National Nanomanufacturing Network

The Molecular Foundry at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Labs) has a number of openings for post-doctoral research associates in all areas of nanoscience.

Acenes are organic semiconductor compounds that show great promise in organic field effect transistor (OFET) and organic light emitting diode (OLED) applications.

While no one was paying attention, the organic foods industry considered steps to ban all nanotechnology products in foods, processes and packaging. Dozens of comments were submitted prior to a recent meeting of the National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) where the Materials Committee recommended a prohibition of all that is nanotechnology (http://www.ams.usda.gov/AMSv1.0/getfile?dDocName=STELPRDC5079505 acct=nosb). The comments reflect a nearly universal sentiment among consumer groups that there is no place for nanotechnology in the organic industry.

In an open letter submitted on November 6, 2009, 41 Nobel laureates urged Congress to act on the Federal Research Public Access Act (FRPAA), bi-partisan legislation introduced by Senators Lieberman and Cornyn to ensure that research funded by federal agencies including the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and National Science Foundation (NSF) are made available to the public via the Internet within 6 months of publication.

The November issue of Nature Nanotechnology includes a news feature titled “Polymers: Performance Under Pressure” written by two University of Massachusetts Amherst researchers, Thomas P. Russell and Dong Hyun Lee.

A panel of venture capitalists and industry specialists named Nanoengineered Concrete, an entry in the Energy category, the winner of the 2009 MIT Elevator Pitch Contest. This three-year-old contest, which is open to MIT students from across its five schools, neighboring colleges, and Boston-area entrepreneurs, allows competing teams 60 seconds to deliver a persuasive elevator pitch to the panel of judges.

Distinguishing between normal, cancerous, and metastatic cells is a major hurdle for the early detection of cancer. Bajaj, et. al. describe a detection approach based on selective noncovalent interactions between cell surface elements and functionalized nanoparticle sensors that does not require a priori knowledge of specific biomarkers.

In October, the National Library of Medicine's Hazardous Substances Data Bank (http://toxnet.nlm.nih.gov/cgi-bin/sis/htmlgen?HSDB) (HSBD)—a comprehensive, peer-reviewed database of toxicology information for over 5,000 chemicals—added seven nanomaterials records, the first set of such records in the datafile.

A recent study published in the well-known medical journal, the European Respiratory Journal, has been receiving significant publicity as the authors have claimed their findings support an apparent linkage between workplace exposures to nanoparticles and severe respiratory disease. Specifically, in this study, investigators at China's Capital University of Medical Science related unusual and progressive lung disease in seven Chinese workers, two of whom died, to nanoparticle exposures in a print plant where a polyacrylic ester paste containing nanoparticles was used. This linkage was made by the study investigators despite a general lack of exposure data for the workers.

In the five years since graphene was discovered (http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1102896), the material's production output has jumped to 15 tons per year and is expected to exceed 200 tons per year within the next two years, according to Nature Nanotechnology Associate Editor Michael Segal (http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nnano.2009.279).

Jo et. al. introduce a novel concept for the formation of nanopatterns on a polymer film at room temperature.

Rutgers researchers have discovered novel electronic properties in graphene that could one day be the heart of speedy and powerful electronic devices. The new findings, previously considered possible by physicists but only now being seen in the laboratory, show that electrons in graphene can interact strongly with each other.

Kershner, et. al., report a synergistic top down and bottom up process for creating self-assembled nanostructures of DNA origami.

Recently, at Arizona State University’s Biodesign Institute, N.J. Tao and collaborators have found a way to make a key electrical component on a phenomenally tiny scale. Their single-molecule diode is described in the October issue of Nature Chemistry.

NanoPen represents a versatile approach to patterning a range of nanostructured materials, including nanorods and nanotubes.

The National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI) will hold their third nanoEHS workshop on November 17-18 at the Holiday Inn Rosslyn at Key Bridge, Arlington, Virginia. The workshop, Nanomaterials and Human Health Instrumentation, Metrology, and Analytical Methods, will continue the dialogue on some of the most crucial scientific questions of the day.

The College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering ( CNSE ) and the School of Business of the University at Albany announced a further expansion of the pioneering Nano+MBA program, highlighted by the development of the world's first Masters of Business Administration ( MBA ) program to include an elective track in nanotechnology.

If you need a reason to register for the upcoming US/Ireland Emerging Technologies Conference (http://continuinged.uml.edu/emergingtech/), their program session on nanomanufacturing for biomedical applications should be enough.

Researchers have overcome a major obstacle in efforts to use tiny structures called carbon nanotubes to create a new class of electronics that would be faster and smaller than conventional silicon-based transistors. Carbon nanotubes, which were discovered in the early 1990s, could make possible more powerful, compact and energy-efficient computers, as well as ultra-thin nanowires for electronic circuits. The nanotubes might be ideal for future electronics because they conduct electricity more efficiently than any other metal, but their practical application requires that they be manufactured to specific standards.

The National Nanomanufacturing Network is pleased to welcome John Monica, Jr., of Porter Wright Morris Arthur as a Contributing Editor on Environmental Health and Safety and Regulation issues for InterNano.