Monthly Archives: March 2012

Monkeys, mind control, robots, prosthetics, and the 2014 World Cup (soccer/football)

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The idea that a monkey in the US could control a robot’s movements in Japan is stunning. Even more stunning is the fact that the research is four years old. It was discussed publicly in a Jan. 15, 2008 article by Sharon Gaudin for Computer World,

Scientists in the U.S. and Japan have successfully used a monkey’s brain activity to control a humanoid robot — over the Internet.

This research may only be a few years away from helping paralyzed people walk again by enabling them to use their thoughts to control exoskeletons attached to their bodies, according to Miguel Nicolelis, a professor of neurobiology at Duke University and lead researcher on the project.

“This is an attempt to restore mobility to people,” said Nicolelis. “We had the animal trained to walk on a treadmill. As it walked, we recorded its brain activity that generated its locomotion pattern. As the animal was walking and slowing down and changing his pattern, his brain activity was driving a robot in Japan in real time.”

This video clip features an animated monkey simulating control of  a real robot in Japan (the Computational Brain Project of the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) in Kyoto partnered with Duke University for this project),

I wonder if the Duke researchers or communications staff thought that the sight of real rhesus monkeys on treadmills might be too disturbing. While we’re on the topic of simulation, I wonder where the robot in the clip actually resides. Quibbles about the video clip aside, I have no doubt that the research took place.

There’s a more recent (Oct. 5, 2011) article, about the work being done in Nicolelis’ laboratory at Duke University, by Ed Yong for Discover Magazine (mentioned previously described in my Oct. 6, 2011 posting),

This is where we are now: at Duke University, a monkey controls a virtual arm using only its thoughts. Miguel Nicolelis had fitted the animal with a headset of electrodes that translates its brain activity into movements. It can grab virtual objects without using its arms. It can also feel the objects without its hands, because the headset stimulates its brain to create the sense of different textures. Monkey think, monkey do, monkey feel – all without moving a muscle.
And this is where  Nicolelis wants to be in three years: a young quadriplegic Brazilian man strolls confidently into a massive stadium. He controls his four prosthetic limbs with his thoughts, and they in turn send tactile information straight to his brain. The technology melds so fluidly with his mind that he confidently runs up and delivers the opening kick of the 2014 World Cup.

This sounds like a far-fetched dream, but Nicolelis – a big soccer fan – is talking to the Brazilian government to make it a reality.

According to Yong, Nicolelis has created an international consortium to support the Walk Again Project. From the project home page,

The Walk Again Project, an international consortium of leading research centers around the world represents a new paradigm for scientific collaboration among the world’s academic institutions, bringing together a global network of scientific and technological experts, distributed among all the continents, to achieve a key humanitarian goal.

The project’s central goal is to develop and implement the first BMI [brain-machine interface] capable of restoring full mobility to patients suffering from a severe degree of paralysis. This lofty goal will be achieved by building a neuroprosthetic device that uses a BMI as its core, allowing the patients to capture and use their own voluntary brain activity to control the movements of a full-body prosthetic device. This “wearable robot,” also known as an “exoskeleton,” will be designed to sustain and carry the patient’s body according to his or her mental will.

In addition to proposing to develop new technologies that aim at improving the quality of life of millions of people worldwide, the Walk Again Project also innovates by creating a complete new paradigm for global scientific collaboration among leading academic institutions worldwide. According to this model, a worldwide network of leading scientific and technological experts, distributed among all the continents, come together to participate in a major, non-profit effort to make a fellow human being walk again, based on their collective expertise. These world renowned scholars will contribute key intellectual assets as well as provide a base for continued fundraising capitalization of the project, setting clear goals to establish fundamental advances toward restoring full mobility for patients in need.

It’s the exoskeleton described on the Walk Again Project home page that Nicolelis is hoping will enable a young Brazilian quadriplegic to deliver the opening kick for the 2014 World Cup (soccer/football) in Brazil.

Think shrimp for wound healing and face creams for age-defying skin

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A research team at Fairleigh Dickinson University (New Jersey, US) has taken the first step towards developing new treatments for skin wounds and, possibly, new anti-aging cosmetics. From the March 16, 2012 news item on physorg.com,

… Mihaela Leonida of Fairleigh Dickinson University, in Teaneck, New Jersey and colleagues writing in the International Journal of Nano and Biomaterials describe how they have prepared nanoparticles of chitosan that could have potential in preventing infection in wounds as well as enhancing the wound-healing process itself by stimulating skin cell growth.

Here’s where the shrimp figure in,

Chitosan is a natural, non-toxic and biodegradable, polysaccharide readily obtained from chitin, the main component of the shells of shrimp, lobster and the beak of the octopus and squid. Its antimicrobial activity is well known and has been exploited in dentistry to prevent caries and as preservative applications in food packaging. It has even been tested as an additive for antimicrobial textiles used in clothing for healthcare and other workers.

You can also find this March 16, 2012 news item on Nanowerk,

The team made their chitosan nanoparticles (CNP) using an ionic gelation process with sodium tripolyphosphate. This process involves the formation of bonds between polymers strands, a so-called cross-linking process. Conducted in these conditions it precludes the need for complex preparative chemistry or toxic solvents. CNP can also be made in the presence of copper and silver ions, known antimicrobial agents. The researchers’ preliminary tests show the composite materials to have enhanced activity against two representative types of bacteria.

