(PRWEB) November 27, 2014

In the U.S. alone, the National Cancer Institute (NCI), created by the Nixon administration more than 40 years ago to help fight the war, has spent nearly $100-billion in funding, with hundreds of millions more raised and spent by cancer charities and hospital foundations.

There are constant disputes on whether money is being wasted on researches that fail or don't necessarily require that much of a big amount. At the end, we can't put a price limitation on our lives and even if we fail, at least we are getting closer to ending the battle with cancer. An outgoing study is set to be the change we have been looking for.

The research consists of bio-inspired nano-cocoons and offers the newest method for delivering drugs used to treat the spread of cancer cells. Drug delivery, being the most crucial pharmaceutical application, is the most focused area in nanobiotechnology.

Nanobiotechnology is considered by many as the most promising technology of the 21st century with numerous new important applications in medicine and is poised for an indefinite period of healthy growth. According to GIA (The Gemological Institute of America), global market for Nanobiotechnology is projected to reach US$6.0 billion by the year 2017.

The commercial applications of nanobiotechnology in biomedical field are principally directed towards development of novel drug delivery systems, and the trend is likely to remain intact for several years to come.

Current treatments for cancer vary depending on a number of factors: the type of cancer a person has, what stage the cancer is in and the persons age or health status. Doctors typically rely on a number of different types of therapy and palliative care. Current treatment options include surgery, chemotherapy, hormone therapy, gene therapy, radiation and immunotherapy. The use of bio-inspired nano-cocoons would fall under the category of immunotherapy.

The research is conducted by scientists located at North Carolina State University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Co-authors on the research project for these bio-inspired nano-cocoons include three Ph.D. students: Yue Lu, Margaret Reiff, and Tianyue Jiang and Dr. Ran Mo, a former postdoctoral biomedical engineering researcher.

Each bio-engineered cocoon consists of a single DNA strand that manipulates itself into the shape of a ball of yarn measuring 150 nanometers wide. They can carry large amounts of anti-cancer drugs and release them rapidly into the cancer cells once inside.

The nano-cocoons are less toxic to patients than other systems which use synthetic materials. They are also easier to manufacture because scientists built them with a self-assembling nature.

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Bio-Inspired Nano-Cocoons Offer a New Way to Treat Cancer

Nov 25, 2014 Flexible crossbar memory developed via the ILLO process. Credit: KAIST

Flexible electronics have been touted as the next generation in electronics in various areas, ranging from consumer electronics to bio-integrated medical devices. In spite of their merits, insufficient performance of organic materials arising from inherent material properties and processing limitations in scalability have posed big challenges to developing all-in-one flexible electronics systems in which display, processor, memory, and energy devices are integrated. The high temperature processes, essential for high performance electronic devices, have severely restricted the development of flexible electronics because of the fundamental thermal instabilities of polymer materials.

A research team headed by Professor Keon Jae Lee of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at KAIST provides an easier methodology to realize high performance flexible electronics by using the Inorganic-based Laser Lift-off (ILLO).

The ILLO process involves depositing a laser-reactive exfoliation layer on rigid substrates, and then fabricating ultrathin inorganic electronic devices, e.g., high density crossbar memristive memory on top of the exfoliation layer. By laser irradiation through the back of the substrate, only the ultrathin inorganic device layers are exfoliated from the substrate as a result of the reaction between laser and exfoliation layer, and then subsequently transferred onto any kind of receiver substrate such as plastic, paper, and even fabric.

This ILLO process can enable not only nanoscale processes for high density flexible devices but also the high temperature process that was previously difficult to achieve on plastic substrates. The transferred device successfully demonstrates fully-functional random access memory operation on flexible substrates even under severe bending.

Professor Lee said, "By selecting an optimized set of inorganic exfoliation layer and substrate, a nanoscale process at a high temperature of over 1000 C can be utilized for high performance flexible electronics. The ILLO process can be applied to diverse flexible electronics, such as driving circuits for displays and inorganic-based energy devices such as battery, solar cell, and self-powered devices that require high temperature processes."

Explore further: Formation of organic thin-film transistors through room-temperature printing

More information: 'Flexible Crossbar-Structured Resistive Memory Arrays on Plastic Substrates via Inorganic-Based Laser Lift-Off' Advanced Materials, onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10 a.201402472/abstract

The Korean team of Professor Keon Jae Lee from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, KAIST has developed a high performance flexible all-solid-state battery, an essential energy source for flexible ...

The team of Professor Keon Jae Lee (Department of Materials Science and Engineering, KAIST) has developed fully functional flexible non-volatile resistive random access memory (RRAM) where a memory cell can ...

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Breakthrough in flexible electronics enabled by inorganic-based laser lift-off

18 hours ago by Emil Venere

Researchers at Nano-Meta Technologies Inc. (NMTI) in the Purdue Research Park have shown how to overcome key limitations of a material that could enable the magnetic storage industry to achieve data-recording densities far beyond today's computers.

