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." Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=21799