Month: August 2002

from the ways-to-pick-an-atom dept.
Quantum net for atom angling, an article by Philip Ball online at nature science update (July 30, 2002) describes recently published calculations indicating that "Physicists should be able to land exact numbers of atoms from a quantum cloud." A quantum dot dipped into a Bose-Einstein Condensate for a specified time interval should withdraw one atom from the BEC; for a longer period two atoms, etc.

from the smaller-cooler-sooner? dept.
DARPA researcher pursues 'nanomemory' (a UPI Science News article by Scott R. Burnell, published 8/4/2002) reports that DARPA program manager Kwan Kwok "plans to have a working nanoscale computer memory by 2004. If so, one square centimeter's worth of the device Kwok envisions could hold more than 10 gigabytes of data, enough for several full-length movies." The report provides no details on the arrays of molecular wires that are planned. Although only a factor of 30 or so beyond the storage density of current state-of-the-art hard drives, 'nanomemory' would also be superior to current dynamic random access memory (DRAM) in terms of much lower heat production and power use.

from the what's-in-a-name dept.
PatGratton writes with a "fairly radical suggestion" to distinguish molecular manufacturing/molecular nanotechnology, as proposed by Eric Drexler in Engines of Creation and Nanosystems, from other nanoscale science and technologies currently covered by the term nanotechnology. Following is his abstract of his argument. "The full argument is available on my web site: Nanotech vs. Nanotech (Part 1) is intended for a general audience, while Nanotech vs. Nanotech (Part 2) is intended for Feynman/Drexler nanotech advocates. Each document is about two pages."

from the big-budget-silver-screen-tiny-tech dept.
Gina Miller writes "Chud.com a portal for movies in development has posted on the front page, news that FOX is intending to film the not yet released book _Prey_ by Michael Crichton. The author has received 5 million dollars for the movie rights of his novel. Quote; 'The details are more covert than Site B operations, but the story apparently involves nanotechnology, and is a political thriller that blends themes from the writer's Andromeda Strain and Jurassic Park.' The book will be released in November."

from the artificial-assemblies dept.
Mr_Farlops writes "Business Week highlights the work of chemist George Whitesides and his startup, Surface Logix which plans to build cell-based sensors to help quickly screen new drugs and to build polyvalent drugs that, unlike most conventional drugs, bind to multiple sites on specfic proteins involved in disease. Whitesides hopes to fuse biotech and chemistry to develop novel methods of self-assembly as well."

from the nano-hype-alert dept.
Mr_Farlops writes "An editorial in Forbes magazine points out that some businesses are giving themselves a facelift by joining the word 'nano' in their company titles even though the company has nothing to do with bulk nanomaterials or nanotechnology. A choice quote:"

However, with all the amazing discoveries nanotechnology promises, out of the woodwork comes the hype. Remember in the '80s PC boom, when a slew of companies changed their names to incorporate the phrase "tech" and, more recently, the addition of "dot-com" to brighten up boring corporate logos? Make way for the new "nano" companies:

from the seeing-what-you're-doing dept.
A more detailed description of the extreme ultraviolet laser posted on Nanodot July 23, 2002: JohnFaith writes " EE Times reports on an extreme ultraviolet laser designed at the Univerisity of Colorado. Quote from the article: '…with a 13-nm-wavelength laser that can be pulsed in 5 femtoseconds, the whole world of nanoscale phenomena can be directly observed.'"

from the nano-positions dept.
Sandra McVeigh writes "PITTSBURGH, Pa. (July 31, 2002) Medardo Monzon has been appointed CEO of Nanova, LLC, a spin-off company of Nanomat, Inc., a growing nanomaterials and technology firm based in Western Pennsylvania."

from the better-skin-through-nanotechnology dept.
Marconi Lee writes "Chengyin Technology [in English] developed silica-coated titanium dioxide for sunscreen. Organic UV-absorbers have been used in sunscreen agents to protect against UVA. However, those organic UV-absorbers are only sparingly soluble in oil and form chelate compounds with metallic ions. It is therefore difficult to obtain a stable blend containing a large amount of those organic UV-absorbers, and this results in low protection factor of UVA (PFA)."

from the computational-tools dept.
Antonio Correia writes "PHANTOMS Computational Hub: a new tool for modelling and design of nanoscale electron devices. The main objective of the PHANTOMS network on Nanoelectronics (funded by the European Union under the IST programme) is to provide both researchers and industry access to the tools needed to create a multidisciplinary community and maintain them at the forefront of the nanoelectronics revolution. Information on this software hub initiative is available at the PHANTOMS website or by contacting Antonio Correia ([email protected]) / http://www.phantomshub.com / http://www.phantomsnet.com"