'Lockheed Martin is a leader in the research, development and application of nanotechnology to future government applications," said Dr. Jim Ryder, vice president and general manager of the Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Center in Palo Alto. "This demonstration of carbon-nanotube-based semiconductor devices in the rigorous conditions of space is an important step towards a whole new suite of future applications.'
The experiment was a proof-of-concept that enabled the testing of launch and re-entry survivability, as well as basic functionality of the carbon nanotube switches on orbit throughout the shuttle mission. The NRAM™ devices were early prototype parts, and performed the same before, during, and after completion of the mission. This mission represents an important first step in the development of high-density, non-volatile, carbon-nanotube-based memories for spaceflight applications. Lockheed Martin and NASA are working on plans for future NRAM™ flights.

Carbon nanotubes are tiny cylindrical carbon molecules just 1/50,000th the diameter of a human hair that possess unique electrical and structural properties. The word nanotube is, of course, from nanometer (10-9 meters or approximately 10 carbon atoms) and tubular (the shape of a rolled up sheet of graphene that forms a carbon nanotube). Carbon nanotubes are half the density of aluminum, 50 times stronger than steel, thermally stable in vacuum up to nearly 3,000 degrees Centigrade, efficient conductors of heat and may be either metallic or direct bandgap semiconductors.

Thomas Rueckes, Nantero's Co-founder and CTO, said, 'We are proud of the success of our NRAM memory devices in even the harshest of conditions, and honored for being selected by NASA for this mission.'

Dan Powell of GSFC, said 'Carbon nanotubes have tremendous potential for a wide range of future space-based applications, and we couldn't be happier for the success of this experiment.'

Lockheed Martin recognizes the critical importance of nanotechnology to its current and future portfolio of products and services. Direct benefits of nanotechnology for government customers could include stronger, lighter and less expensive materials; more capable systems; and enhanced personal protection for military and first responders. Through partnerships with small businesses and universities, Lockheed Martin is leveraging its own investment in nanotechnology to develop innovative solutions for the most demanding technological challenges. Lockheed Martin Nanosystems is a business unit of Lockheed Martin Space Systems Company.

Nantero is a nanotechnology company using carbon nanotubes for the development of next-generation semiconductor devices. Nantero's main focus is the development of NRAM™. Nantero is also working with licensees on the development of additional applications of Nantero's core nanotube-based technology. Lockheed Martin holds an exclusive license arrangement with Nantero for government applications of Nantero's extensive intellectual property portfolio. More information on Nantero, Inc. is available in English and Japanese at http://www.nantero.com.

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The researchers sequenced the exons and potential regulatory elements of 622 genes distributed across the genome that are candidate intervals for playing a role in healthy aging. They also included three contiguous genomic intervals containing variants associated with age-related diseases for a total of 3.6Mb using only standard molecular biology equipment and the Agilent SureSelect Target Enrichment System. They were able to call known SNPs with 99.7% accuracy, as well as tens of novel variants, the vast majority of them heterozygotes.

The researchers performed the sequencing on an Illumina Genome Analyzer and used SureSelect capture probes in-solution manufactured by Agilent Technologies for target enrichment. The findings are published in the on-line journal GenomeBiology, and can be accessed at http://genomebiology.com/content/pdf/gb-2009-10-10-r116.pdf

The article states that, in recent years, genome-wide association studies have identified "compelling" associations between more than 350 locations along the human genome and common complex traits. But a much larger number of samples must be analyzed to move beyond statistical associations to pinpoint the exact causes of these traits. The article explains that current methods of DNA sequencing cost too much for such large-scale population studies.

The authors write, "Next-generation sequencing technologies and their increased capacity have made it feasible to efficiently sequence hundreds of megabases of DNA. However, the current costs for sequencing entire human genomes make this approach prohibitively expensive for population studies."

"SureSelect is a very scalable capture method," said Olivier Harismendy, Ph.D., project scientist at the Moores UCSD Cancer Center. "It allows you to process multiple samples simultaneously. All you need is already in your lab: a 96-well plate, a magnet and a multichannel pipetter, and here is your high-throughput."

"The product we tested is very mature and the uniformity of the capture went up when compared to the proof-of concept experiment published earlier this year," said Kelly Frazer, Ph.D, Professor and Chief, Division of Genome Information Science, Pediatrics. "In the end, this comes out to less sequencing for an increased sensitivity to detect variants. With these experiments, we now understand better the impact of probe design and tiling frequency which are key parameters to improve capture uniformity and SNP calling."

