Author: Foresight Editor

from the very-small-cyborgs dept.
An article in The Arizona Republic of Aug. 06, 2002 Molecule-size machines the wave of the future, ASU scientists say reports that researchers at Arizona State University "think the body's billions of tiny machines are a key to a new field that has excited scientists, government officials and investors around the world."

from the jolted-atoms dept.
waynerad writes "Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have created what may be the world's smallest electroluminescent light source using photon emissions from individual molecules of silver".

… the work could lead to new types of nanometer-scale optical interconnects, high-resolution optical microscopy, nanometer-scale lithography and other applications that require very small light sources. And because single molecules are known to emit one photon at a time, the technique could ultimately be the basis for high-efficiency quantum information processing and cryptography.

from the sensing-and-storing dept.
Carrie Bonforte writes to point to a Business 2.0 article Starting Small, by Erick Schonfeld, August 09, 2002, about "A Bay Area company called Nanomix … trying to make industrial devices out of a material that's just a single atom thick." The article reports that Nanomix's work with carbon nanotubes is focused on two specific markets: chemical gas sensors, and hydrogen-storage systems.

from the every-nanoparticle-under-the-sun dept.
Gina Miller writes "Nanoparticles Used In Solar Energy Conversion reports that professor of chemistry David Kelley at Kansas State University has developed a gallium selenide nanoparticle of just the right size to use in solar cells. The spectrum of light absorbed changes with the size of the nanoparticle. 'Kelley is developing nanoparticles that are just the right size for solar cells — they can absorb all visible light but nothing from the invisible light at the red end of the spectrum, which would reduce voltage.'"

from the staking-out-the-future dept.
What utopia can technology deliver?, a Tech Update article by Dan Farber, August 9, 2002 continues the dialog sparked by the NSF/DOC report Converging Technologies for Improving Human Performance. While recommending the report as an important document for considering what future technologies will bring, Farber finds some of the report's suggestions "hard to buy."

from the it's-usually-the-pH dept.
Gina Miller writes "In A Nanobridge Too Far?, Chemistry.org reports on research by Hiroshi Matsui and Christina Holtman at Hunter College in fabricating nanotube bridges between microspheres by controlling pH during self-assembly. The authors do not yet understand how nanotubes form on the microspheres as a result of the pH change, but 'this demonstration shows potential that molecular self-assembly mechanisms may be switched from one shape to another by tuning pH to fabricate the composite structures.' Really cool graphic included in the article!"

from the straining-for-speed dept.
Gina Miller writes "Internetnews.com reports that the Santa Clara, Calif. based Intel Corperation is making plans to 'leap into the nanotechnology era' with a 'strained silicon' technology in which the lattice structure of a silicon wafer is strained to stretch the atoms apart, boosting electric current flow and chip performance and lowering costs. This 90 nm process technology will be used to make transistors with gate lengths less than 50 nanometers, and will be used to produce a chip named 'Prescott' that is schedualed to hit the market towards the end of 2003. Some technical details on the process can be downloaded as a PDF file from the Intel site."

from the smoothing-your-adatoms dept.
Researchers devise approach to anchor metals to metal oxides, a press release from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, describes work done at PNNL and Sandia National Laboratory to deposit on a metal oxide layer a flat layer of metal atoms, only a few atoms thick, despite the large mismatch between the lattice constants of the metal and the metal oxide layers. The technology is expected to find use in magnetic tunnel junctions, slated for use in magnetoresistive random access memory, or MRAM, and in lowering the costs of catalysts because it will be possible to use thinner layers of expensive metals.

from the bridging-small-gaps dept.
Nanotubes grown in place, an article by Eric Smalley in Technology Research News, reports the accomplishment of Stanford University researchers in growing individual carbon nanotubes directly between pairs of electrodes formed on a silicon wafer using photolithography. "The resulting nanotubes were 2.5 nanometers in diameter and spanned electrode gaps ranging from 3,000 to 10,000 nanometers." Anticipated applications include use in sensors, electromechanical transducers, and high frequency mechanical resonators. The research was published in the July 29, 2002 issue of Applied Physics Letters.

from the place-your-bets dept.
Enthusiasm of investors for nanotechnology is evidenced by the warm reception given a recent offering of stock by a company that invests in nanotechnology companies that are not themselves publicly traded. Harris & Harris Group Receives Subscriptions For 2,634,614 Shares Of Stock In Rights Offering, available at Stockhouse.com, quotes Harris & Harris CEO Charles E. Harris, "… we can only interpret this successful Rights Offering as strong testimony to our shareholders' desire to put money to work through the Company in tiny-technology enabled investments. We certainly thank our fellow shareholders for their support."