| By RICHARD PYLE (Associated Press Writer) From Associated Press November 14, 2007 4:40 PM EST NEW YORK - Sixty-five years after an American P-38 fighter plane ran out of gas and crash-landed on a beach in Wales, the long-forgotten World War II relic has emerged from the surf and sand where it lay buried. |
Researchers Create Circuit-Grade Nanowires
Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have developed a reliable way to produce nanowires that can accurately connect nanoscopic circuits. A sapphire substrate material serves as the base for growing the nanowires using commercial lithography techniques. Previous attempts to produce nanowires for circuits have grown the nanowires vertically, requiring them to be cut and moved to the final substrate material, according to researchers, who say the method could not predict the layout of the nanowires as they were deposited by a liquid. The new method uses tiny drops of gold deposited in lines along the desired pathways, on which nanowires will grow in a high-heat environment. NIST chose Zinc oxide as the semiconductor material because of its minor differences from sapphire that cause the nanowires to naturally form into very small, discrete lines growing in a predictable direction. Read more 
Lab-on-a-Chip Could Prevent Avian Flu Epidemics
A miniaturized device that can be used to detect the highly pathogenic avian flu (H5N1) virus, built on a platform that uses magnetic force to manipulate individual droplets containing silica-coated magnetic particles, has been developed by researchers at the Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, and Genome Institute of Singapore. If the device is successfully commercialized, it could be deployed in affected regions to provide early detection and prevent avian flu epidemics. Using the device, medical or humanitarian aid workers would be able to detect the presence of the H5N1 virus directly from throat swab samples in less than half an hour. According to its developers, the new platform is as sensitive as currently available tests, but approximately 10 times faster and potentially 40 to 100 times cheaper. Read more
 | Full steam ahead Top 10: To mark the opening of St Pancras International, Peter Ashley, editor of Railway Rhymes, picks his favourite poems about train travel from Betjeman to Owen Quiz: Railways in fiction Blog: Poetry's railway lines In praise of ... John Betjeman Competition: Win copies of Night Mail |
