Category Archives: Nanotech

Sixth Wave Confirms Delivery of Affinity System

Halifax, Nova Scotia - (May. 17, 2022) - Sixth Wave Innovations Inc. (CSE:SIXW) (OTCQB:SIXWF) (FSE:AHUH) ("Sixth Wave", "SIXW" or the "Company") is pleased to provide an update on the delivery of its first Affinity System (the "System") for purification of cannabinoids to Green Envy Extracts ("GE"). GE has received approval from the State of Michigan for installation and use of Sixth Wave's Discovery System. The Discovery System is a portable, purpose built, system providing initial process optimization on-site. The Discovery System will allow rapid on-site testing of site specific feedstock, and infrastructure while minimizing waste and disruption of the customers ongoing operations. This final approval process preceeds installation and production at the 1st of 3 projected Green Envy installation's.

Green Envy and Sixth Wave have agreed to a delivery date on or about June 20 and a mutually agreed upon testing plan has been generated. Green Envy considers this installation as a critical step toward Mighigan State approval of the full-scale production license of the Affinity System. Green Envy is growing their footprint with potential facilities in New Jersey. Their expansion portends well for the long term relationship with Sixth Wave and has the potential to increase the number of needed Affinity Systems past the intial three currently agreed upon.

Green Envy Director, Amato Spagnoletti, commented: "We are anxious to move forward with the next step of our execution plan with Sixth Wave. To date all activity has been very encouraging and we are optimistic of meeting or exceeding performance expectations in this next phase. Sixth Wave's Affinity technology is an important component of our growth plan."

The Company intends to introduce the Affinity System to the market under its Total System Performance Lease (TSPL) program, fashioned after US Federal Acquisition Reform (FAR) guidelines. The Lease terms include an upfront deposite and an ongoing leasing fee dependent on expected production. In return, the Customer will have SIXW's full support, installation and configuration management, GMP qualification support, 100% warrantee on all equipment, replacement and upgrade of the Affinity System nanotech purification media, and 24/7 technical support.

Sixth Wave estimates the operating costs for its customers associated with using an Affinity System to be in the order of CAD$0.30/gram of finished product. TSPL costs (revenue for Sixth Wave) are estimated to be CAD$0.25/finished gram (based on production levels of less than 20L per day). This provides the following benefits to the licenced producer:

Intrinsic benefits include:

Each entry level production Affinity System, like the ones ordered by Green Envy, will be capable of generating recurring revenue to Sixth Wave of approximately CAD$2.25M annually based on a 300 day production schedule. Sixth Wave expects final production costs, sales and marketing, pre-delivery configuration testing, delivery and set up costs to be under $350,000 per unit with 3 or 5 year leasing programs being offered to the customer. Sixth Wave expects approximately 75% net margins on the recurring revenue not inclusive of other operating expenses such as sales, marketing, quality improvement program, and contribution to operating expenses.

As noted by Dr. Jon Gluckman, President and CEO of Sixth Wave, "our goal is to be a leader in purification today and well into the future. We want our customers to feel like we are invested in their success opposed to simply supplying equipment. The TSPL allows for a cooperative relationship and helps ensure that our customers always have the latest upgrades etc. without having to worrying about additional or unknown costs.

The Company has agreements in place for additional machines with additional early adopters and expects to be opening up sales to the industry at large shortly. Sixth Wave has received inquiries from over 100 licenced producers with roughly half being in North America and the remaining worldwide. Inquiries have come from a mix of hemp and cannabis producers. The Company is currently gearing up production and ordering long lead components.

About Sixth Wave

Sixth Wave is a nanotechnology company with patented technologies that focus on extraction and detection of target substances at the molecular level using highly specialized Molecularly Imprinted Polymers (MIPs). The Company is in the process of a commercial roll out of its Affinity cannabinoid purification system, as well as IXOS, a line of extraction polymers for the gold mining industry. The Company is also in the development stages of a rapid diagnostic test for viruses under the Accelerated MIPs (AMIPS) label.

Sixth Wave can design, develop and commercialize MIP solutions across a broad spectrum of industries. The company is focused on nanotechnology architectures that are highly relevant for detection and separation of viruses, biogenic amines and other pathogens, for which the Company has products at various stages of development.

For more information about Sixth Wave, please visit our web site at: http://www.sixthwave.com

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS"Jon Gluckman"Jonathan Gluckman, Ph.D., President & CEO

For information, please contact the Company:Phone: (801) 582-0559E-mail: info@sixthwave.com

Cautionary Notes

This press release includes certain statements that may be deemed "forward-looking statements" including possible statements regarding the planned use of proceeds and performance of the IXOS, Affinity, and AMIPs technologies. All statements in this release, other than statements of historical facts, that address future events or developments that the Company expects, are forward-looking statements. Although the Company believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance, and actual events or developments may differ materially from those in forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements necessarily involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties, which may cause the Company's actual performance and financial results in future periods to differ materially from any projections of future performance or results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. In particular, successful development and commercialization of the IXOS, Affinity, or AMIPs technologies are subject to risk that they may not prove to be successful, uncertainty of medical product development, uncertainty of timing or availability of required regulatory approvals, lack of track record of developing products for certain applications and the need for additional capital to carry out product development activities. The value of any products ultimately developed could be negatively impacted if patents are not granted. The Company has not yet applied for regulatory approval for the use of this product from any regulatory agency.

