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Category Archives: Nanotechnology

Heat resistant nanostructures using RNA

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A team of nanotechnology researchers at the University of Kentucky has discovered new methods to build heat resistant nanostructures and arrays using RNA.

Chemical polymers have seen extensive use in a variety of industries including clothing, piping, plastics, containers, bottles, cookware, tools and medical materials for drug delivery and tissue engineer materials because of their high stability and ability to hold their global shape and size. However, on the microscopic scale, these polymers form into random micro-structures, making their size and shape difficult to control.

The Guo lab reports that RNA (ribonucleic acid) can be used as an anionic polymer material to build nanostructures with controllable shape and defined structure. The researchers have fabricated a new RNA triangle structure that utilizes RNAs intrinsic control over shape and size on the nano scale, while demonstrating strong stability.

Previously, RNA was seen as structurally fragile and easily dissociable at a range of temperatures from 35-70 degrees Celsius, making its application feasibility in an industrial setting very limited. Using the special RNA motif discovered in Guo's lab and a new methodology, the researchers demonstrated that they can build RNA nanostructures and patterned arrays that are resistant to 100 degrees Celsius, the boiling temperature of water.

The new RNA triangular nanoarchitechtures can be used to form arrays with a controllable repeat number of the scaffold, resembling monomer units in a polymerization reaction. Thus, the Guo lab was able to produce a honeycomb RNA structure with the new RNAs, allowing for the production of RNA sheets.

Experts say this breakthrough pushes the field of RNA nanotechnology forward, positioning RNA to be a new, unique type of polymer with advantages over conventional chemical polymers.

"This research shows great potential for building stable RNA nanoparticles with properties that could be more easily controlled than standard polymers," said Jessica Tucker, National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering program director for drug and gene delivery systems and devices. "The more control we have over the nanoparticles, the better we can tailor them for use in therapeutics for diseases ranging from cancer to diabetes."

This story is reprinted from material from University of Kentucky, with editorial changes made by Materials Today. The views expressed in this article do not necessarily represent those of Elsevier. Link to original source.

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Heat resistant nanostructures using RNA

Park Systems Presents NanoTechnology Advances Thru Innovative AFM Design by CEO Dr. Sang-il Park at MRS Symposium …

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Santa Clara, CA (PRWEB) April 21, 2014

Park Systems, world leader in atomic force microscopy (AFM) for the semiconductor, material and biological science and data storage markets, announced today that its founder and CEO, Dr. Sang-il Park, will present at the MRS Spring Meeting in San Francisco. The presentation titled Crosstalk Eliminated Atomic Force Microscope and Dimensinal Nanometrology for Inline Manufacturing Control will be given on April 23 at 11am in room 3010, level 3 Moscone West.

Dr. Parks presentation will cover Park Systems exclusive innovative AFM platform developed to eliminate cross-talk between the XY and Z scan enabling 3D non contact mode automatic defect review. Park Systemss unique innovative methodology features non-destructive sample scans and longer tip life. The result not only highly reduces costs but also vastly improves productivity, leading to astounding cost savings for manufacturers.

Park Systems recently achieved a commanding market share in the disc storage market through a focused effort on customer needs and performance requirements. It continues to expand into other industries that demand excellence in nanoscale AFM microscopy. Park is the only AFM enabling nanoscale advances such as the 3D scanning with rotated head and automated defect review, states Keibock Lee, President of Park Systems. We have become the leader in nanotechnology design by constantly outperforming our competition, and creating ways to replace or upgrade AFM equipment and technology that align with the customers objectives of accuracy and productivity.

The MRS Spring Meeting is held at the San Francisco Moscone Center April 21-25. Attendees will find Park Systemss exhibit at booth 517, featuring their full line of automated AFMs. Park Systems executive team of scientific engineers welcomes you to visit their booth for an exciting interactive experience that showcases todays most sophisticated AFM nanotechnology. Parks wide array of products are used in semiconductor, material science, biological science and data storage and are known forrevolutionary design features like True Non-Contact mode which have made Park Systems the fastest growing AFM company in the world.

