Cognition

Entrepreneurial Egos

2012-01-11T21:05:00.001+03:30

In a recent review of 23 studies, entrepreneurs scored significantly higher than others on conscientiousness (self-discipline and motivation) and openness to experience, and significantly lower than others on agreeableness (concern for social harmony) and neuroticism.
Milnes A, Business at Oxford Magazine:
http://www.sbs.ox.ac.uk/newsandevents/Pages/bao.aspx

VantagePoint Capital Partners to help build influential companies

2012-01-11T21:00:00.001+03:30

VantagePoint has been funding transformative companies and provide cutting-edge technology with the resources—whatever ittakes—to commercialize big opportunities.
The magazine of Oxford's Said Business School
Once VantagePoint understands problems ... in detail, it can look for start-ups that might help to solve the problem, and make connections between multinationals and the technology entrepreneurs that can help them.

read more:
http://www.sbs.ox.ac.uk/Documents/bao/BusinessatOxford_19_Autumn2011.pdf

.....And since it takes time tochange the world, we stick with our companies and support them fromstart-up through scale-up.
http://www.vpcp.com/about_us

Opportunity Costs

2012-01-05T14:48:00.002+03:30

...There are really only two things that you have to know about economics.As with, say, the two things about boxing: hit, don't get hit. Ineconomics these are 1) incentives matter and 2) opportunity costs. Thefirst of these we all intuitively grasp, the second sadly vast swathesof the country do not. And the wish is that we get the education systemsufficiently sorted out so that every child does indeed understand thisvital idea.

Tim Worstall, http://www.adamsmith.org/blog

Startups at MaRS.

2012-01-04T18:34:00.001+03:30

Faced with unprecedented demand forspace from web and mobile startups, the Information technology,Communications and Entertainment (ICE) practice at MaRS announces a newhome for the most promising emerging companies, the MaRS Commons.The MaRS Commons provides both a physical space and a community thatsupports entrepreneurs in growing successful global businesses.

“The power of place to anchor a community and accelerate innovationis at the heart of MaRS,” said Ilse Treurnicht, CEO, MaRS DiscoveryDistrict. “The MaRS Commons, which complements our existing incubator,is designed as a focal point for Toronto’s burgeoning web and mobiletechnology ecosystem, combining a great space with community,education, networking and mentorship.”

“The ongoing education and mentorship of young entrepreneurs is anessential ingredient to unleash Canada’s innovation potential. We aredelighted to partner with MaRS on the creation of the Commons, a spaceand community that will be a wonderful launch pad for ourentrepreneurial students and alumni.”
David Naylor, President, University of Toronto

http://www.marsdd.com/news-insights/newsreleases/we%E2%80%99ve-moved-startups-have-a-new-home-at-mars/

Oxford's seven millionth book moved

2012-01-04T16:59:00.001+03:30

The Bodleian Libraries’ Swindon Book Storage Facility has taken delivery of its seven millionth book - just over a year after opening its doors.

Bodley’s Librarian Sarah Thomas said: "This has been an important year in the history of the Bodleian, and ithas been an extraordinary success. We have tagged and moved all ourbooks, relocated our staff, prepared the New Bodleian building for itsredevelopment, opened new facilities for readers in the heart of Oxfordand refreshed and developed our IT capabilities."

On 16 Sept 2010, the Bodleian Library has hosted the official launch ofOxford’s bid to become UNESCO World Book Capital in 2014. The bid was announced at a reception in the 400-year-oldConvocation House of the Library, and was attended by localauthors including Philip Pullman and Colin Dexter, heads of localgovernment, publishers and book readers of all ages.

The bid is beingco-ordinated by Oxford Inspires – the Cultural Development Agency forOxfordshire – on behalf of a steering committee made up of thefollowing partners: The Bodleian Libraries, The Story Museum, Oxfam,University of Oxford, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford UniversityPress, Oxford City Council, Oxfordshire County Council, Oxford LiteraryFestival and Blackwell’s. The year-long programme would run from April2014 to April 2015 and would include the openings of new parts of theBodleian Libraries and the completion of The Story Museum.

SarahThomas, Bodley’s Librarian, said: ‘The Bodleian Libraries and theUniversity of Oxford are committed and eager to contribute to Oxford’scampaign to become UNESCO World Book Capital in 2014. The excitingtransformation of the New Bodleian Library into the Weston Library willbe one of the landmark events within its scope. Nevertheless, werepresent just one facet of the sparkling jewel that is Oxford in theworld of books and reading.’

Sarah Thomas was appointed Bodley’s Librarian in February 2007. She isthe first woman and non-British citizen to hold the position in 400years. From 1996-2007 she was Cornell’s University Librarian.Previously she has worked at the Library of Congress, the NationalAgricultural Library, the Research Libraries Group, and Harvard’sWidener Library.

http://www.ox.ac.uk/media/news_stories/2012/100104.html
http://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/about/librarian/thomas

Credit institutions rely on friendship Banking

2012-01-04T16:09:00.000+03:30

In the coming months about 2 out of 5 banks plan to launch new socialmedia projects on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter or YouTube. 69 percent of them are already working on supply of short-term fundings. From 2013, another 35 percent of the banks want to engage. Then 53 percent of the cooperative banks are going to start. Thisis the research result of the "Sector Compass Credit Institutions" study bySteria Mummert Consulting in cooperation with the FAZ-Institut.
Background informationForthe above study, 100decision-makers were surveyed in July 2011 from 100 banks in Germany, the institutes with total assets among the largest in the country. The decision makers were interviewed about the industry trends and the strategies and investment goals by 2014. The CEOs, board members, managing directors, heads ofcorporate development, the director of finance and controlling, salesand marketing director were interviewed. The interviews were conducted with the method of computer assisted telephone interview (CATI).
Two-thirds of the banks also plan to use social media for recruitment and HR applications. Althoughthe communication is especially useful as referrals (76 percent), andcommunicating about new products (63 percent), butstill sell nearly half of the Web 2.0.

While social media currently play first in the information search, but for banking play a subordinate role. Only seven percent of Germans now find bank products on Facebook and Twitter. But among younger customers between 18 and 24 years are almost twice as many, social media is a common information channel.

source: http://www.business-on.de/nds-ost/social-bank-kommunikation-facebook-steria-mummert-consulting-_id4322.html

Give to Oxford tax efficiently

2012-01-01T16:53:00.001+03:30

North American Donors: Click here to donate tax efficiently through Americans for Oxford.

https://secure.www.alumniconnections.com/olc/pub/UXF/onlinegiving/showGivingForm.jsp?form_id=1010

....3 areas of priority as SBS moves to the future, Alumni Relations, Scholarships and a Facilities and Development Fund which will support the construction of the new building.

Why should Alumni donate to Oxford's Business School?
Your donation gives you a voice in the future of the School. Everyone who participates in this program will also be invited to participate in elections for the new Founding Sub Committee, which will ultimately elect representatives to the Committee.

More than that, it's about collective philanthropy and alumni coming together with small regular donations which support the institutions areas of priority. All gifts, no matter what size, are essential for our shared future.

http://www.sbs.ox.ac.uk/corporate/supporttheschool/Pages/AlumniFund.aspx

Canadian Financing Forum 2012

2011-12-28T00:06:00.003+03:30

FEBRUARY 2 & 3, 2012 | FAIRMONT PACIFIC RIM |VANCOUVER, BC

Join Us For Canada'sPremier Access-to-Capital Program

The Canadian Financing Forumfacilitates relationship building between entrepreneurs and leadingventure capital and corporate investors, paving the way for companyfinancings that ultimately sustain economic growth through newbusiness creation and development.

http://www.financingforum.com/

The Oxford Invention

2011-08-09T16:42:00.000+04:30

Magnetic Navigation A method of localising mobile devices and smartphones, without the need for additional hardware.http://www.isis-innovation.com/licensing/7949.html

Hydrogen Sulphide Sensor - A practical, viable, reusable hydrogen sulphide sensor.

RNA interference (RNAi) Technology Mirtrons — A new approach to targeting the RNAi pathway, offering longer term silencing and reduced toxic side effects.

Intelligent Tissue

Intelligent Tissue Expander to Revolutionise Surgery

Oxtexs Limited, the latest spinout from Isis Innovation Ltd, the technology transfer office of the University of Oxford, has secured £365,000 of seed funding to develop an intelligent hydrogel material for tissue expansion. For the first time, surgeons will be able to accurately and predictably control the direction, the timing, and rate of the material’s expansion in the body. This will significantly reduce the risk of soft tissue damage and associated complications. The level of control makes them ideal for use in delicate anatomical locations, particularly in the treatment of children.

The innovative hydrogel is the result of a unique collaboration between two materials scientists (Jan Czernuszka, Lecturer in Materials at the University of Oxford, and David Bucknall, currently Professor of Materials Science at the Georgia Institute of Technology, USA) and two plastic and reconstructive surgeons (Marc C. Swan and Tim Goodacre based at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford).

The market for the product – which can be shaped by the surgeon prior to implantation – is broad. It includes scar reconstruction following trauma, burns or cancer surgery. It also includes the treatment of congenital craniofacial conditions and limb deformities. However, the largest market may prove to be in restorative dentistry. Trials in this area are scheduled to begin at the Harvard School of Dental Medicine in the United States.

Tom Hockaday, Managing Director of Isis Innovation, says, “We are delighted to have assisted in building a business from this technology, which has the potential to transform lives. Introducing investors to projects like this is a crucial part of our work enabling society to benefit from University research.”

To read the full article, please click here.http://www.isis-innovation.com/news/news/IntelligentTissueExpanderstoRevolutioniseSurgery.html

Prof John Freely

2011-07-31T18:30:00.001+04:30

please vote for science Oxford

2010-06-03T15:37:00.004+04:30

Great news: our post about Oxford & the Royal Society's origins has been nominated for the 3quarksdaily science blogging awards.

These annual awards celebrate the very best in blogging and this is the second year that 3quarksdaily have given a prize for science posts. We're in excellent company with posts from such great blogs as The Loom, Bad Astronomy, and Not Exactly Rocket Science.

Our post delved into the fertile chaos of 1650s Oxford and how an eclectic mix of figures from the University would go on to play a key role in the founding of the Royal Society (which celebrates its 350th birthday this year) and set Britain on the path to becoming a scientific superpower.

But of course, to stand any chance of winning, we need your votes! So if you'd like us to win go to the 3quarksdaily voting page, look for 'University of Oxford Science Blog', and vote for us!

http://www.ox.ac.uk/media/science_blog/

http://www.3quarksdaily.com/3quarksdaily/3-quarks-daily-2010-science-prize-vote-here.html

To the worth of all seas

2009-12-22T07:22:00.001+03:30

My precious Oxford
To the worth of all seas

THz technique

2009-12-20T05:43:00.004+03:30

THz frequencies are employed for interrogation at nanoscale, for their key energy and timescales, since electrons dynamics in nanostructures fall in THz frequency region. Photonics are key players for development of THz devices such as quantum cascade laser QCL or THz single photon detector.

Oxford Terahertz Photonics group
http://www-thz.physics.ox.ac.uk/spectrometer/References.html
- Cutting-edge terahertz technology, M Tonouchi, Nat. Photon., 1:97-105 (2007)
- Terahertz pulse imaging in reflection geometry of human skin cancer and skin tissue, RM Woodward, BE Cole, VP Wallace, RJ Pye, DD Arnone, EH Linfield, M Pepper Phys. Med. Biol., 47:3853 (2002)
- Thz-wave spectroscopy applied to the detection of illicit drugs in mail, A Dobroiu, Y Sasaki, T Shibuya, C Otani, K Kawase Proc. IEEE, 95:1566 (2007)

Oxford University is also home to two Interdisciplinary Research Collaboration (IRC) centres - Quantum Information Processing (QIP) and Bio-nanotechnology. QIP is a cross-disciplinary team working with industry to harness the latest developments in this field so as to manipulate, store and communicate information. The Bio-nanotechnology IRC investigates naturally occurring biomolecular nanosystems and applies this knowledge to produce artificial electronic and optical devices.
Begbroke Science Park: http://www.begbroke.ox.ac.uk/research/nanotechnology.php

THz Technique

Time domain THz technique can probe the properties of charge carriers, contacts, defects, scattering events and other phenomena in carbon nanotubes and related nanoscale materials and devices, with sub-picosecond resolution.

This schematic diagram shows some of the phenomena that can be explored: (clockwise from top left) electron–electron scattering; electron–phonon scattering; the role of structural defects; and the relative importance of single-electron and plasmon excitation. A carbon nanotube FET is also shown.

Bradley F. Habenicht & Oleg V. Prezhdo, Nanotube devices: Watching electrons in real time, Nature Nanotechnology 3, 190 - 191 (2008) Published online: 23 March 2008

Seasons Greeting

2009-12-17T07:08:00.002+03:30

http://www.sbs.ox.ac.uk/seasonsgreetings/default.htm

Oxford's BegBroke Science Park

2009-12-08T06:30:00.003+03:30

Begbroke Science Park Clean Room - Oxford

Hydrodynamic Voltammetry

The transport-limited current at microchannel electrodes may be quantitatively predicted by using the hopscotch algorithm to solve the mass-transport equation descibing the transport of electroactive material by convection and diffusion in a direction both axial and normal to the electrode surface. In particular, axial diffusion effects are found to be substantial for electrodes of micrometer dimensions in length, and the result of such effects is to propagate concentration depletion effects dramatically upstream of the electrode. The theoretical predictions were found to be in quantitative agreement with experiment.

Peter Dobson, Hydrodynamic Voltammetry with Microelectrodes. Channel Microband Electrodes: Theory and Experiment, J. Phys. Chem. 1993,97, 10410-10415

Si NanoWire Biosensor

2009-11-30T04:43:00.005+03:30

Silicon nanowire SiNW FETs could be used to detect binding and unbinding of proteins to their corresponding ligands linked to nanowire surfaces in aqueous solutions. Proteins and nucleic acids also have been detected by using carbon nanotubes and SiNW FETs, respectively.

fig 1 - Detection of ATP binding. (A) Conductance (G) vs. ATP concentration for SiNWs modified with Abl (red curve) and a device prepared in an identical fashion, except Abl was not coupled to the surface (black curve). Regions 1, 2, and 3 correspond to 0.1, 3, and 20 nM ATP, respectively. Arrows indicate the points where solution is changed. (Inset) Scanning electron micrograph of a typical SiNW FET device. The nanowire is highlighted by a white arrow and is contacted on either end with Ti/Au metal electrodes. (Scale bar: 500 nm.) (B) Change in conductance (ΔG) vs. ATP concentration for Abl-modified SiNW (red) and SiNW without Abl (black).

ATP Sensing. Typical time-dependent data recorded from an Abl-modified SiNW device (Fig. 1) exhibited reversible, concentration-dependent increases in conductance upon introducing buffer solutions containing ATP. The reversibility of these concentration-dependent increases was evident from the corresponding decreases in conductance to baseline value upon introducing buffer solution without ATP. The observed increases in conductance are consistent with the binding of negatively charged ATP to Abl. Specifically, a p-type SiNW FET will exhibit an increase (decrease) in conductance when the gate-voltage is negative (positive) because of the accumulation (depletion) of carriers. Binding of negatively charged ATP to the Abl kinase increases the negative surface-charge density and increases conductance similar to a negative gate voltage.

Wang U W et al, Label-free detection of small-molecule–protein interactions by using nanowire nanosensors, PNAS March 1, 2005 vol. 102 no. 9 3208-3212

Fig 2-Nanowire with excitation at the bottom end and top end (no plasmon excitement)

Nanowire Nanosensors for Highly Sensitive and Selective Detection of Biological and Chemical Species

fig 3- NW nanosensor for pH detection. (A) Schematic illustrating the conversion of a NW FET (field effect transistor) into NW nanosensors for pH sensing. The NW is contacted with two electrodes, a source (S) and drain (D), for measuring conductance. Zoom of the APTES-modified SiNW surface illustrating changes in the surface charge state with pH. (B) Real-time detection of the conductance for an APTES-modified SiNW for pHs from 2 to 9; the pH values are indicated on the conductance plot. (inset, top) Plot of the time-dependent conductance of a SiNW FET as a function of the back-gate voltage. (inset, bottom) Field-emission scanning electron microscopy image of a typical SiNW device. (C) Plot of the conductance versus pH; the red points (error bars equal ± 1 SD) are experimental data, and the dashed green line is linear fit through this data. (D) The conductance of unmodified SiNW (red) versus pH. The dashed green curve is a plot of the surface charge density for silica as a function of pH.

networks of protein interactions

2009-11-30T04:30:00.002+03:30

Systems Biology and New Technologies Enable Predictive and Preventative Medicine

A network perturbation model of galactose utilization in yeast. This model reflects the integration of mRNA levels for the 6000 yeast genes in each of 20 different genetic and environmental perturbations, as well as thousands of protein/protein and protein/DNA interactions from the literature. The software program Cytoscape (54) integrated these data into a network where the nodes represent proteins (encoded by genes) and the lines represent interactions (blue straight lines, protein/protein interactions; yellow lines with arrows, protein/DNA interactions). A gray scale represents the levels of mRNA, with black being abundant levels and white very low levels. The red node indicates that this network model reflects the knockout of the corresponding gene (and protein) gal 4—a key transcription factor. rProtein, ribosomal protein; nt, nucleotide; synth, synthesis.

Hood et al, Science 22 October 2004: Vol. 306. no. 5696, pp. 640 - 643

Oxford's Begbroke science park

2009-11-29T20:59:00.003+03:30

"We must improve at translating good ideas into commercial success."
(Sir Digby-Jones, Director-General of the CBI)

When the size of the structure is decreased, surface to volume ratio increases considerably and the surface phenomena predominate over the chemistry and physics in the bulk (Sammy)

Innovation is key to meeting many of today’s development challenges, and the primary force for innovation is fundamental research. Without it, there would be no science to apply. Faraday's experiments on electricity, for example, were driven by curiosity but eventually brought us electric light. No amount of R&D on the candle could ever have done that. Electric light came from innovation driven by fundamental science.

Faith of Silica nanoparticles in wastewater treatment

2009-11-14T22:21:00.005+03:30

Fate of Silica Nanoparticles in Simulated Primary Wastewater Treatment

Peter Dobson et al, Environ. Sci. Technol., 2009, 43 (22) pp 8622-8628

Through novel application of small-angle neutron scattering, we examined the fate of silica nanoparticles (SiO2NPs) during simulated primary wastewater treatment, by measuring, in real time, the colloidal behavior of SiO2NPs in wastewater (sewage). We examined the effects of surface functionality on SiO2NP fate in wastewater, by comparing both unfunctionalized (uncoated or “bare”) SiO2NPs and SiO2NPs functionalized with a thin coating of a nonionic surfactant (Tween 20), which is widely used in personal care and household product formulations containing engineered oxide nanoparticles. Our results show new evidence that the surface functionality of SiO2NPs plays a crucial role in their flocculation and sedimentation behavior in wastewater, and thus the likely efficacy of their removal from the effluent stream during primary wastewater treatment. Uncoated SiO2NPs did not flocculate in wastewater over typical residence times for primary treatment. Conversely, surface-functionalized (Tween-coated) SiO2NPs underwent rapid flocculation in wastewater. Our results show that the surface-functionalized SiO2NPs are likely to be removed by sedimentation to sewage sludge (typically recycled to land), whereas uncoated SiO2NPs will continue through the effluent stream. While nanoparticle design is driven by use purpose, this study shows new potential for exploiting surface functionalization of nanoparticles to modify their environmental pathways.

http://www.isis.stfc.ac.uk/science/earth-science-and-environment/managing-nanoparticle-waste-in-sewage9094.html
http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/es901399q
http://www.nerc.ac.uk/research/programmes/nanoscience/

How do model hydrophobic polymers respond to interfaces having a range of chemistries from hydrophobic to hydrophilic?
To what surfaces do such polymers “stick”, and what is the magnitude of the binding free energy?
What conformational changes occur upon adsorption onto different surfaces?
How different are the dynamics at the interface, and to what extent are they influenced by the interfacial chemistry?

Water-mediated interactions drive the polymer to adsorb strongly at a hydrophobic interface and repel it from hydrophilic ones. At hydrophilic surfaces, van der Waals interactions between the polymer and the surface mitigate this water-mediated repulsion, leading to weak adsorption of the polymer. Although the polymer is strongly adsorbed to hydrophobic surfaces, it is also most dynamic there. Translational diffusion and conformational dynamics are faster at hydrophobic surfaces compared to those at hydrophilic ones.

Unwanted adsorption is a significant problem in a range of applications from separation processes (e.g.,membrane fouling6) tomarine coatings (7-10) to implants.(1,2) Alternatively, one may be interested in controlling and engineering binding in a specific manner leading to an alignment of molecules or pattern formation with applications in sensing and detection.(3-6)

The thermodynamics of adsorption are then governed by the interplay of intermolecular interactions between them. In aqueous systems, the structural organization of water molecules near a given surface and a solute induces water-mediated interactions between them.17 These water-induced interactions contribute in
addition to the direct surface-solute interactions and can be attractive (e.g., hydrophobic) or repulsive depending on the chemistry and the nature of the surface and the solute. In situations where the solute molecule is conformationally flexible,
additional important questions arise regarding preferred conformations in the adsorbed state and the dynamics of conformational transitions at the interface.

How Surface Wettability Affects the Binding, Folding, and Dynamics of
Hydrophobic Polymers at Interfaces, Langmuir article, Received April 3, 2009. Revised Manuscript Received April 27, 2009
pubs.acs.org/Langmuir
(1) Pavithra, D.; Doble, M. Biomed. Mater. 2008, 3.
(2) Wisniewski, N.; Reichert, M. Colloids Surf., B 2000, 18, 197–219.
(3) Hayden, O.; Lieberzeit, P. A.; Blaas, D.; Dickert, F. L. Adv. Funct. Mater.
2006, 16, 1269–1278.
(4) Choi, I.; Kang, S. K.; Lee, J.; Kim, Y.; Yi, J. Biomaterials 2006, 27, 4655–
4660.
(5) Mrksich, M.; Dike, L. E.; Tien, J.; Ingber, D. E.; Whitesides, G. M. Exp.
Cell Res. 1997, 235, 305–313.
(6) Shi, H. Q.; Tsai, W. B.; Garrison, M. D.; Ferrari, S.; Ratner, B. D. Nature
1999, 398, 593–597.
(7) Dobretsov, S.; Dahms, H. U.; Qian, P. Y. Biofouling 2006, 22, 43–54.
(8) Genzer, J.; Efimenko, K. Biofouling 2006, 22, 339–360.
(9) Yebra, D. M.; Kiil, S.; Dam-Johansen, K. Prog. Org. Coat. 2004, 50, 75–104.
(10) Schmidt, D. L.; Brady, R. F.; Lam, K.; Schmidt, D. C.; Chaudhury, M. K.
Langmuir 2004, 20, 2830–2836.

Static ion mass spectrometry of adsorbed protein, Anal. Chem. 1003, 65, 1431-1430

Static secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) was used to analyze proteins adsorbed to biomaterial surfaces. A spectral interpretation protocol was established by examining homopolymers of 16 amino acids. This protocol allows for the assignment of peaks unique to the various amino acids. Static SIMS was used to analyze plasma proteins adsorbed to titanium. The various factors that contributed to the relative intensities observed in the spectra were explored.

Proteins are composed of 20 amino acids. The molar 5% C, 0, and N in most proteins is remarkably constant. Proteins, except for a few specific structural proteins, have
similar amino acid contents. In a study comparing the frequency of occurrence of each amino acid residue in the primary structure of 207 unrelated proteins, the number of times an amino acid is observed in a randomly chosen portion of the molecule is related only to its frequency; that is, proteins do not exhibit characteristic sequences at the local leve1. However, a concern for specific higher order distributions (apolar, polar, charged, etc.) is expressed, because such
distributions lead to specific chain folding and protein c~nformation.I~t ~i s manifestations of this higher order distribution, related to protein orientation and conformation at surfaces, that is of interest in the biological reaction of proteins at interfaces. This study provides some of the groundwork needed to explore amino acid distributions within the outermost 20 A of a protein layer.

33) Paynter, R. W.; Ratner, B. D. In Surface and Interfacial Aspects
of Biomedical Polymers; Andrade, J. D., Ed.; Plenum: New York, 1985;
(34) Klapper, M. H. Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 1977,78,1018 -1024

New Normal

2009-11-13T01:42:00.000+03:30

"The UK as a whole has four of the world's top six universities, and they typically spin out around 200 companies a year. Whilst London is best defined as a global talent hub, it can also be described as the world's largest science park, with financial and legal advice close at hand."

(Baroness Valentine, in the occasion of the Nanotechnology Knowledge Transfer Network (NanoKTN) and UK Trade & Investment (UKTI) in the London Hilton Park Lane, Nov 2009)

The gloomy time will pass, and good times will come back. This much is certain, when we finally enter the post crisis period, the business and economic context will not have returned to pre crisis context. The New Normal business scene will have changed. The result will be an environment that while different from the past, is no less rich in possibilities for those who are intelligently prepared. (Ian Davis)

Invent the future

2009-10-13T02:42:00.000+03:30

The best way to predict the future is to invent it.

Alan Kay (1940– ), American computer scientist

cited in www.askoxford.com

Four generations of nanotechnology products: Roco

2009-10-04T15:48:00.001+03:30

Four generations of nanotechnology products and their respective manufacturing methods and research foci are identified: Passive nanostructures; active nanostructures; three-dimensional (3-D) nanosystems and systems of nanosystems; and heterogeneous molecular nanosystems. Designing new atomic and molecular assemblies is expected to increase in
importance, including macromolecules “by design” nanoscale machines, and directed multiscale selfassembling. Although expectations from nanotechnology may be overestimated in short-term, the long-term implications on healthcare, productivity
and environment appear to be underestimated.

http://www.nsf.gov/crssprgm/nano/reports/mcr_04-0101_visionnt@aiche_final.pdf

Nanotechnology Standards

2009-10-04T15:02:00.000+03:30

Nanotechnology Standards

Knowledge Transfer Partnership KTP

2009-10-04T14:45:00.004+03:30

Oxford University's Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) office initiates and supports the University's KT partnerships between academics, companies and high-calibre graduates seeking to make an impact in the business environment. It enables companies to access the University's research expertise and facilities, academics to apply their knowledge to developing solutions to real-world problems and graduates to develop their business skills in tandem with involvement in hi-tech research at the University.

Knowledge Transfer Partnerships are part-funded by the Government, which reimburses a proportion of the University's costs. The company pays the rest - typically, for an SME, one third of the cost of the project plus its own business overheads.

For more details of the KTP scheme visit contact us at ktp@begbroke.ox.ac.uk, download our handout summarising the benefits of KTPs to each of the partners, or visit the schemes national websites at www.dti.gov.uk/ktp | www.ktponline.co.uk/

SAFENANO INITIATIVES:

Our most notable development being launch of a new 'Projects mini-section' of the
SAFENANO site, which details all of our past and ongoing projects, and provides access to many of the full reports which were produced as aresult of these. We'd appreciate your feedback on the information included in this section, so follow this link to have a look , and let us know your thoughts via our contact us link!

Elsewhere the fields of regulation, guidance and standards have seen a number of new developments emerge in the last week. This has been particularly true within the US, where the ASTM announced revision of its nanotechnology standard E2490 'Guide for Measurement of Particle Size Distribution of Nanomaterials in Suspension by Photon Correlation Spectroscopy' following conduction of a large-scale inter-laboratory
study, and the EPA also released a draft for consideration of 'Nanomaterial Case Studies: Titanium Dioxide'. This document aims to take a comprehensive environmental assessment (CEA) approach to evaluating NPs in products, which combines a product life-cycle framework with the risk assessment paradigm (the applications included
in the case study being sunscreen and water treatment). Overall, it provides both a source of information for interested parties, and an insight into the current thinking being employed by EPA toward consideration of the EHS issues surrounding regulatable products. On a more global scale, the Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies this week also announced the conference date and agenda for the project 'Regulating Nanotechnologies in the EU and US', which will include the
launch of its major report on "Transatlantic Regulatory Cooperation: Securing the Promise of Nanotechnologies". Finally the IEST has announced issue of new guidance for the design of AMC filtration systems.

Public engagement and interation was also in the headlines this week, with the launch of a pilot site for the new UK-based Nano&Me initiative, announcement from the CNSE that it has appointed a new co-ordinator for its NanoHealth Initiative, news from the InForm project announcing its plans to provide a boost for formulation science in nanotechnology.

Standards & Regulations

ASTM revises nanotechnology standard E2490
http://www.safenano.org/SingleNews.aspx?NewsID=782

ASTM International has announced a revision to its nanotechnology standard E2490.

IEST issues guideline for the design of AMC filtration systems http://www.safenano.org/SingleNews.aspx?NewsID=786

The Institute of Environmental Sciences and Technology (IEST) has provided guidance for the design of filtration systems to eliminate trace amounts of airborne molecular contamination (AMC).

