An interdisciplinary team from the department of macromolecular science and engineering at Case Western Reserve University, the Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center and the NASA Glenn Research Center earned the December 2007 cover of Nature Nanotechnology, one of the world's most prestigious scholarly journals covering research in nanoscience and nanotechnology.

A new strategic plan for the work of the National Nanotechnology Initiative has just been released by the interagency Nanoscale Science, Engineering, and Technology (NSET) Subcommittee of the National Science and Technology Council’s Committee on Technology with support from the National Nanotechnology Coordination Office (NNCO).

Scientists in Israel have perhaps created the smallest Bible by printing the entire Old Testament on a silicon chip smaller than a pinhead and less than 1/1000th of an inch in size.

By means of X-ray interferometers, lengths down to the mm range can be measured with a resolution of less than one nm. The low translation velocity of the interferometers, which made their use in practice more difficult, could now be increased by a factor of 100 by exploiting the temporal correlation of singly interfering X-ray photons.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has developed an imaging system that quickly maps the mechanical properties of materials—how stiff or stretchy they are, for example—at scales on the order of billionths of a meter.

Researchers in Australia report development of a new type of gold nanoparticle that destroys the parasite responsible for toxoplasmosis, a potentially serious disease acquired by handling the feces of infected cats or eating undercooked meat.

In a world that constantly strives for bigger and bigger things, Washington University in St. Louis' Pratim Biswas, Ph.D., the Stifel and Quinette Jens Professor and chair of the Department of Energy, Environmental and Chemical Engineering, is working to make things smaller and smaller.

Under an atomic force microscope, the tiny structures look like fragments of nanoscopic pearl necklaces. In reality, the “pearls” are fullerene molecules that are linked together by means of a special fullerene-binding molecule. Spanish researchers describe their method for “threading” these nanopearls in the latest issue of the journal Angewandte Chemie.

Nanowires grown at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have a mechanical “quality factor” at least 10 times higher than reported values for other nanoscale devices such as carbon nanotubes, and comparable to that of commercial quartz crystals.

Computers and electronic devices of the future will utilise technologies not currently available. An example of such a technology is the use of carbon nanotubes as interconnects for computer chips. This is now a step closer to reality with some new work from nanotechnology researchers within the Materials Ireland Polymer Research Centre at Trinity College Dublin.

Just as silicon is the wonder material for the computer age, carbon nanotubes will most likely be the materials responsible for the next evolutionary step in electronics and computing. Their extraordinary properties have identified them as having the potential to revolutionise many technologies.

Carbon nanotubes have long been touted as the wonder material of the future. Applications cited for carbon nanotubes range from super fast computers and ultra small electronics through to materials that are lightweight yet super strong and tougher than diamond.