Nanotechnology : %1

Your interpretations of nanotechnology

Admin — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 12:32:10 +0000

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For reference (and fun) we are gatherering your slant on 'Nanotechnology' - Send in your idea of what nanotechnolgy is.

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We are going to list everyones idea on the concept of nanotechnology. Whether funny, off the wall or serious we would love to hear from you. All submissions will get your name and url acknowledged.

Here is one slightly understated submission - 'Nanotechnology is about small things'

So come on nanoviper's lets be hearing form you. You can use the form below. 100 words or less please. http://www.nanovip.com/contact

Read the results - http://www.nanovip.com/node/53670

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Click Here For Nanotechnology Related Downloads

Admin — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 23:53:21 +0000

Nanovip Companies Database
http://www.nanovip.com/nanotechnology-companies/download-databases

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Hub-based Simulation and Graphics Hardware Accelerated Visualization for

Cut And Paste Nanotechnology With Single Molecules

Admin — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 12:42:51 +0000

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When the sample with the DNA scaffold is incubated with a solution of fluorescent nanoparticles, a rapid self-assembly process of these particles on the predefined scaffold takes place.

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Dr. Hermann E. Gaub, head of the Biophysics and Molecular Materials Group in the Physics Department at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University (LMU) of Munich, together with Elias Puchner and colleagues from the university's Center for Nanoscience and the Center for Integrated Protein Science Munich, combined the precision of atomic force microsccopy with the selectivity of DNA interaction to create freely programmable nanopatterns of DNA-oligomers on a surface and in aqueous environment.

What the LMU researchers did was create a DNA scaffold by picking biotin bearing DNA oligomers with an AFM tip and depositing them, one by one, in a desired pattern on a surface, basically creating a pattern of attachment points for fluorescent semiconductor nanoparticles conjugated with streptavidin. The small bacterial protein streptavidin is commonly used for the detection of various biomolecules and it binds with high affinity to the vitamin biotin. The strong streptavidin-biotin bond can be used to attach various biomolecules to one another or onto a solid support.

When the sample with the DNA scaffold is incubated with a solution of fluorescent nanoparticles, a rapid self-assembly process of these particles on the predefined scaffold takes place.

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thoughtware.tv/videos/show/2911

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Cal State Northridge has come a long way in 50 years

Admin — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 12:27:41 +0000

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NORTHRIDGE - In a basement lab at California State University, Northridge, students don astronautlike white suits to study the tiniest of molecules.

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Having a nanotechnology lab boasting $100,000 microscopes represents a giant leap for a university that 50 years ago sprouted amid orange groves and squash fields.

"It was all temporary buildings then, maybe 2,000 people on the entire campus," said Vince Barabba, a member of the school's founding class. "It was a close-knit environment where students and faculty came together. It was a rare opportunity to start a college with a clean slate."

Now, as the school celebrates its 50th anniversary, it is also engaging in its largest construction boom ever, including the addition of a $100 million performing arts center. And its enrollment has grown more than tenfold since those early days, reaching a record 36,600 this fall.

"We have had about 190,000 alums in 50 years. We are educating more teachers than the entire UC system and we are one of the largest employers in the San Fernando Valley, employing about 4,000 people," said CSUN President Jolene Koester. "This university has always been focused on this region."

But in many ways, the Valley's only public university is still a campus trying to find its way.

Koester's plans for the college include becoming a nationally recognized institution.

"Forever there have been conflicting visions of what this college should become," said John

Broesamle, a former CSUN history professor and author of the book "Suddenly a Giant: A History of California State University, Northridge."

From its inception, founding members of the school saw CSUN as competitive with UCLA and the University of Southern California, he said.

A satellite version of the school started in 1955 out of rented space in San Fernando High School. The first president's office was out of his car's front seat, Broesamle said.

CSUN's humble start, coupled with its suburban location, led many to think of the school as a small, semirural liberal arts college.

"But the small college in a rural environment was not sustainable," Broesamle said.

As the North Valley's fields gave way to tract homes, apartments and retail stores after World War II, CSUN also evolved.

The college began to plow its green space to make room for new classrooms, a library and student housing, and students began to ask for change inside the classroom.

By 1968, it felt its first round of growing pains when African-American and Chicano students, encouraged by the nation's ongoing civil rights movement, started protesting the school's lack of minorities.

Tensions reached a boiling point Nov. 4 that year when members of CSUN's Black Student Union accused a volunteer football coach of discrimination against a black football player.

They took over the fifth floor of the campus administration building. More than 100 LAPD officers were called in, and it all ended peacefully.

"It's ironic that the university that always aspired to national recognition was first recognized nationally as a fountainhead of student protests," Broesamle said.

As a result, CSUN created Pan-African Studies and Chicano/Chicana Studies departments as part of the agreement reached between student leaders and administrators.

Rudy Acuna, the founding faculty member for the Chicano/Chicana Studies Department, said getting the programs off the ground was difficult.

"Those first three years were hell," Acuna said. "Police were engaged in racial profiling. Originally even the Spanish Department objected to our program. They thought the programs would go away, but we kept pushing."

Today, the program serves 5,000 students a semester and is one of the largest of its kind in the country.

In 1994, CSUN was faced with a different kind of movement when the 6.7-magnitude Northridge Earthquake left most of the campus in rubble, with more than $300 million worth of damage.

It reopened weeks later in temporary bungalows with a lower enrollment, but 14 years later it has fully recovered.

Looking ahead, the college faces many challenges. As the Valley continues to diversify, CSUN has to adjust its programs to its changing student body.

Tom Spencer-Walters, chairman of the Pan-African Studies Department, said while minority programs have flourished - now including departments for women's studies, Asian-American studies, Central-American studies and most recently queer studies - the recruitment of minority faculty continues to be an issue.

"If ethnic studies were not on the campus, we would not be meeting our diversity objectives with faculty," Spencer-Walters said.

The current state budget crunch is also a growing issue for a college where more than half of the students are on financial aid.

"When I registered in the fall of 2005 my fees, with everything included, were about $1,500. ... Now they are almost $2,000," said Raul Marquez, 21, a 21 year-old senior majoring in kinesiology.

"I know we are getting a new science building, parking structure and a performance hall, but it seems like an inordinate amount of money in a small time frame. I hope CSUN continues to think about the college as a center for education, not a business."

For many, like nanotechnology professor Henk Postma, the mission remains clear. A Caltech doctoral graduate, he could have taught students the intricacies of the nanometer at pretty much any college.

But the Netherlands native said CSUN held a special attraction for him.

"I like the fact that we are teaching these types of students who typically don't go to research institutions - first-generation students," he said. "It's so important to engage these types of students."

