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30-10- 2005

Nano Research : USA

Study Produces Road Map for Nanomanufacturing

 

Researchers have taken an important step toward high-volume production of new nanometer-scale structures with the first systematic study of growth conditions that affect production of one-dimensional nanostructures from the optoelectronic material cadmium selenide (CdSe).

Using the results from more than 150 different experiments in which temperature and pressure conditions were systematically varied, nanotechnology researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology created a “road map” to guide future nanomanufacturing using the vapor-liquid-solid (VLS) technique.

The results, reported this month in the journal Advanced Materials (Vol. 17, pp.1-6), join earlier Georgia Tech work that similarly mapped production conditions for nanostructures made from zinc oxide – an increasingly important nanotechnology material. Together, the two studies provide a foundation for large-scale, controlled synthesis of nanostructures that could play important roles in future sensors, displays and other nanoelectronic devices
...read the wave

 

Nano Debate : UK

Combined Forces of Physics and Medicine to Investigate Hidden Toxicity

 

A physicist and a medical researcher at the University of Leicester have received a grant of £100,000 from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council to look at possible toxic damage from inhaled nanoparticles used for a range of everyday purposes

The small size of nanoparticles in the size range 5-100 nm gives many novel and useful properties and they are used in applications as diverse as face creams, plastics, medical imaging, novel drug therapies and magnetic recording. Such particles are increasingly manufactured and released into the environment on industrial scales.

However, there is growing concern that the very same properties that make them so useful may also lead to enhanced toxicity if the particles are breathed in. The particles are so small - 100,000 particles laid end-to-end would only stretch a few millimetres - that it is not clear how the body's normal defence mechanisms will cope with them.

By harnessing their combined expertise in physics and medicine, Dr Paul Howes, Department of Physics & Astronomy, and Dr Jonathan Grigg, Department of Infection, Immunity and Inflammation, will research possible toxic damage from inhaled nanoparticles...read the wave


 

Nano Medicine : USA

A laser for nanomedicine


COLUMBIA, Mo. - Prostate cancer is the second most common cause of cancer death among men A modified femtosecond laser can correct poor eyesight and identify malignant melanomas. In addition, it represents an effective tool for laser nanomedicine: It can be used for example to drill nanoholes in cellular membranes and to transfer genes into cells by means of light.

Sixty-four percent of Germans cannot see properly without glasses or contact lenses. One in two short- or long-sighted adults could be treated by a laser operation, and femtosecond lasers are being increasingly used. This type of laser can be focussed through the tissue directly onto the working area, saving time and improving the healing process. There is a disadvantage, however: residual radiation permeates the eye right through to the retina, and may cause impaired vision. Karsten König and his team at the Fraunhofer Institute for Biomedical Engineering IBMT are working on eliminating these side effects. “We are attempting to remove tissue constituents gently and very precisely using extremely low pulse energies of just a few nanojoules,” explains König. This is made possible by a heavily modified femtosecond laser system with a very high pulse sequence, which can focus its beam with great accuracy using precision optics from Zeiss...read the wave


 

Nano News : USA

Nanotech Pushes Out Medical, Energy Frontiers, Scientist Says

 

Biotechnology, which is known primarily by its medical and agricultural applications, is increasingly being focused on the building of new biological materials and machines in an astonishing diversity of structures, functions, and uses. The advent of nanotechnology has accelerated this trend. Learning from nature, which over billions of years has honed and fashioned molecular architectural motifs to perform a myriad of specific tasks, nanobiotechnologists are now designing completely new molecular patterns -- bit by bit, from the bottom up -- to build novel materials and sophisticated molecular machines. Over the next generation, advances such as new materials to repair damaged tissues and molecular machines to harness solar energy from the smallest molecular amino acids and lipids will likely have an enormous impact on our society and the world's economy.

Modern biotechnology has already produced a wide array of useful products, such as humanized insulin and new vaccines. But what lies ahead can be even more revolutionary. That is why governments small and large, and industries local and global, are increasingly seeking to attract biotechnology talent and investment. There is no doubt that biotechnology, helped by the tools of nanotechnology, is expanding at an accelerating rate, and that the best is yet to come...read the wave


 

Nano Biz : USA

Ecology Coatings Wins The Wall Street Journal 2005 Silver Award for Technology Innovation

 

Akron, OH, October 28, 2005--- Ecology Coatings, Inc., a leading provider of nano-engineered ultraviolet curable coatings, is the winner of the Silver Award for Innovation in The Wall Street Journal's 2005 Technology Innovation Awards competition. Selected from a pool of technology innovators from around the world, Ecology Coatings' chief chemist and co-founder Sally Ramsey was honored for her break from conventional approaches in the materials category. Judges selected Ramsey and her suite of energy efficient industrial coatings for the technology's range of applications and environmental friendliness.

