Author: Allison

As we have mentioned previously EurekAlert/AAAS is having monthly chats about nanotechnology. The complete chat log for this month can be found here (though I expect the location may change over the next month). It was an interesting discussion from the perspective of pointing out the mindset of current "nanotechnology" researchers. I suspect the moderator may have been overwhelmed with incoming questions but the following is interesting…

I posted two questions directly comparing biological assemblers with a Drexler type assemblers (I even cited a Science article [Science is published by AAAS] in one of the questions). So I'm rather amazed that they did not make it into the discussion. I had also posted multiple questions regarding whether the people on the panel had ever read Nanosystems or any of the Nanomedicine volumes. None of those appear to have made the cut to be presented to the panel.

Roland Piquepaille writes "In order to build ever smaller electronic circuits, the semiconductor industry will have some day to move from current lithography technologies to something different, such as molecular electronics. This new process is pioneered by a group of engineers at Northwestern University. They are using a scanning tunneling microscope (STM) to precisely align multiple types of molecules on a silicon surface at room temperature. Their nanofabrication process will soon lead to molecular transistors or light-emitting diodes. As this new process works at room temperature, this means it is possible to integrate it with current technologies. Putting it in another way, in some future, we'll still be able to look at the screens of our computers, but we'll not see the chips inside, even with a home microscope. Read more for more details and great pictures."

Ed. Note. I'm not sure they are going to be able to build "molecular transistors" out of the molecules they are using (styrene and TEMPO). I believe TEMPO is a spin trap so it might have some interesting electrical properties. But viable electronics applications are probably some distance into the future. On top of that there is no parallelism in STMs. One isn't going to get 50 million transistor chips anytime soon with a single tip STM.

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David Bradley Science Writer writes "Chemists at Oxford University are on the verge of commercialising carbon nanotube technology according to the Reactive Reports chemistry news source. They have developed patented techniques for sorting and purifying nanotubes and are working with Oxford U's technology transfer wing, Isis Innovation, to bring the materials to market."

HLovy writes "
HoweStreet.com declares that "Robert A. Freitas Jr. is one of the best-known nano-scientists …" Well, not to take anything away from Freitas, but the fact that he has a better-recognized name among the general public than any other nanoscientist out there speaks volumes about how far nanotech researchers need to go before they're recognized outside their own circles… More…

gotjosh writes "The EU nanoforum reports that Japanese scientists have used nanowires to create atomic switches and demonstrate basic logic cuircuts! Tsuyoshi Hasegawa of the National Institute for Materials Science claims that their atomic scale switches will improve performance over today's mechanical semiconductor devices (possibly by several orders of magnitude depending on wire capacitance) . More information (such as the elecrolytes they used and that the researchers reported their work in /Nature/) is available here without a login."

As was pointed out in this article brought to our attention by Christine Peterson, Europe seems to be picking up the nanotech pace in a serious way.

We can divide the world up in terms of expertise. Perhaps the U.S. has the crown with inventiveness. But Europe has the Ariane (which still happens to be flying), Mercedes, Bentleys and Rolls (all of which are very good examples of fine engineering). The Asian collective has a unique ability to turn ideas into mass appeal products and make them affordable enough that they can sell millions.

[*Yes*, I am grossly generalizing here but please take it within the context of the conversation.]

So the question becomes — *who* will be the developers of and subsequently who will dominate the nanotech markets?

Roland Piquepaille writes "This sounds almost too good to be true — at least for some time. Physicists from Boston University have fabricated nanomechanical switches which promise fantastic advances in data storage. Their nanodevices will have densities exceeding by orders of magnitude existing storage devices. They will deliver data at speeds in the megahertz (and possibly gigahertz) range, also exceeding by far the few hundred kilohertz of our current hard drives. And finally, they will only use some femtowatts of power each, leading to hard drives consuming maybe a million times less electricity than existing devices. So, where's the catch? Will we ever see hard drives built with these nanomechanical switches? Honestly, I don't know, but read more for other details and references."

HLovy writes "
What's important to note about the big nanotube/fullerene corporate love match announced this week is what CSixty is bringing to bulk materials supplier Carbon Nanotechnologies Inc. — some important drug-delivery technology and a partnership with Merck & Co.

more…

Gina Miller writes "Government Support for Nanotechnology in Silicon Valley with Congressman Mike Honda presented by IEEE SF Bay Area Nanotechnology Council will be held January 18, 2005 in San Jose, California, USA. Email: [email protected] to RSVP or with questions."