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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>The Nanogirl News</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>April 23, 2004</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Eric Drexler (author of Engines of Creation and
Nanosystems) has provided us with a website full of crucial nanotechnology
information and images. <A
href="http://www.e-drexler.com">http://www.e-drexler.com</A></FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Harnessing Nanotechnology. As field develops,
scientists gather to take stock and look to the future. The field of
nanotechnology is getting a lot of attention these days. Many scientists and
policymakers are excited over the potential impact of this field on areas such
as energy, public health, and the environment. But despite this bright future,
it's the potentially harmful implications of the science as detailed by some
media outlets and science-fiction literature that is garnering the interest of
the general public. Creating an environment that recognizes and addresses public
concern, while encouraging continued research and development, is a key
challenge facing the nascent field. That challenge was a major topic of
discussion at a recent nanotechnology conference. Held in Washington, D.C., in
early April, the meeting, called National Nanotechnology Initiative: >From Vision
to Commercialization, brought together approximately 400 scientists from
academia, industry, and the government to assess the state of the field and
discuss its future direction. (C&E 4/21/04) <A
href="http://pubs.acs.org/cen/nlw/8216gov1.html">http://pubs.acs.org/cen/nlw/8216gov1.html</A></FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Are Nanobots Fiction or Reality? (By Chris Phoenix
of CNR). As far as we know, nanoscale machinery is possible, and we could see
molecular manufacturing within a decade. Nanotechnology is a diverse collection
of fields. It promises many things that haven't been built yet, such as
molecular electronic computers, new kinds of medicine, and nanobots. As far as
we know, nanobots are quite possible—no more "fictional" than the others.
However, nanobots are special for three reasons: They were the first kind of
nanotech to be called "nanotechnology"; they can be used for general-purpose
manufacturing, including building more manufacturing capability; and they're
associated with scary ideas, so a lot of nano bureaucrats like to claim they're
impossible. (Betterhumans 4/21/04)<BR><A
href="http://www.betterhumans.com/Features/Ask_an_Expert/answer.aspx?articleID=2004-04-19-1">http://www.betterhumans.com/Features/Ask_an_Expert/answer.aspx?articleID=2004-04-19-1</A></FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Nanoscale beads sniff tough-to-find toxins. A
biosensor that uses nanoshells — nanoscale hollow beads — may provide the
long-sought technology U.S. homeland security officials have sought to sense
arbitrary biotoxins. Researchers at the University of Arizona have continued the
pioneering work of a colleague to create the biosensors. Made from cell membrane
material with embedded ion channels, the biosensors transduce fluorescence in
the presence of nearly any agent, from biotoxins to proteins to other
difficult-to-sense organics, even those inside a living cell. (EETimes
4/9/04)<BR><A
href="http://www.eetimes.com/at/n/news/showArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=ERA5G5GJJNLIYQSNDBCSKHY?articleId=18900840">http://www.eetimes.com/at/n/news/showArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=ERA5G5GJJNLIYQSNDBCSKHY?articleId=18900840</A></FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Ultra-fast laser allows efficient, accessible
nanoscale machining. Think of a microscopic milling machine, capable of cutting
just about any material with better-than-laser precision, in 3-D---and at the
nanometer scale. In a paper published this week in the Proceedings of the
National Academy of Sciences, University of Michigan researchers explain how and
why using a femtosecond pulsed laser enables extraordinarily precise
nanomachining. The capabilities of the ultra-fast or ultra-short pulsed laser
have significant implications for basic scientific research, and for practical
applications in the nanotechnology industry. (Eurekalert 4/20/04) <A
href="http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2004-04/uom-ula042004.php">http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2004-04/uom-ula042004.php</A></FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Carbon nanotubes break small record. Researchers
from Meijo University in Japan and Research Centre Jülich in Germany have made
what they say is the smallest stable carbon nanotube. The tube, just 3 Angstroms
in diameter, grew inside a multiwalled carbon nanotube during a hydrogen arc
discharge process. (nanotechweb 4/20/04) <A
href="http://nanotechweb.org/articles/news/3/4/10/1">http://nanotechweb.org/articles/news/3/4/10/1</A></FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Will nanotech save the world or is it mostly hype?
While its benefits are still years away from reaching the public, scientists
hope nanotechnology -- the manipulation of atoms as raw materials -- will
eventually live up to the hype it's received for its potential to advance
medicine, electronics and manufacturing. From helping diagnose diseases more
accurately to keeping computers running more smoothly, the manipulation of atoms
is a challenge with a whole new set of rules. The scientists who work with these
tiniest of raw materials see a world just as mesmerizing as those who study the
farthest reaches of outer space. (CNN 4/21/04)<BR><A
href="http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/science/04/15/nanotech.ideas/index.html">http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/science/04/15/nanotech.ideas/index.html</A></FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Carbon Nanofoam is the First Pure-Carbon Magnet.
