Category: Nanodot

from the bang-for-the-buck dept.
An article in Red Herring dated July 12, 2002, Slow starts: Canada and Europe slouch toward nanotechnology blames the bureaucratic culture in Europe and in Canada for slowing efforts to commercialize nanotechnology, despite very sizeable public investments in nanotechnology research.

from the seeing-what-you're-doing dept.
A news article in Scientific American, Scientists Create Smallest Ever Laser-Like Light Beam, describes a table-top apparatus that focuses 25-femtosecond pulses of visible light to create (using a process called high-harmonic generation) highly coherent femtosecond-scale pulses of extreme ultraviolet light, suitable for creating holograms of micron-scale objects.

from the seeking-growth dept.
Gina Miller writes "The Korea Times reports ROK to Emerge as 8th Largest Economy, July 17, 2002. " …the Korean government will be adopting industrial development strategies designed to place such promising sectors as biotechnology and nanotechnology on the global map." The article explains that Korea would like to become a leader (eighth by 2010) in the manufacturing and technology areas and the new government programs will help to attain these goals. Read previous Nanodot coverage April 9th, 2002"

from the Who-ordered-this? dept.
A group of Australian scientists has published experiments demonstrating that microscopic systems (such as a nanomachine) followed for short time periods (as long as a second) could sometimes violate the Second Law of Thermodynamics, that is, they extract useable energy from the temperature of their surroundings. In so doing, these systems become spontaneously more ordered and entropy decreases, in violation of the second law. It has long been known that the second law is subject to statistical fluctuations in very small systems (a few molecules), but it is surprising that such fluctuations occur in systems microns in length followed for a second or more, systems containing many billions of atoms. It would appear that these results have implications for micron-sized molecular machine systems: how microbes and other cells function, and how nanomachines should be designed to take into account that they could run backwards for short periods. For a concise summary, see the AIP Bulletin of Physics News, Pushing the Second Law to the Limit

from the at-what-price-security? dept.
A prominent civil libertarian and member of the Foresight Board of Advisors has sued the U.S. government and two major airlines in favor of the right of U.S. citizens to travel anonymously: Suit challenges airline ID requirements

In a lawsuit filed in federal court in San Francisco, John Gilmore, co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said that requiring ID from travelers who are not suspected of being a threat to airport security violates several amendments to the U.S. Constitution.

from the self-promotion dept.
Gina Miller writes "Tune your radios to Seattle's KEXP 90.3FM Saturday morning 7am Pac-daylight time. James Lewis is interviewed on the potential benefits and dangers of nanotechnology. If you are not in the Seattle area, you can also listen to the airing live via their website, http://www.kexp.org/ from where ever you are located."

from the plenty-to-talk-about dept.
Neil Gordon writes "The Canadian NanoBusiness Alliance and Sygertech are proud to be part of the organizing committee for the CANEUS workshop on micro and nano technology development, emphasizing aerospace, defense and industrial R&D as well as nanotechnology commercialization and investment. August 25 to 30, 2002, Montreal, Canada"

from the make-them-and-they-will-come dept.
2012Rocky writes "In an email conversation with Allen MacCannell, Director of Sales for NanoLab, I learned about various manufacturing and research uses for their carbon nanotube powder and aligned nanotube arrays, so far in 'research quantities' of no more than 200 grams per order."

from the small-points-of-light dept.
Gina Miller writes "The EE Times article Synthesis of nanoparticles coming into focus, by R. Colin Johnson, July 16, 2002, describes progress with two types of nanoparticles: work done at the University of Arkansas on colloidal semiconductor nanocrystals, and work done at Michigan's Center for Biologic Nanotechnology on organic dendrimers."

from the light-bedtime-reading dept.
A special issue of Nanotechnology containing more than three dozen papers, mostly technical, from the 2001 Trends in Nanotechnology conference is available online. Access to papers published in Nanotechnology is free until November 30, 2002.