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Nano Research : USA

Researchers Find Controls to Gold Nanocatalysis

 

Atlanta — Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have made a discovery that could allow scientists to exercise more control over the catalytic activity of gold nanoclusters. The finding – that the dimensionality and structure, and thus the catalytic activity, of gold nanoclusters changes as the thickness of their supporting metal-oxide films is varied – is an important one in the rapidly developing field of nanotechnology. This and further advances in nanocatalysis may lead to lowering the cost of manufacturing materials from plastics to fertilizers. The research appeared in the July 21, 2006 issue of the journal Physical Review Letters

"We've been searching for methods for controlling and tuning the nanocatalytic activity of gold nanoclusters,” said Uzi Landman, director of the Center for Computational Materials Science and Regents' professor and Callaway chair of physics at Georgia Tech. “I believe the effect we discovered, whereby the structure and dimensionality of supported gold nanoclusters can be influenced and varied by the thickness of the underlying magnesium-oxide film may open new avenues for controlled nanocatalytic activity,” he said...read the wave

 

 

Nano Research : USA

Uranium 'pearls' before slime

 

RICHLAND, Wash.--Since the discovery a little more than a decade ago of bacteria that chemically modify and neutralize toxic metals without apparent harm to themselves, scientists have wondered how on earth these microbes do it.

For Shewanella oneidensis, a microbe that modifies uranium chemistry, the pieces are coming together, and they resemble pearls that measure precisely 5 nanometers across enmeshed in a carpet of slime secreted by the bacteria.

The pearl is uranium dioxide, or uraninite, which moves much less freely in soil than its soluble counterpart, a groundwater-contamination threat at nuclear waste sites.

The U.S. Department of Energy estimates that uranium contaminates more than 2,500 billion liters of groundwater nationwide; over the past decade, the agency has support research into the ability of naturally-occurring microbes that can halt the uranium's underground migration to prevent it from reaching streams used by plants, animals and people...read the wave

 

 

Future Technology : USA

SURPRISE FINDING FOR STRETCHED DNA

 

BERKELEY, CA -- Most of us are familiar with the winding staircase image of DNA, the repository of a biological cell’s genetic information. But few of us realize just how tightly that famous double helix is wound.

Stretched to its full length, a single molecule of human DNA extends more than three feet, but, when wound up inside the nucleus of a cell, that same molecule measures about one millionth of an inch across.

Biologists have long believed that as a molecule of DNA is stretched, its double helix starts to unwind. As much sense as this makes from an intuitive standpoint, a recent experiment proved it not to be the case.

Researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the University of California at Berkeley used a combination of microscopic beads and magnetic tweezers to observe that when a DNA molecule is stretched, it actually begins to overwind. This overwinding continues until the force being applied to stretch the DNA exceeds about 30 picoNewtons. (One picoNewton is about a trillionth the force required to hold an apple against Earth’s gravity.) Beyond the 30 picoNewton threshold, the DNA double helix did begin to unwind in accordance with predictions...read the wave

 

 

Nano News : Vietnam

Scientists discuss particle astrophysics in Hanoi

 

More than 300 scientists are gathering in Hanoi to exchange the latest particle astrophysics and nano physics research results at a week-long conference which convened on August 7.

There are almost 100 Vietnamese participating.

This is the sixth meeting of its kind since 1993 held under the initiative of Vietnamese French physicist Tran Thanh Van and his Vietnamese colleague Nguyen Van Hieu.

During the "Vietnam Meeting," Nobel prize laureates Klaus Von Klitzing (Germany), will talk about the initial research and new applications of nano electronics, and James Cronin (the US), will speak of the largest energy cosmic rays.

The participants will also hear about the initial working results of the Pierre Auger Cosmic Ray Observatory, the transmission and UHECR sources, and other related issues. (VNA)

 

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Nano Electronics : Switzerland

IBM researchers look beyond silicon technology and investigate molecules for the future of information processing

 

Zurich, Switzerland, —Scientists at the IBM (NYSE: IBM) Zurich Research Laboratory have demonstrated how a single molecule can be switched between two distinct conductive states, which allows it to store data. As published today in SMALL , these experiments show that certain types of molecules reveal intrinsic molecular functionalities that are comparable to devices used in today's semiconductor technology. This finding is yet another promising result to emerge from IBM's research labs in their efforts to explore and develop novel technologies for the post-CMOS era.

