It's a good read

[Tom Johnson]

All:

One of my most enjoyable "harvesters of news I'm too busy to seek myself" is
I&T Weekly.  This week's version seems particularly rich.   I particularly
like:
* "Living camera uses bacteria to capture image"
* " Invention: Wi-Fi mosquito killer"

I thought I'd pass along to entire edition for reference.  Subscription
links are at the  bottom.

-Tom Johnson


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Editor I&T Weekly <[hidden email]>
Date: Nov 25, 2005 3:57 AM
Subject: I&T Weekly of November 25, 2005
To: tom at jtjohnson.com

Innovation & Technology Weekly of November 25, 2005

Maastricht Economic Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT)
United Nations University - Institute for New Technologies (UNU-INTECH)
European Centre for Digital Communication (EC/DC)


THIS WEEK'S HEADLINES ARE:

  - Researchers claim first nanoscale silicon laser
  - Living camera uses bacteria to capture image
  - Tech sought for organised EU sky
  - Researchers join forces to develop next generation light source
  - Tiny swimmer makes a splash
  - Scientists flick single-molecule switch
  - Inside a quantum dot: Tracking electrons at trillionths of a second
  - Nanotube forest does concertina scrunch
  - Holographic-memory discs may put DVDs to shame
  - Invention: Wi-Fi mosquito killer
  - Tinfoil hats make government mind probes worse

And also:
  - Conferences and seminars
  - Latest publications
  - Subscriber service

======================
Researchers claim first nanoscale silicon laser
======================
Researchers from Brown University, San Francisco, have created what they
believe is the first directly pumped silicon laser, a breakthrough that
they say could eventually help to make faster, more powerful computers
or fibre optic networks.

The researchers say they have created the silicon laser by changing the
atomic structure of silicon. This was accomplished by drilling billions
of holes in a small piece of silicon using a nanoscale template,
resulting in 'weak but true' laser light.

The team created a template, or 'mask', of anodised aluminium. Around a
millimetre square, the mask features billions of tiny holes, all
uniformly sized and exactly ordered. Placed over a piece of silicon then
bombarded with an ion beam, the mask served as a sort of stencil,
punching out precise holes and removing atoms in the process, according
to the researchers. The silicon atoms then subtly rearranged themselves
near the holes to allow for light emission.

Information Week / Nature Materials - November 21, 2005
http://unu-merit.nl/i&tweekly/ref.php?nid=2405

======================
Living camera uses bacteria to capture image
======================
A dense bed of light-sensitive bacteria has been developed as a unique
kind of photographic film by researchers at the University of
California, San Francisco. Although it takes 4 hours to take a picture
and only works in red light, it also delivers extremely high resolution.

The 'living camera' uses light to switch on genes in a genetically
modified bacterium that then cause an image-recording chemical to
darken. The bacteria are tiny, allowing the sensor to deliver a
resolution of 100 megapixels per square inch, or 10 times sharper than
high-end printers.

The researchers used genetic engineering techniques to shuttle genes
from photosynthesising blue-green algae into the cell membrane of the E.
coli. One gene codes for a protein that reacts to red light. Once
activated, that protein acts to shut down the action of a second gene.
This switch-off turns an added indicator solution black. As a result, a
monochrome image could be permanently 'printed' on a dense bed of the
modified E. Coli.

New Scientist / Nature (vol 438, p 441) - November 23, 2005
http://unu-merit.nl/i&tweekly/ref.php?nid=2406

======================
Tech sought for organised EU sky
======================
Europe is to get a new 20bn-euro air traffic management system to cope
with its congested skies. The Sesar project will overhaul current
technologies used to keep planes at safe separations, and allow pilots
to fly their own routes and altitudes. The new automated system would
shorten individual flight journeys, reducing fuel use and pollution.

Sesar is the technological part of the single European sky initiative,
launched in 2004 to reform the organisation of air traffic control in
the EU bloc. It is envisaged that future management of our skies will
become increasingly automated, with advanced communication and computing
technologies being used to optimise the flow of planes in the air.

Sesar, formerly known as Sesame, is expected to make heavy use of
Galileo, Europe's next-generation satellite-navigation network which
comes into operation over the next five years. Galileo is being built to
deliver guaranteed signals at sub-metre accuracies, a performance that
would support a safety critical application such as automated air
traffic management. Sesar will be deployed between 2014 and 2020.

BBC News - November 18, 2005
http://unu-merit.nl/i&tweekly/ref.php?nid=2407

======================
Researchers join forces to develop next generation light source
======================
More than 20 of Europe's leading companies and research institutes have
joined together in a research project entitled OLLA in order to advance
organic light-emitting diode technologies for lighting applications. The
research team comprises European universities and research institutes as
well as leading industrial players like Osram, Philips and Siemens and
aims at the further development of light-emitting diodes toward a light
source with a long lifetime and a high energy efficiency.

