The Nanogirl News~

From: Gina Miller (nanogirl@halcyon.com)
Date: Mon Aug 05 2002 - 02:10:40 MDT


The Nanogirl News August 4, 2002

Nanotech Runs Behind Semiconductors, MEMS in Optical IC Market. The market
for integrated circuits (ICs) used in optical switches will be worth more
than $5 billion in 2006, according to a report by Pioneer Consulting, and
nanotechnology is one of three chip technologies vying for a piece of the
pie. The report, "Optical Chips: Enabling Technologies and Markets from
Semiconductors to MEMS, Nano-Optics and Photonic Crystals," predicts that
total worldwide optical IC sales will increase from $654.3 million in 2002
to $5.4 billion in 2006. The report used a fairly broad definition of
optical ICs, encompassing all chips, regardless of manufacture, used in
optical switches. (Internetnews.com 7/27/02)
http://www.internetnews.com/stats/article.php/1377751

Bucky Ferrocenes. Hybrid molecules combine key features of ferrocenes and
fullerenes. Take two beautiful, fascinating molecules, fuse them into one,
and the result is likely to capture people's imaginations. That, in essence,
is what Eiichi Nakamura has done. The University of Tokyo chemistry
professor and his coworkers have prepared molecular hybrids of ferrocenes
and fullerenes, two families of molecules whose rich scientific legacies
have intersected before, but never like this. In a preliminary
communication, the Tokyo chemists describe the synthesis, on a multigram
scale, of the first two "bucky ferrocenes" [J. Am. Chem. Soc., 124, 9354
(2002)]. In both, an iron(II) atom is sandwiched between a discrete
cyclopentadienyl (Cp) ring and a cyclopentadienide ring that is part of a
C60 or C70 cage. (Chemical & Engineering News 8/2/02)
http://pubs.acs.org/cen/today/aug2b.html

Kyoto University and five Japanese companies have agreed to jointly research
and develop next generation organic electronic device technologies, they
announced Thursday. The main theme, "organic electronic devices", covers
five fields, which are: Basic technologies for functional flexible displays,
including development of organic electroluminescence displays
(OELDs).Organic solar batteries and high-efficiency organic opto-electronic
materials.
Basic technologies for organic super-high-volume memory devices, and
development of functional optical materials. Development of functional
organic nanocomposite materials and device applications. Other developments
of organic electronics devices.
(IDG.net 8/1/02) http://idg.net/ic_912268_4394_1-3921.html

Nanowires self-assemble from individual particles. Researchers from Oklahoma
State University in the US and the Hahn-Meiter-Institut in Germany have
developed a method to spontaneously self-assemble luminescent crystalline
CdTe nanowires from individual nanoparticles. Growing the nanowires is a
seven-day long process. They form not through point-to-point-initiated
vectorial growth but by the recrystallisation of multiple nanoparticles in a
linear aggregate that fuses gradually into one crystal. Full details of the
growth process can be found in Science. (EETimes 7/26/02)
http://www.eet.com/at/news/OEG20020726S0001

The future is gaining on us ... have hope. This is a response to: _The
future is gaining on us ... be afraid_ in the Seattle Times july 14th
opinion. This response is written by Glen Hiemstra founder Futurist.com and
Brenda Cooper a contributor and sci-fi writter. "When it comes to the
future, fear reigns. Fear of terror, of economic collapse, of technology, of
change, of others different from ourselves, and on it goes. We do not think
there is any greater need today to fear the future than at earlier moments
in time, but fear of impending doom has captured the imagination of the
public and the popular press." (The Seattle Times 7/29/02)
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/editorialsopinion/134502218_future29.h
tml

Good thing really tall author Michael Crichton's got big pants. He's gonna
need some roomy pockets in which to stuff the $5 million he's getting for
the movie rights to his upcoming novel. Fox has snapped up Crichton's novel
Prey, which doesn't hit bookstores until this November. The movie project
will begin gearing up ASAP. The details are more covert than Site B
operations, but the story apparently involves nanotechnology, and is a
political thriller that blends themes from the writer's Andromeda Strain and
Jurassic Park. So, diseased dinosaurs in the White House? (CHUD 7/27/02)
http://www.chud.com/news/july02/jul27prey.php3

X-ray diffraction reveals nanoscale secrets. Scientists from the US
Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory and Michigan State
University, US, have developed an X-ray diffraction technique that can
analyse nanocrystals. They used the method to examine a silicon-oxide
zeolite that had caesium ions trapped inside its nano-sized pores.
(nanotechweb.org 7/31/02)
http://nanotechweb.org/articles/news/1/7/25/1

Carbon Nanotubes Found to Fluoresce; Possible Applications in MRI. Add
fluorescence to the growing list of unique physical properties associated
with carbon nanotubes - the ultrasmall, ultrastrong wunderkind of the
fullerene family of carbon molecules.
In research detailed in the current issue of Science magazine, a team of
Rice University chemists led by fullerene discoverer and Nobel laureate
Richard Smalley describes the first observations of fluorescence in carbon
nanotubes. Fluorescence occurs when a substance absorbs one wavelength of
light and emits a different wavelength in response. The Rice experiments,
conducted by Smalley's group and the photophysics research team of chemist
R. Bruce Weisman, found that nanotubes absorbed and gave off light in the
near-infrared spectrum, which could prove useful in biomedical and
nanoelectronics applications.
(Small Times 8/1/02)
http://www.smalltimes.com/document_display.cfm?document_id=4321

