X-Message-Number: 19101 From: "Gina Miller" <> References: <> Subject: The Nanogirl News~ Date: Fri, 17 May 2002 00:38:00 -0700 The Nanogirl News May 16, 2002 IBM wants a few good nano start-ups. IBM has created a small group within its semiconductor division to work with a select few nanotechnology start-ups on manufacturing issues and in exploring trends, another incremental step toward molecular computing. The group, part of the emerging-products organization inside IBM Microelectronics, will serve two main purposes. It will let Big Blue get a better view of the current state of nanotechnology research outside the company, and it could help a handful of companies get beyond the prototype stage, said Thomas Thies, director of physical sciences at IBM, speaking at the Nanotech Planet conference here Tuesday. (Cnet 5/15/02) http://news.com.com/2100-1001-914164.html Or see: Big Blue's building a nano think tank http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1103-914395.html Laser patterns particles in 3D. For a couple of decades now, nanotechnology researchers have been able to use beams of light to move microscopic particles. But the optical tweezers method has been limited to moving individual particles or several particles as a group. Researchers from Scotland and Mexico have improved the tool, making it possible to use photons to arrange microscopic particles into three-dimensional structures, and to rotate these nanostructures. The improved method also opens the door for bioengineering applications that involve observing and affecting the way molecules move in three dimensions. (TRN News 5/15/02) http://www.trnmag.com/Stories/2002/051502/Laser_patterns_particles_in_3D_051 502.html Congressmen Say More Nano Money Is An Investment In America's Future. Influential members of Congress are on a path to increase nanotechnology spending within the National Science Foundation over and above the increase President Bush called for in his 2003 budget. The bill, called the "Investing in America's Future Act," sponsored by Rep. Nick Smith, R-Mich., and co-sponsored by Rep. Sherwood Boehlert, R-NY, chairman of the powerful House Science Committee, would increase nanotechnology spending at NSF in 2003 from Bush's request of $221 million to $238 million. (SmallTimes 5/14/02) http://www.smalltimes.com/document_display.cfm?document_id=3750 DNA nanoballs boost gene therapy. Scrunching up DNA into ultra-tiny balls could be the key to making gene therapy safer and more efficient. The technique is now being tested on people with cystic fibrosis. So far, modified viruses have proved to be the most efficient way of delivering DNA to cells to make up for genetic faults. But viruses cannot be given to the same person time after time because the immune system starts attacking them. Viruses can also cause severe reactions. The nanoparticles consist of a single DNA molecule encased in positively charged peptides and are themselves delivered to cells via liposomes. (New Scientist 5/12/02) http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns9999225 Nanomotors may play role in medical treatment. Nanomotor Made From Single DNA Molecule Is A First. They are still many years away, but molecular motors that could radically improve manufacturing and medicine just took a step closer to reality. A University of Florida chemistry professor has made a "nanomotor" from a single DNA molecule. The motor, so small that hundreds of thousands could fit on the head of a pin, curls up and extends like an inchworm, said Weihong Tan, the principal investigator and lead author of an article about the motor in the April edition of the journal Nano Letters. (Small TImes 5/16/02) http://www.smalltimes.com/document_display.cfm?document_id=3779 Or (UniSci 5/16/02) http://unisci.com/stories/20022/0516021.htm Cool Chips Discloses Application Of Quantum Mechanics In High-Efficiency Nanotech Cooling Devices. Cool Chips plc (COLCF) said that its Cool Chips(tm), wafer-thin discs designed to produce cooling or refrigeration more efficiently than any competing technology, use quantum mechanical electron tunneling as the primary cooling mechanism. The Cool Chip is one of the first transformative technologies to emerge from the nanotechnology revolution. (Cool Chips 5/14/02) http://www.coolchips.gi/press/pr_020514.shtml Nanostructure Techniques Come Closer To Quantum Dot. An international research team has discovered an unprecedented method for accurately controlling the formation of nanometric structures. They worked with structures made of semiconducting material in the form of islets, using promising optoelectronic applications in the most advanced communication technology. (UniSci 5/14/02) http://unisci.com/stories/20022/0514022.htm Matsushita Electric (Panasonic) Develops the Industry's First High Throughput Drug Screening Technology Using Biosensors -- Nano-technology and bioelectronics allow faster development of new drugs. Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd., (NYSE: MC), best known for its Panasonic-brand products, today announced the development of Drugmining, a high-throughput drug screening technology using biosensors and the first of its kind in the industry. This new technology makes it possible to study drug efficacy in an environment similar to that of the human body, thus enabling reliable evaluation and development of promising new medicines. With its highly efficient operating capacity of 100,000 measurements per day, it has the potential to contribute to more rapid drug development by the pharmaceutical industry. Matsushita plans to make Drugmining commercially available in the second quarter of 2004 following the ongoing field testing. (Northern lights 5/15/02) http://library.northernlight.com/FG20020514830000014.html?cb=0&dx=1006&sc=0# doc It's a small world. (Interview with Alan Marty and Jason Friedman) Nanotechnology, a target du jour for venture capitalists, is still a blip on the investment screen. Nano or molecular-level technology received $112 million in venture capital in the first quarter, less than 2% of the total raised, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers figures. Still, that's grown nearly fivefold from 1999, and the accounting firm views it as a potentially big emerging market. (The Deal 5/14/02) http://www.thedeal.