The Toaster That Never Burns the Bread

New Scientist, 1 Oct 2005 A toaster that uses radiation to prevent toast burning has been given the go-ahead in the UK. By combining a household smoke detector with an electric toaster, it promises to deliver "perfect toast every time." The device works by sucking in particles of caramelised bread and blowing them through an ionising sensor. In this sensor a small electrical current flows through an airborne path of ions, emitted by a pellet of radioactive americium-241. The ions attach themselves to any toast particles and reduce the strength of the current. You can set the toaster to switch off when the current drops by a specific amount according to how brown you like your toast. The toaster, by Magnetic Design of Cambridge, UK, has been authorised as a "justifiable" use of radiation by the UK's Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

Talking Tooth

by Barry Fox NewScientist.com, 27 Sep 2005 When background noise is horribly loud -- in a tank, on an airport runway or aircraft carrier -- ordinary microphones are useless. Even mics that clamp to the throat or skull are no good because the noise vibrates the sensor. So four inventors deep in the heart of US Defence territory, in Maryland and Virginia, have come up with a mic that is clamped to a back tooth. Read more

Clothing Gives Sportsmen a Kick Up the Pants

by Max Glaskin NewScientist.com, 29 Sep 2005 As if being bawled at by the coach during training were not bad enough, sports stars may also end up being pushed around by their own clothing. Haptic sports garments use tactile signals to prompt the wearer to optimise their technique or to use specific muscle groups. Read more

A Perspective on Surfaces and Interfaces

by David L. Allara Nature, 29 Sep 2005 The importance of surfaces and interfaces cannot be overstated, with their reach extending from the hardware of the digital age to the processes of life. The past half-century has seen the development of a full and varied toolkit for characterizing them. This toolkit is now serving a growing interdisciplinary community and is providing a powerful platform for scientific research and manufacturing technology. Read more

Controlled Microfluidic Interfaces

by Javier Atencia & David J. Beebe Nature, 29 Sep 2005 The microfabrication technologies of the semiconductor industry have made it possible to integrate increasingly complex electronic and mechanical functions, providing us with ever smaller, cheaper and smarter sensors and devices. These technologies have also spawned microfluidics systems for containing and controlling fluid at the micrometre scale, where the increasing importance of viscosity and surface tension profoundly affects fluid behaviour. It is this confluence of available microscale engineering and scale-dependence of fluid behaviour that has revolutionized our ability to precisely control fluid/fluid interfaces for use in fields ranging from materials processing and analytical chemistry to biology and medicine. Read more

Engineering Atomic and Molecular Nanostructures at Surfaces

by Johannes V. Barth, Giovanni Costantini, & Klaus Kern Nature, 29 Sep 2005 The fabrication methods of the microelectronics industry have been refined to produce ever smaller devices, but will soon reach their fundamental limits. A promising alternative route to even smaller functional systems with nanometre dimensions is the autonomous ordering and assembly of atoms and molecules on atomically well-defined surfaces. This approach combines ease of fabrication with exquisite control over the shape, composition and mesoscale organization of the surface structures formed. Once the mechanisms controlling the self-ordering phenomena are fully understood, the self-assembly and growth processes can be steered to create a wide range of surface nanostructures from metallic, semiconducting and molecular materials. Read more

Polymer-Supported Membranes as Models of the Cell Surface

by Motomu Tanaka & Erich Sackmann Nature, 29 Sep 2005 Lipid-bilayer membranes supported on solid substrates are widely used as cell-surface models that connect biological and artificial materials. They can be placed either directly on solids or on ultrathin polymer supports that mimic the generic role of the extracellular matrix. The tools of modern genetic engineering and bioorganic chemistry make it possible to couple many types of biomolecule to supported membranes. This results in sophisticated interfaces that can be used to control, organize and study the properties and function of membranes and membrane-associated proteins. Particularly exciting opportunities arise when these systems are coupled with advanced semiconductor technology. Read more

Self-Replication from Random Parts

by Saul Griffith, Dan Goldwater, & Joseph M. Jacobson Nature, 29 Sep 2005 Autonomously self-replicating machines have long caught the imagination but have yet to acquire the sophistication of biological systems, which assemble structures from disordered building blocks. Here we describe the autonomous self-replication of a reconfigurable string of parts from randomly positioned input components. Such components, if suitably miniaturized and mass-produced, could constitute self-fabricating systems whose assembly is brought about by the parts themselves. Read more

Pore Show

by Hermann Gies Nature, 29 Sep 2005 The discovery of ordered mesoporous materials has had an enormous impact on materials research. Such materials have influenced work on gels, surfactants, composite materials, nanomaterials and zeolites (catalytic and adsorbent materials familiar as, for example, water-softeners). Self-organization, surface ('heterogeneous') catalysis and separation technologies have also felt their effects. Writing on page 716 of this issue, Zou et al.3 introduce a mesoporous germanium oxide (germanate) material possessing exciting structural properties that could spur further investigations. Read more

A Mesoporous Germanium Oxide with Crystalline Pore Walls and Its Chiral Derivative

by Xiaodong Zou et al. Nature, 29 Sep 2005 Microporous oxides are inorganic materials with wide applications in separations, ion exchange and catalysis. In such materials, an important determinant of pore size is the number of M atoms in the rings delineating the channels. The important faujasite structure exhibits 12-ring structures while those of zeolites, germanates, and other materials can be much larger. Recent attention has focused on mesoporous materials with larger pores of nanometre scale; however, with the exception of an inorganic-organic hybrid, these have amorphous pore walls, limiting many applications. Chiral porous oxides are particularly desirable for enantioselective sorption and catalysis. However, they are very rare in microporous and mesoporous materials. Here we describe a mesoporous germanium oxide, SU-M, with gyroidal channels separated by crystalline walls that lie about the G minimal surface as in the mesoporous MCM-48. It has the largest primitive cell and lowest framework density of any inorganic material and channels that are defined by 30-rings. One of the two gyroidal channel systems of SU-M can be filled with additional oxide, resulting in a mesoporous crystal (SU-MB) with chiral channels. Read more

Fracture Toughness of Si3N4/S45C Joint with an Interface Crack

by Liedong Fu, Yukio Miyasita, & Yoshiharu Mutoh AZojomo, September 2005 Fracture toughness tests were carried out for Si₃N₄/S45C specimens with interface cracks of different lengths. It was found that the specimen with a crack of 4 mm has higher apparent fracture toughness than those with cracks of 1 mm and 2 mm due to the reduction of the residual stress. Fracture propagated into Si₃N₄ from the crack tip in the direction of 40o for cracks of 1 mm and 2 mm while it propagated along the interface for crack of 4 mm. Elasto-plastic analysis was carried out considering S45C as the linear hardening material and Si₃N₄/S45C as the elastic material. It was found that the stress around the crack tip is dominated by an elasto-plastic singular stress field, which is substantially the same as the elastic singular stress field of an interface crack. Evaluation of the fracture path and toughness was carried out based on the stress intensity factors of the elasto-plastic singular stress field. Read more

Bioceramic Orbital Plate Implant

by Jocelyn P. Reyes et al. AZojomo, September 2005 Porous biphasic calcium phosphate bioceramic orbital plate implant consisting of about 77% b-TCP and 23% HAp was developed as a low cost alternative to commercially available orbital plate implant. The pore size of the material, which is 198 microns, contributed to the early fibrovascular ingrowth into the pores of the plate implant. 12 orbits of 6 adult domestic cats underwent orbital plate implantation. Results of biocompatibility tests show the excellent potential of the developed bioceramic orbital plate implant for orbital floor fracture reconstruction. It is biocompatible, allows vascularization, resistant to resorption, and has proven to have physiological bone induction as well as bone conduction properties. Read more

Performance Analysis and Enhancement of Multiband OFDM for UWB Communications

by C. Snow, L. Lampe, & R. Schober arXiv.org E-print Archive, 28 Sep 2005 In this paper, we analyze the frequency-hopping orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) system known as Multiband OFDM, a strong contender for the physical layer IEEE standard for high-rate wireless personal area networks (WPANs) based on ultra-wideband (UWB) transmission. Besides considering the proposed standard, we also propose and study system performance enhancements through the application of Turbo and Repeat-Accumulate (RA) codes, as well as OFDM bit-loading. Our methodology consists of (a) a study of the channel model developed under IEEE 802.15 for UWB from a frequency-domain perspective suited for OFDM transmission, (b) development and quantification of appropriate information-theoretic performance measures, (c) comparison of these measures with simulation results for the Multiband OFDM standard proposal as well as our proposed extensions, and (d) the consideration of the influence of practical, imperfect channel estimation on the performance. We find that the current Multiband OFDM standard proposal sufficiently exploits the frequency selectivity of the UWB channel, and that the system performs in the vicinity of the channel cutoff rate. Turbo codes and a reduced-complexity clustered bit-loading algorithm improve the system power efficiency by over 6 dB at a data rate of 480 Mbps. Read more

