We live at a time when technology is increasing at a faster pace than we have ever seen before in all of human history. But is humanity equipped to handle the extremely bizarre technology that we are now developing? Earlier this month, I discussed some of the frightening ways that AI is changing our society. Today, I want to focus on nanotechnology. This is a field where extraordinary advances are https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=24/09/26/1353235 being made on a regular basis, and we are being told that nanotechnology is already "revolutionizing myriad industries"...
A "nanoparticle" is a particle of matter that is less than 100 nanometers in diameter. Highly specialized equipment is necessary to work with nanoparticles, because they are way too small to be seen with the naked eye...
One of the hallmarks of nanotechnology is the utilization of nanoparticles, minute entities often ranging from 1 to 100 nanometers. These particles, when engineered with precision, bring forth distinctive characteristics that can redefine the functionality of materials. In medicine, for instance, nanoparticles serve as drug carriers, enabling targeted delivery and enhancing therapeutic efficacy while minimizing side effects. Nano-engineered materials have found their niche in the realm of electronics.
[...] Many are concerned that the healthcare industry is one area where nanoparticles are already being used on a widespread basis...
The healthcare sector is witnessing a transformative impact through nanotechnology. Nanomedicine, an interdisciplinary field, employs nanoscale tools for the diagnosis, imaging, and treatment of diseases. Nanoparticles, with their ability to navigate biological barriers, offer a novel approach to targeted drug delivery, ensuring precise and efficient treatment with reduced side effects.
[...] But there have been other developments in this field that are rather ominous.
For example, a team of researchers in South Korea has discovered a way to use nanoparticles to "control the minds of mice"...
Scientists at the Institute for Basic Science (IBS) in South Korea have developed a new way to control the minds of mice by manipulating nanoparticle-activated "switches" inside their brains with an external magnetic field.
The system, dubbed Nano-MIND (Magnetogenetic Interface for NeuroDynamics), works by controlling targeted regions of the brain by activating neural circuits.
Using an external magnetic field, these scientists were able to make mice eat more or eat less. And in another experiment, they were able to manipulate the maternal behavior of female mice...
Related:
- Better Than Blood Tests? Nanoparticle Potential Found For Assessing Kidneys
- Team Develops Nanoparticles to Deliver Brain Cancer Treatment
- Fighting Cancer With Light, and a Drug That Self-assembles Into Nanoparticles
- High Hopes for Nanoparticle Treatment for Melanoma
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Related Stories
Scientists think they might be on the verge of a melanoma breakthrough that could save the lives of thousands of people.
Adelaide researchers are working to develop a new treatment that would aim to wipe out dangerous cancer cells with a simple injection. The researchers have discovered that the most aggressive melanoma cells contain a protein known as Desmoglein-2.
[...] They're confident if they can target that protein, they can disarm those cancer cells.
Professor Claudine Bonder from the University of South Australia described how it works. "Research has shown that if we target Desmoglein-2 on the melanoma cells then the cancer cells are less likely to survive," she said. "They'll be like a heat-seeking missile that can be injected into the blood."
They are now working on a treatment that would involve injecting patients with nanoparticles programmed to find the protein. The researchers hope to have that treatment ready to go within five to 10 years, potentially a life-saving breakthrough for thousands of Australians.
The university is now seeking funding from the government and private donors to continue its research.
Fighting cancer with light, and a drug that self-assembles into nanoparticles:
Chemotherapy that does not harm the body, but effectively fights cancer cells: that is the goal of chemist Sylvestre Bonnet and his team. During his Ph.D. research, chemist Xuequan Zhou brought that goal a little closer. He developed molecules that, upon injection into the bloodstream, self-assemble into nanoparticles that accumulate in the tumor. Targeted irradiation with visible light then attacks the tumor. The research has now been published in Nature Chemistry.
