[dohtml]<p align="right"><i>Monday 22 January 2007</i></p><p align="center"><b><font size="4">Nano-wheels seen rolling at last</font></b></p>[/dohtml]It is the nano-equivalent of seeing the first stone disc roll down a prehistoric hill: German and French scientists have, for the first time, observed a nanoscopic wheel rolling over a flat surface.

The researchers created a carbon molecule resembling a pair of wheels just 0.8 nanometres in diameter, joined together by an axle only four carbon atoms long. The achievement was a combined effort by researchers at the Free University of Berlin in Germany and the Center for Material Elaboration & Structural Studies in Toulouse, France.

After being chemically synthesised in the lab, hundreds of these “nanowheels” were sprayed onto a sheet of copper. The researchers then used the tip of a scanning tunnelling electron microscope (STEM) to push individual molecules across a copper surface.

“Using the STEM provided a direct readout that shows the wheels [only] roll when pushed in the right direction, perpendicular to the axle,” Leonhard Grill, leader of the German research team, told New Scientist. If nudged the wrong way, the molecules instead skip across the surface.

“It’s fascinating to reproduce movement so important in our world at this scale,” adds Grill. Because wheels can only travel in certain directions, they could provide a useful tool for nanoscale manufacturing. He suggests: “Any nano-device made from different parts needs to be assembled; rolling could be one way of doing that.” [dohtml]<blockquote><font face="Trebuchet MS">Full story at <a href="http://www.newscientisttech.com/article/dn11002-nanowheels-seen-rolling-at-last.html" target="_blank">New Scientist Tech</a></font></blockquote>[/dohtml]

[dohtml]<div style="font-size: 12pt; color: black; font-family: Times New Roman"><p>Did you know? Nanotechnology is the theme of the episode “Nanarchy” in Series VII of the sci-fi sitcom <i>Red Dwarf</i>, first shown in 1997. (At any rate, I first saw the series in 1997.)</p></div>[/dohtml]

[dohtml]<div style="font-size: 12pt; color: black; font-family: Comic Sans MS"><p>Did you know? As the name implies, nanotubes are on the order of <nobr>10^&minus;9</nobr> metres in size: they are famed for being thinner than human hair, and are typically less than a millimetre long. But they pack a lot of punch into such a small structure. They are extremely strong and stiff, they conduct heat efficiently, and if made properly are excellent conductors of electricity. To take advantage of these amazing properties, you need to make a larger structure out of the tiny tubes.</p>
<p>A company in the United States has just done that – reports <a target="_blank" href="http://www.nature.com/news/2008/080227/full/news.2008.629.html">Nature News</a>.</p></div>[/dohtml]

[dohtml]<p align="right"><i>Wednesday 12 November 2008</i></p><p align="center"><b><font size="4">Action urged over nanomaterials</font></b></p>[/dohtml]Urgent regulatory action is needed on nano-scale materials widely used in industry, the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution has concluded.

The materials have so far shown no evidence of harm to people or the environment, the commission found.

However, it said there was a “major gap” in research about the risks posed by the materials, which are found in some 600 products globally.

The report focuses not on the tiny machines or electronic devices that nanotechnology has promised, but instead on the nano-sized materials that are making it into industry and consumer products.[dohtml]<blockquote><font face="Arial"><a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7722620.stm" target="_blank">BBC News</a></font></blockquote>[/dohtml]

[dohtml]<p align="right"><i>Monday 24 November 2008</i></p><p align="center"><b><font size="4">Nanotech clothing fabric “never gets wet”</font></b></p>[/dohtml]If you were to soak even your best raincoat underwater for two months it would be wet through at the end of the experience. But a new waterproof material developed by Swiss chemists would be as dry as the day it went in.

Lead researcher Stefan Seeger at the University of Zürich says the fabric, made from polyester fibres coated with millions of tiny silicone filaments, is the most water-repellent clothing-appropriate material ever created.

The secret to this incredible water resistance is the layer of silicone nanofilaments, which are highly chemically hydrophobic. The spiky structure of the 40-nanometre-wide filaments strengthens that effect, to create a coating that prevents water droplets from soaking through the coating to the polyester fibres underneath.

A similar combination of water-repelling substances and tiny nanostructures is responsible for many natural examples of extreme water resistance, such as the surface of Lotus leaves.

The silicone nanofilaments also trap a layer of air between them, to create a permanent air layer. Similar layers – known as plastrons – are used by some insects and spiders to breathe underwater.[dohtml]<blockquote><font face="Comic Sans MS"><a href="http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16126-nanotech-clothing-fabric-never-gets-wet.html" target="_blank">New Scientist</a></font></blockquote>[/dohtml]

[dohtml]<p align="right"><i>Friday 02 January 2008</i></p><p align="center"><b><font size="4">Nanotech could mean sharper snaps</font></b></p>[/dohtml]Researchers in Scotland have been given nearly half a million pounds to try to improve digital camera images.

The researchers are using a phenomenon called surface plasmon resonance, which is an effect exhibited by certain metals when light waves fall onto their surfaces.

In digital cameras, this is the metal film used on microchip image sensors – known as a CMOS (complementary metal-oxide semiconductor) – that detect light waves and convert them into digital signals.

The Scottish scientists hope to find a way of creating patterns or small nanostructures in the metal film on the CMOS. This should increase the sensitivity of the sensor and result in higher quality images.[dohtml]<blockquote><a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7807980.stm" target="_blank">BBC News</a></blockquote>[/dohtml]

[dohtml]<p align="right"><i>Wednesday 15 April 2009</i></p><p align="center"><b><font size="4">Nanotubes unzip to offer computing route beyond silicon</font></b></p>[/dohtml]A simple way to make strips of material touted as a faster successor of the silicon used in today’s computer chips has been developed by research groups in the US and Mexico. Cheap carbon nanotubes are simply unzipped to make the previously elusive ribbons of atom-thick graphene.

First isolated in 2004, graphene sheets are made from a single layer of carbon atoms in a honeycomb arrangement. Although these sheets conduct electricity, ribbons of the substance measuring less than 10 nanometres wide are semiconductors – like silicon – and have been used to make transistors many times smaller than the tiniest conventional ones. The ribbons could make it possible to cram more computing power into a smaller space, while graphene’s high conductivity should allow such components to perform faster than silicon ones.

Realising the material’s potential is the real challenge. Previously, nanoribbons of graphene must be cut from larger sheets using chemical methods that, like a blunt pair of scissors, offer little control over the width of the ribbons.[dohtml]<blockquote><font face="Arial"><a href="http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16955-nanotubes-unzip-to-offer-computing-route-beyond-silicon.html" target="_blank">New Scientist</a></font></blockquote>[/dohtml]

[dohtml]<font face="Trebuchet MS" size="3" color="black">
<p>Did you know? Nanotechnology involves the modification of atoms and molecules to create new materials which may have unusual physical, chemical, and biological properties. In medicine alone it is hoped it could be used to develop more effective and better targeted drugs, and new ways to detect and treat disease. The market is potentially huge, but safety concerns threaten to hold progress back. <a target="_blank" href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/8091141.stm">BBC News</a>.</p></font>[/dohtml]

[dohtml]<div style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Times New Roman"><p>Did you know? Nanochemistry is like chemistry, but, on the nano level.</p></div>
<p><a href="http://www.thescienceforum.com/chemistry/34168-nanochemistry.html" target="_blank">http://www.thescienceforum.com/chemistry/34168-nanochemistry.html</a></p>[/dohtml]