[ExI] The Nanogirl News~

Sun May 20 00:45:33 UTC 2007

Nanogirl News - brought to you by Nanotechnology Industries www.nanoindustries.com/
Issue May 19, 2007

Nanotechnology is showing promise in treating spinal cord injuries and could conceivably reverse paralysis, according to a report on the future of the emerging technology in medicine. The report, released at a Washington forum this week, said nanotechnology -- or the use of materials on the scale of atoms and molecules -- may also help cure other ailments believed to be intractable by repairing damaged organs or tissue. This suggests damage from heart attacks or strokes, bone or tooth loss or ailments such as diabetes and Parkinson's disease could be treated with nanotechnology, researchers said. 
(Yahoo News 4.27.07)
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070427/ts_alt_afp/ushealthmedicinenanotechnology_070427074643

100% Biodegradable NANOIL Ready For Automobiles. Nano Chemical Systems Holdings, Inc., announced recently their latest entry into the multi-billion dollar performance chemical category, NANOIL, a "nano-enhanced" GREEN motor oil. Unlike today's fossil and synthetic oils, NANOIL is non-toxic and bio-degradable, thus eliminating the current disposal issues with present commercially available lubricants. Nanochem will produce NANOIL utilizing its nano-technology patent applications and inventions that directly address bio-fuel production for a nano-enhanced line of "green" bio-lubricants. Initial results indicate that these bio-lubricants can perform as well as today's fossil and synthetic oils. (Chemical Online 4.27.07)
http://www.chemicalonline.com/content/news/article.asp?docid=8a929e6c-ee2d-4523-9616-f1089c78c138&atc~c=771+s=773+r=001+l=a&VNETCOOKIE=NO

NIST Nano Center Accepting Proposals. Looking for a state-of-the-art place to study nanotechnology-related products? If yes, then the U.S. Commerce Department's National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) may be able to help. (Industry Week 5.15.07) http://www.industryweek.com/ReadArticle.aspx?ArticleID=14196

Finding by Rice University chemists could aid development of new nanodevices. Gold nanorods assemble themselves into rings. Rice University chemists have discovered that tiny building blocks known as gold nanorods spontaneously assemble themselves into ring-like superstructures. This finding, which will be published as the inside cover article of the March 19 international edition of the chemistry journal Angewandte Chemie, could potentially lead to the development of novel nanodevices like highly sensitive optical sensors, superlenses, and even invisible objects for use in the military. 
(Rice University 3.9.07)
http://www.media.rice.edu/media/NewsBot.asp?MODE=VIEW&ID=9358&SnID=415793553>

Engines of Creation 2.0: The Coming Era of Nanotechnology - Updated and Expanded By K. Eric Drexler (father of nanotechnology) is available exclusively from WOWIO at www.wowio.com and is free of charge to registered users. 

Plenty of room for MRIs at a nano scale... a research team now reports. Combining an MRI with the precision of atomic-force microscopes, a team led by Dan Rugar of the IBM Research Division in San Jose, Calif., unveiled MRI images 60,000 times smaller than anything imaged by MRI previously, down to 90 nanometer resolution - about 10 times bigger than your typical molecule and right in the range of the integrated circuits doing all the calculations behind your computer screen. The result, the team writes in the current Nature Nanotechnology journal, "demonstrates the feasibility of pushing MRI into the nanoscale regime." (USA Today 5.1.07)
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/columnist/vergano/2007-04-29-nano-mri_N.htm?csp=34

Iowa State scientists demonstrate first use of nanotechnology to enter plant cells. A team of Iowa State University plant scientists and materials chemists have successfully used nanotechnology to penetrate plant cell walls and simultaneously deliver a gene and a chemical that triggers its expression with controlled precision. Their breakthrough brings nanotechnology to plant biology and agricultural biotechnology, creating a powerful new tool for targeted delivery into plant cells. (Iowa State University 5.16.07) http://www.iastate.edu/~nscentral/news/2007/may/nanotech.shtml 

Super small nanoelectrodes can probe microscale environments. Investigating the composition and behavior of microscale environments, including those within living cells, could become easier and more precise with nanoelectrodes being developed at the University of Illinois. "The individual nanotube-based probes can be used for electrochemical and biochemical sensing," said Min-Feng Yu, a U. of I. professor of mechanical science and engineering, and a researcher at the university's Beckman Institute. "The position of the nanoelectrodes can be controlled very accurately."
(U of Ill at Urbana-Champaign 3.9.07) http://www.news.uiuc.edu/news/07/0309nanoelectrodes.html

