Tag Archives: Oxford University

Studying the “feather-legged lace weaver’s” (Uloborus plumipes) web weaving abilities

It’s more commonly known in Britain as a ‘garden centre spider’ but I like ‘feather-legged lace weaver’ better. Before getting to the story, here’s an image of the spider in question,

The "garden center spider" (Uloborus plumipes) combs and pulls its silk and builds up an electrostatic charge to create sticky filaments just a few nanometers thick. It could inspire a new way to make super long and strong nanofibers. Credit: Hartmut Kronenberger & Katrin Kronenberger (Oxford University)

The “garden center spider” (Uloborus plumipes) combs and pulls its silk and builds up an electrostatic charge to create sticky filaments just a few nanometers thick. It could inspire a new way to make super long and strong nanofibers.
Credit: Hartmut Kronenberger & Katrin Kronenberger (Oxford University)

A Jan. 27, 2015 Oxford University press release (also on EurekAlert and in a Jan. 29, 2015 news item on Azonano) describes the research,

A spider commonly found in garden centres in Britain is giving fresh insights into how to spin incredibly long and strong fibres just a few nanometres thick.

The majority of spiders spin silk threads several micrometres thick but unusually the ‘garden centre spider’ or ‘feather-legged lace weaver’ [1] Uloborus plumipes can spin nano-scale filaments. Now an Oxford University team think they are closer to understanding how this is done. Their findings could lead to technologies that would enable the commercial spinning of nano-scale filaments.

The research was carried out by Katrin Kronenberger and Fritz Vollrath of Oxford University’s Department of Zoology and is reported in the journal Biology Letters.

Instead of using sticky blobs of glue on their threads to capture prey Uloborus uses a more ancient technique – dry capture threads made of thousands of nano-scale filaments that it is thought to electrically charge to create these fluffed-up catching ropes.

To discover the secrets of its nano-fibres the Oxford researchers collected adult female Uloborus lace weavers from garden centres in Hampshire, UK. They then took photographs and videos of the spiders’ spinning action and used three different microscopy techniques to examine the spiders’ silk-generating organs. Of particular interest was the cribellum, an ancient spinning organ not found in many spiders and consisting of one or two plates densely covered in tiny silk outlet nozzles (spigots).

Uloborus has unique cribellar glands, amongst the smallest silk glands of any spider, and it’s these that yield the ultra-fine ‘catching wool’ of its prey capture thread,’ said Dr Katrin Kronenberger of Oxford University’s Department of Zoology, the report’s first author. ‘The raw material, silk dope, is funnelled through exceptionally narrow and long ducts into tiny spinning nozzles or spigots. Importantly, the silk seems to form only just before it emerges at the uniquely-shaped spigots of this spider.’

False colour SEM image of a small part of the cribellum spinning plate with its unique silk outlets Image: Katrin Kronenberger (Oxford University) & David Johnston (University of Southampton)

False colour SEM image of a small part of the cribellum spinning plate with its unique silk outlets
Image: Katrin Kronenberger (Oxford University) & David Johnston (University of Southampton)

The cribellum of Uloborus is covered with thousands of tiny silk-producing units combining ducts that average 500 nanometres in length and spigots that narrow to a diameter of around 50 nanometres.

‘The swathe of gossamer, made of thousands of filaments, emerging from these spigots is actively combed out by the spider onto the capture thread’s core fibres using specialist hairs on its hind legs,’ said Professor Fritz Vollrath, the other author of the work. ‘This combing and hackling – violently pulling the thread – charges the fibres and the electrostatic interaction of this combination spinning process leads to regularly spaced, wool-like ‘puffs’ covering the capture threads. The extreme thinness of each filament, in addition to the charges applied during spinning, provides Van der Waals adhesion. And this makes these puffs immensely sticky.’

The cribellate capture thread of Uloborus plumipes, with its characteristic 'puffs', imaged with a Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) Image: Fritz Vollrath (Oxford University)

The cribellate capture thread of Uloborus plumipes, with its characteristic ‘puffs’, imaged with a Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM)
Image: Fritz Vollrath (Oxford University)

Conventionally, synthetic polymers fibres are produced by hot-melt extrusion: these typically have diameters of 10 micrometres or above. But because thread diameter is integral to filament strength, technology that could enable the commercial production of nano-scale filaments would make it possible to manufacture stronger and longer fibres.

