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Nanoknives To Be Used to Cut Cells

Posted by Zonk on from the take-that-you-cytoplasmic-scoundrel dept.

Roland Piquepaille writes "American researchers have built a carbon nanotube knife. According to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), this nanoknife will be used to cut and study cells. With this new tool, scientists and biologists will be able to make 3D images of cells and tissues for electron tomography, which requires samples less than 300 nanometers thick. And as cells are usually stored in wax for dissection, the researchers plan to test their nanoknives on a block of wax later this year. But read more for additional references and a picture of this nanoknife."

64 of 78 comments (clear)

  1. That is so cool... by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 3, Funny

    I just can't wait for the Rachel Ray version.

    1. Re:That is so cool... by wkk2 · · Score: 1, Funny

      Imagine how many nano-knives the TSA trash can will hold at the airport.

    2. Re:That is so cool... by Shads · · Score: 1

      I prefer the crocodile dundee version... "That's not a knife... THIS is a knife..."

      --
      Shadus
    3. Re:That is so cool... by wootest · · Score: 1

      Or the Simpsons version:

      "You call that a knife? THIS is a knife!"
      "That's not a knife, that's a spoon."
      "Ah, I see you've played knifey-spooney before!"

  2. How hard is it to wrap a carbon nanotube? by Josh+Lindenmuth · · Score: 3, Interesting
    From the article:
    It doesn't seem that this tool will be available before a while. The researchers have "found that the welds were the weakest point of the nanoknife, and they are now experimenting with alternative welding techniques."
    Wouldn't it be better to wrap or tie the carbon nanotube to a specially shaped tungsten needles rather than trying to weld them? Given the small size, welding directly to the needles seems like it could never work ... better to rely on the strength of the nanotube than on the adhesive capacity of some other material.
    --
    Huh? Don't mind me, I'm just the new guy.
    1. Re:How hard is it to wrap a carbon nanotube? by imsabbel · · Score: 5, Informative

      Friction on atomar level isnt what you are used to.

      Trying to tie or wrap those nanotypes would be more than futile.

      --
      HI O WISE PRINCE. WHT TOOK U SO DAM LONG?
    2. Re:How hard is it to wrap a carbon nanotube? by EvanED · · Score: 3, Funny

      Trying to tie or wrap those nanotypes would be more than futile.

      So what you're saying is that friction's resistance would be useless?

    3. Re:How hard is it to wrap a carbon nanotube? by LiquidCoooled · · Score: 1

      <i>Trying to tie or wrap those nanotypes would be more than futile.</i>

      Take a bundle of nanotubes:

      .   *
      .   |
      .  |||
      . |||||
      . |||||   Place a band or grip around here
      . |||||
      . || ||
      . |   |

      One sharp nano-spike.
      You don't have to weld anything, just holding them in place would be enough. You can just keep making the bundle larger if there is a problem gripping it, you just keep the central spike there and the neighbours will hold it in place.

      Also,  the current real <a href='http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/07 /060711131527.htm'>sharpest tip</a> is a tungsten pile with a nitrogen coating and is also built without welding.

      --
      liqbase :: faster than paper
  3. That's not a nanoknife, *this* is a nanoknife... by Channard · · Score: 3, Funny

    Still, I guess I'd feel safer being thretened by one of these than a normal knife.. 'Give me all your money, or I'll cut the top layer of dead skins cells off your throat!'

  4. If it's so thin by TubeSteak · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Will getting "cut" by it make you bleed?
    Will it even trigger your nerves?

    --
    [Fuck Beta]
    o0t!
    1. Re:If it's so thin by EinZweiDrei · · Score: 1, Offtopic

      Hath not a Jew eyes?
      Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions?
      Fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, as a Christian is?

      If you prick us, do we not bleed?

      --
      Perhaps life really is full of possibilities.
    2. Re:If it's so thin by hmccabe · · Score: 2, Funny

      That would depend on where you got cut. If they took off some surface cells, probably not, but if a long one cut you in half I bet you'd notice.

    3. Re:If it's so thin by NanoProf · · Score: 4, Interesting

      That's an interesting question- the thinnest possible nanotube knife, a single single-walled nanotube, is about 1 nanometer wide. I could imagine that a living cell membrane would self-heal as a nanotube knife passes through it, since the cell membrane is a dynamic fluctuating entity. Bigger problems would be created with the knife hit a large, covalently bound molecule, or a macromolecular assembly held together by strong non-bonded interactions (muscle fiber, microtubule, bone, extracellular matrix of various kinds). I'd think that many of those things wouldn't self-heal very well, but it's not totally obvious to me that the damage pathway would be wide enough that slowly passing a nanotube knife through say, an arm would make it fall off, or prevent it from healing back together over time. If I had to bet, I'd say yes, it would either fall off or end up attached so tenuously that it dies and falls off later, but who knows... (one problem is that a single nanotube is most likely not strong enough to slice through an entire arm)

      --
      Curtains for windows?
    4. Re:If it's so thin by EinZweiDrei · · Score: 1

      Yes. Shakespeare is Flamebait.

