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Current Nanotech News


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#1 Bruce Klein

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Posted 10 September 2002 - 02:07 PM


Interesting Nanotech News...

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Doing It By The Atoms

An atomic-scale memory chip, made by removing individual atoms from a silicon wafer, has been created by a team of scientists led by Franz Himpsel, professor of physics. The feat, reported in the journal Nanotechnology, represents a first crude step toward a practical atomic-scale memory where atoms of silicon would represent the binary 1s and 0s that computers use to store data. Photo by: courtesy Franz Himpsel.
Madison - Sep 09, 2002
In 1959, physics icon Richard Feynman, in a characteristic back-of-the-envelope calculation, predicted that all the words written in the history of the world could be contained in a cube of material one two-hundredths of an inch wide - provided those words were written with atoms.
Now, a little more than 40 years after Feynman's prescient estimate, scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have created an atomic-scale memory using atoms of silicon in place of the 1s and 0s that computers use to store data.

The feat, reported in the journal Nanotechnology, represents a first crude step toward a practical atomic-scale memory where atoms would represent the bits of information that make up the words, pictures and codes read by computers.

"This is proof of concept of what Feynman was saying 40 years ago," says Franz Himpsel, a UW-Madison professor of physics and the senior author of the Nanotechnology paper.

Although the memory created by Himpsel and his colleagues is in two dimensions rather than the three-dimensional cube envisioned by Feynman, it provides a storage density a million times greater than a CD-ROM, today's conventional means of storing data.

The atom, says Himpsel, represents the "hard wall" of technological miniaturization. "We seem to be at a natural limit."

Although divisible, the atom is a fundamental unit of nature. They are the smallest particles of an element and a single grain of sand, for example, can contain 10 million billion atoms.

The new memory was constructed on a silicon surface that automatically forms furrows within which rows of silicon atoms are aligned and rest like tennis balls in a gutter. By lifting out single silicon atoms with the tip of a scanning tunneling microscope, the Wisconsin team created gaps that represent the 0s of data storage while atoms left in place represent the1s.


Complete Article: SpaceDaily

#2 Bruce Klein

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Posted 10 September 2002 - 02:09 PM

Discovery Could Bring Widespread Uses For 'Nanocrystals'

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Srinivasan Chandrasekar, a professor of industrial engineering at Purdue University, uses an atomic force microscope to view a metal containing "nanocrystals," or tiny crystals that are often harder, stronger and more wear resistant than the same materials in bulk form. Researchers at Purdue University recently made a surprising discovery that could open up numerous applications for metal nanocrystals. The research engineers have discovered that the coveted nanocrystals are produced in common machining processes and are contained in scrap chips that are normally collected and melted down for reuse. Purdue News Service Photo by David Umberger


Researchers at Purdue University have made a surprising discovery that could open up numerous applications for metal "nanocrystals," or tiny crystals that are often harder, stronger and more wear resistant than the same materials in bulk form.
The research engineers have discovered that the coveted nanocrystals are contained in common scrap, the chips that are normally collected and melted down for reuse.

"Imagine, you have all of these bins full of chips, and they get melted down as scrap," said Srinivasan Chandrasekar, a professor of industrial engineering. "But, in some sense, the scrap could be more valuable pound-for-pound than the material out of which the part is made."

Nanocrystals might be used to make super-strong and long-lasting metal parts. The crystals also might be added to plastics and other metals to make new types of composite structures for everything from cars to electronics.

Complete Article: SpaceDaily

#3 Bruce Klein

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Posted 10 September 2002 - 06:05 PM

The Nanogirl News
September 9, 2002

Intel will unfurl its nanotechnology plans at its developer conference next week, shedding light on what will power its chips for the coming decades. Sunlin Chou, senior vice president of the technology and manufacturing group at Intel, will discuss the company's plans for nanotechnology, or the science of making chips with elements that measure less than 100 nanometers, next Thursday morning at the Intel Developer Forum in San Jose, California. Current chips have features measuring 130 nanometers on average. (CNet
9/4/02)
http://news.com.com/....html?tag=cd_mh

Law firm finds niche in nanotechnology. Winstead Sechrest & Minick is thinking small in a big way. The Dallas-based law firm has formed a full-service nanotechnology practice that could be the first of its kind in Texas. Winstead Sechrest has experience in filing and prosecuting patent applications, licensing, trademark and commercialization issues involving various areas of science and technology. By formalizing its efforts around nanotechnology, the firm is targeting an area described as one of the emerging technologies likely to revolutionize the 21st century. (Houston Business Journal 8/30/02) http://houston.bizjo.../02/story2.html

Nanotechnology: The God Of Small Things. Bala Manian's company, Quantum Dot Corporation, hasn't kept its crown jewels in any bank vault. At their facilities in Palo Alto, California, you will find their jewels under a microscope, twinkling luminously like the Nizam's finest. The jewels are called quantum dots, coloured crystals just a few hundred atoms across. Manian's tiny sparklers are about the same size as a protein molecule or a short sequence of DNA. The coloured quantum nanodots could be used to tag different proteins or sequences of DNA-upto 40,000 genes or proteins in as little as 10 minutes. (Hoovers 8/1/02) http://hoovnews.hoov...NR20020902670.2
_23400021502cd050

Nanotechnology topic of UW forum. The University of Washington will present a forum and workshop on business and nanotechnology later this month. In "Technology Forum: NanoTech Meets Business," researchers at Pacific Northwest Laboratories and UW will discuss nanotech-related advances in materials, health care and the environment. The event takes place Wednesday, Sept. 18. URL to UW workshop included. (DJC.com 9/3/02) http://www.djc.com/n...t/11136859.html

Scientists Develop Atomic-Scale Memory. In 1959, physics icon Richard Feynman, in a characteristic back-of-the-envelope calculation, predicted that all the words written in the history of the world could be contained in a cube of material one two-hundredths of an inch wide - provided those words were written with atoms. Now, a little more than 40 years after Feynman's prescient estimate, scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have created an atomic-scale memory using atoms of silicon in place of the 1s and 0s that computers use to store data. (ScienceDaily Magazine 9/5/02) http://www.scienceda...20905064741.htm

(Company profile) Nantero's Next-Gen Memory Turns to Nanotubes. Their plan is diabolically simple: build a memory chip that will one day obsolete all other technologies placing Nantero at the pinnacle of memory chip design, research and development. There are only a couple of problems, however. There are dozens of companies - including every major semiconductor manufacturer - competing for the same prize and Nantero has yet to produce a working chip. Of course, neither have any of their future competitors. In fact, most companies working in this area are just now moving out of the lab and into the proof-of-concept stage with prototypes ready for evaluation sometime in the next 12 to 18 months. (Nanotech Planet 9/3/02) http://www.nanoelect...ticle/0,4028,10
500_1456021,00.html

Investors bet on hi-tech breakthrough. There has certainly been little to cheer investors lately, but that does not prevent them from looking for the next big thing. Many are now pinning their hopes on nanotechnology - the process of manufacturing tiny machines the size of atoms. But researchers say the real promise of nanotechnology will take years of hard work in the lab. They fear that if it is over-hyped, their work could fall victim to the sort of boom and bust cycle that has hit telecoms and dot.com businesses. It sounds like science fiction, but researchers are predicting:...(BBC 9/5/02) http://news.bbc.co.u...ess/2234333.stm

Veeco Instruments Inc. (NASDAQ: VECO) today announced that it has established a China Nanotechnology Center facility (CNC) in Beijing, China. The facility will be staffed with local scientists and engineers and equipped with Veeco's latest Atomic Force Microscope (AFM), Scanning Tunneling Microscope (STM) products and other advanced nanotechnology application modules. The CNC will be jointly operated with the Institute of Chemistry of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). Day to day operations will be managed by Oliver Yeh, Veeco's newly appointed General Manager for China. The CAS is a national institution for scientific research and promotes original scientific innovation and integration of key technologies. Institutes organized under the CAS auspices perform first-class research and open up new directions of research, in particular in the area of nanometer sciences. (StockHouse Australia news 9/3/02) http://www.stockhous...&newsid=1276899

Silicon nanoparticles eyed for chemical detection. The latest silicon-based technology developed to thwart terrorists is "smart dust" produced at the University of Calif., San Diego. A research group has developed a method for fabricating porous-silicon nanoparticles that have a selective response to light. The process enables a given chemical to change the reflectivity of a cloud of particles, creating a unique signature that can be detected from a distance. (EETimes 9/9/02) http://www.eetimes.c...EG20020909S0082

What Can Nanotech Do for You? While tiny technology, such as minuscule robots that take inventory or scan the bloodstream for signs of disease, never fails to amaze, it also tends to generate skepticism over the extent of its practical applications. But experts say that nanotechnology and, more immediately, micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) are already benefiting a range of industries and are poised to deliver significant advances in computing and business. "This has been promised and expected before, but has never materialized," Frost & Sullivan's Technical Insights director of research, Leo O'Connor, told NewsFactor. (Yahoo 9/4/02) http://story.news.ya...=1&u=/nf/200209
04/tc_nf/19278

Nanophotonic composites light up for the future. Scientists from Brown University, US, have made nanocomposite arrays by filling nanopores in anodized aluminium oxide with an organic dye. The composites exhibited a much higher fluorescence yield than conventional films of the dye. (Nanotechweb.org 9/3/02) http://nanotechweb.o...es/news/1/9/2/1

Just Two Words: Carbon Nanotubes. Mass production of these super-strong, super-versatile structures is poised to begin. That means lower prices -- and new opportunities. Plastics were then. Carbon nanotubes are now. Built by arranging carbon atoms in a hexagonal pattern to form stringlike, cylindrical structures, nanotubes are 10,000 times thinner than human hair. They're strong as diamonds, yet withstand bending and twisting better than steel. They can conduct electricity or act as semiconductors. And they are thought to carry heat better than any other material. To exploit these properties, proposed applications include building 22,000-mile ropes to tether satellites to Earth or transistors so tiny that a supercomputer could fit in your pocket. "Nanotubes are astonishingly promising, and I'm a realist, not an optimist," says Rod Ruoff, a mechanical engineering professor at Northwestern University. "It's a question of making the technology cheap enough." (Business 2.0 Sept. 02, issue) http://www.business2...0,42932,FF.html

Nanotechnology may aid environment. For scientists who study it, nanotechnology is considered a clean technology - perhaps even the key to solving some current environmental ills. And the field is advancing rapidly. The National Science Foundation has been cutting its timetable for the release of nanotech-fueled products from five or 10 years to two or three years, said Mihail Roco, NSF's senior adviser on nanotechnology. First products likely to emerge are in medicine, Roco said. Nanotechnology will so thoroughly impact the way science addresses medicine, food, electronics and the environment, that within a decade or so, Roco envisions a $1 trillion yearly market in products that carry nano-components, including all computer chips, half of pharmaceuticals and half of chemical catalysts. (Siliconvalley.com via Ap Wire 9/8/02) http://www.siliconva...ews/4031259.htm

Hewlett-Packard researchers will unveil a major breakthrough in the field of nanotechnology on Monday in Europe, a milestone in the company's goal to build future generations of smaller, faster and cheaper chips based on "molecular grids." Molecular grids are the central concept in HP's nanotechnology plans. In HP's vision, layers of molecular strands, laid down in a crisscross fashion like city streets, will form a mesh of tiny, intelligent circuits. This molecular mesh could be sandwiched between layers of ordinary chip wires to act as a communications network or, eventually, used as the foundation for a complete microprocessor. Corporate research is increasingly focusing on nanotechnology: the science of building computer chips or other devices out of elements measuring 100 nanometers or less. (Cnet 9/6/02) http://news.com.com/....html?tag=cd_mh


Gina "Nanogirl" Miller
Nanotechnology Industries
http://www.nanoindustries.com
"Nanotechnology: Solutions for the future."

