X-Message-Number: 20094 From: "Gina Miller" <> Subject: The Nanogirl News~ Date: Wed, 18 Sep 2002 02:07:40 -0700 The Nanogirl News September 18, 2002 Nanotech funding bill in the wings. On Tuesday, the Oregon Democrat is planning to introduce a bill and convene a hearing to spur the development of nanotechnology by spending more government money on early-stage research. A summary of the bill seen by CNET News.com says it will establish a "National Nanotechnology Research Program" to coordinate federal efforts in the area and balance research objectives with ethical and societal concerns. It will spend about $446 million, with a portion of that to come from existing money located elsewhere in the federal budget. Last year, the government spent $463 on nanotechnology. (Cnet 9/16/02) http://news.com.com/2100-1023-958089.html?tag=cd_mh Nanotubes could reduce CO2 emissions. A team led by scientists at Carnegie Mellon University said Monday that carbon nanotubes, which are straw-like structures with walls a single atom thick, could filter gases much more quickly than current systems. The atoms of carbon nanotubes are arranged so that they offer practically no friction to passing gas molecules, said David Sholl, a professor of chemical engineering at Carnegie Mellon. Such smooth surfaces mean the tubes theoretically can transport gas through a membrane at rates that are orders of magnitude greater than current microporous substances used in gas separation, Sholl told United Press International. (UPI 9/16/02) http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=20020916-044639-9775r Photographs capture the sheer beauty of science. The 2002 Visions of Science Awards, backed by The Daily Telegraph and Novartis, the pharmaceutical and health-care company, celebrate the best in science, medical and veterinary photography. As well as bringing science to life, they highlight how the natural, and unnatural, world can be transformed through the lens of a camera or scanning electron microscope. Winner: Nanotechnology by Coneyl Jay uses computer-generated imagery to look forward to the day when microscopic machines roam through the body taking samples for tests. (Telegraph.co.uk 9/17/02) http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;$sessionid$FDWZRWKSPBHSDQFIQMGCFF 4AVCBQUIV0?xml=/news/2002/09/17/nphot17.xml&sSheet=/news/2002/09/17/ixnewsto p.html Researchers Create Rare, Large Symmetrical Crystals Accident Leads to Important Discovery. Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y., have created large symmetrical crystals that rarely occur in nature. These crystals could be harder than conventional engineering materials. The accidental discovery was made during attempts to make superconducting nanostructures with a simple technique used to create carbon nanotubes. (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute 9/16/02) http://www.rpi.edu/web/News/press_releases/2002/ajayancyrstal.html New computer system solves problems by tricking computers. A Virginia Tech researcher has come up with a computer technology he calls 'Weaves' that allows a programmer to use a code in any programming language and convert it to a form similar to object-oriented programming. Weaves technology is used to create a virtual world that tricks the software into thinking it is in the real world. (Eurekalert 9/16/02) http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2002-09/vt-ncs091602.php Nimble Nanoswitch May Win Info Relay Race. Nanosize devices may be getting their own ultra-small version of a component that few electronic gadgets can function without: the switch. We have performed a theoretical analysis of a carbon nanotube-based nanoelectromechanical switch," Swedish researchers Tomas Nord, Susanne Viefers and Jari Kinaret revealed in a new paper. The publication provides the first-ever blueprint for a nanorelay made from microscopic carbon tubules -- a switching device that may one day prove critical to nanotechnology. (Yahoo 9/13/02) http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=75&ncid=75&e=13&u=/nf/20020 913/tc_nf/19400 Samsung Dives Into the Nano Pool. Chipmaker Samsung Monday said it is shifting its business strategy of its Memory Business Division by shrinking the size of some of its semiconductors to the nanometer (define) level. The South Korea-based company, whose semiconductor division is located in San Jose, California, introduced a state-of-the-art 90-nanometer process technology along with the successful pilot production of a 2Gbit NAND Flash memory device using the 90-nanometer design. (SiliconValley internet.com 9/16/02) http://siliconvalley.internet.com/news/article.php/1464321 Nanomix nets $9M in second funding round. Emeryville-based nanotechnology component developer Nanomix Inc. earned $9 million in a Series B round of financing through Apax Partners and Sevin Rosen Funds. (San Francisco Business Times 9/16/02) http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/stories/2002/09/16/daily7.html Nanotechnology expected to extend Moore's Law. Moore's Law will get a new lease on life through