PNNL researchers have developed a cost-effective nanomaterial to remove mercury from industrial wastes without producing harmful byproducts or secondary waste. The inexpensive, easy-to-use technology is called Self-Assembled Monolayers on Mesoporous Supports for mercury, or Thiol-SAMMS.

Thiol-SAMMS adsorbs mercury 500 to 1,000 times faster than other materials, pulling more than 99.9 percent of the mercury out of solution in the first five minutes. Preliminary lifetime estimates indicate that...read the wave

| Harbinger of a high-temperature superconductor boom | Koichi KITAZAWA |

Patients suffering from conditions as diverse as asthma and diabetes could benefit from research at Cardiff University to improve the effectiveness of drugs taken through spray inhalers.

Scientists in the Welsh School of Pharmacy are working on new nano-particle drug formulations for inhalers, and enhancers to improve the effectiveness of proteins, such as insulin, delivered to the lung.

"Drugs delivered through inhalers are usually either in a suspension (as particles dispersed in liquid), or in a solution (when the drug is dissolved in the liquid)," explained Dr James Birchall. "However, there are problems with both methods - a suspension can lead to sediment in the inhaler and less of the drug reaching the target area of the lung, while solutions present problems in dissolving the drug in the inhaler propellant liquid and can make the drug itself less stable."

The Cardiff team's approach is to prepare the drug in nano-particle form – ensuring the correct dosage reaches the lung and the drug retains its stability, and providing the possibility of slowing the release of the drug in the lung for longer therapeutic effect...read the wave

Washington University in St. Louis has been chosen as a Program of Excellence in Nanotechnology (PEN) by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) of the National Institutes of Health.

Karen Wooley, Ph.D., Washington University professor of chemistry in Arts & Sciences, is principal investigator of the Program, which NHLBI is funding at $12.5 million for five years.

Three other PENs will also be established. Washington University will serve as the administrative center for this new nanotechnology initiative.

Collaborators with Wooley include 13 faculty members from the Washington University School of Arts & Sciences and the School of Medicine, plus one from each of the University of California campuses at Berkeley and Santa Barbara.

Nanotechnology involves the making of materials, devices and systems of extremely small sizes, generally between one and 100 nanometers. One nanometer is one one-thousandth of a micron; a single strand of human hair is between 50 and 100 microns, so a nanometer is 50,000 times smaller than a human hair. Nanotechnology enables researchers to take advantage of properties and surface areas to create faster, more efficient chips, sensors, pumps, gears, lasers, novel materials and drug delivery systems...read the wave

The University of Madras has submitted a project proposal to the State government for setting up a Centre for Nano Technology and NanoSciences at a cost of Rs 17 crore.

S P Thyagarajan, the university Vice-Chancellor, told reporters here yesterday that the centre would focus on research programmes as nano science was an emerging area. The university was already conducting research programmes in these areas at its Guindy and Taramani campuses.

As the three long-serving universities ? University of Madras, Calcutta and Mumbai had joined hands to mark their 150 years of existence, joint degree programmes would be introduced in various subjects for which students could enroll in one university and later shift to another to avail of the facilities there, he said.

The joint degree courses are MSc Physics, MSc Biophysics, MSc Bio-Informatics, MSc Microbiology, MSc Genetics Biotechnology, MA Anthropology, MA Public Administration, MA History, MA Comparative Literature and Languages and MA Economics.

The universities would undertake joint research programmes in different areas like Nanotechnology, Environmental Sciences, Pollution Control, Herbal Medicine, Cancer Research, Comparative Linguistics and Literature, Translation, Liquid Crystal, Nuclear Physics and Polymer Science, the Vice-Chancellor said.

Thyagarajan said the university had sought a Rs 57 crore-aid from the Planning Commission to carry out various projects from Union Planning Commission. Of this Rs 30 crore has been sanctioned through State government. This would cover tele-education and setting up of high speed data link facility, he said.

As the three universities were entering their 150 years if existence, the Ministry of Human Resources Development had come forward to sanctioned Rs 25 crore to each university in three instalments, he added.

