By Gina "Nanogirl" Miller

Nanogirl News is a free service provided by Nanotechnology Industries to promote technological awareness. The company specializes in nanotech consulting and web work. Gina has maintained the company’s website since 1998. She is signed up for suspension,with Alcor, is a Foresight Senior Associate member, and an Extropian. In her spare time she works with VRML software programs to give visual insight to the possibilities future technologies will enable us. You can check out her work at the Artistic License website at:

http://www.nanogirl.com/Artistic License.html

Gina Miller

Nanotech Is Booming Biggest in U.S., Report Says. The science of the very small is getting big in the United States. Americans are investing more money, publishing more scientific papers and winning more patents than anyone else in the quickly growing field of nanotechnology, according to the first comprehensive federal report on the science of things only a few hundred millionths of an inch in size. But the nation's lead may be short-lived, the report warns, as Europe and Asia show evidence of gaining. Washington Post

NASA Tests Shape-Shifting Robot Pyramid For Nanotech Swarms. Like new and protective parents, engineers watched as the TETWalker robot successfully traveled across the floor at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. Robots of this type will eventually be miniaturized and joined together to form "autonomous nanotechnology swarms" (ANTS) that alter their shape to flow over rocky terrain or to create useful structures like communications antennae and solar sails. This technology has the potential to directly support NASA's Vision for Space Exploration. "This prototype is the first step toward developing a revolutionary type of robot spacecraft with major advantages over current designs," said Dr. Steven Curtis, Principal Investigator for the ANTS project, a collaboration between Goddard and NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va.Sciencedaily

Scientists modify carbon nanotubes using microwaves. Researchers at New Jersey Institute of Technology have discovered a novel method of changing the chemical characteristics of carbon nanotubes by heating them in a closed vessel microwave oven. Somenath Mitra, PhD, professor of chemistry and environmental sciences, and Zafar Iqbal, PhD, also a professor of chemistry and environmental sciences, will discuss their findings at the 229th national meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS). Physorg

U.K.'s $38-Million Nanotech Bet. Brits appropriate funds to help commercialize nanotech, boosting the U.K.'s competitive position in the emerging market. The U.K. Department of Trade and Industry will make eight more grants totaling 20 million ($37 million) to help companies and university researchers commercialize nanotechnology research. The funds are part of a 90 million ($170 million) nanotech initiative announced almost two years ago by the DTI, the British equivalent of the U.S. Department of Commerce. Combined with millions more in public grants and private capital, the money announced Wednesday by science and innovation minister Lord Sainsbury puts the United Kingdom in a solid competitive position in the nascent nanotech market, which cuts across dozens of sectors and could be worth trillions within a decade. RedHerring

New look for nanomotors. Physicists in the US have built the first nanoelectromechanical device that exploits the effects of surface tension. The "relaxation oscillator" consists of two droplets of liquid metal on a substrate made of carbon nanotubes and can be controlled with a small applied electric field. Alex Zettl and colleagues at the University of California at Berkeley and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory say the device could find use in various nanomechanical applications, including actuators and motors (B C Regan et al. 2005 Appl. Phys. Lett. 86 123119).