"Conventional anti-cancer drugs often do not differentiate enough between good and bad cells," Bonnet explains. "They kill them both." The researchers have come up with a solution to this problem: nanoparticles that target the tumor and only become active under the influence of visible light. "This anticancer phototherapy allows doctors to treat a specific part of the body without damaging the rest. It is already in use in several hospitals." Molecules that form nanoparticles by themselves
Until now, chemists had to first attach the chemotherapy drugs to nanoparticles in the lab. Doctors then administered them by injection into the patient's bloodstream. Conjugation to the nanoparticles helped the chemotherapy find the tumor. Zhou's drug works slightly differently. "The lab work is no longer necessary," he says. "You can administer the molecules directly. Once in the blood, nanoparticles then form all by themselves."
Journal Reference:
Zhou, Xue-Quan, Wang, Peiyuan, Ramu, Vadde, et al. In vivo metallophilic self-assembly of a light-activated anticancer drug [open], Nature Chemistry (DOI: 10.1038/s41557-023-01199-w)
https://phys.org/news/2023-05-team-nanoparticles-brain-cancer-treatment.html
University of Queensland researchers have developed a nanoparticle to take a chemotherapy drug into fast growing, aggressive brain tumors.
Research team lead Dr. Taskeen Janjua from UQ's School of Pharmacy said the new silica nanoparticle can be loaded with temozolomide, a small molecule drug used to treat tumors known as glioblastoma.
"This chemotherapy drug has limitations—it doesn't stay in the blood for very long, it can be pushed out of the brain, and it doesn't have high penetration from blood into the brain," Dr. Janjua said.
"To make the drug more effective, we developed an ultra-small, large pore nanoparticle to help it move through the blood-brain barrier and penetrate the tumor while also reducing unwanted patient side effects.
"This strategy could be a more effective way to treat brain cancer and prevent it from coming back."
More information:Taskeen Iqbal Janjua et al, Efficient delivery of Temozolomide using ultrasmall large-pore silica nanoparticles for glioblastoma, Journal of Controlled Release (2023). DOI: 10.1016/j.jconrel.2023.03.040
Journal information:Journal of Controlled Release
Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:
by University of Texas at Dallas
In a study published July 29 in Advanced Materials, University of Texas at Dallas researchers found that X-rays of the kidneys using gold nanoparticles as a contrast agent might be more accurate in detecting kidney disease than standard laboratory blood tests. Based on their study in mice, they also found that caution may be warranted in employing renal-clearable nanomedicines to patients with compromised kidneys.
Before administering renal-clearable drugs, doctors routinely check a patient's kidney function by testing their blood urea nitrogen (BUN) and creatinine (Cr) levels. With the increasing use of engineered nanoparticles to deliver payloads of drugs or imaging agents to the body, an important question is how the nanoparticles' movement and elimination through the kidney is affected by kidney damage. Can traditional biomarkers like BUN and Cr accurately predict how well—or how poorly—such nanoparticles will move through the kidneys?
The UT Dallas researchers found that in mice with severely injured kidneys caused by the drug cisplatin, in which BUN and Cr levels were 10 times normal, nanoparticle transport through the kidneys was slowed down significantly, a situation that caused the nanoparticles to stay in the kidneys longer.
In mildly injured kidneys, however, in which BUN and Cr levels were only four to five times higher than normal, the transport and retention of gold nanoparticles couldn't be predicted by those tests.
On the other hand, the amount of gold nanoparticle accumulation seen on X-rays did correlate strongly with the degree of kidney damage.
"While our findings emphasize the need for caution when using these advanced treatments in patients with compromised kidneys, they also highlight the potential of gold nanoparticles as a noninvasive way to assess kidney injuries using X-ray imaging or other techniques that correlate with gold accumulation in the kidneys," said Dr. Mengxiao Yu, a corresponding author of the study and a research associate professor of chemistry and biochemistry in the School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics.
Chemistry and biochemistry research scientist Xuhui Ning BS'14, Ph.D.'19 is lead author of the study, and Dr. Jie Zheng, professor of chemistry and biochemistry and a Distinguished Chair in Natural Sciences and Mathematics, is a corresponding author. Other contributors are affiliated with UT Southwestern Medical Center and Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
More information: Xuhui Ning et al, Gold Nanoparticle Transport in the Injured Kidneys with Elevated Renal Function Biomarkers, Advanced Materials (2024). DOI: 10.1002/adma.202402479
Journal information: Advanced Materials
(Score: 5, Insightful) by pTamok on Thursday January 23, @03:11PM (9 children)
Can you imagine what people who argue against the use of vaccinations will make of this?
