Numbers,scale and symbols: the public understanding of nanotechnology

Nanotechnology will be an increasing part of the everyday lives of most people in the world. There is a general recognition that few people understand the implications of the technology, the technology itself or even the definition of the word. This lack of understanding stems from a lack of knowledge about science in general but more specifically difficulty in grasping the size scale and symbolism of nanotechnology. A potential key to informing the general public is establishing the ability to comprehend the scale of nanotechnology. Transitioning from the macro to the nanoscale seems to require an ability to comprehend scales of one-billion. Scaling is a skill not common in most individuals and tests of their ability to extrapolate size based upon scaling a common object demonstrates that most individuals cannot scale to the extent needed to make the transition to nanoscale. Symbolism is another important vehicle to providing the general public with a basis to understand the concepts of nanotechnology. With increasing age, individuals are able to draw representations of atomic scale objects, but these tend to be iconic and the different representations not easily translated. Ball and stick models are most recognized by the public, which provides an opportunity to present not only useful symbolism but also a reference point for the atomic scale.     

Internal circulation in a drop in an acoustic field

An investigation of the internal flow field for a drop at the antinode of a standing wave has been carried out. The main difference from the solid sphere case is the inclusion of the shear stress and velocity continuity conditions at the liquid-gas interface. To the leading order of calculation, the internal flow field was found to be quite weak. Also, this order being fully time dependent has a zero mean flow. At the next higher order, steady internal flows are predicted and, as in the case of a solid sphere, there is a recirculating layer consisting of closed streamlines near the surface. In the case of a liquid drop, however, the behavior of this recirculating Stokes layer is quite interesting. It is predicted that the layer ceases to have recirculation when [formula: see text], where [symbol: see text] is the liquid viscosity, mu is the exterior gas-phase viscosity, and M is the dimensionless frequency parameter for the gas phase, defined by M = i omega a2 rho/mu, with a being the drop radius. Thorough experimental confirmation of this interesting new development needs to be conducted. Although it seems to agree with many experiments with levitated drops where no recirculating layer has been clearly observed, a new set of experiments for specifically testing this interesting development need to be carried out.     

Glycosylation sites of hemocyanins of Helix pomatia and Sepia officinalis

Glycopeptides were isolated from functional units of two molluscan hemocyanins (Hcs). They were analyzed and localized in the sequences. A comparison with potential N-glycosylation sites of two other molluscan Hcs was made. An immunological cross-reactivity was observed between the beta-Hc and the alpha-macroglobulin of Helix pomotia. ELISA experiments with glycopeptide fractions indicated a competition.     

Compressibility effects on steady streaming from a noncompact rigid sphere

The problem of steady streaming around a rigid isolated sphere in a plane standing acoustic field is considered. Existing results in the literature have been generalized to allow for noncompactness of the sphere, and the influence of fluid compressibility on the streaming behavior has been included. It is found that in the high-frequency limit of interest for which the streaming is strongest, the effective steady slip velocity at the edge of the inner boundary layer region that is responsible for driving the steady streaming in the bulk of the fluid in the outer region, has a complex variation over the surface of the sphere that depends on (i) the sphere position (with respect to the node/antinode of the acoustic field), (ii) the extent of sphere compactness, and (iii) on a well-defined function (representing compressibility effects) of the fluid Prandtl number and its ratio of specific heats. Not surprisingly, the contribution from this function is negligible when the host fluid is a liquid. The steady streaming behavior around the sphere is demonstrated with the help of flow streamlines for various cases in the diffusive limit of weak outer flow for low streaming Reynolds numbers.     

A two-frequency acoustic technique for bubble resonant oscillation studies

A two-frequency acoustic apparatus has been developed to study the dynamics of a single gas or vapor bubble in water. An advantage of the apparatus is its capability of trapping a bubble by an ultrasonic standing wave while independently driving it into oscillations by a second lower frequency acoustic wave. For a preliminary application, the apparatus is used to study resonant oscillations. First, near-resonant coupling between the volume and the n = 3 shape oscillation modes of air bubbles at room temperature is studied, where n is the mode number. The stability boundary, amplitude versus frequency, of the volume oscillation forms a wedge centered at the resonant frequency, which qualitatively agrees with a theoretical prediction based on a phase-space analysis. Next, the resonant volume oscillations of vapor bubbles are studied. The resonant radius of vapor bubbles at 80 degrees C driven at 1682 Hz is determined to be 0.7 mm, in agreement with a prediction obtained by numerical simulation.     