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connie.llanos@dailynews.com
818-713-3634

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Secrets of superbug-busting antibiotic revealed by UCL researchers

Admin — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 12:06:56 +0000

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This week Nature Nanotechnology journal reveals how scientists from the London Centre for Nanotechnology (LCN) at UCL are using a novel nanomechanical approach to investigate the workings of vancomycin, one of the few antibiotics that can be used to combat so-called ‘superbugs’, such as MRSA.

The researchers, led by Dr Rachel McKendry and Professor Gabriel Aeppli, developed ultra-sensitive probes capable of providing new insight into how antibiotics work, paving the way for the development of more effective new drugs.

“There has been an alarming growth in antibiotic-resistant hospital superbugs such as MRSA and vancomycin-resistant Enterococci (VRE),” said Dr McKendry. “This is a major global health problem and is driving the development of new technologies to investigate antibiotics and how they work.

“The cell wall of these bugs is weakened by the antibiotic, ultimately killing the bacteria,” she continued.

“Our research on cantilever sensors – tiny levers no wider than a human hair – suggests that the cell wall is disrupted by a combination of a local antibiotic and a polymer known as a mucopeptide binding together, and the spatial mechanical connectivity of these events.

“Investigating both these binding and mechanical influences on the cells’ structure could lead to the development of more powerful and effective antibiotics in future.”

During the study Dr McKendry, Joseph Ndieyira, Moyu Watari and co-workers used these cantilever arrays to examine the process that ordinarily takes place in the body when vancomycin binds itself to the surface of the bacteria.

They coated the cantilever array with polymers known as mucopeptides from bacterial cell walls and found that, as the antibiotic attaches itself it generates a surface stress on the bacteria, which can be detected by a tiny bending of the cantilever sensors.

The team suggests that this stress contributes to the disruption of the cell walls and the breakdown of the bacteria.

The interdisciplinary team went on to compare how vancomycin interacts with both non-resistant and resistant strains of bacteria. The ‘superbugs’ are resistant to antibiotics because of a simple mutation that deletes a single hydrogen bond from the structure of their cell walls.

This small change makes it approximately 1,000 times harder for the antibiotic to attach itself to the bug, leaving it much less able to disrupt the cells’ structure, and therefore therapeutically ineffective.

“This work at the LCN demonstrates the effectiveness of silicon-based cantilevers for drug screening applications,” says Professor Gabriel Aeppli, Director of the LCN.

“According to the Health Protection Agency, during 2007 there were around 7,000 cases of MRSA and more than a thousand cases of VRE in England alone. In recent decades the introduction of new antibiotics has slowed to a trickle but without effective new drugs the number of these fatal infections will increase.”

The research was funded by the EPSRC (Speculative Engineering Programme), the IRC in Nanotechnology (Cambridge, UCL and Bristol), the Royal Society and the BBSRC.

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ucl.ac.uk/silva/news/news-articles/08010/08101201/

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'Nanotech search' for antibiotics

Admin — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 12:04:56 +0000

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UK researchers are using microscopic "nanoprobes" to find new drugs to tackle antibiotic resistance.

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The tiny ultra-sensitive probes can measure how well a drug binds to bacteria and its ability to weaken and destroy the bug.

The researchers tested the silicon-based technology on vancomycin, one of the few remaining antibiotics against infections such as MRSA

The initial results are published in Nature Nanotechnology.

It is the first time this type of nanotechnology has been used in screening for new drugs.
The probes are no wider than a human hair - which may seem big by nanotechnology standards - but they are able to detect minute changes at the molecular level.

Antibiotics such as vancomycin bind to the bacterial cell wall, disrupting it and causing the bacteria to break down.

When bacteria become resistant, small changes occur in the structure of their cell wall making it far harder for the antibiotic to latch on and weaken the structure of the cell.

'Surface stress'

The researchers from the London Centre for Nanotechnology coated a series of the nanoprobes with the proteins that make up bacterial cell walls.

Like a tiny row of diving boards, the probes bend in response to the "surface stress" that occurs when the antibiotic binds to the cell.

The system was able to detect that it is 1,000 times harder for vancomycin to attach to resistant bacteria than to non-resistant bacteria.

They are now screening other potential antibiotics with the goal of finding a drug that is able to bind strongly to resistant bacteria and cause substantial structural weaknesses to the cell wall.

Study leader Dr Rachel McKendry said: "There has been an alarming growth in antibiotic-resistant hospital 'superbugs' such as MRSA and vancomycin resistant Enterococci (VRE).

"This a major global health problem and is driving the development of new technologies to investigate antibiotics and how they work."

She added that different drugs caused different structural weaknesses in the cell wall - some of which were more effective than others - and the nanotechnology they were using could help to pinpoint those that were likely to cause the most destruction.

Professor Jeff Errington, director of the Institute for Cell and Molecular Biosciences at the University of Newcastle said the technology was very interesting and obviously highly sensitive.

But he said it did not solve the problem of finding new antibiotics to test in the first place.

"The bottleneck is in finding new molecules that kill bacteria by novel pathways," he said.

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news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7663437.stm

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Three reasons why a declining economy can be good for nanotechnology

Admin — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 11:59:09 +0000

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With the recent decline of the stock market, the reduction of lending, and the dearth of IPOs in 2008 things may look bleak for emerging technologies such as nanotech. But, while near term projections may look bad, in the long term economic decline could actually be extremely beneficial to technological developments involving nanomaterials. Here are three reasons why:

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1. Less resources force innovators to look for simpler more economical solutions.

Most invention is incremental in nature and build upon decades of earlier developments. For example, the techniques to manufacture integrated circuits have been developed over about 50 years and while the improvements in these techniques have been significant and have led to cheaper and more efficient electronics, the manufacturing cost and complexity have increased at a similar pace in accordance with Moore’s 2nd law. Semiconductor and electronics companies faced with a rapid decline in capital may be forced to look for dramatically different approaches to fabrication in order to stay in business. It is very likely that nanomaterials and nanolithographic techniques may play a key role in such new fabrication.

2. Nanotech. start-ups will be forced to focus on applications rather than on pure materials.

With less venture capital to go around it is likely that investment will go to those companies having business plans with clearly identified markets and applications. Start-ups lacking such direction will be forced to reprioritize or go out of business. While harsh in the short term this could be a good thing in the long run leading to new market creation.

3. The fall of the stock market will weaken older, public companies allowing newer, non-public companies a competitive advantage.

