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Gaming the Future: The Book!

Category: Nanodot

U.S. proposes $519 million for nanotech in FY2002

from the Washington-Watch dept.
The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), the lead agency for the National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI) has posted a brief document ("National Nanotechnology Investment in the FY 2002 Budget Request by the President") summarizing the Bush Administrationís budget request for fiscal year 2002. It breaks out the FY 2002 funding request for nanoscale science, engineering and technology research and development in eight federal departments and agencies. The total nanotechnology-related funding in the budget request is approximately $518.9 million ($485 million reported on April 9 plus $33.9 million in associated programs), 23% over $422 million approved by Congress for FY 2001. This is significantly more than the 15% increase noted in earlier reports. The NSF summary also notes collaborative inter-agency efforts that do not fall under any single agency. As previously noted, nanotechnology-related programs are one of the few areas in the federal research and development budget that saw increased funding in the FY2002 budget request.

Japanese firms to invest in nanotechnology

from the World-Watch dept.
According to a Reuters report on the Japan Today website, two of Japanís largest industrial firms plan to make major investments in nanotechnology research and development. The report says Mitsui has announced it would set up three units for nanotechnology research and development and invest 10 billion yen ($US 81.40 million) over the next five years in mass production of miniature products. And Mitsubishi Corp. said it would set up a $100 million venture capital fund in August, with a view to investing up to $10 million in individual nanotech companies specializing in information devices and medical technology. According to the report, the Mitsubishi Research Institute estimates the Japanese market for nanotechnology-based goods at 19 trillion yen (about $US 154 billion) in 2010.

Nanotech journal editor favors nano electronics, biotech

from the vague-generalities dept.
United Press International has a short interview with H.S. Nalwa ("Nalwa sees nanotechnology expanding", by K. Hearn, 16 June 2001), the editor of the Journal of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology and a former staff scientist at the Hitachi Research Laboratory in Japan. Nalwa favors nanoelectronics and nanobiotechnology as the fields that will most likely produce short term results. When asked if the public is sufficiently informed about nanoscience, Nalwa said: "Only educated people and professionals are aware of nanotechnology because it is not defined in a layman manner. We need to define nanotechnology for the public ranging from non-scientists to experts."

Telomeres may turn off nearby genes, affect aging

Researchers at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas have shown that genes near human telomeres can be silenced, or turned off. This discovery may help explain how and why humans age. Telomeres are repeating sequences of DNA located at the end of each chromosome and are believed to function as a counting mechanism for cellular aging. The cell biology researchers report in the 15 June 2001 issue of Science that human cells can exhibit telomere position effect (TPE), in which genes near telomeres can be turned off, and that the strength of gene silencing is proportional to the length of nearby telomeres.

Atom trap delivers single atoms on demand

from the single-minded dept.
PhysicsWeb reports that researchers at the University of Bonn in Germany have developed an 'atom trap' that can manipulate single atoms with sub-micron precision and can deliver them on demand. The device uses light to move single atoms around, put them down where they are needed and launch them into space at a specified speed.

Another brief report appears on the Nature Science Update website.

Oak Ridge researcher describes applications of nanofibers

from the nanoengineering dept.
As a preview of its upcoming conference sessions on nanotechnology, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) ran an interview with Oak Ridge National Lab researcher Michael Simpson in a recent issue of ASME News.

Nanotechnology will be the focal point of one of the many technical tracks that will be featured during ASME's 2001 Congress and Exhibition in November. Nanotechnology will also be the subject of several tutorials to be given during the conference.

The nanotechnology track will start 12 November with a keynote panel discussing their work in the field. One of the panelists will be Simpson, who is the founder and principal investigator of the Molecular-Scale Electronics and Nanoscale Technologies Group at Oak Ridge National Lab. Simpson's group has been active in the controlled synthesis and directed assembly of carbon nanofibers into devices and systems.

Technical Insights report on nanodevices

from the expensive-information dept.
Frost & Sullivan and publisher Wiley have issued the 2000 version of their Technical Insights report on nanotechnology, titled Nanodevices: Future Markets, Applications, and Technology . The report takes a look at research and investment in a wide variety of nanotech-related fields. You can view the table of contents at the Wiley web site. The report costs $US 2450.

The 1999 version of the Technical Insights report was reviewed in Foresight Update #39, and we can make a similar comment about the 2000 report: If you've got money to burn and no time to do your own research, or you work for some organziation that doesn't mind dropping $2450 to put this volume into its library, this expensive volume may be of interest. But one can find a much of the same information in other sources.

Japanese researchers create medical microbot

from the in-a-spin dept.
The New Scientist Magazine reports that a team of micromachine experts at Tohoku University in Japan have developed a millimeter scale medical robot that could swim along veins, ferrying drugs to infected tissues, or even burrow into tumours to kill them off with a hot lance. The devices are actually tiny spinning screws based on cylindrical magnets. Measuring eight millimetres long and less than a millimetre in diameter (about the size of a rice grain), each magnet is made of a neodymium-iron-boron alloy. When an external magnetic field is applied, the screws literally drill their way through fluids or, in one test case, two centimeters of solid flesh (beef steak).

Additional coverage can be found at Online.ie News and The Times of London.

Researchers induce suspended animation in fish embryos

from the hold-everything dept.
Researchers at Seattle's Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center have developed a method to induce a state of so-called suspended animation in the zebrafish, a relatively new model of vertebrate developmental biology. Their work is reported in the 12 June 2001 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (Early Edition No. 24). The abstract is available without a subscription.

The researchers discovered that after 24 hours of oxygen deprivation — resulting in cessation of all observable metabolic activity, including heartbeat — zebrafish embryos can resume a normal course of development with no harmful effects on their health or growth. "Understanding the mechanisms that control biological quiescence could have dramatic implications for medical care, as it could give us an ability to control life processes at the most basic, fundamental level," said Mark Roth, Ph.D., a member of the Hutchinson Center's Basic Sciences Division and one of the principal researchers.

Open Source, Distributed Computing in the news

The New York Times ran a special supplement on E-Business (13 June 2001) that included a number of interesting articles, including an interview with open source advocate Tim O'Reilly ("Making Programs Like Water: Free and Transparent", by K. Hafner) and an article on distributed software ("Software's Next Leap Is Out of the Box", by J. Markoff).

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