from the cramming-more-bits-into-less-area dept.
A NanoMagnetics Ltd Press Release of August 1, 2002 announced the doubling of nanoparticulate storage density for commercial computer disk drives to just over 12 Gb/sq.in. They believe their patented protein-based technology for developing advanced magnetic materials will eventually enable terabyte computer disk drives. A Nanodot post of July 13, 2002 reported the work of other researchers aiming for terabit per inch storage densities using nanostructured magnetic materials.

from the another-reason-to-see-your-dentist dept.
A Hybrid Plastics, Inc. Press Release (32 KB PDF) dated August 7 2002 announced that Pentron Clinical Technologies has introduced of a new class of dental bonding agents based on Hybrid Plastics' Polyhedral Oligomeric Silsesquioxane (POSS®) nanocomposites. The new dental adhesives are based on 1.5-nm silicon-derived building blocks, and are said to provide a stronger restorative resin and better bonding between the tooth and the restorative material.

from the things-to-do-with-your-AFM dept.
Small Times featured an August 19, 2002 article by correspondent Elizabeth Gardner entitled Nanoink writes its own ticket using quills on the nanoscale that describes the offering by NanoInk Inc. of a package of supplies and software to enable use of an atomic force microscope for Dip-Pen Nanolithography (DPN) to build nanostructures by writing 10 nm-wide lines (see Nanodot June 13, 2002). The next step for Nanoink is to develop an array of independently controlled tips, similar to IBM's Millipede Project (see Nanodot June 19, 2002), which uses an array of 1024 AFM tips.

from the better-security-through-smaller-sensors dept.
Small Times featured an August 22, 2002 story by correspondent Doug Brown entitled Bush Administration OKs Report Making Nano a Terror War Priority:

The White House has signed off on a report detailing the full scope and breadth of the budget request and research vision established by the National Nanotechnology Initiative, which includes a heightened commitment to using nanotechnology to fight weapons of mass destruction.

The 153-page report, National Nanotechnology Initiative: The Initiative and its Implementation Plan (an 879 KB PDF file) is labelled a "Detailed Technical Report Associated with the Supplemental Report to the President's FY 2003 Budget" and dated June 2002. The report adds a new "grand challenge" to the NNI program: "Nanotechnology for bio-chem-radiological-explosive: detection and protection (expanded and refocused Bio-Nanosensors)"

from the Scientific-Visualization dept.
waynerad writes "Here's a fun website I found: The NASA Nanotechnology Gallery. It has: pretty pictures, powerpoint presentations, and MPEG movies of carbon nanotubes (mostly)."

from the Looking-for-roadmaps dept.

larens imanyuel writes "In each phase of the Industrial Revolution a new industrial system has arisen on top of the previous one. Each has involved enabling technology, new organizational principles, and new major product lines. For instance, a century ago electrification with small motors allowed Henry Ford to design the modern assembly line to mass produce automobiles. Several decades ago silicon technology allowed the mass production of personal computers through an exponential refinement of technique, commonly known as Moore's law, that became the Semiconductor Roadmap. The question naturally arises as what the equivalent industrial system will be for the next half century."

from the exploring-very-small-frontiers dept.
The International Journal of Engineering Education has published a Special issue on Nanotechnologies (Volume 18 number 5, September 2002). The Table of Contents is available on the Web. Michael Wald, Editor, writes that single copies are available at US$35+US$15 postage. Inquire at ijee@eircom.net.

from the shrinking-the-gap dept.
Gina Miller writes "An article summarizing progress with carbon nanotube field effect transistors is available on the nanotechweb.org web site. Nanotubes speed up, by Adrian Bachtold, which originally appeared in the August issue of Physics World, reports that 'Transistors fabricated from carbon nanotubes now have electrical characteristics that can rival silicon devices.'"

from the better-viewing-through-plasmons dept.
Gina Miller writes "A Purdue University press release 'Nanoantennas' could bring sensitive detectors, optical circuits describes mathematical simulations published by Purdue researchers that demonstrate that antennas made from metal wires and spheres only about 10 nm wide should be able to bend light in the opposite direction to the usual case to produce a 'super lens' that 'drastically improves the quality of medical diagnostic images.'"

from the life-and-death-matters dept.
Zarathustra2101 writes "The current issue of Reason magazine features an article entitled Forever Young: The New Scientific Search for Immortality by Ronald Bailey. The author paraphrases Dylan Thomas thus: 'The defining political conflict of the 21st century will be the battle over life and death. On one side stand the partisans of mortality, who counsel humanity to quietly accept our morbid fate and go gentle into that good night. On the other is the party of life, who rage against the dying of the light and yearn to extend the enjoyment of healthy life to as many as possible for as long as possible.'"

from the can-we-work-this-out? dept.
Three Nanodot readers wrote (see below) about The New York Times piece Opposition to Nanotechnology by Barnaby J. Feder, August 19, 2002, which reports that "nanotechnology is encountering the kind of real-world headwinds that have impeded biotechnology." The central focus of the article is the concerns of the ETC Group about nanoparticles in the environment penetrating living cells and accumulating in animal organs (see "Call for moratorium on commercial nanomaterials," Nanodot July 29, 2002).

from the getting-to-know-you dept.
JohnFaith writes "The University of Washington Center for Nanotechnology will be holding a three day workshop called "Nanotech meets Business" September 18-20, 2002. Registration deadline is Sept. 10, but costs less if you sign up before the 5th." Non-technical presentations on the 18th followed by more technical workshop Sept. 19-20.

from the very-small-cyborgs dept.
An article in The Arizona Republic of Aug. 06, 2002 Molecule-size machines the wave of the future, ASU scientists say reports that researchers at Arizona State University "think the body's billions of tiny machines are a key to a new field that has excited scientists, government officials and investors around the world."

from the jolted-atoms dept.
waynerad writes "Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have created what may be the world's smallest electroluminescent light source using photon emissions from individual molecules of silver".

… the work could lead to new types of nanometer-scale optical interconnects, high-resolution optical microscopy, nanometer-scale lithography and other applications that require very small light sources. And because single molecules are known to emit one photon at a time, the technique could ultimately be the basis for high-efficiency quantum information processing and cryptography.

from the sensing-and-storing dept.
Carrie Bonforte writes to point to a Business 2.0 article Starting Small, by Erick Schonfeld, August 09, 2002, about "A Bay Area company called Nanomix … trying to make industrial devices out of a material that's just a single atom thick." The article reports that Nanomix's work with carbon nanotubes is focused on two specific markets: chemical gas sensors, and hydrogen-storage systems.

from the every-nanoparticle-under-the-sun dept.
Gina Miller writes "Nanoparticles Used In Solar Energy Conversion reports that professor of chemistry David Kelley at Kansas State University has developed a gallium selenide nanoparticle of just the right size to use in solar cells. The spectrum of light absorbed changes with the size of the nanoparticle. 'Kelley is developing nanoparticles that are just the right size for solar cells — they can absorb all visible light but nothing from the invisible light at the red end of the spectrum, which would reduce voltage.'"

from the staking-out-the-future dept.
What utopia can technology deliver?, a Tech Update article by Dan Farber, August 9, 2002 continues the dialog sparked by the NSF/DOC report Converging Technologies for Improving Human Performance. While recommending the report as an important document for considering what future technologies will bring, Farber finds some of the report's suggestions "hard to buy."

from the it's-usually-the-pH dept.
Gina Miller writes "In A Nanobridge Too Far?, Chemistry.org reports on research by Hiroshi Matsui and Christina Holtman at Hunter College in fabricating nanotube bridges between microspheres by controlling pH during self-assembly. The authors do not yet understand how nanotubes form on the microspheres as a result of the pH change, but 'this demonstration shows potential that molecular self-assembly mechanisms may be switched from one shape to another by tuning pH to fabricate the composite structures.' Really cool graphic included in the article!"

from the straining-for-speed dept.
Gina Miller writes "Internetnews.com reports that the Santa Clara, Calif. based Intel Corperation is making plans to 'leap into the nanotechnology era' with a 'strained silicon' technology in which the lattice structure of a silicon wafer is strained to stretch the atoms apart, boosting electric current flow and chip performance and lowering costs. This 90 nm process technology will be used to make transistors with gate lengths less than 50 nanometers, and will be used to produce a chip named 'Prescott' that is schedualed to hit the market towards the end of 2003. Some technical details on the process can be downloaded as a PDF file from the Intel site."

from the smoothing-your-adatoms dept.
Researchers devise approach to anchor metals to metal oxides, a press release from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, describes work done at PNNL and Sandia National Laboratory to deposit on a metal oxide layer a flat layer of metal atoms, only a few atoms thick, despite the large mismatch between the lattice constants of the metal and the metal oxide layers. The technology is expected to find use in magnetic tunnel junctions, slated for use in magnetoresistive random access memory, or MRAM, and in lowering the costs of catalysts because it will be possible to use thinner layers of expensive metals.