"We were thinking about improving the economics of very large scale, automated studies from the very first days of SureSelect Target Enrichment, and it's gratifying to see investigators accomplish this without compromising accuracy or reproducibility," said co-author Emily LeProust, Ph.D., Agilent R&D Chemistry and Genome Partitioning program manager.

The conclusion is that the solution-hybridization-based method can generate highly uniform coverage of sequence targets that is reproducible across a large number of samples. This means that large-scale population studies using next-generation sequencing could become economically feasible, fueling breakthroughs in health research.

More information about Agilent SureSelect Target Enrichment System is available at www.opengenomics.com/SureSelect.
About Agilent Technologies

Agilent Technologies Inc. (NYSE: A) is the world's premier measurement company and a technology leader in communications, electronics, life sciences and chemical analysis. The company's 17,000 employees serve customers in more than 110 countries. Agilent had net revenues of $4.5 billion in fiscal 2009. Information about Agilent is available on the Web at www.agilent.com.

About Moores UCSD Cancer Center

The Moores UCSD Cancer Center is one of the nation's 40 National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Centers, combining research, clinical care and community outreach to advance the prevention, treatment and cure of cancer. For more information, visit http://health.ucsd.edu/cancer

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ROCHESTER, N.Y. - Tasked with developing ways to extend the lifespan of printer components - and reduce their impact on the environment - a group of scientists at Xerox Corporation (NYSE:XRX) have developed a new chemical armor that protects photoreceptors, the light-sensitive elements in xerographic machines. Protected from normal wear and tear, a photoreceptor coated with the new "armor" can survive more than one million revolutions - nearly doubling its usable life.

"The long life of the photoreceptor reduces the need for replacement cartridges, enabling a 33 percent reduction in waste," said Yonn Rasmussen, vice president of the Xerographic Component Systems Group. "Customers experience less down time, and therefore reduced interruptions to work flow, improved productivity, and fewer service calls."

Photoreceptors are multi-layer thin film devices that convert light into electrostatic images. They must be replaced periodically due to surface wear and scratches that can affect image quality.

"This novel long life overcoat is an example of cutting-edge chemistry at work that required both materials and process innovation," said Giuseppa DiPaola-Baranyi, laboratory manager for Materials Integration at the Xerox Research Centre of Canada. "The ultimate goal is to develop photoreceptors that will last the entire life of the machine. For example, when you scratch your hand and you heal, that's a biological process. We are looking at how to mimic nature and leverage our expertise in smart materials design and nanotechnology to create molecules for next-generation photoreceptors with self-healing capabilities."

The new photoreceptor works in the standard machine design with no additional hardware changes or added costs to the customer. This invention has broad applicability across Xerox's product portfolio and is being first implemented in the Xerox 4112™/4127™ light production monochrome printers.

A global, multi-disciplinary team from the Xerox Research Centre of Canada, the Xerographic Component Systems Group engineering team in Webster, N.Y. and the manufacturing team in Venray, The Netherlands, advanced the project from the pilot plant stage in Canada to production in Venray in less than one year, a record time for commercializing a new technology such as this.

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'There has been a great deal of research into the use of manufactured carbon nanomaterials in various products, but there are still a lot of questions about how these materials will interact with biological systems,' says Dr. Nancy Monteiro-Riviere, a professor of investigative dermatology and toxicology at the Center for Chemical Toxicology Research and Pharmacokinetics at NC State and lead investigator of the study. 'There is a crucial need to understand how these manufactured carbon nanomaterials will act once they are in the body – particularly where environmental or occupational exposure can occur.'

The two-year research project, which is being funded by NIH at approximately $658,000, has several specific goals. First, the researchers will determine how and whether the size and surface charge of four fullerenes – or specifically shaped carbon nanoparticles – effects how the fullerenes interact with the body. 'Our hypothesis is that the size and charge of these fullerenes will dictate how the nanoparticles are absorbed by the body, how they are distributed within the body, how the body metabolizes the nanoparticles and – ultimately – how and whether the body can eliminate the nanoparticles,' says Monteiro-Riviere.

A second goal is to determine how fullerene size and surface charge affect the distribution of the nanoparticles in the body's organs and plasma, when the fullerenes are injected intravenously. This component of the study will be performed in animal models that are well understood, and where the findings can then be extrapolated to humans. Researchers will also identify any adverse health effects resulting from acute exposure to the nanomaterials.

Finally, the researchers will assess how the body absorbs fullerenes when exposed to the nanomaterials orally or through abraded skin – two routes of exposure that are particularly relevant to real-world scenarios, such as exposure in the workplace.

