X-Message-Number: 20810 From: "Gina Miller" <> Subject: The Nanogirl News~ Date: Wed, 8 Jan 2003 00:54:00 -0800 The Nanogirl News January 08, 2003 Breakthrough Brings Laser Light To New Regions Of The Spectrum. Combining concepts from electromagnetic radiation research and fiber optics, researchers have created an extreme-ultraviolet, laser-like beam capable of producing tightly-focused light in a region of the electromagnetic spectrum not previously accessible to scientists. Between 10-100 times shorter than visible light waves, the extreme-ultraviolet (EUV) wavelengths will allow researchers to "see" tiny features and carve miniature patterns, with applications in such fields as microscopy, lithography and nanotechnology. (ScienceDaily 1/1/03) http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2003/01/030101222126.htm K. Eric Drexler responds to the question: "What are the pressing scientific issues for the nation and the world, and what is your advice on how I can begin to deal with them?" The Edge: The World Question Center 2003. Advanced nanotechnologies, based on molecular manufacturing, will enable the production of computer systems a billion times more powerful than today's, aerospace vehicles with 98% less structural mass, and medical tools enabling molecular repair of cells, tissues, and organs. These and related technologies will be economically and strategically decisive. (Response by:) K. Eric Drexler. Dear Mr. President: I must respectfully decline your invitation, as I am unsuited to such a role, but I wish to take this opportunity to offer a potentially crucial piece of advice regarding strategic research directions. The United States, like all the leading technological powers, has recently turned its research efforts toward a broad field called "nanotechnology". I introduced this term in the mid-1980s and described long-term prospects that helped motivate the recent explosion of interest and investment. (The Edge 03) http://www.edge.org/q2003/q03_drexler.html Molten metal in motion. Nanoscale inclusions of lead in aluminum don't melt until they're over 100 degrees hotter than the melting temperature of lead in bulk. Then watch out! The tiny blobs of liquid careen through solid aluminum just the way Einstein described in his classic 1905 paper on Brownian motion. (Berkeley Lab science beat 12/17/02) http://enews.lbl.gov/Science-Articles/Archive/MSD-Brownian-motion.html Researchers in industry and academia tinker with self-repairing systems, molecular circuits and more. The customarily languid pace at which scientific research blossoms into practical applications appeared to speed up this year with a number of discoveries being rushed toward commercialization. Autonomic computing, in which systems can configure and repair themselves, took a big leap forward when Pennsylvania State University researchers said they had developed software that can repair--on the fly--an attacked database while allowing it to continue processing transactions. (ZDnet 12/30/02) http://c.moreover.com/click/here.pl?j55922320&w=501400 Or: http://www.zdnet.com.au/newstech/enterprise/story/0,2000025001,20270873,00.h tm Chemical attraction solves geometric puzzles. Circuit builders could capitalize on self-assembling floating patterns. Chop up a square into four pieces, and reassemble them into a triangle. This kind of geometric dissection puzzle delighted ancient Chinese scholars. Chemists have now created self-solving dissections. Their trick could help in building easy-to-modify circuits. George Whitesides of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and colleagues design the edges of floating polygonal shapes so that they stick together in a particular arrangement. (Nature Science update 12/23/02) http://www.nature.com/nsu/021223/021223-2.html Nanotechnology makes Smallbany the place to be...nanotechnology may well make Albany a hot spot. Nanotechnology is the creation and use of materials, devices and systems that are formed through the control of matter at the nanometer-length level. A nanometer is 75,000 times smaller than the width of a human hair. In the 21st century, nanotechnology is expected to change everything. It may certainly give new meaning to the phrase Smallbany. (The Business Review 12/27/02) http://www.bizjournals.com/albany/stories/2002/12/30/editorial1.html Also see a readers letter to the editor regarding the above editorial: http://www.bizjournals.com/albany/stories/2003/01/06/editorial2.html Nanoimprint lithography ready to make its mark. A potentially low-cost form of lithography affectionately known as "squish and flash" by its backers is coming to market. Three vendors have announced or released tools for the technique, properly known as nanoimprint lithography. And the concept has garnered enough interest among research entities in the United States, Europe and Japan to have warranted its own conference this month. Imprint lithography uses polymers that harden into patterns when exposed to ultraviolet light through a 1:1 proximity mask. The patterns on the template are written with an electron-beam system at the same line width as the pattern on the wafer, rather than at the 4x reduction possible with conventional optical lithography. Molecular Imprints Inc. (MII), based here, next month will ship a development tool, the Imprio 100, with a $2 million price tag, said CEO Norm