PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

2-Sep-2014

Contact: Jim Barlow jebarlow@uoregon.edu 541-346-3481 University of Oregon

EUGENE, Ore. -- Scientists, including University of Oregon chemist Geraldine Richmond, have tapped oil and water to create scaffolds of self-assembling, synthetic proteins called peptoid nanosheets that mimic complex biological mechanisms and processes.

The accomplishment -- detailed this week in a paper placed online ahead of print by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences -- is expected to fuel an alternative design of the two-dimensional peptoid nanosheets that can be used in a broad range of applications. Among them could be improved chemical sensors and separators, and safer, more effective drug-delivery vehicles.

Study co-author Ronald Zuckermann of the Molecular Foundry at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) first developed these ultra-thin nanosheets in 2010 using an air-and-water combination.

"We often think of oil on water as something that is environmentally bad when, in fact, my group over the past 20 years has been studying the unique properties of the junction between water and oil as an interesting place for molecules to assemble in unique ways -- including for soaps and oil dispersants," said Richmond, who holds a UO presidential chair. "This study shows it is also a unique platform for making nanosheets."

Lead authors on the project were Ellen J. Robertson, a doctoral student in Richmond's lab at the time of the research, and Gloria K. Oliver, a postdoctoral researcher at LBNL. Robertson is now a postdoctoral researcher at LBNL.

Work in Richmond's lab helped to identify the mechanism behind the formation of the nanosheets at an oil-water interface.

"Supramolecular assembly at an oil-water interface is an effective way to produce 2D nanomaterials from peptoids because that interface helps pre-organize the peptoid chains to facilitate their self-interaction," said Zuckermann, a senior scientist at LBNL's Molecular Foundry in a news release. "This increased understanding of the peptoid assembly mechanism should enable us to scale-up to produce large quantities, or scale- down, using microfluidics, to screen many different nanosheets for novel functions."

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UO-Berkeley Lab unveil new nano-sized synthetic scaffolding technique

RMIT University is spending $30 million on a new research facility to drive advancements in micro and nano technologies.

Its MicroNano Research Facility (MNRF) will bring to Australia the worlds first rapid 3D nanoscale printer and support projects in the areas of physics, chemistry, engineering, biology, and medicine, RMIT said.

The 3D printer will produce thousands of structures each the fraction of the width of a human hair in seconds, RMIT said.

MNRF is also providing 50 cutting-edge tools, including focused ion beam lithography with helium, neon, and gallium beams to enable imaging and machining of objects to 0.5nm resolution about 5 to 10 atoms, RMIT said.

MNRF director Professor James Friend said 10 research teams would work at the new facility on a broad range of projects, including building miniaturised motors to retrieve blood clots from deep within the brain.

This will enable surgeons to perform minimally invasive procedures on people affected by strokes or aneurysms.

The team will also improve drug delivery through the lungs using techniques that can atomise large biomolecules including drugs, DNA, antibodies and cells into tiny droplets to avoid the dame of conventional nebulisation, RMIT said.

RMIT vice-chancellor, Professor Margaret Gardner, said the facility is bringing together disparate disciplines to enable internationally-leading research activity.

RMIT has long been a pioneer in this field, opening Australia's first academic clean rooms at the Microelectronics and Materials Technology Centre in 1983, Professor Gardner said.

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RMIT pours $30M into micro and nano tech

Albany

Just days after saying it "has never had" any involvement in Gov. Andrew Cuomo's $1.5 billion Nano Utica project, Lam Research, a prominent semiconductor industry supplier based in Fremont, Calif., now says it is fully committed to the program.

For the past year, the Cuomo administration has been touting a consortium of five companies, including Lam Research, that it said agreed to fund the operations of Nano Utica, a $1.5 billion computer chip research consortium announced in October 2013 at the Utica campus of SUNY Institute of Technology.

A Lam Research spokesman went out of his way last week to explain how the company's involvement in projects in Albany had been "misconstrued" to also include its participation in the Utica lab.

Both are creations the SUNY College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering in Albany, which has merged with SUNY IT to create one school called SUNY Polytechnic Institute with campuses both in the Capital Region and in Utica.

But on Monday, Lam Research changed course and told the Times Union that, in fact, it was and always has been involved in the Nano Utica program.

"We just gave you the wrong information," Kyra Whitten, Lam Research's vice president of corporate communications told the Times Union late Monday. "In this case, we made a mistake."

At around the same time, SUNY Poly issued a statement on behalf of the company that said it "has been and remains committed" to Nano Utica, which will focus on new ways to connect different types of interacting chips inside electronic devices to improve performance.

"Lam Research looks forward to supplying the consortium with its state-of-the-art tools and equipment and provide any and all support on the ground in Utica to advance the mission and objectives of the consortium," the statement said.

SUNY Poly officials didn't respond to several attempts by the Times Union to ask questions about Lam Research's initial remarks and its subsequent about-face.