In the August 4 issue of SMALL , IBM researchers Heike Riel and Emanuel Lörtscher report on a single-molecule switch and memory element. Using a sophisticated mechanical method, they were able to establish electrical contact with an individual molecule to demonstrate reversible and controllable switching between two distinct conductive states. This investigation is part of their work to explore and characterize molecules to become possible building blocks for future memory and logic applications. With dimensions of a single molecule on the order of one nanometer (one millionth of a millimeter), molecular electronics redefines the ultimate limit of miniaturization far beyond that of today's silicon-based technology...read the wave

 

 

Nano Biz : UK

Innos Invites Project Applications To Take Advantage Of Pump-Priming Funds

 

Innos, the UK's leading research and development company for innovations in nanoscale technology, has today invited academics to submit new ideas in order to access pump-priming funding. Innos is able to provide academic researchers with a fabrication and consultancy service assisting in the formulation of a ‘proof of concept', to strengthen a full proposal to the EPSRC for a subsequent grant for the project.

Successful applicants will be able to take advantage of Innos' expertise in the UK as well as full processing capabilities at its state of the art 2650m², class 100-10,000, Philips Microsystems Plaza (MiPlaza) R&D industrial research facility, at the High-Tech Campus in Eindhoven, the Netherlands.

Sales, Marketing and Technology Director at Innos, Dr Alec Reader explains, “Pump-priming is an extremely effective way of fine-tuning a concept or idea and ensuring its best potential is fulfilled before...read the wave

 

 

Nano Electronics : USA

Purdue engineers lay groundwork for 'vertically oriented nanoelectronics'

 

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Engineers at Purdue University have developed a technique to grow individual carbon nanotubes vertically on top of a silicon wafer, a step toward making advanced electronics, wireless devices and sensors using nanotubes by stacking circuits and components in layers.


The technique might help develop a method for creating "vertically oriented" nanoelectronic devices, the electronic equivalent of a skyscraper, said Timothy S. Fisher, an associate professor of mechanical engineering who is leading the work with Timothy D. Sands, the Basil S. Turner Professor of Engineering.

"Verticality gives you the ability to fit more things into the same area, so you can add more and more layers while keeping the footprint the same size or smaller," Fisher said. "But before we can even think about using nanotubes in electronics, we have to learn how to put them where we want them."...read the wave

 

 

Nano Electronics : USA

Scientists build 'magnetic semiconductors' one atom at a time

 

Princeton, N.J. -- In a stride that could hasten the development of computer chips that both calculate and store data, a team of Princeton scientists has turned semiconductors into magnets by the precise placement of metal atoms within a material from which chips are made.

The effort marks the first time that scientists have achieved this degree of control over the atomic-level structure of a semiconductor, a goal that has eluded researchers for many years. The team used this unique capability to make a semiconductor magnetic, one atom at a time. Team leader Ali Yazdani said that manipulating semiconductors could eventually revolutionize computers by exploiting not just the flow of electrons but also their quantum property, called spin, for computation.

"Using the tip of a scanning tunneling microscope, we can take out a single atom from the base material and replace it with a single metal that gives the semiconductor its magnetic properties," said Yazdani, a Princeton professor of physics. "The ability to tailor semiconductors on the atomic scale is the holy grail of electronics, and this method may be the approach that is needed." ...read the wave

 

 

Nano Electronics : USA

Optical Breakthrough Makes “Lab-on-a-Chip” Possible

 

ATLANTA — Georgia Tech researchers have found a way to shrink all the sensing power of sophisticated biosensors — such as sensors that can detect trace amounts of a chemical in a water supply or a substance in your blood — onto a single microchip.

In compact communication, signal processing and sensing optics technologies, multiple wavelengths of light are combined as a space-saving measure as they carry information. The wavelengths must then be separated again when they reach their destinations. Wavelengths used for these sophisticated applications have very high spectral resolution, meaning the distance between wavelengths is very small. The device that sorts out these crowded wavelengths is called a wavelength-demultipler (WD).

Compact optical WDs are key in spectral analysis for biosensers small enough to fit on a chip and for integrated circuits for optical information processing.

