Nanotech and Biotech Consulting

Thanks to KurzweilAI.net and Next Big Future for this news item from the University of Nottingham. British scientists are investigating telescoping carbon nanotubes as a nanotech replacement for current computer memory technologies. From “Miniaturizing memory — taking data storage to the molecular level“:

Current memory technologies fall into three separate groups: dynamic random access memory (DRAM), which is the cheapest method; static random access memory (SRAM), which is the fastest memory — but both DRAM and SRAM require an external power supply to retain data; and flash memory, which is non-volatile — it does not need a power supply to retain data, but has slower read-write cycles than DRAM.

Carbon nanotubes — tubes made from rolled graphite sheets just one carbon atom thick — could provide the answer. If one nanotube sits inside another — slightly larger — one, the inner tube will ‘float’ within the outer, responding to electrostatic, van der Waals and capillary forces. Passing power through the nanotubes allows the inner tube to be pushed in and out of the outer tube. This telescoping action can either connect or disconnect the inner tube to an electrode, creating the ‘zero’ or ‘one’ states required to store information using binary code. When the power source is switched off, van der Waals force —which governs attraction between molecules — keeps the Inner tube in contact with the electrode. This makes the memory storage non-volatile, like Flash memory.

Researchers from across the scientific disciplines will be working on the ‘nanodevices for data storage’ project, which is funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council. Colleagues from the Schools of Chemistry, Physics and Astronomy, Pharmacy and the Nottingham Nanotechnology and Nanoscience Centre will examine the methods and materials required to develop this new technology, as well as exploring other potential applications for the telescoping properties of carbon nanotubes. These include drug delivery to individual cells and nanothermometers which could differentiate between healthy and cancerous cells.

Dr Elena Bichoutskaia in the School of Chemistry at the University is leading the study. “The electronics industry is searching for a replacement of silicon-based technologies for data storage and computer memory,” she said. “Existing technologies, such as magnetic hard discs, cannot be used reliably at the sub-micrometre scale and will soon reach their fundamental physical limitations.

“In this project a new device for storing information will be developed, made entirely of carbon nanotubes and combining the speed and price of dynamic memory with the non-volatility of flash memory.”

Prof. Bichoutskaia recently published a review of Nanotube-based data storage devices (including those based on telescoping carbon nanotubes) in Materials Today, 11(6), 38-43 (June 2008).
—Jim

Recently announced results of a US national survey on nanotech applications for “human enhancement” show widespread public support for enhancements seen as promising an improvement in human health, but little support for other uses. From North Carolina State University, via AAAS EurekAlert “Survey highlights support for nanotech in health fields but disapproval elsewhere“

A landmark national survey on the use of nanotechnology for “human enhancement” shows widespread public support for applications of the new technology related to improving human health. However, the survey also shows broad disapproval for nanotech human enhancement research in areas without health benefits. A team of researchers at North Carolina State University and Arizona State University (ASU) conducted the study, which could influence the direction of future nanotechnology research efforts.

The “Public Awareness of Nanotechnology Study” is the first nationally representative survey to examine public opinion on the use of nanotechnology for human enhancement. The survey found significant support for enhancements that promise to improve human health. For example, 88 percent of participants were in favor of research for a video-to-brain link that would amount to artificial eyesight for the blind. However, there was little support for non-health research endeavors. For example, only 30 percent of participants approved of research into implants that could improve performance of soldiers on the battlefield.

…NC State’s Dr. Michael Cobb, one of the leaders of the study, says the survey’s findings are important because “what the public wants could drive the direction of future research.” Cobb, an associate professor of political science, explains, “The public should have input into where the government invests its research funding.” Dr. Clark Miller, an associate professor of political science at ASU and another leader of the survey, adds, “One of the most important findings is the difference in support for different applications of human enhancement. Research and public policies will need to reflect this differentiated view, recognizing that there are some applications the public supports and some that the public is quite skeptical of.”

I find it encouraging that the public strongly supports nanotechnology for improving health, but I find myself skeptical that public disapproval of military uses of human enhancement will deter the military from making such investments, especially once they argue that we need to give our soldiers every battlefield advantage possible. In the unlikely event the US military were constrained from using such technologies, it seems to me very unlikely that other military establishments worldwide would be similarly constrained.
—Jim

Canada’s Minister of International Trade and Brazil’s Minister of Science and Technology have signed the Canada-Brazil Framework Agreement for Cooperation on Science, Technology, and Innovation, an agreement to increase bilateral research and development in a number of science and technology areas, including nanotechnology, biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, information and communications technology, and others.

Japan’s Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. has announced that its new vehicle, the Cube, will use a new ultra-low precious metal catalyst that uses half the amount of precious metals used by conventional catalysts.

On Friday, the 2nd International Seminar on Nanosciences and Nanotechnologies began in Cuba with representatives from Germany, France, China, Japan, the UK, Spain, and Russia in attendance.

This year the theme of the U.S. Army’s annual Army Science Conference will be "Transformational Army Science and Technology – Harnessing Disruptive S&T for the Soldier,” with emphasis placed on nanotechnology, biotechnology, neuroscience, quantum information science, and several other areas of science and technology.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is hosting the second International Conference on Bio-Nanotechnology, aimed at identifying ways in which emerging applications of nanotechnology could affect the region.