(Score: 2) by pkrasimirov on Thursday January 23, @03:32PM
A conspiracy theory?
(Score: 4, Funny) by ikanreed on Thursday January 23, @04:10PM
I don't need to imagine it, the counter-arguments I'm forced to make are transmitted directly into my brain(they used 3g, not 5g though, signal quality here is crap)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 23, @04:38PM (3 children)
actual mind control, ironically. "your political opponents want you to be like the borg, from star track!!"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 23, @04:43PM (2 children)
Star Track, is that the one where Princess Kirk uses the force?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 23, @04:56PM
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Thursday January 23, @08:53PM
No, it's the 18+ version where crew running exercises get quite fun shortly after the leotards that Troi and Crusher wear get torn off. A time travelling Uhura and Seven of Nine are also there for no particular reason.
"Think of how stupid the average person is. Then realize half of 'em are stupider than that." - George Carlin
(Score: 3, Informative) by Unixnut on Thursday January 23, @07:14PM
Its already been used as an argument against vaccinations. In fact I've heard many times of the concept that "5G electromagnetic waves send signals to nanoparticles from injected vaccines to mind-control people" as both an argument against 5G networks and nanoparticle injections via vaccines.
While I don't know about the potential health risks of nanoparticles in the body (anymore than we know about the long term health effects of all the microplastics accumulating in our bodies) I never really considered 5G mind control as feasible.
If this article is in any way true then it will very much add fuel to the fire of the above. However having followed the link to TFA, I can see it is not a scientific journal (or even claims to be scientific anything), rather it is marked as an "opinion", making it an opinion piece rather than even stating a pretence of facts.
So I dug deeper into the article link chain until I got to the actual South Korean paper on mind manipulation of mice, which can be found here:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41565-024-01694-2 [nature.com]
However it is behind a paywall, but the abstract does mention they demonstrated "remote and spatiotemporal precise control of deep brain neural activity in multiple behavioural models, such as bidirectional feeding control, long-term neuromodulation for weight control in obese mice and wireless modulation of social behaviours in multiple mice in the same physical space."
The press release provides some more details at least: https://www.ibs.re.kr/cop/bbs/BBSMSTR_000000000738/selectBoardArticle.do?nttId=24921&pageIndex=1&searchCnd=&searchWrd= [ibs.re.kr]
So perhaps it is possible, but I don't know how "remote" we are talking. Considering they compare against direct electrode implants, it seems to them "remote" and "wireless" just means you don't need invasive surgery, rather than "you can control the mice from a comms tower 100m away".
(Score: 5, Insightful) by EJ on Thursday January 23, @07:38PM (1 child)
You can't really blame them. Just look at all of the declassified stuff like MKUltra and the syphilis experiments. At the time, certain things were dismissed as conspiracy theories or considered too extreme for the government to possibly do. Then, decades later, we find out that these things really happened.
The issue isn't that vaccines are bad. It's that bad people can contaminate good vaccines. With the way governments and the media have blatantly lied to us over and over, it's hard to trust anyone.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 24, @05:11AM
They always trust the canned tuna tho. LOL suckers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 23, @05:06PM (3 children)
Have we found the part of the human brain that controls slutty behaviours? I know there's ethical issues to consider but think of the possibilities...
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Thursday January 23, @09:02PM (1 child)
Yes, it's the area just below the pelvis, at least for men.
"Think of how stupid the average person is. Then realize half of 'em are stupider than that." - George Carlin
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 24, @05:14AM
And also above, approximately 3ft each way.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by anubi on Thursday January 23, @09:55PM
Alcohol has been used for this for centuries. This molecular construction is well known for it's effect on human reasoning functions.
Some of us spend our whole lives trying to master the art of deceiving others, while the others lose trust.
This paradigm is close to "doing us in". It has already destroyed many major organizations.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 2) by Snospar on Thursday January 23, @05:10PM
Reminds me of the premise behind Hugh Howey's Wool/Shift/Dust trilogy (currently "Silo" on TV) where either "side" are deploying invisible agents in the air and drinking water that can target very specific groups or races. Slightly terrifying if we really are close to that kind of thing. Another great example that we're living in the future - especially when we start to catch up with Science Fiction.
