Nanodot Archives

Mr. Tejano writes "Space Daily has a great article about a group of researchers at Virginia Tech that are developing flexible solar cells [using nano-structured thin films] that they hope will replace their silicon equivalents. It can be read here: http://spacedaily.com/news/materials-02i.html"

Gina Miller writes "Genetically-modified crops spotlight issues of safety, openness, and intellectual property that will become even more important with molecular nanotechnology. Some similar concerns are reflected in the Foresight Guidelines on Molecular Nanotechnology.

UK report says gene crops could create superweed. Cross-pollination of seeds spilt during harvest allowed three varieties of genetically modified rapeseed plants to exchange herbicide resistance genes, creating a "superweed" resistant to all three herbicides. To avoid these superweeds that would be difficult to eliminate, the recommendation is that only one variety of herbicide resistance be used in genetically modified plants.

Panel Urges U.S. to Tighten Approval of Gene-Altered Crops. The caution recommended by the UK panel was reflected by a panel convened by the US National Academy of Sciences. Noting that biotechnology companies are developing new plants containing combinations of genes, or genes that cause the plant to produce industrial chemicals or other exotic materials, the panel concluded that testing of genetically altered plants should be made "significantly more transparent and rigorous." The panel's conclusion implies that public access to data should take precedence over the ability of companies to keep data confidential.

Can a company still profit from data it releases to the public? Swiss Firm Unveils Plan for Sharing Rice Genome One company poised to publish a "draft" (not completely finished) sequence for the genome of a variety of rice announced a compromise in which the company 'would freely share the information with researchers, but keep the right to license and patent commercial developments'. Other companies preparing sequences of other varieties of rice have promised completely free access to the information. How access to scientific information developed by for-profit entities will be handled is clearly an issue very much in flux: from open source software to biotechnology and gene patents. What will be the trade-offs as nanotechnology matures?"

brianwang writes "The longstanding promise of superfortified heat-conducting materials has become a reality. University of Pennsylvania scientists have determined that adding a relatively small number of carbon nanotubes to epoxy yields a compound three-and-a-half times as hard and far better at heat conductance than the product found in hardware stores. The researchers report their successful tinkering with the commonplace adhesive in the April 15 issue of the journal Applied Physics Letters. Led by Penn physicist Alan T. "Charlie" Johnson, the team created a composite of 95 to 99 percent common epoxy mixed with 1 to 5 percent carbon nanotubes, filaments of carbon less than one-ten-thousandth the width of a human hair. "These findings add considerably to carbon nanotubesí luster as possible additives to a variety of materials," said Johnson, an associate professor of physics and astronomy at Penn. "In addition to adhesives such as epoxy, we are looking at nanotube-based greases that might be used to carry heat away from electronic chips." Johnsonís group determined that epoxy doped with nanotubes showed a 125 percent increase in thermal conductivity at room temperature. "This is the first published report of enhanced thermal conductivity in a material owing to the addition of carbon nanotubes and the first demonstration of simultaneous thermal and mechanical enhancement of a real-world material," Johnson said. Epoxy is an attractive target for fortification with carbon nanotubes, Johnson said, because itís relatively easy to mix the minuscule filaments into it, and there are clear industrial benefits in a harder, better-conducting epoxy. Other scientists have attempted to fortify epoxy with carbon nanotubes, but Johnsonís group succeeded in dispersing the nanotubes more evenly. http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2002-04/uop -net041502.php"

from the rewarding-innovation dept.
Agilent Technologies Inc., the scientific and instrumentation division spun off by Hewlett-Packard some years ago, announced in a press release (11 April 2002) that it has presented the Agilent Technologies Europhysics Prize for Outstanding Achievement in Condensed Matter Physics to four scientists for their pioneering work in the study of carbon nanotubes. The award was presented at a general conference of the European Physical Society (EPS).

