The automotive sector is a major consumer of material technologies - and nanotechnologies promise to improve the performance of existing technologies significantly. Applications range from already existing - paint quality, fuel cells, batteries, wear-resistant tires, lighter but stronger materials, ultra-thin anti-glare layers for windows and mirrors - to the futuristic - energy-harvesting bodywork, fully self-repairing paint, switchable colors, shape-shifting skin. The basic trends that nanotechnology enables for the automobile are: lighter but stronger materials; improved engine efficiency and fuel consumption for gasoline-powered cars; reduced environmental impact from hydrogen and fuel cell-powered cars; improved and miniaturized electronic systems; and better economies. This article provides an overview of a large number of efforts and applications involving nanotechnologies in the automotive industry.

EuroNanoForum and Nanotech Europe are joining forces in 2011 to produce Europe's largest nanotechnology event.

FutureCarbon is exhibiting in the Nano Village of this year's Swisstech staged from 16 through 19 November in Basle. The Bayreuth-based company is presenting super-composite materials with new electrical and thermal characteristics.

Peptides have been generated that have binding affinity to carbon nanostructures and particularly carbon nanotubes. Peptides of or the invention are generally about twelve amino acids in length. Methods for generating carbon nanotube binding peptides are also disclosed.

The Graphene Week 2011 conference will be devoted to science and technology of graphene, advances in its growth and chemical processing, manufacturing graphene-based devices and studies of electronic transport, investigation of physical properties using ARPES, STM and AFM, emerging applications of this new material.

The international scientific community has identified five Grand Challenges that, if addressed in the next decade, will deliver knowledge to enable sustainable development, poverty eradication, and environmental protection in the face of global change.

The third issue of Nanotech Insights, a quarterly newsletter dedicated to the field of nanoscience and nanotechnology, is now available from CKMNT.

The United States still leads the world with its scientific clout, armed with highly respected universities and a big war chest of funding, but Europe and Asia are catching up, according to a Thomson Reuters report released on Friday.

Im Rahmen des Forschungs- und Entwicklungsprogramms 2010-2013 hat die BAuA einen Forschungsschwerpunkt 'Nanomaterialien' mit den Aktivitaetsfeldern 'Arbeitsplatzbelastungen bei Taetigkeiten mit Nanomaterialien' und 'Toxikologische Risikocharakterisierung' eingerichtet und entwickelt begleitend 'Beitraege zur Vorsorgestrategie fuer Nanomaterialien'.

In a recent study, scientists at EMSL and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory discovered cellular interactions of nanoparticles at the molecular level that may lead to answers about how these particles impact living systems.

The National Cancer Institute (NCI)'s Nanotechnology Characterization Laboratory (NCL), part of NCI's Alliance for Nanotechnology in Cancer, is an accomplished source for testing nanomaterials for biomedical applications and is now partnering with the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) to characterize engineered nanomaterials used in risk/hazard studies.

TU Munich physicist Reinhard Kienberger received the 2010 ICO Prize for pioneering contributions to attosecond physics. One of the main goals of this new scientific discipline is to capture snapshots of the inner life of atoms.

A cross-disciplinary Small Medicine and Advanced Research Translation (SMART) team led by Prof. Dar-Bin Shieh of Institute of Oral Medicine in Medical College at National Cheng Kung University (NCKU), Tainan, Taiwan, has announced a breakthrough in the precision in-cell gene scission at pre-designed sequence sites using Artificial Targeting Light Activated Nano Scissors (ATLANS) and a custom build photonic device.

Nanocatalysis - the use of nanoparticles to catalyze reactions - is a rapidly growing field which involves the use of nanomaterials as catalysts for a variety of homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysis applications. Heterogeneous catalysis represents one of the oldest commercial practices of nanoscience; nanoparticles of metals, semiconductors, oxides, and other compounds have been widely used for important chemical reactions. Since nanoparticles have a large surface-to-volume ratio compared to bulk materials, they are attractive candidates for use as catalysts. Although surface science studies have contributed significantly to our fundamental understanding of catalysis, most commercial catalysts, are still produced by 'mixing, shaking and baking' mixtures of multi-components; their nanoscale structures are not well controlled and the synthesis-structure-performance relationships are poorly understood.

On December 3, 2010, the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, in cooperation with the Semiconductor Industry Association, is hosting a 1-day event 'Sizing Up Nanotechnology: The Economic Impact of Nanoelectronics'.

Leica Microsystems is bringing its new A series to the market especially for the requirements in production of printed circuit boards or medical products: The Leica A60 F and A60 S stereomicroscopes make products and components optimally visible, enable subassemblies to be processed easily, and increase productivity.

SouthWest NanoTechnologies, Inc. (SWeNT) will be presenting performance data on its new conductive carbon nanotube inks at the Printed Electronics and Photovoltaics USA 2010 conference.

PI (Physik Instrumente) L.P. -- a leading manufacturer of piezo ceramic actuators and precision motion-control equipment for semiconductor, bio-medical and nanotechnology applications -- has released a new catalog on Piezo Mechanisms.

Employing new drug-engineering technology, a research team has created a 'nanobioconjugate' drug that may be given by intravenous injection and carried in the blood to target a brain tumor. It is engineered to specifically permeate the tumor cell wall, entering endosomes, mobile compartments within cells.

A research team at the University of Glasgow twisted the light like a corkscrew by using a polarising filter, before shining it onto a specially shaped piece of gold to create the world's first 'super twisting'.