"More than a decade ago, I set out to develop a clean alternative to the coatings used by manufacturers to finish products from autos to golf clubs," said Ramsey. "Of course you have to meet manufacturers' efficiency and performance needs before you can tell the clean tech story. The result is a coating that eliminates the time and energy pain points of the OEM line and, true to our original goal, presents a cleaner alternative. This award is a much-appreciated validation of the utility of our hard work and success towards those ends."

Ecology Coatings' nano-engineered products exhibit a completely new set of performance and application properties and are easily integrated into today's manufacturing infrastructure. The proprietary 100 percent solids formulations contain no...read the wave


 

Tools of the Trade : Switzerland

NANOSENSORS™ Announces New high-Q AFM probe

 

Neuchâtel/Switzerland -- NANOSENSORS™ has announced the Q30K-Plus, a novel scanning proximity probe with a very high Q-factor and an enhanced signal to noise ratio for UHV applications.

Based on the well-known PointProbe® Plus FM (Force Modulation) AFM probe NANOSENSORS™ has developed the Q30K-Plus SPM-probe series especially for UHV applications. For high sensitivity and a good signal to noise ratio the new probes are featuring a Q-factor of over 30,000 (up to 50,000) under UHV conditions and a high reflectivity (even at wavelength of over 800nm).

In addition to the enhanced Q-factor and the optimized signal to noise ratio the Q30K-Plus series offers all features of the PointProbe® plus series like a minimized variation in tip shape and a typical tip radius of less than 7nm
...read the wave


 

Nano News : Japan

AIST Develops Nano-sized Particle Strength Measurement System

 

Tokyo (JCN) Oct 28, 2005- The Integration Process Technology Group of the Advanced Manufacturing Research Institute, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) has developed a system that can not only observe the deformation of each sub-micron (about 0.1 micron) particle under pressure, but also measure its compressive strength.

In addition to an optical microscope, the system has an atomic force microscope (ATM) equipped with a specially designed probe to measure particle shapes, and a diamond compression indentor whose tip is flattened using a focused ion beam (FIB) process to the extent that the tip is 1 micron in diameter, narrow enough to compress just a single particle at a time.

The technology is expected to be used in the pharmaceutical and cosmetics industries that make use of ceramics technologies and fine particles. Details of the technology development will be presented at the MRS-Japan Academic Symposium to be held in Tokyo on December 10 and 11. Source : JCN


 

Nano Bad News...

Nanotech Pioneer, Nobel Laureate Richard Smalley Dead at 62

 

Stanford nanotechnology researchers and technology industry leaders will dedicate the latest nanotechnology research facility on campus-the newly renovated Stanford Nanocharacterization Laboratory (SNL)-on Oct. 5 from 3 to 6 p.m. In the facility, located in the Geballe Laboratory for Advanced Materials, researchers will be able to resolve and HOUSTON, Oct. 28, 2005 ­ Nobel laureate Richard Smalley, co-discoverer of the buckyball and one of the best-known and respected scientists in nanotechnology, died today in Houston after a long battle with cancer. He was 62.

Smalley, who joined Rice University in 1976, shared the 1996 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with fellow Rice chemist Robert Curl and British chemist Sir Harold Kroto for the discovery of buckminsterfullerene, or ³buckyballs,² a new form of carbon.

Smalley died this afternoon at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, surrounded by family and friends. He is survived by his wife, Deborah Smalley; two sons, Chad and Preston; a brother, Clayton; two sisters, Linda and Mary Jill; stepdaughters Eva and Allison; granddaughter Bridget and a host of friends and relatives.

³We will miss Rick's brilliance, commitment, energy, enthusiasm and humanity,² Rice President David Leebron said. ³He epitomized what we value at Rice: pathbreaking research, commitment to teaching, and contribution to the betterment of our world. In important ways, Rick helped build and shape the Rice University of today. His extraordinary scientific contributions, recognized with the Nobel Prize, will form the foundation of new technologies that will improve life for millions. His life's work and his brave fight against a terrible disease were an inspiration to all.²
...read the wave


 

Nano News : USA

WHITHER NANOTECHNOLOGY?