… The team has also demonstrated that the CNP have skin regenerative properties in tests on skin cell fibroblasts and keratinocytes, in the laboratory, which might even have implications for anti-aging skin care products.

NE3LS November 2012 conference in Montréal

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NE3LS is one of the worst abbreviations I’ve ever seen but, despite my opinion, it ([Nanotechnology] Ethical, Environmental, Economic, Legal and Social Issues—NE3LS) lives on. This March 12, 2012 posting on the Nanotechnology Development blog announces the 1st Nanotechnology NE3LS conference in November 2012,

Ne3LS Network (Network on ethical, environmental, economic and legal and social issues pertaining to nanotechnology) is organizing first International conference with the theme “The Responsible Development of Nanotechnology: Challenges and Perspectives”.  The conference will held at Montréal, Canada during November 1-2, 2012.

I have noted the difference between my guess as to what the N in NE3LS stands for and the Nanotechnology Development blog’s rendition. I’d usually stick with mine since there is an NE3LS research project at the National Institute of Nanotechnology and it’s highly unlikely that N  stands for network but the conference organizers are the ones claiming the N stands for Network on the conference home page.

The NE3LS Network was launched in March 2011 in Montréal, from the launch webpage,

The launch of the Ne3LS Network (Knowledge Network on the Ethical, Environmental, Economic, Legal and Social issues regarding Nanotechnology) took place on March 9, 2011. Guests of honour at this event included Dr. Fabrice Brunet, Director of the CHU Sainte-Justine, Dr. Guy Rouleau, Director of the CHU Sainte-Justine Research Center, Dr. Joseph Hubert, Vice-Rector of Research and International Relations at the University of Montreal, Mr. Yves Joanette, President and CEO of the Fonds de la recherche en santé du Québec (FRSQ), Mrs. Marie Larue, President and CEO of the Institut de recherche Robert-Sauvé en santé et en sécurité du travail (IRSST)  and Mr. Luc Castonguay, Director of Academic Research at the Ministry of Economic Development, Innovation and Export Trade (MDEIE). The Ne3LS Network is the result of a collaboration between Québec’s research funding organizations, the MDEIE, the Institut de recherche Robert-Sauvé en santé et en sécurité du travail (IRSST) and NanoQuébec.

Mr. Charles-Anica Endo, Executive Director, and Dr. Renaldo Battista, Scientific Director, took this opportunity to announce the winners of the network’s first call for projects, held in December 2010. In addition, the Axis Directors presented the multiple dimensions of nanotechnology, from their very definition to their governance and their associated risks. Attendees also had the privilege of hearing two world-renowned nanotechnology researchers, Mrs. Céline Lafontaine, sociologist, and Dr. Richard Martel, chemist.

One of the keynote speakers at the March 9, 2011 event, Céline Lafontaine, was mentioned here in my March 10, 2010 posting (scroll about 1/3 of the way down) in the context of the 2009 nanotechnology debates in France, which had been seriously disrupted to the point where some were cancelled.

Getting back to the NE3LS conference in Montréal, here’s a bit more information, from the conference home page,

The Network on ethical, environmental, economic, legal and social issues regarding nanotechnology development (Ne3LS) is hosting an international conference to initiate thought-provoking discussion on the responsible development of nanotechnology. The Ne3LS Network International Conference 2012 will explore the following themes within an international and multidisciplinary framework:

  • How to assess the risks of nanotechnology, scientific, economic, social, or environmental
  • Governance: What are the responsibilities of researchers, industry, government, and the general public in the development of nanotechnologies? What is the contribution of industry to the development of standards and regulations?
  • Can responsible development of nanotechnology foster innovation and contribute to economic development?
  • What are the impacts of nanomedicine and nanohealth on the health care system?
  • How can the public be best informed and consulted on nanotechnology issues?

Invited speakers will address each of these topics.

There is a Call for Papers Theme webpage with this,

… the international conference has issued a call for abstracts to address the following subthemes at concurrent sessions:

  1. Toxicity: new methods, new concepts?
  2. Occupational health and safety: how to adapt to nanotechnologies
  3. What are the environmental risks?
  4. Innovation and the economy and the challenges of globalization
  5. Public-private partnerships in risk-sharing?
  6. Nano-health: toward privatization of medical services?
  7. International regulations and political issues
  8. National regulatory standards: free exchange or “no data, no market”?
  9. Ethics: the precautionary principle and sustainable development of nanotechnologies
  10. Educate whom and how?
  11. What modalities could be used for public consultation and to what end?
  12. Nanofoods: can the genetically-modified food (GMO) scenario be avoided?

Here are the guidelines,

CALL FOR ABSTRACTS

  • All presentations will be in English
  • The topic must be relevant to one of the 12 subthemes described in the Ne3LS Network International Conference 2012, Themes
  • Each oral presentation will be 20 minutes, followed by a 10-minute question period
  • Poster presentations will also be available
  • Abstracts will be selected as oral or poster presentation, at the discretion of the selection committee.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

Those submitted by any other means will not be considered.