Georgia Tech researchers have designed a WD able to function at very high resolution in much tighter confines (as small as 64 microns by 100 microns — smaller than a millimeter) by developing a new design for photonic crystals...read the wave

 

Nano Medicine : USA

Scientists develop new, molecular approach to early cancer detection

 

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Scientists have pioneered a new approach to detecting cancer cells, one that could eventually allow doctors to discover many malignancies earlier than currently possible.

The scientists at the University of Florida have successfully tested the technique to find leukemia cells and believe that it opens the door to the first systematic approach to diagnosing cancer at the molecular level. Not only that, but what they describe as a potentially new cancer probe may one day offer a better method of targeting individual cancer cells with drug therapies, reducing side effects from chemotherapy treatments that today affect both healthy and sickly cells.

“We can use this probe to recognize cancer cells,” potentially discovering cancer earlier than often occurs today, said Dihua Shangguan, a UF postdoctoral associate in chemistry and the first author on a paper about the approach that appears today in the online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences .

Contrary to popular perception, pathologists today diagnose the vast majority of cancers based on the shape or other characteristics of tumor tissue or diseased cells, said Ying Li, one of nine UF faculty members and graduate student co-authors of the paper. That's a problem because it often means that cancers may already be advanced when detected....read the wave

 

 

Nano Medicine : USA

Nanotechnology enables low-dose treatment of atherosclerotic plaques

 

In laboratory tests, one very low dose of a drug was enough to show an effect on notoriously tenacious artery-clogging plaques. What kind of drug is that potent?

It's not so much the drug itself as how it was delivered. Fumagillin -- a drug that can inhibit the growth of new blood vessels that feed atherosclerotic plaques -- was sent directly to the base of plaques by microscopically small spheres called nanoparticles developed by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

"Previously we reported that we can visualize plaques using our nanoparticle technology, but this is the first time we've demonstrated that the nanoparticles can also deliver a drug to a disease site in a living organism," says Patrick Winter, Ph.D., research assistant professor of medicine. "After a single dose in laboratory rabbits, fumagillin nanoparticles markedly reduced the growth of new blood vessels that feed plaques."

The researchers report their findings in the September issue of the journal Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology, and the article is now available on line.

An atherosclerosis plaque results when a buildup of cholesterol, inflammatory cells and fibrous tissue forms inside an artery. If a plaque ruptures, it can block blood flow to the heart or brain, causing heart attack or stroke...read the wave

 

Nano Medicine : USA

Tiny inhaled particles take easy route from nose to brain

 

In a continuing effort to find out if the tiniest airborne particles pose a health risk, University of Rochester Medical Center scientists showed that when rats breathe in nano-sized materials they follow a rapid and efficient pathway from the nasal cavity to several regions of the brain, according to a study in the August issue of Environmental Health Perspectives.

Researchers also saw changes in gene expression that could signal inflammation and a cellular stress response, but they do not know yet if a buildup of ultrafine particles causes brain damage, said lead author Alison Elder, Ph.D., research assistant professor of Environmental Medicine.

The study tested manganese oxide ultrafine particles at a concentration typically inhaled by factory welders. The manganese oxide particles were the same size as manufactured nanoparticles, which are controversial and being diligently investigated because they are the key ingredient in a growing industry -- despite concerns about their safety.

Nanotechnology is a new wave of science that deals with particles engineered from many materials such as carbon, zinc and gold, which are less than 100 nanometers in diameter. The manipulation of these materials into bundles or rods helps in the manufacturing of smaller-than-ever electronics, optical and medical equipment. The sub-microscopic particles are also used in consumer products such as toothpaste, lotions and some sunscreens...read the wave

 

 

Nano Research : USA

Rice Scientists Unveil 'Nanoegg'

 

Houston, TX--- Researchers at Rice University's Laboratory for Nanophotonics (LANP) have unveiled the "nanoegg," the latest addition to their family ultrasmall, light-focusing particles. A cousin of the versatile nanoshell, nanoeggs are asymmetric specks of matter whose striking optical properties can be harnessed for molecular imaging, medical diagnostics, chemical sensing and more.

Nanoeggs are described in the July 18 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Like nanoshells, nanoeggs are about 20 times smaller than a red blood cell, and they can be tuned to focus light on small regions of space. But each nanoegg interacts with more light ­ about five times the number of wavelengths ­ than their nanoshell cousins, and their asymmetric structure also allows them to focus more energy on a particular spot.