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Lam Research does 180 on Nano Utica comments

We tend to think of aeronautical engineering as having left the birds standing still sometime around the First World War, but since jet fighters cant perch and quadcopters cant snag salmon out of a stream, we still have a few things to learn. Taking a couple of pages from the avian playbook, the Fraunhofer Institute for Electronic Nano Systems (ENAS) and its partners are developing wing flaps for airplanes that change shape like a birds wing for greater efficiency.

Billions of people take to the air every year with even greater numbers projected for the foreseeable future. Not only is this part of one of the greatest on-going transportation revolutions in human history, but also poses grave problems in terms of energy and pollution. One major goal of modern aeronautical engineering is to find ways to make jet aircraft more efficient in terms of the amount burned because, on a global scale, even the smallest reduction can have very large economic and environmental benefits.

The Fraunhofer consortiums project is part of Europes Smart Intelligent Aircraft Structures (SARISTU) program, which aims at a reduction of jet fuel by six percent. In this case, the strategy is to redesign the jet aircrafts wing so its more like that of a bird. That doesn't mean well be seeing 747s with feathers, but rather with wing sections that can alter their shape and so the flow of air over them, much in the same way as birds can spread or twist their feathers to give them the most lift in a desired situation.

In particular, the consortium is looking at a morphing flap. Modern wings have a very limited ability to change their shape, usually restricted to extending large, rigid landing flaps. Landing flaps should one day be able to adjust to the air flow and so enhance the aerodynamics of the aircraft, says Martin Schller, researcher at the Fraunhofer Institute for ENAS.

Essentially, what the Fraunhofer engineers (and others working on shape-shifting wing systems like Flexsys) are doing is going back to Day One of the age of flight. When the Wright brothers took off from Kitty Hawk in 1903, their flyer didn't have flaps and ailerons, Instead, they used what was called wing warping, where lines and pulleys twisted the wing, so the air flowed in the desired manner. The morphing flap takes a high-tech approach to this.

It works by means of a mechanism that alters the shape of the flap under the control of a computer algorithm. The skin of which is made up of alternating hard a soft areas consists of a silicon skin with the flexible parts made of a elastomeric foam that stays pliable even down to minus 80 C (minus 112 F). Since this is still very much in the experimental stage, Fraunhofer isnt keen to divulge too many technical details

Fraunhofer and its partners have built four prototypes that are 90 cm (35.4 in) long. Two of these are covered in skin. These will be used for engineering and wind tunnel testing, and will be on display at the ILA Berlin Air Show until May 25.

Source: Fraunhofer

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Shape-changing wings inspire more efficient aircraft designs

By Lance Ulanoff2014-05-21 17:12:35 UTC

Researchers in Texas have created the nano-version of the Energizer Bunny. Their new nanomotor rotates at 18,000 RPMs for a whopping 15 hours. Previous nanomotors rotated far more slowly and sputtered out after a few minutes.

The tiny technology, also known as "Ultrahigh-Speed Rotating Nanoelectromechanical System (NEMS)" is a potential breakthrough for treating all kinds of human ailments including, you guessed it, cancer. Built by a team at Cockrell School of Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin and led by Dr. Donglei (Emma) Fan, the motor is actually a collection of nano-entities, including a nanowire and patterned nano magnets.

In their research paper, the engineers recount all the less successful previous nano-work the new nanomotor is built upon, including experiments from Cornell University where out of hundreds of synthesized nanomotors, only a few rotated and at UC Berkeley, which built an excellent nanomotor using electron-beam lithography that, unfortunately, required an overly complex fabrication procedure.

Cockrell's nanomotor, however, is built more simply and effectively in part because of another Cockrell invention, Electric Tweezers, a nano-manipulation technique that allowed the team to not only transport the nano-entities, but precisely position them within 150 nanometers and then rotate them exactly how they wanted.

Not only can these nanomotors rotate like nobody's nano-business (almost as fast as a Lear jet engine), a group of them can do it in sync. At 500 times smaller than a grain of salt, these nanomotors could one day work inside cells and spin together to deliver cancer-killing medicines.

The future, however, is even crazier. Researchers envision building entire nano robots out of a group of these nanomotors, which can then work together to diagnose, grab and treat cells.

The nanomotor joins an ever-growing list of nano-breakthroughs. Earlier this year, researchers in Denmark built a drug-delivery cage out of DNA. Maybe one day the nanomotors will go to work while carrying these nanocages.

Have something to add to this story? Share it in the comments.

Image: University of Texas Dept. of Engineering

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World's Smallest Nanomotor Spins as Fast as a Jet Engine

Albany

It's a sad and familiar refrain: Too few high school or college graduates have the skills that are needed to participate in the 21st-century economy.

Educators and business leaders hope the latest approach to address this skills gap, which includes the promise of a free two-year college degree, will take root in a big way.

Representatives of companies like IBM, as well as SUNY Chancellor Nancy Zimpher and state Business Council President Heather Briccetti on Wednesday came together at SUNY's College of Nanoscale Science and Technology to hail the initiative, known as P-Tech, or Pathways in Technology and Early College High School.

A handful of P-Tech schools have opened across the nation in recent years, including Brooklyn's Pathways in Technology High, which hosted President Barack Obama during a 2013 visit.

