Category: Nanodot

from the World-Watch dept.
Australasian Science, a monthly popular science magazine published by the Australian and New Zealand Association for the Advancement of Science (ANZAAS), has devoted most of its June 2001 issue to nanotechnology. Although not all the content is online at the AS website, an interesting article ("Nanomachines: The New Industrial Revolution") by Michael Wilson, Professor of Chemistry at the University of Technology in Sydney, is online.

However, you can find most of the rest of the articles from that issue on the SmallTimes website, including one on "Ethics in the Nanoworld", by John Weckert.

from the vague-generalities dept.
United Press International has a short interview with H.S. Nalwa ("Nalwa sees nanotechnology expanding", by K. Hearn, 16 June 2001), the editor of the Journal of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology and a former staff scientist at the Hitachi Research Laboratory in Japan. Nalwa favors nanoelectronics and nanobiotechnology as the fields that will most likely produce short term results. When asked if the public is sufficiently informed about nanoscience, Nalwa said: "Only educated people and professionals are aware of nanotechnology because it is not defined in a layman manner. We need to define nanotechnology for the public ranging from non-scientists to experts."

from the deep-in-the-heart-of-Texas dept.
An article in the Houston Business Journal ("Nanotechnology may help city keep energy capital title", by A. Coleman, 1 June 2001) makes the audacious claim that "Houston is the center of research into nanotechnology", and ponders how nanotech may help the oil capital retain its primacy in energy production industries. The article quotes Richard Smalley, director of Rice's Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology, who says he does not know of any short-term applications of nanotechnology to energy, but the long-term benefits will be tremendous: lighter-weight materials, better insulation, and, in the very long term, solar energy generation. "If there is an answer to our solar energy needs it most certainly will be nano," says Smalley.

The article also mentions potential applications of nanotechnology in molecular electronics (quoting Riceís James Tour) and in oil exploration, extraction and processing, as well as cleaning up spills and pollution from fossil fuels.

from the World-Watch dept.
In an interview with United Press International ("South Korean consular describes tech trends", by K. Hearn, 9 June 2001), Sangseon Kim, science consular at the South Korean embassy in Washington, D.C., describes his countryís intent to invest 1.5 trillion won ($1.13 billion) in a ten-year nanotechnology investment program. When asked what he thought of the idea of an international body to steer research and applications of nanotechnology similar to the U.S. National Nanotechnology Initiative, Kim said, "I think that is a good idea. If you image the Human Genome Project, how it involved international cooperation, you see it is a good model. The United States can be a leading country in this field but one country can't cover all areas. International cooperation is important to prove and promote R&D activities.î

from the selective-service dept.
According to an article from United Press International ("Lack of scientists hurts nanoresearch", by K. Hearn, 5 June 2001) research in nanoscience at U.S. military laboratories is being hampered a shortage of U.S. citizens trained in physical sciences and by social attitudes about foreign-born scientists. The U.S. military requires that researchers in its laboratories be U.S. citizens. The article also notes that in a speech in April, James Murday, head of the chemistry division at the Naval Research Lab in Washington, said other nations, Singapore and Germany especially, were also having trouble finding qualified scientists to conduct nanoscale research.

from the light-stuff dept.
The U.S. Department of Defense has selected the Institute for Lasers, Photonics and Biophotonics at the University at Buffalo to lead a consortium in a five-year, $5 million effort to develop new materials in molecular electronics, photonics and opto-electronics. The consortium also includes researchers at Berkeley, MIT, Yale, and the University of Washington. The grant was awarded under the department's Defense University Research Initiative in Nanotechnology (DURINT) program. The researchers will focus on developing new materials on the molecular and nanometer scale, including theoretical modeling and chemical synthesis, characterization, device fabrication, and testing and integration of components into larger-scale systems. A prime focus is chemical self-assembly. One researcher will self-assembling DNA-templated assembly to organize photonic and electronic nanostructures. One goal is to use the DNA templates to produce nanowires and nanoarrays, which, attached to a substrate, would make up the integrated circuit component of a potential data-storage device.

from the me,-too dept.
An indication of the increasingly common "me, too" scramble to get into nanotechnology can be found in this editorial from CityBusiness, a commerce journal in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metro area ("State needs to get involved in nanotechnology", 25 May 2001) by Jack Uldrich, Deputy Director Of The Minnesota Office Of Strategic And Long Range Planning.
After providing a lengthy list of nanotechnology research programs around the country and around the world, Uldrich says, "Can Minnesota afford not to get more involved in this exciting area of science — an area that is going to revolutionize everything from health care and the semiconductor industry to the energy, telecommunications and automotive sectors?
"I don't believe so, and that is why I would like to call for the establishment of a private-public commission to develop a strategy for how Minnesota can grow and profit from the inevitable changes that nanotechnology promises."

from the even-smaller-is-bigger-in-Texas dept.
vik writes "According to this article in the Dallas Business Journal, Zyvex's James Von Ehr is donating $2.5M for a new nanotechnology research center in the University of Texas. The state is also contributing $0.5M to the project."

Additional details about Von Ehr's contribution for the nanotechnology center at the University of Texas can be found in this article from Dallas-Fort.Worth TechBiz (5 March 2001)