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.
Read More at Source

Ultrastrong Carbon-Nanotube Muscles

Artificial muscles made from carbon nanotubes are 100 times stronger than human muscles.
Read more at Source

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.
Read More at Source

The Millennium Development Goals: Beyond Averages

Read More at Source

Scientist, Police Thyself

By Yudhijit Bhattacharjee
ScienceNOW Daily News
5 December 2006
WASHINGTON, D.C.–Thanks to advances in synthetic genomics, an aspiring bioterrorist could turn a harmless virus into a deadly strain—or make a killer bug from scratch—by ordering some strands of DNA. Yesterday, an independent group of biologists and security experts confronted this threat by issuing a draft report that lays out options for regulating commercial gene synthesis and academic research in the field.
Read More at Source

2 N.C.high school students third, win $40,000, in science contest with synthetic biology projct

…
Two students at the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics in Durham, Sagar Indurkhya and Nicholas Tang, placed third in the Siemens Competition in Math, Science and Technology with their bioengineering research in the area of synthetic biology. It is an emerging interdisciplinary field related to systems biology that uses concepts based on living systems to design biological networks much like electronic networks.

Their project explored methods, models and design patterns for the construction of complex artificial gene circuits at the theoretical level. They will share a $40,000 prize….
Read more at Source

Journal Examines Effects Of Emerging Contaminants On People, Planet

Read more at Source

National Nanotechnology Coordination Office announces public meeting on nanorisks

Nanowerk News) The National Nanotechnology Coordination Office (NNCO), on behalf of the Nanoscale Science, Engineering and Technology (NSET) Subcommittee of the Committee on Technology, National Science and Technology Council (NSTC), will hold a public meeting on January 4, 2007, to receive input on research needs related to the environmental, health, and safety aspects of engineered nanoscale materials.
Read more at Source

USA National Nanotech Initiative evaluation of Molecular Manufacturing

Read here which is chapter 5 of the
A Matter of Size: Triennial Review of the National Nanotechnology Initiative Committee to Review the National Nanotechnology Initiative, National Research Council
This free PDF was downloaded from:
http://www.nap.edu/catalog/11752.html
ISBN: 0-309-66138-2, 200 pages, 7 x 10, (2006)

Scientific Research Center for Women Soon NBI

JEDDAH, 3 December 2006 — As part of the government’s drive to empower women, a scientific research center will be established in Riyadh with modern facilities for nanotechnology, biotechnology and information technology. The woman’s educational center will be the first of its kind in the Kingdom.

The Ministry of Education and the King Abdul Aziz Center for Science and Technology (KACST) signed an agreement yesterday to establish the center, which is to open a new era in women’s education in the Kingdom and help women to make better contributions to society.
Read more at Source

A multidisciplinary Purdue research team will lead one of eight national nanomedicine development centers.

The National Institutes of Health awarded the team $7 million over five years to study the use of a nanomotor, a microscopic biological machine, for potential use in the diagnosis and treatment of diseases such as cancer, AIDS, hepatitis B and influenza.
Read more at Source

Saudi Arabian King Donates SR36 Million for Nanotechnology

RIYADH, 25 November 2006 — Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah donated SR36 million [about US$9.6 million] to the three leading universities in the Kingdom for research studies in nanotechnology, Higher Education Minister Khaled Al-Anqari said in a statement to the Saudi Press Agency yesterday.
Link to Source

Pollution-eating material paves way for clean air

…. What the sponsor, the Italcementi Group, did not know was that the new material - which contains a white pigment, titanium dioxide - has another peculiarity. It ‘eats’ surrounding smog….
Several companies are now developing smog-eating products that can be used not only for the façades of buildings but also in paint, plaster and paving materials for roads. The new substances are now being tested in buildings, squares and highways in Europe and Japan.While some scientists hail the process as a breakthrough, others are still evaluating it.
Read more at the Source

Futurist: To fix education, think Web 2.0

Rather than treat pedagogy as the transfer of knowledge from teachers who are experts to students who are receptacles, educators should consider more hands-on and informal types of learning. These methods are closer to an apprenticeship, a farther-reaching, more multilayered approach than traditional formal education, he said.
Read more at Source

Genetically engineered blood protein can be used to split water into oxygen and hydrogen

Scientists have combined two molecules that occur naturally in blood to engineer a molecular complex that uses solar energy to split water into hydrogen and oxygen, says research published today in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.
Read More at Source