In development now is a diagnostic that uses magnetic nanoparticles to detect breast and other cancers at a very early stage.

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Another approach effectively steers magnetic nanoparticles toward disease sites where they dump their therapeutic load or else destroy cancerous tissue with heat.

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In a pair of papers to be published soon in Analytical Chemistry, Dr Porter describes how he and his graduate students ran a slender glass stick larded with magnetic nanoparticles through a GMR reader.

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To search for a target molecule, then, all that would be needed would be to sprinkle a sample thought to contain it with magnetic nanoparticles coated with the appropriate antibody or DNA and then run it over a spin valve.

ECONOMIST: Labs on a chip

Magnetic, nonradioactive nanoparticles (a tiny fraction of the thickness of a human hair and invisible to the human eye) are injected into the subject, where they bind only to known breast cancer cells within the body.

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In some of the packing arrangements, the quantum dots are huddled together, and thus are less susceptible to the magnetic field from the iron oxide nanoparticles.

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The researchers first created separate nanoparticles of two materials, lead selenide and magnetic iron oxide, with precise dimensions.

ECONOMIST: MONITOR

On it's own, oil is not magnetic, but MIT researchers say that when mixed with water-repellent nanoparticles that contain iron, the oil can be magnetically separated from the water.

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Even so, he pointed out that some nanoparticles potentially serving as the basis for savvy devices of the future are already in use, including magnetic iron oxide particles used for advanced body imaging.

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