It seemed like science-fiction just a few years ago, but is now common practice for scientists at the Paul Drude Institute for Solid State Electronics (PDI) in Berlin. The scientists manipulate single atoms resting on surfaces and assemble them into wires or tiny clusters. In the world of nanometric dimensions, fundamental material properties such as magnetism, electrical conductivity or chemical reactivity differ from the conventional behaviour observed in everyday life. If metal clusters or semiconductor crystals are made just tiny enough, effects often arise which can be only explained by the laws of quantum physics. Recently, a team of scientists at the PDI documented the transition of the quantum world characteristics of atomic structures to the world of macroscopic material properties. They assembled individual copper atoms on a crystalline copper surface and examined the electronic properties of these artificial structures. Jérôme Lagoute, Xi Liu and Stefan Fölsch published their study in the journal Physical Review Letters *....read the wave

The same precise, mission-critical technology you count on to deploy your anti-lock brakes and airbags now is available to help companies better capture critical supply chain information. Intermec Technologies Corp. today introduced the use of micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS), a type of nanotechnology, to supply chain data collection equipment. The use of MEMS-based technology offers the first major revolution in laser-based data collection in 20 years, making it possible to produce laser data collection scanners that are significantly faster, smaller, lighter and more efficient than today's legacy scanners.

Millions of MEMS-based devices are already at work around the world, making life safer and more convenient. In fact, in June CNN named MEMS one of its Top 25 Innovations of the last quarter century. A CNN-commissioned panel of technology leaders placed MEMS at no. 11, ahead of ATMs, display panels, HDTV, the Space Shuttle and flash memory in terms of relevance, impact, or future potential to impact everyday Americans during the course of daily life...read the wave

GRENOBLE, France, The European Commission (EC) has launched a new project, Merging Optics and Nanotechnologies (MONA), to coordinate research in those fields. The project, which is part of the Sixth EU Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development (FP-6), will "leverage synergies in photonics and nanotechnologies, seeking to increase the impact and efficiency of investment on European research," the commission said in a statement.

Six European countries and regions are involved in launching MONA, under the leadership of CEA-LETI -- the Laboratory of Electronics and Information Technologies, based in Grenoble, France, run by the French Atomic Energy Commission (CEA). Also participating are industry and research organizations including...read the wave

Lowell, Mass., and Wilmington, Del. – September 28, 2005 – Konarka Technologies, Inc., an innovator in developing and commercializing Power Plastic(tm) that converts light to energy, and Textronics, Inc., a pioneer in the field of electronic textiles, today announced a joint development program to create prototype garments and fashion accessories with portable, wearable power generation capabilities.

The technology will utilize Konarka’s light-activated Power Plastic and Textronics’ electronic textile systems to provide renewable, wearable energy sources for personal electronic devices.

Today’s techno-savvy consumers are carrying more and more mobile communication, computing and entertainment devices, such as phones, digital music players, cameras and PDAs. Each of these devices relies on batteries, but their functionality is limited by the available power and the inconvenience of recharging or replacing batteries. By combining Konarka’s Power Plastic and Textronics’ electronic textile systems into wearable electronics, the companies will overcome the shortcomings of conventional power technologies by enabling consumers to have energy generation ability with them at all times...read the wave

RENO, NV--(MARKET WIRE)--- Altair Nanotechnologies Inc. (NasdaqSC: ALTI - News ), has announced that it has expanded its research, product development, manufacturing and marketing groups with the addition of eleven highly qualified advanced battery scientists, engineers, manufacturing and marketing specialists. These battery experts and specialists, mainly comprised of former Delphi and GM employees, have worked for over a decade building expertise in the development and manufacture of advanced lithium battery technologies for automotive applications, including hybrid electric vehicles (HEV), and other consumer, industrial and military applications.

The mission of the expanded Altairnano battery team is to accelerate the development of Altairnano's proprietary next generation nano-structured battery electrode materials and provide new capabilities to manufacture in-house prototype lithium ion cells, batteries and battery packs and increase Altairnano's product application testing capabilities. The additional electrode materials research and development personnel will be located in Altairnano's corporate offices, laboratories and manufacturing facility in Reno, Nevada, augmenting Altairnano's present R&D and manufacturing teams. New personnel for development, testing and manufacturing of prototype lithium ion cells, batteries and battery packs incorporating Altairnano's nano-structured electrode materials for application development will move to a new facility located in central Indiana. Business development, marketing and sales personnel will also be located in the Indiana facility, which is in close proximity to target markets and key suppliers...read the wave

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Australia, which is fast becoming a world leader in smart nanotech materials such as "invisible" coatings, and revolutionary nanobio technology, has attracted one of the US nanotech leaders to its shores in search of breakthrough technology.

