~Nanogirl News~
Nov. 2, 99
(Apologies for the delay, I have been spending too much time, playing with
useless software)
*Buckywaves? (Diffraction and Interference with Fullerenes: Wave-particle
duality of C60) A team of scientists at the University of Vienna have shown
that Buckyballs (buckminsterfullerine or C60) exhibit wave behavior when
sent through a diffraction grating. This implies that a single buckyball
must go through at least two of the openings in the grating.
http://www.quantum.univie.ac.at/research/c60/
*Nanovation mentioned in New York Times. "Speeding up the Fiber-Optic
Highway. (careful not to quote-inside joke!)
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/10/circuits/articles/28next.html
*A thousand Years. The brave new world of biotechnology and beyond. Genetic
engineering and nanotechnologies will not only change our world, but perhaps
even bodies. (Christian Science Monitor)
http://www.csmonitor.com/durable/1999/10/28/fp17s1-csm.shtml
*Fast and efficient algorithms handle nearly 10 million unknowns. By
developing faster algorithms, researchers at the Center for Computational
Electromagnetics at the University of Illinois have again pushed the
envelope on the analysis of electromagnetic scattering, interaction and
radiation phenomena. Their technique can be applied to many areas of
electrical engineering, from the design of high-speed electronic circuits to
the creation of high-fidelity radar cross-sections.
http://www.admin.uiuc.edu/NB/99.11/computerstip.html
*Safety Device Identified In Cell Adhesion Protein. Scientists studying the
adhesive properties of cadherin -- a protein that binds cells into soft
tissue - have found a built-in safety mechanism that may keep cells from
ripping apart.
http://unisci.com/stories/19994/1102992.htm
*Shared Space: Collaborative Augmented Reality is a featured demo at the
SIGGRAPH 99 Emerging Technologies Exhibition. The Shared Space interface
demonstrates how augmented reality, the overlaying of virtual objects on the
real world, can radically enhance face-to-face and remote collaboration. For
face-to-face collaboration, this approach allows users to see each other and
the real world at the same time as three-dimensional virtual images between
them, supporting natural communication between users and intuitive
manipulation of the virtual objects.
http://www.hitl.washington.edu/research/shared_space/
*The Quantum Inquisition. Harnessing the weirder properties of entangled
photons. Entangled photons could provide deep insights into our world that
nobody, not even physicists, expected. Michael Brooks spoke to the chief
inquisitor.
http://www.newscientist.co.uk/ns/19991030/thequantum.html
*Bruce Hilton: Building a better person. They breed horses, don't they? Why
not people? That, in a nutshell, is the rationale for a movement called
eugenics - the hope that things will get better if we can just breed a
better strain of youngsters.
http://www2.nando.net/noframes/story/0,2107,500052235-500085750-500286253-0,
00.html
*Hydrogen peroxide could unlock future power sources. – Scientists and
engineers from around the world will meet in November at Purdue University
to discuss hydrogen peroxide's role in developing a new class of
environmentally friendly rocket propellants and highly efficient fuel cells
for generating electricity.
http://news.uns.purdue.edu/UNS/html4ever/991029.Heister.peroxide.html
*Brain re-wiring appears likely. The aging brain appears to be able to
reconfigure its circuitry in order to compensate for age-related deficits, a
multinational research group reports in the November issue of the journal
Current Biology.
http://news.excite.com/news/r/991101/13/health-bra2
*Genetic Discovery Could Lead to Better Transplants, Less Disease. In a
study that could lead to improvements in organ transplants and fighting
disease, scientists reported today that they have deciphered a part of the
human genetic code that plays a key role in the immune system.
