Center for Nanotechnology in Society
University of California, Santa Barbara
www.cns.ucsb.edu
WEEKLY CLIPS
October 15 - 22, 2007
Weekly Clips from CNS-UCSB are now available online:
http://www.cns.ucsb.edu/clips/
October 16, 2007
Public talk on how videogames affect social
perceptions of nanotechnologies
The National Science Foundation’s Center for Nanotechnology in Society (CNS),
housed at UC Santa Barbara, will host a public talk by Colin Milburn, Assistant
Professor of English and Science & Technology at UC Davis, on Monday, November 5,
from 4:00 – 5:30 p.m.
This talk, “Digital Matters: Video Games and the Cultural Transcoding of
Nanotechnology,” will explore the cross-traffic between nanotechnologies and video
games and how gamers’ perceptions and knowledge of nanotechnologies may be
influenced by the games’ narratives and images.
http://www.nanowerk.com/news/newsid=2962.php
October 17, 2007
MichBio Expo: Nanotechnology will be ‘third
industrial revolution’
Lansing — “Stem cells and cell therapy are not a matter of ‘if’ but are a matter of
‘when,’ ” George Dunbar, president and CEO of Ann Arbor-based Aastrom
Biosciences, told the closing session of the third annual MichBio Expo Wednesday
afternoon.
…Proof than nanotechnology finally has been accepted as a real scientific thrust and
is no longer seen as a fad, he said, was the recent award of the Nobel Prize in
science to two nanotechnologists, Frenchman Albert Fert and German Peter
Grunberg, whose work involved the flow of electric current through very thin layers of
metal.
http://crainsdetroit.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071017/REG/71017012/1
009/breaking/-/-/michbio-expo-nanotechnology-will-be-third-industrial-revolution
October 22, 2007
Nanotech: The Next Big Thing is Right Now
Going somewhere?
You pull on your wrinkle-free nano pants, your no-smell nano socks and your antistatic nano fleece jacket, all purchased from popular retailers. You toss your brandname, stain-resistant nano luggage into the cargo bed of your new SUV with the
beautiful and resilient glossy nano finish.
Staying home?
You have a beer; it’s fresh. The plastic bottle contains a nano-clay particle said to
keep the oxygen out and the carbon dioxide in.
Bedsheets, a hard baby rattle and a soft teddy bear, food storage containers — in
fact, the whole refrigerator — all treated with nano-silver to kill microbes. Dietary
supplements, toothpaste, baby cups, cosmetics, condoms, soap, cleaning sprays,
hair dryers, cell phone casings, golf clubs, tennis rackets. Nanotechnology is not the
next big thing in consumer products. It’s the right-now big thing.
http://public.cq.com/docs/gs/greensheets110-000002609879.html
October 15, 2007
Setting Priorities For Nanotech
With more nanotechnology-containing products hitting the market, the need for
research on the environmental, health, and safety (EHS) impacts of these engineered
nanomaterials is vital. And while more federal dollars are going into such research,
experts agree that the lack of a common list of priorities is hampering assessments
on the risk of this technology to the public and the environment.
Now, both government and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) are taking on this
challenge by identifying nanotech EHS research priorities and developing strategies
to get answers about relative risks and benefits of various nanotechnologies. But
time is of the essence, and as the federal government plods toward a strategic plan,
several NGOs have already released or are about to release strategic plans of their
own, leaving some observers to question just how useful the federal strategy will end
up being.
http://pubs.acs.org/cen/government/85/8542gov1.html
October 17, 2007
Who Put the Nano in My Teddy Bear?
When we recently updated our inventory of manufacturer-identified, nanotechenabled consumer products, there were a few surprises: the product landscape was
now dotted with some new entries targeted clearly at children (and, by default, their
parents). It is probably worth asking some questions about their safety or asking,
more broadly, "Who is in charge of testing these products and making sure that they
do not present risks to children, especially products that go directly into the mouth?"
