Nanotechnology

Imaging individual atoms within a molecule has been a long-standing goal of surface microscopy

Zurich, Switzerland - 28 Aug 2009: IBM (NYSE: IBM) scientists have been able to image the “anatomy” -- or chemical structure -- inside a molecule with unprecedented resolution, using a complex technique known as noncontact atomic force microscopy.

The results push the exploration of using molecules and atoms at the smallest scale and could greatly impact the field of nanotechnology, which seeks to understand and control some of the smallest objects known to mankind.    » read more »

June 16, 2009 -- Berkeley Lab scientists have developed nanocrystals that act as individual investigators of activity within a cell. These light emitting probes represent a significant step in scrutinizing the behaviors of proteins and other components in complex systems such as a living cell

Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have created bright, stable and bio-friendly nanocrystals that act as individual investigators of activity within a cell. These ideal light emitting probes represent a significant step in scrutinizing the behaviors of proteins and other components in complex systems such as a living cell.    » read more »

Using an atomic force microscope, nanoscience milestone opens up new possibilities in molecular electronics

ZURICH, Switzerland, June 12, 2009 -- IBM (NYSE: IBM) scientists in collaboration with the University of Regensburg, Germany, and Utrecht University, Netherlands, for the first time demonstrated the ability to measure the charge state of individual atoms using noncontact atomic force microscopy.    » read more »

Center to study new solar materials by combining predictive theory with experiment

May 27, 2009 -- The U. S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) will be home to a new multi-million-dollar Energy Frontier Research Center (EFRC) established by the DOE Office of Science. NREL’s Center for Inverse Design will pursue advanced scientific research on material discovery for energy.

It is one of 46 Centers to study various areas of scientific research that were selected for funding by DOE over a planned initial five year period. NREL will participate in six additional Centers led by other organizations.    » read more »

April 22, 2009 -- A research team from Northeastern University and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has discovered, serendipitously, that a residue of a process used to build arrays of titania nanotubes—a residue that wasn’t even noticed before this — plays an important role in improving the performance of the nanotubes in solar cells that produce hydrogen gas from water.

Their results, published online on March 27, 2009 in the Journal of Materials Chemistry, indicate that by controlling the deposition of potassium on the surface of the nanotubes, engineers can achieve significant energy savings in a promising new alternate energy system.    » read more »

March 10, 2009 -- Given some of the surprises and unintended consequences that have resulted when new materials are introduced into the environment, there is a compelling argument for nimbler regulation of nanomaterials with new analytical tools, a historian of science told a 5 March seminar at AAAS.

Jody Roberts, program manager at the Chemical Heritage Foundation in Philadelphia, sought to dispel some of the scarier visions that have been proposed by critics of the technology, including the possibility that runaway nanorobots might somehow turn the surface of the Earth into a gray goo.    » read more »

YORKTOWN HEIGHTS, NY - 01 Mar 2009: IBM (NYSE: IBM) Research scientists today announced a landmark study in the field of nanoelectronics; the development and demonstration of novel techniques to measure the distribution of energy and heat in powered carbon nanotube devices.

By employing these techniques, IBM researchers have determined how the energy of electrical currents running through nanotubes is converted into heat and dissipated into collective vibrations of the nanotube's atoms, as well as surface vibrations of the substrate beneath it.    » read more »

March 02, 2009 -- Berkeley, CA - As electronic circuits shrink from finely etched lines in silicon wafers to nearly elusive proportions, researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and Columbia University are studying how electrons flow through a molecular junction-a nanometer scale circuit element that contacts gold atoms with a single molecule. Their findings reveal the electrical resistance through this junction can be turned ‘on’ and ‘off’ simply by pushing and pulling the junction-a feature that could be used as a switch in nanoscale electronic devices.    » read more »

Exploring the ultimate nanoscale for future electronics

January 28, 2009 -- BERKELEY, CA – The logic and memory functions of future electronic devices could shrink dramatically – to one or two nanometers (billionths of a meter) instead of the many tens of nanometers that characterize today’s most advanced elements - if a way can be found to control domain walls, the ultrathin transition zones that separate regions of a material having different magnetic, electric, or other properties.    » read more »

Washington, DC - 01/27/2009 - Recent action in Congress to reauthorize the U.S. federal nanotechnology research program offers the chance to address the social and ethical issues concerning the emerging scientific field, experts say.

“It is crucial to address social and ethical issues now as we consider both the substantial potential risks of nanotechnology and its possible significant contributions to our well-being and environmental sustainability,” says Ronald Sandler, Northeastern University philosophy professor and author of a new report funded by the Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies (PEN) and the National Science Foundation.    » read more »

January 22, 2009 -- What could prove to be a significant breakthrough in the ultra-miniaturization of lasers has been achieved with the creation of a plasmonic microcavity based on the phenomenon of whispering galleries.

The principle behind whispering galleries – where words spoken softly beneath a domed ceiling or in a vault can be clearly heard on the opposite side of the chamber – has been used to achieve what could prove to be a significant breakthrough in the miniaturization of lasers. Ultrasmall lasers, i.e., nanoscale, promise a wide variety of intriguing applications, including superfast communications and data handling (photonics), and optical microchips for instant and detailed chemical analyses.    » read more »

Gaithersburg, Md., Feb. 26, 2008 — The Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is hosting the International Workshop on Documentary Standards for Measurement and Characterization in Nanotechnologies February 26-28. Leaders of international standards committees and measurement laboratories from around the world will exchange information to promote the emergence of high-quality, globally relevant international standards for nanotechnology.    » read more »

Budget Will Also Address Workforce Shortage Needs in Education, Nursing and Engineering

January 30, 2008 -- Connecticut Governor M. Jodi Rell today announced that her revised budget will include $5 million to support industry-university partnerships in nanotechnology research at Yale University and the University of Connecticut.

Nanotechnology is important in medicine, the defense and energy industries and materials science. A nanometer is one millionth of a millimeter.    » read more »

December 17, 2007 -- Washington, DC - Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton welcomed the Department of Energy’s (DOE) decision to grant "Critical Decision 2" (CD-2) status to the National Synchrotron Light Source II (NSLS-II) at the Brookhaven National Laboratory. The project will produce broad and practical impacts on a wide range of initiatives in nanotechnology, biomedicine, and clean and affordable energy. This decision is a major step forward for Brookhaven in the long process to make this state-of-the-art research complex a reality.    » read more »

BERKELEY, CA — Make way for the real nanopod and make room in the Guinness World Records. A team of researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the University of California at Berkeley have created the first fully functional radio from a single carbon nanotube, which makes it by several orders of magnitude the smallest radio ever made.    » read more »