The new technology could make it possible to record data on an unprecedented small scale using tiny "nanoantennas" and to increase the amount of data that can be stored on a standard magnetic disk by 10 to 100 times.

The storage industry's technology strategy, called heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR), hinges on the design of the nanoantenna, or near-field transducer (NFT), said Urcan Guler, chief scientist at Nano-Meta Technologies.

HAMR harnesses "plasmonics," a technology that uses clouds of electrons called surface plasmons to manipulate and control light. However, some of the plasmonic NFTs under development rely on the use of metals such as gold and silver, which are not mechanically robust and present a challenge in fabrication and long-term reliability of the HAMR recording head.

Researchers from Nano-Meta Technologies and Purdue University are working to replace gold with titanium nitride. The material offers high strength and durability at high temperatures, and its use as a nanoantenna paves the way for next-generation recording systems, said Vladimir M. Shalaev, scientific director of nanophotonics at Purdue's Birck Nanotechnology Center and a distinguished professor of electrical and computer engineering.

The researchers have modified the physical properties of titanium nitride, tailoring it for HAMR.

A team from Nano-Meta Technologies and Purdue has authored an article on the need to develop new materials as alternatives to gold and silver for various plasmonic applications, using HAMR as an example. The article was published online this month in the journal Faraday Discussions.

The technology could make it possible to circumvent the disk-storage-capacity limits imposed by conventional magnetic recording materials. Normally, lenses cannot focus light smaller than the wavelength of the light itself, which is hundreds of nanometers across. However, nanoantennas allow light to be focused into spots far smaller than the wavelength of light, making it possible to increase the storage capacity of the medium.

Industry has been reluctant to adopt titanium nitride for potential new plasmonic applications because making nanoantennas out of conventional titanium nitride leads to excessive "self-heating" through absorption of the input laser light, hindering performance. Common titanium nitride also undergoes oxidation reactions at high temperatures that degrade its optical properties, said Ernesto Marinero, a professor in Purdue's School of Materials Engineering who is an expert in magnetic recording and joined the university after a long career in the storage industry.

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Breakthrough solutions for HAMR nanoantenna for next-generation ultra-high density magnetic storage

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Newswise In subway stations around London, the warning to Mind the Gap helps commuters keep from stepping into empty space as they leave the train. When it comes to engineering single-layer atomic structures, minding the gap will help researchers create artificial electronic materials one atomic layer at a time.

The gap is a miniscule vacuum that can only be seen under a high-power transmission electron microscope. The gap, researchers in Penn States Center for 2-Dimensional and Layered Materials (2DLM) believe, is an energy barrier that keeps electrons from easily crossing from one layer of material to the next.

Its a natural insulating layer Mother Nature built into these artificially created materials, said Joshua Robinson, assistant professor of materials science and engineering and associate director of the 2DLM Center. Were still trying to understand how electrons move vertically through these layered materials, and we thought it should take a lot less energy. Thanks to a combination of theory and experiment, we now know we have to account for this gap when we design new materials.

For the first time, the Penn State researchers grew a single atomic layer of tungsten diselenide on a one- atom-thick substrate of graphene with pristine interfaces between the two layers. When they tried to put a voltage from the top tungsten diselenide (WSe2) layer down to the graphene layer, they encountered a surprising amount of resistance. About half of the resistance was caused by the gap, which introduced a large barrier, about 1 electron volt (1eV), to the electrons trying to move between layers. This energy barrier could prove useful in designing next generation electronic devices, such as vertical tunneling field effect transistors, Robinson said.

The interest in these van der Waals materials arose with the discovery of methods to make single layer graphite by using Scotch tape to mechanically cleave a one-atom-thick layer of carbon called graphene from bulk graphite. The van der Waals force that binds layers of graphite together is weak enough to allow stripping of the single atomic layer. The Penn State researchers use a different, more scalable method, called chemical vapor deposition, to deposit a single layer of crystalline WSe2 on top of a few layers of epitaxial graphene that is grown from silicon carbide. Although graphene research exploded in the last decade, there are many van der Waal solids that can be combined to create entirely new artificial materials with unimaginable properties.

In a paper published online this month in Nano Letters, the Penn State team and colleagues from UT Dallas, the Naval Research Laboratory, Sandia National Lab, and labs in Taiwan and Saudi Arabia, discovered that the tungsten diselenide layer grew in perfectly aligned triangular islands 1-3 microns in size that slowly coalesced into a single crystal up to 1 centimeter square. Robinson believes it will be possible to grow these crystals to industrially useful wafer-scale sizes, although will require a larger furnace than he currently has in his lab.

