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Tata Motors launches Nano Twist at Rs 2.36 lakh

Tata Motors announced the launch of the new Nano Twist, a new addition to the Nano range. The new Nano Twist, will now allow hassle-free and relaxed driving in city traffic with the new first-in-class Electric Power Assisted Steering (EPAS) system, designed for easy manoeuvring in tight driving and parking situations. A new signature Damson Purple colour, with chrome accents, new sporty interiors with new fabrics and stunning in-car features, make the Nano Twist an exciting car to drive.

Unveiling the Nano Twist - Ranjit Yadav, President, Passenger Vehicle Business Unit, Tata Motors, said, Since its inception, the Nano has been a path-breaking invention and has been constantly developed to provide class-leading value, with our core philosophy of anticipating customers needs. Blending best-in-class technology and design engineering, we at Tata Motors have worked closely with our partners to take Awesomeness to a whole new level with the Nano Twist. The Nano Twist will redefine customers driving experience in city traffic with the EPAS. It comes loaded with trendy features, exciting new colour and sporty interiors, which makes it a cool, smart city car to hang-out with. We at Tata Motors will continuously innovate on the Nano platform, catering to the dynamic desires of our growing customer base of young, trendy urbanites.

Tata Motors Group global wholesales at 79,220 in December 2013

The Tata Motors Group global wholesales in December 2013, including Jaguar Land Rover, were 79,220 nos. Cumulative wholesales for the fiscal were 753,949 nos.

Global wholesales of all Tata Motors' commercial vehicles and Tata Daewoo range -- were 29,499 nos. Cumulative commercial vehicles wholesales for the fiscal were 335,926 nos.

Global wholesales of all passenger vehicles in December 2013 were 49,721 nos. Cumulative passenger vehicles wholesales for the fiscal were 418,023 nos.

Global wholesales of Tata Motors' passenger vehicles in December 2013 were 9,477 nos. Cumulative wholesales for the fiscal were109,115 nos.

Global wholesales for Jaguar Land Rover for the month were 40,244 vehicles. Jaguar wholesales for the month were 6,613 vehicles and cumulative wholesales were 57,783 vehicles, while Land Rover wholesales for the month were 33,631 vehicles and cumulative wholesales were 251,125 vehicles. Cumulative wholesales for Jaguar Land Rover for the fiscal were 308,908 vehicles.

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Automobile Newsletter – January 13 to 17, 2014

A meet convened by the district administration to redress farmers grievances at the Collectorate here on Friday had an unexpected visitor as T. Anitha Sironmani, Chairperson of the School of Biotechnology of Madurai Kamaraj University walked in and offered to assist the farmers with innovations achieved through nanotechnology.

Ms. Sironmani told the farmers that just one litre of nano solution, available with the Genetic Engineering Department of the university, could purify about 30,000 to 40,000 litres of dirty water. The purified water could be used for irrigation, fish culture and a host of other activities.

Each litre of the nano solution costs Rs. 200, she added.

She also said that herbal preparations of her department were capable of curing foot and mouth disease as well as rabies.

Just one dose of the preparation to be consumed orally in the form of a soup could cure the diseases in no time without any side effects. We have tried it out on animals as well as humans and they recovered completely, she said.

Collector L. Subramanian introduced her to the gathering as an expert in nano technology and urged them to make use of the innovations. Later, Ms. Sironmani said that people interested in trying out the innovations could contact her by dialling 9942146141.

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Farmers urged to use nano technology

Scientists have developed a special DNA clamp to act as a diagnostic nano machine. It's capable of detecting genetic mutations responsible for causing cancers, hemophilia, sickle cell anemia and other diseases, more efficiently than existing techniques. Not only can the clamp be used to develop more advanced screening tests, but it could also help create more efficient DNA-based nano machines for targeted drug delivery.

To catch diseases at their earliest stages, researchers have begun looking into creating quick screening tests for specific genetic mutations that pose the greatest risk of developing into life-threatening illnesses. When the nucleotide sequence that makes up a DNA strand is altered, it is understood to be a mutation; specific types of cancers are understood to be caused by certain mutations. Even if one single nucelotide base has been inserted, deleted or changed, it can change the entire DNA sequence scientists call this a single point mutation.

To detect this type of mutation and others, researchers typically use molecular beacons or probes, which are DNA sequences that become fluorescent on detecting mutations in DNA strands. The team of international researchers that developed the DNA clamp state that their diagnostic nano machine allows them to more accurately differentiate between mutant and non-mutant DNA.

"Our DNA clamp probes can perform very similar applications compared to molecular beacons, which are being used in many diagnostic clinics around the world since they enable the rapid, fluorescent detection of specific DNA sequences, or mutations," Alexis Valle-Blisle, a Chemistry Professor at the Universit de Montral, Canada tells Gizmag."However, since they bind DNA using a clamp mechanism, i.e. a single DNA sequence from a patient is recognized by two DNA sequences on our clamp, they are now able to detect single point mutations with much more efficiency than molecular beacons do."