…If our oversight system cannot keep these run-of-the-mill products containing toxins
off the shelves and out of the mouths of various family members, how are they going
to deal with nanotechnologies or any other emerging technologies with potentially
novel properties and yet-to-be-determined risks?
http://www.nanotech-now.com/columns/?article=121
October 21, 2007
Tackling global poverty
From the provision of clean drinking water to the early detection of disease,
nanotechnology has the potential to make a real impact in the fight against global
poverty.
It is easy to see nanotechnology as something that is being funded exclusively for the
benefit of the developed world. The most widely publicized applications — be they
serious, like next-generation electronic devices and targeted drug delivery, or
frivolous, like stain-resistant trousers — will have little impact on the majority of the
people in the world. However, if you look beneath the surface, there is enormous
scope for nanotechnology to reduce poverty and improve living standards around the
world. Nature Nanotechnology is publishing two articles on this topic as part of a
global effort by more than 200 journals to raise awareness and stimulate research
into poverty and human development.
http://www.nature.com/nnano/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nnano.2007.349.html
October 22, 2007
Thinking tiny: computers that fit in a palm
Tiny wires 1000 times thinner than a human hair could now deliver supercomputers
that fit in the palm of the hand.
The latest breakthrough in nanotechnology, the science of seriously small things, is
helping scientists predict the behaviour of wiring on this scale under stress.
Engineers at Edinburgh University have devised a tool to help combat problems
which can arise from wiring microchips much smaller than the ones we are used to.
…However it may create more nightmares for the Prince of Wales, who expressed
fears about the march of nanotechnology four years ago, anxious that self-replicating
nanorobots - atoms rearranged to create tiny machines - could annihilate life on
earth in less than two days.
http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/news/display.var.1775783.0.0.php
October 22, 2007
Cientifica: Nanodelivery can bring new life to
pharma IP
Cientifica, a London-based nanotech research firm, says nanotech-enabled
improvements to existing pharmaceuticals have created a "new value paradigm" in
the drug delivery market.
In a white paper, "The Nanotech Revolution in Drug Delivery," lead author Hailing Yu
wrote that "several hundred billion dollars worth" of pharmaceutical compounds are
sitting in "IP vaults unused" because technology has not yet been developed to
deliver the compounds directly to where they are needed in the body.
"The industry is keen to unlock and exploit this valuable intellectual property, and
using nanotechnology to create new chemical entities via reformulation gives them
the key," wrote Yu, research director for Cientifica.
The impact on the dental surgical market is already significant, with Cientifica
estimating that nano-enabled dental drugs already represent a $3.39 billion market
and prompting a scramble by both large pharmaceutical companies and drug delivery
start ups to grab a piece of a market predicted to grow to $26 billion by 2012.
http://www.smalltimes.com/articles/article_display.cfm?Section=ONART&C=Bio&AR
TICLE_ID=309757&p=109
October 15, 2007
For disruptive technologies, look to material
sciences
Cambridge, Mass.--Society-impacting technological change will increasingly come
from physical sciences, such as chemistry, physics and mechanical engineering,
rather than information technologies, said Matthew Nordan, the president of
nanotechnology research firm Lux Research.
…Nordan pointed out a few examples where nanotechnology can play a disruptive
role in the economy.
http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9797268-7.html
October 18, 2007
Nanoscale particles designed to block UV light
Nanoscale titanium dioxide particles could be the next breakthrough in food and
beverage plastic packaging, having the ability to prevent ultraviolet light from
reducing shelf life.
Over time the sun's ultraviolet light can cause cracking, fading and other types of
solar degradation to plastics. Ultraviolet light (UV) can also reduce the quality and
shelf life of beverages and foods in transparent or semi-transparent packaging.
Finding better ways to block UV rays from passing through food and beverage
packaging, while still allowing consumers to see the product inside, is a major goal
within the industry.
http://www.foodproductiondaily.com/news/printNewsBis.asp?id=80676
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