One of the really interesting things about this gap, Robinson said, is that it allows us to grow aligned layers despite the fact that the atoms in the graphene are not lined up with the atoms in the tungsten diselenide. In fact there is a 23 percent lattice mismatch, which is huge. Mother Nature really relaxed the rules when it comes to these big differences in atom spacing.

The lead author on the Nano Letters paper is Yu-Chuan Lin, a graduate student in Robinsons lab. Other Penn State coauthors were Ram Krishna Ghosh, a post-doctoral fellow in electrical engineering (EE) who used computer modeling to help the team understand the energy barrier, Jie Li, post-doctoral fellow in EE, Theresa S. Mayer and Suman Datta, professors in EE and Robinson, who along with Lain-Jong Li of the Institute of Atomic and Molecular Sciences, Taiwan, was corresponding author. In a rare bit of serendipity, Jeremy Robinson, a researcher in the Naval Research Laboratory and Joshua Robinsons brother, was also co-author on the paper. Robert Wallace and his students from The University of Texas at Dallas provided TEM images. Contact: Joshua Robinson, jrobinson@psu.edu DOI: 10.1021/nl503144a

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"Mind the Gap" Between Atomically Thin Materials

Posted: Friday, November 21, 2014 11:19 am

Tech engineers uncover new method for nanoscale surface properties By McKenzi Morris Staff Writer Daily Toreador - Dept. of Student Media, Texas Tech University |

Engineering Researchers at Texas Tech have discovered a new way to characterize surface properties of material at the nanoscale and different temperatures.

Gregory McKenna, a chemical engineering professor and a John R. Bradford Endowed Chair in Engineering, said knowing the properties of materials at different temperature is extremely important in engineering, and was part of the problem during the 1986 space shuttle disaster, according to a Tech news release.

McKenna and graduate student Meiyu Zhai worked together to discover new properties at the nanoscale, according to the release. The results appeared in the Journal of Polymer Science Part B: Polymer Physics.

The nanoscale is a funny range of sizes where materials have properties that are not what we expect, even at a step up at the microscale," McKenna said, according to the release. "We are developing methods to characterize surface properties and relate them to nanoscale behavior using a nanoindenter and other nano-mechanical measurement methods.

The Office of Naval Research, National Science Foundation, and the American Chemical Society-Petroleum Research Fund helped fund McKenna and Zhais project.

Posted in News on Friday, November 21, 2014 11:19 am.

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Tech engineers uncover new method for nanoscale surface properties

Lets get small. Real small.

Artist and engineer Jonty Hurwitz has created a series of nanoscale sculptures so small that they can only be viewed via electron microscope.

Thats pretty impressive in and of itself, but weve seen various nanoscale artworkbefore. Whats kind of eye-popping is how detailed, sophisticated and frankly gorgeous Hurwitzs microscopic sculptures are.

Video: How Graphene Could Change the World

Billed as the smallest creation of the human form in history, the sculpture titled Trust pictured above is approximately 80 x 20 x 100 microns. Thats smaller than a human hair, as you can see, and according to Hurwitzs surreal project page, approximately equals the the amount your fingernails grow every five or six hours.

The sculptures are created using a new kind of 3D printing technology called multiphoton lithography. It gets complicated, but essentially the forms are created with light. Using specific ultraviolet wavelengths, Hurwitz and his team use a computer-controlled system to create each 3D pixel called a voxel and move them incrementally into place. Slowly, over hours and hours the entire sculpture is assembled pixel by pixel and layer by layer, Hurwitz explains on the project page.

Extraordinary Beauty Of The NanoArt World: Photos

Hurwitz used live models and an image capture system to create a digital framework for the initial forms. Other sculptures in the series are perhaps even more startling. Intensity depicts an eerie tumble of seven mannequin-like figures, while Cupid and Psyche: The First Kiss is a recreation of an 18th century Italian sculpture from the Louvre.

Take a moment to consider that only 6,000 years ago we were painting crude animal images on the walls of caves with rocks, Hurwitz says. This nano sculpture is the collective achievement of all of humanity. It is the culmination of thousands of years of R&D.

Sure, lets go with that. For more details, check out Hurwitzs behind-the-scenes video:

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Amazing Nano Sculptures Only Visible by Electron Microscope

Image: Adrianus Indrat Aria

We all know engineering is useful, functional, even ingenious. But the engineering photography competition we hold each year provides us a chance to wander outside its merely utilitarian aspects into dimensions such as beauty, humor and even humanity to find unexpected connections and poetic resonance.

As one of the judges, one quality I look for in the images is some added dimension, a richness, the capacity to trigger a cascade of unrelated ideas. Quite by accident this year a few of the photos shared an unplanned underwater theme.

The winner (above) appeared to be a starfish. There was a column, perhaps from a pier, encrusted with coral and barnacles.

Then there was a strange ghost fish, the likes of which might range in Challenger Deep.