According to the team, the DNA clamp is designed to recognize complementary DNA target sequences like a clamp-switch. As soon as it recognizes them, it binds with them to form a stable triple helix structure, while fluorescing at the same time. Being able to identify single point mutations more easily this way is expected to help doctors identify different types of cancer risks, with greater sensitivity, accuracy and precision, and to inform patients about the specific cancers they are likely to develop. Diagnosing cancer at a genetic level could potentially help arrest the disease, before it even develops properly.

"Cancer is a very complex disease that is caused by many factors," explains Valle-Blisle. "However, most of these factors are written in DNA. We only envisage identifying the cancers or potential of cancer. As our understanding of the effect of mutations in various cancer will progress, early diagnosis of many forms of cancer will become more and more possible."

Currently the team has only tested the probe on artificial DNA, and plans are in the works to undertake testing on human samples. The team believes that the DNA clamp will "provide a new weapon in the toolbox of nano engineers, to help them to design more efficient and versatile DNA nano machines." For instance, to deliver drugs to only the tumor cells, and not healthy cells, scientists can make use of DNA-based nano machines, that are created by assembling many different small DNA sequences together to create a 3D structure, kind of like a box. When it encounters a disease marker, the box opens up and delivers the drug, enabling smart drug delivery. The DNA clamps are expected to help this whole process function better.

"The clamp switches that we have designed and optimized can recognize a DNA sequence with high precision and high affinity," Professor Francesco Ricci, at the University of Rome,Tor Vergata, Italy, tells us."This means that our clamp switches can be used, for example, as super-glue to assemble these nano machines and create a better and more precise 3D structure that can, for example, open in the presence of a disease marker and release a drug."

The international research project was funded by the US National Institutes of Health, the Italian Ministry of Universities and Research (MIUR), the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Grand Challenges Explorations program and the European Commission Marie Curie Actions program. Their paper describing the development was recently published in the journal ACS Nano.

Source: Universit de Montral

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DNA clamps could stop cancer in its tracks

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Newswise ROLLA, Mo. Advanced manufacturing and advanced materials for sustainable infrastructure are the first of four best-in-class or signature areas Missouri University of Science and Technology intends to focus on in the coming years.

The two areas were chosen from among 15 proposals submitted by Missouri S&T faculty. The proposals and subsequent presentations were screened by a committee of faculty representatives from all academic areas on campus, then selected by S&T Chancellor Cheryl B. Schrader and Provost Warren K. Wray. The proposals were judged on how well they connected to long-term critical national issues, research and entrepreneurship potential, and alignment with Missouri S&Ts strategic plan.

From the beginning, we have known that to successfully implement our strategic plan, we would have to focus on signature areas of excellence, Schrader says. Our plan isnt about being everything to everyone. It is about deciding where it makes the most sense to invest, enable and grow, and providing the best return on that investment to our customers. These two areas represent a bold step in the future vitality of this university and will offer research and educational solutions to benefit Missouri, the nation and the world.

Attaining signature status in these areas means that Missouri S&T will build on their distinctive strengths in teaching and research to make the areas among the nations best, Schrader says. To better position S&T to achieve this status, last September Schrader announced new funding from campus and the University of Missouri System to support the hiring of additional faculty in signature areas, as well as in other areas of strategic importance. In all, S&T plans to add 100 new faculty positions by 2020, an increase of nearly 20 percent.

In the signature area of advanced manufacturing, S&T will emphasize instruction and research in the emerging fields of additive manufacturing; energy manufacturing; micro- and nano-scale manufacturing; network-centric and cloud manufacturing; advanced materials for manufacturing; and intelligent, sensor-enabled manufacturing.

The area will be led by a multidisciplinary team of researchers. That team includes Dr. Ming Leu, the Keith and Pat Bailey Missouri Distinguished Professor of Integrated Product Manufacturing; Dr. Wayne Huebner, professor and chair of materials science and engineering; Dr. Jag Sarangapani, the William A. Rutledge-Emerson Electric Co. Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering; Dr. Suzanna Long, assistant professor of engineering management and systems engineering; Dr. Frank Liu, professor of computer science; Dr. Greg Hilmas, Curators Professor of ceramic engineering; and Dr. Frank Liou, the Michael and Joyce Bytnar Professor of Product Innovation and Creativity.

This is a perfect fit for Missouri S&T because of the national importance of advanced manufacturing, the existing S&T strength in this area and our confidence in developing it to be among the best in the nation, Leu says.

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Missouri S&T Names 'Signature' Areas of Manufacturing, Infrastructure

Zhifeng Ren, M.D. Anderson chair professor of physics and principal investigator at the Texas Center for Superconductivity, was recruited to UH from Boston College in 2012 and is being honored with the 2014 Edith and Peter ODonnell Award in Science.

A professor is in the midst of making a name for both himself and the UH Department of Physics with his work with his team of researchersin five scientific fields.

Zhifeng Ren, principal investigator at the Texas Center for Superconductivity at UH, was recently awarded the Edith and Peter ODonnell Award in Science from the Academy of Medicine, Engineering & Science in Texas and was named a fellow of the National Academy of Inventors.

