X-Message-Number: 16138
From: "John Clark" <>
Subject: News from Science
Date: Fri, 27 Apr 2001 12:18:59 -0400


Transistors made from carbon nanotubes are not new, they were first made in 
1998,

but in today's issue of Science researchers from IBM report on a method of 
making

them that is far more precise and easier to scale up. It's a little ironic that 
the lead
researcher Phaedon Avouris has always been a vocal skeptic of Nanotechnology,

he now says " in principle we now have the potential for forming an integrated 
electronics".

In the same issue of Science are two new advances in Stem Cells. In one mouse

embryonic stem cells were induced to turn into insulin producing cells, when 
transferred

into diabetic mice the mice needed fewer insulin shots to live. In another 
article a bit a

adult mouse's tail was cut off and the tissue was turned into embryonic stem 
cells,

then they morphed the stem cells into dopamine producing cells, the sort of 
cells

that are lost in Parkinson's disease. Both said they would have used Human cells
instead of mouse cells if the government had let them.


Today's New York Times says IBM will spend several billion dollars over the next
few

years on something called "Project Eliza". It would enable computers to  "use 
machine

intelligence to adjust to changing workloads, recognize faults and repair 
themselves
without human intervention".

    John K Clark      

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