From: Gina Miller (nanogirl@halcyon.com)
Date: Fri May 17 2002 - 01:34:47 MDT
The Nanogirl News
May 16, 2002
IBM wants a few good nano start-ups. IBM has created a small group within
its semiconductor division to work with a select few nanotechnology
start-ups on manufacturing issues and in exploring trends, another
incremental step toward molecular computing. The group, part of the
emerging-products organization inside IBM Microelectronics, will serve two
main purposes. It will let Big Blue get a better view of the current state
of nanotechnology research outside the company, and it could help a handful
of companies get beyond the prototype stage, said Thomas Thies, director of
physical sciences at IBM, speaking at the Nanotech Planet conference here
Tuesday. (Cnet 5/15/02)
http://news.com.com/2100-1001-914164.html
Or see:
Big Blue's building a nano think tank
http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1103-914395.html
Laser patterns particles in 3D. For a couple of decades now, nanotechnology
researchers have been able to use beams of light to move microscopic
particles. But the optical tweezers method has been limited to moving
individual particles or several particles as a group. Researchers from
Scotland and Mexico have improved the tool, making it possible to use
photons to arrange microscopic particles into three-dimensional structures,
and to rotate these nanostructures. The improved method also opens the door
for bioengineering applications that involve observing and affecting the way
molecules move in three dimensions. (TRN News 5/15/02)
http://www.trnmag.com/Stories/2002/051502/Laser_patterns_particles_in_3D_051
502.html
Congressmen Say More Nano Money Is An Investment In America's Future.
Influential members of Congress are on a path to increase nanotechnology
spending within the National Science Foundation over and above the increase
President Bush called for in his 2003 budget. The bill, called the
"Investing in America's Future Act," sponsored by Rep. Nick Smith, R-Mich.,
and co-sponsored by Rep. Sherwood Boehlert, R-NY, chairman of the powerful
House Science Committee, would increase nanotechnology spending at NSF in
2003 from Bush's request of $221 million to $238 million. (SmallTimes
5/14/02)
http://www.smalltimes.com/document_display.cfm?document_id=3750
DNA nanoballs boost gene therapy. Scrunching up DNA into ultra-tiny balls
could be the key to making gene therapy safer and more efficient. The
technique is now being tested on people with cystic fibrosis. So far,
modified viruses have proved to be the most efficient way of delivering DNA
to cells to make up for genetic faults. But viruses cannot be given to the
same person time after time because the immune system starts attacking them.
Viruses can also cause severe reactions. The nanoparticles consist of a
single DNA molecule encased in positively charged peptides and are
themselves delivered to cells via liposomes. (New Scientist 5/12/02)
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns9999225
Nanomotors may play role in medical treatment. Nanomotor Made From Single
DNA Molecule Is A First. They are still many years away, but molecular
motors that could radically improve manufacturing and medicine just took a
step closer to reality. A University of Florida chemistry professor has made
a "nanomotor" from a single DNA molecule. The motor, so small that hundreds
of thousands could fit on the head of a pin, curls up and extends like an
inchworm, said Weihong Tan, the principal investigator and lead author of an
article about the motor in the April edition of the journal Nano Letters.
(Small TImes 5/16/02)
http://www.smalltimes.com/document_display.cfm?document_id=3779
Or (UniSci 5/16/02)
http://unisci.com/stories/20022/0516021.htm
Cool Chips Discloses Application Of Quantum Mechanics In High-Efficiency
Nanotech Cooling
Devices. Cool Chips plc (COLCF) said that its Cool Chips(tm), wafer-thin
discs designed to produce cooling or refrigeration more efficiently than any
competing technology, use quantum mechanical electron tunneling as the
primary cooling mechanism. The Cool Chip is one of the first transformative
technologies to emerge from the nanotechnology revolution.