‘Studying this spider is giving us valuable insights into how it creates nano-scale filaments,’ said Professor Vollrath. ‘If we could reproduce its neat trick of electro-spinning nano-fibres we could pave the way for a highly versatile and efficient new kind of polymer processing technology.’

Here’s a link to and citation for the paper,

Spiders spinning electrically charged nano-fibres by Katrin Kronenberger and Fritz Vollrath. January 2015 Volume: 11 Issue: 1 DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2014.0813 Published 28 January 2015

This is an open access paper. Note: Sometimes journals close access after a certain number of days so the paper may not be freely available after a certain time period.

More on Nanopolis in China’s Suzhou Industrial Park

As far as I can tell, the 2015 opening date for a new building is still in place but, in the meantime, publicists are working hard to remind everyone about China’s Nanopolis complex (mentioned here in a Jan. 20, 2014 posting, which includes an architectural rendering of the proposed new building).

For the latest information, there’s a Sept. 25  2014 news item on Nanowerk,

For several years now Suzhou Industrial Park (SIP) has been channeling money, resources and talent into supporting three new strategic industries: nano-technology, biotechnology and cloud computing.

In 2011 it started building a hub for nano-tech development and commercialization called Nanopolis that today is a thriving and diverse economic community where research institutes, academics and start-up companies can co-exist and where new technology can flourish.

Nanopolis benefits from the cross-pollination of ideas that come from both academia and business as it is right next door to the Suzhou Dushu Lake Science & Education Innovation District and its 25 world-class universities.

Earlier this year the University of California, Los Angles [sic] (UCLA) set up an Institute for Technology Advancement that is developing R&D platforms focusing on areas such as new energy technology and in particular nanotechnology. And Oxford University will soon join the growing list of world-class universities setting up centers for innovation there.

To develop a critical mass at Nanopolis SIP has offered incentive plans and provided incubators and shared laboratories, even including nano-safety testing and evaluation. It has also helped companies access venture capital and private equity and eventually go public through IPOs [initial public offerings {to raise money on stock exchanges}].

A Sept. 25, 2014 Suzhou Industrial Park news release (on Business Wire), which originated the news item, provides an interesting view of projects and ambitions for Nanopolis,

 To develop a critical mass at Nanopolis SIP has offered incentive plans and provided incubators and shared laboratories, even including nano-safety testing and evaluation. It has also helped companies access venture capital and private equity and eventually go public through IPOs.

Many companies in Nanopolis are already breaking new ground in the areas of micro and nano-manufacturing (nanofabrication, printed electronics and instruments and devices); energy and environment (batteries, power electronics, water treatment, air purification, clean tech); nano materials (nano particles, nano structure materials, functional nano materials, nano composite materials); and nano biotechnology (targeted drug delivery, nano diagnostics, nano medical devices and nano bio-materials).

Zhang Xijun, Nanopolis’ chief executive and president, says the high-tech hub goes beyond what typical incubators and accelerators provide their clients and he predicts that its importance will only grow over the next five years as demand for nano-technology applications continues to pick up speed.

“As more and more companies want upstream technology they are going to be looking more at nano-technology applications,” he says. “The regional and central government is taking this field very seriously–there is a lot of support.”

Nanopolis can also serve as a bridge for foreign companies in terms of China market entry. “Nanopolis has become like a gateway for companies to access the Chinese market, our research capabilities and Chinese talent,” he says.

Owen Huang, general manager of POLYNOVA, a nano-tech company that set up in SIP five years ago, counts Apple as one of its customers and has annual sales of US$4 million, says the excellent infrastructure, supply chain and international outlook in Nanopolis are part of its allure.

“This site works along the lines of foreign governments and there is no need to entertain local officials [as is often customary in other parts of China],” he says. “Everyone is treated the same according to international standards of business.”

Nanopolis also can serve as a kind of go-between for bilateral projects between businesses and governments in China and those from as far away as Finland, the Netherlands and the Czech Republic.

In November 2012, for example, China’s Ministry of Science and Technology and Finland’s Ministry of Employment and the Economy built the China-Finland Nano Innovation Centre to jointly develop cooperation in the research fields of micro-nanofabrication, functional materials and nano-biomedicine.

SIP is also raising the profile of nano-tech and its importance in Nanopolis by hosting international conferences and exhibitions. From Sept. 24-27 [2014] the industrial park is hosting the ChiNano conference, which will be attended by more than more 700 nano-tech specialists from over thirty countries.

