From: Gina Miller (nanogirl@halcyon.com)
Date: Wed Jul 24 2002 - 15:12:50 MDT
The Nanogirl News
July 24, 2002
Beads of doubt. One of the most important principles of physics, that
disorder, or entropy, always increases, has been shown to be untrue.
Scientists at the Australian National University (ANU) have carried out an
experiment involving lasers and microscopic beads that disobeys the
so-called Second Law of Thermodynamics, something many scientists had
considered impossible. The finding has implications for nanotechnology - the
design and construction of molecular machines. They may not work as
expected. (BBC 7/18/02)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_2135000/2135779.stm
A team of German researchers has built a highly sensitive charge detector
from the combination of a quantum dot with a nanomechanical device. Robert
Blick, group leader and assistant professor at the Ludwig-Maximilians
University, Munich, said: "This system allows for ultra-sensitive
displacement detection, which is quite important for any scanning probe
application." (EETimes 7.23.02)
http://www.electronicstimes.com/tech/news/OEG20020723S0001
Misunderstood Nanotech. A study, released Thursday by private technology
investment group 3i along with the Economist Intelligence Unit and the
Institute of Nanotechnology says applications for nanotech are largely
misunderstood and investors in the area too shortsighted. The study includes
the opinions of scientists, academics, and industry experts from around the
world. It asserts that nanotechnology can contribute to improvements in a
variety of areas impacting aspects of people's lives such as computing,
health care, communications, manufacturing, energy and the environment.
Nanotechnology is unique in this way, requiring scientists from many
different areas to collaborate. (Tornado Insider 7/12/02)
http://www.tornado-insider.com/news/Article.asp?id=12834
Silicon atoms play a bit part. A memory that stores a 'bit' by the presence
or absence of a single silicon atom has been developed by physicists at the
University of Wisconsin-Madison in the US and the University of Basel in
Switzerland. Franz Himpsel's team created the device - made from silicon and
gold - which has a storage density of 250 terabits per square inch (R
Bennewitz et al Nanotechnology 13 499). (PhysicsWeb 7/12/02)
http://physicsweb.org/article/news/6/7/9
A new laboratory equipped with $7 million worth of equipment and $13 million
worth of clean room infrastructure opened this month at the Swiss Federal
Institute of Technology in Zurich. The nano and microtechnology facility,
called FIRST (an acronym for Frontiers in Research, Space and Time), is
staffed by a team of researchers who are required to balance basic research
and joint R&D projects with high tech companies. (Small Times 7/23/02)
http://www.smalltimes.com/document_display.cfm?document_id=4217
Waggener Edstrom signs up Covasoft, nanotech group. Public relations firm
Waggener Edstrom Inc. has signed up two new Texas clients, including one in
Austin. Portland Ore.-based Waggener now represents Austin-based Covasoft
Inc. and the Dallas-based Texas Nanotechnology Initiative. Both accounts
will be handled by Waggener's Austin office. (Bizjournal 7/15/02)
http://www.bizjournals.com/austin/stories/2002/07/15/daily5.html
Synthesis of nanoparticles coming into focus. Scientists are fast gaining
control over the building of tiny particles, accomplishing nanoparticle
synthesis in both inorganic and organic chemistries. University of Arkansas
researchers have devised a "green" chemical process that offers tight
control over the size of nanoparticles and eliminates toxic by-products. And
a team at the University of Michigan is developing dendrimer-based
fluorescent particles to monitor human cell damage from radiation. Under a
$2 million NASA grant, the Michigan team will develop a method of implanting
optically active nanoparticles inside white blood cells, suggesting that
medical applications may be an immediate practical application for
nanotechnology. (EETimes 7/16/02)
http://www.eetimes.com/at/news/OEG20020716S0023
Nanocontacts could make hard drives go 'ballistic'. By applying
atomic-dimension "nanocontacts" to magnetic media, an experiment at the
State University of New York here has revealed the potential of an effect
known as "ballistic magnetoresistance." The tiny metal contacts showed a
3,000 percent change in magnetoresistance at low switching fields of a few
hundred oersted. (EETimes 7/12/02)
http://www.eet.com/at/news/OEG20020709S0041
Altair Nanotechnologies (Nasdaq: ALTI) today announced that it has utilized