Park offers many scientifically acknowledged advances in AFM technology which can be seen on the web site at http://www.parkafm.com.

About Park Systems Park Systems serves its customers by providing a complete range of atomic force microscopy (AFM) solutions, backed by its global service and support. Park Systems is the leading nanotechnology solutions provider for nanoscale measurements and systems for both research and industry. The product line of Park Systems reflects its focused strength to help customers achieve the metrology performance that meets the needs and requirements of present and future applications. Since improvements in nano-metrology are key to enabling tomorrow's research, analysis, processing and product manufacturing, the innovative technology and market leadership of Park Systems in the field of nano-metrology will remain as the core competence and market driving force of its future business. Park Systems has its global manufacturing and R&D headquarters in Korea. Parks products are sold and supported worldwide with regional headquarters in the US, Korea, Japan, and Singapore, and distribution partners throughout Europe, Asia, and America. For more information, visit http://www.parkAFM.com.

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Park Systems Presents NanoTechnology Advances Thru Innovative AFM Design by CEO Dr. Sang-il Park at MRS Symposium ...

America's Coming Manufacturing Revolution

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Fracking, robotics, and nanotechnology are poised to transform the industrial sector.

Robots weld Ford Mustangs in Michigan. (Reuters/Rebecca Cook RC)

Hardly a day goes by without an article predicting, lamenting, or celebrating America's decline. The turmoil in Crimea and Syria, the polarized and frequently gridlocked U.S. political system, the deepening income and wealth inequalities in the United States, and the growing clout of rivals like China and Russia are all offered as proof of waning American power.

These weaknesses surely exist, and somelike mounting economic inequalityare truly alarming. But the doomsayers often fail to see the ways in which America is gaining rather than losing global influence. And nowhere is this truer than the manufacturing sector. The combination of lower energy prices, innovative information technologies, and advances in robotics and materials science are powering a manufacturing revolution that will reinvigorate the U.S. economy and make many of its industrial sectors the most competitive in the world.

According to Martin Baily and Barry Bosworth of the Brookings Institution, for the past 50 years industrial production in the U.S. has grown at the same rate or even faster than the economy as a whole. This means that contrary to conventional wisdom, manufacturing has not lost ground in terms of its importance in the U.S. economy. Until 2011, when China inched slightly ahead, the United States boasted the worlds largest manufacturing sector, and it continues to be an industrial powerhouse. The general impression that factories in America are disappearing may be true for some sectors and in some regions and cities, but it is inaccurate in the aggregate. We perceive an industry in decline because the great strides that have been made in efficiency and productivity have not generated a proportional increase in jobs. More is being produced, and fewer workers are needed. Between 2000 and 2010, the United States lost 5.7 million manufacturing jobs.

One reason for these job losses is the economic crisis that began in 2008. But another, more fundamental explanation is the manufacturing industrys uneven growth. Most of the expansion of U.S. manufacturing has taken place in one specific sector: computers and electronics, while the 90 percent of manufacturing outside this branchautomobiles, aviation, appliances or chemicals, for exampleis showing slower growth.

Another issue is the trade deficit. Since the early 1980s, the United States has been importing more manufactured goods than it exports. And in the past decade, most of these imports have come from Asia, and mainly from China. The numbers are striking. In 2000, more than 75 percent of the total U.S. trade deficit in manufactured goods was comprised of the gap between what it imported and exported to Asia. By 2012, this difference represented roughly 100 percent of the deficitmeaning that Asia is the only region in the world from which the U.S. imports more manufactured goods than it exports. Furthermore, while in 2000 trade with China accounted for one-third of Americas manufacturing trade deficit with Asia, by 2012 that share had ballooned to an enormous 72 percent.

The good news is that American manufacturing is on the verge of dramatic change. According to Baily and Bosworth, major revolutions are underway in energy, robotics, materials, and applied information technology.

The changes taking place in the energy sector are huge. The United States has the second-largest shale-gas reserves in the world and has pioneered the development of new technologies to exploit it. Fracking, in which gas and oil is extracted from shale rocks by fracturing them, is driving an energy boom in the U.S. that will soon lower natural-gas prices to well below the world average, thus giving American manufacturers a unique competitive advantage.