By Akhlesh Lakhtakia Distinguished Professor of Engineering Science and Mechanics at Pennsylvania State University

 

Think small, dream big” is a typical slogan about the promise of nanotechnology within the scientific research community. Once relegated to pure fiction, nanotechnology is becoming increasingly linked with advances in biotechnology and information technology. With annual expenditure for nanotechnology research in the United States estimated to be in excess of $2.6 billion in 2004, the word “nano” is even finding its way into popular culture, from daily horoscopes to newspaper cartoons.

Yet the relatively small number of applications that have made it through to industrial uses represent “evolutionary rather than revolutionary advances,” according to a 2004 panel report from the Royal Society of London and the Royal Academy of Engineering.

Nanotechnology is not a single process; neither does it involve a specific type of material. Instead, the term nanotechnology covers all aspects of the production of devices and systems by manipulating matter at the nanoscale.

Take an inch-long piece of thread and chop it into 25 pieces, and then chop one of those pieces into a million smaller pieces. Those itty-bitty pieces are about one nanometer long. The ability to manipulate matter and processes at the nanoscale undoubtedly exists in many academic and industrial laboratories. At least one relevant dimension must lie between 1 and 100 nanometers, according to the definition of nanoscale by the U.S. National Research Council. Ultra-thin coatings have one nanoscale dimension, and nanowires and nanotubes have two such dimensions, whereas all three dimensions of nanoparticles are at the nanoscale...read the wave

 

 

Nano Enviroment : Global

Effect of Lubricant on the Formation of Heavy-Duty Diesel Exhaust Nanoparticles

 

The effect of lubricants on nanoparticle formation in heavy-duty diesel exhaust with and without a continuously regenerating diesel particulate filter (CRDPF) is studied. A partial flow sampling system with a particle size distribution measurement starting from 3 nm, approximately, is used. Tests are conducted using four different lubricant formulations, a very low sulfur content fuel, and four steady-state driving modes. A well-documented test procedure was followed for each test. Two different kinds of nanoparticle formation were observed, and both were found to be affected by the lubricant but in different way. Without CRDPF, nanoparticles were observed at low loads. No correlation between lubricant sulfur and these nanoparticles was found. These nanoparticles are suggested to form mainly from hydrocarbons. With CRDPF, installed nanoparticles were formed only at high load. The formation correlated positively with the lubricant (and fuel) sulfur level, suggesting that sulfuric compounds are the main nucleating species in this situation. Storage effects of CRDPF had an effect on nanoparticle concentration as the emissions of nanoparticles decreased over time. Source : ACS


 

Nano Products : Japan

Sumitomo Osaka Cement Develops Hydrophilic Coating Material Made of Nano-size Particles for Use in Kitchen Sinks

 

Tokyo (JCN) - Sumitomo Osaka Cement has developed the world's first nano technology-based coating agent for use on kitchen sinks, and has successfully applied the material to coating Cleanup'ss stainless sink, Super Silent e-sink.

The coating agent is made of nano-sized ceramic compounds developed using the company's proprietary synthesis technology. The agent's hydrophilic property makes it easier to clean oil and stains in a water-running condition.

The ultra-small particles form a thin, transparent coating film, keeping a stainless sink's metallic luster for longer, as well as ensuring surface hardness equivalent to a pencil hardness of 9H.

Durable against alkalis and hot water, the coating agent has applications ranging from consumer electronics goods to plastic components. Sumitomo Osaka Cement aims for sales of 500 million yen ($4.3 mil) in fiscal 2008 by expanding its sales outlets to include overseas.
By Aki Tsukioka , JCN Staff Writer Source : JCN


 

Nano Storage : In French

Des nanostructures pour augmenter les capacités de stockage des disques durs

 

Aujourd'hui, la microélectronique peine à répondre aux besoins incessants de la société en terme de miniaturisation et d'augmentation de la capacité de stockage de l'information. Dans le futur, seule la nanoélectronique en sera capable. Cependant, elle nécessite de maîtriser la matière et ses propriétés physiques (magnétiques, électriques, optiques…) à l'échelle du nanomètre. Dans cette perspective, des chercheurs du CNRS et de l'Université Paris 7 (1), en collaboration avec une équipe de l'Ecole polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne, viennent de démontrer les possibilités offertes par une nouvelle approche : l'auto-assemblage.

