Archive for April, 2009
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April 30th, 2009
CTO of Nanosphere honoured
The CTO of Nanosphere, the company that markets the The Verigene® System – a benchtop molecular diagnostics workstation that uses patented gold nanoparticle technology to detect nucleic acid and protein targets of interest for a variety of applications, has been honoured by the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering.
As reported on Nanotechnology Now, Mr Cork was inducted into the Institute’s prestigious College of Fellows at the Institute’s annual event at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.C earlier this year
. As head of research and development at Nanosphere, Mr. Cork led the company’s effort to develop the The Verigene® System. -
April 29th, 2009
Fire Protection
This piece in the UK’s Daily Telegraph features the launch of a new advanced fireman helmet. Traditional it isn’t and the story likens the helmet to the head gear of a Star Wars stormtrooper.
The visor of the helmet has a gold-plated coating. The high reflectivity and low emissivity of gold, as well as its lack of tarnishing mean the metal is used in a number of applications in the control of radiant energy. Papers published in Gold Bulletin provide a good explanation of the science behind this here and here ……….
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April 28th, 2009
Funding for Nanotechnologies
Cientifica have just released their annual white paper which summarises their survey of global funding of nanotechnologies in order to identify where the Dollars, Euros and Yen are being spent. The headline story is that funding of research in China has been very strong in recent years and is now on a par with the US. No doubt some of the research funding that is captured in Cientifica’s numbers is related to gold nanomaterials.
Through its own GROW Programme, World Gold Council plays an important role in supporting emerging applications for gold nanomaterials. In 2009 we will continue to support selected research and feasibility studies that have the potential to lead to new uses for gold. Details on the funding mechanism can be found here.
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April 27th, 2009
RSC’s ‘Chemistry in its Element’
The RSC’s series of podcasts on each individual element of the periodic table, called ‘Chemistry in its Element’ are a useful overview of the history, science and general knowledge of the elements. This week the subject is the precious metal Platinum, which sparked my interest in whether they had previously covered Gold. Indeed they have, which you can find here
(scroll down the page). It provides a pretty good summary of the technology of gold, although the writers could perhaps of covered the important uses, such as electronics, with a bit more rigour. -
April 24th, 2009
You can’t always be the star
Using the analogy of a Hollywood blockbuster, sometimes gold is the ‘Leading Actor’ in a new technology and sometimes it is a ‘Supporting Actor’. Many of the technologies we highlight on this blog are based on a new ‘starring role’ for gold, whether it be exploiting the unique catalytic properties of gold in chemical processing or using the properties of gold at the nanoscale for biomedical applications.In this new technology, gold isn’t the ‘star’, but is nevertheless a key component of a potential new technology. The technology is a highly sensitive ‘artificial nose’ that has the potential to detect various molecules individually. The key components in the technology are nanostrings made of non-conducting material, but gold electrodes (produced through standard etching techniques) are an integral part of the system.
This is a good example of how gold continues to be a key ‘supporting actor’ in the electronics industry.
PS – the Gold Bulletin archive contains all the journal’s papers focused on gold in electronics here
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April 23rd, 2009
Coverage in The Engineer
The Engineer has an interview with Stefan Maier, professor of nanophotonics at Imperial College who is collaborating with a team at Rice University on gold nanosensors………
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April 22nd, 2009
Wire Bonding Workshop
The use of copper wire – as a replacement for gold wire – in the semiconductor wire bonding process, is a growing trend recently highlighted by both precious metals consultancy GFMS and electronics association SEMI in separate reports. The extent to which this trend continues will depend on a number of factors including the price of gold, improvements to the gold bonding wire process and the ability of the semiconductor supply chain to overcome the remaining technical challenges in using copper wire (eg slower bonding speeds). The very latest on the state of this ‘battle’ can be found at the forthcoming workshop on wire bonding by IMAPS.
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April 21st, 2009
Gold Science in the Media
The number of gold-related science stories that arrive in my in-box via Google Alerts and the like has definitely grown over the last few years. Just scroll through this blog and you’ll see some good examples from the last few weeks. Sometimes the comments and quotes from the lead researcher are eye-catching, but sometimes they simply don’t do the research justice – as a result the media coverage carries less impact than it could. If you are working on gold-based research and have the chance to present your findings to the media, you may find the tips contained in this leaflet from the Science Media Centre useful. -
April 20th, 2009
Taylor Conference
This year’s Taylor Conference will feature some high profile presentations on the role of gold in catalysis.
The Taylor series of conferences began in September 1996 with the aim of both providing an arena for the discussion of heterogeneous catalysis and of encouraging student participation in this important area of science and technology. The first part of this year’s meeting (taking place at Cardiff University between 22-25th June) will have invited talks from eminent scientists in the field of heterogeneous catalysis with ample opportunity for discussion following the talks. World Gold Council is proud to be a sponsor of the event.
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April 17th, 2009
Reviews on Bioinorganic and Biomedical Chemistry of Gold
The June 2009 issue of Coordination Chemistry Reviews, to be published by Elsevier will contain a number of articles relevant to new biomedical applications for gold. The eleven papers include ‘Gold nanoparticle probes’ by Zhenzin Wang and Lina Ma, ‘Luminescence properties of phosphinegold(I) halides and thiolates by Edward Tietink and Jun-Gill Kang, ‘The tumour proteasome as a novel target for gold(III) complexes: implications for breast cancer therapy’ by Vesna Milacic and Q Ping Dou, and ‘Structures and properties of gold(I) complexes of interest in biochemical applications’ by John P Fackler Jr et al. In addition, there are three articles on use of gold compounds as anticancer drugs. This publication will assist in defining the significant number of biomedical applications now expected for nanoparticulate gold and gold compounds.
Richard Holliday
David Thompson
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