from the World-Watch dept.
According to a University of Queensland (Australia) news release (11 December 2001), the Queensland Government and the University of Queensland have formally announced the establishment a $50 million Australian Institute of Bio-Engineering and Nanotechnology at the UQ St. Lucia campus in Brisbane. Queensland Premier Peter Beattie said the Institute was the first project to be funded through the $A 100 million Smart State Research Facilities Fund established in this yearís State Budget. Although the new institute will initially focus on biotechnology-related research and development, Beattie said, ìNanotechnology will provide the building blocks of the future. Itís the ëSmart Stateí technologies that will drive employment opportunities in Queensland in the years ahead.î

The announcement said the Queensland Government, the University of Queensland and "an overseas philanthropic organization" are funding the new institute. Beattie said the Australian national Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) would also be a key contributor to the institute. Beattie had announced plans to establish the center at a biotechnology conference in June 2001. The St. Lucia campus is already home to the University of Queensland NanoMaterials Centre (NanoMac) and Nanotechnology and Biomaterials Centre.

In a related development, on 18 December 2001 Premier Beattie also invited the collaboration of researchers in New Zealand with the new University of Queensland institute. "The NEST group (the Nanostructure Engineering, Science and Technology group) at the University of Canterbury [in New Zealand] is highly regarded by their colleagues in Queensland. . . . Links with the new Australian Institute would be a natural fit and could be beneficial to both parties," Beattie said.

from the penny-wise… dept.
According to an article from the Gannett News Service (ìNASAís future in balance; closures seem imminentî, by Larry Wheeler, 26 December 2001), the Bush Administration is conducting a thorough review of the core needs and capabilities of the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). According to the article, the review will include consideration of the possibility of closing down one of NASAís ten major regional centers. The report states that one of the centers that is considered vulnerable to closure or conversion to a private, non-government research park is the Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California, in the south San Francisco Bay area. NASA Ames is home to the Center for Nanotechnology. The impact that closure of the Ames Center, and any other cuts that might result from the review, would have on NASA nanotechnology efforts is unclear.

from the Blast-from-the-past dept.
Those of you with an interest in history may be interested in the transcript of the hearing held by the Subcommittee on Basic Research of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Science on 22 June 1993. The transcript is available from the U.S. Government Printing Office website as an Adobe Acrobat PDF file. Caution: it weighs in at a whopping 5.7 Mb.

These hearings, titled "Nanotechnology: The State of Nano-Science and Its Prospects for the Next Decade", included testimony by Nobel laureate Richard Smalley of Rice University and nanotechnologist Ralph Merkle, then at Xerox PARC and now a researcher at Zyvex Corporation. The House hearings were held in response to an interagency workshop that called for establishment of an integrated federal program to support nanotech-oriented research and development efforts, and were important in solidifying support for the proposed U.S. National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI), which was then under consideration by the Clinton Administration. The NNI was formally presented as part of U.S. federal policy in February 2000 with the FY2001 budget request. NNI is now being funded at about $US 500 million annually.

According to an article on the Small Times website ("Lieberman working on U.S. Senate bill that would ensure nanotechg funding", by Doug Brown, 26 December 2001), Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman is working with several U.S. senators to craft the nationís first broad nanotechnology bill, which will probably be introduced in February or March. The article cites an unnamed senior aide to Sen. Lieberman as its source. Other senators involved in drafting the bill were not named.

According to the article, Lieberman is pushing a bill to ensure that nanotechnology receives as much money and overall federal support as it needs and will likely call for some changes in the way nanotechnology gets federal funding, the Lieberman aide said. Federal investments in nanotechnology education and infrastructure, too, will be addressed in the bill. The bill is also intended to ensure that the federal government is aware of precisely what types of nanotechnology research other countries are conducting and how much they are spending. Finally, the bill will also address potential societal and ethical implications of nanotechnology.

According to a press release (21 December 2001), the American Society for Neural Transplantation and Repair (ASNTR) has issued a set of recommended guidelines "promoting ethical and rigorous research on investigational treatments for brain repair. "

The "Considerations and Guidelines for Studies of Human Subjects" was published in the 24 December 2001 issue of the journal Cell Transplantation. The guidelines were endorsed by the society's full membership, which includes most of the world's researchers working on applications of fetal tissue, stem cells and gene therapy for brain repair.