Of course they were none of these things: they were images of carbon nanotubes and graphene, but the forms that emerged at these micro- and nano-scales are familiar from elsewhere in nature.

The winning photo shows a fine pentagonal shape I lecture on geometry and a question I ask the audience is: "When did you last see a pentagon?" They're quite rare. They can be found in passionfruit flowers, or the shape of one of the most well-known buildings on the planet. But pentagons in the wild are something of a collector's item and this a fine example.

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Engineering photography reveals unexpected, microscopic beauty

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17-Nov-2014

Contact: Michelle Cometa macuns@rit.edu 585-475-4954 Rochester Institute of Technology @ritnews

Thomas Gaborski's research may be in ultra-thin nano-membranes, but it's going to be titanic in advancing tissue engineering.

Gaborski, assistant professor of biomedical engineering at Rochester Institute of Technology, and his research team are developing ways to use ultra-thin nano-membranes and adipose stem cells to create the vascular network necessary in engineering tissue, skin and organs.

For these organs to be viable, there is a need for not only the organ structure but also the inner network of micro-vessels and capillaries. Gaborski is helping develop that complex structure, using transparent and permeable membrane "scaffolds" to support cell and tissue growth, essential to tissue engineering.

Using adipose-derived stem cells that come from fat tissue, acquired from adults rather than embryos, Gaborski has been able to create functional microenvironments that help support and differentiate stem cells into the specialized cells that make up the human body. Creating engineered tissues from stem cells can help to address the critical shortage of donor organs. It also may alleviate some aspects of organ rejection by an individual's immune system because of the likelihood that an individual's own stem cells could generate needed tissue.

For his work with thin membranes and cell culture on membranes, Gaborski received the 2014 Young Innovator Award in Cellular and Molecular Bioengineering given by the Biomedical Engineering Society this fall. The award is given to profile the best research being carried out by talented assistant professors working in the growing bioengineering field. He presented results of his work in porous membranes and the ability to control cell functions at the society's annual meeting, Oct. 22-25 in San Antonio, Texas.

The goal of tissue engineering is to repair or replace tissues and organs damaged as a result of injury or disease. This requires the precise use of many types of cells, support scaffolds and biochemical factors to create replacement tissue. It is important to design these structures with the proper mechanical and physiological requirements, said Gaborski, a faculty member in RIT's Kate Gleason College of Engineering.

Today, researchers can develop two-dimensional tissues such as artificial skin that is thin enough to receive needed oxygen and nutrients. However, most organs are three-dimensional, he explained.

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Thomas Gaborski named 2014 Young Innovator by international Biomedical Engineering Society

MADISON, Wis. The Wisconsin Alumni Association (WAA) has honored Michael Splinter, chair of the board and former CEO of Applied Materials, with a Distinguished Alumni Award. Splinter is a graduate of the College of Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Mike has been involved in making more computer chips than almost anyone in the world, said Ian Robertson, dean of the College of Engineering.

Splinters career has grown from leading startups to serving as chief executive officer of global economic giant Applied Materials, a nano-manufacturing company that develops equipment, software, and services for semiconductor chips.

The Distinguished Alumni Award is the highest honor bestowed by WAA. Since 1936, WAA has presented the awards to the most prestigious graduates of UW-Madison to recognize their professional achievements, contributions to society and support of the university.

Mike exhibits extraordinary leadership, not only throughout his career and as a recognized leader in energy efficiencies and solutions to reduce fossil-fuel use, but he is also a great friend and passionate alumnus with deep commitment to the university and to fellow Badgers, said Paula Bonner, president of the Wisconsin Alumni Association.

As a student hailing from Horicon, Wis., Splinter studied electrical engineering at UW-Madison, where he found one of the first integrated-circuit fabrication labs in the country, and a ringside seat to the computer revolution.

After graduating with a bachelors degree in 1972 and a masters degree in 1974, Splinter moved to Silicon Valley, where his career included posts at Rockwell Internationals electronics research center and 20 years at Intel.

In 2003, he was named CEO of Applied Materials, where he earned recognition as a leader in energy efficiencies and solutions to reduce fossil fuel use.

I grew up in a very small town, and without the education I received at Wisconsin, my life would have been completely different, Splinter told On Wisconsin Magazine. I want to see young people have the same opportunities Ive had.

Splinter continues to give back to his alma mater through service on the board of directors of the Wisconsin Foundation and Alumni Association. Hes also advised boards in the College of Engineering.

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Wisconsin Alumni Association honors Horicon native, now Silicon Valley leader, with Distinguished Alumni Award

Image: Tata Nano. Photograph: Kind Courtesy, Tata Motors

With deregulation in diesel prices, a Nano diesel does not make sense with the lesser difference in petrol and diesel fuel prices and it only made sense for Tata to stop the development on the lost cause.