Emcore Cells Power Nuna to Solar Race Victory

Compound Semiconductor News, 29 Sep 2005 Using triple-junction cells provided by Emcore, the solar car Nuna 3 wins the 2005 World Solar Challenge in a record-breaking time and average speed. Read more

Robotic Patients Help Train Doctors

CNN.com, 28 Sep 2005 Faced with a growing number of medical students and few training hospitals, a Mexican university is turning to robotic patients to better train future doctors. Read more

Robot Racing Gets Under Way

CNN.com, 29 Sep 2005 It's the ultimate robot reality show: 43 contestants battling for a spot in a government-sponsored desert race intended to speed development of unmanned military combat vehicles. The reward? A $2 million cash prize. Read more

Sub-$100 Laptop Design Unveiled

BBC News, 29 Sep 2005 Nicholas Negroponte, chairman and founder of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Labs, has been outlining designs for a sub-$100 PC. The laptop will be tough and foldable in different ways, with a hand crank for when there is no power supply. Read more

Simple Noise May Stymie Spies Without Quantum Weirdness

by Adrian Cho Science, 30 Sep 2005 A wire and a few resistors may convey a message as securely as more exotic "quantum cryptography" schemes can, says a physicist who has devised a simple and -- he claims -- uncrackable scheme. Read more

Embedded Nanostructures Revealed in Three Dimensions

by I. Arslan et al. Science, 30 Sep 2005 Nanotechnology creates a new challenge for materials characterization because device properties now depend on size and shape as much as they depend on the traditional parameters of structure and composition. Here we show that Z-contrast tomography in the scanning transmission electron microscope has been developed to determine the complete three-dimensional size and shape of embedded structures with a resolution of approximately 1 cubic nanometer. The results from a tin/silicon quantum dot system show that the positions of the quantum dots and their size, shape, structure, and formation mechanism can be determined directly. These methods are applicable to any system, providing a unique and versatile three-dimensional visualization tool. Read more

Imaging Spin Transport in Lateral Ferromagnet/Semiconductor Structures

by S. A. Crooker et al. Science, 30 Sep 2005 We directly imaged electrical spin injection and accumulation in the gallium arsenide channel of lateral spin-transport devices, which have ferromagnetic source and drain tunnel-barrier contacts. The emission of spins from the source was observed, and a region of spin accumulation was imaged near the ferromagnetic drain contact. Both injected and accumulated spins have the same orientation (antiparallel to the contact magnetization), and we show that the accumulated spin polarization flows away from the drain (against the net electron current), indicating that electron spins are polarized by reflection from the ferromagnetic drain contact. The electrical conductance can be modulated by controlling the spin orientation of optically injected electrons flowing through the drain. Read more

Coherent Manipulation of Coupled Electron Spins in Semiconductor Quantum Dots

by J. R. Petta et al. Science, 30 Sep 2005 We demonstrated coherent control of a quantum two-level system based on two-electron spin states in a double quantum dot, allowing state preparation, coherent manipulation, and projective readout. These techniques are based on rapid electrical control of the exchange interaction. Separating and later recombining a singlet spin state provided a measurement of the spin dephasing time of ~10 nanoseconds, limited by hyperfine interactions with the gallium arsenide host nuclei. Rabi oscillations of two-electron spin states were demonstrated, and spin-echo pulse sequences were used to suppress hyperfine-induced dephasing. Using these quantum control techniques, a coherence time for two-electron spin states exceeding 1 microsecond was observed. Read more

NSF Program Solicitation - Mathematical Sciences: Innovations at the Interface with the Physical and Computer Sciences and Engineering

As part of the NSF-wide Mathematical Sciences Priority Area, the Division of Mathematical Sciences and the Directorate for Engineering anticipate funding projects of mutual interest. The research envisioned in this program will seek to build new mathematical and statistical methods and structures within the context of meaningful engineering applications. Appropriate for inclusion under this program are proposals that address the broad topical areas of large data sets (e.g., inference, learning and real-time dynamic optimization), modeling and handling uncertainty (e.g., decision-making under uncertainty) and enhancing the understanding and management of complex systems (e.g., modeling, control and optimization of systems involving multiple scales in time and space). Proposed projects should be innovative and strive for breakthroughs rather than incremental improvement, and should be of compelling independent interest within both the engineering and mathematical and statistical sciences communities. Proposals should focus on developing, extending and analyzing general-purpose mathematical and statistical methods. Efforts at a greater unification of methods, approaches and principles are welcome. Read more

NSF/DoE Program Solicitation - Partnership in Basic Plasma Science and Engineering

Dynamic growth in new research areas, fostered by the development of new investigative techniques and tools, continues to present an unusual window of opportunity for fundamental studies in basic plasma science and engineering. At the same time, economic forces are driving the need for more fundamental knowledge as underpinning for the many applications of plasmas in modern technology. This initiative, a continuation of the successful NSF/DoE Partnership in Basic Plasma Science and Engineering begun in FY1997, is a response to these fundamental research opportunities in plasma science and engineering. The focus of the initiative continues to be fundamental issues of plasma science and engineering that can have impact in other areas or disciplines in which improved basic understanding of the plasma state is needed. Proposals should discuss effective ways in which education is integrated within the research programs. Proposals directly related to fusion energy studies are not eligible. Read more

USAF Funding Opportunity - Integrated Sensor Is Structure Critical Technology Development

The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) in partnership with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is developing a stratospheric airship-based sensor with an antenna that is nearly as large as the airship. The AFRL Sensors Directorate in conjunction with DARPA is soliciting innovative ideas in four critical technology areas requiring further development: low areal-density, advanced airship hull material; lightweight, low-power density active electronically scanned array which is bonded to the advanced hull material; extremely low-power transmit-receive modules; and novel power systems for long-endurance stratospheric airship operation. The development goals in these technology areas are mass and power reduction. Using existing technologies in any of these areas yields a system that exceeds the airship lift budget. Read more

DARPA Solicitation - Information Exploitation Technology

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's Information Exploitation Office is soliciting proposals for advanced research and development of enabling technology, critical subsystems, and full system concepts that will provide revolutionary improvement to the efficiency and effectiveness of military Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance, strike and stability operations in complex battlespaces. The goal of this procurement is to identify and develop novel ideas for sensing, signal processing, target characterization, data fusion, target tracking, predictive awareness, battle management, collaborative planning, and visualization that can contribute to future conflict mitigation, warfighting and peacekeeping effectiveness. Ideas can address 1) ways to employ new scientific/technical developments to achieve significant increases in component performance; 2) novel combinations of existing technologies into systems that create new warfighting capabilities; or 3) combinations of both. Read more

Magnetic Field-Induced Superconductivity in the Ferromagnet URhGe

by F. Lévy et al. Science, 26 Aug 2005 In several metals, including URhGe, superconductivity has recently been observed to appear and coexist with ferromagnetism at temperatures well below that at which the ferromagnetic state forms. However, the material characteristics leading to such a state of coexistence have not yet been fully elucidated. We report that in URhGe there is a magnetic transition where the direction of the spin axis changes when a magnetic field of 12 tesla is applied parallel to the crystal b axis. We also report that a second pocket of superconductivity occurs at low temperature for a range of fields enveloping this magnetic transition, well above the field of 2 tesla at which superconductivity is first destroyed. Our findings strongly suggest that excitations in which the spins rotate stimulate superconductivity in the neighborhood of a quantum phase transition under high magnetic field. Read more

Magnetic Domain-Wall Logic

by D. A. Allwood et a. Science, 9 Sep 2005 "Spintronics," in which both the spin and charge of electrons are used for logic and memory operations, promises an alternate route to traditional semiconductor electronics. A complete logic architecture can be constructed, which uses planar magnetic wires that are less than a micrometer in width. Logical NOT, logical AND, signal fan-out, and signal cross-over elements each have a simple geometric design, and they can be integrated together into one circuit. An additional element for data input allows information to be written to domain-wall logic circuits. Read more