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Sixth Wave Innovations : Confirms Delivery of Affinitytm System - Marketscreener.com

KUALA LUMPUR: The National Science Council has discussed the National Nanotechnology and Products Roadmap 2021-2025, which should be applied to various industries, said Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob.

He said that it was in line with the Industrial Revolution 4.0 (IR 4.0), especially in fields such as smart agriculture, renewable energy, halal industry, and medical technology.

The development of nanotechnology products such as vaccines, cancer therapy drugs, medical devices, technological sensors, nano fertilisers, biomass, solar panels, as well as sweeteners and flavourings in halal products which are in much demand in the global market will boost the countrys economy, he said in a statement following a National Science Council meeting on Friday.

Ismail Sabri said the National Nanotechnology and Products Roadmap would also provide many socio-economic benefits to the country, including creating 33,391 jobs within five years.

He said the job opportunities encompassed 5,968 highly skilled workers, semi-skilled (24,755), and 2,668 unskilled workers, and that the nanotechnology industry was expected to contribute RM151.5bil to the national gross domestic product (GDP) within five years.

Additionally, the Prime Minister said the meeting also discussed the supply of human capital and job market in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) sector, which needed a comprehensive solution to enhance the countrys science, technology and innovation (STI) competitiveness.

For that, he said the government took seriously the number of students in STEM, which is currently at 47%, with pure sciences at 19%.

Students interest in STEM needs to be enhanced and the Education Ministry (MOE) has been instructed to lead the STEM Roadmap, he said in the Bernama report.

The meeting also touched on the importance of highlighting STI at the community level through Malaysian Social Innovation (MyIS), which is an initiative under the Science, Technology and Innovation Ministry (Mosti).

Ismail Sabri said the initiative was a good step in empowering innovation at the grassroots level as well as enabling the shift of inclusive economic distribution to all income levels, especially the B40 (lower income) and M40 (middle income) groups by focusing on the application of local technology.

The government, through the establishment of the National Technology and Innovation Sandbox Initiative (NTIS) has also intensified the commercialisation of local innovations centred on the countrys socioeconomic sustainability, he said.

The Prime Minister said the meeting also agreed to improve the governance structure of the NTIS initiative, with the NTIS Task Force Committee renamed as the NTIS Steering Committee.

In addition, the NTIS Council has also been abolished and replaced with a reporting framework henceforth to the National Science Council (NSC), which was made a permanent agenda in NSC meetings to reduce duplication with the existing council as the NSC is also chaired by the Prime Minister while the NTIS Task Force Committee will be chaired by the Mosti secretary-general.

Ismail Sabri also said the NSC meeting, the first for this year, discussed various government efforts to popularise the field of STI as an enabler for the socioeconomic stabilisation of the country based on the three main thrusts of Keluarga Malaysia (Malaysian Family).

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PM: National nanotech roadmap will bring socio-economic benefit - The Star Online

Could a revolutionary new tool help us meet future pandemics with a quicker response? As the COVID-19 pandemic has shown the world, the widespread availability of vaccines is one of the most resolute ways of fighting any such outbreaks in the future.

Now, scientists in Denmark have created a new technique that could speed up the development of vaccines and other pharmaceutical products by more than one million times while minimizing costs. The new method works by using soap-like bubbles as nano-containers. With DNA nanotechnology, multiple ingredients can be mixed within these nano-containers.

Also read: Will drones change the way we deliver medicine?

In search of pharmaceutical agents such as new vaccines, the industry routinely scans thousands of related candidate molecules. But this novel technique allows that process to take place on the nanoscale, minimizing the use of materials and energy. Essentially, more than 40,000 different molecules can be synthesized and analyzed within an area smaller than a pinhead and results can be produced in a matter of minutes, new research says.

Developed by researchers in Denmark, the work was published in the journal Nature Chemistry earlier this month. The volumes are so small that the use of material can be compared to using one liter of water and one kilogram of material instead of the entire volumes of water in all oceans to test material corresponding to the entire mass of Mount Everest, says Nikos Hatzakis, associate professor at the department of chemistry, University of Copenhagen and head of the research team. This is an unprecedented save in effort, material, manpower, and energy, Hatzakis says in a news release from the University of Copenhagen.

The research was carried out in collaboration between the Hatzakis Group, University of Copenhagen, and associate professor Stefan Vogel, University of Southern Denmark. The solution is named single particle combinatorial lipidic nanocontainer fusion based on DNA mediated fusion or SPARCLD.

FILE: A nursing student administers the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine at a vaccination center at UNLV, in Las Vegas. Vaccine equity has been a major cause of concern during the pandemic with many poorer nations left behind. (AP)

The process involves integrating elements from distant disciplines: synthetic biochemistry, nanotechnology, DNA synthesis, combinational chemistry, and even machine learning. No single element in our solution is completely new, but they have never been combined so seamlessly, explains Hatzakis. The method provides results within just seven minutes.

What could be the possible areas of application of this technique? A safe bet would be that both industry and academic groups involved in synthesis of long molecules such as polymers could be among the first to adopt the method. The same goes for ligands of relevance for pharmaceutical development. A particular beauty of the method is that it can be integrated further, allowing for direct addition of a relevant application, Hatzakis adds.