En travaillant sous vide et en se plaçant à une température donnée (-143°C), les chercheurs ont déposé des atomes de cobalt (qui se sont condensés à partir d'une phase gazeuse) sur des surfaces d'or cristallines. Les atomes de ces surfaces étant rangés selon un réseau régulier, les plots de quelques centaines d'atomes ainsi obtenus forment eux-mêmes un réseau régulier. Cette technique d'auto-assemblage consiste donc à laisser la nature fabriquer des nanostructures. Elle est également qualifiée de « bottom-up » (on part du « bas », c'est-à-dire de l'échelle nanométrique, pour obtenir « plus haut » des propriétés intéressantes à l'échelle macroscopique)...read the wave

 

 

Nano Research : USA

Modifications render carbon nanotubes nontoxic

Rice team mitigates toxicity of tiny cylinders with chemical changes

 

HOUSTON, In follow-on work to last year's groundbreaking toxicological study on water-soluble buckyballs, researchers at Rice University's Center for Biological and Environmental Nanotechnology (CBEN) find that water-soluble carbon nanotubes are significantly less toxic to begin with. Moreover, the research finds that nanotubes, like buckyballs, can be rendered nontoxic with minor chemical modifications.

The findings come from the first toxicological studies of water-soluble carbon nanotubes. The study, which is available online, will be published in an upcoming issue of the journal Toxicology Letters.

The research is a continuation of CBEN's pioneering efforts to both identify and mitigate potential nanotechnology risks.

"Carbon nanotubes are high-profile nanoparticles that are under consideration for dozens of applications in materials science, electronics and medical imaging," said CBEN Director Vicki Colvin, the lead researcher on the project. "For medical applications, it is reassuring to see that the cytotoxicity of nanotubes is low and can be further reduced with simple chemical changes." ...read the wave

 

Nano Research : USA

Combined Forces of Physics and Medicine to Investigate Hidden Toxicity

 

A physicist and a medical researcher at the University of Leicester have received a grant of £100,000 from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council to look at possible toxic damage from inhaled nanoparticles used for a range of everyday purposes

The small size of nanoparticles in the size range 5-100 nm gives many novel and useful properties and they are used in applications as diverse as face creams, plastics, medical imaging, novel drug therapies and magnetic recording. Such particles are increasingly manufactured and released into the environment on industrial scales.

However, there is growing concern that the very same properties that make them so useful may also lead to enhanced toxicity if the particles are breathed in. The particles are so small - 100,000 particles laid end-to-end would only stretch a few millimetres - that it is not clear how the body's normal defence mechanisms will cope with them.

By harnessing their combined expertise in physics and medicine, Dr Paul Howes, Department of Physics & Astronomy, and Dr Jonathan Grigg, Department of Infection, Immunity and Inflammation, will research possible toxic damage from inhaled nanoparticles...read the wave

 

 

Nano Research : USA

Scientists discover new method for creating high-yield single-walled carbon nanotubes

 

Cousins of the 1996 Nobel Prize-winning buckyball, carbon nanotubes have taken the nanotechnology industry by storm. Exhibiting extraordinary strength, flexibility and unique electrical, mechanical and optical properties, these hollow microscopic fibers are being integrated into numerous electronic and biological products—high-performance computer chips, combat jackets, bomb detectors and drug delivery devices for the treatment of diseases.

Pushing the field one step further, scientists at Stanford University have devised a novel method for growing vertical single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) on a large scale, a feat that has eluded researchers until now. By modifying the industry's standard approach to producing carbon-based materials—plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD)—they achieved ultra-high-yield growth of SWNTs, thus increasing their application into commercial products. They report their research in the Oct. 26 issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ...read the wave

 

 

Tools of the Trade : USA

DTI-NanoTech reveals the world 's first combined angular-linear motorized positioning system, RoboMate ™ (Patent Pending) .

 

DTI-NanoTech announces the commercial release of RoboMate™. The first system of its kind to allow a probe/tool/laser to be precisely positioned at infinitely variable angles with respect to the target sample. Using DTI's Virtual Point™ technology the tip of the probe/tool/laser can remain fixed at a specific point whilst it's angle of approach with respect to the target sample can be varied continuously. The technology, based on a totally new concept and design principle, represents a quantum leap in micro/nano-positioning evolution...read the wave

 

 

Nano Research : USA

Nanothermometer

 

Small, smaller, nano - nanoscopic particles that can be arranged into controlled superstructures are the stuff from which future “intelligent” materials with new functions could be made. American researchers at the University of Michigan and Ohio University have now developed a “nanothermometer” based on a system made of two different types of nanoparticle.

