GDT::Nanotech::SmallBlog::Archive::Year 2005

ScienceDaily.com:: Vanderbilt Chemical Engineers Question Safety Of Certain Nanomaterials

[17 December 2005, top]

Rice.edu:: Study: nanotech processing "greener" than oil refining

[10 December 2005, top]

   "Harvard University researchers have found that molecular 
    markers indicating the presence of cancer in the body are 
    readily detected in blood scanned by special arrays of 
    silicon nanowires -- even when these cancer markers constitute 
    only one hundred-billionth of the protein present in a drop of 
    blood. In addition to this exceptional accuracy and sensitivity, 
    the minuscule devices also promise to pinpoint the exact type of 
    cancer present with a speed not currently available to clinicians."

   "A nanowire array can test a mere pinprick of blood in just 
    minutes, providing a nearly instantaneous scan for many different 
    cancer markers. It's a device that could open up substantial new 
    possibilities in the diagnosis of cancer and other complex diseases." 

MedicalNewsToday.com:: Nanowires for detecting molecular signs of cancer

[03 December 2005, top]

ScienceDaily.com:: Nanoparticles, Nanoshells, Nanotubes:
How Tiny Specks May Provide Powerful Tools Against Cancer

[26 November 2005, top]

	"The whole car is no more than 4 nanometers across. That's 
	 slightly wider than a strand of DNA. A human hair is about 
	 80,000 nanometers thick."

LiveScience.com:: The World's Smallest Car

[19 November 2005, top]

Wikipedia.org:: Richard Smalley

[05 November 2005, top]

   "Researchers at several universities have received grants from the
    National Science Foundation (NSF) to study the social implications of
    nanotechnology. Until now, most funds for nanotechnology projects have
    supported efforts to develop the technology itself rather than to study
    its potential effects.  Over the next five years, Arizona State University 
    at Tempe and the University of California at Santa Barbara will receive 
    $6.2 million and $5 million, respectively, to study the possible societal 
    side effects of manipulating matter at the atomic level to create new 
    substances and extremely small devices. 

The report went on the state that "research at ASU will focus on security, privacy, and biomedicine; at Santa Barbara, research will address social perceptions of the risk inherent in nanotechnology."

[29 October 2005, top]

	"Nanotechnology has the potential to revolutionize a lot of 
	 different technologies," said Ed Krause, external alliances 
	 manager, Ford Research and Advanced Engineering. "For both 
	 Boeing and Ford, while not nano companies primarily, 
	 nanotechnology can impact a number of the different 
	 products that we both make." 

NanoBusiness.org:: Ford, Boeing, Northwestern Forge Research Alliance

[22 October 2005, top]

ScienceDaily.com:: Engineers Build DNA 'Nanotowers' With Enzyme Tools

[15 October 2005, top]

[08 October 2005, top]

    "When it comes to the possibilities of nanotechnology, 
     it can be hard to know what to expect: glittering visions 
     of abundance and long, healthy life spans; fears of 
     out-of-control world-destroying devices, pervasive 
     surveillance tyrannies, and devastating nanotech wars; 
     or maybe all of the above."

There are many techno-visionaries who believe they can live forever (in some form).

   "world-destroying devices" ... "grey goo"

   "nanotech wars" ... first punch wins?

   "surveillance tyrannies" ... "one nation under surveillance"

What if you could live forever and "stay forever young?" This question is why sustainability is a 21st century keyword (i.e. it is more than a buzzword).

Reason.com:: Nanotechnology: Hell or Heaven?

[01 October 2005, top]

Dartmouth's microrobot untethered and controllable, meaning it can be steered and move about "freely on a surface without wires or rails."

The microrobot "doesn't drive on wheels, but crawls like a silicon inchworm, making tens of thousands of 10-nanometer steps every second."

Dartmouth.edu:: Dartmouth researchers build world's smallest mobile robot

[24 September 2005, top]

There are concerns, however, about nanocosmetics . "This is so tiny it can go where no one has ever gone before. (Nano-particles) can cross the blood-brain barrier. The general concern is that the safety work really has to be done or people won't trust the products."

Wired.com:: Butterfly Wings on Every Eyelid
[ThurmThanks to JohnR for the hyperlink.]

