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Gaming the Future: The Book!

Synthetic antioxidant enzyme prevents type 1 diabetes in mice

According to a press release (25 January 2002), a new study by researchers at National Jewish Medical and Research Center and the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center shows that a synthetic antioxidant can delay and prevent the onset of autoimmune diabetes in mice. The antioxidant protected insulin-producing beta cells from lethal oxygen radicals generated in diabetes. The antioxidant also blocked the ability of the immune system to recognize beta cells, the target of the autoimmune attack in diabetes. The findings suggest that antioxidants may be useful against diabetes as well as other autoimmune diseases and organ-transplant rejections. The researchers used a synthetic catalytic antioxidant developed several years earlier by one of the researchers, and now licensed by Incara Pharmaceuticals Corporation. The antioxidant, dubbed AEOL 10113, mimics the naturally occurring antioxidant superoxide dismutase, but is effective against a wider range of antioxidants and lasts longer in the body. The findings, published by in the February issue of Diabetes, suggest that antioxidants may be useful against diabetes as well as other autoimmune disorders. Additional article can be found in this article (25 January 2002). from United Press International.

This research is following a line similar to that being explored by MetaPhore Pharmaceuticals, which is also testing a family of synthetic analogs of superoxide dismutase (see Nanodot posts from 12 July and 14 December 2001).

Heath team at UCLA reports advance in nanotube molectronics

Not content with the collaborative work with HP Labs that recently earned a molecular electronics patent (see Nanodot post from 24 January 2002), UCLA chemistry professor and California NanoSystems Institute researcher James Heath and his coworkers have announced an advance in using crossed arrays of carbon nanotubes to form molecular electronic circuits. The research was published in Angewandte Chemie International Edition, v41, pp 353 – 356 (18 January 2002). A summary of the report appeared on the Nature Science Update website ("Cylinders make circuits spontaneously: Carbon nanotubes assemble themselves into electronic grids", by Philip Ball, 29 January 2002).

Viral shells as nanochemical building blocks

According to a press release (25 January 2002), researchers at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) and The Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology have found a way to attach a wide range of molecules to the surface of a virus, enhancing the virus with the properties of those molecules. The researchers say their technique may find applications in materials science, medicine, and molecular electronics, including the possibility of building circuits of conducting molecules on the surfaces of the viruses and form a component of a molecular-scale computer, or a new type of "nanowire." The work is reported in the 1 February 2002 issue of Angewandte Chemie.

The researchers found a method of putting a chemically reactive cysteine residue (a type of amino acid) on the surface of each of the 60 identical protein modules that make up the viral shell. The shell has an icosahedral shape, which provides 60 equivalent sites for attaching molecules. The researchers report they have been able to attach fluorescent dyes and clusters of gold molecules to the cysteine residues, which could be easily imaged. They also have successfully attached biotin (Vitamin B), sugars, and organic chemicals. The technique can be used to immobilize large molecules on the viral surface — whole proteins even. In addition, the virus particles can self-organize into network arrays in a crystal, which may make it a useful building block for various applications in nanotechnology. "You can, in principle, determine the type of assembly you get by programming the building blocks," says one researcher.

Update: Additional coverage is available in this article from United Press International

Crain's gets excited over NT in NY

from the old-news-warmed-over dept.
An article from Crain's New York Business ("New Yorkís in a nano state of mind with research and VC money", 28 January 2002) provides a rather boosterish perspective on nanotech research and business activity in New York State, but largely rehashes developments that have been taking place there over the past year or so.

Nanotech VC profiled in Red Herring

Venture capitalist Josh Wolfe is profiled in Red Herring Magazine ("In Nanotechnology, Josh Wolfe Is at the Door", by Stephan Herrera, January 28, 2002). Wolfe is cofounder and managing partner of New York-based Lux Capital and its nanotech-investment arm, Angstrom Partners. Last year, Mr. Wolfe published his conclusions on the field in a 272-page report, issued by Lux in August 2001, which attempted to size up the global nanotech phenomenon. He also helped found the NanoBusiness Alliance, which has designs on becoming the industry trade group for nanotechnology.

Samsung demonstrates very cold nanotube crud can form transistors

An article on the Technology Research News website ("Nanotube array could form chips", by Ted Smalley Bowen) describes work by a group of researcers from the Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology and the Chonbuk National University in Korea who have made nanotube field-effect transistors in bulk by a relatively crude process that involves growing them in vertical bunches, then using electron beam lithography and ion etching to make the source, gate and drain electrodes that control the flow of electrons. Their carbon nanotube transistors worked at temperatures up to an extremely cold -243 degrees Celsius. The report dryly notes that the transistors will need to work at much warmer temperatures to be used in practical devices, and includes comments from other nanotube researchers to the effect that the researchers' method is still very rough, and they did not demonstrate that individual transistors could be accessed. The nanotubes rough composition limits their use, said Yue Wu, associate professor of physics at the University of North Carolina. "The carbon nanotubes are very defective. The device won't work at room temperature because the tubes are not clean semiconductors," he said. The work was reported in the 26 November 2001 issue of Applied Physics Letters.

