I know, I know. Mining on the moon has left a few of you feeling under the weather. The sickness is unknown, but don’t worry, Doc has a shot full of diamonds that will zero in on the problem real quick. You’re probably wondering why I keep suggesting you inject diamonds into your very nice, very tiny veins. Sounds painful, right? Sorry, I should clarify. Not diamonds. Nanodiamonds.
Robert Lea from Live Science reported that in a recent experiment, scientists used ultra-powerful lasers to blast cheap plastic and turn it into nanodiamonds, billionths of a meter in size. The scientists developed the idea for this experiment from observations of Neptune and Uranus. These planets exhibit peculiar magnetic fields that their theorized molecular makeup does not currently explain. But these nanodiamonds suggest the existence of super-ionic water instead of a frozen core for these planets. Super-ionic water is water which exists as both a liquid and a solid at once.
But what does this have to do with medical injections and what are its futuristic implications?
Let’s get back to the nanodiamonds. Lin Edwards on Phys.org describes various successful experiments with nanodiamonds that open up significant potential use in the medical community. Diamonds, of all sizes, include vacancies in their structure where a nitrogen atom replaces the carbon atoms, giving natural diamonds a yellow tint. When yellow light shines on nanodiamonds, the nitrogen reflects violet light. In one experiment described by Edwards, scientists injected worms with nanodiamonds, which are then tracked by the violet light emissions. Based on the coating applied before injection, the nanodiamonds can “target” specific parts of the body, such as say, cancer cells.
In science fiction stories, it is common for present day ailments such as the cold and cancer to be eradicated and humans afflicted with new, unknown cosmic ills. But the mechanism of this eradication is often a vague magic bullet. Here is one real world discovery to explain how humans have conquered most medical problems. Nanodiamonds can target the issue inside the human body and allow doctors to treat only the illness with no nasty side effects.
Here is also an opportunity to over-come climate change. Remember when I said scientists created these nanodiamonds by blasting cheap plastic with lasers? Currently, nanodiamonds form when larger diamonds are blasted into smaller ones, an expensive and difficult process. By creating nanodiamonds from plastic, scientists provided a futuristic, and potentially real life, solution to the world’s plastic problems. Perhaps some enterprising individual will become a millionaire (or more) by pioneering the nanodiamond industry and helpfully clean up our oceans while she’s at it.
Blasting the plastic does not just create nanodiamonds, but also superionic water, a type of water not found on Earth. According to this article on EurekAlert.org, superionic water transforms ice (water’s solid form) from an insulator into a conductor where the “electricity is carried by positively charged atoms rather than electrons, obviously negative.” This offers the potential to create an “ideal” battery, one not requiring an internal structure. The current design of batteries is a known limitation for electric vehicles. Could superionic water be the solution? In your world building, perhaps superionic water batteries are a common feature of any powered vehicle, from flying cars to spaceships.
These sorts of detail set apart your stories from those who give you the Jedi hand wave. You will believe in my world building.
Believe.
Believe.
May Imagination Reign!
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