X-Message-Number: 22191
From: "Gina Miller" <>
Subject: The Nanogirl News~
Date: Sat, 12 Jul 2003 19:32:04 -0700

The Nanogirl News
July 12, 2003

Nanotechnology Group to Address Safety Concerns. The NanoBusiness Alliance,
a trade group for businesses at work on nanotechnology, plans to announce a
new task force today to address health and environmental concerns that could
be associated with microscopic nano-scale products. "We haven't seen
anything yet that really scared anyone," said Mark Modzelewski, executive
director of the group. But, Mr. Modzelewski said, many members of the group
had decided, in light of growing speculation about potential dangers posed
by nanotechnology, that they wanted a forum for sharing research and
developing better public explanations of the issues. Eventually, he said,
the group might commission studies at independent institutions like Rice
University's Center for Biological and Environmental Nanotechnology and
develop standards for the production or disposal of nanotech products. (The
New York Times 7/7/03)
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/07/business/07NANO.html?ex=1058587200&en=5b87
bb385574eb71&ei=5040&partner=MOREOVER

Machines that Reproduce May be Reality. Can machines reproduce? More
importantly, perhaps -- should they be allowed to? In a recent issue of the
journal Artificial Life, a group of Canadian researchers says yes despite
warnings to the contrary -- most notably from author Michael Crichton in his
new book "Prey," about self-replicating nanobots run amok. To prove their
point, the researchers have created a primordial soup that works like a
digital DNA factory, where T-shaped "codons" swim in a computer-generated
virtual liquid forming single, double, and even triple strands. Like DNA,
these digital particles "can be assembled into patterns that encode"
information, claims robotics scientist Peter Turney in a new paper. For the
first time ever, "we demonstrate that, if an arbitrary seed pattern is put
in a soup of separate individual particles, the pattern will replicate by
assembling the individual particles into copies of itself." (NewsFactor
SciTech 7/10/03)
http://sci.newsfactor.com/perl/story/21893.html

Nanotechnology may create new organs. Scientists have built a minute,
functioning vascular system - the branching network of blood vessels which
supply nutrients and oxygen to tissues - in a significant step towards
building whole organs. Conventional tissue engineering methods have
successfully grown structural tissues such as skin and cartilage in the lab.
But not being able to create the supporting vascular system has proved a
major stumbling block preventing scientists from creating large functioning
organs such as liver or kidneys. Now, researchers from Massachusetts
Institute of Technology and Harvard Medical School have used computers to
design branching networks of venous and arterial capillaries, which start at
three millimetres wide and reach a fineness of just 10 microns. (New
Scientist 7/8/03)
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99993916

Toward closure: An Open Letter From K. Eric Drexler to Prof. Richard
Smalley - Part II.
(Nanotechnology Now 7/2/03)
http://nanotech-now.com/Drexler-open-letter-II.htm

(Site includes VIDEO 1min. 17 sec Quicktime or Realmedia) Gripping Stuff.
How'd you like to have shoes or gloves that let you cling to skyscrapers,
just like Spider-Man? As this ScienCentral News video reports,
nanotechnologists are working on adhesive that could help you match Spidey's
feats. Stick-to-it-iveness. At the University of Manchester in England,
physicist Andre Geim was looking for a scientific demonstration that would
intrigue schoolchildren. He and his research team at the new Centre for
Mesoscience and Nanotechnology had read about the work of biologists Robert
Full at the University of California Berkeley and Kellar Autumn at Lewis and
Clark College. Full, Autumn and their colleagues have been studying geckos,
swift and agile lizards that defy gravity with their ability to race up
smooth, slippery walls and cling upside down by a single toe. (ScienCentral
7/10/03)
http://www.sciencentral.com/articles/view.php3?language=english&type=article
&article_id=218392004

Rice University scientist wins $3 million grant. Team using nanotechnology
on cancer. A Rice University scientist who has been using nanotechnology to
battle cancer has won a $3 million grant from the Department of Defense.
Naomi Halas won the department's Innovator Award, which will help fund her
team's research into developing harmless means of detecting and destroying
tumors. The award, given by the department's Breast Cancer Research Program,
is designed to encourage creativity in developing cancer treatments. Halas
and colleague Jennifer West are using nanoshells, a specially designed core
of material with a thin metal shell that's a little larger than a molecule.
(Houston Chronicle 7/10/03)
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/1989586