The automation and robotization of manufacturing plants will further increase efficiency and precision. As robotic capabilities continue to expand, the cost to produce them is shrinking. The downside, of course, is that this will have serious repercussions for job creation, as these machines are likely to displace many workers. America's dominance in computing and electronics gives it a unique edge in the automation of manufacturing processes.

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America's Coming Manufacturing Revolution

EU Funding Nanotechnology Research To Monitor Air Pollution At Home, Work And In The Car

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Air pollutants like organic compounds, carbon monoxide, mold and other debris can cause headaches, fatigue, respiratory illnesses and worse.

That is the reasoning behind the European Unions decision to fund a new nanotechnology project that would allow people to gauge air quality real-time at home, work and in cars with low cost, mini sensor systems, the EUs community research and development information service announced Friday.

The control of indoor air quality and the related comfort it provides should have a huge societal impact on health, presence at work and economic-related factors, Claude Iroulart, coordinator of IAQSENSE, said in a statement.

The project, called IAQSENSE, aims to develop nanotechnology-based sensors to monitor the composition of air in terms of chemical and bio contaminants, designed to be tiny, low cost and mass-produced. France, Bulgaria, Germany, Switzerland and Spain are collaborating in the research and development of the project, and testing is expected to end in September 2016. The estimated cost is $6.8 million, $4.8 million contributed by the EU.

The gas sensor systems would be located in fixed places, connected to a network of wireless sensors that would rapidly detect gas molecules, one of three patented technologies the project would utilize. Applications in cars and smartphones would also be explored.

The European Lung Foundation estimates that respiratory illnesses in Europe costs about $141 billion each year in work absences and inefficiency. The foundation also believes that levels of indoor pollution may be ten times higher than levels outdoors.

Almost all of deaths associated with indoor or household air pollution in 2012 occurred in low and middle income countries, where people commonly burn wood, charcoal and trash inside for cooking, according to WHO data. About 88 percent of deaths from outdoor air pollution occur in low- and middle-income countries, particularly regions in and near China and India and secondly, Africa. Still, deaths from air pollution occur even in high-income countries. Nearly 300,000 Europeans living in high-income countries died from health effects associated with air pollution in 2012, WHO reported.

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EU Funding Nanotechnology Research To Monitor Air Pollution At Home, Work And In The Car

Nanotechnology in Drug Delivery

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WEST HARTFORD, Conn., April 16, 2014 /Emag.co.uk/ Global Information Inc. announces the addition of a new market research report Nanotechnology in Drug Delivery at GIIResearch.com

This report analyzes the worldwide markets for Nanotechnology in Drug Delivery in US$ Million. The Global Market is further analyzed by the following Drug Delivery Technologies: Nanocrystals, and Nanocarriers. The report provides separate comprehensive analytics for the US, Canada, Japan, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, and Rest of World. Annual estimates and forecasts are provided for the period 2009 through 2018. Market data and analytics are derived from primary and secondary research. Company profiles are primarily based on public domain information including company URLs. The report profiles 60 companies including many key and niche players such as -

Access Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Alkermes PLC Aquanova AG Camurus AB Capsulution Pharma AG Celgene, Inc.

Table of Contents

I. INTRODUCTION, METHODOLOGY & PRODUCT DEFINITIONS II. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

III. MARKET

IV. COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE

More detailed information is available at http://www.giiresearch.com/report/go297187-nanotechnology-drug-delivery.html

Media Contact: Joe Malley, Global Information, Inc., 860-674-8796, US-marketing@gii.co.jp

News distributed by PR Newswire iReach: http://www.giiresearch.com/report/go297187-nanotechnology-drug-delivery.html

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Nanostructures Offer Medical Images Without X Rays

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Researchers at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) have developed a recipe for creating a nearly perfect compound semiconductor that could lead to more efficient photovoltaics, safe and high-resolution biological imaging and the ability to transmit massive amounts of data at higher speeds.