Zhang emphasizes that collaboration between academia and industry is an essential aspect of innovation and commercialization and argues that Nanopolis’ appeal goes beyond professor-founded companies. “The companies are in a position to provide good internship programs for students and there are also joint professorship positions made possible,” he explains. “We can also optimize school courses so they are better linked to industry wherever possible.”

Nanopolis’ creators expect that their holistic approach to business development will attract more than 300 organizations and businesses and as many as 30,000 people to the site over the next five years.

Wang Yunjun, chief executive of Mesolight, is one of the success stories. Mesolight, a nano-tech company that specializes in semi-conductor nano-crystals or quantum dots used in flat panel TV screens, mobile phones and lighting devices, recently secured US$2 million in the first round of venture capital funding with the help of the industrial park’s connections in the industry.

Two years ago Wang moved to Nanopolis from Little Rock, Arkansas, where he had tried to get his company off the ground. He believes that returning to China and setting up his business in SIP was the best thing he could have done.

“The incubators in SIP are doing much more than the incubators in the United States,” he explains. “In the U.S. I was in an incubator but that just meant getting research space. Here I get a lot of resources. Most importantly, though, I was taught how to run a business.”

Albert Goldson, executive director of Indo-Brazillian Associates LLC, a New York-based global advisory firm and think tank, notes that while the immediate benefits of the industrial park are evident, there are even greater implications over the long-term, including the loss of talented Chinese who leave China to study or set up companies abroad.

“If one creates an architecturally compelling urban design along with a high-tech and innovative hub it will attract young Chinese talent for the long term both professionally and personally,” he says.

Jiang Weiming, executive chairman of the Dushu Lake Science & Education Innovation District concedes that SIP is not Silicon Valley and says that is why the industrial park is evaluating its own DNA and working out its own solutions.

“We have put in place a plan to train nanotech-specific talent and the same for biotech and cloud computing,” he says. “I think the collaboration between the education institutions and the enterprises is fairly impressive.”

Jiang points to faculty members who have taken positions as chief technical officers and vice general managers of science at commercial enterprises so that they have a better idea of what the company needs and how educational institutes can support them. And that in turn is helpful for their own research and teaching.

“The biggest task is to create a healthy ecosystem here,” he concludes.

So far, at least, the ecosystem in Nanopolis and across the rest of the industrial park appears to be thriving.

“The companies will find the right partners,” SIP’s chairman Barry Yang says confidently. “It’s not what the government is here for. What we want to do is provide a good platform and a good environment …Companies are the actors and we build the theaters.”

Between the news item and Business Wire, the news release is here in its entirety since these materials can disappear from the web. While Nanowerk does make its materials available for years but it can’t hurt to have another copy here.

The Nanopolis website can be found here. Note: the English language option is not  operational as of today, Sept. 26, 2014. The Chinano 2014 conference (Sept. 24 – 26) website is here (English language version available).

Referencing Indo-Brazillian Associates LLC, a New York-based global advisory firm and think tank, may have been an indirect reference to the group of countries known as the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) or, sometimes, as BRIC ((Brazil, Russia, India, and China). Either of these entities may be mentioned with regard to a shift global power.

Self-assembling and disassembling nanotrain network

A Nov. 11, 2013 University of Oxford news release (also on EurekAlert dated as Nov. 10, 2013) highlights the first item I’ve seen about a nanostructure which both assembles and disassembles itself,

Tiny self-assembling transport networks, powered by nano-scale motors and controlled by DNA, have been developed by scientists at Oxford University and Warwick University.

The system can construct its own network of tracks spanning tens of micrometres in length, transport cargo across the network and even dismantle the tracks.

Researchers were inspired by the melanophore, used by fish cells to control their colour. Tracks in the network all come from a central point, like the spokes of a bicycle wheel. Motor proteins transport pigment around the network, either concentrating it in the centre or spreading it throughout the network. Concentrating pigment in the centre makes the cells lighter, as the surrounding space is left empty and transparent.

The researchers have provided an image,

Nanotrain network created by scientists at Oxford University: green dye-carrying shuttles after 'refuelling' with ATP travel towards the center of the network with their cargoes of green dye. Credit: Adam Wollman/Oxford University

Nanotrain network created by scientists at Oxford University: green dye-carrying shuttles after ‘refuelling’ with ATP travel towards the center of the network with their cargoes of green dye. Credit: Adam Wollman/Oxford University

The news release goes on to describe the system,

The system developed by the Oxford University team is very similar [to the melanophore used by fish cells], and is built from DNA and a motor protein called kinesin. Powered by ATP fuel, kinesins move along the micro-tracks carrying control modules made from short strands of DNA. ‘Assembler’ nanobots are made with two kinesin proteins, allowing them to move tracks around to assemble the network, whereas the ‘shuttles’ only need one kinesin protein to travel along the tracks.