Government & Policy

Nanomaterial Case Studies: Nanoscale Titanium Dioxide
http://www.safenano.org/SingleNews.aspx?NewsID=788

EPA releases draft document 'Nanomaterial Case Studies: Nanoscale Titanium Dioxide in Water Treatment and Topical Sunscreen'

Nanotoxicology & Ecotoxicology

Nanoparticles Affect Brain Development In Mice
http://www.safenano.org/SingleNews.aspx?NewsID=783

Japansese researchers report that maternal exposure to nanoparticles of titanium dioxide (TiO2) affects the expression of genes related to the central nervous system in developing mice

InForm project provides boost to formulation science for nanotechnologies
http://www.safenano.org/SingleNews.aspx?NewsID=785

A new 1.7 million euro EU funded project involving 17 world-leading research institutions will encourage the transfer of ideas and knowledge in formulation science for nano.

Call For Papers: Nanotechnology Exposure Assessment
http://www.safenano.org/SingleNews.aspx?NewsID=787

The International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health is seeking submissions for a special issue exploring Human and Environmental Exposure Assessment for Nanomaterials.

Searching for engineered nanomaterials in the environment
http://www.safenano.org/SingleNews.aspx?NewsID=791

An article published in ES&T discusses the shift in environmental research related to nanomaterials away from the lab towards looking for real nanomaterials in the environment.

Identifying critical research needs for the eco-responsible development of nanotechnology http://www.safenano.org/SingleNews.aspx?NewsID=792

An article published in ACS Nano summarises the outcomes of the recent ICON - sponsored environmental workshop & identifies the critical research needs for eco-responsible nanotechnology development.

Nano database

2009-10-04T14:40:00.002+03:30

http://community.safenano.org/blogs/rob_aitken/archive/2009/05/20/326.aspx#328
Rob Aitken:Stress testing
OECD database is a very impressive and ambitious attempt to gather together information about all of the relevant nano EHS studies which have been carried out or are currently underway. Having just gone live, it is perhaps inappropriate at this time to expect too much from this database, even though it was constructed largely from the previous database from Woodrow Wilson. Having previously worked with that database as part of our EMERGNANO project, I know well the issues which have to be addressed in order to clean the data such that it may be usefully used in analysis or future studies. In addition the need to continually add to the data, and keep it up to date is also paramount. In our EMERGNANO study we took great care to dig below the entry level data available in the database in order to identify those projects which were really relevant and were making real contributions towards resolving the questions relevant to the safety of nanomaterials. My hope had been that OECD would be similarly judicious in their data cleaning activities.

I have to say that my first attempt to derive useful information from this database has not filled me with a great level of confidence. The reason I was using the database was to prepare a talk for EuroNanoforum 2009 which will be held in Prague in June of this year. I am giving a key note speech there in the EHS session and in which I intend to lay out the European landscape. I looked at the OECD database as an information source by which to find all of the projects funded under the framework (FP7) programme. From other activities within that programme (more later) I know of approximately 15 projects with a total funding of something close to 50 million Euros which are under way or about to start. I had had understood that these projects had been added to the OEACD database.

Well it may be that they are, but they are not very easy to find! A search of funding source reveals some interesting reading. First search term “EC”, one project found ENREHS (one of IOM’s). That’s good but the “country” is identified as EC although the project is lead from the UK. Hmmmm. Second term “European”, one project found, which was in fact a regional government funded French project not an EC project. Third attempt “EU”, thirteen projects found. Ah, excellent! Closer examination however shows that only five of the relevant FP7 projects were in that search including one which came up twice. The remainder of the thirteen comprised various other national or barely relevant projects.

Next term “FP7” no projects found. Help, where are the rest of the projects? Eventually after much digging I found 10 of the 15 projects, there may be more!

Undeterred I pressed on, which of my projects are in here? No rather than that, I thought I would search for Lang Tran’s projects. I found three. That might surprise those of you had been under the impression that Lang was one of the most active and widely known researchers working in this area in Europe! It is interesting. The three which were found were “Nanoparticles an occupational hygiene review” in which I was the principal investigator. Project status described as “project is underway” (the project finished in 2004) The second one “A scoping study to indentify hazard data needs for addressing the risks presented by nanoparticles and nanotubes”, principal investigator Lang Tran, status project is underway (the project finished in 2006) The third one a risk assessment for particle exposure principal investigator Tran Lang status correctly identified as project is underway although the name under which this project is better known is PARTICLE_RISK which is not apparent from the data entry. No mention then of the CELLPEN and HARN projects which Lang has led for DEFRA over the last couple of years or of the various other projects of which Lang has been a co-author including EMERGNANO and REFNANO. Nor is there any reference to the ENPRA FP7 project which has just been funded which should also appear in this list.

Its also interesting looking at some of the projects which are on the list. You can do this by selecting all projects. I’ve pull out just a few examples, one, “The tenth annual green chemistry and engineering conference: student scholarships” this entry starts 2006, ends 2007 is to support students to attend this particular conference.

A second one, “A continuous monitor for arsenic in drinking water”?

A third one, “A fundamental study of transport within a single nanoscopic channel.” This project is about quantifying mass transport through nanoporous media and while undoubtedly it is a worthy piece of science and does have some relevance its immediate application towards risk assessment management is probably some time away. Nevertheless this project is identified as having substantial relevance.

“A nanocontact sensor for heavy metal.”, I could go on

These are just a four projects selected from the first page of twenty entries in a total of six hundred and ninety one entries. It is fair to say that the relevance of some of these projects to NANO EHS is rather mixed.

This is not intended to be overly critical of what OECD have done here. On the contrary I think what they have started is something that will in due course become an excellent tool for both researchers and policymakers in this area. However until the data contained within the database can be thoroughly cleaned and validated, a process which will take some considerable time and effort, and kept up to date, then use of the data contained therein for policy making and research prioritisation must be highly suspect.

Bioaffinity Based Biosensor and immunosensor

2009-07-04T23:38:00.004+04:30

Oxford Univ Begbroke Science Park

Bioaffinity Based Biosensor and immunosensor

Biosensor is a detection device with high analytical specificity made of layers of biological elements with biorecognition quality that are immobilized on a substrate having reversible interactions with the analyte and a signal transducer.

Immunosensors are biosensors that have antibodies as biological element.

AFM functionalised tip as force sensor
AFM’s functionalised tip with eg. biotin
The force of adhesion due to rupture can be calculated from deflection measure

Self assembled monolayers SAMs

SAMs are long chain monolayers of diverse functionalities organised on surface of noble metals or SiO2 for use as sensor arrays
Two main coupling schemes
thiol coupling
silane coupling

Advantageous techniques for characterisation of self-assembled monolayers SAMs

-ToF SIMS with elemental and molecular fingerprinting; detect distribution and location of biomolecules

-Tip enhanced Raman Spectroscopy, FT-Raman Spectroscopy for molecular recognition

-AFM tapping mode for imaging biofunctionalised surfaces, high resolution, ability to operate in liquid medium, topographical information, images of individual molecule measure molecular dimensions

-AFM as force sensing tool; AFM with functionalised tip, f-d mode probes functionality, elastic property, adhesion strength, and range of inter-atomic/molecular interactions for molecular recognition

-XPS complemented with Ellipsometric and contact angle measurement can confirm the presence of immobilized molecules

Time of Flight SIMS

SIMS secondary ion mass spectroscopy analyses mass of ions and molecular fragments ejected from surface (dept of 10-20 Å)

TOF-SIMS uses pulse primary ion beam at low fluence to ionize and desorbe the sample surface

ToF analyzer detects time of flight of secondary ions to mass spectrometer having different velocities

Mass spectrum counts of secondary ions emitted to determine molecular species.

Highly focused primary ion beam (ca 1 μ dia ) images visualising molecular distribution on the surface

MICROCANTILEVERS AS BIOLOGICAL SENSORS

Microlever Dynamic mode in micro balance method (resonance due to oscillation) measures resonant frequency changes due to added mass

Microlever Static mode in surface stress method (deflection due to bending) mode measures deflection of lever, displacement of the tip due to changes of stress or mass loading (operates both in air and liquid)

Refs:

Myhra S (Oxford Univ), A review of enabling technologies based on scanning probe microscopy relevant to bioanalysis, Biosensors and Bioelectronics, Volume 19, Issue 11, 15 June 2004, Pages 1345-1354

Bruno Pettinger, Tip-enhanced Raman scattering: Influence of the tip-surface geometry on optical resonance and enhancement, Surface Science 603 (2009) 1335–1341

Thomas Ederth (Oxford Univ), Computation of Lifshitz-van der Waals Forces between
Alkylthiol Monolayers on Gold Films, Langmuir 2001, 17, 3329-3340

Al2O3 and Si C

2009-04-25T21:59:00.003+04:30

FRACTURE, STRENGTH AND DAMAGE TOLERANCE OF CERAMIC NANOCOMPOSITES

Objectives
The objectives of the project were to investigate ceramic “nanocomposites”, principally Al2O3 / SiC:
1. To identify strengthening and damage-tolerance mechanisms
2. To optimise design of nanocomposites
3. To optimise processing of nanocomposites
Substantial progress was made in all three of these areas. We now have a “recipe” for producing a sintered (rather than hot-pressed) Al2O3 / SiC “nanocomposite”, with improved strength, toughness, damage tolerance and wear resistance, and have made good progress in understanding the mechanisms of property improvement. Since the research program focused on the links between processing, microstructure, and mechanical properties, this report deals with processing issues first, followed by mechanical property investigations, finally dealing with the mechanisms linking the two via microstructure and leading to property improvements Processing Two aspects of processing were investigated: (a) the feasibility of using sintering to produce Al2O3 / SiC nanocomposites with enhanced properties, and (b) production of hot-pressed composites with very fine SiC particle size.

Sintering Previous investigations on Al2O3 / SiC nanocomposites by other workers suggested that it is difficult to obtain near fully dense products using the pressureless sintering route. However, the flexibility of this route (in terms of the geometrical complexity of manufactured products) and its relative costeffectiveness are compelling, so a main aim of the project was to investigate this method of fabrication. For a full report on this aspect of the project see [1].

Ultra-fine SiC composites. We have been able to fabricate a range of alumina/SiC nanocomposites with mean SiC particle sizes ranging from 12 nm to 120 nm. These were fabricated by two routes, the first a conventional powder processing and the second using a novel polymer precursor route where ultrafine SiC was generated by the pyrolysis of a polycarbosilane [2,3,4,5].

Publications
1. C.C Anya and S.G. Roberts, Pressureless sintering and elastic constants of Al2O3-SiC ‘nanocomposites’, J.Eur.Cer.Soc. in press.
2. B. Su and M. Sternitzke, A novel processing route for alumina/SiC nanocomposites by Si-polymer pyrolysis, 4th Europ. Ceram. Conv. (Ed. A. Bellosi), Vol. 4 p. 109-116 (1995).
3. L. Carroll, M. Sternitzke and B. Derby, Silicon carbide particle size effects in alumina based nanocomposites, Acta Mater. 44 (1996) 4543.
4. M. Sternitzke, E. Dupas, P. Twigg and B. Derby, Surface mechanical properties of alumina based nanocomposites, submitted to Acta Mater.
5. C.C. Anya and S.G. Roberts, Indentation fracture toughness & surface flaw analysis of sintered alumina/SiC ‘nanocomposites’ J.Eur. Cer.Soc. 16 (1996) 1107

http://www-sgrgroup.materials.ox.ac.uk/abstracts/J77542.pdf

Langmuir monolayers

2009-04-25T21:50:00.001+04:30

A Langmuir–Blodgett film contains one or more monolayers of an organic material, deposited from the surface of a liquid onto a solid by immersing (or emersing) the solid substrate into (or from) the liquid. A monolayer is adsorbed homogeneously with each immersion or emersion step, thus films with very accurate thickness can be formed. This thickness is accurate because the thickness of each monolayer is known and can therefore be added to find the total thickness of a Langmuir-Blodgett Film. The monolayers are assembled vertically and are usually composed of amphiphilic molecules (see Chemical polarity) with a hydrophilic head and a hydrophobic tail (example: fatty acids). Langmuir–Blodgett films are named after Irving Langmuir and Katharine B. Blodgett, who invented this technique while working in Research and Development for General Electric Co. An alternative technique of creating single monolayers on surfaces is that of self-assembled monolayers.

Langmuir-Blodgett Films should not be confused with Langmuir films, which tends to describe an organic monolayer submersed in an aqueous solution .

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Langmuir-Blodgett_film

Electron microscopy

2009-04-25T19:51:00.002+04:30

Electron microscopy and microanalysis are an integral part of many research activities of other groups in the Department, including processing, polymers and ceramics, and there is a strong interaction with the modelling group.

In recent years the Oxford EM&M Group has undergone major growth, including expansion into the Begbroke site and the installation of the world's first double aberration-corrected TEM/STEM. The group includes Professors Cockayne and Kirkland and Drs Hutchison, Jenkins and Nellist as academic staff, and is expanding into new research areas, and seeking collaborations. It has a well-developed formal and informal postgraduate training programme, in modular form, and a seminar series. An innovative schools outreach programme has a remotely accessible SEM (Oxford CyberSEM), supported by modules aimed at the school curriculum. Collaborations with JEOL through the JEOL Applications Laboratory at the Begbroke Site of the University involve the new aberration corrected FEG(S)TEM and the remote microscopy project.

http://www-em.materials.ox.ac.uk/

flexural rigidity - a measure of the resistance of the lithosphere to bending on long (i.e. > 105 years) time-scales.

flexural response function - the wavenumber parameter that modifies the Airy response to loads to produce the flexural response.

Better photocells from bigger Buckyballs: Now, a group of scientists collaborating from several research institutions, namely the Georgetown University, Washington DC, Luna Innovations Inc., Virginia, the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität, Erlangen, Germany, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Colorado, and the University of Santa Barbara have developed a novel fullerene species for this application [Ross, et al., Nature Materials (2009), doi:10.1038/NMAT2379].

Au/CeOx/TiO2(110)

2009-04-25T19:45:00.002+04:30

High catalytic activity of Au/CeOx/TiO2(110) controlled by the nature of the mixed-metal oxide at the nanometer level

Mixed-metal oxides play a very important role in many areas of
chemistry, physics, materials science, and geochemistry. Recently,
there has been a strong interest in understanding phenomena
associated with the deposition of oxide nanoparticles on the
surface of a second (host) oxide. Here, scanning tunneling microscopy,
photoemission, and density-functional calculations are used
to study the behavior of ceria nanoparticles deposited on a
TiO2(110) surface. The titania substrate imposes nontypical coordination
modes on the ceria nanoparticles. In the CeOx/TiO2(110)
systems, the Ce cations adopt an structural geometry and an
oxidation state (+3) that are quite different from those seen in bulk
ceria or for ceria nanoparticles deposited on metal substrates. The
increase in the stability of the Ce3+ oxidation state leads to an
enhancement in the chemical and catalytic activity of the ceria
nanoparticles. The codeposition of ceria and gold nanoparticles on
a TiO2(110) substrate generates catalysts with an extremely high
activity for the production of hydrogen through the water–gas
shift reaction (H2O+CO3H2+CO2) or for the oxidation of carbon
monoxide (2CO + O2 3 2CO2). The enhanced stability of the Ce3+
state is an example of structural promotion in catalysis described
here on the atomic level. The exploration of mixed-metal oxides at
the nanometer level may open avenues for optimizing catalysts
through stabilization of unconventional surface structures with
special chemical activity.

Park J et al, PNAS March 31, 2009 vol. 106 no. 13, 4975–4980

Nanoparticles LPSiNPs and TiO2

2009-04-16T17:41:00.003+04:30

Researchers from California and Massachusetts have come up with a new type of non-toxic nanoparticle (NP) that is efficiently broken down and excreted by the kidneys once it has delivered its drug cargo to the target organ [Park, et al., Nat. Mater. (2009), doi: 10.1038/nmat2398].

There is already a significant amount of research on drug delivery using NPs, but some of these systems suffer from major drawbacks, such as the body’s immediate rejection of NPs before they can deliver their payload, or biodegradability and toxicity of the NPs or their by-products. However, the use of NPs for drug delivery remains of major interest because these small bodies have some exceptional properties. NPs have a large specific capacity for loading drugs, they are easily detected while they are in the body, and they are retained by the blood stream long enough for them to reach their target and offload the drug.

The new 126 nm luminescent porous Si NPs (LPSiNPs) are fabricated by electrochemical etching of single-crystal Si wafers, followed by ultrasonication and filtration to obtain NPs with 5-10 nm pore diameters. Silicon oxide grown onto the surface of LPSiNPs gives them an intrinsic photoluminescence at 650-900 nm. This makes them suitable for in vivo applications as organs and tissues exhibit very low adsorption in this region and any photoluminescence can be attributed to the LPSiNPs. The luminescent material is much more photostable than fluorescein or cyanin fluorophores and has a quantum yield comparable to other water-soluble luminescent silicon-silica NPs.

In vivo tests have been carried out by the researchers who incorporated an anti-cancer drug – doxorubicin – into LPSiNPs (DOX-LPSiNPs) and injected the DOX-LPSiNPs into mice. Photoluminescence indicates that the DOX-LPSiNPs reach the tumor, where they build up. Histology of the tissues also confirms the presence of the drug together with LPSiNPs inside the tumor. The LPSiNPs then break down, most probably into soluble silicic acid and are completely eliminated from the body by renal clearance within 1-4 weeks of injection, without any signs of toxicity in the major organs of the mice.

http://www.materialstoday.com/archive/2009/12-04/news01.html

TiO2 particles in various concentrations were added into culture plated with confluent cells. After incubation for 24 hours the cell viability was then quantified with Live/Dead cytotoxicity Viability stain (Molecular Probes). The cell viabilities were then normalized with cells without treatment. Vertical lines denote ± 1 SD (n = 4 for all test samples and cells). Significance of differences between cancer cells versus 3T3 cells: P < .05.

LLC cancer cells derived from mouse tumour tissues
JHU prostate cancer cells
B16F1 and B16F10 skin melanoma cancer cells
3T3 fibroblast cells (as control)

........we find that TiO2 nanoparticles have low cytotoxicity to B16F10 and B16F1 melanoma cells as well as 3T3 fibroblasts. These findings are in agreement with many recent published results. Specifically, various sizes and concentrations of TiO2 particles have been reported to be nontoxic in cell monolayer uptake models in vitro,[40] and [41] in vitro inhalation models,3 and in vivo models.[5] and [10] However, in the case of the JHU prostate tumor cells and LLC cells, we found that there are significant differences in viability levels for uncoated TiO2 particles at concentrations of 1 mg/mL for LLC cells and 0.1 mg/mL for JHU prostate tumor cells. Our results have shown that TiO2 particles possess cell-specific toxicity, depending on the concentrations and surface functionality of the particular particles.

Thevenot P et al, Univ of Texas, Surface chemistry influences cancer killing effect of TiO2 nanoparticles, Nanomedicine: Nanotechnology, Biology and Medicine, Volume 4, Issue 3, September 2008, Pages 226-236

Solar control glass reduce the amplitude of radio waves

2009-04-16T17:31:00.002+04:30

It is a well known phenomenon that the amplitude of radio waves propagating through solar control glass is greatly reduced, because the electrical conductive film on the surface of solar control glass reflects the incident radio waves withfrequencies lower than that of the plasma oscillation of free electrons in the conductive film. As a result of the moment method analysis of the scattering problem in the spectral domain, it was found that the amplitude of radio waves was not damped when the conductive film was divided into discontinuous segments with a periodic array because the motion of free electrons induced by the magnetic field of incident radio waves is restricted in the divided film. The effect of dividing the conductive film of solar control glass has been examined experimentally in the television wave region.

H. Nakashima et al, Effect of segmentation of conductive coatings on the radio wave
transmission through solar control sheet glass,
Journal of Non-Crystalline Solids 178 (1994) 176-181

‘Casimir–Lifshitz’ force

2009-04-08T16:45:00.003+04:30

Space is not completely empty; the vacuum teams with quantum mechanical energy fluctuations able to generate an attractive force between objects that are very close to each other. This ‘Casimir–Lifshitz’ force can cause static friction or ‘stiction’ in nanomachines, which must be strongly reduced. Until now only attractive interactions have been reported but in theory, if vacuum is replaced by certain media, Casimir–Lifshitz forces should become repulsive. This has now been confirmed experimentally. Repulsion, weaker than the attractive force, was measured in a carefully chosen system of interacting materials immersed in fluid. The magnitude of both forces increases as separation decreases. The repulsive forces could conceivably allow quantum levitation of objects in a fluid and lead to new types of switchable nanoscale devices with ultra-low static friction. Levitation depends only on the dielectric properties of the various materials. The cover illustrates repulsion between a tiny gold sphere and a silica substrate (left). Replace the silica with gold (right), and the force becomes attractive.

Quantum fluctuations create intermolecular forces that pervade macroscopic bodies1, 2, 3. At molecular separations of a few nanometres or less, these interactions are the familiar van der Waals forces4. However, as recognized in the theories of Casimir, Polder and Lifshitz5, 6, 7, at larger distances and between macroscopic condensed media they reveal retardation effects associated with the finite speed of light. Although these long-range forces exist within all matter, only attractive interactions have so far been measured between material bodies8, 9, 10, 11. Here we show experimentally that, in accord with theoretical prediction12, the sign of the force can be changed from attractive to repulsive by suitable choice of interacting materials immersed in a fluid. The measured repulsive interaction is found to be weaker than the attractive. However, in both cases the magnitude of the force increases with decreasing surface separation. Repulsive Casimir–Lifshitz forces could allow quantum levitation of objects in a fluid and lead to a new class of switchable nanoscale devices with ultra-low static friction13, 14, 15.

Measured long-range repulsive Casimir–Lifshitz forces, Nature 457, 170-173 (8 January 2009) |

Nanotech food

2009-04-07T01:10:00.001+04:30

Maynard serves up the complexities of nanoscience in enticing, digestible, bite-size morsels. It is a friendly, funny, 25-minute travel guide to the technology that promises to ignite the next industrial revolution. In the video, Maynard shows products that use nanotechnology today. And he travels into the future to demonstrate how nanotechnology will change virtually everything—in medicine, energy, materials, travel and electronics.

Nanotechnology is the ability to measure, see, manipulate and manufacture things usually between 1 and 100 nanometers. A nanometer is one billionth of a meter. A human hair is roughly 100,000 nanometers wide.

http://penmedia.org/video/maynard.html

MY ASHMOLEAN

2009-04-01T10:15:00.000+04:30

MY MUSEUM

This is an exciting time for the Ashmolean. In November 2009 we will unveil the Museum’s transformation, a redevelopment that is doubling our display space, and which the Oxford Times has called the ‘most significant’ in the Ashmolean’s 326-year history.

The My Ashmolean My Museum appeal has been launched to ask for your support as we reach the final stages of this historic expansion.

The architect of the new Ashmolean is Rick Mather, and the Guardian placed Rick’s ‘subtle yet major extension’ in its top five architectural highlights of 2009. His design has created 39 superb new galleries in which to display the Ashmolean’s rich and varied collections, as well as an Education Centre with its own entrance on St Giles, and Oxford’s first rooftop café.

These state-of-the-art facilities, together with inventive and engaging new displays, will allow us to build upon the position we occupy as a museum of local, national and international importance. Despite these momentous changes, entry to the Ashmolean will remain free.

The cost of the Ashmolean’s transformation is £61 million. So far we have raised nearly eighty per cent of that goal, thanks to the generous backing of the Heritage Lottery Fund, the Linbury Trust, and a number of other charitable trusts and individuals.

We are grateful to those who have already shown their support, and we hope that you will help us to reach our target. Every pound really does count.

http://www.ashmolean.org/appeal/

Oxford-Google Digitization Project reaches milestone

2009-03-30T20:23:00.000+04:30

This summer will see the completion of the first phase of the Oxford-Google Digitization Partnership project at the Bodleian Library. For the first time a large proportion of Oxford’s 19th century out-of-copyright holdings will be made easily accessible to a new generation of readers around the globe.

The Library’s partnership with Google started in 2004, making Oxford the first European partner in this mass-digitisation project. The initiative is part of the Libraries’ ongoing commitment to enhance access to their vast and unique collections for the researchers at all levels worldwide. The Oxford-Google partnership aims to make available many hundreds of thousands of books from the Bodleian and other Oxford libraries, representing a major contribution to the public domain content available through Google Book Search.

The works digitised include titles in English, German, Spanish French, and many other languages – from classic literature to scientific volumes in fields such as Geography, Philosophy, and Anthropology. Examples of works now available through Book Search include: the first English translation of Newton's Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy from 1729, the first edition of Jane Austen's Emma, John Cassell's Illustrated History of England and Charles Darwin’s first edition of On the Origin of Species.

The full text of these works can be searched and read on Google Book Search, and readers can download and print a copy in PDF format, where local copyright laws permit.

http://www.ox.ac.uk/media/news_stories/2009/090327.html
http://www.ouls.ox.ac.uk/bodley
http://books.google.com/

Nanocomposites

2009-03-30T20:06:00.002+04:30

Next month Oxford engineers will start investigating what kind of composite materials would make for stronger, stealthier and more durable submarines.

Composites are already being used in warships because they can be made stronger and lighter than metal parts and are less susceptible to corrosion. They have also been shown to resist the forces unleashed in an explosion better than metal.

As reported in The Engineer the Oxford team will begin their EPSRC-funded project by testing how composites submerged in water respond to a shockwave generated by a metal projectile. High-speed cameras will capture how the materials deform under the pressure.

Testing and modelling is vital to determine what the best structure for a submarine composite would be – many composites, for instance, are made out of a ‘sandwich’ of different materials – as well as how composites fare after being submerged in water for a long time.

Vito Tagarielli, one of the Oxford team led by Nik Petrinic, told The Engineer: ‘We hope to reduce the weight of the submarine so there is less inertia and it can have higher acceleration and easier manoeuvrability.’

‘[Also] If a submarine is made of composite it makes it invisible to modern sea mines that detonate when they recognise a specific magnetic or acoustic signature.’

The project runs for five years and involves a host of industrial partners alongside the Ministry of Defence.

http://www.ox.ac.uk/media/science_blog/

“Nanomanufacturing” has been declared one of the keys to future product innovations in a broad range of industries from pharmaceuticals to semiconductors. Generally, the term nanomanufacturing has been applied to the production of materials where control of a single dimension on the order of 100 nm or less is vital to the performance of the product. The everyday production of large area coatings for improved energy performance of architectural and automotive glazings by magnetron sputtering is rarely considered to be part of nanomanufacturing, let alone on the cutting edge of this technology.This paper will demonstrate how the development of more complex multilayer energy control coatings has gone hand in hand with the development of capabilities to control deposition uniformity on 10-20 m2 substrates to nanomanufacturing tolerances that express the limits of today’s technologies. The development from simple solar control and single silver layer low-emissivity coatings, through double, and in the last year, triple silver layer low-E, has come with ability to control deposition uniformity to nanometer precision over large areas...
The link to the technical article:
http://www.glassfiles.com/library/article1171.htm

Advances in Research

Values of the key glazing performance parameters: total solar energy transmittance, g, overall heat loss coefficient (thermal transmittance) U, and visible transmittance, Tv, are given. Solar transmittance and thermal emissivity values are also given. Emissivity values refer to the coated or uncoated surface of the glazing category and not the double glazed unit (DGU). Values are representative only and will vary dependent on glass type and thickness, gap dimensions and coating structure. Total thickness is an essential parameter for use of modern glazing in existing frames of older buildings. Edge-seal and edge spacer thermal transmittance are dominant parameters for the effective thermal transmission of a glazing unit.
ftp://ftp.cordis.europa.eu/pub/eesd/docs/indicators_55_glazing.pdf

http://www.metalprices.com/pubcharts/Public/Indium_Price_Charts.asp

See your name at the heart of Ashmolean

2009-03-18T22:38:00.001+03:30

The Ashmolean has launched a public fundraising appeal in the final phase of its major redevelopment. With a donation of £50 or more, you will be able to see your name or dedication inscribed on the Benefactors Bridge, linking the galleries at the heart of the Ashmolean’s new building.

This groundbreaking project, the largest museum development in the country, is transforming the Ashmolean for the twenty-first century, building on its historic position as a world-class museum of art and archaeology.

Rick Mather, the award-winning architect, has designed a scheme to provide the Ashmolean with 100 percent more display space. Located to the north of the original Museum, designed by Charles Cockerell in 1845, the new building will comprise 35 new galleries featuring the redisplay of the rich and varied permanent collections. It will introduce 4 large temporary exhibition galleries, a new education centre with additional study rooms, new conservation studios, a walkthrough between the Museum and the Cast Gallery and Oxford’s first rooftop café.

One of the most remarkable features of the building’s modern interior will be elegant foot-bridges, including the Benefactors Bridge, connecting the new galleries. By supporting the Ashmolean appeal, you can have your name inscribed on the Bridge and become part of the Museum’s fabric for years to come. Alternatively, dedicate a message on the Bridge in memory of a loved one or to mark a special occasion, such as a birthday or anniversary.

Opening in November, the new Ashmolean will be more than ever a museum for the people of Oxford. With state-of-the-art facilities and free admission to the inventive and engaging new displays, the Museum can build upon the position it occupies at the heart of the city’s life.

The Heritage Lottery Fund, the Linbury Trust, and a number of generous individuals and other charitable trusts, have already given their support to the campaign. Nearly eighty per cent of the £61 million target has been raised.

Christopher Brown, Director of the Ashmolean Museum, said: ‘With the public’s support we can reach our target to complete this historic expansion. I am frequently touched by the depth of fondness for and commitment to the Ashmolean among local people – feelings to which I am certain the new Museum will do justice. I look forward to seeing you in November, if not before, at what I really hope you will agree is your Ashmolean.’

