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Gaming the Future: The Book!

Category: Nanodot

UW nanotech center develops new protein imaging method

from the Go,-Huskies! dept.
According to a press release (29 November 2001), a team of researchers under Viola Vogel, director of the University of Washington's (Seattle) Center for Nanotechnology, have developed a new technique for observing large proteins that gives scientists the most detailed picture yet of the biological workhorses in action and promises to shed light on a wide range of protein functions, particularly in settings of medical interest.
"To a large extent, a protein's structure determines its function," said Vogel. "But, for very large proteins, the precise correlation is poorly defined. Now we have a very efficient way of tracking changes in structure so we can see how it relates to what these large proteins do."

Nanotech graduate schools?

brarrr writes "I'm a Materials Engineering student and have been interested in everything nanotech for about 4 years, reading about it in my own time and tailoring my coursework in such a manner to prepare me to work and research in the field. I am applying to graduate schools with the intention of studying something nanotech (NEMS, fabrication, materials, biotech), and am looking for any recommendations on schools or any up-and-coming programs that are not publicized yet. I am currently looking at Cornell, RPI, U Washington, JHU, and Northwestern."

MIT Media Lab to explore digital matter tools

According to a press release (27 November 2001), the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded $13.75 million to the the MIT Media Laboratory to create a Center for Bits and Atoms to explore how the content of information relates to its physical representation, from atomic nuclei to global networks. From the release:

"The center will bring nanofabrication, chemistry and biology labs together with rapid mechanical prototyping, electronic instrumentation and high-bay assembly workspaces. This integrated suite of resources is being developed to enable its researchers to shape simultaneously the information in a system and its physical embodiment, from microscopic to macroscopic scales. The NSF funding will help support research, education and outreach programs, as well as technological infrastructure. "

And:

"Among the challenges to be tackled will be developing "personal fabricators" to bring the malleability that personal computers provide for the digital world into the physical world; providing bidirectional molecular interfaces between computers and living systems; and bringing advanced information technologies to bear on some of the most intractable problems in global development and security."

Buckytubes may be high-temp superconductors

from the intriguing-possibilities dept.
According to a press release, researchers at the University of Houston in Texas have found subtle signs of superconductivity in multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MNTs). The researchers did not see zero resistance in their bundles. They think this is because the connections between the tiny tubes never become superconducting. But they did see more subtle signs of superconductivity within the tubes themselves. The work is preliminary, and other possible explanations need to be eliminated.

Astronomers analyze atmosphere of distant planet

from the Distant-airs dept.
(28 November 2001) – Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope have been able to obtain data indicating the presence of sodium of a planet orbiting another star. This is the first direct detection and chemical analysis of the atmosphere of a planet outside our solar system. Their unique observations demonstrate it is possible with Hubble and other telescopes to measure the chemical makeup of extrasolar planets' atmospheres and potentially to search for chemical markers of life beyond Earth. The planet orbits a Sun-like star that lies 150 light-years away in the constellation Pegasus. Its atmospheric composition was probed when the planet passed in front of its parent star, allowing astronomers to see light from the star filtered through the planet's atmosphere. Additional information is available in this press release from the National Center for Atmospheric Research, and an article in the New York Times.

Nanoscale tinkering creates SETs, assembly modules

A pair of reports in the 21 November 2001 issue of Technology Research News (TRN) Magazine, provide some interesting examples of the many different approaches being pursued to develop nanoscale devices and tools.
The first ("Spot of gold makes tiny transistor", by Chhavi Sachdev) describes work by researchers from Sweden and Denmark at Lund University who have found a way to use carbon nanotubes as electronic leads that connect a circuit with a tiny particle of gold to form a single-electron transistor (SET).
The second ("Chemists create nano toolkit", by Eric Smalley) describes work by a team of researchers at the National Institute for Materials Science in Japan and the Communications Research Laboratory in Japan has come up with a kind of toolkit for building structures out of ring-shaped porphyrin molecules. But, as the article points out, "creating tiny structures is only half the game . . . The researchers also need to make the structures do something, like conduct electricity or convert light signals to electric signals. But even if the porphyrin molecules were not useful by themselves they could be augmented by other atoms or molecules."

ACS publication highlights nanotech

from the chemists-at-work dept.
The November issue of Todayís Chemist At Work, a publication of the American Chemical Society, trumpets a pair of feature articles on nanotechnology. One article ("Manipulating molecules", by Hank Simon) provides an extensive overview of the development of the system that combined virtual reality and an atomic force microscope to create a nanoManipulator. The system was developed at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-CH) and is being marketed as a commercial product by a spinoff firm, 3rdTech.
A second feature article discusses organic conductive polymers in really flat panel displays (which you might roll up in your pocket), but the nanotech connection is tenuous at best.
There is also a very short news item on private investment in nano-materials and nanotech firms.

New York universities battle for Army nanotech center

from the regional-conflicts dept.
An article in the Albany, NY Times Union ("Building a better high-tech soldier: New York colleges expected to compete for prestigious Army research grant", by K. Aaron, 25 November 2001) describes the competition among New York State-based universities to host the University Affiliated Research Center (UARC) for the U.S. Armyís Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies (ISN). Universities across the United States have been competing for the contract for the center (as noted here on 1 November 2001); the deadline for proposals was 15 November 2001.
The Times Union article was also reprinted on the Small Times website.

Update on Minatec in France

from the World-Watch dept.
For those who do not read French, Minatec, a research and incubation center for microtechnology and nanotechnology startups Grenoble, France, now has a version of its website in English (in addition, of course, to its home site in French). You can keep up with developments at Minatec through their newsletter, which is available online or as an Adobe Acrobat PDF file.

Nanotech funding for Massachusetts University

An article in the Daily Collegian (" Nanotechnology department gets recognized", by Catherine Turner, 26 November 2001), the campus newspaper of the University of Massachusetts campus in Amherst, provides information on recent funding for nano-scale research projects there.

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