Companies not relying on public stock have a strategic advantage and more freedom to operate than public companies. Meanwhile older, public companies which need to answer to shareholders will be forced to compromise and may be more willing to deal with newer companies offering cost-cutting solutions offered by nanomaterials. In addition, in good economic times, distributors may have no desire to work with new companies offering cost reduced products due to longstanding relationships with more established companies. However, when the economy declines to a sufficient degree the distributors may reprioritize and give more weight to cost reduction than customer relationships offering a window of opportunity to newer competitors.

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nanolabweb.com

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Sensitive nanowire disease detectors created

Admin — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 17:21:30 +0000

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Yale scientists have created nanowire sensors coupled with simple microprocessor electronics that are both sensitive and specific enough to be used for point-of-care (POC) disease detection, according to a report in Nano Letters.

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The sensors use activation of immune cells by highly specific antigens - signatures of bacteria, viruses or cancer cells - as the detector. When T cells are activated, they produce acid, and generate a tiny current in the nanowire electronics, signaling the presence of a specific antigen. The system can detect as few as 200 activated cells.

In earlier studies, these researchers demonstrated that the nanowires could detect generalized activation of this small number of T cells. The new report expands that work and shows the nanowires can identify activation from a single specific antigen even when there is substantial background "noise" from a general immune stimulation of other cells.

Describing the sensitivity of the system, senior author Tarek Fahmy, Yale assistant professor of biomedical engineering, said:. "Imagine I am the detector in a room where thousands of unrelated people are talking - and I whisper, 'Who knows me?' I am so sensitive that I can hear even a few people saying, 'I do' above the crowd noise. In the past, we could detect everyone talking - now we can hear the few above the many."

According to the authors, this level of sensitivity and specificity is unprecedented in a system that uses no dyes or radioactivity. Beyond its sensitivity, they say, the beauty of this detection system is in its speed - producing results in seconds - and its compatibility with existing CMOS electronics.

"We simply took direction from Mother Nature and used the exquisitely sensitive and flexible detection of the immune system as the detector, and a basic physiological response of immune cells as the reporter," said postdoctoral fellow and lead author, Eric Stern. "We coupled that with existing CMOS electronics to make it easily usable."

The authors see a huge potential for the system in POC diagnostic centers in the US and in underdeveloped countries where healthcare facilities and clinics are lacking. He says it could be as simple as an iPod-like device with changeable cards to detect or diagnose disease. Importantly, Stern notes that the system produces no false positives - a necessity for POC testing.

The authors suggest that in a clinic, assays could immediately determine which strain of flu a patient has, whether or not there is an HIV infection, or what strain of tuberculosis or coli bacteria is present. Currently, there are no electronic POC diagnostic devices available for disease detection. "Instruments this sensitive could also play a role in detection of residual disease after antiviral treatments or chemotherapy," said Fahmy. "They will help with one of the greatest challenges we face in treatment of disease - knowing if we got rid of all of it."

Note: This story has been adapted from a news release issued by Yale University

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nanitenews.com/Research/Sensitive_nanowire_disease_detectors_created.asp

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CNS-UCSB Helps Land $24 Million National Center to Study Environmental Impacts of Nanotechnology

Admin — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 17:18:58 +0000

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The Center for Nanotechnology in Society at the University of California at Santa Barbara (CNS-UCSB) helped to win the new University of California Center for the Environmental Implications of Nanotechnology

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Santa Barbara, Calif. – The Center for Nanotechnology in Society at the University of California at Santa Barbara (CNS-UCSB) helped to win the new University of California Center for the Environmental Implications of Nanotechnology (UC CEIN), a five-year, $24 million center co-funded by the National Science Foundation and the Environmental Protection Agency to study the environmental impacts of nanotechnology. The new center, headquartered at UCLA but involving significant collaboration from UC Santa Barbara researchers, will include a research group on environmental risk perception led by Dr. Barbara Herr Harthorn, Director of the CNS-UCSB and Associate Professor of Feminist Studies, Anthropology & Sociology. CNS-UCSB also will collaborate in the UC CEIN’s novel science journalist program, led by Professor William Freudenburg, a professor in UCSB’s Environmental Studies Program and a member of Harthorn’s team. UC CEIN also includes other researchers in the Bren School of Environmental Science and Management, Environmental Studies, Chemistry, and Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology.

“The new centers represent a promising step toward US development of much needed systematic knowledge about the environmental toxicology, ecology, and bioaccumulation of nanoparticles,” said Harthorn. “Characterization of the hazards (and eventually, potential for exposures) associated with nanomaterial development and incorporation in other products is an essential next step in the responsible development of nanotechnologies. CNS-UCSB researchers involved in the UC CEIN and our new collaborators look forward to assessing public perceptions of nanoparticle environmental hazards, and conducting systematic comparative analyses of risk and risk communication, as we work with UC CEIN toxicologists and ecologists to develop empirically based risk communication.”

UC CEIN will be led by UCLA’s chief of nanomedicine, Dr. Andre Nel. It was founded due to growing public, industry, and regulatory agencies’ interest in better understanding the environmental impacts of nanoparticles. Combining interests in understanding nanoparticles’ effects in the environment, NSF and EPA sought out teams of university researchers to conduct such studies in a competition that was run over 2007 and 2008. The presence of CNS-UCSB and its experience as an NSF Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center dedicated to research on the societal impacts of nanotechnologies contributed to the success of the UC CEIN in securing its $24 million award.

Four of the seven Integrated Research Groups (IRGs) in the UC CEIN are based at UC Santa Barbara. Harthorn’s IRG, which builds on her research team’s effort in the CNS-UCSB, also includes UCSB Environmental Studies professor William Freudenburg, University of British Columbia (UBC) environmental risk researchers Terre Satterfield and Milind Kandlikar, and Cardiff University’s social psychologist Nick Pidgeon. In addition to Harthorn’s IRG, the other 3 at UCSB will be led by Arturo Keller, professor of environmental engineering in the Bren School of Environmental Science & Management and UC CEIN associate director; Bren professor of microbiology, Patricia Holden; and Bren associate professor of applied marine ecology, Hunter Lenihan. Other researchers include Environmental Studies professor and chair, Josh Schimel; professor and vice chair in the Department of Ecology, Roger Nisbet; EEMB assistant professor, Bradley Cardinale; and Galen Stucky, professor, Chemistry and Material Research Labs. The UC CEIN collaboration will also include researchers at UC Davis, UC Riverside, Lawrence Livermore and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories, Columbia University, Germany's University of Bremen, and Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.
Funding for the center is part of the National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI), a multi-agency federal program created to encourage development of nanotechnology in the U.S. economy.