To celebrate the launch of the appeal, three new photographs from the campaign My Ashmolean My Museum have been produced. Featuring the actor, Sir Ben Kingsley, Rick Mather, and 8 year-old Oxfordshire resident, Freya Darius-Nobes, their portraits represent themes from the new displays, the building of the new Ashmolean, and the joy of discovering new stories about the collections.

Sir Ben Kingsley said: ‘This is such an exciting time at the Ashmolean. I am really pleased to have been asked to get involved. I am lucky enough to live close by to what is a truly world-class museum, looking after treasures from across the globe. My photograph illustrates West meets East – one of the themes of the new galleries and a story very close to my own heart. I can’t wait to see it on display.’

http://www.ox.ac.uk/media/news_stories/2009/090318_2.html

Electronagativity, polarisability and band gap in Oxides

2009-03-16T12:28:00.005+03:30

The earliest studies of conjugated molecular materials established that the mechanism behind electroluminescence was recombination of electron-hole pairs in a radiative process. This provided evidence for the existence of a band-gap within these materials, allowing comparison with inorganic semiconductors studied in the well understood eld of solid state physics. More recently, the possibility of controlling the band-gap of organic semiconductors has allowed the use of a variety of conjugated polymers in many applications, including highly sensitive chemical sensors, eld-eect transistors (OFETs), solar cells (OPVs) and high effciency organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs).

Patric Wallace Parkinson, (Brasenose College), Ultrafast Electronic Processes at
Nanoscale Organic-Inorganic Semiconductor Interfaces, Michaelmas 2008, Doctrola Thesis

Electronagativity, polarisability and band gap in Oxides

Electronegativity, polarisability and band gap in oxides Oxygen in the oxidation state of -2 exists in oxides and oxidic compounds where the bonding is ionic, covalent or metallic. In these different types of bonding situations it has distinctly different parameters which relate to electronegativity, polarisability, etc. No other element exhibits such versatile behaviour(3,4) and it is this behaviour that imparts many of the properties to oxidic glasses. It arises, in a crude way, from oxygen being able to exist not only as bridging or nonbridging but also to exist with a degree of negative charge which can be varied, for example, by adjusting the glass composition. This negative charge should not be thought of as static but fluctuating depending on movement relative to the silicon atoms to which it is linked, and also on the proximity, movement and nature of constituent metal ions.

XA-XB=(Q/n)½

where n is the number of bonds. (For oxides, 1·1 eV must be added for each oxygen in order to correct for the double bond in the O2 molecule.)

Calculations show that in covalent oxides such as P2O5, xO is 3·5. This is the usual value quoted for oxygen in textbooks. However, for oxides where there is appreciable ionicity, there is a fall in xO. Indeed, for Cs2O, xO has fallen to 2·2. The important point that should be noted is that the oxygen atom (or rather oxide ion) has less attraction for the negative charge in the bonding as its own negative charge increases. Bearing in mind that in glass the negative charge on nonbridging oxygen atoms is greater than for bridging, it follows that there would be a decrease in oxygen electronegativity, on average throughout the network, as the proportion of basic oxide in the glass is increased.

If there is a similar trend for the band gap electronegativity, X*opt, then the smaller value of X*opt that results would have the effect of raising the top of the
valence band and this would account for the lower frequency onset of ultraviolet absorption for glasses, e.g. soda–lime–silica glasses compared with vitreous
silica.

Duffy J A, Ultraviolet transparency of glass: a chemical approach in terms of band theory, polarisability and electronegativity, Phys. Chem. Glasses, 2001, 42 (3), 151–7

Sputtering yields

2009-03-12T11:29:00.002+03:30

Sputtering systems are generaly calibrated to estimate the deposition rate under the given condition, however yield data of the type described are often used to estimate rate changes when changing coating materials and in estimating the amount of materials removed during sputter cleaning and bias sputtering.

The erosion rate is given by:

R = 6.23 J S Ma / δ (nm/min)

J is ion current density in mA/cm2
S is sputteirng yields in atoms/ion
Ma is atomic weight in grams
δ density of the target material in g/cm3

Sputtering rates in planar diode systems: inelastic charge exchange collisions between accelerated ions and neutral sputtering gas species affect the average energy of ions striking the target as:

E = e Vt

Vt is applied target potential

The handbook of Sputtering
http://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=3lm17uW7TF0C&oi=fnd&pg=PA249&dq=Thornton+J+A+1978+J.+Vac.+Sci.+Technol.+15+171%E2%80%937&ots=TtAZfsgElo&sig=J6e5wV8Fuiu3ExGB_dwMNsTsovo#PPA262,M1

Bohr knew that a photon's energy was equal to Planck's constant times its frequency (this formula was discovered by Einstein during his work on the photoelectric effect).

http://www.colorado.edu/physics/2000/quantumzone/balmer2.html

Moving Boundaries and Interfaces

2009-02-28T09:45:00.002+03:30

Moving Boundaries and Interfaces

Many physical problems involve moving boundaries. Dynamic
boundaries change position and shape in response to the
particular physics at work: examples are breaking waves in
the ocean, dancing flames in the fireplace, and milk
swirling in a cup of tea. Static boundaries, such as tumors
in medical scans and cartoon characters against a background
animation, can be just as perplexing: try finding edges in a
picture of a dalmatian lying on a rug with spots!
Surprisingly, many other interesting problems, such as
negotiating a robot around obstacles and finding the
shortest path over a mountain range, can also be cast as
evolving boundary problems.

The physics and chemistry that drive a boundary or
interface may be difficult to describe, but even when the
speed and direction of a moving interface are well
understood, following its shape can be difficult. The first
concern is what to do when sharp corners appear, as they do
in, for example, the intricate patterns of a snowflake.
Second, distant edges can blend together: the "edge" of a
forest fire changes as separate fires burn together and
sparks carried by the wind ignite distant regions. Finally,
in three dimensions (and higher), even finding a nice way to
represent---let alone move---an undulating boundary is a
challenge.

One technologically important example of interface
motion involves the manufacture of computer chips. In the
etching and deposition process, a layer of metal is
deposited on a silicon wafer, etched away, and then the
process is repeated numerous times until a final profile is
obtained. As device sizes get smaller and smaller, using
trial and error to obtain the correct design becomes
impractical. Instead, one would like to simulate these
processes as accurately as possible in order to test various
layering strategies and resulting device characteristics.
In recent years, the application of new mathematical and
numerical algorithms for interface motion has afforded real
breakthroughs in this area. Before these techniques, complex
problems involving the evolution of profiles in two
dimensions were difficult; now, fully three-dimensional
simulations involving a wide range of physical effects are
easily within grasp. The new algorithms have been
incorporated into the simulation packages at many major
semiconductor manufacturers in the United States, and are
part of the production environment in various chip lines
today.

These computational techniques, known as level set
methods and fast marching methods, rest on a fundamental
shift in how evolving fronts are viewed. Rather than focus
on the evolving front itself, these techniques discretize
the region in which the front moves. Each point in that
space keeps track of either its distance to the front or of
the time when the front passes over it; the accumulation of
all this information gives an accurate portrait of the
moving interface. The key is to define equations for the
time at which the front passes over each point and then to
solve these equations.

The equations which keep track of the front at each
grid point in the domain are variants of the Hamilton-Jacobi
equations; these equations have a long history in such areas
as optics, wave propagation, and control theory. While they
can be very complex, their derivatives bear a resemblance to
hyperbolic conservation laws and to the equations of fluid
mechanics, allowing use of the knowledge acquired in those
well-developed fields. The main breakthrough in modeling
interface motion was the realization that schemes from fluid
mechanics could be unleashed onto the equations of moving
fronts. The result is a wide range of computational tools
for tracking evolving interfaces with sharp corners and
cusps, with topological changes, and in the presence of
three-dimensional complications. These schemes have found
their way into a vast number of applications, including
fluid mechanics, dendrite solidification and the freezing of
materials, image processing, medical imaging, combustion,
and robotic navigation.

Some of the most complex interface applications appear
in simulating the manufacture of computer chips. To begin,
a single crystal ingot of silicon is extracted from molten
pure silicon. This silicon ingot is then sliced into
several hundred thin wafers, each of which is polished to a
smooth finish. A thin layer of crystalline silicon is
oxidized, a light-sensitive "photoresist" is applied, and
the wafer is covered with a pattern mask that shields part
of the photoresist. This pattern mask contains the layout of
the circuit itself. Under exposure to a light or an electron
beam, the unshielded photoresist polymerizes and hardens,
leaving an unexposed material that is etched away in a dry
etch process, revealing a bare silicon dioxide layer.
Ionized impurity atoms such as boron, phosphorus, and argon
are implanted into the pattern of the exposed silicon wafer,
and silicon dioxide is deposited at reduced pressure in a
plasma discharge from gas mixtures at a low temperature.
Finally, thin films like aluminum are deposited by processes
such as plasma sputtering, and contacts to the electrical
components and component interconnections are established.
The result is a device that carries the desired electrical
properties.

This sequence of events produces considerable changes
in the surface profile as it undergoes various processes of
etching and deposition. Describing these changes is known
as the "surface topography problem" in microfabrication and
requires an analysis of the effects of many factors, such as
the visibility of the etching/deposition source from each
point of the evolving profile, surface diffusion along the
front, complex flux laws that produce faceting, shocks and
rarefactions, material-dependent discontinuous etch rates,
and masking profiles. The physics and chemistry that
contribute to the motion of the interface are areas of
active research. Once empirical models are formulated, one
is left with the problem of tracking the evolving front.

Here is where level set methods and fast marching
methods come into play: they provide the means to follow the
evolving profile as it is shaped by the etching and
deposition process, and they capture some of the most subtle
effects. For example, visibility has a key role; if part of
the evolving surface causes a shadow zone that blocks the
effects of the etching or deposition beam, the motion is
reduced. Computing this shadow zone was formerly a very
expensive proposition; however, the fast marching method
yields an elegant and fast way to do it.

Another example is the complex manufacturing process
called ion-milling, in which a beam of reactive ions acts
like a sandblaster and etches away at a surface. The etching
rate depends on, among other things, the angle at which the
beam hits the surface. The most effective etching angle is
not always directly straight down; the "yield function"
relates how much material is removed to the incoming angle.
Interestingly enough, this process produces beveled, rounded
edges in some areas and sharp cusps in others. While these
are difficult problems to model, they are easily handled by
level set and fast marching methods.

4 Education

The importance of strong ties between mathematics and
science is self-evident from the examples presented---which,
we stress again, are only a tiny sample from a very large
pool. Unfortunately, there is a clear shortage of people
able to bridge the gap between mathematics and the sciences,
and one of the challenges that must be faced is how to
educate more.

It is obvious to us that students of mathematics should
be able to understand problems in science, and that students
of science should understand the power and roles of
mathematics. Each area of science has its own unique
features, but the different areas share common features that
are often of a mathematical nature.

The themes of modeling, computation, and problem
solving are especially relevant to education.

- Modeling. Students in science and mathematics need to
be educated in modeling far beyond the simple paradigm
exemplified by ``do this experiment, plot the data, and
observe that they lie almost on a straight line''. Given a
physical problem and/or data, students should learn to
construct a mathematical model, explain why the model is
appropriate, perform mathematical analysis or a
computational simulation, devise experiments to check the
accuracy of their model, and then improve the model and
repeat the process.
- Computation. The view that ``anyone can compute'' is
just as wrong as the statement that ``anyone can build a
telescope''. One has to learn how. Much of the current
teaching of computation is flawed; a ``cookbook'' strategy
of using canned programs without attention to fundamentals
is completely inadequate. At the other extreme, scientists
should not waste their time implementing outmoded methods or
reinventing known algorithms and data structures. Students
in science and mathematics need to be aware of the
intellectual content and principles of modern computer
science.
- Problem-solving. In traditional academic presentations
of scientific and mathematical problems, the context is
stripped away and simplified so that students can focus on
the essentials. But, especially when developing
mathematical insights, students must learn how to approach
ill-defined, poorly formulated problems---an area in which
education is lacking. There are no shortcuts; the only way
to learn is by direct experience.

We offer a number of recommendations for education in
mathematics and science. Our primary focus is education for
students who specialize in mathematics or science; we cannot
begin to address the national problem of mathematics and
science education for all.

1. Support curriculum development in areas that are
essential for connections between mathematics and science.
Every curriculum-related activity should include production
of Web-based materials.

(a) Create modeling courses for high school, undergraduate,
and graduate students. Unlike many other skills, modeling
can be taught (at an elementary level) to students in high
school. At the undergraduate level, there would be enormous
benefits if a one-year modeling course were part of the core
curriculum in science, engineering, mathematics, and
computer science. Graduate modeling courses would deepen
the scientific knowledge of mathematics students while
enriching the mathematical skills of science students.
(b) Support development of courses that tie core computer
science to science, engineering, and mathematics.
Programming, numerical analysis, data structures, and
algorithms---each of which is a topic with serious
mathematical content---should be part of the education of
every scientist and mathematician.
(c) Encourage experiments in activities (courses, summer or
short-term workshops) that teach scientific and mathematical
problem solving. Such programs could involve not only
techniques and direct experience of problem solving, but
also group projects that teach students how to work
collaboratively with others and how to present their work.

2. Encourage students to undertake programs of study, at
both undergraduate and graduate levels, which combine
mathematics and science. That this can be done at the
graduate level has been shown by the successful
Computational Science Graduate Fellowship program of the
Department of Energy, which requires students to undertake a
demanding interdisciplinary program in exchange for a
generous fellowship.

3. Support summer institutes in (i) mathematical topics
that address scientific applications and (ii) scientific
topics with mathematical content.

The NSF Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU)
program has been extremely successful in exposing students
to research at an early stage. REU and other institutes
have become important for top undergraduates interested in
science and mathematics, and it is now common to prepare for
graduate school by attending a summer school or institute.
However, these programs are overwhelmingly devoted to highly
specialized subjects. In part this is understandable; the
organizers want to give the students a taste of research,
which is more easily done in a narrow area. But because
those summer institutes often determine the direction
students will take, NSF should ensure that there are high-
quality institute programs with a multidisciplinary emphasis
centered on connections between mathematics and science.

Certain emerging areas (such as mathematical biology) are
not yet widely covered in graduate programs. Carefully
designed summer institutes would help to broaden the
education of graduate students whose home institutions lack
offerings in such fields.

4. Fund research groups that include both (i) a genuine
collaboration between scientists and mathematicians, and
(ii) a strong educational program for graduate students,
postdoctoral fellows, and possibly undergraduates. To be
effective, such funding should be as long-term as possible;
if funding is only short-term, researchers are unlikely to
make the huge investment of time needed to develop group
structures that will sustain multidisciplinary
collaborations.

5. Fund postdoctoral fellowships in environments that
combine excellence in science with excellence in
mathematics. Efforts to create industrial postdoc programs
could be expanded to create joint university/national lab
postdoctoral fellowships, as well as short-term fellowships
for scientists in mathematics programs with a strong applied
component.

Beyond the postdoctoral level, there should be programs to
encourage and support faculty who would like to become
active in collaborations outside their own discipline. The
existing NSF program in this vein, Interdisciplinary Grants
in the Mathematical Sciences (IGMS), is small and imposes
relatively strict requirements on qualification and support
by the home department.

6. Develop a program of group grants for mathematics and
science departments that encourage the creation of new
courses, experimentation with instructional formats, and
coordinated programs of hands-on experiments, modeling, and
computation. Departments that receive such grants should
have substantial science requirements for undergraduate
degrees in mathematics, and substantial mathematics
requirements for undergraduate degrees in science. Many, if
not most, U.S. undergraduates in mathematics take no, or
almost no, science courses. In certain areas of science and
engineering, undergraduates take only minimal, and sometimes
outdated, mathematics courses; even worse, those courses may
give students no understanding of the ties between their
fields and mathematics. These unfortunate situations are
likely to be corrected only if there is an incentive for
departments to change their basic programs.

5 Conclusions

Strong ties between mathematics and the sciences exist and
are thriving, but there need to be many more. To enhance
scientific progress, such connections should become
pervasive, and it is sound scientific policy to foster them
actively.

It is especially important to make connections between
mathematics and the sciences more timely. Scientists and
engineers should have access to the most recent mathematical
tools, while mathematicians should be privy to the latest
thinking in the sciences. In an earlier era of small
science, Einstein could use the geometry of Levi-Civita
within a few years of its invention. With today's vastly
expanded scientific enterprise and increased specialization,
new discoveries in mathematics may remain unknown to
scientists and engineers for extended periods of time;
already the analytical and numerical methods used in several
scientific fields lag well behind current knowledge.
Similarly, collaborations with scientists are essential to
make mathematicians aware of important problems and
opportunities.

6 References and URLs

Combustion

[1] Information about Chemkin, a registered trademark of
Sandia National Laboratories:

http://stokes.lance.colostate.edu/CHEMKIN_Collection.html
http://www.sandia.gov/1100/CVDwww/chemkin.htm
http://www.sandia.gov/1100/CVDwww/theory.htm

Cosmology

[2] M. S. Turner and J. A. Tyson (1999), Cosmology at the
Millennium, working paper.

[3] Web sites about mathematical models and numerical
simulation:

http://star-www.dur.ac.uk/~frazerp/virgo/aims.html
http://phobos.astro.uwo.ca/~thacker/cosmology/

Finance

[4] I. Karatzas and S. E. Shreve (1998), Methods of
Mathematical Finance, Springer-Verlag, New York.

[5] T. F. Coleman (1999), An inverse problem in finance,
Newsletter of the SIAM Activity Group on Optimization.

Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging

[6] W. F. Eddy (1997), Functional magnetic resonance imaging
is a team sport, Statistical Computing and Statistical
Graphics Newsletter, Volume 8, American Statistical
Association.

[7] Information about functional image analysis software:

http://www.stat.cmu.edu/~fiasco

Hybrid System Theory and Air Traffic Management

[8] C. Tomlin, G. J. Pappas, and S. Sastry (1998), Conflict
resolution for air traffic management: a case study in multi-
agent hybrid systems, IEEE Transactions on Automatic
Control, 43, 509---521.

Internet Analysis, Reliability, and Security

[9] Willinger and V.\ Paxson (1998), Where mathematics meets
the Internet, Notices of the American Mathematical Society
45, 961---970.

[10] The Web site of the Network Research Group, Lawrence
Berkeley Laboratory:

http://www-nrg.ee.lbl.gov

Materials Science

[11] Research trends in solid mechanics (G. J. Dvorak, ed),
United States National Committee on Theoretical and Applied
Mechanics, to appear in International Journal of Solids and
Structures, 1999.

[12] G. Friesecke and R. D. James (1999), A scheme for the
passage from atomic to continuum theory for thin films,
nanotubes and nanorods, preprint.

Mixing in the Oceans and Atmospheres

[13] P. S. Marcus (1993), Jupiter's great red spot and other
vortices, The Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics
31, 523---573.

Physiology

[14] J. Keener and J. Sneyd (1998), Mathematical Physiology,
Springer-Verlag , Berlin.

[15] Details about modeling melanophore in the black tetra
(the home page of Eric Cyntrynbaum, the University of Utah):

http://www.math.utah.edu/~eric/research

Diagnosis Using Variational Probabilistic Inference

[16] T. S. Jaakkola, T. S. and M. I. Jordan (1999).
Variational methods and the QMR-DT database, submitted to
Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research.

[17] M. I. Jordan (1998), Learning in Graphical Models, MIT
Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Iterative Control of Nuclear Spins

[18] R. Tycko, J. Guckenheimer, and A. Pines (1985), Fixed
point theory of iterative excitation schemes in NMR, J.
Chem. Phys. 83, 2775---2802.

[19] A. Lior, Z. Olejniczak, and A. Pines (1995), Coherent
isotropic averaging in zero-field NMR, J. Chem. Phys. 103,
3966---3997.

http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2000/mps0001/mps0001.txt

Qdots

2009-02-21T22:36:00.002+03:30

Quantum Dots:

Designing building blocks for next-generation photonics

The nanometre-sized pyramids of Indium Arsenide (InAs) that form during the interrupted growth of InAs on a Gallium Arsenide (GaAs) substrate are attractive to electrons, trapping any that enter and quantizing their motion in the process. Electrons confined to these quantum dots exhibit an atomic-like spectrum of energies which depends greatly on the dot size and composition. Quantum dots are sometimes referred to as "designer atoms" because of the way their electronic and optical properties can be tailored. Figure 1 below shows an InAs quantum dot.

New Castle Univ
http://cmt.phys.ncl.ac.uk/
http://www.qcadesigner.ca/

VLS process explained

2009-02-20T13:58:00.004+03:30

The Vapour Liquid Solid VLS process is used for the growth of Si nanowire by using Au clusters as the solvent at high temperature. Based on Si_Au binary phase diagram, Si (from the decomposition of SiH4 , for example) and Au will form a liquid alloy when the temperature is higher than the eutectic point. The liquid surface has a
large accommodation coefficient and is therefore a preferred deposition site for incoming Si vapor. After the liquid alloy becomes supersaturated with Si, Si nanowire growth occurs by precipitation at the solid } liquid interface.

Recently, real-time observation of Ge nanowire growth was conducted in a high-temperature in situ transmission electron microscope (TEM). The experiment result clearly shows three growth stages: formation of Au_Ge alloy, nucleation of Ge nanocrystal and elongation of Ge nanowire. This experiment unambiguously demonstrates the validity of the VLS mechanism for nanowire growth. The establishment of VLS mechanism at the nanometer scale is very important for the rational control of inorganic nanowires, since it provides the necessary underpinning
for the prediction of metal solvents and preparation conditions.

Based on our mechanism study of the nanowire growth, it is conceivable that one can achieve controlled growth of nanowires at different levels. First of all, one can, in principle, synthesize nanowires of different compositions by choosing suitable solvents and growth temperatures. A good solvent should be able to form a liquid alloy with the desired nanowire material, ideally they should be able to form a eutectic alloy. Meantime, the growth temperature should be set between the eutectic point and the melting point of the nanowire material.

Both physical methods (laser ablation, arc discharge, thermal evaporation) and chemical methods (chemical vapour transport and chemical vapour deposition) can be used to generate the vapor species required during the nanowire growth.

Wu, Y. et al., 2002 ‘Inorganic Semiconductor Nanowires: Rational Growth, Assembly, and Novel Properties’, Chemistry – A European Journal, vol. 8, issue 6, pp.1260-1268.

Boron Buckyballs

2009-02-16T20:53:00.001+03:30

We are all familiar with the well known Buckminsterfullerene; discovered some years ago in 1985 by a group of scientists in the UK and US. including Robert Curl, Harold Kroto and Richard Smalley. They discovered that 60 Carbon atoms can form a stable and hollow spherical type molecule in the shape of a geodesic dome. The dome resembles a building designed by the architect Richard Bukminster Fuller.

A few years ago scientists at Rice University were eventually successful in producing bucky balls made entirely of Boron atoms, and more recently a group at the Graduate University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, led by Prof. Gang Su, made significant progress in the prediction of pure boron buckyballs [Yan et al., physical review B (2008) 78, 201401].

As Boron and Carbon are neighbours in the periodic table you an imagine they share many similar properties, this has led to considerable interest and research in Boron over the past few years. If this is indeed the case then many new opportunities may arise from this new class of compound and may even result in a cost effective route to bulk production of this buckyball.

Su et al have now proposed a generic constructing scheme that shows how to generate a family of novel boron monoelemental, hollow fullerenes which exhibit amongst their properties remarkable stability. They also go on to present an electron counting rule and an isolated hollow rule to show why the predicted boron S-fullerenes are stable and how the electrons in these particular fullerenes are bonded, thereby establishing the relationship between the geometrical and electronic structures of the boron fullerenes.

The scientists behind this discovery are already discussing the relationship between these molecules and those of B80 and boron sheet (NBS), which will lead to a better understanding of their interlinked stability. These findings and continued research will boost further investigations on boron nanostructures both theoretical and experimental and should lead to many new nanostructure discoveries.

Jonathan Agbenyega
Materials Today
http://www.materialstoday.com/archive/2009/12-01/news02.html

The Field of Separation Science

2009-02-16T20:21:00.001+03:30

In 1992, a new family of aluminosilicates (M41S) with pores sizes between 20 and 100 Å in diameter were reported by Mobil researchers (Beck et al. 1992; Kresge et al. 1992). One of particular interest is MCM-41, which consists of hexagonal arrays of uniform 2 to 10 nanometer-sized cylindrical pores. Not only can such materials be synthesized, but novel structures such as "tubules-within-a-tubule" have been fabricated as mesoporous molecular sieves in MCM-41 (Lin and Mou 1996). Of particular interest is the possibility of expanding the so-called "liquid crystal templating" mechanism (Chen et al. 1993) to non-aluminum dopants within the silicate MCM-41 framework (Tanev et al. 1994) and to derive non-siliceous MCM-41 type of materials (Braun et al. 1996).

Another approach to synthesizing large pore and large single crystals of zeolytic materials is being pioneered by Geoffrey Ozin and his group at the University of Toronto, who have demonstrated that crystals as large as 5 mm can be synthesized (Kupperman et al. 1993). The ability to synthesize such large crystals has important implications for discovery of new sensors (selective chemical adsorbants) and membrane devices (selective transport of molecular species), since large single crystals can now be available to the laboratory researcher to carry out fundamental studies of adsorption and diffusion properties with such materials. These materials are expected to create new opportunities for applications in the fields of separations science, for use directly as molecular sieves or as new molecular sieving sorbant materials; in catalysis, as heterogeneous catalysts; and as supports for other catalytic materials as well as other novel applications (Bowes et al. 1996; Brinker 1996; Sayari 1996). The ability to synthesize zeolitic materials of precise pore size in the range between 4 and 100 Å continues to expand the possibilities for research and technological innovation in the catalytic, separations, and sorption technologies (Ruthven et al. 1994; Karger and Ruthven 1992).

http://www.wtec.org/loyola/nano/04_03.htm
http://www.begbroke.ox.ac.uk
http://www.conted.ox.ac.uk

Stoichiometry

2009-02-15T19:11:00.001+03:30

Stoichiometry ( in Greek - measuring element) takes account of quantity of elements involved in a chemical reaction and is based upon the principal of mass conservation, which applies to chemical reactions that by definition do not affect the mass of reactants nor transmute into other elements. The word is also used for molar proportions of elements that are discrete numbers.
Non-stoichiometric compound refers to the ratio of atoms not being an integer, such as Vanadium Oxide varieties from VO 0.79 to VO 1.29, and others TiOx, NixO, UOx and LiWO3. extrinsic defects are introduced into crystal through impurities, that is by adding dopants. For example if ClNa is heated in an environment of sodium vapour, the Na+ ion changes to Na(1+x) Cl. Sodium ions now moved to the crystal and occupy cation sites and leave same quantity of unoccupied anion sites behind which then will be occupied by anion vacancies. This state of solid is non-stoichiometric mix.
Refs.

http://www.chem.ox.ac.uk/vrchemistry/solid/Page17.htm
www.wikipedia.com

Kirkendall effect

2009-02-15T18:56:00.001+03:30

Kirkendall effect refers to the rate of diffusion of components of alloy and a metal. Eg. if molybdenum signifies as marker of diffusion between copper and brass (copper-zinc alloy) – molybdenum will direct diffusion toward the alloy brass, since zinc is more rapidly diffused than copper. This effect has significant effects on creation of voids that are formed at the interfaces of alloys and metals, and are called kirkendall voids. Kirkendall effect in wire bonding technology was demonstrated to show importance of impurities. And that was for the rate of impurities in forming precipitation at the wire bonds, where voids in intermetallics were formed following the difference between diffusion rates of two metals. These voids would cause weakness and would develop in numbers when heat applied. Nanoscale hollow structures can grow according to Kirkendall effect that demonstrates the influence of surface diffusion on the morphology evolution. The influence is based on counterdiffusion at the reaction interfaces. There was observation that after formation of voids the second stage of surface diffusion follows that show rapid growth of fast diffusing material along the pore surface.

Fan Influence of surface diffusion on the formation of hollow nanostructures induced by the Kirkendall effect: the basic concept, Nano letter, 2007 Apr. vol 7 (4): pp993-7
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17381161
Yin, Formation of hollow nanocrystals through the nanoscale Kirkendall effect, Science, 2004 Apr 30, 304 (5671), pp 711-4

http://nepp.nasa.gov/wirebond/horsting%20analysis.htm

http://www.wikipedia.com

The Discovery and Acceptance of the Kirkendall Effect: The Result of a Short Research Career, http://www.tms.org/pubs/journals/JOM/9706/Nakajima-9706.html

Mesoporous single-crystal nanowires

2009-02-14T21:28:00.000+03:30

Porous materials have a wide variety of applications in bioengineering, catalysis, environmental engineering, and sensor systems because of their high surface-to-volume ratio. Normally, most of these mesoporous structures are composed of amorphous materials and porosity is achieved by solvent-based organic or inorganic reactions. There are few reports of mesoporous structures based on crystalline material. We have reported a novel wurtzite ZnO nanowire structure that is a single crystal but is composed of mesoporous walls/volumes. The synthesis is based on a modified solid-vapour process. ZnO nanowires grown on a Si substrate coated with a thin layer of Sn catalyst, the typical length of the nanowires varies from 100 μm to 1 mm and the diameter mask and self-assembled submicron spheres. We have combined this self-assembly-based mask technique with the surface epitaxial approach to grow large-area hexagonal arrays of aligned ZnO nanorods. The synthesis process involves three main steps. The hexagonally patterned ZnO nanorod arrays are grown on a single-crystal Al2O3 substrate on which patterned Au catalyst particles have been dispersed. First, a two-dimensional, large area, self-assembled and ordered monolayer of submicron polystyrene spheres is introduced onto the single-crystal Al2O3 substrate. Second, a thin layer of Au particles is deposited onto the self-assembled monolayer; the spheres are then etched away, leaving a patterned Au catalyst array. Finally, nanowires are grown on the substrate using the VLS process. The spatial distribution of the catalyst particles determines the pattern of the nanowires. This step can be achieved using a variety of mask technologies for producing complex configurations. By choosing the optimum match between the substrate lattice and the nanowires, the epitaxial orientation relationship is in the range of 50-500 nm. The porous structure of ZNO:

(0001) zno || (001) zn2sio4, [2110]zno||[100]zn2sio4

A corresponding electron diffraction pattern from the nanowire presents two sets of structures.
the formation of Zn2SiO4 on the surface of the nanowires with an epitaxial orientation relationship as follows, Zn2SiO4 is formed on the surface of the Si substrate, but covers only a fraction of the surface area because of the large lattice mismatch with ZnO. As a result, resublimation of ZnO in the nanowire forms the mesoporous structure. The high porosity, single-crystal wire-like structures have potential applications as filters, catalyst supports, and gas sensors.

