Researchers at the Peking and Tsinghua Universities have adapted carbon nanotubes into a sponge-like material which can be squeezed dry, which sounds like extremely exciting news for the infomercial cleaning product industry. One minor detail:

since carbon nanotubes are hydrophobic, there's no modification required to make them not absorb water.

For the record, that includes mysteriously blue infomercial demo water, so there goes that. If not ABSORBING 20 TIMES AS MUCH WATER AS ITS LEADING COMPETITOR, what exactly is this new type of sponge good for? Environmental cleanup, evidently. See, instead of just dropping dispersants into the middle of an oil or chemical spill—which forces the spill to simply absorb into the water—these nanosponges could be used to sop up the spill, after which they could theoretically be wrung dry and reused, like so:

It's an amazing idea, but I get the feeling that carbon nanotube sponges, riskily abbreviated as CNT sponges, aren't exactly cheap. [Materials View via Treehugger]

A replicator was a device that used transporter technology to dematerialize quantities of matter and then rematerialize that matter in another form. It was also capable of inverting its function, thus disposing of leftovers and dishes and storing the bulk material again. [Memory Alpha]

Yes, I know it's not real. We got that bit out of the way right up there in the lead. Now we can have some fun hypothesizing and waxing all futuristic like about how these fantastical infinite buffets could (stress could) be possible some day.

In fact, in the most primitive sense, there's a form of replication happening in manufacturing shops around the world right now. Called 3D printing, the technique isn't even that new, with roots extending back to the 1990s. They were really expensive then, of course, but today they're relatively ubiquitous in companies large and small. The technique is pretty simple. In layman's terms, a user creates or downloads a 3D model of real world object on their workstation, and then a special printer works to recreate that object using resin or plaster or plastic or whatever the material may be. Voila. Instant prototype, and you can have all the tchotchke trinkets your heart desires, on demand, beamed to you from anywhere in the world.

But you can't eat a resin hamburger. And you can't drive the mockup that just got spit out of your rapid prototyping rig. The replicator could do both these things.

What we need is something that physically assembles atoms and molecules into tasty shapes so we can tell some uber supercomputer with a soothing female voice to get us some Tea. Earl Grey. Hot. Oh, and it has to create a little glass cup for us to drink it in too (Quick trivia: What did Picard do with all those dirty dishes? Answer above!).

This is where things get a bit sticky (food!), exciting (recent discoveries!) and depressing (its a LONG way off!) all at once. Theoretically, people are debating and thinking about "molecular assemblers" right this instant. In fact, these hypothetical machines would implement some form of nanotechnology, which is already used in everyday items like batteries, fuel technologies and even bikinis. Hell, there's a Wikipedia page for molecular assemblers up right this instant—our replicator must be right around the corner, right?

Unfortunately, current nanotech implementations are almost what I'd call "dumb" deployments of the technology. We're just coating a material with some nano bits to repel liquid; or we're placing nanorods in a battery to improve efficiency... nothing, in other words, that would have Geordi doing a double take. Certainly not that Wesley Crusher kid either, for that matter (More asides: Wes, my man. Your replicators could produce anything you wanted—what the hell was up with that rainbow jumper?!).

But there is some hope. As recently as November, scientists had silver nanoparticles self-assembling into specific structures. Now, Guinan can't serve us up a plate of silver, so that doesn't really count as a replicator just yet, but it does drive our research in the right direction. The same direction that saw IBM scientists imaging molecular bonds for the first time ever on Thursday:

By "seeing" these bonds scientists think they can better understand how to manipulate them. For IBM scientists that means quantum processors and such in the far future. For guys and gals like you and me, it might mean snacks on demand as we start to understand why snacks look and feel the way they do on the molecular level.

While we're down at the molecular level, I'd be remiss not to mention the nano pinhole camera some enterprising Russian scientists created in June:

In their atom pinhole camera, the atoms act like photons in an optical pinhole camera, but instead of light traveling through a lens, it travels through a pinhole on a mask and creates a high-res inverted image on a silicon substrate. This camera is capable of resizing nanostructures down to 30 nm-10,000 times smaller than the original. So, a camera with say 10 million pinholes could produce large numbers of identical (or diverse) nanostructures simultaneously.

It's the most promising "replicator related" discovery in recent memory, but even so we joked that the Giz crew would probably be slurping pureed baby food and soiling our adult undergarments by the time it came to fruition. Then there's the matter of energy and resource consumption, both of which add an exponential level of complexity onto any replicator roadmap. That IBM discovery above, just as a quick example to wrap things up, took a solid 20 hours of unmoving observation with a specialized microscope just to get that one black and white image.

Still, the research is there, and every month IBM or the CERN folks or someone else who's much smarter than I am is firing off a new research paper about manipulating the world of the very, very small.

The replicator, in short, would be a paradigm shift the likes of which the world has never seen. It'd be worth the effort; the expense. Famine? Potentially gone forever. Shortages? See ya. Alinea? First place to get one. You and I? Optimistically speaking, we'll probably need some Depends by the time one comes along. Silver lining is we can crap to our hearts content and dispose of the mess in our replicator. Then it's lunch time!

