http://www.nanowerk.com/ Nanotechnology news headlines from Nanowerk Copyright 2005-2009 Nanowerk LLC http://www.nanowerk.com/ http://www.nanowerk.com/images/logo10.gif michael@nanowerk.com (Michael Berger) en-us Fri, 03 Jul 2009 12:16:56 -0400 http://www.nanowerk.com/news/newsid=11493.php Fri, 03 Jul 2009 12:16:56 -0400 Decades of research have failed to conclusively crack the mystery of how amyloid-associated diseases like Alzheimer's do so much damage, but new findings by researchers at RIKEN suggest that part of the answer may lie in the structural rearrangements observed in plaque-forming proteins. http://www.nanowerk.com/news/newsid=11493.php http://www.nanowerk.com/news/newsid=11494.php Fri, 03 Jul 2009 12:16:56 -0400 Mit dem Ziel, ein einfaches und minimal-invasives Testverfahren für das Parkinson-Syndrom zu entwickeln, haben sich Forscher des Bochum-Dortmunder Verbundprojektes "ParkCHIP" im Spitzentechnologiewettbewerb "Hightech.NRW" durchgesetzt. http://www.nanowerk.com/news/newsid=11494.php http://www.nanowerk.com/news/newsid=11495.php Fri, 03 Jul 2009 12:16:56 -0400 Switzerland launches "Swiss Nano-Cube", the national information and learning platform dedicated to the topics of micro- and nanotechnologies for vocational schools, secondary schools and higher professional schools. http://www.nanowerk.com/news/newsid=11495.php http://www.nanowerk.com/news/newsid=11496.php Fri, 03 Jul 2009 12:16:56 -0400 IVAM Research has published the second edition of the "Nano Guide of Europe", a database which gives users an overview of what Europe's suppliers have to offer. http://www.nanowerk.com/news/newsid=11496.php http://www.nanowerk.com/spotlight/spotid=11497.php Fri, 03 Jul 2009 12:16:56 -0400 A group of researchers at the Technical University of Denmark have conducted a systematic analysis of 31 recently published reports and articles which discuss the environmental, health, and safety aspects of nanomaterials. They find that serious knowledge gaps pervade nearly all areas of basic nanotechnology EHS knowledge. These knowledge gaps or areas of uncertainty were ranked to how often they were included in the screened literature. The analysis found that the following areas in particular have been highly cited as important knowledge gaps within the field: the lack of reference materials and standardization; environmental fate and behavior; human and environmental toxicity; test methods to assess, particularly, the effects, and commercial or industrial-related aspects (e.g. life cycle assessments). http://www.nanowerk.com/spotlight/spotid=11497.php http://www.nanowerk.com/news/newsid=11498.php Fri, 03 Jul 2009 12:16:56 -0400 A collaborative effort between researchers from the London Centre for Nanotechnology, King's College London and UCL Chemistry has led to the first measurements of the electrostatic surface potential of individual DNA and avidin molecules with nanometre resolution using Kelvin Probe Force Microscopy in air. http://www.nanowerk.com/news/newsid=11498.php http://www.nanowerk.com/news/newsid=11499.php Fri, 03 Jul 2009 12:16:56 -0400 Malvern Instruments online web seminar series introducing triple detection techniques for size exclusion chromatography/gel permeation chromatography (SEC/GPC) provides information for experts and beginners alike. http://www.nanowerk.com/news/newsid=11499.php http://www.nanowerk.com/news/newsid=11500.php Fri, 03 Jul 2009 12:16:56 -0400 How nanoparticle toxicity affects the health and environment of Europeans is a concern that many researchers are currently investigating. Rising to the challenge is the NHECD ('Nano health-environment commented database') project, funded under the EU's Seventh Framework Programme to the tune of EUR 1.45 million. The project partners are seeking to create a critical and commented database on the health, safety and environmental impact of nanoparticles. http://www.nanowerk.com/news/newsid=11500.php http://this-week-in-nanotechnology.blogspot.com/ Fri, 03 Jul 2009 12:16:56 -0400 This week's most interesting nanotechnology news. http://this-week-in-nanotechnology.blogspot.com/ http://www.nanowerk.com/news/newsid=11476.php Fri, 03 Jul 2009 12:16:56 -0400 ETH Zurich researchers