this decade because of nanotechnology, the Intel Developers Forum was told on Thursday. Sunlin Chou, senior vice president and head of Intel's Technology and Manufacturing group, said new materials and chip structures possible with nanotechnology will continue the doubling of transistor count on die every 24 months that Moore postulated decades ago. "The people who think Moore's Law will end assume that materials and structures won't change. They are constantly changing and will keep Moore's Law going for a lot longer," he said. (EE Times 9/13/02) http://www.electronicstimes.com/tech/news/OEG20020912S0039 Massachusetts bested California in a high-tech state-by-state comparison released today by an economic think tank, findings that may reflect changing dynamics among small tech's leading regions. Although the analysis by the Milken Institute doesn't focus on small tech specifically, certain categories used in the comprehensive analysis are particularly relevant to micron and nanoscale technologies and their potential to boost state economies. (Small Times 9/17/02) http://www.smalltimes.com/document_display.cfm?document_id=4628 Nano-Welding Creates Tiny Junctions. Researchers have discovered how to weld together single-walled carbon nanotubes, pure carbon cylinders with remarkable electronic properties. The discovery could pave the way for controlled fabrication of molecular circuits and nanotube networks. Pulickel Ajayan, professor of materials science at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y., and his colleagues in Germany, Mexico, the U.K., and Belgium used irradiation and heat to form the welded junctions. This is the first time single-walled nanotubes have been welded together, although multi-walled nanotubes with junctions previously have been created using growth techniques. The electrical properties of single-walled nanotubes surpass those of multi-walled tubes, which is why so many researchers have been anxious to try this experiment, said Ajayan. (RPI 9/16/02) http://www.rpi.edu/web/News/press_releases/2002/ajayanwelding.html The Right Stuff for Super Spaceships. Tomorrow's spacecraft will be built using advanced materials with mind-boggling properties. What I'm really looking for," you say to the salesman, "is a car that goes at least 10,000 miles between fill-ups, repairs itself automatically, cruises at 500 mph, and weighs only a few hundred pounds." As he stands there wide-eyed, you add, "Oh yeah, and I can only spend about a quarter of what these other cars cost." Impossible? Before you answer, consider how a rancher from 200 years ago might have reacted if a man had asked to buy a horse that could run 100 mph for hours on end, carry his entire family and all their luggage, and sing his favorite songs to him all the while! Today we call them minivans. Revolutions in technology--like the Industrial Revolution that replaced horses with cars--can make what seems impossible today commonplace tomorrow. Such a revolution is happening right now. Three of the fastest-growing sciences of our day--biotech, nanotech, and information technology--are converging to give scientists unprecedented control of matter on the molecular scale. Emerging from this intellectual gold-rush is a new class of materials with astounding properties that sound more at home in a science fiction novel than on the laboratory workbench. -streaming audio- (Science Nasa 9/16/02) http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2002/16sep_rightstuff.htm?list433924 Jupitermedia Corporation (Nasdaq: JUPM) (formerly INT Media Group) today announced the re-launch of NanotechPlanet.com as NanoelectronicsPlanet.com (http://www.nanoelectronicsplanet.com) - the first Web site devoted to in-depth coverage of the nanoelectronics industry. The company also announced the launch of Nanoelectronics Planet Conference & Expo, which will be held November 18-19, 2002 in New York City. (Stockhouse Australia 9/17/02) http://www.stockhouse.com/news/news.asp?tick=JUPM&newsid=1287045 Carbon Nanotechnologies Inc. (CNI) [profile] today announced that it has developed an improved form of single-wall carbon nanotubes. The BuckyPearl(TM) form of single-wall carbon nanotubes can be handled more easily in extruders and other polymer-processing equipment that directly blends single-wall carbon nanotubes with polymers and other materials for a variety of end uses. "This is a significant advance in the development of carbon nanotechnology," said Ron Liotta, senior vice president of CNI. "BuckyPearl single-wall carbon nanotubes are easier to process, yet retain the extraordinary performance properties of Buckytubes. Several of our industrial partners are testing the material in a variety of applications." (Nano Investor News 9/16/02) http://www.nanoinvestornews.