Also the UGC had granted funds under the 'Remembering Mother Universities' programmes. Under this Rs five crore would be given to 23 universities in Tamilnadu which were the off shoot of University of Madras, he said Source : NT Bureau Chennai

HOUSTON, April 28, 2005 – From detecting tumors to encrypting data better, one young engineering professor's nanotechnology work at the University of Houston holds enormous potential for medicine and electronics.

Pradeep Sharma, assistant professor of mechanical engineering at UH, received the Office of Naval Research's Young Investigator Program (YIP) Award for his proposal on the "Novel Size-Effects in the Coupled Mechanical Deformation and Opto-Electronic Behavior of Quantum Dots and Wires." The total award of $262,471 for three years is intended to further propel Sharma's research.

"It's a proposal that will investigate new scaling laws for quantum dots due to mechanical strain," Sharma said. "Quantum dots are very small clusters of semiconductor material, and they exhibit some unusual and exciting opto-electronic properties. They have tremendous potential in future nanoelectronics."...read the wave

WASHINGTON, /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- SMALL FUEL CELLS CONFERENCE -- MTI MicroFuel Cells Inc. (MTI Micro), the developer of the award-winning Mobion(TM) micro fuel cell battery replacement technology, made public a study that examines the increasing challenges faced by the U.S. Military to keep up with personal power demands of modern soldiers. Jane's Information Group, a leading independent provider of intelligence and analysis on national and international defense, conducted the study. MTI commissioned the study as part of the Company's plans to deliver fuel cell-based military solutions to the government in 2006.

The study cites unmet power demands created by the rapid advances in technology that are making modern combat soldiers exponentially better equipped and better informed than their predecessors. From night vision goggles and satellite communications to smart weapons and networked sensors, the battlefield has become...read the wave

Researchers at Northwestern University have demonstrated writing at the sub-100 nanometer molecular scale in fountain-pen fashion. They developed a novel atomic force microscope (AFM) probe chip with an integrated microfluidic system for capillary feeding of molecular ink. Their results are published online by Small, a new journal dedicated to breakthroughs in nanoscience and engineering
( http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/smll.200500027 ).

Dip-pen nanolithography (DPN) has been well-known for its capability of high-resolution direct writing as a bottom-up nanofabrication technique...read the wave

Het Innovatieplatform heeft het extra geld dat in het Paasakkoord is uitgetrokken voor innovatie verdeeld. De 150 miljoen euro gaat naar de sleutelgebieden, het beroepsonderwijs en de onderzoeksinfrastructuur.

Dat maakte minister-president Balkenende op 20 april bekend na afloop van een vergadering van het Innovatieplatform. Minister Brinkhorst (EZ) en minister Van der Hoeven (OCW) werken de afspraken verder uit, in overleg met het platform.

De fractievoorzitters van CDA, VVD en D66 en het kabinet hebben op 26 maart 2005 in het Paasakkoord afspraken gemaakt over de verdere uitvoering van het beleidsprogramma van het kabinet. Aanleiding voor de nieuwe afspraken was het aftreden van minister De Graaf.

De partijen spraken onder meer af om 150 miljoen euro extra uit te trekken voor Innovatie. Dit bedrag is nu door het Innovatieplatform verdeeld...read the wave

Trends in Nanotechnology International Conference (TNT2005 )

Topics:

• Carbon Nanotubes Based Nanoelectronics and Field Emission
• Nanostructured and Nanoparticle Based Materials
• Low-Dimensional Materials (Nanowires, Clusters, Quantum Dots, etc.)
• Nanofabrication Tools and Nanoscale Integration
• Nanochemistry
• Nanobiotechnologies
• Theory and Modelling at the Nanoscale
• Nanomagnetism and Spintronics
• Scanning Probes Methods
• Ultimate Limits of Measurement: Metrology and Nanostandards

Oviedo (Spain) / August 29 - September 02, 2005 http://www.tnt2005.org

SAN DIEGO, PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Nanogen, Inc. (Nasdaq: NGEN ), developer of advanced diagnostic products, have announced that it has been issued European Patent No. 0943158B1, "Affinity Based Self-Assembly Systems and Devices for Photonic and Electronic Applications," by the European Patent Office. This patent is similar to U.S. Patent 6,652,808, the parent of a series of patent applications that significantly broaden Nanogen's proprietary position in the nanotechnology and nanomanufacturing areas. The U.S. patent was issued in December 2003.

