Technology Update

A researcher from the Faculdade de Farmácia e Instituto de Medicina Molecular, Lisbon, Portugal, is to receive a Grand Challenges Exploration Grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for his work in developing therapeutic nanoparticles to eliminate HIV-1 viruses from infected organisms. 

Some prior experiments that studied the toxicity of nanoparticles may be invalidated due to an overlooked detail of experimental design, according to Younan Xia, a scientist at Washington University in St. Louis, United States. 

A high-sensitivity biochip was developed for widespread diagnosis and environmental monitoring thanks to mass-production techniques and achievement of precision molecule detection.

RTI International, a United States-based research institute, is hosting a policy forum, “Nanotechnology: The Huge Challenge of Regulating Tiny Technologies”, on May 4, 2011, from 9:30 to 10:30 EDT, in Washington, D.C. 

Countries in Latin America are engaging in regional cooperation in order to improve science, technology and innovation in their countries. 

The Working Group on the Ethics of Nanotechnologies, which is part of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)’s World Commission on the Ethics of Scientific Knowledge and Technology (COMEST) met this week in Brussels, Belgium, to examine the ethical dimension of nanotechnologies. 

The Sri Lanka Institute of Nanotechnology (SLINTec), a public-private partnership, has been able to acquire five international patents in nanotechnology in its first year of operations. 

Scientists from the Nanotechnology Research Institute in Prague, Czechoslovakia, have developed a technology that cleans “dead” water and turns it into drinking water. 

Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, United States, have developed a new method for manufacturing green-colored LEDs that results in significant enhancements in light extraction, internal efficiency and light output. 

Researchers at Oregon State University, United States, have developed a new microfluidic sensor that could revolutionize the size, speed and accuracy of chemical detection systems around the world. 

Researchers from the United States Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory and Oak Ridge National Laboratory have developed a way to avoid the use of expensive platinum in hydrogen fuel cells. 

A new set of recommendations from the United States National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) contains several tidbits that might foreshadow how federal regulators may approach setting rules for nanoparticles, according to this article. 

A rare earth refinery that could meet nearly a third of global demand for rare earth minerals is undergoing an investigation to see if the refinery presents any threat of radioactive pollution. 

Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), United States, have found that by using the services of tiny viruses, they can make significant improvements to the power-conversion efficiency of solar cells. 

Combining nanotechnology with local crafts to make portable solar-powered lights could help bring electricity to some of the nearly two billion people without access to it. 

Metal oxides such as TiO2 and SnO2 are important candidates for many applications including fuel cells, lithium-ion batteries, solar cells, water splitting and gas sensing.

An interdisciplinary team with expertise in nanophysics and genetics based in Bielefeld, Germany, has shown how a double-stranded DNA molecule can be orientated across a gap of only a few hundred nanometres in a defined way.

Metallic photonic crystals (MPCs) based on the interaction between photonic and plasmonic resonance modes may be applied extensively in biosensors and optoelectronic devices.

Researchers at Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center (LSUHSC), New Orleans, US, have developed a novel technique to produce biocompatible and biodegradable cross-linked polycarbonate nanofibrous materials that can be used as scaffolds for improving or replacing human tissues, organs and blood vessels.

Nanomanufacturing is the bridge that carries the breakthroughs in nanoscience across from the lab into the market as real-world devices, but if a product cannot be measured then it can’t be mass produced – nanometrology is essential to ensure robust manufacturing. http://nanotechweb.org/cws/article/indepth/45676

Researchers at the California Institute of Technology are the first to have measured how gas atoms are physisorbed onto the surface of a vibrating nanoelectromechanical resonator and how these adsorbates fluctuate and generate noise.