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• A Question Of Identity
  (Chemical & Engineering News)

  Multiple initiatives aim to unambiguously identify individual scientists so they're credited for their work
  Sometimes a name isn’t sufficient to specify an individual, and only a more definitive form of identification will do. A Social Security number, for instance, is necessary to ensure that you alone are credited for money you pay into the system when you’re working and that payments issued after you retire are sent to you and not to a different person who happens to share your name. The same needs pertain in the world of science, where researchers want to be credited for their work and to be distinguished from others with the same name. Yet, there is currently “no authoritative list of all the researchers in the U.S. with all of their publications, grants, and other achievements” such as patents, mentoring, service, and teaching, says Katy Börner, an information science professor at Indiana University, Bloomington.

  A given researcher’s records associated with these activities usually aren’t linked because each activity uses a different identifier, whether it’s a university- or publisher-issued ID or some other number, Börner says. But interlinking an individual’s publication and other data across the Web via a single identifier would be very useful in tenure or funding reviews, searches for potential collaborators or competitors, and citation analyses. These benefits are motivating researchers, publishers, and scientific and governmental organizations to explore the concept of a “unique author identifier.” Such an identifier—which could be included in papers, data sets, grant applications, and on an individual’s website—could do far more than differentiate between two scientists who bear the same name. It could also serve as a tool to find all the publications by a single researcher, even if the author’s name were misspelled on a paper or recorded as J. Doolittle instead of James Doolittle.
  (May 27, 2010)

   

• Putting nanofoods on the menu
  (New Scientist)

  Nanotechnology promises saltier-tasting salt, less fattening fat, and to boost the nutritional value of everyday products. Nanofood supplements could even tackle global malnutrition. So what is a nanofood? It isn't just about nanoparticles. Many foods have a natural nanostructure - the proteins in milk form nanoscale clusters, for example - that can be altered on the nanoscale to enhance their properties. In fact, researchers have been changing the nanostructure of food for years, for example by adding emulsifiers to improve the texture of ice cream. It's the emergence of technologies such as atomic force microscopy that has changed the game by finally opening a window on the nanoworld. Rather than working blind, researchers can now take a close look at the tiny structures they work on, understand their behavior and then make changes in a more rational and deliberate way.
  (May 19, 2010)

   

• Topological insulators: Electrons get moving along the surfaces of a new class of materials
  (Science News)

   
  Credit: Yazdani Lab/Princeton Univ (left) and T. Dube (right)
  

  Bismuth telluride is an unusual compound. Under the right laboratory conditions, this crystal can start behaving in weird and wonderful ways. Over the past couple of years, researchers have made several new discoveries involving bismuth telluride and other related materials, known as topological insulators. These materials exhibit a split personality when it comes to conducting electrons. The bulk of the material is an insulator. But sometimes the surface can act as a conductor, shuttling electrons merrily along their way. Just a few years ago, no one thought that materials could both insulate and conduct at the same time in this way. “This is a new state of matter — in condensed-matter physics this is the highest goal,” according to scientists. Beyond their theoretical beauty, topological insulators might also one day prove practical in the electronics industry: Already researchers have made a topological insulator behave as a superconductor, transporting electrons without any resistance. And topological insulators might serve as a laboratory for creating and studying new types of particles never before seen in nature.
  (May 10, 2010)

   

• New power sources could be made using magnesium
  (The Economist)

  
  Credit: The Economist

  As school chemistry lessons show, metallic magnesium is highly reactive and stores a lot of energy. Even a small amount of magnesium ribbon burns in a flame with a satisfying white heat. Researchers are now devising ways to extract energy from magnesium in a more controlled fashion. Engineers at MagPower in White Rock, British Columbia, for example, have developed a metal-air cell that uses water and ambient air to react with a magnesium fuel supply, in the form of a metal anode, to generate electricity. Doron Aurbach at Bar-Ilan University, Israel, has created a magnesium-based version of the lithium-ion rechargeable cell, a type of battery known for its long life and stability. It would be ideal for storing electricity from renewable sources, says Aurbach. And Andrew Kindler at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena is developing a way for cars to generate hydrogen on board by reacting magnesium fuel with steam. The reaction produces a pure form of hydrogen suitable for fuel cells, leaving behind only magnesium oxide, a relatively benign material, as a by-product. But there is, of course, a catch. Although magnesium is abundant, its production is neither cheap nor clean, says Takashi Yabe of the Tokyo Institute of Technology. Various industrial methods are used to extract magnesium, ranging from an electrolytic process to a high temperature method called the Pidgeon process, but the energy cost is high.
  (April 20, 2010)

   

• Whats up with nanotech?
  (Boston Globe)

  While nanotechnology working at a scale that is one-thousandth the width of a human hair may have faded from the publics imagination, the field has made substantial progress in recent years, opening new frontiers in electronics, medicine, and materials. Nanotech products have begun to enter commercial markets. Components such as nanoparticles and tiny conductive wires called carbon nanotubes are being standardized and mass-produced. New discoveries are being made.
  (March 29, 2010)

   

• Ironing Out Consensus on the Iron-Based Superconductors
  (Science)

  
  Credit: H. Ding, T. Sato and K. Nakayama

  The first superconductors—materials that carry electricity without any resistance—were discovered in 1911. Half a century passed before physicists figured out how metals such as niobium perform that mind-bending feat at a few degrees above absolute zero. In 1986, researchers discovered complex compounds containing copper and oxygen that become superconductors at much higher "critical temperatures"—now as high as 138 kelvin. Twenty-four years later, such "high-temperature superconductivity" remains the biggest puzzle in condensed-matter physics. In February 2008, materials scientists reported the first iron-based superconductor. Using tools honed on the copper-and-oxygen superconductors, or "cuprates," they have made measurements that took decades to achieve in the older materials. Most important, although physicists cannot say exactly how the iron-based superconductors work, they have developed a scheme that many say captures the essence of what's going on. In fact, the emerging portrait of the iron-based superconductors jibes with some theories of the cuprates and seems to undermine more-exotic alternatives. So if physicists are on the right track with the iron-based superconductors, then the cuprates may not be so inscrutable after all.
  Reference
  Ironing Out Consensus on the Iron-Based Superconductors
  Science 12 March 2010: Vol. 327. no. 5971, pp. 1320 - 1321 DOI: 10.1126/science.327.5971.1320
  (March 12, 2010)

   

• Slack nano safety in research labs worldwide
  (Chemistry World)

  
  Credit: Chemistry World

  Many researchers working with nanomaterials use inadequate protection, if any at all, and most don't use special disposal methods for nanomaterials, claims a new study. As most nations don't have specific regulations for nanomaterials, rules to protect researchers fall to individual institutions. Nearly half of the 240 respondents to a survey reported that no regulations were enforced by their institutions, and another 27 per cent were not sure.
  Reference
  Reported nanosafety practices in research laboratories worldwide
  Nature Nanotechnology 5, 93 - 96 (2010) Published online: 31 January 2010 | doi:10.1038/nnano.2010.1
  (February 9, 2010)

   

• The coming materials advances in dentistry
  (Chemistry World)

  
  Credit: Chemistry World

  Teeth have a hard time of things. Not only are they required to crunch, break, chew and tear, they also exist in a remarkably hostile and extremely variable environment. So when it comes to mending damaged or diseased teeth and bones in the mouth, the challenge to develop materials that can cope with these stresses are nothing if not substantial. Furthermore, there is an increasing demand from patients that materials are aesthetically pleasing - ugly metallic fillings are gradually becoming a thing of the past. The chemistry behind fixing teeth and bones in the mouth, and developing new ways to prevent damage is, literally, science at the sharp end.
  Reference
  Chemistry Bites
  Chemistry World, February 2010, pp 48-51.
  (February 4, 2010)

   

• Spasers and Nanoplasmonics: A new dawn for optical computing
  (New Scientist)

  
  Credit: New Scientist

  "Spasers", minuscule lasing objects are the latest by-product of the buzzing field of nanoplasmonics. Just as microelectronics exploits the behavior of electrons in metals and semiconductors on micrometer scales, so nanoplasmonics is concerned with the nanoscale comings and goings of entities known as plasmons that lurk on and below the surfaces of metals. When light of the right frequency strikes the surface of a metal, it can set up a wavelike oscillation in the electron sea, just as the wind whips up waves on the ocean. These collective electron waves - plasmons - act to all intents and purposes as light waves trapped in the metal's surface. Their wavelengths depend on the metal, but are generally measured in nanometers. Their frequencies span the terahertz range - equivalent to the frequency range of light from the ultraviolet right through the visible to the infrared. In 2003, their studies of plasmons led theorists to an unusual thought. Plasmons behaved rather like light, so could they be amplified like light, too? What the duo had in mind was a laser-like device that multiplied single plasmons to turn them into powerful arrays of plasmons all oscillating in the same way. The mathematics of it seemed to work. By analogy with the acronym that produces the word laser, they dubbed their brainchild "surface plasmon amplification by the stimulated emission of radiation" - spaser.
  (January 20, 2010)

   

• Plenty of room revisited
  (Nature Nanotechnology)

  
  ENGINEERING AND SCIENCE MAGAZINE
  CALTECH

  50 years after Richard Feynman delivered his famous lecture, 'There's plenty of room at the bottom', at the California Institute of Technology on 29 December 1959, Nature Nanotechnology looks at its influence on subsequent developments in nanoscience and technology.
  (January 13, 2010)

   

• Solar-powered irrigation systems improve life in rural sub-Saharan Africa
  (Stanford University)

  
  Credit: Stanford Univ.