'The work being done in this project will not only improve our understanding of how nanomaterials behave in the body, but will also help us identify in vitro assays, which can be performed in a laboratory, that predict how the nanomaterials will behave in the body,' says Monteiro-Riviere.

NC State's research team working on the project includes Drs. Nancy Monteiro-Riviere, Jim Riviere, Burroughs Wellcome Fund Distinguished Professor of Pharmacology and director of the Center for Chemical Toxicology Research and Pharmacokinetics, Xin Xia, research assistant professor of pharmacology, and Keith Linder, assistant professor of pathology.

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SANTA CLARA, Calif., and GENEVA . – Intel Corporation and Numonyx B.V. today announced a key breakthrough in the research of phase change memory (PCM), a new non-volatile memory technology that combines many of the benefits of today's various memory types. For the first time, researchers have demonstrated a 64Mb test chip that enables the ability to stack, or place, multiple layers of PCM arrays within a single die. These findings pave the way for building memory devices with greater capacity, lower power consumption and optimal space savings for random access non-volatile memory and storage applications.

The achievements are a result of an ongoing joint research program between Numonyx and Intel that has been focusing on the exploration of multi-layered or stacked PCM cell arrays. Intel and Numonyx researchers are now able to demonstrate a vertically integrated memory cell – called PCMS (phase change memory and switch). PCMS is comprised of one PCM element layered with a newly used Ovonic Threshold Switch (OTS) in a true cross point array. The ability to layer or stack arrays of PCMS provides the scalability to higher memory densities while maintaining the performance characteristics of PCM, a challenge that is becoming increasingly more difficult to maintain with traditional memory technologies.

"We continue to develop the technology pipeline for memories in order to advance the computing platform," said Al Fazio, Intel Fellow and director, memory technology development. "We are encouraged by this research milestone and see future memory technologies, such as PCMS, as critical for extending the role of memory in computing solutions and in expanding the capabilities for performance and memory scaling."

"The results are extremely promising," said Greg Atwood, senior technology fellow at Numonyx. "The results show the potential for higher density, scalable arrays and NAND-like usage models for PCM products in the future. This is important as traditional flash memory technologies face certain physical limits and reliability issues, yet demand for memory continues to rise in everything from mobile phones to data centers."

Memory cells are built by stacking a storage element and a selector, with several cells creating memory arrays. Intel and Numonyx researchers were able to deploy a thin film, two-terminal OTS as the selector, matching the physical and electrical properties for PCM scaling. With the compatibility of thin-film PCMS, multiple layers of cross point memory arrays are now possible. Once integrated together and embedded in a true cross point array, layered arrays are combined with CMOS circuits for decoding, sensing and logic functions.

More information about the memory cell, cross point array, experiment and results will be published in a joint paper titled "A Stackable Cross Point Phase Change Memory," and will be presented at the 2009 International Electron Devices Meeting in Baltimore, Md., on Dec. 9. The paper is co-authored by Intel and Numonyx technologists and will be presented by DerChang Kau, Intel senior principal engineer.

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"The novel nanostructures will be fabricated and characterized in-situ in this unique SPM-ALD tool in order to rapidly prototype a wide variety of next-generation devices," said Fritz Prinz, professor and chairman, mechanical engineering, Stanford University. "The SPM-ALD tool will enable us to build devices which take advantage of the quantum confinement effects present at small length scales, length scales that could not be accessed with traditional lithography methods. These devices can only be built with manufacturing tools possessing extraordinary spatial resolution."

This program focuses on the integration of ALD, a thin-film technique capable of sub-nanometer precision in thickness, with the nanometer lateral resolution SPM in a drive to extend the capability of scanning probe techniques to prototyping and device fabrication. Historically, performance of electronic devices has been limited by traditional manufacturing methods, such as optical and electron beam lithography, which are not likely to deliver feature resolution significantly below 20 nm. However, the quantum mechanical effects of electron confinement in devices 10 nm or smaller result in phenomena qualitatively different than those seen in larger devices. Taking advantage of this quantum confinement is predicted to result in a new paradigm for electronic devices.

"We chose Stanford University for this grant for the recognized expertise of professor Prinz and team, and the close alignment between the proposed research and the future of Agilent's SPM business," said Jack Wenstrand, Agilent's director of university relations. The work between Agilent and Stanford University is part of Agilent's University Relations Program, which facilitates collaborations with universities around the world. Agilent supports scientific work with universities worldwide through direct grants and collaborative research.

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