07x06 - Nanotechnology and Society

[bunniefuu]

It's a dirty world out there, and today

on DFTV, we're digging up the dirt on

pollution, finding silver linings in

socks and growing skateboards.

Major funding for Dragonfly TV is

provided by

the National Science Foundation,

supporting education and research across

all fields of science and engineering.

The National Science Foundation, where

discoveries begin.

I'm Eric, and today's show is brought to

you by All Things Nano.

You can't see nanoparticles, and even

though they're super small, just one

billionth of a meter, they have started

a revolution. A

couple 100 years ago, big machines

started a different revolution called the

Industrial Revolution before that. People

made things with their hands, but then

factories came along

and the assembly line totally changed the

way things got made. Now

nanotechnology is using tiny particles to

make cool things that can change the way

we live. So that is a revolution too.

And some of these nano inventions may

actually help the planet stay healthy.

Think about all the trash that piles up.

Plastic that never breaks down is a big

problem. And

scientists are using nanotechnology to

create a new kind of plastic that

decomposes in just a few weeks instead

of 1000 years.

And that might save us from this. And

you know what?The nano revolution

may be happening in your own backyard.

Check this out. Gabe and Taylor are

investigating how nanoparticles can clean

up a giant mess.

I'm Taylor. And I'm Gabe. And this winter

used to be very, very polluted. But now

it's pretty clean.

We love the water. We know that

keeping it clean is not always easy.

Just upriver, there's an old zinc

smelting plant that was one of the

factories polluting the water, and even

though it shut down, the land there is

still full of toxic stuff. So we've been

wondering, can pollution from places like

that be stopped from running into rivers

and streams?We thought we might be

able to learn more about the Palmerton

pollution problem at the Franklin.

That's the Franklin and the Tooten

Philadelphia. They have tons of really

cool exhibits.

Hi, guys. I'm Jay Autry. One of the

museum educators told us how they are

cleaning up pollution using a special

kind of iron, nano-iron. If you look

closely, you can see that we've got sand

packed in the middle here. And I put in

some iron flakes into the top.

Can you see if the iron flakes are making

it through the sand?The big iron doesn't

go all the way through?No. So nano iron

is special because it's a lot smaller

than those iron flakes. Gabe, I want you

to pour that nano iron into the tube

here. So as we watch, you can see that

the nano-iron is filtering through and

coming through the bottom. A model of the

soil shows what a difference the size in

particles makes. So I get it, the big

iron doesn't fit through the ground. But

the nano-iron can go all the way through

and attach it to the pollutants. Do you

think you might be able to take some of

that nano-iron to do some tests up at

Palmerton?Ah, so you've heard about the

pollution up at Palmerton. Well, I think

I've got some friends at Penn State who

might be able to help you out.

On our way to the Palmerton Zinc plant,

we passed rivers and creeks that used to

be really dirty from the steel mills and

other pollution.

The old Palmerton Zinc plant is a sad

waste of a place where you don't want to

hang out for long. The pollution from the

site k*lled plants and animals in the

area and is still sitting in the soil.

We looked around and met up with Joanna,

a scientist from Penn State. Hey, hi

guys. I'm Joanna. Joanna's on the team

that's working to clean up the Palmerton

site. About 10 years ago, this

landscape was all barren because of the

zinc smelting that went on here, but the

vegetation is coming back slowly, as you

can see. So with all this pollution in

the ground, does it get to the

groundwater?Yeah, it does. And that's a

big problem because once it gets into the

groundwater, it can get into wells and

other sorts of drinking water. Would

nanoiron work here to clean it up?

Absolutely. Joanna told us that when you

inject nanoiron into the soil, it

attaches to pollutants and heavy metals

in the soil and groundwater, just like we

saw at the museum. We got out our shovels

and took a soil sample. Is zinc the only

pollutant in this ground?Well, there

definitely is a lot of zinc from the

zinc. melting. But other metals, like

lead, nickel, and copper, are really

more dangerous to us. Are you guys ready

to take this to the lab?Yeah.

What I like about working with Gabe is

that he's Gabe, and he was Gabe.

I see the resemblance. Let's make jokes.

