Month: July 2002

from the molecular-machine-shop dept.
santiago writes "Design of a Nanomechanical Fluid Control Valve Based on Functionalized Silicon Cantilevers: Coupling Molecular Mechanics and Classical Engineering Design

Santiago Solares(*), Mario Blanco, and William A. Goddard III
Materials and Process Simulation Center, California Institute of Technology,
Mail Code 210-41, Pasadena, CA 91125
(*) Author to whom correspondence should be addressed
Full text available at: http://www.wag.caltech.edu/nanovalve"

from the new-incubators dept.
Small Times reports the opening of a nanotechnology laboratory in a Swiss Institute that has an impressive track record in creating spinoff firms from its research: New Zurich Nanotech Lab Will Help Advance Industry.

from the from-defects-to-NanoPockets dept.
S. Hodgdon writes "Top technology story in today's Forbes.com: Kopin Shines Its Tiny Light. Here's a link to the press release: Kopin Harnesses Nanotechnology to Achieve Efficiency Breakthrough in Solid-State Lighting "

from the light-bedtime-reading dept.
Dr. H. S. Nalwa writes "American Scientific Publishers is bringing the World first encyclopedia in the field of nanotechnology to be available in March 2003."
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY
10-VOLUME SET (Available Both in Print and Online)
ISBN: 1-58883-001-2, Library of Congress Catalog Number: 2002110511, Publication Date: March 2003, Pages: ca. 6000 pages

from the hope-for-qubits dept.
waynerad writes "For the first time, University of Wisconsin-Madison scientists have designed a semiconductor-based device that can trap individual electrons and line them up, an advance that could bring quantum computing out of the gee-whiz world of scientific novelty and into the practical realm. Professors Mark Eriksson and Bob Joynt ( physics), Max Lagally (materials science and engineering), and Dan van der Weide (electrical and computer engineering) have developed a new type of "quantum dot" device for holding electrons that can be scaled up to build a working quantum computer. Made from tiny amounts of the same semiconductor materials used in today's computer chips, each quantum dot device contains just one infinitesimally small electron. When many of the devices are aligned, the electrons they house become usable quantum bits, or qubits, for computing."

A preprint paper describing the technology: Design and proof of concept for silicon-based quantum dot quantum bits.

from the ban-it-first-ask-questions-later dept.
In a lengthy position paper posted on their web site No Small Matter! Nanotech Particles Penetrate Living Cells and Accumulate in Animal Organs ETC Group, which describes itself as "dedicated to the conservation and sustainable advancement of cultural and ecological diversity and human rights," calls for "an immediate moratorium on commercial production of new nanomaterials [and for launching] a transparent global process for evaluating the socio-economic, health and environmental implications of the technology."

from the follow-your-affinities dept.
Gina Miller writes "A July 18, 2002 Brookhaven National Laboratory press release reports that researchers at North Carolina State University have developed a material (which was then tested at Brookhaven) with gold nanoparticles deposited in a gradient of decreasing density along a silica surface. The decreasing gradient of particles was formed because the particles bound to organosilanes that had previously been emitted as a vapor and then deposited in a gradient of decreasing density on the surface according to increasing distance from the emitter. The press release has what appear to be AFM images of the decreasing density of gold nanoparticles."

from the molds-from-molecules dept.
RobertBradbury writes "Science Daily provides a nice summary of work at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in which a team of chemists have developed a process using dendrimers to produce artificial antibodies."

"Now if we can just get a design for a molecular sorting rotor to attach them to we would have one of the key components that one needs to build nanorobots like respirocytes."

from the here-and-now dept.
TimHarper writes "Nanocatalysis is one area of nanotechnology that is already beginning to alter the economics of energy production, and billion dollar deals have already been signed. The shift away from dependence on oil from the Persian Gulf region also has implications for the bargaining power of OPEC, and provides significant opportunities in the energy sector for both Russia and China. In the post-September 11th world, desire to reduce dependence on imported energy is hot topic both in Washington and Brussels, and nanocatalysis is starting to make this possible."

from the phonons-and-photons dept.
Gina Miller writes "Using an instrument much like an atomic force microscope with a platinum tip as an antenna to focus an infrared laser beam, a group of German scientists was able to measure very strong reflection of the laser beam over nanometer-scale patches of scanned crystal surface when the frequency of the laser was very close to the vibration frequency of the crystal. This could lead to determining the composition of the surface to nanometer-scale resolution, or perhaps to building storage devices with 10-nm bits, equivalent to a storage density near 1 Tbit inch^-2. See:" Infrared antenna for nano-size mapping of crystal vibrations