/ News
MRI goes nanoscale
Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have succeeded in generating intense magnetic fields on the nanoscale by focusing electric current through a nanosized metal constriction. The feat has allowed them to perform magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and spectroscopy at spatial resolutions of just 10 nm using well established nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) techniques such as “Fourier-transform”. Such nanoscale MRI could come in extremely useful for imaging biological organisms and, if improved, the new technique might even be used to image viruses and protein macromolecules in the future.
“Another important result of our research is that we have demonstrated a new magnetic resonance protocol that allows us to apply NMR techniques to encode so-called spin noise,” explained team leader Raffi Budakian. “That is, we encode information in the statistical fluctuations of all the nuclear spins in a sample rather than in their thermal spin polarization – as is usually the case.”
“In nanometre-scale volumes, the signal generated by nuclear spin fluctuations is generally much larger than that produced by the thermal spin polarization,” he added. “It is, however, difficult to work with these spin fluctuations because both the sign and magnitude of the signal fluctuate. Our technique provides a new way to implement NMR pulse sequences that would work with such a randomly fluctuating signal.”
The researchers begin by attaching the sample to be analysed to the tip of a silicon nanowire mechanical resonator – which is a tiny plank of silicon roughly 15 µm long and 50 nm wide. They then place this nanowire over a metal constriction 240 nm wide and 100 nm thick. By passing high-frequency electric currents through the constriction, they are able to generate intense magnetic fields on the sample and perform magnetic resonance.
The team then oscillates this electric current through the constriction to generate a magnetic field gradient that alternates at the same frequency as the nanowire vibrates. The force of interaction between the spins in the sample and the alternating inhomogeneous magnetic field produces tiny, angstrom-scale vibrations of the nanowire that can then be measured using an optical interferometer included in the set-up.
Well established methods in MRI
“Our technique in fact uses well established methods in MRI,” Budakian told nanotechweb.org. “Fourier-transform imaging is routinely used in MRI and is a very efficient sample-imaging technique, but the main difference in our new method is that we encode information in the spin noise rather than in the thermal polarization.”
The Illinois team was able to successfully image 1H spins in a polystyrene sample using its method and obtained a 2D projection of the proton density in the material with a spatial resolution as small as 10 nm.
According to the researchers, the technique could come in handy for imaging biological samples. “Our near-term goal is to achieve even higher spatial resolution and begin imaging virus particles,” added Budakian. “We would ideally like to tomographically image virus particles in 3D and, with sufficient improvement, might even be able to image macromolecules such as proteins in the future.”
The current work is reported in Physical Review X doi: 10.1103/PhysRevX.3.031016.
Source: http://nanotechweb.org/cws/article/tech/54956
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Founded by Russian entrepreneur Dmitry Itskov in February 2011 with the participation of leading Russian specialists in the field of neural interfaces, robotics, artificial organs and systems.
The main goals of the 2045 Initiative: the creation and realization of a new strategy for the development of humanity which meets global civilization challenges; the creation of optimale conditions promoting the spiritual enlightenment of humanity; and the realization of a new futuristic reality based on 5 principles: high spirituality, high culture, high ethics, high science and high technologies.
The main science mega-project of the 2045 Initiative aims to create technologies enabling the transfer of a individual’s personality to a more advanced non-biological carrier, and extending life, including to the point of immortality. We devote particular attention to enabling the fullest possible dialogue between the world’s major spiritual traditions, science and society.
A large-scale transformation of humanity, comparable to some of the major spiritual and sci-tech revolutions in history, will require a new strategy. We believe this to be necessary to overcome existing crises, which threaten our planetary habitat and the continued existence of humanity as a species. With the 2045 Initiative, we hope to realize a new strategy for humanity's development, and in so doing, create a more productive, fulfilling, and satisfying future.
The "2045" team is working towards creating an international research center where leading scientists will be engaged in research and development in the fields of anthropomorphic robotics, living systems modeling and brain and consciousness modeling with the goal of transferring one’s individual consciousness to an artificial carrier and achieving cybernetic immortality.
An annual congress "The Global Future 2045" is organized by the Initiative to give platform for discussing mankind's evolutionary strategy based on technologies of cybernetic immortality as well as the possible impact of such technologies on global society, politics and economies of the future.
Future prospects of "2045" Initiative for society
2015-2020
The emergence and widespread use of affordable android "avatars" controlled by a "brain-computer" interface. Coupled with related technologies “avatars’ will give people a number of new features: ability to work in dangerous environments, perform rescue operations, travel in extreme situations etc.
Avatar components will be used in medicine for the rehabilitation of fully or partially disabled patients giving them prosthetic limbs or recover lost senses.
2020-2025
Creation of an autonomous life-support system for the human brain linked to a robot, ‘avatar’, will save people whose body is completely worn out or irreversibly damaged. Any patient with an intact brain will be able to return to a fully functioning bodily life. Such technologies will greatly enlarge the possibility of hybrid bio-electronic devices, thus creating a new IT revolution and will make all kinds of superimpositions of electronic and biological systems possible.
2030-2035
Creation of a computer model of the brain and human consciousness with the subsequent development of means to transfer individual consciousness onto an artificial carrier. This development will profoundly change the world, it will not only give everyone the possibility of cybernetic immortality but will also create a friendly artificial intelligence, expand human capabilities and provide opportunities for ordinary people to restore or modify their own brain multiple times. The final result at this stage can be a real revolution in the understanding of human nature that will completely change the human and technical prospects for humanity.
2045
This is the time when substance-independent minds will receive new bodies with capacities far exceeding those of ordinary humans. A new era for humanity will arrive! Changes will occur in all spheres of human activity – energy generation, transportation, politics, medicine, psychology, sciences, and so on.
Today it is hard to imagine a future when bodies consisting of nanorobots will become affordable and capable of taking any form. It is also hard to imagine body holograms featuring controlled matter. One thing is clear however: humanity, for the first time in its history, will make a fully managed evolutionary transition and eventually become a new species. Moreover, prerequisites for a large-scale expansion into outer space will be created as well.
Key elements of the project in the future
• International social movement
• social network immortal.me
• charitable foundation "Global Future 2045" (Foundation 2045)
• scientific research centre "Immortality"
• business incubator
• University of "Immortality"
• annual award for contribution to the realization of the project of "Immortality”.
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