Science Background

“Nanoscience involves research to discover new behaviors and properties of materials with dimensions at the nanoscale which ranges roughly from 1 to 100 nanometers(nm),” states the National Nanotechnology Initiative Web site. One nanometer is one billionth of a meter. “Nanotechnology is the way discoveries made at the nanoscale are put to work. Nanotechnology is more than throwing together a batch of nanoscale materials—it requires the ability to manipulate and control those materials in a useful way.”

About CNS-UCSB

The NSF Center for Nanotechnology in Society at UCSB serves as a national research and education center, a network hub among researchers and educators concerned with societal issues concerning nanotechnologies, and a resource base for studying these issues in the US and abroad. The Center addresses education for a new generation of social science and nanoscience professionals, and it conducts research on the historical context of the nano-enterprise, on innovation processes and global diffusion of nanotech, and on risk perception and the public sphere. CNS-UCSB researchers address a linked set of social and environmental issues regarding the domestic US and global creation, development, commercialization, production, consumption, and control of specific kinds of nanoscale technologies. It is one of only two such centers in the country (the other is housed at Arizona State University). The CNS research efforts are led by Dr. Harthorn and her UCSB Co-PIs, Professors Rich Appelbaum, Bruce Bimber, W. Patrick McCray, and Chris Newfield.

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cns.ucsb.edu/news/cns-ucsb-helps-land-24-million-national-center-to-study-environmental-impacts-of-nanotechnology/

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Green Nanotechnology Is Ready To Come Of Age

Admin — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 12:05:28 +0000

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Alongside renewable energy, green tech is tipped to become employment sector number one in the next decades

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Alongside renewable energy, green tech is tipped to become employment sector number one in the next decades if you believe reports by major organizations covering green jobs. But my hunch is to keep a check of nano technology as well. Because green technology's tendency to thrive on clever solutions to reduce energy usage is all great but it boils down to a rather finite activity. Humans will look for the next challenge and switch their attention to those found in truly greening production of tangible materials. That’s in essence the domain of nanotechnology.

Numbers of the National Science Foundation estimate that by 2015 nanotechnology will be worth $1 trillion in the world economy, employing over 2 million people .

That compares to UN figures indicating that the global green economy of environmental products and services is estimated to double from US$1,370 billion (1.37 trillion) per year to US$2,740 billion (2.74 trillion) by 2020. The comparison makes little sense, I know, but hey, these are figures that are seldomly released so bear with me.

For the time being there has been little reason to be all to obsessed with nanotechnology in a green context. That is because nano-engineered products are both intensely distrusted and overly hyped. We seem to be aware of the technology's potential in a positive sense yet there’s also a tremendous amount of skepticism because toxic substances are often created in the process that ordinary technology can’t handle.

But then again, those few nano-products that actually are green at the core are incredibly laudable. One example is the production of environmentally friendly gold particles, a recent development that the manufacturing marketplace is already wildly enthusiastic about. GreenNano, the new nanotech company that started commercializing eco-friendly gold nano-particles is receiving lots of press attention. The man who heads it all up, Kattesh Katti, is the renowned professor of radiology and physics attached to the University of Missouri's School of Medicine and College of Arts and Science.

Gold nano-particles are used in industrial applications ranging from cancer treatment to automobile sensors to cell phones and hydrogen gas production. The (patent pending) method Katti has invented eliminates synthetic chemicals involved in the production of gold nano-particles. That means that the production process is entirely environmentally friendly.

GreenNano submerses gold salts in water and then adds soybeans. A complex but wholly natural process leads to the creation of gold nano-particles. Sounds almost too good to be true, but more curious things have known to have occurred in the nano-business (including the growth of cell phones on plants).

GreenNano Company is in the midst of developing, commercializing and organizing the supply of gold nano particles for medical and technological applications. In my view the most exciting thing is that the creation, marketing and distribution of the new product is not where the story ends. According to Professor Katti, because the production procedure has changed so profoundly, other researchers are developing new uses for the technology.

In other words, we’re evolving!

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globalwarmingisreal.com/blog/2008/10/10/green-nano-technology-is-ready-to-come-of-age/

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What Is A Career In Biotechnology Like?

Admin — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 23:33:39 +0000

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Biotechnology is the integration of engineering and technology to the life sciences.

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Biotechnologists frequently use microorganisms or biological substances to perform specific processes or for manufacturing. Examples include the production of drugs, hormones, foods and converting waste products.

There are many sub-branches involved in the biotech industry. A few of the more common branches include; molecular biology, genetic engineering, and cell biology.

A new and exciting sub-branch requiring biotechnologists is the field of nanotechnology. Nanotechnology gives us the capability to engineer the tiniest of objects, things at the molecular level. Nano means a billionth of a specific unit in Greek. Nanotechnology includes the study and manipulation of materials between 1 and 100 nanometers.

To give you an idea, DNA is approximately 2.5 nanometers. Red blood cells are 2.5 micrometers (1,000 times larger). And a sheet of paper is about 100,000 nanometers thick!

As you can imagine, it is very difficult to scale and mass produce objects within the realm of nanotechnology. Their minute size makes them nearly impossible to manipulate. But scientists and engineers have teamed up to make the seemingly impossible a reality.

Which means those with the proper training will be highly sought after in the future. The National Science Foundation estimates that the U.S. alone will need up to 1 million nanotechnology researchers. It is estimated that the need for nanotechnology workers will reach 2 million by 2015.

Therefore, if you?re considering getting into the field of biotech, you may want to gear your background in nanotechnology if your school offers it or seek employment in this exciting new career field after graduating.

No matter what sub-branch you wind up specializing in, biotechnologists often collaborate with others in the laboratory and bounce ideas off one another. This can create a pleasant work environment; one that involves sharing with others and working together to achieve a great goal.

About the Author: To learn more about a career in the biotech industry, please visit Biotech Career News biotechcareernews.com/

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UAlbany NanoCollege Gives Students a View of Growing Career Opportunities in Nanotechnology

Admin — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 23:32:05 +0000

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NanoCareer Day brings 300 middle- and high-school students to CNSE's Albany NanoTech

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Albany, NY - Amid the growing number of nanotechnology-related career opportunities in the Capital Region and New York State, more than 300 elementary, middle- and high-school students got an inside look at the high-tech workplace of the future when they participated in NanoCareer Day held today at the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering ("CNSE") of the University at Albany.

Students had the unique opportunity to put on cleanroom "bunny suits," conduct experiments to learn the basics of solar cells and fuel cells, and to tour the UAlbany NanoCollege's $4.5 billion, world-class Albany NanoTech Complex, the most advanced research and development enterprise on a university campus anywhere in the world.