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=782 Nanotech's grand challenge: energy self-sufficiency, says von Ehr. "Nanotechnology needs a 'grand challenge' project, and energy self-sufficiency is one that would pay huge benefits to both the USA and the world," says James R. von Ehr II, President & CEO of Zyvex Corp. He presented this idea at the recent White House Economic Forum, which brought together leaders from various sectors to discuss the fundamentals of the economy and the President's agenda to increase economic growth for the future. (KurzweilAI.net 9/11/02) http://www.kurzweilai.net/news/frame.html?main=news_single.html?id%3D1241 Hyperion Catalysis International is not like most other nanotechnology companies. First, it's old, at least by nano standards. The Boston-area company celebrated its 20th anniversary this summer. Second, it downplays its nano heritage, or at least does not participate in the hype. Hyperion has been making what it calls Fibrils, a form of multiwall carbon nanotubes, since the 1980s - years before the scientific community acknowledged the existence of carbon nanotubes. Staff members are more likely to attend a conference on plastics than any of the numerous nanotech gatherings that proliferated recently. (Small Times 9/16/02) http://www.smalltimes.com/document_display.cfm?document_id=4622 Newsweek Next Frontiers: Careers and Technology. Although technology took a beating in the dot-com crash, the innovative drive of the '90's tech boom never went away and scientific progress marched on as well. Now there are new worlds of job opportunities in industries that are growing quickly because of scientific breakthroughs and the tech boom -- in fields like nanotechnology, biometrics, solar energy and biotech. In the third installment of Newsweek's "Next Frontiers" series on how technology is changing the way we live and work, Newsweek looks at the new careers and opportunities that are emerging from these new fields. The report appears in the September 23 issue of Newsweek, on newsstands Monday, September 16. (Hoovers Online 9/15/02) http://hoovnews.hoovers.com/fp.asp?layout=displaynews&doc_id=NR200209151680. 2_67bb01f3f4116ac3 (Event) 10th Foresight Conference on Molecular Nanotechnology. 11 to 13 October, 2002 at the Hyatt Hotel, One Bethesda Metro, Bethesda, Maryland 20814. Two instructional tutorials on Molecular Nanotechnology will be held on October 10. (Register at the Foresight website) http://www.foresight.org/Conferences/MNT10/index.html Lightning Rods for Nanoelectronics. Electrostatic discharges threaten to halt further shrinking and acceleration of electronic devices in the future. On a dry winter day, walking on a new carpet can generate a whopping 35,000-volt discharge. We are not harmed by this high voltage, because the amount of charge that flows is puny. Still, it is large enough to destroy sensitive micro-electronic components. Researchers have come up with clever ways to prevent such damage. But as circuits get smaller, they become more sensitive to electrostatic discharge (ESD) and the old tricks no longer work. Can we continue to find new ways to prevent electrostatic damage and thereby maintain the pace of innovation? -5 pages- (Scientific American October issue) http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa006&articleID=0005EE17-BE00-1D7F-9 0FB809EC5880000 Scientists at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have produced the first ever action movies starring individual water molecules on a metal surface. The ending was a surprise even to the producers. Working with a unique scanning tunneling microscope (STM), a team led by Miquel Salmeron, a physicist with Berkeley Lab's Materials Sciences Division, cooled the surface of a single crystal of palladium, a good catalyst for reactions involving hydrogen and water, to a temperature of about 40 Kelvins (-233 degrees Celsius) in an ultrahigh vacuum. Water molecules were then introduced onto this surface and their motion was tracked with the STM. As expected from previous studies, single molecules migrated across the surface to aggregate into clusters of two (dimers), three (trimers), four (tetramers) five (pentamers) and six (hexamers). The surprise came when the scientists were able to watch the molecules as they moved. -Movie Included/via Real Player- (Berkeley Lab 9/12/02) http://www.lbl.gov/Science-Articles/Archive/MSD-action-movies-Salmeron.html Nanoporous polymer stamps out glare. Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, US, have developed a nanoporous polymer film that acts as an antireflection coating. What's more, manufacturing the film is relatively environmentally friendly and the pores are reversibly erasable...The researchers made the films by applying an aqueous treatment to multilayers of poly(allylamine hydrochloride)/poly(acrylic acid) (PAH/PAA). By carefully controlling the pH during the process, they gave the films a nanoporous structure. With further treatment, pores could be removed or reintroduced. (Nanotechweb (9/12/02) http://www.nanotechweb.org/articles/news/1/9/9/1 Gina "Nanogirl" Miller Nanotechnology Industries http://www.nanoindustries.com Personal: http://www.nanogirl.com Foresight Senior Associate http://www.foresight.org Extropy member http://www.extropy.org "Nanotechnology: Solutions for the future." Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=20094