In ZNO the nanostructures can have novel applications in optoelectronics, sensors, transducers, and biomedical science because it is bio-safe.

Wang, Nanostructures of Zinc Oxide, Materials Today, Volume 7, Issue 6, June 2004, Pages 26-33

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6X1J-4CCCNYB-12&_user=10&_coverDate=06%2F30%2F2004&_rdoc=1&_fmt=full&_orig=search&_cdi=7244&_sort=d&_docanchor=&view=c&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=242cabdfdaea486f1589b862581a05e1#toc4

Quantum Networks & Faster nanowires

2009-02-14T19:03:00.003+03:30

Mesoscopic systems and large molecules are often modeled by graphs of one-dimensional wires connected at vertices. In this paper, we discuss the solutions of the Schrodinger equation on such graphs, which have been named "quantum networks". Such solutions are needed for finding the energy spectrum of single electrons on such finite systems or for finding the transmission of electrons between leads which connect such systems to reservoirs. Specifically, we compare two common approaches. In the "continuum" approach, one solves the one-dimensional Schrodinger equation on each continuous wire and then uses the Neumann-Kirchoff-de Gennes matching conditions at the vertices. Alternatively, one replaces each wire by a finite number of "atoms" and then uses the tight binding model for the solution. Here, we show that these approaches cannot generally give the same results, except for special energies, unless the lattice constant of the tight binding model tends to zero. Even in the limit of the vanishing lattice constant, the two approaches coincide only if the tight binding parameters obey very special relations. The different consequences of the two approaches are then demonstrated via the example of a T-shaped scatterer.

Aharony et al: J Phys Chem B. 2008 Nov 24.

Electricity moves through nanowires very differently from ordinary electrical wires. "If you add electrons to a typical metal wire, a domino effect moves them along the wire until they dump out the other end," says Chidsey. The electrons in metal wire move at a constant speed as they bump each other across the wire. Cut the length of a metal wire in half and it will take half as long for electrons to pass through it.

But organic nanowires don't conduct electricity that way. The rate of speed increases exponentially as the wires get shorter. For example, a 3-nanometer wire of OPV would conduct 950 times faster than a wire that's twice as long. That's because instead of bumping each other across the wire domino style, electrons "tunnel" through nanowires. When they tunnel, electrons bypass barriers they normally would not be able to climb without violating the law of conservation of energy. The chance they'll make it through to the other side drops exponentially with distance.

The OPV nanowire allows tunneling to occur relatively easily. In computer chips, tunneling is mostly a bad thing, Chidsey says: When electrons tunnel through a thin insulator around a circuit, they may cause it to short out. "I'm interested in seeing if we can understand and get control over tunneling through molecules," he says. And if he succeeds, tunneling may get a better reputation in electronics, as it may be harnessed for moving electrons between nanostructures.

http://www.stanford.edu/dept/news/pr/01/nanowire314.html

Self-Organized Ultrathin Oxide Nanocrystals

2009-02-14T19:02:00.000+03:30

Uniform ultrathin nanorods were grown in a self assembled fashion by the use of surfactants such as oleylamine and oleic acid that acted as nanocrystal capping as well as directing agent. A 1-2 nm nanocrystal was syntheses using 0.5 g of titanium isopropoxide or titanium butoxide dissolved in dry octadecene 18g and oleic acid 16g under 80C for approx 4 hours. After adding 7 g of oleylamin to this mix, it was heated at 260 C under a nitrogen atmosphere and then cooled to room temp and used centrifugation at 2000 rpm for 10 min to separate the ribbon like structures from the bulk. It was shown by EDS analysis that these were ultrathin TiO2 nanorods 2nm x 20 nm growing spantenously along the c axis, and orderly stacked together side by side without the need of any post processing.
Same synthetic method was applied to ZnO quantum rods generated from ordinary acetate precursors – was further developed with cooperative growth/assembly hypothesis to synthesize transition metal oxide nanowires with sub-2-nm dimension. Mesoscopic oxide nanocrystals were spontaneously formed as ribbon like superstructures. The process involved complexion of precursor species with surfactants that would grow metal-surfactant-monomers. After high temperature it turned into metal oxygen network through an ester elimination process. NRs were then evolved from the layered mesostructures, then disrupted , to allow for nanorods to spontaneously self assemble as 1D superstructures.
• Motte,L., Billoudet,F., Lacaze,E. & Pileni,M. P. Self-organization of size-selected nanoparticles into three-dimensional superlattices. Adv. Mater. 8, 1018–1020 (1996). | ISI | ChemPort |
• Sager,W. F. C. Controlled formation of nanoparticles from microemulsions. Curr. Opin. Colloid Interf. Sci. 3, 276–283 (1998). | ISI | ChemPort |

the truth is fractal and far from simple

2009-02-13T17:32:00.001+03:30

To better understand growth mechanism (and defusion), examining thin film deposition interfaces growth leads us to features that have tendency towards spherical symmetry as in fractal curves, similar to many growing interfaces in nature and biology such as fluid flow in porous media, adatom and vacancy islands on surfaces, atoms at borders of crystalline facets, bacterial growth, wetting fronts, etc. Their geometry evolves exponentially – that is a matter of great concern in scaling which is dynamic in nature. Surface diffusion show transition from smooth to unstable growth. Some studies prove initial stability of ordered structures in growth may result in instability at longer times which ends to epitaxial breakdown. Such dynamism in growth has great implications in medicine, such as tumour growth and in semiconductors as it concerns crystal growth. It may have implications on self assembly methods.

http://www.ox.ac.uk/media/science_blog/080328.html

Ref.:
Carlos Escudero, Dynamic Scaling of Non-Euclidean Interfaces, Physical Review Letters, Vol 100, 116101 (21 March 2008)
http://scitation.aip.org/getpdf/servlet/GetPDFServlet?filetype=pdf&id=PRLTAO000100000011116101000001&idtype=cvips&prog=normal
Haselwandlter C A, Renormalization of stochastic lattice models: Epitaxial surfaces; ISI Web of Knowledge; Physical Review E, Vol 77 Issue 6, June 2008
Escudero C, Geometric principles of surface growth, PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS Volume: 101 Issue: 19

Calcinid flints as white as flower

2009-02-04T14:35:00.002+03:30

Robert Hooke recorded in his diary for July 29 1673 : "with Dr [Christopher] Wren to the new Glashouse at the Savoy. Saw calcind flints as white as flower, Borax, Niter and tarter, with which he [Ravenscroft] made his glasse he denyd to use arsenick he shewd pretty representations of Agates by glasse etc.”

The Diary of Robert Hooke, M A M D, F.R.S. 1672-1680 ed. Henry W. Robinson and Walter Adams (London 1935), p 53. see also ibid p 89.

Changes in the glass industry were slow with mold-blowing still practiced in similar fashion. L M Angus-Butterworth, author of Chapter 12 (pp 358-378), does well to concentrate on the various processes used in making lenses, tubing, rod, mirrors, and window glass rather than on domestic ware which, being eagerly sought by collectors, has always received a disproportionate amount of publicity. He also gives a useful section on coloured glasses. The curiosities of industry and applied sciences by George Dodd – London, 1852. the plate-Glass-Book by a glasshouse clerk , London 1771; treatise on the origin, progressive improvement and present state of the manufacture of porcelain and glass, by G R Porter London; the crown glass cutter and glazier’s manual, by William Cooper, Edinburg, 1835; and treatise on the Art of Glass Making, by William Gillinder, Birmingham, 1851.

Anotnio Neri, at the beginning of 17th century; The Art of Glass, 1662

Colorimetric Screening

2009-02-04T14:33:00.000+03:30

Probes were prepared by functionalizing two separate batches of 13-nm gold particles with two different thiolmodified oligonucleotide strands, DNA-1 (5’-CTCCCTAATAACAATTTATAACTATTCCTA- A10-SH-3’) and DNA-2(5’-TAGGAATAGTTATAAATTGTTATTAGGGAG-A10- SH-3’). These functionalized particles are denoted DNAAuNP-1 and DNA-AuNP-2. DNA-1 and DNA-2 are complementary to each other. Therefore, DNA-AuNP-1 and DNA-AuNP-2 can hybridize to form a cross-linked network
of nanoparticles, which is purple in color owing to the redshifted plasmon band of the gold nanoparticles (13 nm). This red-shifting is a well-understood process and is a highly diagnostic feature of aggregate formation.[11] These aggregates can then be used as colorimetric indicators of endonuclease activity (Scheme 1). As the endonuclease degrades the DNA-duplex interconnects, particles are released, regenerating a red color due to the dispersed nanoparticles. The color can be observed with the naked eye, or the absorbance (520 nm) can be measured by UV/Vis spectroscopy.
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/fulltext/114202374/PDFSTART

Atomistic visualization of deformation in gold

2009-01-24T22:32:00.000+03:30

Atomistic visualization of deformation in gold

A mechanical force acting on a solid causes deformation and fracture. These two processes are closely related to several fields of technology and have been studied for a long time by scientists and engineers. In particular, the elucidation of the deformation process and its mechanism has been a fundamental subject in solid-state physics and metallurgy. Various types of deformation mechanisms have been proposed from mechanical tests and structure analyses, for example, dislocation mechanisms,1–3 twinning,4–6 and grain boundary sliding.7,8 All of these mechanisms have been explained using atomistic models. According to these models, deformation proceeds through generation, multiplication, growth, and annihilation of line- and plane-type internal lattice defects, such as dislocations, stacking faults, and twins. Detailed studies have been performed for the elucidation of the relations between the deformation processes and the mechanisms. Several types of transmission electron microscopy ~TEM! have played a significant role in this elucidation. For example, the structures of dislocations were investigated by conventional static TEM ~Ref. 9! and it is known that their behaviors can be analyzed by conventional dynamic TEM using cinema photography.10,11 In particular, the
behaviors were directly observed by in situ deformation and conventional dynamic TEM.12,13 The electron-irradiated induced motions of twins in gold thin films14 and gold clusters,15 and surfaces and stacking faults in cadmium telluride16,17 were also observed at an atomic level by dynamic high-resolution TEM ~DHRTEM! using television camera and video tape recording systems. The deformation process, however, has not been directly observed in real space on an atomic scale and the elemental atomic processes in deformation have still not been clarified. A different type of microscopy is required in order to investigate the atomic processes: DHRTEM using a television camera and video tape recording system with a piezodriving specimen holder is expected to be the optimum method to analyze the atomic process of deformation.18,19 The purpose of the present study is to elucidate the atomic processes of mechanical deformation in gold by direct atomistic visualization by DHRTEM. EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURES A piezodriving specimen holder for a transmission electron microscope was developed for subnanometer scale mechanical deformation and in situ observations. Figure 1 is an illustration of the specimen holder. The mobile side is connected with a pipe-type piezoelectric device for fine displacement and a microscrew motor for coarse displacement. The specimen on the mobile side is mounted on the tip of a lever connected with the piezodevice. The mobile side are displaced along the x direction from 0 to 1 mm by the motor. The fine displacement along the x direction is controlled by homogeneous elongation and shrinkage of the piezodevice. The fine displacements along the y and z directions are controlled by elongation and shrinkage on one side of the pipe. Resolution of the fine displacement by the piezodevice is less than 0.16 nm along the x direction and 0.22 nm along the y and z directions. Piezodriving methods are used for the displacement of scanning needles in several combination-type microscopes of reflection electron microscopy and scanning tunneling microscopy ~STM!, or TEM and STM.

PHYSICAL REVIEW B VOLUME 57, NUMBER 18 1 MAY 1998-II 0163

The Lincoln Inaugural Bible

2009-01-20T20:42:00.000+03:30

Oxford is playing a key role in a historical event today – as President-Elect Barack Obama takes the oath of office on a Bible published by Oxford University Press.

In addition to this, a number of Oxford University alumni will be playing key roles in President Obama’s new team.

Today (20 January 2009), President-Elect Obama will swear on the Lincoln Inaugural Bible – the same one upon which Abraham Lincoln swore March 4, 1861, to uphold the Constitution.

The 1,280-page Bible was published in 1853 by the Oxford University Press, and was originally purchased by William Thomas Carroll, Clerk of the Supreme Court.

The Bible itself is bound in burgundy velvet with a gold-washed white metal rim around the three outside edges of both covers. Its edges are all heavily gilt. In the centre of the top cover is a shield of gold wash over white metal with the words "Holy Bible" set into it. The book is 15 cm long, 10 cm wide, and 4.5 cm deep when closed.

In the back of the volume, along with the seal of the Supreme Court, it is annotated: ‘I, William Thomas Carroll, clerk of the said court, do hereby certify that the preceding copy of the Holy Bible is that upon which the Hon. R. B. Taney, Chief Justice of the said Court, administered to His Excellency, Abraham Lincoln, the oath of office as President of the United States ...'

Today’s inauguration is even more historic than Lincoln’s remarkable swearing-in, almost 150 years ago. On that occasion, the oath of office was administered by Chief Justice Roger Brooke Taney, then 84 years old. As the author of the infamous "Dred Scott" decision of 1857, which held in part that Congress did not have the power to abolish slavery in the territories, Taney was no friend to Lincoln or the cause of emancipation. In the Inaugural Address which followed, President Lincoln appealed to his countrymen to follow ‘the better angels of our nature.’

In addition to the OUP-published Bible playing such a key role, there are also a number of Oxonians in President Obama’s team. Dr Susan Rice (New College, 1986), who will be the Ambassador to the UN, has an MPhil and DPhil in International Relations from Oxford. Michèle Flournoy (Balliol College, 1983), Under Secretary of Defense (Policy), also holds an MLitt in International Relations. And Retired Admiral Dennis C Blair (Worcester College, 1968), Director of National Intelligence, has a BA in Modern History and Modern Languages (Russian). Finally Oxford Professor Diana Liverman was appointed to the new committee on ‘America’s Climate Choices’ convened by the US National Academies at the request of Congress, to advise the Government on responses to climate change.

http://www.ox.ac.uk/media/news_stories/2009/090120_2.html

Feynman's Path Integral Formulation

2009-01-18T18:13:00.002+03:30

The path integral formulation of quantum mechanics is a description of quantum theory which generalizes the action principle of classical mechanics. It replaces the classical notion of a single, unique trajectory for a system with a sum, or functional integral, over an infinity of possible trajectories to compute a quantum amplitude.

The path integral formulation was developed in 1948 by Richard Feynman. Some preliminaries were worked out earlier, in the course of his doctoral thesis work with John Archibald Wheeler.

This formulation has proved crucial to the subsequent development of theoretical physics, since it provided the basis for the grand synthesis of the 1970s which unified quantum field theory with statistical mechanics (see the first three textbooks below). If we realize that the Schrödinger equation is essentially a diffusion equation with an imaginary diffusion constant, then the path integral is a method for summing up all possible of random walks.

wikipedia.com

Caging Schrödinger's Cat - Quantum Nanotechnology3-Dec-2008

Weird new possibilities emerge as we explore the nanoworld, the universe at the length scale of a billionth of a metre. Here the theory of quantum mechanics bewilders our everyday common sense, as Erwin Schrödinger famously expressed when he imagined a cat that was both dead and alive at the same time! Now Dr Simon Benjamin shows us how experts in physics, chemistry and materials science are working together to harness this strange reality. Underlying their research is the promise of building what may be the most exotic and powerful technology ever conceived: the quantum computer.

Simon Benjamin, Oxford University
http://media.podcasts.ox.ac.uk/mat/nanotechnology/quantum4-medium-video.mp4?CAMEFROM=podcastsGET

Poisson Bracket

In mathematics and classical mechanics, the Poisson bracket is an important operator in Hamiltonian mechanics, playing a central role in the definition of the time-evolution of a dynamical system in the Hamiltonian formulation. In a more general setting, the Poisson bracket is used to define a Poisson algebra, of which the Poisson manifolds are a special case. These are all named in honour of Siméon-Denis Poisson.

Wikipedia

Gold nanoparticles in glass

2009-01-18T17:31:00.001+03:30

Sphere gold particles 25 nm, in glass reflect red
Sphere gold particles 50 nm, in glass reflect green
Sphere gold particles 100 nm, in glass reflect orange
Sphere silver particles 100nm in glass reflect yellow
Sphere silver particles 40 nm in glass reflect blue
Prism shape silver particles 100 nm, in glass reflect red

http://mrsec.wisc.edu/Edetc/SlideShow/slides/quantum_dot/stained_glass.html

Measurement of temperatur for glasses

In contrast to the viscosity the thermal expansion, heat capacity, and many other properties of inorganic glasses show a relatively sudden change at the glass transition temperature. This effect is used for measurement by Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and dilatometry.

The viscosity at the glass transition temperature depends on the sample preparation (especially the cooling curve), the heating or cooling curve during measurement and the chemical composition.[4] In general, the glass transition temperature is close to the annealing point of glasses at 1013 poise = 1012 Pa·s. For dilatometric measurements heating rates of 3-5 K/min are common, for DSC measurements 10 K/min, considering that the heating rate during measurement should equal the cooling rate during sample preparation.

www.Wikipedia.com

O. V. Mazurin, Yu. V. Gankin: "Glass transition temperature: problems of measurements and analysis of the existing data"; Proceedings, International Congress on Glass, July 1-6, 2007, Strasbourg, France.

Important medieval records to go online

2009-01-16T21:22:00.000+03:30

The most important unpublished records of the Hundred Years War, the Gascon Rolls, will be made available to academic researchers and the general public, thanks to a project led by Oxford.

Academics from Oxford are collaborating with the University of Liverpool and King’s College London on the initiative and have been funded almost three-quarters of a million pounds by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. The National Archives and The Ranulf Higden Society are also co-operating in the project.

The Hundred Years War is a significant era of history, which ended after a massive defeat by the French of an English army on a battlefield at Castillon, near Bordeaux. This terminated three hundred years of English rule in southwest France and the end of England’s rule as a continental European land power.

Dr Malcolm Vale, of St John’s College, said: 'The history of the old emnity between England and France today still arouses interest and, in some quarters, passion. Its origins lay in the Middle Ages, and some parts of the story have not yet been fully told. One phase of the conflict - now known as the Hundred Years War (1337-1453) - was provoked and fuelled by English claims to hold overseas territories, particularly the duchy of Aquitaine.

‘This research project aims to make available the most important unpublished documentary source for that war, its prelude, course and aftermath so we can arrive at a better understanding of how and why relations between the two countries deteriorated, leading to a century-long conflict. Its consequences have resonances even today - in, for example, the Joan of Arc story and the mythologies, which have grown up around it on both sides of the Channel. This project will make an important contribution to international scholarship and to the history of a region of France with which British connections have always been close.'

There are 113 unpublished manuscripts, covering the years 1317 to 1468, which are currently held in the National Archives in London. They contain copies of letters, grants and many other documents mostly written in Latin, and will be published in English summaries in on-line and printed form. The work of the project will be highly innovative producing a resource which will include on-line indices, a search function and the facility to view both images and text within a highly sophisticated and interconnected framework. It is expected to take three years to complete the project.

Dr Vale is the project’s director, and Paul Booth, of the University of Liverpool, co-director. They will work with two post-doctoral researchers, from Oxford and Liverpool, to read, translate, and summarise the entries on the rolls. The Centre for Computing in the Humanities at King's College London will develop the technical framework.

Finally, The Ranulf Higden Society, a group of experienced, independent researchers, will produce a full edition (text and translation) of the roll for 1337-38, which covers the outbreak of the Hundred Years War.

www.ox.ac.uk/media

Diagrammatic Monte Carlo Method

2009-01-16T19:26:00.001+03:30

In an exciton, the electron and the hole are bound together by an electric attraction-known as the Coulomb force-in a fashion very similar to that of an electron and a positron in a hydrogen atom. The presence of the host lattice and its thermal and magnetic excitations that consist of phonons and magnons, respectively-known collectively as the ‘bosonic’ field-can affect the excitons considerably.

The researchers, including Andrei Mishchenko from the RIKEN Advanced Science Institute in Wako, aimed to develop a technique to study the excitons’ interaction with phonons in an exact way. In particular, they focused on taking into consideration the fact that phonons do not act instantaneously as occurs in the Coulomb attraction. “Previously, the only way to treat the exchange [between electrons and holes] by bosons was an instantaneous approximation, where the influence of particle–boson interaction was included into the model by renormalization of the instantaneous coupling,” explains Mishchenko.

Mishchenko and colleagues’ technique is known as a Diagrammatic Monte Carlo Method and is based on the diagrams that the Nobel laureate Richard Feynman introduced to quantum field theory. The method per se existed already and was normally used with all variables expressed as a function of spatial coordinates. This, however, limits the size of the area that can be examined in a calculation. The team therefore formulated the algorithm for momentum space. This provides the “possibility to overcome the limitation of the direct space method [for] finite systems and handle the problem [in] a macroscopic system,” says Mishchenko.

Like any new theoretical method, the team’s numerical technique must be compared with known scenarios to verify its validity, so Mishchenko and colleagues used it to study excitons with different values for the electron and hole masses. They found very good agreement with previous theories within the limit in which it is reasonable to neglect any retardation effect. Importantly however, the results show that in standard conditions it is incorrect to neglect the retardation.

As Mishchenko explains: “Our ‘free-from-approximations’ results show that the domain of validity of the instantaneous approximation is very limited.”

*Burovski, E., Fehske, H. & Mishchenko, A.S. Exact Treatment of Exciton-Polaron Formation by Diagrammatic Monte Carlo Simulations. Physical Review Letters 101, 116403 (2008).

The Wiedemann-Franz law: When you are static and cold, you have more of electric conductivity in you. That is because electrons transportation properties diminish by velocity because of higher collisions between electrons. The same is true for heat, which increase collisions of electrons hence decrease their conductivity. Electric conduction depends on free electrons moving in one direction. the Wiedemann and Franz proved that proportionality of thermal and electric conductivity is the same for all metals at the same temperature.

Thermal conductivity / electric conductivity = Temperature x Constant L
K/ σ = L T (1)

There is difficulty in nano-scale materials to conduct electrical measurements. But STM with a fixed tip (2) has been used to measure conductivity. Also electrostatic force microscopy EFM that applies voltage between the tip and the sample made image of local charge domains on a sample surface. (3) Resistance to electrical conductivity decrease with size because of improved order and lesser amount of defects in the lattice, p (resistance) = 1/ σ (4) But scattering of free electrons on the nanosurfaces may have adverse effect on electric conductivity.

(1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiedemann-Franz_law
(2) Kelsall et al, 2007, Nanoscale science and technology, Willey, p 126
(3) Kelsall et al, 2007, Nanoscale science and technology, Willey, p 92
(4) Owens et al, 2007, The physics and chemistry of Nanosolids, p 81

- Jones, William; March, Norman H. (1985). Theoretical Solid State Physics. Courier Dover Publications.

The Casimir force

2009-01-16T19:24:00.000+03:30

When two uncharged objects are placed in a vacuum with no external fields, we wouldn’t expect them to have any force between them other than gravity. Quantum electrodynamics says otherwise. It shows that tiny quantum oscillations in the vacuum will give rise to an attraction called the Casimir force.

Scientists at the RIKEN Advanced Science Institute in Wako, and co-workers at the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (NASU), have shown for the first time that the Casimir force has a complex dependence on temperature. They propose a related experiment that could clarify the theory around this important interaction, which has widespread applications in physics and astronomy, and could eventually be exploited in nano-sized electrical and mechanical systems.

“The Casimir force is one of the most interesting macroscopic effects of vacuum oscillations in a quantum electromagnetic field,” says Franco Nori from RIKEN and the University of Michigan in the USA. “It arises because the presence of objects, especially conducting metals, alters the quantum fluctuations in the vacuum.”

The Casimir force was first predicted in 1948, but has only recently been measured in the laboratory because experiments are difficult—the force is negligible except when the distance between objects is very small. More experiments are needed to understand how the force depends on temperature, an important practical consideration.

“As the temperature increases, metal objects in a vacuum experience two competing effects,” explains Sergey Savel’ev from RIKEN and Loughborough University in the UK. “They lose some of their electrical conductivity, which tends to cause a decrease in the Casimir force. At the same time they are bombarded with more radiation pressure from the thermal heat waves, and this increases the Casimir force.”

Nori and co-workers derived the temperature dependence for Casimir attractions between a thin film and a thick flat plate, and between a thin film and a large metal sphere. They found that the Casimir force will tend to decrease near room temperature, but can increase again at higher temperatures as the thermal radiation effects take over.

RIKEN’s Valery Yampol’skii, who also works at NASU, says that “if these temperature effects were observed in an experiment, they would resolve some fundamental questions about electron relaxation in a vacuum”. Such an experiment would be near-impossible with pieces of bulk metal, but could be done using extremely thin metal films.

Yampol’skii, V.A., Savel’ev, S., Mayselis, Z.A., Apostolov, S.S. & Nori, F. Anomalous temperature dependence of the Casimir force for thin metal films. Physical Review Letters 101, 096803 (2008).

http://www.azonano.com/news.asp?newsID=9452

Coloured glass

2009-01-16T17:43:00.001+03:30

Colour in glass may be obtained by addition of coloring ions that are homogeneously distributed and by precipitation of finely dispersed particles (such as in photochromic glasses).[6] Ordinary soda-lime glass appears colorless to the naked eye when it is thin, although iron(II) oxide (FeO) impurities of up to 0.1 wt%[27] produce a green tint which can be viewed in thick pieces or with the aid of scientific instruments. Further FeO and Cr2O3 additions may be used for the production of green bottles. Sulfur, together with carbon and iron salts, is used to form iron polysulfides and produce amber glass ranging from yellowish to almost black.[38] Manganese dioxide can be added in small amounts to remove the green tint given by iron(II) oxide.

Wikipedia

John Dalton's Vision of Colours

In 1794, shortly after his arrival in Manchester, Dalton was elected a member of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society, the "Lit & Phil", and a few weeks later he communicated his first paper on "Extraordinary facts relating to the vision of colours", in which he postulated that shortage in colour perception was caused by discolouration of the liquid medium of the eyeball. In fact, a shortage of colour perception in some people had not even been formally described or officially noticed until Dalton wrote about his own. Although Dalton's theory lost credence in his own lifetime, the thorough and methodical nature of his research into his own visual problem was so broadly recognized that Daltonism became a common term for colour blindness. Examination of his preserved eyeball in 1995 demonstrated that Dalton actually had a less common kind of colour blindness, deuteroanopia, in which medium wavelength sensitive cones are missing (rather than functioning with a mutated form of their pigment, as in the most common type of colour blindness, deuteroanomaly). Besides the blue and purple of the spectrum he was able to recognize only one colour, yellow, or, as he says in his paper,

that part of the image which others call red appears to me little more than a shade or defect of light. After that the orange, yellow and green seem one colour which descends pretty uniformly from an intense to a rare yellow, making what I should call different shades of yellow.

This paper was followed by many others on diverse topics on rain and dew and the origin of springs, on heat, the colour of the sky, steam, the auxiliary verbs and participles of the English language and the reflection and refraction of light.

Valency bonds (Combining power)

In chemistry, valence bond theory is one of two basic theories, along with molecular orbital theory, that developed to use the methods of quantum mechanics to explain chemical bonding. It focuses on how the atomic orbitals of the dissociated atoms combine on molecular formation to give individual chemical bonds. In contrast, molecular orbital theory has orbitals that cover the whole molecule.[1]

In 1916, G.N. Lewis proposed that a chemical bond forms by the interaction of two shared bonding electrons, with the representation of molecules as Lewis structures. In 1927 the Heitler-London theory was formulated which for the first time enabled the calculation of bonding properties of the hydrogen molecule H2 based on quantum mechanical considerations. Specifically, Walter Heitler determined how to use Schrödinger’s wave equation (1925) to show how two hydrogen atom wavefunctions join together, with plus, minus, and exchange terms, to form a covalent bond. He then called up his associate Fritz London and they worked out the details of the theory over the course of the night.[2] Later, Linus Pauling used the pair bonding ideas of Lewis together with Heitler-London theory to develop two other key concepts in VB theory: resonance (1928) and orbital hybridization (1930). According to Charles Coulson, author of the noted 1952 book Valence, this period marks the start of “modern valence bond theory”, as contrasted with older valence bond theories, which are essentially electronic theories of valence couched in pre-wave-mechanical terms.