Rens innovative research serves as an admirable example of what we are striving to do here at the University of Houston, said President Renu Khator in a statement. This groundbreaking work can be used to improve lives in Texas and around the world. His recognition by the Academy of Medicine, Engineering and Science of Texas is both gratifying and well-deserved.

Ren was awarded for his continuing work in carbon nanotubes,thermoelectrics, hierarchical zinc oxide nano-wires, high temperature superconductivity and molecule delivery and sensing.

You dont want to be a 100-meter dash person, he said. You have to be persistent.

The ODonnell Awards recognize researchers who incorporate the uses of science and technology into society, meeting the highest standards of professional performance and resourcefulness.

As of Nov. 21, Ren has contributed to 300 publications in referred journals.Rens latest publication, Recent progress of half-Heusler for moderate temperaturethermoelectric applications in October 2013, which was published in collaboration with assistant professor of physics Shuo Chen, introduces a method of waste heat recoverythat promises to enhance energy efficiency, reduce greenhouse gas emission andpromote sustainable development.The report highlights using thermoelectric devices that convert heat directly to electricity as an option for waste heat harvesting.

Three other UH faculty members were also named fellows of the NAI with Ren: Rathindra Bose, the vice president of Research and Technology Transfer at UH and vice chancellor for Research and Technology Transfer for theUH System; Dmitri Litvinov, a John and Rebecca Moores Professor in the Cullen College of Engineering;and Venkat Selvamanickam, the M.D. Anderson chair professor of mechanicalengineering and director of the Texas Center for Superconductivitys Applied ResearchHub.

The NAI classifies fellow status as a high professional distinction accorded to academic inventors who have demonstrated innovation in creating or facilitating outstanding inventions that have made a tangible effect on the welfare of society.

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UH faculty named fellows of National Academy of Inventors

Washington, Jan 15:

An eminent Indian-American scientist and President of the prestigious Carnegie Mellon University in the US has been named a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Subra Suresh has been recognised for his scientific contributions in materials science and engineering, including his work connecting nano-mechanical cell structure to disease states, the university said in a statement.

Membership in the Chinese Academy of Sciences is the highest academic honour offered for science and technology in China. Only nine foreign members were inducted this year.

Suresh was also honoured for his leadership in building a worldwide scientific and engineering research dialogue through the Global Research Council, which he helped to found as Director of the US National Science Foundation.

The council will have its annual meeting in Beijing in May 2014.

He will be recognised during the Chinese Academys General Assembly scheduled for June in Beijing, it said.

Suresh is CMUs second faculty member to be recognised with the title. The late Herbert Simon was elected to it in 1994.

(This article was published on January 15, 2014)

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Indian-American named member of Chinese Academy of Sciences

Tata Motors announced the launch of the new Nano Twist, a new addition to the Nano range. The new Nano Twist, will now allow hassle-free and relaxed driving in city traffic with the new first-in-class Electric Power Assisted Steering (EPAS) system, designed for easy manoeuvring in tight driving and parking situations. A new signature Damson Purple colour, with chrome accents, new sporty interiors with new fabrics and stunning in-car features, make the Nano Twist an exciting car to drive.

Unveiling the Nano Twist - Ranjit Yadav, President, Passenger Vehicle Business Unit, Tata Motors, said,Since its inception, the Nano has been a path-breaking invention and has been constantly developed to provide class-leading value, with ourcore philosophy of anticipating customers needs.Blendingbest-in-class technology and design engineering, we at Tata Motors have worked closely with our partners to takeAwesomeness to a whole new level with the Nano Twist. The Nano Twist will redefine customers driving experience in city traffic with the EPAS. It comes loaded with trendy features, exciting new colour and sporty interiors, which makes it a cool, smart city car to hang-out with. We at Tata Motors will continuously innovate on the Nano platform, catering to the dynamic desires of our growing customer base of young, trendy urbanites.

Experience Zigzagness:

The new Electric Power Assisted Steering (EPAS) system comprises of a steering column-mounted brushless motor and an ECU (Electronic Control Unit), which helps the driver steer the Nano Twist with ease, regardless of the road conditions. The brushless motor used, also improves robustness of the internal components of the Nano Twists EPAS system. The new EPAS system also allows the driver to fully utilise the Nanos class-leading, lowest turning circle radius of 4 metres. The EPAS in the Nano Twist has an Active Return feature - which returns the steering wheel back to its straight-ahead position, as soon as the wheel is released. This is achieved by providing a calibrated return torque through the system. This self-centering action gives drivers confidence and stability at higher speeds thus delivering a great drive experience in city traffic.

The Nano Twist is powered by a 624cc, multi-point fuel injected, water cooled, naturally aspirated, 2 cylinder gasoline engine with 2 valves per cylinder, mated to a 4-speed manual transmission. The engine produces 38PS power, 51 Nm torque. The Nano continues to remain as the most fuel efficient petrol car, as the Nano range offers a fuel efficiency of 25.4 kmpl, as certified by the Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI).