  • Closing date: all submissions must be received by Monday May 14, 2012
  • Cover letter: Please attach a cover letter specifying
    • Corresponding author: full name, address, telephone number, fax (if applicable), and email address
    • A short one-paragraph bio for each author, indicating relevant expertise and interest in the topic
    • Format: Word file
    • Language: English
    • Abstract
      • Word count: maximum 250 words
      • Structured as follows:
        • Author(s) (Last name, first name)
        • Title of presentation
        • Author affiliations (institution, country)
        • Text
        • 3-5 keywords
    • Font: standard font to prevent special characters from getting lost, e.g. Arial or Times New Roman, 12-point
    • In submitting an abstract, the author(s) agree that the abstract may be published among other documents associated with the Ne3LS Network International Conference 2012, Montreal, Canada.

SELECTION CRITERIA

  • Submissions will be evaluated by an international, multidisciplinary scientific committee
  • Principal criteria for selection will be:
    • Quality of the abstract
    • Relevance to the general themes and, more specifically, to the subthemes described in the Ne3LS Network International Conference 2012, Themes
    • Corresponding authors will be notified of acceptance by email by June 29, 2012
    • Notification of acceptance will indicate whether the presentation was selected as an oral or poster presentation
    • Authors whose abstracts are selected are expected to pay their registration fees at the latest by July 15, 2012.

You have almost two months to write up your abstract (nice to stumble across something a little earlier than usual so I’m not announcing a deadline that comes due in three days). Good luck!

For those who prefer French language information, here’s a link to the NE3LS (Réseau de connaisannces) French version website.

Nanotech Commercialization Conference adds a Nano Art show

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From the March 14, 2012 news item on Nanowerk,

Cutting-edge artists from across the world will participate in the “Art of the Small”, a juried exhibition held in conjunction with the Nanotech Commercialization Conference, April 4-5, 2012 at the American Tobacco Campus, in Durham, NC. Artists were invited through an open call to exhibit work inspired by nanotechnology, nanobiotech, biotechnology, genomics, DNA, and genetics. Winning artists in several categories will receive a cash award to be announced at the awards and VIP reception. The art exhibition is open to the public on Wednesday, April 4, 2012 from 5 to 7pm at Bay 7 of the American Tobacco Campus in Durham, NC.

Well, the deadline for entry is tight (March 17, 2012) but if you’re an artist who happens to have something easily available that fits the criteria, here’s more information from the conference’s art entry page,

Eligibility

The ART OF THE SMALL is open to all artists, 18 years of age and older. All media is acceptable for submission, however the artist is completely responsible for its transportation (shipping, packing, return shipping/packaging costs).

Original or limited-edition 2-dimensional artwork, 3-dimensional sculpure and installation work and media arts projects will be considered.  Maximum dimensions for 2-dimensional artwork are 48 inches high and 72 inches wide. There is no specific slze limitation for 3-dimensional work, but space, weight and logistical limitations may influence selection by the Judges.  Media art work must be provided in digital form (no 1/2″or 3/4″ video tape) and will be projected or displayed on monitors.

Theme

In the broadest sense, nanobiotechnology is the use of nanotechnology in relation to biological processes, organisms or systems to develop products aimed to improve some aspect of life.  Biotechnology at its roots is a very old science, stretching back 7,000 years to the creation of bread, cheese, wine, and vinegar (which all depend on harnessing and modifying some biological process).  The field has expanded dramatically over the last quarter century, powered by our understanding of genomics, DNA, the structure of materials and atoms.

…

How to Enter

What to Submit for Consideration by the Judges:
Please send us high-quality photographs of your work that are well-photographed with evenly distributed lighting and accurate color.  Each artist may submit up to five individual entries.  If an individual work of art consists of multiple components, photograph the entire work as it should be installed (i.e., all the components together) with an explanation that it is a photograph of a single work, plus the overall dimensions of the work.

Print Submissions:
Print submissions that will be mailed in should be printed on 8″ x 10″ paper or digitally printed on 8 1/2″ x 11″ paper.

Online Digital Submissions Specifications:
Once you will fill out and submit your online entry form(s), you will be sent instructions for uploading your images.
• Image must measure at least at least 800 pixels by 625 pixels
• Image must be 300dpi
• Save the images with as little compression as possible
• File size less than 10 MB.
• Images must be MacIntosh compatible and saved in the JPEG or TIFF file format (with a .jpg or .tif extension).
• File names should not have spaces, punctuation marks, or non-English characters.
• File names should read as follows: example: titleofwork_artistname.jpg

Deadline for Submissions:
All submissions must be received by Saturday, March 17, 2012 for judging.

Judging and Notification of Acceptance:
The Judges will review all submitted work, and the artists will be informed whether their work has been selected on Friday, March 23, 2012.

There are more details about the theme and what to do in the event that your work is chosen for the show on the conference’s art entry page.

As for the conference itself, here’s a bit more from the conference home page,

Nanotech Commercialization Conference
Research Triangle, Durham, North Carolina
April 4-5, 2012

The NCC [not nanocrystalline cellulose but Nanotech Commercialization Conference] is the preeminent nanotechnology conference being held in the South this year. Nanotech innovators, cutting edge start-ups, leading researchers, and visionary will be in attendance. If you are involved in the field, you should not miss this conference.

