Back in the early 1800's it was observed that certain chemicals can speed up a chemical reaction - a process that became known as catalysis and that has become the foundation of the modern chemical industry. By some estimates 90% of all commercially produced chemical products involve catalysts at some stage in the process of their manufacture. Catalysis is the acceleration of a chemical reaction by means of a substance, called a catalyst, which is itself not consumed by the overall reaction. The most effective catalysts are usually transition metals or transition metal complexes. New nanotechnology research with carbon nanotubes coming out of Germany contains some implications for catalysis in general. Researchers at the Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society in Berlin have been working for some time at metal-free catalysis using nanocarbons. While their focus initially has been on ethylbenzene, an aromatic hydrocarbon that plays an important role as an intermediate in the production of various plastic materials, they now have, for the first time, used carbon nanotubes to activate butane.

Researchers in Greece report design of a new material that almost meets the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) 2010 goals for hydrogen storage and could help eliminate a key roadblock to practical hydrogen-powered vehicles.

Elpida Memory, Inc., Japan's leading global supplier of Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM), announced today that it has developed a shrunken version of its 1-gigabit DDR2 SDRAM that delivers 20% more chips from a single 300mm wafer.

AltaCVD's unique vaporizing technology offers unprecedented new materials deposition capability.

Altair Nanotechnologies Inc. today announced the execution of an agreement for a $10 million private placement of its common stock to Al Yousuf LLC.

The Second International Conference on Space Elevator Climber and Tether Design in Luxembourg on December 6-7, 2008 follows the successful 1st European Workshop on Space Elevator Climber and Tether Design held last year.

Nerac Medical Device Analyst Perry De Fazio will discuss how medical device companies can assess whether a new technology will disrupt the market during a MDM Webinar on Oct. 8, 2008. He also will reveal how companies can identify emerging technologies that present potential business opportunities.

The Supervisory Board of SUSS MicroTec AG has relieved management board member Dr. Stefan Schneidewind from his position as CEO.

Baoyou Geng and colleagues at the Anhui Normal University, Wuhu, made magnetite nanotubes in an egg white solution.

CombiMatrix Corporation will hold a conference call to discuss the development of its CombiMatrix Cancer Array (CCA) test for cancer screening.

The International Symposium on Graphene Devices: Technology, Physics, and Modeling (ISGD 2008) in Japan in November aims to bring together the researchers actively working on the field of 'Graphene Devices: technology, physics and modeling' so as to stimulate discussions on the state of the art.

Carbon atoms are the building blocks for millions of organic molecules, yet this variety is built on the simple rule that carbon almost always shares a total of four chemical bonds with its neighbors. Now, an international team of chemists has mapped a highly unusual compound containing a carbon atom that hooks up to six atoms at once.

Minerva Biotechnologies, a leading nanotechnology, cancer and stem cell development company today announced a major breakthrough in stem cell research. Minerva and collaborators at the University of California at Santa Barbara discovered that a single, new growth factor can not only support massive growth of human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) in vitro, but also maintains them in a nearly 100% undifferentiated state without the need for fibroblast "'eeder cells'.

The agreement between Hague and Solterra requires Hague to fund Solterra a total of five million US dollars within sixty days of signing a final Asset Purchase Agreement.

IMEC, Europe's leading independent nanoelectronics research institute, and Taiyo Nippon Sanso Corp. (TNSC), a total solution provider in the compound semiconductor field, today announced that they have signed an agreement to jointly develop manufacturing technology for high efficiency LED devices.

Microfluidics, a division of Microfluidics International Corporation, has announced that the company's CTO and nationally renowned nanotechnology applications expert, Thomai Panagiotou, Ph.D, will be presenting a talk at the 2008 National Nano Engineering Conference, November 12 and 13 in Boston.

The University of Limerick has secured a 5 million euros technology research contract aimed at significantly reducing MRSA infection rates in hospitals across the world.

The Safety of Nanoparticles Interdisciplinary Research Centre (SnIRC) is to host a 2 day workshop on October 20th - 21st 2008 at Central Science Laboratories, York, UK to discuss and evaluate EMERGNANO, a major evaluation of emerging evidence from Nanotechnology EHS research worldwide.

Recent accomplishments by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) highlight the agency's leadership in collaborative research to determine if workers are at risk of job-related illness or injury in the production and industrial use of nanomaterials. The accomplishments include two new peer-reviewed papers, two new international partnerships, and a professional award.

Altair Nanotechnologies Inc., a leading provider of advanced materials and products for power and energy systems, announced the unveiling of its new corporate brand identity.

Cellular studies are revolutionized with the launch of new software from Carl Zeiss that automatically extracts biologically relevant data from micrographs by combining high-resolution fluorescence imaging and complex image analysis.

The East of England's reputation as a world leader in nanotechnology was boosted when the Japanese government unveiled plans to locate a new research satellite at the University of Cambridge as part of a $150 million global program.

The visit will be Anatoly Chubais' first international trip as Director General of the Russian Corporation of Nanotechnologies.

A team of researchers at the Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya has designed the first chip manufactured completely in Spain that will be used to measure the wind on Mars.

An advanced course on 'Morphing aircraft - materials, mechanisms and systems' will be held from 17 to 20 November in Lisbon, Portugal.

The European X-ray Laser Project (XFEL) will harness a high energy short-wave laser light that is one billion times more brilliant than most modern x-rays to provide immensely detailed images of molecules and atoms.

A bacteria cell's 'crisis command center' has been observed for the first time swinging into action to protect the cell from external stress and danger.

Genomics and proteomics, the studies of genes and proteins, provide the underlying basis for many advances in drug development and effective treatments of diseases. These studies heavily rely on unveiling the behavior of a single DNA or protein in an investigative sample. You could compare this challenge to somehow finding, then catching and monitoring a particular fish in a vast ocean. The scientific term for 'catching the fish' is 'immobilization' - a powerful technique for the study of biochemical systems that allows for the continuous observation of dynamic behavior of a chosen target. Immobilization methods anchor the to be observed molecule onto a surface in order to restrict it from escaping the observation volume. Researchers have now developed a new platform which consists of a carbon nanotube nanoneedle for capturing, isolating and measuring the activity of miniscule amounts of proteins.

Northwest Missouri State University has received a $1.14 million federal grant that will be used to equip nanoscience laboratories in the University?s new Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship.

South Dakota scientists' work building next-generation devices to harvest solar energy will be easier thanks to a National Science Foundation grant for state-of-the-art equipment.

Rigid television screens, bulky laptops and still image posters are to be a thing of the past as new research, published today, Thursday, 2 October, in the New Journal of Physics, heralds the beginning of a technological revolution for screen displays.

The Editors of the leading international journal External link Chemical Physics Letters are pleased to announce that the second Ahmed Zewail Prize in Molecular Sciences has been awarded to Professor Mostafa El-Sayed from Georgia Institute of Technology, USA, for his seminal contributions to the understanding of the electronic and molecular dynamics and properties of systems with different length scales, ranging from molecules to nanoparticles to biomedical systems.

ASM International today announced that it has finalized the sale of its 72.86% interest in NanoPhotonics AG, a company engaged in defect measurement equipment for the semiconductor industry, to Ricmar Beteiligungs GmbH, of Kramsach, Austria.

A Northwestern University research team has developed a promising nanomaterial-based biomedical device that could be used to deliver chemotherapy drugs locally to sites where cancerous tumors have been surgically removed.

The National Science Foundation has granted two Clemson University professors $250,000 to research and develop nanofiber-based probes for medical diagnostics.