Billboards Beam Adverts to Passing Cellphones

by Duncan Graham-Rowe NewScientist.com, 22 Aug 2005 Ignoring adverts is about to get a lot tougher with the development of billboards and advertising posters that use Bluetooth to beam video ads direct to passing cellphones. Read more

Audio Networking: The Forgotten Wireless Technology

by Anil Madhavapeddy, David Scott, & Alastair Tse IEEE Pervasive Computing, July-September 2005 Audio networking can leverage existing smart phone components to transmit data reliably with increased simplicity and less power than more high-profile wireless communication protocols such as Bluetooth or infrared. Read more

IEEE Magazine Examines 4G Network Technologies

The September issue of IEEE Network Magazine includes a special feature covering "4G Network Technologies for Mobile Telecommunications." The guest editorial explains that 4G technologies could deliver new personalized wireless broadband services by building on current trends in cellular-centric wireless technologies and seamlessly incorporating high-speed local and personal area networks. Papers in this special issue provide coverage of a wide range of 4G-related research topics, including the many algorithmic, analytical, and implementation challenges involved in the deployment of a true QoS-robust global wireless. Read more

Physical Security and Wireless Networks Driving Today’s Technology

by John Keller Military & Aerospace Electronics, September 2005 Physical security, logistics, supply-chain management, and the proliferation of wireless networks are driving manufacturers of rugged handheld computers and personal digital assistants to add specialty capabilities and make their devices more rugged than ever before. Read more

Smart Wi-Fi

by Alex Hills Scientific American, October 2005 People love Wi-Fi access to the Internet. More and more, they are using the wireless connection technology at Starbucks cafés, in airport lounges and at home. Wi-Fi seems irresistible because it makes the Net available to users anytime, anywhere. It provides fast communications links that allow e-mail messages to appear almost instantly and Web pages to paint computer screens quickly -- all with the mobility and freedom that has made cell phones nearly ubiquitous. But the very popularity of Wi-Fi also brings problems. As Wi-Fi networks become ever more heavily used, they may be unable to handle the expanded traffic, causing clients' devices to become bogged down with slow service and long delays. Read more

Sounds of Typing Give Messages Away

by Sarah Graham ScientificAmerican.com, 19 Sep 2005 The clickety-clack of your keyboard might be enough to spill your secrets. A team of researchers in California has successfully decoded what was typed into a computer from an audio recording. Read more

A Chromium Terephthalate-Based Solid with Unusually Large Pore Volumes and Surface Area

by G. Férey et al. Science, 23 Sep 2005 We combined targeted chemistry and computational design to create a crystal structure for porous chromium terephthalate, MIL-101, withverylargeporesizes and surface area. Its zeotype cubic structure has a giant cell volume (~702,000 cubic angstroms), a hierarchy of extra-large pore sizes (~30 to 34 angstroms), and a Langmuir surface area for N₂ of ~5900 ± 300 square meters per gram. Beside the usual properties of porous compounds, this solid has potential as a nanomold for monodisperse nanomaterials, as illustrated here by the incorporation of Keggin polyanions within the cages. Read more

Is It Time to Shut Down Engineering Colleges?

by Domenico Grasso Inside Higher Ed, 23 Sep 2005 We sit at the beginning of the 21st century, in the most technologically advanced nation on the planet, with a comparatively small supply of home grown engineers, facing an explosion of technical mental horsepower overseas. Why fight the tide? Couldn’t we simply import all the engineering we need? Couldn’t we play the economic advantage and close our expensive colleges of engineering? Do we gain anything by educating engineers in the United States? Read more

Stormwater Management

The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection and Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management has issued a 187 page handbook on Stormwater Management. This handbook covers hydrology and stormwater runoff, site planning, and best management practices. Copies can be downloaded free from BOSS International. Get report

USAF Solicitation - Metals, Ceramics, and Nondestructive Evaluation Advanced Technology

Air Force Research Laboratory, Metals, Ceramics and Nondestructive Evaluation Division (AFRL/MLL) of the Materials and Manufacturing Directorate solicits research proposals for the Metals, Ceramics, and Nondestructive Evaluation Advanced Technology Program. The overall objective of this program is to provide AFRL/MLL with a procurement vehicle for executing anticipated and unanticipated appropriations and urgent requirements for emerging technical areas of interest and relevance in the three technology areas indicated. Read more

Canadian Computer Engineering Conference Seeks Submissions

Abstract submissions to next year's IEEE Canadian Conference on Electrical and Computer Engineering are due by 4 December. Paper topics may include advanced computer architecture, database and data mining, intelligent systems, virtual reality and new media robotics and mechatronics, electrical machines and drives, power electronics, and electromagnetics and HV engineering. The conference, which will act as a focal point for research and development surrounding electrical and computer engineering, will take place in May 2006. Read more

DARPA Sets Sights on Improving Analog-to-Digital Conversion

by John Keller Military & Aerospace Electronics, September 2005 Scientists at the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency in Arlington, Va., are asking industry to consider revolutionary new ways of digitizing analog signals. Toward this goal, DARPA is soliciting industry proposals for the Analog-To-Information program to investigate alternatives to standard analog-to-digital converter technology. Read more

Contractors Balance Speed and Efficiency in Digital Signal Processing

by Ben Ames Military & Aerospace Electronics, September 2005 Systems integrators still grapple with issues that call for dedicated DSPs, high-end general-purpose processors, or field-programmable gate arrays in today’s signal- and data-intensive computing applications. Read more

Ultrahigh Strength in Nanocrystalline Materials Under Shock Loading

by Eduardo M. Bringa et al. Science, 16 Sep 2005 Molecular dynamics simulations of nanocrystalline copper under shock loading show an unexpected ultrahigh strength behind the shock front, with values up to twice those at low pressure. Partial and perfect dislocations, twinning, and debris from dislocation interactions are found behind the shock front. Results are interpreted in terms of the pressure dependence of both deformation mechanisms active at these grain sizes, namely dislocation-based plasticity and grain boundary sliding. These simulations, together with new shock experiments on nanocrystalline nickel, raise the possibility of achieving ultrahard materials during and after shock loading. Read more

New Tech Knocks Out Digital Cameras

by Michael Kanellos CNET News.com, 19 Sep 2005 Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have come up with an inexpensive way to prevent digital cameras and digital video cameras from capturing that secret shot. The technology they've devised detects the presence of a digital camera up to 33 feet away and can then shoot a targeted beam of light at the lens. That means that someone trying for a surreptitious snapshot of a product prototype or an amorous couple gets something altogether less useful -- a blurry picture or video of what looks like a flashlight beam seen head on. Read more

Nanostructure Strength Goes Under the Microscope

by Liz Kalaugher nanotechweb.org News, 20 Sep 2005 Researchers at Northwestern University, US, have made a microelectromechanical systems device that enables mechanical testing of nanostructures while they are under constant observation in a scanning or transmission electron microscope. By using the technique on multiwalled carbon nanotubes, they discovered that the crystalline nanotubes became amorphous on tensile failure. Read more

Bit-Error-Rate Testing Has Just Got Simpler

fibers.org News, 20 Sep 2005 In more and more optical networks, 10 Gbit/s is increasingly seen as the norm, rather than the exception. In long-haul, regional and metro optical backbones, for example, telcos are being forced to upgrade native DWDM wavelengths from 2.5 to 10 Gbit/s line rates, spurred on by soaring broadband penetration. At the same time, 10 Gigabit Ethernet continues its emergence in data-centric telecoms and enterprise networks, with volume applications likely to follow in storage-area networks, IP television and video-on-demand. Read more

Subcritical Turbulent Transition in Rotating and Curved Shear Flows

by P-Y. Longaretti & O. Dauchot arXiv.org E-print Archive, 19 Sep 2005 The effects of global flow rotation and curvature on the subcritical transition to turbulence in shear flows are examined. The relevant time-scales of the problem are identified by a decomposition of the flow into a laminar and a deviation from laminar parts, which is performed for rotating plane Couette and Taylor-Couette flows. The usefulness and relevance of this procedure are discussed at the same time. By comparing the self-sustaining process time-scale to the time-scales previously identified, an interpretation is brought to light for the behavior of the transition Reynolds number with the rotation number and relative gap width in the whole neighborhood of the non-rotating plane Couette flow covered by the available data. Read more