The thermometer looks like this: the central components of the superstructure are tiny (20 nm) round gold nanoparticles. The research team headed by Nicholas A. Kotov then attached many tinier spheres (3.7 nm diameter) of the semiconducting material cadmium telluride on the surface of these particles by means of molecular “springs” made of polyethylene glycol chains to form a kind of corona around the gold core. When these nanoparticles are irradiated with laser light, the cadmium telluride is induced to glow. The light transfers its energy to an electron–hole pair in the semiconductor acting as a special oscillator, with the electron being in the conduction band and the hole in the valence band. The electron–hole energy packet is called an exciton. When an electron and a hole are reunited, the energy is released as luminescence and the semiconductor particle glows.
..read the wave

 

 

Nano Research : UK

Nanoblinds

 

Some molecules occur in two versions related to each other like mirror images; this property is called chirality. For example, helical polymers are chiral - they can be either left- or right-handed helices. The left and right versions differ in their optical properties, such as their optical activity (they twist the plane of polarized light in opposite directions). Molecules whose optical properties can be precisely controlled - and switched - are highly sought after, as they present interesting possibilities for new data storage devices, optical components, or liquid-crystal displays. American researchers have now developed a helical polymer with side groups that can be flipped back and forth synchronously, like Venetian blinds.

The research team headed by Bruce M. Novak from North Carolina State University and Prasad L. Polavarpu from Vanderbilt University produced a helical polymer from an achiral building block. The use of a chiral catalyst made it possible to link the monomers exclusively into helices twisted in the same direction
...read the wave

 

 

Nano Biz : Germany

BMBF commences the “Technical application of self-organisation” support programme

 

This programme is intended to help develop self-organisation processes for the realisation of numerous technological applications. This is to be performed by way of the funding of co-operative industrial projects involving applied research. The relevant guidelines were published in the German Federal Bulletin on the 29th of September.

Throughout just the last few years, self-organisation phenomena have gained growing importance in scientific investigations, with an impressive number of applied research results published on this topic. The principles of self-organisation are increasingly regarded in many scientific disciplines and innovative fields of research (for example, nanotechnology and optical technologies) as important steps in the implementation of future technological innovations and generations. In the medium to long term, it is expected that controllable self-organisation processes will enable product innovations and improvements as well as much improved process technologies...read the wave


 

Nano Research : USA

Road to greener chemistry paved with nano-gold, researchers report

 

The selective oxidation processes that are used to make compounds contained in agrochemicals, pharmaceuticals and other chemical products can be accomplished more cleanly and more efficiently with gold nanoparticle catalysts, researchers have reported in Nature magazine.

A team of 13 U.K. researchers and one U.S. researcher reported in the Oct. 20 issue of the British journal that the carbon-supported gold catalysts can be fine-tuned with high selectivity for desired products through the addition of trace amounts of bismuth.

The gold catalysts can also carry out partial oxidations under solvent-free conditions, the researchers said, making them more environmentally friendly than oxidation processes that use chlorine, and less costly than those employing organic peroxides.

The team, led by Graham Hutchings, professor of physical chemistry at Cardiff University in Wales, included eight other Cardiff chemists, four scientists from the Johnson Matthey chemical company in the United Kingdom, and a materials scientist from Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.
..read the wave

 

Nano Research : USA

Two-Tone Molecular Printing

Nanopipette with two chambers produces microstructures made of biomolecules

 

The emblem of the Cambridge University, a portrait of scientist Isaac Newton, rendered in microscale as a colorful, fluorescing image: are British researchers just playing around? No, it's a “finger exercise” for serious science. For modern, miniaturized analytical and diagnostic processes, it is necessary to attach microstructures made of different biomolecules to tiny supports with high precision. David Klenerman and his team from Cambridge University and Imperial College (London) used their miniature artwork to prove that their novel “two-tone molecular printing process” is suitable for the production of very highly resolved microstructures.

The new technique is based on the same principle as scanning probe microscopy, in which an extremely fine tip travels over a surface at a very short distance. At the heart of the new “printing” process is a glass nanopipette whose interior is divided into two chambers by a membrane. The chambers can be filled with two different solutions. Each chamber contains an electrode to which a voltage is applied...read the wave

 

 

Tools of the Trade : USA

JMAR Announces Successful Beta Testing of Novel Computer Aided Microscope at University of Vermont College of Medicine

 

SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--- JMAR Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq: JMAR) and the University of Vermont have completed initial test and evaluation of JMAR's VersaCAM scanning boom microscopy system at UVM's Microscopy Imaging Center in the College of Medicine. The system, installed at the University in June of 2005, has been available to numerous researchers and clinical pathologists for the purpose of thick tissue pathology research and studies of whole animal models.

