X-Message-Number: 20412
From: "Gina Miller" <>
Subject: The Nanogirl News~
Date: Thu, 7 Nov 2002 15:16:50 -0800

The Nanogirl News
November 7, 2002

Molecular wheel gets a brake. Switch turns microscopic motor on and off.
Scientists have redesigned one of nature's molecular machines to make the
world's smallest switchable motor. The rotating machine can be turned on and
off like a pocket fan - but it is only about 14 millionths of a millimetre
across. The invention brings mechanical devices made from single molecules a
step closer. Such machines might form part of electronic circuits, carry out
delicate surgery on cells or gather solar energy. (Nature Science Update
11/2/02)
http://www.nature.com/nsu/021028/021028-3.html

Tech group gets federal money for nanotechnology initiative. Ben Franklin
Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania said Friday it has received
a $600,000 earmark from the U.S. Department of Education to develop an
associate degree program in nanotechnology involving a number of area
colleges. (Philadelphia Business Journal 11/1/02)
http://philadelphia.bizjournals.com/philadelphia/stories/2002/10/28/daily67.
html

Next Generation Data Storage on the Nanometer-Scale. Imagine having all of
the information recorded on a stack of 1,540 CDs on a disk the size of a
single CD. Or visualize having all of the information recorded on a stack of
154 CDs written on a one-inch square chip. New probe microscopy techniques
and new organic materials could be combined in the next generation data
storage technology - which will be nanometer-scale technology with probable
major impact on related storage technologies, University of Arizona optical
scientists say.
(Cosmicverse News 10/31/02)
http://www.cosmiverse.com/news/tech/1002/tech10310203.html

Rushford technology explained to MnDTED Commissioner Yanisch. The Minnesota
Commissioner of Trade and Economic Development, Rebecca Yanish, toured
southeast Minnesota last week. The longest stop was in Rushford Sept. 25
where she toured TRW, met with staff members of the Southeast Minnesota
Development Corporation, then settled into a small luncheon group at Sprigs
for briefings.Reports came from Kevin Klungtvedt on the formation of the
Rushford Institute of Nanotechnology and John Brodd of the Aveka Group which
will start a nanoparticle manufacturing facility in Rushford next year. The
Rushford company name is now Cima Nanotechnologies. It is the result of a
merger between Aveka Nanotechnologies and Nanopowders Industries an Israeli
company founded in 1997 and backed by the Millenium Material Fund, a venture
capital group.(Tri-County Record Online/Rushford.net Nov. 2002)
http://www.rushford.net/rushford/myarticles.asp?P=583182&S=366&PubID=10121&E
C=0#8115764

Q&A: From the Front Lines of Nanotech. Many scientists are betting on
nanotechnology to deliver new levels of control over engineering materials.
Philip Wong, senior manager of nanoscale materials processes at IBM Research
Laboratory, explains why he's excited about the ability to manipulate
properties of materials less than 100 nanometers in size.
(PC Magazine 10/29/02)
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,640410,00.asp

Researchers produce strong copper that retains ductility. Extreme cold and
high heat help optimize the metal's microstructure. Combining old-fashioned
metal-working techniques with modern nanotechnology, engineers at The Johns
Hopkins University have produced a form of pure copper metal that is six
times stronger than normal, with no significant loss of ductility.
The achievement, reported in the Oct. 31 issue of the journal "Nature," is
important because earlier attempts to strengthen a pure metal such as copper
have almost always resulted in a material that is much less ductile, meaning
it is more likely to fracture when it is stretched. Strength, on the other
hand, refers to how much stress a metal can tolerate before its shape is
permanently deformed. (EurekAlert 10/30/02)
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2002-10/jhu-rps102902.php