Splish, splash, splash, now I'm taking a

bath Makes it more, uh, that atmosphere a

lot lighter. What will a nano-iron do to

the Palmerton dirt?Stay tuned for the

magic of chemistry.

It's hard to imagine hundreds of acres

being cleaned up by tiny nanoparticles.

But that's part of the nanotechnology

deal. Super small can be super powerful.

In today's challenge, we meet another

common metal. When you make

nano-sized particles from this metal,It

can be used to help fight disease. The

question is, what is

cancer's new nano enemy?

Is it a gold,

B tin, C

mercury or D aluminum?

Try to figure it out. I'll be back with a

clue later on and the answer at the end

of the show. Now back to Taylor and Gabe

as they measure the cleaning power of

nano iron.

We met up with Joanna back at the Penn

State campus. She explained to us that we

could run a test on the contaminated soil

samples from the Palmerton site to see if

the nano iron would clean them up.

Joanna let us use her lab at Penn State

to check our samples. We lined up all the

equipment and got to work. First, we mix

our soil samples with some chemicals to

get them ready for testing. We're going

to put our soil on the tumblr to mix

up the solution and the soil. As they

mix, the acetic acid will pull the metals

out of the soil. These soils will be

tumbling for around an hour.

Let's play soccer. You know why I'm

skating with Joanna.

We separated the liquid from our

contaminated soil samples. Any

pollutants that were in the soil would

now be in the liquid. Still rusted from

all the metals inside of the ground. We

finally had the liquid for our nano-iron

test. Next, we added nano-iron to one of

our polluted samples. Good job. All

right, let's go back to the tumblr and

tumble these for an hour. It was time for

the nano-iron to do its thing.

Well, I think science can be funny,

'cause anything can be funny, as long as

you put a little humor into it. No,

scientists cannot be funny.

We went back to the tumblr to check our

samples. Holy mackerel, it's clear. Just

because they're clear doesn't mean the

nano-iron got all the stuff out.

We went to another lab to analyze our

samples. Right here is the atomic

absorption spectrometer. All right. The

spectrometer uses a flame to measure the

amounts of metals in a sample. We

measured the amount of copper, lead, and

nickel in both our treated and untreated

Palmerton samples. It worked, and

Nano iron had removed a large amount of

the copper. It's amazing how the... The

little bit of nano iron really helped

clean the water. Makes such a big

difference. It's a huge jump. When we

were finished, we took our results and

put them on a chart that showed how much

of each metal was in the samples before

and after being treated by nano iron.

The nickel is 1.52. What's after?

Point four. Yummy like a gummy bear. To

help us understand the results in our

chart, Joanna showed us the concentration

of metals that are safe in drinking

water. In the untreated Palmerton sample,

the copper was almost five times higher

than it's safe in drinking water. And the

lead and nickel weren't safe to drink

either. It's kind of scary to think that

that much metal could be in the

groundwater. After the nano iron

treatment, the copper levels in the

Palmerton sample were okay for drinking

water. The blood and neck levels dropped

a lot, but they still weren't quite safe

for the water we drank. Well, from our

findings, it seemed like it only worked

partially. That's really true. You would

probably need to couple nano-iron with

other sorts of clean-up technologies to

make sure our water is safe. I think

we'll have to do a lot of other tests on

a lot of other soils to see if the

nano-iron works. Wow, you guys really

seem like you're into this. Well, it's a

dirty job, ma'am. Someone's got to clean

it up. Thanks, Joanna.

Now that we know pollution can be

invisible, maybe we should test the water

quality here. Well, Joanna said we can go

back any time. Yeah, cool, but

I know a test we can do right now. And

what's that?

What are some other ways that

nanotechnology might help clean up the

planet?Well, some nano-engineers are

working on a special kind of paper towel

to mop up oil spills. This is

how a regular paper towel drinks up

oil and water.

But check this out. A towel with

ultra super special nano fibers

drinks up 20 times its weight in oil

and leaves the water behind. And the best

part is the nano fiber towel can be

reused again and again. Reduce, reuse,

recycle. Nano style.

And next, the ultimate in good green fun.

Anil is developing a skateboard that you

could eat. Well, almost.