An article in a special issue of Red Herring Magazine on the "Top Ten Trends 2001" names nanotechnology as one of the developing trends to watch ("Small Worlds: Nanotechnology wins over mainstream venture capitalists", by Stephan Herrera and Lawrence Aragon, 18 December 2001):
"Nanotechnology is coming in from the fringe. Once dismissed as just so much science fiction and Silicon Valley hokum, nanotechnology now represents no less than the next industrial revolution."

The article also quotes Richard Smalley of Rice University: "To the extent that there are solutions to practical problems like disease, feeding the world, and reconciling scarce energy resources with increasing consumption, a remarkable number of them can only be solved through nanotechnology."

from the The-long-view dept.
An excellent article in the New York Times ("Apostle of Regenerative Medicine Foresees Longer Health and Life", by Nicholas Wade, December 18, 2001) profiles Dr. William A. Haseltine, chief executive of Human Genome Sciences, a biotechnology company in Rockville, Md., and his views on the potential for regenerative medicine, the concept of repairing the body by developing new tissues and organs as the old ones wear out. The article describes how Haseltine sees the field advancing in four stages. Some excerpts:

The first, making use of the body's own signaling factors to stimulate healing processes, is already being implemented. According to the article, the second phase of regenerative medicine, in his view, "kicks in when the body is injured beyond the point of repair, at which point you want to put in a new organ," he said. Tissue engineers have already learned to grow sheets of skin and are starting to learn how to grow replacement organs such as blood vessels and more complex tissues.

"Further in the future, he believes, biologists may learn how to fashion new organs outside the body from adult stem cells, the body's guardians and regenerator of adult tissues. These would be taken from the patient's body so as to avoid problems of immune rejection. . . . This, he says, is the point at which regenerative medicine merges into rejuvenative medicine. . . . ëSince we are a self-replacing entity, and do so reasonably well for many decades, there is no reason we can't go on forever,í Dr. Haseltine said."

"In the fourth phase of regenerative medicine, according to Dr. Haseltine's timetable, nanotechnology ó microscopic-scale mechanical devices ó will merge with biological systems. Humans are already becoming partly inorganic when they receive organ- mimicking machines like the AbioCor artificial heart. Artificial devices are likely to improve to the point that they will eventually interface with evolution's form of engineering. . . . Some people find immortality disturbing, seeing it as transgressing the line that separates people from gods. Dr. Haseltine sees it as an inherent property of life. . . . ëWhat distinguishes life from other forms of matter is that it is immortal — we are a 3.5-billion-year-old molecule,í he said, referring to the time when life on earth began. ëIf it were ever mortal, we would not be here. The fundamental property of DNA is its immortality. The problem is to connect that immortality with human immortality and, for the first time, we see how that may be possible.í "

from the current-events dept.
The editors of the journal Science, published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and one of the leading scientific journals worldwide, have highlighted the field of molecular electronics as this yearís "Breakthrough of the Year" in the a special issue of the journal (20 December 2001). As usual, you cannot access their announcement or coverage online unless you are a subscriber.

However, some spot news coverage is available in articles from Reuters News Service and Associated Press (via the New York Times). Advances in the field have also been covered extensively here on nanodot. Just use the keyword "molectronics" in the search field.

from the Small-stuff dept.
According to a press release (20 December 2001), two Virginia Tech research projects — to develop new sensors for detecting pathogens and DNA, and to improve molecular devices in electronic applications — received Nanoscale Exploratory Research (NER) grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF). Research by Massimiliano Di Ventra of Virginia Techís Department of Physics and a joint effort of Randy Heflin of physics and Kevin Van Cott of chemical engineering is exploring the nanoscale world through computer simulations and a combination of optics, thin-film technology, and analytical biochemistry.

