The key laboratory will be devoted to the key issues of the solar energy bio-transformation and its application to agriculture and energy.

VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland has developed new pretreatment and curing methods that can be used with the sol-gel coating process. With the new pretreatment method, the adhesion of sol-gel coatings can be improved significantly.

ENT Magazine is an international magazine covering the latest research, applications, and opinions in the field of nanotechnology for the environment - alternative energies, water, air and soil purification.

Materials engineers are keen to exploit the outstanding mechanical properties of carbon nanotubes for applications in fibers, composites, fabrics and other larger-scale structures and devices. The ability to fabricate continuous, multifunctional yarns represents an important step in this direction. The development of a continuous, weavable multilayered CNT yarn with superior mechanical, structural, surface, and electrical properties would open the way for a wide range of structural and functional applications, including composites, intelligent fabrics, catalyst supports, and sensors. Researchers in China now demonstrate the fabrication of a novel continuous yarn of CNTs with a multiple-layer structure by a CVD spinning process. The yarn consists of multiple monolayers of CNTs concentrically assembled in seamless tubules along the yarn axis.

The American Filtration and Separations Society (AFS) is offering Water Filtration and Liquid Separation Training on March 22nd in San Antonio, Texas, USA.

Dirty fingernails have given way to wearing gloves for Michael Christiansen, who has followed his passion for science from fossil-hunting in the field to growing nanocrystals in a research lab.

In January 2010, a new Helmholtz university junior research group was set up at the GKSS Research Centre in Geesthacht. The new group devotes itself to the interface properties of polymer-metal hybrid structures produced by advanced joining technologies.

The goal of the program is to develop new imaging and sensor technology using Arradiance's proprietary GEM thin film technologies to replace decades-old microchannel plate (MCP) technology currently used in space imaging and sensing applications.

In contrast with microchannel-based fluidics, the manipulation of discrete droplets without using microfluidic channels is a new field. Here, a liquid droplet is not confined to a closed channel and there is no risk of being adsorbed on a channel wall. A liquid marble, a liquid encapsulated by non-wetting powder, could be a new microfluidic device, which is especially useful for handling single liquid droplet. One of the challenges for using liquid marbles as microfluidic devices is the communication between the liquid droplet and the external devices/materials. Researchers in Australia have been trying to develop 'field-responsive smart liquid marbles' which can be opened and closed reversibly on demand, such that the liquid in the marble can be easily taken and other liquid can also be added into the marble easily. The mechanically robust magnetic liquid marble, prepared by coating a water droplet with highly hydrophobic magnetite nanoparticles, can be actuated magnetically.

Unidym, Inc., a majority owned subsidiary of Arrowhead Research Corporation, today announced that Malcolm Gillis, Ph.D. has been appointed to its Board of Directors.

The International Workshop on Nanomedicine will be held in parallel with the 7th NanoSpain Conference.

Agilent Technologies Inc. today announced that its Scanning Microwave Microscopy Mode (SMM Mode) has been named one of 10 2009 Prism Award winners by judges from SPIE and the advisory board of Laurin Publishing's Photonics Spectra magazine.

Synopsys, Inc., a world leader in software and IP for semiconductor design, verification and manufacturing, today announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire CoWare, Inc., a global supplier of software and services for electronic systems design.

The Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (abbreviated DFG, German Research Foundation in English) and the Japan Science and Technology Agency ( JST) are launching the research project 'Quantum Computing in isotopically Engineered Diamond' aiming to novel logic devices potentially enabling faster computing and unconditionally secure communications.

Researchers in Chicago and London have developed a method for controlling the properties of magnets that could be used to improve the storage capacity of next-generation computer hard drives.

Carbon nanotubes are 'strange' nanostructures in a sense that they have both high mechanical strength and extreme flexibility. Deforming a carbon nanotube into any shape would not easily break the structure, and it recovers to original morphology in perfect manner. Researchers in China are exploiting this phenomenon by making CNT sponges consisting of a large amount of interconnected nanotubes, thus showing a combination of useful properties such as high porosity, super elasticity, robustness, and little weight. The nanotube sponges not only show exciting properties as a porous material but they also are very promising to be used practically in a short time. The production method is simple and scalable, the cost is low, and the sponges can find immediate use in many fields related to water purification.

The installation of an advanced imaging tool, a JEOL Electron Probe Microanalyzer (EPMA), will expand research and educational opportunities for students, faculty, and industry in southeastern North Carolina.

Last November, the Australian Secretary for Health released a public discussion paper inviting consultations on a Government proposal to strengthen regulation of industrial nanomaterials use in Australia. The deadline for submissions regarding the discussion paper is 5pm this Friday, February 12.

A novel strategy for engineering semiconductor materials can boost the performance of water-splitting solar cells for hydrogen production, according to a new study by researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

RTI International has developed a revolutionary lighting technology that is more energy efficient than the common incandescent light bulb and does not contain mercury, making it environmentally safer than the compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulb.