A new $13-million National Science Foundation center based at the University of Michigan will develop high-tech materials that manipulate light in new ways. The research could enable advances such as invisibility cloaks, nanoscale lasers, high-efficiency lighting, and quantum computers.
Three dimensions are not necessarily better than two. Not where ceria is concerned, in any case. Ceria is an important catalyst. Because of its outstanding ability to store oxygen and release it, ceria is primarily used in oxidation reactions. Christopher B. Murray and a team at the University of Pennsylvania have now developed a simple synthetic technique to produce ceria in the form of nanoplates.
3M, through its New Ventures Business, has invested in GoNano Technologies Inc., a developer and manufacturer of high surface area nanomaterials for pollution control, catalysis, composites and sensory technologies headquartered in Moscow, Idaho. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research Sheikh Nahyan Bin Mubarak Al Nahyan inaugurated today the 3rd International Conference on Nanotechnology organised by the Faculty of Engineering at UAE University in collaboration with the Arab Academy of Science and the Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.
A custom-built, $2.5 million "split magnet" system with the potential to revolutionize scientific research in a variety of fields has made its debut at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory at Florida State University.
Nanoscale antennas hold out the promise of higher resolution optical imaging of nano objects, including proteins and DNA molecules, and converting solar energy into electricity at very high efficiencies. Now, a team from the University of Illinois led by Nicholas Fang and Kimani Toussaint has demonstrated a 1,000-fold increase in the UV-Visible optical response of devices based on nanoantennas periodic arrays.
The World Technology Network has announced its official Call for Nominations for the 2011 World Technology Awards, honoring those individuals and corporations deemed to be doing "the innovative work of the greatest likely long-term significance" in 20 different categories in science, technology and related fields.
The 2012 Symposia on VLSI Technology and Circuits, to be held at the Hilton Hawaiian Village In Honolulu, HI, June 12-14, 2012 and June 13-15, 2012 , announce their respective Calls for Papers, seeking innovative, original work in the areas described.
Lead sulfide forms when an equal number of lead and sulfur atoms exchange electrons and bond together in cubic crystals. Now scientists have determined that a structure comprising 32 lead-sulfur pairs is the smallest possible cubic arrangement that exhibits the same coordination as bulk lead sulfide.
Insects can run up walls, hang from ceilings, and perform other amazing feats that have for centuries fascinated human observers. Now scientists from the Zoological Institute at the University of Kiel, in Germany, who have been studying these able acrobats, have borrowed some of the insects' tricks to make a dry tape that can be repeatedly peeled off without losing its adhesive properties. The researchers presented their work at the AVS' 58th International Symposium, held Oct. 30 - Nov. 4, in Nashville, Tenn.
Physicists and chemists use different techniques to study essentially the same thing -- the nature and behavior of matter. Usually the particular path is of little consequence, because they all lead ultimately to the same truths at the end of the experimental journey.
Standards, in a scientific context, have a much larger role in our society than just agreeing measurements. As the British Standards Institution explains it, put at its simplest, a standard is an agreed, repeatable way of doing something.
Researchers at MIT have developed a new way of revealing the presence of specific chemicals -- whether toxins, disease markers, pathogens or explosives. The system visually signals the presence of a target chemical by emitting a fluorescent glow.
Fluctuations are fundamental to many physical phenomena in our everyday life, such as the phase transitions from a liquid into a gas or from a solid into a liquid. But even at absolute zero temperature, where all motion in the classical world is frozen out, special quantum mechanical fluctuations prevail that can drive the transition between two quantum phases. Now a team around Immanuel Bloch and Stefan Kuhr at Ludwig-Maximilians University and the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics has succeeded in directly observing such quantum fluctuations.
A single molecule whose charge state and shape can be changed at will: the latest breakthrough at the CEMES (Centre d'Elaboration de Matériaux et d'Etudes Structurales, Center for Materials Elaboration and Structural Studies, CNRS) should prove a key advantage in the race for miniaturization. In addition to controlling its charge in a completely reversible way, the researchers have revealed a link between the molecule's charge and its geometrical shape, effectively making it usable as a bit of information or an electromechanical system on a nanometric scale. This perfectly controllable back-and-forth motion at the molecular level holds great promise for the creation of ultra-dense digital memory or nanomotors.
Reduced to the max: the emission-free, noiseless 4-wheel drive car, jointly developed by Empa researchers and their Dutch colleagues, represents lightweight construction at its most extreme.
The technology in "fire paint" used to protect steel beams in buildings and other structures has found a new life as a first-of-its-kind flame retardant for children's cotton sleepwear, terrycloth bathrobes and other apparel, according to a report presented today at the 242nd National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS).
Researchers have modified surface structures by making nanometer scale patterns, with the help from a technology called nanoimprinting. Nanoimprinting is a high through-put and low cost method that produces these patterns through the use of a stamp. In the European Commission-funded project NaPANIL (Nanopatterning, Production and Applications based on Nanoimprinting Lithography) 18 partners are working on 3D nano-manufacturing based on NIL (nanoimprinting lithography), materials, stamps, tools and software required for new applications, and industrial suitable modeling and metrology tools.
A new way to analyze how coatings of tiny particles alter the properties of transparent plastic could help researchers create lightweight windows with nearly the strength of glass. The same method could also lead to high-strength, scratch-resistant coatings that could be applied to many different materials, according to the MIT researchers who developed the analysis.
Military missions place tremendous stress on the materials used for defense weapons, vehicles and other applications. As a result, the search for stronger, lighter and more resilient materials is never ending. Some materials have proven to have high pressure phases that could yield performance improvements in a variety of defense applications provided the processes could be scaled to create stable materials in the quantities needed for the defense mission.
In the 21st century several countries have suffered great losses after terrorist attacks. Although the risk of bioterrorist attacks or accidental contamination of our water supply network is low, the consequences could be fatal. Researchers connected to DINAMICS (DIagnostic NAnotech and MICrotech Sensors), a project co-funded by the European commission, have made a lab-on-a-chip device that can monitor our drinking water and spot different pathogens even at very low concentrations.
Scientists can now look deeper into new materials to study their structure and behavior, thanks to work by an international group of researchers led by UC Davis and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and published Aug. 14 by the journal Nature Materials.
To explore the future potential of diamonds in quantum devices, researchers from Macquarie University have collaborated with the University of Stuttgart and University of Ulm in Germany towards developing new sensors based on the common defect found in the diamond structure known as the nitrogen-vacancy center.
It is not often that the prefix multipliers kilo and nano come together, and when they do, it usually is in the opening chapters of physical sciences textbooks where the point is made that the universe around us spans enormous space and time scales while operating in unimaginably small ones. We are truly awestruck and inspired by the tension. Kilometer-long nanowires do have a similar eponymous echo.
The making of three-dimensional nanostructured materials -- ones that have distinctive shapes and structures at scales of a few billionths of a meter -- has become a fertile area of research, producing materials that are useful for electronics, photonics, phononics and biomedical devices. But the methods of making such materials have been limited in the 3-D complexity they can produce. Now, an MIT team has found a way to produce more complicated structures by using a blend of current "top-down" and "bottom-up" approaches.
Controlling the behavior of nanoparticles can be just as difficult trying to wrangle a group of teenagers. However, a new study involving the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory has given scientists insight into how tweaking a nanoparticle's attractive electronic qualities can lead to the creation of ordered uniform "supraparticles".
Nearly 50 years ago scientists discovered that detonating powerful explosives had the ability to create, not just destroy. Nanodiamonds, diamond-structured particles measuring less than 10 nanometers in diameter, which are the resultant residue from a TNT or Hexogen explosion in a contained space, are now being studied in a variety of science, technology and health applications.
In January 2007, China successfully tested an Anti-satellite missile system by destroying their own defunct LEO satellite, which generated huge amounts of space debris. This ASAT test raised worldwide concerns about the vulnerability of satellites and other space assets and possibility of triggering an arms race in space. In order to meet emerging challenges posed by such ASAT missile systems, military strategists and researchers are developing novel technologies to protect their space assets.
Hybrid materials are already a feature of our bodies. Our bones are built by the deposition of calcium containing salts onto organic templates. This combination of an organic and inorganic phase gives bone its strength and toughness. But Nature has limited itself to the use of only a few inorganic ions, such as calcium and iron. Now, genetic engineering gives us the chance to suggest new hybrid materials to Nature.
Carbon nanomaterials with different morphologies and internal structures -- including carbon nanotubes, carbon nanofibers, and graphene -- have been synthesized by catalytic decomposition of hydrocarbon gases.
Nanotechnology is opening up new markets and offering novel solutions to numerous challenges in a very varied range of areas. This was the tenor of the 1st Swiss NanoConvention which took place on May 18 and 19 in Baden. The event was organized by Empa, the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) and the ETH Zurich, and offered the 300 or so decision-makers who participated a practical platform on which to discuss and exchange ideas not just about developments in the nanosector which are beneficial to society, but also about the potential risks of the new technology.
The Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) and PJI Contract Pte Ltd announced today the opening of a production facility to manufacture Titanium Dioxide (TiO2) solution, an eco-friendly nano-coating material, by Dr Raj Thampuran, Executive Director, Science and Engineering Research Council, A*STAR, in Woodlands. PJI Contract, a leading specialist contractor for industrial polymeric floors, protective coatings, and linings, has licensed from A*STAR the patented TiO2 manufacturing process developed by the Singapore Institute of Manufacturing Technology (SIMTech), a research institute of A*STAR.
The Singapore Institute of Manufacturing Technology (SIMTech), a research institute of the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), launched the SIMTech Microfluidics Foundry (SMF) today. SMF offers an integrated spectrum of capabilities for developing and manufacturing of specialised and low-cost microfluidic devices for applications in healthcare, biomedical, pharmaceutical, energy, water quality monitoring and chemical processing. Reflecting A*STAR's strategic investments in R&D of innovative high-value manufacturing solutions, this will make Singapore a focal point for public-private sector microfluidic devices investments, R&D and manufacturing.
At first glance, it seems as if billions of lead atoms have mysteriously disappeared. When exposed to heat, a layer of lead coated onto a nickel surface becomes almost invisible from one moment to the next. In reality, the slightest disturbance causes these atoms to suddenly switch from a broad "flat pancake" shape to a compact hemisphere.
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Accelrys, Inc., a leading scientific enterprise R&D software and services company, has announced a new release of the Materials Studio® modeling and simulation environment.
"Seeing something invisible with your own eyes is an exciting experience," say Joachim Fischer and Tolga Ergin. For about one year, both physicists and members of the team of Professor Martin Wegener at KIT's Center for Functional Nanostructures (CFN) have worked on refining the structure of the Karlsruhe invisibility cloak to such an extent that it is also effective in the visible spectral range.
There is a large gap in knowledge about the impact of nanomaterials on edible plants, according to the latest episode of 'Global Challenges/Chemistry Solutions', an award-winning podcast series of the American Chemical Society.
ADA Technologies, Inc. (ADA) received a $750,000 contract from the U.S. Air Force for research on an innovative nanomaterial-enabled power system for use in small to micro Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS). Specifically, ADA will create a high performance, cost effective and easy-to-manufacture lithium-ion battery that meets the power generation and storage requirements of military UAS. The Phase II research will be performed in collaboration with SouthWest NanoTechnologies (Norman, OK) and a major lithium-ion battery manufacturer.
This Tuesday, October 18, the European Commission published its long-awaited definition of nanomaterials after a year of intense negotiations. The reactions were not long in coming, revealing power struggles so far mainly confined to Brussels area.
Advanced Diamond Technologies (ADT), the world leader in developing diamond films for industrial, electronic, and water treatment applications announces the successful close of its $5.2 million Series D financing. S-Group Capital Management (S-Group) led this funding round, which also included a number of exising ADT investors.
Advanced Diamond Technologies (ADT), the world leader in developing diamond films for industrial, electronic, and medical product applications, wins the prestigious R&D 100 Award for a third time. ADT's latest award is for its Integrated RF MEMS Switch/CMOS Device. Receiving this mark of excellence deems the Integrated RF MEMS Switch/CMOS Device as one of the, "most technologically significant products introduced into the marketplace over the past year," by R&D Magazine.
British-based AECOM, Inc. and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM) have signed a Memorandum of Agreement to explore potential areas of research collaboration in the rapidly growing area of nanotechnology in building materials.
Leading chemistry automation product innovator, Syrris offers the Asia range of flow chemistry systems for performing a wide variety of chemical reactions. The portfolio includes the Asia 110 system, ideal for customers who demand high quality but have limited budgets. The Asia 110 is an excellent value, easy to use system that is ideal for beginners in solution phase flow chemistry.
Anasys Instruments, the company that pioneered nanoscale thermal analysis and nanoscale IR spectroscopy using an AFM, has chosen the Fall 2011 MRS meeting to introduce a brand new, easy-to-use research and analysis tool. The afm+ is the first fully integrated AFM platform to offer three important analytical capabilities.
Stevens Institute of Technology, Mechanical Engineering Associate Professor, Dr. Eui-Hyeok Yang has received Defense University Research Instrumentation Program (DURIP) grant for the year 2011.
Agar Scientific, a leading supplier of microscopy accessories and consumables, announces the new 1050 TEM Mill from Fischione Instruments to provide tabletop precision preparation for producing high-quality TEM samples for a wide variety of applications.
Agar Scientific, a leading supplier of microscopy accessories and consumables, announces new products from the SIMPore range of precision membranes for electron microscopists.
Agar Scientific is a market leader in the supply of high quality accessories to assist with sample handling for the electron microscopy market. Working with leading German manufacturer of precision manipulation products, Kleindiek Nanotechnik, Agar are pleased to offer the Lift-Out Shuttle, LOS, for the UK and Irish markets.
The Adam Mickiewicz University in Poland has purchased magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) systems and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectrometers from the global measurement company, Agilent Technologies. The major sale was valued at $6 million.
Agilent Technologies Inc. and the National University of Singapore Environmental Research Institute announced an alliance to leverage each other's strengths in life sciences and chemical analyses. This alliance marks the first time that Agilent is collaborating with a university in environmental science and engineering in Southeast Asia.
Agilent Technologies Inc. introduced the first commercially available capacitance calibration standard for an atomic force microscope (AFM). The scientific solutions provider issued calibration specifications for capacitance measurements that allow quantitative assessment of material and device properties via its award-winning Scanning Microwave Microscopy Mode. Researchers from Agilent collaborated with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST Boulder Laboratories) to establish the new standard.
Nanopowders have gained considerable importance and many manufacturing companies are adding nanopowders in the product's composition in several fields such as energy, optics, electronics, environmental preservation, mechanical parts production, and medicine.
AIXTRON SE today announces a formal cooperation agreement between AIXTRON and the Suzhou Institute of Nano-tech and Nano-bionics (SINANO), China to establish a brand new MOCVD training and demo facility to train its Chinese customers and potential customers' engineers.
The University at Albany's College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering (CNSE) and the City School District of Albany (CSDA) decided to recognize 16 students of Albany High School (AHS) who completed the innovative "NanoHigh" program successfully. This program was specifically designed to enable students to actively participate in the emerging field of nanotechnology.
A new Edmonton-based pilot facility has been established in Canada, which will be the first to develop high quality nanocrystalline cellulose (NCC), the kind that researchers require to fully understand its effective applications.
Building on its commitment to advance technology through materials science, Aldrich® Materials Science, a strategic growth initiative of Sigma-Aldrich Corporation, announced the establishment of a permanent endowment through the Materials Research Society (MRS) to support the new Mid-Career Researcher Award. Intended to honor individuals that have made outstanding mid-career advances in the scientific materials industry, nominations for the inaugural award will be accepted through October 1, 2011. The annual award presentation will take place at the MRS Spring Meeting, beginning with the MRS Spring Meeting in San Francisco, April 9 -13, 2012.
Dr. Alexander A. Balandin, professor of electrical engineering professor and founding chair of materials science and engineering at the University of California -- Riverside (UCR), was selected to receive the IEEE Pioneer of Nanotechnology Award for the year of 2011. On April 15, 2011, the decision was announced by the IEEE Nanotechnology Council. The IEEE Pioneer Award in Nanotechnology recognizes individuals who by virtue of initiating new areas of research, development or engineering have had a significant and transformative impact on the field of nanotechnology.
Wiley Publishing recently published an all-new edition of this introductory guide to nanotechnology. The authors, Earl Boysen and Nancy Muir Boysen have completely rewritten the second edition of this book to cover nanotechnology basics plus recent advances in the field. Drawing on their experience in writing easy to understand information about nano on the website, UnderstandingNano.com, the authors of this entry in the popular For Dummies series have produced a book that's perfect for those who need a solid introduction to nanotechnology.
The ALPHA experiment conducted at CERN involved successfully trapping of antimatter atoms for more than 16 minutes to enable scientists to carry a detailed study of their properties. Details of the report were published by the Nature Physics journal online. Jeffrey Hangst of Aarhus University,
Altair Nanotechnologies Inc. (Altairnano) today announced it had closed on a Share Subscription Agreement with Canon Investment Holdings Limited (Canon), through its affiliate, Energy Storage Technology (China) Group Limited (EST). Under the terms of the agreement, Altairnano issued 37,036,807 common shares to EST at $1.5528 per share, providing $57.5 million in proceeds to Altairnano. Following the closing of this transaction, there are 69,452,487 Altairnano common shares outstanding.
More than a decade ago, the frequency comb technique was developed at the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics by Professor Theodor W. Hänsch. The new tool has stimulated fundamental research as well as laser development and its applications because it gave rise to a major increase in the accuracy of measuring optical frequencies. Already a couple of years ago, a team of scientists around Dr. Tobias Kippenberg, formerly Leader of the Max Planck Research Group "Laboratory of Photonics and Quantum Measurements" at MPQ, who has since then become Associate Professor at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), succeeded for the first time in generating optical frequency combs using chip-based quartz glass toroids with diameters on the micrometer scale.
Berkeley Design Automation, Inc., provider of the world's fastest nanometer circuit verification, today announced that Analog Bits, a leading provider of integrated clocking and interface IP, has adopted and achieved excellent silicon correlation using the company's Analog FastSPICE Platform for accurate performance characterization of a 40nm nanometer Phase-Locked Loop (PLL) clocking circuit IP, targeted to networking and cloud computing applications requiring over 100 Gbps data transfer rates.
Anasys Instruments' AFM-IR system has been recognized by Microscopy Today in the receipt of the 2011 Innovation Award. It was presented to CEO, Roshan Shetty, at the 2011 M&M Annual conference held this year in Nashville, TN.
Anasys Instruments is pleased to announce that Dr William P King has been appointed as the Bliss Professor of Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. In addition to his faculty position at UIUC, Dr. King serves as a key scientific advisor to Anasys Instruments.
The folks over at Future Markets, Inc., a technology consultancy firm, have added several new topics to their series of commercialization charts on nanotechnology and nanomaterials.
Peter Burke, a professor of nanotechnology at the University of California, has declared that the iNanotube 1.1 for iOS, is an application that gives instructions to users on the atomic structure of carbon nanotubes.
Applied Nanotech Holdings, Inc. has announced that it has achieved a greater than 40 percent improvement in flexural strength and greater than 30 percent improvement in tensile strength and modulus for its vinyl ester/carbon nanotube composites in the base resin form. These improvements were obtained through the chemical and mechanical modification and functionalization of carbon nanotubes in order for them to be accepted and integrated properly into the vinyl ester matrix.
Applied Seals North America, Inc. has opened a new applications and design center at its headquarters in Silicon Valley, increasing the company's capabilities in troubleshooting customers' problems with o-rings and other seals, prescribing the best application-specific solutions and designing leading-edge seals for the 22 nm technology node of semiconductor manufacturing. Advanced perfluoroelastomer (or FFKM) seals are used throughout semiconductor-manufacturing equipment to create and maintain the ultraclean environments in which ICs are made.
ArboraNano, a member of Canada's Business-Led Networks of Centres of Excellence program, is pleased to announce the launch of nine new research and development (R&D) projects targeting innovative paper grades, improved foams and nanocomposite developments using forest nanomaterials. Seven of these projects will focus on the use of non-toxic and environmentally-friendly nanocrystalline cellulose (NCC). The projects are to be carried out over the next two years by industrial scientists and engineers from the pulp and paper, automotive, machinery and engineering sectors, as well as researchers from Canadian universities and Canadian research institutes.
Not to pick up electrons, but tweezers made of electrons. A recent paper ("Are electron tweezers possible?") by researchers from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the University of Virginia (UVA) demonstrates that the beams produced by modern electron microscopes can be used not just to look at nanoscale objects, but to move them around, position them and perhaps even assemble them.
A team of researchers from the University of the Basque Country (Spain) has developed a method to determine the chemical composition of liquids seized by police and suspected to be explosive ("Are these liquids explosive? Forensic analysis of confiscated indoor fireworks"). Some of the samples analysed contained substances hazardous to health, such as methanol and boric acid.
Although a wide variety of methods have been developed to fabricate carbon nanotubes (CNTs), including arc discharge, laser ablation, and chemical vapor deposition (CVD), CVD is the most technically important -- since it can be achieved at low temperature and is upscalable -- and the most widely used in industry.
Arrowhead Research Corporation today announced that on September 30, 2011, it closed a private placement of approximately 14.5 million shares of common stock priced at market for $0.38 per share. Gross proceeds were approximately $5.5 million and will be used to fund current operations.
Arteriocyte received a grant of $1 million from the Third Frontier Commission of the Ohio Department of Development to speed up manufacturing using Good Manufacturing practices (GMP), the company's NANEX technology for clinical purposes under the brand HemaEx.
Matthew Doty, assistant professor in the University of Delaware Department of Materials Science and Engineering, is co-author of two papers exploring novel methods for assembling quantum dots to control how electrons interact with light and magnetic fields for applications in next generation computing devices and solar energy capture.
Nanometrics, a provider of sophisticated metrology systems, has proclaimed that its Atlas XP+ optical critical dimension (OCD) metrology systems have been chosen by an Asian foundry for process control of sophisticated logic devices.
Phoenicians will return from the Memorial Day weekend to witness installation of the first "Cool Pavement" parking lot in central downtown Phoenix. This 90,000-square-foot temporary parking lot located between First, Second, Taylor and Polk Streets will now help cool the city this summer.
Asylum Research, the technology leader in scanning probe and atomic force microscopy (SPM/AFM), announces its 3rd UK User Meeting and Forum to be held June 21 (before the RMS UK SPM Meeting) in Edinburgh, UK. All AFM researchers and Asylum users are invited to share their research with an informative day of technical talks, tutorials, equipment demonstrations and a poster session.
Asylum Research, the technology leader in scanning probe and atomic force microscopy (SPM/AFM) announced today that its revolutionary Cypher AFM is routinely achieving resolution of atomic-scale point defects in liquid. While scanning tunneling microscopes have routinely demonstrated point defect resolution since their invention, this gold standard of true atomic resolution has been more elusive in AFM. Many commercial AFMs can routinely image atomic lattices in ambient and liquid conditions, but the lack of point defects has led most researchers to conclude that the contact areas are typically several atoms across. More recently, instrumental improvements have brought true atomic resolution to ultra-high vacuum (UHV) AFM.
Asylum Research, the technology leader in scanning probe/atomic force microscopy, is initiating its 2012 Webinar Series on February 22. The first webinar will focus on ultrahigh resolution imaging. AFM pioneer, inventor and Asylum Research co-founder, Dr. Jason Cleveland, will present "Smaller and Quieter: Ultra-high Resolution AFM Imaging."
Asylum Research, the technology leader in scanning probe/atomic force microscopy, introduces the new Variable Field Module2 (VFM2) for the MFP-3D Atomic Force Microscopes (AFM). The VFM2 is ideal for researchers who want to apply magnetic fields to their atomic force microscopy experiments and applies continuously adjustable magnetic fields parallel to the sample plane approaching one Tesla with one Gauss resolution. The module is useful for magnetic force microscopy (MFM), conductive AFM (C-AFM), and other applications where the sample's properties are magnetic field dependent.
At the smallest scales, magnetism may not work quite the way scientists expected, according to a recent paper in Physical Review Letters by Rafal Oszwaldowski and Igor Zutic of the University at Buffalo and Andre Petukhov of the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology.
Research conducted on single atoms and molecules demonstrates that miniature optical, electronic, mechanical, and magnetic equipment can effectively operate even at the single atomic or molecular level. Molecular and atomic manipulation has contributed to the development of the nanoscience field in a big way.
The Cypher AFM launched recently by Asylum Research is delivering nano-scale point defects resolution in a liquid. During scanning, tunneling microscopes have revealed point defect resolution.
Atomic layer deposition is a thin film technology that in the past two decades rapidly developed from a niche technology to an established method. It proved to be a key technology for the surface modification and the fabrication of complex nanostructured materials.
Carbon Composite Technologies (CCT) which is a subsidiary of Augrid Global Holdings will launch a new nano fabric made of fibreglass and carbon to be used to manufacture products from fibre reinforced polymer (FRP).
Eden Energy Limited through its wholly-owned US, Colorado-based subsidiary, Hythane Company LL, in its specially developed production laboratory in Denver has in 2011 made major breakthroughs in the time and costs associated with the production processes used in the manufacture from natural gas of both hydrogen and super-strong, superlight, and highly conductive nano-carbon products which have widescale application across many industrial and manufacturing sectors on developing commercial uses for the nano-carbon products.
Groundbreaking research in quantum light source led by the University of Sydney will result in information speeds many times faster and data that is almost impossible to hack.
Australians are increasingly positive about nanotechnology, in particular its potential to improve our lives, according to a study by independent company Market Attitude Research Services.
Nevada, the "Silver State," is well-known for mining precious metals. But scientists Dennis Bazylinski and colleagues at the University of Nevada Las Vegas (UNLV) do a different type of mining.
Researchers who need help with bringing their innovations to the market can get assistance from established offices of technology transfer. These offices offer for example expert advice regarding Intellectual Property and support through equipment availability. They are in most cases public bodies, part of or linked to public research institutions, hence they do not often have a clear commercial perspective, lacking specific expertise or resources to deal with the aspects of fund raising and market strategy. This is particularly true in the search for private investors.
BASF SE has set up a research initiative called Joint Research Network on Advanced Materials and Systems in collaboration with the universities of Strasbourg, France; Freiburg, Germany, and ETH Zurich, Switzerland.
The in April 2011 announced acquisition of the Germany based ultrafiltration specialist inge watertechnologies AG by BASF SE was closed successfully. The anti-trust authorities approved the transaction unconditionally.
In the BASF Dialogueforum Nano representatives of environmental and consumer organisations, trade unions, scientific institutes and churches (Civil Society Organisations / Non Governmental Organisations) work together with employees of the chemical company BASF SE on various issues related to the subject of nanotechnologies.
BASF has signed an agreement with the investor group of Germany-based inge watertechnologies AG to acquire the company and its ultrafiltration membrane business.
Material chemists and engineers would love to figure out how to create self-assembling shells, containers or structures that could be used as tiny drug-carrying containers or to build 3-D sensors and electronic devices.
A group of Basque companies and technology bodies, including Gerdau Sidenor, GKN Driveline Zumaia, Alcorta Forging and the Tecnalia Technology Corporation, have merged forces in a research project supported by the Department of Industry, Innovation, Trade and Tourism's Etorgai Program to develop new nano-alloyed steels with enhanced properties for the car industry.
Laser plasma accelerators offer the potential to create powerful electron beams within a fraction of the space required by conventional accelerators -- and at a fraction of the cost. Their promise for the future includes not only compact high-energy colliders for fundamental physics but diminutive sources of intensely bright beams of light, spanning the spectrum from microwaves to gamma rays -- a new kind of ultrafast light source for investigating new materials, biological structures, and green chemistry. Compared to today's giant science facilities, "table-top" laser plasma accelerators may eventually be able to do equally powerful research with minimal environmental impact.
Costa Rica was once regarded as the poorest of all the colonies of the Spanish Empire, sadly deficient in the silver and gold so coveted by conquistadors. As it turns out, all of the glittering gold and silver those explorers could have ever wanted was there all along, in the country's tropical rainforests--but in the form of two gloriously lustrous species of beetle.
The arrays of fine adhesive hairs or 'setae' on the foot pads of many insects, lizards and spiders give them the ability to climb almost any natural surface. Research by James Bullock and Walter Federle from the University of Cambridge in England found that the different forces required to peel away these adhesive hairs from surfaces are what allows beetles to adhere to diverse surfaces, thereby reducing the risk of detachment.
The effect can be seen just by poking a stick into the water; at the water surface, the light changes its direction, the stick appears to be bent. This tilt is described by the refractive index. For years, scientists have been trying to create special materials with a negative refractive index -- their optical properties are quite different from those of normal materials.
Physicists from the University of California at San Diego (UCSD) have demonstrated a new technique to control the speed and direction of light using memory metamaterials whose properties can be repeatedly changed.
Beneq has been chosen a Winner of Red Herring's Top 100 Europe prize, an award in recognition of the leading private companies from Europe, celebrating these startups' innovations and technologies across their respective industries.
Following the pioneering work in spatial atomic layer deposition and the launch of the revolutionizing research and development tool TFS 200R for continuous ALD in 2009, Beneq has closed the deal for a roll-to-roll ALD system, the Web Coating System WCS 500. The first WCS 500 unit will be delivered to the ASTRaL laboratory at Lappeenranta University of Technology (FIN).
Following its success in the Red Herring Top 100 Europe challenge earlier this year, Beneq has now been named as a Red Herring Global 100 Winner. The Red Herring Global Top 100 prize is an award in recognition of the leading private companies from North America, Europe, and Asia. The prize celebrates the innovations and technologies of these start-ups across their respective industries.
Beneq has been named Best of New Materials by the Global Cleantech Cluster Association. Winning the GCCA Later Stage Award for New Materials demonstrates the significant success of Beneq in the growing cleantech industry and validates its innovative coating equipment and technology as a leader in the New Materials sector.
Berkeley Design Automation, Inc., the nanometer circuit verification leader, today announced that TSMC has incorporated the Analog FastSPICE (AFS) Platform in Analog Mixed Signal (AMS) Reference Flow 2.0 for device transient noise analysis targeting TSMC 28 nanometer (nm) process technology.
Researchers typically define nanotechnology research outputs as 'platform' technologies with a diverse range of applications. Moreover, nanotechnology is often an enabling technology used to improve existing products rather than create entirely new products. The wide range of potential applications typically associated to nanotechnologies can bring forward remarkable business opportunities but it can also turn into risk if not properly understood and prioritized. Among researchers, there is still a widespread lack of market understanding and assessment of the real business benefits associated with each application.
A research team at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has developed bilayered nanocrystals of a metal-metal oxide that features multiple catalytic locations on nanocrystal interfaces. The sites enable multiple, sequential catalytic responses to be carried out both selectively and concurrently.
Researchers at Chalmers University of Technology have built a very simple nanoantenna that directs red and blue colours in opposite directions, even though the antenna is smaller than the wavelength of light. The findings -- published in the online journal Nature Communications ("A bimetallic nanoantenna for directional colour routing") this week -- can lead to optical nanosensors being able to detect very low concentrations of gases or biomolecules.
Many biomaterials such as bone, shell and mineralized tendon have a hierarchical structure that provides the material with exceptional mechanical and load-bearing properties, even though the building blocks of such structures may themselves have very poor mechanical properties. One type of structural hierarchy known as 'self-similarity' is ubiquitous in nature and is based on the repetition of units that are composed of biominerals and proteins, creating multi-level structures that provide enhanced strength and durability.
The exceptional strength of certain biological materials is due principally to their complex structure. Long bones, for instance, consist of a compact, solid outer casing filled with spongy tissue, which makes them particularly strong and resilient. Researchers from the Fraunhofer Institutes for Mechanics of Materials IWM and for Environmental, Safety and Energy Technology UMSICHT are collaborating on a project entitled "Bionic Manufacturing", which aims to develop products that are lightweight but strong and economic in their use of materials -- imitating the perfected structures found in nature.
Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) is a highly sensitive and versatile analytical tool that is widely used in biosensing applications. In conventional Raman spectroscopy, molecules are detected by their characteristic scattering of laser light, but the sensitivity of the standard method is relatively low. By detecting the same Raman scattering from molecules adsorbed to rough metal surfaces, however, the sensitivity can be enhanced remarkably, even allowing the detection of single molecules (see image). Unfortunately, the mechanism of this enhancement is not well understood and is strongly dependent on the combination of surface and molecular target.
Conventional wisdom would say that blocking a hole would prevent light from going through it, but Princeton University engineers have discovered the opposite to be true. A research team has found that placing a metal cap over a small hole in a metal film does not stop the light at all, but rather enhances its transmission.
While past experiments have shown that bundles of non-metallic nanostructures are less effective in conducting heat energy than single nanostructures, a new study shows that bundling boron nanoribbons can have the opposite effect and "the thermal conductivity of a bundle of boron nanoribbons can be significantly higher than that of a single free-standing nanoribbon".
Dr. Meredith Mintzer a Postdoctoral Fellow at Boston University, was named the winner of the first Inter-University Nanotechnology Measurement Championships in Cambridge, Massachusetts last night. Contestants from Harvard University, MIT, Boston University and the University of Massachusetts raced each in the closely fought race to measure the particle concentration and size of a bimodal distribution of nanoparticles.
Nanotubes have attracted a lot of attention since their discovery because of their outstanding electronic and mechanical properties. However, the complex methods and extreme conditions typically needed for their synthesis makes accurately controlling their size, shape and atomic constituents -- and hence their physical properties -- difficult and costly.
The microchip revolution has seen a steady shrinking of features on silicon chips, packing in more transistors and wires to boost chips' speed and data capacity. But in recent years, the technologies behind these chips have begun to bump up against fundamental limits, such as the wavelengths of light used for critical steps in chip manufacturing.
Researchers at Helmholtz Zentrum Berlin have developed a new microscope for high spatial resolution X-ray spectroscopic studies. While conventional X-ray spectroscopy has so far fallen short of resolving single nanoparticles, the X-ray microscope at HZB's synchrotron source BESSY II succeeds by using high-brilliancy X-rays.
Nanovea today introduced its patent pending breakthrough method of reliably acquiring yield strength through indentation; ultimately replacing the traditional tensile testing machine for yield strength measurement.
The spectrum of threats and types of attackers targeting information systems are growing, creating security concerns for national security, businesses, and individuals. In this environment, attention to new measures that enhance security is growing at all levels. As a result, public and private standards relevant to information protection are becoming increasingly stringent.
The gallium nitride nanowires grown by scientists in the Physical Measurement Laboratory at NIST may only be a few tenths of a micrometer in diameter, but they promise a very wide range of applications, from new light-emitting diodes and diode lasers to ultra-small resonators, chemical sensors, and highly sensitive atomic probe tips.
To the lengthy list of serendipitous discoveries - gravity, penicillin, the New World - add this: Scientists with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have discovered why a promising technique for making quantum dots and nanorods has so far been a disappointment. Better still, they've also discovered how to correct the problem.
A Massachusetts high-tech start-up company, Graphene Laboratories, Inc., announced it will move to new expanded R&D facility at the Stony Brook University Incubator in Calverton, NY, as of Aug 1, 2011. Graphene Laboratories, together with its business partner, Long Island-based CVD Equipment Corp., has a record of leadership in graphene materials, a critical thrust area in material sciences and nanotechnology. In addition, research projects of Graphene Laboratories Inc. are supported by the Center for Functional Nanomaterials at Brookhaven National Laboratory.
The U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory and Nanofactory Instruments, AB, a Swedish company that develops and markets scanning probe microscopy instrumentation, have received the 2011 Microscopy Today Innovation Award. Microscopy Today is an academic journal owned by the Microscopy Society of America, an affiliate of the American Institute of Physics and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and published by Cambridge University Press.
Bruker today announced the innovative and unique Dimension FastScan™ Atomic Force Microscope (AFM), which delivers a significant breakthrough in improved imaging speed without sacrificing nanoscale resolution. The Dimension FastScan enables users to work hundreds of times faster than is possible with other commercial AFM systems, delivering results in seconds or minutes instead of hours or days. The FastScan system sets the new gold standard for performance and productivity in large-sample, atomic scale imaging across the scientific, biological, semiconductor, data storage and energy research markets.
Bruker today announced new fast scanning capabilities for the MultiMode® 8 Atomic Force Microscope (AFM). The system's new ScanAsyst-HR feature provides a direct 6X increase in imaging rate for significantly improved research productivity.
At ASMS 2011, Bruker is introducing the breakthrough, proprietary CaptiveSpray electrospray ion source for nano-HPLC applications in proteomics. Using CaptiveSpray technology in many cases increases bottom-up protein identifications significantly, and CaptiveSpray is presently the best available technology for robust, reproducible protein ID or quantitative proteomics applications, with excellent, stable sensitivity over long time periods.
Bruker Corporation today announced the closing of its acquisition of Center for Tribology, Inc. (CETR) for $13 million in cash as an initial purchase price, with potential additional earn-out payments of up to $4 million in cash, depending on growth and profitability of the CETR-business within Bruker in 2012 and 2013. CETR, a privately held tribology and mechanical testing company headquartered in Campbell, CA, with 30 employees, has now become a part of the Bruker Nano Surfaces division, joining the current AFM (atomic force microscope) and SOM (stylus and optical metrology) businesses. Dr. Norm Gitis, the founder and CEO of CETR, has joined Bruker as Vice President and General Manager of the new Bruker Tribology & Mechanical Testing (TMT) business.
Bruker Corporation demonstrated the NPFLEX-LA™, the industry's first non-contact, three-dimensional surface metrology system to provide quantitative lead angle and surface texture measurements for the control and reduction of fluid leakage of rotary dynamic sealing surfaces. The NPFLEX-LA combines the intrinsic benefits of Bruker's gage-capable, interferometry-based 3D optical profiling technology with new patent-pending metrology capabilities to quantifiably measure both shaft lead angle and surface texture of sealing surfaces in a single, integrated solution.
Bruker announced the launch of the SHS-40 Automated Headspace Sampler to be used along with Gas Chromatograpy-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) technique for the analysis of organic compounds that are potentially toxic and volatile in a wide range of sample matrices and materials.
Bruker today launched the Dimension Edge™ PSS Atomic Force Microscope (AFM), a production-environment AFM specifically tailored for patterned sapphire substrate (PSS) metrology in high brightness light-emitting diode (HB-LED) manufacturing. The Dimension Edge PSS is an easy-to-operate AFM that delivers resolution far beyond traditional optical techniques while at the same time providing precise 3D profile information to control the most advanced PSS processes.
At the Materials Research Society Fall 2011 Meeting, Bruker announced today the release of the Innova-IRIS, an integrated system for correlated atomic force microscopy and Raman spectroscopic imaging.
Bruker is releasing the innovative CaptiveSpray electrospray ion source to suit nano-high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) systems used in proteomics at ASMS 2011. The use of CaptiveSpray technology ensures significant increase in bottom-up protein identification and delivers optimum, stable sensitivity over long durations.
A supplier of scientific solutions and instruments for molecular and materials research, Bruker has introduced the Dimension Edge PSS atomic force microscope (AFM) for patterned sapphire substrate (PSS) measurement in order to manufacture high-brightness light-emitting diode (HB-LED).
Following Bruker's acquisition of Sigma ElectroOptics GmbH in December 2010, Bruker is now launching its expanded product line for the remote infrared detection of gases in industrial, environmental and homeland security applications.
This Memorial Day weekend at the 2011 Annual ACA Meeting, Bruker will launch a new series of high-performance X-ray crystallography systems, including the D8 QUEST™ and the D8 VENTURE™. Both systems incorporate next-generation X-ray source and novel detector technology to deliver unrivalled performance, ease of use, reliability and value. The D8 QUEST is a compact and economical, yet high-performance, single X-ray source configuration for typical applications in chemical crystallography, while the D8 VENTURE provides the platform for all dual wavelength combinations for chemical and biological crystallography.
Bruker Corporation today announced the signing of a purchase agreement to acquire Center for Tribology, Inc. (CETR) for an undisclosed amount. CETR, a privately held corporation located in Silicon Valley in Campbell, CA, is projected to have calendar year 2011 revenue greater than $10 million and EBITDA greater than $2 million. The transaction is expected to close at the end of the third quarter of 2011, subject to customary closing conditions. After the closing, Bruker intends to continue to operate CETR in Silicon Valley and to integrate its business management, operations, research and development, sales and support with the Bruker Nano Surfaces division.
Bruker Nano Surfaces division has declared that the company has been chosen for receiving the R&D 100 award for its AcuityXR enhanced-resolution optical microscopy technology.
The Bruker Nano Surfaces division today announced that it has been selected for an R&D 100 Award for AcuityXR™ enhanced-resolution microscopy technology. This novel optical surface profiler mode combines patent-pending hardware and software to enable select models of Bruker's ContourGT® 3D Optical Microscopes to break the optical diffraction limit and deliver lateral resolutions that were previously considered impossible to achieve. Winners of the R&D 100 Awards are selected by an independent judging panel and the editors of R&D Magazine as the 100 most technologically significant products introduced into the marketplace over the past year.
It's a car, it's a plane, it's . . . paper? At Florida State University's High-Performance Materials Institute (www.hpmi.net), a revolutionary new material known as buckypaper is being developed in ways that could change the world and lead us toward a more sustainable future.
The brilliant blue wings of the mountain swallowtail easily shed water because of the way ultra-tiny structures in the butterfly's wings trap air and create a cushion between water and wing.
Depending on whom you ask, nanoparticles are, potentially, either one of the most promising or the most perilous creations of science. These tiny objects can deliver drugs efficiently and enhance the properties of many materials, but what if they also are hazardous to your health in some way? Now, scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have found a way to manipulate nanoparticles so that questions like this can be answered ("Trapping and release of citrate-capped gold nanoparticles").
Quantum dots made from cadmium and selenium degrade in soil, unleashing toxic cadmium and selenium ions into their surroundings, a University at Buffalo study has found.
For the third time, the VDI (Association of German Engineers) and the DBU (Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt) will present the international Bionic-Award for outstanding scientific achievement in the field of biomimetic/bionic product development. The award is endowed with €10,000 from the Schauenburg Foundation and will be presented to a young researcher or a team of young researchers.
The California Institute of Technology (Caltech) has been awarded $12.6 million in funding over the next five years by the National Science Foundation (NSF) to create a new Physics Frontiers Center. Dubbed the Institute for Quantum Information and Matter (IQIM), the center will bring physicists and computer scientists together to push theoretical and experimental boundaries in the study of exotic quantum states.
Cambridge NanoTech today announced the delivery of its 40th Fiji™ Plasma Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) system. ALD is being used to enable high impact technologies, such as microelectronics, lighting and display, and energy storage.
Cambridge NanoTech and Simon Fraser University (SFU)'s 4D LABS have entered into a strategic collaboration to develop novel thin film processes and technologies.
CAMECA--a world leader in scientific instrumentation and metrology solutions--has unveiled the SXFiveFE, a field emission electron probe microanalyzer (FE-EPMA) that is the latest addition to the CAMECA line of high-end microanalytical instruments.
University of Constance physicists Daniel Mutter and Peter Nielaba have visualised changes in shape memory materials down to the nanometric scale in an article about to be published in European Physical Journal B.
Augrid Global Holdings Corporation's subsidiary, Carbon Composite Technologies, "CCT," will introduce a recently patented hybrid fiberglass/carbon nano textile fabric for use in the manufacturing of fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) products.
Single-walled carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are rolled-up one-dimensional versions of graphene. CNTs have attracted significant interest over the past two decades, not only for their excellent mechanical and electrical properties, but also because their hollow, cylindrical structure allows them to serve as nanosized containers, templates in material fabrication, or even molecular delivery systems. Due to their nanoscale dimensions, filling CNTs with other nanostructures can also alter the properties of both the tubes and 'fillers' in unexpected ways.
A group of researchers from the University of Michigan is taking advantage of another one of carbon nanotubes' unique properties, the low refractive index of low-density aligned nanotubes, to demonstrate a new application: making 3-D objects appear as nothing more than a flat, black sheet.
Vertical arrays of carbon nanotubes, called 'forests', are a common type of three-dimentional nanotube assembly that researchers work with in their labs. These forests can be produced by chemical vapor deposition technique and used for diverse applications such as in photo- or thermoacoustics, highly elastic conductive composites, for mechanical nanomanipulation, in catalysis, or as sensors in nanomedicine, just to name a few examples.
New artificial muscles that twist like the trunk of an elephant, but provide a thousand times higher rotation per length, were announced on Oct. 13 for a publication in Science magazine by a team of researchers from The University of Texas at Dallas, The University of Wollongong in Australia, The University of British Columbia in Canada, and Hanyang University in Korea.
An MIT research team has developed a sensor that can detect a single nanoparticle of an explosive like TNT. Michael Strano led the team of chemical engineers who applied a coating of protein fragments that exists in bee venom on carbon nanotubes. The proteins respond to explosives, particularly nitro-aromatic compounds such as TNT.
A team of researchers involving scientists from The University of Nottingham has shown for the first time that chemical reactions at the nano-level which change the structure of carbon nanotubes can be sparked by an 'attack' from within.
The Professor of Thermodynamics and Fluid Mechanics at the University of Strathclyde, Jason Reese, explains the potential role played by carbon nanotubes (CNTs) in water desalination. Reese believes that CNTs will meet the demands of the ever-increasing global population for potable water.
Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) are poised to revolutionize the engineering of high-performance electronic devices. These rolled-up carbon sheets behave like metals or semiconductors according to their orientation and degree of twisting, or chirality. Unfortunately, the mechanisms that govern the formation of these cylindrical structures remain unclear, making their geometry difficult to control during synthesis.
The start of the new 2011/12 fiscal year also marked the launch of Carl Zeiss Microscopy. 2,500 employees of MicroImaging und Nano Technology Systems now form the new business group in the Carl Zeiss Group.
Carl Zeiss MicroImaging, a leading provider of microscopy solutions, announces that it recently donated a $5,000 state-of-the-art microscope for use in the UMass Labs for Worcester Area High Schools program, which allows Advanced Placement biology students from public high schools and technical schools in and around Worcester, Massachusetts to visit and learn from scientists in UMass Medical School laboratories. The sophisticated microscope also includes a monitor that allows small groups of students to see what the person using the microscope sees, making demonstrations more effective.
Carl Zeiss has received a license from the University of California in San Francisco for the commercialization of "Multidirectional Selective Plane Illumination Microscopy", an advanced illumination technique for light sheet fluorescence microscopy.
The work applies well known processes of corrosion in a novel manner to produce highly complex cage-like nanoscale structures with potential applications in fields from medicine to industrial processing.
Jean-Lou Chameau, president of the California Institute of Technology, and Laurent Malier, CEO of CEA-Leti, today announced the launch of Analytical Pixels, the first startup to emerge from their Alliance for Nanosystems VLSI.
EV Group (EVG) today announced that its longtime customer and partner, industry-leading research center CEA-Leti (Grenoble, France), has installed multiple EVG tools in its industry-first 300-mm cleanroom dedicated to R&D and prototyping for 3D-integration applications. While Leti's new state-of-the-art facility is focused on R&D and prototyping, EVG's equipment will be leveraged with an eye toward widespread adoption of 3D technology for high-volume applications. Specifically, EVG's equipment will be used in 3D technology demonstrations for Leti's global customer base, as well as low-volume pilot production on 300-mm wafers with the end goal of transferring the processes to their industrial partners' high-volume manufacturing environments.
Replisaurus Technologies and CEA-Leti have jointly taken an important step to start commercializing the new Replisaurus's ElectroChemical Pattern Replication (ECPRTM) metallization process.
Cefic organised on June 23, 2011, its first Nano & REACH workshop to contribute to the timely debate on nanomaterials in the context of the REACH regulation. The workshop brought together close to 150 industry experts, policymakers and scientists and featured presentations by prominent experts in the field.
Members of the board, management and employees of CelluForce are pleased to announce the end of the construction phase and the start of operations at the first manufacturing plant for NanoCrystalline Cellulose in the world.
Nanofilm’s Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Scott Rickert has discussed about six nanotechnology topics to be looked at in the fiscal year 2012 and their impact on the US economy in his nanotechnology column in Industry Week.
Why does a solid metal that is engineered for ductility become brittle, often suddenly and with dramatic consequences, in the presence of certain liquid metal impurities?
Polymers possess unique properties and processing advantages, which are unattainable in any other material. For these reasons, advances in polymer science and engineering will be critical to meeting the 21st century challenges of energy, sustainability, clean water, food preservation, healthcare, informatics, defense and security.
mPhase Technologies announced that it has been allowed to utilize the research facilities at the Argonne National Labs' Center for Nanoscale Materials (CNM).
A collaborative Oregon State University-University of Oregon Center for Sustainable Materials Chemistry, born under a National Science Foundation grant in 2008, is moving into a second phase under a new five-year, $20 million grant.
A research team at the Chalmers University of Technology have used two metallic nanoparticles to construct a nanoantenna, which can disperse red and blue colour lights in different directions.
Numerous industrial processes make use of blends. Researchers from the Institute of Physical Chemistry of the Polish Academy of Sciences have studied how the external electric field affects the rate of component separation in blends composed of polymers and liquid crystals and those composed of various types of polymers ("Thousand-Fold Acceleration of Phase Decomposition in Polymer/Liquid Crystal Blends"). The observations gathered open interesting opportunities, e.g., for the development of new composite materials.
Chemistry professor and T.C. Pipes endowed chair in micro and nanosystems at Louisiana Tech University Dr. Yuri Lvov recently conducted a symposium at the 241st Conference of the American Chemical Society (ACS). He described how he applied an eco-friendly and cost-efficient nano-material that could enhance the characteristics of plastics, paints and artificial composites.
Nanomanufacturing technology has enabled scientists to create metamaterials -- stuff that never existed in nature -- with unusual optical properties. They could lead to "superlenses" able to image proteins, viruses and DNA, and perhaps even make a "Star Trek" cloaking device.
Andrew Barron, Rice University's Charles W. Duncan, Jr. -- Welch Chair of Chemistry and professor of materials science, is the winner of the prestigious 2011 World Technology Award for Materials. The award was presented at the World Technology Summit and Awards gala at the United Nations Oct. 26.
Virginia Commonwealth University researchers have identified the molecular mechanisms at play for the non-additive wetting free energies at chemically heterogeneous surfaces.
Using clever but elegant design, University at Buffalo chemists have synthesized tiny, molecular cages that can be used to capture and purify nanomaterials.
Chemical reactions happen all of the time: Some things burn or rust; others react to light exposure. Even batteries use chemical reactions to supply electricity. One of the big challenges chemists continually face is finding new ways to control these reactions or create conditions that promote desirable reactions and limit undesirable ones.
University of Sydney scientists have discovered a startling new mechanism where sunlight can rearrange the atoms of molecules to form new chemical substances.
A CIC nanoGUNE research team and Neaspec (Germany) team have created a tool that enables scientists to record infrared spectra using a thermal device at a resolution more than in the existing infrared spectroscopy.
With US government funding of nanotechnology receding slightly in 2011, Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) estimates indicate that for the first time, China will spend more than the US to fund nanotechnology.
Researchers at the center for materials elaboration and structural studies, (CEMES) have found a connection between a molecule's geometrical shape and its charge, which makes it useful for an electromechanical system with nanometric dimensions.
The Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology released the inaugural version of the nano@illinois Research Faculty Handbook, featuring information on more than 150 U of I nanotechnology researchers and collaborators and also highlights some of the leading micro and nanotechnology laboratories and federally-funded multidisciplinary centers.
The acidification of the world's oceans could have major consequences for the marine environment. New research shows that coccoliths, which are an important part of the marine environment, dissolve when seawater acidifies.
The Center of Innovation for Nanobiotechnology (COIN) today announces the launch of NanoMatchGlobal™ Services at the upcoming COMS 2011 conference. NanoMatchGlobal is a structured, exclusive networking opportunity connecting leaders in nanotechnology. This forum lowers barriers to access executives and entrepreneurs, removing serendipity from traditional networking. Connectivity to high-quality leaders in a tailored setting allows targeted entry into the nanotech ecosystem, providing access to well-connected entrepreneurs, innovators at the leading edge of technology development, and decision-making industry executives.
Dye-making industry is based on chemistry and processes designed more than a century ago, some of which are very energy consuming and potentially dangerous for the workers. In order to prevent explosive reactions when mixing the chemicals, the process has to be cooled down to ice cold temperatures, which consumes a lot of energy. Besides, some dyes can be toxic and there is a risk that they may pass the skin through perspiration. Moreover ,10-15% of all the dyes used in the industry are released into the environment during manufacture or usage, constituting a certain risk to living organisms. In light of this the EU banned many of these toxic dyes but alternatives were not available for them all.
CRAIC Technologies, the worlds leading innovator of UV-visible-NIR micro-analysis solutions, is proud to introduce the 308 PV™ microscope spectrophotometer with colorimetry. Designed to be added to the photoport of a microscope or probe station, the 308 PV™ is a spectrophotometer that can non-destructively analyze the color of many types of microscopic samples. Featuring CRAIC Technologies new Lightblades™ spectrophotometer technology, the 308 PV™ can measure the color of microscopic sample areas by both transmission and incident illumination. The color from fluorescence and other types of emissions can also be determined. Applications are numerous and include quality control measurements of flat panel displays, development of lighting and more. The 308 PV™ system is a cost effective microcolorimetry tool for any laboratory or manufacturing facility.
Today's television programs are designed to trigger your emotions and your mind through your senses of sound and sight. But what if they could trigger a few more? What if you could smell or taste the cheesy slices of pizza being eaten by your favorite characters on TV? Is it possible? Would audiences enjoy the experience? Would advertisers jump on the opportunity to reach consumers in a new way?
In science and industry polymer nanocomposites are increasingly regarded as materials that will significantly help to define progress in the 21st century. They consist of a polymer matrix and of nanoparticles which are inserted into the matrix as filler materials. A research group led by Professor Stephan Förster of the University of Bayreuth has now developed a process which opens an avenue for the production of new, completely miscible nanocomposites. These materials represent an extremely varied potential for technological innovations. The scientists discuss their trail blazing development in the publication Angewandte Chemie International Edition ("Completely Miscible Nanocomposites").
A collaboration between the Whitesides Group at Harvard University and CSM Instruments has culminated in an important advance in lithography of different materials at the nanoscale. The motivation for this development was the ability to produce unique lithographical patterns of different shapes and sizes for use in research applications (e.g. lab-on-a-chip) where conventional techniques such as electron-beam lithography (EBL) and photolithography cannot be used. The new method utilizes the standard Ultra Nanoindentation Tester (UNHT) and the Nano Scratch Tester (NST) without anymodification.
Using experimental resources at EMSL, scientists from the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and University College London have shown that intermixing occurs at the interface of two perovskites -- lanthanum aluminate and strontium titanate -- for a range of compositions ("Cation mixing, band offsets and electric fields at LaAlO3/SrTiO3(001) heterojunctions with variable La:Al atom ratio").
Reporting in Nature, a team of researchers from the UK and Japan, including the London Centre for Nanotechnology, describe how they have been able to unravel the structure of grain boundary defects in ceramics with both atomic resolution and chemical sensitivity by combining advanced electron microscopy techniques with theoretical simulations.
According to a market research report titled 'Global Carbon Nanotube Market 2010-2014' available from MarketResearch.com, the estimated CAGR of worldwide carbon nanotube market will be 56.5% for the period between 2010 and 2014.
Carbon nanotubes are known for their remarkable mechanical and electrical properties -- but can these properties be improved upon? Calculations by Yongjun Tian and colleagues from Yanshan University and Nankai University in China have now shown that three-dimensional (3D) arrays of nanotubes could have strikingly enhanced mechanical and electronic properties.
NanoSEA 2012 will be held, from 25 to 29 June, in Santa Margherita di Pula (Cagliari, Italy), situated in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, at the four star Hotel Flamingo Resort. The Congress Centre of the Flamingo Hotel Resort has a wonderful view on the beach with its blue-green colour together with inviting bays, granitic rocks, nuraghi and roman ruins.
In April 2011, in Nancy, INRS organised a scientific conference devoted to the risks associated with nanomaterials and nanoparticles. The proceedings of that conference are now available.
The British Occupational Hygiene Society is hosting an International Conference on Working Safely with Nanomaterials in Edinburgh, Scotland on 6 July 2012. The venue will be the Royal College of Physicians in Queen Street.
Carl Zeiss and Digital Surf announce the signing of an agreement enabling Carl Zeiss to provide ConfoMap® software. ConfoMap® is a surface imaging and analysis software for confocal microscopes and compound microscopes for topographical research.
Carl Zeiss and Digital Surf announce the signing of an agreement enabling Carl Zeiss to provide the ConfoMap® surface imaging and analysis software for confocal microscopes such as Axio CSM 700 true color confocal microscope, LSM 700 confocal laser scanning microscope, and other compound microscopes for topographical research.
The Connaught Summer Institute in Nanofabrication will bring together Canadian and international experts in a variety of areas related to nanofabrication techniques for the production of nano devices. Open to members of both academia and industry, the institute will be of interest to faculty members, research associates, graduate students, post-docs, industry representatives, and technical representatives with an interest in any of the following areas of research:
On 9th February 2011, the European Commission presented a Green Paper which proposes major changes to EU research and innovation funding to make participation easier, increase scientific and economic impact and provide better value for money. The changes, to be introduced in the next EU budget after 2013, would bring together the current Framework Programme for research, the Competitiveness and Innovation Programme, and the European Institute of Innovation and Technology.
Concerned by the growing body of scientific reports cautioning against the unregulated use of nanotechnology in consumer products, a coalition of nonprofit consumer safety and environmental groups sued the Food and Drug Administration today. The case is the first lawsuit over the health and environmental risks of nanotechnology and nanomaterials.
The FSA has recently brought out a report on the nanotechnology applications in food and food packaging. The survey asked consumers to air their views on nanotechnology.
The most personal encounter that many consumers have had so far with the much-heralded field of nanotechnology is the topic of an article in the current edition of Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN), the American Chemical Society's weekly newsmagazine. Those encounters with fruits of the science of ultra-small particles -- so tiny that 50,000 could fit across the width of a human hair -- may come when sunbathers, golfers, bikers and others slather on sunscreen during these late summer days.
When a drop falls on a lotus flower it remains on the surface without wetting it. This is due, firstly, to the chemical components of the leaves of this plant, which are hydrophobic and therefore repel water, and, secondly, to the nanostructure of the surface, which augments the repellent effect. Taking these nanostructural properties as a starting point, researchers from the Faculty of Physics at the University of Barcelona have carried out a study -- the results of which have been published in the journal Nature Materials ("Controlled drop emission by wetting properties in driven liquid filaments") -- in which they demonstrate the physical conditions required for the controlled production of drops between the micro- and nanoscales.
A team of researchers from the NIST Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology, the University of Muenster, and West Virginia University have demonstrated control of magnetic thermal fluctuations using current.
Researchers at Eindhoven University of Technology have succeeded in monitoring and controlling a molecular self-assembly process via different pathways. While it was formerly thought that the molecules form the right structure by themselves, this research shows that the assembly process can follow different pathways yielding different structures; in this case polymer chains with left- and right-handed helical directions.
Imagine jeans, sweats or socks that clean and de-odorize themselves when hung on a clothesline in the sun or draped on a balcony railing. Scientists are reporting development of a new cotton fabric that does clean itself of stains and bacteria when exposed to ordinary sunlight.
Showcasing new tools for widespread development of quantum circuits made of mechanical parts, scientists from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have demonstrated a flexible, broadly usable technique for steadily calming the vibrations of an engineered mechanical object down to the quantum "ground state," the lowest possible energy level.
Research teams from Cornell University have developed a chemical method to facilitate self assembly of metamaterials in three dimensions. Metamaterials have excellent optical properties which make them ideal for use in superlenses or cloaking devices.
Scientists at the University of Glasgow say they have taken their first tentative steps towards creating 'life' from inorganic chemicals potentially defining the new area of 'inorganic biology'.
Machine logic is based on human logic. But although a computer processor can be dissembled and dissected in logical steps, the same is not true for the way our brains process information, says Mark Shein of Tel Aviv University's School of Electrical Engineering.
CRAIC Technologies, a provider of UV-visible-NIR microspectroscopy products, has declared that it has added kinetic spectroscopy features to its 20/20 Perfect Vision UV-visible-NIR microspectrophotometer. Using kinetic spectroscopy features, it will be possible to determine a microscopic sample area’s complete range spectra by time and note the results.
CRAIC Technologies, the worlds leading innovator of UV-visible-NIR microspectroscopy solutions, is proud to announce the addition of kinetic spectroscopy capabilities to its flagship product: the 20/20 Perfect Vision™ UV-visible-NIR microspectrophotometer. With the kinetic spectroscopy package, this system is able to monitor the full range spectra of a microscopic sample area over time and plot the results.
Today, during Science Week, CRANN, the SFI-funded nanoscience institute based in Trinity College Dublin, has announced the launch of an innovative educational package, 'Nano in My Life'.
CRANN, the SFI funded nanoscience centre based at Trinity College Dublin, today announced that it is bringing the STAGE International Script Competition to Ireland during Dublin City of Science 2012. The competition judges will include a Pulitzer Prize winner and a Nobel Laureate.
Crossing Automation, Inc., a leading designer and manufacturer of fab and tool automation products used by today's foremost semiconductor device and equipment companies, today announced that is has achieved ISO9001:2008 quality management system (QMS) certification from the third party registrar, National Standards Authority of Ireland (NSAI). Crossing achieved certification on its first attempt with zero major findings.
Glass fibre cables are indispensable for the internet – now they can also be used as a quantum physics lab. The Vienna University of Technology is the only research facility in the world, where single atoms can be controllably coupled to the light in ultra-thin fibre glass.
How often have you crumpled a sheet of paper in frustration and thrown it into the bin without further thought? You'll be amazed to hear that researchers -- inspired by a trash can full of crumpled-up papers -- have now applied this to solving one of the challenges of scaling up production of graphene sheets.
CVD Equipment Corporation announced today the expansion of the materials portion of its business. These materials will be marketed through its wholly owned subsidiary, CVD Materials Corporation, ("CVD Materials").
CVD Equipment Corporation, today launched a new line of chemical vapor deposited three dimensional graphene products that will be marketed under the trade name CVD3DGraphene™ and is expected to enable new high performance products.
Cytonome/ST, a producer and developer specialising in sorting systems and advanced cell cytometry has combined its parallel detection technology and the cross-contamination free sampling method to identify rare target particles.
On the day of its 10th anniversary, the Kazan-based Danaflex group of companies has opened a new factory where Danaflex-Nano, a RUSNANO project company, will use a proprietary nanotechnology process to manufacture improved flexible packaging material.
In this project funded by the Danish EPA the Technical University of Denmark and National Research Centre for the Working Environment has initiated the development of a screening tool called NanoRiskCat for the evaluation of exposure and hazard of nanomaterials contained in products for professional and private use.
Some of science's most powerful statements are not made in words. From the diagrams of DaVinci to Rosalind Franklin's X-rays, visualization of research has a long and literally illustrious history. To illustrate is to enlighten.
Super-tough materials with exceptional mechanical properties are in critical need for applications under extreme conditions such as jet engines, power turbines, catalytic heat exchangers, military armors, airplanes, and spacecraft. Researchers involved in improving man-made composite materials are trying to understand how some of the amazing high-performance materials found in nature can be copied or even improved upon (see: "Nanotechnology inspired by mussels and seashells").
A big reason for publishing scientific results is to inform others who can then use your data and conclusions to make additional discoveries, technologies or products. But what good are findings if they are, well, hard to find – buried in tables in the pages of technical journals?
Molecules that suddenly transform into new structures when stimulated by photons or electrons play key roles in many chemical and biological processes. Recently, chemists have discovered that adding transition metals such as copper to photo-responsive organic ligands produces materials with high solar conversion efficiencies, owing to the metal's ready supply of light-activated electrons. But despite the interest in these substances for opto-electronic devices, their inner workings remain mostly inscrutable because the charge-transfer dynamics happen too quickly for detection by typical instruments.
Avid Nano have issued a new technical note demonstrating the excellent performance of its W130i Dynamic Light Scattering System for detecting and precisely measuring sub-nanometre particles and molecules.
When it comes to dreaming about diamonds, energy efficiency and powerful information processing aren't normally the thoughts that spring to mind. Unless, of course, you are a quantum physicist looking to create the most secure and powerful networks around.
Building on earlier work showing how nanowires carved in impurity-laden diamond crystal can efficiently emit individual photons, researchers have developed a scalable manufacturing process to craft arrays of miniature, silver-plated-diamond posts that enable even greater photon control.
The physicists of the University of Innsbruck and the Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information in Innsbruck have come considerably closer to their goal to investigate complex phenomena in a model system: They have realized a digital, and therefore, universal quantum simulator in their laboratory, which can, in principle, simulate any physical system efficiently. Their work has been published in the online issue of the journal Science.
Heliotis and Digital Surf announced that MountainsMap Imaging Topography surface metrology software based upon Digital Surf's Mountains Technology will be supplied with Heliotis M3 and M3-XL 3D Optical Profilers.
Atomic force microscopy (AFM) is a powerful tool to investigate a huge variety of different samples with nanometre scale resolution under physiological conditions. As well as providing topographic measurements, information about interaction forces and mechanical properties like adhesion and elasticity can also be obtained. Perfect integration of AFM with an optical setup can increase the range of applications and opens up many possibilities for correlating structural information with optical information such as functionalized labeling of certain components.
UNESCO medal "Contribution to development of nanoscience and nanotechnologies" was established on the 1st of March 2010 in the framework of the theme "Nanoscience and Nanotechnologies" in the Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems (EOLSS) published by UNESCO and EOLSS Publishers.
When gold vanishes from a very important location, it usually means trouble. At the nanoscale, however, it could provide more knowledge about certain types of materials. A recent discovery that enables scientists to replace gold nanoparticles with dummy "spacers" has allowed scientists to create materials with never-before-seen structures, which may lead to new properties.
Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh have made advances in better understanding correlated quantum matter that could change technology as we know it, according to a study published in the Nov. 20 edition of Nature.
As the guest of the African Materials Research Society and NanoSciences Africa Network, the Institute of Nanotechnology (UK) has had an invaluable opportunity to gain substantial insight into the latest developments in materials research and applications in Africa.
A University of Minnesota team of researchers has overcome a major hurdle in the quest to design a specialized type of molecular sieve that could make the production of gasoline, plastics and various chemicals more cost effective and energy efficient. The breakthrough research, led by chemical engineering and materials science professor Michael Tsapatsis in the university's College of Science and Engineering, is published in the most recent issue of the journal Science.
New research just published in the journal Science by a team of chemists at the University of Georgia and colleagues in Germany shows for the first time that a mechanism called tunneling control may drive chemical reactions in directions unexpected from traditional theories.
Jun-ichi Fukuda, Soft Matter Modeling Group, Nanosystem Research Institute of the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), and Slobodan Zumer of the University of Ljubljana/Jozef Stefan Institute, Slovenia, found theoretically that a regular lattice of Skyrmions, whose role in solid state systems such as ferromagnets has been attracting great interest, can form in a thin confined liquid crystal, a system completely different from solid state systems.
A discussion on nanotechnology will be conducted as a section of the 2011 Science & Society: Global Challenges Discussion Series at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Auditorium located at 1200 New York Avenue, NW, Washington, D.C.
Life cycle assessment -- a cradle-to-grave look at the health and environmental impact of a material, chemical, or product -- is an essential tool for ensuring the safe, responsible, and sustainable commercialization of a new technology. With missing data about the large scale impact of nanotechnology, life cycle assessments of potential nanoproducts should form an integral part of nanotechnology research at early stages of decision making as it can help in the screening of different process alternatives. Unfortunately, life cycle studies of emerging nanotechnologies are susceptible to huge uncertainties due to issues of data quality and the rapidly evolving nature of the production processes (see: "Evaluation of 'green' nanotechnology requires a full life cycle assessment").
Microfluidics expert Dolomite has extended its range of System Solutions to include an innovative Syringe-based Nanoparticle System allowing users to generate polymeric, metal and semi-conductor nanoparticles from 1nm to 100nm in diameter which benefit a wide range of applications including biochemistry, drug delivery, biomolecular sensing and fibre-optics.
Brighter, sharper and cost effective color copying will soon be added to consumers' benefit from Double A. Double A and the National Nanotechnology Center (NANOTEC), signed a research collaboration agreement to focus on nanotechnological analysis of toner impact on paper, the results will be brighter, sharper and lower toner costs per color copy print.
A dragonfly as small as a dust mote, its four tiny wings beating like it had momentarily alit on a lily pad, and a highly sensitive microvalve were the big winners in this year's student design contest for extraordinarily tiny devices at Sandia National Laboratories.
With a fleet of ships and aircraft that work as hard as the sailors, pilots, and crew that operate them, the US Navy spends approximately $10-12 billion every year to fight corrosion on the hulls and bodies of these important vehicles. To support Office of Naval Research (ONR) development of hydrodynamically efficient and environmentally non-toxic anti-corrosion materials, Dr. Chang-Hwan Choi, Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Stevens Institute of Technology, researches nanotechnology with multifunctional superhydrophobic properties that repel water and prevent corrosion in robust and durable ways. Dr. Choi's work has recently been awarded a Defense University Research Instrumentation Program (DURIP) grant that backs this work.
Dr. Eui-Hyeok (EH) Yang, Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Stevens Institute of Technology, has been announced as a recipient of a Defense University Research Instrumentation Program (DURIP) grant for 2011. This highly competitive award from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR) will enable the purchase of state-of-the-art equipment to support ongoing research in nanotechnology and nanoscale engineering.
Rice University physicists have created a tiny "electron superhighway" that could one day be useful for building a quantum computer, a new type of computer that will use quantum particles in place of the digital transistors found in today's microchips.
European aerospace and defence group EADS and Russian Nanotechnology Corporation RUSNANO are planning to cooperate in the research and development of new technologies. The respective document was signed by Anatoly Chubais, CEO of Rusnano and EADS Chief Technical Officer, Jean Botti. As a first step, the partners will identify relevant patents in EADS's portfolio which could be suited to develop new business in the Russian industry.
Ceramiques Techniques Industrielles, as one of the market leaders in inorganic membranes, has obtained a license for the commercialisation of the HybSi® membrane technology from ECN. The HybSi® nanosieve allows the purification of various industrial solvents at a reduced cost and at an enhanced efficiency. It further combines an outstanding performance with unprecedented long term stability.
Dr. Yuri Lvov, professor of chemistry and T.C. Pipes endowed chair in micro and nanosystems at Louisiana Tech University, recently led a symposium at the 241st Conference of the American Chemical Society (ACS), discussing his application of a more eco-friendly and cost-effective nano-material that can be used to significantly improve the properties of plastics, paints and other synthetic composites.
EcoloCap Solutions entered into a distribution contract with Nano-Tech Industries of Acacia Ridge, Australia. According to the terms of the agreement, the Australian company will be the sole distributor for all the EcoloCap solutions such as the Nano Processing Unit (NPU) and the additive for the manufacture of M-Fuel.
Ecology Coatings, Inc., a leader in the discovery and development of nanotechnology-enabled, ultraviolet-curable advanced coatings, announced it has entered into a license agreement with German-based BASF Coatings GmbH, one of the world's largest chemical companies.
Ecology Coatings, Inc., a leader in the discovery and development of nanotechnology-enabled, ultraviolet-curable advanced coatings, today announced that it has been nominated for the U.S. Green Chemistry Challenge 2012. The program is sponsored by the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention of the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in partnership with the American Chemical Society Green Chemistry Institute. This program recognizes chemical technologies that incorporate the principles of green chemistry into their design, manufacture and use. Awards will be presented in Washington D.C. in June.
Ecology Coatings, Inc., a leader in the discovery and development of nanotechnology-enabled, ultraviolet-curable advanced coatings, today announced that it has added and upgraded testing and application development equipment in its Akron, Ohio-based laboratory, and has hired additional industry sales and product development personnel. The expansion is in response to customer interest in Ecology's products and growth in the UV-curable coatings marketplace.
EDAX Inc., a leader in X-ray microanalysis and electron diffraction instrumentation, has introduced the TEAM™ Pegasus system, which combines world-class Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy and Electron Backscatter Diffraction (EBSD) hardware with EDAX's highly successful TEAM™ software platform to create the next generation in synergistic materials characterization.
A year ago Northwestern University chemists published their recipe for a new class of nanostructures made of sugar, salt and alcohol. Now, the same team has discovered the edible compounds can efficiently detect, capture and store carbon dioxide. And the compounds themselves are carbon-neutral.
A constant stabilization experiment of a quantum state has been successfully carried out for the first time by a team from the Laboratoire Kastler Brossel (CNRS/ENS/Collège de France/UPMC-Université Pierre et Marie Curie) headed by Serge Haroche (In collaboration with the Centre Automatique et Systèmes, Mathématiques et Systèmes des Mines ParisTech and INRIA).
Scientists at Imperial College London have made the most accurate measurement yet of the shape of the humble electron, finding that it is almost a perfect sphere, in a study published in the journal Nature today. The experiment, which spanned more than a decade, suggests that the electron differs from being perfectly round by less than 0.000000000000000000000000001 cm. This means that if the electron was magnified to the size of the solar system, it would still appear spherical to within the width of a human hair.
Elsevier, a world-leading publisher of scientific, technical and medical information products and services, today announced the launch of the "Apps for Science" challenge, an international competition challenging software developers to create customized applications that enhance information search and discovery for researchers.
A provider of education and information resources to professionals globally, Elsevier Science & Technology Books has offered journals and books that speak about major nanotechnology breakthroughs.
Researchers at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), Heidelberg, have developed a new microscope that helps to observe molecules' movement in live cells for every millisecond.
UK researchers describe a novel approach to making porous materials, solid foams, more like their counterparts in the natural world, including bone and wood in the new issue of the International Journal of Design Engineering ("A novel manufacturing strategy for bio-inspired cellular structures").
While scientists and engineers have developed several products that repel water and, to a lesser degree, snow and ice, considerable room remains for something "new and improved."
New research by engineers at the Yale School of Engineering & Applied Science demonstrates that nanomechanical resonators can operate at much higher amplitudes than previously thought. The results represent an advance in optomechanics, in which the force of light is used to control mechanical devices. The findings could have implications for future communications and sensing technologies.
Not long after the development of the first laser in 1960 scientists discovered that shining a beam through certain crystals produced light of a different color; more specifically, it produced light of exactly twice the frequency of the original. The phenomenon was dubbed second harmonic generation.
Industrial Nanotech has recently declared that its energy efficient Nansulate protective coatings will be incorporated by a global food processing company.
Pyrograf Products is pleased to announce that the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has issued a consent order to allow the manufacturing and distribution of Pyrograf-III stacked-cup carbon nanotubes, also known as carbon nanofiber, for commercial applications in the United States.
The Royal Society Senior Research Fellow Professor Xiangqian (Jane) Jiang, chief scientist at the Centre of Precision Technologies heads the EPSRC Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in Advanced Metrology that was inaugurated on April 8 at an event introducing nine new Centers for Innovative Manufacturing (CIM).
Professor Dr. Claudia Felser of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz has been awarded a grant by the European Research Council worth more than €2.4 million to further her research into new materials based on Heusler compounds.
One of the Advanced Grants awarded by the European Research Council in its latest funding round has gone to Professor Herrmann Gaub, Spokesman of the Center for NanoScience at LMU Munich for his research project on "Designer Cellulosomes by Single Molecule Cut and Paste".
The Call for Tenders VT/2011/039 "Study service contract to establish the potential impact of nanomaterials & nanotechnology at the workplace, evaluate the scope and requirements of possible modifications of relevant EU safety & health at work legislation" was published in Official Journal no. 2011/S 109-179079 on 08/06/2011 by the European Commission, Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion DG, Employment and Social Legislation, Social Dialogue Directorate, Health, Security and Hygiene at Work Unit, EMPL B/3.
EU-funded scientists have developed risk assessment criteria for engineered nanomaterials (ENMs) that will help support experts in making innovation and policy decisions. An outcome of the NANOHOUSE ('Life cycle of nanoparticle-based products used in house coating') project, which is backed with EUR 2.4 million under the 'Nanosciences, nanotechnologies, materials and new production technologies' (NMP) Theme of the EU's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7), findings reveal that product design can affect the unintentional release of ENMs. Making responsible decisions about future product development will be possible by bringing together product life-cycle knowledge with a systematic evaluation of what hazards could emerge.
Human health risks may arise from chronic occupational inhalation exposure to nanoparticles, and for the environment from metal and metal oxide nanomaterials. More data is however needed before drawing definitive conclusions on the risks from exposure to nanomaterials.
European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC), Institute for Health and Consumer Protection defends the need to define engineered nanomaterials for regulatory purposes in the opinion published in the latest edition of Nature magazine.
ETH Zurich, Atomic Force F&E GmbH and Asylum Research announce the third Euro AFM Forum 2011 to be held in Zurich, Switzerland on September 7 to 9 in cooperation with Prof. Ralph Spolenak at the campus Science City of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich.
1200 members of the nanotechnology community from over 50 countries gathered in Budapest, Hungary, for three days of presentations, networking and inspiration during EuroNanoForum 2011. The event was supported by the European Commission and Hungarian National Innovation Fund, and was organised by the National Innovation Office in partnership with Spinverse under the auspices of the Hungarian Presidency.
On August 17, 2011, a cornerstone-laying ceremony was held in Vladimir. Those present watched as the first stone in the foundation for a new factory was put in place. The factory will produce membranes and membrane separating modules for industrial and domestic water purification systems. Vladimir Oblast First Deputy Governor for Industry and Economic Policy Vladimir Veretennikov, RUSNANO Managing Director Alexander Kondrashov, and RM Nanotech General Director Ivan Bazhenov, took part in the ceremonies. RM Nanotech is producer of the membranes and factory owner.
"Nanomaterials" are materials whose main constituents have a dimension of between 1 and 100 billionth of a metre, according to a Recommendation on the definition of nanomaterial (pdf) adopted by the European Commission today. The announcement marks an important step towards greater protection for citizens, clearly defining which materials need special treatment in specific legislation.
The European Commission has published an orientation paper with proposed NMP research priorities for 2012. The priorities will increase the attention on sustainability and societal challenges.
Commissioner Máire Geoghegan-Quinn announced nearly €7 billion to kick-start innovation through research. The European Commission's biggest ever such funding package, under the EU's Seventh Framework Programme for Research (FP7), is expected to create around 174 000 jobs in the short-term and nearly 450 000 jobs and nearly €80 billion in GDP growth over 15 years.
The European Commission (EC) has asked the Scientific Committee on Consumer Safety (SCCS) to prepare a guidance document on the safety assessment of nanomaterials in cosmetics.
This report provides an overview of the activities, accomplishments and resources related to the JRC's work carried out during 2010 and includes figures on staff, budget and publications.
The European Commission's hesitance to define nanotechnology underscores diverging opinions among stakeholders and is causing uncertainty in the sector.
In the framework of the Polish Presidency of the EU Council 2011, the European Commission Joint Research Centre and EASAC (the European Academies Science Advisory Council) jointly organise this event in Brussels, including the launch of the Report "Impact of engineered nanomaterials on human health: considerations on benefit-risk assessment".
The first NanoCode Newsletter is now available to users of the NanoCode website. The newsletter is the first of three newsletters scheduled throughout the project.
Nature knows two opposite types of solids: one that emerges upon compression from a liquid and a second that appears if the pressure on a liquid is reduced. While the former is typical for substances in our everyday life the latter occurs for example in a dense quantum liquid of electrons (such as in metals) or ions (in exotic white dwarf or neutron stars).
Theoretical physicists of the University of Innsbruck have formulated a new concept to engineer exotic, so-called topological states of matter in quantum mechanical many-body systems. They linked concepts of quantum optics and condensed matter physics and show a direction to build a quantum computer which is immune against perturbations.
Scientists at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have conducted experiments confirming which of three possible mechanisms is responsible for the spontaneous formation of three-dimensional (3-D) pillar arrays in nanofilms (polymer films that are billionths of a meter thick). These protrusions appear suddenly when the surface of a molten nanofilm is exposed to an extreme temperature gradient and self-organize into hexagonal, lamellar, square, or spiral patterns.
3-dimensional surfaces with features below 100 nanometres have numerous applications ranging from optics to life sciences. The development of new manufacturing processes, based on nanoimprinting techniques (NIL), is a core aspect for the success of these applications. But what are the most innovative ideas and tools needed to bring Europe to the forefront of this market? How do we bridge the gap between basic research on 3-D nanolithography and its uptake from the industry? Which are the main applications that would make this technology become a backbone for high volume production? Which steps are needed to complete the value-chain in Europe? Over 70 professionals of the field coming from both the public and private sectors recently met in Berlin to address these questions.
Various German leading institutions worked out a strategy paper adressing the challenges of exposure measurement and assessment of nanoscale aerosols released from engineered nanomaterials in the workplace.
Nano funnels can be used to efficiently concentrate light. Scientists belonging to the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics in Germany, Georgia State University in the USA and the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology have used a three-dimensional silver nano funnel to concentrate infrared light pulse energy and have generated extreme ultraviolet (EUV) light flashes from the concentrated energy.
Researchers from the Ruhr-Universitaet-Bochum (RUB) Department of Biophysics of Prof. Dr. Klaus Gerwert have succeeded in providing evidence that a protein is capable of creating a water molecule chain for a few milliseconds for the directed proton transfer. The combination of vibrational spectroscopy and biomolecular simulations enabled the elucidation of the proton pump mechanism of a cell-membrane protein in atomic detail.
Researchers report discovery of a completely new technology for more efficiently separating gold, silver, copper, and other valuable materials from rock and ore.
A graduate from Fairfield University has received the first nanotechnology certification from Connecticut. Michael Buckenmeyer from Syracuse, New York, a graduate from the University's School of Engineering, is the first person to complete an interdisciplinary minor research program in nanotechnology based on the requirements of the State Department of Higher Education.
Researchers can now see objects more precisely and faster at the nanoscale due to utilising the full colour spectrum of synchrotron light, opening the way for faster 3D nanoimaging.
The roughness of a surface can make all the difference in nanoscale devices. Measuring the roughness of such delicate surfaces in the hard-to-reach places of nanodevices, however, is no easy task. The ideal surface measurement technique should avoid any physical contact with the sample. Vertical scanning interferometry is a well-established zero-contact surface characterization technique, but the analysis involved in interpreting the data is complex and computationally intensive. Wee Keat Chong at the A*STAR Singapore Institute of Manufacturing Technology and co-workers have now developed a computationally efficient model for this technique ("Computationally efficient signal modeling for vertical scanning interferometry").
In 1959, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist challenged his colleagues to use submicroscopic particles to manufacture a wide range of products--an idea that captivated the imagination of scientists and inspired the science fiction movies "Fantastic Voyage" and "Innerspace."
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today released draft guidance to provide regulated industries with greater certainty about the use of nanotechnology, which generally involves materials made up of particles that are at least one billionth of a meter in size. The guidance outlines the agency's view on whether regulated products contain nanomaterials or involve the application of nanotechnology.
MULT-EU-SIM aims to gather the simulation research community in Europe to establish a joint vision of multiscale modelling and simulation. This will enable to prepare Europe to play a leading role in the opening era of computational sciences where multiscale simulation will profoundly change the scientific and technological practices.
today announced the release of its new Versa 3D™ DualBeam™ system, which provides high-resolution, three-dimensional (3D) imaging and analysis on a wide range of sample types. The Versa 3D's highly configurable platform allows customers to adapt the system's capabilities to their specific requirements.
FEI Company, a leading instrumentation company providing systems for research and industry, today announced that it is extending its ChemiSTEM™ Technology to enable, for the first time, atomic-level energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) spectroscopy across the periodic table. The combination of increased current in an atomic-sized probe by Cs-correction and the increase in X-ray detection sensitivity and beam current of the ChemiSTEM Technology allows results to be obtained within minutes.
FEI Company, a leading scientific instrumentation company, and the Basque Nanoscience Cooperative Research Center, nanoGUNE Consolider, are pleased to announce the installation of three new advanced electron microscope systems from FEI. nanoGUNE now has the world's most advanced commercially-available microscope, the Titan™ scanning transmission electron microscope (S/TEM); a Quanta™ FEG (field emission gun); and a Helios NanoLab™ DualBeam™ nanofabrication tool in its new facility. The inauguration of this new laboratory, which will be focused on nanoscience and nanotechnology research, is a key milestone in the development of the research strategy of nanoGUNE and a grand opening event will be held in San Sebastian in June 2011.
today announced the release of its Titan G2 80-200 with ChemiSTEM Technology, a new member of the Titan G2 series of S/TEM (scanning / transmission electron microscopes).
today announced the release of its new Versa 3D DualBeam system, which provides high-resolution, three-dimensional (3D) imaging and analysis on a wide range of sample types.
FibeRio Technology Corporation -- The Force For Nanofibers™, announces that it has closed an oversubscribed Series B round of private investment led by Silverton Partners and supported by current investors including series A lead investor Cottonwood Technology Fund.
FibeRio Technology Corporation has been selected by the editors of R&D Magazine as a winner of the 49th Annual R&D 100 Awards. This accolade recognizes the 100 most technologically significant products introduced into the marketplace over the past year. FibeRio's rapid development and launch of the Cyclone L-1000 product line incorporating Forcespinning™ technology for nanofiber production, earned the prestigious award.
Fibron Technologies, Inc. has announced the formation of Finano Ltd. Oy, a wholly owned Finnish subsidiary, based in Helsinki, Finland. The company has been established for the purpose of developing advanced manufacturing capabilities for Fibron and providing a footprint for Fibron's expansion in Europe. The subsidiary has also entered into a binding purchase agreement to acquire the assets of Panipol Ltd. Oy.
Suomen Teollisuussijoitus Oy (Finnish Industry Investment Ltd) and Rusnano, the Russian state nanotechnology funding organization, last year signed a three-year agreement to invest 50 mln euros in Finnish and Russian nanotechnology companies. Furthermore the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced in March the Nanotechnology Innovation Alliance project which promotes the development and commercialization of products based on nanotechnology. The Finnish company Spinverse Oy has been picked to co-ordinate both projects.
Scientists at Chalmers have succeeded in creating light from vacuum -- observing an effect first predicted over 40 years ago. In an innovative experiment, the scientists have managed to capture some of the photons that are constantly appearing and disappearing in the vacuum.
Bringing together micro and nanotechnology researchers within the South and Midwest regions, Western Kentucky University and the KY EPSCoR NanoNet are pleased to present the first annual Kentucky Nanotechnology Symposium which will be held March 30-31, 2012 at WKU in Bowling Green Kentucky.
Fabrication of a single nanodevice is no longer the state of the art in nanotechnology. The leading edge -- and also currently the most challenging area in nanotechnology -- is research that leads to a self-powered nanoscale system that is driven by the energy harvested from its environment and that can perform its work independently and sustainable. This is a key step toward self-powered nanotechnology, which is vitally important for medical science, environmental monitoring, defence technology and even personal electronics. Not to mention that it will lead to practically usable nanotechnology devices.
Nanomanufacturing is no longer the next frontier. It's in action today, and it is improving products and processes and saving manufacturers money along the way.
Scientists from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the company Dioxide Materials have demonstrated that randomly stacked graphene flakes can make an effective chemical sensor.
Professor David Lewis, Director of Flinders University's Centre for NanoScale Science and Technology, has been chosen to take part in Austrade's Visiting Researcher Program to Europe in 2011.
A liquid does not have to be a disordered bunch of particles: A team of researchers at Vienna University of Technology (TU Vienna) and the University of Vienna has discovered intriguing structures formed by tiny particles floating in liquids. Under mechanical strain, particle clusters in liquids can spontaneously form strings and dramatically alter the properties of the liquid.
Fluidigm Corporation today introduced its 192.24 Dynamic Array™ IFC, designed to genotype 192 samples against 24 SNP assays in a single run, providing 4,608 data points in just one hour. The 192.24 integrated fluidic circuit (IFC) has immediate applicability in agricultural biotechnology and genome wide association studies.
A special focus issue on nanoplasmonics and metamaterials, specific fields of nano-optics, which discuss the interaction of matter and light at the nanoscale, has been published by the editors of Optical Materials Express, an open-access journal of the Optical Society.
Modified metals that change colour in the presence of particular gases could warn consumers if packaged food has been exposed to air or if there's a carbon monoxide leak at home. This finding could potentially influence the production of both industrial and commercial air quality sensors.
The Food Standards Agency (FSA) in the UK has published a report of consumers' views on the use of nanotechnology in food and food packaging -- "FSA Citizens' Forums: Nanotechnology and food" (pdf). The focus group research, which asked participants about their views on nanotechnology in late 2010 and early 2011, was carried out as part of the FSA's programme of work on nanotechnology.
Forsyth Technical Community College, in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, will be the first college in the US to use Izon Science's qNano nanoparticle analysis system in a nano-education programme. The new technology will allow students pursuing Forsyth Tech's highly rated nanotechnology degree to study nanoparticle properties and behavior with industry-leading precision.
Scientists at Fractal Antenna Systems based in Boston have reported that new measurements verify its claims of a functioning 'invisibility cloak' that uses advanced metamaterial layers, produced from self repetitive designs known as fractals.
Today, Open Access publisher InTech launches its new groundbreaking Journal, the Nanomaterials and Nanotechnology Journal, available to access online, download free of charge, and submit material without publishing fees.
The all-new Worldwide Edition of the COMSOL Conference CD 2011 is now available. This compilation features over 500 technical papers, presentations and animations presented by engineers, researchers and scientists from around the globe.
Open access publisher InTech has release its latest addition to its nanotechnology series: Nanocrystal. Yhe 494-page book, edited by Yoshitake Masuda, is available as a free pdf download.
Bax & Willems, a specialized consultancy firm, has just release a free-to-download European Nanotechnology Landscape Report that offers an overview of the nanotechnology landscape in Europe targeted at policy makers on all levels.
They're everywhere, although we hardly spare a thought for them in everyday life -- precast concrete components. Whether it's bridge girders, sewer pipes, staircases or railway sleepers: millions of these structural elements are industrially prefabricated and installed directly on-site. With X-Seed, BASF has succeeded in introducing an important innovation in this area. Because this hardening accelerator not only allows precast concrete units to be produced more rapidly and in better quality, it also considerably reduces energy consumption and the associated emissions of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2).
In this month's Physics World, Jason Reese, Weir Professor of Thermodynamics and Fluid Mechanics at the University of Strathclyde, describes the role that carbon nanotubes (CNTs) could play in the desalination of water, providing a possible solution to the problem of the world's ever-growing population demanding more and more fresh drinking water.
It's been said that big things come in small packages. But according to experts at IEEE, the world's largest professional technical association, some of the technology innovations and devices that could make the biggest impact in our world are so small millions of them could fit on the head of a pin. These game-changing advancements in nanotechnology, or the "science of small things," are transforming the way researchers are approaching how to solve some of our world's greatest challenges.
Faster three dimension nanoimaging is now a possibility. Utilization of synchrotron light's full color spectrum has enabled researchers to view objects faster and with greater precision, allowing three-dimensional nanoimaging.
FutureCarbon, Bayreuth-based producer of carbon supercomposites, and its south-German sales partner Gössl+Pfaff are jointly showing innovative solutions to heat composite components at this year's Composites Europe from 27 through 29 September 2011.
A decade ago, University of Oregon chemist James E. Hutchison wrote an invited article in Chemical & Engineering News in which he envisioned "a generalized roadmap for the future design and development of green nanoscience materials."
Apply now for the international "Green Talents" Competition sponsored by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). The application period will end on 29 July 2011. There are only a few days left for talented young scientists to apply for a place on the international "Green Talents Forum 2011".
Half-matter, half-light quasiparticles known as polaritons could one day be used to create high-efficiency, high-speed light-emitting devices. Polaritons are created by enhancing the interaction between light and matter in way that binds them together, a process that is commonly achieved by trapping photons in a cavity and concentrating the optical energy into a volume smaller than a micrometer across. The easiest way to then kick-start polariton generation is to fire laser light into the cavity. However, if these exotic particles are to be harnessed in self-contained devices, there is a need to create polaritons using an electrical current rather than laser light.
Construction recently wrapped up for a second research facility at Gateway University Research Park's South Campus with completion of a 105,000-square-foot building that will house the Joint School of Nanoscience and Nanoengineering.
GC Green Carbon Inc. is pleased to announce that it is producing high quality nano diamond rods, and bringing oline carbon structures for applications including biomedical, analytical, solar, and communications.
The deadline to enter the 2011 GE and Science Prize for Young Life Scientists is 1st August 2011. Established in 1995, the prize recognizes outstanding young scientists from around the world who have completed their PhDs in the area of molecular biology* during 2010.
A move toward smaller and smaller sample sizes is leading to a new generation of mass spectrometry instrumentation, reports Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News (GEN). From a specific application point of view, novel nanoflow separation methodologies are ramping up the speed and precision with which scientists are able to validate biomarkers, according to the August issue of GEN.
The Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) establishes new Research Units. This decision has just been made by the Senate of the DFG at its meeting in Bonn in April. In Research Units, outstanding researchers work together on a current research topic, often at different locations and across disciplines. The DFG funding thereby secures the necessary staff and material equipment for the medium term. In addition, Research Units also pursue the goal of establishing new directions in research.
Giant flakes of graphene oxide in water aggregate like a stack of pancakes, but infinitely thinner, and in the process gain characteristics that materials scientists may find delicious.
Some 30 activists representing 14 environmental, technology assessment and consumer organisations from Europe, the United States, Canada and Latin America met for the 4th International Nanotechnology Activist Summit in Berlin on October 6 and 7.
Reportlinker, a global market analyst, has recently published an analytical report on the global carbon nanotube market. Carbon nanotubes are nano-sized allotropes of carbon and their physical, electrical, and thermal qualities render them ideal for multiple applications such as electronics, medicine, aerospace, defense, automotives, energy, and construction.
Since the 1990s, nanotechnology has been lauded as the key to transforming a wide array of innovative fields from biomedicine and electronics to energy, textiles and transportation, inspiring the National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI) in 2000.
The recently concluded Nanovation event held at the German Center for Research and Innovation (GCRI) had been organized together with the Academic Exchange Office of the Ruhr Universities in New York (ConRuhr) and the Center for Nanointegration Duisburg-Essen (CeNIDE).
According to a market research report titled 'The World Microscopes Market: Optical, Electron and Scanning Probe' available from Research and Markets, the global microscopes market, including scanning probe, electron, confocal and optical microscopes, would generate revenues of more than $9 billion in 2017.
A dynamical system in which repeated measurements on a single particle yield the same mean result as a single measurement of the whole ensemble is said to be ergodic. The ergodic theorem expresses a fundamental physical principle, and its validity for diffusive processes has now been demonstrated.
Researchers from the CNST and Arizona State University have demonstrated that the overall catalytic activity of nickel particles for the formation of carbon nanostructures is improved by the addition of a small amount of gold (below 0.2 mol fraction).
Researchers have to place objects under study on suitable substrates to obtain a strong enhancement of electromagnetic radiation emitted by single molecules. A simple and cheap method to fabricate substrates for SERS spectroscopy has been discovered at the Institute of Physical Chemistry of the Polish Academy of Sciences. A key role in substrate fabrication play spherical gold aggregates -- flower-like micrometer-sized spheres.
Online Research Company, Research and Markets has released a report titled, "Global Funding of Nanotechnologies- 2011 Edition". The investment into nanotechnology research by various governments world- wide over the last 11 years is more than US$ 67 billion. This includes funding for researches that are in various stages namely translation stage, basic stage that require investment in instruments, facilities and other services.
Gary Economo, President and CEO of Focus Metals Inc., and Grafoid Inc., announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between Grafoid Inc. and Rutgers University AMIPP Advanced Polymer Center to jointly develop graphene technology applications related to both polymer and non-polymer applications.
Graphene is one of the wonders of the science world, with the potential to create foldaway mobile phones, wallpaper-thin lighting panels and the next generation of aircraft. The new finding at the University of Manchester gives graphene's potential a most surprising dimension -- graphene can also be used for distilling alcohol.
Graphene, an ultra-flat monolayer of carbon atoms in a hexagonal crystal lattice, has attracted a strong wave of research interest due to its unique electrical and photonic properties. As the first two dimensional material in the world, two UK Scientists were awarded the 2010 Nobel Prize in physics since it completely changes how we look at things. Now, Dr. Han Zhang at the Service OPERA-photonique -- Applied Science Faculty, ULB - in collaboration with Prof. Loh at the National University of Singapore demonstrates the world's thinnest polarizer, which relies on the coupling, guiding and polarizing of electromagnetic waves by graphene. They claim that this breakthrough will someday allow the integration on all-photonic circuits for high-speed optical communications.
A new study from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute demonstrates how graphene foam can outperform leading commercial gas sensors in detecting potentially dangerous and explosive chemicals.
Rice University researchers have discovered a novel technique to make graphene suitable for use in organic chemistry. They found a way to attach organic molecules to graphene.
Analyzing the physicochemical processes that take place at surfaces and interfaces is an important aspect in materials science, catalysis, biochemistry and other fields. For many years, surface scientists who wanted to probe microscopically and analytically the interfaces between liquids and solid surfaces, or simply liquids, have relied on powerful tools like X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) and other spectroscopy techniques based on the detection of electrons.
Vorbeck Materials Corp. announced that it has completed a fully subscribed series 3 financing, which closed December 9, 2011, with a total value of $10 million. Black Powder, LLC and Fairbridge Venture Partners, LP led the round, which included 15 additional investors.
Graphene Technologies has published the first of a set of patent applications submitted by it on its innovative technology for the manufacturing of graphene and other nanomaterials on 20 October 2011. The publishing of this patent application is a key landmark in the company's plan to commercialize its process for the production of superior-quality graphene materials.
Graphene is sort of a scientific rock star, with countless groups studying its amazing electrical properties and tensile strength and dreaming up applications ranging from flat-panel screens to elevators in space.
BigSky Technologies LLC, announced the issuance of the first in a series of patents for their GreenShield® fabric finish technology. GreenShield is a new process for water-, oil-, and stain-repellency that replaces the conventional polymer-based chemicals with particle-based green nanotechnology, reducing the use of fluorochemicals by as much as 10 times.
Dr. Matthias Driess, Professor of Organometallic and Inorganic Chemistry at the Technische Universität Berlin was honoured with the 2011 WACKER Silicone Award including 10,000 euros prize money on Oc-tober 5th in Munich. Prof. Driess won the award due to his pioneer work on low-valent silicon compounds, which - owing to their isolabil-ity and reactivity properties - now constitute promising components in organosilicon chemistry. Along with the Kipping Award, the WACKER Silicone Award is the most prestigious international honor in silicon chemistry.
Carbon nanocoils (CNCs) are composed of helical shaped carbon nanofibers and show promise as fillers, electromagnetic wave absorbers, and tactile sensors.
GT Advanced Technologies Inc., today announced that it has received a $101.3 million dollar order for CVD reactors and ancillary production equipment from an incumbent polysilicon producer.
Guitar virtuosos have to master all kinds of playing techniques. But how can the intricate process of playing the instrument be captured digitally? A special thin film on the tailpiece has the answer. Functioning as a sensor, it converts the tension on the string into digital control signals.
Custom modifications of equipment are an honored tradition of the research lab. In a recent paper, two materials scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology describe how a relatively simple mod of a standard scanning electron microscope enables a roughly 10-fold improvement in its ability to measure the crystal structure of nanoparticles and extremely thin films.
A world premiere: a material which changes its strength, virtually at the touch of a button. This transformation can be achieved in a matter of seconds through changes in the electron structure of a material; thus hard and brittle matter, for example, can become soft and malleable.
Shaul Lapidot, a doctoral student of Prof. Oded Shoseyov, in collaboration with his lab colleagues at the Robert H. Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environment of the Hebrew University, Rehovot, has discovered a technique to produce nano-crystalline cellulose (NCC) from the waste obtained from paper mill.
FEI today recently delivered the 250th Helios NanoLab DualBeam system. The solution offers SEM and FIB performance that will help address problems relating to furthering multi-disciplinary technology and sciences, according to John Williams, vice president of marketing, FEI.
The Helmholtz Association is currently supporting five spin-off projects through its Helmholtz Enterprise programme, awarding each with €100,000 from the Initiative and Networking Fund. Most of the funding is invested in the spin-offs' critical start-up phase. The funding is part of the Helmholtz Association's technology transfer strategy.
Scientists from ETH Zurich have succeeded in solving a key problem in materials research: they have developed a procedure with which they can measure the contact angle of a nanoparticle as small as ten nanometres at the interface between two liquids. "Knowing this contact angle is essential for the production of new materials using the interface as a 'template'," says Lucio Isa, a postdoc at the Laboratory of Surface Science and Technology and first author of the study published in Nature Communications ("Measuring single-nanoparticle wetting properties by freeze-fracture shadow-casting cryo-scanning electron microscopy"). The contact angle contains all the important information on the behaviour of the nanoparticles and therefore determines the structure of the new material. Its knowledge will thus enable the scientists to achieve optimal control on the fabrication of materials with desired properties.
Important pressurized water nuclear reactor components are being made from a nickel-base alloy that contains twice the amount of chromium as the material previously used. The new alloy, called alloy 690, performs better, with no cracking due to corrosion in the high-temperature water service environment. However, stress corrosion cracking has been observed in lab tests on highly deformed alloy 690 material. To gain insights into this behavior, researchers at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory performed high-resolution investigations of corrosion and cracking processes.
It is so small that it cannot be seen by the naked eye – but a tiny Chinese New Year greetings card created by the University of Glasgow represents the huge potential for China to profit from Scottish innovation.
Herzan LLC announces the release of the AEK-2011--the most efficient acoustic isolating enclosure ever produced by Herzan. With over 58 cubic feet of interior space, the AEK-2011 is a high quality enclosure designed to house larger SPM setups that include IO microscopes, lasers, cameras and other related equipment. Rather than purchasing multiple enclosures for various instruments, the AEK-2011 is a cost effective, high performance solution to house extensive applications.
A high school senior conducting innovative nanotechnology research as part of an internship at the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering of the University at Albany has been selected as a semifinalist in the 2012 Intel Science Talent Search, the nation's most prestigious pre-college science competition.
One of the Starting Grants awarded by the European Research Council (ERC) in its latest funding round has gone to Professor Achim Hartschuh, who works at the Faculty of Chemistry and Pharmacology at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU) München. The award is worth approximately 1.5 million euros over a period of five years. Starting Grants are designed to support cutting-edge research by supporting outstanding researchers who have already shown themselves to be particularly creative. This latest accolade confirms LMU's position among those institutions that have received the most ERC grants. LMU has won more ERC grants than any other German university. Moreover, it has improved its position relative to its European competitors, and is now placed ninth in the top ten.
A novel type of inter-particle binding predicted in 1970 and observed for the first time in 2006, is forming the basis for an intriguing kind of ultracold quantum chemistry. Chilled to nano-kelvin temperatures, cesium atoms---three at a time---come together to form a bound state hundreds or even thousands of times larger than individual atoms. Unlike the case of ordinary atoms, wherein electrons are bound to a nucleus in a spectrum of energy levels on the order of an electron volt (that is, it would typically take an eV of energy to free the electron), the cesium triplets feature energy levels that are measured in trillionths of an electron volt (peV). Stranger still, a new experiment observing four such cesium states reports that the states' sizes are roughly the same. This has taken theorists by complete surprise.
Hitachi High-Technologies, a cutting-edge technology company of science & medical systems, and Park Systems, the leading nanotechnology solutions partner for nanoscale measurements, have announced that they have signed a distribution agreement for Japan.
Hitachi High-Technologies, a cutting-edge technology company of science and medical systems, and Park Systems, the leading nanotechnology solutions partner for nanoscale measurements, have announced that they have signed a distribution agreement for Japan.
Hitachi High Technologies and Canada's National Institute for Nanotechnology (NINT) today opened the Hitachi Electron Microscopy Products Centre (HEMiC) and unveiled a Hitachi H-95000 environmental transmission electron microscope (E-TEM) that is the first of its kind outside of Japan.
Dr. Burkhard Schmidt simulates proton transfer in amino acids and small peptides on MATHEON. Proton transfer plays a role in energy conversion within solar cells and fuel cells, for example, and applies to the energy flow in batteries. It is even relevant to the development of new drugs
According to UK chemists, improving the catalytic activity of gold nanoparticles can be a very simple process. When gold nanoparticles are washed using hot water, it removes ligands from the gold resulting in a clean metallic surface with active sites that are freely accessible.
Scientists have uncovered how nature minimises energy costs in rings of liquids with an internal nanostructure made of two chemically discordant polymers joined with strong bonds, or di-blocks, deposited on a silicon surface.
Nanoparticles of a substance can be counted and the size distribution can be determined by dispersing the nanoparticles into a gas. But some nanoparticles tend to aggregate when the surrounding conditions change. Scientists at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, have shown that it is possible to sort and count the particles, even when they have formed aggregates.
The NanoBusiness Commercialization Association has joined the N.C. Department of Commerce and the Center of Innovation for Nanobiotechnology (COIN) to co-host the Nanotechnology Commercialization Conference a groundbreaking event for international nanotechnology stakeholders. Preeminent nanotechnology innovators, cutting edge start-ups, leading researchers, and visionary investors are expected on April 4-5, 2012 at the American Tobacco Campus in Research Triangle, N.C.
A US$100m nanotechnology venture fund has been announced by joint managers VTB Capital and I2BF Global Ventures, with cornerstone backing from the Russian state nanotechnology fund RusNano and Kazyna Capital Management, the sovereign wealth fund of the Republic of Kazakhstan.
IBIS is a precision nanoindentation tester offering traceable calibration, robust design, closed loop operation, solid theoretical base, and unmatched accuracy, reliability and price. IBIS Nanoindentation Tester is compatible with ISO14577 and a range of models are available to suit all budgets.
IBM and ETH Zurich, a premiere European science and engineering university, hosted more than 600 guests from industry, academia and government, to open the Binnig and Rohrer Nanotechnology Center located on the campus of IBM Research -- Zurich. The facility is the centerpiece of a 10-year strategic partnership in nanoscience between IBM and ETH Zurich where scientists will research novel nanoscale structures and devices to advance energy and information technologies.
ICAP Patent Brokerage, the IP brokerage subsidiary of ICAP and a patent auction firm, sold a patent portfolio characterizing superior hydrogen sensor technology.
ICE Publishing, the publishing division of the Institution of Civil Engineers, today announces the launch of a major new flagship journal series: ICE Science. By publishing at the intersection of many scientific disciplines this new series aims to inspire the cross-fertilization of ideas and drive forward knowledge in the areas of materials science, biomaterials, nanotechnology and energy
ICE Publishing, the publishing division of the Institution of Civil Engineers, today announces the immediate availability of 28 ahead of print articles -- including 2012 Themed Issue articles of Bioinspired Materials -- from its new flagship journal series: ICE Science.
A Microfluidics Connections brochure from IDEX Health & Science presents Upchurch Scientific products that were specially developed for simplifying micro- and nanoscale applications.
According to IEEE experts, some of the devices and technological innovations revolutionizing the world are so tiny that they could fit on a pin's head. Such innovations in nanotechnology, the science of small things, are changing the way scientists are finding solutions for many issues faced today.
John A. Rogers, the Lee J. Flory-Founder Chair in Engineering at the University of Illinois, has won the 2011 Lemelson-MIT Prize. The annual award recognizes outstanding innovation and creativity.
NanoInk, a technology company focusing on nanoscale production and application development for education, pharmaceutical, engineering and life sciences industries, has announced that the Illinois Science & Technology Coalition (ISTC) has invited the company to enable the launch of the Illinois Nanotechnology Collaborative (INC) and for the development of nanotechnology workforce of the state.
An unusual observation turned into a scientific breakthrough when K.U.Leuven researchers investigating the optical properties of nanomaterials discovered that so-called surface plasmons leave imprints on the surface of the nanostructures. This leads to a new type of high resolution microscopy for imaging the electric fields of nanostructures.
Imec today announced that it has broadened its research program with SUSS MicroTec to develop an in-fab approach to EUV (Extreme Ultra-Violet) mask integrity. The extended collaboration builds on the success of the mask cleaning processes of record (POR) collaboration between HamaTech APE GmbH & Co. KG, a wholly-owned subsidiary of SUSS MicroTec, and imec, which started in 2009. This broadened scope of research will focus on mask cleanliness during in-fab transportation and storage. Development of a holistic mask management system will provide partners using EUV lithography, a sophisticated approach to preserve mask integrity prior-to-exposure.
Imec has officially launched the Center for Advanced Metrology Solutions. This center draws on the extensive expertise of imec to commercially offer a high quality service for scanning spreading resistance microscopy and a range of products and solutions to enable and support electrical atomic force microscopy measurements.
EUV mask defectivity continues to be the number one critical issue for preparing extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUVL) for high-volume manufacturing. Since two years imec is using a combination of 3 inspection techniques for the evaluation of the defectivity level of state-of-the-art reticles: mask blank inspection (the blank being the starting material for the mask fabrication), patterned mask inspection and wafer inspection (read imec's previous newsletter article on this topic - link).
Imec in collaboration with Lam Research presents a new method for the quantitative evaluation of wafer drying techniques. The method uses Si nano-pillar test structures in combination with top-down scanning electron microscopy (TD-SEM) inspection. The use of Si nano-pillars with high aspect ratios (up to 28) brings new insights into the mechanisms of sticking and pattern collapse during wafer drying steps. These insights support the development of enhanced drying techniques that better preserve the stability of high-aspect-ratio nano-structures during wafer cleaning.
Although they found that graphene makes very good chemical sensors, researchers at Illinois have discovered an unexpected "twist"--that the sensors are better when the graphene is "worse"--more imperfections improved performance.
The tendency of nanoparticles to clump together in solution--"agglomeration"--is of great interest because the size of the clusters plays an important role in the behavior of the materials. Toxicity, the persistence of the nanomaterials in the environment, their efficacy as biosensors and, for that matter, the accuracy of experiments to measure these factors, are all known to be affected by agglomeration and cluster size.
Every day, concrete structures crack and erode prematurely due to Alkali Silica Reactivity (ASR), a chemical reaction that causes fissures in the material as it sets. Jon Belkowitz, a doctoral student at Stevens Institute of Technology, plans to put an end to this problem through his study of chemical reactions within concrete at the nanoscale. Taking advantage of Stevens nanostructure characterization tools and materials, his research into the optimal use of nano silica will create a new concrete mixture that will result in longer-lasting buildings, roadways, sidewalks, stairs, sewers, and dams.
Three molecules thick, or two, or one: how does an extremely thin layer of trapped liquid behave when we make it even thinner? Measurements made using the Atomic Force Microscope show that the forces of friction increase with each step. Liquids begin to behave more like a gel. This is the conclusion presented by Sissi de Beer in her PhD thesis. The thesis reveals new findings about forces that play a role in countless biological processes, for example. Sissi de Beer defended her PhD thesis on 27 May at University of Twente.
For nine days this month, 30 graduate students have been learning how to make nano-sized devices -- devices with features that are thousands of times smaller than the width of a human hair. Drawing participants primarily from U of T engineering, the Connaught Summer Institute in Nanofabrication also attracted students from schools across Ontario, Quebec, and British Columbia.
Carl Zeiss has declared that the Indianapolis Museum of Art (IMA) is utilizing its Carl "Shuttle & Find" correlative microscopy package in the museum's advanced conservation science lab sponsored by Lilly Endowment.
Industrial Nanotech has signed an agreement with Qatar Nanotechnology to operate as the sole distributor in Qatar for Industrial Nanotech's Nansulate thermal insulation and protective coatings. QN distributes and services nanotechnology based systems to customers in Qatar and the Gulf area.
Industrial Nanotech, a manufacturer of nanoscience energy-saving products, has declared that more textile mills are using its patented Nansulate, an energy-saving protective coating, to prolong their equipment performances.
Industrial Nanotech's Indian distributor, Angstrom Technology has informed that the company's customer Seshasayee Paper & Boards has delivered a presentation titled 'Energy Conservation Using Nanotechnology Based Insulation Coating in Paper Machine Dryer at Seshasayee Paper' at Papertech 2011.
This document presents lessons learned from information gathering surveys carried out by OECD countries and summarises non-confidential business information and statistics on nanomaterials.
On May 3rd and 4th, representatives of ministries, agencies, industry, science and civil organisations from Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Liechtenstein met in Berlin at the invitation of the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety to discuss current developments in the governance of nanotechnologies.
At this year's AAPG show, Carl Zeiss and Ingrain Inc. announced a further strengthening of their collaboration. With the purchase of an additional AURIGA® CrossBeam® FIB-SEM workstation, Ingrain has broadly increased its capacity for analysis of shale rock properties at the pore scale.
Writing in a recent issue of Small, Professor Ned Thomas, Dean of Engineering at Rice University, proposes the setup of a database of functional nanostructures ("Initiation of a Database of Functional Micro- and Nanostructures").
Research conducted at the University of Michigan College of Engineering may lead to the use of insects to monitor hazardous situations before sending in humans.
InTech, an Open Access publishing company, has launched the Nanomaterials and Nanotechnology (NMNT) Journal under the editorship of Dr. Paola Prete. This journal features the latest developments and innovations in nanoscale science and technology.