Discovered a few years ago, carbon nanofoam is the fifth known allotrope of
carbon, the others being graphite, diamond, fullerene (e.g., C-60 molecules),
and carbon nanotubes. The foam is, along with aerogel, one of the lightest known
solid substances (with a density of ~2 mg/cm3). But at this week's APS March
Meeting in Montreal, physicists announced an even more interesting property:
though made entirely from carbon atoms that are normally considered nonmagnetic,
the foam nevertheless can act like a ferromagnet. <BR>(Physics News Update
3/26/04) <A
href="http://www.aip.org/enews/physnews/2004/split/678-1.html">http://www.aip.org/enews/physnews/2004/split/678-1.html</A></FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>A buckyball toxicity study that spawned
considerable debate inside and outside the nanotech industry last week has been
published in an environmental journal. The journal Environmental Health
Perspectives this week published Manufactured Nanomaterials Induce Oxidative
Stress in Brain of Juvenile Largemouth Bass, written by Southern Methodist
University environmental toxicology lecturer Eva Oberdorster. The peer-reviewed
study, conducted by Oberdorster and her students, is believed to be the first to
show that uncoated fullerenes can cause brain damage in aquatic species.
(SmallTimes 4/8/04) <A
href="http://www.smalltimes.com/document_display.cfm?document_id=7695">http://www.smalltimes.com/document_display.cfm?document_id=7695</A></FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Friday Forward: A chat with futurist John Smart.
Every Friday, I post a new E-mail chat with a forward-looking thinker about the
road ahead. Today, our prescient Friday Forward prognosticator is John Smart,
president of the Institute for Accelerating Change a nonprofit futurist
community based in San Pedro, Calif., that conducts research and holds
conferences on the future of technology and the accelerating pace of
technological change. IAC's major conference in September, for instance, will
explore the increasing connectivity of physical space, the increasing accuracy
of simulation space, and the increasing intelligence of our physical-virtual and
human-machine interfaces. Next News: What tech trends do you see developing over
the next 10 to 25 years that the average person today has little awareness of?
Smart: A surprising number of today's technologies, like most nanotechnology and
biotechnology, will be much less powerful in the next several decades than many
futurists presently realize. (USANews 4/23/04) <A
href="http://www.usnews.com/usnews/tech/nextnews/nexthome.htm">http://www.usnews.com/usnews/tech/nextnews/nexthome.htm</A></FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Enzyme "Ink" Shows Potential For Nanomanufacturing.
Experiment uses biomolecules to write on a gold substrate. Duke University
engineers have demonstrated that enzymes can be used to create nanoscale
patterns on a gold surface. Since many enzymes are already commercially
available and well characterized, the potential for writing with enzyme "ink"
represents an important advance in nanomanufacturing. This research was funded
by the National Science Foundation through a Nanotechnology Interdisciplinary
Research Initiative (NIRT) grant. (Innovations-report 4/23/04)<BR><A
href="http://www.innovations-report.com/html/reports/process_engineering/report-28392.html">http://www.innovations-report.com/html/reports/process_engineering/report-28392.html</A></FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Nanosys, the reigning celebrity of the
nanotechnology market, filed preliminary documents Thursday for an initial
public offering with the Security and Exchange Commission, in what will likely
be a closely watched saga. Nanosys specializes in designing molecules that could
conceivably lead to better solar panels, flexible screens or dense computer
memory. (Cnet 4/23/04) <A
href="http://news.com.com/2100-7337-5198913.html">http://news.com.com/2100-7337-5198913.html</A></FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Research and Markets: Nanotechnology and Government
Strategies Worldwide. The Worldwide Nanotechnology Research and Development
Investment has increased five times in the last five years and worldwide annual
industrial production in the nanotech sectors is estimated to exceed $1 trillion
in 10 - 15 years from now. Research and Markets (<A
href="http://www.researchandmarkets.com">http://www.researchandmarkets.com</A>)
has announced the addition of Nanotechnology and Government Strategies Worldwide
to their offering. Link to the contents provided at the bottom. (tmcnet 4/23/04)
<A
href="http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/2004/Apr/1034683.htm">http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/2004/Apr/1034683.htm</A></FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Meet the Public Face of U.S. Nano; You'll be Seeing
More of Him. When nano meets the general public, it isn't always pretty. That's
why Clayton Teague has both a tough and rewarding job ahead of him. As director
of the National Nanotechnology Coordination Office, it's his job to handle
"public outreach" for the U.S. government's nanotechnology program. As the
public becomes more aware of nanotechnology, Teague's job turns even more
challenging. One day the general-interest media are hyping the wonders of
nanotech, the next day it's denigrated as a polluter that preys on lab rats and
fish. I spoke to Teague recently at the National Nanotechnology Initiative's
annual conference in Washington, where nanotech's public image was very much on