The next generation light source will be both flat - only half a
millimetre thin - and light. It will have an extremely long lifetime,
using only little energy in spite of its high brightness. Also, it will
allow for various shape and colour combinations and a variety of
appearances. Scientists have adopted the OLED principle from nature. The
basic principle of luminescence can for instance be observed with
fireflies. Analysing this phenomenon, researchers noticed that some
organic materials are comparable with semiconductors and, thus, are
suitable for the transport of electric charges.

The OLLA project, which is running until the year of 2008, comprises a
budget of nearly EUR 20m.

Physorg / Technische Universitaet Dresden - November 23, 2005
http://unu-merit.nl/i&tweekly/ref.php?nid=2403

======================
Tiny swimmer makes a splash
======================
Physicists at Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa, Israel,
have designed a tiny swimming robot that could help to answer
fundamental questions in biology and may also have applications in
medical nanotechnology. The 'micro-swimmer' also outperforms, in theory,
other man-made swimmers and simple biological organisms.

The new swimmer, known as 'pushmepullyou', consists of two spherical
elastic bladders that exchange volumes of material with each other
during each swimming stroke. The researchers predict that their robot
will move more efficiently than bacteria and other biological organisms
that move by beating a flagellum. Moreover, the pushmepullyou travels
faster than other artificial swimmers, such as three-linked spheres,
because it swims a larger distance with every stroke.

The team is now studying nanoscale-sized robots that could swim inside
channels in the body - such as inside the spine, heart or lungs - and
take images or deliver drugs.

Physicsweb / New Journal of Physics (7 234) - November 24, 2005
http://unu-merit.nl/i&tweekly/ref.php?nid=2404

======================
Scientists flick single-molecule switch
======================
US scientists have developed a method of controlling single-molecule
switches that could become central to the manufacture of next-generation
nano-computers.

The research team, led by scientists at Penn State University, Rice
University, and the University of Oregon, showed that single-molecule
switches can be tailored to respond in predictable and stable ways,
depending on the direction of the electric field applied to them.

It was possible to demonstrate that, while some switches were engineered
to turn on, others were engineered to turn off in response to the same
applied electric field. The discovery, has been heralded as 'an
essential step' in the emerging field of molecular electronics.

The research is the latest achievement in the team's ongoing studies of
a family of stiff, stringy molecules known as oligo
phenylene-ethynylenes (OPEs) which the scientists have tailored to have
a variety of physical, chemical and electronic characteristics.

VNUnet UK - November 21, 2005
http://unu-merit.nl/i&tweekly/ref.php?nid=2408

======================
Inside a quantum dot: Tracking electrons at trillionths of a second
======================
Researchers at the Ecole Polytechnique F?d?rale de Lausanne (EPFL) have
developed a new machine that can reveal how electrons behave inside a
single nano-object. The machine will allow researchers to study
previously intractable materials.

The researchers replaced the standard electron gun filament on an
off-the-shelf electron microscope with a 20 nanometre-thick gold
photocathode. The gold is illuminated by an ultraviolet mode-locked
laser, generating an electron beam that pulses 80 million times per
second. Each pulse contains fewer than 10 electrons. The electrons
excite the sample, causing it to emit light. The spectroscopic
information is collected and analysed to recreate the surface morphology
and to trace the path the electrons follow through the sample.

The researchers tested their new machine on pyramidal quantum dots.
These 2-micron-high nano-objects, specially synthesised in a lab,
contain several different nanostructures. When the electron beam impacts
the pyramid, the electrons diffuse towards the closest nanostructure.
>From there, the diffusion continues until the point of lowest energy is
reached - the quantum dot at the tip of the pyramid.

Physorg / EPFL / Nature - November 23, 2005
http://unu-merit.nl/i&tweekly/ref.php?nid=2410

======================
Nanotube forest does concertina scrunch
======================
A film of upright carbon nanotubes can be compressed like a concertina,
say researchers at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. They believe that
the material could make ideal padding for tiny objects, or form
components for microscopic mechanical devices.

Unlike standard compressible foams, whose low density makes them less
robust, the nanotube film is both strong and squeezable. The material
can be squished to just 15 per cent of its normal height and rebound
perfectly, thousand and thousands of times, without showing any wear or
losing springiness. The film is also resistant to chemical attack and
high temperatures.

Because carbon nanotubes conduct electricity, the springy material could
make an excellent flexible electrical connection. It may also be
possible to use a current to make the tubes flex, powering microscopic
machinery.