DNA Works As Nanotube Sorter. You think it's hard keeping your tube socks
organized? Try sorting carbon nanotubes, those remarkable molecules whose
electrical properties make them potential building blocks for everything
from ultrasensitive diagnostic devices to transistors 100 times smaller than
those in today's fastest microchips. Trouble is, when nanotubes are
fabricated, they're a mixed bag; some are electricity conductors, while
others are semiconductors. Since a number of practical electronics
applications demand nanotubes of uniform conductivity, sorting technologies
are needed. Researchers at DuPont in Wilmington, DE, say they're beginning
to solve the problem using another remarkable molecule: DNA. The results are
literally visible. A pink-colored vial of nanotubes in solution contains
highly conducting nanotubes; other vials, with greenish hues, hold
semiconducting ones.
(SmallTimes 7/10/03)
http://www.smalltimes.com/document_display.cfm?document_id=6341

Japanese government and industry have teamed up to develop a supercomputer
founded on smaller computers linked around the country...The Naregi
(National Research Grid Initiative) plan hopes to create a supercomputer
rated at 100 teraflops by 2007. The fastest computer today, Japan's NEC
Earth Simulator, runs at 36 teraflops. The Naregi plan will seek to develop
better software that will operate in the top and middle layer of the grid
while harnessing the power of the linked computers to run nanotechnology
simulations, according to a report in Nikkei Business News. (ZDNet 7/11/03)
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t271-s2137400,00.html

Finally, a purpose for nanotech to turn on average Joe: Big-screen TVs. For
a decade, scientists in prestigious labs worldwide have sweated over
nanotechnology. They've worked at the outer edges of human knowledge,
employing room-size, multimillion-dollar contraptions to try to create
structures one-billionth of a meter across - the size of three or four
atoms.
And at last they have revealed a major outcome of this research - a product
of magnificent importance to worldwide peace and happiness, not to mention
the viewing of football games. That would be: big-screen TVs. Better: CHEAP
big-screen TVs. (USAToday 7/8.03)
http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/technology/maney/2003-07-08-maney_x
.htm

Molecular motor goes round in circles. Scientists from the University of
Edinburgh, UK, and the University of Bologna, Italy, claim to have made the
first artificial rotary motor from molecular components that are not
chemically bonded to each other. The mechanically interlocked molecular
motor is less than 4 nm wide. "Others have said it's the most sophisticated
artificial molecular 'machine' to date," Dave Leigh of the University of
Edinburgh told nanotechweb.org. "This is the first example of the control of
directionality of motion in an interlocked molecule or any synthetic
hydrogen-bonded structure."
(nanotechweb 7/11/03)
http://www.nanotechweb.org/articles/news/2/7/9/1

Researchers Develop Technique That Could Open Doors To Faster Nanotech
Commercialization
Berkeley - Engineers at the University of California, Berkeley, have found
an innovative way to grow silicon nanowires and carbon nanotubes directly on
microstructures in a room temperature chamber, opening the doors to cheaper
and faster commercialization of a myriad of nanotechnology-based devices.
The researchers were able to precisely localize the extreme heat necessary
for nanowire and nanotube growth, protecting the sensitive
microelectronics - which remained at room temperature - just a few
micrometers away, or about one-tenth the diameter of a strand of human hair.
(ScienceDaily 6/24/03)
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2003/06/030624085134.htm

Little wonders of micro-medicine. Engineering at a scale of millionths of a
metre could build human organs such as livers and kidneys - and create a
"smart" artificial knee which would know when it had become infected,
researchers said yesterday. A team from the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology told an American Society for Microbiology conference in New York
that the kind of nanotechnology used to etch the surfaces of a silicon chip
could make layers of liver or kidney cells and create a network of
microscopic tubes which could deliver oxygen and nutrients to them. "Our
microfabricated devices can efficiently supply oxygen and nutrients to
sustain the viability of human liver and kidney cells for at least one week
in the lab," Mohammad Kaazempur-Mofrad told the conference on micro, bio and
nano systems. "So far we have succeeded in making individual, functioning
units but the ultimate goal is to make whole functioning organs." (Guardian
Unlimited 7/9/03)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/medicine/story/0,11381,994482,00.html

Artificial hip that 'thinks' on its own. An "intelligent" artificial hip
that recognizes when it becomes infected and treats itself, could become a
reality. Researchers in the US have already started work on a new generation
of "smart" joint replacements using the latest advances in nanotechnology.
The aim is to produce a hip or knee implant that not only detects infection,
but treats itself with antibacterial drugs and informs the patient's doctor.
A group of clinicians, microbiologists and electrical engineers have teamed
up to undertake the project. (Ananova 7/9/03)
http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_797933.html?menu=news.technology

UCLA Physicists Create Single Molecule Nanoscale Sensor; Possible
Applications for Medicine, Biotechnology, Detecting Biological Weapons. UCLA
physicists have created a first-of-its-kind nanoscale sensor using a single
molecule less than 20 nanometers long - more than 1,000 times smaller than
the thickness of a human hair - the team reports in the June 24 issue of the
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The nano molecular sensor
could help with early diagnosis of genetic diseases, and have numerous other
applications for medicine, biotechnology and other fields, said Giovanni
Zocchi, assistant professor of physics at UCLA, member of the California
NanoSystems Institute and leader of the research team.
(UCLA News 6/19/03) http://newsroom.ucla.edu/page.asp?id=4306

