X-Message-Number: 21799
From: "Gina Miller" <>
Subject: The Nanogirl News~
Date: Sat, 24 May 2003 16:01:26 -0700

The Nanogirl News
May 24, 2003


MIT, Army open nanotech center. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology
and the U.S. Army formally unveiled the Institute for Soldier
Nanotechnologies, which is geared toward creating battlefield armor for the
21st century. MIT on Thursday cut the ribbon on the nanotechnology
institute, which was funded by a $50 million grant from the Army in 2002.
Corporations including Dow Corning, DuPont, Raytheon and Carbon
Nanotechnologies are participating in the center's development. In all,
private companies have invested $40 million in the center. The center's
research can largely be characterized as chemistry in action. During a
ceremony held at the university on Thursday, researchers showed off a
technique for applying new types of coatings to fabrics to make them more
resistant to water or capable of killing bacteria.
Other projects involve developing fabrics that will contract or expand like
an accordion when exposed to electricity; these materials could potentially
be used for in-field medical devices such as tourniquets. (CNet 5/23/03)
http://rss.com.com/2100-1008_3-1009571.html?type=pt&part=rss&tag=feed&subj=n
ews

Nanotech funding shifts to policy arena. The nascent nanotechnology industry
needs to start playing by the same public-policy rules as other
government-funded technology programs, the former chairman of the House
Science Committee told the Nanobusiness 2003 conference here on Tuesday (May
13). Former congressman Robert Walker, now a Washington lobbyist, reminded
conferees that federal funding for nanotechnology research is close to final
approval in Congress. "You are real, the House just passed the
nanotechnology funding bill," Walker told about 150 executives. "Now you
need to play in the public policy arena." (EETimes 5/13/03)
http://www.eet.com/at/n/news/OEG20030513S0037

Souped-up Superconductivity. For materials that carry electricity without
resistance, a little nanotechnology turns a major turnoff into a turn-on,
says a team of researchers. Ordinarily, a magnetic field quashes the
currents flowing freely through a superconductor. But when decked out in
tiny magnetic dots, a superconductor may behave just the opposite way and
carry electricity freely only when exposed to a magnetic field, the team
reports in the 16 May PRL. Their technique might someday boost the
current-carrying capacity of superconducting wires, or set the bits in
quantum computers.
(Physical Review Focus 5/19/03)
http://focus.aps.org/story/v11/st21

Nanotube Network to Simulate Brain Structures. NASA researchers have
developed a way to grow miniscule networks of carbon nanotubes that are
similar to brain synapses, in the hope of building smarter and more reliable
computers. The lead scientist for the project, Deepak Srivastava, used
computer simulation to build a network of carbon nanotubes that look and
behave like the small spaces between nerve cells called synapses through
which nerve impulses travel.
(Betterhumans 5/21/03)
http://www.betterhumans.com/News/news.aspx?articleID=2003-05-21-2

Gallium nitride makes for a new kind of nanotube. To the growing list of
nanosized objects created in a laboratory you can now add nanotubes
synthesized from the prized semiconductor gallium nitride. A team of
Berkeley Lab scientists has created gallium nitride nanotubes with diameters
ranging between 30 to 200 nanometers. By comparison, a human hair has a
diameter of about 100,000 nanometers. "These gallium nitride nanotubes are
electronically and optically active and, because they're made from single
crystals, exceptionally durable and uniform in their properties," says
Peidong Yang, a chemist with Berkeley Lab's Materials Sciences Division and
a professor with UC Berkeley's Chemistry Department who led this research.
"They offer a wide range of opportunities for technological applications."
(Berkeley Lab 5/12/03)
http://enews.lbl.gov/Science-Articles/Archive/MSD-gallium-nitride-nanotube.h
tml

When is a metal not a metal? The May 23 issue of the journal Science answers
that question with an account of the surprising behavior exhibited by
nanometer-scale clusters of the metal niobium. When the clusters are cooled
to below 20 degrees Kelvin, electrical charges in them suddenly shift,
creating structures known as dipoles. (EurekAlert 5/22/03)
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2003-05/giot-wia051903.php