Nature - November 24, 2005
http://unu-merit.nl/i&tweekly/ref.php?nid=2411

======================
Holographic-memory discs may put DVDs to shame
======================
A firm that makes a disc that can hold 60 times more data than a DVD
said it is ready to release the product next year. InPhase Technologies,
based in Colorado, US, has developed a commercially viable version of a
holographic disc which can hold 300 gigabytes of data and can be used to
read and write data 10 times faster than a normal DVD.

The discs are 13 centimetres across and a little wider than normal DVDs.
They store data in a light-sensitive crystal material using the
interference of laser light. A single light beam is split and passed
through a semi-transparent material. This acts like a filter, changing
different parts of the beam to encode bits of information. The altered
beam and the reference beam are then recombined in the light-sensitive
material and their pattern of interference provides a record of the
encoded information.

InPhase says the technique could theoretically be used to store up to
1.6 terabytes of data on the same size of disc and to read data at 120
megabits per second. This is 340 times the capacity of an ordinary DVD
and 20 times the data rate.

The Inquirer / New Scientist - November 25, 2005
http://unu-merit.nl/i&tweekly/ref.php?nid=2412

======================
Invention: Wi-Fi mosquito killer
======================
A US biotechnology company with a specialty in killing mosquitoes is
turning to wireless technology and computers to make a killing for
itself. American Biophysics (AmBio) is already selling the successful
'Mosquito Magnet', a system to rid backyards of biting insects. The
magnet emits a humanlike scent that includes carbon dioxide and moisture
to attract bloodsucking insects. When the bugs flutter past, they are
sucked into and suffocated by a vacuumlike device.

Now AmBio is upping the ante with a 'smart' mosquito net, or
computerised defence system, an electronic self-diagnosing network of
magnets all communicating with one another through the 802.11b wireless
standard. Centralised servers in the middle of the network will record
and analyze data transmitted from the computerised magnets on air
quality, humidity, wind direction and pollutants. The data is
transmitted to AmBio and its client for remote administration.

If it is raining on a magnet-wired golf course, for example, the system
will shut down to save power. If the wind is coming out of the north,
the south line magnets will shut down and let the mosquitoes blow by.

CNET News - November 21, 2005
http://unu-merit.nl/i&tweekly/ref.php?nid=2413

======================
Tinfoil hats make government mind probes worse
======================
Aluminium tinfoil hats used by the paranoid to shield their thoughts
from shadowy government agents in black helicopters may be making the
problem worse rather than better, according to research carried out at
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). A team showed that,
rather than protecting the user, tinfoil hats actually amplify the
signals presumed by some to be used for mind control.

The team tested three basic designs: the 'classic' all over skull cap;
the 'fez' conical design; and the 'centurion' which has a foil peak.
Measurements were taken from four parts of the brain and revealed that
the signals received were increased, and in some cases doubled, by
wearing the hats. Similarly, the hats amplified the signals sent from
the head, from an implanted microchip or hidden bug.

'It requires no stretch of the imagination to conclude that the current
helmet craze is likely to have been propagated by the government,
possibly with the involvement of the Federal Communications Commission,'
wrote the authors of the paper entitled On the Effectiveness of
Aluminium Foil Helmets: An Empirical Study. 'We hope this report will
encourage the paranoid community to develop improved helmet designs to
avoid falling prey to these shortcomings.'

VNUnet UK - November 22, 2005
http://unu-merit.nl/i&tweekly/ref.php?nid=2409


========================
CONFERENCES & SEMINARS
========================
Yeasty investment and mushroom productivity growth:

An industry perspective on European and American performance,

1987-2003
   MERIT, Maastricht, November 29, 2005
   see: http://www.merit.unimaas.nl/seminars/index.php#s596


===================================
LATEST PUBLICATIONS
===================================

Is There a Link between Economic Outcomes and Genetic Evolution?
Cross-Country Evidence from the Major Histocompatibility Complex
    J. Borghans, L Borghans & B ter Weel, MERIT
    see: http://www.merit.unimaas.nl/publications/rm.php?year_id=2005
Comparing the Innovation Performance in Canadian, French and German
Manufacturing Enterprises
    P. Mohnen & P Therrien, MERIT
    see: http://www.merit.unimaas.nl/publications/rm.php?year_id=2005
[NEW] The Economics of the Digital Society
   Luc Soete (MERIT/UNU-INTECH) and Bas ter Weel (MERIT)
   see: http://www.merit.unimaas.nl/publications/prom.php
Activating Knowledge
   Luc Soete, MERIT / UNU-INTECH
   see: http://www.number-10.gov.uk/files/pdf/Soete-final.pdf


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--
==============================================
J. T. Johnson
Institute for Analytic Journalism
www.analyticjournalism.com
505.577.6482(c)                                 505.473.9646(h)
http://www.jtjohnson.com               tom at jtjohnson.com

"He who refuses to do arithmetic is doomed to talk nonsense."
           -John McCarthy, Stanford University mathematician
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