....The exact inception, however, of the theory of chemical valencies can be traced to an 1852 paper by Edward Frankland, in which he combined the older theories of free radicals and “type theory” with thoughts on chemical affinity to show that certain elements have the tendency to combine with other elements to form compounds containing 3, i.e. in the three atom groups (e.g. NO3, NH3, NI3, etc.) or 5, i.e. in the five atom groups (e.g. NO5, NH4O, PO5, etc.), equivalents of the attached elements. It is in this manner, according to Franklin, that their affinities are best satisfied. Following these examples and postulates, Franklin declares how obvious it is that:[3]
“ A tendency or law prevails (here), and that, no matter what the characters of the uniting atoms may be, the combining power of the attracting element, if I may be allowed the term, is always satisfied by the same number of these atoms. ”

This “combining power” was afterwards called quantivalence or valency (and valence by American chemists).

1- Murrel, J. N.; S. F. Tedder (1985). The Chemical Bond. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 0-471-90759-6.
2- Partington, J.R. (1989). A Short History of Chemistry. Dover Publications, Inc. ISBN 0-486-65977-1.
3- Franklin, E. (1852). Phil. Trans., vol. cxlii, 417.

Economic shock

2009-01-15T20:11:00.000+03:30

As many as one million working-age men died due to the economic shock of mass privatisation policies followed by post-communist countries in the 1990s, according to a new study published in The Lancet.

The Oxford-led study measured the relationship between death rates and the pace and scale of privatisation in 25 countries in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, dating back to the early 1990s. They found that mass privatisation came at a human cost: with an average surge in the number of deaths of 13 per cent or the equivalent of about one million lives.

The rapid privatisation programme, part of a plan known by economists as ‘shock therapy’, led to a 56 per cent increase in unemployment, which the study says played an important role in explaining why privatisation claimed so many lives. Many employers provided extensive health and social care for their employees, so through privatisation workers experienced the ‘double whammy’ of losing not only their livelihood but also their means of surviving the crisis.

David Stuckler from Oxford, and colleagues Dr Lawrence King from Cambridge University and Professor Martin McKee, from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, took death rates reported by the World Heath Organisation for men of working age (15-59 years) in 25 post-communist countries and compared them to the timing and extent of participation in mass privatisation and other transition policies.

The team took into account other factors that might affect rising death rates (such as economic depression, initial conditions and health infrastructure). They also examined other measures of privatisation from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, a bank which gave loans in support of radical mass privatisation.

www.ox.ac.uk/media

AFM

2009-01-15T20:06:00.003+03:30

In 1986, Gerd Binnig and Heinrich Rohrer shared the Nobel Prize in Physics “for their design of the scanning tunnelling microscope”. World of possibility. The AFM has inspired a variety of other scanning probe techniques.

Atomic force microscopy Getting a feeling for the nanoworld
Nature Nanotechnology News and Views (01 Aug 2007)

Nanomedicine Elastic clues in cancer detection
Nature Nanotechnology News and Views (01 Dec 2007)

AFMs can, however, image the topography of a surface much faster than they can map forces, and instruments that are capable of video-rate imaging will soon be available1, 2, 3. Although methods such as pulsed-force-mode AFM4 now permit much faster force measurements, we cannot even begin to dream of mapping mechanical forces with nanoindentation at this rate. However, we can try to gain similar information about mechanical forces from dynamic AFM and the other high-speed techniques that are used for imaging. In the amplitude modulation or 'tapping' mode of dynamic AFM, the tip is attached to a long cantilever that oscillates (with an amplitude of a few nanometres) at or near the resonance frequency of the cantilever. During each cycle the tip gently touches the surface, in effect performing a full nanoindentation cycle.

STARK R. Atomic force microscopy: Getting a feeling for the nanoworld, Nature Nanotechnology 2, 461-462 (2007)

Yamanaka, K., Ogiso, H. & Kolosov, O. Ultrasonic force microscopy for nanometer resolution subsurface imaging. Appl. Phys. Lett. 64, 178–180

Maivald, P.et al. 1991, Using force modulation to image surface elasticities with the atomic force microscope. Nanotechnology 2, 103

Ge, S.et al. 2000, Shear modulation force microscopy study of near surface glass transition temperatures. Phys. Rev. Lett. 85, 2340–2343Dinelli, F., Buenviaje, C. &

Overney, R. M. Glass transition measurements on heterogeneous surfaces. Thin Solid Films 396, 138–144 (2001).

Experimental and theoretical investigations of processes at surfaces have developed by measuring and analysing forces and properties of surfaces, films and interfacial phenomena in nanostructures. Microscopes such as scanning tunnelling with the sharp tip instead of lenses entered the nanoworld since 1981. In Scanning Tunnelling Microscope STM wavefunctions of electrons on the tip were overlapped by the ones of atoms of the surface. An atomic difference of distance between the tip and the surface changes the tunnelling current exponentially. The initial introduction to Scanning Tunnelling Microscopy entitled “Tunnelling through a controllable vacuum gap”, was published in Applied Physics Letters, in January 1982. (1) Atomic Force Microscopy AFM detects chemical interaction forces by measuring repulsion of atoms between the tip apex of microscope and a conductive surface vertically. AFM experiments initiated by scientists in IBM and Stanford in 1986 involve analysis of surface, topography, bonding, resistance, corrosion, friction, lubricant-film thickness, and mechanical properties at nanoscale.

Binnig, G., Rohrer, H., Gerber, Ch. & Weibel, E. App. Phys. Lett. 40, 178–180 (1982).
-Gerber Christoph et al, How the Doors to the Nanoworld Were Opened, Nature Nanotechnology, VOL 1 | OCTOBER 2006
Hill
-Sugimoto Y et al, Complex Patterning by Vertical Interchange Atom Manipulation Using Atomic Force Microscopy, Science, 17 Oct 2008, vol 322, no 5900, pp 413 - 417
- Bhushan, B. (ed.), 1997 Micro/nanotribology and its applications (proceedings of the NATO Advanced Study Institute on Micro/Nanotribology and its Applications, held in Sesimbra, Portugal, June 16-28 1996), NATO ASI Series, Series E: Applied Sciences, vol. 330, Dordrecht; London, Kluwer Academic.

Nanotribology: to predict level of wearing and friction of devices on atomic scale, engineers from several disciplines such as mechanical, materials, and chemical engineers have conducted various tests on machine components.

Christoph Gerber How the doors to the nanoworld were opened, Nature
nature nanotechnology | VOL 1 | OCTOBER 2006 | www.nature.com/naturenanotechnology

History of AFM: in 1986, Gerd Binnig and Heinrich Rohrer shared the Nobel Prize in Physics “for their design of the scanning tunnelling microscope”.

World of possibility. The AFM (centre) has inspired a variety of other scanning probe techniques.

Originally the AFM was used to image the topography of surfaces, but by modifying the tip it is possible to measure other quantities (for example, electric and magnetic properties, chemical potentials, friction and so on), and also to perform various types of spectroscopy and analysis.

Binnig, G., Quate, C. F. & Gerber, Ch. Phys. Rev. Lett. 56, 930–933 (1986). (most quoted AFM paper 4700)

The Planck constant (denoted h), also called Planck's constant, is a physical constant used to describe the sizes of quanta in quantum mechanics. It is named after Max Planck, one of the founders of quantum theory. The Planck constant is the proportionality constant between energy (E) of a photon and the frequency of its associated electromagnetic wave (ν). This relation between the energy and frequency is called the Planck relation.

A closely related constant is the reduced Planck constant, denoted ħ ("h-bar"), which is equal to the Planck constant divided by (or reduced by) 2π. It is used when frequency is expressed in terms of radians per second instead of cycles per second. The expression of a frequency in radians per second is often called angular frequency (ω), where ω = 2πν.

The de Broglie relations
The first de Broglie equation relates the wavelength λ to the particle momentum as

where is Planck's constant, is the particle's rest mass, is the particle's velocity, is the Lorentz factor, and is the speed of light in a vacuum.
The greater the energy, the larger the frequency and the shorter (smaller) the wavelength. Given the relationship between wavelength and frequency, it follows that short wavelengths are more energetic than long wavelengths. The second de Broglie equation relates the frequency of the wave associated to a particle to the total energy of the particle such that

where is the frequency and is the total energy. The two equations are often written as

where is momentum, is the reduced Planck's constant (also known as Dirac's constant, pronounced "h-bar"), is the wavenumber, and is the angular frequency.
See the article on group velocity for detail on the argument and derivation of the de Broglie relations. Group velocity (equal to the electron's speed) should not be confused with phase velocity (equal to the product of the electron's frequency multiplied by its wavelength).
Matter wave phase
In quantum mechanics, particles also behave as waves with complex phases. By the de Broglie hypothesis, we see that
.
Using relativistic relations for energy and momentum, we have

where E is the total energy of the particle (i.e. rest energy plus kinetic energy in kinematic sense), p the momentum, γ the Lorentz factor, c the speed of light, and β the velocity as a fraction of c. The variable v can either be taken to be the velocity of the particle or the group velocity of the corresponding matter wave. See the article on group velocity for more detail. Since the particle velocity v < c for a massive particle according to special relativity, phase velocity of matter waves always exceed c, i.e.
,
and as we can see, it approaches c when the particle velocity is in the relativistic range. The superluminal phase velocity does not violate special relativity, for it doesn't carry any information. See the article on signal velocity for detail.

wikipedia

Measuring functionality of cells in quantitative manner

2009-01-10T14:49:00.003+03:30

Blue Gene project = A tiny part of the brain has been simulated by IBM in “Blue Brain” project – simulating 100,000 neurons containing 30 million connections that provide precise electrical conversations between them. IBM intend to scale it up to the real size of human brain.
If “a neuron's natural firing time is delayed by just a few milliseconds, the entire sequence of events was disrupted. The connected cells became strangers to one another.” (1) The main question remains to be answered like all other areas of systems biology – and that is about the system rather than its components! “The problem is that if you ask a hundred computational neuroscientists to build a functional model, you'll get a hundred different answers.”(1) To model functional interactions between molecules merely in one single cell of the heart, we need 10-30 giant computers such as Blue Gene. Hence, there are no enough materials available to actually enable us to simulate the entire human heart. (2) Information regarding interactions resides neither in the genome nor even in the individual proteins that genes code for. It lies at the level of protein interactions within the context of subcellular, cellular, tissue, organ, and system structures.(3) Advanced computer algorithms and hardware have made it possible to quantify these interactions between different components of cells. Computer-intensive quantitative measures of functionality are developed to the edges for providing precise quantification of systems physiology.

(1) http://seedmagazine.com/news/2008/03/out_of_the_blue.php
(2) Denise Noble, computational modelling of biological system; http://noble.physiol.ox.ac.uk/People/DNoble/
(3) Modelling the heart from genes to cells up to the whole organs; http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/295/5560/1678

Food influencing cognitive ability

2009-01-04T23:53:00.003+03:30

Brain foods: the effects of nutrients on brain function

Advances in molecular biology have revealed the ability of food-derived signals to influence energy metabolism and synaptic plasticity and, thus, mediate the effects of food on cognitive function....The omega-3 fatty acid docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), which humans mostly attain from dietary fish, can affect synaptic function and cognitive abilities by providing plasma membrane fluidity at synaptic regions. DHA constitutes more than 30% of the total phospholipid composition of plasma membranes in the brain, and thus it is crucial for maintaining membrane integrity and, consequently, neuronal excitability and synaptic function. Dietary DHA is indispensable for maintaining membrane ionic permeability and the function of transmembrane receptors that support synaptic transmission and cognitive abilities. Omega-3 fatty acids also activate energy-generating metabolic pathways that subsequently affect molecules such as brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF1). IGF1 can be produced in the liver and in skeletal muscle, as well as in the brain, and so it can convey peripheral messages to the brain in the context of diet and exercise. BDNF and IGF1 acting at presynaptic and postsynaptic receptors can activate signalling systems, such as the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) and calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II (CaMKII) systems, which facilitate synaptic transmission and support long-term potentiation that is associated with learning and memory. BDNF has also been shown to be involved in modulating synaptic plasticity and cognitive function through the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K)/Akt/ mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) signalling pathway. The activities of the mTOR and Akt signalling pathways are also modulated by metabolic signals such as insulin and leptin (not shown). 4EBP, eukaryotic translation-initiation factor 4E binding protein; CREB, cyclic AMP-responsive element (CRE)-binding protein; IGFR, insulin-like growth factor receptor; IRS1, insulin receptor substrate 1; p70S6K, p70 S6 kinase.

Brain foods: the effects of nutrients on brain function, Nature Review Neuroscience, Vol 9 July 2008

NanoKTN Announces Two Major Conferences in 2009

2009-01-02T16:49:00.000+03:30

The NanoKTN has announced it will hold two major conferences in the first quarter of 2009 in healthcare and energy.

Nano 4 Life will explore the key areas within the life sciences where nanotechnology offers the most opportunity to advance healthcare provision and improve product discovery and development.

Nano4Energy will focus on the exploitation of nano-enabled clean energy generation, storage and conversion technologies.

http://mnt.globalwatchonline.com

Biology advances into unknown

2009-01-02T16:39:00.002+03:30

Biology's Big Bang

Molecular biologists have gone from thinking that they know roughly what is going on in their subject to suddenly realising that they have barely a clue.

That might sound a step backwards; in fact, it is how science works. The analogy with physics is deeper than just that between RNA and the neutron. There is in biology at the moment a sense of barely contained expectations reminiscent of the physical sciences at the beginning of the 20th century. It is a feeling of advancing into the unknown, and that where this advance will lead is both exciting and mysterious.

Know thine enemy

As Samuel Goldwyn so wisely advised, never make predictions--especially about the future. But here is one: the analogy between 20th-century physics and 21st-century biology will continue, for both good and ill.

Physics gave two things to the 20th century. The most obvious gift was power over nature. That power was not always benign, as the atomic bomb showed. But if the 20th century was distinguished by anything from its predecessors, that distinctive feature was physical technology, from motor cars and aeroplanes to computers and the internet.

It is too early to be sure if the distinguishing feature of the 21st century will be biological technology, but there is a good chance that it will be. Simple genetic engineering is now routine; indeed, the first patent application for an artificial living organism has recently been filed (see page 96). Both the idea of such an organism and the idea that someone might own the rights to it would have been science fiction even a decade ago. And it is not merely that such things are now possible. The other driving force of technological change--necessity--is also there. Many of the big problems facing humanity are biological, or are susceptible to biological intervention. The question of how to deal with an ageing population is one example. Climate change, too, is intimately bound up with biology since it is the result of carbon dioxide going into the air faster than plants can remove it. And the risk of a new, lethal infection suddenly becoming pandemic as a result of modern transport links (see page 67) is as biological as it gets. Even the fact that such an infection might itself be the result of synthetic biology only emphasises the biological nature of future risks.

At the moment, policymakers have inadequate technological tools to deal with these questions. But it is not hard to imagine such tools. Ageing is directly biological. It probably cannot be stopped, but knowing how cells work--really knowing--will allow the process to be transformed for the better. At least part of the answer to climate change is fuel that grows, rather than fuel that is dug up. Only biotechnology can create that. And infections, pandemic or otherwise, are best dealt with by vaccines, which take a long time to develop. If cells were truly understood, that process might speed up to the point where the vaccine was ready in time to do something useful.

Economist, Biology's Big Bang, 6/16/2007, Vol. 383 Issue 8533, p13-13, 1p

Nanotechnology: Only Natural

Although, Nanoscience has created an era of rising questions on different relationships happening at nanoscale with an unknown perspective, but the pace of curiosity has only grown following the landmark support of the National Nanotechnology Initiative NNI by a politician, Bill Clinton in the year 2000. Many respectable scientists were reluctant to push the agenda forward, for the way scenarios and fairy tales were unfolding in the media. But the support from highly unexpected source for the advancement of magical technology set the agenda for science to go deep. The aim was to mobilise the scientific community to engage in further research in the small world, to uncover relationships and explore plenty of information at nanoscale.
Nanoscience raised as many questions about technology as about life itself that are related to biology (Jones R, 2004). Scanning probe microscopy techniques provided clear visibility with the prospect of watching cells doing their daily jobs. Materials in smaller size are not simply representative of their bulks. The ratio of forces of attraction (Van der Waals) becomes much powerful with active atoms exposed on the surfaces. “At atomic level we have new kind of forces” (Feynman 1959) and new kinds of effects and possibilities, including all natural programming that are at work in biology. Biology is filled with plenty of executable information already explored, with which relationships at very small scale involving 1014 atoms active in every single cell can be exposed. For instance, membrane proteins account for 50% of known drug targets (Oxford Univ research into cystic fibrosis).
With powerful support pouring continuously from official sources, media interest turned realistic. There was collective realisation that scientific researches unlike fictions are funded with sole interest in solving medical and environmental issues. Scientists are working on the problems that are threatening life, nature and the environment. No one other than fiction writers are funded or are interested to work on the fiction side of Nanotechnologies. Nanoscience, hence, found further legitimacy with recent announcement from the Dept of Industry, Universities and Skills DIUS that provided £ 1 billion fund available for R&D programmes. Equally in the US increasing investment in R&D by the government showed a rising budget-curve from $ 270 m in 2001 to 1.3 billion in 2006. More than 1500 companies were accounted for to be involved in producing nanomaterials with an annual growth rate of 25%, which reached over $ 40 Billions (Roco 2007). Elsewhere, EU investment summed up to $ 1.6 billion in 2008. Thence, Nanotechnology found the momentum. The hope is that Nanotechnologies create 2 million jobs for the skilled labour by 2015.
Nanoscale technology followed laws of nature in computing machines as well, using bottom up manufacturing with tiny wires and transistors with the objective to mimic human brains in connecting nonlinear networks. Computers ought to do magical things as they get smaller and use more complicated wiring. Consider recognising a face, which our brains readily process, not only from the same angel or for the same age, rather for recognising traces that are searchable and evoked in the brain. IBM’s research project funded by DARPA involves several universities who made it their task to build complex designed computer, namely iBrain, which is destined for problem solving rather than responding to specific questions. This is an attempt to mimic mammal brain system which translates into nonlinear computer design, in which connections are developed by sensory devices similar to that of brain that receives load of data feedbacks from various senses. One realistic use for this is particularly unprecedented, that is to gather global financial information and make smart decisions in the light of processed complex information.
Such non-linear computing machine may equally assist us in measuring algorithms of so much sought exposure risks of nanoparticles, particularly as there are competing forces present, out of which we need to calculate dominant force and direction, in order to anticipate reactivity dynamics. Nanoparticles <100nm and engineered-nanoparticles strange behaviours have become points of safety concerns, although their risk potentials are poorly understood. Larger surface area of nanoparticles that increase their reactivity with the environment may accelerate production of reactive oxygen species (ROS), including free radicals. ROS prompted is considered to cause oxidative stress which may damage proteins and membranes (Nel, 2006). But how rapidly ROS are produced, and the ratio of scale of nanomaterials in relation with the speed of ROS production is the key to the problem of toxicity measure of nanoparticles. For instance Peter Dobson from Oxford has discovered how to eliminate exposure risks of photocatalytic properties of nanotitania used in sunscreens by changing their functionality.
There are yet, loads of detailed information already available as a result of research studies conducted by drug companies on large enough population. Similarly, research findings from descriptive analysis by universities, and research organisations are plenty as well. However, there are still gaps between experimental and computational measures, in terms of quantification. Additionally, there are issues of making descriptive characterisation meaningful in diverse functionalities in order to extrapolate mechanism-based observations for the task of predictive scientific model. Likewise there are still gaps in making comparisons between various research findings that may be used for quantification and qualification of processes in system biology. For example in diabetes the measurement of blood sugar enabled people to take control of disease. For cancer there is no such marker, but the assumption is that electric devices can measure changes that affect cells to turn cancerous.

The key question is with holistic approach that considers simplifying and modelling a systemic response, some regular and repeating patterns can be drawn out from pile of information hidden in research results. Jim Heath from Caltech expresses concern that “implants of putting something in the body turned out to be a much different game even in a mouse. It is much more complicated environment that we thought”. But, the pathway of discovery is extremely rich. The skill gaps to identify exposure health and environmental risk potentials calls for similar approach. The latter has been recognised by regulatory bodies, and officials, aiming at ensuring “a high level of protection of human health and the environment”. REACH and NNI are under enormous pressure to compile Environment, Health and Safety EHS information and turn them into workable computational and statistical power for figuring out measures of human exposure toxicity.

Nonetheless, Nanoparticles have always been present in nature. “If we consider atmospheric dust alone, estimates indicate about one billion metric tons per year are produced globally” (Kellogg and Griffin 2006). http://www.springerlink.com/content/940g431151604721/.

Oxford University’s David Pyle’s multidimensional research on volcanic nanoparticles found trace-metals flying thousand miles away from the source. http://www.earth.ox.ac.uk/~davidp/

Even so, omnipresent in nature, nanoparticles require classification of whole new categories for their diverse functionality, dynamic, structure and size. These gaps are to be eventually filled by combining in vivo findings from behaviours of Nanomaterials already present in consumer goods with in vitro research results to take accurate account of nanoparticles behaviour toward life.

Nasrin Azadeh-McGuire
Post Graduate Nanotechnology,
Begbroke Science Park, Oxford University

References:

Big Picture on Nanoscience
http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/Professional-resources/Education-resources/Big-Picture/Nanoscience/index.htm

Dobson P, Centenary Lectures, University of Oxford, 6 May 2008
www.eng.ox.ac.uk/events/centenary/programme.html
www.isis-innovation.com/documents/Dobson-precisandbiographicalnote.pdf

Canton, J., 2004 'Designing the future - NBIC technologies and human performance', Coevolution of Human Potential and Converging Technologies, vol 1013, pp. 186-198.

Nanotechnology KTN, Knowledge Transfer Networks,
http://mnt.globalwatchonline.com/epicentric_portal/site/MNT?mode=0

Goddard W et al, (2007), Handbook of Nanoscience, Engineering, and Technology, Taylor & Francis

Oxford Centre for Integrative Systems Biology, OCISB, News (2008), University of Oxford leads cystic fibrosis research with Mac.
http://www.sysbio.ox.ac.uk/newsevents/index.html

Nel A, Xia T, Li N (2006). “Toxic potential of materials at the nanolevel”. Science Vol 311:622-627

Service R, Report Faults U.S. Strategy for Nanotoxicology Research, Science, Vol 322, 19 Dec 2008, p 1779, http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/322/5909/1779a

NTP (National toxicology Programme) Nanotechnology Safety Initiative,http://ntp-server.niehs.nih.gov/?objectid=7E6B19D0-BDB5-82F8-FAE73011304F542A

REACH and the regulation of nanotechnology, http://www.safenano.org/Uploads/NanoREACH.pdf

By Erika Morphy, TechNewsWorld, IBM, Academics Seek to Create a Computer That's More Like Us, http://www.technewsworld.com/story/65237.html

http://icon.rice.edu

http://www.safenano.org/nanoREACH.aspx

Prof Jim Heath at Caltech, Woodrow Wilson nano-programmes
www.nanotechproject.org
http://www.penmedia.org/podcast/nano/Podcast/Entries/2008/8/29_Episode_5_-_Creating_Tomorrows_Tools_Today.html

Increase public understanding of cognitive enhancement

2008-12-27T15:05:00.004+03:30

Towards responsible use of cognitive-enhancing drugs by the healthy, Nature, 7 Dec 2008

Today, on university campuses around the world, students are striking deals to buy and sell prescription drugs such as Adderall and Ritalin — not to get high, but to get higher grades, to provide an edge over their fellow students or to increase in some measurable way their capacity for learning. These transactions are crimes in the United States, punishable by prison.

Many people see such penalties as appropriate, and consider the use of such drugs to be cheating, unnatural or dangerous. Yet one survey1 estimated that almost 7% of students in US universities have used prescription stimulants in this way, and that on some campuses, up to 25% of students had used them in the past year. These students are early adopters of a trend that is likely to grow, and indications suggest that they're not alone2.

In this article, we propose actions that will help society accept the benefits of enhancement, given appropriate research and evolved regulation. Prescription drugs are regulated as such not for their enhancing properties but primarily for considerations of safety and potential abuse. Still, cognitive enhancement has much to offer individuals and society, and a proper societal response will involve making enhancements available while managing their risks.
Paths to enhancement

Many of the medications used to treat psychiatric and neurological conditions also improve the performance of the healthy. The drugs most commonly used for cognitive enhancement at present are stimulants, namely Ritalin (methyphenidate) and Adderall (mixed amphetamine salts), and are prescribed mainly for the treatment of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Because of their effects on the catecholamine system, these drugs increase executive functions in patients and most healthy normal people, improving their abilities to focus their attention, manipulate information in working memory and flexibly control their responses3. These drugs are widely used therapeutically. With rates of ADHD in the range of 4–7% among US college students using DSM criteria4, and stimulant medication the standard therapy, there are plenty of these drugs on campus to divert to enhancement use.

A newer drug, modafinil (Provigil), has also shown enhancement potential. Modafinil is approved for the treatment of fatigue caused by narcolepsy, sleep apnoea and shift-work sleep disorder. It is currently prescribed off label for a wide range of neuropsychiatric and other medical conditions involving fatigue5 as well as for healthy people who need to stay alert and awake when sleep deprived, such as physicians on night call6. In addition, laboratory studies have shown that modafinil enhances aspects of executive function in rested healthy adults, particularly inhibitory control7. Unlike Adderall and Ritalin, however, modafinil prescriptions are not common, and the drug is consequently rare on the college black market. But anecdotal evidence and a readers' survey both suggest that adults sometimes obtain modafinil from their physicians or online for enhancement purposes2.

A modest degree of memory enhancement is possible with the ADHD medications just mentioned as well as with medications developed for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease such as Aricept (donepezil), which raise levels of acetylcholine in the brain8. Several other compounds with different pharmacological actions are in early clinical trials, having shown positive effects on memory in healthy research subjects (see, for example, ref. 9). It is too early to know whether any of these new drugs will be proven safe and effective, but if one is it will surely be sought by healthy middle-aged and elderly people contending with normal age-related memory decline, as well as by people of all ages preparing for academic or licensure examinations.
Favouring innovation

Human ingenuity has given us means of enhancing our brains through inventions such as written language, printing and the Internet. Most authors of this Commentary are teachers and strive to enhance the minds of their students, both by adding substantive information and by showing them new and better ways to process that information. And we are all aware of the abilities to enhance our brains with adequate exercise, nutrition and sleep. The drugs just reviewed, along with newer technologies such as brain stimulation and prosthetic brain chips, should be viewed in the same general category as education, good health habits, and information technology — ways that our uniquely innovative species tries to improve itself.

Of course, no two enhancements are equivalent in every way, and some of the differences have moral relevance. For example, the benefits of education require some effort at self-improvement whereas the benefits of sleep do not. Enhancing by nutrition involves changing what we ingest and is therefore invasive in a way that reading is not. The opportunity to benefit from Internet access is less equitably distributed than the opportunity to benefit from exercise. Cognitive-enhancing drugs require relatively little effort, are invasive and for the time being are not equitably distributed, but none of these provides reasonable grounds for prohibition. Drugs may seem distinctive among enhancements in that they bring about their effects by altering brain function, but in reality so does any intervention that enhances cognition. Recent research has identified beneficial neural changes engendered by exercise10, nutrition11 and sleep12, as well as instruction13 and reading14. In short, cognitive-enhancing drugs seem morally equivalent to other, more familiar, enhancements.

Many people have doubts about the moral status of enhancement drugs for reasons ranging from the pragmatic to the philosophical, including concerns about short-circuiting personal agency and undermining the value of human effort15. Kass16, for example, has written of the subtle but, in his view, important differences between human enhancement through biotechnology and through more traditional means. Such arguments have been persuasively rejected (for example, ref. 17). Three arguments against the use of cognitive enhancement by the healthy quickly bubble to the surface in most discussions: that it is cheating, that it is unnatural and that it amounts to drug abuse.

In the context of sports, pharmacological performance enhancement is indeed cheating. But, of course, it is cheating because it is against the rules. Any good set of rules would need to distinguish today's allowed cognitive enhancements, from private tutors to double espressos, from the newer methods, if they are to be banned.

As for an appeal to the 'natural', the lives of almost all living humans are deeply unnatural; our homes, our clothes and our food — to say nothing of the medical care we enjoy — bear little relation to our species' 'natural' state. Given the many cognitive-enhancing tools we accept already, from writing to laptop computers, why draw the line here and say, thus far but no further?

As for enhancers' status as drugs, drug abuse is a major social ill, and both medicinal and recreational drugs are regulated because of possible harms to the individual and society. But drugs are regulated on a scale that subjectively judges the potential for harm from the very dangerous (heroin) to the relatively harmless (caffeine). Given such regulation, the mere fact that cognitive enhancers are drugs is no reason to outlaw them.

Based on our considerations, we call for a presumption that mentally competent adults should be able to engage in cognitive enhancement using drugs.
Substantive concerns and policy goals

All technologies have risks as well as benefits. Although we reject the arguments against enhancement just reviewed, we recognize at least three substantive ethical concerns.