The new nanotechnology patent relates to a nanofabrication technology that combines an electric field assisted manufacturing platform and programmable self-assembling nanostructures (for example, DNA building blocks) for the fabrication of a wide range of unique higher-order nano and microscale devices, structures and materials. The nanofabrication platform and process would be used for...read the wave

USC researchers have found that sapphire surfaces spontaneously arrange carbon nanotubes into useful patterns — but only the right surfaces.

Nanotubes are one-atom thick sheets of carbon rolled into seamless cylinders. They can be used to work as chemical sensors and transistors, like devices made from carbon's close chemical cousin, silicon.

As a substrate for the creation of single wall nanotube transistor (SWNT)  devices, sapphire has a critical advantage, says Chongwu Zhou of the USC Viterbi School of Engineering's department of electrical engineering.

Single walled carbon nanotubes will grow along certain crystalline orientations on sapphire. No template has to be provided to guide this structuring: it takes place automatically.
..read the wave

Oxonica Ltd, a leading European technology company, has patented a revolutionary new UV filter called Optisol.  As of this month, Optisol™ is available on shelves as an active component of Boots' new Soltan Facial Sun Defence Cream.

Optisol offers several major benefits over existing filters.  In addition to protecting against UVB, the traditional focus of sun protection, Optisol offers enhanced protection against UVA light.  It is now believed that UVA light is also responsible for skin damage and sunscreens sold in the UK have a star rating, developed by Boots PLC, to indicate the amount of UVA protection offered.  Test data has shown that sunscreens formulated with Optisol can provide enhanced protection against both UVB and UVA.

Optisol is a milder, longer lasting and innovative new form of titanium dioxide, a commonly used ingredient in sunscreens which acts to absorb UV light.  A tiny amount of manganese is incorporated within the titanium dioxide, adding major benefits; the manganese absorbs extra UVA giving a higher level of protection and also acts to stop the formation of free radicals in the titanium dioxide. These effects give enhanced performance which is extremely photostable, ensuring that the product's ability to protect isn't broken down by the sun...read the wave

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Scientists at Ohio State University have taken a step toward the development of powerful new computers -- by making tiny holes that contain nothing at all.

The holes -- dark spots in an egg carton-shaped surface of laser light -- could one day cradle atoms for quantum computing .

Worldwide, scientists are racing to develop computers that exploit the quantum mechanical properties of atoms, explained Greg Lafyatis , associate professor of physics at Ohio State . These so-called quantum computers could enable much faster computing than is possible today. One strategy for making quantum computers involves packaging individual atoms on a chip so that laser beams can read quantum data.

Lafyatis and doctoral student Katharina Christandl recently designed a chip with a top surface of laser light that functions as an array of tiny traps, each of which could potentially hold a single atom. The design could enable quantum data to be read the same way CDs are read today...read the wave

Traditional silicon chips in computers and other electronic devices control the flow of electrical current by modifying the positive or negative charge of different parts of each tiny circuit. However it is also possible to use of the mysterious magnetic properties of electrons - know as “spin” - to control the movement of currents. Many large companies have spent millions of dollars trying to solve some of the problems faced by this technology, but progress has remained slow. Discoveries made in Oxford solve several of the most difficult problems and open up this exciting new world of possibilities.

Central to the success of modern electronics is the transistor. A transistor is a switch that controls the flow of electrical current. A modern computer chip contains many millions of tiny transistors; each acting as a tiny switch where a small current is used to control the flow of a larger current.