[17 September 2005, top]

    * Holds up to 1,000 songs and full-color album art
    * Only 3.5 x 1.6 x 0.27 inches and 1.5 ounces
    * Bright 1.5-inch color LCD display

Apple.com:: iPod nano

[10 September 2005, top]

Nature.com:: Spongy nanocoating makes for fog-free glass

[03 September 2005, top]

The following quote is from Penn professor Alan T. Johnson.

   "Given their amazing electric properties, nanotubes have been a 
    subject of keen interest for creating such things as chemical 
    sensors, flexible electronics and high-speed, high-device-density 
    microprocessors for computing. The problem is that the properties 
    we like best about nanotubes their size and physical properties 
    also make them very difficult to manipulate."

ScienceDaily.com:: Penn Researchers Take A Big Step Forward In Making Smaller Circuits

[28 August 2005, top]

   "Working with platinum nanowires 100 times thinner than a 
    human hair--and using blood vessels as conduits to guide 
    the wires--a team of U.S. and Japanese researchers has 
    demonstrated a technique that may one day allow doctors 
    to monitor individual brain cells and perhaps provide new 
    treatments for neurological diseases such as Parkinson's."

Again, "installing" nanowires in blood-vessels can only be done if 1) the nanowires do not block normal blood flow, and 2) they don't hamper the "exchange of gasses and nutrients through the blood-vessel walls."

NSF.gov:: Wiring the Brain at the Nanoscale

[20 August 2005, top]

Tahan.com:: Nanotechnolgy and Society

[30 July 2005, top]

[23 July 2005, top]

   "Drug delivery, solar panels, chemical sensors are just
    some of the nanotech research occurring at the University
    of Maryland. Earlier this year, U-Md. was named the No. 1 
    school in the country for both nanotech education and nanotech 
    research by Small Times, an industry journal. And at the end 
    of May, it launched the Maryland Center for Integrated Nano 
    Science and Engineering to pull together all of the school's 
    nanotechnology resources."

   "It became clear to us that nanoscience was not a discipline 
    that fit neatly into any one college," said Patrick G. O'Shea, 
    a professor of electrical and computer engineering who helped 
    create the center, which is a joint initiative of U-Md.'s 
    School of Engineering, its College of Computer, Mathematical 
    and Physical Sciences and its Life Sciences Department."

WashingtonPost.com:: University of Maryland Gets an 'A' For Its Nanotechnology Research

[17 July 2005, top]

• Nanogen Issued Patent for Method of Monitoring PCR Using Fluorescent Energy Transfer
• UW Receives $15 Million Grand Challenges in Global Health Grant as Leader of Pacific Northwest Consortium to Develop Pocket-Size Diagnostic Device

For nanonewbies, even the headlines are learning tools.

   PCR -- polymerase chain reaction
   UW -- University of Washington

"Pocket-Size Diagnostic Device" makes sense given nano implies very, very, very small. Pocket-sized today, pill-sized tomorrow.

Nanogen, Inc. is corporate headquartered in San Diego, California, and thanks to them San Diego has a connection to the state of Washington. Nanogen is collaborating with "academic, industry and non-profit" Washington-based partners. One partner is Micronics, Inc. which is working on "lab cards" (laboratory-on-a-card). Another partner is PATH, which is an "international, nonprofit organization which creates sustainable, culturally relevant solutions that enable communities worldwide to break longstanding cycles of poor health."

The press release for Nanogen's patent announcement ended with the following quote from Howard C. Birndorf, Nanogen chairman and chief executive office (CEO).

   "Nanogen's research in nanotechnology and fluorescent energy 
    transfer is the continuation of many years of work.  Our 
    growing intellectual property estate includes valuable 
    technologies involving methods of fluorescent energy 
    transfer that can be used for the creation of useful 
    DNA diagnostic assay systems."

Nanogen.com:: Home Page

[10 July 2005, top]

    "NanoString™ Technologies is developing a patent-pending 
     nanotechnology-based platform for high speed, highly multiplexed, 
     single molecule identification and digital quantification. This 
     breakthrough has the potential to become a biological operating 
     system onto which many biomolecular analysis applications can be 
     developed.  The NanoStringTM system uniquely barcodes each individual 
     target molecule, scans it, and delivers a literal inventory of target 
     molecules in the biological sample."

