Re: The Nanogirl News~

From: Party of Citizens (citizens@vcn.bc.ca)
Date: Mon May 12 2003 - 14:53:36 MDT

  • Next message: Michael M. Butler: "Re: Paper>YOUR NUKES WILL BE DESTROYED!"

    We are told so often about how strong ants are. Here is a problem for
    nanotechnologists:

    How many ants, harnessed by carbon nanofibres would it take to make the
    equivalent of one horse power?

    POC

    On Sun, 11 May 2003, Gina Miller wrote:

    > The Nanogirl News
    > May 11, 2003
    >
    > U.S. House approves $2.4 billion for nanotech research. The U.S. House of
    > Representatives gave a big boost to a tiny technology on Wednesday, voting
    > to increase research funding that could lead to molecule-sized computers and
    > medical robots that travel the human bloodstream. By a vote of 405-19, the
    > House earmarked $2.36 billion over three years to fund research in
    > nanotechnology, the science of manipulating individual atoms to create new
    > materials. (Yahoo 5/8/03)
    > http://in.tech.yahoo.com/030508/137/243bo.html
    >
    > Brave new world or miniature menace? Why Charles fears grey goo nightmare.
    > Royal Society asked to look at risks of nanotechnology. The scenario is a
    > familiar one: scientists open Pandora's box, awaken Frankenstein's monster,
    > or maybe just play God. But this time the menace on the laboratory bench is
    > undetectable with any conceivable optical microscope.
    > It offers a nightmare vision straight out of science fiction - the
    > destruction of the environment, perhaps even of the world, by robots smaller
    > than viruses, able to share intelligence, replicate themselves and take
    > command of the planet. That is the catch with nanotechnology: you cannot see
    > it, so you cannot know how afraid you should be. But if Prince Charles is
    > any guide, environmentalists should be very afraid indeed. (Guardian
    > Unlimited 4/29/03)
    > http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,945498,00.html
    >
    > How to Grab an Atom. Like a diner spearing a morsel of food with the tine of
    > a fork, researchers have used the tip of a microscopic needle to lift a
    > single atom from a surface and then replace it. The experiment, reported in
    > the 2 May PRL, marks the first time single atoms have been manipulated using
    > a purely mechanical technique, rather than one involving electric current.
    > The new method could allow researchers to maneuver single atoms of
    > nonconductive as well as conductive materials, perhaps for nanoscale
    > circuits of the future. (Physical Review Focus 5/3/03)
    > http://focus.aps.org/story/v11/st19
    >
    > Mighty Mini Motor (video). Nanotechnologists try to create new materials or
    > incredibly tiny machines by manipulating atoms and molecules. One of
    > nanotechnology's biggest dreams is biomedical devices that could travel
    > anywhere inside your body and fix parts that need repair. Today, some
    > scientists have already made a start on this dream. They're making
    > incredibly tiny motors that could drive the world's smallest machines, and
    > help keep us well...At Purdue University's School of Veterinary Medicine,
    > molecular biologist Peixuan Guo thinks that RNA has enormous potential for
    > nanotechnology because it is an extremely flexible molecule. "RNA is much
    > easier to make than protein," Guo explains, "and compared to DNA, it comes
    > in many more sizes and shapes. With DNA, we are limited to its double helix
    > structure." Guo and his research team have discovered that RNA binds
    > adenosine triphosphate, or ATP, the chemical fuel that proteins use in the
    > body to allow muscles to move and nerves to function. "ATP works the way
    > gasoline does in a car," says Guo. "You could not walk or talk or think
    > without the chemical fuel of ATP." (ScienCenteral News 5/1/03)
    > http://www.sciencentral.com/news/articles/view.php3?language=english&type=ar@s
    > ticle&article_id=218391944
    >
    > Proteins produce nano-magnetic computer memory. Computer hard drive capacity
    > could be increased a hundredfold by using a common protein to fabricate
    > nano-scale magnetic particles, claims UK company Nanomagnetics. It uses the
    > protein apoferritin, the main molecule in which iron is stored in the body,
    > to create a material consisting of magnetic particles each just a few
    > nanometres in diameter. Each particle can store a bit of information and