its patented nanoparticle process to develop a new pharmaceutical/ new
chemical entity ("NCE") for the treatment of elevated phosphate levels in
kidney dialysis patients. The market for pharmaceuticals used for binding
phosphate in kidney dialysis patients is estimated to be approximately $500
million annually. Making use of the same basic patented process, Altair
Nanotechnologies also announced the creation of a new drug dosage form for
an existing pharmaceutical. (PRNnewswire 7/16/02)
http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/07-16
-2002/0001764637&EDATE=
Science done at random risked national prosperity, Canberra's scientific
community heard yesterday. As the Government seeks to finalize national
research priorities over the next few weeks, the executive secretary of the
Australian Academy of Science, Sue Serjeantson, told the National Institute
of Engineering and Information Sciences that strategy was crucial. (The
Canberra Times 7/18/02)
http://canberra.yourguide.com.au/detail.asp?class=news&subclass=national&cat
egory=general%20news&story_id=164556&y=2002&m=7
Infrared antenna for nano-size mapping of crystal vibrations. Max Planck
scientists use a new type of microscope to make crystal vibrations in the
nanometre range visible.Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for
Biochemistry in Martinsried near Munich, Germany, have used their infrared
near-field microscope to study crystal lattice vibrations (Nature 418, 159,
11th July 2002). They used infrared laser beam illumination of a nano-sized
antenna to obtain resonance with the vibrations, the so-called phonon
resonance. The new technique makes it possible to find out a crystal's
chemical identity, and even its structural quality, both with nanometric
resolution. (Max Planck Society 7/19/02)
http://www.mpg.de/news02/news0216.htm
The enhanced national brand and corporate image resulting from the
just-ended World Cup will boost Korea's chances of emerging as a true
economic powerhouse in 2010. Simultaneously, the Korean government will be
adopting industrial development strategies designed to place such promising
sectors as biotechnology and nanotechnology on the global map. (The Korea
Times 7/17/02)
http://www.korealink.co.kr/kt_biz/200207/t2002071717030743110.htm
Interview with Max More. Questions by Sander Olson. Answers by Max More. Max
More was born and raised in Britain, but moved to the U.S. in 1987. He is
the founder of the Extropy Institute, which studies, ponders, and discusses
issues ranging from life extension and cloning to genetic engineering and
cryogenics. More information is available at www.maxmore.com. (Nanomagazine
7/13/02) http://www.nanomagazine.com/2002_07_13
New laser aids nanotech measurement. Researchers at a joint
government-academic institute, reporting in the current issue of Science,
have created laser light in the previously unattainable extreme ultraviolet
spectrum, allowing detailed optical observations of processes at the
molecular and atomic scale. The team of scientists at JILA, a partnership
between the University of Colorado at Boulder and the National Institute of
Standards and Technology, worked around obstacles to generating coherent EUV
light, which is difficult to control because of its very short wavelength.
(United Press International 7/19/02)
http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=20020719-033020-3757r
The Department of Energy should do more within its nanotechnology programs
to include the science of catalysis, or modifying chemical reactions, the
agency's Basic Energy Sciences Advisory Committee said Tuesday. Folding
catalysis into nanotech, where matter is manipulated at the atomic and
molecular level, could lead to great strides in increasing energy
efficiency, environmental cleanup and other areas, said John Hemminger, a
chemistry professor at the University of California at Irvine, who led a
subcommittee discussion on the matter. (United Press International 7/23/02)
http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=20020723-045503-5590r
It's The N-Generation. Nanotechnology, which offers super-small solutions to
some very big problems, may be coming of age. This breakthrough is but one
example of the ripple effects that nanotechnology is expected to have on
industry, says Tim Harper, founder of the European NanoBusiness Association
and of Madrid-based CMP Cientifica, which does research on the business
applications of nanotechnology. The technology is already starting to change
energy generation and distribution, computer memory and storage, and the
aerospace, automotive, textile and pharmaceutical industries.
