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Human Cells Eat Nanowires
- GarvielLoken 10y agoAnyone else that think that this might be a bad idea?
- runin2k1 10y agoI think bathing yourself in a tub full of nanowires is a bad idea. I think experimenting to determine why and how cells do this, and if it is potentially useful is fun/interesting science.
- nonbel 10y ago>"fun/interesting science" I thought science is not supposed to be fun. It is supposed to be filling out an endless series of grants, which no one will ever inspect very closely, that have mind numbing page-length, formatting, etc rules along with satisfying other miscellaneous approval paperwork and IT/safety training.
- runin2k1 10y agoOh that is true, I meant fun and interesting for me. I'm sure every day is a slog for those poor souls doing the actual work.
- m0llusk 10y agoThe Marie Curie approach--very brave.
- germainemalcolm 10y agoAnyone know why these cells so readily do this?
- kernelbandwidth 10y agoOh this is very cool. Glad to see Bozhi's work getting some attention. A friend of mine is co-mentored by Bozhi and my graduate advisor, and was working on some very neat experiments using this technology to trigger specific responses in T-cells. Basically, the gold nanowires can be used to trigger a membrane voltage differential, and theoretically trigger a calcium flux and then a downstream immune response without an antigen. I know they had successes with nerve cells, and I'm hopeful the T-cell results will show similar success. Edit: Properly reading the article, it looks like this is either slightly older work, or a different experiment from the one I'm familiar with, which did show success in nerve cells last time I saw the talk on it (and used gold, or gold-silicon, my memory is fuzzy now, nanowires).
- CorvusCrypto 10y agoMy thought was immediately gone to using these nanowires to trigger excitatory bursts in localized areas of the brain, solving issues like microseizures (or possibly large scale seizures also) or performing extremely precise electrical therapy. However as the article says, these cells don't have the same transmembrane transport mechanisms (wrongly called phagocytosis by the article) they relied on so this would need more research, but the fact the wires can generate an electrical potential across the membrane is huge in itself and the rest can come. However, the application of drug transport is also amazing. Currently a lot of research is performed on lipid transports (microbubbles, etc.) or capsule-like nanostructures to carry hydrophilic or oversized molecules across the cell membranes. Stimulation of membrane-mediated transport for any molecule just by attaching a chemically inert nanowire to them would be AMAZING.
- nonbel 10y agoThis article contains a crapload of speculation that goes well beyond what was actually accomplished: >"But before Tian’s group can turn the phenomenon into a tool, they must first understand how exactly a cell will eat a piece of silicon nanowire, and what happens to it once it’s inside the cell. That’s what the group did in today’s report. [...] The process is called phagocytosis" >"phagocytosis (from Ancient Greek φαγεῖν (phagein) , meaning "to devour", κύτος, (kytos) , meaning "cell", and -osis, meaning "process") is the process by which a cell—often a phagocyte or a protist—engulfs a solid particle" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phagocytosis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phagocytosis So, here is what was really accomplished here (according to this summary). Some researchers asked: "How does a cell eat a silicon nanowire?" They got the answer: "by eating it". That said, it seems like a useful thing to know that this substance will be phagocytosed. I wish they gave more context though, eg is the nanowire biologically inert, is there something special about the silicon here, etc.
- clebio 10y ago> Silicon nanowires are ... so thin they are essentially one-dimensional. Interesting wording.
- castis 10y agoI'm no expert on any part of that but wouldn't a wire be two-dimensional? Or was that the point of your comment?
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- recursive 10y agoUsually, a wire is like a long thin filament. Surely, this is closer to one-dimensional than two-.
- asimpletune 10y agoI believe what the mean to say by "essentially" is the only relevant dimension in this case would be the length, as the thickness is negligible, given the domain under consideration.
- fredliu 10y agoNo expert here either, but I suppose that meant the wire has essentially only "length" (e.g. x dimension), and no "thickness" (y dimension)?
- johnhenry 10y ago*No "thickness" in either the y or z dimensions -- Let's not forget we have [at least] three :)
- philipov 10y agoA wire can be embedded in 2 or 3 (or N) dimensions, and if the only degree of freedom for travelling along the wire is forward and back (no thickness), then it can also be considered a one-dimensional line. I think the use of the word 'essentially' signifies that the definition of thickness depends on the domain you're examining. In this case, I'd expect we're talking about the connectedness of chemical bonds. No thickness should mean it's a chain of atoms each with only 2 bonds, to the atoms before and after it in the chain.
- ihaveahadron 10y agoThe cells must have adapted like how animals adapt when in an urban environment, or like how all humans and animals do.
- JohnJamesRambo 10y ago"Eat" is used very inappropriately here. As far as I know the cells aren't burning the nanowires for fuel. A more correct term would be that silicon nanowires can cross a cell membrane through phagocytosis, which I don't find that surprising.
- dekhn 10y agoEating is the process of mechanical consumption, not metabolism.
- jessriedel 10y agoNo, if that were true then using a suppository would be "eating". Dictionary definition definitely implies food/nutrition. http://www.dictionary.com/browse/eat http://www.dictionary.com/browse/eat There are non-nutrition definitions, but those concern wear/destruction of a large object by a small object, not engulfment of small object by large object.
- rz2k 10y agoThat explains why my dog doesn't understand me when I tell her not to eat the furniture, or rocks. I should just tell her, "don't take in any more rocks!"
- eveningcoffee 10y agoYou should explain simply that this is not food. Poor dog does not know any difference. Also check if doggy gets enough minerals. :)
- rz2k 10y agoThat should work, once she understands that she is embarrassing herself and showing a poor command of language by eating non-food, she'll stop! (It's something she grew out of, like eating logs if they were rotten enough. I don't know if she had pica or was just an even more enthusiastic chewer than the usual puppy) William S. Burroughs did a piece where a suppository might be construed as eating. [warning crude]: https://www.google.com/webhp#q=William+S+Burroughs+the+man+who+taught+his+to+talk&tbm=vid https://www.google.com/webhp#q=William+S+Burroughs+the+man+w...
- sesteel 10y agoThey call them nanowires, but it might be reasonable to call them a nanoshiv.
- trhway 10y agoafter correctly doping them with gallium/arsenic/etc. we can call them nano- chips/computers.
- linuxguy2 10y agoIs this different than cells self-impaling on asbestos fibers because the Si nano-wires are smaller? In the video from TFA it showed some cells with wires going through them that were longer than the cell's diameter.
- jobu 10y agoThis was my question as well. There are some studies showing that carbon nanotubes can be as dangerous as asbestos, so it seems likely silicon nanowires could be as well: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/carbon-nanotube-danger/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/carbon-nanotube-d... However, if they can make the nanowires shorter than the minimum dimension of a human cell then it likely wouldn't cause the same sort of cancers as asbestos.
- schiffern 10y ago>if they can make the nanowires shorter than the minimum dimension of a human cell then it likely wouldn't cause the same sort of cancers as asbestos. It seems like a tiny knife floating around inside the cell would still cause problems, including genetic damage. Or did you mean it wouldn't cause the same sort of cancers, but rather new, exciting cancers? :)
- osazuwa 10y agoHow might this be used in synthetic biology?
- aperrien 10y agoThis is interesting, and I guess I have a few questions, for someone knowlegeable out there: Can these nanowires be fabricated on an on-chip array? If so, how densely? I'm assuming that they are electrically conductive, so can we create control circuitry to run them at the previously mentioned density? Can those circuits be made bio-compatible? If all there are true, then this might be a good upgrade for existing neural interface devices, depending on longevity.
- known 10y agoCan it be used to cure cancer?