The Nano diesel has been a long awaited offering from Tata Motors that will now not see the light of the day.

A recent report suggests that Tata has indefinitely halted the development of the Nano diesel as its Engineering Research Centre (ERC) at Pimpri, Pune in order to focus on other projects instead.

In addition to the Nano diesel, the company has also stopped the development of a quadricycle based on the Magic Iris platform at the ERC for unknown reasons.

Image: Tata Nano. Photograph: Kind Courtesy, Tata Motors

Starting with the Tata Nano Diesel, the model has been long in the news with the automaker developing the same since quite some time now.

However, the extensive development has taken a toll on Tata as diesel prices have now been deregulated with the difference between petrol and diesel coming down to a minimal.

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Tata Motors shelves Nano diesel project

The ISE's four fields of study - automotive engineering and design, nano-engineering, information and communication engineering, and aeronautical engineering - will be launched in the 2015 academic year with the goal of producing good quality-engineers with English proficiency.

Faculty dean Bundhit Eua-Arporn said many students were interested in studying the international programmes but the current English proficiency criteria to recruit high school students was too high, resulting in a limited number of students passing.

Bundhit said the science and mathematics proficiency requirement remained the same.

He said the labour market wanted a large number of top-notch engineers who not only had engineering skills but also had the ability to communicate well in English.

But many engineers still struggled when communicating in English so the faculty wanted to address this issue and help the country.

Bundhit said that at the recent ISE Chula Open House 2014 event it was discovered that many students, with their parents' support, were interested in doing a bachelor's degree at the ISE.

The ISE programmes would also teach students multi-engineering discipline integration so they could have the option of working in a wider range of jobs and would have the engineering logic to create innovations for the country.

ISE will open for applications from January 5-30. For more details visit http://www.chula.ac.th.

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Chula relaxes English proficiency score for engineering programme

Israel-based Nano Retina made some noise a few years back with its development of so-called nanoelectrodes that interface with the eyes bipolar neurons and restart neural stimulation, allowing for messages to go to the brain. The nanoelectrodes served as a kind of artificial retina.

Since then it doesnt appear that Nano Retina has had much more to report on the development of its implantable device, at least from what its website reveals. But it other Israeli researchers do, in a paper published in the journalNano Letters. The teamfrom Tel Aviv University, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem Centers for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology and Newcastle University combined semiconductor nanorods and carbon nanotubes to create a wireless, light-sensitive, flexible film that could potentially act in the place of a damaged retina.

The researchers useda plasma polymerized acrylic acid midlayer to make covalent bonds with the semiconductor nanorods directly onto neuro-adhesive, three-dimensional carbon nanotube surfaces.

The researchers have tested the device in achicks retinathat in normal conditions would not have responded to light. These tests demonstrated that the flexible film absorbed light, which then triggered neuronal activity in the chick.

The researchers claim that this film is more durable, flexible and efficient, as well as better able to stimulate neurons, compared to other competitive devices. While there have been a number of approaches to creating artificial retinas to address diseases of the retina, such as macular degeneration, the stumbling block has largely been getting the device to fit inside the eye itself.

This is why solutions such as Nano Retinas nanoelectrodes have been so attractive. It would seem, basedNano Retinas reticence since itsinitial announcement, that the engineering issues are significant even with a nanoscale solution. Whether this latest research can find a way around them remains to be seen.

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Scheme would zap cancer cells with a phalanx of graphene-based plasmon lasers4Nov

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Nanofilm Serves as Artificial Retina

Researchers say their battery could be a breakthrough in energy storage It uses structures called nanopores to hold electrolyte to carry charge University of Maryland team say next batch will be ten times more powerful

By Damien Gayle for MailOnline

Published: 02:48 EST, 11 November 2014 | Updated: 06:25 EST, 11 November 2014

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A breakthrough in the design of batteries could mean the days when your mobile phone spends half the time plugged into the wall are numbered.

A remarkable new prototype battery needs just 12 minutes to fully recharge, rather than the hours conventional cells need to replenish.

What's more, researchers at the University of Maryland say their new invention could bring about the long sought-for miniaturisation of energy storage components.

Cross section: A new kind of battery made from millions of tiny nano-sized cells could revolutionise electrical energy storage and slash the time it takes to charge our electronic devices

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Could this nano battery lead to mobiles that fully charge in just 12 minutes?

Authorities say an investigation has found faked research at a University of Utah chemical engineering lab.

Jordan Allred, Deseret News

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SALT LAKE CITY An investigation has found faked research at a University of Utah chemical engineering lab.

A graduate student doctored photos for a paper about microscopic structures called nanorods, making it appear as if a theory on how to change their position worked, said Jeffrey Botkin, the associate vice president for research integrity at the university.

"There was no legitimate data in that paper," Botkin said.