Further examples could be RNA strings for the important biotech tool CRISPR, or an alternative for screening and detecting and synthesizing RNA for future pandemic vaccines, the release adds.

Vaccine equity has been a major cause of concern during the pandemic with many poorer nations left behind as countries around the world rushed to vaccinate its population against the covid-19 virus. According to a news report in Nature last July, most people in the poorest countries will need to wait another two years till at least 2023 before they are vaccinated against COVID-19. Around 11 billion doses are needed to fully vaccinate 70% of the worlds population against COVID-19, the report said.

According to a much more recent Bloomberg report from March based on numbers from analytics firm Airfinity Ltd more than 9 billion doses could be produced in 2022, but vaccine demand may decline to a rate of about 2.2 billion to 4.4 billion doses per year in 2023 and beyond.

Also read: Going for your covid-19 vaccine? Keep these things in mind

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Can this new nanotech tool speed up the making of vaccines? - Mint Lounge

ALBANY - IBM has released its newest mainframe computer server - the z16 - that uses artificial intelligence and chips developed in Albany that protect businesses and consumers from hackers even before a transaction goes through.

IBM is known for producing the world's most powerful mainframe computers - known as the z Series - and the company releases new versions every few years as its chip technology evolves.

IBM no longer makes its own chips after selling off its factories in East Fishkill and Vermont nearly a decade ago to GlobalFoundries.

Today, IBM makes chips in partnership with South Korea's Samsung, with much of the research and development taking place at Albany Nanotech, the state's computer chip research lab that has IBM and others as tenants.

IBM announced a major breakthrough last year at Albany Nanotech on what it calls its Telum chip that works to boost the efforts of artificial intelligence, or AI, software to scan financial transactions for fraud - before the transactions are completed.

The new Telum chips are being used in IBM's new z16 servers, which means the new AI chips are finally being used commercially. IBM's mainframes are used in 70 percent of global financial transactions, in terms of monetary value.

IBM says its new technology is so good that it even is "quantum safe" meaning that data used in transactions can't, in theory, be stolen in the future by quantum computers that in theory are more powerful than traditional computers, although that claim was made by a third-party analyst.

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IBM releases new server that uses AI chip developed in Albany - Times Union

Food fraud is a serious problem that we just know too little about. Around the world, manufacturers and distributors cheat consumers by bulking up food with cheaper filler products, ignore bans and restrictions on dangerous or unsustainable ingredients, or disguising inferior food products with undisclosed dyes and additives. Now, scientists are proposing new nanotechnology solutions to help us understand the extent of food fraud today and tackle it.

Image Credit:conejota/Shutterstock.com

The food and beverages industry operates at huge scales, and is always researching and developing innovative means of quality control and safety monitoring for its food processing operations. Many traditional solutions require specialist operatives and expensive equipment, and they take time away from production schedules already tightly constrained by foods tendency to spoil.

Recently, nanotechnology has matured to a stage where industrial scale applications are possible. In the case of nanotechnology-based sensing techniques, this means that the food and beverage industry can start to implement food analysis with higher sensitivity and selectivity for a fraction of the initial investment and no ongoing requirement for specialist expertise.

Nanomaterials exhibit sensory properties that are manipulated to create large-scale, sensitive, selective, and automated sensing systems to analyze food and drinks. Materials such as metal nanoparticles (NPs,), magnetic NPs, carbon nanostructures like nanotubes, graphene sheets, and graphene nanofibers, nanowires, and electrospun nanofibers have all been used for practical food analysis in the last few years.

Nanotechnology identifies spoiled food by detecting pathogens, toxins, pH balance changes, and gasses, but it also fights against food fraud by finding adulterants like additives, glucose, melamine, and even urea in consumer food.

Recently, UCF Department of Chemistry professor Xiaohu Xia and his colleagues began to develop nanotechnology solutions to tackle the U.S. food industrys fraud problem which could be costing consumers between $10 billion and $15 billion each year, according to analysis by the Consumer Brands Association.

As well as bulking up food with less expensive products used as filler, food fraud can also cause people to violate deeply held ethical or religious principles regarding items they do not wish to consume. Not only this, but food fraud also puts people with allergies into physical danger with the possibility of causing serious harm.

In the U.S., the leading types of fraudulent food to be reported are animal meat including fish and sea animals, products made from cows milk, bees honey, oils and fats, alcoholic beverages, natural sweeteners, and grain products.

Tests to control quality and detect fraud in these products can be expensive and difficult to use. Where cheaper, easier to use tests are available, these tend to be less effective.

To address these problems, the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative from the U.S. governments Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture invested $490,000 of grant money to UCF and Xias research. The Department is seeking new ways of testing food fraud instances like replacing cows meat with pigs meat in products without correctly labeling the change.

Xias research is focused on developing a nanotechnology-based test strip that looks and operates like a home pregnancy test or lateral flow test for COVID-19. The strip should be easily used by test inspectors and consumers alike, and should detect target adulterants in food product samples quickly and reliably.

The new test, which is still in development, is based on the colorimetric lateral flow assay method that most people now know about through rapid at-home COVID-19 tests. Xias test will use gold nanoparticles encased in metallic coatings made of sensitive materials like platinum, palladium, or iridium that can increase the devices sensitivity.