RPI researchers report work on nanotubes

A pair of brief press releases tell of recent work with carbon nanotubes by researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI):

Two RPI researchers, G. Ramanath and P. Ajayan in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, claim in a press release (28 January 2002) they are the first to grow nanotubes into any set of predetermined directions on silicon-based substrates. They say their work paves the way for making nanoscale devices that depend on the connection of tiny wires in many directions.
In a second, rather short press release (29 January 2002), two other RPI researchers said static electricity poses serious problems with nanoscale elements in a circuit. P. Keblinski, assistant professor of materials science and engineering, and S. Nayak, assistant professor of physics, combined quantum mechanics in theoretical computer simulations with classical electrostatics analysis. According to their analysis, small zap of static electricity destabilizes the nanotubes, making them useless as a semiconductor. They found that the electrostatic charge is concentrated at the tube ends. The charge eventually destroys the entire nanotube. The researchers suggest doping the nanotubes may help, and that addition of elements such as nitrogen could provide new electrical characteristics to the tubes or could be used to increase the bonding between the tubes and other materials.

Le Monde articles profile Minatec, EU nanotech efforts

from the World-Watch dept.
A series of articles in the venerable French newspaper Le Monde on 18 January 2002 profile Minatec, a new micro- and nano-technology education, research and business incubation center being developed in Grenoble, France, as well as broader nanotech research and development activities in the European Union (EU), and compares them to their counterparts in the United States and elsewhere:

" Les grandes promesses de l'infiniment petit " ("The grand promises of the infinitely small", by Michel Alberganti). An overview of Minatec research and development goals, primarily related to electronics applications.
"Minatec cristallise les ambitions de la filière électronique de la région de Grenoble" ("Minatec crystallizes the ambitions of a electronics career for the Grenoble region", by Nicole Cabret). A closer look at Minatec funding, staff, facilities, and its administrative and operational structure.
"Un univers de nains pour, demain, gouverner le monde" ("A universe of dwarves for, tomorrow, governing the world", by Jean-Francois Augereau). Interestingly, this article cites researchers such as Richard Smalley and Jim Gimzewski in support of the vision of advanced nanotechnology attributed to K. Eric Drexler.
"Jean Therme, directeur du centre grenoblois du Commissariat à l'énergie atomique" ("Jean Therme, Director of the Grenoble Center of the Atomic Energy Commission"). An interview by Nicole Cabret provides additional information on the establishment and goals of Minatec.
"L'Europe tente de suivre le rythme des Etats-Unis" ("Europe attempts to follow the rhythm of the United States"). This might be more accurately translated as "Europe attempts to match the pace of the United States", since the article describes the urgent need for the EU to establish nanotech efforts comparable to the U.S., Japan and China/Taiwan.

Previous coverage of Minatec appeared here on Nanodot on 14 January 2002.

If you donít read French, try the Babelfish/AltaVista machine translator. It provides a rough but useful translation of lengthy web pages. The version of the article simplified for printing usually translates faster, because all the banner ads and nav elements have been removed.

EC-NSF Workshop will examine nanotech impacts

A major workshop to examine "Nanotechnology: Revolutionary Opportunities and Societal Implications" will be held on 31 January and 1 February 2002 in Lecce, Italy. The workshop is being jointly sponsored by the European Community and the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), and is the first event in a program of joint nanotechnology activities announced in December 2001.

The workshop will examine a broad array of potential socioecomomic impacts of nanotechnology. It follows and will build on the results of a similar workshop held in the U.S. in September 2000. A detailed description of the workshop program and schedule can be found on the NSF website.

Krebs leaves CNSI to focus on job as UCLA research post

from the transition-state dept.
A brief item on the Small Times website ("Krebs leaves nano institute, remains at UCLA", by Jayne Fried, 25 January 2002) reports that Martha Krebs has left her position as director of the California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI) for a broader role at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), on of the UC campuses that hosts the CNSI. Krebs also has served as associate vice chancellor of UCLA for research, and said she will be devote herself full time to that job. Krebs was a key figure in establishing CNSI, and had moved to California a year ago from Washington, D.C., to become director of the institute. Previously, as science director at the U.S. Department of Energy, Krebs helped establish the U.S. National Nanotechnology Initiative.

According to the report, Jim Health, formerly co-scientific director of CNSI, is now acting director of the institute; he will work with Evelyn Hu, the other co-scientific director prior to change. Heath told Small Times that CNSI will be seeking a chief operating officer, — "probably more of a business or entrepreneurial type than a scientist", Heath said — to assist in running the instutute.

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