The Nanogirl News~

From: Gina Miller (nanogirl@halcyon.com)
Date: Sat May 24 2003 - 17:01:26 MDT

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    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=nH~
    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
    nanogirl@halcyon.com
    "Nanotechnology: Solutions for the future."



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