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#4 Lazarus Long

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Posted 10 September 2002 - 10:16 PM

Thanks BJ I've been meaning to get the last one posted too. Along with a link to the other forum. I love a good back up, we are beginning to demonstrate TEAM work. ;)

#5 Bruce Klein

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Posted 11 September 2002 - 12:58 PM

Heh, no problemo Laz, I'm actually thinking of plans for a nicer more imformative homepage... A yahoo of transhumanism, if you will... we'll see... lol

#6 Mind

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Posted 11 September 2002 - 05:46 PM

Nanogirl News is a great list. It is amazing how fast things (technological developments) are moving.

One thing I noticed in the list above was the law firm specializing in naotechnology patents and such. I once wrote a detailed free-form dissertation on patents (I have a couple patents currently pending), discussing the future of intellectual property. My finding is that patents are increasingly becoming a tool of large businesses, a form a protectionism, while at the same time becoming irrelavent. The cost of researching, applying, defending patents outweighs the benefits. Also...technology moves so fast and it takes soooo long to aquire a patent (almost 2 years on average) that most patents are useless by the time they are issued. Throw nanotechnology into the mix and you get an potential exponential increase in the numbers of patents. And we all know that the PTO is not going to expand exponentially to evaluate all of the new patents. Therefore, the time from patent application to patent grant will increase. More patents also means a backlog in patent litigation. So...adding up the application time, legal appeals, etc...the time it takes to aquire a legal monopoly from the government can easily be over 5 years. I think it is safe to say that anything invented today will be obsolete by 2007. Therefore, I feel, the idea of government granted monopoly is rapidly becoming obsolete, and a drag on progress, instead of a progress accelerator.

In the grand scheme of things. The smaller our material objects get, the more they are like information instead of material things...and we all know how hard it is to make money off information. To protect it. To own it. Even though I am a great advocate of capitalism, I see big transformations ahead. Not anything that will dictated by government but a new meme developing naturally. I know many others have speculated about new information-based economies of the future, but these descriptions treat information like old-world material things, which it is not.

#7 Lazarus Long

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Posted 23 September 2002 - 10:25 PM

This article concerns the limits of nanotech being discovered.
Lightning Rods for Nanoelectronics

October 2002 issue
Lightning Rods for Nanoelectronics
Electrostatic discharges threaten to halt further shrinking and acceleration of electronic devices in the future
By Steven H. Voldman

We're all familiar with electrostatic charge: shuffle across a shag carpet in sneakers, touch a piece of metal, and zap. The slight prick we feel--caused when the electric charge built up by the shuffling suddenly leaps to another object--is nothing compared with what modern electronic equipment experiences.

On a dry winter day, walking on a new carpet can generate a whopping 35,000-volt discharge. We are not harmed by this high voltage, because the amount of charge that flows is puny. Still, it is large enough to destroy sensitive micro-electronic components. Researchers have come up with clever ways to prevent such damage. But as circuits get smaller, they become more sensitive to electrostatic discharge (ESD) and the old tricks no longer work. Can we continue to find new ways to prevent electrostatic damage and thereby maintain the pace of innovation?

People who like to tinker with their computers know that when they open up their machines, they should "ground" themselves--perhaps by touching the metal radiator panel or attaching a wire from their fingers to a metal fixture. This grounding diverts any built-up charge into another object. Microprocessors and other chips have built-in protection circuits, but for tomorrow's equipment such precautions will be of even greater concern. ESD is an issue not only for finished products but also during their manufacture, from wafer fabrication to packaging to the assembly of complete systems. Each step has its own electrostatic hazards.

In general, electrostatics poses the greatest threat during manufacturing and handling to install the devices and is less of a concern once the components are safely ensconced inside machines such as the computer on your desk. Some protection methods rely explicitly on this assumption. The hazards start at the earliest stages of manufacture: even photolithographic masks, whose function is entirely mechanical and not electrical, are at risk. The chief danger to microelectronics is damage to the active elements caused by heating and by electrical breakdown of insulating layers. Magnetic disk drive heads, however, face their own unique problems, including magnetic aspects of discharges and considerations of aerodynamics.

ESD protection devices have been incorporated into microchips since the 1960s and have evolved over the decades according to technological necessity and corporate strategy. The main goal with each new generation of microelectronics is to perpetuate Moore's Law by building elements such as transistors that are smaller and faster. Someday in the not too distant future the industry will hit a wall that blocks further progress. We will reach the point where we cannot design and build a smaller, faster transistor. But there is a second wall, because even if we can build the next transistor, it will be useless if we have no way to protect it adequately against ESD. No one knows which wall is coming first.

Thermal Runaway

What causes electronics to fail when ESD occurs? The main culprit is heat generated by the electric current of the discharge, which can be enough to melt the material. Internal temperatures from ESD events can exceed 1,500 degrees Celsius (2,700 degrees Fahrenheit), above the melting points of aluminum, copper and silicon. Damage occurs even without melting. The properties of diodes and transistors are determined by the doping of the semiconductor: carefully introduced impurity atoms, or dopants, produce regions having specific electronic properties. Excessive heating can allow dopants to migrate, ruining the precise pattern of regions that is essential for the device to function properly.

Processes known as electro-current constriction and thermal runaway make matters worse by concentrating the heating in a hot spot: when one location of a semiconductor heats up significantly, its resistance falls, so that more of the current flows through the hottest place, heating it even more. Geometry and design symmetry play a key role in distributing current evenly through a device to forestall the onset of thermal runaway. The material's thermal conductivity, heat capacity and melting temperature are all important in determining its ability to store the heat or diffuse it evenly.

Just as important as the sophisticated transistors of modern devices are the electrical connections between different elements. These include interconnect wires along the surface of the chip's semiconductor layers and "vias" that connect vertically from one layer to another. All of these are reduced in size along with the rest of the device in the effort to improve the speed and computational power of high-performance semiconductor chips. For many years, aluminum was the metal of choice for interconnects, but aluminum melts at only 660 degrees C. Beginning around 1997 (after 10 years of research), the microelectronics industry migrated to copper interconnects, primarily because of copper's superior electrical conductivity, enabling smaller and faster circuits. An additional benefit is copper's higher melting point, 1,083 degrees C, which gives interconnects higher tolerance to heating.

In contrast to the transition to copper, a generational change in insulating materials has had a minor negative side effect on sensitivity to ESD. These "low-k" materials form the insulating regions between metal lines in devices being rolled out in the marketplace. The materials' low dielectric constant (k) reduces the capacitance between the lines, which in turn reduces cross talk (interference between the lines) and increases the travel speed of high-frequency signals and short pulses. Unfortunately, low-k materials have lower thermal conductivity than silicon dioxide (the traditional insulator, or dielectric), so they are not as effective at dissipating energy from electrostatic events. This has to be compensated for by careful electrical design, wider interconnects or other techniques to reduce heating. Still, the net effect of introducing copper and low-k materials together is to improve sturdiness against ESD. Their introduction helped to bring about the transition to one-gigahertz (GHz) applications.

We now turn to the transistors, the workhorses of microchips. The primary digital technology today is the MOSFET device, named after the metal-oxide semiconductor field-effect transistors that they contain. The basic MOSFET structure consists of two doped regions called the source and the drain, separated by a region called the channel. An electrode called the gate sits above the channel, separated from it by a thin layer of silicon dioxide dielectric. The voltage applied to the gate controls how current flows in the channel between source and drain. Posted ImageImage: STEPHEN H. VOLDMAN

Sidebar: Basic Effects of High Voltages in Semiconductors

Sidebar: Making Sturdier Lasers and LEDs

Such devices have entered the nanostructure age in recent generations. In August, for example, Intel announced plans to manufacture chips with gates 50 nanometers long and gate oxides 1.2 nanometers thick--a mere five atomic layers. The thinner the dielectric, the lower the voltage needed to cause breakdown. Dielectric breakdown is caused not by heating but by the electrical carriers (electrons or holes) breaking molecular bonds and cutting a path through the insulator like a tiny bolt of lightning. The defects formed by oxide failure are known as pinholes. With very thin oxide layers, mere handling of microelectronic chips can produce pinholes in the gates.

The source and drain of a MOSFET are also sensitive, and ESD on those regions leads to MOSFET thermal breakdown. When the high voltage of the discharge arrives at the drain, say, it increases the electric field there. This strong field accelerates the current-carrying electrons, making them energetic enough to knock other electrons free. These secondary electrons (and corresponding holes) increase the current flow even more and are themselves accelerated enough to knock more electrons free, and so on. Called avalanche multiplication, this process causes current to flow from the transistor into the nearby substrate, which puts the transistor into an unstable "negative resistance" state, further exacerbating the situation. As the current increases, heating leads to the thermal runaway, or thermal breakdown, described earlier.

Page 3

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Page 5

More to Explore:
Investigating a New Generation of ESD-Induced Reticle Defects. James Wiley and Arnold Steinman in Micro, Vol. 17, No. 4, pages 35-40; April 1999.
Link to above article

The ESD Association offers an introduction to ESD
Basic ESD and I/O Design. Sanjay Dabral and Timothy J. Maloney. John Wiley & Sons, 1998.

ESD in Silicon Integrated Circuits. Second edition. Ajith Amerasekera and Charvaka Duvvury. John Wiley & Sons, 2002.


#8 Omnido

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Posted 30 September 2002 - 07:49 AM

[!] It is indeed wonderful to see information posted on the subject of science for which I hold such fascination! Ah, and I read of all this years ago, now to see it actually happening, it is a sight for sore eyes. :D
Keep up the pastes, and I will add any that I see which might intreague a few...