Initial results have already shown that platinum coatings can make current colorimetric lateral flow assays 100 times more sensitive, making them more effective than enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays that the food and beverage industry already uses at considerable expense and time.

The research is now focused on finding metal coatings that can improve sensitivity even further. The project is due to be completed in 2023, and connected with Xias wider research in nanotechnology sensing applications for detecting cancer as well as zootropic diseases such as COVID-19.

Around the world, nanotechnology solutions are being brought to bear on the fight against food fraud more than ever.

For example, scientists recently developed electrochemical sensing methods for detecting Sudan I, which is a synthetic dye found in low-quality chili powder and curry products, using a modified carbon electrode doped with magnetite nanoparticles.

Sudan I can also be detected with platinum nanoparticles around an electrode modified with graphene--cyclodextrin. This device had a limit of detection (LoD) of 1.6 nM, as well as sensitivity of 2.82 A M1- cm2.

Nanotechnology and Fruit Farming; From Fertilizer to Shelves

Mohammadi, Z., and S.M. Jafari (2020). Detection of food spoilage and adulteration by novel nanomaterial-based sensors. Advances in Colloid and Interface Science. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cis.2020.102297.

Wells, R. (2020). UCF is Developing New Nanotech to Detect Food Fraud. UCF Today. [Online] Available at: https://www.ucf.edu/news/ucf-is-developing-new-nanotech-to-detect-food-fraud/.

Disclaimer: The views expressed here are those of the author expressed in their private capacity and do not necessarily represent the views of AZoM.com Limited T/A AZoNetwork the owner and operator of this website. This disclaimer forms part of the Terms and conditions of use of this website.

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How Nanotechnology is Joining the Food Fraud Fight - AZoNano

Prof. Shanti Nair, Dean of Nanosciences, Amrita Center for Nanosciences & Molecular Medicine at Kochi campus of the Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham.

Nanoelectronics and nanoengineering represents the heart of the new world of electronics and engineering. Everything is now heading towards greater and greater miniaturization and holding more information in smaller and smaller devices. Something smaller than the size of your finger can now hold terabytes of information using spintronics. As devices become smaller and newer principles are employed, such as spintronics, we continue to faithfully follow Moores law which states that the number of transistors on a chip will double every two years. Combine nanodevices with rapid miniaturized sensors and we now have extraordinarily rapid systems for monitoring health, environment and the status of critical engineering systems with very high sensitivity and speed. In automobiles today nanoelectronics are seen in supercapacitors, sensors, transducers and solar cells. Future cars are expected to contain a latticework of billions of tiny programmable sensors to control power output, prevent accidents and so on.

The global nanotech market is 80 billion US dollars and expected to reach $150 billion in this decade. Indian market is smaller but has already topped 1 billion dollars and is one of the fastest growing markets given the large investments in manufacturing being made in India to take advantage of more and more highly trained manpower. Much of this nanotech market is on advanced materials, electronic systems, data storage, high speed computing, sensors, and energy applications.

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It has now become impossible to disassociate nanotech from more routine electronics. Students need to be trained in how to use nanoscale to huge advantage. The advantage goes to mechanical strength, wear resistance, ballistic transport, powerful low energy systems and highly efficient systems and devices to store and generate energy. The economics of energy use is one of the major aspects of nanodevices. Nanotech-based systems will be used not only in the transport industry, namely, autos, planes and satellites but virtually in any machine. Applications in the defense sector will be phenomenal and already has more than doubled in the last ten years alone. We can call it the Star Defense systems of the 21st century rather than the Star Wars idea floated several decades ago by the USA. Climate change monitoring, resource prospecting using advanced sensors and imaging systems from satellites, self-driving vehicles, intelligent cities, are all not so far in the future and will heavily rely on nanotech to achieve their goals.

Optical technologies are to be synchronized with nanotech and this gives rise to the field of nanophotonics. Basically, nanophotonics is the interaction of nanoscale features with light. Light based communication, and systems to convert tiny lasers to electric signals is being used already. Light is now the preferred medium for communication systems as they can be transported over very large distances without loss and can be efficiently used in devices. However, light is now also being used to develop optical chips and photonic integrated circuits by combining electronics and optical engineering.

Another major area of nano electronics is nano bio electronics. Bio sensors and wearable devices are an exploding market worth about $45 billion globally. India is one of the countries that is rapidly growing in this area giving that India is the pharmaceutical capital of the world and stands to gain the most by distributed and personalized healthcare monitoring without the need for hospital involvement which is expensive for the masses. Diabetes and cardiac care devices are already available. Soon we will have full-fledged devices that monitor not only general health parameters but also non-invasively measure all blood, cardiac and brain parameters, including infections, to avoid the scare of future pandemics. Nano bioelectronics is now emerging as a way to monitor at the cellular level. Work is already ongoing on cellular diagnostics and personalized diagnostics that can detect problems at the cellular level at an early stage. This will require, for example, extremely fine nanowire sensors and field effect transistors to monitor and even treat individual cells, monitor genetic health and other parameters. Wear your doctor on your body and breathe free will be the mantra. Signals can be wirelessly transmitted to specialist centers which can respond rapidly and provide individualized care at the right time.