Breakthrough in Micro-Device Fabrication

PhysOrg.com, 20 Sep 2005 Nanostructured micro-devices may be mass produced at a lower cost, and with a wider variety of shapes and compositions than ever before, for dramatic improvements in device performance by utilizing very small biologically produced structures. These entirely new biologically-enabled approaches are detailed in the current issue of the International Journal of Applied Ceramic Technology, published on behalf of The American Ceramic Society. Read more

Wary of High-Voltage Batteries, Rescuers Study Up on Hybrids

by Tim Moran New York Times, 18 Sep 2005 Sixteen may become a vitally important number for firefighters to keep in mind. That's how many feet from a Prius that Toyota says its electronic key must be taken to be certain the hybrid power train will not be able to start. Read more

Tiniest Remote-Controlled Robot Created

by Celeste Biever NewScientist.com, 16 Sep 2005 The tiniest mobile robot ever has been created by US researchers. It is a sliver of silicon one hundredth of a millimetre thick that can be precisely steered like a remote-control car to move in any direction across the surface of a special plate. Read more

Shocked Metals Are Stronger

by Philip Ball news@nature.com, 15 Sep 2005 Sudden shocks make you harder. At least, they can do if you're a metal. A team of researchers in the United States and Switzerland hope that this discovery could point the way to ultra-hard metals for engineering in extreme environments, such as nuclear fusion reactors. Read more

Rebuilding New Orleans' Defences

by Michael Hopkin news@nature.com, 16 Sep 2005 The flood waters in New Orleans are, at last, subsiding. The US Army, given the dirty task of plugging the levees and pumping out the water, has announced that the city should be dry by 18 October. But experts are still left with the question of how to stop such a disaster from happening again. But as thoughts turn from short-term relief to long-term rebuilding, engineers and city officials are considering how to replace the patched-up levees with something more permanent. Read more

Ceramic Keeps Its Shape When Things Hot Up

by Tami Freeman fibers.org News, 13 Sep 2005 US materials specialist Ceramatec has developed a nanomaterial that can replicate submicron-sized features built into a mould, without micromachining. This unique ability could slash processing costs for ceramic optical components. Read more

UCF Researchers Studying Storm Surge Effects of Hurricanes on Florida Cities

University of Central Florida Press Release, 15 Sep 2005 Scott Hagen, an associate professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and his team of graduate students have started analyzing the potential effects of a Category 4 hurricane striking the Tampa Bay region. They ran their storm surge model with wind and pressure fields for hypothetical hurricanes with three different paths and traveling at two different speeds, 5 and 15 mph. They concluded that such storms would produce surges of 20 to 25 feet in parts of Tampa Bay. Read more

Wheelchair Technology & Spinal Cord Injury

The current issue of the Journal of Rehabilitation Research and Development is dedicated to spinal cord injury and wheelchair technology. Full-text articles are available, free, online. Visit JRRD website

Road Runoff Causing Freshwater to Turn Saltier

by Sarah Graham ScientificAmerican.com, 6 Sep 2005 Freshwater sources in the northeastern U.S. are becoming increasingly salty, mainly as a result of increased roadway construction, a new report suggests. The findings indicate that at the current rate of change, some surface waters in the region could become toxic to freshwater life within the century. Read more

Wireless Networks Could Get a Boost

by Dean Takahashi Mercury News, 14 Sep 2005 A Palo Alto company has created two new wireless chips that industry observers say will open the door to much faster and more convenient home networks. Airgo Networks says its chips will make wireless networks four times faster than current WiFi wireless Internet setups. That speed will make it possible to ship movies from one room in the house to another and to set up other home media options. Read more

What's the Worst That Can Happen?

by Bob Colwell Computer, August 2005 When engineers design systems to work in the real world -- and what other kind of product-for-profit is there? -- they must repeatedly ask themselves, "What's the worst that can happen?" They may argue that nominal operating conditions are far from those limits; they may even seek relief from those limits in their design if accommodating worst-case scenarios would be prohibitively expensive or technically infeasible. But they must always know where the limits are. Read more

What You Might Not Know about Intellectual Property

by Glenn Tenney IEEE-USA Today's Engineer, August 2005 Can you imagine receiving an electrical engineering degree and not knowing anything about Ohm’s law? Or of receiving a computer science degree and not having had any computer programming classes? Yet, a basic part of almost every IEEE member’s work often isn’t taught in school. We create works, make inventions, design new chips, produce new consumer products, and write articles, all as part of what we do as engineers -- all of these acts relate to intellectual property. Read more

Purdue Creates New Method to Drive Fuel Cells for Portable Electronics

Purdue University Press Release, 28 Aug 2005 Engineers at Purdue University adjust a test chamber used in research to develop a new way of producing hydrogen for fuel cells to automatically recharge batteries in portable electronics, such as notebook computers, an approach that could eliminate the need to use a wall outlet. The method also might have military applications in portable electronics for soldiers and for equipment in spacecraft and submarines. Read more

Katrina Poses Extreme Challenges for Power Engineers

by Greg Hill IEEE-USA Today's Engineer, September 2005 IEEE-USA Today's Engineer asked two electric power engineers experienced with storm damage and service restoration for their thoughts on the devastating effects of Hurricane Katrina, and what power engineers are doing, and will need to do, to restore electric service in affected areas, returning Gulf Coast residents to some semblance of normalcy. Read more

Cell Phone as Sensor

by David Pescovitz Lab Notes, August 2005 Right now, there are hundreds of millions of cell phones in use around the world. According to UC Berkeley computer science graduate student R.J. Honicky, the ubiquity of those devices could be leveraged to help reduce pollution, fight disease, and tackle other societal scale problems with no additional effort on the part of the person carrying the phone. The key is outfitting newly manufactured cell phones with inexpensive environmental sensors. Read more

Capacitive Sensing and Digital Handsets

by Andrew Page CommsDesign.com, 29 Aug 2005 In the mid-market handset industry, user interface improvement is a critical success factor for new models. It doesn't matter how good the phone is if users aren't drawn to pick it up. With this in mind, manufacturers are focusing on innovative techniques for replacing space-consuming buttons and switches without compromising the cell-phone user interface. Read more

Pyramidal Micro-Mirrors for Microsystems and Atom Chips

by M. Trupke et al. arxiv.org E-print Archive, 13 Sep 2005 Concave pyramids are created in the surface of a silicon wafer by anisotropic etching in potassium hydroxide. High quality micro-mirrors are then formed by sputtering gold onto the smooth silicon faces of the pyramids. These mirrors show great promise as high quality optical devices suitable for integration into MOEMS and atom chips. We have shown that structures of this shape can be used to laser-cool and hold atoms in a magneto-optical trap. Read more

Robotic Vehicles Race, but Innovation Wins

by John Markoff New York Times, 14 Sep 2005 Cresting a hill on a gravel road at a brisk 20 miles an hour, a driverless, computer-controlled Volkswagen Touareg plunges smartly into a swale. When its laser guidance system spots an overhanging limb, it lurches violently left and right before abruptly swerving off the road. Read more

New Robot Hand Is Even More Human

New Scientist, 17 Sep 2005 When it comes to emulating the human hand, engineers still have a long way to go. But a robotic hand developed by Paul Chappell at the University of Southampton, UK, does a better job than most of allowing people who have lost a hand to perform tasks that most people take for granted -- like grappling with a door key or twisting the lid off a jar. Unlike most artificial hands, which are either fixed in one position or perform a single movement, each finger of Chappell's hand is controlled by a separate motor, and the thumb can rotate and shift position to allow different grasps. The motors are controlled by sensors that detect muscle tension in the arm. An artificial "skin" contains piezoelectric materials that respond to heat and pressure, allowing the hand to sense force and temperature, which should prevent it from sustaining damage or crushing something.