Scientists to further explore nanohybrid structures. A select group of 60
scientists from across the country will convene at the University Friday,
Nov. 15 and Saturday, Nov. 16, to discuss the emerging field of nanohybrid
structures. Nanoscientists build these structures to develop smaller, faster
computers, accelerate drug discovery and development, and spur a variety of
other potential applications. (U of Chicago Chronicle 10/24/01)
http://chronicle.uchicago.edu/021024/nanohybrid.shtml

Nanoparticles save paper. A sprinkling of slaked lime conserves old
documents. Tiny particles of a strong alkali are helping preserve historical
documents. Piero Baglioni of the University of Florence and his coworkers
have treated manuscripts dating back to the fourteenth century with a
sprinkling of calcium hydroxide grains just 200 millionths of a millimetre
across. The nanoparticles of what is commonly called slaked lime penetrate
between paper's fibres. They combat the ravages of acids introduced when
paper is made, without altering documents' apperance1. The technique is
cheap and green and could also be used on canvas. (Nature Science Update
10/22/02)
http://www.nature.com/nsu/021021/021021-1.html

Speed reader. Craig Venter sequenced the genome in record time, ushering in
a new era of drug discovery. Next step: fast, cheap scans of your DNA that
you can take home. The gene guru J. Craig Venter stunned the scientific
world in 2000 when his company, Celera Genomics, deciphered the entire human
genetic code in little more than two years with an R&D Budget of $270
million. A consortium of U.S. government researchers took 13 years and spent
$2.5 billion to reach the same finish line. (The government says it spent
only $300 million on the actual sequencing of the genome.) But Venter says
that even his rapid-fire breakthrough didn't come nearly fast enough.
(Forbes via Yahoo 10/30/02)
http://biz.yahoo.com/fo/021030/speed_reader_2.html

Nanotechnology, the process of manipulating matter on an atomic or molecular
scale, has been a staple of science fiction for a decade.  Now it's
beginning to break out into real science, and some technology critics are
already starting to complain.  If they're listened to, the most important
technology of the 21st century may be strangled in its crib.
(Fox News Channel 10/31/02)
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,67119,00.html

Nanocrystals, Quantum Dots, and Nature's Own Assembly Line. Chemist Paul
Alivisatos's pioneering research into tiny nanocrystals and nanorods is
paying off in big ways. Chemically-pure clusters of anywhere from 100 to
100,000 atoms, Alivisatos's nanocrystals and nanorods have myriad
applications that impact the macroworld - from tagging biological samples
for genetic analysis and drug discovery to the creation of plastic solar
cells that can be painted onto any surface. (Berkeley College of Engineering
11/1/02)
http://www.coe.berkeley.edu/labnotes/1102/alivisatos.html

Supercomputer for a day. Thousands of computers across Canada have been
interconnected to create a supercomputer that only operated for a day. The
1,360 processor strong supercomputer was used to tackle a problem in
computational chemistry that would otherwise take years to
complete...Professor Schaeffer said the supercomputer could be used up to
three days of every month, helping Canadian scientists tackle problems in
climate prediction, genomics, protein folding and nanotechnology. (BBC
11/6/02)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/2400811.stm

Scientists Use Microscope to View Magnetism at Atomic Level. Scientists and
engineers build the transistors that run televisions, radios and similar
electronic devices based on the moving electric charges of electrons. But
the electron also has another key property: a magnetic "spin" that
scientists believe could be exploited to develop faster, smaller and more
efficient devices. The first step is to determine the magnetic properties of
materials that could be used to create futuristic nanoscale devices, a task
that has escaped scientists until now. (Ohio university 11/6/02)
http://www.ohio.edu/researchnews/science/nanotech_02.html