#9 Bruce Klein

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Posted 30 September 2002 - 10:12 AM

The Nanogirl News
September 30, 2002

Interview: Wyden eyes nanotech. As legislation to ensure the nation's continued progress in studying nanotechnology heads to the Senate floor, its co-author sees nearly unlimited potential for the field. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., introduced the 21st Century Nanotechnology Research and Development Act Sept. 17, co-sponsored by Sens. George Allen, R-Va., Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., and Mary Landrieu, D-La. Even though the public has yet to grasp idea of nanotech, the science of manipulating matter at the atomic or molecular level, the country must ensure its abilities in this area, Wyden said. The legislation builds on the existing National Nanotechnology Initiative, a multi-agency program started during the Clinton administration. President Bush's 2003 budget proposal would devote $679 million to NNI activities in basic nano research, and Wyden's bill covers $446 million of NNI activities focused on non-Department of Defense agencies. (United Press 9/22/02) http://www.upi.com/v...20-030036-4843r

Senate Committee Passes Nanotech Bill. The Senate Commerce Committee unanimously passed on Thursday legislation to promote nanotechnology research and development. Introduced by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), the 21st Century Nanotechnology Research and Development Act would create the National Nanotechnology Research Program. The bill is co-sponsored by Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.) and Sen. George Allen (R-Va.). The proposed program would be a coordinated interagency effort that would support long-term nanoscale research and development and promote effective education and training for the next generation of nanotechnology researchers and professionals...The bill would place coordination and management of the nanotechnology program under the National Science and Technology Council. It would also create a Presidential National Nanotechnology Advisory Panel and National Nanotechnology Coordination Office, which would provide administrative and technical support for the Advisory Panel and the Council. (dc.internet.com 9/20/02) http://dc.internet.c...p/10849_1467121

New DNA separation method could bring faster gene sequencing and DNA fingerprinting. Cornell University researchers have demonstrated a novel method of separating DNA molecules by length. The technique might eventually be used to create chips or other microscopic devices to automate and speed up gene sequencing and DNA fingerprinting. The method, which uses a previously discovered entropic recoil force, has better resolution -- that is, better ability to distinguish different lengths -- than others tried so far, the researchers say. They separated DNA strands of two different lengths, using their own nanofabricated device, and demonstrated that modifications would make it possible to separate strands of many different lengths. (Cornell News 9/23/02) http://www.news.corn...aration.ws.html

Lightning Rods for Nanoelectronics. Electrostatic discharges threaten to halt further shrinking and acceleration of electronic devices in the future. On a dry winter day, walking on a new carpet can generate a whopping 35,000-volt discharge. We are not harmed by this high voltage, because the amount of charge that flows is puny. Still, it is large enough to destroy sensitive micro-electronic components. Researchers have come up with clever ways to prevent such damage. But as circuits get smaller, they become more sensitive to electrostatic discharge (ESD) and the old tricks no longer work. Can we continue to find new ways to prevent electrostatic damage and thereby maintain the pace of innovation? -5 pages- (Scientific American October 2002 issue) http://www.sciam.com...E17-BE00-1D7F-9
0FB809EC5880000

'Ballistic' gives nano a bad name. Calm down, all you conspiracy theorists who just saw "Ballistic: Ecks v. Sever" and think governments just might have that nanorobotic assassin upon which the movie hangs its tissue-thin plot. Considering how excrementally bad the movie is, getting the science wrong is no surprise, but what a shame it decided to impart such a dangerously misguided view of nanotechnology. The premise in "Ballistic" is some German research group created a killer nanorobot. If injected into a victim, it would float through the bloodstream until the assassin hits the proverbial little red button, triggering the injection of something to cause a heart attack or stroke. We can start with the matter of scale. One scene has Lucy Liu's character, Sever, examining some computer files about the robot. The image zooms in on a single blood vessel and finds the little killer. (United Press 9/21/02) http://www.upi.com/v...21-032850-1512r

NanoBusiness Alliance to open Albany, N.Y., hub. The NanoBusiness Alliance, an industry association formed to drive the development of nanotechnology and small technology industries, is opening a hub in the same building where International Sematech North will be located. And a New York City company, Nanocs International Inc., decided to relocate to the same site instead of move to Texas. Alain Kaloyeros, Albany NanoTech executive director, said the alliance's decision to open a hub in Albany, N.Y. was significant. (The Business Review 9/20/02) http://www.bizjourna...16/daily62.html

Can Nanotubes Be Engineered to Superconduct? Study Suggests Promising New Avenues for Nanotube Research. Superconducting nanotubes may lie on the technology horizon, suggests a theoretical study recently published by researchers from the Commerce Department's National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the University of Pennsylvania, and Bilkent University in Turkey. The intriguing possibility is the team's most recent finding in a spate of studies showing how changing the shape of tiny single-walled tubes of carbon may open a potential mother lode of technologically useful properties. The theoretical investigations are pointing out productive paths for other researchers to follow in experiments that pursue opportunities to make new materials and technologies with nanotubes. (NIST 9/20/02) http://www.nist.gov/...ases/n02-17.htm

A Little Impurity Goes a Long Way. smattering of impurities might be the key to more efficient light-emitting diodes (LEDs) made from plastics. Researchers report that palladium atoms present at parts-per-million quantities in a polymer LED cause the material to phosphoresce. The effect, described in the 14 October print issue of PRL, could serve as a sensitive probe into the physics of polymers and lead to improved organic optoelectronic devices. (Physical Review Focus 9/26/02) http://focus.aps.org/v10/st14.html
(Also -nanometer sized- impurities) How Oxidation Gets A Foot Up. STM images reveal surface impurities as nucleation sites for metal oxides. http://pubs.acs.org/.../8038notw4.html

Startup aims at intersection of neural nets and nanotech. A startup company led by Alex Nugent as president and chief technology officer, is attempting to combine innovatively two leading edge technologies to secure its future position. Nugent and KnowmTech LLC are focused on the reconfigurable assembly of neural networks constructed using nanometer-dimension conductors, such as carbon nanotubes, suspended in a dielectric solution. The basis of KnowmTech's efforts is a concept referred to as a "Knowm" [pronounced "gnome"], with which it should be able to build and reconfigure very high complexity artificial neural networks... (EETimes 9/19/02) http://www.eet.com/a...EG20020918S0012

Physicists thrown for a loop. Experimental results released this year by the Department of Energy's Jefferson Lab in Newport News, Va., have upturned the normally placid world of nuclear physics with the suggestion that protons, the positively charged particles found in the center of every atom, aren't round. Instead, they seem somewhat elliptical. The round proton has been a staple of textbooks for 40 years, tied to the theory that protons and neutrons are built of three smaller particles called ''quarks'' slowly bubbling inside their interiors. What difference does it make whether protons are round or elliptical? Plenty, physicists say. Adjustments in protons and neutrons could affect scientific understanding of the magnetic ''spin'' of atoms. Scientists hope to use ''spintronics'' in future computers and tiny ''nano-scale'' devices. Understanding the fundamental shape of particles will affect those application's success. (Yahoo! News
9/23/02) http://story.news.ya...923/en_usatoday
/4470983

Inventor Foresees Implanted Sensors Aiding Brain Functions. Using deliberately provocative predictions, speech-recognition pioneer Ray Kurzweil said that by 2030 nanosensors could be injected into the human bloodstream, implanted microchips could amplify or supplant some brain functions, and individuals could share memories and inner experiences by "beaming" them electronically to others. (EETimes 9/26/02) http://www.eet.com/a...EG20020926S0013

Famed Nanotech Researcher Axed. A star researcher in electronics at Bell Labs has been fired after an outside review committee found he falsified experimental data. The committee concluded that Jan Hendrik Schon, 32, made up or altered data at least 16 times between 1998 and 2001, the first case of scientific fraud in the 77-year history of the Nobel Prize-winning laboratory, Lucent said Wednesday. Bell Labs, which used to be part of AT&T, is the research arm of Lucent Technologies. (Wired 9/25/02) http://www.wired.com...7,55391,00.html

(Movie) Using Nanotechnology to Increase Bandwidth. Bandwidth 9 Nanotechnology and lasers converge to drastically increase bandwidth in optical networks. Bandwidth 9 is a relatively small company whose innovations are making a big impact on telecommunications. (free to view, click the arrow, make sure you have Real Player, if not, they provide the download button to get it) Go to this url and click the "Bandwidth 9" link to open the movie. http://abcnews.go.co...usinessNow.html

SOI sharpens the leading edge as silicon scales to 90 nanometers. Over the last 40 years, the electronics industry, a major economic contender weighing in at the $1 trillion range, has relied on a single raw material - silicon - as the foundation for all electronics-based products. Now considered a commodity, thanks in part to its global pervasiveness, silicon has been the key ingredient used in the manufacture of semiconductors that power today's advanced electronics devices. Major innovative breakthroughs in the semiconductor industry, however, are no longer expected to come solely from silicon material. Silicon wafers are highly perfect and this is critically important for achieving high device yield. The introduction of 300-mm diameter wafers reduces the cost per chip, while the new generation of equipment needed to implement the larger wafers further improves their quality. (EETimes 9/23/02) http://www.eetimes.c...EG20020923S0065

Saarbrücken, Hertfordshire, Frankfurt, 18th of September. Nanogate Technologies GmbH [profile] from Saarbrücken, Germany and Farécla Products Limited, Hertfordshire UK, leading supplier of finishing systems for automobile paints, announced at the Automechanika trade fair in Frankfurt that the companies have signed an international cooperation agreement. Farécla, a specialist in automobile care and service systems, will enhance its activities by adopting nanotechnology-enhanced products. The company plans to enhance its business portfolio in a phased manner by offering products with water and dirt-resistant properties and anti-fog systems for the automobile, home equipment and gardening segments. (NanoInvestor
9/28/02) http://www.nanoinves...article&sid=818

GaN nanowire laser emits first light. Researchers develop the first GaN nanowire laser and report their findings in a recent issue of Nature Materials. US researchers have observed lasing in gallium nitride (GaN) nanowires for the first time. The team from the University of California says that its tiny UV-emitting lasers may find uses in lab-on-a-chip systems and in high-density data storage. (Nanotechweb 9/24/02) http://nanotechweb.o...s/news/1/9/17/1

Millionaires Lining Up to Buy Personal Gene Maps. A service to map a person's entire genetic code is being offered by America's genome entrepreneur Craig Venter, according to the Sunday Times. The newspaper said that for 400,000 (US$621,500), a person would get details of their entire genetic code within 1 week. "Armed with such information, the individual would be able to check for mutations linked with illnesses such as cancer and Alzheimer's," the Sunday Times reported. (ABCnews 9/23/02) http://abcnews.go.co...020923_392.html

Accelerators for nano- and biosciences. Practical, affordable yet unique and exciting new accelerator facilities could advance vital research capabilities for nano- and bioscience, says Swapan Chattopadhyay. From a historical perspective, large particle-accelerator facilities entered the scientific arena as grand instruments that enabled us to understand the fundamental workings at the heart of matter. Ever since Ernest Orlando Lawrence's invention of the cyclotron in 1930, we have witnessed the scientists' obsession with increasingly higher-energy particle beams to probe deeper into the nucleus, the nucleons and the elementary particles to understand the fundamental forces and processes at work. (Cern Courier) http://www.cerncouri...article/42/8/22