‘DNA is an excellent building block for constructing synthetic molecular systems, as we can program it to do whatever we need,’ said Adam Wollman, who conducted the research at Oxford University’s Department of Physics. ‘We design the chemical structures of the DNA strands to control how they interact with each other. The shuttles can be used to either carry cargo or deliver signals to tell other shuttles what to do.

‘We first use assemblers to arrange the track into ‘spokes’, triggered by the introduction of ATP. We then send in shuttles with fluorescent green cargo which spread out across the track, covering it evenly. When we add more ATP, the shuttles all cluster in the centre of the track where the spokes meet. Next, we send signal shuttles along the tracks to tell the cargo-carrying shuttles to release the fluorescent cargo into the environment, where it disperses. We can also send shuttles programmed with ‘dismantle’ signals to the central hub, telling the tracks to break up.’

This demonstration used fluorescent green dyes as cargo, but the same methods could be applied to other compounds. As well as colour changes, spoke-like track systems could be used to speed up chemical reactions by bringing the necessary compounds together at the central hub. More broadly, using DNA to control motor proteins could enable the development of more sophisticated self-assembling systems for a wide variety of applications.

Here’s a link to and a citation for the paper,

Transport and self-organization across different length scales powered by motor proteins and programmed by DNA by Adam J. M. Wollman, Carlos Sanchez-Cano, Helen M. J. Carstairs, Robert A. Cross, & Andrew J. Turberfield. Nature Nanotechnology (2013) doi:10.1038/nnano.2013.230 Published online 10 November 2013

This article is behind a paywall although you can preview it for free via ReadCube Access.

Get your online postgraduate certificate in nanotechnology from Oxford University

Oxford University (UK) is offering a number of nanotechnology programmes through its Continuing Education division. Excitingly, they are offering an online postgraduate certificate in nanotechnology. From the Feb. 29, 2012 notice,

Oxford University’s Department for Continuing Education offers a number of technology and health-related courses and workshops. Please find below information about our Postgraduate Certificate in Nanotechnology.

Postgraduate Certificate in Nanotechnology

Developed by the University of Oxford’s Begbroke Science Park and the Department for Continuing Education, the Postgraduate Certificate in Nanotechnology is a quality online course aimed at professionals from a diverse range of backgrounds who wish to learn more about the foundations of nanotechnology, technological advances and the applications enabled by nanotechnology.

This part-time course is designed to be completed over nine months, using a blend of individual study of online learning materials, together with group work during online tutorials, discussions and research. The group sessions with tutors are particularly valuable because they offer highly authentic learning and assessment opportunities.

  • The Wider Context of Nanotechnology
  • The Fundamental Science of Nanotechnology
  • Fundamental Characterisation for Nanotechnology (featuring Nano-scale Materials Characterisation Residential Weekend)

Each of these modules may also be studied individually as a short course.

We are accepting applications for the new academic year. The deadline is 9 March 2012.

We are also accepting applications for the Fundamental Characterisation for Nanotechnology short course and Residential Weekend.

For further details, please visit our website (www.conted.ox.ac.uk/nano), or contact us on nano@conted.ox.ac.uk.

Given the deadline to apply for the postgraduate certificate studies in nanotechnology is March 9, 2012, you may want to rush here to apply.

Not mentioned is Oxford’s summer school programme in nanotechnology (from the Nanotechnology Summer School 2012 webpage),

Each year the Nanotechnology Summer School focuses on applications of nanotechnologies in a different field. Comprising presentations from leading researchers and practitioners from the University of Oxford and beyond, the Summer School is essential for anyone with an interest in these topics.

The theme of the fourth annual Nanotechnology Summer School in 2012 will be ‘Introduction to Bionanotechnology’.

It’s a one-week programme being held Monday July 2 – 6, 2012 at Oxford University. They are still taking applications but they have yet to decide on the programme fees. You can contact www.conted.ox.ac.uk/nano. for more information.

This course, The Wider Context of Nanotechnology, doesn’t start till October 2012 but you might want to start thinking about it now. A module that’s part of the online postgraduate certificate, it seems to have a residential component (two weeks). Here’s more from course description webpage,

Nanotechnology has received much attention from scientists and journalists in the last few years raising hopes of revolutionary developments in a wide range of technologies on an increasingly small scale, dramatic improvements to standards of living, and solutions to a variety of environmental, medical and communications problems. These have gone hand in hand with fears that a new technology will disrupt the markets of existing business sectors and that machines are running out of control.

