Category: Nanodot

An article on the NewsOK.com website from The Oklahoman ("Oklahoma receives funding to expand research program", by Chip Minty, 26 February 2002) reports Oklahoma was named one of five states chosen to receive a three-year, $9 million grant from the Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) from the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF). The funding is designed put Oklahoma in a better position to compete for federal research funding in the future. Historically, the state has been among the poorest states in the nation when it comes to federal funding for scientific research. According to the article, the money allows the state's major research institutions to expand work in nanotechnology and functional genomics, said Frank Waxman, state director of the grant program. The Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education have committed $4.5 million in matching funds for a total infusion of $13.5 million for new research programs.

from the World-Watch dept.
An article in the Toronto Star ("Atoms on a roll", by Rachel Ross, 18 February 2002) describes the "[s]teady but significant strides have made molecules called ëbuckyballsí a promising new tool in science, medicine and technology", covering work at the Canadian firm C Sixty, which hopes to create medical applications of fullerenes, as well as the work at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the University of Pennsylvania with carbon nanotubes packed with fullerene spheres. (See the Nanodot post from 3 January 2002.)

A second piece from the Toronto Star ("Keeping pace in research spending", by David Crane, 17 February 2002) is an editorial by the Starís economics editor, who says, " The [Canadian] federal government has launched Canada on a national debate on how to make our country one of the most innovative in the world. This is essential if we want to do well as a country in the 21st century." One of the areas in which Crane worries whether Canada can remain competitive is nanotechnology.

Canada is not the only country worrying about keeping up in the increasing global competition for nanotech leadership. Similar concerns have also been expressed in France and Japan.

An article on the Nanotech Planet website ("Zyvex: Building Nanoscale Machines with Microscopic Engines", by Allen Bernard, 14 February 2002) profiles the steady progress Zyvex is making along a "top-down" pathway toward nanotechnology by attempting to create machines designed to build yet smaller machines that, in turn, build yet smaller machines that manipulate matter at the molecular level in the manner envisioned decades ago by Richard Feynman.

"We'll build the first machine by hand," Zyvex founder and CEO Jim Von Ehr told NanotechPlanet. "And that machine will build other machines … and each of those machines can be ganged together in parallel with other similar machines to build products or another generation of machines."

The strategy is being implemented with the help of a $12.5 million National Institute of Standards and Technology matching grant in October 2001 (see Nanodot post from 25 October 2001). "What we want to end up with after this five-year NIST program is reasonably parallel sub micron scale systems handling sub micron scale parts," Von Ehr said. "I want to be careful about nanoscale. We're not really trying to build with molecules in this program."

Dan Gillmor, technology columnist for the San Jose Mercury News highlights the increasing interest of venture capitalists in nanotechnology ("Big Breakthroughs come in small packages", 16 February 2002): "Small things — really small things — are looking bigger and bigger to the venture capital community these days. Investors smell profits in nanotechnology — building and manipulating things one atom or molecule at a time — and the related field of micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS)." The article also quotes a number of venture capitalists who attended a meeting at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory to discuss the possibilities of commercializing nano- and micro-technology. The article was reposted on the Small Times website.

from the World-Watch dept.
An article in the Taipei Times ("Nanotechnology looks promising", by Dan Nystedt, 10 February 2002) underscores Taiwanís efforts to expand its research and development programs in biotechnology and, more recently, the microscopic science of nanotechnology. The article quotes Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian, who said during a tour of a new national Nanotechnology Research Center in January, that nanotechnology was "the new century's rising star" that "will bring about a massive shift in the development of new materials, information-technology products and biomedicine."

But, the article notes, "Others in Taiwan are not so optimistic about how long it will take to develop new products from the nanotechnology initiative. . . . Other critics of Taiwan's proposed nanotechnology program point out that China plans to spend NT$105.7 billion (US$3 billion) by 2005 on nanotechnology research, far more than Taiwan. They believe the government should put more money into R&D so Taiwan can maintain its high-tech advantage over China."

Additional background on Taiwanís nanotechnology initiative can be found in these Nanodot posts from 22 January and 24 January 2002.

According to a press release (14 February 2002), Umar Mohideen, associate professor of physics at the University of California-Riverside, has performed the first demonstration of the lateral Casimir force (a shape-dependent Casimir force) in his laboratory. His findings appeard in Physical Review Letters.

The Casimir force has its origins in virtual particles that exist in empty space. According to the release, the force acts tangential to two surfaces, resulting in a horizontal sliding motion of one surface against the other. This lateral force may make the movement of gears and motors in micromachines easier.

Analysts and pundits are looking over the big increase in nanotech-related R&D funding requested by the Bush Administration on 4 February 2002.