A student in nanoelectronics need training that will necessarily include advanced characterization and test systems, and also nano fabrication laboratories to train the student on the latest techniques and tools. A strong understanding of nanomaterials and the wide palette of such materials and their mechanical and electronic properties are a must to understand. These include materials made at nanoscale as well as materials that are intrinsically nanoscale, such as graphene, carbon nanotubes, 2D materials, and so on. Each of these intrinsically nanoscale materials have extraordinary electronic properties, including piezo and thermoelectric properties, and lie on the border of the molecular and the nanoscale.

In summary, the 21st century brings to us an exciting new technological world that can substantially change the way we live and work in a positive way. Many new industries utilizing the new technologies are being born even as this is written and will dominate the industrial landscape in the coming decades.

For More details visit: https://www.amrita.edu/nano

Disclaimer: Content Produced by Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham University

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Nanoelectronics and nanoengineering - the new frontier for education and careers - Times of India

An institutional investigation of a group of nanotechnology researchers in Japan has concluded that a former graduate student in the lab began his cheating ways on a daily basis from a very early stage after joining the team in 2015.

According to a Google translation of the report, Nobuhiko Mitoma whom the document identifies as former graduate student A and with other oblique references, committed sweeping fabrication of data and other misdeeds:

over a period of four years or more, the number of forged data is extremely large, and even concealment work is performed, so it is evaluated that the maliciousness of the act is high. The impact is great. In addition, it was published in a wide range of academic journals and has a large social impact.

Mitoma also was found to have thrown away a MacBook Pro laptop that belonged to the lab in order to hide his culpability.

As we reported previously, Kenichiro Itami and Hideto Ito had called for an investigation into their groups work in the wake of the retractions of papers in Nature and ACS Applied Nano Materials. Mitoma was first author of the Nature paper and one of the ACS articles, and third author on the second ACS paper.

The report clears Itami and Ito of misconduct, but it faults them for failing to catch Mitoma earlier:

although both of them were found not to be involved in the fraudulent activity, they have a duty to supervise the research fraud of former graduate students, and failure to do so can be said to be an indirect cause of this case. A Former graduate student is measuring all the data for which research errors have been revealed by himself, and is performing data processing and drawing. During this time, the responsible authors, Associate Professor Ito and Professor Itami, trusted former graduate students A, and scientific communication was not sufficient, and the guidance and supervision of the responsible authors was insufficient

In a March 16 statement, Nagoya University wrote:

The paper Graphene nanoribbon (GNR) synthesis by living condensed ring expansion polymerization by the research team of Professor Kenichiro Itami of the Institute of Transformative Biomolecules, Nagoya University was published in the scientific journal Nature in June 2019. However, when the data used in the paper was found to be suspicious and requested to be withdrawn, it was withdrawn from the journal on November 25, 2020. In addition, two other papers on GNR issued by the team were also withdrawn upon request for withdrawal.

We have set up the Fair Research and Investigation Committee to investigate this matter, but we would like to inform you that the investigation has been completed and fraud has been confirmed.

We sincerely regret that such a situation has occurred and sincerely apologize for causing a great deal of inconvenience to everyone.

In order to prevent such a situation from happening in the future, we will thoroughly implement research ethics related to research activities and make a university-wide effort to prevent recurrence.

In a statement apologizing for their role in the case, Itami and Ito wrote:

We deeply apologize to everyone who was affected by this incident; our collaborators, the university, related departments, people concerned, current and past laboratory members, research funding agencies, the scientific community, and journal publishers.

Taking the results of the surveys sincerely, we will continue to conduct research ethics education and research data storage, management, and verification more carefully and meticulously. We are striving to build a solid system to restore trust and ensure no recurrence of such research misconduct. We will continue our research even more seriously.

Hat tip: Lemonstoism, author of World Fluctuation Watch

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Nanotech researchers cleared of fraud but failed to supervise cheating grad student: University - Retraction Watch

China as the World Leader in Nanotechnology: Another Wakeup Call for the West

By Dr. Mahbube K. Siddiki

The Nanotechnology industry in China is moving forward, with substantially high levels of funding, a growing talent pool, and robust international collaborations. The strong state commitment to support this field of science and technology is a key advantage for China to compete with leading forces like US, EU, Japan, and Russia. The Chinese government focuses on increasing competitiveness in nanotechnology by its inclusion as strategic industry in Chinas 13th Five-Year Plan, reconfirming state funding, legislative and regulatory support. Research and development (R&D) in Nanoscience and Nanotechnology is a key component of the ambitious Made in China 2025 initiative aimed at turning China into a high-tech manufacturing powerhouse [1].

The return of foreign-trained Chinese origin researchers and scientists, lured by the promise of competitive salary, readily available research funding, home grown production of cutting-edge research tools and techniques are playing the vital role of Chinas steady progress. The Chinese government is heavily promoting Public-Private collaboration as well allowing China to find noticeable success in myriad areas of nanoscience and nanotechnology [2].

A bright example of Chinese nanotech success is the worlds largest nanotech industrial zone called Nanopolis, located in the eastern city of Suzhou. This futuristic city houses several private multinationals and new Chinese startups across different fields of nanotechnology and nanoscience. Needless to say, China leads the worlds nanotech startups. Involvement of private sector opens new and unique pools of funding and talent, focusing on applied research. Thus, private sector is leading in R&D in China, where state-sponsored institutions still dominate in all other sectors of rapid industrialization and modernization. From cloning to cancer research, from sea to space exploration, this massive and highly populated nation is using nanoscience and nanotechnology innovation to drive some of the worlds biggest breakthroughs, which is raising concerns in many other competing countries [3].

