Science: Nanotechnology research requires more oversight regarding human and environmental safety, says a new report from the US National Research Council (NRC). Although the National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI) studies the safety of nanomaterials, the NRC has found gaps in its guidelines. For example, little research has been done on the effects of human ingestion of nanoparticles or on the safety of complex nanomaterials made up of mixtures of different elements.
Potentially the most disruptive recommendation in the report is to change who oversees nanotechnology risk research. NNI currently consists of 25 different federal agencies that work with the National Nanotechnology Coordination Office to coordinate their research efforts to avoid duplication. But neither the NNI nor the Coordination Office have any authority to mandate who does what. The NRC suggested several possible solutions, including setting up a panel with budgetary authority within the White House's Office of Science and Technology Policy.
Its iridescent setae, or threads, are made of millions of submicroscopic crystals that reflect light, causing the distinctive red, green, and blue sheen. Florian Mumm and Pawel Sikorski at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim used the sea mouse’s setae as a mold to grow the wires by placing a gold electrode at one end and firing copper or nickel ions into the hollow channel from the other end. Their team has published its results in the June 2010 issue of the journal
Nanoparticles—ultrafine particles with diameters less than 100 nanometers—typically consist of an inorganic core coated with a thin layer of organic molecules.
The atomic force microscope maps what's below by detecting subtle changes in forces of attraction.
Gerhard Ertl of Germany won the 2007 Nobel Prize in chemistry on Wednesday for studies of chemical reactions on solid surfaces, which are key to understanding questions like why the ozone layer is thinning.
Albert Fert of the Université Paris-Sud, Orsay, France and Peter Grünberg of the Forschungszentrum Jülich, Germany have won the 2007 Nobel Prize in physics for the discovery of giant magnetoresistance, or GMR for short. GMR is the process whereby a weak magnetic field, such as that of an oriented domain on the surface of a computer hard drive can, when the proper read head is brought nearby, trigger a large change in electrical resistance, thus “reading” the data vested in the magnetic orientation. This is the heart of modern hard drive technology and makes possible the immense hard-drive data storage industry. Earlier this year the two physicists won
Fert and Gruenberg helped pioneer the making of semiconductor stacks consisting of alternating thin layers of magnetic and non-magnetic atoms needed to produce the GMR effect. GMR is a prominent example of how quantum effects (a large electrical response to a tiny magnetic input) come about through confinement (the atomic layers being so thin.); that is, atoms interact differently with each other when they are confined to a tiny volume or a thin plane.
All these magnetic interactions involve the spin of an electron. Spin is a quantum attribute that shouldn’t be associated too closely in the mind with the electron literally spinning (in the way that a top spins). Still more innovative technology can be expected through quantum effects depending on electrons’ spin. Most of the electronics industry is based on manipulating the charges of electrons moving through circuits. But the electrons’ spins might also be exploited to gain new control over data storage and manipulation. Spintronics is the general name for this branch of electronics.