Mutual Phase-Locking of Microwave Spin Torque Nano-Oscillators

by Shehzaad Kaka et al. Nature, 15 Sep 2005 The spin torque effect that occurs in nanometre-scale magnetic multilayer devices can be used to generate steady-state microwave signals in response to a d.c. electrical current. This establishes a new functionality for magneto-electronic structures that are more commonly used as magnetic field sensors and magnetic memory elements. The microwave power emitted from a single spin torque nano-oscillator (STNO) is at present typically less than 1 nW. To achieve a more useful power level, a device could consist of an array of phase coherent STNOs, in a manner analogous to arrays of Josephson junctions and larger semiconductor oscillators. Here we show that two STNOs in close proximity mutually phase-lock -- that is, they synchronize, which is a general tendency of interacting nonlinear oscillator systems. The phase-locked state is distinct, characterized by a sudden narrowing of signal linewidth and an increase in power due to the coherence of the individual oscillators. Arrays of phase-locked STNOs could be used as nanometre-scale reference oscillators. Furthermore, phase control of array elements could lead to nanometre-scale directional transmitters and receivers for wireless communications. Read more

Phase-Locking in Double-Point-Contact Spin-Transfer Devices

by F. B. Mancoff et al. Nature, 15 Sep 2005 Spin-transfer in nanometre-scale magnetic devices results from the torque on a ferromagnet owing to its interaction with a spin-polarized current and the electrons' spin angular momentum. Experiments have detected either a reversal or high-frequency (GHz) steady-state precession of the magnetization in giant magnetoresistance spin valves and magnetic tunnel junctions with current densities of more than 10⁷ A cm^-2. Spin-transfer devices may enable high-density, low-power magnetic random access memory or direct-current-driven nanometre-sized microwave oscillators. Here we show that the magnetization oscillations induced by spin-transfer in two 80-nm-diameter giant-magnetoresistance point contacts in close proximity to each other can phase-lock into a single resonance over a frequency range from approximately <10>24 GHz for contact spacings of less than about ~200 nm. The output power from these contact pairs with small spacing is approximately twice the total power from more widely spaced contact pairs that undergo separate resonances, indicating that the closely spaced pairs are phase-locked with zero phase shift. Phase-locking may enable control of large arrays of coupled spin-transfer devices with increased power output for microwave oscillator applications. Read more

Device Physics: Enlightening Solutions

by Klaus Meerholz Nature, 15 Sep 2005 White-light-emitting diodes are becoming increasingly important, but what is the best way to build compact devices possessing high efficiency? Bright prospects are offered by multi-layer organic devices grown from solution. Read more

Nano-Oscillators Get It Together

by Pritiraj Mohanty Nature, 15 Sep 2005 Synchronized radiation from arrays of oscillators is widely used in microwave and wireless communications. Phase-locked oscillations produced at the atomic level now pave the way for devices on the nanoscale. Read more

Enhanced Flux Pinning in YBa2Cu3O7–delta Films by Nanoscaled Substrate Surface Roughness

by Zu-Xin Ye et al. Applied Physics Letters, 19 Sep 2005 Nanoscaled substrate surface roughness is shown to strongly influence the critical current density (J_c) in YBa₂Cu₃O_7– (YBCO) films made by pulsed-laser deposition on the crystalline LaAlO₃ substrates consisting of two separate twin-free and twin-rich regions. The nanoscaled corrugated substrate surface was created in the twin-rich region during the deposition process. Using magneto-optical imaging techniques coupled with optical and atomic force microscopy, we observed an enhanced flux pinning in the YBCO films in the twin-rich region, resulting in a ~30% increase in J_c, which was unambiguously confirmed by the direct transport measurement. Read more

Breaking a Chaos-Noise-Based Secure Communication Scheme

by Shujun Li et al. arxiv.org E-print Archive, 13 Sep 2005 This paper studies the security of a secure communication scheme based on two discrete-time intermittently-chaotic systems synchronized via a common random driving signal. Some security defects of the scheme are revealed: 1) the key space can be remarkably reduced; 2) the decryption is insensitive to the mismatch of the secret key; 3) the key-generation process is insecure against known/chosen-plaintext attacks. The first two defects mean that the scheme is not secure enough against brute-force attacks, and the third one means that an attacker can easily break the cryptosystem by approximately estimating the secret key once he has a chance to access a fragment of the generated keystream. Yet it remains to be clarified if intermittent chaos could be used for designing secure chaotic cryptosystems. Read more

Power Line Broadband Gets Popular with Tech Firms

by Marguerite Reardon ZDNet News, 24 Aug 2005 The technology that allows the internal power wiring in a home to deliver broadband service is getting some heavy-hitting endorsements from large technology companies including Intel, Motorola and Cisco Systems. The companies threw their weight behind a group called the HomePlug Powerline Alliance, which develops standards and specifications for businesses and service providers offering broadband-over-power-line, or BPL, service into the home. Read more

Patent Reform: Who's on First?

by Declan McCullagh ZDNet News, 13 Sep 2005 The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office awards patents to the person who invents a concept first, and it has long been a unique feature of the U.S. patent system. This year, however, Congress is about to consider a controversial proposal from Rep. Lamar Smith, a Texas Republican, that would grant a patent to the first person to submit the paperwork -- a standard that's common outside the United States. Read more

Samsung Unveils New Flash Memory Chip

USATODAY.com, 12 Sep 2005 Samsung Electronics Co. introduced a high-capacity flash memory chip on Monday that could let Apple Computer Inc. and other makers of portable electronic devices pack more data into less failure-prone gadgets. The 16-gigabit NAND flash memory chip, equivalent to 2 gigabytes of storage, doubles a chip Samsung introduced last September. Read more

Structure of Stochastic Dynamics near Fixed Points

by Chulan Kwon, Ping Ao, & David J. Thouless Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 13 Sep 2005 We analyze the structure of stochastic dynamics near either a stable or unstable fixed point, where the force can be approximated by linearization. We find that a cost function that determines a Boltzmann-like stationary distribution can always be defined near it. Such a stationary distribution does not need to satisfy the usual detailed balance condition but might have instead a divergence-free probability current. In the linear case, the force can be split into two parts, one of which gives detailed balance with the diffusive motion, whereas the other induces cyclic motion on surfaces of constant cost function. By using the Jordan transformation for the force matrix, we find an explicit construction of the cost function. We discuss singularities of the transformation and their consequences for the stationary distribution. This Boltzmann-like distribution may be not unique, and nonlinear effects and boundary conditions may change the distribution and induce additional currents even in the neighborhood of a fixed point. Read more

Cellular Automata Models of Road Traffic

by Sven Maerivoet & Bart De Moor arxiv.org E-print Archive, 12 Sep 2005 In this paper, we give an elaborate and understandable review of traffic cellular automata (TCA) models, which are a class of computationally efficient microscopic traffic flow models. TCA models arise from the physics discipline of statistical mechanics, having the goal of reproducing the correct macroscopic behaviour based on a minimal description of microscopic interactions. After giving an overview of cellular automata (CA) models, their background and physical setup, we introduce the mathematical notations, show how to perform measurements on a TCA model's lattice of cells, as well as how to convert these quantities into real-world units and vice versa. The majority of this paper then relays an extensive account of the behavioural aspects of several TCA models encountered in literature. Already, several reviews of TCA models exist, but none of them consider all the models exclusively from the behavioural point of view. In this respect, our overview fills this void, as it focusses on the behaviour of the TCA models, by means of time-space and phase-space diagrams, and histograms showing the distributions of vehicles' speeds, space, and time gaps. In the report, we subsequently give a concise overview of TCA models that are employed in a multi-lane setting, and some of the TCA models used to describe city traffic as a two-dimensional grid of cells, or as a road network with explicitly modelled intersections. The final part of the paper illustrates some of the more common analytical approximations to single-cell TCA models. Read more

A Turn for the Better

by Philip Ball Nature Materials Update, 8 Sep 2005 A torsion pendulum, in which an object attached to a rod swings back and forth by twisting of the rod, has been constructed from a single carbon nanotube by researchers in Germany and France. The researchers watched a metal block about 500 nm wide -- big enough to see in an optical microscope -- turn back and forth while attached to the midpoint of a single-walled carbon nanotube acting as a torsion spring. The block could rotate by as much as half a complete revolution without breaking or damaging the nanotube. Read more

Efficient Photoconductive Devices at Infrared Wavelengths Using Quantum Dot-Polymer Nanocomposites

by K. Roy Choudhury et al. Applied Physics Letters, 15 Aug 2005 We report high photoconductivity and narrow luminescence in nanocomposites of PbSe quantum dots in a polymeric matrix. The nanocomposites are photoactive at infrared wavelengths with narrow emission bands, tunable with the quantum dot sizes. The quantum dots sensitize the polymer at distinct wavelengths across the infrared range between 800 nm and 2 µm, by virtue of quantum-size effects. Photoconductivity measured in the nanocomposites results in a quantum efficiency of ~3%, which is among the highest reported so far in this spectral range. Read more