(Interview) Questions by Sander Olson. Answers by James Talton. Dr. James Talton, PhD, is a researcher and businessman who has founded four companies to date. His latest company, Nanotherapeutics, is aiming to develop novel techniques for using nanotechnology to aid in the delivery of hard-to-deliver drugs and proteins. (Nanomagazine.com 9/15/02) http://www.nanomagazine.com/2002_09_15

9-11 drives advances in nanotechnology. Demand increases for devices that monitor water, air. The events of Sept. 11 have focused awareness, increased funding and accelerated the commercialization of micro- and nanotechnology devices that can sense minute traces of chemical, biological and nuclear agents in the air or water, according to business leaders and researchers. Homeland security will not be viable unless without microsystems. Microsystems will enable homeland security," said Marion Scott, director of microsystems, science, technology and components at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, N.M. "We're really looking at the commercial sector to provide the large volumes we need." (Detroit news 9/27/02) http://www.detnews.c.../b02-598145.htm

Review: 'Tuxedo' a nano showcase. It's becoming more and more apparent nanotechnology has nearly unlimited potential but come on -- morphing Jackie Chan into a virtual singing, dancing copy of James Brown? That spot of artistic license in "The Tuxedo," along with antigravity, are about the only things completely out of reach for nanotech, the science of manipulating matter at the atomic or molecular scale. The movie's premise revolves around a set of jacket and pants whose fabric is computerized and packed with nanotech, capable of turning the most unassuming man-on-the-street into a super spy. The idea of having clothing actively impart special abilities is real -- the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies, funded by the U.S. Army, is among those researching these concepts. (United Press International 9/28/02) http://www.upi.com/v...28-011648-5340r

Imago Scientific Instruments, US, has won $7 m (Euro 7.16 m) to develop its LEAP microscope. The company claims that the local electrode atom-probe device can collect data 1000 times as fast as previous atom-probe designs, enabling its use in process monitoring. "Imago has a working prototype of the LEAP microscope and we've been able to demonstrate applications in our target markets," said Thomas Kelly, Imago chairman. "Our investors recognize the value of having a product ready for market and potential customers lined up for first sales." Imago says that the LEAP microscope has a resolution of 0.5 nm in three dimensions and provides 3D atomic-scale topographic imaging and 3D atomic-scale compositional and structural information. (Nanotechweb 9/02) http://nanotechweb.o...s/news/1/9/19/1

Study Shows BioSante Pharmaceuticals, Inc.'s (BTPH) CAP Nanoparticles Induce Immunity And Protection From Herpes. BioSante Pharmaceuticals, Inc. today announced results of a study that found its patented calcium phosphate nanoparticles (CAP) vaccine adjuvant to be an effective mucosal adjuvant capable of inducing mucosal immunity and protection against herpes infection. The study was published in the September issue of the journal Clinical and Diagnostic Laboratory Immunology. (NanoInvestornews 9/28/02) http://www.nanoinves...article&sid=817

Diamond used to break the mould. Japanese team has developed a technique to build diamond moulds for what it calls nanoimprint lithography (NIL) to try to print rather than image features on chips. As chips shrink, resist patterning on silicon wafers becomes increasingly critical. The team says NIL offers nanometre features over large areas with high throughput. The combined team of researchers from the University of Tokyo and a Japanese Electrotechnical Laboratory in Ibaraki has developed a fine patterning technique for diamond that makes it a suitable candidate for use as a NIL mould. (SiliconStrategies 9/18/02) http://www.siliconst...EG20020918S0003

Gina "Nanogirl" Miller
Nanotechnology Industries
http://www.nanoindustries.com
Personal: http://www.nanogirl.com

#10 Lazarus Long

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Posted 13 October 2002 - 04:09 AM

http://www.nature.co...7/021007-1.html
Bugs trained to build circuit
Bacteria lay bricks on nano scale building site.

8 October 2002
HELEN PEARSON

Posted Image
Bacterium moving as it secretes a cellulose ribbon.
movie


Bacteria have found a new vocation - as nanoscale construction workers. Such bugs might form microbial machines that could repair wounds or build microscopic electrical circuits.

Tetsuo Kondo of the Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute in Ibaraki, and his colleagues, used a grooved film to train the bacterium Acetobacter xylinum to exude neat ribbons of a biological building material - cellulose1. The bug laid down strips at a rate of 4,000ths of a millimetre per minute.

If the method can be extended to other materials, bacterial builders running on templates could find medical applications, such as healing wounds, says Kondo. "Devices holding nanomachines could regenerate skin," he suggests.

"It sounds entertaining," says nanotech researcher Paul Alivisatos of the University of California at Berkeley. There are many ways to build nanoscale structures, he says, such as etching or using self-assembling molecules. "But new ones are always welcome."

Cellulose is not an ideal building material, however, as it is biodegradable. So Kondo's team are tinkering with the bugs' genetic make-up, so that they secrete alternative sugar molecules that might be more resistant to degradation.

Kondo built the grooved template by chemically precipitating cellulose tracks - less than a nanometre apart - onto a copper base. Although these tracks are tiny, the bugs are able to build up larger cellulose fibres spanning several lanes of track.

As the bacteria squeeze out cellulose from their back ends, they drive themselves forward. The cellulose template acts as a "nano-anchor" for the secreted fibres, explains Kondo.

Because the builder-bugs can only work in a liquid growth medium, Kondo suggests that the width of the bacterial building could be easily controlled by altering the area of the track covered by media.


References
Kondo, T. et al. Biodirected epitaxial nanodeposition of polymers on oriented macromolecular templates. Proceedings of the National Academies of Science, published online doi:10.1073/pnas.212400499 , (2002). |Article|


© Nature News Service / Macmillan Magazines Ltd 2002

#11 Lazarus Long

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Posted 20 October 2002 - 06:19 AM

This article can be said to belong in many places in this forum.
LL

Nanotechnology’ opens windows into medicine

By Carolina Amengual
The Daily News

Published October 16, 2002

GALVESTON — Microscopic capsules at least a million times smaller than the average pill may soon advance medicine on Earth and open new frontiers for long-term space habitation.

These miniature wonders known as “nanoparticles” would be injected into the bloodstream of human beings and they would travel on a permanent high alert mode looking for damaged cells as they cruised through the body.

Once they found defective cells, these sentinels would end their reconnaissance journey and get down to the job. They would penetrate the membrane of the flawed cells and administer the appropriate doses of drugs, repairing from the inside out, one cell at a time.

Hence, if successful, invasive procedures such as surgery and chemotherapy to treat cancer and other potentially lethal diseases could be out of loop. Conversely, earlier and better diagnosis and individualized therapeutics with fewer side effects could become part of the picture.

This is the promise that nanotechnology — the science of manipulating materials on an atomic or molecular scale — applied to medicine — “nanomedicine” — has in store for the not so distant future.

It’s a picture of the future that James F. Leary, assistant vice president for advanced technology at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, will present to the 2002 World Space Congress Thursday.

“Modern medicine is basically cut it out or poison it,” he said. “This has an approach of going in and trying to fix cells.”

In about four years, the first biodegradable nanoparticle could be injected into the body of a human being, said Leary, who works in collaboration with three teams of researchers at UTMB and two other teams in Louisiana and Oklahoma.

UTMB is the lead institution benefiting from a NASA grant that will provide $1.5 million over three years.

The agency is especially interested in further developing nanomedicine because it could help protect the health of crew members, who are exposed to extreme environments during their missions.

Overexposure to radiation is one of NASA’s major concerns, and currently there is no mechanism to shield space travelers from this hazard. Trips to Mars or the moon, outside of Earth’s protective magnetic sphere, would only make things worse.

But nanoparticles programmed to target radiation-damaged cells and either fix them or force them to “auto-destruct” if they are too flawed to be mended could make a difference.

If nanoparticles prove to be safe and are finally cleared for takeoff, astronauts could get them in their bodies before even leaving the ground. And then astronauts would serve as their own doctors while in space.

In fact, Leary and his colleagues are looking for ways to attach fluorescent molecules to the smart nanocapsules. These would glow at different stages of the DNA-repair process, thus giving astronauts some clues to their health condition.

Wearing a pair of glasses equipped with a mini camera that would image back the blood flow onto the retina of the eye, astronauts could pinpoint the exact location of the miniscule devices within their bodies and they could check to make sure nanoparticles were working correctly.

“It would be basically what I call 24/7 medicine,” Leary said.

Researchers are optimistic that breakthroughs in nanomedicine can go well beyond space.

Earthbound applications could include the development and commercialization of home diagnostic kits to conduct routine blood tests.

“People want to do their own tests in the privacy and convenience of their own homes,” Leary said.

Nanoparticles could also help reduce healthcare disparities across the world.

“If you could mass manufacture these nanoparticles very, very cheaply and effectively, then it would be the next step up from a vaccine that you could give people,” Leary said. “This could be a way to deliver medicine.”

+++

PRESENTATION

What: James F. Leary’s presentation on “Nanotechnology: The Future of Medicine in Space.”

When: 1 p.m. Thursday.

Where: 2002 World Space Congress at the George R. Brown Convention Center in downtown Houston.

Registration: For inquires, call (713) 853-8220

#12 Lazarus Long

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Posted 27 December 2002 - 04:54 AM

I am putting this article here because it has direct bearing upon Nanotech applications but the authors make no such claim. In fact tha tapplications and mathememtics have much broader possible applications then at first it may seem.

Posted Image

Nature's Secret to Building for Strength: Flexibility
By KENNETH CHANG

Bend, don't break.

With an experiment of soap film and a short glass fiber, mathematicians at New York University have worked out some underlying principles of how something like a willow tree withstands powerful gusts.

The same researchers showed two years ago why flags flap in the wind.

Years ago, biologists started observing how plants had adapted to the flow of wind and waves around them. Some, like Dr. Steven Vogel, a professor of biology at Duke University, put sections of trees in wind tunnels and videotaped how leaves rolled up into tight streamlined cones when buffeted by high winds.


Other biologists like Dr. Mimi A. R. Koehl, a professor of integrative biology at the University of California at Berkeley, have studied how the undulating motion of underwater kelp forests rolls with the motion of waves.

"Natural structures tend to be more flexible than the stuff we build," Dr. Vogel said. "We build to a criterion of stiffness. Nature tends to build to a criterion of strength. It usually takes less material."

Those observations allowed scientists to describe in general terms what was occurring, but not the equations that underlie nature's engineering.

The N.Y.U. researchers — Dr. Jun Zhang, a professor of mathematics and physics; Dr. Michael Shelley, a professor of mathematics; and Silas Alben, a graduate student — built an experiment to study a much simplified version of the dynamics.