  Solar-powered drip irrigation systems significantly enhance household incomes and nutritional intake of villagers in arid sub-Saharan Africa, according to a new study. The study found that solar-powered pumps installed in remote villages in the West African nation of Benin provide a cost-effective way of delivering much-needed irrigation water, particularly during the long dry season. The case study on women's farming groups in rural Benin revealed solar-powered drip irrigation – a clean, cost-competitive technology – significantly improved nutrition and food security as well as household incomes in one year. Solar-powered drip irrigation systems break seasonal rainfall dependence, which typically limits farmers to a three- to six-month growing season, and support the production of diversified, high-value crops in rural Africa. To measure the impact of the solar-powered drip irrigation technology, the researchers monitored the agricultural groups using the new irrigation systems, as well as two "control" villages where women continued growing vegetables in traditional hand-watered gardens.
  To be published in the Proc. National Acad. Sciences
  (January 7, 2010)

   

• Metamaterials: Taking the wraps off cloaking
  (Physics)

  
  Credit: www.dreamstime.com and Pendry et al.

  Scientists and novelists have been intrigued for centuries by the possibility of hiding an object so completely that neither trace of the object nor of its cloak is to be found. Recent theoretical developments show that cloaking is, in principle, possible for electromagnetic waves and to a limited extent for other types of wave, such as acoustic waves. An energetic program of experimental research has shown some of the schemes to be realizable in practice.
  (November 19, 2009)

• Progress in Application of Magnetic Nanoparticles in Biomedicine
  (Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics)

  In 2003 Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics published a highly successful cluster of review articles on Biomedical Applications of Magnetic Nanoparticles. Following the success of that initial publication, the Journal has now commissioned a five year update on these reviews from the same group of authors. To benefit the community, the new cluster issue will be free-to-read until November 2010.

  • Editorial by Kevin O'Grady
    
  • Progress in applications of magnetic nanoparticles in biomedicine
    
  Q A Pankhurst et al University College London, UK

  Professor Pankhurst explains the importance and impact of his research. Read the interview here.

  • Progress in the preparation of magnetic nanoparticles for applications in biomedicine
    
  M P Morales et al Instituto de Ciencia de Materiales de Madrid, Spain

  Dr Morales unveils the reason she chose to research the application of nanotechnology in biomedicine. Read the interview here.

  • Progress in the functionalization of magnetic nanoparticles for applications in biomedicine
    
  Catherine C Berry, University of Glasgow, UK

  Dr Berry spoke to us about her career highlights and current research projects. Read the interview here.

  In addition to these interviews with each of the authors, Kevin O’Grady speaks to Physicsworld.com about the key trends in this field with reference to the cluster issue.
  The previous review papers can be accessed free until the end of 2009
  (November 18, 2009)

• Materials in extreme environments
  (Physics Today)

  Nature is rich with examples of phenomena and environments we might consider extreme, at least from our familiar experience on Earth's surface: large fluxes of radiation and particles from the Sun, explosive asteroid collisions in space, volcanic eruptions that originate deep underground, extraordinary pressures and temperatures in the interiors of planets and stars, and electromagnetic discharges that occur, say, in sunspots and pulsars. We often intentionally create similar extreme environments—for example, in high-powered lasers, high-temperature turbines, internal-combustion engines, and industrial chemical plants. The response of materials to the broad range of such environments signals the materials' underlying structure and dynamics, provides insight into new phenomena, exposes failure modes that limit technological possibility, and presents novel routes for making new materials
  Reference
  Materials in extreme environments, Physics Today, Volume 62, Issue 11, November 2009, doi: 10.1063/1.3265234
  (November 13, 2009)

• 2009 Chemistry Nobel for ribosome structure
  (Nobel Foundation)

  

  The Nobel Prize in Chemistry for 2009 awards studies of one of life's core processes: the ribosome's translation of DNA information into life. Ribosomes produce proteins, which in turn control the chemistry in all living organisms. As ribosomes are crucial to life, they are also a major target for new antibiotics. This year's Nobel Prize in Chemistry awards Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, Thomas A. Steitz and Ada E. Yonath for having showed what the ribosome looks like and how it functions at the atomic level. All three used X-ray crystallography to map the position for each and every one of the hundreds of thousands of atoms that make up the ribosome.
  (October 7, 2009)

• Nobel Prize in physics recognizes fiber optics, CCD
  (The New York Times)

  The mastery of light through technology was the theme of this year’s Nobel Prize in Physics as the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences honored breakthroughs in fiber optics and digital photography. Half of the $1.4 million prize went to Charles K. Kao for insights in the mid-1960s about how to get light to travel long distances through glass strands, leading to a revolution in fiber optic cables. The other half of the prize was shared by two researchers at Bell Labs, Willard S. Boyle and George E. Smith, for inventing the semiconductor sensor known as a charge-coupled device, or CCD for short. CCDs now fill digital cameras by the millions.
  [The Nobel Prize in Physics 2009]
  (October 6, 2009)

• Spallation Neutron Source attains 1 Megawatt power
  (e! Science News/ORNL)

  The U.S. Department of Energy's Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) at Oak Ridge, already the world's most powerful facility for pulsed neutron scattering science, is now the first pulsed spallation neutron source to break the one-megawatt barrier. SNS operators at pushed the controls past the megawatt mark on September 18 as the SNS ramped up for its latest operational run. Before the SNS, the world's spallation neutron sources operated in the hundred-kilowatt range. The SNS actually became a world-record holder in August 2007 when it reached 160 kilowatts, earning it an entry in the Guinness Book of World Records as the world's most powerful pulsed spallation neutron source. Eventually, the SNS will reach its design power of 1.4 megawatts. The gradual increase of beam power has been an ongoing process since the SNS was completed and activated in late April 2006.
  (September 30, 2009)

• Many faces, and phases, of steel in cars
  (The New York Times)

  
  Credit: The New York Times

  For all the talk of reinvention in the auto industry, of car companies using high-tech materials to make lighter and stronger vehicles that are safer and more fuel-efficient, the mainstay of the mass-produced automobile is the same as it has always been: steel. The modern car still contains more of it than anything else, about 60 percent by weight.

  But automotive steel has changed quite a bit since the first Model T rolled off the assembly line. Metallurgists and manufacturers have learned to manipulate steel’s microstructure through precise control of processing to create sheet steels of increasing strength. Prompted by crash-worthiness requirements and the need to make cars lighter to improve gas mileage, automakers are replacing conventional steels with advanced high-strength ones.

