~Nanogirl News~

Gina Miller (nanogirl@halcyon.com)
Thu, 7 Oct 1999 18:13:15 -0700

~Nanogirl News~
Oct 7, 1999

*Tiny tubes have a big future.Carbon nanotubes -- a remarkable form of soot
that is stronger than steel at the weight of a plastic -- has unique electronic properties that may hold the key to making flat- panel displays the monitor of the future.
http://www.onr.navy.mil/onr/newsrel/to9910.htm

*Duke free-electron laser breaks 'psychological' 2,000 angstrom wavelength
barrier. The OK-4, a Russian-built machine operating at Duke University, has become the first free-electron laser (FEL) to emit laser light at deep ultraviolet wavelengths shorter than 2,000 angstroms, a region some scientists call "vacuum" ultraviolet.
http://www.dukenews.duke.edu/Research/ok499.htm

*UT Southwestern researchers develop technique to determine protein
communication, function. UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas researchers report in today's Science on their new mathematical formula to map the transfer of energy, the communication method of molecules, from one area of a protein to another.
http://irweb.swmed.edu/newspub/newsdetl.asp?story_id=176

*The Nuts and Bolts of Cellular Engines. Whenever a cell changes its
shape--like immune cells engulfing a pathogen or neurons reaching out to connect to one another--there's a tiny engine at work. Now biochemists have assembled a test tube model of this miniature motor. http://www.academicpress.com/inscight/10071999/grapha.htm

*Mouse: Next In Line For DNA Sequencing. The genetic makeup (or genome) of
the mouse, one of the most frequently used mammals in medical and behavioral research, will be deciphered in a major new research program launched this month by the National Institutes of Health. http://www.nhgri.nih.gov/NEWS/MouseRelease.htm

*New NASA track races toward cheaper trips to space. Speedy sports cars have
met their match: A new magnetic levitation -- or maglev -- track at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., accelerates a model spacecraft from zero to 60 mph in less than one-half second http://www1.msfc.nasa.gov/NEWSROOM/news/releases/1999/99-260.html

*'Rainbow metal,' similar to opal, suggests light-steering computer parts
and catalysts Porous, rainbow-colored metal --inspired by opal-- may suggest new materials to steer light inside superfast computers, or to more efficiently catalyze chemical reactions, University of Delaware researchers report Oct. 7 in Nature. Because it's riddled with regularly spaced holes only slightly wider than the wavelength of light, the UD material acts like a prism, diffracting a spectrum of colors--from gold and blue to red, green and purple.
http://www.udel.edu/PR/experts/rainbow.html

*Bell Labs Demo's World's First DWDM-Compatible 10-Gigabit Ethernet
Multiplexer Scientists from Lucent Technologies (NYSE:LU) Bell Labs have built the world’s first 10-gigabit-per-second (Gb/s) Ethernet multiplexer that is compatible with dense wavelength division mutiplexing (DWDM) transport.
http://www.bell-labs.com/project/gigachannel/ http://www.lucent.com/

*Scientists grow heart tissue in Bioreactor. MIT scientists use a
NASA-developed device in a first step towards tissue engineering. The cell constructs are less than 1/5-inch across, but represent a significant step in developing replacement parts for damaged organs. http://science.nasa.gov/newhome/headlines/msad05oct99_1.htm

*Synthetic enzyme shows promise as way to make hydrogen cheaply. A
look-alike enzyme active site synthesized by scientists at the University of Illinois may move the world closer to an energy-efficient, hydrogen-based economy, which could curb future energy crises and ease global warming. http://www.eurekalert.org/releases/uiuc-ses100599.html

*Pentium cluster makes a supercomputer. Cornell University has linked a
cluster of 256 Intel Pentium III microprocessors together to act as a supercomputer, the largest "tightly-coupled" system of its kind so far, and probably the most cost-effective, built entirely with off- the-shelf components. Such a cluster could easily be built almost anywhere and used for many scientific and business applications, Cornell experts say. http://www.news.cornell.edu/releases/Oct99/cluster.ws.html

*Scientists Blend Polymers To Create New Thin-Films. Even people who have
never heard of polymer thin-films benefit nearly every day from products made from these high-tech coatings. They're key ingredients in the slow-release fertilizer they apply to their lawns and the timed-release pills in their medicine cabinets. They're also used in multicolor photographic printing, biomedical membranes, anti-reflective coatings, LCDs and other useful products.
http://unisci.com/stories/19994/1007996.htm

*Superheavy element 107 may soon find a place on the chemist's periodic
table. Scientists have determined the volatility of bohrium, element 107 -- the heaviest element yet whose chemistry has been successfully investigated. Crucial to the research was the use of a bohrium isotope detected earlier this year by researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and UC Berkeley.
http://www.lbl.gov/Science-Articles/Archive/element-107-chem.html

*The orgin of the "speed of light may not be constant." Physicist at
University of Toronto.
http://www.newsandevents.utoronto.ca/bin/19990930b.asp

*New Design Will Help Cool Microelectronics More Efficiently. As
microelectronics pack more high-powered computer chips into ever-shrinking spaces, cooling these devices becomes more difficult. Ohio State University researchers have developed a heat sink, or cooling system, that is more efficient than current designs.
http://www.newswise.com/articles/1999/10/HEATSINK.OSU.html

