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Gaming the Future: The Book!

Category: Nanodot

Nanomedicine Breakthroughs at Xerox's PARC

Roland Piquepaille writes "The new Scripps-PARC Institute for Advanced Biomedical Sciences (SPIABS for short) is the fruit of the union between Xerox's PARC and the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla and promises to transform medical research and the practice of medicine. The Mercury News writes that it's making a big leap to innovation in medicine. SPIABS already announced an enthalpy array, an extremely precise nanocalorimeter. It can detect changes of millionths of a degree in temperature, using samples of only 240 nanoliters. This nanocalorimeter will be used to "help pharmaceutical companies quickly pick out the best drug candidates and get improved medications to market sooner." Earlier this year, SPIABS unveiled the FAST cytometer, a laser scanning device so precise it can spot a single cancerous cell in the middle of the ten other millions contained in a standard blood sample. And SPIABS is working on other projects, such as sutures sewn on the perimeter of a removed tumor, equipped with laser diodes to spot and kill new cancerous cells as soon as they appear. Please read this overview for more details, references and pictures."

Nanoimprint lithography

RobertBradbury writes "Space Daily had a recent article about progress by Stephen Chou's group (at the NanoStructures Lab) with nanoimprint lithography. Their most recent article in Applied Physics Letters is here [1]. They are getting down to 5nm ridges spaced 14nm apart. From the looks of NNT conference program last December this area is getting hot."

Nano Tetrapods With Tunable 'Legs'

Roland Piquepaille writes "A team of chemists from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), working with computer scientists, has discovered a new kind of adaptable nanoscale compounds. They previously devised tetrapods, structures with four 'arms' or 'legs', from materials such as cadmium telluride. But they now found that by using different materials, like selenium, tellurium or sulfur, to produce crystals of different cadmium compounds, each 'leg' could acquire different electronic properties. After isolating these 'legs,' they were able to produce 'nanorods' with specific properties. In "Nanotech Branches Out with New Discovery," NewsFactor Network says that this discovery will have important consequences, leading to the development of new solar cells, quantum computers or simply very small and fast transistors. This overview is more technical and contains additional references. You'll also find an image showing you the kind of nano tetrapods built at LBNL."

Nanoscale wires with interesting properties

RobertBradbury writes "Chongwu Zhou at USC has demonstrated a combination of chemical vapor deposition and pulsed laser deposition that can produce multi-material nanowires (diameters 30-100 nm, length up to 3000 nm). News here. The process appears to be able to produce the nanowires in quantity (from a nanoscale perspective). Interestingly the material that determines the properties of the wire is on the outside rather than the inside of the cable as is the case with coax and glass fiber.

Now of course if the high temperature superconductor varient of these wires could be positioned and bonded in place on semiconductor chips one would have a new and interesting method for connecting the transistors on the chips. I've seen claims that some types of buckytubes are good conductors — but are they anywhere close to HTSC?"

Lawrence Lessig on efforts to stamp out MNT research

Foresight Senior Associate Luke Nosek brings to our attention a piece on Wired.com written by Foresight Advisor Lawrence Lessig, titled Stamping Out Good Science, which describes efforts to eliminate research proposals for molecular manufacturing from US NNI funding consideration. "Science thus becomes irrational because we can't imagine government as rational. Simple facts of a political nature, we might say, tweaking and reusing Smalley's warning in a much more depressing context, prevent good science from ever becoming a reality."

Nanotech Communication Prize deadline July 31

To promote responsible coverage and assist society in making informed decisions about advanced nanotechnology and molecular manufacturing, Foresight Institute has established a communication prize. The nomination deadline for the 2004 Foresight Institute Prize in Communication is July 31.

A Modest Proposal for Prince Charles

Phil Bowermaster writes "The Prince of Wales is once again warning about the dangers of nanotechnology:

The Prince acknowledges nanotechnology is a "triumph of human ingenuity".

"Some of the work may have fundamental benefits to society, such as enabling the construction of much cheaper fuel-cells, or new ways of combating ill-health," he says.

But he adds: "How are we going to ensure that proper attention is given to the risks that may… ensue?

Hmmm, well if he's really this concerned, I can think of something that might really help."

Nano Business Idea Competition

Chris Thompson writes "CrainTech.com reports that the first International Nanotechnology Business Idea Competition is now accepting submissions from researchers and entrepreneurs interested in winning more than $75,000 in prize money. The competition is targeting (but isn't limited to) researchers who haven't yet developed a business plan. The competition is sponsored by Case Western Reserve University and the Nano Network. Rules and regulations are available at the Nano Network web site The winners will be announced in October as part of NANO Week, which features the Cleveland Clinic's NanoMedicine Summit."

A Spinach-Powered Laptop?

Roland Piquepaille writes "In "Could laptops run on spinach?," Nature reports that researchers from the MIT have made solar cells powered by spinach proteins. These prototype solar cells which transform light into 'green' energy could be used one day to coat and power your laptop. There is still work to be done before becoming a commercial product. Right now, the prototype delivers current for only three weeks. And they are not very efficient, converting only 12% of the light they absorb into electricity. However, these spinach-powered solar cells are better for our environment than silicon solar cells. And according to Science News Online, in "Protein Power: Solar cell produces electricity from spinach and bacterial proteins," they also have the potential to be self-repairing. The research work has been published by Nano Letters (Vol. 4, No. 6, Pp. 1079 – 1083, June 2004). If you are a subscriber, you may access the paper, named "Integration of Photosynthetic Protein Molecular Complexes in Solid-State Electronic Devices," by going to this page. You'll find more details and references in this overview."

Nanotechnology used to destroy tumors in mice

Tim writes "Medical News Today has a short article about some interesting work being done with nanoscale 'shells' at Rice University. The study shows promising results in cancer treatment using near-infrared light to heat these shells once they have accumulated in cancerous tissue. The article can be found at Nanoshells cancer treatment proves effective in first animal test" Also, see similar article at BetterHumans: Nanoshells Burn Up Cancer in Animals.

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