Agilent's Roberto Favaretto, vice president and general manager, Europe/Middle East/Africa, presented the 2001 award to Sumio Iijima, Cees Dekker, Thomas W. Ebbesen and Paul L. McEuen for the discovery of multi- and single-walled carbon nanotubes and pioneering studies of their fundamental mechanical and electronic properties. "The Agilent Technologies Europhysics Prize demonstrates our commitment to fundamental contributions in scientific areas essential to Agilent's future," said Favaretto. "These researchers have made a key contribution by creating an entirely new field in condensed matter physics — a field at the intersection of nanoscience, nanotechnology and molecular electronics."

Dekker was also awarded the 2002 Julius Springer Prize in Applied Physics for his work on the electrical properties of carbon nanotubes and their application in molecular electronic circuits (see Nanodot post from 5 February 2002).

Gina Miller writes "Physics News Update (26 March 2002) reports that researchers from Case Western Reserve University have developed a computational technique to get a sharper picture of a protein structure from an atomic force microscope (AFM) image. Because the region of an AFM tip that contacts the protein during imaging is typically about the same size as the protein molecule, the image that is obtained is too low resolution to reveal the structure of the molecule. Studying a cartilage protein called aggrecan, the researchers combined in their image processing technique data from the AFM, from the genomic sequence of the protein, and from transmission electron microscopy to yield a refined structure allowing them to identify certain elements of the 3-D structure of the protein.

Gina Miller writes "According to a press release (18 March 2002) from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, UI researchers and their collaborators at Harvard and Rice created superconducting wires using carbon nanotubes as scaffolding to support a molybdenum-germanium film as thin as one nanometer. The researchers demonstrated that the superconduction they observe is due to the film, and not to the nanotube, by using fluorinated carbon nanotubes, which, unlike ordinary carbon nanotubes, are not metallic.
For a report that multi-walled carbon nanotubes might themselves be superconducting at high temperatures, see previous Nanodot post Buckytubes may be high-temp superconductors (28 November 2001)."

According to a press release (5 April 2002), Derwent Information, a leading patent information provider, will offer a new service aimed at meeting the growing information needs of the nanotechnology industry. Entitled [sic ñ what exactly is it "entitled" to?] "Nanotechnology – Structures and Devices, the Industry and Technology Patents Profile (ITP)", the new service provides comprehensive information about global patents specific to the nanotechnology field. Each patent is summarized in an abstract, highlighting the novelty, advantages and uses of the new invention. Subscribers to this service will receive regular updates in PDF format, delivered direct to their desktops by email, CD-ROM or FTP. More information is available at the Derwent website.

waynerad writes "According to the EE Times (April 2, 2002), Harvard University researchers transfered quantum information encoded in laser beams into a physical system and subsequently retrieved it."

Gina Miller writes "More on the magnetic properties of nanocrystals in United Press International's Nanotech could power future magnets (30 March 2002), an interview with Laura Henderson Lewis, materials scientist at Brookhaven National Laboratory's Department of Applied Science. "Tomorrow's supermagnets could be made of molecule-sized chunks of materials that normally would never interact, possibly creating magnetic fields strong enough to levitate trains at room temperature…" Lewis studies how magnetic materials perform and interact at the micro- and nano-scale, which involve groups of hundreds of atoms or even single molecules. Because magnetic atoms only affect other atoms a nanometer or so distant, engineering the structure of materials on the nanometer scale provides unique opportunities to control the magnetic properties of the materials. The methods mentioned for achieving nanometer scale control of structure are, however, not especially molecular – rapid solidification and milling with steel balls. For other coverage of nanomaterials research at Brookhaven National Laboratory, see Nanodot post of March 22, 2002 Brookhaven Lab launches nanomaterials research effort"

from the budget-battles dept.
An article in EE Times ("Science panel calls for balanced research spending", by George Leopold, 26 March 2002) reports on an increasing level of scrutiny of the Bush administrationís proposed funding priorities for science and technology spending in the U.S. national budget for FY2003, including nanotechnology. According to the article, "The House Science Committee is calling for increased federal funding in fiscal 2003 for technology research and development programs and for a balancing of funding for biomedical and physical science research."