Let's go. Well, my name is Anil

Nataralli. I'm a research scientist, and

I helped design this environment-friendly

skateboard.

This is what we use for for making

skateboards. This is a soybean plant and

these are the soybean pods. We extract

the soybeans and we use it to convert

into resin and that acts like a glue.

Soy is our friend.

We have here Senthil, a graduate

student in our lab. After the soybeans

are harvested, the next step is to

extract the protein and use

nanotechnology or nanoparticles. Such

as nanoclay, soy protein,

nanocellulose from wood. And once that is

all added, we have a strong glue that

keeps the skateboard glued together. What

we do is to do the basic research behind

the skateboard. And the skateboard

company, of course, makes all the

skateboards.

Hello, this is Jason. He's the president

of Comet Skateboards, and this is the

place where the skateboards are made.

Yeah, so the focus of what we do at Comet

Skateboards is we take locally grown

hardwoods, locally grown soy, and we

assemble everything here piece by piece.

We take the hardwoods and combine that

with the resin, put that in a press, and

it gets pressed at over 50 tons of

pressure. Flash up Pushing down

on me Until thatResin

and that wood cross-link and bond

together, but they will never split

apart. The soy protein is completely

biodegradable. If you put it in a compost

medium, it is gone to absolutely

pure organic soil in about four months or

so. Skateboarding was new to me. I don't

skateboard, but I try. Look, I'm not a

skateboarder, but I've been playing

badminton for many, many years. Here at

Cornell, we have a lot of young students,

and I can givethem a hard time.

Ohh Let's get ready to rumble!

I think 10 years, 20 years, if we can use

everything sustainable to create a

fully sustainable economy, I would be

very happy.

Anil's skateboards show us that

nanotechnology can be part of keeping our

planet healthy. Other green

nanovations will help make better solar

panels, paints that change colors to

absorb or reflect sunlight, batteries

that make motorcycles like Killacycle

more energy efficient, and the list just

keeps growing. Now

back to a different breakthrough and

today's challenge What is

cancer's new?new nano enemy.

Is it gold, tin,

mercury, or aluminum?

Here's a clue. This metal is

solid at room temperature, it's very

soft, and it can

easily be pounded as thin as this

leaf. Keep on thinking.

Next up, today's Zoom Cab ride is

on a bike.

Oh, no, Zoomer, you're not being replaced

by a bike. We're just zooming into one.

Check this out.

This bike's handlebar support is made of

a lightweight carbon fiber. Let's zoom in

for a closer look, shall we?

It's criss-crossing fibers make it strong

and flexible. In each strand, there

are thousands of separate

carbon fibers. Looks kind of like a

giant fistful of uncooked spaghetti,

doesn't it?I know, Zoomer. Makes me

hungry too. Where each spaghetti-like

strand is snapped, you can see the fiber

ends and those glues along the side of

the strands. Those help the fibers stick

together with a special kind of glue.

Let's zoom in for a closer look. You

see that stripe that looks kind of like a

river?That stripe is made-up of

layers of carbon atoms.

And these dots over here, those are the

same layers just seen from above. Looks

like we're heading into a carbon beehive.

And those fuzzy dots right there, those

are individual carbon atoms.

I know, Zoomer. Let's put it in reverse.

So next time you see a cyclist flying by.

They may be riding carbon spaghetti.

Yep, the nanoworld is full of surprises.

Next up, Sarah and Monde find out that

when it comes to socks, all that glitters

is not gold.

Hey, I'm Sarah. And I'm Monde. And this

is our story.

Once upon a time, there was a metal

called zoa. It was discovered that

silver could k*ll bacteria on food and in

drinks. No one understood how it worked.

It just did. Long ago, ancient

Egyptians put their food inside silver

containers to keep them from spoiling.

Ancient Greeks and Romans kept their

water in silver goblets to keep it fresh

and clean.

Chinese emperors, it was silver

chopsticks. Americans used to put silver

dollars in mouths.

During World w*r One, silver leaf was

even used to help fight infections and

heal wounds.

The next stop in our silver story was the

Science Center in Ithaca, NY.

It's a great museum, and they have all

kinds of fun exhibits.