The first concern is safety. Cognitive enhancements affect the most complex and important human organ, and the risk of unintended side effects is therefore both high and consequential. Although regulations governing medicinal drugs ensure that they are safe and effective for their therapeutic indications, there is no equivalent vetting for unregulated 'off label' uses, including enhancement uses. Furthermore, acceptable safety in this context depends on the potential benefit. For example, a drug that restored good cognitive functioning to people with severe dementia but caused serious adverse medical events might be deemed safe enough to prescribe, but these risks would be unacceptable for healthy individuals seeking enhancement.

Enhancement in children raises additional issues related to the long-term effects on the developing brain. Moreover, the possibility of raising cognitive abilities beyond their species-typical upper bound may engender new classes of side effects. Persistence of unwanted recollections, for example, has clearly negative effects on the psyche18.

An evidence-based approach is required to evaluate the risks and benefits of cognitive enhancement. At a minimum, an adequate policy should include mechanisms for the assessment of both risks and benefits for enhancement uses of drugs and devices, with special attention to long-term effects on development and to the possibility of new types of side effects unique to enhancement. But such considerations should not lead to an insistence on higher thresholds than those applied to medications.

We call for an evidence-based approach to the evaluation of the risks and benefits of cognitive enhancement.

The second concern is freedom, specifically freedom from coercion to enhance. Forcible medication is generally reserved for rare cases in which individuals are deemed threats to themselves or others. In contrast, cognitive enhancement in the form of education is required for almost all children at some substantial cost to their liberty, and employers are generally free to require employees to have certain educational credentials or to obtain them. Should schools and employers be allowed to require pharmaceutical enhancement as well? And if we answer 'no' to this question, could coercion occur indirectly, by the need to compete with enhanced classmates and colleagues?

Questions of coercion and autonomy are particularly acute for military personnel and for children. Soldiers in the United States and elsewhere have long been offered stimulant medications including amphetamine and modafinil to enhance alertness, and in the United States are legally required to take medications if ordered to for the sake of their military performance19. For similar reasons, namely the safety of the individual in question and others who depend on that individual in dangerous situations, one could imagine other occupations for which enhancement might be justifiably required. A hypothetical example is an extremely safe drug that enabled surgeons to save more patients. Would it be wrong to require this drug for risky operations?

Appropriate policy should prohibit coercion except in specific circumstances for specific occupations, justified by substantial gains in safety. It should also discourage indirect coercion. Employers, schools or governments should not generally require the use of cognitive enhancements. If particular enhancements are shown to be sufficiently safe and effective, this position might be revisited for those interventions.

Children once again represent a special case as they cannot make their own decisions. Comparisons between estimates of ADHD prevalence and prescription numbers have led some to suspect that children in certain school districts are taking enhancing drugs at the behest of achievement-oriented parents, or teachers seeking more orderly classrooms20. Governments may be willing to let competent adults take certain risks for the sake of enhancement while restricting the ability to take such risky decisions on behalf of children.

The third concern is fairness. Consider an examination that only a certain percentage can pass. It would seem unfair to allow some, but not all, students to use cognitive enhancements, akin to allowing some students taking a maths test to use a calculator while others must go without. (Mitigating such unfairness may raise issues of indirect coercion, as discussed above.) Of course, in some ways, this kind of unfairness already exists. Differences in education, including private tutoring, preparatory courses and other enriching experiences give some students an advantage over others.

Whether the cognitive enhancement is substantially unfair may depend on its availability, and on the nature of its effects. Does it actually improve learning or does it just temporarily boost exam performance? In the latter case it would prevent a valid measure of the competency of the examinee and would therefore be unfair. But if it were to enhance long-term learning, we may be more willing to accept enhancement. After all, unlike athletic competitions, in many cases cognitive enhancements are not zero-sum games. Cognitive enhancement, unlike enhancement for sports competitions, could lead to substantive improvements in the world.

Fairness in cognitive enhancements has a dimension beyond the individual. If cognitive enhancements are costly, they may become the province of the rich, adding to the educational advantages they already enjoy. One could mitigate this inequity by giving every exam-taker free access to cognitive enhancements, as some schools provide computers during exam week to all students. This would help level the playing field.

Policy governing the use of cognitive enhancement in competitive situations should avoid exacerbating socioeconomic inequalities, and should take into account the validity of enhanced test performance. In developing policy for this purpose, problems of enforcement must also be considered. In spite of stringent regulation, athletes continue to use, and be caught using, banned performance-enhancing drugs.

We call for enforceable policies concerning the use of cognitive-enhancing drugs to support fairness, protect individuals from coercion and minimize enhancement-related socioeconomic disparities.

Maximum benefit, minimum harm

The new methods of cognitive enhancement are 'disruptive technologies' that could have a profound effect on human life in the twenty-first century. A laissez-faire approach to these methods will leave us at the mercy of powerful market forces that are bound to be unleashed by the promise of increased productivity and competitive advantage. The concerns about safety, freedom and fairness, just reviewed, may well seem less important than the attractions of enhancement, for sellers and users alike.

Motivated by some of the same considerations, Fukuyama21 has proposed the formation of new laws and regulatory structures to protect against the harms of unrestrained biotechnological enhancement. In contrast, we suggest a policy that is neither laissez-faire nor primarily legislative. We propose to use a variety of scientific, professional, educational and social resources, in addition to legislation, to shape a rational, evidence-based policy informed by a wide array of relevant experts and stake-holders. Specifically, we propose four types of policy mechanism.

The first mechanism is an accelerated programme of research to build a knowledge base concerning the usage, benefits and associated risks of cognitive enhancements. Good policy is based on good information, and there is currently much we do not know about the short- and long-term benefits and risks of the cognitive-enhancement drugs currently being used, and about who is using them and why. For example, what are the patterns of use outside of the United States and outside of college communities? What are the risks of dependence when used for cognitive enhancement? What special risks arise with the enhancement of children's cognition? How big are the effects of currently available enhancers? Do they change 'cognitive style', as well as increasing how quickly and accurately we think? And given that most research so far has focused on simple laboratory tasks, how do they affect cognition in the real world? Do they increase the total knowledge and understanding that students take with them from a course? How do they affect various aspects of occupational performance?

We call for a programme of research into the use and impacts of cognitive-enhancing drugs by healthy individuals.

The second mechanism is the participation of relevant professional organizations in formulating guidelines for their members in relation to cognitive enhancement. Many different professions have a role in dispensing, using or working with people who use cognitive enhancers. By creating policy at the level of professional societies, it will be informed by the expertise of these professionals, and their commitment to the goals of their profession.

One group to which this recommendation applies is physicians, particularly in primary care, paediatrics and psychiatry, who are most likely to be asked for cognitive enhancers. These physicians are sometimes asked to prescribe for enhancement by patients who exaggerate or fabricate symptoms of ADHD, but they also receive frank requests, as when a patient says "I know I don't meet diagnostic criteria for ADHD, but I sometimes have trouble concentrating and staying organized, and it would help me to have some Ritalin on hand for days when I really need to be on top of things at work." Physicians who view medicine as devoted to healing will view such prescribing as inappropriate, whereas those who view medicine more broadly as helping patients live better or achieve their goals would be open to considering such a request22. There is certainly a precedent for this broader view in certain branches of medicine, including plastic surgery, dermatology, sports medicine and fertility medicine.

Because physicians are the gatekeepers to medications discussed here, society looks to them for guidance on the use of these medications and devices, and guidelines from other professional groups will need to take into account the gatekeepers' policies. For this reason, the responsibilities that physicians bear for the consequences of their decisions are particularly sensitive, being effectively decisions for all of us. It would therefore be helpful if physicians as a profession gave serious consideration to the ethics of appropriate prescribing of cognitive enhancers, and consulted widely as to how to strike the balance of limits for patient benefit and protection in a liberal democracy. Examples of such limits in other areas of enhancement medicine include the psychological screening of candidates for cosmetic surgery or tubal ligation, and upper bounds on maternal age or number of embryos transferred in fertility treatments. These examples of limits may not be specified by law, but rather by professional standards.

Other professional groups to which this recommendation applies include educators and human-resource professionals. In different ways, each of these professions has responsibility for fostering and evaluating cognitive performance and for advising individuals who are seeking to improve their performance, and some responsibility also for protecting the interests of those in their charge. In contrast to physicians, these professionals have direct conflicts of interest that must be addressed in whatever guidelines they recommend: liberal use of cognitive enhancers would be expected to encourage classroom order and raise standardized measures of student achievement, both of which are in the interests of schools; it would also be expected to promote workplace productivity, which is in the interests of employers.

Educators, academic admissions officers and credentials evaluators are normally responsible for ensuring the validity and integrity of their examinations, and should be tasked with formulating policies concerning enhancement by test-takers. Laws pertaining to testing accommodations for people with disabilities provide a starting point for discussion of some of the key issues, such as how and when enhancements undermine the validity of a test result and the conditions under which enhancement should be disclosed by a test-taker.

The labour and professional organizations of individuals who are candidates for on-the-job cognitive enhancement make up our final category of organization that should formulate enhancement policy. From assembly line workers to surgeons, many different kinds of employee may benefit from enhancement and want access to it, yet they may also need protection from the pressure to enhance.

We call for physicians, educators, regulators and others to collaborate in developing policies that address the use of cognitive-enhancing drugs by healthy individuals.

The third mechanism is education to increase public understanding of cognitive enhancement. This would be provided by physicians, teachers, college health centres and employers, similar to the way that information about nutrition, recreational drugs and other public-health information is now disseminated. Ideally it would also involve discussions of different ways of enhancing cognition, including through adequate sleep, exercise and education, and an examination of the social values and pressures that make cognitive enhancement so attractive and even, seemingly, necessary.

We call for information to be broadly disseminated concerning the risks, benefits and alternatives to pharmaceutical cognitive enhancement.

The fourth mechanism is legislative. Fundamentally new laws or regulatory agencies are not needed. Instead, existing law should be brought into line with emerging social norms and information about safety. Drug law is one of the most controversial areas of law, and it would be naive to expect rapid or revolutionary change in the laws governing the use of controlled substances. Nevertheless, these laws should be adjusted to avoid making felons out of those who seek to use safe cognitive enhancements. And regulatory agencies should allow pharmaceutical companies to market cognitive-enhancing drugs to healthy adults provided they have supplied the necessary regulatory data for safety and efficacy.

We call for careful and limited legislative action to channel cognitive-enhancement technologies into useful paths.
Conclusion

Like all new technologies, cognitive enhancement can be used well or poorly. We should welcome new methods of improving our brain function. In a world in which human workspans and lifespans are increasing, cognitive enhancement tools — including the pharmacological — will be increasingly useful for improved quality of life and extended work productivity, as well as to stave off normal and pathological age-related cognitive declines23. Safe and effective cognitive enhancers will benefit both the individual and society.

But it would also be foolish to ignore problems that such use of drugs could create or exacerbate. With this, as with other technologies, we need to think and work hard to maximize its benefits and minimize its harms.

Join the debate on this topic at Nature Network right arrow http://tinyurl.com/6nyu29

http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/456702a.html

Watching the Watchdogs

2008-12-26T19:10:00.001+03:30

Yet another financial scandal has hit the headlines this week, in the shape of Bernard Madoff's alleged $50bn swindle. His investment scheme ensnared banks including HSBC and the Royal Bank of Scotland, costing them hundreds of millions. Yet again the failure of regulation of financial services has been exposed.

The current crisis has taught us, in the words of Mario Draghi, head of the Financial Stability Forum, that we need a financial system that operates with less leverage, has stronger oversight, and is more transparent so risks can be better managed. His views represent a growing consensus.

Missing from the consensus is an explanation as to why regulators were so feeble in the face of an ever more risky and aggressive sector. What made it possible for big financial services firms in the United States and Britain so completely to evade regulators? And what conditions are necessary to prevent such evasion in the future?

The bankers, earning millions, persuaded regulators earning thousands to opt for a "light touch" which allowed them to take more risks. The explosion of new instruments, off-balance sheet activities and fancy risk models made regulation ever more difficult.

What is needed is a hefty global regulatory framework. Three elements are crucial. First, there have to be robust and enforceable rules at an international level: recent events have made it clear that all countries, not just those with big financial sectors, stand to lose from a crisis in the industry.

Second, oversight has to be made more powerful and effective: global institutions need to monitor and report on national regulators, pressing them to apply regulatory standards and resist lobbying to "lighten up". One obvious contender for this role is the International Monetary Fund, which already runs a financial sector assessment programme. Participation is voluntary: the US, for instance, refused assessments until July 2008. The assessments need to be made compulsory, and focused on whether regulators are implementing globally agreed standards. Furthermore, the results need to be published.

Robust monitoring will also require some non-governmental "watching the watchdog" bodies, like those that have emerged in the environmental sector. These might be financed by public grants or fees paid by firms. Indeed, this would be in the interests of responsibly-run banks who have lost out as the confidence crisis engulfed the industry.

A third element necessary for effective regulation is an international court or tribunal: this would further focus national regulators on their duties. A specialised judicial institution would be charged with assisting the enforcement of global rules in banking and finance, reviewing the actions of global regulators and decisions of national administrative bodies charged with implementing the new global rules, adjudicating disputes, and offering uniform authoritative interpretations of the rules.

To be effective, the judicial institution would need compulsory jurisdiction: governments would not be able to wriggle out of a case. Who could bring cases? A government could, using its own information as well as that provided by IMF assessments and other watchdogs. Such a government might be concerned about the way in which foreign financial services companies were being regulated in their home countries. If the international court found the foreign country's rules deviated from global regulation, it could permit the suing government to suspend national treatment of such firms from that inadequately regulated country, or to apply special reserves standards.

We should also consider permitting cases from non-state - including private - actors. The historical record on this is interesting: international courts with compulsory jurisdiction and non-state actor access hear more cases. In part this is because governments are reluctant to sue each other. Letting non-state actors bring cases would further widen the pressures and incentives on national regulators to ensure rules are applied.

Sceptics may deem such proposals impracticable, undesirable, and excessive - a pipedream. But do not forget that, since 1990, states have established 19 new international judicial institutions, most in the area of trade. This is almost three times the number of international courts that existed prior to 1990. Old and new international courts have issued since then more than 24,000 rulings and opinions - that is 75% of total judicial output by international public courts. Governments have created these institutions because they help to spur global commerce.

• Walter Mattli and Ngaire Woods are professors of international political economy at Oxford University and authors of The Politics of Global Regulation geg@univ.ox.ac.uk

Watching the Watchdogs, Guardian, 19 Dec

Assessing IASB

2008-12-26T13:08:00.002+03:30

US firms that do get involved in International Accounting Standard Board IASB standard setting assess important methods or channels of involvement quite differently from their European counterparts. For example, 93 percent of american finncial executives consider submitting comment letters effective; only 51 percent of Europeans consider them effective. Similarly diverging assessments apply to field tests and oral testimony at public hearings.

Walter Matti et al, Assessing the IASB, resuts of a business survery about int financial reporting standards and IASB's opertions, accountability, and responsiveness to stakeholders, Oxford Univ

http://www.globaleconomicgovernance.org/docs/ButheMattliExecSummary.pdf

Recgnition for Materials Scientists

2008-12-26T12:16:00.003+03:30

....We have revolutionized fields from communications and construction to sports medicine and medical implants with our advances in materials. Even the simple tennis racket is now a lightweight marvel of composites and carbon nanotubes that propels the ball at lightning speed. Of course, it hasn't helped an Englishman to win Wimbledon in living memory, but some things are beyond even our powers!

And yet, does the term ‘materials scientist’ provoke anything other than disinterest from the general public? In my local community, I am often asked if I work at the university and the next question is “what department is that?”. When I tell them, the usual response is the polite “Ohhh” with that tilt of the head that says, “geez, if he worked in the athletic association he might have been able to get me football tickets or at least if he was a real doctor I might have gotten some free medical advice.”

A subjective list of the 25 greatest science books ever written contains not a single volume related to materials science3. Of course, the eighth most popular English language novel in the history of the world is Barbara Taylor Bradford's ‘The Woman of Substance’4. Having never read it, I'm guessing it wasn't about substances in the materials sense.

Most of the great engineering achievements (and failures - the Titantic, Hindenburg, Tacoma Narrows Bridge disaster, Space Shuttle Challenger) all have materials science underpinnings. We are among the most consilient of thinkers, a word made popular by the biologist E. O. Wilson that means combining insights from different scientific disciplines and from different scales of investigation. Who else measures properties from the nano- to the macroscopic scale as we materials scientists do and pulls it all together into a coherent picture?

At one point in the early 1990s, there was a debate in the US as to whether materials science is even a discipline (physics without the equations indeed!). Having nosed around in physics labs and noticed the number of samples that had fingerprints or tape on them, I'm convinced that at least half of the phenomena that physicists report are simple manifestations of poor scientific hygiene. And don't get me started on our colleagues in chemistry, whose buildings are generally awash in stray mixtures of varying degrees of odiferousness and lethality. The long-closed lab of a retired professor of chemistry here at Florida revealed a small cache of the rocket propellant, B2H6. Diborane will ignite spontaneously in moist air at room temperature (remember this is Florida with a touch of humidity!).

Underappreciated we may be, but we doggedly trudge on from one conference session to another. At the recent Materials Research Society Fall meeting in Boston, it was easy to spot the materials scientists among the young and hip in the shopping malls connecting the convention center to the hotels. Those sponsored plastic carrybags and absent mindedly tended coiffures were dead giveaways. But while the rest of the world is slave to the latest fashions and celebrity gossip, we rest content that secretly we set the agenda.

We all deserve a raise, J Material Today, vol 10, issue 3, page 6, Mar 2007
www.sciencedirect.com

Implementing Educational Change

Change is the order of the day. However, this state of flux is not confined to materials scientists. Organisations such as the UK Centre for Materials Education (UKCME), charged with a remit to enhance student learning, are also in the business of change. Educational change is not an easy business. There is often abundant goodwill and resources to match. Yet, it remains clear that most investment in educational change fails to deliver the desired outcomes.

The problem stems primarily from a lack of insider knowledge of the context in which change is to happen; a failure to understand the defining features and barriers to change; a lack of appreciation of the restrictions and limitations, and of what is feasible.

Time after time, developers fall back on the same strategies. Conferences and workshops are offered. ‘Change champions’ are appointed. Small grants are made available to lone enthusiasts. While such strategies have merit, they impact only on the few. In isolation, they prove woefully inadequate if real and large-scale change is to be achieved.

UKCME, through experience, has learned that what is needed is a deep understanding of the context in which the change is to take place, and an active and sustained commitment to making change happen. The result is the Supported Change Programme, which has been implemented successfully in five UK HE Departments.

The social world, shaped and inhabited by human beings, is much more complex and unpredictable that that which confronts materials scientists, as they engage in their research. Nevertheless, parallels can be drawn between the way educational developers have chosen to operate and the approaches adopted by those engaged in scientific exploration. Like materials scientists, UKCME begins in each Department with a process of macro-assessment; visits which involve a critical scrutiny to develop an understanding of what is possible, and an appreciation of the capacity of the department to deliver.

Materials scientists carry with them a wealth of knowledge, based on research experience. As a result, they already appreciate the properties and characteristics of materials. This tells experimenters what can and cannot be done. Because of their lack of such a priori knowledge, UKCME developers must spend time in the department undertaking in-depth interviews with colleagues. This ensures that all become involved in the process, and that diverse opinions and views are represented. Crucially, the interviews establish a way forward.

Implementing educational change: heeding the messages from materials science, Materials Today, Volume 11, Issue 12, December 2008, Page 6

Counting precise number of photons

2008-12-24T20:48:00.002+03:30

A new approach to caliberating quantum mechanical measurements has been developed with particular application in optics and SUPER SECURE COMMUNICATION

Being able to sense the presence of individual photons is an important requirement for the development of future long-distance quantum communication devices and networks. One of the potential applications of this new detector is in devices for secret communications, which could allow information to be exchanged in total security guaranteed by the laws of physics, with no possibility of interception, or eavesdropping.

Photons are miniscule 'packets' of light energy. Visible daylight is made of billions upon billions of photons which enter your eye every second. The photon detector described in today's Nature Physics paper is unique because, unlike previous detectors which could only tell scientists whether any photons were present or not, this machine can count and record the precise number of up to eight individual photons at any one time, making it one of the most accurate light-detecting machines in the world.

This means that devices which rely on information being transmitted in the form of light energy – such as fibre optic technologies used in everyday communications - could detect the safe arrival of that light energy with an unprecedented level of accuracy.

Professor Martin Plenio from Imperial College London's Institute for Mathematical Sciences and Department of Physics, one of the team behind the research on this new device reported in today's publication, explains how this development could lead to ultra-secure communications technologies in the future:

"If you can detect the presence of light at the individual photon level you make it impossible for any information being transmitted as light energy to go astray, unnoticed, en route from transmitter to detector. An exciting development in the future could be to use this fundamental science to ensure that information and messages are transported across long distances with absolute security, and reach their destination without being tampered with."

This single photon detector technology also has potential applications in precision measurement and in manipulating the behaviour of small numbers of photons.

"Measurement is still a very enigmatic part of quantum mechanics," said Professor Ian Walmsley of Oxford University, co-author of the paper. "This approach enables us to say what a measurement is doing without having to build a model of it. This could lead to us being able to properly calibrate many types of quantum devices with photon detectors being just one application."

Long distance quantum communication technologies and other quantum devices in the future will rely on scientists harnessing quantum behaviour to create systems that can far exceed the processing capabilities of current silicon- based devices. The term 'quantum behaviour' is used to describe a system which is governed by the laws of quantum mechanics, as opposed to being governed by the classical laws of physics such as mechanics, gravity and Einstein's general theory of relativity. Quantum mechanics comes into play when systems are the size of atoms or smaller and when they exhibit particle and wave properties at the same time, which means the conventional laws of mechanics no longer apply.

Professor Plenio and his colleagues at Imperial together with Professor Ian Walmsley and his team at the University of Oxford will now use this novel type of detector to carry out an experiment in which they aim to enhance quantum correlations in light that has been transmitted through an optical fibre. This will form the basic building block for a repeater station for photons and is essential for the creation of future long distance quantum communication networks.

http://www.ox.ac.uk/media/science_blog/080229.html
Tomography of quantum detectors, Nature physics, 16 Nov, online
http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/newsandeventspggrp/imperialcollege/newssummary/news_17-11-2008-10-13-4?newsid=49394

Justice delayed is justice denied

2008-12-23T11:03:00.000+03:30

The modern saying "Justice delayed is justice denied" looks back over the centuries to the promise of Magna Carta: "To no man will we sell, or deny, or delay, right or justice."

www.askoxford.com

CNT Pulmonary applications and toxicity

2008-12-22T21:21:00.003+03:30

....risks from certain nanoscale substances would be addressed through the Regulation if they were identified as being 'substances of very high concern' as defined in Article 57, for example being persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic (PBT). The EC are funding research to address methodologies for identifying the hazards of nanoscale substances through the 7th Research Framework Programme (FP7) and point out 'it will also be necessary to carefully monitor over the next few years whether the [1 tonne per year] threshold for registration and the information requirements under REACH are adequate to address potential risks from particles on a nanoscale.'

A particularly relevant example for consideration is that of carbon nanotubes (CNTs). 'Carbon' (EINECS number 231-153-3) has recently been removed from the list of exempt substances under REACH (Annex IV). If upon registration under REACH, CNTs are deemed to be the chemical equivalent of carbon or carbon black (and thus registered using the EINECS / CAS numbers for carbon or carbon black), a registrant of carbon nanotubes would need only to supply the same technical information as they would for carbon or carbon black. However, if carbon nanotubes and carbon / carbon black are deemed to be different chemical substances for the purpose of registration, then before the carbon nanotubes were permitted entry into the market, the registrant would be required to submit a technical dossier to include guidance on their safe use, as specified by Article 10 of the REACH Regulation.

At this time, it is still unclear if the EC will consider nanoscale substances as equivalent to their bulk counterparts. Fullerenes have been recently assigned CAS numbers, so there does seem to be scope for ECHA to consider nanoscale substances as separate entities. However, if nanoscale substances are treated as 'existing' chemicals due to their chemical composition being comparable to their micro or macro counterpart under REACH, there is the danger that the regulation may fail to adequately control nanoscale materials in the presence of scientific uncertainty regarding their toxicity.

icon.rice.edu
http://www.safenano.org/nanoREACH.aspx

"If you want your children to be intelligent," Albert Einstein said, "read them fairy tales. If you want them to be very intelligent,” ….read them, magic of nanomaterials!

Meta analysis

There is no established guideline for research question on potentials of NPs toxicity – therefore studies have used variety of methods that are difficult to extrapolate and find conclusive results. NPs characteristics has to be clearly defined in terms of solubility, surface area, charge, modifications, shape, number composition, etc.
For instance positively charged NPs showed increased of accumulation in lungs.
Administration of Chitosan-DNA showed to inhibit virus infection and allergic reactions.

Carbon black, fullerenes, silica, and metal-based nanoparticles have also been studied for their ability to induce inflammatory and fibrotic responses in the lungs of experimental animals following delivery via instillation, aspiration, and/or inhalation (Table 2). Increased lung inflammation resulting from exposure to nano-sized particles compared with that resulting from an equivalent mass of micron-sized particles has been demonstrated in some studies (16, 45, 49, 54, 82, 118, 160), whereas others have found this not to be the case (9, 120, 135, 149). Potential factors in the increased inflammatory profile observed for nanoscale materials in some studies include their size, increased number, and higher surface area per unit mass compared with that of larger particles of the same material (15, 98, 104). Titanium dioxide is a good example of how both the size and form of a nanoparticle can influence its pulmonary toxicity, as a nanoscale anatase form of titanium dioxide was found to induce greater lung inflammatory responses than those resulting from a nanoscale rutile form and from a micron-sized anatase form following intratracheal administration in rats (148). The increased ratio of surface area to mass for nanoparticles means that a greater percentage of the atoms or molecules of a given particle are present on the surface of the particle, thereby providing an increased number of potential reactive groups at the particle surface that may influence toxicity. Although this appears to be a useful metric for assessing the toxic potential of some nanoparticles, there is consensus among experts in the field that no single dose metric (i.e., particle number, size, surface area, or other) has emerged to be useful for assessment of the reactivity and potential toxicity of nanoparticles in general (89, 144). Rather, it is likely that the most appropriate means of expressing dose-related toxicity for nanoparticles of interest will continue to be determined on an individual basis.(1)

(1) Card J et al, 2008, Pulmonary applications and toxicity of engineered nanoparticles, Am J Physiol Lung Cell Mol Physiol 295: L400-L411
http://ajplung.physiology.org/cgi/content/abstract/295/3/L400

Worle-Knirsch JM, 2006, Oops They Did It Again! Carbon Nanotubes Hoax Scientists in Viability Assays, Nano Lett 6: 1261–1268, http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/nl060177c
Dutta D et al, 2007, Adsorbed proteins influence the biological activity and molecular targeting of nanomaterials. Toxicol Sci 100: 303–315
http://toxsci.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/100/1/303
Anderson PJ et al 1990, Respiratory tract deposition of ultrafine particles in subjects with obstructive or restrictive lung disease. Chest 97: 1115–1120
http://www.chestjournal.org/cgi/content/abstract/97/5/1115
Daigle CC et al, 2003, Ultrafine particle deposition in humans during rest and exercise. Inhal Toxicol 15: 539–552
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12692730
Moller W et al, 2008, Deposition, retention, and translocation of ultrafine particles from the central airways and lung periphery. Am J Respir Crit Care Med 177: 426–432
http://ajrccm.atsjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/177/4/426
Pietropaoli AP et al, 2004, Pulmonary function, diffusing capacity, and inflammation in healthy and asthmatic subjects exposed to ultrafine particles. Inhal Toxicol 16, Suppl 1: 59–72
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15204794
Donaldson K et al, 2006, Carbon nanotubes: a review of their properties in relation to pulmonary toxicology and workplace safety. Toxicol Sci 92: 5–22
http://toxsci.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/92/1/5
Helland A et al, 2007, Reviewing the environmental and human health knowledge base of carbon nanotubes. Environ Health Perspect 115: 1125–1131
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1940104

Science, Technology and Innovation

2008-12-20T12:36:00.001+03:30

Intellectual Property Protection

The number of patents granted by the US Patent and Trademark Office per head of population is often used as a proxy indicator for outputs of technology-based innovation. Although this is likely to overstate the patenting performance of the US due to “home country bias”, it allows a fair comparison of the patenting performance of EU countries. The UK’s number of US patents granted per head has been consistently 5th in the G7 with France. Patents are not the only means of protecting intellectual property – registered designs, trademarks and copyright are significant for companies in many sectors, particularly the creative industries.

http://www.dius.gov.uk/publications/documents/Innovation/Innovation_Strategy_Reports/21390%20AIR%20Report%20AW%20Complete.pdf

In 2003 in the EU-25, 54 % of the R&D personnel in full time equivalent (FTE) worked in Germany, France and the United Kingdom. However, these countries come far behind China – where more than one million persons were working in R&D – the Russian Federation and Japan.

http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/cache/ITY_OFFPUB/KS-NS-05-008/EN/KS-NS-05-008-EN.PDF

Inspire confidence

2008-12-18T22:11:00.001+03:30

"If you want to inspire confidence, give plenty of statistics. It does not matter that they should be accurate, or even intelligible, as long as there is enough of them."