"The field of nanophotonics is undergoing explosive growth, as researchers gain greater and greater sophistication in the design and manipulation of light-active nanostructures," said LANP Director Naomi Halas, the Stanley C. Moore Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and professor of chemistry. "The addition of nanoeggs and, earlier this year, nanorice to LANP's family of optical nanoparticles is a direct result of our increased understanding of the interaction between light and matter in this critical size regime." ...read the wave

 

Nano Research : USA

Helium atoms sent by nozzle may light way for new imaging approach

 

Eugene, OR--- A newly devised nozzle fitted with a pinhole-sized capillary has allowed researchers to distribute helium atoms with X-ray-like waves on randomly shaped surfaces. The technique could power the development of a new microscope for nanotechnology, allowing for a non-invasive, high-resolution approach to studying both organic and inorganic materials.

All that is needed is a camera-like detector, which is now being pursued, to quickly capture images that offer nanometer resolution, said principal investigator Stephen Kevan, a physics professor at the University of Oregon. If successful, he said, the approach would build on advances already achieved with emerging X-ray-diffraction techniques. Reporting in the July 7 issue of Physical Review Letters, Kevan's four-member team described how they sent continuous beams of helium atoms and hydrogen molecules precisely onto material with irregular surfaces and measured the speckle diffraction pattern as the wave-like atoms scattered from the surface.

The research, funded by the National Science Foundation and U.S. Department of Education, was the first to capture speckle diffraction patterns using atomic de Broglie waves. The Nobel Prize in physics went to France's Louis de Broglie in 1929 for his work on the properties of matter waves....read the wave

 

Nano Biz : USA

Nanotech patent battles are brewing; some are worth fighting

 

San Francisco, CA --- As companies, universities, and government entities explore the applications of nanomaterials, they have gone to the patent office in droves - yielding a continued increase in nanotech patents, which totaled 4,996 U.S. issued patents through 2005.

With so many patents, legal saber-rattling over rights to intellectual property has already begun. Some contentious fields are worth the time and expense of legal defense while others don't present enough market opportunity to justify the outlay, according to a new report from Lux Research in collaboration with Foley & Lardner LLP titled "Nanotech IP Battles Worth Fighting."

The report finds that the rate of new nanotech patent issuances stalled at 4 percent in 2005 after exceeding 20 percent in the last few years. At the same time, however, the number of public patent applications for nanotechnology continued to increase, growing by 52 percent to 2,714 outstanding nanotech patent applications.

What do these figures indicate? A bottleneck at the USPTO is limiting inventor's ability to secure intellectual property rights. Crowded patent domains with overlapping claims have pushed the pendency rate - the time from the submission of a nanotech patent application to the issuance of a patent - to nearly four years on average, up from two and half years in 1993...read the wave

 

Nano Medicine : USA

Researchers get their teeth into artificial dental enamel

 

An international team of researchers have finally got their teeth into making artificial dental enamel. Their work, published in the journal Advanced Materials , could lead to new tough coatings for engineering applications as well as the possibility of a natural fix for broken or rotten teeth that avoids heavy metal fillings.

Researchers have chewed over how to make novel materials that mimic some of the best physical and chemical properties of natural compounds for many years. Among such natural materials is dental enamel, which is not only smooth, but very hard, making it a potential coating for engineering components in which wear and tear are a normally serious problem.

Dental enamel is the outermost layer of the teeth and is the hardest mineralized tissue in the human body. It is composed mainly of millions of microscopic crystals of the mineral hydroxyapatite. These tiny hexagonal rods pack together to form a structure known as the enamel prism...read the wave

 

Nano Electronics : Canada

Paint-on semiconductor outperforms chips

 

Researchers at the University of Toronto have created a semiconductor device that outperforms today's conventional chips -- and they made it simply by painting a liquid onto a piece of glass.

The finding, which represents the first time a so-called "wet" semiconductor device has bested traditional, more costly grown-crystal semiconductor devices, is reported in the July 13 issue of the journal Nature.

"Traditional ways of making computer chips, fibre-optic lasers, digital camera image sensors – the building blocks of the information age – are costly in time, money, and energy," says Professor Ted Sargent of the Edward S. Rogers Sr. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and leader of the research group. Conventional semiconductors have produced spectacular results -- the personal computer, the Internet, digital photography -- but they rely on growing atomically-perfect crystals at 1,000 degrees Celsius and above, he explains...read the wave

 

 

Nano Resaerch : USA

Live Wires

 

RICHLAND, Wash. – When Yuri Gorby discovered that a microbe which transforms toxic metals can sprout tiny electrically conductive wires from its cell membrane, he reasoned this anatomical oddity and its metal-changing physiology must be related.