Starting in September, the program is taking a big leap in New York with an expansion in 16 schools across the state, including Troy and Ballston Spa, where an earlier P-Tech program will be expanding.

Those schools won grants in a competition last year offered by Gov. Andrew Cuomo's office.

Funded by the state at $28 million over seven years, ninth-graders starting this September will graduate with associate degrees six years later.

Those two-year college degrees will come at no cost to the students. And they should be equipped for jobs at places like the GlobalFoundries computer chip plant, Lockheed-Martin, GE Healthcare or Bombardier, which makes items ranging from jet aircraft to trains.

Another option will be for graduates to complete their four-year degrees with two years already under their belts.

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P-Tech expansion, free degrees meant to improve career paths

MCNANOTECH NANO ENGINEERING
MC-NANOTECH , solutions nano-technologiques ultra - hydrophobes pour toutes les surfaces (carrosserie, fuselage, textile, vitres... ) dans les domaines maritime auto moto aviation.

By: MC-NANOTECH

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MCNANOTECH NANO ENGINEERING - Video

PRECISION ENGINEERING INDUSTRY TO GEAR UP FOR HIGH VALUE-ADDED MANUFACTURING WITH HELP FROM A*STAR-NUS JOINT LAB COLLABORATION

A*STAR SIMTech and NUS Faculty of Engineering have launched two joint labs in Natural Fibre Composites and Large Format Machining to boost R&D in manufacturing and support the local industry needs. New scholarships are being provided to develop talent for these labs.

SingaporeThe Singapore Institute of Manufacturing Technology (SIMTech), a research institute of the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) and the National University of Singapore (NUS) Faculty of Engineering jointly inked an agreement today to launch two Joint Labs, in the areas of Natural Fibre Composites and Large Format Machining, to move the local precision engineering industry into high value-added manufacturing.

This collaboration builds capabilities and develops technologies to help the complex equipment, aerospace, and marine & offshore clusters. The SIMTech-NUS Joint Labs also serve as platforms to nurture R&D manpower for industry, transforming them into centres of excellence in their respective technical areas to benefit more industry sectors. Twenty PhD scholarships will be provided to develop R&D talent for manufacturing research conducted in the Joint Labs.

Dr Lim Ser Yong, Executive Director of SIMTech said, The Joint Labs with NUS are long-term collaborations to conduct systematic fundamental research on specific research themes to develop advanced manufacturing technology in SIMTech. The Joint Labs in Natural Fibre Composites and Large Format Machining will help to build the foundation of a robust track record in the thematic areas of practical industrial significance, advancing research and honing the skills of R&D manpower for the local manufacturing industry.

Said Professor Chan Eng Soon,Dean, NUS Faculty of Engineering, We are pleased to have this opportunity to help in nurturing a pool of R&D talent contributing to Singapores value-added manufacturing.

Harnessing Materials Science to Boost Manufacturing

Combining expertise in materials science and engineering, and materials processing and manufacturing, is essential in the development of cost effective manufacturing of high performance natural fibre composites for high-tech applications. The use of fibres such as flax, hemp, jute or sisal in the composites industry are currently limited by the availability of a durable semi-finished product or structural component with consistent quality for high-precision and load-bearing applications.

With NUS expertise and SIMTechs experience, the Natural Fibre Composites Joint Lab can contribute to manufacturing R&D and meet the demands for natural fibre market as it is expected to grow with a cumulative annual growth rate (CAGR) of 11 per cent over the next five years, due to the need for light-weight, cost-effective products and push for sustainability[1].

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:: 21, May 2014 :: PRECISION ENGINEERING INDUSTRY TO GEAR UP FOR HIGH VALUE-ADDED MANUFACTURING WITH HELP FROM A*STAR ...

MNE is a major annual international conference, devoted to micro and nano fabrication and manufacturing, held in a European country every September. The Conference brings together engineers and scientists from across the world to discuss recent progress and future trends in the fabrication, manufacturing, operation and application of micro and nano-structures and devices. Applications in electronics, photonics, electromechanics, environment and life sciences are also discussed.

MNE 2013 will be the 39th conference in a series that was started in Cambridge in 1975 and which was held most recently in Athens (2008), Ghent (2009), Genoa (2010), Berlin (2011) and Toulouse (2012). In September 2013 MNE will return to the UK after 10 years. The organising committee are pleased to announce that the conference will be held at Imperial College London. Judging on previous years, it is estimated that the conference will attract 500-800 participants.

London is for good reason a major destination for visitors. It has many internationally renowned museums and galleries, together with a history that stretches back to Roman times. There is a vibrant cultural scene that caters for all tastes. London has a large and diverse range of academic institutions, 4 of which appear in the Times Higher Education Supplements top 100 world universities. There is an extensive public transport system and the South Kensington area is linked directly to Heathrow via the Piccadilly Line of the Underground railway network. In September, the weather in London is pleasant, although there is always the possibility of rain.

The conference will open with the Welcome Reception, held on Monday 16 September starting at 7:00 PM.