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/science/DailyNews/genecode991028.html
*Tiny Test Tubes. Scientists at Stanford University have found a way to
study the inner lives of cells, using miniature man-made containers that
closely mimic the real thing. Called vesicles, these containers give
scientists the smallest and most biologically representative test tubes in
the world.
http://www.popsci.com/scitech/news/991101.s.html
*IBM makes flexible, chemical transistor. Researchers at International
Business Machines Corp. said on Thursday they had created a thin, flexible
kind of transistor that could one day be used to make, for instance, a
computer screen that could be rolled up. Their invention is cheap and can be
sprayed onto plastic, making it useful in a variety of areas, they said.
http://cnn.com/TECH/computing/9910/29/science.transistor.reut/index.html
*'Wired homes' connect with buyers. Residents will run their homes at the
push of a button. A property developer's estate of "internet homes" has sold
out - before the houses are even finished.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_499000/499044.stm
*Ready for Christmas tree that glows? Daring to go where no bioengineers
have gone before, a team of British graduate students laid out plans for a
genetically modified Christmas tree that glows.
http://www.msnbc.com/news/327307.asp
*Taking a ringside seat for a gamma-ray burst - Supercomputers are giving
scientists a ringside seat for one of the most violent events in nature, the
heart of a gamma ray burst. The "collapsar" model simulates a star that is
too heavy to go supernova, and thus turns itself inside out.
http://science.nasa.gov/newhome/headlines/ast02nov99_1.htm
*Brain Cell Transplants Potential Treatment For Multiple Sclerosis. In an
experiment that offers hope to patients with multiple sclerosis and similar
disorders, scientists have managed to get transplanted brain cells to
disperse and travel widely throughout the brain, according to a report in
this month's Annals of Neurology, the scientific journal of the American
Neurological Association and the Child Neurology Society.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/1999/11/991101080431.htm
*(An opinion article from the Washington Post) A Brave New World Of Barbie
Doll Genetics.
Eggs for sale! Get a load of beauty genes for your next child. Put in your
bid for the reproductive eggs of a luscious model. Forget the trophy wife.
Go right to the petri dish.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-11/02/029l-110299-idx.html
*There may be more to gender than just those two chromosomes. Women inherit
an X chromosome from each parent. Men get one X chromosome from their
mothers and a Y chromosome from their fathers. Scientists had believed for
many years that the presence of a Y led to maleness.But unusual cases of
both mice and men who look male but have the female, or XX, pattern confirm
that sex is tied to a gene that's not on the X or Y chromosomes.
http://www.post-gazette.com/healthscience/19991101ssex1.asp
*It has been learned that RealNetworks' RealJukebox software monitors users
and sends the data it collects back to the company. The data collected
includes user listener habits, what file types the user plays, and a
globally unique identifier (GUID), among other things. RealNetworks never
informed anybody of these facts, but claims that this is not an invasion of
privacy. (Ummm, yeah.)
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,2385034,00.html?chkpt=zdhpnews
01 (or)
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-1425866.html?tag=st.ne.1002.thed.1005-2
00-1425866
After the above story broke, RealNetworks changed its privacy policy to
reflect the new data being collected. The voluntary privacy watchdog group
Truste has been called on to investigate the matter. Privacy advocates will
closely watch Truste's actions since they question if the industry can
adequately police itself.
*The Associated Press website has been cracked:
Original site: http://www.ap.org/
What was left behind: (Edgar Allen Poe Halloween peom)
http://www.2600.com/hacked_pages/1999/10/www.ap.org/
News Article about AP site at:
http://www.apbnews.com/newscenter/internetcrime/1999/11/01/aphack1101_01.htm
l
*The US Navy various sites have been cracked 4 times in the last 2 days. And
the Canadian National Defence was cracked yesterday. You can find the
archives for originals and cracked, at
http://www.2600.com
*Fuel for the future. A new, lightweight fuel cell that runs on methanol may
one day power your electric car. But even before then, it may power smaller
devices, like your weed-wacker. Or even your laptop computer. (Environmental
news network)
http://www.enn.com/features/1999/10/103099/featurefuel_6347.asp
*Warming Up to Superconductivity. Many metals dramatically lose all
electrical resistance when they are chilled to low temperatures. But the 1
November PRL describes a case where superconductivity can arise from heating
the sample, if it starts out cold enough.
http://focus.aps.org/v4/st23.html
[Insert arcane epigram here]
Gina "Nanogirl" Miller
http://www.nanoindustries.com
http://www.homestead.com/nanotechind/nothingatall.html
nanogirl@halcyon.com