Experience Trendiness:

The new Nano Twist has been updated with more trendy features. A new look instrument cluster, now houses a trip computer and a new driver information systems, with a bright daytime and night-time Amber display and digital clock. The cluster houses new features - distance to empty (DTE), average fuel efficiency (AFE) readouts, an LED fuel gauge and a coolant temperature gauge. The Nano Twist is also loaded with features like remote keyless entry, twin glove boxes, and a four-speaker AmphiStream music system with Bluetooth, USB and auxiliary connectivity. All these features ensure the customer is well connected with the car at all times.

Experience Wowness:

The new Nano Twist comes with new design elements which further accentuates the brands uniqueness. A new gearshift console ensures better accessibility to the power assist driver and passenger window switches. New seat and door pad upholstery, with new and luxurious beige interior fabrics and a new rear parcel shelf with speakers, adds to the awesomeness of the new Nano Twist. A dash of black to the rear bumpers, with a newly designed air extractor grill, apart from the new look C-pillar trim, further adds to the look of the new Nano Twist.

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Tata Motors launches Nano Twist at Rs 2.36 lakh

Mumbai, Jan 13 : Tata Motors on Monday announced the launch of the new Nano Twist, a new addition to the Nano range.

The new Nano Twist, will now allow hassle-free and relaxed driving in city traffic with the new first-in-class Electric Power Assisted Steering (EPAS) system, designed for easy maneuvering in tight driving and parking situations, said the company.

The Nano Twist features a new signature Damson Purple colour, with chrome accents, new sporty interiors with new fabrics and stunning in-car features.

Unveiling the Nano Twist - Ranjit Yadav, President, Passenger Vehicle Business Unit, Tata Motors, said, "Since its inception, the Nano has been a path-breaking invention and has been constantly developed to provide class-leading value, with our core philosophy of anticipating customers' needs."

Yadav said, "Blending best-in-class technology and design engineering, we at Tata Motors have worked closely with our partners to take 'Awesomeness' to a whole new level with the Nano Twist."

"The Nano Twist will redefine customer's driving experience in city traffic with the EPAS. It comes loaded with trendy features, exciting new colour and sporty interiors, which makes it a cool, smart city car to hang-out with," he added.

Yadav said, "We at Tata Motors will continuously innovate on the Nano platform, catering to the dynamic desires of our growing customer base of young, trendy urbanites."

The new EPAS system comprises of a steering column-mounted brushless motor and an ECU (Electronic Control Unit), which helps the driver steer the Nano Twist with ease, regardless of the road conditions.

The new EPAS system also allows the driver to fully utilise the Nano's class-leading, lowest turning circle radius of 4 meters.

Moreover, the EPAS in the Nano Twist has an 'Active Return' feature - which returns the steering wheel back to its straight-ahead position, as soon as the wheel is released.

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Tata Motors launches Nano Twist

Discover the expert in you.

Neal Jansons

A recent graduate from the University of California, Santa Cruz, Neal Jansons has spent the last two years penning short stories, ghostwriting and game writing for the upcoming browser based MMORPG "Ghostees!" and selling non-fiction and instructional articles to various online markets such as Demand Studios. Currently working on his first novel and an upcoming comic book project, Jansons' next project is a screenplay.

Nanotechnology is the manipulation of matter on the "micro" scale, 100 nanometers and less, to build molecular and atomic structures to serve a purpose on the normal scale. Currently limited to the creation of nano-particles and very simple moving structures, nanotechnology is applied in engineering, medicine and computing. Civil engineering applies these technologies to construction and design by attempting to improve the safety and utility of public structures.

Civil engineers deal with designing, building and maintaining the various structures that make civilization function. Roads, bridges, canals, tunnels, traffic systems, public transportation and other structures that operate on a large scale are subject to special considerations that require engineers to account for earthquakes, winds, massive public movement and even military strikes. These special requirements give multiple applications for nanotechnology, from earthquake-resistant building materials to graffiti-resistant subways.

Humans have been using nanotechnology without realizing it for a long time, with processes from metallurgy and chemistry using "nano" scale structures to accomplish their effects. In the early 1900s, Richard Zsigmondy did research on various nano-scale structures; later, physicist Richard Feynman gave a now-famous lecture called "Plenty of Room at the Bottom" that pointed out the various possibilities inherent in the manipulation of matter at the atomic scale. In the 1980s, the invention of the scanning tunneling microscope led to the true beginning of nanotechnology, soon followed by the discoveries of fullerenes and carbon nano-tubes, two nano-particles that formed the basis of the current applications. In 2000, the National Nanotechnology Initiative was founded by the United States government to direct and coordinate nanotechnology research.

Nano-particles are used to strengthen building materials and render them more flexible, thus resistant to shock and impact. Research is attempting to develop other applications.

There are two approaches to nanotechnology; they operate from opposite ends of the problem. Top-down approaches build structures at an easily reachable scale which then build smaller structures. Bottom-up techniques use processes to induce the formation of useful structures at the desired scale--which may, in turn, lead to the formation of other structures at larger scales. In theory, these approaches are scalable and repeatable, meaning they can be applied repeatedly at smaller or bigger scales. But there are limitations due to differing effects of physics at different scales.

