A
guide to the latest in nanoscience and technology research from
the team that brings you Materials Today.
December 2005
Cover story
Bionanofabrication is the process of building
complex
biostructures on surfaces with nanometer precision.
Ashutosh Chilkoti and colleagues of Duke University
introduce these techniques and explain their
potential to transform biosensing, nanomaterial
development, drug discovery, and synthetic biology.
Image: a virus engineered to present nanoparticle
nucleation sites at ordered, symmetric intervals for
subsequent annealing into nanowires.
Biological
molecular motors convert chemical energy into mechanical
work for a variety of functions. Henry Hess
of the University of Florida and George Bachand
of Sandia National Laboratories explore how motor proteins
might be integrated into artificial environments for applications
in biosensing, self-assembly, and molecular-scale actuation.
The biological world provides
us with many inspirational examples of adaptive, multifunctional
optical systems. Shu Yang of the University of Pennsylvania
and Joanna Aizenberg of Bell Labs describe the fabrication
of a synthetic microlens array that mimics optical structures
found in brittlestars.
Exciting nanotechnology
discoveries are made every day, says Magnus Gittins
of Advance Nanotech, but there is no guarantee that scientists
will have access to the infrastructure necessary to support
commercialization. Investors will have to adopt a new
model that goes beyond passive venture capital support
and shepherd nanotechnology toward success.
Director of Alameda Capital,
Norm Wu, asks "Can Venture Capital
investors successfully invest in nanotechnology?"
He argues that, while much nanotechnology is still too
early for Venture Capital, the challenge, as always, will
be to find investments that can deliver superior returns
at acceptable risks within the timescale required by the
VC fund structure.
