Dr Davies is a global research fellow at Warwick Universities and kindly visited us to talk about her work in materials science. She focussed mostly on nanotechnology, which is usually of a scale 1000 times smaller than a human hair. Her talk began by demonstrating use (although not fully understood use) of nanotechnology in the 4th Century A.D, in the form of the Lygurcus cup. The glass in this cup appears a green-yellow colour in ambient light, but when a torch is placed in the cup the glass appears pink. This is due to imbedded gold nanoparticles in the glass, which means light interacts differently with the glass. Dr Davies then went on to talk about uses of nanotechnology in the present day, for example in suncream, cosmetics, carbon fibre technology and even self-cleaning windows, which use titanium dioxide to help degrade dirt when it rains. Even paints in hospitals contain silver based nanotechnology to kill bugs meaning walls don’t need to be washed down. She then went on to talk about the future of nanotechnology, including use as drones and as nanomachines for use in medicine.
Dr Davies then showed us some magnetic nanoparticles which have applications in biomedicine, as MRI contrast agents and for hyperthermic cancer treatment. She then developed upon their uses in MRI scans, explaining than adding nanomaterials enhances contrast as the speed of de-excitation (which releases the photons detected by the MRI scanner) varies. By binding silicon nanoparticles to the commercial enhancers, they can be used to identify diseases by effectively switching on and off. Finally she spoke about the use of nanoparticles for drug delivery, specially designed particles can be filled with drugs and get inside cells to deliver the drug without being detected by the cell.
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AuthorOur blogs are written by the girls that attend this society. Archives
June 2020
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