Schumaker. Nanonex Corp. (Princeton, N.J.) is shipping nanoimprint lithography tools that range in price from $300,000 to $700,000. (EE Times 12/20/02) http://www.eet.com/at/news/OEG20021220S0022 (AI) Composer harnesses artificial intelligence to create music. Just as IBM's Deep Blue showed the world a computer can play chess as well as a human master, Eduardo Reck Miranda, a researcher for the Sony Computer Science Laboratories Inc., aims to demonstrate a computer program able to compose original music. So far, neural networks have succeeded in imitating distinct musical styles, but truly original compositions have remained elusive. Miranda is tackling that problem with an orchestra of virtual musicians - called agents - that interact to compose original music. (EETimes 12/30/02) http://www.eet.com/at/news/OEG20021230S0015 The Incredible Shrinking Technology. Nanotechnology used to be a playground for speculation and science fiction. It is now one of the most exciting research fields in contemporary science. It is true that nanotechnology has been heralded as the "next big thing" for years and the excitement surrounding it certainly increased after the dot com bubble burst and people started looking for another wonder technology. Nevertheless, despite the hype, big strides have been taken and more are imminent. Nanotechnology is an umbrella term for approaches from different scientific disciplines which share the defining element of operating within the very small world of molecules, where distances are measured in nanometres, or millionths of a millimetre. The computer industry has already entered the nanoworld. Chip production operates with features as small as 100 nanometres, and they are getting smaller. But can this success be extended to other fields? will there be houses, cars, space stations built by manipulation on the nanometre scale? -6pg length review. (Financial Review 1/2/02) http://afr.com/review/2003/01/02/FFXJQLT3EAD.html Tomorrow's technology begins today. The customarily languid pace at which scientific research blossoms into practical applications appeared to speed up this year with a number of discoveries being rushed toward commercialization...Nanotechnology developed in research and development centers run by companies like Intel and IBM made a big splash, underscoring that technology built at the atomic level is no longer limited to academic labs.-small paragraph concerning nanotech. (ZDnet 12/30/02) http://www.zdnet.com.au/newstech/communications/story/0,2000024993,20270873, 00.htm Tuning Carbon Nanotube Resonance Frequencies. Tuning carbon nanotube resonance frequencies can be achieved by varying a static voltage applied between the nanotubes and a counter electrode. This was demonstrated for several nanotubes (NT) grown on a nickel support tip. The natural resonant NT frequencies are those where the NT oscillates with a large amplitude, a motion that can be monitored directly by watching the pattern of electrons spraying out the end of the tubes (like water spraying out of a wiggling garden hose). (Physics News Update 12/23/02) http://www.aip.org/enews/physnews/2002/split/618-1.html NSC upbeat on new industrial park initiatives. The National Science Council outlined new developments and major policy programs Taiwan will implement in order to maintain its high-tech edge over competitors at its year-end press conference yesterday. In particular, a major direction would be attracting investments and fresh talent for Taiwan's three major science-based industrial parks, with the focus on "IC production in the north, nanotechnology in the central region, and the optoelectronics industry in the south," according to NSC Chairman Wei Che-ho. (eTaiwanNews 1/3/03) http://www.etaiwannews.com/Taiwan/2003/01/03/1041555655.htm The good of small things. Living cells are natural nanotechnology. Artificial nanotech is about to give them a helping hand. Nanotechnology is a word that seems to mean all things to all men. All it is, however, is technology on a "nano" scale: ie, employing devices with dimensions measured in nanometres (billionths of a metre). Since that is the scale of large molecules, many cynics regard it as merely a fancy name for chemistry. The inventor of the term, Eric Drexler, then an engineer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, had greater ambitions. In "Engines of Creation", a book published in 1986, he argued that it would be possible one day to construct self-replicating "nanomachines" that could assemble atoms into molecules, thus building new objects from the inside out. (Econimist.com 12/20/02) http://www.economist.com/printedition/displayStory.cfm?Story_ID=916725 Small Worlds. Nanotechnology wins over mainstream venture capitalists. Nanotechnology is coming in from the fringe. Once dismissed as just so much science fiction and Silicon Valley hokum, nanotechnology now represents no less than the next industrial revolution. "If you're looking for analogies to put the impact of nanotech into context, I'd say the invention of the internal combustion engine is a good one," says Tim Harper, a physicist formerly with the European Space Agency who now runs an early-stage nanotech fund and nanotech conference group in Madrid. Talk like that would be purely hyperbolic if not for the fact that many of the world's most prominent scientists see this tiny art as the next big thing. (Red