"Then you have an example where you can say precisely what is going on," Dr. Shelley said.

The experiment, a rarity for mathematicians, consisted of a tank that squirted a steady downward stream of soapy water along two vertical threads. Drawing the threads apart produced a soapy film that slid down between the threads at adjustable speeds, from 1.5 feet a second to 10 feet a second.

In experiments in 2000, the researchers placed a silk thread in the flow to simulate the motion of a flag. Up to that point, most scientists had thought — as Lord Rayleigh had proposed in 1879 — that flapping was inevitable, caused by quick changes in the speed of air flowing on either side of the flag.

The N.Y.U. team showed that at low speeds the silk thread remained stretched out straight. At quicker speeds, the thread flapped back and forth in a steady pattern.

In the latest experiments, the researchers placed a short flexible piece of glass fiber broadside in the soapy flow and observed the bending of the fiber and the turbulent whirls behind. "You might think of this like a piece of the tree branch," Dr. Shelley said.

For a rigid object, if the flow rate doubles, the resulting drag force on the object quadruples. A flexible object like the fiber, however, bends more as the flow quickens. The fiber, the scientists found, always settled at the boundary between the smooth flow and the turbulent whirls, and regardless of the length or diameter of the fiber or the speed of the flow, the bending always followed a universal shape.

"It's cutting down its cross-sectional area that it presents to the flow," Dr. Shelley said. "You get a greater reduction of the drag than you think you would."

The findings appeared in the Dec. 5 issue of the journal Nature. Future experiments will look at flows past fibers with varying diameters and three-dimensional flexible objects. Longer thinner fibers should also begin to flap. The researchers are also setting up an experiment to look at the fluid dynamics of a zebrafish as it swims.

"We've got a lot to learn from nature," Dr. Vogel said. "This is the way it ought to happen. An experimental biologist who takes some measurements and some physical scientists who say, `Hey, maybe there's a general principle involved.' "

Dr. Vogel and Dr. Shelley A. Etnier of the University of North Carolina at Wilmington have found that some plants like daffodils not only bend, but also twist. Because daffodil flowers always flop to one side (unlike tulip flowers, which stand straight) when strong winds blow, daffodils twist, so that the back of their petals face into the wind.

Dr. Vogel snipped off a few daffodils from the thousands on the Duke campus. "We just swiped what we needed," he said. "One razor blade is your collecting equipment."

Wind tunnel experiments showed that with their backs to the wind, daffodils experienced one-third less drag. "By being deliberately weak and twisting," he said, "they avoid being stressed so much in bending."

The twisting, coupled with the inconstant winds, is what inspired poets to write of dancing daffodils, not dancing roses or dancing tulips. Wordsworth, for one, waxed:

The waves beside them danced, but they

Out-did the sparkling waves in glee;

A poet could not but be gay,

In such a jocund company.

"It's always daffodils," Dr. Vogel said. "The reason is because daffodils have this asymmetrical structure. It's kind of cute."

#13 Lazarus Long

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Posted 12 August 2003 - 03:36 AM

Top Stories - U.S. News & World Report

Posted Image
http://story.news.ya...orthehereandnow

Next News: Roboblood and Nanotech for the here and now
Fri Aug 8, 2:30 PM ET
By James M. Pethokoukis

Roboblood

It's been observed that nanotechnology is the first technology to spawn a backlash before it has even been developed. Prince Charles himself has publicly fretted about the potential dangers of runaway self-replicating nanobots covering the planet in "gray goo." Since people are worrying about dangers of nanotech that wouldn't manifest themselves for decades--if ever--I thought that, for balance, I'd focus on a possible benefit of nanotech that also wouldn't manifest itself for decades--if ever.

Back in June 1996, Chris Phoenix, a former student of nano-guru Eric Drexler's at Stanford University, posted a question on the Foresight Institute Message boards: "What about replacing blood with a complex robot?" This innocent inquiry led to a lengthy collaboration with Robert Freitas Jr., author of Nanomedicine, the first book-length technical discussion of the medical application of nanotechnology and nanorobotics. (Volume II is coming out in hardcover next month.)

The result was a 100-page paper in 2002 on what the duo termed a "vasculoid"--essentially a nanomachine that would replace the human blood supply. Instead of having red and white blood cells floating through your veins, some 500 trillion (it's not often I get to type the word "trillion" when it's not in the same sentence as "national debt") nanobots would fill the entire vasculature of the body, some lining the blood vessels and some swarming through them. Collectively known as the vasculoid, they would, as the paper states, "duplicate all essential thermal and biochemical transport functions of the blood, including circulation of respiratory gases, glucose, hormones, cytokines, waste products, and all necessary cellular components." The nanobots, made of a sapphire or diamondlike material, would be biopowered through glucose and oxygen.

But why would anybody want to replace a circulatory agent--blood--that seems to be working just fine for the planet's 6.4 billion human inhabitants? Among the possible benefits: 1) the exclusion of parasites, bacteria, viruses, and metastasizing cancer cells from the blood flow; 2) eradication of most vascular diseases, such as atherosclerosis; 3) faster oxygen processing, significantly improving physical endurance and stamina. The sturdy nanorobots would even toughen veins and arteries, armoring them against damage from accidents and combat injuries.

That's right, we could be Men of Steel, or at least Sapphire. And all without self-replication, the feature of hypothetical molecular machines that many scientists find most unlikely--and nanotech critics find most alarming. I discussed that issue and others with Freitas in a recent E-mail chat:

Next News: Would the vasculoid nanobots have to be self-replicating?

Freitas: No, they don't have to be self-replicating. In fact, virtually all nanorobots will be nonreplicating, and even the ones that can replicate may only do so for short periods of time during their operational lifetimes.

Next News: So some machine could manufacture them and then doctors could inject them into the body?

Freitas: Exactly the proposal. No serious scientist has proposed injecting replicators into the body. . . . You should never inject self-replicating nanorobots into the human body. You should manufacture the nanorobots outside the body, then they should be injected, go do their job, and then be removed from the body. . . . In more advanced systems, like the vasculoid, the nanorobotic system might remain more or less permanently in place inside the body, but it also would not replicate. We already have viruses, bacteria, and numerous other parasites that can replicate inside our body, and they are trouble enough. Why add more?

Next News: So give me a time frame on this thing. It's all just theoretical right now, correct?

Freitas: You're correct that the bulk of the technology required to build diamondoid nanorobots is still mostly theoretical. . . . Vasculoid is an example of the sorts of ultracomplex, trillion-parts systems that a very mature molecular machine technology would make possible to build. We're probably at least 40 to 50 years away from being able to build vasculoid-class systems. But there was a time when the laptop computers of 2002 were 40 years in the future, and yet Arthur C. Clarke anticipated them in his 1962 book Profiles of the Future, by simply projecting current trends. The foundations for nanotechnology are on equally solid ground.


Nanotech for the here and now

Of course, talk about futuristic nanotech applications such as vasculoids drives many researchers and industry followers crazy, because they think it detracts from the groundbreaking work being done today. One of the best--and most entertaining--ways to keep track of all things nano is the down-to-earth Forbes/Wolfe blog written by Josh Wolfe, head of nanotech investing at venture-capital firm Lux Capital. (The blog is a companion to the Forbes/Wolfe Nanotech Report.) In one recent entry, Wolfe included charts comparing media mentions of "Internet" in the early 1990s with mentions of "nanotechnology" in the late 1990s through today. Wolfe concludes that "we are . . . experiencing exponential growth in media coverage of nanotechnology. And I bear witness that the percentage of people I've encountered this year with a basic understanding of 'nanotech' (15 percent) is approximately double that of a year ago."

One reason Wolfe eschews talk of nanobots and other far-off developments is that he worries such speculations will arouse fears that could stifle research. For instance, he has little use for the hand-wringing by Sun Microsystems' Bill Joy, who has worried publicly about nanotech run amok and is now writing a book on the subject. Wolfe's take: "When Joy's book drops it'll be a bestseller . . . assuming the market for these fear-mongering scenarios isn't already saturated . . . . People would much rather take risk to avert loss than to capture gain. And inspiring fear of uncertainty--of what nightmares may come and how to protect yourself from them--is a great purchase motivator to avoid such loss. After all--in the most reductionist sense--it is the yin-yang duality of greed and fear that governs markets and human behavior. Today, fear has the scales tipped in its favor."

#14 kevin

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Posted 15 August 2003 - 02:36 PM

from the August 14, 2003 edition
Posted Image

PEERING AT PARTICLES: This laser helps scientists at Purdue University study the structure of a clay particle. This particular layer is 1 million times the thickness of a nanometer layer researchers recently developed.

Posted Image
TOM CAMPBELL/PURDUE UNIVERSITY

Big questions for tiny particles

From clear sunscreen to self-cleaning cars, nanotechnology seeps into daily life and starts to raise tough ethical issues.

By Peter N. Spotts | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor


http://www.csmonitor...ntryBottomStory

ARLINGTON, VA. – In the days when the Beach Boys ruled the radio and bikinis were the rave, beaches were populated by noses: big and slathered white with zinc oxide to avoid sunburn.
Today the big white noses are gone. Instead of relying on thick goo, many manufacturers now use titanium-dioxide particles so small the sunscreen looks invisible but still reflects away ultraviolet light. Chalk it up to an early use of nanotechnology, where "big" is defined as 1/1000th the width of a human hair and the possibilities look potentially limitless.

Yet even as nanotech goes commercial, environmental groups worry about its effect on health and safety. Long term, analysts say, society will have to confront a broad set of ethical and social issues as it deals with humanity's growing ability to manipulate atoms, molecules, and biology's genetic code. The real crunch may come if researchers manage to merge nanotechnology and biotechnology.

If they do combine the two - what Nobel Prize-winning chemist Richard Smalley has dubbed the "wet" and "dry" sides of nanotechnology - "then you start talking about some long-range issues," says Clayton Teague, who heads the coordinating office for the federal National Nanotechnology Initiative here. These might include the desirability of restoring or enhancing human capabilities such as sight or strength through hybrid nanotech-biotech devices.

Although not strictly nanotechnology, researchers have tested in humans tiny arrays of light- sensing diodes on a chip, which act as replacement photoreceptors, in a bid to restore human sight. Over the very long term, some researchers speak of tiny nanobots, perhaps with some form of artificial intelligence, injected into humans that repair damaged organs or remove obstructions.

Many researchers and industry insiders reject such speculation as hype. But others are less dismissive.

"Whether something looks loopy or not is a function of your time horizon," says Glenn Rey-nolds, a law professor at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville who specializes in nanotech issues. Some ideas, such as self-replicating nanobots, "are not loopy at all if you look far enough into the future."

Whatever nanotech's future, it's already big business. The federal government is pouring so much money into the field that the National Nanotechnology Initiative "is on track to become the second highest-funded science program after NASA," says Mark Modzelewski, executive director of the NanoBusiness Alliance in New York. Meanwhile, venture capital is flowing into the field at a pace that would make many biotech companies envious. In addition, the alliance is leading the US's first nanotech trade mission to Europe in September.