Two well-respected guest scientists from India and USA are spending a research period in Saarbruecken. During their research stay at INM - Leibniz Institute for New Materials, Animangsu Ghatak and Anand Jagota are investigating various aspects of bioinspired materials and structures. Their decision to stay at INM reflects the reputation of the research institute with its new orientation: The combination of "Materials in Biology" and materials properties, such as friction, is typical for the current scientific questions at INM. "The expert knowledge of these two renowned scientists will provide new impetus for our research on adhesive properties and combined materials from biological molecules and nanomaterials," explains Eduard Arzt, Scientific Director at INM. "I am very pleased to have these two outstanding scientists, Professor Ghatak from India and Professor Jagota from Pennsylvania, at our institute," says Arzt.
Intertek Cantox, a leading provider of scientific and regulatory consulting services to the food, chemical, and pharmaceutical industries, announces the development of a method to promote high quality nanotoxicology studies allowing companies to ensure the safety of nanotechnology and nanomaterials based products entering the market.
InnovaGeek freely offers the opportunity to publish "teasers of technologies and innovations" available worldwide on its website and mobile application. The goal is to increase the technology visibility for free to help innovators to find partners, new customers or new markets or selling patents.
Organic solutions dispersed with charged nanoparticles offer exciting opportunities for applications ranging from drug delivery to the optical displays. Chaobin He and co-workers at the A*STAR Institute of Materials Research and Engineering have now prepared an organic solution of 'Janus' nanoparticles having both negatively and positively charged regions.
Precise measurement of the molecular weight, size and density of a nanoparticle in a single procedure is now possible, thanks to an ultracentrifugation method, dusted off by scientists at EPFL.
The absorption of light provides some molecules with the energy necessary to switch from one chemical arrangement, or isomer, to another. This mechanism, called photochromism, could be exploited to make materials that are light-sensitive, with a host of possible applications in optics and electronics. The difficulty, however, has been in fixing light-activated molecules to material surfaces in a way that they retain their isomer-switching functionality.
In one of the biggest nano-related public engagement exercises ever implemented, the Institute of Nanotechnology has now published online surveys in seven languages and is launching focus groups as part of the EC-funded NANOCHANNELS project. The project partners convened in a two-day intensive workshop at EuroNanoForum 2011, Budapest, to plan the next stages of a dynamic programme of communication, dialogue, and engagement in issues of nanotechnology (NT) aimed at European citizens.
Integran Technologies Inc., a world leader in metal nanotechnologies, announced today that it has begun consolidating its three Toronto locations into one facility at 6300 Northam Dr, Mississauga Ontario. The location features a 52,000 square foot building on a 5.2 acre lot which can accommodate in excess of 150 employees. Located near Pearson International Airport, it is intended to accommodate a significant expansion in Integran's operations, which as previously announced, involves a $55M investment.
Intel has officially recognised CRANN, the SFI-funded nanoscience institute based in Trinity College Dublin, for the impact of its excellent research collaborations on Intel's work since 2003.
IntelliCyt, manufacturer of high throughput cell screening solutions by making use of flow cytometry technology, has entered into select partnerships with five European distributors for the exclusive distribution rights for its complete range of informatics software, instrumentation and assay kit products.
The latest developments of microscopy in materials science and life sciences are at the forefront of the Microscopy Conference 2011 in Kiel, from August 28 to September 2. Over 550 experts will be exchanging information on structure research using electron microscopy and related methods, and sharing opinions on the latest research topics.
Professor John Boland, Director of CRANN, the Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) funded nanoscience institute at Trinity College Dublin, has today been presented with a top international award for his contributions to the field of nanoscience and nanotechnology. Professor Boland has been named the Laureate of the 2011 ACSIN Nanoscience Prize for his outstanding work in the development and application of scanning probe microscopy and spectroscopy and in the use of these tools to advance our understanding of chemical and physical phenomena of materials.
Physicists working at the University of California, Santa Barbara and the University of Konstanz in Germany have developed a breakthrough in the use of diamond in quantum physics, marking an important step toward quantum computing. The results are reported in this week's online edition of Nature Physics ("A quantum memory intrinsic to single nitrogen--vacancy centres in diamond").
Industrial Nanotech (INTK) has declared that they have obtained a 320 gallon order from Prozinco, who is an industrial contractor given the rights to install the Nansulate Translucent PT coating over an oil pipeline owned by Galp Energia at its Porto Refinery. This order also includes Nansulate Translucent PT for corrosion and insulation prevention.
Researchers from North Carolina State University, the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and CFD Research Corporation have found a new way to develop straight carbon nanofibers on a transparent substrate ("Role of Ion Flux on Alignment of Carbon Nanofibers Synthesized by DC Plasma on Transparent Insulating Substrates"). Growing such nanofiber coatings is important for use in novel biomedical research tools, solar cells, water repellent coatings and others. The technique utilizes a charged chromium grid, and relies on ions to ensure the nanofibers are straight, rather than curling -- which limits their utility.
IOTA NanoSolutions Limited, a specialist formulation company, is pleased to announce today that it has completed a financing round to support the commercialisation of its proprietary nanodispersion formation technology, ContraSol™. New investor, QIB(UK) Plc joins Unilever Ventures Limited (UV) in this financing round.
CRANN, the SFI-funded nanoscience institute based at Trinity College Dublin, today announced a new strategic partnership with UK company Ceram. Ceram is a global expert in materials testing, analysis and consultancy and employs a team of research and product development professionals worldwide.
ISO has announced new general liability classifications for alternative energy sources and nanotechnology. ISO is introducing most of the new classifications with accompanying estimated loss potentials.
ISO/TR 13121:2011 describes a process for identifying, evaluating, addressing, making decisions about, and communicating the potential risks of developing and using manufactured nanomaterials, in order to protect the health and safety of the public, consumers, workers and the environment.
Nanotechnology instrument manufacturer Izon Science will host the Inter-University Nanotechnology Measurement Championships in Cambridge, Massachusetts tomorrow. Contestants from Harvard University, MIT, Boston University and the University of Massachusetts will race each other to accurately measure a complex set of nanoparticles in real time to decide a winner.
Like the years before, IVAM Microtechnology Network is organizing the Japanese-German Micro / Nano Business Forum within the "Micromachine/MEMS" in Tokyo, one of the most important exhibitions in the field of micro and nanotechnology in Japan.
JEOL's atomic resolution Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM), the JEM-ARM200F, sets a new standard for rapidly resuming operation after flashing, a routine procedure conducted with any TEM featuring a Cold FEG source. Long considered a tradeoff for the higher resolution, higher brightness, and smaller energy spread of a cold FEG TEM, emission stability degrades due to residual gases in the area of the tip. With conventional cold FEG TEMs, the operator must flash every few hours to clean the tip, disrupting operation.
JEOL USA Mass Spectrometry Product Manager, Dr. Robert (Chip) Cody, has received the prestigious Anachem Award, given by the Association of Analytical Chemistry for his contributions to the development of organic mass spectrometry.
The JEOL InTouchScope™ SEM, a touchscreen-controlled analytical, portable low vacuum Scanning Electron Microscope, has been recognized by the editors of R&D Magazine as one of the 100 most technologically significant products introduced into the marketplace over the past year.
Scientific instrumentation is typically housed in an enclosed room, with just enough access for operation or service. The heat generated from equipment, personnel entering and exiting the room, and the enclosed facility itself can all affect the performance of sensitive instrumentation.
During a joint event held in Brussels today, the European Commission's Joint Research Centre and the European Academies Science Advisory Council presented the findings of a joint report entitled "Impact of engineered nanomaterials on health: considerations for benefit-risk assessment". The report summarises the state-of-the-art knowledge on the safety of engineered nanomaterials and concludes that there is only limited scientific evidence to suggest that nanomaterials present a risk for human health.
FPInnovations and Domtar have announced that their joint venture established in July 2010 will be named CelluForce, which will produce and commercialize nanocrystalline cellulose, a renewable and recyclable nanomaterial.
JPK Instruments are happy to announce that registration is now open for the tenth annual international symposium on the applications of scanning probe microscopy (SPM) and optical tweezers. The symposia will be held on the 5-6th October 2011 in Berlin focusing on applications developments in life sciences. These meetings continue to be highly regarded on the international life sciences meetings calendar. More than 100 scientists from around the world are expected to come to Berlin to discuss their results and share scientific knowledge in a relaxed and informal atmosphere.
JPK Instruments, a world-leading manufacturer of nanoanalytic instrumentation for research in life sciences and soft matter, announce exciting new quantitative imaging capabilities for the recently launched NanoWizard®3 AFM system.
JPK Instruments, a world-leading manufacturer of nanoanalytic instrumentation for research in life sciences and soft matter, reports on a keynote paper in Nano Letters where Dr Nikolai Severin and his co-workers from the group of Professor Jürgen P. Rabe have applied JPK's NanoWizard®II Ultra system to improve their understanding of the properties of graphene.
JPK Instruments recently hosted their tenth annual international symposium on the applications of scanning probe microscopy (SPM) and optical tweezers. Held this month in the historic Umspannwerk Ost in Berlin, the meeting brought together more than 100 scientists from around the world.
Dr Clemens Franz leads a group of researchers at the DFG-Center for Functional Nanostructures at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology where he works on expanding the use of AFM for cell biological applications. AFM has a strong advantage over other microscopy techniques. Samples can be imaged directly without prior preparation, such as staining or fixation.
The planet Jupiter keeps asteroids on stable orbits – and in a similar way, electrons can be stabilized in their orbit around the atomic nucleus. Calculations carried out at the Vienna University of Technology have now been verified in an experiment.
Keithley Instruments has introduced compact discs (CD) that provide all the information obtained from its nanotechnology-focused webinars and tutorials.
Leading materials scientist, Isao Noda of Procter & Gamble, and spectroscopist, Curtis Marcott of Light Light Solutions, in conjunction with the development and applications team from Anasys Instruments, have recently had their ground-breaking work on the characterization of sub-micron polymer domains using AFM-IR published in the October issue of Applied Spectroscopy, a leading applications journal published monthly by the Society for Applied Spectroscopy.
Using various sensor-based measurement and characterisation methods, an online measurement unit will be developed for compounding processes. The data obtained will be integrated into the database of an expert system and further processed in an artificial neural network. Information from this network will be fed back into the processing equipment, and the manufacturing process will be adapted as necessary.
Kitware, one of the nation's fastest growing software companies, has been awarded $730,000 in Phase II SBIR funding from the U.S. Army Engineering Research and Development Center. This funding will be used for the continued development of an end-to-end workbench solution aimed at a wide range of chemists, from students to computational chemists.
The number of women involved in science and technology is on the rise especially in developing countries such Thailand. Thanks to institutions such as L'Oreal Thailand and the Thai National Commission for UNESCO for giving recognition and supporting the advancement of women in science and to encourage women to continue careers in scientific fields. The annual "L'OREAL-UNESCO for Women in Science" fellowship is awarded to women working in doctoral and post-doctoral research who have already distinguished themselves in the life sciences.
Meat grown using tissue engineering techniques, so-called 'cultured meat', would generate up to 96% lower greenhouse gas emissions than conventionally produced meat, according to a new study.
The fourth conference in the Twente Mastership series will be held at the University of Twente on Thursday 26 January. This conference is intended to build bridges between secondary and higher education. The theme of the conference is "from research to teaching concept". To mark the occasion, Prof. Albert van den Berg will present the first "Lab-on-a-Chip" teaching kits to Prof. Ed Brinksma, Rector Magnificus of the University of Twente, and to the first school scheduled to test the kit.
On 7 April 2011, in the presence of its Director, Gian-Luca Bona, and the Mayor of Thun, Raphael Lanz, Empa's new laser centre, which houses the only UV laser facility of its kind in the world, was opened in Thun. The facility will help researchers to develop new kinds of surfaces. Commercial partners will be able to use it to structure large films with micro to nanometre precision.
A laser centre having a UV laser facility was recently launched in Thun by Empa director Gian-Luca Bona, and the Mayor of Thun, Raphael Lanz. The research facility will enable development of films with micro to nanometre accuracy.
A team of scientists have made it easier to study atomic or subatomic-scale properties of the building blocks of matter known as fermions by slowing down the movement of a large quantity of gaseous atoms at ultra-low temperature.
LayTec AG, leading manufacturer of in-situ metrology for MOCVD processes, announces that it has acquired the majority of tangible and intangible assets of Optical Reference Systems Ltd (ORS). ORS Ltd, former competitor of LayTec, entered liquidation in August 2011 after a extended period of difficult trading conditions.
For the third time in series LayTec was awarded with Deloitte's Technology Fast 50 Award for Germany and the Deloitte's Technology Fast 500 EMEA Award. With a sales growth of 1062% in the period 2006-2010 LayTec achieved place 8 in Germany and place 144 among the fastest growing technology companies in Europe, the Middle East and Africa,
For the next five years, Martin Harmer, director of Lehigh's Center for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology, will lead a team of scientists from Lehigh, Carnegie-Mellon, Clemson, Illinois and Kutztown universities to determine how the atomic structure of grain-boundary interphases--interphase complexions--affect the mechanical, electrical and thermal properties of a wide range of strategic engineering materials.
Leica Microsystems, a world leading provider of microscopy systems and total histology solutions, today announced that it has acquired the microscopy and histopathology business of Labindia Instruments Pvt. Ltd., a leading solutions and service provider in India.
NeCEN, a new high quality centre for electron microscopy, opens its doors in Leiden on October 27th. NeCEN has two of the most advanced cryo-transmission electron microscopes worldwide. The microscopes are open to all research institutes and companies. Ten academic partners, local and national governments and companies collaborated to establish the centre. They expect that NeCEN will lead to giant steps forward in science and R&D.
Leonardo Biosystems, Inc., an emerging drug delivery company, announced today that it has received the second half of a $2.5 million award from the Texas Emerging Technology Fund. The initial investment tranche was received in April 2010.
As we discussed in a recent Nanowerk Spotlight, directed self-assembly of block copolymers is a candidate lithography for use in future nanoelectronics and patterned media copolymer with resolutions down to the sub-10nm domain.
CEA-Leti and Replisaurus Technologies, Inc., a developer of a metallization technology for integrated passives, copper pillars and 3D integration (TSV), today announced that they have completed a crucial step toward commercialization of Replisaurus' innovative ElectroChemical Pattern Replication (ECPRTM) metallization process.
A Toledo, Ohio, physicist has implemented a new mathematical approach that accelerates some complex computer calculations used to simulate the formation of micro-thin materials ("First-passage time approach to kinetic Monte Carlo simulations of metal (100) growth").
A Northwestern University research team has developed a cloaking material that can hide objects from view in the terahertz range. The development could be applied in healthcare, communications and security.
An undergraduate student has overcome a major hurdle in the development of invisibility cloaks by adding an optical device into their design that not only remains invisible itself, but also has the ability to slow down light. The optical device, known as an 'invisible sphere', would slow down all of the light that approaches a potential cloak, meaning that the light rays would not need to be accelerated around the cloaked objects at great speeds -- a requirement that has limited invisibility cloaks to work only in a specified region of the visible spectrum.
In Anna Gudmundsdottir's laboratory at the University of Cincinnati, dedicated researchers endeavor to tame the extremely reactive chemicals known as radicals.
This technology requires tiny components that can respond to stimulation by undergoing controlled movements. Piezoelectric crystals are known to make a bending motion when subjected to an electric field, however the cables required are a barrier to microscale applications or those in liquids.
Lighthouse Worldwide Solutions, a world leader in particle counting and contamination monitoring has developed a liquid particle counter with 25 nanometer detection limits, the lowest particle counting detection limit available today. The NanoCount 25 gives users the ability to set particle detection in four channel sizes: 25, 50, 75 and 100 nanometers.
Physicists at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB), working in collaboration with researchers from Grenoble and Tokyo, have succeeded in taking a decisive step towards the development of more powerful computers. They were able to define two little quantum dots (QDs), occupied with electrons, in a semiconductor and to select a single electron from one of them using a sound wave, and then to transport it to the neighbouring QD. A single electron "surfs" thus from one quantum dot to the next like a fish on a wave. Such manipulation of a single electron will in the future also enable the combination of considerably more complex quantum bits instead of classical bits ("0" and "1" states).
A leading nanotechnology scientist has raised questions over a billion dollar industry by boldly claiming that there is a limit to how small nanotechnology materials can be mass produced.
Market leaders in temperature controlled microscopy, Linkam Scientific Instruments report the use of their 1400°C high temperature stage to study silicate melt inclusions in the Fluids Research Group of the Geosciences Department at Virginia Tech.
Extracellular signaling molecules are the language that cells use to communicate with each other. These molecules transfer information not only via their chemical compositions but also through the way they are distributed in space and time throughout the cellular environment. With the development of nanosensing techniques, scientists are trying to to eavesdrop on the cellular whisper and they getting closer to deciphering extracellular signaling -- an important task in understanding how cells organize themselves, for instance during organ development or immune responses. In a previous Nanowerk Spotlight we reported on a simple cell-surface sensor platform that permits signalling to be monitored within the cellular environment, in real time, in vitro and most likely also in vivo
The lab, though it may seem quiet and insulated, can be as full of background noise as a crowded train station when we're trying to catch the announcements. Our brains can filter out the noise and focus on the message up to a certain point, but turning up the volume on the loudspeakers -- improving the signal-to-noise ratio -- helps as well.
Metal-based chemical catalysts have excellent green chemistry credentials--in principle at least. In theory, catalysts are reusable because they drive chemical reactions without being consumed. In reality, however, recovering all of a catalyst at the end of a reaction is difficult, so it is gradually lost.
On May 13th 2011, the journal Science published a paper where scientists from Risø DTU in collaboration with scientists from China and USA, report a new method for revealing a 3D picture of the structure inside a material ("Three-Dimensional Orientation Mapping in the Transmission Electron Microscope").
An international team of scientists may have found a way to study the elusive quantum behaviour of large 'macroscopic' objects. Presented in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), their sophisticated method will allow researchers to break new ground when performing quantum experiments ("Pulsed quantum optomechanics").
Dr. Yuri Lvov, professor of chemistry and T.C. Pipes endowed chair in micro and nanosystems at Louisiana Tech University, recently led a symposium at the 241st Conference of the American Chemical Society (ACS), discussing his application of a more eco-friendly and cost-effective nano-material that can be used to significantly improve the properties of plastics, paints and other synthetic composites.
Researchers at AIST have developed a method for separating and collecting semiconducting single-wall carbon nanotube (SWCNT) species with different carbon atom arrangements by simply pouring the dispersion of SWCNTs into multi-stage gel columns.
Lumerical Solutions, Inc., a global provider of nanophotonic design software, today introduced MODE Solutions 5.0, the latest upgrade to its MODE Solutions waveguide design product. MODE Solutions 5.0 extends the flexible eigensolver technology of MODE Solutions 5.0 to include an electromagnetic propagator able to address optical components measuring up to hundreds of microns in extent, including silicon photonics components, optical interconnects, photonic crystal devices and resonators. MODE Solutions 5.0 incorporates prior advances in distributed and concurrent computing and optimization developed for FDTD Solutions to provide optimization and job distribution capabilities within MODE Solutions that will streamline the design of complex integrated optical devices destined for next-generation devices, components and sub-systems.
Delong America is pleased to announce that we will have the LVEM5 benchtop electron microscope on display at the 10th Asia-Pacific Microscopy Conference (APMC 10), the 2012 International Conference on Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (ICONN 2012) and the 22nd Australian Conference on Microscopy and Microanalysis (ACMM 22) will be held in Perth, Western Australia, as a single, integrated event. The exhibition runs February 5-9 2012.
Scientists have created a working cloaking device that not only takes advantage of one of nature's most bizarre phenomenon, but also boasts unique features; it has an 'on and off' switch and is best used underwater.
Polymer nano-films and nano-composites are used in a wide variety of applications from food packaging to sports equipment to automotive and aerospace applications. Thermal analysis is routinely used to analyze materials for these applications, but the growing trend to use nanostructured materials has made bulk techniques insufficient.
The heat which occurs in tiny computer processors might soon be no longer useless or even a problem. On the contrary: It could be used to switch these processors more easily or to store data more efficiently! These are two of the several potential applications made possible by a discovery made at the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB). This so-called "thermoelectric voltage" may well be very interesting -- mainly for the use of nano-junctions, i.e. small components based on magnetic tunnel structures.
German researchers at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) and the Helmholtz Institute Mainz (HIM), together with their colleagues from the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics in Heidelberg and the GSI Helmholtz Center for Heavy Ion Research in Darmstadt, have observed spin quantum-jumps with a single trapped proton for the first time. The fact that they have managed to procure this elusive data means that they have overtaken their research competitors at the elite Harvard University and are now the global leaders in this field.
An international research team has successfully developed a widely applicable method for discovering the physical foundations of complex fluids for the first time. Researchers at the University of Vienna and University of Rome have developed a microscopic theory that describes the interactions between the various components of a complex polymer mixture. This approach has now been experimentally proven by physicists from Jülich, who conducted neutron scattering experiments in Grenoble. The results have been published in the June issue of the highly respected journal Physical Review Letters ("Ultrasoft Colloid/Polymer Mixtures: Structure and Phase Diagram").
Although human vision is capable of perceiving objects in three dimensions (3D), we spend much of our day looking at two-dimensional screens. The latest televisions and monitors can trick us into perceiving depth, by presenting different images to our left and right eyes, but they require special-purpose glasses, or specialized large-area lenses applied directly to the screen.
A team of researchers at MIT has found a way to make complex composite materials whose attributes can be fine-tuned to give various desirable combinations of properties such as stiffness, strength, resistance to impacts and energy dissipation.
The National Nanotechnology Directorate (NND), a unit under the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MOSTI), will set up a RM200 million NanoMalaysia Centre complex at Senai High Tech Park, Johor.
With more than $14 billion in private and public investment in New York State in high-tech R&D and manufacturing, this cluster includes semiconductor industry giants AMD, ASML, Applied Materials, IBM, NXP Semiconductor, and Tokyo Electron among others.
MarketResearch.com has added a new report, Production and Application of Carbon Nanotubes, Carbon Nanofibers, Fullerenes, Graphene and Nanodiamonds: A Global Technology Survey and Market Analysis, to its offering.
MarketResearch.com has added a new report, The World Market for Advanced Microscopes, done by Future Markets, to its series of market reports on medical devices.
MARSH, TÜV-Süd and The Innovation Society St.Gallen cooperatively launch an encompassing nano risk management offer for industrial clients. The nano risk management should offer enterprises more security in dealing with new nano materials, reduce potential liability risks und thus lowering costs for insurance polices and risk loadings.
NanoCentral and IntertechPira are pleased to announce the programme for the 5th edition of NanoMaterials -- the leading event focusing on the commercialisation of nanotechnology in Europe -- featuring Lockheed Martin, Boeing, OECD, Harris & Harris and Lux Research.
The Master for Photonics Engineering, Nanophotonics and Biophotonics covers one of the most expanding field in physics and material sciences, dealing with the control, manipulation and monitoring of light and its interaction with matter. This master program aims at giving an extensive two-year teaching program from fundamentals to advanced research topics in Photonics and its interdisciplinary applications. Master students benefiting from this program will be able to work on today's new challenges in their academic or applied research carriers : understanding and control matter and optical phenomena at the ultimate nanometric scale, providing new imaging tools for the most complex biological processes from cells and tissues to clinical applications, bringing original tools in line with future optical devices.
Considered by some to be the "magic bullet" of materials science, carbon nanotubes are at the forefront of materials research around the world. Carbon nanotubes are not only extremely stable, they are also excellent conductors of electrical energy and are made from a cheap raw material. Researchers at Saarland University want to use these highly versatile materials to help replace expensive precious metals in electrical contacts by cheaper alternatives such as nickel. By coating these replacement metals with nanotubes they hope to be able to prevent oxidation of the metal surface and thus avoid any associated reduction in electrical conductivity. By using lasers to help grow nanotubes on a silicon plate, the researchers in Saarbrücken have created structures that, when viewed under a scanning electron microscope, resemble a jellyfish in the ocean. This image was recently awarded first prize in the national photo competition "Making Nano Visible".
Researchers at the National Science Foundation at the University of Oregon have discovered an analytical approach to recover missing atomistic information such as thermodynamic energy and surface friction during dynamic molecular simulations.
At the forefront of nanotechnology, researchers design miniature machines to do big jobs, from treating diseases to harnessing sunlight for energy. But as they push the limits of this technology, devices are becoming so small and sensitive that the behavior of individual atoms starts to get in the way. Now Caltech researchers have, for the first time, measured and characterized these atomic fluctuations--which cause statistical noise--in a nanoscale device.
Even tiny gold nanoparticles, with a diameter of only 40 millionths of a millimeter, have something like a heartbeat. When focusing a short laser pulse on the particles they heat up very briefly and start to vibrate. But, even the best microscopes can not resolve these nanoparticles, which are therefore very difficult to study.
Previously, synthetic molecular machines have been used to perform mechanical tasks collectively, such as move liquid droplets uphill against the force of gravity, rotate microscale objects using liquid crystals doped with synthetic motor-molecules and bend cantilevers. However, all these tasks are achieved by the collective action of billions and billions of molecular machines. Observing the mechanical behavior of an individual molecule is much more difficult.
Andover, Massachusetts-based, MEMSIC recently unveiled its LOTUS, a wireless sensor node platform designed around the power efficient ARM7 Cortex M3 CPU and integrates Imote2, IRIS and TelosB on a single board.
The merging of two technologies under development - plasmonics and nanophotonics - is promising the emergence of new "quantum information systems" far more powerful than today's computers.
By using a novel technique to better understand mineral growth and dissolution, researchers at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory are improving predictions of mineral reactions and laying the groundwork for applications ranging from keeping oil pipes clear to sequestering radium.
The Biscayan company Metal Estalki, which produces coatings to improve the performance of industrial tools and components, is basing the development of its future products exclusively on those nanomaterials that confer greater strength, hardness and wear-resistance to industrial tools.
A Cornell undergraduate student used novel university-developed fabric, made of metal organic framework molecules (MOFs) and cellulose fibers, to design a face mask and a hoodie that can provide protection against poisonous gases. The MOFs are able to trap gas molecules of predefined size, determined in advance during fabric manufacturing, allowing for fabrics targeted at specific applications.
University of California, Davis, researchers have proposed a radical new way of thinking about the chemical reactions between water and metal oxides, the most common minerals on Earth.
Metallic glasses are alloys that are as moldable as plastic but tougher than any known pure metal. The amorphous internal structure that gives metallic glasses their remarkable properties consists of an assembly of small and large atoms packed as tightly together as possible. However, this chaotic distribution of elements also makes metallic glasses prone to mechanical problems like sudden shattering.
Metallic glasses are amorphous metals that are formed from the liquid state through rapid cooling, which prevents atoms from settling into an ordered crystalline structure. Bulk metallic glasses (BMGs) are a distinct class of metallic glasses that form out of multi-component alloys and are characterized by mechanical properties that are superior to conventional metals and alloys as well as a very high resistance to crystallization. However, the origin of this inherent reluctance of BMGs to crystallize has not been fully elucidated.
Metamaterials are remarkable microstructures that are able to control and bend light almost at will, promising technologies as exotic as invisibility cloaks. One of the factors that has limited their potential applications, however, is the high rigidity of existing metamaterials, which renders them unable to adjust to their surroundings.
Electronics.ca Publications is a network related to market research and knowledge of the electronics industry network. It declared the introduction of a new report titled ‘Metamaterials: Technologies and Global Markets’.
Ecology Coatings declared that its nanotechnology-based generally considered as safe (GRAS) coatings have been nominated for the Michigan Green Chemistry Governor's Award.
The lithography-based fabrication of semiconductor circuits relies heavily on the photo-induced polymerization and cleavage of bonds within thin organic films.
Microfluidics, the exclusive global provider of Microfluidizer® high shear fluid processors, today launched a dedicated, internal PureNano Group (PNG) to develop go-to-market strategies for PureNano. This is an exclusive, award-winning, processing technology used to create tailored nanomaterials through crystallization, chemical reaction and nano-encapsulation. Applications of the technology include nanotechnology- based novel pharmaceuticals, functional foods and catalysts.
The Dolomite Centre Ltd, a world leader in the design and manufacture of microfluidic devices, has signed a collaboration agreement with Sphere Fluidics, a leading company in commercialising picodroplet technology that performs thousands of simultaneous analyses on single cells and small populations of molecules.
The 2011 Microscopy Today Innovation Award has been awarded to Sweden-based Nanofactory Instruments, a company manufacturing and marketing scanning probe microscopy equipments, and the Brookhaven National Laboratory of the US Department of Energy.
Microscopes make tiny objects visible, as their name suggests. However, modern microscopes often do this in a round-about way, not by optically imaging the object with light, but by probing the surface with a fine, needle-like tip. Here, where optical imaging methods reach their limits, scanning probe microscopes can show, by different methods, structures as small as one millionth of a millimetre. With their help, phenomena in the nanoworld become visible and targeted manipulation becomes possible. The heart of a scanning probe microscope is a moveable, suspended tip, which, like the needle on a record player, reacts to small height variations on the surface, and turns these into signals that can be displayed on a computer.
Middle State Tennessee State University has chosen the TESCAN LYRA 3 FIB-SEM workstation to enhance interdisciplinary research. The LYRA 3 FIB-SEM will reside in the MTSU Interdisciplinary Microanalysis and Imaging Center (MIMIC). Operational since 2006, MIMIC is a shared research facility for structural biology and materials science.
Tiny particles made of polymers hold great promise for targeted delivery of drugs and as structural scaffolds for building artificial tissues. However, current production methods for such microparticles yield a limited array of shapes and can only be made with certain materials, restricting their usefulness.
A MIT research team has identified a new hybrid method to produce more complex nanostructured materials (three-dimensional nanostructures) by combining top-down and bottom-up approaches.
Mitsui Chemicals, Inc. announced the launching of a new product, a syndiotactic elastomer NOTIO™SN. The company manufactures and widely distributes elastomers (flexible polymeric materials) for uses which include automotive, packaging, and construction materials.
Red Herring announced its Top 100 award in Hollywood, California last week. This award recognizes the leading private companies from North America, celebrating these startups' innovations and technologies across their respective industries.
In chemistry, crystals have a well-deserved reputation for rigidity; the strong forces that trap molecules into three-dimensional solid states also tend to keep them immobile. However, a new discovery by researchers in Japan is set to upend these classical notions.
A team of scientists led by a Penn State University chemist has demonstrated the strengths and weaknesses of an alternative method of molecular depth profiling -- a technique used to analyze the surface of ultra-thin materials such as human tissue, nanoparticles, and other substances. In the new study, the researchers used computer simulations and modeling to show the effectiveness and limitations of the alternative method, which is being used by a research group in Taiwan. The new computer-simulation findings may help future researchers to choose when to use the new method of analyzing how and where particular molecules are distributed throughout the surface layers of ultra-thin materials.
Market analyst Reportlinker.com has added a new report to its catalogue 'Molecular Diagnostics - Technologies, Markets and Companies'. The report is also available in its website.
Decreasing supplies of raw materials, rapidly increasing demand in newly industrializing countries and increasingly tough environmental regulations -- all these factors have contributed to the soaring price of raw materials. The only way to resolve this situation is through more efficient recycling management and improved separation and sorting technologies.
Sudoku puzzles represent a popular exercise recommended to improve logical and creative thinking. A team of scientists from the Catalan Institute of Nanotechnology, ICREA, and Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona investigated the properties of a special kind of sudoku, made by assembling tiny molecules into a 3x3 square array (see figure).
After almost 12 months of waiting, ANEC welcomes the adoption of a regulatory definition of nanomaterials by the European Commission, albeit with mixed feelings. We welcome application of the approach according to which the size distribution of a material should be based on the number concentration (i.e. the number of particles), and not on the mass concentration of a nanomaterial product. This is because a small mass concentration may contain the largest number fraction.
In a paper published in the latest issue of Nature Photonics ("High-energy pulse synthesis with sub-cycle waveform control for strong-field physics"), an international team of researchers takes an important step toward giving physicists the ability to effectively make movies of individual electrons. If the approach pans out, it would provide a way to gather data of unprecedented detail about how individual molecules interact during chemical reactions, with ramifications for not only the basic sciences but chemical engineering and pharmaceutical research as well.
Scientists who pioneered a revolutionary 3-D microscope technique are now describing an extension of that technology into a new dimension that promises sweeping applications in medicine, biological research, and development of new electronic devices. Their reports on so-called 4-D scanning ultrafast electron microscopy, and a related technique, appear in two papers in the Journal of the American Chemical Society ("4D Electron Microscopy: Imaging in Space and Time").
mPhase Technologies, Inc. has developed a technology that exploits the phenomenon of electrowetting or the ability to electronically manipulate the way liquids behave when in contact with a solid or porous surface.
mPhase Technologies, Inc. today announced that it has released a new video that describes how the company has focused its technical skills on the development of smart surface materials that have the ability to selectively control the flow of liquids through a porous substrate. The video provides technical insight into how these smart materials can be used to develop a number of applications, which potentially will benefit from the ability to manipulate liquids with structures having micro and nano scale features.
Modern cosmology beliefs hold that antimatter and matter existed in equal quantities in the Big Bang when the universe was created. Scientists are developing artificial antimatter atoms to understand the symmetry between antimatter and matter.
A new company formed around Michigan State University nanotechnology promises to move speedy detection of deadly pathogens and toxins from the laboratory directly to the field.
In the European funded project FIBLYS (or FIB anaLYSis) three industry and four research partners from Czech Republic, France, Germany and Switzerland have created a multi-nano tool named FIBLYS. This tool is made up of a dual Focused Ion Beam (FIB) and Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) together with Scanning Probe Microscope (SPM) as well as a possibility of important analytical capabilities. FIBLYS can help researchers achieve goals, which earlier were impossible, by showing surface elevations merely ten nanometer high.
NT-MDT's ProIMGE contest is coming to an end. Mrs. Alisa Krasnova of Chuvash State University, Russia, and her AFM-image "Nano-frost" collected 2377 votes and became the winner of the month November.
In nature, the strength of mother-of-pearl is a key to survival for some shellfish. Now a team led by Xiaodong Li, an engineering professor at the University of South Carolina, has posited an explanation for the unusual resilience that this important defensive shield shows in the face of predatory attacks. Given the elaborate nanoscale structures that biology naturally incorporates in mother-of-pearl, the research team believes the findings could serve as a blueprint for engineering tough new materials in the laboratory.
The Bren School-based authors of a study published Jan. 20 in the journal PLoS ONE have observed toxicity to marine organisms resulting from exposure to a nanoparticle that had not previously been shown to be toxic under similar conditions.
The 9th International Nanotech Symposium & Nano Convergence EXPO, Nano Korea 2011, a complete convergence of new technology and nanotechnology Korea, will be held at KINTEX in Goyang-si from 24 to 26 August.
Engineers of the European research project NaPanil have modified the glass surfaces on the micrometric and nanometric scale in order to control the path of the light.A unique innovation that could soon become part of our daily lives.
After celebrating its 10th anniversary last year, nano tech 2012 - The11th International Nanotechnology Exhibition & Conference will take place from February 15 to February 17, 2012 at the International Exhibition Center Tokyo Big Sight in Japan.
Spectrophotometer calibration involves using a calibration standard or filter to verify the precision of the light source. The technique is vital to verify the effective functioning of the spectrophotometer and the measurements. The process is different for different instruments. Maintaining a calibration log gives information on who used the instrument last and when.
Researchers from the Basque nanoscience research center CIC nanoGUNE and Neaspec GmbH (Germany) have developed an instrument that allows for recording infrared spectra with a thermal source at a resolution that is 100 times better than in conventional infrared spectroscopy. In future, the technique could be applied for analyzing the local chemical composition and structure of nanoscale materials in polymer composites, semiconductor devices, minerals or biological tissue. The work is published in Nature Materials.
A team of researchers at the University of California, San Diego and Tyco Electronics have developed a nano-sensor that could warn emergency workers when their respirators have become saturated with toxic fumes.
Going beyond conventional optics – which is restricted by the diffraction limit of light – nanoscale optics, or plasmonics, concerns manipulating light at the nanometer scale. In nanoplasmonics, researchers focus nanoscale light by converting free photons into localized charge-density oscillations – so-called surface plasmons – on noble-metal nanostructures, which serve as nanoscale analogs of radio antennas and are typically designed by using antenna theory concepts.
As Rainbow Coral Corp. continues its due diligence on Nano3D Biosciences, it's not just the early-stage biotech firm's groundbreaking technology that has impressed RBCC—It's also n3D's revenues.
NanoSight, leading manufacturers of unique nanoparticle characterization technology, describes how the Nano Chemistry group at DTU Copenhagen is utilizing nanoparticle tracking analysis, NTA, in its research and teaching programs.
The World Cultural Council will present the 2011 Albert Einstein World Award of Science to Professor Geoffrey Alan Ozin, Canada Research Chair and Distinguished University Professor University of Toronto, Canada. This year, the 28th Award Ceremony will take place on Thursday, November 10th at 14:00 hrs, in the University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia
Eyeglasses need never again to be cleaned, and dirty windscreens are a thing of the past! Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research in Mainz and the Technical University Darmstadt are now much closer to achieving this goal. They have used candle soot to produce a transparent superamphiphobic coating made of glass.
Aculon, Inc., a leading nanotechnology enabled performance coatings company, today announced the completion of the expansion of the company's research and production laboratory space.
The international partners of the EU funded NanoCode project has elaborated strategies and options for the development and implementation of the "Code of Conduct for Responsible N&N Sciences and Research".
The NanoCode Synthesis Report on its Stakeholder CoC Survey (pdf) provides the findings of the international, quantitative and qualitative NanoCode survey about the European Code of Conduct for Responsible Nanosciences and Nanotechnologies Research (EU-CoC). The results summarised in this report give insights into stakeholder's patterns of awareness, their expectations, attitudes and appraisals. The survey analyses the degree of compliance and commitment, identifies recommendations for the communication, possible incentives, disincentives and monitoring of the EU-CoC.