China's nanoscience and nanotechnology programs are based on a central policy architecture announced by Deng Xiaoping in 1986, the National High Technology Research and Development Program, commonly known as the 863 Program. Th program aims to promote the development of key novel materials and advanced manufacturing technologies for raising industry competitiveness. The 863 Program is implemented through successive Five-Year Plans and is the key government program behind the national R&D capacity in support of domestic innovation. In fact, from 1990-2002 the program funded over 1000 nanotech projects. This well thought out program is managed by an expert responsibility system, with field -/sector-specific expert committees and panels consisting of top scientists who supervise, advise, and assess projects. The first project adhering to the 863 Program goals was the Climbing Project on Nanomaterial Science instigated from 1990-1999 and overseen by the State Science and Technology Commission (SSTC), the predecessor to the current Ministry of Science and Technology. Given the Program's success, the government subsequently renewed its commitment to funding basic research on nanomaterials and nanostructures focusing carbon nanotubes, with the initiation of China's National Basic Research Program known as 973 Program in 1997. The newly developed program complements the 863 Program and is an evolving research agenda for nanoscience and nanotechnology [4]. Chinas Ministry of Science and Technology with the help of other associated organizations oversees all the programs and enact concerning regulatory issues. Figure 1 shows some of the agencies involvement and their coordination in promoting nanoscience and nanotechnology in China.

Fig 1. Policy and Key Regulatory Agencies for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology in China

China has established numerous nanotech research institutions throughout the country over the years. Prominent universities like Peking University, City University of Hong Kong, Nanjing University, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Soochow University, University of Science and Technology of China are the leading institutions that house state of art nanotech research labs to foster study and research of nanoscience and nanotechnology [5]. Chinese Academy of Science (CAS), National Center for Nanoscience and Technology (NCNST) and Suzhou Institute of Nano-Tech and Nano-Bionics (SINANO) are top among the state sponsored specialized nanoscience and nanotechnology research centers, which have numerous labs and prominent researchers to conduct cutting edge research in the area of nanotechnology. Public-Private collaboration along with the above mentioned research institutes gave birth to many nanotechnology companies, most notable of them are Array Nano, Times Nano, Haizisi Nano Technology, Nano Medtech, Sun Nanotech, XP nano etc. [6]. These companies are thriving on the research breakthroughs China achieved recently in this sector.

Here are some of the notable achievements in this sector by China. In June 2020, an international team of researchers led by Chinese scientists developed a new form of synthetic and biodegradable nanoparticle [7]. This modifiable lipid nanoparticle is capable of targeting, penetrating, and altering cells by delivering the CRISPR/Cas9 gene-editing tool into a cell. This novel nanoparticle can be used in the treatment of some gene related disorders, as well as other diseases including some forms of cancer in the brain, liver, and lungs. At the State Key Laboratory of Robotics in the northeast city of Shenyang, researchers have developed a laser that produces a tiny gas bubble[8]. This bubble can be used as a tiny robot to manipulate and move materials on a nanoscale with microscopic precision. The technology termed as Bubble bot promises new possibilities in the field of artificial tissue creation and cloning [9].

A new nanomaterial invented by researchers from the Institute of Chemistry under the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) has demonstrated the potential to effectively eliminate millions of metric tons of liquid pollution and emissions from organic chemicals used in printing plates and ink, which are quite dangerous to human health. One of the major breakthroughs in Chinese nanotech research, this invention is expected to lead a green revolution in the printing industry. It is one of the many headline grabbing acts for CAS as it is moving fast to applying nanotechnology innovation to the development of consumer tech. Since 2013, CAS researchers have cooperated with more than seventy national and multinational companies in studying lithium batteries, nano printing, nano catalysts, health care, and drinking water treatment etc. So far, the project has landed $780 million in investment [10].

The combination of a growing talent pool and a state-sponsored desire to become a global leader, with an expanding private-sector ecosystem, will be hard for other countries to match. In fact, Chinas big leap in small science i.e., nanoscience is just starting. Recent report published by prominent publication outlet Nature, shows a comparison of research article published there and its affiliated publication outlets for China and its archrival the United States in different research areas, particularly related to nanoscience and nanotechnology. They compare published research articles in 10 fields of research (FoRs) selected from the top 10 FoRs by Share [11] in each country. Physical chemistry is at the top of most popular research areas in China, followed material engineering and organic chemistry. All are related to nanotech. The U.S. is leading on research related to biological science [12]. The report found that Chinas Share in 2020 is more focused on chemistry, i.e., it has 50% more Share than that of US. The life sciences dominate the US effort which is 5 times more. In physical science the US is ahead but by a small margin. The same can be said for Earth & Environmental Science area.

In another report [13] it was shown that China surpassed the U.S. in chemistry in 2018 and now leading the later with a significant gap, which might take years to overcome. In the meantime, the country is approaching the US in Earth & Environmental sciences as well as physical sciences. According to the trend China may take five years or less to surpass US. On the contrary, in life science research China is lagging the US quite significantly, which might be attributed to both countries priority of sponsorship, in terms of funding. In fact, in the time of CORONA pandemic, US can use this gap for her strategic gain over China.