from the The-worm-turns dept.
According to a press release (10 December 2001), two University of Colorado at Boulder researchers working with GenoPlex Inc. in Denver have identified a biological switch that controls lifespan in tiny worms, a finding that could have applications for mammals, including people.
The switch, known as DAF-16, is a protein that can either lengthen or shorten the lifespan in the eyelash-sized roundworm, C. elegans, said CU-Boulder psychology Professor Thomas Johnson. Johnson, who is a fellow in the universityís Institute for Behavioral Genetics, or IBG, said DAF-16 is a critical part of a complex signaling pathway that involves insulin and glucose. Henderson has identified a molecule that embodies a trade off, said Johnson. "If DAF-16 is ëon,í it triggers less reproduction, more efficient cell repair and longer lives. On the other hand, if DAF-16 is ëoff,í the result is more reproduction, worse cell repair and a shortened lifespan," he said.
There is a good possibility scientists could develop a pharmaceutical intervention that would trigger translocation of DAF-16 into the cell nucleus of a variety of animals, including humans, said Henderson. This would cause organisms to lower their reproduction level and fight off the negative impacts of free radicals.

from the from-chemistry-to-nanotech dept.
The December 10 Chemical & Engineering News has an article titled "Highlights 2001" that summarizes the top achievements in various fields of chemistry. It kicks off with three pages on nanotech and molecular electronics.

According to a press release (18 December 2001), a team of researchers led biophysicist Bing Jap led a team from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory's Life Sciences Division have determined the structure and function of a cell membrane protein, called aquaporin 1 (AQP1), that is specific for water molecules. The structure reveals the how the AQP1 can transport water through the cell membrane at a high rate while effectively blocking everything else that is larger or smaller, even individual protons, the nuclei of hydrogen atoms.

Each AQP1 channel is made up of four identical subunits, each with an entrance chamber on the outside of the cell envelope, connected to a similar chambeer inside the cell by a long, narrow pore. "The secret of AQP1's specificity is two-fold: it selects for size and for chemical nature," Jap says. "There is a very narrow constriction in the pore, which admits no molecule bigger than water. To keep out molecules smaller than water there is also a chemical filter, formed by the specific orientation and distribution of the amino acid residues lining the pore."

Molecules attempting to enter the channel are bound to water molecules that are stripped away in the pore; charged species are therefore left with net electrical charge. "The filter strongly rejects charged molecules or ions, even as small as single protons," Jap explains. The unique distribution of amino acid residues along the pore wall also accounts for the channel's ability to move water quickly. The channelís internal environment has both hydrophilic and hydrophobic components. Water molecules readily get in because of the hydrophilic sites, but the hydrophobic regions prevent them from binding too frequently. Thus water and only water flows freely in and out of the cell through AQP1's pores, the direction of flow depending only on changing relative pressure inside and outside the cell.

Similar work on the structure and workings of an ion-channel protein sorter for potassium ions was reported here on 2 November 2001.

Some recent work with macroscopic robots is aimed at developing the sorts of capabilities that are often envisioned for future nanorobotic systems:

• A press release from 14 December 2001 tells of a research team at the University of Wisconsin at Madison is conducting work with small networks of distributed sensors to provide pervasive monitoring of terrain for military applications. The network is made up of hundreds of sensors that send information to collecting nodes. The aim is to develop in smart, low-cost integrated devices containing many different types of sensors, wireless transceivers and processors with significant computing capabilities collects data from hundreds of similarly disguised wireless microelectromechanical (MEMS) sensors and relays it to an unmanned aircraft that pieces together the information to identify vehicles (such as a tank) or other objects moving across the landscape.
• A lengthy article on the Small Times website ("Nanoresearchersí little helpers come equipped with tiny tool belt", by M. Downs, 19 December 2001) describes work by robotics researcher Sylvain Martel at the Nano-Robotics Research Group within the MIT BioInstrumentation Laboratory, who has created small mobile robots, which he calls NanoWalkers, that he intends to equip with "scanning-tunneling microscope (STM) tips for imaging and nudging atoms, some with atomic force tips for working on nonconductive materials, others with micromanipulators for moving and assembling micron-size parts, and eventually even atoms. They'll also have an array of other tools for nanoscale deposition, etching, machining and imaging." The article says Martel started with an STM tip because it is a critical tool for atomic-scale imaging, but also because he had some experience with traditional STMís. The group hopes to go on and add a variety of tools to the basic platform, including Confocal laser microscopy, raman microscopy, mechanical and electrical impedance imaging, thermo-imaging, microinjection and micromachining. Whether these robotic systems can be scaled down to perform useful work at the nanoscale is uncertain.