While a movie about giant robots that undergo structural transformations is breaking box office records this summer, a scientific study about structural transformations within single nanocrystals is breaking new ground for the design of novel materials that will serve next-generation energy storage batteries and solar energy harvesting devices. Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have reported the first direct observation of structural transformations within a single nanocrystal of copper sulfide, a semiconductor expected to play an important role in future energy technologies.
By combining high pressure with high temperature, Livermore researchers have created a nanocyrstalline diamond aerogel that could improve the optics for something as big as a telescope or as small as the lenses in eyeglasses.
How noisy is a walking flea? What sorts of sound waves are caused by motile bacteria? Physicists at the Nanosystems Initiative Munich (NIM) have managed for the first time to detect sound waves at such minuscule length scales.
NT-MDT Co. announces that NANOEDUCATOR II -- a new generation of training scientific laboratories for nanotechnology teaching - is the winner of the 49th Annual R&D 100 Awards, which salute the 100 most technologically significant products introduced into the marketplace over the past year.
Radiation damage to materials is a major issue for builders of nuclear power plants as well as spacecraft engineers. The former have to worry about material failure due to the destructive radiation created within the reactor; the later are concerned about the exposure to space radiation of both materials and humans during long-term space missions. NASA says that the risks of exposure to space radiation are the most significant factor limiting humans' ability to participate in long-duration space missions. A lot of research therefore focuses on developing countermeasures to protect astronauts from those risks.
Zyvex Technologies and NanoFusing LLC, a subsidiary of APV Engineered Coatings, one of Ohio's first paint and coatings manufacturers, have announced a partnership to provide nano-enhanced concentrates and products to the infrastructure markets and OEM industries.
AlwaysOn has selected NanoH2O, a developer of nanotechnology-based reverse osmosis membranes for desalination of sea water, as one of the GoingGreen Global 200 winners.
Nanoindentation is derived from the classical hardness test but is carried out on a much smaller scale. It can be used to determine the hardness of thin layers as well as material properties such as elasticity, stiffness, plasticity, and tensile strength, or fracture toughness of small objects and microsystems in fields such as biotechnology. These measurements involve applying a small force to a sample using a sharp probe and measuring the resultant penetration depth. The measured value is used to calculate the contact area and hence the particular property of the sample material. Both the method of force application and the geometry of the indentation tip can be adjusted to suit the particular application.
The National Nanomanufacturing Network is very pleased to announce that the Nanoinformatics 2020 Roadmap, a guidance document written by and intended for the broader nanoinformatics community, is now publicly available. Nanoinformatics encompasses the acquisition of information relevant to the nanoscale science and engineering community and the implementation of effective mechanisms for working with that information.
BNM Fabrika has been chosen by NanoInk as the exclusive distributor of the NLP 2000 system, the DPN 5000 system and NanoProfessor's nanoscience education programme for Turkey.
NanoInk announced its plan of showcasing the Nanofabrication Systems at the TechConnect World Conference and Expo, which is organised jointly by the Nano Science and Technology Institute (NSTI) and Clean technology and Sustainable Industries Organisation (CTSI).
NanoIsrael 2012, the 3rd international conference & exhibition, which will be held on March 26th-27th, 2012, at the Tel–Aviv David Intercontinental Hotel, Israel, will focus this year on innovations and business opportunities in the fields of energy, water, environment, Nano–materials, Nano–electronics, Nano–photonics, Nano–bio and Nano–medicine. The event is expected to draw 1,000 participants from Israel and around the world, including Nano related companies, venture capital experts, institutional and organisational investors, regulators, government decision makers, leading scientists and researchers.
The NanoKTN is pleased to announce details for its annual HiPerNano 2011: 'Nanotechnology for Extreme Environments' event to be held on 10th May at The Royal Academy of Engineering in London. This one-day conference and exhibition is the NanoKTN's highly successful annual showcase of new developments in nanomaterials, alongside industry end-user presentations on the challenges to be addressed within the performance engineering industries.
The NanoKTN in the UK has announced that its allocation of this year's EPSRC CASE Awards has been awarded to the University of Bath, collaborating with Pilkington Group Ltd, and Manchester's Metropolitan University, collaborating with United Utilities, which encourages and enables collaboration of Universities with UK based companies. These projects will look at the development of photocatalytic coatings for self-cleaning and architectural glazing applications, and smart nanomaterials for the detection of natural (and) synthetic pollutants.
Students at Universities of Birmingham, Oxford and Sheffield to work on Nanotechnology projects with Oxford Photovoltaics, Domino UK and Stryker Corporation.
Nanolane, the French company that markets truly revolutionary microscope slides with the astounding property to make conventional optical microscopes capable of imaging nano-objects is proud to announce the launch of their new Asian Demo Centre in Suzhou, China.
NanoMarkets has identified some vital market opportunities for manufacturers of silver flakes and powders in the future and released a report on the same. This report studies and lists the use for silver powders and flakes in a wide array of sectors such as silver inks for the PV sector, conventional silver pastes and inks, nanosilver-based adhesives, pastes and inks, nanosilver-based medical and antimicrobial applications, and traditional conductive adhesives.
NanoMarkets' mission is to measure the impact of nanotechnology on the communications, information technology and computing industries and provide both qualitative and quantitative assessments of the opportunities available to companies operating within these markets as well as the component, semiconductor, materials and manufacturing companies that supply them.
Prof. Dr. Sherif El-Safty, a Principal Researcher of the Materials Recycling Design Group, Research Center for Strategic Materials, National Institute for Materials Science developed a nanomaterial which enables simple detection and removal of arsenic from drinking water.
NanoMech will introduce a lubricant additive manufactured using its innovative NanoGlide technology platform. NanoGlide has been considered as the first multi-component lubricant in the world to be manufactured from nanoparticles. This innovation called boundary lubrication almost prevents wear and friction at mating surfaces that are subjected to harsh frictional forces.
Researchers at the Technion have discovered the nature of nanometer-thick layers between different materials and found that they have both solid and liquid properties. By doing so, the researchers made a crucial addition to Gibbs' theory which describes the fundamental aspects of the thermodynamics of interfaces.
US- based Nanometrics, which specialises in providing the latest metrology systems has announced that it has won an order from a prominent Korean memory manufacturer to provide its IMPULSE integrated metrology optical critical dimension (OCD) and film analysis system. After detailed evaluation, the Korean manufacturer chose Nanometrics to provide the systems to control its chemical mechanical planarization (CMP) process.
Metrology is the science of measurements, and nanometrology is that part of metrology that relates to measurements at the nanoscale. Many governments worldwide have existing nanotechnology policies and are taking the preliminary steps towards nanometrology strategies, for example in support of pre-normative R&D and standardization work. In this Nanowerk Spotlight, we look at the European Commission funded project Co-Nanomet as an example of the importance of nanometrology as a key enabling technology for quality control at the nanoscale.
operate at the intersection between the molecular and macroscopic worlds. The central element, carbon nanotubes, are individual molecules to which electrical leads can be attached.
nanoMR, Inc., today announced that the company has raised $13 million in equity financing. Excel Venture Management led the round, joined by Healthcare Ventures, and existing investors vSpring Capital, The Dow Chemical Company, and Sun Mountain Capital. Dr. Steven Gullans of Excel and Gus Lawlor of Healthcare Ventures will join the board. The financing will enable nanoMR to develop commercial instruments for the clinical microbiology market, perform clinical studies and prepare for product launch.
New processes that allow nanoparticles to assemble themselves into designer materials could solve some of today's technology challenges, Alex Travesset of Iowa State University and the Ames Laboratory reports in the Oct. 14 issue of the journal Science.
If you've ever eaten from silverware or worn copper jewelry, you've been in a perfect storm in which nanoparticles were dropped into the environment, say scientists at the University of Oregon.
Molecular Profiles has received a Queen's Award for Enterprise 2011 for its nanoPASS (nanoscale Predictive Analytical Screening Solution) service platform in the Innovation category.
NanoPhos SA, a nanotechnology company, and the leading ceramic tile manufacturer KERABEN co-developed LIFEKER(R), an innovative line of self-cleaning and self-sterilizing ceramic tiles. These properties of LIFEKER(R) tiles are provided by the use of the SurfaShield(R) coating technology developed by NanoPhos, which is activated simply by the energy of surrounding light (either sunlight or artificial lighting) without the use of dangerous chemicals. The photocatalytic action of SurfaShield(R) continuously decomposes organic stains and environmental pollutants without being consumed. The use of this technology protects humans from infectious microbes, eliminates fungus growth and minimizes the use of cleaning and sterilizing products, while it has been estimated that 1000 square meters of LIFEKER(R) tiles have equal ability to decompose pollutants with 60 trees!
As words go, evanescent doesn't see enough use. It is an artful term whose beauty belies its true meaning: fleeting or dying out quickly. James Dean was evanescent. The last rays of a sunset are evanescent. All that evanesces, however, is not lost, as a team of Stanford researchers demonstrated in a recent article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ("Vertical nanopillars for highly localized fluorescence imaging "). In fact, in the right hands, evanescence can have a lasting effect.
Metallic nanoporous materials have a wide range of applications, from catalysts for cleaning pollution to sensors and even light-bending metamaterials. Fabricating such metallic materials with the long-range structural order and precisely controlled pore structure needed for advanced applications, however, remains a challenge. Rong-Ming Ho and colleagues from the National Tsing Hua University in Taiwan with collaborators at Kyoto University in Japan have now devised a 'templated electroless plating' method for creating nanoporous nickel by exploiting the self-assembly of block copolymers.
One of the problems in modern separation science and technology is the challenge of separating gaseous mixtures that consist of very similar particles, for example, hydrogen isotope mixtures; mixtures of noble gases; etc. The problem arises because small particles such as hydrogen isotopes share similar size and shape (only their molecular mass is different). Moreover, these particles are usually very stable. While this problem can be technically solved, currently available separation methods such as thermal diffusion, cryogenic distillation, and centrifugation, tend to be time and energy intensive.
Significant advances in the application of colloidal structures as light emitters and lasers may soon be realized following the discovery of very fast fluorescence emission rates in colloidal nanoplatelets. These nanoplatelets combine the best characteristics of two domains: the wide tunability of the absorption and photoluminescence of nanocrystals and the short decay time of excitons in quantum wells.
NanoProfessor™, a division of NanoInk, Inc.®, focused on nanotechnology education, is pleased to announce that it has joined the Ibero-American Science & Technology Education Consortium (ISTEC), Inc. to help promote collaboration in the areas of science, technology and education among academia, government, industry and society.
NanoProfessor, a division of NanoInk, declared that it has chosen two college students from the local community for a summer internship program extending over a period of 10 weeks.
NanoInk's division, NanoProfessor, has announced that it has included the qNano particle characterisation instrument from Izon Science in its instrumentation syllabus which is part of the NanoProfessor Nanoscience Education Program.
In a project funded by the Danish Environemntal Protection Agency, the Technical University of Denmark and National Research Centre for the Working Environment have initiated the development of a screening tool called NanoRiskCat for the evaluation of exposure and hazard of nanomaterials contained in products for professional and private use.
When a pebble is dropped onto the surface of a pond, a droplet of water bounces up from the surface. The same thing happens when a focussed laser-beam strikes the surface of a thin metal film – the metal can be locally melted by the laser light and it can bounce up from the metal surface as a metallic droplet.
Emcore has added the Medallion 6000 system to its 1550nm CATV portfolio of fiber optic transmitters. The solution has been integrated with increased features to support the existing and emerging needs for increased bandwidths in CATV, RF overlay available in PON networks, RF over Glass (RFoG), and parallel SAT-IF transport networks.
A research team led by Professor Arno Rauschenbeutel Vienna Center for Quantum Science and Technology, in partnership with the researchers at the Johannes Gutenberg University has developed an ultrasensitive method by controllably coupling single atoms to light within ultra-thin fiber glass having a thickness of 500 nm, paving the way to develop detectors that are capable of sensing ultra-trace amounts of materials.
Researchers from the Department of Physics and Astronomy at San Francisco State University (SFSU) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center of the University of California, Berkeley have discovered a novel technique that manipulates a blended beam of plasma and light referred to as a plasmonic airy beam. This beam, based on the principles of electromagnetism, travels along a curved trajectory rather than a straight line.
Phenom World North America has appointed Nanoscience Instruments as its exclusive distributor for its Phenom Desktop Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) in the Canadian and the US markets.
Imagine yourself nano-sized, standing on the edge of a soon-to-be computer chip. Down shoots a beam of electrons, carving precise topography that is then etched the depth of the Grand Canyon into the chip.
Working in collaboration with the RhineMain Polytechnic, materials scientists at the TU Darmstadt have developed an extremely sensitive explosives sensor that is capable of detecting even slight traces of the high-explosive chemical compound pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN). Terrorists had employed PETN in several attacks on commercial aircraft.
NanoSight, leading manufacturers of unique nanoparticle characterization technology, announces they have developed their NTA (Nanoparticle Tracking Analysis) software platform such that it may now be implemented within a CFR compliant environment.
NanoSight, leading manufacturers of unique nanoparticle characterization technology, are in the Deloitte 2011 Fast 50 list of the fastest growing technology companies in the UK. In the world of biotech, NanoSight has made it to number one nationwide and overall is the fastest growing of all technology companies in the South West and Wales region of the UK.
NanoSight, leading manufacturers of unique nanoparticle characterization technology, are winners of this year's Technology World's 2011 Business Innovation Award in the category of Energy & Environment. These annual awards are sponsored by the PA Consulting Group.
The 9th edition of NanoSpain Conference -- the event held every year in Spain -- will take place in 2012 from the 27th of February to 1st of March in Santander at the City Convention Centre.
The German Advisory Council on the Environment today published a special report "Precautionary Strategies for Managing Nanomaterials." In response, Nanostart AG, the leading financer of nanotechnology growth, is issuing the following statement: Nanotechnology allows people to develop new products and procedures which strongly support us in meeting imminent global challenges in the areas of health, energy and the environment, water supply and mobility.
Nanostart-holding ItN Nanovation AG has finalized the binding contracts on the joint venture in Saudi Arabia that was preliminarily agreed in October 2010. The renowned Saudi-Arabian partner Juffali and the consortium of German industrial investors have now signed the contracts and the Management Board and Supervisory Board of ItN Nanovation have approved the signature.
As planned, Nanostart AG is increasing its stake in Singapore-based Microlight Sensors to 31%. This stems from payment of a second tranche from the round of financing concluded back in 2010. The additional funds will go into commercial expansion, in particular buildup of marketing and sales structures in Asia, seed financing for orders and projects, and development of innovative sensor technologies.
Nanosurf, a leading provider of atomic force microscopes (AFM) and scanning tunneling microscopes (STM), and Suzhou Haizisi (Hzs) Nano Technology Co. Ltd., a high-tech company specialized in system solutions for nanodetection, nanofabrication and nanometrology, today announced the founding of a Sino-foreign Joint Venture.
The National Nanotechnology Center (NANOTEC) recently entered into a strategic partnership with Thai Industrial Standards Institute to promote insight to nanotechnology and how it impact to industry standards and certifications.
The National Nanotechnology Center has signed a collaborative agreement with the United Nation Institute for Training and Research to promote training and capacity building for the development of nano-safety pilot project in Thailand.
Researchers from Thailand's NANOTEC pitched the "i-Guard Air Filter Sheets" technology to potential investors during the NSTDA Investor Day 2011 this morning to drum up interest from potential investors and entrepreneurs. The aim of the annual NSTDA Investor Day is aim at promoting investors' relations and interest in highlight research projects that has potential for commercialization.
NANOTEC and Petroleum Authority of Thailand joined hand to research and produce an environmental friendly surface cleaning solution for flood victims to use as home cleaning product.
The recently released Nanoinformatics 2020 Roadmap could facilitate and improve communication between nanotechnology and engineering research teams, developers and government bodies.
Nanotech Security Corp. has reached a major milestone in authentication and anti-counterfeiting security technology developed by replicating nano-scale structures similar to those found on the wings of the iridescent Morpho Butterfly.
Nanotech Security, which specialises in providing applications for security and law enforcement, has announced that it has developed a master shim on which it is possible to develop nanoholes cost-effectively and rapidly in a range of materials including banknotes.
Research teams are trying different approaches within the nanotechnological field to improve water membrane technologies. One of these is to improve water purification by using nature's own water-transporting channels, aquaporins. However, constructing suitable membranes for industrial processes is a challenge.
Planes were grounded all over Europe when the Eyjafjallajökull volcano erupted in Iceland last year. But no one knew if the no fly zone was really necessary. And the only way to find out would have been to fly a plane through the ash cloud - a potentially fatal experiment.
Scientists at the University of Massachusetts Amherst report that for the first time they have designed a much simpler method of preparing ordered magnetic materials than ever before, by coupling magnetic properties to nanostructure formation at low temperatures.
Businesses in the nanotechnology field may even forget the word nano. To secure success they have to focus on solving customers' problem and better communicate business opportunities that nanotechnologies may bring.
Members of the Nanodermatology Society (NDS), a physician-led organization dedicated to the scientific and medical aspects of nanotechnology and dermatology, recently published a pilot study evaluating knowledge, perceptions and attitudes regarding Nanotechnology amongst dermatologists in the United States.
The Air Force Research Laboratory in Dayton, Ohio, has experimentally confirmed a theory by Rice University Professor Boris Yakobson that foretold a pair of interesting properties about nanotube growth: That the chirality of a nanotube controls the speed of its growth, and that armchair nanotubes should grow the fastest.
Paul Alivisatos, director of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the University of California (UC) Berkeley's Larry and Diane Bock Professor of Nanotechnology, has won the prestigious Wolf Foundation Prize in Chemistry for 2012.
The world of nanotechnology is ever changing and evolving; this fun and friendly guide demystifies the topic for anyone interested in how molecule-sized machines and processes affect our everyday lives. The authors begin with explaining the background of nanotechnology and then examine industries that are affected by this technology. Aiming to educate and simultaneously dispel common myths, the book explores the many nanotechnology-enabled consumer products available on the market today, ranging from socks to face lotion to jet skis to floor cleaners, to name a few.
Nanotechnology has developed tremendously in the past decade and was able to create many new materials with a vast range of potential applications. Carbon nanotubes are an example of these new materials and consist of cylindrical molecules of carbon with diameters of a few nanometers -- one nanometer is one millionth of a millimeter. Carbon nanotubes possess exceptional electronic, mechanical and chemical properties, for example they can be used to clean polluted water.
Nanostart is collaborating with the Russian-based, Rusnano and the administration of Perm to unveil a nanotechnology fund in Russia. The collaboration will help Nanostart to debut in the Russian market. The joint venture Kama Fund First has an initial investment of over 2.0 billion rubles or 50 million euros.
Decreasing availability of potable water is a crisis in the making and freshwater looks like it will become the oil of the 21st century -- scarce, expensive and fought over. Among various technologies, reverse osmosis membranes have been widely used for water reclamation. However, external energy required and high operational pressure used make reverse osmosis membrane water reclamation processes energy intensive -- not exactly an advantage given the rising cost of energy and the negative climate impact of fossil fuels.
This Policy Brief from the European Trade Union Institute (ETUI) addresses the need for a governance response from the European bodies to establish a registry of nanomaterial-containing articles. Better comprehensive data is urgently needed to improve knowledge of what is on the market, who is exposed and what should be regulated. Member States welcome such inventories and have developed their own initiatives but it is crucial to harmonise them in order to achieve proper protection of human and environmental health.
Anyone who's ever polished silver knows that keeping the tarnish at bay is never ending work. But, you may not know that polishing also rubs away some of the precious metal, whether it's your grandmother's silver bowl or a 19th century museum treasure.
Queensland University of Technology researchers have developed new technology capable of removing radioactive material from contaminated water and aiding clean-up efforts following nuclear disasters.
A democratic appropriator for scientific research, Congressman Chaka Fattah has declared that three research projects have received an award of $978,242 from the National Science Foundation.
Professor Jonathan Coleman, a Science Foundation Ireland (SFI)-funded researcher from Trinity College who has achieved international success in the area of nanostructures, was today announced as the 'Science Foundation Ireland Researcher of the Year' for 2011.
Murdoch University nano scientists have discovered that a eucalyptus plant native to south west WA has unique self-cleaning and water-repellent properties which could make it a gold mine for new nanotechnology applications.
Imagine hearing every day about useful health- and labor-saving devices invented in nearby towns, but knowing no highway or road to reach them. A map would help dramatically, in much the same way a recently published "Nanoinformatics 2020 Roadmap" is expected to enable and enhance connections among nanotechnology science and engineering researchers, manufacturers and interested government agencies.
Independent developer Peter Burke today is pleased to announce iNanotube 1.1 for iOS, his new Education app that graphically instructs users about the detailed atomic structure of carbon nanotubes, a revolutionary class of wires only a few atoms across.
Industrial Nanotech, a developer of nanotechnology-based energy efficient systems, recently declared that its distributor, Russo Environmental Materials, has concluded a program for the Lafayette Consolidated Government in Louisiana using the company's patented Nansulate Translucent GP and Translucent PT insulation coatings at the Animal Control Center to insulate the envelop of a building used to shelter animals in its care.
NASA engineers have produced a material that absorbs on average more than 99 percent of the ultraviolet, visible, infrared, and far-infrared light that hits it -- a development that promises to open new frontiers in space technology.
In Nanotechnology: A Gentle Introduction to the Next Big Idea, nanotech pioneer Mark Ratner and tech entrepreneur Daniel Ratner show how nanotech works, what's new, what's next, and why nanotech may be the next $1 trillion industry. They survey every area of R&D: nanobots, quantum and DNA computing, nanosensors, biostructures, neuro-electronic interfaces, molecular motors, and much more. Simple, brief, and nearly math-free, this is the perfect briefing on nanotech technology and business for every non-technical reader.
One of the advantages of the bottom-up fabrication of nanostructures is that self-assembly can offer a convenient way of fabricating structures that are too complex to be made in a top-down process.
You can’t look at internet news lately without seeing the latest and greatest in nanotechnology developments. Everything these days is being manufactured smaller, faster, more durable, and under more and more human control with the help of science.
It is quite difficult -- not least because there is no consensus about a proper definition -- to assess the scope of nanotechnology research and its impact on the overall scientific body as well as its commercialization prospects. In a new attempt to put some numbers behind the general perception of a rapidly expanding nanotechnology field, two researchers at UC Davis have trawled scientific databases and come up with some surprising findings.
The company's respected Scientific Advisory Board is composed of world-renowned scientists, and the Corporate Development Team lists the most, well-regarded professional practitioners.
Surface probe instruments with carbon nanotube tips may enable such investigations, as now demonstrated in a theoretical study led by Ping Liu and Yong-Wei Zhang at the A*STAR Institute of High Performance Computing.
A new paint made of power plant waste and carbon nanotubes can automatically detect structural faults, alerting authorities before damage occurs. It could be a cheaper, easier way to monitor facilities like bridges, mines and even wind turbines.
Nanoparticles such as carbon nanotubes, which are found in an ever-increasing number of products, are ending up more and more frequently in our surroundings. If and how they affect aquatic ecosystems are questions which are still unanswered. An Empa study shows that while CNTs do not have toxic effects on green algae they do inhibit its growth by depriving the plant of light and space.
A sales and distribution firm, specializing in analysis instrumentation and nanoscale imaging, Nanounity has signed a contract with Topcon Positioning Systems to market its Aquila Hybrid Scope microscope in Canada and the United States.
Nanovea today announced the arrival of the N3 line dedicated to providing high-end measurement technology to the broader market. Nanovea has fully automated their measurement techniques while designing to price in the $20K market.
NanoWorld AG announced that it has launched a website entirely dedicated to High Speed Scanning Atomic Force Microscopy at www.highspeedscanning.com. NanoWorld dedicates this website to the community of high speed scanning AFM users and focuses on the probe aspect of high speed scanning.
Wrinkles and folds are ubiquitous. They occur in furrowed brows, planetary topology, the surface of the human brain, even the bottom of a gecko's foot. In many cases, they are nature's ingenious way of packing more surface area into a limited space.
Bruker, a provider of superior-performance scientific solutions and instruments for materials and molecular research, has declared that the Korean National Agricultural Products Quality Management Service has placed an order for six of its triple-quadrupole gas chromatography-mass spectrometry systems, to monitor agricultural products and to analyze pesticide residue at the combined 8th Annual Meeting of the Korean Society for Mass Spectrometry and the 2nd Asian & Oceanic Mass Spectrometry Conference conducted in Busan, Korea.
At an atomic scale, the tiniest bridge of gold -- that made of a single atom -- is actually the strongest, according to new research by engineers at the University at Buffalo's Laboratory for Quantum Devices.
NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has spotted the signature of flat carbon flakes, called graphene, in space. If confirmed, this would be the first-ever cosmic detection of the material -- which is arranged like chicken wire in flat sheets that are one atom thick.
Natcore Technology Inc. has received a subcontract from the Georgia Institute of Technology to coat a fabric with specific classes of nanoparticle materials using Natcore's exclusive liquid phase deposition (LPD) technology. The coated fabric will be used to make wet suit-type garments that will protect the wearer from bacterial and viral infectious agents during extended exposure to polluted water.
Prof. Andrew R. Barron, a scientific co-founder of Natcore Technology Inc., has been named a finalist for a prestigious World Technology Award presented by the World Technology Network in association with Time magazine, Fortune, CNN, Science/AAAS, and Technology Review. Barron joins a roster of organizations and individuals from over 60 countries around the world deemed to be doing the most innovative and impactful work.
Natcore Technology announced that it has obtained a subcontract to coat a fabric material with specific categories of nanoparticle materials. The company will coat the fabric using its liquid phase deposition technology. The Georgia Institute of Technology offered the subcontract to the company.
National Instruments today announced that it is donating design tools to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to help expand the use of NI software and hardware in the MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering via 10 mechatronics, robotics, manufacturing, control and design courses over the next five years.
The National Nanotechnology Initiative's (NNI) released four reports that are the result of a series of workshops focusing on various issues in the nanotechnology environmental, health, and safety (EHS) arena.
Despite extensive investment in nanotechnology and increasing commercialization over the last decade, insufficient understanding remains about the environmental, health, and safety aspects of nanomaterials. Without a coordinated research plan to help guide efforts to manage and avoid potential risks, the future of safe and sustainable nanotechnology is uncertain, says a new report.
NaturalNano and Sparta Armor announced that the companies have entered into an exclusive Joint Development and Supply Agreement to utilize their combined technologies. NaturalNano and Sparta Armor will develop a range of products and applications that combine their respective patented technologies to create a new class of high performance additives.
The North Dakota State University Research Foundation (NDSU/RF) proclaimed that it has inked a license deal for its removable protective coatings for outdoor statues and monuments with Elinor Specialty Coatings.
Thanks to a new online toolkit developed at MIT and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, any researcher who needs to find a material with specific properties -- whether it's to build a better mousetrap or a better battery -- will now be able to do so far more easily than ever before.
Neutron scattering studies of "cobalt blue," a compound prized by artists for its lustrous blue hue, are revealing unique magnetic characteristics that could answer questions about mysterious properties in other materials.
To better understand the fundamental behavior of molecules at surfaces, researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory are combining the powers of neutron scattering with chemical analysis.
A research team at the Institut Laue-Langevin, the flagship centre for neutron science, has demonstrated quantitatively the science behind an anomaly in the surface tension of polyelectrolyte/surfactant mixtures.
Amorphous silicon is one of the key materials in the manufacturing of next-generation solar panels and flat-screen televisions. A recent study carried out by researchers from the University of Girona, with the support of laboratories operated by the University of Barcelona and the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) has revealed that the energy of amorphous silicon -- the state in which it exhibits the greatest stability -- is 50% lower than the value commonly accepted until now. According to the researchers, this information is important for understanding the structure of the material and improving its properties.
Using the new beamline, 911-4, at MAX-lab in Lund, Sweden, researchers can study a wide range of different types of material with a resolution of a few nanometres. This could be useful for both basic research and industry in general. The facility is the result of a Danish--Swedish collaboration. Now it is opening for research.
Research and Markets has added a report titled, 'The Impacts of Nanotechnology on Companies: Policy Insights from Case Studies,' by OECD Publishing to its portfolio.
Exotic artificial composite materials called metamaterials can be engineered with certain electromagnetic properties that allows them to act as invisibility cloaks. These materials bend all light or other electromagnetic waves around an object hidden inside a metamaterial cloak, to emerge on the other side as if they had passed through an empty volume of space.
Research and development into new materials continues to expand to meet the wider ranging needs of current and emerging technological applications. There is a growing trend within academic and industrial research and development for off the shelf turn-key measurement solutions which combine ease of use with high level research functionality and measurement sensitivity.
Decades after the bullets have stopped flying, wars can leave behind a lingering danger: landmines that maim civilians and render land unusable for agriculture. Minefields are a humanitarian disaster throughout the world, and now researchers in Scotland have designed a new device that could more reliably sense explosives, helping workers to identify and deactivate unexploded mines.
The physical model to describe the hydrophobic interactions of molecules has been a mystery that has challenged scientists and engineers since the 19th century. Hydrophobic interactions are central to explaining why oil and water don't mix, how proteins are structured, and what holds biological membranes together.
Engineers in the CNST NanoFab have developed a new plasma etching technique for silicon which improves the etch rate, the mask selectivity, and the sidewall profile by optimizing the addition of argon to the process flow.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration's newly released sunscreen rules fail to meaningfully consider the risks posed by nanoscale ingredients, according to public interest groups including Friends of the Earth, The International Center for Technology Assessment and Consumers Union (ICTA).
Material scientists at ETH-Zürich are working on composite materials that mimic the structure of seashells. Such complex structures are produced using tiny magnetic particles which guide the composites' stiffer elements into place. This technique enables new technologies from durable coatings to stronger and lighter materials.
NanoInk's® NanoFabrication Systems Division has announced that it will launch its new force sensor and levelling devices at the Nanotech Conference and Expo, which is part of TechConnect World. NanoInk will also be presenting an oral paper on the technology behind the latest advancement of Dip Pen Nanolithography® (DPN®).
Carbon is the fourth-most-abundant element in the universe and takes on a wide variety of forms, called allotropes, including diamond and graphite. Scientists at Carnegie's Geophysical Laboratory are part of a team that has discovered a new form of carbon, which is capable of withstanding extreme pressure stresses that were previously observed only in diamond. This breakthrough discovery will be published in Physical Review Letters.
A nnovel hybrid carbon material, which combines both graphene and SWNTs, Graphene Nanoribbons encapsulated into Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes have been discovered by researchers from Aalto University and Umea University.
The eventual failure of metals, such as the aluminum in ships and airplanes, can often be blamed on breaks, or voids, in the material's atomic lattice. They're at first invisible, only microns in size, but once enough of them link up, the metal eventually splits apart.
Precision measurement in the world of nanoparticles has now become a possibility thanks to scientists at the University of California-Santa Barbara. The UCSB research team has developed a new instrument capable of detecting and analyzing individual nanoparticles with diameters as small as a few tens of nanometers.
Self-replication. If there's one thing that scifi has taught us it's that there's no possible situation where giving things that can't replicate the ability to do so is a good thing. Yet, against all our grey goo warnings, science has brought us one step closer.
The Ben Franklin Technology Development Authority has approved $3.15 million to be used for the University Research Commercialization Grant Program to support nanotechnology research and development activities.
For the first time, scientists have devised an invisibility cloak material that hides objects from detection using light that is visible to humans. The new device is a leap forward in cloaking materials, according to a report in the ACS journal Nano Letters ("A Carpet Cloak for Visible Light").
ISO/TS 80004-4:2011 gives terms and definitions for materials in the field of nanotechnologies where one or more components are nanoscale regions and the materials exhibit properties attributable to the presence of those nanoscale regions.
JEOL has developed a new generation of Energy Dispersive Spectrometer (EDS) for ultrafast, ultrasensitive collection of X-rays through analysis with its Scanning Transmission Electron Microscopes (S/TEM).
With a total measuring range of 0.01 -- 2000 µm in a single instrument, the Laser Particle Sizer ANALYSETTE 22 NanoTec plus is the ideal, universally applicable Laser Particle Sizer for the effective and reliable determination of particle size distributions in production and quality control as well as in research and development.
Asylum Research, the technology leader in scanning probe/atomic force microscopy (AFM/SPM), provides its full-function MFP-3D™ and Cypher™ Atomic Force Microscopes (AFMs) with superior capabilities which require no programming to perform advanced imaging and measurements. For more advanced, automated, and out-of-the-box experiments, Asylum also provides a user-driven programming language called IGOR.
Led by a group at the University of Maryland, a multi-institution team of researchers has combined modern materials research and an age-old metallurgy technique to produce an alloy that could be the basis for a new class of sensors and micromechanical devices controlled by magnetism.
Arizona State University researchers have created a new compound crystal material that promises to help produce advances in a range of scientific and technological pursuits.
Scientists at Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Oxford University and the University of Michigan have joined efforts to develop new materials for thermonuclear fusion reactors. Their research focuses on characterization of oxide dispersion-strengthened, reduced-activation steel for the reactor structure.
Researchers at the University of Sheffield have discovered a new way of making small molecules self-assemble into complex nanopatterns, which will push the limits of what is possible in `bottom-up´ methods of nanopatterning for advanced functional materials through molecular self-assembly.
A new class of x-ray photoelectron spectroscopic microscope has been developed at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory. The microscope will be used for advanced research on a wide range of technologically important materials systems.
A new type of X-ray microscope -- or more appropriately, nanoscope -- is another big breakthrough in the world of imaging the small. It computes images rather than glimpsing them directly, allowing scientists to see details at the nanoscale.
Researchers at Oregon State University have found a way to use magnetic "nanobeads" to help detect chemical and biological agents, with possible applications in everything from bioterrorism to medical diagnostics, environmental monitoring or even water and food safety.
Nanometrics Incorporated, a leading supplier of advanced metrology systems, today announced a new release of NanoCD™ Suite, a turnkey optical critical dimension (OCD) analysis solution with advanced modeling and recipe building capabilities. The suite, which is composed of high-performance software and hardware components, addresses process control requirements for semiconductor devices in production at 2x nm nodes and development at 1x nm nodes. The new product incorporates NanoDiffract™ 3.0, a proprietary OCD software engine broadly adopted by the world's leading memory and logic customers and production proven at 2x nm technology nodes.
In the latest issue of Elsevier's Materials Today, researchers from Spain and Belgium reported on the innovative use of carbon nanotubes to create mechanical components for use in a new generation of micro-machines. While the electronics industry has excelled in miniaturizing components, with individual elements approaching the nanoscale, reducing the size of mechanical systems has proved much more challenging.
An electrical engineer at the University at Buffalo, who previously demonstrated experimentally the "rainbow trapping effect" -- a phenomenon that could boost optical data storage and communications -- is now working to capture all the colors of the rainbow.
Back in 2008 we reported on nanotechnology solution for radioactive waste cleanup, specifically the use of titanate nanofibers as absorbents for the removal of radioactive ions from water. Now, the same group that developed these nanomaterials reports in a new study that the unique structural properties of titanate nanotubes and nanofibers make them superior materials for removal of radioactive cesium and iodine ions in water.
PI L.P. -- a leading manufacturer of nanopositioning stages and precision motion-control equipment for bio-medical, semiconductor, imaging and nanotechnology applications -- has released a new catalog on nanopositioning systems.
What kind of health, safety and environmental issues (HSE) know-how do we really need to manage the new substances now found in everything from our clothes to cosmetics and electronics? Are nanoparticles harmful to the environment -- or are these invisible particles safer than we think?
In the super-small world of nanostructures, a team of polymer scientists and engineers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst have discovered how to make nano-scale repairs to a damaged surface equivalent to spot-filling a scratched car fender rather than re-surfacing the entire part. The work builds on a theoretical prediction by chemical engineer and co-author Anna Balazs at the University of Pittsburgh.
A new Open Access book, "Advances in Nanocomposites: Synthesis, Characterization and Industrial Applications" has just been published on the InTechOpen reading platform.
The little yellow self-adhesive notes are common companions in daily office life; but they stick only to smooth surfaces such as paper, windows, mirrors or screens. Geckos, insects and spiders do even better: They stick to walls and ceilings and move along them. Hair-like fibrils covering their feet allow these animals to not only "stick" headfirst to glass and smooth surfaces but also move along walls with woodchip wallpaper due to the fact that the hair-like fibrils branch out further into even finer structures.
Archimedes Polymer Technologies (UK Ltd) and Brunel University, London have secured Technology Strategy Board Funding (TSB) to develop a new continuous flow process for separating and sorting commercially available carbon nanotubes and carbon nanomaterials.
The Dutch Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment has released a new document "Guidance working safely with nanomaterials and nanoproducts, the guide for employers and employees" (pdf).
This discovery will make it possible to improve photoelectrochemical cells. In the same way that plants use photosynthesis to transform sunlight into energy, these cells use sunlight to drive chemical reactions that ultimately produce hydrogen from water. The process involves using a light-sensitive semi-conducting material such as cuprous oxide to provide the current needed to fuel the reaction. Although it is not expensive, the oxide is unstable if exposed to light in water.
A new spin on an old technology will give scientists and manufacturers the ability to significantly increase their production of nanofibers, according to researchers at North Carolina State University.
Masaru Yoshida and Yoko Matsuzawa, Smart Materials Group, the Nanosystem Research Institute of the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), have developed a new dispersing agent that allows easy control of the isolated dispersion and aggregation states of single-wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) by UV irradiation, through the investigation of the molecular structures of agents.
Olympus has introduced FV10-ASW 3.0, the latest version of its software for the FluoView FV1000 range of confocal laser scanning microscopes (cLSM) and Fluoview FV1000MPE (multiphoton excitation) systems.