  Where once a single grade of steel might have sufficed, the typical “body in white,” as automakers call a car’s basic skeleton, might now be a patchwork of a dozen or more steels of different types and strengths, tailored through computer modeling to handle the stress and strain of normal driving — and of severe crashes.
  (September 15, 2009)

• Diamonds are for softies boron is harder
  (New Scientist)

  
  Credit: Salexmccoy, Wikimedia Commons

  Diamond's hardness has served us well enough over the years. Unfortunately, diamond doesn't always cut it. In particular, it does not cut steel: the carbon just dissolves in the hot iron, reacting to form iron carbide. This susceptibility to heat and chemical attack is one reason why we are on the lookout for alternatives to diamond. Diamond is also electrically insulating, which can be a limitation. It would be good to have a range of superhard materials that have other properties, such as metallic or semiconducting characteristics. In a quest for completely different superhard materials, researchers have been exploring the nether regions of the periodic table. Their first stop was the element osmium, each atom of which has eight "valence" electrons available for covalent bonding - the highest number known. More electrons, they reasoned, meant stronger bonds and perhaps superhardness. In 2005, a team discovered that osmium diboride, a repeating structure of one osmium atom bound to two boron atoms, is indeed very hard - although still only about a quarter as hard as diamond. Two years later, they claimed that rhenium diboride was even harder, though still not a match for diamond. Rhenium is osmium's neighbour in the periodic table, and although its valence electron density is smaller, crucially it could make shorter, and therefore stronger, bonds. Meanwhile, attention was switching back to the lighter end of the periodic table, home to many elements that can form short, strong bonds. One such is boron, which sits just one berth over from carbon. The idea that boron has superhardness potential goes back at least to 1965, when scientists claimed to have made superhard crystals of boron at a pressure of 100,000 atmospheres and a temperature of 1500 °C. The material's structure could not be worked out, though, and the idea was shelved for 40 years. Researchers recently published a structure for the superhard boron crystal - a repeating pattern of 28 boron atoms they called B28.
  (September 9, 2009)

• Analysis confirms nano-related research has strong multidisciplinary roots
  (Eurekalert / Georgia Institute of Technology)

  
  Credit: Alan Porter and Jan Youtie, Georgia Institute of Technology

  The burgeoning research fields of nanoscience and nanotechnology are commonly thought to be highly multidisciplinary because they draw on many areas of science and technology to make important advances. New research finds that nanoscience and nanotechnology indeed are highly multidisciplinary – but not much more so than other modern disciplines such as medicine or electrical engineering that also draw on multiple areas of science and technology. The researchers analyzed abstracts from more than 30,000 papers with "nano" themes that were published between January and July of 2008. They found that although materials science and chemistry dominated the papers, fields as diverse as clinical medicine, biomedical sciences and physics also contributed. Six subject categories dominated both the original nanopapers and the cited references. Each of the six contained 10 percent or more of the original nanopapers and was cited by 39 percent or more of the references. They are:

  • Materials science, multidisciplinary
  • Physics, applied
  • Chemistry, physical
  • Physics, condensed matter
  • Nanoscience and nanotechnology
  • Chemistry, multidisciplinary

  [Where does nanotechnology belong in the map of science? Nature Nanotechnology 4, 534 - 536 (2009) doi: 10.1038/nnano.2009.207]
  (September 8, 2009)

• Where Have You Gone, Bell Labs?
  (Business Week)

  

  Since the 1990s, labs dedicated to pure research—to the pursuit of scientific discovery—have seen funding slowly decline and their mission shift from open-ended problem solving to short-term commercial targets, from pure discovery to applied research. Bell Labs had 30,000 employees as recently as 2001; today (owned by Alcatel-Lucent ALU) it has 1,000. That's symbolic and symptomatic of the broken link in the U.S. business model. With upstream invention and discovery drying up, downstream, industry-creating innovation is being reduced to a trickle. It's easy to ascribe current job losses in the U.S. to the deep recession or outsourcing. Both are to blame, but neither is at the root of the larger problem, which is lack of new, high-quality job creation. We are in the throes of the fourth recession since 1981. We have been outsourcing jobs for decades, but we have always bounced back with a new industry—a blockbuster industry. Discovery drives innovation, innovation drives productivity, productivity drives economic growth. But this time it's different, and whenever the current recession mercifully ends, the U.S. economy will not respond with the same job-creating vigor we have come to expect.

  The effects of the massive scaling back of American science and engineering research in the 1990s and 2000s may just be beginning. Unless reversed, it is likely to have its greatest impact a decade from now, when the missing discoveries of a generation earlier would have been expected to come to commercial fruition. It's time to identify—and fix—the root of the problem.
  (August 31, 2009)

• Fifty years of Anderson localization
  (Physics Today)

   
  Credit:Physics Today

  Very few believed [localization] at the time, and even fewer saw its importance; among those who failed to fully understand it at first was certainly its author. It has yet to receive adequate mathematical treatment, and one has to resort to the indignity of numerical simulations to settle even the simplest questions about it.

  —Philip W. Anderson, Nobel lecture, 8 December 1977

  The study of the conductance of electrons belongs to the very heart of condensed-matter physics. The classical Drude theory of electronic conductivity was built on the idea of free electrons scattered by positive ions in metal lattice sites. A key concept in that description was the mean free path, the average length an electron travels before it collides with an ion. According to classical theory, the electronic conductivity should be directly proportional to the mean free path, which experiment had established as large in metals—around 100 nm, some two orders of magnitude larger than the lattice constant.

  Physicists had to wait for the discovery of quantum mechanics to understand why electrons apparently do not scatter from ions that occupy regular lattice sites: The wave character of an electron causes the electron to diffract from an ideal crystal. Resistance appears only when electrons scatter from imperfections in the crystal. With that quantum mechanical revision, the Drude model can still be used, but in the new picture an electron is envisaged as zigzagging between impurities. The more the impurities, the smaller the mean free path and the lower the conductivity.

  Will any increase in the degree of lattice disorder lead to just a decrease in the mean free path and thus to a lower conductivity, or might something unusual happen along the way? That question was raised a half century ago by Philip Anderson. Beyond a critical amount of impurity scattering, he discovered, the diffusive, zigzag motion of the electron is not just reduced, it can come to a complete halt. The electron becomes trapped and the conductivity vanishes.
  (August 5, 2009)

• Are we seeing atoms diffuse?
  (Physics)

  
  Credit: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

  Following the path of a single atom or point defect as it diffuses inside a solid remains one of the most sought after but undemonstrated feats of microscopy. In a new paper scientist have reported their use of one of the new aberration-corrected transmission electron microscopes and claim to have imaged the three-dimensional positions of Ge self-interstitials generated by the beam. Have they finally succeeded in imaging diffusion? The instrumental resolution of the aberration-corrected microscope used in this work (the TEAM 0.5 facility) is below 0.5 nm. In this work, Ge interstitial defects apparently formed via electron irradiation due to their proximity to the surface. The images obtained relied on an interstitial atom remaining relatively still for a large fraction of a second. Unfortunately, the same interstitial could not be imaged more than once, since they moved faster than the image collection rate. It is true that there is a remarkably low level of noise between their spots and if we are going to image diffusing atoms they will need to be random and moving. However, to be convinced that we are really seeing interstitials, we need a faster acquisition time or a more static point defect and then need to follow the subsequent movements of these objects individually. The work reported in the paper is a remarkable demonstration of the capabilities of the latest TEMs. They are very close to having a convincing case that they have imaged diffusing point defects. Soon, no doubt, the right combination of defect stability and beam or thermally induced diffusion control will finally let us see atomic diffusion.
  [Atomic-resolution three-dimensional imaging of germanium self-interstitials near a surface: Aberration-corrected transmission electron microscopy, Phys. Rev. B 80, 014114 (2009) – Published July 27, 2009]
  (July 29, 2009)

• Nobel winners call for energy R&D funding
  (Royal Society of Chemistry)

  

  Thirty-four Nobel Prize winners, including six prominent researchers who won the award for chemistry, are urging US President Obama to make good on his pledge to provide increased, stable funding for energy research and development. The renowned scientists are concerned that the climate change and energy legislation that is currently making its way through Congress would provide only a tiny fraction of the $150 billion (£91.3 billion) that Obama proposed to go to a so-called Clean Energy Technology Fund over ten years. In their 16 July letter to Obama, the Nobel laureates emphasise the importance of the President's proposed plan, to be funded by a greenhouse gas cap and trade programme: 'the stable support this Fund would provide is essential to pay for the research and development needed if the US, as well as the developing world, are to achieve their goals in reducing greenhouse gases at an affordable cost.' They want him to argue his case to the US Congress.
  (July 22, 2009)

• The call of the wild
  (Physics World)

  Paul Wiggins yanks the mouse cord from his computer and stretches it between his fingers. “Here’s your chromosome, which is about 2 m long.” He twists the cord and squeezes it into a ball. “How”, he questions, “does it get inside a nucleus that’s 10–50 µm long?”

  The animated, 32-year-old researcher at the Whitehead Institute of Biomedical Research in Cambridge, Massachusetts, confesses that we do not know the answer. “But we do know its genetic loci don’t end up randomly shuffled. Each ends up at a particular spot. Why?”

  Wiggins thinks that tools used in physics can help answer these questions — but that to do so involves researchers jumping in at an uncharted interdisciplinary middle, to measure something that can be linked both to the molecular scale and to the cellular scale, or midway between physics and biology.
  (July 21, 2009)

• Collaborating for profits in nanotechnology
  (The New York Times)

  
  Credit: The New York Times

  .... nanotechnology companies do not produce finished products in any one industry. Rather, nano particles improve performance and open new possibilities in activities as varied as water purification, biomedicine, battery power, environmental repair and agriculture.