everybody's mind. Here's an edited excerpt from our discussion. (Smalltimes
4/23/04)<BR><A
href="http://www.smalltimes.com/document_display.cfm?section_id=45&document_id=7750">http://www.smalltimes.com/document_display.cfm?section_id=45&document_id=7750</A></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Getting Molecules To Do The Work. The era of
nano-manufacturing is being born in hundreds of labs that are racing to perfect
a technique called self-assembly. If you just listen casually to a description
of what Sandia National Laboratories has been working on, you would think it had
wasted its time reinventing the wheel: It has developed a robot that can walk
and pick up and deliver loads of cargo. In an age of advanced assembly and
landings on Mars, that hardly sounds impressive -- except that Sandia's robot is
a molecule. Called a motor protein, it has two little feet on one end and a tail
that can grab things on the other. Once a special chemical is added to the
solution in which it resides, the protein begins moving along strands of fiber
that are one-fifth the width of a human hair, says Bruce Bunker, a Sandia
researcher who's in charge of the project. (Business Week Online special report
4/22/04) <A
href="http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/04_18/b3881609.htm">http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/04_18/b3881609.htm</A><BR> <BR>First
book on Nanophotonics. Like any emerging technology, nanophotonics -- the
science behind light and matter interacting on the nanoscale -- is ripe for all
kinds of claims ranging from the sublime to the far-fetched. So it is an
opportune time for the publication of Nanophotonics (John Wiley & Sons,
March 2004), the first book to comprehensively cover nanophotonics, both as a
fundamental phenomenon and as the origin of technologies and devices that will
impact fields ranging from information technology to drug delivery. Authored by
Paras N. Prasad, Ph.D., SUNY Distinguished Professor in the Department of
Chemistry in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University at Buffalo and
executive director of UB's Institute for Lasers, Photonics and Biophotonics,
Nanophotonics is written so that it can be understood by established scientists
and advanced undergraduates alike. (Azonano 4/22/04) <A
href="http://www.azonano.com/news.asp?newsID=125">http://www.azonano.com/news.asp?newsID=125</A></FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>(Comics & Nano) "Magnus, Robot Fighter" Fights
his Way back into Comics. In the early 1960s, comic fans became enamored with
the superheroic offerings made by DC Comics and Marvel Comics...The 1990s saw
the return of Magnus when Valiant Comics, and later Acclaim Comics, offered up
all news tale based on the character, but since then no new material has been
published and those classic Russ Manning issues have remained out of print.
Things are looking up for the hero, though. New robot-fighting tales are planned
for Magnus as well as collections of the original Russ Manning issues...We
intend to honor the Russ Manning vision of man and robot," said Preiss, "but to
add layers of complexity that evolve from nanotechnology, Asimovian thought and
the world of personal computing and artificial intelligence which did not exist
when the character was invented. Personally, I would like to get rid of the red
shorts and the 'M' on the belt, but that is not decided. We certainly will
update the costume. (Comicbookresources 4/20/04) <A
href="http://www.comicbookresources.com/news/newsitem.cgi?id=3556">http://www.comicbookresources.com/news/newsitem.cgi?id=3556</A></FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Nano-refrigeration firm takes a Cool look at
wafers. Cool Chips is starting to manufacture prototypes of a heat-removal
system based on wafer-shaped electrodes. Cool Chips, a company that wants to
bring refrigeration into the nanotechnology era, has opened a prototype
manufacturing facility, a crucial step in the long road to commercial
deployment. The Gibraltar-based company is promoting one of the more novel
approaches to cooling industrial equipment and computer parts. Cool Chips takes
two wafer-shaped electrodes and spaces them about 10 nanometres apart in a very
thin sandwich. (ZDnet 4/23/04) <A
href="http://news.zdnet.co.uk/0,39020330,39152409,00.htm">http://news.zdnet.co.uk/0,39020330,39152409,00.htm</A></FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>A Rose By Any Other Name? Nanotechnology may be the
next big thing, but the sweet smell of success is being used to promote nearly
worthless stocks, charges Asensio & Co. The New York City-based investment
banking firm has asked New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer to
investigate misuse of the nano label. Asensio charges that nanotechnology “has
become a favorite, and successful, term among America’s most fraudulent stock
promoters.” The firm has reason to want to stop such hype: It makes money by
publishing critical reports on stocks that it believes are overvalued and “short
selling” them—betting that they will drop in price. (C&Enews 4/19/04)<BR><A
href="http://pubs.acs.org/cen/news/8216/8216notw5.html">http://pubs.acs.org/cen/news/8216/8216notw5.html</A><BR> <BR>Pentagon
official says nanotechnology a high priority. The U.S. military expects advances
in nanotechnology to impact every major weapons system and is spending hundreds
of millions of dollars annually on various research programs, a senior military
science adviser said Thursday at a meeting of nanotechnology specialists.