(Lewis Carroll)

Technology Innovation in Agriculture and Food System

2008-12-18T19:40:00.002+03:30

Relationship of Nanotechnology to Science and Engineering in Agriculture and Food Systems

Today in agriculture if a plant or animal becomes infected with disease, it can be days, weeks, or months before disease presence is detected by whole-organism symptoms (THE UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, 2003).

Nanotechnology, as a new enabling technology, has the potential to revolutionize agriculture and food systems in the United States. Agricultural and food systems security, disease treatment delivery systems, new tools for molecular and cellular biology, new materials for pathogen detection and protection of the environment are examples of the important links of nanotechnology to the science and engineering of agriculture and food systems. Some overarching examples of nanotechnology as an enabling technology are:

· Production, processing, and shipment of food products can be made more secure through the development and implementation of nanosensors for pathogen and contaminant detection;
· The development of nanodevices can allow historical environmental records and location tracking of individual shipments;
· Systems that provide the integration of “Smart Systems” sensing, localization, reporting and remote control can increase efficiency and security;
· Agricultural and Food Systems security is of critical importance to homeland security. Our nation’s food supply must be carefully monitored and protected. Nanotechnology holds the potential of such a system becoming a reality. Agriculture has long dealt with improving the efficiency of crop production, food processing, food safety and environmental consequences of food production, storage and distribution. Nanotechnology provides a new tool to pursue these historically relevant goals.

http://www.nseafs.cornell.edu/web.roadmap.pdf

The Order of Craftsmanship: AFM

2008-12-16T13:01:00.003+03:30

Break the Nanocode with the Next Generation of AFM

Nano world is becoming more transparent.

Now Asylum Research introduces the Cypher™ AFM, the first totally new small sample AFM/SPM in over a decade. More capability, more control, more functionality, more modularity, and more resolution – all with striking ease of use.

Closed loop Dual AC Mode image of collagen. Second mode amplitude is overlaid on topography, 300nm scan.

Closed loop image of domains of surfactant hemi-micelles surrounding a defect on graphite, 200nm scan.

Closed loop image of Lambda digest DNA imaged in buffer, 530nm scan

http://www.asylumresearch.com/Products/Cypher/Cypher.shtml

http://www-rjn.physics.ox.ac.uk/ CNTs Nicholas Group

DUIS: investing in our future
http://www.dius.gov.uk/policy/annual_innovation_report.html
http://www.dius.gov.uk/publications/documents/Innovation/Innovation_Strategy_Reports/21390%20AIR%20Report%20AW%20Complete.pdf

http://www.quotationspage.com/quote/25300.html
http://www.azonano.com/news.asp?newsID=9169
http://www.nano-and-society.org/news/

Observed by Hooke

2008-12-16T00:34:00.001+03:30

These pores were so exceeding small and thick, that in a line of them, 1/12th part of an Inch long, I found by numbring them no less then 150 small pores; and therefore in a line of them an Inch long, must be no less then 2700 pores, and in a circular area of an Inch diameter, must be about 5725350 of the like pores; so that a Stick of an Inch Diameter, may containe no less then seven hundred and twenty five thousand,[725000] besides 5 Millions of pores, which would, I doubt not, seem even incredible, were not every one left to believe his own eyes.

as I shall elsewhere endeavour to manifest when I come to show the use of the Air in respiration, and for the preservation of the life, nay, for the conservation and restauration of the health and natural constitution of mankind as well as all other aereal animals, as also the uses of this principle or propriety of the Air in chymical, mechanical, and other operations.
CHARCOAL, or a Vegetable burnt black........ if a better Microscope be made use of, there will appear an infinite company of exceedingly small, and very regular pores, so thick and so orderly set, and so close to one another, that they leave very little room or space between them to be fill'd with a solid body, for the apparent interstitia, or separating sides of these pores seem so thin in some places, that the texture of a Honey-comb cannot be more porous.......
These pores were so exceeding small and thick, that in a line of them, 1/12th part of an Inch long, I found by numbring them no less then 150 small pores; and therefore in a line of them an Inch long, must be no less then 2700 pores, and in a circular area of an Inch diameter, must be about 5725350 of the like pores...

That as there is one part that is dissoluble by the Air, so are there other parts with which the parts of the Air mixing and uniting, do make a Coagulum, or precipitation, as one may call it, which causes it to be separated from the Air, but this precipitate is so light, and in so small and rarify'd or porous clusters, that it is very volatil, and is easily carry'd up by the motion of the Air, though afterwards, when the heat and agitation that kept it rarify'd ceases, it easily condenses, and commixt with other indissoluble parts, it sticks and adheres to the next bodies it meets withall; and this is a certain Salt that may be extracted out of Soot.

... But that which I chiefly took notice of, was, that cutting off a small piece of it [wood], about the bigness of my Thumb, and charring it in a Crucible with Sand, after the manner I above prescrib'd, I found it infinitely to abound with the smaller sort of pores, so extreamly thick, and so regularly perforating the substance of it long-ways, that breaking it off a-cross, I found it to look very like an Honey-comb;
Micrographia Observation XVI

Road to Reality: Roger Penrose

2008-12-15T01:13:00.000+03:30

Road to Reality is a book on modern physics by the British mathematical physicist Roger Penrose, published in 2004. It covers the basics of the standard model of modern physics, discussing general relativity and quantum mechanics and then expands on the possible unification of these two theories.

The book is just over 1100 pages, of which the first 350 are dedicated to mathematics - Penrose's goal was to acquaint inquisitive readers with the mathematical tools needed to understand the remainder of the book in depth.

www.oup.com

R&D firms

2008-12-15T01:03:00.002+03:30

“The desire to better ourselves is part of the curiosity that drives science, the drive and the need to do good “(Sulston, 2008).

The UK government’s Science and Innovation Investment Framework 2004-14 has
set as a long-term objective to raise overall R&D investment to 2.5% of GDP and has
identified strategic actions to address the system’s main weaknesses. The businessled
Technology Strategy Board supports business R&D and innovation in all sectors and will identify priorities in emerging areas of technology. The government has also recently increased R&D tax credits for SMEs and large companies to encourage further business investment in R&D. The rate for large companies will rise to 130% of
qualifying R&D expenditure, and the rate for SMEs will be 175

UK is only second after US for highly cited research findings, but is doing below average OECD countries in R&D intensity, and has done lower percentage of GDP during 1980s (1.5%) to 2006 (1.1%). Although there is strong scientific activity but innovation firms hardly cooperate with public research organisations.

(OECD, 2008) http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/18/51/41559425.pdf

MARKETING MISTAKES

• Putting Out Institutional, Instead of Direct Response Messages...
• Failing To Communicate On A Regular Basis...
• Failing To Understand That Everything Is A TEST...
• Failing To Develop A UNIQUE SELLING PROPOSITION...
• Failing To Understand The Life Time Value Of A Client...
• Failing To Develop A Range Of Products Or Services...
• Failing To Make Doing Business With Your Company... Easy, Efficient AND Enjoyable

GILL HUNT, Dec 2008, SKILLFAIR.COM

At the time of recession people stop spending on entertainment, including holiday travels, dinning out, etc, most probably tend to play it safe and stay home. Statistics show that there has never been downward slope for electronics, particularly when economics are pressing.

The nanomaterial market is expected to grow at a compound annual rate of more than 40% between 2008 and 2015.

Nanomaterials a bright spot in high-tech market for as recession pin people down at home with more use of electronics 2009 http://www.smalltimes.com

Avoid cooperation in evil

2008-12-04T19:37:00.001+03:30

All sorts of wickedness goes on in our society, and we finance it through our taxes, elect leaders who allow it and fail to do much to change things. More immediately, almost anything we do can be an occasion, opportunity or means for someone else to do something wrong. To avoid all cooperation in evil would require that we abandon almost all arenas of human activity – such as family, workplace, government, health system, Church – and could well constitute a sin of omission.

Cooperation in evil: understanding the issues, Anthony Fisher OP
in Helen Watt (ed), Cooperation, Complicity and Conscience: Moral Problems in
Healthcare, Science, Law and Public Policy (London: Linacre Centre, 2005), 27-64

Nanotechnology and Ethics

In terms of religious literature on nanotechnology, of which there is little, I see three genres. First is a modest body of articles by religious writers in denominational magazines and other religious venues that introduce the reader to nanotechnology, and then speculate in very general terms about the issues that will arise. Even though these articles appear in sectarian publications, their tone is educational, not religious. As such, these articles are equivalent to the secular ethical statements.

A second genre is transhumanism, a body of beliefs about how technology will save us from illness, aging, death and other problems. The transhumanist writer most relevant to religious issues is William Sims Bainbridge. He speaks in a secular voice but his writing is a kind of religious literature: a crusade against traditional religion that is tantamount to calling for a new religion that will deliver eternal life and ultimate meaning.

"True human freedom," he writes, is found in transhumanism, which "seeks to empower each individual to become whatever he or she wishes". According to Bainbridge, "transhumanists believe that we have reached the point in history at which fundamental changes in our very natures have become both possible and desirable".

Chris Toumey, Atom and Eve, Nature Nanotechnology 3

Roco, M. & Bainbridge, W. S. (eds) Societal Implications of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (Kluwer, Dordrecht, 2003)

Bainbridge, W. S. J. Evolution Technol. 14, 91–100 (2005).

EHS database analysis tool: Nanomaterials

2008-11-27T08:41:00.004+03:30

ICON has created an analyzing tool that allows the researcher to analyze research trends across time and by category in a rich content of ICON's database of citations to peer-reviewed publications addressing nanomaterials' environmental, health and safety impacts.

Andrew Maynard did a thorough study of the tool and found it to be practical and provides an insight into how new knowledge on nanomaterial safety is progressing.

Intl Council of Nanotechnology; http://icon.rice.edu/
http://2020science.org/2008/11/23/toxic-particles-and-trivial-pursuits/

Bodleian launches appeal to save the mauscript of Erismena

2008-11-24T19:29:00.001+03:30

"If the Bodleian can raise the funds to buy it now, the acquisition would mean the music manuscript returning home to Oxford."

The Bodleian Library is appealing to the public to help raise £85,000 by 6 January 2009, so it can conserve the manuscript of Erismena – the earliest surviving score of an opera in the English language.

Written by Pietro Francesco Cavalli (1602-1676), the leading Italian opera composer of the mid 17th century, Erismena dates from the 1670s – 30 years before any other Italian operas were performed in Britain.

The manuscript has been part of a private collection, and has been studied by only a small number of scholars in the past 50 years. It is one of the most significant British 17th-century music manuscripts to have appeared in recent decades.

In August 2008, the Reviewing Committee on the Export of Works of Art and Cultural Goods placed an export bar on Erismena’s sale to an institutional buyer abroad. This was because of the manuscript’s ‘outstanding significance for the study of the history of music in the UK’. This may be the only opportunity for a British institution to acquire this vital part of musical and British history.

During recent research, Dr Harry Johnstone, retired Music Faculty lecturer at the University of Oxford discovered that Erismena was sold in 1797 at the auction of the library of William and Philip Hayes, who had been successive Professors of Music at the University of Oxford.

If the Bodleian can raise the funds to buy it now, the acquisition would mean the music manuscript returning home to Oxford. If acquired, this precious manuscript would sit alongside the earliest and finest manuscript of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, along with an unparalleled range of English 17th- and 18th-century opera and theatre music.

This appeal has been adopted as a key component of Oxford Thinking: The Campaign for the University of Oxford, launched in May to raise a minimum of £1.25bn. The Bodleian, the world-renowned research library of the University, is seeking new funding to build its historic collections, and make them more accessible to students, researchers and scholars globally.

Eric Clarke, Heather Professor of Music, University of Oxford said: ‘The Erismena manuscript is a unique link in the history of operatic influence between Italy and England. The substantial manuscript is rare in being complete, and is of great historical significance in an area of research in which the University of Oxford has an international reputation. I give my full support for this appeal and I hope we will be able to save the manuscript for the future generations of researchers.’

Emma Kirkby, DBE, Honorary Doctor of Music, University of Oxford, said: ‘I am tremendously excited to hear that an entire Cavalli opera manuscript has survived - in an English translation, decades before Handel came to this country, and that there is a chance for the Bodleian Library to acquire this landmark of our musical history. I earnestly hope the means can be found to achieve this.’

Those wishing to support the Library in securing this important manuscript can go to the Erismena Manuscript Appeal website.

http://www.giving.ox.ac.uk/libraries/erismena_appeal/erismena.html

http://www.campaign.ox.ac.uk/news/news/erismena.html

Nothing so small to escape Hooke's inquiry

2008-11-22T23:33:00.002+03:30

...and by the help of Microscopes, there is nothing so small as to escape our inquiry; hence there is a new visible World discovered to the understanding.

The truth is, the Science of Nature has been already too long made only a work of the Brain and the Fancy: It is now high time that it should return to the plainness and soundness of Observations on material and obvious things. It is said of great Empires, That the best way to preserve them from decay, is to bring them back to the first Principles, and Arts, on which they did begin. The same is undoubtedly true in Philosophy, that by wandring far away into invisible Notions, has almost quite destroy'd it self, and it can never be recovered, or continued, but by returning into the same sensible paths, in which it did at first proceed.

Robert Hooke, (1635-1703) Preface to Micrographia

“Risk is an inevitable partner of innovation and regulation is a major means by which we manage the utilitarian trade-off!” Thus we need to continuously measure up relative damages and benefits in all risk claims against present technologies in use!

A key issue in understanding the system of innovation in nanomaterials is that the great majority of nanomaterials are not consumer products to be sold to an end user, but ‘capital’ materials to be used by other industries in order to make new products. In this sense most nanomaterials can be understood as ‘products for process innovation’. This is why supplier and manufacturing firms occupy the central position in nanoma-terials innovation systems. The innovation system for nanomaterials can therefore be conceptualised as an ‘hourglass model’ (figure 2-VI) in which a variety of scientific disciplines support the development of a number of technologies for the fabrication of nanomaterials, which then serve many different economic sectors.

Novel Materials in the Environment: the case of nanotechnology, Royal Commission on Envir Pollution, Nov 2008

Learning outcomes

* A knowledge of the sources, both natural and man-made, and categorisation of nanoparticles
* An understanding of the importance of agglomeration and the settling of particles
* An understanding of the effects of nanoparticles on the respiratory tract
* An understanding of the environmental considerations that must be addressed when considering a new product and its life cycle
* An understanding of the roles, types and processes of regulation
* A knowledge of the current regulatory landscapes in the UK, Europe and the US

Small particles have a large surface area/unit mass.
The surface may be very chemically reactive or catalytic.
Properties change as the particle size is reduced.
The mechanism of uptake of particles by the body is relatively unknown.

Traces of metals in volcanic nanoparticles = Dr Tamsin Mather & Dr David Pyle, Department of Earth Sciences, Oxford, lead a multiaspects new research on volcanic nanoparticles, and appearances of trace metals such as mercury close to the source. They are working on how to link nanoparticles to the source! Thus nanoparticles entering eco-systems or sea waters are under scrutiny!

"Peroxidases (enzymes that catalyse oxidation reactions) are important in the treatment of waste water for oxidizing organic substances. Whereas iron oxide nanoparticles have typically been linked with horseradish peroxidase (a natural catalyst) to perform immunoassays that use peroxidase-sensitive dyes, the recent finding suggests that the nanoparticles can essentially be “self-sufficient” catalysts. The study ruled out the possibility that the catalytic properties come from iron ions that have leached out of the nanoparticle. The group's results add to a growing list of nanomaterials possessing catalytic properties that are absent in the bulk."

Manuel Perez J, 2007, Iron oxide nanoparticles: Hidden talent, Nature Nanotechnology 2, 535-536

Irregularities

- One Swiss study discovered that up to 6% percent by weight of the particles entered the sewage works effluent – while they had the concentration at a very high point, and assumed concentration is lower in real time scenarios, and concluded that agglomeration will be further reduced? (1)
(1) Stark WJ. Removal of Oxide Nanoparticles in a Model Wastewater Treatment Plant: Influence of Agglomeration and Surfactants on Clearing Efficiency. Environ. Sci. Technol., 2008

- The prospective cohort study reported by Bates et al reiterated the message that adverse reactions to drugs are common, and identified 247 adverse drug "events" in a study population of 4031 admissions (6.1%). (2)

- the CDC compiles rates of risk from disease vs. risk from vaccination: Pneumonia: 6 in 100
http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vac-gen/6mishome.htm#Diseaseshadalready

- The electronic structure, equation of state and phase stability of platinum aluminides and magnesium-lithium alloys are being predicted using first principles density functional theory.(3)
(3)First principle studies of intermetallics, 2006
H.R. Chauke*, M. Phasha*, Professor P.E. Ngoepe*, Dr. R. Drautz, Dr. D. Nguyen Manh**, Professor D.G. Pettifor

- Density Functional tight binding (DFTB) methods are being used to calculate the potential energy surface (PES) and to identify energetically preferred substitutional sites for the inclusion of experimentally relevant impurities and defects. In addition to this the affect of the surface, edge and corner impurities on the distribution of charge is also under investigation; as is the shape dependence of the distribution of charge in undoped diamond nanoparticles of different sizes. (4)
(4) Location and Coordination of Impurities and Defects in Nanocrystalline Diamond, Dr. M. Sternberg*, Dr. A.S. Barnard http://www.materials.ox.ac.uk/uploads/file/research/RIP2006.pdf

Nanoscale solid catalyst for glycerol

2008-11-20T13:50:00.000+03:30

The first chemical industrial application of glycerol was developed by Alfred Nobel, who reported in 1860 the transformation of glycerol to nitroglycerin, which gave access later to dynamite. Then, during the 20th century, chemists started to progressively find new applications of glycerol especially in the pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries, where it was used for its emollient, demulcent, and humectant properties. Later, glycerol was also used as a plasticizer in the polymer industry and as a moistening agent or solvent in the food industry. Then, rapidly nearly every industry used glycerol, making this natural polyol one of the most valuable alcohols

Glycerol is the main co-product of the vegetable oils industry (especially biodiesel). With the rapid development of oleochemistry, the production of glycerol is rapidly increasing and chemists are trying to find new applications of glycerol to encourage a better industrial development of vegetable oils. In this Review, attention is focused on the selective use of glycerol as a safe organic building block for organic chemistry. An overview is given of the different heterogeneous catalytic routes developed by chemists for the successful and environmentally friendly use of glycerol in sustainable organic chemistry. In particular, the effects of different catalyst structural parameters are discussed to clearly highlight how catalysis can help organic chemists to overcome the drawbacks stemming from the use of glycerol as a safe organic building block. It is shown that heterogeneous catalysis offers efficient routes for bypassing the traditional use of highly toxic and expensive epichlorohydrin, 3-chloro-1,2-propanediol, or glycidol, which are usually used as a glyceryl donor in organic chemistry.

To maintain the environmental benefit of using glycerol as a sustainable organic building block, heterogeneous catalysis was often preferred to homogeneous catalysis. Indeed, heterogeneous catalysis offers many advantages such as easy removal of solid catalysts from the reaction media and, in some cases, their possible recycling. However, from a scientific point of view, it is well established that the activities of solid catalysts are usually lower than those of homogeneous catalysts mainly because of the poorer accessibility of the grafted catalytic sites. This aspect is even more complex when catalytic processes are carried out in glycerol, as, with organic substrates, the reaction media becomes biphasic raising some problems of substrate diffusion. The rapid development of materials chemistry recently has given access to a wide range of different elaborate solid catalyst structures, usually well-defined at a nanoscale, and now offers to chemists a means to improve the performance, activity and selectivity of solid catalysts. On the basis of these fascinating studies, researchers started to design new solid catalysts, which were found particularly efficient for the successful use of glycerol as organic building block.

http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/fulltext/120755747/HTMLSTART
14a A. Zecchina, E. Groppo, S. Bordiga, Chem. Eur. J. 2007, 13, 2440
14b J. Grunes, J. Zhu, G. A. Somorjai, Chem. Commun. 2003, 9, 2257
14c A. T. Bell, Science 2003, 299, 1688.

Nanotoxicology: a definition

2008-11-20T13:11:00.004+03:30

Another illustration of the scope of current research activity (and hence of future published material) can be obtained from the recently released National Nanotechnology Initiative report from the Nanotechnology Environmental & Health Implications (NEHI) working group (NNI, 2008). Although this report covers only US based research, the general trends presented in the review are relevant also to current European research activity.

Nanotoxicology can be defined as the study of the interactions of nanoparticles with biological systems with an emphasis on establishing the relationship, if any, between the physical and chemical properties of nanoparticles and the induction of toxicological responses. The term ‘nanoparticle’ is used here to refer to free nanoparticles that are present in air or suspended in liquid (Hansen et al.,2007’s suggested Category IIIb-d), but does not include those bound to surfaces, suspended in solids, or components of structured surfaces, films, etc, for which toxicology data is mostly lacking. This may be an important gap in deriving risks related to the lifetime usage of a product, e.g. the adherence to and leaching of MNPs from material surfaces.

There is a correspondingly large and rapidly expanding published literature on the toxicology of manufactured nanoparticles (MNPs) that deserves a few words of overview.

Depending on the particular combinations(s) of keywords used, the relevant current literature relating to MNP toxicology consists of between 400 and 800 papers, the vast majority of which concern the cytotoxic effects of MNPs in cell culture systems, mostly mammalian.

A commendable percentage of the multi million dollar US budget is devoted to improved instrumentation and analytical technologies for characterising particles and for studying their interactions with biological materials and the consequences for human health. An extremely small percentage of funding effort is devoted to environmentally realistic exposure assessment and risk management protocols. A similar conclusion has been reached by Grieger et al., (2007), who note the majority of ecotoxicology-relevant publications to be in the areas of regulation, characterisation of nanoparticles and testing (not always together), with a complete absence of exposure assessment. This emphasises that when reviewing the literature relating to proposed mechanisms of cellular uptake and pathways of toxicity, it is also necessary to consider what types of exposure would lead to these effects in real world situations.

An accompanying review (S. Holgate, 2008) provides an excellent overview of the literature relevant to mechanisms of toxicity of MNPs in mammalian systems and in particular in relation to lung and inhalation toxicology.

http://www.rcep.org.uk/novel%20materials/Literature%20Review_Ecotoxicology%20of%20Nanomaterials.pdf

The behaviour of manufactured NPs in environmental matrices such as natural waters, sediments or soils

There is now a wider debate about the risks and benefits of the many manufactured NMs and consumer products (Royal Society 2004; US EPA 2005; Owen and Depledge 2005; Handy and Shaw 2007; Owen and Handy 2007)

Clearly, the scientific debate on the environmental safety of NMs needs to adopt a multi-disciplinary approach involving physicists, chemists, material scientists, biologists, toxicologists, risk assessors, regulators and policy makers. There was a seminar, which took place in Museum of Science in London where for the first time gathered diverse people from chemistry, biology, and risk assessment issues together in one volume.

Nanoparticles are no new phenomena, being a natural product of sea waves, volcanic eruption, etc. If we consider atmospheric dust alone, estimates indicate about one billion metric tons per year are produced globally (Kellogg andGriffin 2006). There is also incidental production of NPs from human activity (e.g.,wear of car tyres, urban air pollution) that may also present a toxicological risk (reviewed in Handy and Shaw 2007). Their effects on human, however, depend on their shape, size, surface energy, and chemistry. Their behaviour in agglomeration, or other properties such as the attractive-repulsive properties of the particles in collision and its frequencies, and also their colloidal environment is important as medium to define further interactions, and agglomeration. After an initial collision, particles may remain in aqueous phase as single particles, or form particle–particle, particle–cluster and cluster–cluster aggregates. The forces involved in the collisions include Borne repulsion, diffuse double layer potential, and van der Waals attraction. These are the cause for particles attachment to the walls of equipments, and aggregation in natural waters, or more often on the organisms which may have toxicological implications regarding fate and behaviour of the materials, and the types of ecosystems and organisms exposed. Nanoparticles themselves may be coated by natural organic matter that leaves them dispersed for longer period of time. For example, additions of negatively charged
humic and fulvic acids to positively charged mineral NPs in natural freshwater. Other components of water such as Ca2+ hugely affect surface charge. For changing the shape or surface chemistry detergents or surfactants were added to the water, for instance to wash away SWCNTs, SDS were experimented. Ecotoxicology have been considering surface behaviour for a long time (Handy and Eddy 1991). The surface of the organism may present a complex unstirred layer (USL), which could result in shear forces that either cause particle aggregation (peri-kinetic aggregation, Handy et al. 2008). Such processes have already been implicated in TiO2 NP toxicity to trout (Federici et al. 2007). Solid–liquid and air–water interfaces in the environment may show similar properties that attract NPs to agglomerate on species, and act as transporter. Baun et al. (2008) recently showed that the uptake of phenanthrene by Daphnia magna was much faster in the presence of C60 NPs and was probably due to the NPs enabling delivery of the phenanthrene to the test organism.
Respiratory toxicology and inflammation reactions to NP exposure are important routes in the uptake of NPs and in relation to NPs impacts in ecotoxicology. Biochemical change and genotoxicity also require investigation in wildlife. There has been evidence of impacts on Ti particles hampering algae growth, but concentration of NPs on soil showed to have no impact. Moore (2006) also raised concerns about NPs acting as delivery vehicles for other chemicals via endocytosis pathways. Manufactured nanoparticles have not shown dispersion in water so far. For example, carbon nanotubes are almost impossible to disperse in water by physical methods such as sonication or stirring alone, and may require the use of a dispersing agent (e.g., Smith et al. 2007).
The main requirement is categorisation of NPs for the purposes of ecotoxicological risk assessments in analysis of products life cycle that would release NPs into the environment. We should recognise that the behaviour of NPs in the marine environment is likely to be very different from some freshwaters, and that a fundamental understanding of natural NPs and colloids may be a prerequisite to elucidating the fate and behaviour of manufactured NPs in complex environmental matrices. Ecotoxicologists therefore need to learn some physico-chemistry, and work more closely with physicists, chemists, and material scientists to achieve the correct interpretation of data from ecotoxicity experiments.

Handy R D et al, The ecotoxicology of nanoparticles and nanomaterials: current status, knowledge gaps, challenges, and future needs, Ecotoxicology Journal, 17:315-325, Springer, April 2008

Toxic potential of materials at nano-level

Although the extraordinary characteristics of NP may necessitate novel investigation approach to assess their hazard potential, particle toxicology is a mature science that addresses the mechanisms of lung injury by inhaled particles (4–6). Inhaled or instilled ambient ultrafine particles (particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter G 100 nm) can induce pulmonary inflammation, oxidative stress, and distal organ involvement. In a similar fashion, occupational exposure to quartz, mineral dust particles (e.g., coal and silicates), and asbestos fibers induce oxidative injury, inflammation, fibrosis, cytotoxicity, and mediator release from lung target cells (4–8). The same holds true for experimental instillation of titanium dioxide (TiO2) and carbon black nanoparticles in animal lungs. Tissue and cell culture analysis support the physiological response seen in animal models, pointing to the role of oxidative stress in the production of inflammatory cytokines and cytotoxic cellular responses.

In addition to the paradigm of oxidative stress and inflammation, it is important to consider that some of the NM interactions depicted may also results in other forms of injury, such as protein denaturation, membrane damage, DNA damage, immune reactivity, and the formation of foreign body granulomas. It is also possible that new NM properties may emerge that can lead to novel mechanisms of toxicity.

Carbon nanotubes are long carbon-based tubes that can be either single- or multiwalled and have the potential to act as biopersistent fibers. Nanotubes have aspect ratios Q 100, with lengths of several mm and diameters of 0.7 to 1.5 nm for single-walled nanotubes (SWNT) and 2 to 50 nm for multiwalled nanotubes (MWNT). In vitro incubation of keratinocytes and bronchial epithelial cells with high doses of SWNT results in ROS generation, lipid peroxidation, oxidative stress, mitochondrial dysfunction, and changes in cell morphology (19).

The biological impacts of NM and the biokinetics of nanoparticles are dependent on size, chemical composition, surface structure, solubility, shape, and aggregation. These parameters can modify cellular uptake, protein binding, translocation from portal of entry to the target site, and the possibility of causing tissue injury (4).

Although inhalation is a less likely route for engineered NM exposure compared with ambient or mineral dust particles, this can happen during bulk manufacture and handling of freely dispersable nanoparticles. Inhaled nanoparticles are efficiently deposited by diffusional mechanisms in all regions of the lung (4).

It has been proposed that Radio-labeled ultrafine carbon black may translocate through the respiratory epithelial layer to reach the lung interstitium or the blood and lymph circulations, but this finding has been refuted by others (25, 26).

....the state of particle aggregation or dispersion is important in cellular interactions as exemplified by the finding that, if nanoparticles are coated with lung surfactant before cellular incubation, the cellular fate differs from that of uncoated particles. The assessment of nanomaterial inorganic and organic coatings and state of aggregation are therefore important considerations in evaluating NM toxicity.

.......However, given the unique characteristics of NM, this will necessitate new test strategies to delineate the novel mechanisms of injury that may arise from these materials. More refined approaches for NM characterization and toxicological evaluations will emerge with time, for example, use of nanosensors to detect ROS generation by nanoparticles. This could make these evaluations cost effective, facilitating new product development.