The conference Registration Desk will be open from 7:00 PM on Monday, and from 8:00 AM onwards on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

The Technical Programme sessions will be held from Tuesday 17 September through to Thursday 19 September, with the meeting closing at the end of the afternoon. Oral presentations are organised in four parallel sessions, Tuesday to Thursday, starting at 8.30 AM. Posters can be set-up at the start of the conference, Monday, 16 September, from 7:00 PM, and can be left through the duration of the conference, until 3:40 PM on Thursday, 19 September. Posters are organised in two Poster Sessions, 4:50 PM 6:20 PM Tuesday 17 September, and 4:50 PM 6:20 PM, Wednesday 18 September.

The Exhibition opens at the Welcome Reception, and closes on Thursday, 19 September at 3:40 PM.

Lunch and tea/coffee will be provided at the conference.

The Conference Dinner takes placeon Wednesday the 18 September from 7:00 PM onwards at the Science Museum, London. The Museum is adjacent to Imperial College London.

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Newswise Imagine a future in which our electrical gadgets are no longer limited by plugs and external power sources.

This intriguing prospect is one of the reasons for the current interest in building the capacity to store electrical energy directly into a wide range of products, such as a laptop whose casing serves as its battery, or an electric car powered by energy stored in its chassis, or a home where the dry wall and siding store the electricity that runs the lights and appliances.

It also makes the small, dull grey wafers that graduate student Andrew Westover and Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering Cary Pint have made in Vanderbilts Nanomaterials and Energy Devices Laboratory far more important than their nondescript appearance suggests.

These devices demonstrate for the first time as far as we can tell that it is possible to create materials that can store and discharge significant amounts of electricity while they are subject to realistic static loads and dynamic forces, such as vibrations or impacts, said Pint. Andrew has managed to make our dream of structural energy storage materials into a reality.

That is important because structural energy storage will change the way in which a wide variety of technologies are developed in the future. When you can integrate energy into the components used to build systems, it opens the door to a whole new world of technological possibilities. All of a sudden, the ability to design technologies at the basis of health, entertainment, travel and social communication will not be limited by plugs and external power sources, Pint said.

The new device that Pint and Westover has developed is a supercapacitor that stores electricity by assembling electrically charged ions on the surface of a porous material, instead of storing it in chemical reactions the way batteries do. As a result, supercaps can charge and discharge in minutes, instead of hours, and operate for millions of cycles, instead of thousands of cycles like batteries.

In a paper appearing online May 19 in the journal Nano Letters, Pint and Westover report that their new structural supercapacitor operates flawlessly in storing and releasing electrical charge while subject to stresses or pressures up to 44 psi and vibrational accelerations over 80 g (significantly greater than those acting on turbine blades in a jet engine).

Furthermore, the mechanical robustness of the device doesnt compromise its energy storage capability. In an unpackaged, structurally integrated state our supercapacitor can store more energy and operate at higher voltages than a packaged, off-the-shelf commercial supercapacitor, even under intense dynamic and static forces, Pint said. One area where supercapacitors lag behind batteries is in electrical energy storage capability: Supercaps must be larger and heavier to store the same amount of energy as lithium-ion batteries. However, the difference is not as important when considering multifunctional energy storage systems.

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Liberating Devices From Their Power Cords

Albany

The city's economic development arm could reap more than $1 million by helping the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering finance its new $191 million hub for renewable energy and clean-technology research, officials said Friday.

Under the proposed arrangement, neither the city nor its Capital Resource Corp., would fund construction of the six-story Zero Energy Nanotechnology building planned for the college's Fuller Road campus.

But in exchange for a transaction fee estimated between $1.4 million and $1.5 million, the CRC would grant the college access to its borrowing power and an estimated $2.3 million break on mortgage taxes, which are split between the state, county, city and Capital District Transportation Authority.

The mortgage tax is 1.25 percent, with one-fifth going to the city. That means a roughly $465,000 mortgage tax break would net Albany about $1 million if the deal is approved, city officials said.

Though the CRC is providing access to the financing, neither it nor the city would be on hook for the $186 million debt should the college default, Mayor Kathy Sheehan said.

"It's really a win all the way around for taxpayers," Sheehan said, noting such transaction fees are one of the city's main sources of development money. "This is a pretty straightforward transaction that results in a significant fee that the city can use for economic development."

Sheehan, who served on the CRC's board as city treasurer, also noted the college is projecting a "pretty remarkable" 1,150 jobs at the site within five years.

The college's application says it will seek bonds that would be subject to income taxes but notes it "may request conversion" to tax-free status in the future.

NanoCollege spokesman Jerry Gretzinger said whether the bonds are taxable depends on whether any of the space is leased to private companies, as the NanoCollege sometimes does.

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City to get $1M on nano tax deal

16 May 2014

Researchers say they have developed a new way to make lithium-ion batteries that will last three times longer between charges compared to the current industry standard.

The team from the University of California, Riverside Bourns College of Engineering created silicon dioxide (SiO2) nanotube anodes for lithium-ion batteries and found they had over three times as much energy storage capacity as the carbon-based anodes currently being used.

We are taking the same material used in kids toys and medical devices and even fast food and using it to create next generation battery materials, said Zachary Favors, the lead author of a published paper on the research.