Nanotechnology backers see trillion-dollar industry. Government, industry,
and academic leaders announced Wednesday that a consortium of private and
state interests have come together to form New Jersey Nanotechnology
Laboratory, a facility based in Lucent Technologies' Bell Labs that
supporters say will make the state a center in a growing technology worth
trillions. (North Jersey News 8/1/02)
http://www.bergen.com/page.php?level_3_id=7&page=4483929

A Marriage of Nanotech and Biotech. Harvard chemistry professor George
Whitesides' latest quest is getting tiny nonliving structures to assemble
themselves. ...Much of his work remains in areas that may have implications
for biotech: Self-assembling molecules used for making nanomachines,
polyvalent drugs that attack a disease from multiple directions, and new
analytical tools for drug discovery. He also helped invent a molecule that
helps treat anthrax by interfering with the bacteria's toxic
machinery....Whitesides' goal is to find a way for nonliving things to
spontaneously assemble themselves just as living things do. This would take
care of many of the most minute and difficult steps involved in
nanofabrication. Already, he's trying to get nonliving devices to
self-assemble -- and he has started work on advanced nanosize structures
that would combine self-replicating machines and the natural self-assembly
that occurs in living cells.....(Business Week online 7/30/02)
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/jul2002/tc20020730_2633.htm

(Feature) This week, The Nano Circuit talks with a company that is less
nanotechnology and more electronics at the nanoscale for our readers
interested in and invested in the broader IT sector. The first
nanotech-enabled products and processes in the IT sector will need to be
integrated into the current manufacturing process. We spoke with Dr. Abe
Ghanbari, vice president of engineering for Dielectric Systems Inc. (DSI),
which develops low-k tools and materials that enable sub-100 nanometer chip
manufacturing. (Nanotech Planet 8/2/02)
http://www.nanotech-planet.com/features/article/0,4028,6571_1438771,00.html

Honey, Who Shrank the Circuits? While nanowires have been around for many
years, scientists had no way of mixing different materials together within
one wire. Until now. Setting the stage for integrating devices right into
the wires themselves -- a development expected to further shrink electronic
circuits -- three teams of scientists managed to grow single nanowires made
from layers of different semiconductors earlier this year. The Swedish team
was the first to report the ability to construct functional electronic
devices using the technology, within wires just 20 billionths of a meter
wide, this week at the 26th International Conference on the Physics of
Semiconductors in Edinburgh, Scotland.
(Wired 8/2/02) http://www.wired.com/news/print/0,1294,54093,00.html

Close-Up of Atomic Cave-Dwellers. Researchers have captured the most
detailed pictures yet of particles crowded into an industrially useful
nanoscale sponge. They extended an old method for analyzing x-ray
diffraction data to a zeolite--a porous crystalline substance--filled with
metal ions. The result, appearing in the 12 August print issue of PRL,
confirms that this material is the first room-temperature stable electride,
a class of compounds with curious electrical, magnetic, and optical
properties that may eventually have applications as nanoscale devices.
(Physical Review Focus 7/29/02) http://focus.aps.org/v10/st4.html

Scientific Partnership Seeks Huge Benefits from Small Devices.
Fla.-Physicists and biologists at Florida State University are joining
forces in a unique partnership with potential implications for advancing
medical science and combating bioterrorism with tiny devices. Scientists
from FSU's biology department have teamed up with the physics department and
the Center for Materials Research and Technology (MARTECH) to conduct
groundbreaking research incorporating biological matter into nano scale
machines. "There has been a lot of speculation about how nano scale devices
in general will improve our lives," said biology Professor Bryant Chase,
coordinator for one of the two research projects the scientists will
undertake. "If even only 1 percent of the speculation turns out to be
correct, our lives will be greatly improved." (Neww Wise 7/31/02)
http://www.newswise.com/articles/2002/7/DEVICES.FSU.html

Researchers in Germany have turned a single molecule into a sort of motor.
In the race to build ever-smaller devices, a new entry appears to have burst
into the lead. Researchers in Germany have turned a single molecule into a
sort of motor. Azobenzene, a polymer molecule, has a unique characteristic:
It changes from one shape to another when exposed to light of different
wavelengths. Scientists led by Hermann Gaub, a professor of physics at the
University of Munich, have used this quality to build a tiny gadget.
(Popular Science Aug 02)
http://www.popsci.com/popsci/science/article/0,12543,321209,00.html

Nanomat creates spinoff. Nanomat Inc., a North Huntingdon-based designer and
developer of nano materials, said it had created a spinoff company, Nanova
LLC, to produce two of the proprietary products it developed. The new
company expects to buy or build a 200,000-square-foot manufacturing facility
that will employ between 100 and 200. No site for the factory has been
selected, but Nanomat said it hoped to find one in Pennsylvania. (Business
News 8/2/02)
http://www.post-gazette.com/businessnews/20020802biz9.asp

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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