Nanotechnology

Nanotechnology is not really a single technology - it is about doing things at a very small scale. It gets its name from the 'nanometre' which is a million times smaller than a millimetre, or about 80,000 times smaller than a human hair. Manipulation and measurement of things, including atoms, on a scale of 1-100 nanometres is what nanotechnology is all about.

Links

• What’s it all about?
• Nanotechnology – taking it to the people
  
• New Zealand's MacDiarmid Institute
• Latest News Links on Nanotechology, from our International Pages
• The Case for a Synchrotron
• Royal Society of London on Nanotechnology
• Royal Society of London report on Nanoscience

News

Below are news headlines. Full articles are available from this site under the 'News, Events, Policy' heading for RSNZ members only. If you'd like to become a member or would like information on member benefits, click here.

5 June 2007:  More funding for research centres - Six existing centres have been re-selected, and one new one - Massey's Riddet Centre - has been established
 
18 April 2007:  Russia to invest over $US1 billion in nanotechnology - The Kurchatov Institute will co-ordinate the research effort in a bid to diversify the fuel-based economy

29 March 2007: More research is needed on the potential health and environmental hazards of nanotechnology to ensure public confidence in the fast-growing industry, British experts said on Wednesday. Nanotechnology, which involves manipulating materials on an ultra-small scale, has the potential to make better products in fields from computing to cosmetics to fuel additives.

1 March 2007:  Scientists develop new ultra-thin technology - A membrane, only one atom thick and capable of existing in a free state

31 January 2007:  Scientists build nanomachine envisioned 150 yrs ago - Maxwell's Demon becomes a reality

4 July 2006: German scientist makes tiniest soccer pitch - Nanotech researcher creates an imitation playing field only visible through a special microscope

21 June 2006: Christchurch company Nano Cluster Devices Ltd has been awarded a $582,000 grant to commercialise and develop the manufacturing process of its market-leading hydrogen sensors.

28 April 2006:  Victoria University scientists wins 1.2 million dollar grant. Cancerous tumours that hide inside the human body could soon be visualised by tiny 'quantum dots'.

16 March 2006:  Caltech researcher weaves strands of DNA into two-dimensional shapes that could be important in the design of nanodevices.

16 December 2005: The US National Institutes of Health last year committed $144 million to cancer-related nanotechnology research, but European researchers have yet to receive such targeted funding.

1 December 2005: The UK has set out its research agenda to address the potential risks posed by the products of nanotechnology. This report follows the Royal Society and Royal Academy of Engineering report "Nanoscience and Nanotechnologies: Opportunities and uncertainties" which Government commissioned to identify any ethical, health, environmental, health and safety issues. That report concluded that there were no significant concerns at present but raised areas where more research should be conducted. The government study pinpoints three key areas where more research is needed: Characterising, defining and measuring nanoparticles; Understanding their impact on humans and the environment; and Understanding where they come from and how they travel through the environment, including the human body. See http://www.defra.gov.uk/environment/nanotech/index.htm for more.

9 September 2005: Google to team with NASA in space research to co-operate on research projects such as large-scale data management, nanotechnology, massively distributed computing.  Web search company Google Inc said on Wednesday that it plans to partner with NASA on space research projects and to build a new campus at a NASA research centre in the heart of Silicon Valley.

19 August 2005: Australian scientists embark on major nanobiotechnology research with the hope of one day being able to build tiny machines to help the body to heal.

13 April 2005: Futuristic microscopic devices could store energy, raise farm output and purify water to help the world reach 2015 goals of curbing poverty.