Direct Correlation of Organic Semiconductor Film Structure to Field-Effect Mobility

by D.M. DeLongchamp et al. Advanced Materials, 30 Aug 2005 Although still in the qualifying rounds, U.S. researchers are helping manufacturers win the race to develop low-cost ways to commercialize a multitude of products based on inexpensive organic electronic materials -- from large solar-power arrays to electronic newspapers that can be bent and folded. Read more

Irradiation-Induced Magnetism in Carbon Nanostructures

by S. Talapatra et al. Physical Review Letters, 26 Aug 2005 Nitrogen (¹⁵N) and carbon (¹²C) ion implantations with implant energy of 100 keV for different doses were performed on nanosized diamond (ND) particles. Magnetic measurements on the doped ND show ferromagnetic hysteresis behavior at room temperature. The saturation magnetization (Ms) in the case of ¹⁵N implanted samples was found to be higher compared to the ¹²C implanted samples for dose sizes greater than 10¹⁴ cm^-2. The role of structural modification or defects along with the carbon-nitrogen (C-N) bonding states for the observed enhanced ferromagnetic ordering in ¹⁵N doped samples is explained on the basis of x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy measurements. Read more

Improving Survivability and Mobility

Georgia Tech Research News, 12 Sep 2005 A concept vehicle designed to illustrate potential technology options for improving survivability and mobility in future military combat vehicles will be shown publicly for the first time Sept. 13-15 at a military technology meeting in Virginia. The ULTRA armored patrol vehicle is a research project funded by the Office of Naval Research and conducted by the Georgia Tech Research Institute. The project's goal was to develop a concept vehicle that illustrates design and technology options for increased survivablity and mobility for future vehicles. The concept vehicle was built to help the U.S. military evaluate multiple science and technology options -- including ballistic and mine protection -- that could benefit future vehicle design. Read more

ESRF Tests the Hardest and Least Compressive Material in the World

European Synchrotron Radiation Facility Press Release, 13 Sep 2005 Nanorods of many materials are proving very successful, and their properties often exceed that of nanotubes, making them excellent candidates for industrial applications. Theoretical calculations predicted that diamond nanorods too would have properties superior to that of carbon nanotubes. But, so far, nobody had been able to actually synthesize diamond nanorods. This is no longer true. A team from the Bayerisches Geoinstitut (Universität Bayreuth) has just reported the synthesis of these aggregated diamond nanorods and their remarkable properties, after having measured them at the ESRF. Read more

Fractal Antenna Pioneer Targets UWB

by John Walko EE Times, 13 Sep 2005 Fractal antenna technology pioneer Fractus of Barcleona, Spain, has launched an ultrawideband antenna for the short-range wireless market. Some of the leading UWB chip companies have already evaluated the fractal antenna and plan to offer it as an option in their devices. Read more

The Convergence of Digital-Libraries and the Peer-Review Process

by Marko A. Rodriguez, Johan Bollen, & Herbert Van de Sompel arxiv.org E-print Archive, 12 Sep 2005 Pre-print repositories have seen a significant increase in use over the past fifteen years across multiple research domains. Researchers are beginning to develop applications capable of using these repositories to assist the scientific community above and beyond the pure dissemination of information. The contribution set forth by this paper emphasizes a deconstructed publication model in which the peer-review process is mediated by an OAI-PMH peer-review service. This peer-review service uses a social-network algorithm to determine potential reviewers for a submitted manuscript and for weighting the relative influence of each participating reviewer's evaluations. This paper also suggests a set of peer-review specific metadata tags that can accompany a pre-print's existing metadata record. The combinations of these contributions provide a unique repository-centric peer-review model that fits within the widely deployed OAI-PMH framework. Read more

New "Alien Nanofiber" Has Potential for Anti-Counterfeiting

oeMagazine Newscast, 1 Sep 2005 Under a powerful microscope it looks like an alien -- something out of Roswell, N.M., or "The X-Files." But a brand-new, tiny fiber dubbed the "alien nanofiber," co-invented by a North Carolina State University textiles professor and a chemical engineering professor from the University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez, has the potential to become a big deterrent to counterfeiters. Read more

Researchers Stop Light in Quantum Leap

oeMagazine Newscast, 6 Sep 2005 Australian National University researchers have used a groundbreaking approach to set a world record for stopping light -- a crucial step in the development of the next generation of computers. Researchers from the Laser Physics Centre in the Research School of Physical Sciences and Engineering used a modified crystal to "stop" light for over a second, more than 1000 times longer than earlier attempts. Read more

Nanosprings Take Shape

by Brian A. Korgel Science, 9 Sep 2005 Nanosprings made of piezoelectric materials that change shape in response to applied electric voltage would be of great value in nanotechnology as actuators and sensors. In his Perspective, Korgel discusses results reported in the same issue by Gao et al. in which crystalline zinc oxide nanosprings have been fabricated with appreciable yield. An unusual mechanism appears to create the coiling: A superlattice defect structure within the material causes the lattice to rotate into a helical shape. The mechanical properties were measured, and future studies will probe the piezoelectric properties of these structures. Moreover, the superlattice rotation mechanism may lend itself to nanospring formation in other materials. Read more

Response to Comment on "Grain Boundary Decohesion by Impurity Segregation in a Nickel-Sulfur System"

by M. Yamaguchi, M. Shiga, & H. Kaburaki Science, 9 Sep 2005 We recently concluded that the strong decohesion of a nickel (Ni) grain boundary (GB) is caused by the aggregation of sulfur (S) atoms on the GB, which repel each other. We further estimated the segregation concentration using the average binding energy of S atoms. However, Geng et al. claim that the binding energy should be calculated not on average but incrementally (or sequentially). As they point out, the incremental binding energy when the GB2 1/4 monolayer is added to the GB0 4/4 monolayer is 3.45 eV/S. The occupation possibility of this arrangement is less than 1%, according to the McLean's curve, at 918 K and 25 atomic parts per million. Read more Read Comment Read original article

Generating Electricity While Walking with Loads

by Lawrence C. Rome et al. Science, 9 Sep 2005 We have developed the suspended-load backpack, which converts mechanical energy from the vertical movement of carried loads to electricity during normal walking, generating up to 7.4 watts. Unexpectedly, little extra metabolic energy (as compared to that expended carrying a rigid backpack) is required during electricity generation. This is probably due to a compensatory change in gait or loading regime, which reduces the metabolic power required for walking. This electricity generation can help give field scientists, explorers, and disaster-relief workers freedom from the heavy weight of replacement batteries and thereby extend their ability to operate in remote areas. Read more

Conversion of Zinc Oxide Nanobelts into Superlattice-Structured Nanohelices

by Pu Xian Gao et al. Science, 9 Sep 2005 A previously unknown rigid helical structure of zinc oxide consisting of a superlattice-structured nanobelt was formed spontaneously in a vapor-solid growth process. Starting from a single-crystal stiff nanoribbon dominated by the c-plane polar surfaces, an abrupt structural transformation into the superlattice-structured nanobelt led to the formation of a uniform nanohelix due to a rigid lattice rotation or twisting. The nanohelix was made of two types of alternating and periodically distributed long crystal stripes, which were oriented with their c axes perpendicular to each other. The nanohelix terminated by transforming into a single-crystal nanobelt dominated by nonpolar surfaces. The nanohelix could be manipulated, and its elastic properties were measured, which suggests possible uses in electromechanically coupled sensors, transducers, and resonators. Read more

Functionalized Silicon Membranes for Filtration Applications

by Sonia Létant Nanotechnology E-Newsletter, September 2005 Membranes with various pore size, length, morphology, and density have been synthesized out of various materials for size-exclusion-based separation. An example is the sterilization of intravenous lines by exclusion of bacteria and viruses using polyvinylidene fluoride membranes with 0.1μm-diameter pores. Chemically-specific filtration recently started to be addressed for small molecules1 but specific bio-organism immobilization and detection remains a great technical challenge in many applications that require the analysis of samples such as air, drinking water, and body fluids. Read more

Microlithography-Free Multi-Valued Analog Memory Device Using Self-Assembled Nanoparticle Films

by Y. Suganuma & A. -A. Dhirani Nanotechnology E-Newsletter, September 2005 Digital computers use binary states, typically represented by 0 and 5V, to store and process information at all stages of a calculation. If more states, ideally a continuum, were available in between, the density of information could be dramatically increased. We have shown that self-assembled nanoparticle films can be used to implement this kind of continuous-state or analog information storage. Information is written in the film by trapping charges in a local, gatemodified potential, and is then read out using the film’s built-in ability to sense charge via Coulomb blockade. Read more