Zyvex President Dr. Tom Cellucci will tour the region with a special focus on R&D centers that are producing highly sought after nano products. Cellucci is also keynote at Australia's "Living in a Nano World" (26 - 28th September 2005, Melbourne).

The tour is being organized by Australia's investment attraction agency Invest Australia.

According to Senior Investment Commissioner for North America Robert Hunt: "Zyvex is visiting Australia to acquaint itself first-hand with the nanotechnology market opportunities, as well as to get a more in depth knowledge of a variety of break-through research being conducted at Australian research institutions." ...read the wave

Geckos are lizards with an impressive capacity to walk upside down on almost any surface, using just the attractive forces created by their feet to hold on. Borrowing the miraculous mechanism of the creature's feet, CAS researchers have succeeded in producing superhydrophobic nanotube films noted for their high adhesion.

How can geckos run upside down on polished glass? Some think that the creatures have suction cups on their feet, others say it is due to electrostatic attraction, and still others believe that they use hooks or claws or secrete glue on their feet. The question kept puzzling people for years until 2000, when a study published in Nature found that amazing climbing ability of geckos can be attributed to their nearly five hundred thousand tiny elastic hairs called setae, each of which branches at the end into up to 1,000 even tinier fibers called spatulas...read the wave

RIVERSIDE, Calif. – A research team, led by UC Riverside's Ludwig Bartels , is the first to design a molecule that can move in a straight line on a flat surface. It achieves this by closely mimicking human walking. The “nano-walker” offers a new approach for storing large amounts of information on a tiny chip and demonstrates that concepts from the world we live in can be duplicated at the nanometer scale – the scale of atoms and molecules.

The molecule – 9,10-dithioanthracene or “DTA” – has two linkers that act as feet. Obtaining its energy from heat supplied to it, the molecule moves such that only one of the linkers is lifted from the surface; the remaining linker guides the motion of the molecule and keeps it on course. Alternating the motions of its two “feet,” DTA is able to walk in a straight line without the assistance of nano-rails or nano-grooves for guidance...read the wave

Innos, the UK's leading research and development company delivering expertise in silicon, MEMS and nanotechnologies, today announced its involvement in an EPSRC-funded project collaborative between Liverpool and Southampton Universities, which has demonstrated how high performance MOSFETs used in radio frequency applications can be manufactured at a low cost. The advance could enable more small to medium sized businesses to enter the radio frequency applications market and be used as part of a sensor network within ‘ambient intelligence' systems.

The research conducted at Liverpool and Southampton Universities shows how the adoption of vertical MOS transistors could enable a route to ultra-short channel MOS transistors using relaxed (hence cheaper) lithography rules and a reduced footprint. Classically, such devices are lateral but expensive lithography is required to achieve the ultra short channel lengths which are easily achieved with a vertical approach. The shortcomings of vertical transistors have been addressed by a number of novel solutions to drastically reduce parasitic effects generated by the geometric configuration of the device...read the wave

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has established two new Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers (MRSECs) at Yale University and the University of Washington, with a combined NSF investment of up to $14 million over the next six years. The centers will also receive substantial support from the participating academic institutions, state governments and industry.

The Center for Research on Interface Structure and Phenomena will investigate the electronic, magnetic and chemical properties of complex oxide materials and their interfaces, with potential applications to magnetic storage, spintronics, and chemical sensing. The Center is a partnership between Yale University, Brookhaven National Laboratory and Southern Connecticut State University. The Genetically Engineered Materials Science and Engineering Center at the University of Washington will support innovative research and education that integrates modern biology with state-of-the-art chemical synthesis to construct hybrid materials that cannot be achieved through traditional biology or Chemistry...read the wave

For about 40 years, the semiconductor industry has been able to continually shrink the electronic components on silicon chips, packing ever more performance into computers. Now, fundamental physical limits to current technology have the industry scouring the research world for an alternative. In a paper published in the Aug. 1 online edition of Physical Review Letters (PRL), Stanford University physicists present "orbitronics," an alternative to conventional electronics that could someday allow engineers to skirt a daunting limit while still using cheap, familiar silicon.

"The miniaturization of the present-day chips is limited by power dissipation," says Shoucheng Zhang, a professor of physics, applied physics and, by courtesy, electrical engineering, who co-authored the PRL study. "Up to 40 percent of the power in circuits is being lost in heat leakage," which he says will eventually make miniaturization a forbidding task...read the wave

LAWRENCEVILLE, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Headwaters NanoKinetix has announced the development of a technology that may allow for the production of flat-screen televisions that are higher-quality yet less expensive than ones currently on the market. Until now, the technology underpinning the fashionably slim monitors has limited both their size and life expectancy.