Researchers used the VersaCAM system to scan large areas of slides containing various types of tissues and cells. Of particular interest to UVM researchers were the high magnification, large area images of whole mouse aorta cross-sections and large sections of mouse lung tissue that have been exposed to high levels of asbestos. These samples were evaluated for changes in epithelial tissue and collagen buildup as a result of asbestos exposure. Software developed by JMAR converts high-magnification scans of these samples into a low magnification, large area mosaic for viewing at the macro scale, yet enables the viewer to zoom into areas of interest at magnifications up to 3,100X...read the wave

 

 

Nano Research : USA

Magnetic Nanoparticles Assembled into Long Chains

 

Chains of 1 million magnetic nanoparticles have been assembled and disassembled in a solution of suspended particles in a controlled way, scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) report. Such particles and structures, once their properties are more fully understood and can be manipulated reliably, may be useful in applications such as medical imaging and information storage.

The NIST work, scheduled to be featured on the cover of an upcoming issue of Langmuir * (an American Chemical Society journal), is the first to demonstrate the formation and control of centimeter-long chains of magnetic nanoparticles of a consistent size and quality in a solution. The researchers spent several years learning how to make cobalt particles with controllable size and shape, and they hope to use this knowledge to eventually “build” useful structures...read the wave

 

 

Nano Debate : EU

Public consultation on risk assessment methods for nanotechnologies.

 

The European Commission launched a public consultation on risk assessment methods for nanotechnologies on 20 October.

Nanotechnology involves the controlled production of new materials, structures, and devices which have one or more dimensions thousands of times smaller than the diameter of a human hair. The nanoscale confers new technological properties which may however have potential implications for safety and therefore need to be assessed in advance.

EU Commissioner for Health and Consumer Protection, Markos Kyprianou, declared, 'The competitiveness of a society depends greatly on how amenable it is to new developments and technologies. We must avoid a situation where the marketing of highly innovative nanotechnology products is obstructed by difficulties in providing consumers with the safety assurances they seek. Unquestionably, consumer safety remains the first and highest priority. That is why we are looking for the most appropriate way to carry out risk assessments that will assure the safety of Europeans and build confidence in nanotechnology.'...read the wave

 

 

Nano Debate : USA

Carbon nanoparticles stimulate blood clotting, researchers report

Both nanotubes and airborne particles cause platelets to clump together

 

HOUSTON--Carbon nanoparticles – both those unleashed in the air by engine exhaust and the engineered structures thought to have great potential in medical applications – promote blood-clotting, scientists report in an upcoming edition of the British Journal of Pharmacology.

Researchers from The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston and Ohio University examined the impact of various forms of carbon nanoparticles in a laboratory experiment on human platelets – blood's principal clotting element – and in a model of carotid artery thrombosis, or blockage, using anesthetized rats.

"We found that some carbon nanoparticles activate human platelets and stimulate them to aggregate, or clump together. We also demonstrate that the same nanoparticles stimulated blockage of the carotid artery in the rat model," said research team leader Marek Radomski, M.D., Ph.D., of the Center for Vascular Biology at the Brown Foundation Institute of Molecular Medicine (IMM) at the UT Health Science Center.

C60, a spherical carbon molecule also known as a fullerene or "bucky ball," was the exception, showing no effect on human platelet aggregation and very little effect on rat thrombosis...read the wave

 

Nano Products : Canada

Ecoprogress to Develop Nanotech

 

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA- - Consolidated Ecoprogress Technology Inc. (TSX VENTURE:CES) -

Mr John Banks reports:

Consolidated Ecoprogress Technology Inc. is pleased to announce The Company has signed a Letter of Intent with QuarTek Corporation of North Carolina to form a joint venture for the purpose of developing new materials.

QuarTek Corporation is a privately held nanotechnology company based in High Point, North Carolina. QuarTek is researching and developing processes to produce nano-sized materials, devices, and sensors that exhibit physical properties and functions different from those found at larger scales.

"We are looking to our relationship with QuarTek to move beyond the current generation of materials used in existing processes. QuarTek has demonstrated a number of materials and applications that we believe will enhance our business. In addition, QuarTek's research has long range implications for our plans in the context of our mission to replace plastic products with non hydrocarbon based materials that biodegrade," said John Banks, president of Ecoprogress...read the wave

 

 

Nano Biz : USA

MFIC Announces Nanomaterials Collaboration with UMass Lowell

 

MFIC Corporation (Symbol OTCBB: MFIC) has signed a research and collaboration agreement with The University of Massachusetts Lowell (UML) to develop new applications, processes and products in the area of nanomaterials utilizing MFIC's leading-edge materials processing and chemical reactor equipment (the "Collaboration").