have successfully created an optical transistor from a single molecule. This has brought them one step closer to an optical computer. http://www.nanowerk.com/news/newsid=11476.php http://www.nanowerk.com/news/newsid=11477.php Fri, 03 Jul 2009 12:16:56 -0400 Researchers from across Europe have united to build the largest quantum key distribution network ever built. The efforts of 41 research and industrial organisations were realised as secure, quantum encrypted information was sent over an eight node, mesh network. http://www.nanowerk.com/news/newsid=11477.php http://www.nanowerk.com/news/newsid=11478.php Fri, 03 Jul 2009 12:16:56 -0400 Russian physicists are trying to synthesize a new chemical element which would fill in the gap in Mendeleev's Periodic Table of Elements, pertaining to the atomic number 117. http://www.nanowerk.com/news/newsid=11478.php http://www.nanowerk.com/news/newsid=11479.php Fri, 03 Jul 2009 12:16:56 -0400 DuPont today announced plans with the U.S. Department of Energy for a $9 million solar research program - part of the company's overall effort in providing more mainstream solar photovoltaic products for commercial and residential applications. http://www.nanowerk.com/news/newsid=11479.php http://www.nanowerk.com/news/newsid=11480.php Fri, 03 Jul 2009 12:16:56 -0400 The wafer-processing section at this year's SEMICON West will feature engineers from CyberOptics Semiconductor discussing the role of a newly developed particle-sensing technology to monitor airborne particles in process equipment in real-time to validate and analyze wafer contamination. http://www.nanowerk.com/news/newsid=11480.php http://www.nanowerk.com/news/newsid=11481.php Fri, 03 Jul 2009 12:16:56 -0400 Scientists in Germany have found that surface topography can be more important than chemistry for stem cells. http://www.nanowerk.com/news/newsid=11481.php http://www.nanowerk.com/spotlight/spotid=11482.php Fri, 03 Jul 2009 12:16:56 -0400 Environmental and behavioral factors may lead the body to produce superoxide radicals known as reactive oxygen species (ROS) that could cause cell damage through oxidation. Oxidative stress from ROS is implicated in aging and most diseases including cancer, heart disease, liver fibrosis, neurodegenerative diseases, autoimmune disorders. An excess of these reactive molecules can lead to oxidative stress and cellular damage, and toxicologists have identified ROS generation as a likely mechanism of nanoparticle toxicity. Since ROS plays an important role in various pathogenic processes, it has been recognized as an early indicator for cytotoxic events and cellular disorders. However, conventional chemical ROS probes have not fulfilled the rising need of in vitro and in vivo analysis of ROS generation due to auto-oxidation problems and poor specificity and sensitivity. Scientists in South Korea have now demonstrated a novel ROS-sensitive gold nanoprobe prepared from bio-inspired immobilization of fluorescein-labeled hyaluronic acid onto the surface of gold nanoparticles. This probe is highly stable under exposure to natural light and laser sources and extremely sensitive and specific to certain oxygen species. http://www.nanowerk.com/spotlight/spotid=11482.php http://www.nanowerk.com/news/newsid=11483.php Fri, 03 Jul 2009 12:16:56 -0400 The London Centre for Nanotechnology researches spintronics and quantum computing: two of the most promising ways to scale computers down to ever smaller sizes. http://www.nanowerk.com/news/newsid=11483.php http://www.nanowerk.com/news/newsid=11484.php Fri, 03 Jul 2009 12:16:56 -0400 AIXTRON AG today announced that it has recently received a further multiple system order from Epistar located at the Hsinchu Science-based Industrial Park, Taiwan. http://www.nanowerk.com/news/newsid=11484.php http://www.nanowerk.com/news/newsid=11485.php Fri, 03 Jul 2009 12:16:56 -0400 Zecotek Photonics Inc., a developer of leading-edge photonics technologies for medical, industrial and scientific markets, today announced that its proprietary Green Fiber Laser GFL 550 has been selected by the Russian Academy of Sciences (Novosibirsk) as the main laser source for Raman spectrometers in solid-state research and for