The result has been a high degree of confusion at all levels of society as to the ethics, safety and business implications of this emerging series of technologies. The course addresses these issues and others in emphasising the interdisciplinary nature of nanotechnology. This is important because students who specialise in nanotechnology must be trained to appreciate a range of issues beyond the confines of pure science. Nanotechnology has applications in a broad range of fields and sectors of society. A student trained in electrical engineering, for example, who goes on to specialise in nanotechnology, may undertake a research project developing nanosensors that will be implanted in human subjects. He or she will therefore need to develop new skills to appreciate the broader ethical, societal and environmental implications of such research.

The development of interdisciplinary skills involves not only learning methods of reasoning and critical thinking, but also gaining experience with the dynamics and development of effective multi-disciplinary function. Technologists must become comfortable addressing various issues as an integral part of doing advanced research in a team that might draw upon the expertise of not only engineers, but also biologists, doctors, lawyers and business people. As the project evolves, knowledge of the place of nanotechnology in business, becomes increasingly important. The module teaches an understanding of the basic workings of how nanotechnology innovation is exploited, together with an understanding of the dynamics of entrepreneurship.

I highlighted a few bits I found particularly interesting. Perhaps not so oddly, there’s no mention of anyone from the arts such as writers, artists, dancers, etc. or anyone from the social sciences such as psychologists, sociologists, etc.  in these multidisciplinary teams.

Biology is the new physics?

Robin McKie, writing on the Guardian’s Science Desk blog (Notes & Theories), remarks on the fact that Paul Nurse, Nobel laureate for Medicine, is about be installed as president of the Royal Society at the end of November. From the Nov. 12, 2010 posting,

Paul Nurse has a modest way with his ideas. “Are you like me when you read books on relativity?” he asks. “You think you have got it and then you close the book, and you find it has all slipped away from you. And if you think you have trouble with relativity, wait till you take on quantum mechanics. It is utterly incomprehensible.” Not a bad admission for a Nobel prizewinner.

The point for Nurse is that biology is facing a similar leap into the incomprehensible as physics did at the beginning of the 20th century when the ordered world of Newtonian theory was replaced by relativity and quantum mechanics. [emphasis mine] Now a revolution awaits the study of living creatures.

There is a video of Paul Nurse talking about biology as a system on the Guardian site or you can take a look at this video (part 1 of 8 for a discussion on physics and unification theories that Nurse moderated  amongst Peter Galison, Sylvester James Gates Jr., Janna Levin and Leonard Susskind, at the 2008 World Science Festival in New York).

I find Nurse’s idea about biology facing some of the same issues as physics particularly interesting as I once found a piece written by a physicist who declared that science at the nanoscale meant that the study of biology was no longer necessary as we could amalgamate it with the study of chemistry and physics, i.e., we could return to the study of natural philosophy. About a year later I came across something written by a biologist declaring that physics and chemistry could be abolished as we could now fold them into the study of biology.

As I understand it, Nurse is not trying to abolish anything but merely pointing out that our understanding of biology may well undergo the same kind of transformation that physics did during the early part of the 20th century.

Multimedia Nano

Nano Today held an art competition for work to be featured on the six issues they’ll be publishing in 2009. Here’s one of the winners,

Pine tree-like nanowires

Spiraling pine tree-like PbS nanowires are evidence of nanowire growth driven by screw dislocations without the help of metal catalysts. Screw dislocation drives the rapid growth of the nanowire tree trunk and causes the lattice of the trunks to twist (called “Eshelby Twist”) and their epitaxial branches to spiral. See Science 2008, 320, 1060.
Matthew J. Bierman, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA

And one of the runners up,

Nano Flower

The micrograph shows FeSEM image of ZnO nanoflower developed by ultrasonication method. The ZnO nanopetals have grown in all directions giving it an appearance of flower.
Prashant KR Singh and Ankit Mittal, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, India

They had over three hundred entries in the competition and you can see more winners and runners up here. Source for the images was Nano Today. You can also check out the Nano Werk article which alerted me to the art competition.

If your tastes run more to the audio side, Oxford University is producing podcasts on a variety topics. The series I’m excited about is called, “Caging Shrodinger’s Cat – Quantum Nanotechnology.” The series of three podcasts is here.