(Time Europe Magazine 6/29/02)
http://www.time.com/time/europe/magazine/article/0,13005,901020729-322599,00
.html
Researchers to develop environment-cleansing bugs. Microbes that thrive on
nuclear waste, that can scrub greenhouse gases from the air and turn toxic
soil pure again are the targets of new research funding announced by the US
Department of Energy. "These micro-organisms can be thought of as
nano-machines," George Church of Harvard Medical School and MIT said in a
statement. "By knowing their genomes, as we do, we have a linear computer
tape, or code, that in principle tells us how to assemble the machines, he
added. (New Zealand news 7/24/02)
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?reportID=53009&storyID=2147222
How random is pi? Mathematicians have achieved a major step towards
answering the question of whether numbers like pi and other mathematical
constants are truly random and for the first time linked number theory with
chaos theory. It is not just a mathematical curiosity they say. Proving that
pi never repeats itself would be a major advance in our theory of numbers.
(BBC News 7/23/02) http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/2146295.stm
Robot streamlines protein analysis. To learn more about life, Berkeley Lab
researchers rely on robots. They've automated a traditionally slow process
in which tiny protein crystals are mounted and centered in an x-ray beam and
analyzed for their molecular structure. The robot, which is the first such
device available to general users at a synchrotron, both mounts protein
crystals in a beamline and uses the resulting data to decipher the protein's
atomic makeup. (Berkeley Lab Science Beat 7/16/02)
http://www.lbl.gov/Science-Articles/Archive/ALS-Beamline-Earnest.html
Applied Materials Enables Future Chips with New Atomic Layer Technology;
Advanced Deposition Technology Needed for Tomorrow's Ultrahigh-Speed
Nano-Chip Designs. Applied Materials, Inc. today announced a new system to
enable the manufacturing of future ultrahigh-speed computing and
communications chips. The leading-edge product features Atomic Layer
Deposition (ALD) technology in which single layers of atoms are used to
build the chip. This technology can help chipmakers achieve geometries 50
percent smaller than today's (130nm) devices and fabricate more powerful
chips containing potentially 20 times the number of transistors delivering 5
times the speed. (StockHouse USA 7/22/02)
http://www.stockhouse.com/news/news.asp?tick=AMAT&newsid=1239241
Two Photons Diverged. If a fat man walked into an empty room and then two
skinny guys walked out, you might be perplexed. Now physicists have spotted
the equivalent result in photons flying near an atom. A group publishing in
the 5 August print issue of PRL has identified rare instances in which a
single photon splits in two, dividing the original photon's energy between
them. (Physical Review Focus 7/2202) http://focus.aps.org/v10/st3.html
DTI announces increased nanotech research funding. Trade and industry
secretary, Patricia Hewitt has announced an extra £20m worth of funding for
nanotechnology research to help UK businesses exploit the technology
benefits to improve the country's economic performance. (EETimes 7/23/02)
http://www.electronicstimes.com/tech/news/OEG20020723S0001
Just Another Chemical. DNA may hold the book of life, but is not alive
itself. The response to the report that a team of scientists at the State
University of New York, Stony Brook, had created infectious polioviruses by
working backward from the viral genetic code reveals an interesting
dichotomy in how people view living organisms. Eckard Wimmer and Aniko V.
Paul, professors of molecular genetics and microbiology at SUNY Stony Brook,
and Jeronimo Cello, a postdoc, synthesized poliovirus complementary DNA
(cDNA) from oligonucleotides. (Chemical & Engineering news 7/24/02)
http://pubs.acs.org/cen/today/july24.html
Scientists Create New Material With Varying Densities of Gold Nanoparticles.
Material could be used to make better filters, more efficient sensors, and
faster catalysts For the first time, scientists have created a material with
a gradient of gold nanoparticles on a silica covered silicon surface using a
molecular template. The material, which was developed at North Carolina
State University (NCSU) and tested at the National Synchrotron Light Source
(NSLS) at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory,
provides the first evidence that nanoparticles - each about one thousand
times smaller than the diameter of a human hair - can form a gradient of
decreasing concentration along a surface. (Brookhaven 7/18/02)
http://www.bnl.gov/bnlweb/pubaf/pr/2002/bnlpr071802.htm
"Know then thyself, presume God not to scan. The proper study of mankind, is
man." Alexander Pope
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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