Herring 12/18/02) http://www.redherring.com/insider/2001/1218/341.html Hot stuff. Advanced materials are moving out of the lab and into the commercial world. Once regarded as laboratory curiosities, smart materials are beginning to make their mark on some high-profile commercial applications. This class of materials encompasses a broad range of ceramics, metal alloys, gels, and polymers. What sets them apart is their ability to adapt when they're exposed to external stimuli, such as temperature, magnetism, or electricity. Piezoelectric crystals and magneto-rheological fluids have been around for years. Now, newer exotic alloys and polymers with intriguing properties are joining them. Some of the more recent arrivals in the lab, such as carbon nanotubes, are still the subject of basic research. Yet others have made the transition into commercial applications. (Memmagazine Dec., 02) http://www.memagazine.org/contents/current/features/hotstuff/hotstuff.html Nanosphere Inc. Receives Additional $5 Million in Third Round of Financing. Nanosphere Inc., a nanotechnology-based life sciences company, today announced it has received an additional $5 million in third round financing, bringing the total third round financing to $15 million. These proceeds will provide further capital to fund the commercialization of the company's first biomolecular detection system, which will be released in the second half of 2003. Third round investors include Lurie Investments of Chicago, NextGen Partners LLC of Santa Barbara, and Takara Bio Inc. of Kyoto , Japan. (BioPortfolio.com 1/6/02) http://www.bioportfolio.com/news/nanosphere_3.htm Physicist proposes deeper layer of reality. New theory takes the chance out of quantum mechanics. God does not play dice, but he might just as well do, a Dutch physicist is suggesting. Returning to Einstein's nagging doubts about quantum mechanics, Nobel laureate Gerard 't Hooft of Utrecht University has begun to outline a way in which its apparent play of chance might be underpinned by precise physical laws that describe the way the world works. Other physicists seem impressed by 't Hooft's creativity. "The work certainly deserves to be taken seriously," says quantum theory specialist Richard Gill. (Nature Science Update 1/8/03) http://www.nature.com/nsu/030106/030106-6.html The Acronym Institute for Disarmament Diplomacy. From the Lab to the Battlefield? Nanotechnology and Fourth-Generation Nuclear Weapons. By Andr Gsponer. In Disarmament Diplomacy No. 65, Sean Howard warned of the dangers of enhanced or even new types of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) emerging from the development of 'nanotechnology', an umbrella term for a range of potentially revolutionary engineering techniques at the atomic and molecular level.1 Howard called for urgent preliminary consideration to be given to the benefits and practicalities of negotiating an 'Inner Space Treaty' to guard against such developments. While echoing this call, this paper draws attention to the existing potential of nanotechnology to affect dangerous and destabilizing 'refinements' to existing nuclear weapon designs. Historically, nanotechnology is a child of the nuclear weapons labs, a creation of the WMD-industrial complex. The most far-reaching and fateful impacts of nanotechnology, therefore, may lie - and can already be seen - in the same area. (The Acronym Institute oct/Nov. 02 issue) http://www.acronym.org.uk/dd/dd67/67op1.htm Pacific Nanotechnology Unveils Nano-IT Atomic Force Microscope. Pacific Nanotechnology, Inc. (PNI), the global leader in high-performance, easy-to-use, and affordable atomic force microscopes (AFMs), today announced the new Nano-IT AFM for inspection and metrology of nanodevice wafers and storage media disks. It has applications in R&D, process development, failure analysis, and quality assurance for MEMS and semiconductor devices, data storage media, magnetic read/write heads, and photonic devices. The Nano-I AFM can routinely visualize and quantitatively measure surface structures having nanometer-sized dimension. Priced at $100K, the Nano-I AFM sets a new standard for affordability, yet it also offers high-performance and ease-of-use. (Hoovers Online 1/7/02) http://hoovnews.hoovers.com/fp.asp?layout=displaynews&doc_id=NR200301071680. 2_87aa000b7312a70e Human Cloning is the Least Interesting Application of Cloning Technology. By Ray Kurzweil. Cloning is an extremely important technology--not for cloning humans but for life extension: therapeutic cloning of one's own organs, creating new tissues to replace defective tissues or organs, or replacing one's organs and tissues with their "young" telomere-extended replacements without surgery. Cloning even offers a possible solution for world hunger: creating meat without animals. (Kurzweilai.net January 03) http://www.kurzweilai.net/meme/frame.html?main=/articles/art0535.html Nanomechanic devices warn of heart attacks. A team of scientists from the University of Basel and IBM Zurich Research Laboratory, Switzerland, has developed a cantilever-based device that can detect two cardiac biomarker proteins in the bloodstream. The proteins can act as an early warning system for heart attacks. (nanotechweb.org 1/7/03) http://www.nanotechweb.org/articles/news/2/1/1/1 "I hope you all had a happy new year!" 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=20810