What type of NM testing should be performed? The National Toxicology Program (NTP) in the United States has been established as an interagency program to evaluate chemical agents that are of public health concern by implementing modern toxicology tools. [Other governmental agencies, such as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) also have important roles in assessing nanomaterial safety in the United States, which will not be discussed here]. Although it is still questionable whether NM should be treated as commercial or industrial chemicals, the preferred NTP approach to chemical toxicity is a predictive scientific model that focuses on target-specific, mechanism-based biological observations, rather than a descriptive approach.

...among the 80,000 chemicals that are currently registered for commercial use in the United States, only 530 have undergone long-term and 70 short-term testing by the
NTP. Moreover, the resource-intensive nature of these studies puts the cost of each bioassay at $2 to $4 million and takes over 3 years to complete.

Much can be learned from research into the adverse health effects of ambient PM, where progress was slow until major mechanistic hypotheses were introduced. Armed with the knowledge that particle size, surface area, and chemical composition are important for ROS generation as a key toxicity principal, it has become
easier to design in vivo studies in at-risk populations (8). The extent to which this or other paradigms of injury (Table 2) apply to a wide range of NM needs to be determined.

Although it is not possible to provide detailedprotocols for nanotoxicity testing here, it will suffice to mention that the three key elements of a toxicity screening strategy should include physicochemical characterization of NM, in vitro assays (cellular and noncellular), and in vivo studies (40). There is a strong likelihood that biological activity will depend on physicochemical characteristics that are not usually considered in toxicity screening studies. Thus, any test paradigm must attempt to characterize the test material with respect to size (surface area, size
distribution), chemical composition (purity, crystallinity, electronic properties, etc.), surface structure (surface reactivity, surface groups, inorganic/organic coatings, etc.), solubility, shape and aggregation. This should be done at the time of NM administration as well as at the conclusion, if possible. It is beyond the scope of this paper to discuss the scientific methods for NM characterization except to comment that standard reference materials (e.g., TiO2, carbon black, quartz) are essential to compare material behavior. Cellular assays should reflect portal-of-entry toxicity in lungs, skin, and mucus membranes as well as noxious effects on target tissue such as endothelium, blood cell elements, spleen, liver, nervous system, heart, and kidney. Noncellular assays could include protein interactions and
pro-oxidant activity. The in vivo studies can make use of disease-specific animal models that assess portal of entry and target organ injury, as well as animal models in which live imaging can be used to show the activation of oxidative stress and redox signaling pathways that are involved in particle-induced tissue injury. When
in vivo toxicity is observed, it may also be appropriate to proceed with studies that formerly assess the absorption, distribution, metabolism, and elimination of NM. Because NM have the potential to spread beyond the portal of entry, it is important to assess systemic responses. Examples include assays for oxidative stress (e.g., lipid peroxidation), C-reactive protein, immune and inflammatory responses, and cytotoxicity (e.g., release of liver enzymes and glial fibrillary acidic protein). The biological studies can be strengthened by the use of discovery tools such as proteomics and genomics to develop biomarkers for toxicity screening (12).

As testing proceeds, it will be important to incorporate these data into a knowledge base that allows investigators to classify NM as safe or possibly hazardous. Negative data should be reported to show which materials are devoid of
toxic effects. This could represent the majority of NM. Potential difficulties may be encountered in conducting in vitro and in vivo studies with engineered NM. These include problems with dosimetry, state of agglomeration (singlets versus aggregates), impact of material coating, and lack of knowledge of real-world exposures to NM. Detection methods need to be developed for exposure assessment and dosimetry calculation. Current state-of-the-art methods to detect airborne nanoparticles should enable personal monitoring devices to be developed to assess these exposures.

Andre Nel et al, Science 311, 622 (2006)

Cell Physiology

Treating cells with a cytotoxic compound can result in a variety of cell fates. The cells may undergo necrosis, in which they lose membrane integrity and die rapidly as a result of cell lysis. The cells can stop actively growing and dividing (a decrease in cell viability), or the cells can activate a genetic program of controlled cell death (apoptosis).

Cells undergoing necrosis typically exhibit rapid swelling, lose membrane integrity, shut down metabolism and release their contents into the environment. Cells that undergo rapid necrosis in vitro do not have sufficient time or energy to activate apoptotic machinery and will not express apoptotic markers.[1] Apoptosis is characterized by well defined cytological and molecular events including a change in the refractive index of the cell, cytoplasmic shrinkage, nuclear condensation and cleavage of DNA into regularly sized fragments.[2] Cells in culture that are undergoing apoptosis eventually undergo secondary necrosis. They will shut down metabolism, lose membrane integrity and lyse.[2][3]

[edit] Measuring Cytotoxicity

Cytotoxicity assays are widely used by the pharmaceutical industry to screen for cytotoxicity in compound libraries. Researchers can either look for cytotoxic compounds, if they are interested in developing a therapeutic that targets rapidly dividing cancer cells, for instance; or they can screen "hits" from initial high-throughput drug screens for unwanted cytotoxic effects before investing in their development as a pharmaceutical.

Assessing cell membrane integrity is one of the most common ways to measure cell viability and cytotoxic effects. Compounds that have cytotoxic effects often compromise cell membrane integrity. Vital dyes, such as trypan blue or propidium iodide are normally excluded from the inside of healthy cells; however, if the cell membrane has been compromised, they freely cross the membrane and stain intracellular components.[3] Alternatively, membrane integrity can be assessed by monitoring the passage of substances that are normally sequestered inside cells to the outside. One commonly measured molecule is lactate dehydrogenase (LDH).[4] Protease biomarkers have been identified that allow researchers to measure relative numbers of live and dead cells within the same cell population. The live-cell protease is only active in cells that have a healthy cell membrane, and loses activity once the cell is compromised and the protease is exposed to the external environment. The dead-cell protease cannot cross the cell membrane, and can only be measured in culture media after cells have lost their membrane integrity.[5]

Cytotoxicity can also be monitored using the MTT or MTS assay. This assay measures the reducing potential of the cell using a colorimetric reaction. Viable cells will reduce the MTS reagent to a colored formazan product. A similar redox-based assay has also been developed using the fluorescent dye, resazurin. In addition to using dyes to indicate the redox potential of cells in order to monitor their viability, researchers have developed assays that use ATP content as a marker of viability.[3] Such ATP-based assays include bioluminescent assays in which ATP is the limiting reagent for the luciferase reaction.[6]

Cytotoxicity can also be measured by the Sulforhodamine B (SRB) assay, WST assay and clonogenic assay.

Wikipedia

CNTs from natural resources - (Horseradish)

2008-11-20T00:39:00.002+03:30

a) Photograph of the garnet sand used to produce nanotubes; the inset is an SEM image showing the average diameter of the sand particles (average size ca. 200 m). b-d) SEM images of the CNTs grown on the surface of the garnet sand particle (in parts b and c, G and T indicate the garnet particle and CNT, respectively; part d corresponds to the CNTs only). e, f) TEM images showing the central hollow core of a typical as-grown CNT (e) and the highly linear and crystalline lattice of the wall (f).

http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/aboutus/hottopics/suschem/

Interscience, Vol 1, issue 10, 2008

PITTSBURGH-University of Pittsburgh researchers have developed the first natural, nontoxic method for biodegrading carbon nanotubes, a finding that could help diminish the environmental and health concerns that mar the otherwise bright prospects of the super-strong materials commonly used in products, from electronics to plastics.

A Pitt research team has found that carbon nanotubes deteriorate when exposed to the natural enzyme horseradish peroxidase (HRP), according to a report published recently in “Nano Letters” coauthored by Alexander Star, an assistant professor of chemistry in Pitt's School of Arts and Sciences, and Valerian Kagan, a professor and vice chair of the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health in Pitt's Graduate School of Public Health. These results open the door to further development of safe and natural methods-with HRP or other enzymes-of cleaning up carbon nanotube spills in the environment and the industrial or laboratory setting.

Carbon nanotubes are one-atom thick rolls of graphite 100,000 times smaller than a human hair yet stronger than steel and excellent conductors of electricity and heat. They reinforce plastics, ceramics, or concrete; conduct electricity in electronics or energy-conversion devices; and are sensitive chemical sensors, Star said. (Star created an early-detection device for asthma attacks wherein carbon nanotubes detect minute amounts of nitric oxide preceding an attack. See link below.)

“The many applications of nanotubes have resulted in greater production of them, but their toxicity remains controversial,” Star said. “Accidental spills of nanotubes are inevitable during their production, and the massive use of nanotube-based materials could lead to increased environmental pollution. We have demonstrated a nontoxic approach to successfully degrade carbon nanotubes in environmentally relevant conditions.”

The team's work focused on nanotubes in their raw form as a fine, graphite-like powder, Kagan explained. In this form, nanotubes have caused severe lung inflammation in lab tests. Although small, nanotubes contain thousands of atoms on their surface that could react with the human body in unknown ways, Kagan said. Both he and Star are associated with a three-year-old Pitt initiative to investigate nanotoxicology.

“Nanomaterials aren't completely understood. Industries use nanotubes because they're unique-they are strong, they can be used as semiconductors. But do these features present unknown health risks? The field of nanotoxicology is developing to find out,” Kagan said. “Studies have shown that they can be dangerous. We wanted to develop a method for safely neutralizing these very small materials should they contaminate the natural or working environment.”

To break down the nanotubes, the team exposed them to a solution of HRP and a low concentration of hydrogen peroxide at 4 degrees Celcius (39 degrees Fahrenheit) for 12 weeks. Once fully developed, this method could be administered as easily as chemical clean-ups in today's labs, Kagan and Star said.

http://www.news.pitt.edu/m/FMPro?-db=ma&-lay=a&-format=d.html&id=3552&-Find

Tunnelling electrons nano-motor

2008-11-17T09:13:00.000+03:30

Nature contains a wide range of nanomotors — for example, some bacteria and other tiny organisms propel themselves using whip-like structures that are driven by biomolecular motors. Not surprisingly, researchers are looking at such “biomotors” for inspiration.

Powered by tunneling electrons
The quantum-mechanical tunnelling of protons is believed to be at the heart of some biomotors, and now Petr Král and colleagues that the University of Illinois at Chicago have shown that electron tunnelling could be used to drive manmade nanomotors.

The team used molecular-dynamics computer simulations to model nanomotors that comprise a carbon nanotube shaft with molecular "stalks" terminated by conducting "blades" (see figure). The rotor resembles a water wheel, except that one electron at a time tunnels between stationary electrodes and moving blades.

With each electron passing through the blades, the device rotates by either 120° or 60° — depending on how the blades are configured. Rotation occurs because the net effect of charging and discharging the blades nearest to the electrodes creates an electrode dipole moment across the rotor. This dipole is subject to the electric field created by the two oppositely-charged electrodes and the resulting torque drives the rotor.

http://nanotechweb.org/cws/article/tech/36611;jsessionid=AA00ABFFF75D0344F557B783FEEEF543

Calcium: Cell biology

2008-11-16T19:22:00.003+03:30

CELL BIOLOGY

It's a bit like talking to your neighbor at a dinner party with a megaphone, but Tovey et al. report that the stimulation of calcium release through inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate receptors (IP3R) results from enormous amounts (1000 times greater than the amount needed to activate protein kinase A) of the second messenger cAMP produced by adenylyl cyclase (AC) molecules that are closely apposed to the IP3R channel. The authors were led to this unorthodox interpretation by their exploration of the mechanisms by which parathyroid hormone (PTH), which itself does not cause the release of calcium, enhanced the effects of other hormones on the release via IP3Rs of calcium from internal stores. Only PTH analogs that activated AC potentiated calcium release. High concentrations of cAMP analogs were sufficient to reproduce the effects of PTH and were not additive with the effects of the hormone. The authors propose that AC and IP3Rs are in such close proximity that activation of the cyclase produces a massive all-or-none response of the channel that is resistant to modulation by agents that alter cytoplasmic concentrations of cAMP; immunoprecipitation experiments confirmed the prediction that IP3Rs and AC were associated physically. Such signaling complexes would have on-off or switchlike properties and could allow graded responses by recruitment of more activated complexes rather than graded response at an individual complex. To add to the complexity, the IP3R-associated isoform of AC is inhibited by calcium. Thus, localized concentrations of cAMP and calcium might oscillate as a result of feedback inhibition. -- LBR

Ray B, Journal Cell Biol. 183, 297 (2008)

The ANK3 protein has a role in the assembly of voltage-gated Na+ channels; CACNA1C encodes the alpha1c subunit of the L-type Ca2+ channel. Interestingly, Na+ channels are targets of the anticonvulsant drugs used to treat bipolar disorder.

..........What is the significance for neurobiology of these recent advances in neuropsychiatric genetics? Even variants that contribute a small increment of risk, as is likely to be the case for ANK3 and CACNA1C28, can point to pathways that might be involved in pathophysiology and can thus suggest biological hypotheses and possible drug targets. Where highly penetrant mutations can be identified, they can provide particularly powerful tools for neurobiology, as illustrated by the neurexin and neuroligin story or the investigations into fragile X syndrome and Rett syndrome that have produced animal models of treatment. There is, of course, still a long distance to travel in the identification of risk-conferring alleles, of which there will be many, and in the replication of association studies and demonstration of both statistical and biological significance. There is much challenging neurobiology to come, but it is biology that will ultimately have enormous significance for human health.

Hyman S, 2008, Nature, 455

VITAMINE D DILEMMA

Radiological health expert Daniel Hayes who works at the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene recent published on the subject of low dose radiation and the possibility that a form of vitamin D could be the key to protecting us from background radiation and perhaps save lives following a nuclear incident or terrorist attack involving a so-called dirty bomb.

Hayes explains that calcitriol, the active form of vitamin D, could be the oral agent, that medics have been searching for to provide a quick, simple, and inexpensive way to protect us when the warning sirens sound.

Having spoken to various researchers with markedly different views on vitamin D, its benefits and its its potentially detrimental effects on health, I wasn’t too sure about how adding yet another dietary supplement to our daily intake would be beneficial. I asked Hayes to expand.

“One should get vitamin D3 either from solar irradiation of the skin or from dietary supplementation,” he told me, “I personally take 2000 IU daily which is obtained without a physician’s prescription…2000 IU is definitely safe, I can dig up the documentation.”

http://www.sciencebase.com/science-blog/vitamin-d-dilemma.html

Glucosamine for knee osteoarthritis – what's new?
Relevant BNF section: 10.1.5

Glucosamine is a natural substance that has been widely used for several years as a food supplement to treat people with osteoarthritis.1 One formulation of {blacktriangledown}glucosamine hydrochloride (Alateris – Ransom) has recently become the first (and is currently the only) glucosamine product to be licensed as a medicine in the UK for symptomatic relief of mild to moderate osteoarthritis of the knee. In 2002, we concluded that unlicensed "oral glucosamine sulphate 1,500 mg [daily] probably provides modest symptom relief in patients with osteoarthritis of the knee and its efficacy appears similar to that of NSAIDs".1 Here we update our advice in the light of new evidence and assess the place of the licensed glucosamine hydrochloride tablets.

http://www.dtb.bmj.com/cgi/content/abstract/46/11/81

Cladogram

2008-11-15T17:15:00.001+03:30

About the ToL Navigation Picture

We've been getting a lot of inquiries about the tree of life picture on our home page. It is important to note that the major function of this picture is to help visitors to the ToL web site to quickly navigate to pages of some of the major groups of organisms. In order to serve this purpose, we had to use a greatly simplified representation of the tree of life.
http://tolweb.org/tree/home.pages/aboutoverview.html

Dennis Wall's Phylomonography

Dennis P. Wall presents his dissertation work on mosses in a novel way, using technology to reflect his philosophy of phylogenetics and to present the supporting evidence, including pictures of characters and a distribution map of specimen locations. This representation is similar to a standard tree diagram structure, but leverages interactivity to compress the display and also provide access to supporting information.

UCMP's Evolution website for teachers

The new teacher's resource website on evolution, evolution.berkeley.edu, presents a simple visualization of our place in the tree of life. Shown in-the-round, the tree emphasizes the three domains of life, replacing earlier ideas of "kingdoms." This representation uses attractive images and colors, labels branches at a resolution that will be digestable by most viewers, giving branches proportional space, and displays time/evolutionary distance by radiating out from the center of a circle.

http://www.rebeccashapley.com/cipres/gallery.htm

Pylogeny of complete genomes

2008-11-15T17:09:00.000+03:30

A phylogeny of complete genomes: data repository

http://www.bork.embl.de/tree_of_life/

Most true it is that I have look’d on truth Askance and strangely….. Shakespeare

2008-11-13T16:26:00.001+03:30

Orienting Collagen Nanofibers

2008-11-13T16:19:00.001+03:30

A Study of the Formation of Collagen Nanofibers using Electrospinning", at the School of Industrial and Aeronautic Engineering of Terrassa, reports on the manufacturing of synthetic cartilage similar to human cartilage, for medical use. Protection of the knee for disabled people with prostheses may be one of the first applications. controlling nanofibers means arraying them in a particular configuration: in parallel, in a circle, or crossed. The fibers that form the cartilage that protects the knee are aligned in parallel. Orienting collagen nanofibers is an extremely complex task because collagen is a natural polymer that is very difficult to control. This task was achieved by using the electrospinning method.

The results of this work are innovative. The collagen nanofibers are obtained by exposing the collagen to electrical discharges. The collagen is extruded, in the form of a nanofiber thread, through a fine needle and is deposited on an electric collector consisting of two grounded plates. The student placed a nonconductive material between the two conducting plates. The nanofibers aligned on top of each other perfectly in parallel lines between the two conducting plates.

The student was very cautious when explaining why the nanofibers had behaved in this manner. One hypothesis that was explained the phe-nomenon has to do with the ratio of the diameter of the nanofibers to the distance between the two collecting plates on which they are deposited. she believes that the smaller the diameter of the nanofibers, the better the results will be, but she insists that this is a working hypothesis that needs to be thoroughly tested.

How to manufacture synthetic cartilage
Until now, creating synthetic cartilage was complex but not impossible. The prob-lem was that it was impossible to imitate the perfection of human cartilage due to the difficulty in orienting the collagen nanofibers; synthetic cartilage was there-fore manufactured using gelatinous substances derived from collagen.

The process for creating synthetic cartilage began with processing stem cells. These cells, if processed in the right way, reproduce and transform into any type of cell required by the scientist manipulating them. For this to be possible, the cells must be in an ideal environment. This work means that the collagen fibers adapt to the configuration of the chondrocytes (cartilage cells) and are made in the ideal environment, in which these chondrocytes grow until they form the desired cartilage.

http://www.azonano.com/news.asp?newsID=8656

Electro spinning of Nano fibre

Simple core nano fibres synthesis process is established. (Single nozzle systems)

Core-Multi-shell Nanofibres will lead to:

Biosensors
In-vivo CMOS implants
Drug delivery
Gas Sensors
Tissue Engineering
High strength materials
Hydrogen Storage

Mark

Ergonomics: Melatonin rhythm

2008-11-13T16:13:00.001+03:30

Quite often, the lighting conditions in artificially illuminated windowless workplaces do not meet the ergonomical standards. In this context, low lighting intensities not only debilitate the employees vision but irritate the non-visual aspects of light as well, i.e. they impair the subject’s regular circadian rhythm of melatonin and other parameters. An insufficient suppression of daytime melatonin synthesis extends its sphere of action. The biological effects of melatonin include the timing of core body temperature, the setup of diurnal cortisol rhythms, and the promotion of sleep (Arendt and Skene, 2005; Lewy et al., 1992; Zhdanova, 2005).

Thus, one ergonomical concern in the strategy of workplace illuminationshould be to allow for an adjustment of a regular daytime melatonin rhythm. This will help to avoid the risks of on-the-job sleepiness, decreased alertness, and reduced job performance. In our study, highest aMT6-s concentrations could be detected in urine samples collected at the beginning of the experimental office work at 09:00 a.m. In the course of the day, there was a significant drop in aMT6-s levels with lowest values at 05:00 p.m. This is in congruence with the circadian profile reported for melatonin in the literature and is regarded to be due to bright light exposure (Lewy et al., 1980; Lynch et al., 1975).

Effects of variable lighting intensities and colour temperatures on sulphatoxymelatonin and subjective mood in an experimental office workplace, Applied Ergonomics Journal, Nov 2007, Elsevier Publishing

"In the bluish light scenario, a significant improvement in restless behaviour was observed in the intervention group, as well as a significant increase in the range of tympanic temperature. These effects were not found in the yellowish light scenario. Further evidence is found that high-intensity bluish light may play a role in managing restless behaviour and improving circadian rhythmicity in institutionalised older adults with dementia."

Ambient bright light in dementia: Effects on behaviour and circadian rhythmicity , Building and Environment, Vol 44, 2008

CRAIG VENTER, Ocean gene sequencing

For generations of products and processes: Nano

2008-11-12T20:40:00.000+03:30

“… for I was never so small as this before, never!”
Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland, 1907

FOR GENERATIONS OF PRODUCTS AND PROCESSES

1st passive nanostructures (1st generation products)
a. Dispersed and contact nanstructures Ex: aerosols, colloids
b. Products incorporating nanostructures Ex: coatings; nanoparticle reinforced composites; nanostructured metals, polymers, ceramics

2nd Active nanostructures
a. Bio-active, health effects Ex: targeted drugs, biodevices
b. Physio-chemical active Ex: 3D transistors, amplifiers, actuators. adaptive structures d Active nanostructures

3rd Systems of nanostructures
Ex: guided assembling; 3D networking and new hierarchial architectures, robotics, evolutionary biosystems

4th Molecular nanosystems
Ex: molecular devices ‘by design’, atomic design, emerging functions

A key issue in understanding the system of innovation in nanomaterials is that the great majority of nanomaterials are not consumer products to be sold to an end user, but ‘capital’ materials to be used by other industries in order to make new products. In this sense most nanomaterials can be understood as ‘products for process innovation’. This is why supplier and manufacturing firms occupy the central position in nanoma-terials innovation systems. The innovation system for nanomaterials can therefore be conceptualised as an ‘hourglass model’ (figure 2-VI) in which a variety of scientific disciplines support the development of a number of technologies for the fabrication of nanomaterials, which then serve many different economic sectors.

Novel Materials in the Environment: the case of nanotechnology, Royal Commission on Envir Pollution, Nov 2008

Defect in ionic solids

2008-11-11T19:49:00.000+03:30

Real crystals are imperfect. Every lattice site is not occupied. There can be a vacancy at a site called a Schottky defect created by moving an atom from its lattice site in the interior to the surface of the crystal. Another kind of defect is a Frenkel defect, in which an anion is transferred from its site to an interstitial position. The number of Schottky vacancies present is dependent on the temperature. It can be shown form statistical mechanics that the fraction of sites f vacant at a given temperature is proportional to

F = exp – E / k T

Where E is the defect formation energy, that is, the energy needed to move an atom from its lattice site to t he exterior of the crystal. The question we are interested in examining is how nanosizing affects the fraction of defects in the material, which means that we have to examine the effect of nanosizing on the defect formation energy. For a crystal consisting of nonpolarizable constituents, the defect formation energy is the lattice energy per atom U. in the case of ionic solids U is an overestimate of the defect formation energy because it neglects the polarization energy produced by the vacancy. when an ion is removed from its site, the ions around the site experience an electric field and are polarized. The potential ϕ from t his polarization must be included I determining the defect formation energy, which is then

E = U – e ϕ / 2

We consider simple model for the potential ϕ. When a positive ion is removed from its site, the neighbouring ions experience and electric filed e/r^2, where r is the distance of the ion from the vacancy. the neighbouring ions become polarized having a dipole

μ + = a + e/ r^2 for positive ions and μ- = a – e/r^2 for negative ions,

where a is the polarizability of the ion, which will differ between Na+ ions and Cl- ions. The potential produced by a dipole is proportional to μ /r2 and depends on the orientation of the dipole. Thus the induced dipole on the ions produces a potential ϕ at the vacancy given by

ϕ = ∑ a+e /r j^ 4 + ∑ a- e/ r k ^4

where rj is the distance of positive ions from the vacancy and rk is the distance of negative ions form the vacancy.

to illustrate the effect of nanosizing on the energy to form a vacancy, let us calculate the defect formation energy to remove a positive ion in the middle of our linear NaCl lattice discussed above. The energy will be e ϕ /2. because the l / r^4 term decreases rapidly with r at most, we need only go to next nearest neighbours in the summation to calculate the polarization contribution to the formation energy. In this case the energy will be

E = 2a + e / R^4 [ ½^4 ¼^4] + 2 a = e ^2 / R^4 [ 1 + 1/3 ^4]

Frank Owen, Charles Poole, The physics and Chemistry of Nanosolids, Wiley, 2008

Determinism

2008-11-09T21:53:00.002+03:30

....the irritation and unease that determinism can conjure in relation to the effort and commitment that we put into life. The emotional question is, “can I be bothered?”; can I be bothered to employ my higher faculties in earnest, or shall I simply recline in apathy? This more emotional question inevitably is concerned with emotional factors such as how wearying or how inspiring is the employment of these higher faculties, how stubborn or determined is our nature, and countless other human influences. It is not necessary to reconcile determinism and the concept of free will in order to appreciate that the argument that we might as well just relax because atoms will carry on colliding in a pre-determined way regardless of our effort, is clearly a sloppy one.

Robinson C P, comments - In our time!

......the issue of the distinction between subjective awareness and objective awareness when discussing consciousness. This is the heart of the problem that consciousness poses for materialism. Science understandably focuses on objectifiable awareness since science is optimized to study what is distributed in space and time and ultimately that is what we mean by objectifiable. Also objective awareness correlates strongly with the sensory mechanisms that enable our interaction with the space-time environment and these are easily studied by science. Subjective awareness however, cannot be understood by our present system of science and mathematics, not simply because we are trying to understand a complicated system, but because it has all the hallmarks of behaving as a singularity.

comments

I now realize why I sensed something was going wrong nanotech enthusiasms with the regulation pressure – as I began to review social issues of the past when science saw drastic discoveries. Social aspects of nanotechnology are essential part of the response to ethical issues of how far we can push such enabling sci-ence. The whole idea of free thinking is important before an era of revolutionary time of nanoscience unfolds itself in the minds of practitioners! We must learn how these particles affect us and are translated into thoughts by free endeavours to drive all the ideas to consequences.
What is particularity of nanoworld is increasing extension of surfaces! We are certainly much richer in the context of a nano-defined world as we have greatly extended the surfaces. Gassendi is the one philosopher that is needed mentioning for his ideas on surfaces, since he stresses that in response to Descartes on Mate-rialism - he says the question is all about measuring surfaces and tend to move away from the idea of the soul. However, according to William Blake the idea that we are only made out of particles, has left out huge amount of nature and beauty, and that our rich repertoire is indispensable.

Risk assessment: nanotechnology

2008-11-09T02:34:00.000+03:30

Where to draw a line: locating the risk

The unpredictable future of nano technology is challenging, for uncertainties but also immense opportunities. By all estimates scientific research programmes at large scale are outlined or influenced by funding bodies. Nanoscience, especially for the requirement of sophisticated probing tools and expertise, follows the same path. One particular feature in nanotechnology is multidisciplinary aspect, with additional dependence on sharing the results and collective engagement, which require collaboration of scientists with diverse speciality working on a single research question. This is due to myriad possibilities that are open and need probing. The comparative advantage of nanoscience to create novel solutions for human problems will thrive providing supportive environment for extensive research, connectivity and creativity is not disturbed.

On the other hand, since nanotechnology is relevant to all issues of concern such as climate change, environmental toxicity, pandemics, ageing population, energy, etc. – that are at risk of terrorist or other criminal activities, comprehensive guidelines should be in order to regulate and standardize the “commercialisation” of any nano-tech product "prior" to mass production and marketing. That is the "cutting point" where extreme checks and balances need to be established. Unwanted consequences of the new technology – abuse in mal-intention schemes - may be immense and far reaching with greater global impacts, which require collective action, and international executive branch – perhaps at the level of metropolitan police. Therefore, regulatory clauses need to be highly technical, all inclusive and informed by scientific and political bodies but also need to envisage proper executive power overseeing national politics – to act far more effective than eg. UN in risky countries. In this sense, perhaps an international regulatory regime must be defined to make best estimate of risks that may spread out internationally between countries, and across the globe.

The hope is that before film companies make huge profits out of banal horror scenarios, some extraordinary beneficial applications go public in order to do away with the hype and restore people’s trust in this novel path to enhance human capabilities.thoughtful

Nasrin

Ref:

Goldin I, 21 Century James Martin School, The future of humanity, Oxford Univ, public seminar podcast, Sept 2008

Schmidt, Project on Emerging Nanotechlogoies, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, www.nanotechproject.org
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20026814.000?DCMP=NLC-nletter&nsref=mg20026814.000
http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0014/001459/145951e.pdf

Gold Nanoshells

2008-11-08T21:38:00.001+03:30

Gold nanoshells consist of a dielectric core nanoparticle surrounded by a thin metal shell. By varying the relative dimensions of the core and shell constituents, one can design particles to either absorb or scatter light over the visible and much of the infrared regions of the electromagnetic spectrum. (A) These vials contain suspensions of either gold colloid (far left with its characteristic red color) or gold nanoshells with varying core:shell dimensions. (B) The optical properties of nanoshells are predicted by Mie scattering theory. For a core of a given size, forming thinner shells pushes the optical resonance to longer wavelengths.

ENGINEERED NANOMATERIALS FOR BIOPHOTONICS APPLICATIONS: Improving Sensing, Imaging, and Therapeutics, Annual Review of Biomedical Engineering, 2003