The application of a robust nanotechnology to civil engineering is one of the long-term goals of the science. Through the manufacture of self-replicating nanotechnological robots that can in turn manipulate matter at the atomic scale, buildings could be "grown" from a pile of materials, surfaces could clean themselves by recycling dirt, and smog could be converted to oxygen. Bridges and other large structures subject to resonance effects due to winds or earthquakes could alter their own structure intelligently to adapt to shock. Potholes could "heal" themselves.

Using nanotechnology in civil engineering exposes the population at large and the entire environment to nano-particles and, if future development goes as hoped, nano-machines. Worries about the effects of silver nano-particles killing off bacteria necessary to the ecosystem have been put forth to justify regulation.

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About Nanotechnology in Civil Engineering | eHow

U.S. News & World Report Ranks U of T Engineering 10th Overall inWorld

Engineering at the University of Toronto once again ranked in 10th place overall among the worlds universities and colleges and 1st in Canada, in a recent ranking by the U.S. News & World Reports inaugural Worlds Best Colleges and Universities of 2008.

In 2008, U of T Engineering also ranked 1st in Canada and 10th overall in the world in the Engineering and IT category of the Times Higher Education-QS World University Rankings, up from 11th in the world in 2007.

Using data from the Times Higher Education-QS World University Rankings, this is the first ranking of the worlds best colleges and universities by U.S. News & World Report. The magazine U.S. News previously produced a U.S. ranking of colleges and universities for the past 25 years.

Visit the U.S. News & World Report website for more information.

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U of T Engineering 10th Among Worlds Universities: 1st in Canada for Engineering and IT

{Excerpt} Engineering at the University of Toronto continues to be a global leader in the prestigious Times Higher Education-QS World University Rankings Engineering and IT category. This year, Engineering at U of T ranked 10th overall in the world, up from 11th in 2007, and remains in first place among Canadian universities for a second year in a row.

Better ways to process cells used in cancer screening. Extending the range of diagnostic tools like x-rays. Reducing medical errors. These are the questions that inspire U of Ts three newest Canada Research Chairs (CRCs).

The government announced funding Feb. 23 for these three new chairs.

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Nano Engineering | University of Toronto | Faculty of Applied ...

Sea Ice on the Gulf of Bothnia between Sweden & Finland, taken during a trial run in April 2013. Image: 2013 Planet Lans Inc. All Rights Reserved.

The constellation of Earth-imaging satellites launched yesterday28 individual sputniks, called Doves, each about the size of its namesake and weighing in at a svelte five kilogramsis on its way to the International Space Station. If all goes well, by the end of the month Flock 1, as the group is called, will distribute its nanosatellites in Earth orbit, the better to photograph the complete surface of the planet at high resolution 365 days a year. The satellites will provide near-continuous pictures of Earths surface at a resolution of three to five meters per pixel.

Planet Labs, the San Francisco start-up that built Flock 1, is one of a growing group of companies and governments launching very small satellites. As their cost and size have plummeted, partly in response to the availability of standardized off-the-shelf components, nanosatellites such as CubeSat, have opened up unprecedented opportunities in remote sensing. Unlike traditional Earth-imaging satellites, which cost millions to build and launch, each of Planet Labs diminutive sky cameras, which in its predeployed state resembles a childs kaleidoscope, comes in at a fraction of that cost.

Planet Labs plans to be the first to capture high-resolution whole-Earth images nearly continuously. (Full disclosure: one of usBoettigerserves without remuneration as an advisor to Planet Labs.) Test satellites launched in April and November demonstrated that the companys engineers can accurately position the orbiters and capture a continuous stream of images with a resolution of three to five metersfine enough to distinguish individual trees in a rainforest, but not sharp enough to identify a person tending his garden. Whereas most of the nine spectral bands of imagery captured by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administrations Landsat 8, launched in 2013, for example, are delivered at 30-meter resolution, other commercial providers of remote-sensing images, such as Skybox Imaging and BlackBridge (formerly RapidEye), have the capability to deliver much higher resolutionsas fine as one meter per pixel. These companies even offer features such as high-resolution, real-time video. But these satellites are tasked with photographing specific targets, meaning customers rent the use of a satellite (much as one might hire a photographer) to capture detailed images of very specific patches of the globe. Planet Labs executives say that continuous whole-Earth images would have the potential to serve many purposes simultaneously, from a single set of data. We've become used to having imagery of the entire Earth, says Tim OReilly, of OReilly AlphaTech Ventures, one of Planet Labss investors. What we haven't yet understood is how transformative it will be when that imagery is regularly and frequently updated.

Planet Labs faces some difficult challenges, not least the engineering required to build, launch, power, position and communicate with a constellation of this size. The company will have to store the equivalent of a 10-terapixel image (roughly one million cell phone images) for each complete image of Earth. The company has already engineered much of the software it needs to stitch the massive number of images collected by its orbiters into a single texture applied to a topographic model of Earth. Unlocking the value of this image will require using image recognition, change detection and other technologies to solve problems in data mining and information extraction. The task combines "science, technology expertise and know-how learned at NASA with a bottoms-up maker's mentality, says Juan Carlos Castilla-Rubio, CEO of the Planetary Skin Institute and cochair of the World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council on Measuring Sustainability 201214.

