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Episode 55, 19 MIN 53 SEC , MP3 FORMAT

Calming Nanotechnology Fears

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"Nanoparticles are actually so small that they can pass through our bodies, through cell membranes, which is fantastic for drug delivery. Unfortunately though, from a hazardous point of view, it also means that if this isn't done in a controlled way they can still pass through our body and through our cells and produce protein misfolding or oxidative damage." - Dr Amanda Barnard

Dr Amanda Barnard

Dr Amanda Barnard is Future Generation Fellow in the School of Chemistry at the University of Melbourne.  Amanda received her Ph.D. (Physics) in 2003 from RMIT University, on the topic of nanocarbon phase stability. After 2 years as a Distinguished Fellow in the Center for Nanoscale Materials at Argonne National Laboratory (USA) she moved to the United Kingdom, where she held the senior research position of Violette & Samuel Glasstone Fellow at the University of Oxford and an Extraordinary Junior Research Fellowship at The Queen's College. By combining thermodynamic theory and ab initio computer simulations, her research focuses on relating the size, structure and shape of nanomaterials to reactivity and stability for the study of environmental impacts and risk assessment. Amanda is a world renown leader in theoretical and computational nanoscience, and a winner of the 2008 L'Oreal "For Women in Science" award for her work modelling nanoparticles in the environment.

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USEFUL LINKS

Publications

  • Barnard A.S.; Sternberg, M. J. Mater. Chem., 2007, 17, 4811.
  • Barnard, A.S. Nature Materials, 2006, 5, 245.
  • Barnard, A. S. J. Phys. Chem. B, 2006, 110, 24498. 
Dr Barnard's web page
School of Chemistry

CREDITS

Host: Dr Shane Huntington
Producers: Kelvin Param, Eric Van Bemmel and Dr Shane Huntington
Audio Engineer: Craig McArthur
Theme Music performed by Sergio Ercole. Mr Ercole is represented by the Musicians' Agency, Faculty of Music
Voiceover: Paul Richiardi

Series Creators: Eric van Bemmel and Kelvin Param
© The University of Melbourne, 2008. All Rights Reserved.
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Nanotechnology

Submitted by Anonymous on Fri, 12/19/2008 - 03:28.

It's reassuring that nanotechnology was being done in the Middle Ages. In fact, it appears that nanotechnology is nothing new at all - it's just molecular science under a different name! Science like clothing has fashions and this may be just reccyling what we have been doing all along.

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