      Bravo, Slashdot. Bravo.

      --
      Perhaps life really is full of possibilities.
    5. Re:If it's so thin by Eli+Gottlieb · · Score: 1
      Fed with the same food

      Not really, thanks to kashrut.
    6. Re:If it's so thin by gnalle · · Score: 1
      If you read the original article instead of Roland Piquepailles summary (RTOAIORPS), you will notice that the cells are frozen:

      For years, biologists have wrestled with conventional diamond or glass knives, which cut frozen cell samples at a large angle, forcing the samples to bend and sometimes later crack.

  5. And if you call within the next 15 minutes by Henry+2.0 · · Score: 3, Funny

    The NanoFork will be yours, absolutely free!

  6. I've already seen that by macadamia_harold · · Score: 5, Funny

    According to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), this nanoknife will be used to cut and study cells.

    I saw my first nano knife when I brought my nano on the subway in New York. The guy took my wallet, too.

    --
    Push Button, Receive Bacon
  7. Give 'em time to build a "variable sword"... :-) by BerntB · · Score: 1
    Good start for a variable sword -- "just" needs stasis fields, now.

    But, sigh, are there even theories that suggest the possibility of stasis fields?

    --
    Karma: Excellent (My Karma? I wish...:-( )
  8. Re:Not enough 'nano' prefixes by Calydor · · Score: 1

    I see I'm not the only one who thinks that EVERYTHING is 'nano-this' or 'nano-that' these days.

    --
    -=This sig has nothing to do with my comment. Move along now=-
  9. The perfect weapon by Goalie_Ca · · Score: 1

    I could be walking down the street and jab someone. Question is... would i actually be able to slice them in half or what!

    --

    ----
    Go canucks, habs, and sens!
  10. Re:How long before by kimvette · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Meh. Nevermind. This isn't the centuries-old steel knife with embedded nanotube structures. My bad, for posting before RTFA. *hangs head in shame*

    --
    The Christian Right is Neither (Christian nor right). See: Matthew 23, Matthew 25, Ezekiel 16:48-50
  11. umm by johansalk · · Score: 1

    After you cut, how do you suture it?

    1. Re:umm by LiquidCoooled · · Score: 1

      Did you not see the picture?
      There is a length of nano-cotton.
      All they are waiting for is instructions on how to build a nano-thimble.

      On this subject, the thread looks thinner than the knife, could they make a more effective cheese cutter?

      --
      liqbase :: faster than paper
  12. Obligatory Niven Reference by Nom+du+Keyboard · · Score: 1

    Sounds like only one step away from a Variable Sword.

    --
    "It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
    1. Re:Obligatory Niven Reference by Shads · · Score: 1

      Without a stasis field it doesn't fly though... about as probable as a lightsaber.

      --
      Shadus
  13. But Wait: There's More! by M0b1u5 · · Score: 2, Funny

    That's all wel and good - but where is my Carbon-Monofilament garotting tool?

    It'll be great, I can see the adverts now:

    "See! New Nanoknife will cut straight through this small meteorite, and then through this tomato! But wait, there's more! If you call in the next 15 minutes we'll also include the amazing NanoJuicer, and a second Nanoknife for free. And as a bonus for the first 100 callers today, you'll also recieve this fabulous set of nano-forks..."

    --
    How many escape pods are there? "NONE,SIR!" You counted them? "TWICE, SIR!"
  14. Re:Not enough 'nano' prefixes by Ant+P. · · Score: 1

    What's wrong with the old term "molecular scale"?

  15. Who cut the nano-cheese? by B3ryllium · · Score: 1

    Seriously. I can't find it.

    1. Re:Who cut the nano-cheese? by EinZweiDrei · · Score: 1

      The NaNorwegian Geitost or the NaNeufchâtel?

      Furthermore, are you taking into account the possiblity that someone Moved Your Nano-cheese?

      We could be talking Nano-ok of the North, here.

      --
      Perhaps life really is full of possibilities.
  16. Size scales by SiliconEntity · · Score: 4, Informative

    It's easy to get sizes mixed up. Nanometers, microns, angstroms, they all sound about the same.