Created to lead the effort to begin preparing students for careers in New York's fast-growing nanotechnology industry - while also addressing the national need to stimulate an interest in math and science among America's younger generation - NanoCareer Day gives students unprecedented access to CNSE, ranked in May 2007 by Small Times magazine as the world's number one college for nanotechnology and microtechnology.

"Pioneering programs like NanoCareer Day have taken on increasing importance amid the rapid growth of New York's nanotechnology economy, spurred by the extraordinary leadership, vision and investment of Governor Paterson and Assembly Speaker Silver and led by the globally recognized UAlbany NanoCollege," said Dr. Alain E. Kaloyeros, Senior Vice President and Chief Executive Officer of CNSE. "NanoCareer Day begins the process of educating students about nanotechnology, helping to build a future workforce that is critical to advancing New York's growing nanotechnology sector and vital to strengthening U.S. competitiveness in an increasingly global marketplace."

The National Science Foundation projects the need for two million nanotechnology-savvy workers by 2014, with 20 percent expected to be scientists and the remaining 80 percent consisting of highly skilled engineers, technicians, business leaders, economists and others, with expertise ranging from two-year associate degrees to doctoral degrees.

Participating schools, and their counties, included: Ballston Spa High School (Saratoga); Doane Stuart School (Albany); Cohoes Middle School (Albany); Lynch Literacy Academy (Montgomery); Germantown High School (Columbia); New Scotland Elementary School, Albany City School District (Albany); Schenectady High School (Schenectady); Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake High School (Saratoga/Schenectady); and, Broadalbin-Perth High School (Fulton).

About CNSE. The UAlbany CNSE is the first college in the world dedicated to research, development, education, and deployment in the emerging disciplines of nanoscience, nanoengineering, nanobioscience, and nanoeconomics. In May 2007, it was ranked as the world's number one college for nanotechnology and microtechnology in the Annual College Ranking by Small Times magazine. CNSE's Albany NanoTech complex is the most advanced research enterprise of its kind at any university in the world: a $4.5 billion, 450,000-square-foot complex that attracts corporate partners from around the world and offers students a one-of-a-kind academic experience. The UAlbany NanoCollege houses the only fully-integrated, 300mm wafer, computer chip pilot prototyping and demonstration line within 65,000 square feet of Class 1 capable cleanrooms. More than 2,000 scientists, researchers, engineers, students, and faculty work on site at CNSE's Albany NanoTech complex, from companies including IBM, AMD, SEMATECH, Toshiba, ASML, Applied Materials, Tokyo Electron, Vistec Lithography and Freescale. An expansion currently underway will increase the size of CNSE's Albany NanoTech complex to over 800,000 square feet, including over 80,000 square feet of Class 1 capable cleanroom space, to house over 2,500 scientists, researchers, engineers, students, and faculty by mid-2009. For more information, visit cnse.albany.edu/.

CNSE Contact:
Steve Janack, CNSE Vice President for Marketing and Communications
(phone) 518-956-7322 (cell) 518-312-5009
(e-mail) sjanack@uamail.albany.edu

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Food nanotechnology means what?

Admin — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 23:30:35 +0000

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A couple of weeks ago I took part in a dialogue meeting in Brussels organised by the CIAA, the Confederation of the Food and Drink Industries of the EU, about nanotechnology in food.

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A couple of weeks ago I took part in a dialogue meeting in Brussels organised by the CIAA, the Confederation of the Food and Drink Industries of the EU, about nanotechnology in food. The meeting involved representatives from big food companies, from the European Commission and agencies like the European Food Safety Association, together with consumer groups like BEUC, and the campaigning group Friends of the Earth Europe. The latter group recently released a report on food nanotechnology - Out of the laboratory and on to our plates: Nanotechnology in food and agriculture; according to the press release, this “reveals that despite concerns about the toxicity risks of nanomaterials, consumers are unknowingly ingesting them because regulators are struggling to keep pace with their rapidly expanding use.” The position of the CIAA is essentially that nanotechnology is an interesting technology currently in research rather than having yet made it into products. One can get a good idea of the research agenda of the European food industry from the European Technology Platform Food for Life. As the only academic present, I tried in my contribution to clarify a little the different things people mean by “food nanotechnology”. Here, more or less, is what I said.

What makes the subject of nanotechnology particularly confusing and contentious is the ambiguity of the definition of nanotechnology when applied to food systems. Most people’s definitions are something along the lines of “the purposeful creation of structures with length scales of 100 nm or less to achieve new effects by virtue of those length-scales”. But when one attempts to apply this definition in practise one runs into difficulties, particularly for food. It’s this ambiguity that lies behind the difference of opinion we’ve heard about already today about how widespread the use of nanotechnology in foods is already. On the one hand, Friends of the Earth says they know of 104 nanofood products on the market already (and some analysts suggest the number may be more than 600). On the other hand, the CIAA (the Confederation of Food and Drink Industries of the EU) maintains that, while active research in the area is going on, no actual nanofood products are yet on the market. In fact, both parties are, in their different ways, right; the problem is the ambiguity of definition.

The issue is that food is naturally nano-structured, so that too wide a definition ends up encompassing much of modern food science, and indeed, if you stretch it further, some aspects of traditional food processing. Consider the case of “nano-ice cream”: the FoE report states that “Nestlé and Unilever are reported to be developing a nano- emulsion based ice cream with a lower fat content that retains a fatty texture and ﬂavour”. Without knowing the details of this research, what one can be sure of is that it will involve essentially conventional food processing technology in order to control fat globule structure and size on the nanoscale. If the processing technology is conventional (and the economics of the food industry dictates that it must be), what makes this nanotechnology, if anything does, is the fact that analytical tools are available to observe the nanoscale structural changes that lead to the desirable properties. What makes this nanotechnology, then, is simply knowledge. In the light of the new knowledge that new techniques give us, we could even argue that some traditional processes, which it now turns out involve manipulation of the structure on the nanoscale to achieve some desirable effects, would constitute nanotechnology if it was defined this widely. For example, traditional whey cheeses like ricotta are made by creating the conditions for the whey proteins to aggregate into protein nanoparticles. These subsequently aggregate to form the particulate gels that give the cheese its desirable texture.

It should be clear, then, that there isn’t a single thing one can call “nanotechnology” – there are many different technologies, producing many different kinds of nano-materials. These different types of nanomaterials have quite different risk profiles. Consider cadmium selenide quantum dots, titanium dioxide nanoparticles, sheets of exfoliated clay, fullerenes like C60, casein micelles, phospholipid nanosomes – the risks and uncertainties of each of these examples of nanomaterials are quite different and it’s likely to be very misleading to generalise from any one of these to a wider class of nanomaterials.