Turning Bubbles into Microscopic Syringes. Turning bubbles into microscopic
syringes through the use of sound has been experimentally shown by
researchers in the Netherlands (Claus-Dieter Ohl, University of Twente,
011-31-53-489-5604), demonstrating a potential method for injecting drugs
and genes into specific regions of a patient's body. Taking high-speed
microscopic photographs, the researchers revealed that even bubbles much
smaller than the thickness of a human hair could transform into a
needle-like tube, delivering a billionth of a millionth of a gallon of
liquid. While this sub-nanofluidic volume seems very small, it is more than
enough to transfer large molecules (such as DNA and most drugs) into desired
cells for medical therapy. (Physics News Update 5/14/03)
http://www.aip.org/enews/physnews/2003/split/637-2.html

Physicists Measure Individual Electrons In Real Time. Ultracold Experiment
Opens Door for Basic Studies in Quantum Computing. Physicists at Rice
University have completed the first real-time measurement of individual
electrons, creating an experimental method that for the first time allows
scientists to probe the dynamic interactions between the smallest atomic
particles. The research, which appears in the May 22 issue of the journal
Nature, is important for researchers developing quantum computers, a
revolutionary type of computer that is orders of magnitude more powerful
than any computer ever built.
(Rice University 5/21/03)
http://riceinfo.rice.edu/projects/reno/Newsrel/2003/20030521_electrons.shtml

Berkeley Lab scientists determine electrical properties of carbon-60
molecular layer. Using some of the world's most advanced photoelectron
spectroscopy and computing techniques, Berkeley Lab scientists gained a more
precise understanding of the electrical properties of fullerenes, those
famous soccer-ball-shaped molecules comprised of 60 carbon atoms. The team,
which also includes researchers from Stanford University and Europe,
obtained the first experimental measurement of the range of energies
possessed by electrons, as a function of their momenta, in a single layer of
carbon-60 molecules doped with additional electrons, a step that transforms
the molecule into one of the best known superconductors, meaning it conducts
electricity without resistance below a certain critical temperature.
(Berkeley Lab 5/12/03)
http://enews.lbl.gov/Science-Articles/Archive/MSD-C60-molecular-layer.html

New on the nanoscale: buckyball wires sheathed with boron nitride
insulation. Berkeley Lab scientists have created insulated electrical wires
that are about 100,000 times narrower in diameter than a human hair. These
insulated wires are single-walled carbon nanotubes encased within an outer
sheath of boron nitride nanotubes. The ultra-high-strength wires were
reported in the April 18, 2003, issue of the journal Science. (Berkeley Lab
5/12/03)
http://enews.lbl.gov/Science-Articles/Archive/MSD-nano-insulation.html

ANI Demonstrates High Current Densities from Nanotube Electron Source.
Applied Nanotech, Inc. (ANI) claims it has successfully demonstrated an
electron emission current density of at least 15 Amps/cm2 using a gated
carbon nanotube electron source. These high current density levels were
achieved with high currents sufficient to address many applications where
high electron current densities are required, such as CRT TVs, high power
microwave devices, e-beam lithography and fine-focus x-ray tubes.
(Nanoelectronicsplanet 5/13/03)
http://www.nanoelectronicsplanet.com/nanochannels/products/article/0,4028,10
460_2205831,00.html

Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe develops nano-structured material for hydrogen
storage. The car of the future will use a fuel cell and will be refuelled
with hydrogen. Unfortunately, such a refuelling process lasts more than one
hour with most of today's technology. But now researchers of the
Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe (research centre Karlsruhe, Germany) have made
an important step on the way to a better hydrogen storage system. With
custom-made nano-particles, researchers reckon they could reduce the
refuelling time to a few minutes. To improve the storage process, the
research team used nano-technology. With custom-made catalysts made from so
called titanium nano-clusters, the researchers at the Institute for
nano-technology shortened the refuelling times of today's hydrogen tank
material to 7-8 minutes. (Fuel Cell Today 5/23/03)
http://www.fuelcelltoday.com/FuelCellToday/IndustryInformation/IndustryInfor
mationExternal/NewsDisplayArticle/0,1602,2939,00.html

Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe Discovers Nanostructured Material that Directly
Converts Electric into Mechanical Energy. Muscles of metal for miniaturized
robots or small prostheses - this is one of the visions that may become true
by a discovery made by the Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe. Scientists have
developed a novel nanoporous metal that expands reversibly when an electric
voltage is applied. In this way, electric energy can be converted directly
into mechanical energy. For the first time worldwide, macroscopically
measurable length changes have thus been induced in a metal by application
of low electric voltages. This breakthrough allows various
microtechnological components to be conceived, the industrial property
rights of which have been applied for in the meantime: Switches and
controls, direct voltage indicators or other sensors, actuators, and - by
making use of the reverse effect - motion transducers. (Forschungszentrum
4/10/03)
http://presse.fzk.de/aktuelles/presseinfo/2003/PI07_2003_e.html

NRC and Industry Announce Joint Initiative to Develop A Plastic
'Supermaterial'. Nanotechnologies at the heart of the research partnership.
The National Research Council Industrial Materials Institute (NRC-IMI) today
(5/13) announced the launch of a new research and development (R&D)
initiative in partnership with 13 major companies. Known as PNC-Tech, the
initiative invests $300,000/year in R&D focused on the development of
polymer nanocomposites, which are plastic-based materials with remarkable
properties. (CCN Mathews 5/13/03)
http://www2.ccnmatthews.com/scripts/ccn-release.pl?/current/0513114N.html

Nanotechnology promises to send incredibly tiny bio-medical machines to your
body's rescue delivering drugs or making internal repairs. It all sounds so
fantastic so just how do these miniscule devices work? Nanotechnologists are
making incredibly tiny biomedical devices that may someday deliver drugs
inside your body or repair internal injuries. As raw material, some
researchers use only natural molecules like DNA and RNA. At UCLA, one
biomedical engineer is designing what he calls bio bots from natural
molecules and plastic parts. (KXAN t.v. 36 news in Austin Texas 5/22/03)
http://www.kxan.com/Global/story.asp?S=1291002

Nanotube Shines Telecom Light. Researchers are continually working to expand
the usefulness of carbon nanotubes-rolled-up sheets of carbon atoms found
naturally in soot. Scientists from IBM Research have found a way to make the
microscopic tubes emit light, and have fashioned a nanotube transistor that
emits 1.5-micron infrared light, a wavelength widely used in
telecommunications. Nanotubes can be smaller than one nanometer in diameter,
and show promise as building blocks for fantastically small electronics and
machines. A nanometer is one millionth of a millimeter, or about the length
of a line of 10 hydrogen atoms. (MIT's Technology Review 5/6/03)
http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/rnb_050603_2.asp

Dip-Pen Nanolithography: Nanolithography: Rewriting the rules. Dip-pen
lithography is generating a lot of interest because of its ability to
pattern surfaces with miniaturized molecular arrays. Research is currently
under way to investigate the potential of the technique for real
applications. -PDF file- (from Materials Today 5/16/03)
http://www.materialstoday.com/pdfs_6_5/Gould.pdf

Nanocontainers Deliver Drugs Directly to Cells. One challenge to effective
drug treatment is getting the medication to exactly the right place. To that
end, researchers have been investigating myriad new methods to deliver
pharmaceuticals. Findings published in the current issue of the journal
Science indicate that tiny nanocontainers composed of polymers may one day
distribute drugs to specific spots within individual cells. Radoslav Savic
and his colleagues at McGill University tested the properties of tiny units
built out of two types of polymers. The two compounds self-assemble into a
spherical shape known as a micelle. (Scientific American 4/28/03)
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa002&articleID=0001D485-BEC8-1EA9-B
DC0809EC588EEDF&catID=7

An Open Letter to Richard Smalley By K. Eric Drexler. Dr. Richard Smalley
has voiced criticisms of Dr. Eric Drexler's concept of molecular assemblers,
which could be used to implement self-replicating nanobots. Smalley, who
discovered "fullerenes" (aka "buckyballs"), is Chairman of the Board of
Carbon Nanotechnologies, Inc. and former director of Rice University's
Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology. Drexler, who coined the term
"nanotechnology" and is Chairman of the Board of Foresight Institute,
responds to these criticisms. (KurzweilAI.net April 17th 2003)
http://www.kurzweilai.net/bios/frame.html?main=/bios/bio0014.html

Call for entries: Science Journalism Awards. If you have written or produced
a science story within the past year for a US publication, broadcast, or
online media outlet, you are encouraged to submit an entry to the 2003 AAAS
Science Journalism Awards by August 1, 2003.
http://www.aaas.org/SJAwards/

Have a happy and safe Memorial Day.

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."

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