The paper, Stable Cycling of SiO2 Nanotubes as High-Performance Anodes for Lithium-Ion Batteries, was published online in Nature Scientific Reports.

It was co-authored by Cengiz S. Ozkan, a mechanical engineering professor, Mihrimah Ozkan, an electrical engineering professor, and current and former graduate students Wei Wang, Hamed Hosseinni Bay, Aaron George and Favors.

According to UC Riverside, the team originally focused on silicon dioxide because it is an extremely abundant compound, environmentally friendly, non-toxic, and found in many other products.

Silicon dioxide has previously been used as an anode material in lithium ion batteries, but the ability to synthesise the material into highly uniform exotic nanostructures with high energy density and long cycle life has been limited.

Their key finding was that the silicon dioxide nanotubes are extremely stable in batteries, thereby enabling a longer lifespan. Specifically, SiO2 nanotube anodes were cycled 100 times without any loss in energy storage capability and the authors are confident that they could be cycled hundreds more times.

The researchers are now focused on developed methods to scale up production of the SiO2 nanotubes in hopes they could become a commercially viable product.

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Silicon dioxide nano-anodes extend life of Li-ion batteries

The unique system, installed by Orot Electronic Security, includes panic buttons and tracking capabilities to monitor every person entering the laboratory given the delicate working environment and enable a quick rescue during emergency situations.

LogiTag Systems, a leading provider of RFID solutions and high-value inventory management systems, announced today the successful installation of LogiTrack RTLS solution at the Unit for Nano Fabrication at Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The clean room laboratory contains state-of-the-art tools, and equipment to enable the Nanotechnology research and application into all fields including cancer research, agriculture, and high-tech. The carefully monitored environment can also present a safety concern to over 100 students and researchers given the various lethal chemicals and gasses being used most of which only require an extremely small amount to create substantial life threatening situation, where each minute counts. This led the university to seek the most advanced panic alert combined with an online RTLS solution LogiTrack. LogiTrack provides the facility a method to accurately monitor, locate, and trigger events based on location and status, which is vital in time-critical situations.

"The solution is built to provide three main functions," Said Nahum Greenman, CEO of Orot Electronic Security. "The first is the real time location of each person inside the lab. The second are the panic buttons, for use in case of emergency. The third is connectivity to the billing system, informing the university who used the lab and for how long. We turned to LogiTag given their advanced capabilities, looking to integrate LogiTag's solution with the existing systems, and create a seamless system. Both the university and I now have peace of mind, knowing all safety measurements have been taken."

The way the solution works: 1. A pre-authorized person enters the first and intermediate section of the lab with an ID card, wears the clean suit with LogiTag's advanced Active RFID Tags, and register into the system. 2. The person enters the clean room, while their location is accurately displayed on a large screen at the building's entrance and accessible online in addition to the surveillance cameras spread throughout. 3. Alerts and notifications are sent if the person remains inside the lab over a specific period of time, or presses the panic button. Other 'business rules' can be applied.

The Hebrew University Nanotechnology center is based on two units: The Unit for Nanocharacterization and the Unit for Nanofabrication. Both have been essential in supporting the unique discoveries of nanotechnology during recent years including cancer research, agricultural, and the high-tech fields.

Professor Shlomo Magadasi is one example of the type of researchers working at the University's Nanotechnology lab. His invention includes a permanent glass printing method, anticipated to impact the entire future of permanent in-glass printing.

Professor Oded Shoseyov is another researcher from The Robert H. Smith Institute of Plant Sciences and Genetics in Agriculture, using the center to research anti-angiogenic proapoptotic protein. Topics like Modification of plant cell-wall and fiber engineering in transgenic plants help him discover how to insert medicine within the protein of the plant a practical study that has impacted the entire agriculture practice.

"We were seeking a solution to ensure our people's safety, so they can go about their important research" said Dr. Shimon Eliav, head of The Unit for Nanofabrication. "The panic buttons previously installed were not reliable as we had hoped, and didn't give us a complete solution. We take many precautions and provide extensive training to students using the lab, but we still needed to find an even safer solution. We can now save valuable search time in a situation where a student hits the panic button we know who pressed it, where they are, and therefore send the dedicated personnel there. In addition, this information is available from any location, even at home during late hours of the night. This solution is ideal for any nanotechnology laboratory or facilities looking to safeguard their users".

LogiTrack is a Real-Time Location System (RTLS) that give facilities a method to accurately monitor, locate, and trigger events based on location and status. It can be used to manage assets, monitor patients, locate staff, call nurses, or monitor temperatures or humidity. Depending on the conditions, LogiTrack may activate alarms or close doors. It sends alerts (text messages, e-mails, and alarm) for informed, real-time decision making.

"We were extremely pleased to have been selected by the Hebrew University for this project," said Shlomo Matityaho. "It enabled us to prove once again our unique technological capabilities specifically under such harsh environmental conditions as in the Nanofabrication lab. In order to maintain a clean-room environment, and eliminate RFI (Radio Frequency Interference), the lab walls are made of aluminum. The metallic walls are highly effective for the clean room, but present an obstacle when it comes to RF in general and RFID in particular. Given our extensive experience at dozens of locations and varied types of facilities (i.e. food conglomerates, high-technology organizations, hospitalsetc.), we were able to successfully overcome these challenges. I look forward to securing the safety of many more organizations."