Although the technology has many commercial applications, it also offers opportunities for humanitarian purposes. The high frequency of imaging will potentially be useful in detecting global changes in crop cover, construction, animal migrations, pest infestations, surface water, natural disasters, refugee camps, sea ice, pollution, traffic patterns.

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"Flock" of Nano Satellites to Capture High-Res Views of Whole Earth

Jan 10, 2014 by Sarah Yang

(Phys.org) Forget remote-controlled curtains. A new development by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, could lead to curtains and other materials that move in response to light, no batteries needed.

A research team led by Ali Javey, associate professor of electrical engineering and computer sciences, layered carbon nanotubes atom-thick rolls of carbon onto a plastic polycarbonate membrane to create a material that moves quickly in response to light. Within fractions of a second, the nanotubes absorb light, convert it into heat and transfer the heat to the polycarbonate membrane's surface. The plastic expands in response to the heat, while the nanotube layer does not, causing the two-layered material to bend.

"The advantages of this new class of photo-reactive actuator is that it is very easy to make, and it is very sensitive to low-intensity light," said Javey, who is also a faculty scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. "The light from a flashlight is enough to generate a response."

The researchers described their experiments in a paper published this week in the journal Nature Communications. They were able to tweak the size and chirality referring to the left or right direction of twist of the nanotubes to make the material react to different wavelengths of light. The swaths of material they created, dubbed "smart curtains," could bend or straighten in response to the flick of a light switch.

This video is not supported by your browser at this time.

"We envision these in future smart, energy-efficient buildings," said Javey. "Curtains made of this material could automatically open or close during the day."

Other potential applications include light-driven motors and robotics that move toward or away from light, the researchers said.

Explore further: Technology could bring high-end solar to the masses

More information: "Photoactuators and motors based on carbon nanotubes with selective chirality distributions." Xiaobo Zhang, Zhibin Yu, Chuan Wang, David Zarrouk, Jung-Woo Ted Seo, Jim C. Cheng, Austin D. Buchan, Kuniharu Takei, Yang Zhao, Joel W. Ager, Junjun Zhang, Mark Hettick, Mark C. Hersam, Albert P. Pisano, Ronald S. Fearing, Ali Javey. Nature Communications 5, Article number: 2983 DOI: 10.1038/ncomms3983

Originally posted here:

Engineers create light-activated 'curtains' (w/ Video)

Let's take a moment to forget the technical nonsense. Seriously. Besides, we only really know the broad strokes about Mullins, AMD's next-gen ultra-low voltage APU. Instead, let's just gaze upon the tiny wonder that is the Nano PC for a bit and soak it all in. This reference design from the Sunnyvale company packs enough power to run Windows 8.1 pretty seamlessly and even get in a quick game of FIFA 14 at 1080p. Inside, in addition to a Mullins chip, is a 256GB SSD, a camera, Bluetooth, WiFI and a DockPort connector. And, it's really not much larger or thicker than a Note 3 -- it's pretty much a marvel of engineering. It's the last of those specs that's pretty important, since it allows you to connect to a tiny breakout box with HDMI and USB ports. Obviously you'll need one of those to connect it to a TV, which the Nano PC is designed to sit atop. Here's hoping that a company or two picks up on the design and starts making absurdly thin machines of their own.

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Dana Wollman contributed to this report.

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AMD's impossibly thin nano PC prototype sits on your TV, but don't call it a set-top box

17 hours ago

Manufacturers of increasingly minute computer chips, transistors and other products will have to take special note of research findings at the University of Huddersfield. The implications are that a key process used to transform the properties of nanoscale materials can cause much greater damage than previously realised.

The University is home to the Electron Microscopy and Materials Analysis Research Group (EMMA), headed by Professor Stephen Donnelly. It has an advanced facility named MIAMI, which stands for Microscope and Ion Accelerators for Materials Investigation. It is used to bombard materials with ion beams and to examine the effects at the nanoscale.

During a recent experiment conducted by the team, including Research Fellow Dr Graeme Greaves, a number of gold nanorods a thousand times smaller than a human hair were irradiated with xenon atoms. They were a good subject for the experiment because nanowires or rods have a large surface area.

The findings were dramatic. "We were hoping to generate bubbles. We actually found that we were eroding the nanowires," said Dr Greaves.

And the rate of erosion measured in terms of "sputtering yield", or how many atoms come out of matter for each incoming atom was far in advance of expectations.

The sputtering yield of a normal piece of flat gold should be of the order of 50 atoms per ion," said Dr Greaves. "In the case of rods we expected it to be greater, because the geometry is much reduced. We worked out that it should be higher by a factor of four, or something of that order. But we actually found that the greatest value measured was a sputtering yield of a thousand a factor of 20."

The results were so dramatic that the Huddersfield team sought confirmation. They asked Professor Kai Nordlund(pictured right) of the University of Helsinki to run a molecular dynamics simulation, creating a virtual gold nanorod. The Finns were able to replicate the Huddersfield findings.

Now the experiment is the subject of an article in the leading journal Physical Letters Review, of Dr Greaves is the lead author.