A spin transistor uses the spin properties of the electrons within it, to control the flow of a current. The big advantage of this approach is that the spin (or magnetic state) of a transistor can be set and then will not change, so unlike a normal electrical circuit that requires a...read the wave

COSTA MESA, CA, U.S.A. - QuantumSphere, Inc., the leading manufacturer of metallic nanopowders, working toward catalyzing the future for fuel cells, batteries, and hydrogen generation, is moving forward with the collaboration of Robert Dopp, of Doppstein Enterprises, Inc. (DSE).

Together they are testing QuantumSphere’s new line of nano-catalysts in functioning air electrodes to better identify significant parameters in the development cycle. Mr. Dopp has developed a cathode manufacturing process expressly designed to manufacture small “coupons” of highly uniform, very active and reproducible gas diffusion electrodes. These are typically used in metal air batteries, alkaline fuel cells, other air breathing systems as well as hydrogen generation cells. By producing the finished product from the new generation of catalyst, QuantumSphere can engineer their particle size distribution, composition and distribution to optimum performance. This is something that quantitative and physical measurements cannot achieve; the collaborative efforts of QuantumSphere and DSE can...read the wave

(April 26 - 28). COL.9® is a high-tech product combining inorganic and organic chemistry. BASF researchers already won the 2004 Coatings Award (Farbe-und-Lack-Preis) for developing this innovation, and COL.9® DS 1000 has now become the first commercially available product in this specialty segment for outdoor applications.

In the new COL.9® binders, inorganic nanoparticles are homogeneously incorporated into organic polymer particles of water-based dispersions. The resulting nanocomposite dispersions combine the benefits of inorganic binders – such as hardness and permeability – with those of organic binders – such as elasticity and water resistance.

COL.9® DS 1000 was developed specially for façade coatings. After application and drying, the inorganic nanoparticles form a homogeneous three-dimensional network structure covering the entire coating film. Because of this extremely fine nanostructure, facade coatings based on this innovative technology are extremely resistant to dirt and chalking (separation of white pigments), do not crack, and display high color tone stability. The lattice structure composed of inorganic and organic components is furthermore responsible for its excellent fire behavior properties. The color film does not melt in the presence of fire and does not drip...read the wave.

(PRWEB) -- Green Millennium Inc., based in Los Angeles, California, has appointed Novapure Systems Inc., of Calgary, Alberta, Canada, Master Distributor for the Green Millennium line of new photocatalytic coatings for the Canadian market. Photocatalytic coating solutions are a direct result of nanotechnology research and are very effective for self-cleaning and hygienic applications. States George Tseng, of Green Millennium, “Our coatings can be applied on most surfaces and will impart self-cleaning properties to any surface. Additionally, the surface coating will purify the air by oxidizing airborne fumes and odors. This product is truly an early benefit of nanotechnology and one of the first commercial products derived from nanotechnology research”

“The coatings, known as “photocatalytic coatings” are usually applied like a spray...read the wave

"This represents a significant milestone for Protiveris as it is the first VeriScan System collaboration with specific clinical cancer research applications," commented Robert Menzi, Chief Operating Officer at Protiveris. "Dr. Quong and his team at Lombardi are uniquely qualified to develop new approaches using our nano-technology products. Dr Quong understands the full range of scientific and technological requirements -- from engineering and physics to chemistry and biology -- necessary to develop successful and innovative approaches to cancer research"...read the wave

State College, PA | April 26, 2005 NanoHorizonsTM, Inc. and ARC Outdoors/ArcticShield® today announce the launch of a joint technology development program aimed at bringing nanotechnology innovations to textile markets.

ARC Outdoors/ArcticShield® is widely known for its innovative, technologically advanced outdoor apparel, sold under the ArcticShield® and X ScentTM brands. NanoHorizons, one of North America's premier nanotechnology innovators, creates nanotechnology solutions for scientific and consumer applications ranging from pharmaceutical research to retail clothing. Together the companies will jointly develop a range of nanotechnology products and applications for textiles.

