NanoBlog

The nanoHub.org has released a mobile app for the iPad. The app lets you launch, control, and run simulation tools on the site, read newsletters, and view various content on the site. Most of the tools on sites like this require flash to run and as we all know mobile devices don't support flash so this is a welcome app to aid our nanotechnology activities while on the go. Hopefully, they will release an Android version soon.

Researchers at the Vienna University of Technology have incorporated a SEM into a vacuum chamber so that they can image Pd atoms on an iron oxide surface in real time. The Pd atoms are immobile but by adding a small amount of CO to the chamber, the Pd become mobile. The goal of the research is to improve the catalytic effect of Pd by 100 times. The results are published in Nature Materials article Carbon monoxide-induced adatom sintering in a Pd–Fe3O4 model catalyst and along with two movies S1 and S2.

MIT professor Angela Belcher wins the Lemelson-MIT prize of $500,000 for her work in nanotechnology. We studied her work in my nanotechnology course and it's really cool stuff. She is trying to get biological organisms like bacteria and microphages to produce semiconductor structures. The aboloney, for example, produces nanocrystalls of calcium carbonate along with a protein to make its very strong shell all in sea water at low temperatures.

p-brane.com has been upgraded with a minor point release that is said to fix a 100 or so issues. If you find an error or problem with the site, please report it to the system administrator 0-brane at p-brane.com.

In case you have not heard about it, the Graphene Stakeholders Association (GSA) is a non-profit working on the education, collaboration, commercialization, and responsible development of graphene. Vincent Caprio from the NanoBusiness Alliance and Stephen Waite from SoundView Advisory are on the board. Stephen moderates the GSA group on LinkedIn. The GSA has put together a respectable advisory board and looks to be building a good network for anyone interested in graphene. Also you can follow the GSA on twitter @GSAFounder.

The IEEE Semiconductor Interface Specialists conference is to be held in Arlington, VA on December 5-7, 2013 with a Tutorials to be held on Dec 4. Invited talks include:

• Materials Selection and Device Design for Low Power Tunnel Transistors
• Growth and characterization of silicene and germanene
• SymFET: A novel Graphene-Insulator-Graphene Tunneling Device
• Heavily doped epitaxially grown source in InGaAs MOSFET for high drain current density
• Low Resistance MIS Contacts to Ge and III-V Devices
• Reducing EOT and Interface Trap Densities of High-k/III-V Gate Stacks
• Frequency Dispersion in CV plots of MOS Devices on III-V Substrates: Disorder-Induced Gap States or Border Traps

Tutorials include:

• Resistive switching materials and devices for future memory applications
• Understanding the nanoscale MOSFET
• Interface state analysis on non-silicon semiconductors and the role of heterostructures
• Physical characterization of thin oxide films by XRD and XPS: From conventional laboratory to modern synchrotron techniques
• Introduction to charge pumping and its applications

The 2013 IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting is scheduled for December 9-11, 2013 in Washington DC. The programs has not been established yet. The call for papers is due June 24, 2013. The special topics include:

• energy harvesting
• bio-sensors & amp
• bioMEMS
• power devices
• magnetics & amp
• spintronics

The nanoHUB is offing the new 5 week course From Atoms to Materials: Predictive Theory and Simulations from May 13 through June 23, 2013. Topics include:

• Week 1: Quantum mechanics and electronic structure
• Week 2: Electronic structure and bonding of molecules and crystals
• Week 3: Dynamics of atoms – classical mechanics and MD simulations
• Week 4: Connecting atomic processes to the macroscopic world – vibrations, optical and dielectric response, thermo-mechanical properties
• Week 5: Case studies

2013 IEEE Defect and Fault Tolerance in VLSI and Nanotechnology Systems Symposium to be held in NYC October 2-4, 2013. Topics include:

• Yield Analysis and Modeling
• Testing Techniques
• Error Detection, Correction, and Recovery
• Design For Testability in IC Design
• Dependability Analysis and Validation
• Defect and Fault Tolerance
• Repair, Restructuring and Reconfiguration
• Totally Fail-Safe Design for Critical Applications
• Emerging Technologies
• Hardware security

The Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center is hosting the Nanotechnologies in Cancer Diagnosis, Therapy, and Prevention conference June 11 - 13, 2013 in NYC. Sessions include:

• SESSION I: Nanodiagnostics: Cancer Biomarkers and Imaging
• SESSION II: Cancer Nanotherapeutics: Toxicology and Safety
• SESSION III: Nanotechnology for Immune Modulation
• SESSION IV: Early Career Investigator 'Data Blitz' Presentations
• SESSION V: Targeted Delivery of Therapeutic Load in Tumors
• SESSION VI: Nanoparticle-Based Gene Modulation