"Nanotechnology is one of the highest priority science and technology programs
in the Defense Department," said Clifford Lau, the senior science adviser in the
Pentagon's office of basic research. Lau, who also serves as president of the
nanotechnology council at the engineering group IEEE, said research is being
coordinated across the military branches, and plans are in place to transition
the technology from basic research to deployment. (GovExec 4/19/04) <A
href="http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0404/041904td1.htm">http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0404/041904td1.htm</A></FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>China Sunday successfully sent into space
Nano-satellite I, the first nanotechnology-based satellite ever developed by the
country, Xinhua reports. The successful launch made China the world's fourth
country capable of launching nano-satellites after Russia, the US and Britain,
Chinese space experts said. (India Kerala News 4/18/04) <A
href="http://www.newkerala.com/news-daily/news/features.php?action=fullnews&id=12524">http://www.newkerala.com/news-daily/news/features.php?action=fullnews&id=12524</A></FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Spray-on electronics move closer to reality. If
recent research projects bear fruit, it won't be too many years before magazines
play videos and semiconductors roll out of inkjet printers. Workers at Xerox and
TDA Research independently unveiled methods this week for making transistors out
of plastic rather than silicon, in ways that could be commercially viable. Such
a shift in materials could drastically reduce the cost of computer displays
because chipmakers would not have to build multibillion dollar factories to make
semiconductors to power these devices. Just as important, it could greatly
expand the range of objects that connect to the Internet, because electronic
connections would be handled by a thin film or moldable material, rather than
rigid chips. A thin screen could be bound into a magazine, for instance, and
connect wirelessly to a Web site, or plastic soda bottles could transmit signals
to inventory devices. (Cnet 4/19/04)<BR><A
href="http://asia.cnet.com/newstech/industry/0,39001143,39176047,00.htm">http://asia.cnet.com/newstech/industry/0,39001143,39176047,00.htm</A></FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Nanotech's Chemotherapy Cure (Josh Wolfe). In the
world of modern medicine there are few more imprecise and drastic measures than
chemotherapy as a treatment for cancer. In most cases the process involves
poisoning a patient's system with toxic chemicals in an effort to kill malignant
cancer cells. Anyone who has personally suffered through chemo or seen a loved
one suffer can attest to its destructive and debilitating side effects.
Unfortunately, one of the causes of these severe side effects comes not from the
anti-cancer drugs themselves, but from the solutions used to dissolve them. When
a drug won't dissolve in water, another solvent is often used in its place;
occasionally the side effects of the solvent cause more discomfort than the
cancer-killing agent. Scientific researchers working with nanoparticles, 1/100th
the size of a red blood cell, may have discovered a solution to chemo's
"solution" problem. (Forbes 4/15/04)<BR><A
href="http://www.forbes.com/investmentnewsletters/2004/04/15/cz_jw_0415soapbox.html">http://www.forbes.com/investmentnewsletters/2004/04/15/cz_jw_0415soapbox.html</A><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Gina "Nanogirl" Miller<BR>Nanotechnology
Industries<BR><A
href="http://www.nanoindustries.com">http://www.nanoindustries.com</A><BR>Personal:
<A href="http://www.nanogirl.com">http://www.nanogirl.com</A><BR>Foresight
Senior Associate <A
href="http://www.foresight.org">http://www.foresight.org</A><BR>Nanotechnology
Advisor Extropy Institute <A
href="http://www.extropy.org">http://www.extropy.org</A><BR>Tech-Aid Advisor <A
href="http://www.tech-aid.info/t/all-about.html">http://www.tech-aid.info/t/all-about.html</A><BR>Email:
<A
href="mailto:nanogirl@halcyon.com">nanogirl@halcyon.com</A><BR>"Nanotechnology:
Solutions for the future."<BR></DIV></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>