According to a press release (19 December 2001), researchers at IBM's Almaden Research Center have performed the world's most complicated quantum-computer calculation to date. They used a container full of billions of custom-designed molecules to create a seven-qubit quantum computer that solved a simple version of the numerical factoring problem at the heart of many of today's data-security cryptographic systems. Reporting their work in the 20 December 2001 issue of Nature, the team says they have provided the first demonstration of "Shor's Algorithm" — a method developed in 1994 by AT&T scientist Peter Shor for using a quantum computer to find a number's factors. Today, factoring a large number is so difficult for conventional computers — yet so simple to verify — that it is used by many cryptographic methods to protect data.\

The simplest meaningful instance of Shor's Algorithm is finding the factors of the number 15, which requires a seven-qubit quantum computer. IBM chemists designed and made a new molecule that has seven nuclear spins — the nuclei of five fluorine and two carbon atoms — which can interact with each other as qubits, be programmed by radio frequency pulses and be detected by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) instruments similar to those commonly used in hospitals and chemistry labs. The IBM scientists controlled a vial of a billion billion (10¹⁸) of these molecules so they executed Shor's algorithm and correctly identified 3 and 5 as the factors of 15. "Although the answer may appear to be trivial, the unprecedented control required over the seven spins during the calculation made this the most complex quantum computation performed to date," a member of the research team said.

Additional coverage of the research can be found in the New York Times and an article from the San Francisco Chronicle reprinted on the Small Times website.

brianwang writes "The most recent issue of the Economist (20 December 2001) discusses a view of nanomedicine and recent developments. http://www.economist.com/science/displaystory.cfm? story_id=916725

They discuss examples of current work that have mostly already been tracked in nanodot.

• Pancreatic cells encased in nanoscale containers with nanopores.
• Quantum dot tagging of stem cells.
• Fullerine and nanotube based drugs.

They spin nanomedicine as being the ultimate of what we will see from nanotech rather than molecular nanotech with assemblers. They don't see it as being on the road to and part of molecular nanotech. Eric Drexler,as usual, is mentioned, as is "Fantastic Voyage"."

from the pay-attention-to-reality dept.
Krees writes: "Foresight founder Eric Drexler addresed a terrorism symposium Tuesday [18 December], warning of the "extreme downsides" of nanotechnology and criticizing some nanotech researchers for their apparent failure to consider the negative applications of their technologies. Sandia's Gerard Yonas also spoke on the emerging field of cognotechnology (convergence of nanotech, biotech and IT) for remote brain sensing and mind control."

Dr. Drexler, Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Molecular Manufacturing and Foresight Board Chair, spoke during a panel discussion "The War On Terrorism: What Does It Mean for Science?", held on 18 December 2001 in Washington, D.C.

An article on the Small Times website ("Drexler warns terror symposium: Nanotech has ëextreme downsidesí ", by Doug Brown, 19 December 2001) provides extensive coverage:
ìOne of my profound hopes is that the new spirit of seriousness about life and death issues that we see in the wake of Sept. 11 Ö will encourage people to pay a little less attention to politics and a little more attention to reality,î said Drexler. ìThis is a technology which can reasonably be described as extreme in all directions: extreme upsides, extreme downsides.î
Drexler also noted that many scientists who are eager to slapped the term "nanotechnology" on their research when it was viewed as ìsexy,î but became ìa little upset to find that they had a label on their work that was associated with outrageous, science-fictiony sounding claims about the future and scary scenarios and other thingsî, with the result that many members of the nanotechnology research community ìlike to distance themselves from the consequences of their own work.î

For some background, read the Foresight Position Statement on Avoiding High-Tech Terrorism, and an open letter from Dr. Drexler on "Nanotechnology: Six Lessons from Sept. 11".