To begin to make sense of the different types of nanomaterial that might be present in food, there is one very useful distinction. This is between engineered nanoparticles and self-assembled nanostructures. Engineered nanoparticles are covalently bonded, and thus are persistent and generally rather robust, though they may have important surface properties such as catalysis, and they may be prone to aggregate. Examples of engineered nanoparticles include titanium dioxide nanoparticles and fullerenes.

In self-assembled nanostructures, though, molecules are held together by weak forces, such as hydrogen bonds and the hydrophobic interaction. The weakness of these forces renders them mutable and transient; examples include soap micelles, protein aggregates (for example the casein micelles formed in milk), liposomes and nanosomes and the microcapsules and nanocapsules made from biopolymers such as starch.

So what kind of food nanotechnology can we expect? Here are some potentially important areas:

• Food science at the nanoscale. This is about using a combination of fairly conventional food processing techniques supported by the use of nanoscale analytical techniques to achieve desirable properties. A major driver here will be the use of sophisticated food structuring to achieve palatable products with low fat contents.
• Encapsulating ingredients and additives. The encapsulation of flavours and aromas at the microscale to protect delicate molecules and enable their triggered or otherwise controlled release is already widespread, and it is possible that decreasing the lengthscale of these systems to the nanoscale might be advantageous in some cases. We are also likely to see a range of “nutriceutical” molecules come into more general use.
• Water dispersible preparations of fat-soluble ingredients. Many food ingredients are fat-soluble; as a way of incorporating these in food and drink without fat manufacturers have developed stable colloidal dispersions of these materials in water, with particle sizes in the range of hundreds of nanometers. For example, the substance lycopene, which is familiar as the molecule that makes tomatoes red and which is believed to offer substantial health benefits, is marketed in this form by the German company BASF.

What is important in this discussion is clarity – definitions are important. We’ve seen discrepancies between estimates of how widespread food nanotechnology is in the marketplace now, and these discrepancies lead to unnecessary misunderstanding and distrust. Clarity about what we are talking about, and a recognition of the diversity of technologies we are talking about, can help remove this misunderstanding and give us a sound basis for the sort of dialogue we’re participating in today.

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Students have opportunity to learn about nanotechnology

Admin — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 23:28:36 +0000

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More than 300 students from all over New York State are getting an up-close look at nanotechnology. Student Hasson Nharris said, "All this crazy technology, it's like, woah, it's amazing."

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UAlbany now hosts a career fair four times a year so students can figure out what high tech is all about.

UAlbany Assistant Professor Kathy Dunn said, "They drive by on the street and they can see that we have this big ship building or these beautiful glass buildings, but they don't know what goes on here. And so, to be able to come inside, I mean, I think that's a huge advantage to us."

The National Science Foundation estimates that by the year 2014, there will be a need for over two million nanotech jobs, and UAlbany is hoping to keep a lot of them here.

Dunn said, "We want to keep them here in New York State. This is a great place to be, and it's great that New York State is investing in this."

Though initially kids in middle school are interested in the field, by the time junior high rolls around, the clean room loses some of its appeal.

Dunn said, "We need to get them interested and to get over that barrier of what they think their peers are going to think about what they do and get them really involved in it. We're losing a lot of great minds by just not getting them hooked at an early enough age."

So to keep the kids interested, they break it down to a level that they can understand - like how does nanotechnology play a role in your video games, your iPod, or even your cell phone?

Dunn said, "Real examples like that where you can say something they know in their everyday life - a flu virus, a human hair, any of those things."

And by giving the kids an all-access view of what it all looks like, it seems to be working.

"This is an awesome place," said Hasson, "and I'm glad to be here."

With AMD bringing in an estimated 1,400 jobs in the year 2012, he just might still be.

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EPTE Newsletter from Japan: Nanotechnology-Another Trendy Phrase

Admin — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 18:26:47 +0000

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There are many questionable projects relating to this subject, and I scratched my head and wondered what the phrase "nanotechnology" truly encompasses.

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I recently perused a thick report published by a Japanese marketing research company addressing recent progress with nanotechnology. More than a thousand companies, universities and research organizations dedicate resources toward business applications or R&D activities for nanotechnologies. There are many questionable projects relating to this subject, and I scratched my head and wondered what the phrase "nanotechnology" truly encompasses.

Well, let's break it down. The original designation for "nano" was meant as a prefix to indicate the number of powers used for metric units. Other prefixes are listed below:

* Milli: one thousandth
* Micro: one millionth
* Nano: one billionth
* Pico: one trillionth
* Kilo: thousand times
* Mega: million times
* Giga: billion times
* Tera: trillion times.

Most of these prefixes can be attached to units of length or weight as kilograms, milliliters and micrometers. Storage devices in computer desktops and notebooks increased significantly, and a common term to reference their size is giga bytes. As hard drives continue to increase storage capacities, we will probably be measuring them in "tera bytes" soon. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has an even larger word bank of prefixes to measure even smaller or larger items; however, there are limited chances to use them in the real world, and most are reserved for astronomy or particle physics.

Most assume when an industry uses the phrase "nanotechnology," it is referring to a unit of measure (length), specifically a nanometer. While the dictionary does include nanotechnology, the scale for it has no formal definition; however, from an academic standpoint, its meaning is accepted as smaller than 100 nanometers. Generally, we name the range of 100 nanometers to 1,000 nanometers (one micrometer) "submicron," and do not designate them as nanotechnologies.

Nowadays, the line width of wiring in semiconductor devices decreased to 30 nanometers, and can certainly be considered nanotechnology. However, we do not call the traditional sputtering process and the electroless plating process nanotechnologies even though they generate layers thinner than 100 nanometers. Most plastic resins have a molecule size within the 1 and 100 nanometers range, but are not considered nanotechnologies.

All of the projects listed in the report I mentioned earlier have the tag line "nanotechnologies" associated with them, but many have no direct relationship. A senior research manager from a large chemical company explained to me that any new project needs a chic, swank or trendy name to secure a larger budget and reserve more staffing; "nanotechnologies" fits that bill. This overused phrase is thrown around as a way to procure new projects or business for some companies. Unfortunately, continuous employment seems to be the agenda for researchers and professors at large organizations. Most companies save face by declaring they are contributing to the pursuit of discovering new technologies.

I don't think our printed circuit industry needs to address "nanotechnologies" for a while. The majority within the industry is still considering double digit micrometers, and, recently, some leading manufacturers have hinted at single digit micrometers for the finest trace. It may take a few more years before we start to reach submicron range.