    300 nanometers is a third of a micron. Cells vary greatly in size and shape but a ballpark figure for human cells is 20 microns. So we're not talking about something that is all that "sharp" compared to the size of the object it aims to cut.

    1. Re:Size scales by wall0159 · · Score: 2, Informative

      The 300 nm refers to the typical desired thickness of a slice of tissue. TFA states that typical glass knives need to be relatively thick to be strong enough, causing the sample to bend as it is being sliced.

      Conversely, the nano knife consists of a single carbon nanotube, stretched between two brackets. This is not a 'blade' in the traditional sense of the word, but is more akin to a cheese knife that is a wire under tension.

      Wikipedia states that the diameter of a carbon nanotube is in the order of a few nanometers.

  17. Re:Give 'em time to build a "variable sword"... :- by Shads · · Score: 1

    I think the william gibson belt knife/sword is a more realistic proposition first.

    --
    Shadus
  18. Re:How long before by rubycodez · · Score: 1

    it's possible for either a silicon dioxide or obsidian knife to be one molecule thick too, so I don't think this nanotube knife is much improvement on some of the broken edges of other material that have been used for centuries.

  19. Not surprised... by lordvalrole · · Score: 1

    There will be a lot of things in the future that we will use nanotech for. The future looks pretty damn cool with nanotech everywhere.

    http://media.kurzweilai.net/kain/pub/RayKurzweilRe ader.pdf

    Some of the coolest and interesting things to read come from Ray Kurzweil.

    1. Re:Not surprised... by MSBob · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Yeah, with all the recent announcements it's pretty hard to disregard Kurzweil's predictions. I was very sceptical of his claims until I realized that his timeline appears to be dead on so far.

      --
      Your pizza just the way you ought to have it.
  20. Re:Obligatory by cyfer2000 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Actually they did. The art of cutting thin slice is called microtomy. Glass knife and diamond knife are used for microtomy. The advantage of glass knife is cost, the glass cost almost nothing. But glass knife doesn't last long, it gets blunt after 20 or 30 cuts. Also glass knife become blunt even you do nothing with it because glass is essentially fluid and the sharp edge has huge surface tension. Diamond knife lasts forever if you don't do anything wrong with it. But the diamond knife is pricey, a single knife can cost several thousand of dollars.

    I have been doing microtoming for years. But I don't see how could this can be used to replace diamond knife. Basically we need to trim the sample to 0.1x0.25mm block and cut the block. This is small but still 100um. I at least need a knife of 150um wide to work on this. Nanotubes as long as 150um are not so well available at least for now. Then the knife is a 150um long 10nm thin wire, which I can not see with my eyes. How do I know the wire is stretched? And if it is stretched, during the cutting, the temperature and change from room temperature to -90 degree C. So how do I handle the thermal expansion? Also the problem troubled me mostly is how do I handle the section? When I am using a glass or diamond knife, the section and block fall to different sides of the knife, then I can use special tools to pick the section up. But when the wire cut through the sample, the section sticks back to the block. Also how much the wire knife cost and how long it can last? I can resharpen a 3mm diamond knife for $1500 after I made enough mistakes on it, which can be 5 or 10 years.

    However, I really think this thing can be used as a wire saw to make MEMs.

    --
    There is a spark in every single flame bait point.
  21. His Dark Materials by mattpointblank · · Score: 1

    Did anyone else think of Philip Pullman's "Subtle Knife"?

  22. Re:Not enough 'nano' prefixes by cyfer2000 · · Score: 3, Informative

    Depends on the size of the molecule you are referring, "molecular scale" can be ranged Angstrom to hundreds of micron.

    --
    There is a spark in every single flame bait point.
  23. Were none of the researchers ever boy scouts? by lindseyp · · Score: 3, Interesting

    If the nanotube itself is the strongest part of the system why weaken it by welding it to the tungsten?

    If they can manipulate objects at such a scale, They would surely get much better results by tying the nanotube to suitably shaped anchors.

    Off the top of my head, a bowline would be a good start, I'm sure some slashdot sailor could suggest a loop knot or hitch more suitable for a slippery line.

    --
    j'ai découvert une démonstration vraiment admirable (de ce théorème général) que cette si
  24. easy solution by EraserMouseMan · · Score: 2, Interesting

    All they really need to do is cut a nano-width-slot in each side of those tungsten prongs (creating a two-pronged fork on each prong). Then create a nano-axel by welding a small bead to each end of the nano-tube cutter (each bead being larger than the width between the fork prongs). Slide the nano-axel between the two tungsten forks. Pinch the ends of the forks together. Bingo! The nano-cheese-cutter can bend as much as it needs to and there are no fixed points to break.