The researchers took the rare earth element, erbium (Er), along with the element antimony (Sb) and made a compound of the two into semimetallic nanowires or nanoparticles. Then they embedded those nanostructures into the semiconducting matrix of gallium antimonide (GaSb). Because the arrangement of atoms within the ErSb nanostructures matches the pattern of the surrounding matrix, the compound semiconductor forms an uninterrupted crystal lattice capable of manipulating light energy in the mid-infrared range.

"The nanostructures are coherently embedded, without introducing noticeable defects, through the growth process by molecular beam epitaxy," said Hong Lu, a researcher in UCSB's Materials department, in a press release. Lu is the lead author of the study that revealed the new material, published in the journal Nano Letters. "Secondly, we can control the size, the shape and the orientation of the nanostructures." (Epitaxy is a manufacturing technique in which crystals are grown on a substrate.)

The ErSb nanoparticles and wires enable the compound semiconductor to absorb a wider spectrum of light due to a phenomenon called surface plasmon resonance. Surface plasmons are oscillations of electrons found on the interface between, for example, a metal and air. Surface plasmon resonance (SPR) is the collective oscillation of electrons due to light stimulation.

By exploiting SPR, the researchers believe that their new material could bridge the gap between optics and electronics. While photons offer the potential for computers that can handle data at very high speeds, it has been difficult to manipulate the relatively long wavelengths of light in the compact environment of electronics.

When infrared light strikes the material developed by the UCSB researchers, electrons in a ErSb nanostructure begin to resonate at the same frequency as the incident light. This oscillation of these electrons preserves the optical signal, but shrinks it to a scale where it is manageable for electronic devices.

According to the researchers, the highly conductive nanostructures can also polarize electromagnetic radiation in a broad range, providing a new platform for applications in the infrared and terahertz frequency ranges. The polarization effect could help in filtering and defining images with infrared and even longer-wavelength terahertz light signatures. This could make possible the imaging the internal structure of a variety of materials, including the human body, without the risk posed by using X-rays.

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This article originally appeared on IEEE Spectrum; all rights reserved.

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Nanostructures Offer Medical Images Without X Rays

Crimean crisis: economic sanctions unpopular in micro- and nanotechnology industry

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15.04.2014 - (idw) IVAM Fachverband fr Mikrotechnik

Economic sanctions against Russia in response to the Crimean conflict are rather unpopular among representatives of the micro- and nanotechnology industry in Germany. In a short survey, the IVAM Microtechnology Network asked selected industry experts the IVAM Executive Panel for their opinion. Two thirds of respondents say that economic sanctions are not an adequate response to the Crimean crisis. Sanctions would mainly hit the industry that has not been cause of the conflict, and will not help to solve the actual conflict between Russia and Ukraine. Politically motivated conflicts should be solved by political means.

In addition, some experts say, there is a danger that an embargo might play in the hand of the Russian Federation, trigger further unpopular activities and might even allow Putin to deny his own responsibility for the economic weakness of Russia, caused by his deficient policy, and blame Western nations instead.

Just little more than half (53 %) of the interviewed experts expect that sanctions would have a significant impact on the micro- and nanotechnology industry in Germany. They disagree with some economists assessments that sanctions would mainly affect the Russian economy and have no major impact on the German industry, export, and jobs.

Due to this broad interaction of the high-tech industries of both countries, imposing sanctions now would affect the business of the German micro- and nanotechnology industry even in the long term, 40 % of the interviewed experts say.

About the IVAM Executive Panel:

The IVAM Executive Panel is the trend indicator for the micro- and nanotechnology industry. The IVAM Microtechnology Network conducts brief periodic surveys among selected opinion leaders, executives in mostly small and medium-sized enterprises, and leading scientists. In early April 2014, 15 experts from Germany and Switzerland took part in the survey on the possible consequences of the Crimean crisis. Weitere Informationen:http://www.ivam.de/research/statistics/ivam_ep_apr_14?lang=en

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Crimean crisis: economic sanctions unpopular in micro- and nanotechnology industry


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