Dominique K. Numakura

DKN Research, dknresearch.com

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Microfluidics Nanotechnology Expert To Speak At National Nano Engineering Conference In Boston November 12-13

Admin — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 09:53:45 +0000

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Microfluidics, a division of Microfluidics International Corporation (OTCBB: MFLU), has announced that the company's CTO and nationally renowned nanotechnology applications expert

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Microfluidics, a division of Microfluidics International Corporation (OTCBB: MFLU), has announced that the company's CTO and nationally renowned nanotechnology applications expert, Thomai (Mimi) Panagiotou, Ph.D, will be presenting a talk at the 2008 National Nano Engineering Conference, November 12 and 13 at the Colonnade Hotel in Boston, MA. The talk, titled "Scalable Industrial Processing of Nanomaterials Using Microfluidizer® High Shear Fluid Processors," will cover scalable and robust technologies and processes for production, deagglomeration, purification and modification of nanomaterials. In addition, Dr. Panagiotou will moderate the Nanomaterials Session of the conference. Microfluidics, which won the Nanotech Briefs® Nano50™ Technology Award at the 2007 event, will be exhibiting key products from its Microfluidizer high shear processor product line in booth #8 at this year's conference.

Dr. Panagiotou is responsible for the overall direction of Microfluidics' technology and leads the development of Microfluidics Reaction Technology (MRT), an award-winning process-intensification technology to manufacture nanosuspensions from the bottom up. She has co-authored over 60 papers for journals and conference proceedings and is the co-inventor of two patents.

Her presentation at the 2008 National Nano Engineering Conference will discuss how, for many nanotechnology applications, paramount performance can only be achieved if the nanomaterials are deagglomerated and uniformly dispersed in media such as organic solvents, polymer resins, water, etc. In addition, she will explain how Microfluidics' technologies and processes provide solutions when nanoencapsulation, particle exfoliation, mixing in the nanometer scale, and fibril formation and length reduction of fibers are desired.

Dr. Panagiotou will discuss how the heart of the Microfluidics technology is a continuous microreactor, the interaction chamber, which consists of "fixed geometry" microchannels. Flow through the chamber is characterized by high fluid velocities and subsequent impingement of fluid jets to the chamber walls or to one another. This results in the generation of high intensity shear fields, and energy dissipation mechanisms such as turbulence are activated in the microliter-size volumes of the chamber. Under these conditions, mixing of fluids takes place at the nanometer scale, and solid agglomerates disperse or break to give submicron particles.

Microfluidics high shear fluid processors are used for particle size reduction, deagglomeration and dispersion of nanoparticles in liquid media. The scalability of these processors has been demonstrated in many applications.

Dr. Panagiotou will give her presentation on Wednesday, November 12 at 3:45 pm as part of the Nanocomposites Session.

About Microfluidics
Microfluidics, a wholly owned subsidiary of Microfluidics International Corporation, is a supplier of advanced fluid processing equipment and reaction technology for laboratory, pilot scale and manufacturing applications. The equipment enables the manufacture and formulation of numerous nanomaterials and nanoscale products and produces the most uniform and smallest liquid and suspended solid particles available.

Microfluidics has been a worldwide supplier of Microfluidizer® high shear fluid processing systems to the biotechnology, pharmaceutical, chemical, cosmetics/personal care and food industries since 1984. As leader in the field, Microfluidics has enabled numerous companies and institutions to formulate, validate and produce licensed drugs for the worldwide healthcare market.

Companies seeking to produce difficult-to-formulate products or to find better methods of bio-processing can take advantage of complimentary sample testing at one of three Microfluidics facilities. Visit microfluidicscorp.com, email mixinginfo@mfics.com or contact Microfluidics at 800.370.5452 for application information.

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Nanotechnology Mimicks Nature's Adhesive

Admin — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 09:49:10 +0000

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A Glue Which Uses the Gecko's Remarkable Feet as its Inspiration

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For decades, the remarkable ability of the Gecko lizard to climb effortlessly across any vertical surface (or even upside-down), no matter how smooth (or rough), has both baffled and intrigued scientists. If only humans could harness such adhesive powers, could there finally be an alternative to duct tape and superglue?

Believe it or not, scientists have finally achieved success in this area after several failed attempts.

How Does a Gecko Stick?

By microscopically analyzing the feet of geckos, scientists have come to understand that this lizard's remarkable abilities comes from an unlikely source - tiny (microscopically tiny, in fact) elastic hairs (from 3 to 130 nanometers in length) which split at the ends into even tinier "hooks." Because these hairs are so small, they behave in a manner not dissimilar to Velcro, but on a microscopic level, which allows them to stick to even the smoothest, slickest of surfaces.

It is as a result of these hairs that geckos have the remarkable ability to hang upside from the adhesion of just a single one of their toes!

The Answer: Carbon Nanotubes

Recent advances in nanotechnology (the manipulation of microscopic entities and the creation of structures and materials using nano particles) have allowed a new possibility in this regard. In particular, the answer which has been found by scientists lies in a particular type of nanosctructure called a "carbon nanotube."

The name of this structure is really rather self-explanatory - a carbon nanotube is merely a tube made up of carbon atoms. Carbon has proven itself to be perhaps the most resilient and simple atom to use in nanotechnology because its electron structure is uniquely designed to allow ready and strong bonding with other carbon atoms, which can be used to create large, complex, and useful carbons structures... like tubes.

These nanotubes have now been manipulated in such a way that they essentially mimic the peculiar features of gecko feet, extending microscopically from a surface and then curving into a microscopic "hook."

Using these carbon tubes - which by themselves are considerably stronger than the hairs on gecko feet - scientists have created a dry adhesive (that is, a non-chemical adhesive, like Velcro) which is actually superior to the foot of the gecko, while retaining the features which make it unique: high shear adhesion and low normal adhesion.

Tough as Nails, Easy to Remove

There is an important difference between these two types of adhesion when discussing sticky stuff. One of the qualities which clearly makes gecko feet unique is that while they are clearly very sticky and work incredibly well at keeping the creature stuck to any surface, they also somehow allow the animal to lift their feet back off the wall and walk along easily.

One can imagine that a lizard foot without this quality would be rather useless. Geckos would simply get stuck to the walls forever, unable to move.

The key here is the difference between shear adhesion and normal adhesion. Once again, velcro is a great example of this. When a velcro strap adheres to itself, it provides very strong adhesion indeed, especially when pulled against itself in a way which demonstrates its "shear" strength, but when it is pulled in the right way, such as when pulling apart the velcro on shoes, it actually comes apart rather easily. This is the same sort of phenomenon which is exemplified in gecko feet and, consequently, in the human-created nano adhesive.

The nanotube adhesive created by scientists has proven to maintain incredibly high strength under shear conditions (such as when hanging objects from a wall), but is also very easily removed on such diverse surfaces as PTFE (teflon), rough sandpaper, and glass. It is this fact which makes this product remarkable, and which provides obvious potential for future uses in residential, commercial and industrial uses.

Who knows? Within the next few years carbon nano-tube driven adhesives may become the wave of the future. Look out duct tape!

References:

"Carbon Nanotube Arrays with Strong Shear Binding-On and Normal Lifting-Off." Liangti Qu, Liming Dai, Morley Stone, Zhenhai Xia, Zhong Lin Wang.

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Nanotechnology Improves Food Safety by Detecting Prions

Admin — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 19:29:43 +0000

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This new tool targets prions, which are the cause of BSE (Mad cow desease).

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Mad cow disease is a fatal neurodegenerative condition in cattle that is related to the human form of a disease that has caused the deaths of nearly 200 people worldwide. Currently, testing for this disease in cattle is a lengthy process that only occasionally results in a correct diagnosis.

With funding from USDA's Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service (CSREES) National Research Initiative (NRI), scientists in New York created a new device that may provide a faster, easier, and more reliable way to test for mad cow disease, also known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE).

This new tool targets prions, which are the cause of BSE. Prions are abnormally structured proteins that convert normal proteins into an abnormal form. Prions are responsible for forms of the neurodegenerative diseases, such as BSE in cattle, scrapie in sheep, and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans. If often takes years before the symptoms arise that indicate the disease is present.

There are no rapid tests available to test for the presence of prions in cattle.

The only test currently available for BSE involves multiple steps, requires sacrificing an animal host, and takes time. The process requires infecting an animal with a patient's blood. Then, after a several month incubation period, the animal is sacrificed and scientists look for prions during the animal's autopsy. This method produces the correct diagnosis only 31 percent of the time.

A better method of prion detection is necessary to allay public fears, ensure the safety of the nation's food supply, and enhance international trade.

Harold Craighead and colleagues at Cornell University have developed nanoscale resonators, which are tiny devices that function like tuning forks by changing pitch with increased mass.

Craighead's group, in collaboration with Richard Montagna at Innovative Biotechnologies International, Inc., modeled the device after a similar idea used to detect bacterial pathogens. When prions bind to the resonator's silicon sensor, it changes the vibrational resonant frequency of the device. In experimental trials, the sensor detected prions at concentrations as low as two nanograms per milliliter, the smallest levels measured to date.

Currently, the resonator only detects prions in a saline solution. Efforts are now underway to use the resonator to detect prions in more complex solutions, such as blood.

"The real challenge is going to be to build an automated device that can take blood from a cow in the field and give a rapid response as to whether prions are present," Craighead said. "At the moment we only test cows when they fall over, but that is a late stage of the disease. It would be ideal to test cows a lot earlier. Resonators could be one path to doing this."

Scientists hope the new device will soon be used to detect prions in food items to ensure food safety and quality for the national food supply.

CSREES funded this research project through the NRI Nanoscale Science and Engineering for Agriculture and Food Systems program. Through federal funding and leadership for research, education and extension programs, CSREES focuses on investing in science and solving critical issues impacting people's daily lives and the nation's future. For more information, visit csrees.usda.gov.

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Nanotechnology centre to come up in AMU

Admin — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 13:31:37 +0000

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For setting up the centre, the Department of Science and Technology (DST), governed by the Government of India has just allocated over Rs.24 million

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Aligarh, Oct 9 (IANS) The Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) will set up a state-of-the-art Nanotechnology centre to facilitate advanced research and studies in material sciences, a university official said Thursday.

'For setting up the centre, the Department of Science and Technology (DST), governed by the Government of India has just allocated over Rs.24 million,' AMU spokesperson Rahat Abrar told IANS.

'At present, there are only 20 seats in the Nanotechnology course which is being offered by AMU at the postgraduate level. With the setting up of the centre, the varsity would be able to enrol more students in the course,' Abrar added.

Nanotechnology, the science of understanding the structure and behaviour of materials at atomic or molecular level, is an emerging field across the globe, varsity officials said.

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Midwest Insurance Company Excludes Nanotechnology from its Policies

Admin — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 13:29:56 +0000

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We believe the decision to exclude “nanotubes and nanotechnology” was not well thought out.

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I have to admit that I saw this tidbit a week or two ago over at Nanodot and found it to be so outlandish that I thought it fell into too-ridiculous-to-comment category.

But people kept sending me the links to the news story usually accompanied with some slack-jawed, bewildered comment.

It is bewildering. First, who is this Des Moines, IA-based Continental Western Insurance Group? I have never heard of the insurer, but I am not a Midwest farm. If someone would like to enlighten me as to the nanoparticle producers they currently insure (or should I say, used to insure), I would welcome the information.

Second, excluding “nanotechnology”?! Okay, you could make some poorly informed, taking hearsay over science decision that nanoparticles, or even more precisely carbon nanotubes, have exhibited some similarities to asbestos, albeit with research still inconclusive. But nanotechnology?

What is that supposed to be exactly? Will that include STMs and AFMs, key tools in nanotechnology? Will that include the GMR effect used in your computer so you can store 100 gigabytes of family photos?

I have to commend the Nanobusiness Alliance in being extremely restrained in their response:

We believe the decision to exclude “nanotubes and nanotechnology” was not well thought out. Treating nanotechnology as if it is monolithic makes no sense. A technology itself does not have risks and benefits — only the embodiments of the technology in the form of products do. Furthermore, the definitions were sufficiently broad that almost any business to be subject to the exclusion. This is the first exclusion. We hope that it will be reconsidered or pulled back altogether once the insurer understands the implications of the general-purpose exclusion they created. But, we must also educate insurers so that they do not make ill informed policy like this in the future.

The Nanobusiness Alliance is absolutely correct and at the same time generous to a fault. Instead, I am afraid this is just a further example of how just a small seed of misinformation can lead to dangerous stupidity.

The question I can’t seem to resolve is what was the point of the announcement? I keep pondering what possible purpose it served: giving notice to the Midwest nanoparticle industry to not knock on Continental Western’s door when looking for a policy? Or demonstrating what a forward thinking, risk adverse trailblazer the company is to its current customers?

If it’s the former, well I am not sure that they are turning away much business, and the little that they are will find the insurance they need. If it was the latter, it probably would be a safe bet that the current customers probably didn’t know about nanotechnology never mind care about its toxicological issues.

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