Over the last decade, the nanotechnology field has turned the corner from science fiction to multi-billion dollar business, rapidly becoming the center of the materials science field, and has made major game-changing innovations in clean energy, electronics and biotechnology.

The NanoBusiness Commercialization Association has joined the N.C. Department of Commerce and the Center of Innovation for Nanobiotechnology to co-host the Nanotechnology Commercialization Conference, a groundbreaking event for international nanotechnology stakeholders.

“For several years, North Carolina has been recognized as a top state for nanotechnology research and practical application,” said John Hardin, Executive Director of the Office of Science & Technology in the North Carolina Department of Commerce.  “This conference, which focuses on moving nanoscience from the lab to the global market, will both highlight North Carolina’s pioneering role and help participants turn emerging nanotechnologies into skilled, high-wage jobs.”

By the way, the NanoBusiness Commercialization Association was formerly known as the NanoBusiness Alliance (last mentioned here in my July 5, 2010 posting).

Magna Carta for nano?

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The more I investigated this Nano Carta news item on Nanowerk, March 14, 2012, the more confused I’ve become. Here’s the easy part,

Part of a Europe-wide debate about the ethical, social and legal questions associated with nanoscience will take place in Bristol on Tuesday [20 March, 2012].

The debate, featuring a group of Bristol University PhD students from the Bristol Centre for Functional Nanomaterials [BCFN], will help form an ethical code for nanotechnology looking at privacy issues, acceptance, human health, access, liability, regulation and control.

Pupils in Years 10 and 11 at St Mary Redcliffe and Temple School will input their own thoughts after learning about nanotechnology – the study of manipulating matter on an atomic and molecular scale – as part of an on-going partnership with the University.

The Nanochannels project is funded by the European Commission and involves 20 teachers from eight countries across the continent, each engaging students through the use of social media such as Facebook, Twitter and live debates. The Guardian newspaper is a partner in the project and is publishing articles on its Nanotechnology World microsite.

Dr Paul Hill, a science teacher at St Mary Redcliffe, won the grant and established the collaboration with the BCFN. Postgraduate students have since been teaching pupils about the theory and practical challenges of researching nanotechnology, with examples from their own PhD research.

Here’s the press release from the University of Bristol announcing the event.

It all got rather confusing when I started reading about the event elsewhere. The Scientix website notes the UK event is part of a larger series, which started in Tel Aviv (no mention of Nano Cartas or any other Cartas),

Nanochannels School Debate series started

Published on: 31/01/2012

Country: United Kingdom

Topic: Nanotechnology,  Project,  Event

Target groups: college students,  general public,  policy makers,  primary school students,  secondary school students,  teachers,  trainee teachers

Two school debates in Tel Aviv, Israel, kicked off the series of live discussions among students, researchers, NGOs, industry and the public on the risks and benefits of the use of nanotechnologies in our everyday life.

The Nano Channels website lists all of the events in this series of live debates which range from Israel (as noted) to the UK, France, Italy, Romania, Turkey, Germany, and Austria.

The topic listed for the March 20,  2012 debate for St. Mary Redcliffe and Temple School is listed as ‘Nano sensors for medical diagnostics’.

I then found an announcement of a March 13, 2012 event in this series held in Italy which does mention the Nano Carta, also on the Scientix website,

Nanochannels Live School Debate – Pavullo nel Frignano

Location: Pavullo nel Frignano

Country: Italy

Type of event: Debate

Organizer: Nanochannels

Project: Nanochannels

Target groups: general public,  industry,  primary school students,  researchers,  secondary school students,  teachers,  trainee teachers

Topic: Nanotechnology,  Education

Language of event: Italian

A live “role play” debate among students, also with participation from researchers, NGOs, the nanotechnology (NT) industry and the general public, who will discuss a specific issue concerning nanotechnologies and their use in our everyday life.

The outcome of the debate will be a “Nanocarta”, a summary of the debate produced by the students, which will be posted on the Nanochannels website and in social media. Over the school year the Nanochannels students will produce press articles with help from professional journalists. The best ones will be co-edited and published by the Nanochannels press partners: The Guardian, El Mundo and Corriere della Sera.

The debate is organised by the Nanochannel project and its partner school in Pavullo nel Frignano (Italy). The project aims to design and undertake a programme of communication on nanotechnology through a variety of media channels and outreach events.

My best guess is that they are focusing on specific topics in the schools so students can get a grasp of some basic nanotechnology concepts before embarking on a debate about larger issues such as ethics and social impacts.

(I have written about the Nanochannels project previously in my June 14, 2011 posting.)

Finally, I thought it would be interesting to get a definition of the Magna Carta (from the Wikipedia essay),

Magna Carta, also called Magna Carta Libertatum, is an English charter, originally issued in the year 1215 and reissued later in the 13th century in modified versions. The later versions excluded the most direct challenges to the monarch’s authority that had been present in the 1215 charter. The charter first passed into law in 1225; the 1297 version, with the long title (originally in Latin) The Great Charter of the Liberties of England, and of the Liberties of the Forest, still remains on the statute books of England and Wales.