NEI Corporation announced today that it has completed initial development of a waterborne self-healing coating, Nanomyte® MEND-MW. The self-healing capability reduces end-user costs by minimizing the need for repairing and repainting damaged surfaces, extends the service life of the structure to which it is applied, and maintains the finish of the original painted surface. A coating that repairs itself benefits OEMs and end-users alike.
Dolomite, a world leader in the design and manufacture of microfluidic devices, has launched a new white paper addressing the challenges faced by engineers and scientists when working with microfluidic connections.
Designed to record bursts of images at an unprecedented speed of 4.5 million frames per second, an innovative X-ray camera being built with STFC's world-class engineering expertise will help a major new research facility shed light on the structure of matter.
More affordable and efficient solar cells, batteries and lighting systems could result from a new X-ray lens that will let scientists study the nanoscale in greater detail than ever before.
Nikon Corporation announced the NSR-S320F scanner delivering ultra-high productivity and superior overlay accuracy for the most challenging dry ArF layers. The S320F adopts the Streamlign Platform already employed globally and delivering optimal cost of ownership for NSR-S620D immersion scanners.
To lower the entry barriers to nanoimprint lithography for universities and R&D departments, NIL Technology (NILT) today announces the introduction of its new Compact Nanoimprint Tool (CNI Tool). The CNI Tool is a compact thermal nanoimprint lithography tool that does not require any fixed lab installation. It is easy to use and the CNI Tool has a performance that is comparable to other commercially available nanoimprint tools, thereby providing access to fast replication of nanostructures with only a small investment.
The National Institute of Standards and Technology has announced that it is accepting proposals for funding for a broad range of potential research projects and related activities that support the institute's measurement science and engineering programs.
Distantly related to the soot in your fireplace or in a candle flame, nanotube-laden soot is the primary industrial source of single-wall carbon nanotubes, perhaps the archetype of all nanoscale materials.
Researchers at Northwestern University have introduced a novel technique to create rapid prototypes of nanoscale structures and devices using a print head that is so cost-effective that it can be even disposed after process completion.
Delicate and translucent as a puff of air, yet mechanically stable, flexible, and possessing amazing heat-insulation properties--these are the properties of a new aerogel made of cellulose and silica gel. Researchers led by Jie Cai have introduced this novel material.
Reflecting its worldwide leadership in the search for new computing technologies, the University of Notre Dame has received two of 12 prestigious grants for cutting-edge nanoelectronics research that were awarded recently by the Semiconductor Research Corporation's Nanoelectronics Research Initiative (SRC-NRI) and the National Science Foundation.
Researchers at the University of Nottingham are developing a novel method of analyzing and creating molecules that could lead to the production of novel nanomaterials for applications in ultrafast and ultra-compact data storage devices and computers.
Researchers from imec and the University of Michigan present a method that for the first time allows the stacking of sequentially folded CNT micro-architectures. Arrays of such structures with a great variety of lateral dimensions can be fabricated in close proximity on the same substrate, thus enabling integration of heterogeneous architectures in a scalable way.
Radhakrishna Sureshkumar, who serves as chair and professor of biomedical and chemical engineering at L.C. Smith College of Engineering and Computer Science of Syracuse University, has created a patent-pending innovative method for the production of stable metal nanoparticle suspensions that can capture sunlight.
Gram for gram, novel carbon nanofiber-filled coatings devised by researchers from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and Texas A&M University outperformed conventional flame retardants used in the polyurethane foam of upholstered furniture and mattresses by at least 160 percent and perhaps by as much as 1,130 percent.
Researchers have discovered self-assembly technologies that make nanoparticles to arrange themselves in a controlled manner resulting in unique materials with distinct transport, mechanical, optical and electrical properties.
In the quest to exploit unique properties at the nanoscale, scientists at Stevens Institute of Technology have developed a novel technique for creating uniform arrays of metallic nanostructures. A team of faculty and students in the Department of Physics and Engineering Physics, led by Dr. Stefan Strauf, appropriated methods from holographic lithography to demonstrate a new approach for scaling up the fabrication of plasmonic nanogap arrays while simultaneously reducing costs and infrastructure. A paper on the technique recently appeared in Nano Letters.
Novellus Systems has launched its ALTUS Max ExtremeFill process solution to address tungsten fill applications, which require step coverage of more than 100%. The ExtremeFill process is carried out in a novel EFx process module to enhance the present ALTUS Max' technology and fill capacity.
In Uzhevsk, in the Republic of Udmurtia, RUSNANO project company NPC Springs has launched its first line for producing of ultrastrength springs. The manufacturing process employs unique Russian technology. The springs are used in suspension mounts for automobiles and agricultural equipment, railroad cars, energy complexes, and elevator systems.
The agencies participating in the National Nanotechnology Initiative appreciate the National Research Council's recently released report. It is unfortunate that the NRC report was already completed and in peer review when the NNI released its EHS Research Strategy in October 2011, which precluded the NRC from considering the NNI's strategy in its deliberations.
The National Science Foundation (NSF) yestertoday announced awards for three Materials Interdisciplinary Research Teams (MIRT) and nine Centers of Excellence in Materials Research and Innovation, also known as Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers (MRSEC). The awards resulted from the 2011 Materials Research Centers and Teams competition (solicitation NSF 10-568).
Recognizing that some of the leading scientists and engineers involved in soft matter research are located in the Research Triangle Park area, the National Science Foundation has provided a six-year, $13.6 million grant to establish a multi-university center to investigate aspects of this promising area of scientific endeavor.
The National Science Foundation (NSF) has committed $417,822 to continue funding UC Santa Barbara's innovative Internships in Nanosystems Science, Engineering and Technology (INSET) program.
The Cullen College of Engineering of the University of Houston has received a $429,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to finance 'Innovations in Nanotechnology', a research experience for teachers (RET) program.
Nano Science and Technology Consortium (NSTC), India offers various nanotechnology training programs for professionals, students, and industries that require knowledge in the field of nanotechnology. NSTC offers many domain specific programs.
To address the increasing activity of NT-MDT Co. on the US and world markets of scanning probe microscopy equipment, the company has invited the experienced AFM developers and practitioners: Sergei Magonov, John Alexander and Sergey Belikov to form the research unit NT-MDT Development in Tempe, Arizona.
The first half-year 2011 has passed and after adding up the results of its activity, NT-MDT can announce that it was a very successful period for the company. The sales volume for SPM equipment almost doubled as compared to the same period of the previous year.
Dr. Sergey Magonov - a recognized authority of scanning probe microscopy and a world-wide renowned scientist - prepared a special scientific workshop "Visualization of surfaces with the extreme resolution and study of local mechanical and electrical properties".
NT-MDT will hold a workshop on high resolution visualization and quantitative studies of local surface properties with AFM, topics will include insight on techniques related to Kelvin Force Microscopy and dielectric measurements, nanomechanical studies and AFM Confocal Raman.
The New York State Board of Regents has unanimously approved the merger of the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering (CNSE) of the University at Albany and CNSE's Smart System Technology & Commercialization Center of Excellence (STC) in Canandaigua, the final step in a consolidation that will establish the first inter-regional partnership of its kind in New York state and spur nanotechnology-enabled research, workforce development and economic growth in Western New York.
Today, at Carnegie Mellon University, President Obama launched the Advanced Manufacturing Partnership (AMP), a national effort bringing together industry, universities, and the federal government to invest in the emerging technologies that will create high quality manufacturing jobs and enhance our global competitiveness. Investing in technologies, such as information technology, biotechnology, and nanotechnology, will support the creation of good jobs by helping U.S. manufacturers reduce costs, improve quality, and accelerate product development.
Obducat, leading manufacturer of lithography solutions based on nanoimprint lithography and electron beam lithography, has signed a joint development agreement with Kimberley-Clark Corporation.
Ocean Optics has named the Phase I winners of its first Blue Ocean Grants and Challenges, an open innovation program seeking novel ideas and technologies with the ultimate potential to change the world for the better and eventual market commercialization. The quantity of quality applications was so impressive that the company issued more grants than planned and created an additional category of developmental grants.
Ocean Thin Films now offers its patented PixelTec™ patterned optical coating technology applied to Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) thin films. This pioneering lithographic patterning of optical coatings produces sharp features while maintaining the high quality performance of sputtered ITO coatings, ideal for precision electro-optic devices requiring optically transparent films that are electrically conductive.
Olympus today launched the latest version of its highly successful Olympus Stream materials science microscopy imaging software family at booth 1512 in hall 1 at Control, Stuttgart. Olympus Stream 1.6 provides a number of new and improved features, which not only increase workflow efficiency, but also enhance the overall capabilities of the software. Olympus Stream 1.6 is now compatible with the Microsoft Windows 7, 64 bit, operating system, making it fully compatible with all new computer systems. Users will also benefit from a number of new solution modules, including: layer thickness measurement; cast iron analysis; and non-metallic inclusion rating in steel. These optional modules enable users to build a system to precisely match their application needs and provide a customised workflow to suite any materialographic analysis.
The problem exists on both a large and a small scale, and it even bothered the ancient Egyptians. However, although physicists have long had a good understanding of friction in things like stone blocks being pulled by workers into the shape of a pyramid, they have only now been able to explain friction in microscopic dimensions in any degree of detail.
The question of how many polyhedral nanocrystals of silver can be packed into millimeter-sized supercrystals may not be burning on many lips but the answer holds importance for one of today's hottest new high-tech fields -- plasmonics! Researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory may have opened the door to a simpler approach for the fabrication of plasmonic materials by inducing polyhedral-shaped silver nanocrystals to self-assemble into three-dimensional supercrystals of the highest possible density.
Online courses covering the fundamentals of nanotechnology will be offered beginning in 2012 by the science portal nanoHUB, the national Network for Computational Nanotechnology and Purdue University.
Journal Science has awarded the Science Prize for Online Resources in Education (SPORE) award to an online project that enables students across the country to gain access to a very powerful electron microscope.
Magneto-optical effects, which exploit the interaction between light and magnetic materials, have only been relevant for fundamental research and up to now rarely used for applications. Plasmons -- electronic excitations in metals with dimensions at the nanoscale -- recently opened a new way to concentrate light at nanoscale. This allows plasmonic circuits to be built with electrical as well as optical control at this dimension scale.
University of Illinois researchers have shown that by tuning the properties of laser light illuminating arrays of metal nanoantennas, these nano-scale structures allow for dexterous optical tweezing as well as size-sorting of particles.
Even tiny concentrations of nanoparticles can have a very large effect on the properties of a material. Carbon nanotubes, for example, can increase electrical conductivity by up to a million times when present at only 0.5wt% (percent by weight). However, these nanoparticles need to be evenly spaced throughout a material to accomplish such changes, and it is therefore important to accurately measure both particle content and particle distribution.
One of the oldest and most important scientific instruments ever invented is the optical microscope. Some people use microscopes to examine small animals, such as flies and ants, while others use them to study even tinier objects, such as cells and tissues. Due to diffraction, however, the highest resolution that an optical microscope can achieve has been limited to a few hundred nanometers. Now, Boris Luk'yanchuk at the A*STAR's Data Storage Institute and co-workers have discovered a simple way to push the resolution of an optical microscope beyond the diffraction limit. Using micrometer-sized quartz spheres, they have demonstrated the possibility of imaging down to 50 nanometers ("Optical virtual imaging at 50 nm lateral resolution with a white-light nanoscope").
Oxford Instruments plc, a leading provider of high technology tools and systems for industry and research, announces the acquisition of Omicron NanoTechnology GmbH (together with its subsidiaries, Omicron and Omniprobe, Inc).
Oxford Instruments Magnetic Resonance (OIMR) and Green Imaging Technologies, Inc. (GIT) have announced an agreement to establish a strategic partnership to bring complete cutting edge Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) solutions to the core analysis community. The partnership will open opportunities for NMR core analysis to be used by technicians with no specialist NMR knowledge or training and make special core analysis routine.
Oxford Instruments Plasma Technology has been awarded The Queen's Award for Enterprise: International Trade for more than doubling its overseas earnings over six years of sustained growth, and exporting over 90% of its production.
Oxford Nanopore Technologies, Ltd announces the expansion of its Oxford headquarters and the opening of a new Oxford Nanopore informatics outstation in Cambridge, UK.
Junrong Zheng's techniques to see the fine details of how molecules interact have earned the young Rice University scientist a highly prestigious Packard Fellowship.
Interactions between nanoparticles and filter media is the topic of a recent research study conducted by Lewis University (Romeoville, IL) in collaboration with Pall Corporation. The findings of the study will be presented by Pall at the International Conference on Planarization/CMP Technology (ICPT), Nov. 9-11 in Seoul, Korea. The conference is an international forum for academic researchers, industrial practitioners and engineers from around the world for the exchange of information on research in chemical mechanical planarization (CMP) technology.
PANalytical, a leading supplier of analytical X-ray instrumentation, services and software, has relocated its X-ray tube manufacturing to a new factory in Eindhoven, The Netherlands. PANalytical is the only supplier of analytical X-ray systems that also develops and produces its own X-ray tubes, which are an essential part of the instrumentation. The ultramodern Eindhoven facility has been built to further strengthen and exploit this technological advantage.
Park Systems has introduced the NX10, the world's most accurate AFM, as the flagship AFM of its new product line. Now available worldwide, the NX10 brings unparalleled imaging accuracy, scan speeds, and tip life to the next generation of researchers, all at an affordable price.
Particle & Surface Sciences launches the NanoSight NTA device for characterizing nanoparticles with the LM-10. NanoSight explains that global research firms studies emerging processes to determine the performance of nanomaterials characterization quantitatively.
PharmaEngine and Merrimack Pharmaceuticals recently signed an agreement, under the terms of which PharmaEngine grants Merrimack the rights to design, produce and sell PEP02 (MM-398) across Asia and Europe, excepting Taiwan.
New Renaissance Institute, a Belmont, California-based for-profit interdisciplinary research and development organization, has declared that it has sold numerous molecular electronics patent assets, which cover important fields concerning the future of commercial carbon nanotube, graphene ribbon and semiconducting polymer nanoelectronics fabrication, to an undisclosed buyer in August 2011.
Two patent analysis reports released this year ranked Angstron Materials and Nanotek Instruments' co-founders Dr. Bor Jang and Dr. Aruna Zhamu among the top five in the world for their development of intellectual property publications for graphene. Gridlogics, a patent analytics solutions specialist that publishes Patent iNSIGHT Pro, looked at how activity around the IP publication trend for graphene has evolved and ranked the key players for the market.
The development of polymer nanostructures and nanoscale devices for a wide variety of applications could emerge from new information about the interplay between nanoscale interfaces in polymeric materials, thanks to research carried out at the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science's Advanced Photon Source (APS) at Argonne National Laboratory.
The world's premier society of materials scientists and engineers has announced the winners of several distinguished awards that honor science and service in a fast-moving field that shapes our daily lives.
The School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS) at the University of Pennsylvania seeks to build interdisciplinary faculty clusters of eminence at the forefront of nanotechnology. In anticipation of the opening of the $100M Krishna P. Singh Center for Nanotechnology, a premier facility that integrates state-of-the-art nanocharacterization and nanofabrication facilities, numerous hires will comprehensively span forefront measurement, novel phenomena, innovative devices, and integrated systems. Successful candidates will be expected to couple with existing resources to synergistically build new areas of international impact.
The National Science Foundation (NSF) has selected a University of Pennsylvania team as a member of its inaugural class of NSF Innovation Corps awards. The I-Corps Awards recognize research that has the potential for commercial applications and connects scientists to entrepreneurial resources.
Pepric, a spin-off of imec, successfully concluded a EURO 1.4 million capital round. This financial injection will be used for the commercialization of Pepric's ex-vivo molecular analysis tool and the development of the following generation of in-vivo imagers.
A consultancy providing market and research services to life science, Percepta Associates has launched a new market research report titled "2011 Flow Cytometry Series 1 Life Science Dashboard."
Until more information becomes available on the mechanisms underlying nanomaterial toxicity, it is uncertain what measurement technique should be used to monitor exposures in the workplace. Current research indicates that mass and bulk chemistry may be less important than particle size and shape, surface area, and surface chemistry (or activity) for some nanostructured materials.
At the end of the 90s, Spain did not have any institutional framework nor initiative pointed towards the support and promotion of R&D in Nanotechnology. This fact pushed the scientific community to promote several initiatives to strengthen research in Nanotechnology and, at the same time, to raise the awareness of Public Administration and industry about the need to support this emergent field. In parallel, numerous companies dedicated to N&N arouse, many of them spin-offs emerging from research centers.
Photo Stencil, which offers superior-performance tooling and stencils, has added an advanced chemical etching production line to its stencil production facility in Malaysia.
For the twentieth year, Photonex 2011 will be run as a combined exhibition and technical conference for those working in optics, photonic and imaging technology. It is the UK's largest exhibition of these technologies and attracts an audience from all parts of the world with 15 countries represented in 2010. After last year's success, Vacuum Expo 2011 will be run in parallel with Photonex to provide an excellent mix of synergistic tools and techniques for the visitor.
Surface plasmon resonance--the collective vibration of electrons on the surface of metallic nanostructures in response to excitation with light or charge--has recently gained much attention from the scientific community because of its wide range of possible applications, particularly in photonics.
Among the various remarkable properties of graphene that have attracted the attention of scientists and engineers is its high optical transparency in single sheet form. In suspension, however, graphene and its derivatives, such as carbon nanotubes and carbon black, begin to block light as the fluence of light increases. This optical limiting effect also has its applications, but so far the effect has only been realized at very high light fluences.
Light and electric current can both be used for computing, albeit with key differences. Whereas conventional computers do logic through the movement of electrons, newer and faster computers called quantum computers perform the same job using single particles of light, known as photons.
Research into the most sensitive measurement of force yet recorded has earned University of Sydney physicist Dr Michael Biercuk, of the School of Physics' Quantum Science Group, the National Measurement Institute Prize for excellence in measurement techniques by a scientist under 35.
A University of Arkansas physicist has received the largest award granted to an individual researcher from the Army Research Laboratory to search for a novel class of nanomaterials with rationally designed properties.
In solid materials with regular atomic structures, figuring out weak points where the material will break under stress is relatively easy. But for disordered solids, like glass or sand, their disordered nature makes such predictions much more daunting tasks.
In experiments with ultracold lithium atoms, physicists from Heidelberg have succeeded in preparing a tunable few-body system in a reproducible way. This "designer atom" can help to enhance our understanding of fundamental few-body systems in nature because of its high degree of tunability, including both the number of constituents and their interparticle interaction. The experiments were conducted by scientists from Heidelberg University and the Max-Planck-Institut für Kernphysik headed by Prof. Dr. Selim Jochim (Institute of Physics). The research results have now been published in Science ("Deterministic Preparation of a Tunable Few-Fermion System").
The University of California, Riverside physicists have found a new approach to generate positronium, an atom with a short lifespan, to help solve queries related to antimatter in the universe such as why nature preferred matter over antimatter when the universe was created.
Tiny components with the ability to emit single particles of light are important for various technological innovations. Physicists of the Universities of Würzburg, Stuttgart and Ulm have made significant progress in the fabrication of such structures.
UC San Diego physicists have invented a new type of lens-less X-ray microscope capable of penetrating deep into materials and allow viewing of minuscule details at 1 nm scale or one billionth of a meter.
Forschungszentrum Jülich's physicists in collaboration with the universities of Hamburg and Kiel have developed radial spiral magnetic structures on the material surface rather than inside bulk materials.
University of Notre Dame nuclear physicists Philippe Collon and Michael Wiescher are using accelerated ion beams to pinpoint the age and origin of material used in pottery, painting, metalwork and other art. The results of their tests can serve as powerful forensic tools to reveal counterfeit art work, without the destruction of any sample as required in some chemical analysis.
Tom Flores, a junior majoring student in physics is actively involved in research work in developing tiny carbon nanotubes. The carbon nanotubes that Flores is trying to develop have diameters of 1 to 5 nm.
Piezo and nanopositioning technologiy market leader PI (Physik Instrumente) recently acquired a majority share of micro-positioning / motion control specialist miCos GmbH in Eschbach, Germany.
Angelo Gaitas, President of PicoCal Inc., announces the completion of PicoCal's SBIR Phase II NSF grant Award No. 0822810, which resulted in a number of breakthrough innovations in high throughput scanning probe microscopy, thermomechanical analysis, and mechanical properties analysis. Angelo Gaitas said that: "PicoCal Inc. continues to innovate and grow. Our new patented technologies eliminate the need for complicated electronics, and therefore reduce overall system costs and make parallel probes a reality. Right now we are in discussions with larger instrumentation companies to bring our recent breakthroughs to market."
Picosun Oy, Finland-based global manufacturer of state-of-the-art Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) equipment, reports successful process for preparation of gold thin films with plasma-enhanced ALD (PEALD) method first time in the world. Gold films were grown in Picosun's SUNALE™ ALD reactor equipped with the same company's Picoplasma™ plasma source system on top of ruthenium underlayers, from precursor chemicals developed and synthesized by Prof. Sean Barry and Ph.D. student Jason Coyle from Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada.
Picosun Oy, Finland-based global manufacturer of state-of-the-art Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) equipment, expands its already comprehensive participation in both nationally and internationally funded, top-level scientific research programs by entering four new projects, topics of which range from advanced nanotechnological materials to novel, innovative ways to produce pollution-free renewable energy.
Picosun Oy, Finland-based global manufacturer of state-of-the-art Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) equipment, introduces renewed, next generation PICOPLATFORM™ ALD cluster tool for integrated circuits (IC) industry applications. Updated version of the fully automated cluster system has already been selected by customers on three continents this year. Existing users keep on praising the excellent film uniformity, low particle levels, high throughput, flexibility, easy usability and maintenance and small footprint of the systems, enabling smooth and cost-effective transition from R&&D to production - characteristic of all Picosun's products.
PI (Physik Instrumente) L.P. -- a leading manufacturer of precision motion control systems -- has released a higher-precision version of its M-660 low profile rotary table.
The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded Northwestern University a six-year, $16.2 million grant for support of the Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC), one of the oldest interdisciplinary research centers in the nation.
The importance that intracellular pH plays in cell biology is highlighted in a new paper published by the American Chemical Society. It reports the engineering of the first ratiometric, single-protein red fluorescent sensor of pH, called pHRed, and its use to image intracellular pH in live neuronal cells.
The Pittcon 2012 Program Committee is pleased to announce the recipients of 11 prestigious awards honoring scientists who have made outstanding contributions to analytical chemistry and applied spectroscopy. Each award will be presented during a symposium at Pittcon 2012, March 11-15, at the Orange County Convention Center, Orlando, Florida.
Pixelligent, LLC, an innovator in manufacturing nanocrystal additives for the electronics, industrial and military markets, announced today that it has closed $5.1 million in funding. The round was six times over-subscribed and the board significantly upsized the round to make room for the increased demand.
Picosun, a Finland-based global developer of Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) systems, has started manufacturing plasma enhanced ALD (PEALD) systems from 'ion-free remote plasma sources.
The scientist who developed the world's most sensitive spectrometer for identifying atoms on a material's surface came to Lehigh recently to give a talk at the only U.S. lab that is equipped with his cutting-edge instrument.
A policy conference called, Nanotechnology: the Huge Challenge of Regulating Tiny Technologies that was hosted at the National Press Club in Washington recently, discussed the problems related to regulating nanotechnologies and it was attended by representatives from public, private and academic segments.
The present legal regulations have allowed the Institute of Physical Chemistry of the Polish Academy Sciences in Warsaw to take up shares in Scope Fluidics, a young spin-off company developing innovative microfluidic technologies.
Polymer nanocomposites represent a new class of multiphase materials containing dispersion of nano-sized filler materials such as nanoparticles, nanoclays, nanotubes, nanofibers etc. within the polymer matrices. Owing to their nanoscale size features and very high surface-to-volume ratios, they possess unique combination of multifunctional properties not shared by their more conventional composite counterparts reinforced with micro-sized fillers.
Polymers are convenient instruments for producing mechanical motion at the microscale through their ability to change shape and orientation in response to electric fields, heat and light. Mixing magnetic materials into the polymers also makes it possible for them to respond to magnetic fields. However, the types of motion achievable using these stimuli have so far been restricted to simple movements such as bending, rotation and linear translation.
Precitech, a global leader in ultra precision manufacturing, now offers the UPx Remote Device Interface –a powerful suite of approximately 100 commands that open up a host of new possibilities for data sharing and process automation of Precitech's ultra precision machine tools.
The International Aviation and Space Salon MAKS 2011 was the backdrop for signing an agreement among RUSNANO, United Aircraft Corporation, Holding Company Composite, and All-Russian Scientific Research Institute of Aviation Materials (VIAM). Chief executives of the organizations--RUSNANO CEO Anatoly Chubais, UAC President Mikhail Pogosyan, Composite CEO Leonid Melamed, and VIAM Director General Evgeny Kablov--were on hand for signing ceremonies.
The Belgian Presidency of the Council of the European Union organized a high level event on September 14, 2010, bringing together representatives of various associations, scientists, regulatory experts as well as national and European regulatory bodies, in order to review the legislative initiatives in progress with regard to nanomaterials and to establish an operational framework for the management of incidents in the short term and to achieve improved risk management in the long term.
A RUSNANO-cofinanced project to expand production of air purification systems that surpass current domestic and foreign competitors has gotten underway. The project has a total budget of 580 million rubles. RUSNANO will co-invest 261 million rubles in its realization.
If materials scientists accompanied their research with theme songs, a team from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the University of Maryland (UMD) might be tempted to choose the garage punk song "Don't Crowd Me" as the anthem for the promising, but still experimental nanocomposite fire retardants they are studying.
In order to exploit the particular material properties that appear at the nanoscale, it is first necessary to fabricate materials with nanoscale structures in a controlled and repeatable fashion.
The huge economic impact of the corrosion of metallic structures is a very important issue for all modern societies. Estimates for the cost of corrosion degradation run to about €200 billion a year in Europe and over $270 billion a year in the U.S. The annual cost of corrosion consists of both direct costs and indirect costs.
Researchers provide guidelines for technology transfer, intellectual property rules and license agreements in the development of nanotechnology projects.
By focusing proton beams using high-intensity lasers, a team of scientists have discovered a new way to heat material and create new states of matter in the laboratory.
Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have created a tunable superconducting circuit on a chip that can place a single microwave photon (particle of light) in two frequencies, or colors, at the same time.
The International Center for Technology Assessment welcomes the findings of a new report by an expert panel yesterday, which concluded that despite the surge of nanomaterials in the marketplace, not enough is known about their potential health and environmental risks.
Puralytics, a photochemical water purification product provider using light-stimulated nanotechnology, has declared that its 3 l water purifier, SolarBag is the first-ever non-chemical, non-powered system to satisfy U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) standards for water purification equipment.
Working with the Universities of East Anglia, York and Nottingham and using nanotechnology 100,000 times smaller than the thickness of a human hair, the researchers are working on harnessing the vast energy of the Sun to produce clean fuel.
QD Vision, Inc. today announced that it was recently awarded a development contract by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to advance their quantum dot-based infrared (IR) materials and deliver two prototype devices. The $900,000 award is for an extensive 12-month research and development effort.
QD Vision, Inc., developer of nanotechnology-based optical products for displays and solid state lighting, today announced it has relocated to a new, high-volume production facility in Lexington, Massachusetts to support new products launching in 2012.
QD Vision, Inc., developer of nanotechnology-based optical products for displays and solid state lighting, today announced it has received the 2011 SEMI Award for North America for its pioneering work to commercialize quantum dot (QD) technology.
QD Vision, a developer and producer of optical products based on nanotechnology, has moved to a new production facility situated in Lexington, Massachusetts to facilitate launch of new products in 2012.
This Webinar is the second in a series addressing the proper analysis of physisorption isotherms in order to obtain an accurate and comprehensive surface and pore size/volume characterization of nanoporous materials.
Just as a camera flash illuminates unseen objects hidden in darkness, a sequence of laser pulses can be used to study the elusive quantum behavior of a large "macroscopic" object. This method provides a novel tool of unprecedented performance for current experiments that push the boundaries of the quantum world to larger and larger scales. A collaboration of scientists led by researchers from the Vienna Center for Quantum Science and Technology (VCQ) at the University of Vienna report this new scheme in the forthcoming issue of PNAS ("Pulsed quantum optomechanics").
The researchers' work has implications for future quantum devices that require smoothly-guided matter waves, such as atom interferometers which need to sensitively measure the earth's gravitational field for geo-exploration.
Are there parallel universes? And how will we know? This is one of many fascinations people hold about quantum physics. Researchers from the universities of Calgary and Waterloo in Canada and the University of Geneva in Switzerland have published a paper this week in Physical Review Letters explaining why we don't usually see the physical effects of quantum mechanics.
Quantum computing--considered the powerhouse of computational tasks--may have applications in areas outside of pure electronics, according to a University of Pittsburgh researcher and his collaborators.
Researchers in the Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering at UCL have collaborated with the London Centre for Nanotechnology to introduce silicon-based information technology solutions at high speeds.
There’s not a ton of oxygen in space. Because of this, we have to rethink how we go about doing the things that we take for granted here on Earth, like defense against an incoming missile. Back in 2007, China tested the first ASAT (Anti-Satellite missile) against one of it’s own dead satellites; it was a resounding success.
Physicists from the University of Würzburg have used special nanostructures known as quantum dots in microlasers to trigger chaos in the light emission process. This can become a new and safe method to transmit data in the future.
Netherlands based Access2Flow Consortium and Quantum Materials, have developed a continuous manufacturing process for the bulk production of its quantum dots and tetrapod quantum dots.
Quantum communication could be an option for the absolutely secure transfer of data. The key component in quantum communication over long distances is the special phenomenon called entanglement between two atomic systems. Entanglement between two atomic systems is very fragile and up until now researchers have only been able to maintain the entanglement for a fraction of a second. But in new experiments at the Niels Bohr Institute researchers have succeeded in setting new records and maintaining the entanglement for up to an hour. The results are published in the scientific journal Physical Review Letters.
manufactures leading metallic nanopowders for breakthrough propellants, munitions and other energetic applications in the aerospace, defense, automotive, energy and other markets demanding advanced material applications.
Engineering researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have developed a new method for creating advanced nanomaterials that could lead to highly efficient refrigerators and cooling systems requiring no refrigerants and no moving parts. The key ingredients for this innovation are a dash of nanoscale sulfur and a normal, everyday microwave oven.
Optical techniques enable us to examine single molecules, but do we really understand what we are seeing? After all, the fuzziness caused by effects such as light interference makes these images very difficult to interpret.
The rapidly accelerating use of nanoparticles in consumer products is causing considerable concern because of known and documented health problems associated with exposure of humans to some particulate materials and because nanoparticles have been proven to be able to penetrate biological barriers and cellular structures in a way that larger particles cannot. Thus, various initiatives are now being taken to address the question of safety of nanoparticles, and the study of the toxic potential of nanoparticles has given rise to the field of "nanotoxicology".
Scientists from the University of Sheffield have developed pigment-free, intensely coloured polymer materials, which could provide new, anti-counterfeit devices on passports or banknotes due to their difficulty to copy.
CRAIC Technologies has developed the new CRAIC Apollo™ Raman microspectrometer . This unit is designed to be used either in a standalone configuration or it can be added to a CRAIC Technologies UV-visible-NIR microspectrophotometer to enhance its capabilities with Raman microspectroscopy. When added to a unit such as the 20/20 PV™ microspectrophotometer, the CRAIC Apollo™ gives you an additional powerful tool for molecular spectroscopy on the micron scale.
Research and Markets has added a book called "Raman Spectroscopy in Graphene Related Systems" to their offering. This book was published by John Wiley and Sons. Recent studies have proved that Raman spectroscopy can play a vital role in the development of nanometrology and nanoscience.
Going hand in hand with the rise of research funding and commercial investment into nanotechnology, publishers are not standing by idle -- they keep rolling out journals, magazines, newsletter, and book series dedicated wholly or primarily to nanosciences and nanotechnologies.
RASIRC®, the steam purification company, announced that the company was both an exhibitor and presenter on the topic "Metals-Reject Efficiency of Steam Purification Membrane" at the recent SiliconPV conference held April 17-20, 2011 in Freiburg, Germany. The RASIRC poster presentation highlighted the importance of ultra high purity steam to wet thermally grown oxide layers and how it can enhance light capture and reduce recombination rates.
Rainbow Biosciences, a division of Rainbow Coral Corp., announced today that it has begun due diligence toward a potential acquisition or joint venture with n3D Biosciences, Inc., the developers of a revolutionary nanoparticle cell-growth technology.
Final reports have been published from two REACH Implementation Projects on Nanomaterials. Commissioned by the JRC's Institute for Health & Consumer Protection, the projects intended to develop specific advice on the implementation of REACH for nanomaterials. The outputs from the projects have been developed over a period of 12-16 months in consultation with a range of stakeholders.
Research and Markets has added a new report titled "Nanotechnology Applications for Clean Water Solutions for Improving Water Quality" to their offering.
Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Savannah River National Laboratory have successfully shown that they can replace useful little particles of monosodium titanate with even tinier nano-sized particles, making them even more useful for a variety of applications.
Nanoinformatics 2011 will bring together informatics experts, nanotechnology researchers, and other stakeholders and potential contributors to advance Nanoinformatics 2020 Roadmap goals. The workshop will set a clear path for Nanoinformatics participants through the presentation of projects and research, open discussions, and strategic planning sessions.
Reinste Nano Ventures Private Limited located at DELHI, INDIA announces supply of high grade of various kind of Nano Precipitated Calcium Carbonate to Paints, Rubber, Plastics, Sealant Industries in India.
Soft matters maintain their structures via weak interactions, such as Van der Waals, capillary, hydrogen bonds etc. The entropy plays a key role in the ordering of this kind of materials. They behave as a solid until a sufficiently large stress is applied, and then behave as a viscoelastic liquid.
Reportlinker.com has released a new research report to its catalogue titled Nanobiotechnology: Applications and Global Markets. The total demand for nanobiotechnology products was $19.3 billion in 2010.
Research and Markets has added a report, Nanosilver Markets 2011, to its offering. According to this report, nanosilver irrespective of the form it is in such as nanostructure, ink or powder provides all features offered by industrial silver with a superior performance level.
Online research website Research and Markets has released a report titled "The 2011-2016 World Outlook for Nanotechnology" from ICON Group International.
Research and Markets has added a report titled "Nanomaterials Market in the US" to its catalogue. The US is a market leader for nanomaterials. By 2018, it is anticipated that traditional nanomaterials such as polymers will generate the majority of demand in the nation.
According to a study conducted at the University at Buffalo, it has been discovered that quantum dots manufactured from selenium and cadmium decompose in soil and release harmful selenium and cadmium ions into the environment.
Occupational health and safety expert of the Southeastern Louisiana University is citing the gap in knowledge for state agencies to regulate the use of nanomaterials. Precautionary measures have to be taken to deal with safety and health problems that arise owing to usage of nanomaterials of dimensions smaller than the width of a human hair.
Current advanced femtosecond laser systems offer myriad possibilities to modify materials, from implementing new optical functionality to improving existing materials properties. Femtosecond direct laser writing exhibits enormous potential in the development of a new generation of powerful components in 3-D for micro-optics, telecommunications, optical data storage, imaging, micro-fluidics, and biophotonics at the micro- and nanoscale.
Light-matter interaction at the nanometer scale has turned into a very fast-growing field of research known as nano-optics. To highlight breakthroughs in the specific areas of nano-optics known as nanoplasmonics and metamaterials, the editors of the Optical Society's open-access journal Optical Materials Express have published a special Focus Issue on Nanoplasmonics and Metamaterials.
companiesandmarkets.com has included a research report on photonic crystals market titled 'Photonic Crystals: Materials, Technologies and Global Markets' to its list of reports.
Research and Markets has recently added the Microscopy Market in Latin America report to their catalog. In 2009, Latin America signified 4.3% of the global microscopy instruments market, which is expected to touch $173,932 thousand over the coming five years at a CAGR of 11.4%.
The 'World Microscopy Market: Products, Applications and Forecasts (2010 -2015)' investigates and observes the key market drivers, opportunities, and challenges in regions such as Europe, North America, Asia, and other countries worldwide.
Crystal Research Associates has released the first exclusive research report titled 'Nanotechnology & the Built Environment: the Transition to Green Infrastructure' for the clients of Livingston Securities as part of a partnership between the two companies.
Imagine if instead of relying on special x-ray or electrical current testing technology to find really tiny cracks in the skin that covers an airplane, microcapsules filled with easily detected materials could be rolled around on their surface, stopping here and there to fill such cracks automatically so that they could then be easily found using a simple black light.
A team of researchers from the Helmholtz Institute Mainz (HIM) and the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) along with their colleagues from Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics, Heidelberg and GSI Helmholtz Center for Heavy Ion Research, Darmstadt, measured the magnetic properties of a single proton. For the first time, they observed spin quantum-jumps of a trapped proton.
A research team comprising members from two government research institutes, five universities and a private firm has secured a Department of Defense Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative grant to incorporate superior qualities found in single and two-dimensional nanomaterials into three dimensions.
A professor of the Chemistry and Pharmacology department at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU) Munich, Achim Hartschuh has received a Starting Grant from the European Research Council (ERC).
Tobias J. Osborne, who serves as a Professor of theoretical physics at the Leibniz Universitat Hannover's Institute for Theoretical Physics and the Cluster of Excellence, has received a €1.34 million grant for the coming five years from the European Research Council (ERC) for his project titled 'Quantum Field Theory, the Variational Principle, and Continuous Matrix Product States'.
According to concrete specialist at Stevens Institute of Technology, Jon Belkowitz, the cracking and eroding of concrete structures can be prevented using his research on chemical reactions taking place in concrete at the nanoscale level.
Scientists at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute are working to optimize a promising new nanomaterial called nanoblades for use in hydrogen storage. During their testing of the new material, they have discovered that it can store and release hydrogen extremely fast and at low temperatures compared to similar materials. Another important aspect of the new material is that it is also rechargeable. These attributes could make it ideal for use in onboard hydrogen storage for next-generation hydrogen or fuel cell vehicles.