An Australian biotechnology firm said on Thursday it had developed a means of delivering anti-cancer drugs directly to cancer cells, which aims to avoid the debilitating toxicity associated with chemotherapy. The method uses nanotechnology, which involves molecules far smaller than a human cell. Direct targeting of chemotherapy drugs would allow dosages thousands of times lower than that in conventional chemotherapy and be more easily tolerated by patients, said the firm. Writing in the May issue of U.S.-based Cancer Cell journal, the biotech firm EnGeneIC said it had developed nano-cells containing chemotherapy drugs. (Yahoo 5.10.07)
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070510/hl_nm/cancer_australia_dc_1

New JILA apparatus measures fast nanoscale motions. A new nanoscale apparatus developed at JILA-a tiny gold beam whose 40 million vibrations per second are measured by hopping electrons-offers the potential for a 500-fold increase in the speed of scanning tunneling microscopes (STM), perhaps paving the way for scientists to watch atoms vibrate in high definition in real time. The new device measures the wiggling of the beam, or, more precisely, the space between it and an electrically conducting point just a single atom wide, based on the speed of electrons "tunneling" across the gap. The work is the first use of an "atomic point contact," the business end of an STM, to sense a nanomechanical device oscillating at its "resonant" frequency, where it naturally vibrates like a tuning fork. (EurekAlert 3.16.07) http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-03/nios-nja031607.php

A new nano-insulin delivery pump for worry-free treatment for diabetics...In what may be a sizeable breakthrough in medical technology (and quite a relief for diabetics), medical device company Debiotech and Switzerland-based STMicroelectronics have entered into a strategic cooperation agreement to manufacture and deliver the award-winning miniaturised insulin-delivery pump. (Business Standard 5.1.07)
http://www.business-standard.com/common/storypage.php?autono=282949&leftnm=8&subLeft=0&chkFlg=

Top tiny creations. A recent story about 'microscopic alphabet soup' created at UCLA got us thinking about all the quirky ways researchers have chosen to demonstrate new micro, nano-scale technology. (New Scientist Technology Blog 3.22.07)
http://www.newscientist.com/blog/technology/2007/03/top-tiny-creations.html?DCMP=Matt_Sparkes&nsref=nano

Paralyzed Mice Walk Again. Scientists Use Nanotechnology to Mend Broken Spinal Cords. Samuel Stupp has a bunch of mice that used to drag their hind legs behind them when they crawled around his Illinois lab, but they have miraculously regained at least partial use of their rear legs. Astonishingly, their severed spinal cords have been repaired, at least partly, without surgery or drugs. All it took was a simple injection of a liquid containing tiny molecular structures developed by Stupp and his colleagues at Northwestern University. Six weeks later, the mice were able to walk again. They don't have their former agility, but their injuries should have left them paralyzed for life... Stupp's team concentrates on combining the incredibly small world of nanotechnology with biology, creating molecules that self-assemble into large molecular structures that can literally "hug" around cells in the human body. (ABC News 5.1.07)
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=3102679&page=1&CMP=OTC-RSSFeeds0312

A Single-Photon Server with Just One Atom. Physicists at Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics have succeeded in turning a Rubidium atom into a single-photon server.  The high quality of the single photons and their ready availability are important for future quantum information processing experiments with single photons. In the relatively new field of quantum information processing the goal is to make use of quantum mechanics to compute certain tasks much more efficiently than with a classical computer. (Max Planck Society 3.12.07)
http://www.mpg.de/english/illustrationsDocumentation/documentation/pressReleases/2007/pressRelease200703091/index.html

Magnetic tweezers unravel cellular mechanics. By injecting tiny magnetic beads into a living cell and manipulating them with a magnetic 'tweezer', scientists of the University of Twente, The Netherlands, succeed in getting to know more about the mechanics of the cell nucleus. (physorg 5.14.07) http://www.physorg.com/news98378757.html

Student Creates Garment With Bacteria-trapping Nanofibers. Fashion designers and fiber scientists at Cornell have taken "functional clothing" to a whole new level. They have designed a garment that can prevent colds and flu and never needs washing, and another that destroys harmful gases and protects the wearer from smog and air pollution. The two-toned gold dress and metallic denim jacket, featured at the April 21 Cornell Design League fashion show, contain cotton fabrics coated with nanoparticles that give them functional qualities never before seen in the fashion world. (Science Daily 5.7.07)
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/05/070506091754.htm

Inexpensive 'nanoglue' can bond nearly anything together. Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have developed a new method to bond materials that don't normally stick together. The team's adhesive, which is based on self-assembling nanoscale chains, could impact everything from next-generation computer chip manufacturing to energy production. Less than a nanometer - or one billionth of a meter - thick, the nanoglue is inexpensive to make and can withstand temperatures far higher than what was previously envisioned. In fact, the adhesive's molecular bonds strengthen when exposed to heat. (EurekAlert 4.16.07) http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-05/rpi-ic051507.php