The 1215 charter required King John of England to proclaim certain liberties, and accept that his will was not arbitrary, for example by explicitly accepting that no “freeman” (in the sense of non-serf) could be punished except through the law of the land, a right which is still in existence today.

If there’s a Nano Carta and following on the definition of the Magna Carta, whose will is not arbitrary and in what circumstance? Are nanoparticles being ceded rights? I’m being facetious but I hope they do approach these debates in an imaginative way and with questions that might seem ridiculous as that’s often the best way to stimulate new thinking and ideas.

Nanodiagnostics: a roundtable at Kavli and new report from Cientifica

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The Kavli Foundation, based in California, held a roundtable discussion on ‘Fighting Cancer with Nanotechnology‘ which focused largely on diagnostics and drug delivery. According to a March 14, 2012 news item on Nanowerk, the four participants were:

  • Anna Barker – Former Deputy Director of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and current Director of Arizona State University’s Transformative Healthcare Networks;
  • Mark E. Davis – Professor of Chemical Engineering at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), and a member of the Experimental Therapeutics Program of the Comprehensive Cancer Center at the City of Hope;
  • James Heath – Professor of Chemistry at Caltech and a founding Board member of Caltech’s Kavli Nanoscience Institute;
  • Michael Phelps – Norton Simon Professor, and Chair of Molecular and Medical Pharmacology at the University of California Los Angeles.

The researchers discussed how nanotechnology holds the promise of revolutionizing the way medicine wages war against cancer, from providing new ways to combine drugs to delivering gene-silencing therapeutics for cancer cells. [emphasis mine]

Yet again, war has been used as a metaphor for healing. I particularly appreciate the way ‘revolution’, which resonates with US audiences in a very particular way, has been introduced.

The discussion features diagnostics,

JAMES HEATH: That is certainly an important application. A typical diagnostic test measures only a single protein. But the nature of cancer—even a single cancer type—is that it can vary significantly from patient to patient. The implication is that there is probably not a single protein biomarker that can distinguish between such patient variations. Even to confidently address a single diagnostic question may take measuring several protein biomarkers. Discovering the right biomarkers is extremely challenging—you might have 300 candidate biomarkers from which you want to choose just six, but you will likely have to test all 300 on a very large patient pool to determine the best six. That’s tough to do with existing technologies because each protein measurement requires a large sample of blood or tumor tissue, and each measurement is time-consuming, labor intensive and expensive. With some of the emerging nanotechnologies, a large panel of candidate protein biomarkers can be rapidly measured from just a pinprick of blood, or a tissue sample as small as a single cell. This allows one to accelerate the development of conventional diagnostic tests, but it also opens up the possibilities for fundamentally new diagnostic approaches. These are opportunities that nanotech is bringing into play that simply weren’t there before.

Here’s one of my favourite comments,

MICHAEL PHELPS: Yes. All of us developing therapeutics want to have a transparent patient—to see where the drug goes throughout all tissues of the body, whether it hits the disease target in a sufficient dose to induce the desired therapeutic effect on the target, and where else the drug goes in the body regarding side effects. [emphasis mine] PET [positron emission tomography ‘scan’] can reveal all this. For this reason almost all drug companies now use PET in their discovery and development processes.

I suspect Phelps was a bit over enthused and spoke without thinking. I’m sure most doctors and researchers would agree that what they want is to heal without harm and not transparent patients. That’s why they’re so excited about nanotechnology and therapeutics, they’re trying to eliminate or, at least, lessen harm in the healing process. It would be nice though if they get past the ‘war’ metaphors and dreams of transparent patients.

I found the comments about the US FDA (Food and Drug Administration), pharmaceutical companies and biotech startups quite interesting,

ANNA BARKER: These challenges are mostly related to perception and having the tools to demonstrate that the agent does what you say it does. It’s more difficult for nanotherapeutics than for other drugs because they employ a new set of technologies that the FDA is more guarded about approving. The FDA is responsible for the health of the American public, so they are very careful about putting anything new into the population. So the challenges have to do with showing you can deliver what you said you were going to deliver to the target, and that the toxicity and distribution of the agent in the body is what you predicted. You have to have different measures than what is included in the classic toxicology testing packages we use for potential drugs.

…

MARK DAVIS: There’s so much cool science that people want to do, but you’re limited in what you can do in patients for a number of reasons. One is financial. This area is not being pushed forward by big Pharma, but by biotech companies, and they have limited resources. Secondly, the FDA is still learning about these innovations, they can limit what you are allowed to do in a clinical trial. For example, when we did the first clinical trial with a nanoparticle that had a targeting agent enabling it to latch onto a specific receptor on cancer cells and a gene silencing payload, we realized it would be important to know if patients have this receptor and the gene target of the payload to begin with. Prebiopsies from patients before testing the nanotherapeutic on them to see if the tumor cells had this receptor and gene target in abundance would have been helpful. However, in this first-in-man trial, the FDA did not allow required biopsies, and they were performed on a volunteer-basis only.

It is a fascinating discussion as it provides insight into the field of nanotherapeutics and into the some of the researchers.