  Universities have been essential in this development process. In some cases, they make direct equity investments in start-up companies. Other times, universities grant licenses to their research and give small companies access to expensive laboratory equipment in return for user fees. And some universities have set up incubators where small companies develop technological products and processes.
  (July 7, 2009)

• Electronic materials tough it out
  (Chemical & Engineering News)

  
  Credit: Air Products & Chemicals

  Seventeen years in the electronic materials industry have taught Corning F. Painter this lesson: An electronic materials supplier that cuts down on R&D commits corporate suicide. "One way to drop out is to discontinue research," says the Taipei-based head of global electronics at Air Products & Chemicals. "Two to three years later, you're not positioned for what comes up." Like those in other business sectors, companies supplying materials to electronic components manufacturers have had an exceptionally difficult time in the past eight months. Because of the steep decline in demand for electronic chemicals, producers are struggling to maintain profitability by dramatically cutting production. Yet amid the global economic downturn, the pace of new product development hasn't slowed, with electronic materials suppliers preserving, and even strengthening, their R&D capabilities.
  (July 14, 2009)

• Ice on fire: The next fossil fuel
  (New Scientist)

  DEEP in the Arctic Circle, in the Messoyakha gas field of western Siberia, lies a mystery. Back in 1970, Russian engineers began pumping natural gas from beneath the permafrost and piping it east across the tundra to the Norilsk metal smelter, the biggest industrial enterprise in the Arctic. By the late 70s, they were on the brink of winding down the operation. According to their surveys, they had sapped nearly all the methane from the deposit. But despite their estimates, the gas just kept on coming. The field continues to power Norilsk today. Where is this methane coming from? The Soviet geologists initially thought it was leaking from another deposit hidden beneath the first. But their experiments revealed the opposite - the mystery methane is seeping into the well from the icy permafrost above. If unintentionally, what they had achieved was the first, and so far only, successful exploitation of methane clathrate. Made of molecules of methane trapped within ice crystals, this stuff looks like dirty ice and has the consistency of sorbet. Touch it with a lit match, though, and it bursts into flames. Clathrates are rapidly gaining favour as an answer to the energy crisis. Burning methane emits only half as much carbon dioxide as burning coal, and many countries are seeing clathrates as a quick and easy way of reducing carbon emissions. Others question whether that is wise, and are worried that extracting clathrates at all could have unforeseen and perilous side effects.
  (July 8, 2009)

• Incandescent bulbs return to the cutting edge
  (The New York Times)

  
  Credit: The New York Times

  When [the U.S.] Congress passed a new energy law two years ago, obituaries were written for the incandescent light bulb. The law set tough efficiency standards, due to take effect in 2012, that no traditional incandescent bulb on the market could meet, and a century-old technology that helped create the modern world seemed to be doomed.

  But as it turns out, the obituaries were premature.

  Researchers across the country have been racing to breathe new life into Thomas Edison’s light bulb, a pursuit that accelerated with the new legislation. Amid that footrace, one company is already marketing limited quantities of incandescent bulbs that meet the 2012 standard, and researchers are promising a wave of innovative products in the next few years.

  Indeed, the incandescent bulb is turning into a case study of the way government mandates can spur innovation.
  (July 6, 2009)

• Microscopic marvels: Magnifying power
  (Nature)

  
  Credit: Nature

  New microscopes are revealing sights that have never been seen before. Nature profiles five machines that are changing how biologists view the world. These include an ultrahigh-voltage electron microscope, a microscope-on-a-chip, a stimulated emission depletion (STED) microscope, a single plane illumination microscope (SPIM) microscope and a stimulated Raman scattering microscope. While the focus here is on biology, these are of significant interest to materials scienctists as well.
  [Nature 459, 629 (2009) | doi:10.1038/459629a]
  (June 8, 2009)

• String theory and materials science
  (New Scientist)
  
  String theory: you love it or loathe it. To some it represents our best hope for a route to a "theory of everything"; others portray it as anything from a mathematically obtuse minefield to a quasi-religion that has precious little to do with science. There might be a middle way. String theory's mathematical tools were designed to unlock the most profound secrets of the cosmos, but they could have a far less esoteric purpose: to tease out the properties of some of the most complex yet useful types of material here on Earth.
  (June 1, 2009)

• Racetrack Memory: The Future Third Dimension of Data Storage
  (Scientific American)

  
  Credit: Scientific American

  A device that slides magnetic bits back and forth along nanowire "racetracks" could pack data in a three-dimensional microchip and may replace nearly all forms of conventional data storage. A radical new design for computer data storage called racetrack memory (RM) moves magnetic bits along nanoscopic “racetracks.” RM would be nonvolatile—retaining its data when the power is turned off—but would not have the drawbacks of hard disk drives or present-day nonvolatile chips. Chips with horizontal racetracks could outcompete today’s nonvolatile “flash” memory. Building forests of vertical racetracks on a silicon substrate would yield three-dimensional memory chips with data storage densities surpassing those of hard disk drives.
  (May 28, 2009)

• Lighting technology: Time to change the bulb
  (Nature)

  
  Credit: Nature

  The Centennial Light, which hangs in a fire station in Livermore, California, is the oldest working light bulb on Earth. The four-watt night-light was switched on in 1901 and has been shining almost non-stop ever since, consuming roughly 3,500 kilowatt-hours of energy in total. As the picture below shows, the bulb also looks surprisingly familiar: the technology of incandescent lights has changed very little over its lifetime. Inside the bulb is a filament — carbon in this case, tungsten in today's models — that is heated by the flow of electricity until it glows white and lights up the room. The design is simple, versatile and cheap, just as it was when Thomas Edison first made it a commercial success in the 1880s. Nonetheless, that technology is now on the way out. Although getting rid of incandescent bulbs makes environmental and economic sense, the race for a long-term replacement is wide open.
  [Lighting technology: Time to change the bulb, Nature 459, 312-314 (2009) | doi:10.1038/459312a ]
  (May 21, 2009)

• Optical tweezers: where physics meets biology
  (Physics World)

  
  Credit: Joost van Mameren and Physics World

  First demonstrated over 20 years ago, optical tweezers have become an established tool in research fields ranging from biophysics to cell biology. As their name suggests, optical tweezers use beams of light to hold and manipulate microscopically small objects such as biological molecules or even living cells. They are formed when a laser beam is tightly focussed to a tiny region in space using a microscope objective as a lens. This region becomes an optical trap that can hold small objects in 3D.

  Optical tweezers can also make accurate measurements of the tiny, sub-picoNewton forces exerted on the trapped objects. This allows researchers to study the diffusion dynamics (or Brownian motion) of an object in a solvent — a property that can play a key role in the function of many biological molecules. Optical tweezers can also be used to micromanipulate an object using well-controlled forces.
  (April 3, 2009)

• Is science prepared for atomic-resolution electron microscopy?
  (Nature Materials)

  
  Credit: Nature Materials

  Modern aberration-corrected transmission electron microscopy (TEM) provides genuine atomic resolution, and there is no doubt that this opens up a new dimension for materials research1. However, although the microscopy community may be aware of the giant steps forward that the field has made in the past decade, these steps may be difficult for a wider scientific audience to appreciate. For decades this audience has seen gratings of bright and dark dots reported in the literature and has generally assumed that they were atomic-resolution images of crystals, almost as though they had been taken with a very high-magnification light-optical microscope. The reality is that TEM has less in common with light imaging than it may seem. There are several differences in the way in which data are acquired and interpreted that should be taken into consideration when electron and light optical images are compared, or when atomic resolution is discussed.
  [Knut Urban, Is science prepared for atomic-resolution electron microscopy?, Nature Materials 8, 260 - 262 (2009) doi:10.1038/nmat2407]
  (March 30, 2009)

• Alarming use of energy, materials in newer manufacturing processes
  (MIT)

  Modern manufacturing methods are spectacularly inefficient in their use of energy and materials, according to a detailed MIT analysis of the energy use of 20 major manufacturing processes. Overall, new manufacturing systems are anywhere from 1,000 to one million times bigger consumers of energy, per pound of output, than more traditional industries. In short, pound for pound, making microchips uses up orders of magnitude more energy than making manhole covers. At first glance, it may seem strange to make comparisons between such widely disparate processes as metal casting and chip making. But the authors suggest that such a broad comparison of energy efficiency is an essential first step toward optimizing these newer manufacturing methods as they gear up for ever-larger production. Manufacturers have traditionally been more concerned about factors like price, quality, or cycle time, and not as concerned over how much energy their manufacturing processes use. This latter issue will become more important, however, as the new industries scale up -- especially if energy prices rise again or if a carbon tax is adopted.
  [Thermodynamic Analysis of Resources Used in Manufacturing Processes, Environ. Sci. Technol., 2009, 43 (5), pp 1584–1590 DOI: 10.1021/es8016655]
  (March 30, 2009)

• The reign of silicon could be nearing its end
  (Science)

  
  Credit: Intel Corp.