Water and ice may not be among the first things that come to mind when you think about single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs), but a Japan-based research team hoping to get a clearer understanding of the phase behavior of confined water in the cylindrical pores of carbon nanotubes zeroed in on confined water's properties and made some surprising discoveries.
A research team comprising global scientists at the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics has been able to manage and monitor speeded up electrons from nano-spheres featuring short and strong laser pulses.
Researchers have to position objects on appropriate substrates to enhance the emission of electromagnetic radiation using single molecules. Now, researchers at the Institute of Physical Chemistry of the Polish Academy of Sciences (IPC PAS) have devised a simple and cost-effective technique to create substrates for Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SERS).
Physicists at Aalto University, Finland, have shown how a nanomechanical oscillator can be used for detection and amplification of feeble radio waves or microwaves. A measurement using such a tiny device, resembling a miniaturized guitar string, can be performed with the least possible disturbance.
Scientists have found basic steps to charge water droplets of nanoscale dimensions and explained the hydrogen emission mechanism from irradiated water.
Earthquakes are some of the most daunting natural disasters that scientists try to analyze. Though the earth's major fault lines are well known, there is little scientists can do to predict when an earthquake will occur or how strong it will be. And, though earthquakes involve millions of tons of rock, a team of University of Pennsylvania and Brown University researchers has helped discover an aspect of friction on the nanoscale that may lead to a better understanding of the disasters.
In a paper to be published in Nano Letters ("Directing Substrate Morphology via Self-Assembly: Ligand-Mediated Scission of Gallium–Indium Microspheres to the Nanoscale"), researchers demonstrate a facile method for preparing liquid-phase metal nanoparticles, composed of a eutectic gallium-indium alloy.
Georgia Institute of Technology scientists have devised a wireless sensor prototype that can sense extremely low concentrations of ammonia, a major constituent of most of the explosives.
Scientists at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coherent X-ray Science (CXS) located at the University of Melbourne have developed a novel cold electron source that will increase the speed of nanoimaging for materials and drug development to a trillionth of a second as well as enhance its quality.
Scientists from Würzburg, Kaiserslautern, and Bielefeld have introduced a unique advanced technology microscope that is capable of magnifying specimens a million times and captures the object's movements with one million billion times retardation. The report of this new discovery was published in the magazine "Science".
An easy-to-implement method for stamping very minute patterns onto special type of nanomaterials has been established which could be used in solar cells and devices used for delivery of drugs.
Scientists at the University of California-Santa Barbara have designed a new device to identify and analyze single nanoparticles of the order of a few tens of nanometers. The study was recorded in Nature Nanotechnology.
A research team from Boston College has reported in the latest edition of Physical Review Letters that a man-made metamaterial can address blackbody radiation emission with an effectiveness exceeding natural limits.
Stanford researchers have developed a novel nonlinear optical device that miniaturizes electric-field-induced second harmonic light generation (EFISH) devices down to the size of nanoscale.
A nanoscale game of "now you see it, now you don't" may contribute to the creation of metamaterials with useful optical properties that can be actively controlled, according to scientists at Rice University.
Scientists around the world now have a new tool to investigate the elementary units of nature. Until now, the quantum wavefunction was believed to be impossible to measure directly, since the very act of observing it would alter it.
Semiconductor Research, along with scientists at The University of Texas at Dallas and SEMATECH, have successfully demonstrated the easy removal of certain potentially harmful organic toxins found in a single-walled carbon nanotube (SWNTs) type.
Columbia Engineering School researchers have developed optical nanostructures to manipulate the refraction index and to completely control dispersion of light.
It's not often that someone can claim that going from a positive to a negative is a step forward, but that's the case for a team of scientists from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and private industry. In a recent paper, the group significantly extended the reach of their novel microfluidic system for analyzing the chemical components of complex samples ("Expanding the capabilities of microfluidic gradient elution moving boundary electrophoresis for complex systems"). The new work shows how the system, meant to analyze real-world, crude mixtures such as dirt or whole blood, can work for negatively charged components as well as it has in the past for positively charged ones.
A research team led by Prof. Dr. Hartmut Zabel of Ruhr-Universitaet-Bochum (RUB) has for the first time experimentally confirmed the spin pumping effect, an important physical phenomenon, in magnetic layers.
A Rice University laboratory has found a way to turn common carbon fiber into graphene quantum dots, tiny specks of matter with properties expected to prove useful in electronic, optical and biomedical applications.
Scientists often find strange and unexpected things when they look at materials at the nanoscale--the level of single atoms and molecules. This holds true even for the most common materials, such as water.
Researchers at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) of the US Department of Energy (DOE) have developed a novel X-ray technique called the hard x-ray angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (HARPES).
The strength of a chemical bond between atoms is the fundamental basis for a molecule's stability and reactivity. Tuning the strength and accessibility of the bond can dramatically change a molecule's properties. For example, a bond's strength is directly related to its length: stretching a bond beyond its normal length makes it weaker.
Using a new mathematical methodology, researchers at MIT have created a scientifically rigorous analogy that shows the similarities between the physical structure of spider silk and the sonic structure of a melody, proving that the structure of each relates to its function in an equivalent way.
A group of researchers from the University of Auckland, the University of Aberdeen, and the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya have utilized sunlight and ethanol to produce hydrogen.
Recent research suggests that memristor devices are capable of emulating the biological synapses of the brain with properly designed CMOS neuron components. A memristor is a two-terminal electronic device whose conductance can be precisely modulated by charge or flux through it. It has the special property that its resistance can be programmed (resistor) and subsequently remains stored (memory). In previous work, researchers have demonstrated that a memristor can connect conventional circuits and support a process that is the basis for memory and learning in biological systems (read more: "Nanotechnology's road to artificial brains").
An advanced material that could help bring about next-generation "spintronic" computers has revealed one of its fundamental secrets to a team of scientists from Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).
Atomic force microscope cantilever tips with integrated heaters are widely used to characterize polymer films in electronics and optical devices, pharmaceuticals, paints, and coatings. These heated tips are also used in research labs to explore new ideas in nanolithography and data storage, and to study fundamentals of nanometer-scale heat flow.
Using plasmonic nanoantenna arrays, Purdue University researchers have demonstrated new ways of accurately manipulating the propagation of light by modifying its phase, opening the door for new class of optical advancements such as powerful computers, telecommunications and microscopes.
A team of researchers led by the Director at the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics, Professor Gerhard Rempe who also heads the Quantum Dynamics Division, has observed that light can be squeezed out of a single atom, thus delivering better dynamics.
Researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) have introduced a compact system, by pairing a remote-detecting nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technique with that of a special chromatography version developed particularly for microfluidic chips, to help in high sensitive multi-purpose chemical analysis.
Nano-composites and polymer nano-films are utilized in a broad range of applications from packaging of food to sports equipment to aerospace and automotive applications. Thermal analysis is performed regularly in order to examine materials for these applications, but since nanostructured materials are being commonly used, bulk methods are not suitable.
The EuroNanoForum 2011 displayed nanotechnologies which can provide solutions in challenging areas such as ageing populations, resource efficiency, and renewable energy.
Using high-resolution imaging technology, University of Illinois researchers have answered a question that had confounded semiconductor researchers: Is amorphous silicon a glass? The answer? Yes -- until hydrogen is added.
An international collaboration led by the NIST Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology has used scanning electron microscopy with polarization analysis to acquire images of the magnetic structure inside patterned nickel-palladium thin film nanostructures, revealing peculiar magnetization textures that can affect the behavior of these ferromagnetic alloys in experimental applications.
Whether packing oranges into a crate, fitting molecules into a human cell or getting data onto a compact disc, wasted space is usually not a good thing.
To slide; perchance to fatigue. "Wear is so common in sliding systems that it has acquired this air of inevitability," says Greg Sawyer, a professor in mechanical engineering at the University of Florida who leads a team of researchers hoping to overturn this assumption. Sawyer and his collaborators have succeeded in modifying polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), the ubiquitous, already low-friction material also known as Teflon, to make it "nearly a million times more wear-resistant."
Engineers at the University of Maryland are challenging earlier theories about the behavior of nanoscale materials used to manufacture thermoelectric devices. Challenging the widespread assumption in nanotechnology that smaller is always better, engineers will develop future thermoelectric equipment.
The scientists from the University of Vienna and Vienna University of Technology have identified complicated structures created by minute particles suspended in liquids.
Two research groups from Virginia Tech have worked together to develop a technique to measure the internal structure of Nafion and have found ways to change its structure to suit a wide range of applications. The details of the study are published in Nature Materials.
A research team at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has investigated structural variations in a copper sulfide nanocrystal during its transition from low to high-chalcocite solid-state phase using transmission electron aberration-corrected microscope (TEAM) 0.5.
A team of researchers led byYu Huang, an assistant professor of materials science and engineering at the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science, has developed a way for manufacturing nano-crystals with pre-designed shapes with surfactantsand biomolecules that attach themselves selectively to particular facets of the crystal surface.
Progress of metamaterials in nanotechnologies has made the invisibility cloak, a subject of mythology and science fiction, become reality: Light waves can be guided around an object to be hidden, in such a way that this object appears to be non-existent.
Like an opera singer hitting a note that shatters a glass, a signal at a particular resonant frequency can concentrate energy in a material and change its properties. And as with 18th century "musical glasses," adding a little water can change the critical pitch. Echoing both phenomena, researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have demonstrated a unique fluid-tuned "metasurface," a concept that may be useful in biomedical sensors and microwave-assisted chemistry.
The need for powerful tools for understanding the fine inner functionings of neurons is critical. By using a technology from materials science as the basis, a research team comprising advanced imaging experts, psychiatrists, and neurobiologists from Switzerland's CHUV and EPLF has identified a new way to use digital holographic microscopy (DHM) for observing in real-time the neuronal activity at three-dimensions with a resolution of up to 50 times greater than existing methods.
Taking cues from DNA research, photosynthesis, and nanotechnologies, a team at the University of Toronto has engineered a new kind of "artificial molecule" that can be assembled into wholly new classes of nanomaterials, including one that can direct and control energy absorbed from light. They've basically built a self-assembling antenna for light out of quantum dots that could lead to wholly new ways of manipulating and harvesting light energy.
The performance of an artificially built device or a living cell is determined by the assembling of nanometer-sized pieces into a structure. Researchers from the University of Oregon and Harvard University have discovered a novel imaging tool to predict and explore such structures.
Water has a simple composition, but its dizzyingly interconnected hydrogen-bonded networks make structural characterizations challenging. In particular, the organization of water surfaces--a region critical to processes in cell biology and atmospheric chemistry--has caused profound disagreements among scientists.
A new thesis by Ineke Malschat the Radboud University Nijmegen examines how ethically sound governance of nanotechnology may be possible in the current global world order.
Nanotechnology holds the promise of new materials and devices that can be designed and engineered to solve critical questions in almost every sector of our economy -- from treating cancer, to cleaning contaminated water, accelerating advanced manufacturing, meeting energy needs, and fixing our roadways and bridges. That's why, for the last 10 years, the United States has engaged in an ambitious effort through the National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI) to leverage the research programs and resources of Federal agencies and maximize the potential for translating the results of nanotechnology research into products that strengthen the economy and improve our quality of life.
The ability to image, measure, model, and manipulate matter on the nanoscale--on the order of a billionth of a meter--is leading to new materials, technologies, and applications across many fields including medicine, information technology, aerospace, energy, and transportation. Advances in nanotechnology are already driving economic growth and addressing a broad range of national challenges.
Rheonix, declared that it will receive Patent Number 7,959,875, "Microfluidic Chips and Assay Systems," from the US Patent and Trademark Office on June 14, 2011. The company has received the Patent Number 11/594,444, "Microfluidic Systems," on April 13, 2011.
Vehicles powered by hydrogen fuel cells generate no exhaust emissions other than clean water vapor. Unfortunately, producing and distributing large quantities of hydrogen gas is impossible with current infrastructures. Researchers are instead turning to on-board fuel processing -- using small-scale reactors to 'reform' gasoline into hydrogen with the help of high-temperature steam -- to aid implementation of this alternative technology.
You can't squeeze blood from a turnip, but it might be possible to extract it from rice. Blood protein, at least. Genetically modified brown rice seeds can produce a cost-effective and easily stored supply of human serum albumin, researchers in China report.
RIKEN and the Japan Synchrotron Radiation Research Institute (JASRI) have cut the ribbon on a new cutting-edge X-ray Free Electron Laser (XFEL) facility in Harima, the first such facility in Japan and only the second in the whole world. Nicknamed "SACLA" (SPring-8 Angstrom Compact Free Electron Laser), the new XFEL's intense beams will open a unique window onto the minuscule structure of molecules and rapid reaction of chemical species.
Nanotechnology, the platform to improve costs, efficiency, and new functionalities, is an emerging technology to handle water and waste water globally. According to RNCOS's research report on Nanotechnology Market Forecast to 2013, nanotechnology dealing with water and wastewater is expected to grow at a CAGR of approximately 20% in the period 2009-2013.
Roche Applied Science has entered into a contract with IT-IS Life Sciences for sales and distribution of their LightCycler Nano Instrument. The instrument would be launched in the market in mid-2011.
RUSNANO CEO Anatoly Chubais and Daewoo International Corporation CEO Dong Hee Lee have signed a memorandum of understanding. The memorandum provides a framework for a cooperation of RUSNANO and Daewoo in clean technology, biotechnology, smart technology, microelectronics, automotive components, IT, telecommunications and other nanotech-related areas. The memorandum was signed at the International Nanotechnology Forum RUSNANOTECH 2011 in Moscow. The event was attended by General Manager of Daewoo International Moscow Office Brian Kim, RUSNANO Managing Director Dmitry Pimkin and other senior managers of both companies.
On 17th June, in the frame of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum 2011, Dmitry Lisenkov, Managing Director of RUSNANO and Alex de Valukhoff, General Director of Lafarge Cement in Russia have signed a Memorandum of Understanding.
On September 6, 2011, RUSNANO and NEC Neva Communications Systems signed a memorandum of understanding paving the way for long-term strategic cooperation in telecommunications and IT for public safety and for development of smart grids to supply energy.
RUSNANO and Toyota Tsusho have signed a memorandum of cooperation making way for collaborative endeavors in electronics, inorganic chemistry, environment, and automobile manufacturing. The memorandum was signed by RUSNANO Deputy CEO for International Cooperation Alexander Losyukov and Toyota Tsusho Executive Vice-President Kenji Takanashi.
The factory that will produce flexible polymer packaging modified with nanocomposites was launched during the session of the President's Commission for Modernization and Technological Development that took place at the IV Nanotechnology International Forum. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, RUSNANO Chairman of the Board Anatoly Chubais and Alexey Goncharov, Director of UralPlastic-N, participated in the factory's opening ceremony via Teleconference.
The head of the Russian State Nanotechnology Corporation (Rusnano), Anatoly Chubais, urged Russian angel investors on Thursday to put funds into regional nanotechnology projects.
RUSNANO, the NSG Group, which operates in Russia under the Pilkington name, the EBRD and the Russian STiS Group have signed an agreement to establish a new venture incorporating the production of high-quality glass with special coating.
RUSNANO, Corporation Ural Industrial -- Ural Polar, and Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug have signed a shareholders' agreement for the Polar Quartz project. Signing took place as part of first day of the St. Petersburg World Economic Forum.
RUSNANO and Galen company have signed an investment agreement for establishing production of composite nanostructured polymer based on basalt fiber. The project has a total budget of 500 million rubles of which RUSNANO will co-invest 200 million rubles. Project planners expect production to reach 2,500 tons to 3,000 tons in 2016. Products include shaft lining for the mining industry; armature, flexible connectors, and rawl plugs for the construction industry; composite alluvial drill rods for oil production; and poles for street lighting and power transmission lines.
RUSNANO, the Korean Ministry of Knowledge Economy's Korea Institute for the Advancement of Technology (KIAT), Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB), the St. Petersburg Government, 360ip and Samho Green Investment Venture Capital (SGIVC) announced today the formation of the Asia Nanotechnology Fund.
The St. Petersburg International Economic Forum hosted the signing of the investment agreement for a project RUSNANO, SITRONICS, and X5 Retail Group will launch-the Store of the Future.
The novel laboratory solution NanoLab is optimized for higher education and eliminates the need to use costly research-class laboratory equipment for student training. The standardized educational content and special software developed by ETU allows professors and other teaching staff to devote more of their time to teaching and research, instead of developing their own laboratory assignments. TEKLAB's workstations with integrated equipment represent the state-of-the-art in functional design, safety and technical performance.
The Austrian company, SAFEBALL Technology GmbH, has introduced a new, innovative safety technology that significantly reduces the risk of fuel-tank explosions in the civilian and military sectors.
RIKEN and the Japan Synchrotron Radiation Research Institute (JASRI) have successfully produced a beam of X-ray laser light with a wavelength of 1.2 Angstroms, the shortest ever measured. This record-breaking light was created using SACLA, a cutting-edge X-ray Free Electron Laser (XFEL) facility unveiled by RIKEN in February 2011 in Harima, Japan. SACLA (SPring-8 Angstrom Compact free electron LAser) opens a window into the structure of atoms and molecules at a level of detail never seen before.
Following the successful completion of a two-year evaluation phase, the University of Ulm, the Heidelberg-based company CEOS GmbH and Carl Zeiss Nano Technology Systems have signed an agreement to embark on the next phase of the SALVE project.
NanoProfessor®, a division of NanoInk®, Inc. focused on nanotechnology education, and PicoTech, the exclusive distributor for NanoInk and the NanoProfessor Nanoscience Education Program in Israel, announced today that the Sami Shamoon College of Engineering (SCE) in Be'er Sheva, Israel will be the first college in the country to implement the NanoProfessor Nanoscience Education Program. As Israel's largest engineering college, SCE is focused on educating students in engineering and technology through innovative instruction and R&D. The NanoProfessor Program helps SCE meet this objective by providing instrumentation, curriculum, and hands-on labs to expand students' understanding, skills, and real-world experience needed to succeed in the growing nanotechnology industry.
Dust-size dragonfly and a high-sensitivity micro-valve won this year's student design competition for very small equipments at Sandia National Laboratories. Texas Tech University won the contest for its innovative insect and Carnegie Mellon University for the valve.
By 2050, the coolest summers in the tropics and parts of the northern hemisphere will still be hotter than the most scorching summers since the mid-20th century if global warming continues apace, according to a new study.
A dozen stunning science images, representing cell structures, microorganisms, polymer films, degraded metals and more, have been selected by the voting public as winners in Pacific Northwest National Laboratory's Science as Art contest.
Public school science teachers will explore the nanotechnology field at the University of Houston under a grant designed to build interest in science and engineering.
A physicist at the University of Southampton is using polystyrene balls of increasing size to recreate classic physic experiments to test the limits of quantum mechanics
A research team from the Ruhr Universitat Bochum have collaborated with researchers at Grenoble and Tokyo to devise a new method to align electrons differently in order to distinguish between each electron and control their movement through sound waves.
Researchers in the US have, for the first time, cloaked a three-dimensional object standing in free space, bringing the much-talked-about invisibility cloak one step closer to reality. Whilst previous studies have either been theoretical in nature or limited to the cloaking of two-dimensional objects, this study shows how ordinary objects can be cloaked in their natural environment in all directions and from all of an observer's positions.
Scientists at the University of Texas have successfully created a nano cloaking device using Carbon Nano Tubes (CNT's) to make objects disappear underwater adapting the "Mirage Effect". The researchers used one molecule thick CNT's sheets wrapped in cylindrical tubes to show that the objects can be made to disappear.
Nanoparticles are becoming ubiquitous in many areas of biology and chemistry where they are finding a myriad of uses, including in arrays as chemosensing and biosensing platforms, as building blocks for more complicated structures, and individually as alternatives to fluorescent molecules and quantum dots as labels in bioanalysis.
Scientists have discovered fundamental steps of charging of nano-sized water droplets and unveiled the long-sought-after mechanism of hydrogen emission from irradiated water. Working together at the Georgia Institute of Technology and Tel Aviv University, scientists have discovered when the number of water molecules in a cluster exceeds 83, two excess electrons may attach to it -- forming dielectrons -- making it a doubly negatively charged nano droplet.
Materials scientists from the University of Maryland (UMD) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have demonstrated that a nanocomposite material provides more fire protection when the extensively and evenly dispersed nanoscale clay plates of clay are in a polymer.
Scientists at the University of Glasgow have, for the first time, been able to drag light by slowing it down to the speed of sound and sending it through a rotating crystal.
The world’s smallest magnetic data storage unit from just 12 atoms for each bit and 96 atoms for 8 bits i.e. 1 byte was designed by German Center for Free-Electron Laser Science (CFEL) and IBM scientists.
Scientists have discovered a method to control the gas-phase selective catalytic combustion of methane, so finely that if done at room temperature the reaction produces ethylene, while at lower temperatures it yields formaldehyde. The process involves using gold dimer cations as catalysts -- that is, positively charged diatomic gold clusters.
Scientists have formulated risk evaluation criteria to enable specialists to make policy and innovation decisions for engineered nanomaterials. The Framework Programme 7 Nanohouse project, worth €2.4 million, known as the 'Life cycle of nanoparticle-based products used in house coating' has developed new ways to determine the risks offered by nanomaterials to the environment and human health.
A research team led by Markus Arndt at the University of Vienna has investigated the quantum properties of molecules increasing in size, especially their superposition at multiple points in an interferometer. Most molecules disintegrate while the thermal particle beam is being prepared.
Minute gold nanoparticles with 40 millionth of a mm diameter, when focused by a short laser pulse, gets heated up and begins to vibrate. It is challenging to study these minute nanoparticles because even highly efficient microscopes do not have the resolution to study them.
Understanding the intricacies of how nanoparticles undergo chemical transformations could lead to better ways to tailor their composition, which can lead to advanced material properties.
Pupils aged 12-14 years old from Kingham-Hill School, Marlborough School, The Oxford Academy, and Oxford High School, took part in the event where they got to learn about the basic science behind applications of nanotechnologies and investigate the properties of nanoscale materials.
Tempe, Arizona based SDCmaterials, the global leader in development of advanced high performance catalyst materials, is pleased to announce the commencement of field trials for their novel Nano-Nano-Micron™ emission control catalyst product.
Raptor Detection Technologies declared that its Substance Activated Fast Evaluation Technology (SAFE-T) product line built using a patented nanotechnology, known as molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs), are currently offered to security, law enforcement and first responders. The technology is capable of precisely assessing a potential danger under time-critical circumstances.
A research group from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) in Germany reports in Langmuir how SEEC microscopy can be used to provide a plausible scenario as to the behaviour of labelled lipids at a surface ("Comparative Height Measurements of Dip-Pen Nanolithography-Produced Lipid Membrane Stacks with Atomic Force, Fluorescence, and Surface-Enhanced Ellipsometric Contrast Microscopy"). This new technique, based on the use of the new generation of microscope slides -- referred to as Surfs -- leads to the direct visualisation of nanometric samples through a conventional optical microscope. In addition, recent developments enable the complete topographic study of nanometric samples with a dedicated optical instrument.
Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) are highly porous, ordered networks consisting of inorganic centers linked by organic moieties. Their large surface areas make them attractive for various uses including catalysis, gas storage, and as filtration and purification membranes. Such industrial applications, however, require large-scale, well-controlled synthetic routes, which for MOFs have proved difficult to achieve. Dario Buso and Paolo Falcaro from the CSIRO in Australia have now led a group of researchers in developing a seeding method that can trigger MOF formation in a spatially controlled way whilst simultaneously allowing functionalization of the framework ("A new method to position and functionalize metal-organic framework crystals").
A Cambridge team have built a semiconductor chip that converts electrons into a quantum state that emits light but is large enough to see by eye. Because their quantum superfluid is simply set up by shining laser beams on the device, it can lead to practical ultrasensitive detectors. Their research is published in Nature Physics.
If you were to look at a carbon nanotube with the naked eye you wouldn't see much more than black powder, but now a team of EU-funded scientists has developed a novel way of making these multi-purpose nanotechnology building blocks more visible.
Observing the structure of collapsing unstable atomic nuclei using electrons is an experimental goal that has not been achieved anywhere in the world. Masanori Wakasugi, director of the Instrumentation Development Group at the RIKEN Nishina Center for Accelerator-Based Science (RNC), is working on this challenging issue. The current theoretical model of the atomic nucleus has been constructed with major contributions from electron-scattering experiments, in which electrons are collided with stable atomic nuclei to visualize the nuclear structure.
Imec reports for the first time selective chemical vapor deposition (CVD) of GeSn in a production-like environment using commercially available Ge and Sn precursors. The resulting GeSn layers with 8% Sn are defect free, fully strained and thermally stable for temperatures up to 500°C. This technique is used to implement uniaxial compressive stress in a Ge channel, the key method for reaching very high mobility values in MOSFETs.
Lianas whose stabilization rings of woody cells heal spontaneously after suffering damage serve as a natural example to bionic experts of self-repairing membranes. Such membranes could find use, for example, in rubber dinghies. Empa researchers have borrowed this trick from nature and developed a polymer foam surface coating with a closed cell construction which not only reduces the pressure loss after the membrane is damaged but also makes the inflatable structure more resistant and giving it a longer operational life.
Clover leaves are superhydrophobic -- water droplets sit on the surface of the leaf without wetting it due to a strong water-repelling action by the leaf surface. This superhydrophobicity is lost when the leaf suffers severe microscopic damage. Surprisingly however, even after such damage, clover leaves restore their anti-wetting properties in a matter of days by secreting wax-like compounds.
To enable high-volume production readiness of 3D-based products, SEMATECH's 3D Interconnect and Manufacturability programs will be conducting Equipment Maturity Assessments of several critical 3D tools during 2012 to establish functional equipment capabilities and address high volume manufacturing maturity issues.
KLA-Tencor and SEMATECH declared the joining of KLA-Tencor as a member in the Lithography Defect Reduction program of SEMATECH at the University at Albany's College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering (CNSE).
The NanoKTN in partnership with the Chemistry Innovation KTN and Nanofactory, has announced details of a one-day seminar where experts in modelling can meet with those seeking to commercialise nanotechnology based products to share their mutual experience and needs: Commercialisation of Nanomaterials - Overcoming the Scale-Up Challenge. The event will take place on October 19, 2011 in Leeds, UK.
U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, member of the Armed Services Committee, secured Senate approval for an increased focus onnanotechnology research by the Defense Department, including a study to determine the need for a center for nanotechnology.
Senova Systems, a materials science driven company developing a revolutionary pH sensing technology platform, has raised $6.7M in Series B financing. Phoenix Venture Partners led the investment, with participation from Harris & Harris Group as well as existing investors.
Efficiency in quantum dot devices is reduced by energy flowing between the dots instead of escaping as light perpendicular to the QD layer. Now, using an atomic layer deposition process, researchers at Harvard University have developed a way to separate individual QDs within a single layer with an aluminum oxide insulating layer.
Catalysts are one of those things that few people think much about, beyond perhaps in high school chemistry, but they make the world tick. Almost everything in your daily life depends on catalysts: cars, Post-It notes, laundry detergent, beer. All the parts of your sandwich--bread, cheddar cheese, roast turkey.
Stir this clear liquid in a glass vial and nothing happens. Shake this liquid, and free-floating sheets of protein-like structures emerge, ready to detect molecules or catalyze a reaction. This isn't the latest gadget from James Bond's arsenal -- rather, the latest research from the U. S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory scientists unveiling how slim sheets of protein-like structures self-assemble. This "shaken, not stirred" mechanism provides a way to scale up production of these two-dimensional nanosheets for a wide range of applications, such as platforms for sensing, filtration and templating growth of other nanostructures.
Noncovalent bonds formed by electrostatic interactions rather than the sharing of electrons define the structure and function of proteins and other large biological molecules. Such bonds, which include hydrogen bonds and ionic bonds, have also become pivotal in the development of materials at the nanoscale. Kai Wu and colleagues from Peking University and the Zhejiang University of Technology in China have now created two-dimensional molecular porous networks with a systematically adjustable structure using the hierarchical formation of hydrogen bonds.
A new advanced imaging scheme--with a resolution ten times better than that of its counterparts to date--can resolve objects as small as atoms. Previously, the maximum resolution of optical instruments, including cameras and microscopes, was fundamentally limited to a precision that corresponded to approximately half of the wavelength of incoming light.
Such highly coveted technical capabilities as the observation of single catalytic processes in nanoreactors, or the optical detection of low concentrations of biochemical agents and gases are an important step closer to fruition. Researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), in collaboration with researchers at the University of Stuttgart in Germany, report the first experimental demonstration of antenna-enhanced gas sensing at the single particle level. By placing a palladium nanoparticle on the focusing tip of a gold nanoantenna, they were able to clearly detect changes in the palladium's optical properties upon exposure to hydrogen.
In a recent publication in Nature ("Quantum quench of Kondo correlations in optical absorption"), scientists from ETH Zürich, LMU Munich (amongst others NIM member Professor Jan von Delft), Princeton and Yale Universities have used resonant laser absorption to examine how a quantum dot with Kondo correlations responds to a quantum quench, i.e. to an abrupt change in the interactions that give rise to Kondo correlations in the first place.
Michael Blades shakes a small bottle of liquid and watches as tiny black specks swirl around. Each speck represents a cluster of millions of carbon nanotubes (CNTs).
Life as we know it is dominated by friction, the interaction between moving objects. Friction controls our everyday lives, from letting us walk to work, to holding a cup of tea. Friction forces act wherever two solids touch. In simple terms: friction is a force that slows things down (this is one reason why you can't have a perpetuum mobile). In scientific terms: friction between two surfaces is caused by energy loss as atoms from the opposing surfaces smash against each other (and in extreme cases of course, surface damage). In the presence of an attractive/adhesive force the atoms are in intimate contact and much energy is lost in forcing the atoms to slide past each other.
Funded by the EC, the ICPC NanoNet project brings together researchers and scientists from the EU, China, India, Russia and Africa and aims to provide wider access to published nanoscience research and opportunities for collaboration between scientists in the EU and International Cooperation Partner Countries.
Shrink Nanotechnologies, Inc., an innovative high technology company, announced today that it has executed a binding letter of intent to acquire 100% of Hawaii-based Nanopoint Inc., a biomedical instrumentation and microfluidics company with global distribution for its award-winning suites of life sciences products.
Shrink Nanotechnologies, Inc., an innovative high technology innovation and development company announced that it has signed a multi-phase joint development agreement with one of the world's largest industrial and consumer electronics and optics companies, headquartered in Japan, and with offices for its biological components group in Salzburg, Austria. The agreement calls for Shrink and its partner to co-develop the final Corning commercial platform, and for Shrink's joint venture partner to provide its unique engineering and manufacturing expertise in order to bring to market a modular microfluidic platform and interconnect system for targeted applications in the life science market.
Precision positioning systems specialist PI (Physik Instrumente) expands further into Asian markets with the opening of a direct office in Singapore, in June of this year.
Scientists are envious of nature because of its ability to build up highly complex structures like organs and tissues in an ordered fashion without any problem; it takes a great deal of effort for scientists to produce defined microscale structures. Pierre Schaaf and a team of scientists from Strasbourg have now imitated a few of nature's tricks in order to get a polymer film to "grow" onto a surface.
Silicon Frontline Technology (SFT) has proclaimed that it is planning to introduce the first commercial hierarchical 3D extractor, H3D to be used for post-layout verification. H3D would give hierarchical netlisting, hierarchical parasitic extraction, field solver accuracy and unlimited capacity by working along with design flows from prominent EDA suppliers.
Anyone who's ever polished silver knows that keeping the tarnish at bay is never ending work. But, you may not know that polishing also rubs away some of the precious metal, whether it's your grandmother's silver bowl or a 19th century museum treasure.
To better meet customer needs for more robust seals, Simrit has developed an advanced surface treatment process to improve seal function and service life. Simrit's Reduced Friction by Nanotechnology (RFN) method is one of the newest tools available for enhancing seal performance.
To better meet customer needs for more robust seals, Simrit has developed an advanced surface treatment process to improve seal function and service life. Simrit's Reduced Friction by Nanotechnology (RFN) method is one of the newest tools available for enhancing seal performance.
A special configuration of carbon atoms -- a cylindrical network of molecules known as carbon nanotubes -- is attracting a great deal of attention from industry researchers these days.
The Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR)'s research institute, the Singapore Institute of Manufacturing Technology (SIMTech) has officially opened the SIMTech Microfluidics Foundry (SMF) on September 21, 2011.
A data memory can hardly be any smaller: researchers working with Gerhard Rempe at the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics in Garching have stored quantum information in a single atom. The researchers wrote the quantum state of single photons, i.e. particles of light, into a rubidium atom and read it out again after a certain storage time ("A single-atom quantum memory"). This technique can be used in principle to design powerful quantum computers and to network them with each other across large distances.
Similar to the way pavement, softened by a hot sun, will slow down a car, graphene--a one-atom-thick sheet of carbon with wondrous properties--slows down an object sliding across its surface. But stack the sheets and graphene gets more slippery, say theorists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), who developed new software to quantify the material's friction.
By studying the behavior of tiny particles at an interface between oil and water, researchers at Harvard have discovered that stabilized emulsions may take longer to reach equilibrium than previously thought.
Using a high-resolution single-molecule study technique, University of Illinois researchers have seen the very subtle differences between two branches of an important family of neurotransmitter-gated ion channels.
Do you really understand the concept of "small?" For the next year, children and adults alike can learn all about the world of small at the Nanooze Lab at Disneyland in Anaheim, Calif.
Murali M. Sundaram has a dream. One day, he hopes to see a low-cost and sustainable manufacturing facility capable of machining all sorts of substances at the smallest scales, without the need for a super-clean laboratory environment.
An innovative low-cost smart paint that can detect microscopic faults in wind turbines, mines and bridges before structural damage occurs is being developed by researchers at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland.
The growing number of research and development efforts focused on microfluidics speaks to the technology's promise of a potentially broad range of applications, largely in highly-integrated single-chip medical devices. However, the materials currently used to fabricate these labs-on-a-chip and other microfluidic devices have significant limitations, including absorption of small nonpolar and weakly polar molecules, adsorption of biomolecules, and the material's molecules leaching into the microfluidic channel. The good news is that researchers have overcome these obstacles using microfluidic channels made entirely of Teflon, which supports cellular activity similar to that found in current materials. Moreover, whole-Teflon microchannels have gas permeability levels that permit cells to be cultured in-channel for extended periods of time.
A new software called QED (Quantitative Electron Diffraction), which has been licensed by Max Planck Innovation, has now been released by HREM Research Inc., a Japan based company, which is developing products and services in the field of High-Resolution Electron Microscopy. QED allows transmission electron microscopes to acquire novel kinds of data, opening up new possibilities in electron crystallography.
A Michigan State University researcher is using a $1.92 million Department of Defense grant to develop a portable wastewater treatment system that could improve the military's efficiency.
SolRayo, a subsidiary company of Enable IPC, has successfully completed a project on the Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) grant that is being funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) SBIR/STTR program.
Vanderbilt researchers working at the smallest scale celebrate a huge milestone this year. The Vanderbilt Institute of Nanoscale Science and Engineering (VINSE), seeded from a university-funded $16 million venture capital fund initiative, celebrates its 10th anniversary in December.
Researchers from Augsburg, Munich and Santa Barbara (California) successfully combined the worlds of nanophotonics and nanomechanical systems. The scientists work for the cluster of excellence Nanosystems Initiative Munich (NIM), the Center for Nanoscience (CeNS), the Augsburg Center for Innovative Technologies (ACIT) and for the California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI) at Santa Barbara.
SouthWest NanoTechnologies, Inc. (SWeNT), the world leader in high quality carbon nanotubes, recently received an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) consent order which will permit the company to manufacture and distribute Multi-Wall Carbon Nanotubes (MWCNT) for commercial applications. SWeNT's Multi-Wall products are sold under the SWeNT SMW™ (Specialty Multi-Wall) trademark.
SouthWest NanoTechnologies' Single-Wall Carbon Nanotubes, in a new research study, show absorption of Indocyanine Green -- a functional dye with unique photomechanical, photochemical, and photobiological properties.
Bochum's physicists led by Prof. Dr. Hartmut Zabel have demonstrated the spin pumping effect in magnetic layers for the first time experimentally. The behaviour of the spin pumping had previously only been predicted theoretically. The research team at the RUB has now succeeded in measuring the effect using ultrafast X-ray scattering with picosecond resolution. Through their rotation of the magnetic moments, the so-called magnetic precession, single electrons can mutually influence each other's rotation through a non-magnetic intermediate layer. This is a crucial insight for future generations of magnetic sensors in hard disk read heads and other data storage. The researchers reported on their findings in Applied Physics Letters.
Researchers have, for the first time, compared the energetic cost of silk and synthetic polymer fiber formation and demonstrated that, if we can learn how to spin like the spider, we should be able to cut the energy costs for polymer fiber processing by 90%, leaving alone the heat treatment requirements.
For Hollywood celebrities, the term "splitsville" usually means "check your prenup." For scientists wanting to mass-produce high quality nanoribbons from boron nitride nanotubes, "splitsville" could mean "happily ever after."
Nanometer-sized bubbles containing the gases hydrogen and oxygen can apparently combust spontaneously, although nothing happens in larger bubbles. For the first time, researchers at the University of Twente's MESA+ Institute for Nanotechnology have demonstrated this spontaneous combustion in a publication in Physical Review E. They intend to use the phenomenon to construct a compact ultrasonic loudspeaker.
SPTS Technologies, a leading manufacturer of etch, deposition, and thermal processing equipment for the semiconductor and related industries today announced the launch of a new joint venture relationship with its former parent company, Sumitomo Precision Products Co, Ltd. (SPP) to jointly serve the Japanese market.