An Extension of Microelectronic Technology to Nanoelectronics

by Gianfranco Cerofolini Nanotechnology E-Newsletter, September 2005 The preparation of integrated circuits (ICs) on the 100Gbit integration scale may be possible with modest changes in current production process and marginal investment in fabrication facilities. We hypothesize an IC with a hybrid architecture: a standard silicon-based microelectronic section that controls a nanoscopic crossbar structure. At each cross point, the latter will host a collection of several functional molecules, each able to mimic the behavior of a flash memory cell. In this way, the hybrid circuit consists of a nanoscale kernel linked to a conventional submicron circuitry. Read more

The Ultrasmoothness of Diamond-like Carbon Surfaces

Michael Moseler et al. Science, 2 Sep 2005 The ultrasmoothness of diamond-like carbon coatings is explained by an atomistic/continuum multiscale model. At the atomic scale, carbon ion impacts induce downhill currents in the top layer of a growing film. At the continuum scale, these currents cause a rapid smoothing of initially rough substrates by erosion of hills into neighboring hollows. The predicted surface evolution is in excellent agreement with atomic force microscopy measurements. This mechanism is general, as shown by similar simulations for amorphous silicon. It explains the recently reported smoothing of multilayers and amorphous transition metal oxide films and underlines the general importance of impact-induced downhill currents for ion deposition, polishing, and nanopattering. Read more

Single-Molecule Torsional Pendulum

by Jannik C. Meyer, Matthieu Paillet, & Siegmar Roth Science, 2 Sep 2005 We have built a torsional pendulum based on an individual single-walled carbon nanotube, which is used as a torsional spring and mechanical support for the moving part. The moving part can be rotated by an electric field, resulting in large but fully elastic torsional deformations of the nanotube. As a result of the extremely small restoring force associated with the torsional deformation of a single molecule, unusually large oscillations are excited by the thermal energy of the pendulum. By diffraction analysis, we are able to determine the handedness of the molecule in our device. Mechanical devices with molecular-scale components are potential building blocks for nanoelectromechanical systems and may also serve as sensors or actuators. Read more

Futuristic Remote-Control Snake Arm May Blend Electronic and Optical Technologies

by John Keller Military & Aerospace Electronics, August 2005 Scientists at the U.S. Defense Threat Reduction Agency at Fort Belvoir, Va., are asking industry for ideas on how to blend electronic, optical, and mechanical technologies in a remote-control arm that can move like a snake. Read more

Vetronics for the Future Combat System

by Ben Ames Military & Aerospace Electronics, August 2005 The Future Combat System, the Army’s centerpiece for next-generation land warfare, is to be one of the world’s first truly networked systems, sharing data and sensor information to provide situational awareness all over the battlefield. Read more

New Catalyst Produces Hydrogen from Water

by Sarah Graham ScientificAmerican.com, 31 Aug 2005 The promise of a hydrogen economy, which would lessen dependence on nonrenewable energy sources such as fossil fuels, hinges on the ability to produce and store large amounts of the clean-burning element. New results from experiments on a novel catalyst suggest that it can be used to coax hydrogen from water without the need for severe reaction conditions. Read more

NSF Funding Opportunity - Research on Gender in Science and Engineering FY 2006

The program seeks to broaden the participation of girls and women in all fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education by supporting research, dissemination of research, and extension services in education that will lead to a larger and more diverse domestic science and engineering workforce. Typical projects will contribute to the knowledge base addressing gender-related differences in learning and in the educational experiences that affect student interest, performance, and choice of careers; and how pedagogical approaches and teaching styles, curriculum, student services, and institutional culture contribute to causing or closing gender gaps that persist in certain fields. Projects will disseminate and apply findings, evaluation results, and proven good practices and products. Read more

NSF Funding Opportunity - Active Nanostructures and Nanosystems

The National Science Foundation announces a program on collaborative research and education in the area of active nanostructures and nanosystems, and on the long-term social change associated with these innovations. The goal of this program is to support fundamental research and catalyze synergistic science and engineering research and education in several emerging areas of nanoscale science and technology, including: fundamental nanoscale phenomena and processes in active nanostructures; nanosystems with improved functionality and new architectures; hierarchical nanomanufacturing; and long-term societal and educational implications of scientific and technological advances on the nanoscale. This solicitation will provide support for Nanoscale Interdisciplinary Research Teams and Nanoscale Exploratory Research. Read more

DARPA Solicitation - Control-Based Mobile Ad-Hoc Networking Program

The objective of the Control-Based Mobile Ad-Hoc Networking (CBMANET) program is to research, design, develop and evaluate a revolutionary Mobile Ad-hoc NETwork (MANET) prototype that improves effective performance from network stakeholder (user and operator) perspectives by an order of magnitude or more relative to the state of the art. In particular, proposals are sought to develop software implementing a revolutionary CBMANET network stack and services. This software will be subject to independent test and evaluation by a government team, using a rigorous comparison against a baseline MANET representative of the state of the art. In Phase 1, performers must deliver high-fidelity models of that software for evaluation using government-specified scenarios and applications. In Phase 2, performers must deliver an integrated software/hardware solution for field demonstrations and evaluation. Specifically, the integrated solution will consist of the performer software, a computing platform of the performer's choice, a specified GFE physical layer (PHY), and a suitably equipped GFE field vehicle. Read more

Watch the Parking Meters

Associated Press Wired News, 4 Sep 2005 In Pacific Grove, California, parking meters don't grant those magical few minutes on someone else's dime. Each time a car pulls away from a space, the meter automatically resets to zero. Little is left to chance in the brave new world of parking technology: Meters are triggered by remote sensors, customers pay for street time by cell phone and solar-powered vending machines create customized parking plans for the motorist. Read more

Building a Better Levee

by John Gartner Wired News, 6 Sep 2005 With New Orleans in ruins, hydrological engineers are looking to new technologies to bolster aging earthen levee systems. But so far, at least, the problem of holding back floodwaters has progressed little beyond the ancient and time-consuming technique of piling on more dirt. Read more

Changing Gear

The Economist, 25 Aug 2005 It is an old chestnut -- a car that drives itself -- but General Motors, the world's largest car manufacturer, has become the latest company to claim to be building one. The car uses updated technology combined with several existing innovations and, according to the manufacturer, could be in production by 2008. But, while the technology takes some of the boring bits out of driving, it falls far short of an automatic taxi service and, anyway, various legal, technical and social barriers to its introduction remain. Read more

Water Returned to Lake Contains Toxic Material

by Sewell Chan & Andrew C. Revkin New York Times, 7 Sep 2005 While the human and economic toll of Hurricane Katrina continued to mount, New Orleanswas beginning to pump back into Lake Pontchartrain the floodwaters that had inundated the city. But this is not the same water that flooded the city. What started flowing back into the lake on Monday and continued spilling into it Tuesday is laced with raw sewage, bacteria, heavy metals, pesticides and toxic chemicals, Louisiana officials said on Tuesday. Read more

High-Power Fuel Cells Go Portable

by Mark Peplow news@nature, 25 Aug 2005 If you can't bear to be away from your laptop during that camping trip to deepest Borneo, help may soon be at hand. Lightweight generators powered by methanol are now on the market . . . for the rich, at least. Read more

Dispersion-Free Nanoprinting

by Paul Hanlon Nature Materials Update, 1 Sep 2005 Scientists working at the Pennsylvania State University1 have devised a highly accurate nanofabrication process that is both greater in accuracy than its predecessors and increases the number of materials that can be printed. Read more

Ionic Colloidal Crystals of Oppositely Charged Particles

by Mirjam E. Leunissen et al. Nature, 8 Sep 2005 Colloidal suspensions are widely used to study processes such as melting, freezing and glass transitions. This is because they display the same phase behaviour as atoms or molecules, with the nano- to micrometre size of the colloidal particles making it possible to observe them directly in real space. Another attractive feature is that different types of colloidal interactions, such as long-range repulsive, short-range attractive, hard-sphere-like, and dipolar, can be realized and give rise to equilibrium phases. However, spherically symmetric, long-range attractions (that is, ionic interactions) have so far always resulted in irreversible colloidal aggregation. Here we show that the electrostatic interaction between oppositely charged particles can be tuned such that large ionic colloidal crystals form readily, with our theory and simulations confirming the stability of these structures. We find that in contrast to atomic systems, the stoichiometry of our colloidal crystals is not dictated by charge neutrality; this allows us to obtain a remarkable diversity of new binary structures. An external electric field melts the crystals, confirming that the constituent particles are indeed oppositely charged. Colloidal model systems can thus be used to study the phase behaviour of ionic species. We also expect that our approach to controlling opposite-charge interactions will facilitate the production of binary crystals of micrometre-sized particles, which could find use as advanced materials for photonic applications. Read more