The pairing of ARC's outdoor apparel market experience and NanoHorizons' nanotechnology expertise will yield significant changes in textile markets. The companies anticipate these changes to have significant impact in a broad spectrum of textile applications...read the wave

"We are pleased to announce the signing of this agreement with the National Chemical Laboratory of India," said DuPont Chief Science & Technology Officer Thomas M. Connelly , Jr. "This move is consistent with DuPont's efforts to go where the growth is and to globalize our R&D operations. It furthers DuPont's efforts to open our innovation processes by incorporating the research capabilities and intellectual talent of India's top materials scientists. In addition, it will allow us to more clearly address the market needs of the region by providing geographic access."...read the wave

Nano-viruses that can find and combat cancer.  Molecular-sized sensors to detect chemicals and toxins in the air. Tiny cooling chips that can replace compressors in cars, refrigerators and air conditioners.

Nanotechnology experts claim we'll have the scientific know-how to construct devices such as these in as little as 10 years. But in order for them to have the widespread adoption needed to truly revolutionize our lives, we don't need to just make them - we have to make them affordably.

Enter Anand Gadre. An assistant professor at CNSE since October, Gadre is a known expert in polymeric Bio-MEMS, or more simply put, Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems made of plastic materials for biological applications.

Gadre's current research focuses on the fabrication of polymeric biofluidic-transdermal microsystems, or tiny systems that can give out immediate biological readings simply by placing a small patch on the top of the skin. Gadre and his co-workers have already developed and modified this technology under the supervision of Professor John F. Currie (at the Physics Department, Georgetown University, Washington DC) to read -- with absolute accuracy -- a person's glucose and lactate levels using enzymetic detection techniques within seconds and without breaking skin. Future applications may include cancer detection.
..read the wave

Scientists from BASF are successfully participating in strategic research projects funded by the European Union. As of April 2005, for example, BASF experts are cooperating with 23 partners from seven EU countries in an important large-scale project aimed at developing methods for the safe use of nanoparticles: Nanosafe2. This European research project brings together scientists from leading companies in industry, startups, and selected research institutes and universities. Of the total budget of approximately €12.4 million, around €7 million is being provided by the EU's research funding program and the remainder by the companies involved.

The nanosciences are considered to be a key technology of the 21st century, and this is supported by a rapidly growing range of possible applications. Nanotechnology is acting as a motor for new materials and innovative solutions in the areas of energy, medicine and environmental protection. Appropriate research into safety is therefore crucial to the dynamic and sustainable development of these new fields...read the wave

Microlithography generically refers to processes that are used to create micron or sub-micron structures for fabricating various kinds of devices including integrated circuits, bio-chips, MEMS and optical components. The ability to create smaller and smaller structures has historically led to faster transistors, increased functionality and lower costs.

For example, in 1987 a Cray I computer cost several million dollars and required 60Kwatts of power. Today a high-end chip draws only a few watts and performs 5X as many additions per sec, while only costing a few hundred dollars! This remarkable progress has been made possible by ongoing developments in photolithography. Photolithography can be thought of as a high-end projection camera that can project the details of a circuit layer from a photomask to a photosensitive material on the wafer. While it can take a few hours to write the photomask using a slow, serial process, photolithography allows for rapid parallel transfer of millions of pixels of data from the photomask to the wafer in less than a second...read the wave

Seattle, WA -- LiftPort Group, the space elevator companies, have announced plans for a carbon nanotube manufacturing plant, the company's first formal facility for production of the material on a commercial scale. Called LiftPort Nanotech, the new facility will also serve as the regional headquarters for the company, and represents the fruition of the company's three years of research and development efforts into carbon nanotubes, including partnering work with a variety of leading research institutions in the business and academic communities.

Set to open in June of this year, LiftPort Nanotech will be located in Millville, New Jersey, a community with a history in glass and plastics production. Both the City of Millville and the Cumberland County Empowerment Zone are partnering to provide $100,000 in initial seed money for the new facility.

LiftPort Nanotech will make and sell carbon nanotubes to glass, plastic and metal companies, which will in turn synthesize them into other stronger, lighter materials (also known as composites) for use in their applications. Already being used by industries such as automotive and aerospace manufacturing, carbon nanotube composites are lighter than fiberglass and have the potential to be up to 100 times stronger than steel...read the wave

Partnerships