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=TheDeal/TDDArticle/S tandardArticle&c=TDDArticle&cid=1021242546208 American Pharmaceutical Partners' Presents Unique Nanotransporter Technology For Cancer Drug At Nanotech Planet Conference and Expo. At one of the premier events focusing on the commercialization of nanotechnology, American Pharmaceutical Partners, Inc. (Nasdaq: APPX) today presented an overview of advances made in developing ABI-007, a proprietary, protein-based paclitaxel nanoparticle currently in late-stage clinical studies for metastatic breast cancer. Paclitaxel is the active ingredient in Taxol , the world's most widely used cancer-fighting agent. (American Pharmaceutical Partners, Inc. 5/15/02) http://www.appdrugs.com/051502PR.htm It's a small, small, small world. Remember how proud you felt when you showed everyone you could ride a two-wheeler? That's how proud Krystyn Van Vliet acts as she opens the door to a large stainless-steel instrument at the NanoMechanical Technology Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "This is a nano-indenter," says Ms. Van Vliet, a material science graduate student at MIT in Cambridge, Mass. Then she points to a tiny, diamond-tipped needle inside. "We take a sample of the new material we are testing and push that diamond into the sample." (Christian Science monitor 5/14/02) http://www.csmonitor.com/2002/0514/p18s02-hfks.html Nanotech's Allure Is Intact. Nanotechnology's hold on investors stayed strong last week. Advion BioSciences, maker of chip-based drug-discovery tools, says it raised more than $15 million in a first round of funding. The Ithaca, N.Y., company's NanoMate technology is used in laboratory devices to analyze biological and chemical samples, and lets pharmaceutical companies find and develop drugs much faster than they can now, Advion says. (Information Week 5/13/02) Small report. http://www.informationweek.com/story/IWK20020512S0015 What's the purpose of life? Nanotechnology might provide the answer. Column By Ronald Bailey. Two different types of cutting-edge technology are promising (or threatening, as the fearful might see it) to radically change human abilities and capacities -- and even our identities. One - already the subject of plenty of political maneuvering -- is the biotechnological revolution. The other, not yet of major political significance, is nanotechnology -- the ability to manipulate matter precisely on the atomic level. (Reason 5/1/02) http://www.reason.com/rb/rb050102.shtml Supercomputer lets researchers study material failures, atom by atom. One of the world's most powerful supercomputers, at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, has been trained like a microscope on one of the smallest but most important technological problems of our time: how materials crack and deform. (SiliconValley.com 5/14/02) http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/local/3259060.htm Nanotech May Aid Hospitals, Patients. John Halamka works in two very different worlds, and the promise of nanotechnology excites him in both. As CIO of CareGroup Health System in Boston, he has to consider how the technology might change the IT infrastructure of one of the country's largest hospital chains. And as an emergency physician at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, he also sees how it could revolutionize the practice of medicine. (Information Week 5/13/02) http://www.informationweek.com/story/IWK20020510S0002 Advion Secures $15 Million to Commercialize NanoMateT Technology. - First Fully Automated Nanoelectrospray System Answers Demand for High-Throughput Bioanalysis by Mass Spectrometry - Advion BioSciences Inc., a privately held developer of automated, chip-based mass spectrometry tools and research-service provider to the pharmaceutical industry, today announced a placement of Series B preferred shares in excess of $15 million. Skyline Ventures and Perseus-Soros BioPharmaceutical Fund led the investment round, with significant funding from Polaris Venture Partners and additional capital from Soros Private Equity Partners (Advion press release 5/7/02) http://www.advion.com/InvestmentPress.htm Electrons Come to Order. Electrons don't normally know one direction from another, so researchers were perplexed a few years ago when they found a cold plane of electrons suddenly choosing to conduct many times better in one direction than in the perpendicular one. Maybe they could acquire a preferred orientation by acting like liquid crystals, theorists proposed. Now, in the 27 May print issue of PRL, a group reports it has worked this theory out well enough that experimenters may finally have some detailed signs to search for. (Physical Review Focus 5/14/02) http://focus.aps.org/v9/st25.html University of Louisville chemical engineer Mahendra Sunkara, doctoral student Shashank Sharma and their research group have developed a process for growing nanometer-scale wires that allows them to control more easily the minute wires' size, structure and composition. (CVD 5/13/02) http://www.cvd.louisville.edu/news.htm Tiny Triumph for Science. Light and a Single Molecule Are Combined to Make a Machine. Scientists have for the first time used the power of light to create mechanical energy for a microdevice, making a single molecule of plastic drive a tiny machine. The experiment could have important implications for the field of nanotechnology, which seeks to miniaturize machines and mechanisms to an atomic or molecular scale. "We know [the machine] works pretty well," said researcher Hermann E. Gaub. "Miniaturization drives progress." Gaub, a physicist at the University of Munich's Nanoscience Center, was part of a German-led team that used well-known materials in a relatively simple experiment to turn light into mechanical energy, something that had never been done before on the molecular level. -Picture of Molecule Machine at the bottom of article- (Washington Post 5/10/02) http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A62712-2002May9.html The smallest revolution. Molecular circuitry moved from science fiction to science fact in 2001. Carbon nanotubes and semiconductor nanowires are currently leading the field of competitors for the computers of the post-silicon era. Michael Gross investigates Electronic components are getting smaller and smaller still, mainly driven by the demand for faster and faster computers at virtually constant prices. We are so used to this continuing revolution that it will feel strange when it finally collides with the laws of physics and comes to a grinding halt. -Nice looking paper- (Chembytes 5/02) http://www.chemsoc.org/chembytes/ezine/2002/gross_may02.htm Gina "Nanogirl" Miller Nanotechnology Industries http://www.nanoindustries.com Personal: http://www.nanogirl.com A Visual Tour of the Future: (new) http://www.nanogirl.com/ArtisticLicense.html Foresight Senior Associate "Nanotechnology: Solutions for the future." Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=19101