Theory of Metastability in Simple Metal Nanowires

by J. Bürki, C. A. Stafford, & D. L. Stein Physical Review Letters, 26 Aug 2005 Thermally induced conductance jumps of metal nanowires are modeled using stochastic Ginzburg-Landau field theories. Changes in radius are predicted to occur via the nucleation of surface kinks at the wire ends, consistent with recent electron microscopy studies. The activation rate displays nontrivial dependence on nanowire length, and undergoes first- or second-order-like transitions as a function of length. The activation barriers of the most stable structures are predicted to be universal, i.e., independent of the radius of the wire, and proportional to the square root of the surface tension. The reduction of the activation barrier under strain is also determined. Read more

An Essential Difference between Dielectric Mirrors and Chiral Mirrors

by Akhlesh Lakhtakia & Jian Xu Microwave and Optical Technology Letters, 5 Oct 2005 The boundary conditions on the exposed face of a dielectric mirror are shown to be effectively the same as those for perfect electric conductors, whereas the boundary conditions on the exposed face of a chiral mirror are very different from those for either perfect electric conductors or perfect magnetic conductors. Cavities between two chiral mirrors have a relatively uniform field distribution, which is significant for spectral-hole filters and coherent light generation. Read more

Scientists Develop 'Clever' Artificial Hand

Institute of Physics Press Release, 7 Sep 2005 Scientists have developed a new ultra-light limb that can mimic the movement in a real hand better than any currently available. The human hand has 27 bones and can make a huge number of complex movements and actions. Dr Paul Chappell, a medical physicist from the University of Southampton has designed a prototype hand that uses 6 sets of motors and gears so that each of the five fingers can move independently. This enables it to make movements and grip objects in the same way a real human hand does. Read more

Nano-Machines Achieve Huge Mechanical Breakthrough

Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council Press Release, 7 Sep 2005 A major advance in nanotechnology with far-reaching potential benefits in medicine and other fields is to be announced at this year's BA Festival of Science in Dublin. Scientists have built molecules that can, for the first time ever, move larger-than-atom-sized objects. In an unprecedented breakthrough, chemists at Edinburgh University have used light to stimulate man-made molecules to propel small droplets of liquid across flat surfaces and even up 12° slopes against the force of gravity. This is equivalent to tiny movements in a conventional machine raising objects to over twice the height of the world's tallest building. Read more

Simple Idea Could Revolutionise Safety Devices

University of Bath Press Release, 7 Sep 2005 A simple but clever idea by a Bath engineer could revolutionise the way that safety devices across the world are constructed. Dr. Fayek Osman, of the Department of Mechanical Engineering in the University of Bath, has developed a concept for devices that can absorb enormous impact and yet still remain intact so that they can be used again. Read more

Carbon Nanotube TV Demonstrated

by Nicolas Mokhoff EE Times, 7 Sep 2005 Applied Nanotech Inc. said it has demonstrated a high-resolution, full color, 25-inch diagonal carbon nanotube TV. A grainy demonstration video of the proof-of-concept TV in operation can be viewed on the company’s Web site. Read more

Solving Satisfiability Problems by the Ground-State Quantum Computer

by Wenjin Mao arxiv.org E-print Archive, 23 Jun 2005 A quantum algorithm is proposed to solve the Satisfiability problems by the ground-state quantum computer. The scale of the energy gap of the ground-state quantum computer is analyzed for the 3-bit Exact Cover problem. The time cost of this algorithm on the general SAT problems is discussed. Read more

New ENGnetBASE Titles on SCOTTY

The following titles have been added to ENGnetBASE this month:

• Handbook of Scheduling: Algorithms, Models, and Performance Analysis
• The Design Life of Structures
• Institutional Innovation in Water Management: The Scottish Experience
• Renewable Energy Sources
• Concrete in the Marine Environment
• Reinforced Concrete Deep Beams
• Environmental Health Procedures, 6th Edition
• Handbook of Image Quality: Characterization and Prediction
• Coding and Signal Processing for Magnetic Recording Systems
• Signal and Image Processing in Navigational Systems

Hurricane Events Analysis, Response and Mitigation

In response to the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina, the American Society of Civil Engineers has made a collection of articles related to response to and mitigation of hurricane events available free to the professional community. Visit the website

Mazda Throws Away Key for USB

by Dawn Kawamoto ZDNet News, 1 Sep 2005 Mazda has created a concept car that uses a USB drive as its ignition key. The USB (universal serial bus) feature will be part of its Sassou concept car, a small hatchback aimed at the youth market, Mazda said this week. Sassou uses a USB "key" and interface port that will let drivers program and load files onto the car's hard drive. Read more

'Bat-Bot' Sounds Out Surroundings

by Stephen Leahy Wired News, 26 Aug 2005 A tiny robot called the "Bat-Bot" can use echolocation just like flesh-and-blood bats to distinguish one type of plant from another -- something most of us couldn't do with a guidebook and magnifying glass. Although Bat-Bot doesn't fly, it's a major step forward in using sonar or sound waves in the air, and an important development for autonomous or self-navigating robots. Read more

Driving Green, Explosion-Free

by Matthew Shechmeister Wired News, 26 Aug 2005 A recent marketing video from battery maker Valence Technologies makes its point with all the subtlety of a Jerry Bruckheimer film: Unlike the competition's, its batteries don't blow up. The Texas-based company is so confident of the safety of its product that it shot one with a bullet to see what would happen. Nothing much, it turns out. That's in stark contrast to the other lithium ion battery shown in the video, which explodes in a fiery ball. Read more

NSF Preps New, Improved Internet

by Mark Baard Wired News, 26 Aug 2005 The National Science Foundation is backing a major initiative that could lead to a completely new internet architecture, with built-in security measures and support for ubiquitous sensors and wireless communications devices, among other things. The Global Environment for Networking Investigations, or GENI, will include a research grant program to fund new architectures and an experimental facility, which has not yet been planned in detail. Read more

Let's Get Really Small

by Joanna Glasner Wired News, 30 Aug 2005 Few new technologies seem to generate as many headlines these days as nanotechnology, the field of building things at scales of billionths of a meter. Major breakthroughs are coming at a torrid pace. The good news for potential first-time nanotech investors isn't limited to the labs. Nanotechnology has been a big disappointment in the market, so far at least, so the price of admission to this high-risk but intriguing sector is relatively low right now. Read more

New Light at End of the Tunnel

Associated Press Wired News, 30 Aug 2005 Scientists have been taking a closer look at the lighting in our homes, offices and vehicles, and they're seeing potential for a way to improve health and a new means of electronic communication. None of this will happen tomorrow. But if you want a glimpse of where the field might be heading, listen to some experts at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York, an academic home for lighting research. Read more

Nanoglue Stickier Than Gecko Toes

by Aaron Dalton Wired News, 31 Aug 2005 Researchers from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and the University of Akron have used their knowledge of what makes geckos stick to create a carpet of super-sticky carbon nanotubes that could form the basis for future types of adhesives. In this case, science has even surpassed nature by producing bundles of nanotubes with an adhesive power 200 times greater than that of the gecko foot hairs. Read more

Fragmentation of Rods by Cascading Cracks: Why Spaghetti Does Not Break in Half

by Basile Audoly & Sébastien Neukirch Physical Review Letters, 26 Aug 2005 When thin brittle rods such as dry spaghetti pasta are bent beyond their limit curvature, they often break into more than two pieces, typically three or four. With the aim of understanding these multiple breakings, we study the dynamics of a bent rod that is suddenly released at one end. We find that the sudden relaxation of the curvature at this end leads to a burst of flexural waves, whose dynamics are described by a self-similar solution with no adjustable parameters. These flexural waves locally increase the curvature in the rod, and we argue that this counterintuitive mechanism is responsible for the fragmentation of brittle rods under bending. A simple experiment supporting the claim is presented. Read more