confocal microscopy in biomedical (DNA) research. http://www.nanowerk.com/news/newsid=11485.php http://www.nanowerk.com/news/newsid=11486.php Fri, 03 Jul 2009 12:16:56 -0400 New developments in a substance which emits brilliant light could lead to a revolution in lighting for the home and office in five years, claims a leading UK materials scientist, Professor Colin Humphreys of Cambridge University. http://www.nanowerk.com/news/newsid=11486.php http://www.nanowerk.com/news/newsid=11487.php Fri, 03 Jul 2009 12:16:56 -0400 On the 1st of September 2009, in Sarajevo (Bosnia), the Workshop "Nanoinformatics: New Challenges for Biomedical Informatics at the nano level" wil be held. http://www.nanowerk.com/news/newsid=11487.php http://www.nanowerk.com/news/newsid=11488.php Fri, 03 Jul 2009 12:16:56 -0400 Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd. today announced the foundry segment's first functional 65-nanometer multi-time programmable non-volatile memory process technology. http://www.nanowerk.com/news/newsid=11488.php http://www.nanowerk.com/news/newsid=11489.php Fri, 03 Jul 2009 12:16:56 -0400 Zwei neue Nachwuchsforschungsgruppen hat die Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) im Rahmen ihres Emmy Noether-Programms an der Ruhr-Universität eingerichtet. http://www.nanowerk.com/news/newsid=11489.php http://www.nanowerk.com/news/newsid=11490.php Fri, 03 Jul 2009 12:16:56 -0400 Science and technology are becoming increasingly involved in the world of art. Scientific advances and new technological instruments are opening new doors to fields of knowledge to which they had been previously closed. Art is one such case in point. http://www.nanowerk.com/news/newsid=11490.php http://www.nanowerk.com/news/newsid=11491.php Fri, 03 Jul 2009 12:16:56 -0400 Clemson scientist Stephen Klaine has been awarded two $400,000 EPA grants to study a subject that did not exist a decade ago. Klaine is part of the young field of nano-ecotoxicology: the investigation of the impact that nanoparticles have on the environment. http://www.nanowerk.com/news/newsid=11491.php http://www.nanowerk.com/news/newsid=11492.php Fri, 03 Jul 2009 12:16:56 -0400 NanoMarkets, an industry analyst firm, today announced a free white paper based on the firm's upcoming report, "Batteries and Ultra-Capacitors for the Smart Power Grid: Market Opportunities 2009-2016". The report will be released in mid July 2009. http://www.nanowerk.com/news/newsid=11492.php http://www.nanowerk.com/news/newsid=11450.php Fri, 03 Jul 2009 12:16:56 -0400 A new statistical analysis technique that identifies and removes systematic bias, noise and equipment-based artifacts from experimental data could lead to more precise and reliable measurement of nanomaterials and nanostructures likely to have future industrial applications. http://www.nanowerk.com/news/newsid=11450.php http://www.nanowerk.com/news/newsid=11451.php Fri, 03 Jul 2009 12:16:56 -0400 Die Nanostart-Beteiligung ItN Nanovation AG wird im Rahmen eines Großprojektes erstmals in Deutschland eine kommunale Kläranlage mit CFM-Systems Modulen bestücken. Damit gelingt es dem Unternehmen, ein wichtiges, großvolumiges Referenzprojekt zu realisieren, mit dem die technologische und ökonomische Überlegenheit keramischer Flachfiltermembrane bei der Wasserfiltration erneut gezeigt werden kann. http://www.nanowerk.com/news/newsid=11451.php http://www.nanowerk.com/news/newsid=11452.php Fri, 03 Jul 2009 12:16:56 -0400 KLA-Tencor Corporation, a leading supplier of process control and yield management solutions for the semiconductor and related industries, announced XP, a new upgrade package for 28XX broadband brightfield inspection systems. http://www.nanowerk.com/news/newsid=11452.php http://www.nanowerk.com/news/newsid=11453.php Fri, 03 Jul 2009 12:16:56 -0400 RTDNEGF is the nanoHUB tool dedicated to the simulation of Resonant Tunneling Diodes by means of the increasingly popular Non-Equilibrium Green Formalism (NEGF). http://www.nanowerk.com/news/newsid=11453.php http://www.nanowerk.com/news/newsid=11454.php Fri, 03 Jul 2009 12:16:56 -0400 Der im Auftrag des Bundesministeriums für Bildung und Forschung (BMBF) von der VDI Technologiezentrum GmbH geplante