In its annual "views and estimates" of the federal budget request, the Republican-controlled science panel said the Bush administration's research budget request is skewed heavily in support of biomedical research, especially at the National Institutes of Health, which is slated to receive an annual budget increase larger than the entire $5.04 billion budget requested for the National Science Foundation [NSF]. The committee endorsed the Bush administration's "multi-agency R&D" priorities for network and information technology, nanotechnology and anti-terrorism programs. The White House requested a 3 percent increase in funding for networking and information technology research. It also proposed a 17 percent increase in funding next year for nanotechnology research. The committee said it might address nanotechnology research in legislation later this year.

Additional coverage and analysis can be found on the American Institute of Physics (AIP) Science Policy website:

"Science Committee Questions Level, Balance of Federal Research Investment", by Audrey T. Leath, 22 February 2002. According to this report, "At a wide-ranging February 13 hearing on the President's FY 2003 budget request for R&D, House Science Committee members generally supported the budget's emphasis on anti-terrorism, homeland and economic security, and health research, but also indicated that they would try to find additional funds for science programs. As Chairman Sherwood Boehlert (R-NY) said, the budget priorities are 'reasonable' and 'self-evident' and 'deserve to be funded more generously than are other programs.' But he added that 'the focusing of the proposed R&D budget on two narrowly defined priority areas [defense and health] has left the spending for other agencies anemic.' He later commented that if it were not for defense and national security needs, 'this committee collectively would be madder than hell, to put it bluntly,' at the funding levels for some parts of the science enterprise."
"Research Subcommittee, Witnesses Support Higher NSF Funding", again by Audrey T. Leath , 26 March 2002. According to this report, "[M]embers of the House Science Committee are already working to get funding for the National Science Foundation increased above the President's request of $5.04 billion. At a March 13 hearing of the House Science Subcommittee on Research, Science Committee Chairman Sherwood Boehlert (R-NY) . . . told witnesses that he would use their testimony to make the case for higher NSF funding to appropriators. Research Subcommittee Chairman Nick Smith (R-MI) described how committee members were 'aggressive' in trying to get NSF funding increased in the House Budget Committee's version of a budget resolution. On that same day, the Budget Committee approved a resolution containing an 11 percent increase for NSF — 6 percent more than the Administration requested."

Some insight into the high level of support for the NSF and for nanotechnology research in particular can be found in a speech delivered on 8 March 2002 by House Science Committee Chair Sherwood Boehlert (R-NY) at a nanotechnology conference held at the Brookhaven National Laboratory to formally launched the Labís new $55 million Center for Functional Nanomaterials (see Nanodot post from 22 March 2002). Boehlert said, "I will do everything in my power to ensure that nanotechnology research gets the funding it deserves — not just in the Department of Energy [which operates the Brookhaven Lab] but throughout the federal government."
[Some excerpts from the speech also appear on the AIP site.]

Finally, for the minority Memberís views, see "An Analysis by the Minority Staff of the House Science Committee" from 5 February 2002.

Debate over these issues is also likely to arise in the U.S. Senate if, as planned, a bill on nanotechnology research funding sponsored by Senator Joe Leiberman and others is submitted (see Nanodot post from 27 December 2001).

Gaming the Future: The Book!

Category: Nanodot

Nanotech and Solar Power

Open Source GM Crops?

Nanotube-laced epoxy: three times harder, far bett

Agilent awards Europhysics prize to nanotube researcher

Seeing protein structure with an AFM

Superconducting film on carbon nanotube

Derwent patent service will add focus on nanotech IP

Quantum computing: storage of quantum data

Magnetic Properties of Nanocrystals

U.S. House debates direction of national nanotech funding, policy

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