Look, nanotechnology. We checked out a

couple of exhibits all about nano.

Dr. Monday. Then we got to the

nano-silver display and learned that

scientists are using nano-silver in

bandages to help cuts heal faster. What?

Nano-silver?We wanted to learn more,

so we met up with BJ. He's a museum

services coordinator at the Science

Center. Silver that scientists used to

use, you know, was verybig. It's called

macrosilver, and it's something you could

see with your own eyes. But scientists

say you're using a different kind of

silver. It's called nanosilver, and it's

stuff that's so tiny you have to use

really, really powerful microscopes to

look at it. So what's with this green guy?

Well, this green guy here is our model of

Bob the bacteria cell. We

compared how many pieces of silver we

could put on Bob the bacteria cell with

big beach ba*ls to represent regular

silver and little wiffle ba*ls to

represent nanosilver. I can't even

see bacteria with my eyes, and

nano-silver is smaller than that.

We could only fit three regular-sized

silver pieces on the bob, but tons of

nano-silver stuff. Get the idea?The same

amount of silver can actually k*ll more

bacteria because of how small the size

is. So that's why nano-silver kills even

more bacteria than regular silver. That's

correct.

DJ told us that nano-silver is being used

in different kinds of products to k*ll

bacteria. Those bacteria let off some

funky odors. So we put in some

nano-silver particles in the shirt to

help keep those things down. But tell me,

what happens when the nano-silver is

washed down the drain?Well, some people

are worried that nano-silver particles

might end up in the environment and

actually k*ll some good bacteria out in

the wild. Thanks so much. You're welcome.

We decided to visit a lab to test out how

Nano Silver affects the environment. But

first, we had a test of our own to see

how good Nano Silver is at k*lling

bacteria and bad smells. It

was time to put a Nano Silver product to

the test. Nano Socks! We

went to the sporting goods store and

bought one pair of regular socks and

two different brands of Nano Silver

socks. Do they

really smell less than regular socks?I

know how we can find out. How?A smell

test. Okay, so let's put one Nana

Silver sock on one foot and a regular

sock on the other foot. The object is to

get our feet and socks as sweaty as

we possibly can.

How can you go?Get it for me. You getting

tired, Mom?No, are you?We

played for a really long time and got our

socks as sweaty as possible.

It's time for the final moment of truth,

the smell test. I got stanky socks.

Our socks all smelled about the

same, like sweaty socks. Smell

test result inconclusive.

Next up, we wanted to test whether Nano

Silver washes out of the socks when you

put them in the laundry. We remembered

what BJ said. Well, some people are

worried that nano-silver particles might

end up in the environment and actually

k*ll some good bacteria out in the wild.

We washed one of each sock and saved the

dry socks for later. Now let's take the

socks and the water to the lab to see if

any nano-silver has leaked out. We went

to the Department of Microbiology at

Cornell University to meet a student

named Kekia, who tests nano-silver

fabrics. Hekia helped us test our

nano silver, both the silver in the socks

and any silver that might be in the wash

water. First, we did a bacteria test on

our clean, dry socks to see how well the

socks k*lled bacteria. We used a common

type of bacteria called micrococcus.

Micro whata?Micrococcus is

bacteria that's commonly found on your

skin, and it's actually the reason why

your sweat will smell. First, we

cut out samples from our dry, plain

cotton socks and our two pairs of nano

socks. We put the socks on an agar

plate to hold our socks in place. The

agar looks a lot like gelatin, and it had

some bacteria food in it. Then, we

combined the micrococcus bacteria with

liquid agar and poured it in the plate

with our socks. Okay, guys, now we'll

test the wash water. We wanted to know if

the leftover wash water from the socks

could k*ll bacteria, too. We had samples

of wash water from all three of our wash

socks. We took each of our wash

water samples and mixed in bacteria, and

some broth for the bacteria to feed on.

We put all our socks and wash water

samples into the incubator so they could

stay warm and grow overnight.

