Terminology for Nanotechnology Standard Now Available from ASTM American Society for Testing and Materials International

ASTM International Committee E56 on Nanotechnology has approved its first standard, E 2456, Terminology for Nanotechnology. The new standard is under the jurisdiction of Subcommittee E56.01 on Terminology and Nomenclature. Because of the great need for a terminology document that is globally recognized and because of the cooperation of several organizations in making the document a reality, Terminology E 2456 will be available free of charge from the ASTM International Web site.
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Ultrastrong Carbon-Nanotube Muscles

Artificial muscles made from carbon nanotubes are 100 times stronger than human muscles.
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Microsoft Builds Relationships in Synthetic Biology

By Kevin Davies

December 07, 2006 | Microsoft Research (MSR) has launched a new funding initiative in the promising but controversial field of computational challenges in synthetic biology.

Unlike the BioIT Alliance, through which Microsoft encourages links with industrial partners to create solutions in the life sciences, the principal aim of MSR is to forge partnerships with academic researchers. The new request for proposals (RFP) allocates $500,000 for two principle areas of synthetic biology research:

1. The re-engineering of natural biological pathways to produce interoperable, composable, standard biological parts. Examples include the role of computers in the “specification, simulation, construction and dissemination of biological components or systems of interacting components.”
2. Tools and information repositories relating to the use of DNA in the fabrication of nanostructures and nanodevices.
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