On the topic of nanodiagnostics but this time focusing on the business end of things, a new report has been released by Cientifica. From the March 13, 2012 press release,

Nanodiagnostics will be a $50-billion market by 2021; Cientifica’s “Nanotechnology for Medical Diagnostics” looks at emerging nanoscale technologies

…

Following on from Cientifica’s Nanotechnology for Drug Delivery report series, “Nanotechnology for Medical Diagnostics,” a 237-page report, takes a comprehensive look at current and emerging nanoscale technologies used for medical diagnostics.

Areas examined include quantum dots, gold nanoparticles, exosomes, nanoporous silica, nanowires, micro- and nanocantilever arrays, carbon nanotubes, ion channel switch nanobiosensors, and many more.

Cientifica estimates medical imaging is the sector showing the highest growth and impact of nanomaterials. Already a $1.7-billion market, with gold nanoparticle applications accounting for $959 million, imaging will continue to be the largest nanodiagnostics sector, with gold nanoparticles, quantum dots and nanobiosensors all easily exceeding $10 billion.

“Getting onboard with the right technology at the right time is crucial,” said Harper [Tim Harper, Cientifica’s Chief Executive Officer]. “The use of exosomes in diagnosis, for instance, a relatively new technique and a tiny market, is set to reach close to half a billion dollars by 2021.”

You can find out more and/or purchase the report here.

I have written about Cientifica’s  Nanotechnology for Drug Delivery (NDD) white paper here and have published an interview with Tim Harper about global nanotechnology funding and economic impacts here.

Thermal bottleneck opens up at US Dept.of Energy

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Heat is always an issue with electronics and as the devices get smaller and smaller, it becomes a more pressing problem. From the March 13, 2012 news item on Nanowerk,

For decades, engineers have sought to build more efficient electronic devices by reducing the size of their components. In the process of doing so, however, researchers have reached a “thermal bottleneck,” said Argonne [US Dept. of Energy, Argonne Laboratory] nanoscientist Anirudha Sumant.

In a thermal bottleneck, the excess heat generated in the device causes undesirable effects that affect its performance. “Unless we come-up with innovative ways to suck the heat off of our electronics, we are pretty much stuck with this bottleneck,” Sumant explained.

Diamond films have excited interest in the scientific community as a solution to thermal bottlenecks, from the news item,

The unusually attractive thermal properties of diamond thin films have led scientists to suggest using this material as a heat sink that could be integrated with a number of different semiconducting materials. However, the deposition temperatures for the diamond films typically exceed 800 degrees Celsius—roughly 1500 degrees Fahrenheit, which limits the feasibility of this approach.

Reducing the deposition temperature to 400 degrees Celsius would allow for integration of diamond materials with a whole range of semiconductor materials.  A new technique that allows just that thing has been developed (from the news item),

By using a new technique that altered the deposition process of the diamond films, Sumant and his colleagues at Argonne’s Center for Nanoscale Materials were able to both reduce the temperature to close to 400 degrees Celsius and to tune the thermal properties of the diamond films by controlling their grain size. This permitted the eventual combination of the diamond with two other important materials: graphene and gallium nitride.

According to Sumant, diamond has much better heat conduction properties than silicon or silicon oxide, which were traditionally used for fabrication of graphene devices. As a result of better heat removal, graphene devices fabricated on diamond can sustain much higher current densities.

In the other study, Sumant used the same technology to combine diamond thin films with gallium nitride, which is used extensively in high-power light emitting devices (LED). After depositing a 300 nm-thick diamond film on a gallium nitride substrate, Sumant and his colleagues noticed a considerable improvement in the thermal performance. Because a difference within an integrated circuit of just a few degrees can cause a noticeable change in performance, he called this result “remarkable.”

There are two published papers on the technique, one focusing on the graphene application and the other on the gallium nitride application. The first is in Nano Letters, 2012, 12 (3), pp 1603–1608, DOI: 10.1021/nl204545q, (“Graphene-on-Diamond Devices with Increased Current-Carrying Capacity: Carbon sp2-on-sp3Technology”, and the other is in Advanced Functional Materials, first published online: 1 FEB 2012, DOI: 10.1002/adfm.201102786,  (“Direct Low-Temperature Integration of Nanocrystalline Diamond with GaN Substrates for Improved Thermal Management of High-Power Electronics”).

Assouline, waterproofing, survival, and luxury

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Most unexpectedly, I received a media alert yesterday (March 12, 2012) from Assouline, a book publisher, about their latest project authored by Christine Dell’Amore,

Assouline celebrates the publication of South Pole – unveiling the world’s first waterproof luxury photography book. Forewords of this extraordinary title are written by HSH Prince Albert of Monaco and HRH Princess Anne of Great Britain.
Limited edition of 150 numbered

When:
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
6:30 to 8:30 p.m.

Where:        
Sotheby’s, 1334 York Avenue, New York City

Details:

ASSOULINE, the luxury brand renowned for collectible books on subjects ranging from fashion and travel to epicurean arts and viticulture, is pleased to announce the launch of its first waterproof luxury tome, South Pole, a limited edition of 150.

South Pole is a heroic tale of a team of explorers who made the treacherous journey down to the South Pole led by Captain Robert F. Scott. Thanks to Scott’s exceptional diary entries and outstanding photos their exploration was frozen in time.