"The research has considerable implications, particularly for medicine," said Dr Greaves.

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Enhanced sputtering yields from single-ion impacts on gold nanorods

Researchers at N.C. State and UNC-Chapel Hill are working on a new form of blood sugar regulation in diabetic patients based on nanotechnology.

This new nanotechnology, if it passes testing, will allow patients to release insulin with a small ultrasound device. This technology would eliminate the need for diabetics to administer insulin injections multiple times a day, meaning patients would be able to go days between each injection.

Zhen Gu, the senior author of a paper on the research and assistant professor in the joint biomedical engineering program at N.C. State and UNC-Chapel Hill, initiated the idea and led the research.

According to Gu, the ultrasound device involves patients injecting biocompatible and biodegradable nanoparticles into their skin. The nanoparticles are comprised of poly (lactic-co-glycolic) acid, or PLGA, and each particle contains a small amount of insulin.

Yun Jing, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering and co-corresponding author of the study, developed the ultrasound technology.

According to Jing, each PLGA nanoparticle is given either a positive or negative charge. The positively charged coating is comprised of a biocompatible material commonly found in shrimp cells called Chitosan. The negatively charged coating is biocompatible as well, but found in a type of seaweed called alginate.

A nano-network is formed as the positively and negatively charged coatings are attracted to each other. The nano-network is injected into the layer below the skin called the subcutaneous layer and holds the nanoparticles together to prevent them from dispersing randomly throughout the body, according to Jing.

According to Gu, the nanoparticles are porous but once they are in the patients body, the insulin begins to diffuse from within the nanoparticles. The majority of the insulin from within the particle doesnt travel far, the insulin remains suspended in a de facto reservoir created by the electrostatic force of the nano-network. These factors create an insulin dose that will be administered into the bloodstream as needed.

Insulin is a hormone that transports glucose from the bloodstream to the bodys cells. Diabetic patients require additional glucose to maintain healthy glucose levels. At the moment diabetic patients inject insulin into their bloodstream multiple times a day to maintain healthy glucose levels.

Multiple injects a day can be inconvenient and painful for some patients.

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NCSU researchers work to help people with diabetes

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Newswise By the time theyre two, most children have had respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and suffered symptoms no worse than a bad cold. But for some children, especially premature babies and those with underlying health conditions, RSV can lead to pneumonia and bronchitis which can require hospitalization and have long-term consequences.

A new technique for studying the structure of the RSV virion and the activity of RSV in living cells could help researchers unlock the secrets of the virus, including how it enters cells, how it replicates, how many genomes it inserts into its hosts and perhaps why certain lung cells escape the infection relatively unscathed. That could provide scientists information they need to develop new antiviral drugs and perhaps even a vaccine to prevent severe RSV infections.

We want to develop tools that would allow us to get at how the virus really works, said Philip Santangelo, an associate professor in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University. We really need to be able to follow the infection in a single living cell without affecting how the virus infects its hosts, and this technology should allow us to do that.

The research was supported by the National Institutes of Healths National Institute of General Medical Sciences and published online ahead of print in the journal ACS Nano on December 30, 2013. While RSV will be the first target for the work, the researchers believe the imaging technique they developed could be used to study other RNA viruses, including influenza and Ebola.

Weve shown that we can tag the genome using our probes, explained Santangelo. What weve learned from this is that the genome does get incorporated into the virion, and that the virus particles created are infectious. We were able to characterize some aspects of the virus particle itself at super-resolution, down to 20 nanometers, using direct stochastic optical reconstruction microscopy (dSTORM) imaging.

RSV can be difficult to study. For one thing, the infectious particle can take different forms, ranging from 10-micron filaments to ordinary spheres. The virus can insert more than one genome into the host cells and the RNA orientation and structure are disordered, which makes it difficult to characterize.

The research team, which included scientists from Vanderbilt University and Emory University, used a probe technology that quickly attaches to RNA within cells. The probe uses multiple fluorophores to indicate the presence of the viral RNA, allowing the researchers to see where it goes in host cells and to watch as infectious particles leave the cells to spread the infection.

Being able to see the genome and the progeny RNA that comes from the genome with the probes we use really give us much more insight into the replication cycle, Santangelo said. This gives us much more information about what the virus is really doing. If we can visualize the entry, assembly and replication of the virus, that would allow us to decide what to go after to fight the virus.

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Imaging Technology Could Unlock Mysteries of a Childhood Disease

What is nanotechnology?

Nanotechnology is the understanding and control of matter at dimensions between approximately 1 and 100 nanometers (nm), where unique phenomena enable novel applications not feasible when working with bulk materials or even with single atoms or molecules. A nanometer is one-billionth of a meter. A sheet of paper is about 100,000 nanometers thick; a single gold atom is about a third of a nanometer in diameter.

Researchers seeking to understand the fundamentals of properties at the nanoscale call their work nanoscience; those focused on effective use of the properties call their work nanoengineering.

Encompassing nanoscale science, engineering, and technology, nanotechnology involves imaging, measuring, modeling, and manipulating matter at the nanoscale.