Taste Test is our weeklong tribute to the leaps that occur when technology meets cuisine, spanning everything from the historic breakthroughs that made food tastier and safer to the Earl-Grey-friendly replicators we impatiently await in the future.

This is because, in the future, scientists seem to think that piezoelectric nanowires could find a nice home inside our blood vessels. There, they'd use the energy created by blood flow to power our gadgets, pacemakers, or any number of other people-powered devices future inventors can think up. That sounds great in theory, but I assume that, like with most things I put in my body today that sound great and feel good, it will probably cause cancer or something.

Regardless, the scientists want to let us know there are no practical or commercial uses planned for these zinc oxide nanowires. Not for a long while anyway. This means you can stop digging around for that vein now. Oh, that's for the heroin? Nevermind then. [Live Science via Engadget]

Woven from zinc oxide nanowires (strands that are 1/50th the width of a human hair), Georgia Tech's hamster jacket is the first nanopiezoelectric device to successfully harvest energy from animals. How much energy could those hamsters produce in real world application? Right now, it would take 1,000 hamsters to charge a cellphone. A human-sized jacket could power an iPod.

Since the theory has been proven to work in a lab setting, there's nothing stopping the technology from being scaled to fit humans—other than the obvious engineering hurdles that must be crossed to make a giant nanotech jacket. Such large scale testing should commence in about three years, according to researchers. [msnbc via Geekologie]

When the water balls have finished their journey through the maze, they are sucked back into the water tank to be reborn once again (haha...innuendo). So, it's kind of like a water fountain, only way more sciency. The device should be available in March for roughly $40. [Bandai via C Scout Japan via DVICE]

These quantum dots, as they're referred to, would theoretically fluoresce when hit by light packets, and serve as a light amplifier for retinal images. The patent says early tests on rats have been successful, as they showed improved vision over the control group. The upside is that this solution requires no power source, and can target specific areas of the retina, making it more of a reality than bionic eyes or begging for an eye cam. [Patent via New Scientist via Oh Gizmo!]

The fabric is constructed of polyester fibers that are covered in a layer of 40-nanometer-wide silicone nanofilaments. These nanofilaments are spiky and cause water to sit in a sphere above the fabric, a permanent pocket of air protected safely below.

Not only could the fabric create a self-cleaning clothing; it reduces drag in water by 20%. In other words, Michael Phelps could go without washing his bathing suit ever again—a prospect that's probably in mixed demand depending on the specific sexual orientation of the fan. [newscientist]

Most interesting, perhaps, is the possibility of using the nanoparticles to construct metamaterials. In this guise they may find use as "invisibility cloaks"... which are currently nearly impossible to manufacture, and that's where the self-assembly part comes in.

The octahedral silver nanoparticles are produced in solution, and are relatively large scale, which lends them potentially better optical properties than competing nanoparticle inventions. [TechnologyReview]

In a second demonstration video, the speaker film is shown being stretched, while the emitted sound remains unperturbed. This could have tremendous ramifications for mobile music devices and phones, but the researchers didn't drop any clues as to when, or even if, this tech could make it to market. [New Scientist via Physorg]

Medical use? Meh. I say it's about time we start the nerdiest breakdancing team of all time. [Duke via DailyTech]

Even more amazing is the fact that this mish-mash of nanowires has the look and feel of paper, but sucks up only oil, leaving every ounce of water behind. Based on that, you know what comes next, right? Water filtration, said Jing Kong, an assistant professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.And unlike most nanotechnology, the mesh is inexpensive to produce, since the nanowires can be fabricated in larger quantities than other nanomaterials. Great. Let's get huge sheets of this stuff manufactured and distributed to every oil rig, developing nation and tanker like, yesterday. [MIT News]

The study used a computer simulation only, not actual physical science. And we don't know whether or not these carbon spheres would necessarily damage the cells they inhabit.

But that's exactly the point, right? While the complete biochemical theories behind these processes is admittedly a bit beyond us, it really seems like while one group is high-fiving that we can deliver drugs directly into cells, another group says, "Shit, this stuff penetrates our cells!"

With such materials already available commercially, it really feels like we haven't done our homework on whether or not our fancy new toys will actually be poisoning our bodies in an irreversible way. Maybe we should take a few steps back before readily adopting even promising materials that we apparently know so little about. [DailyTech]

Silver has long been known to have antimicrobial powers, and with nanotech (and better hygiene) being all the rage, companies have added nanoparticle silver to everything from children's toys to washing machines. But as elements get smaller, the way they react to their environments change—and nobody's sure that itty bitty silver pieces aren't going to kill us all.

Studies have already shown that nano-silver is screwing with fishes and destroying benign bacteria at wastewater facilities. The legal petition asks the EPA to regulate nano-silver as a pesticide, insist on product labels, and analyze the potential human health effects (especially on children) before allowing nano-silver goods to be sold.