Dr. Bing Zhou, a pioneering molecular scientist at NanoKinetix, a research lab in Lawrenceville, New Jersey has developed a process that has the potential to overcome the limitations of the two predominant ways to make flat-screen monitors -- liquid-crystal-display (LCD) and plasma Digital Light Processing (DLP(TM)). An LCD monitor delivers high-quality pictures, but requires liquid crystals which are "grown" using an expensive and time-consuming process. The relatively high probability of imperfections in large crystal clusters limits the dimensions of LCD TVs to no bigger than 35 to 40 inches. Plasma monitors deliver bright colors and clarity without size limitations, but at the cost of expensive materials and a usable product life between 4 and 5 years. After that, picture quality begins to deteriorate and fade...read the wave

CEA (French Atomic Energy Commission) the major European Technological Research Organisation, announces the creation of the first French nanobiotechnology cluster. The official launch was made on September 9th with the signature of a real estate operation dedicated to host new equipments and research teams in Grenoble close to the Minatec facilities.

The new cluster, called NanoBio, gather three research partners: University Joseph Fourier, Hospital of La Tronche and CEA. A first phase is going to be funded by local authorities (Metropolitan Area of Grenoble, Rhone-Alpes Region, Isere Department and City of Grenoble) for a total amount of 23,5 M€. NanoBio will bring together engineers, physicists, chemists, biologists and medical doctors to develop new miniaturised tools for biological and medicine applications: biochips, lab-on-chips, biosensors… These tools will be used for medical diagnosis, food safety control, environmental monitoring, etc.
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PHILADELPHIA – Engineers at the University of Pennsylvania have theorized a means of shrinking electronics so they could be run using light instead of electricity. In the search to create faster, smaller and more energy-efficient electronics, researchers have looked elsewhere in the electromagnetic spectrum, which ranges from the low-frequency energy used in everyday electronics to the high-frequency energy of gamma rays, to pass the limits of conventional technology.

In the Aug. 26 issue of Physical Review Letters, currently online, the Penn theorists outline how familiar circuit elements -- inductors, capacitors and resistors – could be created on the nanoscale (about a billionth of a meter) in order to operate using infrared or visible light. The Penn researchers describe how nanoscale particles of certain materials, depending on their unique optical properties, could work as circuit elements. For example, nanoscale particles of certain metals, such as gold or silver, could perform the same function in manipulating an "electric" current as an inductor does on a circuit board...read the wave

A new addition to the Bohlin Gemini family of rheometers from Malvern Instruments is optimized for the control of ultra-low torques, and opens up new opportunities to probe weak or sensitive material structures and low viscosity systems. The new instrument will make its debut at the 77 th Annual Meeting of the Society of Rheology ( October 16-20, 2005 ; Vancouver , BC ) for which Malvern is a primary sponsor.

Like all previous Bohlin High Resolution rheometers, the new Bohlin Gemini HR nano offers advanced technology with straightforward operation. While enabling the measurement and control of nano-torque levels, it retains a continuous working torque range to 200 mNm allowing complete rheological characterization. Allied to the most sensitive normal force measurement available, the Gemini HR nano offers the ultimate in instrument capabilities for weakly-structured systems...read the wave

Windscreens that no longer steam up, or paint that no longer gets dirty or can be scratched: all this could be everyday reality for car drivers in just a few years time. As part of their research work, engineers at the BMW Group are examining the use of nanotechnology in future cars. The range of possibilities is large. Currently the company is working on an agent that will counter dirt and paint damage, and small nanoparticles are of great help in this.

Purchasing a new car in 2020 - the scenario: the showroom dealer, in addition to exhibiting BMW's latest shiny new models, also sets up a stand with small, colourful seed packets. The packets, however, do not have pictures of exotic plants printed on them but instead car models. The customer chooses a car, pays for it, and is then handed over his dream car in a seed packet. He scatters the seed in his garden and waits, and at some point, just like a flower, his dream car sprouts up from the earth. Atom by atom, molecule by molecule...read the wave

ITHACA, N.Y. -- In a time of skyrocketing gasoline prices and concerns over global warming, Cornell University is helping to spearhead the next green revolution by using plants to produce energy, industrial chemicals and green materials.

Awarded more than $8.2 million in federal funding over four years through the recent signing of the federal Transportation Bill, Cornell has been tapped by the federal government as one of five Sun Grant Centers of Excellence -- regional hubs that will take the lead in researching the use of plant biomass in energy and chemical production; for education and outreach activities; and for soliciting and funding proposals that focus on using renewable agricultural resources to produce heat, electricity, biofuels, natural products, such as biopesticides and bioherbicides, and industrial chemicals.

"With our global community entering a less certain oil future, over the next 10 to 25 years, there will be a major transition to agricultural-based bio-industries," said Larry Walker, professor of biological and environmental engineering at Cornell and director of the institute...read the wave