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LogiTag's Active RTLS Solution Selected by Hebrew University Nano Labs to Safeguards and ...

Albany

The SUNY College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering is asking the city of Albany to help it finance its new $200 million ZEN building, which the school says will be used to house a 30,000-square-foot high-security data center for the state in addition to Tech Valley High School and other tenants.

Officials from the NanoCollege presented an application to the Albany Industrial Development Agency on Thursday asking it to issue $186 million in tax-exempt bonds on its behalf to pay for construction and design costs.

The building, which will have 356,000 square feet of space, is scheduled to be completed during the third quarter of 2015.

The NanoCollege has said little about the building until now, but it had to submit detailed plans to the Albany IDA board as part of its request for the bonds.

ZEN stands for Zero Energy Nanotechnology because the building is expected to house much of the NanoCollege's renewable energy and clean-tech research operations and operate as a zero-energy building that generates its own power.

The NanoCollege, which is run by a private nonprofit called Fuller Road Management Corp., has financed its various buildings in a variety of ways, including bonds issued on Wall Street and from banks and other private sources. Fuller Road Management will be responsible for making payments on the IDA bonds, which the city often issues for major private development projects in the city. Fuller Road says it plans to pay off the bonds over 31 years.

Plans submitted by the school show another building known as the NanoFabXX that will sit between ZEN and the existing NanoFabX building housing the Global 450 Consortium, a next generation computer chip factory being set up by the world's largest chip-makers, including Intel, Samsung and GlobalFoundries. NanoFabXX would provide expansion space to the G450C.

ZEN will be the largest single building ever built at the college, although all of the facilities at the 1.3 million-square-foot complex are connected by sky bridges.

More than 3,100 people work for the NanoCollege and hundreds of tenants and research partners, the largest of which is IBM.

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ZEN to energize Nano complex

STEM project at Davis By JENNIFER NOBLIT Wednesday May 14, 2014 10:47 AM

Before the school year ends, Davis Middle School eighth-graders must come up with a new way to use biometrics at the school.

The new project led by teachers Eileen Shaughnessy and Sarah Redick will have students solving real-world problems and the top projects will move on to a competition for bragging rights.

The project is part of the district's effort to combine real-world science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM, problems into classrooms.

"We wanted to do something STEM-related with the life science unit," Shaughnessy said of the project.

To prepare, students have read articles about biometrics and last week got a visit from Mark Ruegsegger, professor of biomedical engineering at Ohio State University.

The Dublin resident has worked at OSU for 12 years and has students create inventions that solve medical problems each year.

"The big thing is to look for the idea," he told students.

After telling them about the different areas of biomedical engineering, such as bio-imaging, tissue engineering, micro and nano technology, biomechanics and biotransport, Ruegsegger discussed the education students would need for the field.

He also covered current biometrics used including fingerprints, eyes, footprints, genetic codes and blood.

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Using biometrics: 'Look for the idea,' students told

Last month, vice provost and electrical and computer engineering professor Dmitri Litvinov was awarded the Esther Farfel Award, UHs highest honor for faculty members, for his excellence in teaching, research and service. Litvinov is the 36th recipient of the award which was established in 1979 and comes with a $10,000 cash prize.

I knew I was being nominated for the award, but I couldnt believe that I was selected as this years recipient, Litvinov said. I know some of the previous honorees and the level of contributions they make to the University. I thought I didnt have a chance.

Litvinov, who joined UHs faculty in 2003, currently serves as vice provost and dean of the graduate school, founding director of the UH Center for Integrated Bio and Nano Systems and the UH Nanofabrication Facility, as well as serving as a John and Rebecca Moores professor in the electrical and computer engineering department.

Litvinov was nominated by Badri Roysam, the chair of the department for electrical & computer engineering and is highly regarded amongst his peers. Dr. Alex Ignatiev, a Hugh Roy and Lilly Kranz professor of physics, chemistry and electrical engineering and the current director for the Center for Advanced Materials says Litvinov receiving the award is a positive move for the University.

Hes brought new people to the University, he was faculty senate chair, director of the graduate school, and hes really just a talented guy, both on the academic as well as the administrative side, Ignatiev said. (UH) is acknowledging a person that has done extremely well here, and helped bring the institution a larger name.

Alex Freundlich, a research professor of physics and electrical & computer engineering, also praised Litvinov.

He is internationally recognized for his contributions to the field of nano-magnetics, Freundlich said. He has also made significant inroads toward enhancing UHs research and education infrastructure in nanotechnology and material engineering.

Litvinov received his bachelors degree in applied physics at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, his masters degree in physics from the University of Miami, another masters degree in electrical engineering at the University of Michigan as well as a Ph.D. in applied physics from Michigan.

While Litvinov has held many titles, he still finds time to supervise doctoral students. Long Chang, a professor in the electrical & computer engineering department, was one such student of Litvinovs.

Hes a really good boss, Chang said. He allows you to make decisions, he allows you to fail at your decisions, and hes there to help you.