So unless you absolutely have no other way of keeping things clean and smell-free, lay off the nano-silver for now, mmkay? [ICTA via NY Times]

The process isn't perfect yet; in testing, only one pull in a hundred was able to reach 100,000 times the weight of the bacterium. If the scientists are able to improve the consistency, the days of molecular machines driven by gonorrhea could be near. However, this is still no excuse to spread your VD in the name of science, so take care of that already. [New Scientist via io9, song by Honest Bob and the Factory-to-Dealer Incentives]

Professor Zhong Lin Wang and team of the Georgia Institute of Technology coated kevlar strands with zinc oxide nanowires, protecting the bushy wires with a polymer and adding gold to other fibers to act as a conductor. The piezoelectric power-generating action comes when the nanowires bend as two fibers rub together, translating bending of the material into electricity which flows along the gold fibers.

Professor Wang says that across several square feet of fabric the nanowire fibers can generate power adding up to tens of milliwatts, which is not a huge amount, but is certainly enough for a dribble top-up charge for your portable devices.

With a little more power, the idea could be great in smart fabrics for consumers, or even for medical or military use, but it's clearly an invention in its infancy—as Wang notes, "What we've done is demonstrate the principle and the fundamental mechanism." For the time being it also has a fundamental flaw: it's not waterproof, and putting your smart clothes in the wash would dissolve the nanowires. [BBC News and Reuters]

Anatase titanium dioxide is applied as particles just five nanometers across, and acts as a photocatalyst to break down dirt and bacteria using sunlight. The non-toxic coating creates a layer so thin that the material's texture remains the same—ie, silk still feels like silk.

Dr Walid Daoud and team of Monash University, Australia, have demoed their invention by using it to attack a red wine stain on wool (as the photo shows: the top row is untreated wool, the middle row has a stain-treating agent and the bottom row the new nanotech coating.)

So far the coating bonds to wool and silk, so it's stain- and smell-busting powers are limited to wool-sock wearers and businessmen who have frequent egg-on-tie accidents. I'm waiting for the next-gen nanotech clothes that wash, iron and hang themselves. I reckon it's my scientific curiosity—my wife thinks it's just laziness. [The Telegraph]

A single carbon nanotube molecule serves simultaneously as all essential components of a radio — antenna, tunable band-pass filter, amplifier, and demodulator. Using carrier waves in the commercially relevant 40-400 MHz range and both frequency and amplitude modulation (FM and AM), we were able to demonstrate successful music and voice reception.

Zettl and his colleagues imagine that there will be many applications for the radio. It could be used in medical devices that swim through your body, responding to radio commands. Or it could be put inside tiny wireless devices. It could even be put inside a human ear, an idea which inevitably leads to visions of a dark future where people are implanted with radios and telephones that they can't ever turn off.

So how does it work? Essentially, the nano radio is a very tiny vacuum tube. According to a release about the invention:

The carbon nanotube radio consists of an individual carbon nanotube mounted to an electrode in close proximity to a counter-electrode, with a DC voltage source, such as from a battery or a solar cell array, connected to the electrodes for power. The applied DC bias creates a negative electrical charge on the tip of the nanotube, sensitizing it to oscillating electric fields. Both the electrodes and nanotube are contained in vacuum, in a geometrical configuration similar to that of a conventional vacuum tube.

Incoming radio waves cause the tube to vibrate. The tube itself can be "tuned" to respond to vibrations that match certain frequencies, or "channels" on the radio dial. This makes the UC Berkeley nanoradio slightly better than the UC Irvine nanoradio we talked about last week — that one was only a demodulator. (Can we have a fight between Irvine and Berkeley nano geeks please? That would rule.)

Of course, Zettl, Jensen and their lab buddies tested the nano radio by broadcasting the Beach Boys song "Good Vibrations." Says Zettle proudly, "The nanotube radio faithfully reproduced the audio signal, and the song was easily recognizable by ear." Image courtesy of Los Alamos National Lab. [Eurekalert]

As you see in the video, the bummer is that the teeny weeny radio still needs what looks like a AAA battery to power up. This doesn't have Rutherglen and his prof, Peter Burke, too upset. It's a breakthrough that will spread, as they explain in their research paper:

"Though we have only demonstrated the critical component of the entire radio system out of a nanotube (the demodulator), it is conceivable in the future that all components could be nanoscale, thus allowing a truly nanoscale wireless communications system."

Put together a swarm of thousands of these babies, teach them to communicate with one another, and you'll have a whole herd of sensors that can coordinate their movements, exploring planets, riding Martian winds and terrifying the neighbors. The scientists admit there are no censors small enough to fit into such grains of sand, and they're saying technology allowing this little trick might be coming along in the next few decades. How far-fetched is this, anyway?

This may not be that far from reality. A few years ago, Ray Kurzweil told us of smart dust swarms already being used for spying, so the idea of using them to explore other planets sounds like an even better idea. Maybe those techno-wizards could build puny little spaceships for the dust particles, much more efficient than today's cumbersome space probes. – Charlie White

'Smart dust' to explore planets [BBC]