(Cool Chips 5/14/02)
http://www.coolchips.gi/press/pr_020514.shtml
Nanostructure Techniques Come Closer To Quantum Dot. An international
research team has discovered an unprecedented method for accurately
controlling the formation of nanometric structures. They worked with
structures made of semiconducting material in the form of islets, using
promising optoelectronic applications in the most advanced communication
technology. (UniSci 5/14/02)
http://unisci.com/stories/20022/0514022.htm
Matsushita Electric (Panasonic) Develops the Industry's First High
Throughput Drug Screening Technology Using Biosensors -- Nano-technology and
bioelectronics allow faster development of new drugs. Matsushita Electric
Industrial Co., Ltd., (NYSE: MC), best known for its Panasonic-brand
products, today announced the development of Drugmining, a high-throughput
drug screening technology using biosensors and the first of its kind in the
industry. This new technology makes it possible to study drug efficacy in an
environment similar to that of the human body, thus enabling reliable
evaluation and development of promising new medicines. With its highly
efficient operating capacity of 100,000 measurements per day, it has the
potential to contribute to more rapid drug development by the pharmaceutical
industry. Matsushita plans to make Drugmining commercially available in the
second quarter of 2004 following the ongoing field testing. (Northern lights
5/15/02)
http://library.northernlight.com/FG20020514830000014.html?cb=0&dx=1006&sc=0
doc
It's a small world. (Interview with Alan Marty and Jason Friedman)
Nanotechnology, a target du jour for venture capitalists, is still a blip on
the investment screen. Nano or molecular-level technology received $112
million in venture capital in the first quarter, less than 2% of the total
raised, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers figures. Still, that's grown
nearly fivefold from 1999, and the accounting firm views it as a potentially
big emerging market. (The Deal 5/14/02)
http://www.thedeal.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=TheDeal/TDDArticle/S
tandardArticle&c=TDDArticle&cid=1021242546208
American Pharmaceutical Partners' Presents Unique Nanotransporter Technology
For Cancer Drug At Nanotech Planet Conference and Expo. At one of the
premier events focusing on the commercialization of nanotechnology, American
Pharmaceutical Partners, Inc. (Nasdaq: APPX) today presented an overview of
advances made in developing ABI-007, a proprietary, protein-based paclitaxel
nanoparticle currently in late-stage clinical studies for metastatic breast
cancer. Paclitaxel is the active ingredient in TaxolŽ, the world's most
widely used cancer-fighting agent. (American Pharmaceutical Partners, Inc.
5/15/02)
http://www.appdrugs.com/051502PR.htm
It's a small, small, small world. Remember how proud you felt when you
showed everyone you could ride a two-wheeler? That's how proud Krystyn Van
Vliet acts as she opens the door to a large stainless-steel instrument at
the NanoMechanical Technology Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology. "This is a nano-indenter," says Ms. Van Vliet, a material
science graduate student at MIT in Cambridge, Mass. Then she points to a
tiny, diamond-tipped needle inside. "We take a sample of the new material we
are testing and push that diamond into the sample." (Christian Science
monitor 5/14/02)
http://www.csmonitor.com/2002/0514/p18s02-hfks.html
Nanotech's Allure Is Intact. Nanotechnology's hold on investors stayed
strong last week. Advion BioSciences, maker of chip-based drug-discovery
tools, says it raised more than $15 million in a first round of funding. The
Ithaca, N.Y., company's NanoMate technology is used in laboratory devices to
analyze biological and chemical samples, and lets pharmaceutical companies
find and develop drugs much faster than they can now, Advion says.
(Information Week 5/13/02) Small report.
