The German Advisory Council on the Environment today published a special report "Precautionary Strategies for Managing Nanomaterials." In response, Nanostart AG, the leading financer of nanotechnology growth, is issuing the following statement: Nanotechnology allows people to develop new products and procedures which strongly support us in meeting imminent global challenges in the areas of health, energy and the environment, water supply and mobility.

Members of the Nanodermatology Society (NDS), a physician-led organization dedicated to the scientific and medical aspects of nanotechnology and dermatology, recently published a pilot study evaluating knowledge, perceptions and attitudes regarding Nanotechnology amongst dermatologists in the United States.

The problems encountered by the traditional European dyes industry go from lack of innovation and weak market competitiveness to toxicity, environmental hazards and health risks for those working in it. To address them scientists have developed a new and environmentally friendly way to produce dyes.

Complex system transports essential cargoes such as proteins and membrane vesicles.

If nanoparticles are incorporated into a material with the aim of imparting new functions, the properties of the single nanoparticles have to be precisely characterized. To date this information was only available for individual nanoparticles that are smaller than 500 nanometres. Now, the refinement of a procedure used in biology to study cell membranes has shed light onto even smaller 'dwarves'.

smart has always been a pioneer in matters of urban mobility and with the smart fortwo electric drive the company is showing the direction of development in cities around the world. Together with BASF, the largest automotive supplier in the chemical industry, smart is demonstrating its leading role in the use of forward-looking technologies above and beyond the drive system. The joint concept vehicle smart forvision presented at the 2011 International Motor Show in Frankfurt combines a futuristic design with technologies relating to energy efficiency, lightweight design and temperature management.

Researchers led by ETH professor Yaakov Benenson and MIT professor Ron Weiss have successfully incorporated a diagnostic biological "computer" network in human cells. This network recognizes certain cancer cells using logic combinations of five cancer-specific molecular factors, triggering cancer cells destruction.

By turning a common problem in chip manufacture into an advantage, MIT researchers produce structures only 30 atoms wide.

In the last couple of years, there has been particularly growing interest worldwide in exploring ways of finding suitable solutions to clean up oil spills and deal with industrial oily wastewater through use of nanomaterials. Key for the success of these materials is a high separation capacity, with resistance to oil fouling, and that are easily recyclable. Oil/water separation is an interfacial challenge, and novel materials designed to possess special wettability have different interaction and affinity for oil and water, thus can realize the separation. Until now, researches in this field all focus on materials with both hydrophobic and oleophilic properties. However, the oil-removing type of materials is easily fouled even blocked up by oils because of their intrinsic oleophilic property. A novel superhydrophilic and underwater superoleophobic hydrogel coated mesh can selectively separate water from oil/water mixtures effectively and without any extra power.

The Goettingen-based physicist Stefan Hell has designed high-resolution optical microscopes which can see many times more sharply than was thought possible.

In seinem heute veroeffentlichten Sondergutachten "Vorsorgestrategien fuer Nanomaterialien" gibt der SRU Empfehlungen fuer einen verantwortungsvollen, vorsorgeorientierten Umgang mit Nanotechnologie.

A research center of the CSIC participates in a study that refutes the hypothesis that their movement is based on jumps from one region to another. The porphyrins may be used in quantum computing since they keep the wave nature of electrons.

New sensor combines state-of-the-art performance and accuracy for widespread use.

A University of Arkansas physicist and his colleagues have found that ultra-thin films of superconductors and related materials don't lose their fundamental properties when built under strain when built as atomically thin layers, an important step towards achieving artificially designed room temperature superconductivity. This ability will allow researchers to create new types of materials and properties and enable exotic electronic phases in ultra-thin films.

With a nod to biology, scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have a new approach to the problem of safely storing hydrogen in future fuel-cell-powered cars. Their idea: molecular scale 'veins' of iron permeating grains of magnesium like a network of capillaries.

Researchers at NIST significantly extended the reach of their novel microfluidic system for analyzing the chemical components of complex samples. The new work shows how the system, meant to analyze real-world, crude mixtures such as dirt or whole blood, can work for negatively charged components as well as it has in the past for positively charged ones.

Tiny particles that measure microRNA levels in tissue samples could help diagnose and monitor many diseases.

NEI Corporation announced today that it has completed initial development of a waterborne self-healing coating, Nanomyte MEND-MW.

Simple templating technology allows researchers to stamp out materials that mimic the adhesive properties of gecko toes

Design optimization could help maximize the power conversion efficiency of thin-film silicon solar cells.