  Silicon is almost synonymous with computer chips. But as the semiconductor struggles at the minute scales of today's devices, chipmakers are being forced to consider other materials. Few doubt that Moore's Law will hold for a couple more generations of chips, and perhaps even longer. But continuing this trend will not be a straightforward enterprise. Researchers are looking at redesigning the way they make transistors, incorporating new insulators, and even replacing silicon as the semiconductor through which electrical charges flow in their circuitry.
  [Is Silicon's Reign Nearing Its End? Science 20 February 2009: Vol. 323. no. 5917, pp. 1000 - 1002 DOI: 10.1126/science.323.5917.1000]
  (February 26, 2009)

• Fifty Years of Condensed Matter Physics
  (Physical Review Letters)
  
  Since the birth of Physical Review Letters fifty years ago, condensed matter physics has seen considerable growth, and both the field has flourished during this period. This essay by Marvin Cohen begins with some general comments about condensed matter physics and then gives his personal views on the conceptual development of the field and list some highlights. The focus is mostly on theoretical developments.
  (January 28, 2009)
• The future of nuclear power
  (Scientific American)

  

  The world is gearing up to build a potentially massive fleet of new nuclear reactors, in part to fight climate change. But can nuclear power handle the load? An in-depth report from Scientific American on the prospects and pitfalls of nuclear power.
  (January 26, 2009)

• Researchers lay out vision for lighting 'revolution'
  (Eurekalert)

  
  Credit: Kim and Schubert, Rensselaer Polytechnic Inst.

  A "revolution" in the way we illuminate our world is imminent, according to a just published paper. Innovations in photonics and solid state lighting will lead to trillions of dollars in cost savings, along with a massive reduction in the amount of energy required to light homes and businesses around the globe, the researchers forecast. A new generation of lighting devices based on light-emitting diodes (LEDs) will supplant the common light bulb in coming years, the paper suggests. In addition to the environmental and cost benefits of LEDs, the technology is expected to enable a wide range of advances in areas as diverse as healthcare, transportation systems, digital displays, and computer networking. Researchers are able to control every aspect of light generated by LEDs, allowing the light sources to be tweaked and optimized for nearly any situation. In general LEDs will require 20 times less power than today's conventional light bulbs, and five times less power than "green" compact fluorescent bulbs.
  [Transcending the replacement paradigm of solid-state lighting, Optics Express, Vol. 16, Issue 26, pp. 21835-21842 doi:10.1364/OE.16.021835]
  (December 22, 2008)

• The promise of plasmonics
  (Scientific American)

  Scientists have been working on a new technique for transmitting optical signals through minuscule nanoscale structures. Over the past decade investigators have found that by creatively designing the metal-dielectric interface they can generate surface plasmons with the same frequency as the outside electromagnetic waves but with a much shorter wavelength. This phenomenon could allow the plasmons to travel along nanoscale wires called interconnects, carrying information from one part of a microprocessor to another. Plasmonic interconnects would be a great boon for chip designers, who have been able to develop ever smaller and faster transistors but have had a harder time building minute electronic circuits that can move data quickly across the chip. Ultimately it may be possible to employ plasmonic components in a wide variety of instruments, using them to improve the resolution of microscopes, the efficiency of light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and the sensitivity of chemical and biological detectors. Scientists are also considering medical applications, designing tiny particles that could use plasmon resonance absorption to kill cancerous tissues, for example. And some researchers have even theorized that certain plasmonic materials could alter the electromagnetic field around an object to such an extent that it would become invisible. Although not all these potential applications may prove feasible, investigators are eagerly studying plasmonics because the new field promises to literally shine a light on the mysteries of the nanoworld.
  (November 19, 2008)

• A new spin on silk
  (Science News)

  
  Credit: Science News/sct/Getty

  Mimicking how spiders make their complex array of silks could usher in a tapestry of new materials, and other animals or plants could be designed to be the producers. Scientists are coming closer to unraveling spiders’ secrets with the hope of producing piles of the fiber to put to good use. While there’s progress in understanding spider silk genes and proteins, challenges persist. Silkworms were domesticated centuries ago and are content munching mulberry leaves in close quarters, but most spiders are both predators and loners. When crowded together, they often become cannibalistic, making them difficult to rear en masse. And while a single silkworm cocoon can yield 600 to 900 meters of silk, a spider gives up after spinning out only 130-odd meters or so. So scientists are trying to coax spider silks from other creatures, experimenting with inserting silk genes into bacteria, tobacco plants and goats. Other researchers are investigating the silken threads made naturally by insects such as bees, wasps and ants.
  (November 11, 2008)

• New high-temperature superconductor family rekindles field
  (Chemical & Engineering News)

  
  Credit: Science/Chem. & Engr. News

  The discovery earlier this year of a new class of high-temperature superconductors has sparked a wave of intense research that quickly produced—for the first time in more than 20 years—a whole family of new superconductors. The recent developments have rekindled discussions of advanced superconductor applications and boosted excitement in the field to levels rarely seen in more than two decades. In February, researchers at the Tokyo Institute of Technology reported the discovery of a new superconductor based on a rare-earth iron arsenide compound. The team measured a Tc of 26 K in samples of LaOFeAs that were doped with roughly 10 atom % of fluoride ions. Word of the new Fe-As superconductors spread quickly, and researchers began looking for related compounds with higher T c values. As with the cuprates 20 years ago, researchers didn't take long at all to begin finding other members of this brand-new family of superconductors. Just weeks after Hosono's paper was published, various research groups quickly started broadcasting their results, some of which were posted on the preprint server arxiv.org.
  (October 23, 2008)

• DNA templates for nanomachinery
  (Science)

  The precise and complementary base pair matching in DNA has increasingly led to its use as a building or templating material in the assembly of nanoscale objects such as particles or wires, or for the decoration of particles and wires with metals or other molecules. A new report has reviewed recent developments in the use of DNA as a precise positional tool for complex material assembly. Developments have moved from simple one-dimensional templating to two and three dimensions, with scope for dynamically changing the shape or size of an object, or the fabrication of nanomachines.
  [Assembling Materials with DNA as the Guide, Science 26 September 2008: Vol. 321. no. 5897, pp. 1795 - 1799, DOI: 10.1126/science.1154533]
  (September 26, 2008)

• Investigation finds building fires caused collapse of World Trade Center building 7
  (NIST)

  
  Credit: NIST

  The fall of the 47-story World Trade Center building 7 (WTC 7) in New York City late in the afternoon of Sept. 11, 2001, was primarily due to fires, according to a new report following an extensive, three-year scientific and technical building and fire safety investigation. This was the first known instance of fire causing the total collapse of a tall building. "Heating of floor beams and girders caused a critical support column to fail, initiating a fire-induced progressive collapse that brought the building down." According to the report, a key factor leading to the eventual collapse of WTC 7 was thermal expansion of long-span floor systems at temperatures "hundreds of degrees below those typically considered in current practice for fire resistance ratings." The report included 13 recommendations for improving building and fire safety.
  [Link to Final Report on the Collapse of World Trade Center Building 7]
  (August 22, 2008)

• The Keepers of the Moon
  (New York Times)

  In the lab, the Moon rocks look nondescript — dark gray basalt, a whitish mineral called anorthosite and mixtures of the two with crystals thrown in. Yet nearly 40 years after the Apollo astronauts brought the first rocks back to Earth, these pieces of the Moon are still providing scientists with new secrets from another world.
  (July 9, 2007)

• How new are the new superconductors?
  (Science)

  Twenty-two years ago, the recondite world of condensed matter physics erupted into a frenzy of headline-grabbing discoveries. In June 1986, German experimenter J. Georg Bednorz and Swiss colleague Karl Alexander Müller reported that lanthanum barium copper oxide carried electricity without resistance at temperatures as high as 35 kelvin. That was closer to absolute zero than to room temperature (300 kelvin), but it was a whopping 12 degrees above the previous record for such "superconductivity." The discovery sparked a race for other copper-and-oxygen, or cuprate, superconductors with higher "critical temperatures" and bagged a Nobel Prize. History seems to be repeating itself. In the past 5 months, researchers in Japan and China have cranked out a new family of high-temperature superconductors ( Science , 25 April, p. 432 ). In place of copper and oxygen, the new compounds contain iron and arsenic, and the highest critical temperature for them has already reached 55 kelvin. That's far from the current record of 138 kelvin for the cuprates . B u t even a s researchers strive for higher temperatures, they are preoccupied with one question: Do the new materials work the same way as the old ones?
  (May 19, 2008)