The magnified images of the pill-shaped structures attracted attention on social media after the paper was published last year because the rounded ends appeared to be surrounded by square outlines, as if they had been highlighted and moved with an image manipulation program like Photoshop.

The paper purported to show a method for bringing the ends of the nanorods together at an angle that could have had implications for creating synthetic antibodies.

The paper published by the journal Nano Letters has already been retracted.

A university investigation found doctoral candidate Rajasekhar Anumolu changed the images, which were the basis for all the findings in the paper published in June 2013, Botkin said. Anumolu did not return phone and email messages seeking comment.

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Authorities: Investigation finds faked research at U. chemical engineering lab

November 7, 2014

Image Caption: Ling Zang, a University of Utah professor of materials science and engineering, holds a prototype detector that uses a new type of carbon nanotube material for use in handheld scanners to detect explosives, toxic chemicals and illegal drugs. Zang and colleagues developed the new material, which will make such scanners quicker and more sensitive than today's standard detection devices. Ling's spinoff company, Vaporsens, plans to produce commercial versions of the new kind of scanner early next year. Credit: Dan Hixon, University of Utah College of Engineering

Provided by Vince Horiuchi, University of Utah

University of Utah engineers have developed a new type of carbon nanotube material for handheld sensors that will be quicker and better at sniffing out explosives, deadly gases and illegal drugs.

A carbon nanotube is a cylindrical material that is a hexagonal or six-sided array of carbon atoms rolled up into a tube. Carbon nanotubes are known for their strength and high electrical conductivity and are used in products from baseball bats and other sports equipment to lithium-ion batteries and touchscreen computer displays.

Vaporsens, a university spin-off company, plans to build a prototype handheld sensor by years end and produce the first commercial scanners early next year, says co-founder Ling Zang, a professor of materials science and engineering and senior author of a study of the technology published online Nov. 4 in the journal Advanced Materials.

The new kind of nanotubes also could lead to flexible solar panels that can be rolled up and stored or even painted on clothing such as a jacket, he adds.

Zang and his team found a way to break up bundles of the carbon nanotubes with a polymer and then deposit a microscopic amount on electrodes in a prototype handheld scanner that can detect toxic gases such as sarin or chlorine, or explosives such as TNT.

When the sensor detects molecules from an explosive, deadly gas or drugs such as methamphetamine, they alter the electrical current through the nanotube materials, signaling the presence of any of those substances, Zang says.

You can apply voltage between the electrodes and monitor the current through the nanotube, says Zang, a professor with USTAR, the Utah Science Technology and Research economic development initiative. If you have explosives or toxic chemicals caught by the nanotube, you will see an increase or decrease in the current.

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Better Bomb-Sniffing Technology

Piscataway, NJ (PRWEB) November 06, 2014

Dr. Kibum Lee (Rutgers University), Dr. Hilton Kaplan (Rutgers University) and their industrial sponsor received the very first seed fund grant from the Rutgers University Neuro-Engineering Group in late July. The grant will provide financial support allowing the researchers to develop a nano-particle based synthetic transcription factor, to stimulate the expression of neuronal switch genes in stem cells, which can ultimately generate neurons. The technology described will potentially be used to regenerate nerves, a huge unmet clinical need.

Dr. Melitta Schachner (Rutgers University) and her industrial sponsor received the second Seed Grant Fund from RUNEG in early October. The goal of her research is to launch pilot animal model studies, using transgenic mice, to ultimately find a treatment for genetic neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimers, Huntingtons and ALS.

The seed funds help foster collaborative and interdisciplinary research, to facilitate translational science in the development of devices that enhance central and peripheral nerve regeneration, restoration of motor and sensory function, and transmission of neural signals by brain-computer interfaces. With the help of industrial partners, RUNEG seeks to accelerate the transfer and commercialization of inventions and technologies into clinically useful products and therapies.

Media Contact: Kristen Ryan kohnoffice(at)dls(dot)rutgers(dot)edu New Jersey Center for Biomaterials 145 Bevier Rd, Piscataway NJ 08854

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Rutgers University Neuro Engineering Group (RUNEG) Awards First Faculty Seed Grants

1 hour ago Mechanical resonator based on a carbon nanotube. The nanotube is suspended and clamped at the two anchor points, shown by the arrows. The nanotube vibrates as a guitar string. Credit: ICFO

In a recent paper published in Nature Nanotechnology, Joel Moser and ICFO colleagues of the NanoOptoMechanics research group led by Prof. Adrian Bachtold, together with Marc Dykman (Michigan University), report on an experiment in which a carbon nanotube mechanical resonator exhibits quality factors of up to 5 million, 30 times better than the best quality factors measured in nanotubes to date.