    > together they can be packed onto a disk drive at much greater density than
    > is possible using existing hard disk manufacturing methods. (New Scientist
    > 4/27/03)
    > http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99993664
    >
    > Playing God. Through genetic engineering, you could give birth to an
    > Olympian, a musical prodigy or a genius -- but should you? Bill McKibben is
    > a man on the edge. He lives on the edge of the Adirondack wilderness in New
    > York, where he writes books about the limits of technology. Fifteen years
    > ago, he wrote "The End of Nature," in which he argued, with cogency and
    > foresight, that human dependence on fossil fuels was endangering our
    > relationship to the Earth itself. In his new book, "Enough," McKibben
    > describes a new edge. We've come to a threshold with the emerging
    > technologies of genetic engineering, robotics and nanotechnology, McKibben
    > believes. One more step and we will "call into question our understanding of
    > what it means to be a human being." (San Francisco Chronicle 4.27.03)
    > http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/chronicle/archive/2003/04/27/RV
    > 183594.DTL&type=books
    > (More) 'Please, sir, could I have less? 'Bill McKibben argues that our
    > thirst for technological progress threatens the nature of humanity...Genetic
    > engineering, nanotechnology, robotics, and other related technologies may,
    > he writes, "alter our relationship not with the rest of nature but with
    > ourselves." McKibben argues that this debate is too important to be left to
    > scientists. "Must we forever grow in reach and power?" he asks. "Or can we,
    > should we, ever say, 'Enough'?"
    > (Christian Science Monitor 5/1/03)
    > http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0501/p15s01-bogn.html
    >
    > PSU looks to future with nanotechnology. Proposed program would provide
    > millions in research funds. Portland State University professor Jun Jiao
    > addressed the United States Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and
    > Transportation last Thursday regarding the 21st Century Nanotechnology
    > Research and Development Act. Nanotechnology is an emerging field in which
    > matter is manipulated at the atomic level in order to build materials,
    > machines, and devices. Advances in the fields of nanoscience and
    > nanotechnology could lead to breakthroughs in areas such as materials and
    > manufacturing, nanoelectronics, medicine and healthcare, environment,
    > energy, chemicals, biotechnology, agriculture, information technology and
    > national security. (Daily Vanguard 5/8/03)
    > http://www.dailyvanguard.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2003/05/08/3eb9dc05bc25d
    >
    > Interested in finding out what happened at the Foresight Senior Associate
    > Gathering? Read about it at Nanodot. (5/8/03)
    > http://nanodot.org/article.pl?sid=03/05/09/0016206
    >
    > Nanoscale Networks: Superlong nanotubes can form a grid. For a decade,
    > materials scientists have dreamed of using cylinders of carbon with walls
    > just one atom thick as the building blocks for a new generation of sensors,
    > transistors, and other tiny devices. Before that happens, however,
    > researchers must find better ways to grow and align these carbon nanotubes.
    > Jie Liu and his colleagues at Duke University in Durham, N.C., now report
    > growing the longest individual carbon nanotubes ever and aligning them in a
    > two-dimensional grid. (Sciencenews 5/3/03)
    > http://www.sciencenews.org/20030503/fob2.asp
    >
    > Nanoprobe To Be Developed For A 'Fantastic Voyage' In The Human Body,
    > Finding And Treating Deadly Tumors. A UC Irvine research team has received a
    > five-year, $1.4 million National Institutes of Health grant to develop a
    > microscopic probe for detecting and treating pre-cancerous and malignant
    > tumors in humans. Similar to the miniaturized vessel that explores a human
    > body in the science fiction movie "Fantastic Voyage," this nano-sized probe
    > would be inserted into a patient and then guided through the esophagus,
    > stomach and colon to determine if tumors are growing on the wall of the
    > intestine. The probe would be remotely controlled by a surgeon operating a
    > device called an endoscope. (ScienceDaily 5/9/03)