OK, so here's the regular sock. It's

almost as if there's a sheet of yellow

bacteria over it. The regular sock

didn't k*ll any of these bacteria. Both

of the Nanosilver socks have a ring

around them where no bacteria grew. It's

just like the bacteria is not even

allowed to touch it. They both did their

job and k*lled the bacteria. Then we

checked out our wash water samples. The

water from the regular sock and one of

the Nanosilver socks was full of

bacteria, so it looked cloudy, but the

water from the other Nanosilver sock was

totally clear. Something must have

leaked out of the sock to k*ll the

bacteria. So does that mean that

the socks are leaking nano-silver into

the water?We do know that nano-silver

kills bacteria, so it's possible that's

the case. However, to prove that,

we'd have to run a bunch more tests.

Well, I guess that's an investigation for

another day. We still don't have

all the answers about how silver works,

but now we know that nano-silver has a

lot of cool possibilities if scientists

can figure out the best way to use

nano-silver. And protect the environment

at the same time. It'll be a happyending.

So those two were great nanodetectives. I

guess anyone making new products with

nanoparticles has to do a bunch of tests.

But before Nano Silver came along, we

knew silver had its pluses and minuses.

Like Sarin Mande said, people have been

using silver to help cure infections for

a long time. But too much silver in the

body can cause a skin discoloration

called argyria, which turns the skin

blue-gray permanently.

Silver has a lot of practical uses, too.

It's used in photography. It's good at

conducting electricity. A silver b*llet

can k*ll a werewolf. Its chemical symbol

is AG. Wait a nanosecond!

nanotechnology benefit all people equally?

Let me think about that. Of course not.

Some people might benefit from

nanotechnology and some people might not.

Well, I think that nanotechnology could

never really benefit all people equally

because of the fact that some people

have more money than others. With

nanotechnology engineered products being

more expensive,then people who don't have

quite as much money wouldn't be able to

buy these products. It should be

available to everyone. When everything

starts getting made out of it, it won't

be that expensive. A lot of technology is

that way that it gets cheaper as they

know more about it. Eventually, maybe the

poor people will get it, but it might

take longer. I think there should be laws

that make nanotechnology accessible to

everyone. I think it will definitely

benefit us all in the long run. Cut!

If everyone could access nanotechnology

equally, then it would be fair.

Those kids had some great ideas. Tell us

if you think nanotechnology can help

everyone. Go to our nano message boards

to post your ideas. Here's how.

Click on over to the Dragonfly TV website

at pbskidsgo.org. Stream a cool

DFTV video. Try your hand at the new

Nanobots game, or tell us what you think

about nanotechnology. It's your place to

share your ideas.

Now it's time for the answer to today's

Nano Challenge. What is Cancer's new

enemy?Is it gold,

tin, aluminum, or mercury?

It's gold. Gold has been used in medicine

for a long time, but when it's

nano-sized, gold has all sorts of new

properties, and it's been discovered that

gold can help treat cancer by targeting

only the cancer cells and leaving the

healthy cells untouched. That's much

easier on the patient than what's being

used now. Yep, gold is a

superstar of nanoparticles because it can

be found in everything from.

Medicine to electronics to clothing

to cosmetics. So the nano

revolution lives. Here are some ideas

that may be ready to use soon.

This carbon nanotube helmet is super

strong and light, and it has nano

sensors that give weather reports and

directions. It's 65 degrees. Thanks.

This waterproof jacket changes color and

turns fluorescent at night.

Cool. I

can check text messages on this nano

fiber phone and pop

it onto my wrist. Sweet.

Here is a roll-up TV screen

for watching Dragonfly TV, of course.

And now for the fog-proof

shades. And finally,

my favorite, the

Comet skateboard. for a very

cool and a very green ride. See you

soon for more breakthroughs on Dragonfly

TV.

Body movin' Body movin' He wants the

sound in the town so tunin' Body movin'

Body movin' We be gettin' down and you

know we'll put you doin' Body

movin' Body movin' He wants the sound in

the town so tunin' Body movin' Body

movin' We be gettin' down and you know

we'll put you doin' Body movin' We be

body movin'

Now! Major funding for Dragonfly TV is

provided by...

The National Science Foundation,

supporting education and research across

all fields of science and engineering.

The National Science Foundation, where

discoveries begin

PBS Kids.