Branchendialog "NanoEngineering" soll am 8. Dezember 2009 in Düsseldorf zeigen, wie neue Entwicklungen aus der Material- und Nanotechnologieforschung in die Praxis des Maschinen- und Anlagenbaus umgesetzt und damit Kosteneinsparungen und neue Märkte erschlossen werden können. http://www.nanowerk.com/news/newsid=11454.php http://www.nanowerk.com/spotlight/spotid=11455.php Fri, 03 Jul 2009 12:16:56 -0400 One of the ultimate goals of nanotechnology is to fabricate functional devices at the nanoscale. A nanodevice is expected to integrate components of different material compositions and geometries. The integration is likely to be carried out on silicon if information processing is required. Thus far, the basic building blocks for nanodevices are nanoparticles, for which there are many material candidates; and nanotubes, for which the candidates are fewer (they are mostly carbon, although non-carbon based tubes have been fabricated as well). One-dimensional (1-D) nanomaterials such as nanotubes are useful for component connection and for the transport of charge, heat and vibration. In addition to the limited material selection, common 1-D nanomaterials are usually straight. Composite 1-D nanomaterials are rarer. Often they are also produced as discrete and unorganized units. Scientists in Singapore have now successfully fabricated a family of aligned one-dimensional C-curved nanoarches of different compositions by a simple and scalable method for the first time. http://www.nanowerk.com/spotlight/spotid=11455.php http://www.nanowerk.com/news/newsid=11456.php Fri, 03 Jul 2009 12:16:56 -0400 Customer-oriented product engineering of micro and nano devices: European project CORONA looks back on a promising first year. http://www.nanowerk.com/news/newsid=11456.php http://www.nanowerk.com/news/newsid=11457.php Fri, 03 Jul 2009 12:16:56 -0400 Using an Andor Electron Multiplying CCD (EMCCD) camera in combination with an imaging spectrograph and a sheath flow cuvette, researchers at the La Jolla Bioengineering Institute in California, have been able to analyse individual metal nanoparticles at rates of 100 per second or faster. http://www.nanowerk.com/news/newsid=11457.php http://www.nanowerk.com/news/newsid=11458.php Fri, 03 Jul 2009 12:16:56 -0400 New FE-SEM combines high resolution and analysis for the first time. http://www.nanowerk.com/news/newsid=11458.php http://www.nanowerk.com/news/newsid=11459.php Fri, 03 Jul 2009 12:16:56 -0400 A new agreement between Syracuse University and Brookhaven National Laboratory will enable SU faculty and students to use Brookhaven's state-of-the-art research facilities. The agreement also encourages SU and Brookhaven scientists and engineers to explore opportunities for collaborative research in the fields of energy technology development, environmental sciences, biomaterials, forensic science, engineering and computer science, the biological sciences, and policy. http://www.nanowerk.com/news/newsid=11459.php http://www.nanowerk.com/news/newsid=11460.php Fri, 03 Jul 2009 12:16:56 -0400 A tiny grid pattern has led materials scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the Institute of Solid State Physics in Russia to an unexpected finding - the surprisingly strong and long-range effects of certain electromagnetic nanostructures used in data storage. http://www.nanowerk.com/news/newsid=11460.php http://www.nanowerk.com/news/newsid=11461.php Fri, 03 Jul 2009 12:16:56 -0400 A novel ion trap geometry could usher in a new generation of applications because the device holds promise as a stylus for sensing very small forces or as an interface for efficient transfer of individual light particles for quantum communications. http://www.nanowerk.com/news/newsid=11461.php http://www.nanowerk.com/news/newsid=11462.php Fri, 03 Jul 2009 12:16:56 -0400 For the first time Obducat will take part in an exhibition for solar cell technology. http://www.nanowerk.com/news/newsid=11462.php http://www.nanowerk.com/news/newsid=11463.php Fri, 03 Jul 2009 12:16:56 -0400 The Computer History Museum launches new exhibit to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the integrated circuit. http://www.nanowerk.com/news/newsid=11463.php