    > http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2003/05/030509085108.htm
    >
    > Nanosys raises $30 million. Nanosys Inc., a maker of nanotechnology-enabled
    > systems based in Palo Alto, pocketed $30 million in the first closing of its
    > second round of financing. (bizjournals 4/24/03)
    > http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/stories/2003/04/21/daily52.html
    >
    > On the tube. A new type of computer memory uses carbon, rather than
    > silicon...Carbon comes in many forms. Diamonds and graphite are two of the
    > most familiar ones. A less familiar variety is the nanotube, also known as a
    > "buckytube" after Richard Buckminster Fuller, whose geodesic domes have a
    > framework similar to the arrangement of the atoms in a nanotube. Nanotubes
    > consist of a cylindrical array of carbon atoms whose diameter is only about
    > 1 nanometre (a billionth of a metre). If Nantero, a firm based in Woburn,
    > Massachusetts, proves correct, such tubes will soon be an integral part of
    > computer memories. (The Economist 5/8/03)
    > http://www.economist.com/science/displayStory.cfm?story_id=1763552
    >
    > Small is beautiful but is it dangerous too?...What does nano mean?...When
    > did it start?...Is it dangerous?...Such as?...Is there a pay-off?...Are
    > there environmental dangers?... (Guardian Unlimited 4/29/03)
    > http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,945499,00.html
    >
    > IBM finds plenty of room at bottom. In an incredibly tiny development which
    > marks a giant leap in nanotechnology - the science of working on the atomic
    > and molecular scale - global computing giant IBM's research division has
    > created the world's smallest solid-state light emitter. The breakthrough is
    > a graphite nanotube - a sheet of graphite (a form of carbon) rolled into a
    > tube - transformed into the world's first, electrically-controlled,
    > single-molecule light emitter.
    > (The Times of India 5/11/03)
    > http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/xml/uncomp/articleshow?msid=46006
    > 004
    >
    > Atoms Incognito. As with people, some atoms prefer to join in groups, while
    > others insist on going it alone. But when prodded with laser light,
    > inherently gregarious atoms known as bosons can act like loner atoms known
    > as fermions, a duo of theoretical physicists predict in the 18 April PRL.
    > The faux-loner atoms can even form tenuous pairs, much like the electrons in
    > a superconductor, so that they resemble a long-sought new state of matter.
    > (Physical Review Focus 4/18/03)
    > http://focus.aps.org/story/v11/st16
    >
    > Skin-deep answer will put mobiles into the wrist business. Advances in
    > nanotechnology mean that the lost or stolen mobile phone could become a
    > thing of the past, according to technology research hothouse BTexact. Ian
    > Pearson, Suffolk based BTexact's futurologist believes that the concept of
    > 'active skin' - whereby incredibly small electronic circuits are inkjet
    > printed onto the surface of the skin - could become a reality by 2010. This,
    > he says, will open the way for the integration of electronic devices such as
    > the mobile phones or televisions literally 'into' the human body. (Business
    > Weekly 4/28/03)
    > http://www.businessweekly.co.uk/news/view_article.asp?article_id=7598
    >
    > Nano and the Professor. In 1959, physicist Dr. Richard Feynman gave birth to
    > the concept of nanotechnology. Feynman described the theoretical approaches
    > to "manipulating and controlling things on a very small scale." For
    > instance, he recognized that computers, then the size of buildings, would
    > need to get continually smaller to become important to our lives. He also
    > predicted advances in medicine and learning. Feynman's only real misjudgment
    > was that he overestimated our ability to figure any of this out. "In the
    > year 2000, when they look back at this age, they will wonder why it was not
    > until the year 1960 that anybody began seriously to move in this direction."
    > (The American Spectator 5/8/03)
    > http://www.spectator.org/article.asp?art_id=2003_5_7_23_37_44
    >
    > Researchers see the light as they peel away space mystery. Tiny multilayered
    > balls called "carbon onions," produced in laboratory studies, appear to have
    > the same light-absorption characteristics as dust particles in the regions