New Way to Control the Motion of Tiny Particles. Nanotechnology researchers
may soon be able to design new types of tiny shuttles or conveyor belts
which could be used to deliver medications to specific cells or to replace
wires in molecular-sized electronic devices. An international team of
investigators, including a physicist from the University of Michigan, has
devised a method that could help researchers with one of the most
challenging problems in nanotechnology: controlling the motion of tiny
particles, both in artificial nanodevices and biological systems such as ion
channels in cell membranes. (Newswise 6/19/03)
http://www.newswise.com/articles/view/?id=36282

Music of the Spheres. A violin string vibrates at many frequencies
simultaneously, but all the frequencies are simple multiples of the pitch we
hear. Bang a solid sphere with a mallet and you get a far more complicated
set of vibrations--so complicated that they have never been directly
identified in an experiment. In the 27 June PRL, researchers take up
state-of-the-art methods, scattering laser light off silica nanospheres, to
verify a century-old theoretical prediction of these vibrations. They
identify the frequencies associated with both twisting and bulging motions,
a result made possible by the uniformity of the tiny spheres they studied.
(Physical Review Focus 6/26/03)
http://focus.aps.org/story/v11/st29

Chipping Away at Hardness. Predicting the hardness of materials based on
their atomic structure has often been like trying to scratch diamond with
chalk. A characteristic of atomic bonds called ionicity seems to be
associated with hardness, and now in the 4 July PRL a team comes up with an
explicit formula for hardness based on this property. It successfully
predicts the hardness for several materials, including a
recently-synthesized superhard material. The result could help establish a
microscopic model of hardness and aid in the hunt for new superhard
compounds. (Physical Review Focus 7/9/03)
http://focus.aps.org/story/v12/st1

Nanocrystals double up. Magnetic nanocrystals and semiconductor quantum dots
can self-assemble into 'metamaterials' that could be useful in a range of
applications, experiments in the US have shown. Franz Redl at the IBM TJ
Watson Research Center in New York and colleagues at IBM, Columbia
University and the University of New Orleans made the new materials with
lead-selenium semiconductor quantum dots and iron oxide magnetic
nanocrystals.
(Physicsweb 6/26/03)
http://physicsweb.org/article/news/7/6/18
IBM: http://www.research.ibm.com/resources/news/20030625_assembly.shtml

Ionic Liquids Go Bucky. Carbon nanotube-ionic liquid gels yield potentially
useful new materials. Carbon nanotubes and room-temperature ionic liquids
can be blended to form gels that may be used to make novel electronic
devices, coating materials, and antistatic materials, according to
researchers in Japan. University of Tokyo chemistry professor Takuzo Aida,
researcher Takanori Fukushima, and coworkers prepare the "bucky gel"
materials by grinding suspensions of high-purity single-walled carbon
nanotubes in imidazolium cation-based ionic liquids in an agate mortar
[Science, 300, 2072 (2003)]. The researchers then use a centrifuge to
separate excess ionic liquid from the desired black, viscous gel. (C&E
6/30/03)
http://pubs.acs.org/cen/topstory/8126/8126notw6.html

Nano Toolbox Gains Carbon Cones. Researchers from the University of
Louisville and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have come up with a useful
twist on carbon nanotubes. Their nano pipettes grow thicker at one end to
form microscopic cones that have central channels. Carbon nanotubes are
ready-made, strong, electrically useful microscopic tubes that form
naturally in soot from sheets of carbon atoms. Nanopipettes could eventually
deliver tiny amounts of fluids under the skin, sense chemicals at very
specific locations, form electrodes for retinal stimulation, and be tips for
atomic force, scanning tunneling, and near-field scanning optical
microscopes. (Technology Review 7/8/03)
http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/rnb_070803.asp

Chinese Researchers Ready To 'Bring Nano Bones to the World'. For the past
six years, Cui had been developing a new method of healing broken bones
using nanotechnology. But with the threat of SARS lurking, he had to stop
his experiments in late April. Hospitals where clinical trials on the new
technology were being held were sealed off, making it impossible for Cui's
doctors to see patients. One clinical patient even came down with SARS and
couldn't undergo surgery to have the "nano bone" implanted. Fortunately for
Cui, the threat of SARS has waned in China. After being halted for a month,
experiments are once again being conducted and clinical trials are
proceeding. Cui and his team of researchers have successfully implanted nano
bones in dozens of patients and he hopes that the technology will be
commercialized soon. (Small Times 7/1/03)
http://www.smalltimes.com/document_display.cfm?document_id=6300

I hope you all had a wonderful fourth of July.

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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