The waterproof South Pole edition is made entirely of waterproof materials – including element proof paper, nylon thread, a uniquely formulated glue, and a thick resin for the cover.  It is the first luxury survival book of its kind featuring a collection of stunning black and white photography from Herbert Ponting alongside entries from Scott’s harrowing personal journal.

The book’s proceeds are graciously donated to the Antarctic Heritage Trust whose mission is to preserve expeditions and the thousands of associated artifacts that survive for the benefit of future generations, and inspire people through the values associated with adventure, discovery, and leadership.

The limited edition copies are priced at,

Artist’s Limited Luxury Edition (Waterproof) – $3,000

There are two ‘more affordable’ versions,

Special Edition – $1,050
Trade Edition – $45

The company is a luxury publisher (from the company’s About Us page),

Assouline began with an idea and a belief: the first, a notion that beauty, perfected, has meaning that is capable of transforming our lives; and the second, that a book—artfully crafted and highly considered in its visual content—can open our eyes and minds. With our first book, La Colombe d’Or, we sought to convey the experience of a small hotel in the south of France, a tiny, sublime world of art, history, luxury, and inspiration unto itself. Over time, that world has been expanded to create a universe that is anchored by our books but no longer limited to paper and pages.

Whereas other firms present themselves as curators of culture, Assouline seeks to be an engine of culture. We conceive of the company as a platform by which to disseminate the best thoughts and visions of the greatest creative minds, and our collaborators include the world’s foremost artists, photographers, writers, architects, fashion and interior designers, and culinary masters. Capitalizing on the incomparable network of founders Prosper and Martine Assouline, we activate our talent, production, and distribution to develop a custom-tailored solution unique to every project, whether books, furniture, leather goods, candles, gifts, or retail partnerships with other major luxury brands.

We have always heeded the French expression savoir vivre, which translates roughly as knowing how to live. This means being guided by a clear value set that privilege our passions. It means we put our resources and our time into things that matter: knowledge, relationships, and experiences; into history, culture, and travel. It means we favor things that are rare and precious not for their price tag, but because they enrich our lives. We are visual beings before we are verbal ones, and in every aspect of its presentation, products, and services, Assouline seeks to communicate the maximum content and value. Our ethic is aesthetic.

I have viewed the book online; it really is an ‘objet d’art’ and not their most expensive one by any means. You can view/purchase it here.

There’s more about Assouline (eponymously named) and its founders in an article by Lesley M. Blume (The World of Assouline; How a luxury book publisher has thrived in an anemic market) for Slate.com,

Plenty of publishers would have jumped at the opportunity to bid for the Radziwill [Lee Radziwill, sister to the late Jackqueline Kennedy Onassis and a member of the beau monde in her own right] project, but the book was a natural fit for Assouline Publishing, which has published more than 1,000 exquisite photography books celebrating the beau monde since 1994. Its first book, La Colombe d’Or, celebrated a quiet hotel in the south of France where the Assoulines had spent many blissful weekends. “It was exactly our vision of luxury,” Prosper recalls. “Small, with fantastic spirit—no marble and flowers, but full of art and soul.” He took the photographs; Martine wrote the text.

I’m glad to see a book publisher achieving success although it does suggest that, in the future, physical books will be ‘objets d’art’ and not that accessible to those of us who don’t have a lot of money.

In the meantime, I am most interested in how they made the book waterproof and whether there were any nanotechnology-enabled products involved.

DARPA/Google and Regina Dugan

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One of my more recent (Nov. 22, 2011) postings on DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) highlighted their entrepreneurial focus and the person encouraging that focus, agency director Regina Dugan. Given that she’s held the position for roughly 2.5 years, I was surprised to see that she has left to joint Google. From the Mar.13, 2012 news item on physorg.com,

Google on Monday [March 12, 2012] confirmed that Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency chief Regina Dugan is taking a yet-to-be-revealed role at the Internet powerhouse.

Dugan’s Wikipedia entry has already been updated,

Regina E. Dugan was the 19th Director of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). She was appointed to that position on July 20, 2009. In March 2012, she left her position to take an executive role at Google. She was the first female director of DARPA.

Much of her working career (1996-2012) seems to have been spent at DARPA. I don’t think I’m going to draw too many conclusions from this move but I am intrigued especially in light of an essay about a departing Google employee, James Whitaker. From Whitaker’s March 13, 2012 posting on his JW on Tech blog,

The Google I was passionate about was a technology company that empowered its employees to innovate. The Google I left was an advertising company with a single corporate-mandated focus.

Technically I suppose Google has always been an advertising company, but for the better part of the last three years, it didn’t feel like one. Google was an ad company only in the sense that a good TV show is an ad company: having great content attracts advertisers.

He lays out the situation here,

It turns out that there was one place where the Google innovation machine faltered and that one place mattered a lot: competing with Facebook. Informal efforts produced a couple of antisocial dogs in Wave and Buzz. Orkut never caught on outside Brazil. Like the proverbial hare confident enough in its lead to risk a brief nap, Google awoke from its social dreaming to find its front runner status in ads threatened.

Google could still put ads in front of more people than Facebook, but Facebook knows so much more about those people. Advertisers and publishers cherish this kind of personal information, so much so that they are willing to put the Facebook brand before their own. Exhibit A: www.facebook.com/nike, a company with the power and clout of Nike putting their own brand after Facebook’s? No company has ever done that for Google and Google took it personally.