In classical optics light is usually described as a wave, but at the most fundamental quantum level this wave consists of discrete particles called photons. Over the time, physicists developed many tools to manipulate both the wave-like and the particle-like quantum properties of the light. For instance, they created single photon sources with single atoms, using their ability to absorb and emit photons one by one.
A simple technique for stamping patterns invisible to the human eye onto a special class of nanomaterials provides a new, cost-effective way to produce novel devices in areas ranging from drug delivery to solar cells.
With the rapid expansion in nanotechnology and its applications, there is a need for increasingly accurate production methods for nanoscale parts. Arrays of metal nanodots on a surface, for example, can be used as components in data storage, sensors and solar panels. However, production of the well-defined metal nanodots of less than 100 nm in size needed for the most advanced nanotechnology applications remains a challenge.
US-based STATS ChipPAC, which specialises in providing advanced packaging and semiconductor test services has announced that it will cater to a wide range of the semiconductor markets including media tablets, smartphones and cloud computing-based applications by using its fan-out wafer level packaging (FO-WLP) technology.
Göttingen-based physicist Stefan Hell has designed high-resolution optical microscopes which can see many times more sharply than was thought possible. Previously, the lower limit of 200 nanometres formulated by Ernst Abbe in 1873 had applied.
Geckos are famous for their ability to walk up walls and scamper across ceilings. The dry-adhesive surface of geckos' toes has inspired many attempts to copy this ability in an artificial material. Isabel Rodríguez at the A*STAR Institute of Materials Research and Engineering and co-workers at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore have now made one of the closest mimics to gecko toes yet, and shown that it has the properties to match.
Despite extensive investment in nanotechnology and increasing commercialization over the last decade, insufficient understanding remains about the environmental, health, and safety aspects of nanomaterials. Without a coordinated research plan to help guide efforts to manage and avoid potential risks, the future of safe and sustainable nanotechnology is uncertain.
Researchers at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Va. recently found a way to improve electricity generating fuel cells, potentially making them more efficient, powerful and less expensive. Specifically, they discovered a way to speed up the flow and filtering of water or ions, which are necessary for fuel cells to operate.
Twenty-four outstanding undergraduate students, belonging to various regions such as Hudson Valley, the Capital Region, the Finger Lakes and Mohawk Valley, have been chosen to take part in the summer internship program to be held at the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering (CNSE) of the University at Albany this summer. During the program, students will have the opportunity to explore the nanotechnology field.
Nanotech is looked upon by many as the next great enabling technology that will revolutionize (and is revolutionizing) everything from materials science to disease therapies to game-changing new energy technologies. But, according to a new study by Queen's University researchers, some commonly used nanoparticles found in everything from sunscreen to cosmetics to socks could be destroying soil systems, and by extension the very ecosystems upon which we rely for life.
Owing to the minute sizes of nanostructures, even minor imperfection in the shape of the end of the nanostructures would result in large variations in the semiconducting properties.
Dr. Hengzhi Wang and Zhifeng Ren, researchers at Boston College, have found two early stages in the growth of carbon nanotube growth while using plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition method.
Reliable and accurate single-molecule medical diagnosis is a step closer to reality with the development a new technique by Cambridge University researchers which uses sub-nanometre "cages" to capture and identify molecules.
The Nanotechnology Knowledge Transfer Network (NanoKTN), and the Institute of Nanotechnology (IoN), have announced the success of the 2010 International NanoMicroClub (INMC) NanoMission to Russia.
This summer, imec welcomed 4 students from John Hopkins University (JHU), a world-class university in Baltimore, US, for a research internship of 10 weeks in the field of bioelectronics. These internships coincide with the announcement of a scientific story on nanoscale origami that has resulted from the internship of the first JHU visiting student in the summer of 2009 with a follow-on program last year. In this work, an approach is presented that allows generating precisely patterned polyhedral nanostructures, envisaged for optical and biosensing applications.
An article published in the latest edition of Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN) in the weekly newsmagazine of the American Chemical Society has created an impact on customers by describing the effects of nano-sized particles used in sunscreen products.
New materials are crucial to building a clean energy economy--for everything from batteries to photovoltaics to lighter weight vehicles--but today the development cycle is too slow: around18 years from conception to commercialization. To speed up this process, a team of researchers from the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) teamed up to develop a new tool, called the Materials Project, which launches this month.
The primary measurement to determine wettability -- the actual process when a liquid spreads on a solid substrate or material -- is the angle between the solid surface and the surface of a liquid droplet on the solid's surface.
What looks like a spongy ball wrapped in strands of yarn -- but a lot smaller -- could be key to unlocking better methods for catalysis, artificial photosynthesis or splitting water into hydrogen, according to Rice University chemists who have created a platform to analyze interactions between carbon nanotubes and a wide range of photoluminescent materials.
The Nanodermatology Society has released a pilot study titled 'Nanotechnology and dermatology education in the United States: Data from a pilot survey' that assesses attitudes, perceptions and knowledge of dermatologists in the US concerning nanotechnology.
The optical properties of a material are predominantly determined by the structure and arrangement of its constituent atoms or molecules. Nature provides a vast array of materials and optical properties to work with, but if the specific properties you are looking for are not available naturally, then synthetic materials may be able to deliver a solution. Such 'metamaterials' have been demonstrated to achieve optical effects not found in nature, such as negative refractive index and super lensing.
Svenska Aerogel, a supplier of a variety of low-cost environmentally friendly recyclable materials based on a patented version of aerogel material, has won the prestigious Nordic Cleantech Company of the Year Award for 2010.
"The Hive", an image taken in CRANN of a porous surface of the polymer polylactic-co-glycolic acid (PLGA) was named by Science Foundation Ireland as the "Research Image of the Year" for 2011.
One of the ways to make a metal stronger is to roll or press it. The working prevents the formation of structural defects, which typically make it easier for the metal to deform. Worked metals are therefore stronger and can support a heavier load, but they are often brittle and prone to fracturing.
The term "nanotechnology" covers a multitude of different technologies, and so a differentiated view of it is needed. This is the opinion of ETH Zurich Professor Christofer Hierold, whose research is in nanotechnology. He says that, to avoid risks and hazards, these must be analysed for each specific example of materials, structures and their applications.
Sometimes nature cannot be improved upon. One example is in the synthesis of nanomaterials, which in the laboratory or factory generally requires toxic chemicals and extreme conditions of temperature and pressure. But over millions of years, nature has developed ways of putting together inorganic nanocrystals at mild temperatures and pressures. Usually this process, known as biomineralization, involves calcium carbonate or phosphate for purposes such as building bone or shells, but another interesting variation is seen in the crystallization of gold from solution by certain types of bacteria.
An expedition through the fast-paced microscopic world of atoms reveals electrons that spin at enormous speeds and the gigantic forces that act on them. Monitoring the ultrafast motion of these electrons requires ultrashort flashes of light. However, in order to control them, the structure of these light flashes, or light pulses, needs to be tamed as well.
Tanaka Kikinzoku Kogyo K.K. and SUSS MicroTec KK will begin joint development of pattern transfer and bonding technology using sub-micron sized gold particles.
A national team of experts, led by a Case Western Reserve University researcher, has received a multi-million-dollar grant to bring unrivaled qualities found in one- and two-dimensional nanomaterials into three dimensions.
Tecan has recently updated its Infinite M1000 high-end multimode microplate reader with new features designed to offer the same top class performance for an even wider range of applications. First launched in 2008, the Infinite M1000 uses Tecan's premium Quad4 Monochromators™ technology to offer exceptional speed, sensitivity and flexibility for academic, biotechnology and pharmaceutical research applications.
3D surfaces having features less than 100 nm are used in a wide range of applications in different areas from life sciences to optics. Tecnalia is involved in NAPANIL, an intragated FP7 European Project, for development of new production processes using nanoimprinting techniques (NIL).
TESCAN, a world leading manufacturer of scanning electron microscopes and focused ion beam workstations has introduced the FERA3 XMH - a high resolution Schottky Field Emission scanning electron microscope with a fully integrated Plasma source focused ion beam. The system has been developed in co-operation with the French company Orsay Physics.
The Tetra Series low pressure plasma surface modification equipment from Henniker Scientific is now available with a range of chamber sizes suitable for both laboratory development and industrial scale plasma surface treatments.
Teva®, a division of Deckers Outdoor Corporation, has chosen P2i's revolutionary ion-mask™ technology to protect its new Links mountain bike shoes, which are due for launch into retail by early August 2011.
The National Nanotechnology Center (NANOTEC) celebrated its 8th Anniversary on August 8 with a religious ceremony, followed by a talk by Prof. Sirirurg Songsivilai, Executive Director on "Innovate for a Better Tomorrow".
Dr. Kajornsak Faungnawakij, Head of Nanomaterials for Energy and Catalysis Lab at NANOTEC is one of 4 researchers chosen by the Foundation for the Promotion of Science and Technology under the Patronage of His Majesty the King to receive the 2011 Young Scientist Award.
The National Center for Nanotechnology has decided to use the upcoming nanotech 2012 in Tokyo, Japan as a platform to share, exchange knowledge, and seek business partnership in natural disaster mitigation under the theme "Thailand: Nanotechnology for Natural Disaster Mitigation" from February 15-17 in Tokyo Big Sight.
More than 30 international experts on nanotechnology and policy makers, will converge in the province of Khon Kaen, Thailand from April 9-11, 2012 for the NanoThailand 2012 "Nanotechnology for the benefit of mankind".
NANOTEC and Flinders University in Australia signed a research collaboration agreement to focus on target drug delivery, bacterial detection, organic conjugated material and testing services.
Prof. Dr. Dr. h. c. Stefan Hell of the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Göttingen is to receive the 2011 Körber European Science Prize endowed with 750,000 euros for his pioneering discoveries in the field of optics. Every year, the Körber Prize is awarded to an outstanding scientist working in Europe on particularly promising projects. The prizewinner is selected by an international trustee committee chaired by Prof. Dr. Peter Gruss, President of the Max Planck Society.
The April 2011 issue of Nanotech Insights, a quarterly newsletter dedicated to the field of nanoscience and nanotechnology, is now available from CKMNT.
Stable two-dimensional networks of organic molecules are important components in various nanotechnology processes. However, producing these networks, which are only one atom thick, in high quality and with the greatest possible stability currently still poses a great challenge. Scientists from the Excellence Cluster Nanosystems Initiative Munich have now successfully created just such networks made of boron acid molecules.
Gene therapy can only be effective if delivered by a stable complex molecule. Now, scientists have determined the conditions that would stabilise complex molecular structures that are subject to inherent attractions and repulsions triggered by electric charges at the surfaces of the molecules.
In the past decade, we have witnessed astonishing innovations in pharmaceuticals and biotechnology, in nanotechnology, in the ways fossil fuels are extracted and refined, in food production and precision-manufacturing technology, and in just about every other category of human enterprise upon which human creativity has been focused.
CRAIC Technologies, Inc, the global leader in application-focused microanalysis solutions, announces the launch of the new CRAIC MP-2™ microscope photometer. The CRAIC MP-2™ is an all solid state system designed for photometry of microscopic samples in many fields including biology and cytophotometry. This rugged instrument can measure the reflectance, transmittance or fluorescence photometric values from microscopic sample areas rapidly and accurately.
The tools of nanobiotechnology have wide-ranging commercial impact on fields that include pharma, medtech, textiles, agriculture, consumer products and many more. There are many hotbeds of nanobiotech innovation, and North Carolina has emerged as a leader in nanobiotech research, development and commercialization.
Researchers in Austria have come up with new ideas to engineer exotic, so-called 'topological states of matter' in quantum mechanical many-body systems. Presented in the journal Nature Physics, the study was funded in part by the NAME-QUAM ('Nanodesigning of atomic and molecular quantum matter') and AQUTE ('Atomic quantum technologies') projects of the EU. Both projects are supported under the 'Information and communication technologies' (ICT) Theme of the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) to the tune of EUR 2.09 million and EUR 5.3 million, respectively.
Switches are devices that are omnipresent in computers as they are crucial to manipulate information encoded as bits. To greatly improve the speed with which information is processed, much work is being done worldwide to realize optical switches that control information encoded as light pulses. To date, the speed of optical switches is limited by the properties of the underlying materials, but not by the speed of light.
They see more than the naked eye and could make traffic safer: miniaturized thermal imaging sensors. But they are difficult to manufacture on a commercial scale. Researchers have now developed a new system. On it, special micro-electromechanical systems can be produced -- with the correct etching technique.
A group of scientists headed by Nina Rohringer from the Hamburg Center for Free-Electron Laser Science realized the first X-ray laser based on atoms at the Californian research centre SLAC. Using neon atoms, they generated ultra-short X-ray bursts of unique colour purity.
If you've ever spilled a drop of coffee on a surface, you might have noticed the curious way the color concentrates at the edges when the coffee dries. This is known as the "coffee ring effect," and recently, researchers have determined that the shape of the particles in the liquid is an important factor in creating this pattern. The research results could eventually translate into new techniques or formulations for product coatings, or better inks and paints.
Over one-third of the world's population already lives in areas struggling to keep up with the demand for fresh water. By 2025, that number will nearly double. Some countries have met the challenge by tapping into natural sources of fresh water, but as many examples -- such as the much-depleted Jordan River -- have demonstrated, many of these practices are far from sustainable.
The 3F-series of quadruple mass spectrometers from Hiden Analytical now feature direct digital signal detection for our fastest response and most sensitive detection levels, addressing the needs of the researcher operating in the UHV/XHV vacuum regime through to specialised fast-event gaseous studies at pressures to atmosphere and beyond.
Scientists at the Joint Quantum Institute have for the first time engineered and detected the presence of high angular momentum collisions between atoms at temperatures close to absolute zero. Previous experiments with ultracold atoms featured essentially head-on collisions. The JQI experiment, by contrast, is able to create more complicated collisions between atoms using only lasers.
The forum started with a plenary session "The Demand for Innovation" opened by Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Sergey Ivanov. He addressed the participants stating that Russia has shown its ability to create an effective mechanism for searching, evaluating and launching the hi-tech projects.
This June, the National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded Molecular Workbench won the Science Prize for Online Resources in Education (SPORE) for its contribution as an innovative tool for science education.
Long before they knew they were doing it -- as long ago as the Wright Brothers' first airplane engine -- metallurgists were incorporating nanoparticles in aluminum to make a strong, hard, heat-resistant alloy. The process is called solid-state precipitation, in which, after the melt has been quickly cooled, atoms of alloying metals migrate through a solid matrix and gather themselves in dispersed particles measured in billionths of a meter, only a few-score atoms wide.
Fifteen small sundew plants perch on a window sill, collecting sunlight and eating meat in the lab of Mingjun Zhang on the University of Tennessee's Knoxville campus. Sundew plants are carnivores, consuming insects by capturing them with small adhesive balls on the ends of their tentacles.
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a draft guidance to give direction to regulated industries with a higher level of certainty on the use of nanotechnology, which involves materials that measure only around one billionth of a meter.
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) researchers have revealed that thick arrays of very long carbon nanotubes have absorption capabilities at long wavelengths, which can be used to coat prototype detectors in order to measure terahertz laser power.
The third issue of the Journal of Unsolved Questions is now available online and in print. JUnQ was founded in 2010 by doctoral students of the Graduate School of Excellence "Materials Science in Mainz" in cooperation with scientists from around Europe. Since then, the journal has generated a great deal of interest. Its goal is to provide a forum through which information can be made available on the kind of excellent but inconclusive scientific projects that established scientific journals tend to ignore.
Imagine having skin so supple you could stretch it out to more than twice its normal length in any direction - repeatedly - yet it would always snap back completely wrinkle-free when you let go of it. You would certainly never need Botox.
Researchers of the Opto-electronic Materials section of the TU Delft and Toyota Europe have demonstrated that several mobile electrons can be produced by the absorption of a single light particle in films of coupled quantum dots. These multiple electrons can be harvested in solar cells with increased efficiency. The researchers published their findings in the October issue of the scientific journal Nano Letters.
Thresher Industries announced today that a patent application has been made for its breakthrough thermally conductive hybrid composite. Patent pending status when granted protects the intellectual properties allowing more disclosure as the company moves to market.
According to a research conducted by the University at Buffalo engineers, the smallest bridge of gold consisting of just one atom exhibits considerably high-strength characteristics.
A tiny doughnut-shaped laser is the latest marvel of silicon microminiaturization, but instead of manipulating bits it detects very small particles. Small particles play a big -- and largely unnoticed -- role in our everyday lives. Virus particles make us sick, salt particles trigger cloud formation, and soot particles sift deep into our lungs and make it harder to breathe.
Tissue engineering makes biologists builders, but compared to their civil engineering counterparts, they don't know much about the properties of the materials and structures they use, namely living cells. To improve that knowledge, Brown University researchers have developed a simple and reliable system for measuring the power that cells employ to assemble into three-dimensional tissue.
Tomowave Laboratories, Inc, today announced the award of a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I grant from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences to investigate the potential health risks of nanotechnology applications in industry and medicine.
Professor Michael Coey, Principal Investigator at Ireland's flagship nanoscience institute CRANN, has been awarded the RDS/Intel Prize for Nanoscience. The prize recognises Professor Coey's contribution to the field of nanoscience, a vital sector in Ireland's economic recovery.
Anasys Instruments is pleased to report the publication and highlighting of a "hot paper" from a group of leading French scientists in the leading scientific journal, Angewandte Chemie. The paper address a molecular mapping challenge using the exciting technique of AFM-IR, the combination of an atomic force microscope (AFM) and IR spectroscopy.
A manufacturer of accurate positioning solutions and products for mobile control, asset management, mapping and GIS, civil engineering, agriculture, construction, and surveying markets, Topcon Positioning Systems has launched the Aquila hybrid microscope in North America.
Topcon Positioning Systems will be providing its Aquila hybrid optical and scanning electron microscope to be used on Biobus, which is a mobile education laboratory.
A new study has developed risk assessment criteria for engineered nanomaterials (ENMs) to help inform innovation and policy decisions ("Environmental and health effects of nanomaterials in nanotextiles and façade coatings"). It illustrates that product design can influence the unintended release of ENMs and that combining knowledge about the product life cycle with a systematic assessment of the potential hazards may enable responsible choices for future product developments to be made.
TowerJazz, the global specialty foundry leader, and Presto Engineering, the leader in integrated test and product engineering services, today announced a strategic collaboration to deliver comprehensive services for companies developing high speed communications products utilizing SiGe technology from TowerJazz. The alliance between Presto and TowerJazz covers wafer-level and packaged part development activities, spanning the space from design characterization to volume production, probing and final test. Foundry customers of TowerJazz now have access to the full range of semiconductor services from the Presto Engineering Hubs located in Silicon Valley, Europe and Israel.
TowerJazz, the global specialty foundry leader, announced today it has signed a non-exclusive MOU with a European entity to seek process transfer opportunities and projects in India and Brazil.
Water molecules are never found alone -- they are always hydrogen-bonded to other molecules of water or polar compounds. It is the character of this pervasive hydrogen bonding that is responsible for the familiar bulk properties of water, such as its high boiling point and ability to flow.
Tri-Tech, a China-based company that delivers turn-key solutions for water, water resources, industrial safety, treatment of wastewater, and pollution control markets, declared that it has signed a contract for the expansion of the water treatment plant in the City of Ordos worth nearly $20 million.
Researchers at TU Darmstadt have collaborated with RhineMain Polytechnic to develop a nanosensor that detects very slight traces of pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN). PETN is a highly-explosive chemical substance which terrorists have used for blasting commercial aircraft.
The team led by ETH Zurich Professor Ursula Keller proved three years ago that so-called tunnelling ionization in helium atoms takes place without any appreciable time delay. They have now shown this is also true for more complex atoms. However, there are several significant effects that need to be taken into account here.
Industrial Nanotech, a provider of nanoscience-based energy saving solutions, has announced that Kolorgen, its distributor in Turkey, has finished the deployment of Industrial Nanotech's patented Nansulate thermal insulation coatings at Arik Bey Tekstil Enerji ve Sinai Yatirimlar's facility located in Beysehir in Konya, Turkey.
Boston College researchers have discovered two early-stage phases of carbon nanotube growth during plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition, finding a disorderly tangle of tube growth that ultimately yields to orderly rows of the nanoscopic tubes, according to a report in the latest edition of the journal Nanotechnology.
U.S Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, armed services committee member, has obtained approval for concentrating on nanotechnology research by the Defense Department, which includes a study to analyze the necessity for a nanotechnology center.
Nanocomp Technologies, Inc., a developer of performance materials and component products from carbon nanotubes, today announced it has been selected by the United States Government, under the Defense Production Act Title III program, to supply CNT yarn and sheet material for the program needs of the Department of Defense, as well as to create a path toward commercialization for civilian industrial use.
U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, member of the Armed Services Committee, secured approval for an increased focus on nanotechnology research by the Defense Department, including a study to determine the need for a center for nanotechnology. If a new center is established, it is likely to be located at the University at Albany's College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering devoted to research and development of nanotechnology. Senator Gillibrand included language in the FY 2012 National Defense Authorization Act for the Department to compile a report on the need for such a center and fought to provide $50 million of federal funds to nanotechnology research. Albany's NanoCollege would need to compete with other institutions for the funding to establish a center.
The Federal Government today released a national strategy for ensuring that environmental, health, and safety research needs are fully identified and addressed in the fast-growing field of nanotechnology.
The Subcommittee on Research and Science Education held a hearing to examine the National Nanotechnology Initiative and address the nation's nanotechnology research and development priorities for the future.
University of Central Florida's Thomas O'Neal will be testifying Thursday, July 14, about the revolutionary nature of nanotechnology before the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Science and Space.
The largest-ever graduating class at the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering of the University at Albany is providing a shot in the arm for New York's rapidly expanding nanotechnology industry as they launch careers with leading global high-tech companies in the Empire State.
Nearly 100 middle-school students from three Capital Region schools experienced the convergence of "Nanotechnology and Nature" during an educational outreach program presented by the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering (CNSE) of the University at Albany on April 12 at the Albany Pine Bush Preserve Discovery Center.
Twenty-four exceptional undergraduate students -- including 17 New York State residents from the Capital Region, Hudson Valley, Mohawk Valley and the Finger Lakes -- will spend the summer exploring the emerging science of nanotechnology after being selected to participate in the prestigious Summer Internship Program at the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering (CNSE) of the University at Albany.
Further expanding its groundbreaking educational and research portfolio to safeguard environmental health and safety for nanotechnology applications, the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering (CNSE) of the University at Albany announced today that a CNSE graduate student has been selected by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to receive a prestigious fellowship, marking the first funding that the UAlbany NanoCollege has received from the EPA.
The increasingly important role that nanotechnology plays in society -- from protecting against natural disasters and stimulating economic growth to enabling improved health care and clean energy technologies -- and the global leadership of the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering (CNSE) of the University at Albany and New York State in this emerging field will take center stage during CNSE's 4th annual celebration of NANOvember.
UC RUSAL, the world's largest aluminium producer, and RUSNANO announce that RUSAL's IRKAZ, an aluminium smelter based in Irkutsk, and specialists from RUSAL's Engineering and Technology Center, have successfully tested Nanocomp Metcast, nanocoatings developed by RUSNANO's project company ItN Nanovation AG (Germany).
Vistec Lithography, Inc., a leading supplier of Electron Beam Lithography systems, has received an order for one of its EBPG5200 systems from the University of California, San Diego. The Vistec EBPG5200 will be installed in the Nano3 cleanroom facility at the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2) and will be used for nano- and microfabrication enabling basic and applied research and development for hundreds of academic and industrial users.
NanoProfessor™, a division of NanoInk, Inc.® focused on nanotechnology education, announced today that the University of Calgary in Alberta, Canada is the first school in Canada to implement the NanoProfessor Nanoscience Education Program. The University of Calgary's Nanoscience program aims to provide participants with working knowledge of nanotechnology and valuable exposure to cutting-edge instrumentation used to fabricate nanomaterials. The NanoProfessor Program helps the University of Calgary meet this objective by providing instrumentation, curriculum, and hands-on labs to expand students' understanding, skills, and real-world experience needed to succeed in the growing nanotechnology industry.
Researchers at the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science have been awarded $4.5 million over four years by the U.S. Department of Defense to strengthen carbon nanotube yarns and sheets, materials that hold great promise for advancing satellite technology.
Giovanni Zocchi a physics postdoctoral fellow from the University of Illinois in Urbana--Champaign and a former physics graduate student at UCLA, have demonstrated a nanomechanical method to measure protein molecules at a resolution 100 folds higher than earlier mechanical measurements.
University of Dayton materials researcher Khalid Lafdi has two goals as a newly selected carbon "ambassador" for the American Carbon Society -- recruit a new generation of carbon researchers and show researchers there are no limits to the fields benefitting from carbon technology.
The NanoKTN is encouraging its members to apply for a share of £27 million made available by the Technology Strategy Board for grants for innovative research and development projects.
In first-of-their-kind experiments performed at the American X-ray laser LCLS, a collaboration led by researchers from the Paul Scherrer Institute has been able to precisely follow how the magnetic structure of a material changes. The study was carried out on cupric oxide (CuO). The change of structure was initiated by a laser pulse, and then, with the help of short X-ray pulses, near-instantaneous images were obtained at different points in time for individual intermediate steps during the process.
An international team of researchers including scientists from The Australian National University have created a new, super-dense version of aluminium that could lead to efficient production of new super-hard nanomaterials at a relatively low cost.
A team of Purdue University researchers is among a small group in the world that has successfully created ultrapure material that captures new states of matter and could have applications in high-speed quantum computing.
Magnetic studies of ultrathin slabs of copper-oxide materials reveal that at very low temperatures, the thinnest, isolated layers lose their long-range magnetic order and instead behave like a "quantum spin liquid" -- a state of matter where the orientations of electron spins fluctuate wildly. This unexpected discovery by scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory and collaborators at the Paul Scherrer Institute in Switzerland may offer support for the idea that this novel condensed state of matter is a precursor to the emergence of high-temperature superconductivity -- the ability to carry current with no resistance.
ULVAC, Inc. today announces that it has developed a new system to enhance its "ENTRONTM-EX W300" 300mm system series, which has a proven track record at plants mass producing semiconductors worldwide.
The University of Massachusetts Amherst has received a five-year, $20 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to support a national research center on nanomanufacturing. The grant will fund the university's Center for Hierarchical Manufacturing (CHM).
Scientists at the University of Massachusetts Amherst have discovered that a bacterial strain known as Geobacter sulfurreducens permits electron transport across impressive distances. "In this species, the biofilm contains proteins that behave like a metal, conducting electrons over a very long distance, basically as far as you can extend the biofilm," explains physicist Nikhil Malvankar active in the research.
Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and Wesleyan University have used computer simulations to gain basic insights into a fundamental problem in material science related to glass-forming materials, offering a precise mathematical and physical description of the way temperature affects the rate of flow in this broad class of materials--a long-standing goal ("Modifying Fragility and Collective Motion in Polymer Melts with Nanoparticles").
Taken from the Greek, nano means 'one billionth part of' a whole; or very, very small. Nanotechnology is the next step after miniaturization. This book explores the cutting edge of a new technology that will find usage in almost every single aspect of modern society.
Nissha Printing Co., Ltd., announced today that they have entered into a Joint Development Agreement as of November 11, 2011. Under the agreement, the companies will work together to introduce the world's first three dimensional touch panel product.
Gathering nanomedicine efforts and resources from within the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) and statewide collaborators under one umbrella, UAMS today announced the creation of the Arkansas Nanomedicine Center (ANC) in the College of Medicine.
University of Arkansas has officially opened the high-tech Nanoscale Material Science and Engineering Building on the university campus in Dickson Street.
Dr. Paul Curnow from the University of Bristol has been awarded with $1.3 million to study the silica producing ability of algae cells. Silica is the primary component of glass.
Ann Arbor-based University of Michigan has declared Olympus America as its major partner for its Lurie Nanofabrication Facility (LNF). Olympus will offer researchers improved camera equipment, software, and microscopes to enhance their investigation, measurement, characterization, optical imaging, and inspection needs.
University of Rochester officials joined U.S. Representative Louise Slaughter (NY-28) yesterday to mark the opening of the Integrated Nanosystems Center (URnano), dedicated to researching and fabricating materials on a microscopic level.
Some liquid crystals form monolayers on water surface. When compressed from sides, such films of monomolecular thickness can wrinkle like fabric on a flat, smooth table, pulled together with palms simultaneously from both sides.
University of Missouri officials announced today a five-year agreement with K.S.R. Educational Institutions of India that will promote advanced research and training in nanomedicine and nanotechnology.
A group of researchers from Thailand investigated the combined effect of adsorption and oxidation for phenolic wastewater treatment using a three phase fluidized bed reactor. The group continuously fed aqueous solutions containing phenol and ozone into a reactor resulting in a comparison of seven cases.
For the first time, researchers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), in collaboration with a team from the University of Vienna, have managed to cool a miniature mechanical object to its lowest possible energy state using laser light. The achievement paves the way for the development of exquisitely sensitive detectors as well as for quantum experiments that scientists have long dreamed of conducting.
Materials that change color in response to an external stimulus such as a change in temperature are of great interest because they can be used in information displays, memory devices and sensors among many other applications.
Vectron has launched a new series of advanced MEMS-based oscillators. The innovative product series VM 702, 802, and 822 feature output options such as HCSL, LVDS, and LVPECL and a 460 MHz frequency range.
New research led by an Australian government boffin says that Venice is not, in fact, set to disappear underwater in the near future as a result of global warming.
The Venture Acceleration Fund of Los Alamos National Security, LLC, the company that manages and operates Los Alamos National Laboratory for the National Nuclear Security Administration, is now accepting applications for the 2012 calendar year. The three companies selected in the completion will receive up to $100,000 each to commercialize technology and take it to market faster.
Verigy, an Advantest Group company and a global supplier of innovative test solutions, announced today that Advantest Corporation completed its acquisition of Verigy in an all-cash transaction, estimated to be approximately $1.1 billion. As a result of the acquisition, Verigy shareholders will receive $15.00 per share in cash for each Verigy ordinary share they own. Verigy has notified NASDAQ that the transaction is complete, and has requested that trading of Verigy ordinary shares be suspended.
Hessel Castricum from the University of Amsterdam has developed a versatile membrane that is capable of separating gas and liquid mixtures in an energy-efficient manner. He conducted his research with colleagues from the University of Twente and the Energy research Centre of the Netherlands. The new membrane can probably be employed under industrial conditions on a large scale in the future. This has not been possible until now, because virtually all membranes developed so far are insufficiently stable. What is also striking about this discovery is that the functionality of the membrane can be adjusted by varying the structure. This new membrane can lead to significant energy- and cost savings.
VeruTEK Technologies, Inc., has received notice of U.S. patent allowance for its latest environmental remediation and wastewater treatment product: Green-nano Zero Valent Iron (G-nZVI). G-nZVI is a high-performing catalyst developed in collaboration with the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The product is ideal for a broad range of remediation applications including treating produced water (wastewater) generated during oil and gas and other chemical production processes.
Peizhen Kathy Lu, associate professor of materials science and engineering at Virginia Tech, is a 2011 recipient of the Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research Award presented by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.
Ceremonies were held in St. Petersburg today for the first production line for new high-tech goods of nanostructured ceramic and cerametallic materials. The facilities belong to VIRIAL, a project company created with co-investment from RUSNANO. Vice-Governor of St. Petersburg Michael Oseevsky, RUSNANO CEO Anatoly Chubais, Novomet-Perm General Director Oleg Perelman (The company will soon become a consumer of the new products.), and VIRIAL General Director Vladimir Rumyantsev took part in opening the new plant.
Materials scientists and applied physicists collaborating at Harvard's School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) have invented a new device that can instantly identify an unknown liquid.
A new lightweight web service interface for accessing massive amounts of life science research data across multiple public and private domains has been developed by researchers at RIKEN, Japan's flagship research institute. Through the powerful RIKEN Scientists' Networking System (SciNetS), the service provides a secure, flexible and light weight interface to millions of data records and their network of semantic relationships, ushering in a new era of collaboration, analysis and information-sharing for life science research and applied innovation.
A new online portal enables more flexible and independent learning for medical students. Normally, students are provided with around 50 to 100 specimens at the start of the semesters. They have to work independently and depend on the infrastructure of the university for studying the specimens.
WestPark Capital, Inc. announced the initial closing of a private placement for Arrogene NanoTechnology, Inc. on January 10, 2012. A total of 500,000 Units, each Unit consisting of one share of common stock and two common stock purchase warrants, were sold, generating gross proceeds of approximately $500,000.
The use of silver nanoparticles in all kinds of consumer goods in daily use, such as personal hygiene articles, cosmetics, food, refrigerators, protective plant sprays and, above all, textiles, has considerable commercial potential and is increasing all the time. Although over 1000 kilograms of nanosilver is already being used each year in environmentally sensitive areas, extremely little is yet known about its effects on the environment.
NanoProfessor, a division of NanoInk, Inc. focused on nanotechnology education, announced today that Wheeling High School, which is a recognized Blue Ribbon School by the U.S. Department of Education, took the first step to further advance its stellar science education program by attending a three-day NanoCamp at NanoProfessor's facilities.
Researchers at the University of Tübingen are working on next generation's computer: They made cold atoms interact with miniature gold wires as small as a thousandth of a millimeter. Illuminating the wires with laser light in a special way, the physicists concentrated the light field at the surface of the wires and, by that, generated so-called surface plasmons. These are bound light fields which might enable the construction of devices for optical computing and for quantum information. Circuits based on these devices would be much faster and more efficient than present technologies.
Physicist Richard Feynman in his famous 1959 talk, "Plenty of Room at the Bottom," described the precise control at the atomic level promised by molecular machines of the future. More than 50 years later, synthetic molecular switches are a dime a dozen, but synthetically designed molecular machines are few and far between.
The Green Chemistry Institute of the American Chemical Society has published a white paper titled 'Green Nanotechnology Challenges and Opportunities', which discusses the prospect of integrating eco-friendly chemistry practices.
It has five times the tensile strength of steel and is stronger then even the best currently available synthetic fibers: Spider thread is a fascinating material. Yet, to date no one has managed to produce the material on an industrial scale. Scientists of the TU Muenchen (TUM) and the Universitaet Bayreuth (UBT) have now succeeded in unveiling a further secret of silk proteins and the mechanism that imparts spider silk with its strength.
Engineered nanomaterials present regulators with a conundrum -- there is a gut feeling that these materials present a new regulatory challenge, yet the nature and resolution of this challenge remains elusive. But as the debate over the regulation of nanomaterials continues, there are worrying signs that discussions are being driven less by the science of how these materials might cause harm, and more by the politics of confusion and uncertainty.
Wiley-VCH, part of the scientific and technical publishing business of John Wiley & Sons, Inc., and ChemPubSoc Europe, an association of 16 chemical societies, have announced the launch of ChemistryOpen, the first open access chemical society journal. The societies are joining a new open access publishing program announced by John Wiley & Sons in February.
Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have developed a prototype wireless sensor capable of detecting trace amounts of a key ingredient found in many explosives.
Workers in all countries face new risks from manufacturing applications of rapidly advancing new technologies based on nanometer-scale atomic structures known as nanomaterials.
The University of Leicester has been allocated £1.07 million towards a £5.6 million hi-tech project supporting and impacting advanced engineering and manufacturing automotive, aerospace and space industry sectors.
The world's most accurate metronome keeps stroke to an incredible 10 quintillionth of a second. The device enables slow-motion pictures from the world of molecules and atoms, scientists from the Center for Free-Electron Laser Science in Hamburg, Germany, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) report.
FibeRio Technology Corporation - The Force for Nanofibers™ -- announced today that it will launch its new 1.1 meter wide continuous nanofiber production system at the INDA Filtration 2011 show in Chicago on November 16th. The Cyclone Fiber Engine 1.1 is the first full scale production model utilizing Forcespinning™ technology offering both melt and solution spinning capabilities, increased productivity and a significant reduction in production costs.
FEI enhanced its ChemiSTEM Technology to facilitate energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) spectroscopy at the atomic level, which can be implemented for all the elements in the periodic table.
XEI Scientific Inc, manufacturers of more than 1,100 EVACTRON® De-Contaminator Plasma Cleaning Systems for electron microscopes and other vacuum chambers, celebrated 20 years in the service of the electron microscopy community with a full agenda at this year's Microscopy and Microanalysis event held in Nashville in August.
XEI Scientific Inc, manufacturers of more than 1,100 EVACTRON® De-Contaminator Plasma Cleaning Systems for electron microscopes and other vacuum chambers, announces the release of their new Evactron® CombiClean™ system which simplifies the control and operation of plasma radical sources for both column and desktop cleaning of specimens for electron columns used in SEMs, TEMs and FIBs.
XTREME Technologies, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of USHIO has announced that it has achieved a stable output of 30 W at intermediate focus within a 100% duty cycle during bulk manufacture in EUV lithography.
The XXV International Conference on Photochemistry (ICP2011) was held in Beijing on August 7-12, 2011. It was for the first time that the ICP was held in China.
As part of IBM Research's newly extended global Summer intern program, eight undergraduate students from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), Union College, and University of Notre Dame, joined IBM Research -- Zurich in Switzerland for two months.
ZEN software was launched by Carl Zeiss for confocal laser scanning microscopes in 2007. The extremely logical structure of the ZEN user interface has received much praise and recognition from customers all over the world. Highly complex experiments can be designed and executed by users with minimal training and support.
Zeolites are porous materials with perfectly regular pores and high surface area that can act as molecular sieves. This property has led to important applications including the purification of air or water such as the contaminated seawater around Fukushima.
Associate Professor James F. Ranville, from the Department of Chemistry and Geochemistry at the Colorado School of Mines, is using a Zetasizer Nano ZS from Malvern Instruments to characterize nanoparticles as part of an ecotoxicology study.
A long-term exhibition at the Walt Disney World Resort® allows visitors to understand the tiny world of nanotechnology through hands-on experiments that use microscopes to reveal exciting images invisible to the naked eye.