It's this growing level of commercial activity that is drawing the attention of groups such as Greenpeace, which late last month issued a report on the potential impact of nanotechnology and artificial intelligence on society. The report drew heavy criticism from many in the nanotech field. Others who have disagreed with the organization in the past say this effort was relatively tame and makes some useful points.

The study noted, for example, that the field is too fluid to make any solid assessment of the kinds of technologies it will yield in the next 10 years or their effects. It also notes that calls have arisen over the past few years for a moratorium on making nanomaterials until their interaction with living organisms is better understood. While these calls square with the "precautionary principle" that many people apply to environmental issues, the study also acknowledges that "an externally imposed nanotech moratorium seems both unpractical and probably damaging at present."

Perhaps the area of most immediate concern involves public and workplace health issues as well as environmental issues relating to newly developed nanomaterials - especially particles, which can be inhaled or absorbed through the skin.

Vicki Colvin, director of the Center for Biological and Environmental Nanotechnology at Rice University, notes that at nano-meter scales, particles not only can penetrate barriers such as skin more easily, but their small size and large numbers can provide more surface area on which chemical reactions can take place than a single particle of equal total mass. This feature could in effect accelerate chemical reactions that may or may not have an unpleasant effect on humans.

Another worry - not unique to nanotechnology - is economic. Inspired by the water- and dirt-defying surfaces of lotus flowers, DaimlerChrysler Research is looking at specially designed nanoparticles to make wheel rims and auto-body paint self-cleaning. If cars clean themselves, goodbye Scrub-A-Dub carwashes?

Confronting the long-term concerns over "intelligent" nanobots and tiny self-assembling machines is harder. Dr. Colvin doesn't dismiss them out of hand but says, "To me, as a scientist, the issue is: Can I test these questions? Nano-bots are not a testable concern because they are so far out there."

Nevertheless, researchers still are trying to learn from the early days of recombinant DNA research, when scientists imposed a moratorium on their work until they had agreed on a set of guidelines addressing the safety concerns. Nanotech researchers gathered three years ago in Palo Alto, Calif., to establish guidelines for safe and responsible research, which included provisions governing self-replicating machines and molecular manufacturing.

Meanwhile, in December the federal government is slated to hold its second meeting in three years to explore the implications of nanotech for society. Taking a cue from the Human Genome Project, the National Nanotechnology Initiative is funding research into the implications of nanotech, as well as for nanotech R&D itself. And in two nanotech funding bills before Congress, lawmakers are weighing whether to establish a separate institute to study the social and ethical implications of nanotechnology, or to ensure that such studies are administered as part of the existing research effort.

"Public acceptance is no longer a given," Dr. Colvin says. "The public ... sees risks, which must be quantified. It's the ethical duty of scientists to evaluate those risks."

#15 Mind

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Posted 17 August 2003 - 01:16 AM

University of Central Florida researchers have found that brain cells exposed to a single dose of ten-nanometer-size oxide particles routinely outlived untreated cells by three- to four-fold and remained functional.

Nanoparticles also have potent anti-inflammatory properties, they discovered. The investigators hope to create a coating from the particles that could be used for vascular and orthopedic implants, stents and other devices prone to inflammatory reactions.

The nanoparticle anti-oxidants regenerate once they penetrate the cell -- meaning one dose could conceivably continue its therapeutic effects indefinitely.


UCF Press Release

Has anyone else read this? It is quite vague as to what the nano anti-oxides really are (like chemical composition). Does anyone else have further info?

#16 Cyto

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Posted 17 August 2003 - 09:31 AM

I think kevin has another article like that in nano-bio synergy.

#17 Lazarus Long

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Posted 17 August 2003 - 03:24 PM

Yeah here it is: http://www.imminst.o...t=0

And this demonstrates two things, we need to make the search engine ability more practical and second I will add I still think because of the cross over aspect some issues like articles like this one deserve to be mentioned (or at least cross referenced) in more than one thread. In this cse it does deserve a mention in Nanotech though it was originally posted under Biotech.

#18 Lazarus Long

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Posted 17 August 2003 - 05:30 PM

Here is a cross linkage to another BBC article on the current state of Nanotechnology and weapons being developed at MIT. It is a little repetitive of old stuff but somewhat comprehensive.

http://www.imminst.o...t=0

#19 Lazarus Long

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Posted 21 August 2003 - 01:32 PM

More evidence of the rapidly emerging fusion of Nanotech and Biotech.

http://news.bbc.co.u...lth/3168221.stm
Iron injection 'reveals viruses'
Wednesday, 20 August, 2003, 18:01 GMT 19:01 UK
Posted Image
MRI scans could reveal viruses

An injection of microscopic iron particles could help scans reveal the hiding places of viruses in the body. The particles could allow doctors to see if gene therapy is working - or perhaps detect "reservoirs" of HIV in patients.

Researchers at Harvard Medical School in Massachusetts, created the particles using a tiny core of iron oxide, coated with antibodies which lock onto specific viruses. If live viruses are present, they will stick onto the particles - which can be detected on MRI scans. So far, the nanoparticles have been added to samples of human body fluids and proved successful in locating viruses.

This is all quite feasible - perhaps not tomorrow, but certainly human trials should start before too long
Dr Jimmy Bell, MRC Clinical Sciences Centre, London


However, the Harvard team does not believe there is any great obstacle to using them in humans - iron is an element found in plentiful quantities in humans.

Dr Manuel Perez, who led the project, told New Scientist magazine that the technique would work far better than current hit-and-miss methods of finding viruses which look for traces of viral DNA.

He said: "It's cumbersome, takes time, gives you false positives and negatives and only detects fragments of the virus."

He also said that the technique had managed to find the herpes simplex virus and a cold virus. One of the prime reasons for developing it is to help gene therapy scientists improve the chances of success.

Gene therapy boost

Gene therapy aims to alter the genetic makeup of cells to correct gene-related medical conditions.

Most researchers believe that the best way to get genes into the cell is using modified viruses, which hijack the cell's genetic machinery when they infect it in order to replicate.

However, there are considerable problems in getting the viruses to infect enough of the right type of cells in the right locations in the body to make a significant difference.

The Harvard technique would allow scientists to check exactly where their modified viruses are heading.

Dr Jimmy Bell, a researcher at the Medical Research Council Clinical Sciences Centre at Imperial College, London, is developing similar imaging techniques designed to help doctors track individual cells.

He said that the field offered "exciting potential".

"This is all quite feasible - perhaps not tomorrow, but certainly human trials should start before too long.

"It will offer doctors the chance to measure objectively the effect of the therapy they are giving."

#20 Mind

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Posted 25 February 2004 - 08:55 PM

Here are selected quotes from an article about Nanotech and the growing concern within society. I figure it is a good article to read because a lot of people that are suspicious of nanotech may also be suspicious of a group like ours - striving for something that is considered "un-natural" (by the current mainstream culture)

2003: nanotechnology in the firing line
23 December 2003

2003 was the year when nanotechnology collided with the real world. It was a painful collision, bringing prophecies of doom, fears of hidden dangers and calls for a moratorium on nanoscience. Some of these fears were misinformed, even absurd, and were quickly identified as such. But the appearance of an ethical dimension to nanotechnology may serve the useful purpose of forcing other emerging technologies to confront questions about public understanding and perceptions about social responsibility. And, for nanoscience in particular, it may help to sharpen views about what the field comprises and where it is headed. Here, in a feature based on a talk I gave at the International Conference on Nanomaterials and Nanomanufacturing held at The Royal Society, London, UK, on 15-16 December 2003, I look at what we have learnt from the year that “nano” hit the headlines.

So there they were, these nanoscientists quietly growing their clay nanocomposites or vapour-depositing their quantum dots or whatever it is each of them does, and all at once they found they had become the new Victor Frankensteins, the modern Prometheuses, the contemporary Fausts, dabbling with dangerous forces they cannot control. This was the year that society woke up to nanotechnology and got very alarmed.


In March, the Royal Institution (RI) in London hosted a day-long seminar on nanotech called “Atom by atom”, which I personally found useful for hearing a broad cross-section of opinions on what has become known as nanoethics. I will come back to some of these later, but let me mention a few issues here. First, the worry was raised that what is qualitatively new about nanotech is that it allows, for the first time, the manipulation of matter at the atomic scale. This may be a common view, and it must force us to ask: how can it be that we live in a society where it is not generally appreciated that this is what chemistry has done in a rational and informed way for the past two centuries and more? How have we let that happen? It is becoming increasingly clear that the debate about the ultimate scope and possibilities of nanotech revolve around questions of basic chemistry, and if you want to see an example of what I mean, take a look at the exchange between Eric Drexler and Richard Smalley in the 1 December issue of Chemical and Engineering News. The knowledge vacuum in which much public debate of nanotech is taking place exists because we have little public understanding of chemistry: what it is, what it does, and what it can do.


Beyond toxicity

All the same, that debate is the easy part. In the Royal Society report, all the other questions about the ethics and social effects of nanotechnology are sidelined into a single paragraph. At the RI meeting in March, Doug Parr of Greenpeace raised a host of entirely pertinent issues. Is nanotechnology primarily about wealth creation, or improving our quality of life, or something else? Who is developing it, and why? With what responsibility, justification and accountability? Who deals with potential problems, and how? Is there, and should there be, a public mandate for it? The scientific community has no excuse for ignoring such questions.

There is, for example, a huge military interest in nanotechnology, particularly in the US. Some of this is stimulated simply by the prospect of better electronics - faster, more compact, more robust - with all the implications that has for improved communications, missile guidance and so forth. But there are also possibilities for developing new weapons or new systems for offensive combat. The US army has established a $50 m nanotech research centre called the Center for Soldier Nanotechnologies at MIT, which makes its ambitions very plain: “Imagine the psychological impact upon a foe when encountering squads of seemingly invincible warriors protected by armour and endowed with superhuman capabilities, such as the ability to leap over 20-foot walls.” Well, I think perhaps we should imagine that. We should imagine it not in the context of a science-fiction world of robocop-style images of “performance enhanced” soldiers in nanotechnological battle gear, as in the early publicity images (which, interestingly, have now been toned down to show real soldiers). We should rather imagine it in the context of international relations, of the social and political implications of weapons development and arms trading. That doesn’t require us to be pacifists opposed to all forms of defence research, but it does require us to regard science as something that is embedded in a social, political and cultural fabric.


About the author

Philip Ball is a science writer and consultant editor for Nature. His e-mail address is p.ball@nature.com.


Read the full article a Nanotechweb.org

#21 Mind

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Posted 28 February 2004 - 11:04 PM

Here is an article about some possible ways to build safety in to nanotech inventions.