A colleague who had heard Gorby's presentation at a scientific meeting later reported that he, too, was able to coax nanowires from another so-called metal-reducing bacteria species and further suggested the wires, called pili, could be used to bioengineer electrical devices.

It now turns out that not only are the wires and their ability to alter metal connected—but that many other bacteria, including species involved in fermentation and photosynthesis, can also form wires under a variety of environmental conditions.

“Earth appears to be hard-wired,” said Gorby, staff scientist at the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, who documents the seeming ubiquity of electrically conductive microbial life in the July 10 advance online Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences...read the wave

 

 

Nano Medicine : USA

Problem: Implant Infection. Solution: Nanotech Surfaces

 

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Orthopaedic implants help millions of Americans stay active. But these medical devices are prone to infection, forcing patients back to surgery for repair or replacement. Now, for the first time, a team of engineers has shown that zinc or titanium oxide nanosurfaces can reduce the presence of bacteria, a technique that can be applied to implants to reduce the number of these costly and debilitating infections.

Thomas Webster, an associate professor of engineering at Brown, led the research. Results are published in the Journal of Biomedical Materials Research.

“We've found a method of coating implants that discourages bacteria growth,” Webster said, “and it does so significantly. The hope is that this technique will lead to safer, longer-lasting implants...read the wave

 

 

Quantum Computers : Germany

Laser tweezers sort atoms

 

Physicists of the University of Bonn have taken one more important hurdle on the path to what is known as a quantum computer: by using 'laser tweezers' they have succeeded in sorting up to seven atoms and lining them up. The researchers filmed this process. After the end of the embargo the result can be seen on the University of Bonn's homepage ( www.uni-bonn.de ). They report on their breakthrough in the next issue of the prestigious journal Nature (13th July 2006).

In the experiment the research team headed by Dr. Arno Rauschenbeutel and Professor Dieter Meschede decelerated several caesium atoms for a period of several seconds so that they were hardly moving, then loaded them onto a 'conveyor belt' consisting of lasers. This conveyor belt is made up of a standing light wave composed of many peaks and troughs – possibly comparable to a piece of corrugated iron. 'Unfortunately it cannot be predicted which trough precisely the atoms will land in,' Arno Rauschenbeutel explains. 'It's rather like pouring several eggs from a big dish into an egg carton – which section each egg rolls into is a matter of chance.'

However, anyone wishing to calculate with atoms must be able to place them exactly. 'All the atoms on the conveyor belt have to have the same distance from each other,' is how Arno Rauschenbeutel sketches the challenge. 'Only then can we get them to interact in a controlled way in what is called a quantum gate.' By lining up gate operations like these it would already be possible to carry out simple quantum calculations...read the wave

 

 

Nano Research : Canada

Researchers build sharpest tip

 

Forget the phrase, "sharp as a tack." Now, thanks to new University of Alberta research the popular expression might become, "sharp as a single atom tip formed by chemically assisted spatially controlled field evaporation." Maybe it doesn't roll off the tongue as easily, but considering the researchers have created the sharpest object ever made, it would be accurate.

The scientists, working out of the National Research Council's National Institute of Nanotechnology at the U of A, used a unique process to make the sharpest tip ever known and opened the door to a range of possibilities. Technically speaking, they were able to coat peripheral atoms near the peak with nitrogen, making it a one atom-thick, tough protective paint job. "That coating has the effect of binding the little pyramid of metal atoms or Tungsten, in place," said Dr. Robert Wolkow, a physics professor at the U of A and co-author on the research paper published in the Journal of Chemical Physics. "Such a pointy pyramid of metal atoms would normally just smudge away spontaneously. It's like a sand pile--you know you can't make it arbitrarily pointy. If you try to pile on more sand, it flows down and makes a more blunt pile. Metal atoms will do the same thing." ...read the wave

 

 

Nano Environment : Spain

A simple, green method for including organic compounds in nanoparticles

 

A Spanish spin-off company has developed a new method for the preparation of solid lipid nanoparticles of organic compounds that can be used by pharmaceutical and cosmetics industries.