    > between the stars. "It's the strongest evidence yet that cosmic dust has a
    > multilayered onionlike carbon structure," said Manish Chhowalla, assistant
    > professor of ceramic and materials engineering at Rutgers, The State
    > University of New Jersey. Chhowalla used transmission electron microscopes
    > to study radiation absorption of the laboratory-produced onions and found
    > characteristics virtually identical to those reported by astrophysicists
    > studying dust in deep space. A carbon onion is a miniscule but intricate
    > component of nanotechnology-the study of structures and devices on a scale
    > that can approach one-millionth the width of a human hair. (ISA 4/30/03)
    > http://www.isa.org/Template.cfm?Section=Professionals_and_Practitioners&temp
    > late=/ContentManagement/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=26090
    >
    > Nanotech giving birth to a whole new revolution. Budding science will spur
    > flurry of inventions. In the not-too-distant future, your house could be
    > built with strong tiles that heat the rooms with solar power. Inside you
    > could watch a smooth, flat-panel TV with electronic components built right
    > into the glass instead of a web of wires at the back.
    > Nanosys Inc., a small Palo Alto nanotechnology firm, plans to deliver these
    > and other products within the next three years. Nanosys' inventions arose
    > from the type of industry collaboration with academic labs that Congress has
    > been trying to promote since 2000 through an escalating round of funding for
    > nanotechnology research. (SFGate 5/8/03)
    > http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2003/05/08/MN171263.DTL&typ"
    > e=tech
    > More news re: Nanosys - Nanosys raises $30 million. Nanosys Inc., a maker of
    > nanotechnology-enabled systems based in Palo Alto, pocketed $30 million in
    > the first closing of its second round of financing. (bizjournals 4/24/03)
    > http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/stories/2003/04/21/daily52.html
    >
    > Nanotechnology Leaders to Gather in New York City Next Week for 2nd Annual
    > NanoBusiness 2003 Conference. NanoBusiness 2003, produced by Penton Media
    > (NYSE: PME, http://www.penton.com), will raise the curtain next week on its
    > 2nd annual event focused on the emerging nanotechnology industry. Produced
    > in association with the NanoBusiness Alliance (http://www.nanobusiness.org),
    > the event will be held at the New York Marriott Financial Center in New York
    > City, from May 11-13, and is designed to drive forward the emerging business
    > of microsystems and nanotechnology. Complete information and online
    > registration can be found at http://www.nanobusiness2003.com. (Stockhouse
    > 5/8/03)
    > http://www.stockhouse.com/news/news.asp?tick=PME&newsid=1674276
    >
    > Advances pave way for 'nanobots'. Despite tantalizing lab results, building
    > robots on a molecular scale would seem to be a futuristic pipe dream. But a
    > research report on robotic technology published by Business Communications
    > Co. Inc. (Norwalk, Conn.) claims that nanobots are "on the cusp," thanks to
    > robust research worldwide on the problem. (EETimes 4/28/03)
    > http://www.eet.com/at/im/news/OEG20030428S0063
    >
    > Companies bring war to nanoscale to combat unseen bio/chem enemies. One of
    > the many take-home lessons for the United States and its allies after the
    > 1991 Persian Gulf War was a need for better protection against biological
    > and chemical weapons. Years after the conflict, soldiers complained of
    > ailments they believed resulted from exposure to the Iraqi regime's arsenal.
    > More than a decade later, several companies are turning to nanotechnology to
    > counter the threats of biological and chemical warfare. Their efforts range
    > from gloves and gear that block out toxic chemicals and germs to fabrics and
    > powders that deactivate and destroy the deadly agents. Military and
    > university research labs also are developing protective skin creams,
    > emulsions and even drugs to reduce the dangers. (Small Times 5/8/03)
    > http://www.smalltimes.com/document_display.cfm?document_id=5957
    >
    > 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
    > nanogirl@halcyon.com
    > "Nanotechnology: Solutions for the future."
    >
    >
    >



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