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Vice Provost wins UHs highest award

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Newswise Guy Genin, PhD, has been named a 2014 Global Scholars Fellow at Tsinghua University in Beijing.

The award will allow Genin, professor of mechanical engineering in the School of Engineering & Applied Science, to conduct research with Changqing Chen, PhD, professor of engineering and director of Tsinghuas Institute for Solid Mechanics. The team will study how engineers can help older adults make decisions about orthopedic surgeries involving rotator cuff repair.

Rotator cuff tears are among the most common orthopedic injuries among adults in the United States, due to wear and tear or the effects of age. With a 94 percent failure rate for surgical repairs of large tears in older patients, the injury is a major cause of pain and disability. Genin and Stavros Thomopoulos, PhD, associate professor of orthopaedic surgery at Washington University School of Medicine, are studying this issue with a five-year, $3.1 million grant from the National Institutes of Health. Results of their research could lead to the engineering of new tissues that could enhance cuff repair.

A question that has perplexed Stavros and me for years is why so many elderly patients elect to have a surgery that has such a high failure rate, Genin says. Would information that engineers could provide affect these decisions, and could we identify metrics that would help predict outcomes?

At the core of the question is how aspects of aging tissue that can be measured in the clinic relate to toughness, Genin says.

Changqing Chen is recognized internationally for his work in relating the structure of a tissue to its toughness, and, with the growing effects of the one-child policy, the problem of decisions about surgeries for the elderly is even more pressing in China than it is the U.S., Genin says. This collaboration was a perfect fit.

Chen is known globally for pioneering work in micro- and nano-mechanics, mechanics of electromagnetic solids, and mechanical behavior of cellular materials and structures ranging from metallic foams to bone. He was recipient of the Chinese National Science Foundations National Outstanding Young Investigator Award for this work.

The collaboration led Genin and Chen to Nancy Morrow-Howell, PhD, the Bettie Bofinger Brown Distinguished Professor of Social Policy at the Brown School and director of the Harvey A. Friedman Center for Aging, a center in the Washington University Institute for Public Health. The Friedman Center partially funded their pilot project through the Global Aging Initiative, a university effort to promote cross-national aging research in partnership with the McDonnell International Scholars Academy. The Tsinghua Global Scholars program funded the remainder.

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WUSTL's Genin Named Global Scholars Fellow at Tsinghua University

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Newswise ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. Humans have used metals for thousands of years, but theres still a lot about them that isnt fully understood. Just how much stretching, bending or compression a particular metal will take is determined by mechanical properties that can vary widely, even within parts made of the same material.

Sandia National Laboratories is working to fill gaps in the fundamental understanding of materials science through an ambitious long-term, multidisciplinary project called Predicting Performance Margins, or PPM. From the atomic level to full-scale components, the research links variability in materials atomic configurations and microstructures with how actual parts perform.

PPM aims to identify how material variability affects performance margins for an engineering component or machine part. The goal is a science-based foundation for materials design and analysis predicting how a material will perform in specific applications and how it might fail compared with its requirements, then using that knowledge to design high-reliability components and systems. Materials are such things as alloys, polymers or composites; components are switches, engines or aircraft wings, for example, while systems can be entire airplanes, appliances or even bridges.

Safer, more reliable vehicles, machines hinge on how materials perform

Understanding reliability and performance at the fundamental materials science level isnt important just to Sandias national security missions. Performance is crucial to safety and reliability in spacecraft, bridges, power grids, automobiles, nuclear power plants and other complex engineered systems.

The PPM approach has become a prototype for tackling other difficult materials issues. Materials science researchers recently used the approach in a proposal to understand brittle materials, establishing a multidisciplinary project to develop the fundamental science while delivering improvements during the project to those who use these materials. That way, users dont have to wait years to reap benefits from the fundamental work. Future studies that could benefit from the approach include the aging of polymers and foams, friction between electrical contacts and failures in glass-to-metal seals and in solders and interconnects.

Too often, we are unable to predict precisely how a material will behave, and instead we must rely on expensive performance tests, said program manager Amy Sun. Capturing variability by testing alone is too expensive and not predictive.

PPM simultaneously tackles fundamental materials science issues at the atomic and microstructural scales and engineering problems at the visible scale.

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Engineering Better Machines and Buildings by Understanding Mechanics of Materials

Yale University researchers have developed a simple method for controlling the doping of carbon nanotubes (CNTs), a chemical process that optimizes the tubes properties. Reported April 29 in Nano Letters, the method could improve the utility of doped CNTs in a number of nanotechnologies and flexible electronics, including CNT-silicon hybrid solar energy cells.

Led by Andr Taylor of the Yale School of Engineering & Applied Science and Nilay Hazari of Yales chemistry department, the researchers developed a method that uses organic compounds with a metal core known as metallocenes to produce two possible types of doped CNTs.

A small amount of metallocenes in solution is deposited on the CNTs, which are then rotated at high speed. This simple spin coating process spreads the solution evenly across the surface of the CNTs, resulting in high doping levels that can improve electrical utility.