Imagine that the host of a dinner party tries to get his guests' attention by giving a single tap of his oyster spoon on his crystal glass. Now, imagine, to the amazement of all, that the crystal glass vibrates for several long minutes, producing a clear ringing sound. Surely the guests would marvel at this almost never ending crystal tone. Some might even want to investigate the origin of this phenomenon rather than listen to the host's speech.

The secret of such an imaginary non-stop vibrating system relies on the fact that it dissipates very little energy. The energy dissipation of a vibrating system is quantified by the quality factor. In laboratories, by knowing the quality factor, scientists can quantify how long the system can vibrate and how much energy is lost in the process. This allows them to determine how precise the resonator can be at measuring or sensing objects.

Scientists use mechanical resonators to study all sorts of physical phenomena. Nowadays, carbon nanotube mechanical resonators are in demand because of their extremely small size and their outstanding capability of sensing objects at the nanoscale. Though they are very good mass and force sensors, their quality factors have been somewhat modest. However, the discovery made by the ICFO researchers is a major advancement in the field of nano mechanics and an exciting starting point for future innovative technologies.

What is a Mechanical Resonator?

A mechanical resonator is a system that vibrates at very precise frequencies. Like a guitar string or a tightrope, a carbon nanotube resonator consists of a tiny, vibrating bridge-like (string) structure with typical dimensions of 1m in length and 1nm in diameter. If the quality factor of the resonator is high, the string will vibrate at a very precise frequency, thus enabling these systems to become appealing mass and force sensors, and exciting quantum systems.

Why is This Discovery so Important?

For many years, researchers observed that quality factors decreased with the volume of the resonator, that is the smaller the resonator the lower the quality factor, and because of this trend it was unthinkable that nanotubes could exhibit giant quality factors.

The giant quality factors that ICFO researchers have measured have not been observed before in nanotube resonators mainly because their vibrational states are extremely fragile and easily perturbed when measured. The values detected by the team of scientists was achieved through the use of an ultra-clean nanotube at cryostat temperatures of 30mK (-273.12 Celsius- colder than the temperature of outerspace!) and by employing an ultra-low noise method to detect minuscule vibrations quickly while reducing as much as possible the electrostatic noise.

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Measuring nano-vibrations

A 459 foot tall power boiler tower, one of three, glows bright from an array of mirrors, below, that focus reflected sunlight on to it.

In a potential breakthrough for the solar energy industry, a San Diego-based research team has developed a light-trapping paint that can endure intense heat for years.

The nano-particle material can withstand outdoor temperatures of 750 degrees Celsius (1,380 Fahrenheit) for extended periods without cracking or peeling. The discovery could improve the economic performance of thermal solar towers, which gather heat energy by concentrating sunlight reflected off thousands of optical mirrors.

The paint was developed by a research team at the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering and described in two articles in the journal Nano Energy.

Inside solar towers, steam or molten salt is heated to extreme temperatures to help propel steam turbines and generate electricity. Peeling paint can reduce efficiencies and prompt costly days-long maintenance outages.

To drive down the cost of thermal solar energy, engineers also are striving to run solar towers at higher operating temperatures and conserve that heat to produce power after sundown.

"Instead of 550 Celsium, they want to operated this at 750 Celsius," said Sungho Jin, a Jacobs School professor expert in mechanical and aerospace engineering. "And at 750 degrees, things can get red hot. ... We came up system compositions and a structure which makes the materials stable."

Those higher temperatures can translate into a 30 percent improvement in solar efficiencies, Jin explained.

The new material utilizes tiny particles of many sizes ranging from 10 nanometers to 10 micrometers. It absorbs about 90 percent of approaching sunlight. Engineers nicknamed the paint color "black hole."

The project was funded by the Department of Enegy's Sunshot Initiative for accelerating solar-energy technologies.

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1,300 degrees? No sweat for solar paint

CLIENT:

Reputable international client looking to expand exploitation efforts in the US and internationally. This role will focus within the T&E (Technology & Excellence) team. This is a technology focused in-house consulting business unit to work with the industries highest talent on the forefront of cutting edge unconventional technology. Opportunity to work on a plethora of different assets within an integrated team of experts. Very stable company offering long term opportunities to work internationally and to work on multiple assets of your choice. Collaborative award winning environment with extremely competitive compensation packages. H1B, TN Visas can be transferred.

POSITION SUMMARY:

Opportunity to work within the Technology & Excellence (T&E) Unconventional Technology Team. Primarily focused on characterizing tight oil, shale gas, and liquid-rich shale reservoirs, and assisting the asset teams with incorporation of these data into reservoir characterization and modeling tools. The candidate is required to work with geoscientists, petrophysicists, geomechanic specialists, geochemists, and production and reservoir engineers to ensure that estimates of hydrocarbon-in-place and performance forecasts include all parameters and considerations related to unconventional reservoirs. Part of the role will be to design appropriate field core and fluid capture and handling procedures and ensure fit-for-purpose laboratory testing programs for core and fluid samples. This will require a high level of interaction with vendors and research institutes offering laboratory analyses for such rock samples.