• How size affects particles in the nano-world
  (The Christian Science Monitor)
  For ultrasmall particles, size is as important as chemical composition. The mobility of atoms on a particle's surface can make a brittle material ductile (malleable). Particles of identical composition but that are slightly different in size can have distinctly different physical and chemical properties. Scientists exploring the size-properties connection are finding that familiar materials they think they understand can behave in unexpected ways.
  (April 21, 2008)
• When superconductivity became clear (to some)
  (New York Times)

  Superconductivity, the flow of electricity without resistance, was once as confounding to physicists as it is to everyone else. For almost 50 years, the heavyweights of physics brooded over the puzzle. Then, 50 years ago last month, the answer appeared in the journal Physical Review. It was titled, simply, “Theory of Superconductivity.”
  (January 8, 2008)

• Research challenges to ultra-efficient inorganic solid-state lighting
  (Laser and Photonics Review)

  Solid-state lighting is a rapidly evolving, emerging technology whose efficiency of conversion of electricity to visible white light is likely to approach 50% within the next several years. This efficiency is significantly higher than that of traditional lighting technologies, giving solid-state lighting the potential to enable significant reduction in the rate of world energy consumption. Further, there is no fundamental physical reason why efficiencies well beyond 50% could not be achieved, which could enable even more significant reduction in world energy usage. This article covers several approaches to inorganic solid-state lighting that could conceivably achieve ultra-high, 70% or greater, efficiency, and the significant research questions and challenges that would need to be addressed if one or more of these approaches were to be realized.
  [Laser & Photonics Review Volume 1, Issue 4 , Pages 307 - 333, Published Online: 15 Nov 2007]
  (December 13, 2007)

• Graphene's promise - On the path to overtaking silicon
  (Science News Online)

     
     Credit: Science News

  Physicists have long predicted that if it were possible to isolate single graphene sheets, they would be sturdier than diamond and would have almost preternatural abilities to manipulate electrons. That could make graphene a better material than silicon for making computer chips. Until recently, though, no one had been able to isolate graphene sheets, let alone do anything useful with them. Recently, a group was able to demonstrate peeling of graphene sheets from graphite using adhesive tape. This has invigorated research on this material.
  (October 1, 2007)

• Basic chemistry drives development of new low-cost solar cells
  (Chemical & Engineering News)

  Showering Earth with an energy flow of some 120,000 TW, the sun appears to be a limitless non-carbon-emitting energy fountain capable of meeting worldwide energy demands. The challenge is figuring out how to tap into it inexpensively. That challenge has been driving researchers to develop new materials and strategies for designing photovoltaic systems that convert sunlight into electricity. In addition to exploring new methods for reducing the cost of solar cells based on silicon, the traditional photovoltaic material, scientists have been experimenting with other semiconductors, inorganic nanocrystals, organic polymers, and a host of other light-sensitive materials.
  (August 28, 2007)

• A new dawn for nuclear power
  (Physics World)

  Despite its environmentally unfriendly image, nuclear power is firmly back on the world's energy agenda thanks to the need to cut carbon-dioxide emissions. Paul Norman, Andrew Worrall and Kevin Hesketh describe how the next generation of nuclear power stations will be cleaner and more efficient than ever.
  (August 23, 2007)

• Molecules that could be
  (Chemical & Engineering News)

  Calculations reveal stable but imaginary molecules that push the limits of what chemists know of chemical bonding.
  (August 13, 2007)

• The promise of plasmonics
  (SPIE Professional)

  One of the most interesting technologies emerging in photonics at its heart isn't an electromagnetic wave at all. Instead, the phenomenon of interest is an optically generated wave of free electrons that propagates along the interface between a metal and a dielectric. It is a surface plasmon, and it is the fundamental mechanism of a field known as plasmonics.
  (August 6, 2007)

• Sandpaper: Getting down to the nitty-gritty of the ubiquitous abrasive
  (Chemical & Engineering News)

  

  Many consumer products owe their flawless finish to sandpaper. Technically referred to as a coated abrasive, sandpaper is used during the manufacturing of everything from aluminum baseball bats to orthopedic implants. To design sandpaper, researchers must consider the chemical properties of the abrasive material and the adhesive, which is then attached to a backing made of paper, cloth, or polymeric materials.
  (July 24, 2007)

• Hybrid silicon evanescent devices
  (Materials Today)

  Alexander W. Fang, Hyundai Park, Ying-hao Kuo, Richard Jones, Oded Cohen, Di Liang, Omri Raday, Matthew N. Sysak, Mario J. Paniccia, and John E. Bowers

  Si photonics as an integration platform has recently been a focus of optoelectronics research because of the promise of low-cost manufacturing based on the ubiquitous electronics fabrication infrastructure. The key challenge for Si photonic systems is the realization of compact, electrically driven optical gain elements. The article reviews recent developments in hybrid Si evanescent devices. The authors have demonstrated electrically pumped lasers, amplifiers, and photodetectors that can provide a low-cost, scalable solution for hybrid integration on a Si platform by using a novel hybrid waveguide architecture, consisting of III-V quantum wells bonded to Si waveguides.
  (June 14, 2007)

• Making molecular machines work
  Wesley R. Browne and Ben L. Feringa
  Nature Nanotechnology, 1 , 25 - 35 (2006)

  In this review, the authors chart recent advances in what is at once an old and very new field of endeavour — the achievement of control of motion at the molecular level including solid-state and surface-mounted rotors, and its natural progression to the development of synthetic molecular machines. Besides a discussion of design principles used to control linear and rotary motion in such molecular systems, this review addresses the advances towards the construction of synthetic machines that can perform useful functions. Approaches taken by several research groups to construct wholly synthetic molecular machines and devices are compared. This will be illustrated with molecular rotors, elevators, valves, transporters, muscles and other motor functions used to develop smart materials. The demonstration of molecular machinery is highlighted through recent examples of systems capable of effecting macroscopic movement through concerted molecular motion. Several approaches to illustrate how molecular motor systems have been used to accomplish work are discussed.
  (May 21, 2007)

• Proton beam writing
  (Materials Today)

  Frank Watt*, Mark B. H. Breese, Andrew A. Bettiol, and Jeroen A. van Kan

  Proton beam (p-beam) writing is a new direct-writing process that uses a focused beam of MeV protons to pattern resist material at nanodimensions. The process, although similar in many ways to direct writing using electrons, nevertheless offers some interesting and unique advantages.
  (May 17, 2007)

• Solid-state nanopores
  (Nature Nanotechnology)
  Cees Dekker
  The passage of individual molecules through nanosized pores in membranes is central to many processes in biology. Previously, experiments have been restricted to naturally occurring nanopores, but advances in technology now allow artificial solid-state nanopores to be fabricated in insulating membranes. By monitoring ion currents and forces as molecules pass through a solid-state nanopore, it is possible to investigate a wide range of phenomena involving DNA, RNA and proteins. The solid-state nanopore proves to be a surprisingly versatile new single-molecule tool for biophysics and biotechnology.
  [Nature Nanotechnology 2, 209 - 215 (2007)]
  (April 25, 2007)
  
  
• The new field of nanopiezotronics
  (Materials Today)
  Z. L. Wang
  Semiconducting and piezoelectric nanowires and nanobelts have exciting applications in electronics, optoelectronics, sensors, and the biological sciences. A nanogenerator that uses aligned ZnO nanowires for converting nanoscale mechanical energy into electric energy is described. The mechanism of the nanogenerator relies on the unique coupling of ZnO’s piezoelectric and semiconducting properties. The approach has the potential to convert biological mechanical energy, acoustic/ultrasonic vibration energy, and biofluid hydraulic energy into electricity, demonstrating a new pathway for harvesting energy for self-powered wireless nanodevices and nanosystems. Based on the nanogenerator mechanism, piezoelectric field-effect transistors, diodes, force/pressure sensors, and resonators are also described. These devices form the fundamental components of nanopiezotronics, a new field in nanotechnology.
  (April 23, 2007)
  
  
• Solar energy conversion
  George W. Crabtree and Nathan S. Lewis
  Physics Today, March 2007
  If solar energy is to become a practical alternative to fossil fuels, we must have efficient ways to convert photons into electricity, fuel, and heat. The need for better conversion technologies is a driving force behind many recent developments in biology, materials, and especially nanoscience.
  (March 23, 2007)
  
