Main content

Challenges of Nanoscience

New developments in biological nanosciences with Shana Kelley, Yamuna Krishnan, Benjamin Bratton and Josh Fischman.

Bridget Kendall talks to leading nanoscientists gathered by the Royal Society of Chemistry at the University of California San Diego: biochemist Shana Kelley who makes medical diagnostic tools using tiny quantities of metals, biologist Yamuna Krishnan who creates nanomachines from synthetic DNA, design theorist Benjamin Bratton who wants to link up nanoinks with cloud computing, and journalist Josh Fischman who helps us separate nanofact from nanofiction.

(Photo: A nano gold/palladium crystal courtesy of Kelley Laboratory)

Available now

41 minutes

Last on

Mon 15 Sep 2014 02:05GMT

Chapters

  • Nanoscale

    How small is really, really small?

    Duration: 08:59

  • Yamuna Krishnan

    DNA machines to monitor cell health

  • Benjamin Bratton

    Linking nano-inks to cloud computing

    Duration: 10:06

  • Shana Kelley

    Transforming medical diagnosis with nanometals

    Duration: 12:11

  • Josh Fischman:

    How to move a marble with a single electron

    Duration: 04:39

Shana O. Kelley

Shana O. Kelley

Shana O. Kelley is professor of Biochemistry at the University of Toronto. Shana’s lab has been developing electronic chips that aim to reduce the time needed for diagnosis of infectious disease and cancer to minutes, rather than days. Chip-based sensors made from nanomaterials, such as gold and palladium, play an important role, as detection sensitivity is greatly enhanced when measurements are performed at the nanoscale. 

Yamuna Krishnan

Yamuna Krishnan
Professor Yamuna Krishnan works at the National Centre for Biological Sciences in Bangalore, India and the University of Chicago. She makes experimental nanomachines out of filaments of DNA, and gets them to sail into the nooks and crannies of living cells. These tiny machines can be programmed to check the aspects of chemistry inside a cell which are crucial to human health.

Benjamin H. Bratton

Benjamin H. Bratton

Benjamin H. Bratton is a theorist whose work spans Philosophy, Art and Design. He is associate professor of Visual Arts and director of The Center for Design and Geopolitics at the University of California, San Diego as well as professor at The European Graduate School in Saas-Fee, Switzerland. He has worked with biosensor ‘inks’, developed in UCSD’s Laboratory for Nanobioelectronics, transforming them into project Nanoskin, which explores ways to enhance the human ability to sense through our skin.

Josh Fischman

Josh Fischman

Josh Fischman is a senior editor at Scientific American magazine with special interest in health and technology. He has been following nanoscience for a number of years and explains why materials at a nanometre scale often behave in a radically different ways to macroscale. He also outlines some of the practical uses for nanotech today.

Broadcasts

  • Sat 13 Sep 2014 21:05GMT
  • Sun 14 Sep 2014 09:05GMT
  • Mon 15 Sep 2014 02:05GMT

Do you find it difficult to get a good night’s sleep?

Do you find it difficult to get a good night’s sleep?

The next Forum programme is about insomnia and we would love to hear your experiences.

Podcast