Intel have announced that their new generation of Penryn chips, available from 12 November 2007, will contain transistors with features of 45 nm. Current leakage problems have been overcome by replacing the silicon dioxide gate dielectric components with ones made from the metal hafnium which has better electrical storage characteristics. Moore’s Law, which states that the number of transistors on a chip will double every two years and which is named after Gordon Moore (right), co-founder of Intel, will also be maintained with the subsequent generation of Intel chips, named Nehalem, which will become available during 2008. Hafnium will also be used in Intel’s planned new generation chips incorporating transistors with features down to 32 nm expected during 2009. 

Read more at the BBC News website.

Posted: September 19th, 2007 under Nanotechnology.
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With the European Union’s Framework Programme 6 (FP6) investing €1.4 billion across some 550 research projects, around one third of the global total public investment, the EU is the world’s largest public nanotechnology investor. This figure is set to rise under the new Framework 7 programme (FP7), launched at the end of 2006, which is likely to more than double the research spend on nanotechnology as compared with FP6. However, private investment in nanotechnology still lags behind that in the US and Japan. Alongside the public investment in research, the European Commission is anxious to promote the responsible development of nanotechnology and, to this end, has launched a public consultation on a Code of Conduct for responsible nanotechnology research with a recommendation due by the end of 2007.

Further EU information available here and here.

Posted: September 18th, 2007 under Nanotechnology.
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The Professor Sir Fraser Stoddart lecture, held at the Institute of Physics on 13 September 2007, may now be viewed online with slides via the IoN link here.

Posted: September 14th, 2007 under Nanotechnology.
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A common hospital superbug, Clostridium difficile, has a protective protein lattice coat that can reassemble when put into a test tube on its own. This may have commercial applications in nanotechnology according to scientists speaking recently at the Society for General Microbiology’s 161st meeting in Edinburgh. Full story at the SGM website.

Posted: September 12th, 2007 under Nanotechnology.
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For any readers interested in hearing the Institute of Nanotechnology’s guest lecture by Professor Sir Fraser Stoddart tomorrow night (13 September 2007 at 18h30 UK time) and who are unable to attend, it will be webcast.

Posted: September 12th, 2007 under Nanotechnology.
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The European Commission has recently released a communication Nanosciences and Nanotechnologies: An action plan for Europe 2005-2009. First Implementation Report 2005-2007. The report can be viewed here.

Posted: September 12th, 2007 under Nanotechnology.
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The IoN is hosting a public engagement evening on nanomedicine at the Royal College of Surgeons, London,  on 28 November 2007 from 18h30 to 20h30.

A panel including Dr Doug Naysmith MP (left), Dr Evdokia Korakianiti (EMEA), Dr Leonard Fass (GE Healthcare) (right) , Mr Michel Lussier (Medpole) and Professor Shervanthi Homer-Vanniasinkam (Consultant Vascular Surgeon and Clinical Sub-Dean of Leeds Medical School) will present their views on the future of nanomedicine and will answer questions from the public on all aspects of the new medical discipline.

Attendance is free and further details can be found at the IoN website.

Posted: September 11th, 2007 under Nanomedicine.
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The Institute of Nanotechnology is presenting a guest lecture by Professor Sir Fraser Stoddart, one of the most cited chemists in the world, on 13 September 2007. The lecture, Chemistry and Molecular Technology for Tomorrow’s World, is free and will be held at the Institute of Physics, 76 Portland Place, London. Sir Fraser, who was knighted this year, has recently been appointed as Director of the new Center for the Chemistry of Integrated Systems at Northwestern University. Until recently, he was Director of the California Nanosystems Institute.

More details here.

Posted: September 8th, 2007 under Nanotechnology.
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Here is a link to the website of Dr Frances Geesin, a Senior Research Fellow at the London College of Fashion. Much of Frances’s work is inpired by science and she is currently working with the Institute of Nanotechnology on the interpretation of nanoscale structure into two- and three-dimensional art.

Posted: September 7th, 2007 under NanoArt.
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Professor Sumio Iijima has been awarded the 2007 Balzan Prize for Nanoscience for his pioneering work on the study of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and, in particular, single wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) and their properties. His research has since inspired massive interest in the properties of CNTs.

Professor Iijima works at Meijo University in Nagoya and is also Director of the Research Centre for Advanced Carbon Materials at Tsukuba.

Further details can be found at the Balzan Foundation website.

Posted: September 7th, 2007 under Nanotechnology.
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