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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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