Incorporate disassembly into every self-assembled nanotech product
By Douglas Mulhall
Small Times Guest Columnist

Feb. 6, 2004 – There is a growing mantra in the nanotech community that molecular nanotechnology (MNT) and its precursors will clean up the toxic mess left by older technologies, then produce clean energy and materials to replace them.
Yet each time that I suggest building such features into nanotechnology from the start, the reply is: “We’ve got other things to worry about such as how to build the darn assembler and keep it militarily secured, and besides that it might be hard to achieve such perfection with early versions.”

This is disturbingly reminiscent of “nuclear power will give us clean limitless energy, and don’t worry, we’ll deal with the byproducts later because we’ll have the tools by then.”

However, we can avoid such risks from the start by using “self-regulating assembly” and “disassembly.”

Self-regulating assembly means built-in controls that limit replication rates of molecular assemblers. Surprisingly, there is virtually no talk of such newly discovered processes that occur naturally.

For example, “nanobacteria” are organisms less than a micron wide that already achieve this Holy Grail. They have a very slow replication rate – a “limiting” factor that stops them from turning everything into gray goo despite their prevalence in the environment.

One genus found in human disease has an ingenious way of self-cloaking with a calcium phosphate shell. This disguise led medical researchers to misidentify the organism as a lifeless deposit in heart and other diseases. Such a shell is also a formidable defense against drugs, radiation and heat used in treatments.

How does this link with MNT research? Scientists have been looking for ways to build self-regulation into assemblers. Nanobacteria warrant study because they approximate the envisaged size of some assemblers and replicate in days instead of minutes or hours. This sets them apart from most viruses and regular bacteria.

Then we come to disassembly – a concept well known among nanotechnologists. There are many ways to “disassemble” something.

One is with an assembler working in reverse to take something apart element by element, molecule by molecule, or chemical by chemical into components that can be discarded or reused. Present-day manufacturers do this on a primitive scale with some old cars, but that is only a rough analogy.

Next there is biodegradability:.........

Read the rest here at Small Times

#22 Mind

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Posted 29 February 2004 - 03:08 PM

Originally appeared at KurzweilAI.net

KurzweilAI.net, Feb. 5, 2004

The total global demand for nanoscale materials, tools, and devices was estimated at $7.6 billion in 2003 and is expected to grow at an average annual growth rate (AAGR) of 30.6% to reach $28.7 billion in 2008, according to a report from from Business Communications Company: Nanotechnology: A Realistic Market Evaluation.

The nanotechnology market is believed to be growing more than twice as fast as either the biotechnology or global informatics sectors.

The nanomaterials segment, which includes several long-established markets such as carbon black rubber filler, catalytic converter materials and silver nanoparticles used in photographic films and papers, presently accounts for over 97.5% of global nanotechnology sales. By 2008, the nanomaterials share of the market will have shrunk to 74.7% of total sales. Nanotools will have increased their share to 4.3% ($1.2 billion), and nanodevices will have established a major presence in the market with a 21% share ($6.0 billion).

#23 Mind

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Posted 29 February 2004 - 05:11 PM

I wasn't sure where to put this one so here it is in nanotech news

Intel Says Chip Speed Breakthrough Will Alter Cyberworld
By JOHN MARKOFF

Published: February 11, 2004

SAN FRANCISCO, Feb. 11 — Intel scientists say that they have made silicon chips that can switch light like electricity, blurring the line between computing and communications and presenting a vision of the digital future that will allow computers themselves to span cities or even the entire globe.

The invention demonstrates for the first time, Intel researchers said, that ultrahigh-speed fiberoptic equipment can be produced at personal computer industry prices. As the costs of communicating between computers and chips falls, the barrier to building fundamentally new kinds of computers not limited by physical distance should become a reality, experts said.

The advance, described in a paper to be published on Thursday in the scientific journal Nature, also suggests that Intel, as the world's largest chipmaker, may be able to develop the technology to move into new telecommunications markets.

It will free computer designers to think about the systems they create in new ways, making it possible to conceive of machines that are not located in a single physical place, according to scientists and industry executives. It will also make possible a new class of computing applications based on the possibility of transmitting high-definition video and images hundreds or even thousands of times faster than possible on today's Internet.

"Before, there were two worlds — computing and communications," said Alan Huang, a former Bell Labs physicist, who has founded the Terabit Corporation, an optical networking company in Menlo Park, Calif. "Now they will be the same and we will have powerful computers everywhere."

One potential application, he said, would be an interactive digital television system allowing viewers to watch a sporting event from multiple angles, moving the point of view at will while the game is being played. With only a limited number of digital cameras, it might be possible to synthesize a virtual moveable seat any place in the stadium. Such a feature exists currently in video games, but it is far beyond the capacity of today's digital television transmission systems.

Intel said the technical advance, in which the researchers use a component made from pure silicon to send data at speeds as much as 50 times faster than the previous switching record, is the first step toward building low-cost networks that will move data seamlessly between computers and within large computer systems.

"This opens up whole new areas for Intel," said Mario Paniccia, a an Intel physicist, who started the previously secret Intel research program to explore the possibility of using standard semiconductor parts to build optical networks. "We're trying to siliconize photonics."

The device Intel has built is the prototype of a high-speed silicon optical modulator that the company has now pushed above two billion bits per second at a lab near its headquarters in Santa Clara, Calif. The modulator makes it possible to switch off and on a tiny laser beam and direct it into an ultrathin glass fiber. Although the technical report in Nature focuses on the modulator, which is only one component of a networking system, Intel plans on demonstrating a working system transmitting a movie in high-definition television over a five-mile coil of fiberoptic cable next week at its annual Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco.

"If Intel and other semiconductor technology companies can develop silicon optically as successfully as they have electronically, then silicon is certainly set to grow in stature as an optical material," Graham Reed, a physicist at the University of Surrey, wrote in a commentary on the Intel paper in Nature. Dr. Reed is the holder of the previous 20-megabit silicon optical switching speed record that Intel shattered.

With this breakthrough, Intel researchers said, they have shown that it should be possible to build optical fiber communications systems using Intel's conventional chipmaking process without resorting to either the exotic materials or hand-assembly techniques that are now the standard in the fiberoptics networking industry.


Originally printed in the NY Times

#24 chubtoad

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Posted 13 March 2004 - 07:01 AM

Yarn spun from nanotubes
Tiny tubes may yield ultrastrong fibres

full article: http://www.nature.co.../040308-10.html
12 March 2004
PHILIP BALL

Scientists have spun long, rope-like fibres from nanotubes. Their environmentally friendly method could be tweaked to make high-strength threads for use in engineering. The long ropes could even lead to futuristic applications such as a space elevator.

Alan Windle and colleagues at the University of Cambridge, UK, made their tiny twisted ropes by winding freshly made nanotubes onto spinning rods as they came out of a furnace. The nanotubes are hollow strands of carbon just 30 millionths of a millimetre or so wide — around 5,000 times thinner than a human hair.
The resulting threads may be tiny but they have the potential to be exceptionally strong. Scientists are seriously considering whether ultra-strong nanotube fibres might be used to tether space platforms to the surface of the Earth, allowing 'space elevators' to lift satellites out of Earth's gravitational field without the vast expense of blasting them up there.

Closer to Earth, super-strong fibres might be used for giant engineering projects such as a proposed suspension bridge linking Spain to Morocco across the Strait of Gibraltar. Kevlar ropes are already used to anchor oil-drilling platforms to the seabed.
...
It's cheap and the ethanol feedstock can be made from renewable resources
...
The tiny ropes can be made to any length — an improvement on similar threads that were up to 20 centimetres long. And because they are produced directly from the furnace in which the nanotubes are made, the process is relatively cheap and avoids the need for noxious organic solvents



#25 chubtoad

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Posted 20 March 2004 - 06:41 AM

Electricity Controls Nanocrystal Shape

Wires, tubes and brushes make it possible to build and maintain the machines and devices we use on a daily basis. Now, with help from a surprising source, these same building blocks can easily be created on a scale 10,000 times smaller than the period at the end of this sentence.

Researchers at Argonne have figured out the basics of using electrochemistry to control the architecture of nanocrystals – small structures with dimensions in billionths of meters. Their findings, published in the March 3 edition of the Journal of the American Chemical Society, provide a practical method of generating large quantities of architecture-controlled nanocrystals, such as superconductors, ferromagnets and noble metals.

"The architectures of the nanocrystals are mainly controlled by applied voltages," said lead scientist Zhili Xiao of Argonne's Materials Science Division and Northern Illinois University's Physics Department. "This gives us much greater control over the growth conditions of the nanocrystals. We were able to create a great variety of structures with greater convenience and predictability compared with more traditional methods."

Traditional methods of fabricating nanocrystals involve rapidly injecting chemicals into a heated solution at high temperatures. The downside to this approach, however, is the difficulty of controlling the solution concentration, which changes as the reaction proceeds. This change in concentration leads to changes in the electrochemical potential – the measure of a compound's ability to react in solution. Since a stable electrochemical potential is crucial for forming well-shaped nanocrystals, scientists using this method often found themselves struggling to control solution concentrations and to time the right moment to stop the reaction.
[...]
"When you alter the shape of a nanocrystal, you're basically setting new boundaries to the space in which its electrons can move," said Wai-Kwong Kwok, leader of the Superconductivity and Magnetism group in the Materials Science Division. "This, in turn, affects its physical properties, which explains why a triangle and a sphere made of lead can have completely different superconducting properties."


full article: http://www.scienceda...40318073150.htm

#26 Jay the Avenger

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Posted 20 March 2004 - 11:16 PM

I can't believe nobody has posted this breakthrough yet:

http://betterhumans....ID=2004-03-18-4

Nanoscale Elevator Raises the Bar
Complex device demonstrates progress in designing and building molecular machines
By Gabe Romain, Betterhumans Staff
3/18/2004 • Hits: 549 • Comments: 0


Credit: Badjic et al/Science
Going places: Acids and bases act as switches to move a new nanoscale elevator up (left) or down (right)


A complex nanoscale machine that can shuttle molecules like a tiny elevator has been designed, built and operated.

Developed by Italian and American researchers, the tiny, chemically driven machine consists of a platform with three rings, each of which is attached to the leg of a tripod-like structure.

At just 2.5 nanometers high and 3.5 nanometers in diameter, the elevator represents a big advance for the construction of molecular machines, experts say.

"This is extremely impressive work," says Chris Phoenix, director of research with the Center for Responsible Nanotechnology, based in Brooklyn, New York. "It shows rapid progress in designing, building, and understanding molecular machinery. While some theorists are still saying we can't treat molecules as machines, other scientists are already doing it."

Tiny technology

Nanotechnology is a broad term describing technological development at the nanometer scale, which is about one billionth of a meter or about 80,000 times smaller than the diameter of a human hair.

While in the past few years there has been much progress in the construction of nanoscale objects, functioning molecular machines are far more complicated, and there has been much debate within nanotechnology circles about how complex they can be and what they might be capable of doing.