I took a look at the job openings at NanoString Technologies and they are currently looking for a protein chemist to work on "antibody conjugation." The chemist must be able to provide "technical leadership in biochemistry."

[26 June 2005, top]

Palo Alto-based Nanosolar has raised $20 million from a group of investors led by the firm Mohr, Davidow Ventures. Nanosolar has discovered their technology and are now working on how to bring it into production.

Nanosolar has developed "proprietary techniques that use novel nanostructured components to make it possible to simply 'print' (solution-coat) the most expensive layers of a solar cell. Printing processes are simple and robust in comparison with other (e.g. vacuum based) thin-film deposition techniques and enable unprecedented process throughput with roll-to-roll production methods."

Nanosolar.com:: Home Page

[11 June 2005, top]

[30 May 2005, top]

   "Molecular manufacturing emphasizes the use of precise, engineered, 
    computer-controlled, nanoscale tools to construct vast numbers of 
    improved tools as well as products with vast numbers of precise, 
    engineered nanoscale features."

The WiseNano website exists to "promote research into advanced nanotechnology."

[12 May 2005, top]

Nanochip Inc. has developed prototype "arrays of atomic-force probes, tiny instruments used to read and write information at the molecular level." These arrays can record up to one trillion bits of data -- known as a terabit -- in a single square inch. "It is roughly equivalent to putting the contents of 25 DVDs on a chip the size of a postage stamp."

On 01 May 2005, the latest "News" on the Nanochip, Inc. Home Page is dated 08 March 2004.

{Nanochip.com:: Home Page }

[01 May 2005, top]

	"Smart dust networks are being deployed in a number of test projects, 
	 just eight years after University of California computer science 
	 professor Kris Pister began researching the technology. Supervalu 
	 grocery stores use smart dust sensors to monitor the efficiency of 
	 their refrigerators, and ..."

Damn dot-dot-dot... we know about network, but what is smart dust?

My office, the Valley of the Sun, and the state of Arizona is a good source for dust.

At Sat Apr 23 12:13:50 MST 2005 an "I'm Feeling Lucky" Google for smart dust takes us to http://robotics.eecs.berkeley.edu/~pister/SmartDust/

[23 April 2005, top]

[Extra] The following quote came from a panel discussion at the ThinkEquity Partners 2nd Annual Growth Conference.

   "Nanotechnology: The Decade of the Mini Me
    Here is why nanotechnology is the buzz of 
    the scientific community and how it is about 
    to transform biology, chemistry and physics."

[11 April 2005, top]

[03 April 2005, top]

• SmallTimes.com:: Nano's Road to the Future
• Nano.gov:: National Nanotechnology Initiative

[26 March 2005, top]

[19 March 2005, top]

[12 March 2005, top]

[05 March 2005, top]

[27 February 2005, top]

In total desperation, I called over to the engineering building, and I said, "Please cut off a nanosecond and send it over to me."

I don't have an exact date of Hopper's quote, but I suspect she said it sometime during the late-1950s or early-1960s. Hopper died in 1992 so we know she said it before then.

A nanosecond is the length of time it takes light to travel a distance of one-foot.

• GraceHopper.org:: Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing
• Navy.mil:: Rear Admiral Grace Murray Hopper
• St-And.ac.uk:: Quotations

[19 February 2005, top]

[05 February 2005, top]

[22 January 2005, top]

"Unlike traditional coating technologies, NANO-TEX? enhancements are created utilizing nanotechnology. The use of nanotechnology allows the enhancement to permanently attach to the fiber at the nano or sub-micron level therefore allowing the fabrics to remain breathable, maintain a consistent feel and perform for the life of the fabric."

[Extra::Can There Be Nanoangel Investors?] I'd like to see a "nanoangel investor" program started. A nanoangel is a very, very, very small investor. They want to be a angel investor, but they can't afford to. Nanoangels who have success will "get their wings" and become future angel investors. It is important that some of the money invested by nanoangels go into nanotechnology investments.

[14 January 2005, top]

   "Reporting on disruptive technologies such as MEMS, 
    NEMS, Nanoscale Materials, Molecular Manufacturing, 
    Quantum Computing, Nanomedicine, Nanoelectronics, 
    Nanotubes, Self Assembly, and Molecular Biology."

Nanotech-Now.com:: Your Gateway to Everything Nanotech

[07 January 2005, top]

[01 January 2005, top]

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