Lipid or polymeric nanoparticles are extensively used in many drug and cosmetic applications. One of the key requisites for maintaining their effective activity is to ensure that increased stability is provided to these compounds within their biological environment. Therefore, the active compounds are protected in nanospheres, which enhances the control of the drug release and increases their solubility without affecting their beneficial properties.

The Spanish company has developed an easy, versatile and inexpensive method for the inclusion of various kinds of active organic compounds in nanoparticles. The method is eco-friendly without any requirements on toxic solvents use and thus, improves occupational safety and health. The method uses lipids or polymers that have already been tested in biological formulations and can be run in bulky quantities with minimum waste...read the wave

 

 

Nano Funding : UK

Designing nano-circuits

 

The £5.2m NanoCMOS project, led by Professor Asen Asenov at Glasgow University, will develop e-Science methodology and tools to allow designers of tiny electronic circuits to meet the very demanding challenges created by future nano-scale electronic components.

These components will be so small that their behaviour will be highly variable, governed by individual atoms rather than the average behaviour of large collections of atoms. The NanoCMOS project will build a grid infrastructure and e-Science tools to enable circuit designers to share models that simulate nano-component behaviour and explore the implications for circuit design. It will help UK circuit designers to remain internationally competitive and overcome the disadvantages caused by the lack of an indigenous UK semiconductor industry. http://www.epsrc.ac.uk

 

Nano Food : UK

Frozen food supplies to benefit from nanobiotechnology

 

The Nanobiotechnology Research Group at the University of Kent has received a new grant of over 800,000 euros from the European Commission. The grant will help the research group contribute their expertise to a wider EU consortium that is developing and integrating novel technologies to improve safety and quality assurance of the chilled and frozen food supply chain.

Ian Bruce, Professor of Nanobiotechnology and leader of the research group, said: ‘New materials and chemistry being developed at the University of Kent will significantly improve the efficiency of food testing for identity and therefore improve consumer confidence and choice.'

Professor Bruce joined the University of Kent from the University of Urbino, Italy, in 2004. Since then he has won grant funding of over 2 million euros from the European Commission.

Celebrating the new grant announcement, Professor Peter Jeffries, Head of the Department of Biosciences at Kent, said: ‘This recent grant is a significant addition to the funding of our Nanobiotechnology Research Group, one of 20 research teams within the Department of Biosciences. It typifies the exciting, multidisciplinary research that our Department is leading.'
...read the wave

 

Nano Electronics : UK

Chemistry research could produce faster computers

 

Chemists at the University of Liverpool are helping to create future electronics based on molecules for faster and smaller computers.

Experts have been working for many years to understand how to work with electronic material produced on an increasingly small scale. In the emerging field of nano-science and nano-technologies it is important for scientists to be able to control the structure and bonding of molecules that are used in creating small scale electronic components for products such as computers.

Scientists at Liverpool have succeeded in imaging and forming a unique bond between a single gold atom and a single organic molecule called a pentacene. They managed to bind the atom to the pentacene and take images of rearrangements of the electrons participating in the formation of the chemical bond..read the wave

 

Nano Research : USA

Finding about cellular microtubule rigidity could lead to development of new nano-materials

 

Austin, Texas -- Microtubules, essential structural elements in living cells, grow stiffer as they grow longer, an unexpected property that could lead to advances in nano-materials development, an international team of biophysicists has found.

The team, from The University of Texas at Austin, the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, Germany and Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich, reported their findings in Proceedings of the National Academy of Science on July 5.

"We found that the microtubules grow stiffer as they grow longer, a very unusual and surprising result," said Ernst-Ludwig Florin, assistant professor with the Center of Nonlinear Dynamics at The University of Texas at Austin. "This will have a big impact on our understanding of how microtubules function in the cell and on advancing materials research.

"To my knowledge, no manmade material has this property--to become stiffer as it elongates," said Florin. "This research could lead to the design of novel materials based on this biological structure." ...read the wave

 

" Nanotechnology today is probably like Mozart when he was five years old: bursting with promise, with the best yet to come after a few years of nurturance "

|
Akhlesh Lakhtakia | Distinguished Professor of Engineering Science and Mechanics at PSU |

" More than a new wave of technology, nanotechnology is a technological tsunami,
unseen until it is upon us."
| Pat Mooney | Biotechnology Pioneer |

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