  25. Hmmm.... by teebob21 · · Score: 2, Funny

    Is this something we should be keeping away from nano-emo kids?

    --
    khasim (12/9/06): In a blind taste test, more people preferred Coke over the Pepsi that I had previously pissed in.
  26. Bypass Roland by Plutonite · · Score: 1

    Real link to NIST summary (and pic)

    1. Re:Bypass Roland by Plutonite · · Score: 2

      Sorry..please ignore. He actually posted the link this time so you don't have to go through the blog.

  27. And in other news by EZLeeAmused · · Score: 2, Funny

    Nano shiv used to cut out of a cell.

    --
    Some see the vessel as half full; others see it as half-empty; We pour it out on the floor and laugh
  28. Yes but... by bohemian72 · · Score: 1

    can it still slice a tomato in half after slicing through an aluminum can?!?

    --
    The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return.
  29. The basics by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative
    The idea here is that the carbon nanotube may be able to replace the diamond or glass knives typically used for cutting biological specimens which have been embedded in a cured plastic resin. The knife and the sample to be cut are mounted on an ultramicrotome and then sectioned at 50-90nm increments.

    TFA states that the carbon nanoknife has yet to be tested cutting anything, so it's unclear to me the extent to which it could be used to replace a diamond knife. Also, a diamond or glass knife edge can be millimeters long, whereas this nanotube thread looks much shorter.

  30. tag as "pigpile" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    As usual, tag as "pigpile" to warn Slashdotters not to click on Roland Piquepaille's ads.

  31. Paul Hogan says... by Samah · · Score: 1

    You call that a knife?

    --
    Homonyms are fun!
    You're driving your car, but they're riding their bikes there.
  32. Obligatory by TheTopher · · Score: 1

    Nanoknives To Be Used to Cut Cells, Wrists

  33. It's like the old saying by Centurix · · Score: 1

    Don't bring protozoa to a knife fight.

    --
    Task Mangler
  34. Wow, this is just so high-tech! by cciRRus · · Score: 3, Funny

    I'm amazed by this cutting-edge breakthrough!

    --
    w00t
  35. Welding works by killa62 · · Score: 1

    Just wrap the nanotubes around the tungsten rods and then welding it

    Man, I should work at the NIST

  36. Explain... by AstrumPreliator · · Score: 1

    Could someone explain to me how these nano-tools are actually used? Obviously you can't use them by hand or you'd slice through a million cells with a twitch of a muscle and I wasn't aware that we had a mechanical means to control these things... If anyone could explain how they're used I'd be grateful.

  37. New tools for the Mohel by bmo · · Score: 1

    Imagine THIS being used for a bris!

    --
    BMO

  38. Another TSM duh by jimmydevice · · Score: 1

    Yet another application of micropositioning hardware used in tunneling scanning electron microscope. Why it took 20 years to cook or even patent this is a mystery. Obvious? it is now.

    1. Re:Another TSM duh by jimmydevice · · Score: 1

      Oops, did not RTFM.

  39. Any one else see this in Manga Before? by wellingj · · Score: 1

    Is it just me, or is any one else seeing the connection to Battle Angel Alita?

    --
    Money is the root of all evil?
  40. Nanoknifes, but not nano CPUs (for example)? by master_p · · Score: 1

    How is it possible to make all shorts of nano-devices (motors, knifes etc) and it is not possible to make nano-processing units? Just out of curiosity...

    1. Re:Nanoknifes, but not nano CPUs (for example)? by Yusaku+Godai · · Score: 1

      What are you talking about exactly? The transistors used in modern CPUs *are* nanometers in size.

  41. Nano jail cells? by ggravier · · Score: 1

    Nano knives... you never know when you will need to break out of a nano jail cell...

  42. This is DANGEROUS by elucido · · Score: 1

    Nano Knives would make one DANGEROUS DANGEROUS Weapon. The whole concept of a Nano Knife just sounds creepy, what is next? The Nano gun?

    1. Re:This is DANGEROUS by CommunistHamster · · Score: 1

      Exactly why would a nano-knife be more dangerous than, say, a cheap ordinary knife, widely available and easy to conceal? Why does the "nano"ness of a knife make it so much more "DANGEROUS"?

  43. As Mork would no doubt have said ... by ScrewMaster · · Score: 1

    "Nano Nano ... ow, I just cut myself!"

    --
    The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.