  
• Organic single-crystal field-effect transistors
  (Materials Today)
  Colin Reese and Zhenan Bao
  Organic molecular crystals hold great promise for the rational development of organic semiconductor materials. Their long-range order provides a unique insight into the intrinsic transport properties of organic materials.
  [Materials Today, Volume 10, Issue 3 , March 2007, Pages 20-27]
  (February 28, 2007)
  
  
• Materials Scientists are the Unsung Heroes of Our Time
  (Materials Today)
  Steve Pearton
  We all deserve a raise!
  In this age of technological and scientific advances, materials scientists are the unsung heroes of our time.
  (February 28, 2007)
  
  
• Nano world off the radar for most
  (Eurekalert)
  Sunscreens contain nano particles, carbon and titania nanotubes show promise and nano structures are the rage in engineering schools. While the proliferation of nano research may signal a mini revolution, outside the realms of business and science, this insurgency may be no more than a whisper, according to an international team of researchers. When it comes to nanotechnology, researchers found that people in most segments of the economy are not paying much attention. Or, if they are aware of the field, the reactions and actions are overly enthusiastic, uninformed or alarmist.
  (January 24, 2007)
  
  
• Graphene: carbon in two dimensions
  (Materials Today)
  Mikhail Katsnelson
  The two-dimensional form of carbon (graphene) was only obtained very recently, immediately attracting a great deal of attention. Electrons in graphene, obeying a linear dispersion relation, behave like massless relativistic particles. This results in the observation of a number of very peculiar electronic properties – from an anomalous quantum Hall effect to the absence of localization – in this, the first two-dimensional material. It also provides a bridge between condensed matter physics and quantum electrodynamics, and opens new perspectives for carbon-based electronics.
  (December 20, 2006)
  
  
• Where Science and Law Meet
  (Nano Science and Technology Institute)
  Nanotechnology and Intellectual Property Issues — Special collaborative feature with National Cancer Institute
  (December 20, 2006)
  
  
• Blue-sky material holds allure
  (Materials Today)
  Mark Miodownik
  From curiosity to space-age material and architect’s dream, aerogels have taken a strangely haphazard journey.
  (October 26, 2006)
  
  
• Lessons from the Past
  (Materials Today)
  Sumitra Rajagopalan
  Colloidal chemistry, as envisioned by Wilhelm Ostwald, can show us how to link fragmented nanoscience courses into a cohesive whole.
  (October 26, 2006)
  
  
• Crystallography grabs chemistry Nobel
  (Nature)
  Roger Kornberg's 2006 chemistry Nobel prize is for his work in deciphering the molecular details of transcription — the process that controls the transfer of genetic information from DNA to RNA, which is then used to drive the protein-making parts of the cell. Kornberg, a professor of structural biology at Stanford University, California (where his father is an active emeritus professor), had his major breakthrough in 2001, when he solved the structure of RNA polymerase II — an enzyme that helps messenger RNA take information from DNA. By exposing crystals of the polymerase, extracted from yeast, to a brilliant beam of X-rays, he was able to painstakingly determine their structure.
  [Science 8 June 2001: Vol. 292. no. 5523, pp. 1863 - 1876]
  [New York Times Article]
  (October 5, 2006)
  
  
• Detecting chemical, biological, and explosive agents
  (SPIE)
  New optical and analytical technologies are being developed to detect dangerous materials from various distances and against background interferences.
  (October 4, 2006)
  
  
• Nobel Prize in Physiology/Medicine 2006 awarded for gene silencing by double-stranded RNA
  The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for 2006 jointly to Andrew Z. Fire and Craig C. Mello for their discovery of "RNA interference – gene silencing by double-stranded RNA".
  (October 2, 2006)
  
  
• Quick and easy enrichment of metallic carbon nanotubes
  (SPIE)
  A carbon nanotube (CNT) can exhibit either metal or semiconductor electronic behavior, depending on the molecule's chirality. It is essential to have an effective way to separate the two types in order to better realize the potential of CNTs. Enrichment of the metallic CNTs of up to 80% can now be achieved quickly and simply through the preferential oxidation of semiconducting nanotubes.
  (September 22, 2006)
  
  
• A chip that can transfer data using laser light
  (New York Times)
  Researchers have created a silicon-based chip that can produce laser beams. The advance will make it possible to use laser light rather than wires to send data between chips, removing the most significant bottleneck in computer design. The breakthrough was achieved by bonding a layer of light-emitting indium phosphide onto the surface of a standard silicon chip etched with special channels that act as light-wave guides.
  (September 18, 2006)
  
  
• Landmark Paper: Superconductivity Explained
  (Physical Review Focus)
  In 1957, the Physical Review published the first fundamental theory explaining how, at low temperatures, some materials can conduct electricity entirely without resistance. Building on experimental clues and earlier theoretical hints, John Bardeen, Leon Cooper, and Robert Schrieffer, all at the University of Illinois in Urbana, explained not just the absence of electrical resistance but also a variety of magnetic and thermal properties of superconductors. The "BCS" theory also had an important influence on theories of particle physics and provided the starting point for many attempts to explain the new high-temperature superconductors.
  [Theory of Superconductivity, J. Bardeen, L. N. Cooper, and J. R. Schrieffer, Phys. Rev. 108, 1175–1204 (1957)]
  (September 15, 2006)
  
  
• Choosing techniques for the optical characterization of thin films
  (SPIE)
  The optical properties of thin films are very important for many applications, including interference devices (such as antireflection coatings, laser mirrors, and monochromatic filters), as well as optoelectronics, integrated optics, solar power engineering, microelectronics, and optical sensor technology. Spectroscopic, ellipsometric, interferometric, photothermal, and combined methods that use dispersion and structural models, all allow optical properties to be determined.
  (September 14, 2006)
  
  
• Applying digital-holographic microscopy to living tumor cells
  (SPIE)
  Digital-holographic microscopy can measure the refractive index and thickness of human pancreatic tumor cells and can be used to analyze their morphology.
  (September 14, 2006)
  
  
• Quasicrystals step out of the shadows
  Matthew Peach
  Materials Today, Volume 9, Issues 7-8, July-August 2006, Pages 44-47
  Photonic quasicrystals, optical structures that are not strictly periodic but do show regular arrangements, are beginning to find applications beyond the laboratory. To understand them, one must first understand conventional photonic crystals.
  (July 6, 2006)
  
  
• Negative refractive index metamaterials
  Willie J. Padilla, Dimitri N. Basov and David R. Smith
  Materials Today, Volume 9, Issues 7-8 , July-August 2006, Pages 28-35
  Recently, metamaterials that display negative refractive index – a property not found in any known naturally occurring material – have drawn significant scientific interest, underscoring the remarkable potential of metamaterials to facilitate new developments in electromagnetism.
  (July 6, 2006)
  
  
• Bending Back Light: The Science of Negative Index Materials
  Costas M. Soukoulis, Optics and Photonics News
  After years of painstakingly developing and testing the necessary materials, scientists are now looking to translate negative refraction into positive applications such as sub-wavelength, high-resolution imaging across the electromagnetic spectrum.
  (Copyright the Optical Society of America 2006. www.osa.org. Remounting or redistribution of the PDF is strictly prohibited.)
  (June 19, 2006)
  
  
• Deformation of nanostructured materials
  
  
  Credit SPIE

  (SPIE)
  Frequently, mechanical properties are the performance-limiting factor in nanoscale materials. Until recently, the techniques used to produce samples resulted in a high number of induced artefacts and, hence, irregular mechanical properties. Thanks to progress in processing methods, nanograin samples of high purity and high density can now be made that, under experimental conditions, show reproducible characteristics. Such fully dense materials are excellent candidates for fundamental mechanical property studies as well as for high-performance applications.
  (June 16, 2006)
  
  

• Tapping quantum dots' inexplicable light-harvesting talent
  (Science News)
  For the past half century, the limit of one electron per solar photon in solar cells seemed a regrettable fact of semiconductor physics. However, in recent tests of semiconductor quantum dots, researchers have been surprised to find that photons at solar energies commonly unleash multiple electrons. The number set loose depends on the dot's composition and its size.
  (June 6, 2006)
  
  
• Conventional lightbulbs may soon be obsolete
  
  
  (Science News)
  electric illumination is poised to undergo a dramatic metamorphosis from a "bulb culture" to a society that sees by the "digital light" of semiconductors.
  (May 22, 2006)
  
  
• The Biological Frontier of Physics
  Rob Phillips and Stephen R. Quake
  Physics Today, May 2006
  Problems at the interface between biology and physics offer unique opportunities for physicists to make quantitative contributions to biology. Equally important, they enrich the discipline of physics by challenging its practitioners to think in new ways.
  (May 11, 2006)
  