http://www.informationweek.com/story/IWK20020512S0015
What's the purpose of life? Nanotechnology might provide the answer. Column
By Ronald Bailey. Two different types of cutting-edge technology are
promising (or threatening, as the fearful might see it) to radically change
human abilities and capacities -- and even our identities. One - already the
subject of plenty of political maneuvering -- is the biotechnological
revolution. The other, not yet of major political significance, is
nanotechnology -- the ability to manipulate matter precisely on the atomic
level. (Reason 5/1/02) http://www.reason.com/rb/rb050102.shtml
Supercomputer lets researchers study material failures, atom by atom. One of
the world's most powerful supercomputers, at Lawrence Livermore National
Laboratory, has been trained like a microscope on one of the smallest but
most important technological problems of our time: how materials crack and
deform. (SiliconValley.com 5/14/02)
http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/local/3259060.htm
Nanotech May Aid Hospitals, Patients. John Halamka works in two very
different worlds, and the promise of nanotechnology excites him in both. As
CIO of CareGroup Health System in Boston, he has to consider how the
technology might change the IT infrastructure of one of the country's
largest hospital chains. And as an emergency physician at Beth Israel
Deaconess Medical Center, he also sees how it could revolutionize the
practice of medicine.
(Information Week 5/13/02)
http://www.informationweek.com/story/IWK20020510S0002
Advion Secures $15 Million to Commercialize NanoMateT Technology. - First
Fully Automated Nanoelectrospray System Answers Demand for High-Throughput
Bioanalysis by Mass Spectrometry - Advion BioSciences Inc., a privately
held developer of automated, chip-based mass spectrometry tools and
research-service provider to the pharmaceutical industry, today announced a
placement of Series B preferred shares in excess of $15 million. Skyline
Ventures and Perseus-Soros BioPharmaceutical Fund led the investment round,
with significant funding from Polaris Venture Partners and additional
capital from Soros Private Equity Partners (Advion press release 5/7/02)
http://www.advion.com/InvestmentPress.htm
Electrons Come to Order. Electrons don't normally know one direction from
another, so researchers were perplexed a few years ago when they found a
cold plane of electrons suddenly choosing to conduct many times better in
one direction than in the perpendicular one. Maybe they could acquire a
preferred orientation by acting like liquid crystals, theorists proposed.
Now, in the 27 May print issue of PRL, a group reports it has worked this
theory out well enough that experimenters may finally have some detailed
signs to search for. (Physical Review Focus 5/14/02)
http://focus.aps.org/v9/st25.html
University of Louisville chemical engineer Mahendra Sunkara, doctoral
student Shashank Sharma and their research group have developed a process
for growing nanometer-scale wires that allows them to control more easily
the minute wires' size, structure and composition.
(CVD 5/13/02)
http://www.cvd.louisville.edu/news.htm
Tiny Triumph for Science. Light and a Single Molecule Are Combined to Make a
Machine.
Scientists have for the first time used the power of light to create
mechanical energy for a microdevice, making a single molecule of plastic
drive a tiny machine. The experiment could have important implications for
the field of nanotechnology, which seeks to miniaturize machines and
mechanisms to an atomic or molecular scale. "We know [the machine] works
pretty well," said researcher Hermann E. Gaub. "Miniaturization drives
progress." Gaub, a physicist at the University of Munich's Nanoscience
Center, was part of a German-led team that used well-known materials in a
relatively simple experiment to turn light into mechanical energy, something
that had never been done before on the molecular level. -Picture of Molecule
Machine at the bottom of article- (Washington Post 5/10/02)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A62712-2002May9.html
The smallest revolution. Molecular circuitry moved from science fiction to
science fact in 2001. Carbon nanotubes and semiconductor nanowires are
currently leading the field of competitors for the computers of the
post-silicon era. Michael Gross investigates Electronic components are
getting smaller and smaller still, mainly driven by the demand for faster
and faster computers at virtually constant prices. We are so used to this
continuing revolution that it will feel strange when it finally collides
with the laws of physics and comes to a grinding halt. -Nice looking paper-
(Chembytes 5/02)
http://www.chemsoc.org/chembytes/ezine/2002/gross_may02.htm
Gina "Nanogirl" Miller
Nanotechnology Industries
http://www.nanoindustries.com
Personal: http://www.nanogirl.com
A Visual Tour of the Future: (new)
http://www.nanogirl.com/ArtisticLicense.html
Foresight Senior Associate
nanogirl@halcyon.com
"Nanotechnology: Solutions for the future."
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Sat Nov 02 2002 - 09:14:09 MST