• Argonide, US, has won research funding from the US Army to develop a portable water purification system. The company will use its aluminium oxide nanofibre (dubbed NanoCeram), which is 2 nm in diameter. Filters based on the fibre can remove viruses, bacteria and protozoan cysts from water. Argonide is also developing cartridges for purifying recycled space cabin water for NASA and a filter for residential use.
• According to Asia Pulse, Hitachi, Japan, plans to invest around Y 10 bn (about € 80 m) a year in basic research in new areas such as nanotechnology and fuel cells. For the first time, Hitachi group companies will coordinate the research on a groupwide basis, removing overlap and waste.
• The UK’s Science and Technology Committee has published a report into government spending on nanotechnology. Titled “Too little too late?”, the document concludes that the commercialization of nanotechnology research in the UK “presents a depressingly familiar picture of excellent research that is not being translated to the country’s commercial benefit to the same extent as it is in other competitor countries”. The committee calls for a more directed approach to nanotechnology support.
• Researchers at Southern Methodist University, US, have found that buckyballs caused brain damage in fish. The scientists exposed nine juvenile largemouth bass to a form of water-soluble buckyball at a concentration of 0.5 parts per million. After 48 hours, the fish showed signs of significant brain damage as well as altered gene expression in the liver. Researcher Eva Oberdörster reported these results at the American Chemical Society meeting in the US.