  
• First neutrons produced by DOE's Spallation Neutron Source
  One of the largest and most anticipated U.S. science construction projects of the past several decades has passed its most significant performance test. The Department of Energy's Spallation Neutron Source, located at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, has generated its first neutrons.
  (May 2, 2006)
  
  
• Nano matters
  Carol Lynn Alpert
  Materials Today, May 2006
  Should we care whether the next generation believes that nano is a compact place to carry a tune as opposed to an atomic-scale frontier for shaping new materials, medicines, and computing devices?
  (Apr. 28, 2006)
  
  
• Nanoindentation studies of materials
  Christopher A. Schuh
  Materials Today, May 2006
  Nanoindentation has become a commonplace tool for the measurement of mechanical properties at small scales, but may have even greater importance as an experimental technique for studying fundamental materials physics.
  (Apr. 28, 2006)
  
  
• Mapping chemicals with nanoscale resolution
  (SPIE)
  Nanostructured compound materials are attracting increasing interest from scientists in fields as different as physics, materials science, chemistry, and biology. Many not-yet-understood phenomena could potentially have a remarkable impact on both our fundamental understanding of matter at the nanoscale and potential applications. Areas of research that would gain great momentum from nanostructuring compound materials include solid-state lasers, quantum computers, and biocompatible technologies.
  (Apr. 3, 2006)
  
  
• Terahertz's penetrating appeal
  (SPIE)
  Imaging at terahertz frequencies offers non-ionizing penetration and spectroscopic capabilities that make it appealing for homeland security, medical, and industrial inspection applications.
  (Mar. 30, 2006)
  
  
• Organic and polymer transistors for electronics
  Ananth Dodabalapur
  Materials Today, April 2006
  Some of the major application areas for organic and polymeric transistors are reviewed. Organic complementary devices are promising on account of their lower power dissipation and ease of circuit design. The first organic large-scale integrated circuits have been implemented with this circuit approach.
  (Mar. 29, 2006)
  
  
• Jet printing flexible displays
  R.A. Street, W.S. Wong, S.E. Ready, M.L. Chabinyc, A.C. Arias, S. Limb, A. Salleo and R. Lujan
  Materials Today, April 2006
  Jet printing is an interesting patterning technique for electronic devices because it requires no physical mask, has digital control of ejection, and provides good layer-to-layer registration. It also has the potential to reduce display manufacturing costs and enable roll-to-roll processing.
  (Mar. 29, 2006)
  
  
• Electrospun nanofibers: solving global issues
  Seeram Ramakrishna, Kazutoshi Fujihara, Wee-Eong Teo, Thomas Yong, Zuwei Ma and Ramakrishna Ramaseshan
  Materials Today, Volume 9, Issue 3 , March 2006, Pages 40-50.
  Nanofibers are able to form a highly porous mesh and their large surface-to-volume ratio improves performance for many applications. Electrospinning has the unique ability to produce nanofibers of different materials in various fibrous assemblies. The relatively high production rate and simplicity of the setup makes electrospinning highly attractive to both academia and industry.
  (Feb. 27, 2006)
  
  
• Opinion: Powerful sources bring opportunities
  John Wood
  Materials Today, Jan-Feb 2006, Vol. 9, No. 1-2, P. 56.
  There has never been a better time for the materials community to get involved and explore the possibilities of synchrotrons and neutron sources.
• The secret life of plant crystals
  (Chemical & Engineering News)
  
  
  Images of calcium oxalate crystals
  
  Little known beyond a cadre of botanists, chemists, forensic investigators, and others interested in the interface of biology and crystals, raphides are one of several crystal forms of calcium oxalate found in plants.
  (Posted Feb. 9, 2006)
  
  
• The Achille's Heel of a Wonderful Material: Toughened Glass
  
  
  In recent years, there have been a number of sensational reports about “glass cancer” and “spontaneous glass fracture”. These stories refer to incidents where toughened glass windows shatter without warning. These failures are due to the presence of nickel sulphide inclusions.
  (Jan. 24, 2006)
  
  
• X-ray microscopy in four dimensions
  D. Juul Jensen, E.M. Lauridsen, L. Margulies, H.F. Poulsen, S. Schmidt, H.O. Sørensen and G.B.M. Vaughan
  Materials Today, Volume 9, Issues 1-2, January-February 2006, Pages 18-25
  (Jan. 23, 2006)
  
  
• Sandia gets Yucca Mountain contract
  Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque has been selected to coordinate science work for the Yucca Mountain Project in Nevada, a proposed long-term storage facility for spent nuclear fuel and high-level nuclear waste.
  (Jan. 20, 2006)
  
  
• Aerogel critical component of NASA Stardust mission
  (NASA)
  NASA's Stardust sample return mission returned safely to Earth when the capsule carrying cometary and interstellar particles landed on Jan. 15. A Si-based aerogel was used to collect the cometary particles.
  (Jan. 17, 2006)
  
  
• Top Physics News in 2005
  (Physics News Update)
  From the American Institute of Physics.
  (Jan. 5, 2006)
  
  
• Chemistry Highlights 2005
  (Chemical & Engineering News)
  Key advances were made in 2005 in organic and inorganic chemistry, biochemistry, nanotechnology, and other areas.
  (Jan. 5, 2005)
  
  
• Ink-jet technology moves beyond paper
  Ink-jet technology is now a common printing technique. Ink-jet technology is now being extended to other applications, such as pharmaceuticals, electronics and renewable energy.
  Physics World, January 2006.
  (Jan. 4, 2006)
  
  
• Looking at surfaces with cluster ion beams
  The development of cluster ion beam SIMS can provide high quality molecular information and at the same time retain its unique surface sensitivity and imaging properties.
  Juan Cheng and Nicholas Winograd
  Materials Today, Vol. 9, No. 1-2, Jan-Feb 2006, 50.
  (Jan. 4, 2006)
  
  
• Spallation Neutron Source Amazing Science Facts
  The Spallation Neutron Source at Oak Ridge National Laboratory is on schedule for completion in 2006. The Department of Energy's new science facility will provide researchers with the world's most powerful and most advanced tool for analyzing a host of materials with neutrons.
  (12.23.2005)
  
  
• Engineering biomaterials to control cell function
  Wendy F. Liua and Christopher S. Chen
  Materials Today, Volume 8, Issue 12, December 2005, PP. 28-35
  (12.15.2005)
  
  
• Sound Ideas - Phononic Crystals
  Taras Gorishnyy, Martin Maldovan, Chaitanya Ullal and Edwin Thomas
  Physics World, December 2005
  (12.15.2005)
  
  
• Science Special: Materials and Biology
  Science, 18 November 2005 issue
  (11.22.2005)
  
  
• Ab initio simulations in extreme conditions
  François Gygi and Giulia Galli
  Materials Today, November 2005
  (11.2.2005)
  
  
• Synthesis of Superhard Materials
  Vladimir L. Solozhenko and Eugene Gregoryanz
  Materials Today, November 2005
  (11.2.2005)
  
  
• Reach of electron microscopes extended to finer atomic scales
  (PhysicsWeb)
  Commercially available lens correctors are extending the reach of electron microscopes to unprecedented atomic scales. This is revolutionizing the study of materials properties.
  (11.2.2005)
  
  
• Making Iron The Old-Fashioned Way Is A Tricky Business
  Experimental archaeology explores bloomery furnaces that were used to make iron and steel in Europe and the United States up until about 200 years ago. These furnaces also have a long history in many cultures, stretching back more than 2,000 years. (Science Daily)
  (10.17.2005)
  
  
• Self-Assembly in Materials Synthesis
  M.V. Tirrell and A. Katz, Guest Editors
  MRS Bulletin, Vol. 30, No. 10, October 2005, 700
  (10.10.2005)
  
  
• Nature Insight: Surfaces and Interfaces
  Free Access to Five Review Articles and Commentary
  
  
• Membranes For Gas Separation
  Chemical & Engineering News, Volume 83, Number 40, pp. 49-57
  
  
• Inorganic Menagerie
  Unusual properties of nanotubes made from inorganic materials offer intriguing possibilities for applications
  Bethany Halford, Chemical & Engineering News, Volume 83, Number 35, pp. 30-33
  
  
• Filling up with Hydrogen
  Mitch Jacoby, Chemical & Engineering News, Volume 83, Number 34, pp. 42-47
  
  
• Fuel Cells: The Next Evolution
  R.W. Lashway
  MRS Bulletin, Vol. 30, No. 8, 581