Microfluidics, the operating subsidiary of MFIC, will provide a Microfluidizer(R) Processor and the new-generation Microfluidizer(R) Multiple Stream Mixer/Reactor (MMR) lab system, to be located on the UML campus. The MMR is one of only two advanced, fully equipped systems of its kind in existence, having a current value of $350,000. With the processor valued at $100,000, plus the provision of technical and financial support to projects, the MFIC contribution is valued at more than $545,000.

Research will proceed under the direction of the Nanomanufacturing Center of Excellence (NCOE) at UML.

"We expect the Microfluidics equipment will become key manufacturing platforms for high throughput nanomanufacturing," says Prof. Julie Chen, director of the NCOE. "Researchers on campus and across industry sectors are interested in exploring nanoparticle production that is scalable from experimental quantities to production amounts, with consistency and stability." ...read the wave


 

Nano News : In Dutch

Miljoeneninjectie voor nieuw nano-instituut

 

Er komt, als het aan de Tweede Kamer ligt, een nieuw instituut voor nanotechnologie. Onder de noemer NanoSystems4Vitality (NS4V) willen de universiteiten van Twente, Groningen, Nijmegen en Wageningen samen met het bedrijfsleven gericht werken aan nanotechnologische toepassingen op het gebied van voeding en gezondheid. De hoofdvestiging zou op de UT-campus moeten komen, vanwaaruit de nieuwe activiteiten worden aangestuurd.

Met het aannemen van een motie van VVD-Kamerlid Stef Blok, op 13 oktober, heeft de Tweede Kamer de deur voor een miljoeneninjectie in NS4V wagenwijd open gezet, al is het laatste woord aan minister Brinkhorst van Economische Zaken. Brinkhorst zou voor dit doel ongeveer 25 miljoen euro moeten onttrekken aan de pot `extra aardgasbaten'. De verwachting is dat NS4V voor honderd researchers werk oplevert, exclusief administratieve ondersteuning. Ook de vier universiteiten (onder meer door het beschikbaar stellen van personeel en faciliteiten) en de industrie investeren fors in het plan.

Met NanoSystems4Vitality willen de vier universiteiten gericht werken aan...read the wave

 

18-10- 2005

Nano Medicine : USA

MAN-MADE NANOPARTICLE TO IDENTIFY, TARGET AND KILL BRAIN TUMOR CELLS

 

RICHMOND, Va.– Researchers working with a man-made, metal-filled nanoparticle are developing the material for use as a diagnostic and therapeutic agent that may boost the sensitivity of MRI techniques and improve the diagnosis and treatment of brain tumors.

Panos Fatouros, Ph.D., a professor in the Department of Radiology at Virginia Commonwealth University, has been awarded a five-year, $3.7 million grant from the National Institutes of Health's National Cancer Institute to lead a team of scientists from VCU and Virginia Tech. In a cooperative effort, they will work to further develop, produce and test nanoparticles that can identify brain tumor cells and selectively target them for radiation therapy.

Harry Dorn, Ph.D., and Harry Gibson, Ph.D., both chemistry professors at Virginia Tech, along with other colleagues created a nanoparticle called a functional metallofullerene (fMF), also known as a “buckyball,” that will serve as the basis for the proposed research. It is envisioned that this research will generate a multi-functional platform that will integrate diagnostic and therapeutic functions..
.read the wave

 

 

Nano Research : USA

Proofreading and error-correction in nanomaterials inspired by nature

 

Champaign, IL --Mimicking nature, a procedure developed by researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign can find and correct defects in self-assembled nanomaterials. The new proofreading and error-removal process is based on catalytic DNA and represents a paradigm shift in nanoscale science and engineering.

Despite much progress made in the self-assembly of nanomaterials, defects that occur during the assembly process still present major obstacles for applications such as molecular electronics and photonics. Efforts to overcome this problem have focused on optimizing the assembly process to minimize errors, and designing devices that can tolerate errors.

"Instead of trying to avoid defects or work around them, it makes more sense to accept defects as part of the process and then correct them during and after the assembly process," said Yi Lu, a chemistry professor at Illinois and a researcher at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology. "This procedure is analogous to how nature deals with defects, and can be applied to the assembly of nanomaterials using biomolecules or biomimetic compounds."
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Nano Debate : USA

Does Asbestos Hold the Key for Understanding Nanotechnology Risks?