Huge thanks to all the Soylent volunteers without whom this community (and this post) would not be possible.
(Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Thursday January 23, @05:13PM
better add some mumetal to the tin foil hat...
ps: actually, drugs/medicines that can be activated by applied magnetic fields sounds like an awesome invention.
(Score: 4, Informative) by Mojibake Tengu on Thursday January 23, @05:22PM (4 children)
The article looks more like a generated pseudo-science or scam to me.
Irrelevant imagery, spanning from almost believable LHC pipe-dream to rather niche Cortex M0 Raspberry Pi chip and board. No information conveyed in text, just words, words, words.
I understand these days agencies are often testing their algorithms for "public acceptability" of their psy-op machinery and methods basically on innocuous content.
To me, this article is exactly the case. So I am letting you know, service guys: I do not take your "redefining limits" shit. Ever.
You are just forcing me to become more observant about facts and paranoid about reality.
Rust programming language offends both my Intelligence and my Spirit.
(Score: 5, Informative) by JoeMerchant on Thursday January 23, @07:10PM
Scam article or not, 20 years ago I was investigating ways to make implanted neurostimulators safe(r) in MRI scans - because some populations who get these stimulators, like epileptics, also get a LOT of MRI scans.
In that investigation, I looked into photo-stimulation of nerves to achieve similar effects as electrical pulse stimulation. It is possible, with bright enough light, to cause a nerve to fire with light similarly to how an electrical stimulation pulse works. Light, transmitted in a fiber optic, could be much more MRI compatible than conductive wire leads for electrostim. Unfortunately, it takes a LOT of light energy to have equivalent effect to a typical electrical neurostim pulse. Too much for practical application from an implanted battery.
However: around that time researchers were applying retro-viral techniques to make nerves more photo-sensitive. Interestingly, these techniques not only reduced the light energy required to neurostimulate significantly, they also permitted a reliable kind of dual-mode regulation of endogenous nerve traffic: one wavelength of light increased excitability, allowing transmission of more endogenous traffic as well as generating new signals from the flash of light, and another wavelength suppressed excitability and temporarily reduced or even blocked endogenous traffic from passing the point of photo-excitation.
I saw poster presentations at the 2005 Neuroscience conference where the researchers had treated specific areas of mice's brains with the photosensitive genetic modification and they could "tune" a mouse's mood with different color light pulses: blue light (delivered by fiber optic to specific spots in the brain) for depressed mice, yellow light for happy mice. Established measures based on behavioral observation showed strong correlation between the light treatment and the treated mice's "mood."
It's one small intuitive leap to put the same treatment in different brain areas and tune for aggression, rage, passivity... Implantable light pulse generators don't seem to have made it big, yet, but there is ongoing work on the research side: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-38554-2 [nature.com] and it's not a technically formidable challenge to make them, even in a black ops garage.
🌻🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 3, Informative) by Beryllium Sphere (r) on Thursday January 23, @07:21PM (2 children)
"Doubt is the chastity of the mind".
Reference to their paper, eo-Hyun Choi†, Jihye Shin, Chanhyun Park, Jung-uk Lee, Jaegyeong Lee, Yuko Ambo, Wookjin Shin, Ri Yu, Ju-Young Kim, Jungsu David Lah, Donghun Shin, Gooreum Kim, Kunwoo Noh, Wuhyun Koh, C. Justin Lee, Jae-Hyun Lee*, Minsuk Kwak* & Jinwoo Cheon*, Nature Nanotechnology, 2024
There's an existence proof from nature. Toxoplasmosis removes the fear of cats from mice. Then the cats eat the mice and get infected.
(Score: 3, Informative) by JoeMerchant on Thursday January 23, @08:28PM (1 child)
This:
>Toxoplasmosis removes the fear of cats from mice. Then the cats eat the mice and get infected.
and the cordyceps fungus that makes ants climb to the top of grass and wait to be eaten by birds were also big in popular literature around 20 years ago.
🌻🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 24, @05:26AM
All of biology [youtube.com] really. Analog systems in general are FUCKED UP - in a good way.