Curing Cancer with Nano Explosives

Curing cancer has long been a holy grail for medical research, but for some reason the idea of using explosives has never appealed.  As much as we want to destroy the tumours, we (usually) want to hang on to the person they're attached to and so oncological explosives remained a cruelly under-utilised field.  Of course, the real problem was simply that we had insufficiently awesome science - a problem that has now been resolved by researchers in the University of Missouri-Columbia and the U.S. Army.

The concept of nanoexplosives might seem counter-productive (people don't usually try to make bombs smaller) but the idea is one common in many modern applications of nanotechnology.  While some picture the revolutionary nanobots and entirely new devices possible with molecular control of materials, many of the most important advances are being made in processes we already understand - revolutionized by how well we can now control the components.  Any explosive requires a fuel which burns and the oxidizer it needs to do so: in the case of these diminutive detonations, using nanoscale fuel and oxidizer components allows a huge contact area between the two with a small amount of material, leading to hugely efficient and fast-propagating reactions.

The medical application doesn't actually involved injecting explosives into the body - no matter how sophisticated the system, adding tiny grenades rarely improves the human condition.  Instead a handheld device uses a controlled reaction to generate a small but powerful shockwave which can be targeted into tumours, punching small holes throughout the affected tissue.  This allows administered drugs to effectively disperse into the cancer rather than battling at the fringes.

Of course the army has other uses in mind for this system, but before anyone starts a self-righteous tirade against the military-industrial complex for hijacking a cancer cure into war, remember two things:

1)  They're paying for the research, which is kind of important.
2)  It isn't what you think.

In a wonderfully ironic twist, these tiny TNT-alikes aren't actually intended to blow anybody up.  Quite the opposite - shockwaves from nanoexplosive devices could be used with seismic technology to reveal hidden anti personnel explosives, mines and other improvised explosive devices (IED).  Besides, even if the army do want to research new explosives - surely it's a good sign that they're looking for ones that are smaller and better controlled.

Posted by Luke McKinney.

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Nano explosive drug delivery http://www.physorg.com/news119702507.html