World record for silicon light-emission. Silicon is ideal for electronic
applications, but its inability to emit light has limited its potential for
optical processing. Now researchers at STMicroelectronics in Italy have
increased silicon's light-emitting efficiency by a factor of a hundred,
making silicon competitive with conventional light-emitting semiconductors
such as gallium arsenide. This advance, achieved by adding rare-earth metals
to silicon, will allow optical and electrical functions to be combined on a
single silicon chip. Researchers at ST's Corporate Technology R&D
Organization in Catania, Sicily, carried out the work. They implanted ions
of rare-earth metals such as erbium and cerium into a layer of silicon rich
oxide (silicon dioxide enriched with silicon nanocrystals 1-2 nanometres in
diameter). The frequency of the light emitted by the silicon depended on
which metal was chosen. (Physics Web 11/5/02)
 http://physicsweb.org/article/news/6/11/2

One-way transport in quantum dots. Rectifiers are devices that only allow
movement in one direction. Examples include self-winding wristwatches and
rectifiers in electrical circuits. Even though the exact mechanism is
different for each, all rectifiers share a common principle: the
rectification is based on an asymmetry in the system that makes it much
easier for motion to occur in one direction than another...Now Keiji Ono of
Tokyo University in Japan and co-workers have developed an entirely
different rectification mechanism in which the spin of the electrons plays a
crucial role (K Ono et al. 2002 Science 297 1313-1317). Their quantum
rectifier, which consists of two weakly coupled quantum dots, has two
important advantages: it is fully controllable and it is capable of blocking
current entirely in one direction. (nanotechweb.org 11/01/02)
http://nanotechweb.org/articles/feature/1/11/1/1

Thinner chips with everything. Engineers have crossed a symbolic barrier
with a new way to make microchips with transistors that are a thousand times
smaller than the width of a human hair or as small as a flu virus. The
90-nanometre width is regarded as a major milestone because scientists
believe it will eventually lead to the production of transistors with atomic
level dimensions. (BBC 11/6/02)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/2404599.stm

Nanotechnology News TV. Finally, someone with vision has stepped to the fore
and is launching a revolutionary news service all about Nanotechnology. I
would like to direct you to the new streaming video news program website
that is just about to launch - see http://www.nanonews.tv/ Take a look at
the short video segments, located under "Nano in the AM" - the password for
the demonstration segments is "nano"  (Rocky Rawstern Nanotechnology Now
11/6/02)
http://nanotech-now.com/nano-news-tv.htm

Nanotechnology industry's next feature: Invasion of the lawyers. Several law
firms are joining a growing group that sees opportunities in nanotechnology.
A firm in Texas and another in Minneapolis recently opened their nanotech
practices within a week of one another. Each offers something unusual - a
team of lawyers with degrees in engineering, or experience nurturing life
science or high-tech startups, or an understanding of the patent office.
(Small Times 11/7/02)
http://www.smalltimes.com/document_display.cfm?document_id=4975

Researchers stamp out polymer nanowires. A team of scientists has used
micromoulding in capillaries and soft-embossing to stamp out nanowires and
nanodots from conducting and semiconducting polymers. (nanotechweb.org
11/7/02)
http://nanotechweb.org/articles/news/1/11/4/1

Nanodiagnostic chip to debut. NANOBIOTECH Sdn Bhd, the tentatively-named
joint venture company between Open Source Systems Sdn Bhd (OSS) and US-based
Nano DiagnostiX Inc, plans to produce a working prototype of a
nanodiagnostic microarray chip within six months. "Within a year, the chip
is expected to hit the US and the European markets, of which command about
70 to 80 per cent of the worldwide microarray chip market," Open Source
Systems Sdn Bhd's founder, chairman, and chief executive Azman Firdaus
Shafii informs Business Computing recently. However, no target revenue was
given. (NSTP e-media 11/8/02)
http://www.nst.com.my/TECH/BizComp/NewsAnalysis/20021106120259/wartrevamp

Gina "Nanogirl" Miller
Nanotechnology Industries
http://www.nanoindustries.com
Personal: http://www.nanogirl.com
Foresight Senior Associate http://www.foresight.org
Extropy member http://www.extropy.org

"Nanotechnology: Solutions for the future."

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