• Coverage of the budget announcement can also be found on the Small Times website ("Bush calls for 17 percent increase in spending for nanotech programs", by D. Brown, 5 February 2002).
• An article from United Press International ("Nanotech initiative's focus: Measurement", by S. Burnell, 10 February 2002) provides some additional commentary, and includes a short interview with Mihail "Mike" Roco, a senior advisor on nanotechnology at the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), which receives almost one-third of total federal nanotech funding. NSF will support a diversity of programs in different areas, Roco said: "This reflects, in a way, that nanoscale science and engineering will affect society at large. It's basically a foundation on which industry eventually will change its business; it's a way in which maybe we'll change our understanding of the world, even of life." Roco also said a long-term goal is the development of a nanotechnology workforce: "In the long term, NSF will try to address the educational aspects that are critical for this whole enterprise. In 2003, we'll train and educate about 5,000 students and faculty; this is probably a small number if you consider the rate of increase of nanoscale science and engineering. In 10 or 15 years, we'll need in the range of 800,000 nanotechnology workers, so the NSF will focus on preparing this workforce of the future."
• An extensive article by Doug Brown on the Small Times website ("Bush proposes deep cuts to program that funds high-risk nanotechnology", 11 February 2002) points that not all aspects of the Bush budget proposal are positive. According to the article, the Bush administration is seeking cut funding for the Advanced Technology Program (ATP) at the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) in the Department of Commerce from about $185 million to $107.9 million , a reduction of over 42%. The ATP has spent about $128 million on nanotechnology in recent years, and companies involved with the ATP projects have met the federal dollars with $121 million of their own money.
• For a general overview of the areas where the U.S. federal R&D budget is being increased and decreased, see the Preliminary Analysis of R&D in the FY 2003 Budget from the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Budget and Policy Program. The analysis does not specifically mention nanotechnology funding figures.

from the (world-authority-on-nanotech?) dept.
A rather breathless article in the Australian Daily Telegraph ("AIDS cure closer: expert", 4 February 2002) describes a visit to Australia by Professor Donald Tomalia, whom the article describes as "the world authority on nanotechnology", to trumpet work by Dendritic Nanotechnologies Ltd, the joint-venture of Melbourne-based pharmaceutical company Starpharma and Brisbane-based diagnostic firm Panbio. Tomalia is a leading researcher in the field of starburst dendrimers, a type of complex, tree-like spherical branching polymer molecules, at Central Michigan University in the United States. Dendritic Nanotech was formed in August 2001 to develop products using "dendrimer nanotechnology"

Australia would pioneer the application to humans of the synthetic molecular structures to prevent and cure diseases such as STDs, malaria and Hepatitis B, Prof Tomalia told reporters in Sydney. According to the article, dendrimers were being touted by Dendritic Nanotechnologies as having implications for anything from preventing tumour growth to curing AIDS to detecting biological warfare.

Dr John Raff, CEO of Starpharma, said the Australian federal government had committed A$6 million to the company's research. He said the Australian army was embracing nanotechnology, following in the footsteps of the U.S., which was equipping its army with detection devices against germ warfare. "The opportunities of broadscale protections against a range of respiratory viruses is enormous," he said. "The US army has made a very serious commitment to the nano area. The army intends to give every foot soldier out there devices to detect biological threats. That is now a reality. Australia is just now coming into this very exciting area," he said.

from the long-range-plans dept.
An article in Dallas-Ft. Worth TechBiz ("Local medical device industry could boom with right political support", by Pavan Lall, 21 January 2002) describe innovative companies in the medical device industry in Texas. The article includes a brief nod toward the potential medical applications of nanotechnology:

Nanotechnology will help shrink medical devices, said Christopher Chavez, president and chief executive at Plano-based Advanced Neuromodulation Systems Inc. ìThe technical issues of nanotech will be resolved downstream, and the improvement of devices will be based on a synthesis of different technologies,î he said. . . . In about 20 years, through a better understanding of the central nervous system, electricity will be accepted as a digital drug, Chavez said. The shrinkage of medical devices will stimulate other technologies as well as make the broad-based use of drugs and chemicals obsolete. ìMachinery and electrode miniaturization will result in very elegant solutions that will be tremendously intelligent,î he said.
Jim Von Ehr, president and chief executive of Richardson-based nanotech company Zyvex Corp., agreed. ìWe have been talking with a number of doctors about things in the medical area and have looked at micro-devices and micro-diagnostics. In the future, there could be a variety of micro-devices that will detect bacteria in a system, chop it into pieces and digest it or even carry oxygen better than a cell in a bloodstream can.î To successfully implement different aspects of medical devices in production, one must understand biological content as well as the relation to software and bioinformatics, Von Ehr said.

It is worth noting that Robert A. Freitas Jr., author or Nanomedicine, the first book-length technical discussion of the potential medical applications of molecular nanotechnology and medical nanorobotics, is a Research Scientist with Zyvex.

A brief item in The Daily News of Halifax, Canada ("Tiny science no small matter", by Andrea MacDonald, 2 February 2002) describes a lecture by Carlo Montemagno, who studies biological molecular motor systems at UCLA and the California NanoSystems Institute, at Dalhousie University. According to the article, ìThereís a bright future for people who want to look at the business of molecular process,î Montemagno told his audience. Itís difficult to tell whether the writer or Montemagno had tongue in cheek regarding the articleís conclusion: Itís a golden opportunity for nations such as Canada to climb on board, Mantemagno said, as an investment of tens of millions of dollars is all thatís needed to be competitive.