Three-lobed shape bifurcation of rotating liquid drops

The evolution of axisymmetric equilibrium shapes of a rigidly rotating liquid drop can be extended beyond the 2-lobed shape bifurcation point if the rotating drop is driven in the n = 2 axisymmetric shape oscillation (perturbation), where n is the mode of oscillation. A reason for the extended stability of the perturbed rotating drop is that the inertia of the driven axisymmetric shape oscillation suppresses growth of a natural nonaxisymmetric shape fluctuation which leads to the 2-lobed shape bifurcation. The axisymmetric shape of the drop eventually bifurcates into either a 2- or a 3-lobed shape at a higher bifurcation point which is asserted to be the 3-lobed shape bifurcation point.     

Study on the isomeric ratios of (γ,p) photonuclear reactions with isotopes 40 92 Zr and 74 183 W in the giant dipole resonance region

We have carried out the study on the isomeric ratios in (γ,p) photonuclear reactions with isotopes ₄₀ ⁹² Zr and ₇₄ ¹⁸³ W in the giant dipole resonance (GDR) region. The targets were irradiated with bremsstrahlungs produced by electron accelerator Microtron MT-25 of the Flerov Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions, Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, Dubna, Russia. Spectra of the irradiated samples were measured with a spectroscopic system consisting of 8192-channel analyzer CANBERRA and high-energy resolution semiconductor detector CANBERRA. The results were discussed and compared with those of other authors. The text was submitted by the authors in English.     

Preparation and characterization of titania based nanowires

A new method for preparation of titania nanowires with diameter around 10 nm and length up to 2–3 μm is described. The precursor was prepared from sodium titanate by adding ethylene glycole (EG) and heating at temperature of 198°C for 6 h under reflux. The sodium titanate glycolate formed by this way aggregated into 1D nanostructures and was subsequently transformed into titania glycolate during a chemical treatment with 98% sulfuric acid. Titania nanowires with variable amount of anatase and rutile were prepared by heating to temperatures in the range 350–1000°C. The precursor as well as titania based samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction, Infrared spectroscopy, Scanning electron microscopy, High resolution transmission microscopy, Thermogravimetry, Differential thermal analysis, Evolved gas analysis and Emanation thermal analysis. The nitrogen adsorption/desorption was used for surface area and porosity determination. The photoactivity of the prepared titania samples was assessed by the photocatalytic decomposition of 4-chlorophenol in an aqueous slurry under UV irradiation of 365 nm wavelength.     

Evaluation of sample treatment procedures for the routine identification and determination at nanogram level of O6-monoacetylmorphine in urine by capillary GC and dual NPD-FID

Three methods were evaluated for the determination of O⁶-monoacetylmorphine (6-MAM), the specific metabolite of heroin in human urine, by GC-NPD-FID. The procedure devised for a hydrophobic cation exchange column showed superior performances over the liquid-liquid extraction technique and solid phase extraction with C₁₈. 6-MAM can be analyzed in random urines at the 2 ng/mL concentration with classical equipment for the differentiation between heroin intake and opiates from various origins. The procedure was also applied to enzymatic and acid hydrolyzates of urines. The simultaneous presence of morphine and codeine are useful in the interpretation of results.     

Molecular deformation mechanisms of isotactic polypropylene in α‐ and β‐crystal forms by FTIR spectroscopy

The orientation behavior of isotactic polypropylene (iPP) in α‐ and β‐crystal form was investigated by rheo‐optical Fourier transformed infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. This method enabled quantification of the degree of orientation as a feature of structural changes during uniaxial elongation in not only the crystalline phase but also the amorphous one. Molecular orientation mechanisms can be successfully derived from experimental results. Generally, three mechanisms were detected for iPP: (1) interlamellar separation in the amorphous phase, (2) interlamellar slip and lamellar twisting at small elongations, and (3) intralamellar slip at high elongations. The third mechanism was favored by α‐PP, whereas β‐PP favored the second mechanism, which, in fact, was responsible for the different mechanical properties of both materials at the macroscopic level. On the other hand, crystallization conditions may have significantly affected the amorphous orientation. Nevertheless, for both iPP types the chains in the amorphous phase always oriented less than did those in the crystalline phase. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 42: 4478–4488, 2004