Demand for nanotech-based medicine grows. U.S. demand for nanotechnology medical products will increase over 17 percent per year to $53 billion in 2011, says The Freedonia Group, Inc., a Cleveland-based industry research firm. Afterwards, the increasing flow of new nanomedicines, nanodiagnostics, and nanotech-based medical supplies and devices into the US market will boost demand to more than $110 billion in 2016. The firm reports these and other findings in its new study, Nanotechnology in Healthcare. (SmallTimes 3.19.07)
http://www.smalltimes.com/articles/article_display.cfm?Section=ONART&C=Bio&ARTICLE_ID=287462&p=109

Lighting the nanoworld with nanolamps. An interdisciplinary team of researchers at Cornell University (CU) has built 'nanolamps.' These extremely small light bulbs are made of light-emitting nanofibers about the size of a virus or the tiniest of bacteria. Using a technique called electrospinning, the researchers spun the fibers from a metallic element, the ruthenium, and a polymer. These nanofibers "are so small that they are less than the wavelength of the light they emit." Apparently, these nanofibers are easy to produce. But before they can be integrated into our increasingly smaller electronic devices, there still is a need to know how long these nanolamps can last. 
(ZDnet 4.14.07) http://blogs.zdnet.com/emergingtech/?p=542

Nanoparticles 'safe for soil bugs'. Ronald Turco at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, and his colleagues have found that fullerenes, nanoscale carbon spheres, do not harm microbes when released into the soil. Their study is the first of its kind to focus on soil microbes, which play a key role in recycling nutrients used by plants (Environmental Science & Technology, DOI: 10.1021/es061953l).(NewScientist 5.5.07)
http://www.newscientisttech.com/article.ns?id=mg19426025.800&feedId=nanotechnology_rss20

Nanorockets - the ultimate baby boosters? Brian Gilchrists.  design for a rocket ship sounds like a bad joke. For a start, its engine is about the size of a single bacterium. And for thrust it relies on the equivalent of chucking microscopic beer cans out of the spacecraft's rear window. Gilchrist, an electrical engineer at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, is not joking though. He proposes to harness the latest nanotechnology to create an engine that will make its way across the solar system by firing out minute metal particles like so much nano-sized grapeshot. (New Scientist 3.24.07)
http://space.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=mg19325961.500&feedId=fundamentals_rss20

Growing Nerve Cells in 3-D Dramatically Affects Gene Expression. Nerve cells grown in three-dimensional environments deploy hundreds of different genes compared with cells grown in standard two-dimensional petri dishes, according to a new Brown University study. The research, spearheaded by bioengineer Diane Hoffman-Kim, adds to a growing body of evidence that lab culture techniques dramatically affect the way these cells behave. (Brown 5.15.07)
http://www.brown.edu/Administration/News_Bureau/2006-07/06-156.html

The longest carbon nanotubes you've ever seen. Using techniques that could revolutionize manufacturing for certain materials, researchers have grown carbon nanotubes that are the longest in the world. While still slightly less than 2 centimeters long, each nanotube is 900,000 times longer than its diameter. The fibers--which have the potential to be longer, stronger and better conductors of electricity than copper and many other materials--could ultimately find use in smart fabrics, sensors and a host of other applications. To grow the aligned bundles of tiny tubes, the researchers combined advantages of chemical vapor deposition (CVD), a technique for creating thin coatings that is especially common in the semiconductor industry, with a novel substrate and catalyst onto which the carbon attaches. (EurkAlert 5.10.07)
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-05/nsf-tlc051007.php

Nanoscale pasta: Toward nanoscale electronics. Pasta tastes like pasta - with or without a spiral. But when you jump to the nanoscale, everything changes: carbon nanotubes and nanofibers that look like nanoscale spiral pasta have completely different electronic properties than their non-spiraling cousins. Engineers at UC San Diego, and Clemson University are studying these differences in the hopes of creating new kinds of components for nanoscale electronics. (physorg 5.18.07)
http://www.physorg.com/news98713032.html

Happy weekend!

Gina "Nanogirl" Miller
Nanotechnology Industries
http://www.nanoindustries.com
Personal: http://www.nanogirl.com
Animation Blog: http://maxanimation.blogspot.com/
Craft blog: http://nanogirlblog.blogspot.com/
Foresight Senior Associate http://www.foresight.org
Nanotechnology Advisor Extropy Institute  http://www.extropy.org
Email: nanogirl at halcyon.com
"Nanotechnology: Solutions for the future."
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