 

When it comes to assessing the occupational health hazards of exposure to nanoparticles, what can we learn from other small particles and fibers such as asbestos?

That question was the subject of an Oct. 5 presentation made by Fionna Mowat, Ph.D., managing scientist for the Health Sciences Practice of Menlo Park, Calif.-based Exponent, at the Second International Symposium on Nanotechnology and Occupational Health in Minneapolis.

While Mowat's presentation, like many others at the symposium, raised more questions than answers, she concluded that current knowledge of materials such as asbestos, welding fumes and ultrafine particulate matter may be useful in the assessment of the toxicity of nanomaterials.

Drawing a possible parallel to asbestos, Mowat noted that asbestos once was considered a "miracle mineral" before it was discovered to be a human health risk at certain doses...read the wave

 

 

Nano Biz : Canada

Raymor Penetrates the Rapid Prototyping Market With the Sale of a new Titanium Powder to EOS GmbH 'Germany'


MONTREAL, QUEBEC--Raymor Industries Inc. (TSX VENTURE:RAR) is proud to announce that its wholly-owned subsidiary, AP&C Advanced Powders and Coatings Inc. (AP&C) has penetrated another market with the sale of a new product, spherical Ti-6Al-4V powder, a titanium alloy, to EOS GmbH. EOS is a German-based manufacturer of laser-sintering equipment, a rapid prototyping and manufacturing technology, serving the aerospace, automotive, and electronics industries. Furthermore, EOS is looking at AP&C to fulfill a need for high quality, high purity spherical titanium alloy powder with its growing list of international clients.

EOS is the world leading manufacturer of laser-sintering systems. Laser-sintering is the key technology for the fast, flexible and cost effective production of products, patterns or tools for every phase of the product life cycle directly from electronic data. Innovative companies from different sectors are using sintering systems to accelerate their product development and to optimize their production processes. The list of EOS customers includes well-known companies such as BMW, Boeing, DaimlerChrysler, Ford, Nokia, Philips, Pioneer, Porsche, Sharp, Siemens VDO, Toyota, VW, and Volvo. Last year, EOS earned more than Euro 43 million in revenues and has experienced an average annual growth rate of 22% over the last 5 years...read the wave

 

 

Nano Biz : USA

Nanophase and Competitive Technologies enter nanotechnology agreement

 

Romeoville , IL, Nano phase Technologies (Nasdaq: NANX) , a technology leader in nanomaterials and nanoengineered products, announced that the Company and Competitive Technologies (AMEX: CTT) have entered into an exclusive agreement under which CTT will actively identify innovative nanotechnologies developed by multiple universities and companies that may be synergistic with Nanophase's technologies and strategic forward initiatives for Nanophase's evaluation and potential licensing. As such opportunities are identified, Nanophase has the exclusive option to evaluate, license and commercialize selected technologies as the Company deems appropriate.

“In view of Nanophase's strategic objectives and initiatives, the relationship with CTT offers Nanophase a direct conduit to the vast array of emerging or new nanotechnologies that are being developed in universities and companies,” stated Joseph Cross, Nanophase's President and CEO. “Our vision is to continue expanding the technology and product capability of the Company as those capabilities clearly relate to revenue growth, especially through relationships with our current and future market partners. CTT offers Nanophase a direct...read the wave

 

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NIPER-NANO-2006
17 - 18 February 2006 SAS Nagar Punjab, INDIA
Nanotechnology in Advanced Drug Delivery
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Future Technology : Australia

Harnessing flea power to create near-perfect rubber

 

In a world first, CSIRO scientists have copied nature to produce a near-perfect rubber from resilin, the elastic protein which gives fleas their remarkable jumping ability and helps insects fly.

This important research breakthrough is reported in the latest edition of the respected international journal Nature (13 October 2005).

Resilin has a near-perfect capacity to recover, or 'bounce back', after stress is applied and extraordinary durability, which may have applications in industry and medicine. It could be used as a high-efficiency rubber in industry, spinal disc implants, heart and blood valve substitutes, and perhaps even to add some extra spring to the heels of running shoes. 

“Resilin has evolved over hundreds of millions of years in insects into the most efficient elastic protein known,” says project leader, CSIRO Livestock Industries principal scientist, Dr Chris Elvin.
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Quantum Computers : UK

Qubit link could pave the way for world's most powerful computers