The Small Times article also covers comments by Foresight Executive Director Chuck Piercey on the funding of long-term nanotechnology research, and Gerald Yonas, vice president and principal scientist at Sandia National Laboratories, who described an emerging field he calls ìcognotechnology,î a convergence of nanotechnology, biotechnology and information technology. With nanotechnology, he said, itís feasible to use brain implants to moderate behavior or brain functioning; he also discussed a developing field that focuses on remote sensing of brain function, including the intention to commit deception [Progress toward such systems was reported here on 13 November 2001.]
ìThere are two sides to the sword of science and technology, and as we move forward there is no way we can stop any advance from happening, but we should be aware of the implications and the possibilities,î he said, ìand long before these things happen we ought to think about, 'What are the rules?' î

Richard B. Cathcart writes "The World Development Federation's FIRST Virtual Global Super Projects Conference has many interesting reports posted at its temparary WWW site–available probably through the end of December 2001. GO TO: www.conway.com/wdf/gspc/virtual2001. In Session #3 a molecular nanotechnology-produced super-rope is proposed a a means to block the Strait of Gibraltar with a tensioned-fabric curtain. Such protective submarine screen would be made even more effective if it were held in place with braided nanotubes."

from the computational-neuroscience dept.
According to a press release (17 December 2001) researchers funded by the Cognitive and Neural Sciences Division at the Office of Naval Research (ONR) are working to reverse engineer certain brain functions in order to produce a machine or system that might mimic some of the brainís capabilities. They announce they have been able to simulate mammalian brain function using biologically realistic, highly detailed computer models of individual brain neurons and their assemblies. From this research they are learning how the architecture and physiological properties of cells in the brain (the primary visual cortex) integrate visual cues for target recognition.
ìRight now weíre building a cellular-level model of a small piece of visual cortex,î says Dr. Leif Finkel, head of the University of Pennsylvaniaís Neuroengineering Research Lab. ìItís a very detailed computer simulation which reflects with some accuracy at least the basic operations of real neurons.î His colleague, Kwabena Boahen, is building VLSI computer chips that reproduce cortical wiring and many of the properties of the cells. ìHe has a chip that accurately models the retina and produces output spikes that closely match real retinae. We hope someday that these can be used as retinal implants.î

from the World-Watch dept.
An article in The Australian ("Surprise gift for UQ", by Dorothy Illing, 12 December 2001), a national newspaper in that country, reports that an anonymous donor from the United States has given the University of Queensland a $17.5 million gift towards a nanotechnology institute. The same philanthropist has already put at least $10 million into the university's $105 million Institute for Molecular Bioscience. The $50 million Australian Institute of Bio-Engineering and Nanotechnology also will get $15 million from UQ's budget. The institute will bring together scientists working in nanotechnology, biomaterials, tissue engineering, neuroscience and bioengineering.
The University of Technology Sydney reports (16 December 2001) it will strengthen its nanotechnology programs, under the leadership of Acting Director of the Institute for Nanoscale Technology, Dr Grant Griffiths. UTS will attempt to match its programs with industry needs, introduce two new undergraduate degrees, and recruit Honours and PhD research students to a range of new industry-sponsored nanotechnology projects.
And a new portal linking to nanotechnology-related sites sponsored by the Australian government was spotted by John Dalton, who writes "I just found Nanotechnology in Australia. It is intended to be a central entry point to Australian efforts in nanotechnology."

from the World-Watch dept.
An extensive article on the Small Times website ("China, emboldened by breakthroughs, sets out to become nanotech power", by Jen Lin-Liu, 17 December 2001) describes recent advances in the production of carbon nanotubes in China, and discusses the overall direction and strategies of Chinese nanotechnology programs:
"In laboratories across China, researchers at universities are intensely studying the potential of nanotubes and nanowires ñ some reporting breakthroughs that have escaped the West. The scientists, most of whom have interdisciplinary backgrounds in chemistry, physics and engineering, are first seeing how far they can stretch their imaginations before they translate their discoveries into practical applications. China plans to intensify research in the field, aiming to prove that the country has the potential to become a powerhouse in nanotechnology."