Outstanding economic growth and rapid technological advances of China over the last three decades have given her an unprecedented opportunity to play a leading role in contemporary geopolitical competition. The United States, and many of her partners and allies in the west as well as in Asia, have a range of concerns about how the authoritarian leadership in Beijing maneuver its recently gained power and position on the world stage. They are warily observing this regimes deployment of sophisticated technology like Nano in ways that challenge many of their core interests and values all across the world. Though the U.S. is considered the only superpower in the world and has maintained its position as the dominant power of technological innovation for decades, China has made massive investments and swiftly implemented policies that have contributed significantly to its technological innovation, economic growth, military capability, and global influence. In some areas, China has eclipsed, or is on the verge of eclipsing, the United States particularly in the rapid deployment of certain technologies, and nanoscience and nanotechnology appears to be the leading one. Chinas economic clout backed by cutting edge technologies is a prime example of Global Entanglement. These entangled dynamics are contributing to U.S.-China tensions over many different issues, e.g., raising tension in global supply chains, creating debates over norms of research access and concerns about technology transfer, global technology standard-setting, regulation of large technology firms etc. In these circumstances, the US and her allies need to take the immediate steps to claim the leading role in the area of nanoscience and nanotechnology. The very first step in this direction would be refocusing on the strategic goals set by the National Nanotechnology Initiative.

Acknowledgment

Id like to thank Ms. Fatima Al-Shaikhli, MS Electrical Engineering student, for helping me to verify some of the information. Id also like to thank Mr. Steve Banach for his encouragement.

Reference

[1] B. Halder, How China is the Future of Nanoscience, OZY, 2020. [Online]. Available: https://www.ozy.com/the-new-and-the-next/cloning-to-cancer-china-is-driving-the-future-of-small-science/256094/. [Accessed: 30-Jul-2021].

[2] Y. Xie, C. Zhang, and Q. Lai, Chinas rise as a major contributor to science and technology, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci., vol. 111, no. 26, pp. 9437 LP 9442, Jul. 2014.

[3] Suzhous Nanopolis Nanotechnology Hub is Thriving, Nanowerk, 2014. [Online]. Available: https://www.nanowerk.com/nanotechnology-news/newsid=37527.php. [Accessed: 05-Aug-2021].

[4] D. S. L. Jarvis and N. Richmond, Regulation and Governance of Nanotechnology in China: Regulatory Challenges and Effectiveness, Eur. J. Law Technol., vol. 2, no. 3, pp. 111, 2011.

[5] Leading 50 Chinese institutions in chemistry, 2021. [Online]. Available: https://www.natureindex.com/supplements/nature-index-2021-china/tables/chemistry. [Accessed: 24-Aug-2021].

[6] Nanotechnology in China: Market Report, AZO Nano, 2015. [Online]. Available: https://www.azonano.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=3545. [Accessed: 03-Aug-2021].

[7] T. Wei, Q. Cheng, Y.-L. Min, E. N. Olson, and D. J. Siegwart, Systemic nanoparticle delivery of CRISPR-Cas9 ribonucleoproteins for effective tissue specific genome editing, Nat. Commun., vol. 11, no. 1, p. 3232, 2020.

[8] L. Dai, D. Lin, X. Wang, N. Jiao, and L. Liu, Integrated Assembly and Flexible Movement of Microparts Using Multifunctional Bubble Microrobots, ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces, vol. 12, no. 51, pp. 5758757597, Dec. 2020.

[9] L. Dai, N. Jiao, X. Wang, and L. Liu, A Micromanipulator and Transporter Based on Vibrating Bubbles in an Open Chip Environment, Micromachines, vol. 8, no. 4, p. 130, Apr. 2017.

[10] Xinhua, China invents nano printing technology, with less pollution, china daily, 2018. [Online]. Available: https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/201806/13/WS5b2112c8a31001b825721b3f.html. [Accessed: 08-Aug-2021].

[11] Nature, A guide to the Nature Index, Nature Index, 2021. [Online]. Available: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-01407-y. [Accessed: 08-Aug-2021].

[12] K. Schoenmakers and S. Powell, Towards new frontiers: China sets lofty goals for itself as it vies for global leadership in highly competitive scientific fields, Nature, vol. 593, pp. S24S27, 2021.

[13] B. Wu, T. Maxwell, and C. Armitage, Superpowered Science: Charting Chinas Research Rise, Nature, vol. 593, pp. S4S5, 2021.

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China as the World Leader in Nanotechnology: Another Wakeup Call for the West - smallwarsjournal

BETHLEHEM Alain Kaloyeros has landed in a downstate federal correctional facility with floors that have been walked by a who's-who of corrupt New York officials.

The founder of Albany Nanotech, who was convicted in 2018 on federal bid-rigging charges, has started his 3-year prison sentence at a minimum-security camp in Otisville.

For years, the Orange County facility has been the incarceration home to some of the most powerful state officials ordered to serve time for federal crimes.

Former state Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, who died earlier this year at a federal prison hospital in Massachusetts, reported to Otisville in 2020 to begin serving a term of more than six years.

Joseph Percoco, a former top aide to now ex-Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo who, like Silver, was sentenced to six years, also served time at Otisville for bribery and corruption.

State Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos, 72, who was sentenced in October 2018 to 51 months in prison for his conviction on charges of bribery, conspiracy and corruption, also served a stint in the prison in Orange County.

Kaloyeros, of Slingerlands, had to finally go to prison after unsuccessfully appealing his case to the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, which includes the Manhattan court where Kaloyeros was tried on wire fraud and wire fraud conspiracy charges.

The 66-year-old is appealing his case to the U.S. Supreme Court, but he had to start serving his sentence as that process unfolds. His release date if he serves his entire sentence is March 7, 2025, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

There are 57 inmates in the Otisville minimum-security camp. Kaloyeros will know at least two of them: Steven Aiello, 63, and Joseph Gerardi, 62, who worked for a Syracuse-area real estate development firm involved in the bid-rigging scheme with Kaloyeros.

The other person convicted under the same case was Louis Ciminelli, 66, a Buffalo developer and construction executive. Ciminelli is serving his time at a minimum-security camp in Tucson, Ariz.

The three upstate businessmen were large donors to former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo. Prosecutors were able to show that Kaloyeros had manipulated the bid documents for hundreds of millions of dollars in state-funded high-tech construction projects in Buffalo and Syracuse to ensure that their companies would be picked as "preferred developers."

At the time, Cuomo had been trying get Kaloyeros to replicate the Albany Nanotech model in other upstate cities to create manufacturing jobs. Cuomo was never implicated in the case.

The two projects ended up being built in Buffalo and Syracuse. They are the Tesla solar panel and battery component factory in Buffalo, and the NexGen factory outside of Syracuse that makes power transistors using semiconductor manufacturing.

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Kaloyeros imprisoned where other convicted state officials served time - Times Union

We are going to start this article with imaginary scenery. So, please indulge us.

Reggie falls and loses two of his teeth. He soon finds it difficult to chew correctly and realizes he might visit the dentist for implants. Coincidentally, his grandmother had to get implants years ago. He remembers how they had to take multiple visits to the dentist and how long it took to fix her smile. Ultimately, Reggie gets discouraged and postpones his visit to the dentist.

This story typically depicts one of the drawbacks of traditional dental procedures, which has been corrected by technological advancements in dentistry over the years. Most dental experts today, like the dentist Steven Shapiro, DMD attests to the benefits of advanced technology such as nanotechnology and robotics in dental surgeries and procedures.

It has also been established that, because of these innovations, there is higher accuracy in surgeries, reducing the risk of complications which is a big win for the dental industry today. This is not to mention the increased convenience for the patient. So, Reggie might not have to wait that long to get his dental implants anymore.

Here are some of the technology innovations that have rocked the world of dentistry over the years.

Navigational dentistry

Navigation surgery in dental procedures is associated with better accuracy, improved reliability, and convenience. These techniques are often linked with imaging systems like cone-beam computed tomography. This ensures better safety as compared with conventional dental procedures. Theres also a generally reduced failure rate, especially for dental implants, since less invasive methods are used. Therefore, theres an increased success rate of such surgeries and fewer major complications.

Robotics-assisted dental surgeries

Advanced artificial intelligence in robotics is now used in navigational surgery for many dental procedures such as implant treatment periodontics, orthodontics, endodontics, and so much more. Increased precision and better dental care are made available using robotics over traditional freehand techniques. Dental clinicians can also use artificial intelligence to create new methods of diagnosing and treatment.

Complications of traditional implant surgery vs use of robotics

Several things could go wrong during implant surgery. These include:

The above kinds of injury can cause complications and severe infections. Other factors can lead to complications such as lack of adequate dental expertise, patient-related or underlying conditions, and implant location.

A surgical guide should help the dentist navigate during traditional dental surgeries, but there could be specific errors, such as fitting and angulation. With robotics, the clinician can change direction during the implant procedure, unlike surgical guides, which dont allow any adjustments. Other benefits of using robotics in surgical implant treatment are:

Use of microrobots

Microrobots can be used in endodontic therapy. In this procedure, the microrobot is placed on the tooth. It carries out the root canal procedure, including cleaning and drilling, to reduce errors and improve the reliability of the process.

Nanotechnology

Nanotechnology is simply the branch of engineering and technology concerned with building and designing nanobots. These nanobots are tiny machines that can interact with specific cells in the body. This interaction can lead to changes in treatment delivery and overall therapeutic effect.

Nanodentistry is the application of nanotechnology in the field of dentistry. Due to its small size(nanometers), it is used at the cellular or molecular level to manage all complicated cases and reduce the failure rate of dental procedures. Nanotech is used in restorative surgeries, periodontics, bone replacement, and drug delivery.

More beneficial than conventional methods

In summary, artificial intelligence and nanotechnology are more beneficial than conventional methods but are slowly used in dentistry compared to other areas of medicine. Dentists must play a massive role in adopting these techniques and increasing their knowledge about these technological advancements.

Since the goal of patient care is optimum treatment, tech advancements have been proven to provide a better quality of treatment and are worth giving a shot. Conventional dental procedures are time-consuming and are also largely inconvenient.

Still, technology can take all these disadvantages away by saving time, improving precision and accuracy, improving reliability, reduce complications and failure rates for dental procedures.

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Innovations in Dentistry: Navigational Surgery, Robotics, and Nanotechnology - Robotics and Automation News