Dr_Barnowl writes "The BBC reports that scientists at Purdue university have mapped out the structure of cytochrome in blue-green algae.
Cytochromes are the core of the photosynthetic process, making them an interesting photo-electro-chemical curiosity and potentially a model for nanotech systems with similar functions, although less "squishy" alternates might be more efficient."
Roland Piquepaille writes "In "Lasers operate inside single cells," Nature writes that nanosurgery can be achieved by vaporizing some components of living cells without killing the cells themselves. "With pulses of intense laser light a millionth of a billionth of a second long, US researchers are vaporizing tiny structures inside living cells without killing them. The technique could help probe how cells work, and perform super-precise surgery." This was developed by Eric Mazur of Harvard University and his colleagues. This summary contains more details and references about the process and these microexplosions."
HLovy writes "Let's make some decisions based on what we do know, rather than what we don't. Here's one thing we know: Texas Tech professor David D. Allen recently demonstrated "no adverse effects" of nanomaterials "on blood-brain barrier baseline parameters." Yes, it's one study of a few varieties of nanoparticles and not by a long shot the final word on the toxicity of nanoparticles. But it is something that the "nanotech is bad for you" crowd lacks: actual scientific data.
Matt Gordon writes "Hello, I found a website on the web that is trying to get a distributed computing project started for nanotech. If possible, maybe create a link to it on your site, or at least mention it. It is: http://www.nanoathome.org Thanks, Matt"
from the nanotechnology-goes-to-Washington dept.
Gina Miller writes "House Gets Own Nanotech Legislation to Consider, a story carried on dc.internet.com on Oct. 18, reports legislation introduced into the US House of Representatives that would establish an independent advisory board comprised of leaders from industry and academia to provide oversight related to the government's National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI)."
from the more-than-one-way-to-small-electronics dept.
Gina Miller writes "A Chemical & Engineering News cover story from Sept. 30 available online — Nanoscale Electronics — provides a readable and well-illustrated overview of current progress in molecular electronics, carbon nanotube electronics, and semiconducting nanowire research."
from the cool-things-to-do-with-an-STM dept.
Mr_Farlops writes "Researchers at IBM have built and operated the world's smallest working computer circuits using carbon monoxide molecules that move across an atomic surface like toppling dominoes. Unfortunately, these circuts are assembled by moving one molecule at a time using an ultra-high-vacuum, low-temperature scanning tunneling microscope. It takes several hours to set up the most complicated cascades. Since there is no reset mechanism, these molecule cascades can only perform a calculation once. We're not quite there yet but, the development is interesting."
from the bigger-molecules-mean-smaller-transistors dept.
Gina Miller writes "From a University of Chicago press release: Chemists synthesize key component in the drive toward molecular electronic devices. 'The component, called a molecular diode, restricts current flow to one direction between electronic devices. In the semiconductor industry these components, called p-n junctions, form half of a transistor.'"
from the hats-off-to dept.
During the 10th Foresight Conference on Molecular Nanotechnology the Institute for Molecular Manufacturing announced the winners of the 2002 IMM Prizes in Computational Nanotechnology. Awards were made in three categories of the four categories covered by the IMM Prizes in Computational Nanotechnology. The DESIGN Category was won by the team of Santiago Solares, Mario Blanco, and William A. Goddard III. The RENDERING Category was won by Carlo D. Montemagno. The SIMULATION Category was won by Lawrence Fields and Jillian Rose.
from the hats-off-to dept.
During the 10th Foresight Conference on Molecular Nanotechnology the Foresight Institute announced the following prize winners. The winners of the 2002 Foresight Institute Feynman Prizes in Nanotechnology were Chad Mirkin for the Experimental category and Don Brenner for the Theory category. The winner of the 2002 Foresight Institute Distinguished Student Award was Yi Cui. The winner of the 2002 Foresight Institute Prize in Communication was David Pescovitz. A story reporting the awards was carried by Small Times and by the UPI.
