same material cell membranes are made of) the devices are easily pulled into a cell via membrane fusion.

“This eliminates the need to push the nanoFETs into a cell, since they are essentially fused with the cell membrane by the cell’s own machinery”, Lieber says. “This also means insertion of nanoFETs is not nearly as traumatic to the cell as current electrical probes. We found that nanoFETs can be inserted and removed from a cell multiple times without any discernible damage to the cell. We can even use them to measure continuously as the device enters and exits the cell.”

This research builds upon previous work by Lieber’s group to introduce triangular “stereocenters” (fixed 120-degree joints) into nanowires, structures that had previously been rigidly linear. These stereocenters, analogous to the chemical hubs found in many complex organic molecules, introduce kinks into 1-D nanostructures, transforming them into more complex forms.

Lieber and his co-authors found that introducing two 120-degree angles into a nanowire in the proper cis orientation creates a single V-shaped 60-degree angle, perfect for a two-pronged nanoFET with a sensor at the tip of the V. The two arms can then be connected to wires to create a current through the nanoscale transistor.

The Seaswarm robot, which is 4.86 meters (16 feet) long and 2.13 meters (7 feet) wide, uses two square meters of solar panels in order to generate energy for its propulsion. With just 100 watts, the equivalent of one household light bulb, it could potentially clean continuously for weeks.

As the head moves through the water the conveyor belt constantly rotates and sucks up pollution. The nanowire-covered belt is then compressed to remove the oil. As the clean part of the belt comes out of the head it immediately begins absorbing oil, making the collection process seamless and efficient.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The fabric, developed by MIT Visiting Associate Professor Francesco Stellacci, is able to absorb up to twenty times its own weight in oil while being hydrophobic. By heating up the material, the oil can be removed and burnt locally and the nanofabric can be reused.

“Unlike traditional skimmers, Seaswarm is based on a system of small, autonomous units that behave like a swarm and ‘digest’ the oil locally while working around the clock without human intervention,” explained Senseable City Lab Director Carlo Ratti.

Using swarm behavior, the units will use wireless communication and GPS and manage their coordinates and ensure an even distribution over a spill site. By detecting the edge of a spill and moving inward, a single vehicle could clean an entire site autonomously or engage other vehicles for faster cleaning.

“We hope that giant oil spills such as the Deepwater Horizon incident will not occur in the future, however, small oil leaks happen constantly in off shore drilling”, Ratti said. “The brief we gave ourselves was to design a simple, inexpensive cleaning system to address this problem.”

MIT researchers estimate that a fleet of 5,000 Seaswarm robots would be able to clean a spill the size of the gulf in one month. The team has future plans to enter their design into the X-Prize’s $1 million oil-cleanup competition. The award is given to the team that can most efficiently collect surface oil with the highest recovery rate.

Senseable City Lab’s initial Seaswarm prototype will be unveiled at the Venice Biennale’s Italian Pavilion on Saturday, August 28. Visitors will be able to interact with the prototype and view a video on how the vehicle was constructed and how it operates. The Venice Biennale runs from August 29 to November 21, 2010.

The DISPLAX Multitouch Technology can be applied to flat or curved, opaque as well as transparent surfaces up to three meters across the diagonal. It is hyper sensitive, allowing users to interact with an enabled surface not just by touching it but, for the first time, by blowing on it, opening up new possibilities for future applications. Currently, the technology can detect up to 16 fingers on a 50-inch screen. The number of fingers detected is expected to increase as development progresses.

“Multitouch is the future of interacting with a wide range of technologies. For the commercial markets, the DISPLAX Multitouch Technology will open up new opportunities for many market players, technology vendors as well as businesses,” said Miguel Fonseca, chief business officer of DISPLAX, based in Braga, Portugal. The. ”It is extremely powerful, precise and versatile. Almost everyone who sees it thinks of new applications, from converting LCDs into a multitouch screens, tables into multitouch tables, to creating interactive information screens in stores, shopping malls or public areas, to developing new exciting gaming environments. We already have a number of interesting pilots in progress across Europe.”

Based on patent-pending projected capacitive technology, DISPLAX Multitouch Technology uses a controller that works by processing multiple input signals it receives from a grid of nanowires embedded in the film attached to the enabled surface. Each time a finger is placed on the screen or a user blows on the surface, a small electrical disturbance is caused. The micro-processor controller analyses this data and decodes the location of each input on that grid to track the finger and air-flow movements.

The SKIN itself lets 96% of the light pass through and it’s capable to detect touch even without physical contact on up to 10mm distance. Its system resolution is usually 1024 x 768 but it is capable of working with higher screen resolution. The folks from DISPLAX claim that they guarantee the accuracy of the SKIN and that it has a maximum of 1.9% of screen error accuracy when it is used within the recommended viewing area. The SKIN is able to operate on a temperature range from 11 to 71°C (52 to 160°F) and is resistant to the water on the SKIN surface.

The DISPLAX Multitouch technology controller combined with a projected capacitive nanowired film is a lightweight and highly scalable solution, ranging from seven inches (18 centimeters) to 116 inches (almost 3 meters) across the diagonal thus opening up a wide range of commercial applications suitable for indoor or outdoor displays. They come in some predefined sizes (4:3 STANDARD: 30”, 40”, 50”, 60”, 67”, 72”, 84” and 16:9 STANDARD: 32”, 37”, 40”, 42”, 46”, 50”, 52”, 56”, 57”, 60”, 62”, 65”, 70”, 100”, 116″) and are also available in on-request custom sizes.

DISPLAX works with partners and directly with customers to deliver multi-touch applications, enabling people to take full advantage of the latest developments. DISPLAX Multitouch Technology will be available in the market with several embedded business applications at no extra cost, designed especially for the kind of installations that interactive technology companies work on. This Apps Pack will allow customers to display photo and video streams, provide users access to Google Maps and social networks, integrate news streams via RSS and play multitouch games. More applications will be available later in 2010 directly from DISPLAX and other developers.