Using the method, the researchers found that doping with electron-deficient metallocenes, such as those with a cobalt core, results in CNTs with more positively charged electron holes than available negatively charged electrons to fill those holes; these CNTs are known as p-type because of their positive charge. On the other hand, doping with electron-rich metallocenes, such as those with a vanadium core, results in thenegatively charged n-type CNTs, which have more electrons than holes.

According to the team, which also includes doctoral candidates Xiaokai Li (lead author) and Louise Guard, metallocenes are the first generic family of molecules demonstrated to produce both p-type and n-type doping.

We showed that by changing the coordinate metal of a metallocene, we could actually render these carbon nanotubes p-type or n-type at will, and we can even go back and forth between the two, said Taylor, who is associate professor of chemical and environmental engineering. Hazari is assistant professor of chemistry.

The finding is significant, Taylor said, because although p-type doping is common and even occurs naturally when CNTs interact with air, previous n-type doping methods produced low doping levels that could not be effectively used in devices. The Yale teams method produced an n-type CNT-silicon cell more than 450 times more efficient than the best solar cells of this type.

If you have a high doping ratio, then you have better electron transport, better mobility, and ultimately a better functioning device, said Taylor. As such, these findings move us one step further towards our goal of improving the efficiency of hybrid solar cells.

The paper is titled Controlled Doping of Carbon Nanotubes with Metallocenes for Application in Hybrid Carbon Nanotube/Si Solar Cells.

The National Science Foundation, Sabotka Research Fund, Teracon Corp., and the Yale Climate and Energy Institute provided support for this research.

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New doping method improves properties of carbon nanotubes

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Newswise An international research team has built molecular clamps out of DNA that offer a powerful new tool for identifying individuals with an increased risk of cancer. The clamp is capable of detecting genetic mutations, associated with cancer and other genetic diseases, with better specificity and affinity than more traditional techniques. The high affinity of the clamp for its target and the ability to add a fluorescent label that lights up when the clamp grabs the errant DNA sequence, make these new DNA clamp nanoswitches the state-of-the-art in highly-sensitive molecular diagnostics.

The international team includes NIBIB grantee Kevin Plaxco, Ph. D., University of California, Santa Barbara and his colleagues at the University of Rome in Italy and the University of Montreal in Quebec, Canada. The work is described in the December 2013 issue of the American Chemical Society Journal ACS Nano.

With the list of cancer-causing genetic mutations increasing every day, these bioengineers envision that an individuals DNA could be screened for known cancer-causing mutations long before the development of disease. With this type of early identification, it may be possible for high-risk individuals to change lifestyle habits known to increase cancer risk. In the future, as the molecular basis for certain cancers is revealed, medications could be developed that inhibit or block the process of cancer formation before it even begins.

How does it work? DNA exists naturally as two complementary strands known as a double helix, which separates into single strands when heated. Existing DNA-based diagnostic tools consist of a single strand of DNA that binds to one strand of the patients heated DNA to form a double helix. However, the new DNA clamp has a powerful vice-like grip that grabs both sides of a patients heated, single stranded DNA to form a triple helix -- one DNA strand of the patients surrounded by the clamps 2 DNA strands. The triple helix creates a bond that is 200-times stronger, and 10-times more specific than a double helix. The superior grip of the DNA clamp nanoswitch enables it to firmly bind to the smallest cancer-causing genetic changes, known as single point mutations. The new method has the ability to identify single point mutations in patient DNA samples with significantly increased specificity, offering much more consistent and reliable identification of mutations than is possible with the systems currently in use. The DNA clamp nanoswitch can be engineered to carry a molecule that lights-up when the clamp snaps shut on the target DNA, clearly indicating the presence of the mutation.

Co-author Francesco Ricci, Ph.D., Laboratory of Bionsensors and Nanomachines, Rome, elaborates: The advantage of our fluorescence clamp is that it allows distinguishing between mutant and non-mutant DNA with much greater efficiency than other detection methods. This information is critical because it tells patients which cancers they are at risk for or already have. Identifying potential cancer-causing mutations with confidence requires the engineering of a highly accurate and reliable system.

Dr. Plaxco goes on to explain the basis for the clamps efficiency: Usually, any improvement in affinity is coupled with a reduction in specificity. For example, receptors that bind to their intended target more tightly often also bind to the wrong target more tightly as well. By bringing in additional recognition elements (the second strand of the clamp that forms the triple helix) the DNA nanoswitch improves affinity without sacrificing specificity. To me, thats the critical lesson here.

Brenda Korte, Ph. D., the NIBIB Program Director for Sensors and Microsystems stresses the broader significance of the technology: In addition to the identification of genetic mutations, this work has great potential for numerous new applications of DNA-based nanostructures. The clamp has the potential to be a valuable component for DNA-directed construction of a range of nano-machines including biosensors, and molecular motors. Ultimately, such nano-devices could have a major impact on many aspects of healthcare in the future. This is precisely the type of research NIBIB aims to support new technologies that have direct applications to a specific problem, but also serve as new, innovative approaches that can be applied to other challenging biomedical issues.

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Clamping Down on Cancer-Causing Mutations