The candidate is a seasoned professional with a track record of delivering fit-for-purpose rock and fluid characterizations in support of estimating hydrocarbon-in-place, production rates, and recovery volumes for unconventional and conventional reservoirs. This will require frequent coordination with the geoscientists, petrophysicists, geomechanics, geochemists, and reservoir and completion engineers working in the Unconventional Technology team and the unconventional reservoir asset teams in Exploration, Developments, and Production.

A chief role will be to improve the understanding of rock and fluid properties and how they relate to flow in nano-Darcy rocks. The candidate will be required to interact with scientists in professional societies, industry, and academia to ensure that research efforts are aimed at developing technologies that can be leveraged to positive effect in assets. As part of this technology monitoring, the candidate must also serve as a champion for testing, evaluating, and sharing best practices and value-improving-practices with unconventional reservoir asset teams.

ROLES & RESPONSIBILITIES:

- Define coring and core analysis programs for new wells being drilled in unconventional reservoirs and assist in planning.

- Define fluid sampling and analysis program for new wells being drilled in unconventional reservoirs and assist in planning.

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Senior Reservoir Engineering Advisor - E&P Technology Focus

Thedelegation ofMoscow industrial manufacture managers participated inthe 56th International Engineering Fair MSV-2014 which took place inBrno, theCzech Republic, inearly October. TheMoscow exposition andthe delegation participation was arranged bythe Department ofScience, Industrial Policy andEntrepreneurship forthe City ofMoscow.

International Engineering Fair MSV-2014 is thelargest international industrial event inthe Central andEastern Europe. Theevent included alarge-scale industrial fair, highly informative business program, conclusion ofinternational contracts andvisits toinnovation enterprises ofthe Czech Republic.

Inorder toestablish new business contacts andexpand theproduct market thedepartment ofScience, Industrial Policy andEntrepreneurship forMoscow arranged thegroup stand exposition ofthe leading industrial andscientific enterprises. Within theframework ofthe group stand exposition thegains inindustry had been presented byorganizations ofMoscow, forexample NIIAS JSC presented thesafe locomotive combined complex (BLOK); Alitir LLC presented theanticorrosion protection technology with theuse ofpulse current; Concern Nanoindustry incooperation with Institute forNanotechnology ofConversion International Fund introduced tothe exposition guests thedepth filters forhigh purification ofvarious environments anddisinfectants ofnew generation onthe basis ofnano-silver AgBion-2; A. A. Bochvar VNIINM JSC presented thetechnology ofgas-dynamic coating sputtering; LLC InnTechPro demonstrated acomposition Zinoferr () water-based non-organic zinc-filled silicate coating, made onthe basis ofhigh-modulus modified liquid glass, etc. Innovent company presented its innovative development with high operational characteristics radial duct booster UNIVENT () forventilation systems ofinhabited buildings, public places andindustrial premises; STANDARTINFORM Institute as ROSSTANDARD's authorized company presented its data bases ofregulatory andtechnical documents necessary forCzech companies that enter theRussian market. EcoCat Company presented equipment forcatalytic room heating. NCP Association ofRailway Equipment Manufactures presented developments ofits enterprises.

Theformal ceremony ofMoscow exhibition display opening atthe Fair was onSeptember 29, then exhibitors were visited byMr. Andrey Sharashkin, Counsel-general ofthe Russian Federation inBrno, Mr. Sergey Stupar, trading agent ofthe Russian Federation inthe Czech Republic, andMs. Natalya Popkova, Head ofMoscow Government delegation, Deputy head ofindustry policy authority ofDSPE forthe city ofMoscow. Theexhibition stand was very popular among international fair participants, during theevent execution theMoscow stand was visited bymore than 1,300 persons.

TheMoscow delegation participated inthe Business day ofthe Russian Federation atthe International Engineering Fair MSV-2014 onSeptember 30. Theprogram within theframework ofthe Business Day ofRussia was not limited byinformative discussions; several cooperation agreements were signed with Czech partners between participants ofMoscow exposition participants Non-Commercial Partnership Association ofRailway Equipment Manufactures (NCP OPZhT), Scientific Research andDesign andEngineering Institution ofInformation, Automation andCommunication inRailway Vehicles (JSC NIIAS) andthe Czech company UniControls a.s., RACOM s.r.o., Association ofRailway Industry Enterprises ofthe Czech Republic, onjoint adaptation andimplementation ofonboard andstationary control systems onthe basis ofsatellite navigation system, andon integration JSC NIIAS Company developments inthe field ofsmart devices ofdigital radio communication with automated control systems.

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Delegation of Moscow industrial manufacture managers participated in the 56th International Engineering Fair MSV-2014