The nanoscale is the dimensional range of approximately 1 to 100 nanometers. For more information, see What it is and How it Works.

A nanometer is one billionth of a meter. (A meter is 39.37 inches, or slightly longer than one yard.) The prefix nano means one billionth, or 10-9, in the international system for units of weights and measure. The abbreviation for nanometer is "nm."

For visual examples of the size of the nanoscale, see The Size of Nano.

Nanoscale materials have been used for over a millenium. For example, nanoscale gold was used in stained glass in Medieval Europe and nanotubes were found in blades of swords made in Damascus. However, ten centuries passed before high-powered microscopes were invented, allowing us to see things at the nanoscale and begin working with materials at the nanoscale.

Nanotechnology as we now know it began about 30 years ago, when our tools to image and measure extended into the nanoscale. Around the turn of the millennium, government research managers in the United States and other countries observed that physicists, biologists, chemists, electrical engineers, optical engineers, and materials scientists were working on overlapping issues emerging at the nanoscale. In 2000, the U.S. National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI) was created to help these researchers benefit from each others insights and accelerate the technologys development.

To learn more, see What is Nanotechnology?

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What if wearing a small patch on your arm enabled the detection of an oncoming cold, allowing for treatment to deter the onset of symptoms?

This type of innovative nanotechnology-enabled patch would allow people to make predictive decisions about their day, week or even month. The benefits are far-reaching. Nano-enabled sensors could monitor the health of patients in their own homes or could help coaches know when to remove athletes from a game or practice based on warning signs of overexertion or injury.

Imagine what we can do if we could extend our systems capability to include the physiological monitoring of humans, said Scott Fouse, the director of Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Laboratories. Not only could we monitor their health to aid in medical treatment, such as the case with warfighters, but we could also design our systems to optimize individual performance readiness, essentially closing the loop with the user.

In partnership with the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) and General Electric (GE), Lockheed Martin is engineering a nano-enabled sensor that is small, lightweight and inexpensively produced. AFRL and Lockheed Martin will lead the application in the military arena while GE seeks to leverage the technology in the consumer and health industries.

Innovation is not exclusive to the invention of a technology. Employing new ways to engage partners gives GE, AFRL and Lockheed Martin the opportunity to develop new technology based on each organizations expertise and objectives from inception of the idea through engineering, design and future production.

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Sponsored post: Innovation drives nano-enabled sensors to monitor human health

Nanoengineering is the practice of engineering on the nanoscale. It derives its name from the nanometre, a unit of measurement equalling one billionth of a meter.

Nanoengineering is largely a synonym for nanotechnology, but emphasizes the engineering rather than the pure science aspects of the field.

The first nanoengineering program in the world was started at the University of Toronto within the Engineering Science program as one of the Options of study in the final years. In 2003, the Lund Institute of Technology started a program in Nanoengineering. In 2004, the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering(CNSE) was established on the campus of the University at Albany.In 2005, the University of Waterloo established a unique program which offers a full degree in Nanotechnology Engineering. [1]Louisiana Tech University started the first program in the U.S. in 2005. In 2006 the University of Duisburg-Essen started a Bachelor and a Master program NanoEngineering. [2] The University of California, San Diego followed shortly thereafter in 2007 with its own department of Nanoengineering. In 2009, the University of Toronto began offering all Options of study in Engineering Science as degrees, bringing the second nanoengineering degree to Canada. DTU Nanotech - the Department of Micro- and Nanotechnology - is a department at the Technical University of Denmark established in 1990.

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Nanoengineering - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Imagine working on a structure 100,000 times smaller in diameter than a human hair! This is the rapidly expanding world of nanotechnology engineering, a field where a human hair is incomprehensibly large and an ant is a behemoth at 500,000 nm; a field where a nano is a billionth of a metera meter being approximately 39 inches longand it takes more than 25 million nanos to comprise an inch.

The burgeoning field of nanotechnology engineering encompasses all fields of science: biology, physics, chemistry, health and medicine, among others. Subdivisions of nanotechnology engineering include instrument development, materials engineering and bio-systems. Nanotechnologies involve constructing equipment and tools that work at the molecular level; this requires researching both the technologies with which to do this and improvements that can be made to existing methods.

The applications from the field of nanotechnology engineering encompass daily life at every level, from food development to transportation technology to medicine; all benefit from the ability to change or enhance at the molecular level. Nanotechnology is currently being used to deliver anti-cancer drugs to specific areas of cancer as well as to inhibit the growth of metastatic breast cancer; additionally, carbon nanotubes are being used to kill cancer cells in minutes with virtually no side effects.

Scientists envision a day when cancer will be treated at the genetic level by using nanotechnology to develop a treatment regimen based on an individuals genetic code. Nanotechnology will also enable physicians to isolate substances in the body that have been identified as precursors to cancer, so that eventually the disease will become eradicated.

The career field of nanotechnology engineering is filled with possibilities limited only by the imagination of mankind. For those individuals who are passionate about making a difference, this fascinating new career field offers unlimited potential, both for humanitarian endeavors and for professional achievements.

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Nanotechnology Engineering | http://www.Nanotechnology.com