*Quake control. A professor of civil engineering at Washington University in
St. Louis has tested a new device on a model building set atop an earthquake-simulating "shake table" that shows promise in minimizing damage in earthquakes.
http://news-info.wustl.edu/feature/1999/Sept99-quake.html

*Battery Acid Chemical Found On Jupiter's Moon Europa. Sulfuric acid -- a
corrosive chemical found on Earth in car batteries -- exists on the frozen surface of Jupiter's icy moon Europa.
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/releases/99/europa_acid.html

*You too could have seemingly superhuman mental skills. All you have to do
is switch off part of your brain. Sounds bizarre? Rita Carter investigates. (New Scientist feature: Tune in, Turn off) http://www.newscientist.co.uk/ns/19991009/tuneinturn.html

*IT calls home.Ericsson and Electrolux link up to create products for the
networked home, allowing people to programme the cooker from the office - or order groceries by writing a list on the fridge. http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/business/the_company_file/newsid_467000/467 698.stm

*Under the Robotic Knife. Robot wields heart-surgery scalpel. A robot named
"Zeus" (After the vivisectionist orangutan?) wielded the knife in a revolutionary form of bypass surgery on a beating heart. http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/review/crg433.htm

*Dead Bugs To The Rescue. Enzymes produced by insects could be sprayed onto
crops or fruits to clean up residues of chemical pesticides, say researchers.
http://www.scienceagogo.com/news/19990907050415data_trunc_sys.shtml

*Advanced Tissue Sciences Receives Patent for Growing Mesenchymal Stem Cells
on a Three-Dimensional Framework. Advanced Tissue Sciences, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATIS) announced today the issuance of U.S. Patent No. 5,962,325 entitled "Three-Dimensional Stromal Tissue Cultures." http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=105&STORY=/www/story/10-05 -1999/0001037039

*TALKING PICTURES | A PICTURE MAY be worth a thousand words, but until now
it hasn't been able to say them. Kodak is now aiming to change that and make snapshots talk (EP 926 879). A new digital stills camera will have a microphone which stores around 10 seconds of sound when a picture is taken. So the photographer can say what the picture shows, where it was taken and why. An ink-jet prints the picture image onto paper, with the speech data converted into a bar code strip running along the bottom. This can then be read by an infrared scanner which is swiped over the print. The scanner converts the code into sound­so the picture speaks for itself.

*A study entitled 'New World Coming: American Security in the 21st Century'
has been released by the U.S. Commission on National Security. It covers a lot of areas including electronic threats. It also introduces a new term 'Weapon of Mass Disruption'.
http://www.nssg.gov/Reports/reports.htm

*State of Arizona website cracked.

See the original: http://www.state.az.us/ See what was left behind:
http://www.attrition.org/mirror/attrition/1999/10/06/www.state.az.us/

*The raging debate over biotech food. (EEN feaures)
http://www.enn.com/features/1999/10/100799/gefood_5991.asp

*Scientists fear criticism could hamper altered crop development. Scientists
worry that a public backlash against genetically modified foods could slow the development of crops that could improve health and nutrition. (Cnn) http://cnn.com/FOOD/news/9910/06/altered.food.ap/index.html

*Firm Says It Will Map All 100,000 Human Genes. Project Is One Of Biggest
Scientific Challenges Of Century. A private company expects to have all 100,000 or so genes in a human being mapped out by next year, fulfilling one of the biggest scientific challenges of the 20th century. http://www.wcco.com/news/stories/news-991006-162029.html

*Public 'guinea pigs' for genetically modified foods. Firm admits using
bully tactics in plugging products. A scathing attack on the way governments are approving genetically modified foods was launched Wednesday by scientists who say that the public are being used as guinea pigs to prove whether the foods are safe or not.
http://www.edmontonjournal.com/technology/stories/991007/2962705.html

*PROFILE-BASSON (African National Congress Daily News Briefing) WOUTER
BASSON, From Eminent Scientist To Murder Accused. In the past two years, Wouter Basson's public profile has been reduced from that of brilliant scientist and eminent cardiologist to that of "Doctor Death," accused of mass murder, drug peddling and fraud.
http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/briefing/nw19991007/12.html

*Judge rules tissue research ban unconstitutional. An Arizona law
prohibiting the use of fetal tissue in medical research is unconstitutional, a federal judge has ruled.
http://www2.nando.net/noframes/story/0,2107,500042400-500068870-500136881-0, 00.html

*A Cat's Eye Marvel. In a dramatic demonstration of mind reading,
neuroscientists have created videos of what a cat sees by using electrodes implanted in the animal's brain. (Wired) http://www.wired.com/news/news/technology/story/22116.html

*Radio interview with Chris Peterson from foresight.
http://www.liveonlinenews.com/foresight.html

"Know then thyself, presume not God to scan, the proper study of mankind, is man."
Alexander Pope

Gina "Nanogirl" Miller
http://www.homestead.com/nanotechind/nothingatall.html Nanotechnology Industries
http://www.nanoindustries.com
nanogirl@halclyon.com