Larry Page himself assumed command to right this wrong. Social became state-owned, a corporate mandate called Google+. It was an ominous name invoking the feeling that Google alone wasn’t enough. Search had to be social. Android had to be social. You Tube, once joyous in their independence, had to be … well, you get the point.  [emphasis mine] Even worse was that innovation had to be social. Ideas that failed to put Google+ at the center of the universe were a distraction.

That point about YouTube really strikes home as I’ve become quite dismayed with the advertising on the videos. The consequence is that I’m starting to search for clips on Vimeo first as it doesn’t have intrusive advertising.

Getting back to Whitaker, he notes this about Google and advertising,

The old Google made a fortune on ads because they had good content. It was like TV used to be: make the best show and you get the most ad revenue from commercials. The new Google seems more focused on the commercials themselves.

It’s interesting to contrast Whitaker’s take on the situation, which suggests that the company has lost its entrepreneurial spirit as it focuses on advertising, with the company’s latest hire, Regina Dugan who seems to have introduced entrepreneurship into DARPA’s activities.

As for the military connection (DARPA is US Dept. of Defense agency), I remain mindful that the military and the intelligence communities have an interest in gathering data but would need something more substantive than a hiring decision to draw any conclusions.

For anyone who’s interested in these types of queries, I would suggest reading a 2007 posting, Facebook, the CIA, and You on the Brainsturbator blog, for a careful unpacking of the connections (extremely tenuous) between Facebook and the CIA (US Central Intelligence Agency). The blog owner and essayist, Jordan Boland, doesn’t dismiss the surveillance concern; he’s simply pointing out that it’s difficult to make an unequivocal claim while displaying a number of intriguing connections between agencies and organizations.

Storyboarding emergencies

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A team of Spanish researchers have found a way to make emergency communication more effective with a storyboarding technique (e.g. comic books are set up like storyboards with panels of visualized information and, sometimes, text).

They published their paper in April 2011 and I’m not sure why they’ve reissued the news releases at this time but I’m glad they did.

From the March 12, 2012 news item on physorg.com,

Spanish researchers at the Universidad Carlos III of Madrid have developed a computer application that allows georeferenced images that have been uploaded to social networks on the Internet to be recovered, located on maps and organized like a comic to create a visual perspective of a specific story, such as a crisis situation or an emergency.

I prefer this description of the research (from the Research paper: eStorys: A visual storyboard system supporting back-channel communication for emergencies [behind a paywall] Authors: Malizia, A. Bellucci, A. Díaz, P. Aedo, I. Levialdi, S. Source: Journal of Visual Languages and Computing. Volume: 22. Issue: 2. Pages: 150-169. Published: APR 2011. ISSN: 1045-926X [I have removed footnotes])

In times of emergency, members of the public tend to improvise and perform various activities, such as provide first-aid to wounded people, victims transportation to hospitals or even take photos to document the event … Along with these activities, taking place physically on the disaster area, a huge number of social interaction among citizens occur. In a disaster situation people need information. They seek it for themselves and, at the same time, try to provide helpful information, such as the emergency status or damages evaluation, to other citizens, including their relatives or friends. This phenomenon is often ignored by the members of governmental agencies, which are almost entirely focused on their official role in the process of dealing with the disaster. Therefore, in such a context, people communications are considered back-channels (or peer-to-peer) activities, in contrast with the information provided by the official channels … Although back-channel communications can be viewed, in the emergency management domain, as potential vehicles to spread misinformation and rumours compromising the public safety, their presence is growing with each new disaster.

During emergencies, online social media are increasingly gaining prominence for the members of the public to find and provide information independently, or in parallel, with official channels. Social services, such as collaborative tagging systems, social networking sites or even blogs and wikis, support peer-to-peer communications. Such systems allow users to both produce and consume information about the disaster. In this way citizens can organize among themselves and share information exploiting existing technologies. This fact clearly shows how the presence of information and communications technology is changing the disaster response arena, making back-channel communications and people involvement more tangible …

Interestingly (to me), this system has been evaluated by experts in the province of British Columbia (in Canada [where I live]) and in Washington State (US). From the (undated) press release titled, A georeferenced digital “comic” to improve emergency management on the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid website,

This platform has also been evaluated through interviews with emergency management professionals in British Columbia (Canada) and the state of Washington (EEUU). “The results suggest that governmental agencies prefer to approach the social networks through more restricted communities, practice communities or special interest communities, so that the credibility of the information can guaranteed,” comments Paloma Díaz. “The lack of reliability of the information found on the social networks continues to be one of the greatest impediments to their being incorporated into the process of emergency management,” she concludes.

Nevertheless, the tool that the researchers have created can be used by anyone who wishes to compose the story of a specific crisis or emergency situation, such as a journalist, or by anyone who wishes to share their experience with others.

Also from the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid website, here’s a representation of what you might see in an estory,

Credit: Universidad Carlos III de Madrid website

They have produced a video but you will need Spanish language skills to fully understand the researcher,

If you listen carefully, you will hear Paloma Diaz say Vancouver and British Columbia. For those who prefer to (and can) read materials in the language of origin, the Spanish language press release is here.