Highly complex machines, popularized by Eric Drexler in his 1986 book Engines of Creation, could conceivably build things from the bottom up in a process of molecular engineering.

Those who believe that this is possible point to biological cells as proof, as they build organisms from the bottom up. Those who think that it's science fiction point out that physical forces at the nanoscale would prohibit forms of controlled construction.

Over the past few years, several simple nanoscale machines, such as tiny motors, have been constructed, but few have found any useful application.

Miniature tripod

Constructed by Jovica Badjic from the University of California, Los Angeles and colleagues, the nanoscale elevator builds upon previous work with "nanoshuttles," which are simply tiny rings that run up and down a tiny rod.

The molecular elevator has three rods arranged in a tripod-like configuration. On each rod is an oxygen-rich ring that is attached to a platform. Bulky feet on each rod prevent the platform from slipping off.

Acids and bases control the elevator's movement. Acids cause a nitrogen-containing molecule near the top of the structure to become positively charged, attracting the negatively charged oxygen atoms in the platform's rings. Bases cause the nitrogen group to lose its charge and the rings are attracted to atoms near the bottom.

"The level of structural and mechanical control demonstrated in this experiment appears to contradict claims that molecular mechanical nanosystems are infeasible," says Phoenix. "Complex molecular robotics will be difficult to develop, but this work shows that it's now a matter of engineering, not just theory."

Controlled delivery

The platform moves about seven angstroms—0.7 nanometers—and the shuttling can be made to continue indefinitely.

The platform can potentially generate a force of up to 200 piconewtons in the motion from the upper to the lower level.

Potential applications for the molecular elevator include remote-controlled drug delivery systems inside the body and precise control of chemical reactions—the elevator could bring two reactants together in a tightly controlled manner.

"This impressive work is a big step toward molecular machines and nanosystems. Many more steps will be necessary, but this shows that we're well on the way and moving fast," says Phoenix. "There are still a few scientists staking their reputations that molecular robotics and molecular manufacturing are impossible. This paper should make them very nervous."



#27 chubtoad

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Posted 25 March 2004 - 10:21 PM

http://www.newsroom....asp?RelNum=5047
March 22, 2004

Chemists Report The Most Sophisticated Artificial Nanomachine Yet

UCLA supramolecular chemists report in the journal Science an artificial molecular machine that functions like a nanoelevator.
"Such nanoscale robotic devices could find use in slow-release drug delivery systems and in the control of chemical reactions within nanofluidic systems conducted in laboratories on a chip," said Jovica Badjic, the lead author of the March 19 Science article and postdoctoral researcher in the laboratory of Fraser Stoddart, holder of the Fred Kavli Chair in nanosystems sciences and director of the California NanoSystems Institute at UCLA.

In Badjic's incrementally staged design of the nanoelevator — a rig-like construct with three legs embracing an interlocked deck-like component — can be made to move between two levels, he had to get the matching components to fit together just perfectly.

The challenge is similar to one that nature has already solved in creating the multivalent interactions that exist between cells for the purpose of communicating information throughout the body.

"The first step in the synthesis can be likened to learning how to put a glove on one's hand blindfolded. You will make countless mistakes but eventually you find out by trial and error how to get the match just right. That's how the multivalency gets expressed during my template-directed synthesis," Badjic said.

In order to demonstrate the operation of the elevator, the UCLA chemists entered into collaboration with an Italian team at the University of Bologna: professor Vincenzo Balzani, assistant professor Alberto Credi and graduate student Serena Silvi.

The elevator is about 3.5 nanometers in diameter and 2.5 nanometers in height. Each leg of the rig has two stations — one, a strong one, which relies on hydrogen bonds, and another much weaker one. The strong hydrogen bonds between the rig and the deck can be destroyed by taking a proton away from each leg one at a time with base. The result is a stepwise movement of the deck down to the now preferred stations lower down the rig. By taking steps one at a time, the elevator is more reminiscent of a legged animal than it is of a passenger elevator. The deck can be returned to the top level by the addition of acid. The elevator has been made to go up and down 10 times by the consecutive addition of acid and base, respectively.

Although it has been commented in the article that distance traveled by the deck is just a little less than one nanometer — 1,000 times smaller than the thickness of a human hair — and that the force generated could be as much as 200 picoNewtons, Stoddart urged caution with respect to this claim, based on calculations carried out in Bologna, until it is backed up by experiments, and also by an all-encompassing theory.

A common theme of Stoddart's research is the quest for a better fundamental understanding of self-assembly and molecular recognition processes in chemical systems. He has been working for more than a quarter of a century on using this growing understanding to develop template-directed protocols that rely upon such processes to create molecular switches and motor-molecules. Underlying his bottom-up approach to the construction of functioning nanosystems is Stoddart's philosophy of transferring concepts from biology into chemistry.

Despite the rarefied scientific atmosphere, Stoddart's highly specialized world might be more akin to that of an engineer or an artist than a scientist. In fact, in his quest to create mechanoelectrochemical systems, Stoddart likens himself to the painter who creates abstracts, rather than one who produces landscapes and portraits.

"Constructing artificial molecular machines is a pursuit that allows the chemist to enter the world of the engineer," Stoddart said. It is not an area of research for the faint-hearted. Many chemists and engineers have their misgivings about where all the effort is going to lead to in the fullness of time. Stoddart's answer to the skeptics is to draw a comparison between natural and unnatural systems using the action of flight.

Birds, bees and bats have been flying around for a long time. It is only in the past 100 years that humankind has learned how to fly. Prior to the first demonstration of manned flight, there were many great scientists and engineers who said it was impossible.

"Building artificial molecular machines and getting them to operate is where airplanes were a century ago," Stoddart said. "We have come a long way in the last decade, but we have a very, very long way to go yet to realize the full potential of artificial molecular machines."

"The main reason for doing this kind of nanoscience is that it is intellectually and technically challenging," said Badjic, who was one of five recipients March 17 of a UCLA Chancellor's Award for Postdoctoral Research.



#28 Jay the Avenger

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Posted 29 March 2004 - 11:41 AM

http://www.technolog.../rnb_032404.asp

DNA has Nano Building in Hand

Technology Research News  March 24, 2004

Researchers from Ludwig Maximilians University in Germany have built a simple molecular machine from DNA that can bind to and release single molecules of a specific type of protein.

The DNA hand can be made to select any of many types of proteins, and could eventually be used to construct materials or machines molecule-by-molecule.

The researchers used DNA branch migration, a method that allows a DNA nanostructure to switch between several arrangements of its parts, to construct the DNA hand. In one configuration, the structure contains an open sequence of bases that binds to a specific protein, and so can grab that type of protein. A second configuration does not contain the open sequence, and so drops the protein.

The rearrangements are reversible, allowing the tiny machine to repeatedly grab and drop a molecule of a specific type of protein. DNA aptamers, or strands that bind to specific molecules, can be selected from a pool of DNA sequences, making it possible to construct a DNA hand that binds to any type of protein, according to the researchers.

The researchers demonstrated the DNA hand by having it repeatedly grab and drop molecules of the protein Thrombin.

The DNA hand could be used in simple nano construction applications in two to five years, and in more advanced applications in five to ten years, according to the researchers. The work is scheduled to appear in an upcoming issue of Angewandte Chemie International Edition.



#29 chubtoad

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Posted 06 April 2004 - 09:28 PM

Ancient Greeks help scientists build environmentally friendly nano devices

A new generation of materials inspired by the ancient Greeks have been developed by scientists for use in miniaturised devices. The materials are robust, flexible films with perforations on the nano scale and have nano coatings. They are environmentally safe and will enable ultra-fast optoelectronic communication. They are produced by the self-assembly of an intricate 3D jigsaw which is then filled with solid metal or active plastic using the same technology used for plating jewellery. This new technique has been inspired by the lost-wax casting process used by the ancient Greeks for sculpture, but scaled down by a factor of one million.

This new technology will be described by Professor Jeremy Baumberg in the Mott Lecture on Monday 5th April at the Institute of Physics conference CMMP 2004. This four-day conference will take place from Sunday 4th to Wednesday 7th April 2004 at the University of Warwick. Some of the topics being presented include: developments in nanotechnology, snap-shot MRI, organic semiconductor technology, high temperature superconductivity, and progress towards quantum computers.

Professor Baumberg, from Southampton University, said: "These environmentally friendly nano-coatings stay embedded within their operating devices. The nano-perforations produce new electronic, magnetic, optical and bio-sensing properties, applicable to a vast range of new nano-devices in consumer electronics. The complicated 3D nanostructures are impossible to create using conventional micro-technologies, and fill a gap in our ability to build what we need on the nanoscale.

He continued: "Our goal is to allow researchers waking up with a smart idea, to design their new nano-device after breakfast, rapidly nano-prototype it after lunch, and to be testing its nano-performance the same evening. Only in this way will we unlock the full creative potential of our innovative researchers, and find the right ways through the vast maze of possible nano-devices".

more here: http://physics.iop.o...ess/PR2504.html

#30 chubtoad

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Posted 06 April 2004 - 09:31 PM

Nano Scale
Building A Scale Sensitive Enough To Weigh A Virus

Cornell University researchers already have been able to detect the mass of a single cell using submicroscopic devices. Now they're zeroing in on viruses. And the scale of their work is becoming so indescribably small that they have moved beyond the prefixes "nano" "pico" and "femto" to "atto." And just in sight is "zepto."

gold dot, about 50 nanometers in diameter, fused to the end of a cantilevered oscillator about 4 micrometers long. A one-molecule-thick layer of a sulfur-containing chemical deposited on the gold adds a mass of about 6 attograms, which is more than enough to measure. (Image Credit: Craighead Group/Cornell Univeristy)
 
Members of the Cornell research group headed by engineering professor Harold Craighead report they have used tiny oscillating cantilevers to detect masses as small as 6 attograms by noting the change an added mass produces in the frequency of vibration.

Their submicroscopic devices, whose size is measured in nanometers (the width of three silicon atoms), are called nanoelectromechanical systems, or NEMS. But the masses they measure are now down to attograms. The mass of a small virus, for example, is about 10 attograms. An attogram is one-thousandth of a femtogram, which is one-thousandth of a picogram, which is one-thousandth of a nanogram, which is a billionth of a gram.

The work is an extension of earlier experiments that detected masses in the femtogram range, including a single E. coli bacterium, which recorded a mass of about 665 femtograms. For the latest experiments, the sensitivity of the measurement was increased by reducing the size of the NEMS cantilevers and enclosing them in a vacuum. Eventually, the researchers say, the technology could be used to detect and identify microorganisms and biological molecules.

The latest experiment by Craighead and graduate research assistant Rob Ilic is reported in the latest (April 1), issue of the Journal of Applied Physics.


http://physics.iop.o...ess/PR2504.html




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