Catching cancer before it metastasizes, or spreads throughout the body, is one way to increase your chances of survival. Now scientists may have found a way to help even when cancer is already on the move, by using magnets to lasso cancer cells and drag them out of the body. Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have shown that magnetic nanoparticles—tiny shards of magnetic metal, less than a hundred thousandths of an inch in diameter—can be attached to cancer cells, which can then be manipulated and moved with another magnet.

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In the strange, subatomic world of quantum mechanics, even complete nothingness exerts a force. According to a principle known as the Casimir Effect, two plates separated by an incredibly small space will experience a force pushing them together. While the Casimir effect isn’t powerful enough to affect daily life, it has complicated efforts to build effective nanotechnology.

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Health risks for the 21st century worker keep getting weirder. Researchers at North Carolina State University have found that quantum dots—nanoparticles made of semiconducting crystals that emit light when stimulated at certain wavelengths—can penetrate skin through abrasions.

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DNA provides the genetic code for everything from bacteria to blue whales through combinations of just four DNA units, or bases. Now chemist Floyd Romesberg of the Scripps Research Institute in San Diego hopes to expand biology’s potential by adding more bases to the mix.

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A trio of prismatic drops (left to right: water, ethylene glycol and ethanol) balances on a new ultra-repellent surface invented by scientists at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. The surface, made up of silicon spikes just 400 nanometers wide, physically repels a wide variety of liquids, including water, oil, solvents and detergents.

Previously, scientists relied on chemical modification to make surfaces repel liquids, a time-consuming process. In the end, each coating worked to repel only certain liquids, and oil-repellent surfaces simply weren’t possible to manufacture.

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Steve Boggan has written an excellent article today in the Guardian on nanotechnology and its implications in the industrial food market. The first five paragraphs are as good a primer on nanotech as youre likely to find—send this one to your mom if she has any questions. The rest of the article is a closer look at its future in our food supply, particularly in light of consumers recent widespread distaste for genetically modified goods. The bottom line: the industry is outwardly hopeful about the technologys promise, but inwardly cautious about the public response. Oh, and we have no idea what itll do to us when we eat it.

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A new low-cost, nanotech-based approach to power generation developed by researchers at Boston College and MIT could lead to cleaner-running semiconductors, air conditioners, car exhausts and more. The technique, published online yesterday in Science, uses the nanostructures to dramatically increase thermal efficiency.

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Granted, it will be far too small for her to show off to her friends, but if your potential fiancée has a love of science, she just might accept this bauble over something flashier. Its the worlds smallest diamond ring, created by a group of Australian physicists. The ring measures just 5 microns wide and 300 nanometers thick. And no, its not really for advertising your engagement. The ring is actually part of a device used to produce and detect single photons.

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Remember Innerspace? Dennis Quaid and his submarine-like ship are shrunk to the size of a cell and accidentally injected into the hapless Martin Short. Quaid navigates the hazards of Shorts bodily functions in order to plot his escape. Twenty years on, there's something rather quaint about it. A vessel the size of a cell? With a pilot inside? Compared to todays innovations in nanotechnology, it's akin to using a tractor trailer to find your way through a corn maze.

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There´s nothing tiny about the international controversy brewing over the safety of nanomaterials. In April, a German company recalled a tile sealant called Magic Nano after dozens of consumers suffered breathing problems while using it. Never mind that the product contained particles too large to actually count as nanomaterials (which must be smaller than a billionth of a meter)-the scare was on, and European confidence in products labeled â€nano†had already sunk.

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Launch the slideshow to see how titanium oxide reacts with light to zap dirt at the molecular level

Not so long ago, chemical engineers discovered how to use titanium dioxide to keep buildings free of discoloring pollution.

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A baseball zooms through clouds, straight through a wall and into the waiting hand of actor Adam Smith, who is tricked out like a magician, complete with wand, tuxedo and top hat. â€How do you do it?†Smith asks conspiratorially. â€You just need a small enough ball, of course.†But Smith isn´t really explaining a magic trick. He´s talking nanotech, in the new short film When Things Get Small.

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The most prolific car manufacturer on the planet resides in a Rice University laboratory in Houston, where chemist James Tour and his colleagues have built one trillion trillion nanoscopic cars. The tiny four-wheeled vehicles are only four billionths of a meter wide-25,000 of them parked side by side would be about as thick as a piece of paper. Not just another nano-gimmick, Tour´s cars could one day carve tiny channels in silicon, creating more-powerful computer chips.

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