Obama’s Brain Project Backs Neurotechnology

 

The U.S. announces $46 million to develop new technologies for exploring the brain.

 

Why It Matters

The three-pound mass between our ears is the next great frontier for science.

The retinal nerve cells shown in this close-up transmit information to the brain.

The White House said that President Obama’s BRAIN Initiative is generating interest from companies and philanthropies in a sign of what it calls a wider partnership developing around the U.S. administration’s most prominent science initiative, first unveiled in 2013.

The White House had committed to spending $100 million this year on the project, which seeks to develop new technologies for studying the brain. As part of that, today the U.S. National Institutes of Health announced $46 million in awards to 58 research groups.

The diverse technologies the NIH is backing include development of a wearable PET scanner, which could monitor patients’ brains during everyday activities, lasers able to control how neurons fire, and diamond-coated electrodes that can detect the neurotransmitter dopamine in living brains.

During a press briefing, NIH director Francis Collins said the research grants  would speed the “development of exciting new tools and technologies to understand how [brain] circuits work.” He said the BRAIN Initiative could spend $4.5 billion on such neurotechnologies over the next decade or so.

The effort, whose full name is Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies, reflects a government strategy to invest widely in better techniques to measure the brain. That’s necessary not only because the brain’s functioning remains enigmatic, but because it is difficult to study neurons in living animals, limiting scientific progress.

Collins compared the NIH’s approach to that taken during the Human Genome Project, which he also oversaw starting in 1999. That effort was vastly accelerated thanks to better technology for sequencing DNA. “There was a lot of uncertainty, but it worked out,” said Collins. “No one can quite predict the twists and turns.”

But the brain is so much more complex than DNA that several scientists said the role for technology is not as clear cut this time. “With the Genome Project, we knew what the technology needed to be. Here, we are not even sure what technologies are most useful because the questions still need to be defined,” says Gerald Fischbach, scientific director of the Simons Foundation, a private charity in New York that is investing millions in brain science. Fischbach was not part of the NIH announcement.

Around the world, other large neuroscience efforts have also had to pick where to place their bets. In Europe, a heavily-funded Human Brain Project is seeking to create large-scale computer simulations of the human brain, although that strategy that has been criticized as premature (see “Neuroscientists Object to Europe’s Human Brain Project”).

One reason the U.S. project doesn’t satisfy all neuroscientists is that it strongly embraces the idea that there are “circuits” in the brain, or that one neuron would excite another, and so on, leading to behaviors. While that certainly happens, some say the circuit analogy is an antiquated anatomical notion insufficient to explain how the 86 billion neurons in the brain actually operate.

“But generating data is a good first step,” says Konrad Kording, a neuroscientist at Northwestern University.

The grants announced by the NIH support development of some proven technologies, such as optogenetics, a technique to turn neurons on and off in lab animals using light pulses. Elsewhere, the agency took bigger risks, like the $539,000 it awarded to develop a wearable PET scanner whose “ultimate goal is to be able to image subjects during a proverbial ‘walk in the park’ and other natural activities,” according to West Virginia University’s Julie-Anne Brefczynski-Lewis, who is one of about 100 scientists who will share in the NIH awards.

Separately, the White House held an event to highlight its efforts and what it calls $300 million in ongoing private R&D investments in brain science. Groups attending today’s White House event included the Simons Foundation, which this year independently announced plans to spend $62 million to understand how brains generate thought. Fischbach says that by convening different groups, the White House hoped to demonstrate that “we can benefit from, or help the Obama initiative.”

“I don’t know what is cause and what is effect, but it’s a definitely hot area,” he says. “There has been an upswing in this type of neuroscience, which is really quite remarkable.”

Infectious diseases -- Changing Planet

Infectious diseases

With the threat of a warmer, wetter world and a larger global population,
scientists are researching how climate change may impact the spread
of infectious diseases, such as cholera and dengue fever, and how
outbreaks may be prevented.
Credit: NBC Learn and the National Science Foundation

 

Surfing the Web in class? Bad idea

 

Even the smartest college students suffer academically when they use the Internet in class for non-academic purposes.

The study, funded by the National Science Foundation, speaks to typical lecture-hall culture in which professors compete for students' attention with laptops and smartphones.

"Students of all intellectual abilities should be responsible for not letting themselves be distracted by use of the Internet," said Susan Ravizza, associate professor of psychology and lead investigator on the study.

Ravizza and colleagues studied non-academic Internet use in an introductory psychology class at MSU with 500 students. The working theory: Heavy Internet users with lower intellectual abilities -- determined by ACT scores -- would perform worse on exams. Past research suggests smarter people are better at multitasking and filtering out distractions.

But surprisingly, that wasn't the case. All students, regardless of intellectual ability, had lower exam scores the more they used the Internet for non-academic purposes such as reading the news, sending emails and posting Facebook updates.

Ravizza said that might be because Internet use is a different type of multitasking, in that it can be so engaging.

The study also showed students discounted the effects of Internet use on academic performance, reinforcing past findings that students have poor awareness of how their smartphones and laptops affect learning.

Ravizza said it would be nearly impossible to attempt to ban smartphones or other electronic devices from lecture halls. "What would you do, have hundreds of people put their cell phones in a pile and pick them up after class?" Such a ban might also be a safety issue, since cell phones have become a primary source of receiving emergency messages.

The buzz about entomophagy: Is eating insects more than a novelty?

 

'The major question is, why would we not eat insects?' (Photo: Shutterstock)

Jiminy Cricket may be able to do more than guide our consciences: he, or his kin, may also provide food security solutions for a growing and hungry world. However, the notion of insects-as-food struggles to find widespread traction amid problems with standardization of food safety standards, government disinterest and only a small body of research. So is there a future for cricket sushi or fried silk worms?

Insects as food has become something of a stalwart "weird" news story in the press, giving hacks plenty to buzz about (sorry). However there are many reasons to push the benefits: low environmental costs, high nutritive value, low farming costs, high value as a cash crop for poor families and a possible solution to what may be a looming food security crisis as the population grows and land for farms shrinks. These claims are all true – in fact some kinds of insects contain as much as 65 percent protein for every hundred grams, far above beef or chicken – but there are still some pretty serious roadblocks for any kind of mass cultivation.

Some two billion people eat insects as part of their diets worldwide but this occurs largely in the developing world; insects as food fell out of favor completely in Europe by the mid- to late-Nineteenth Century as the march of civilization made such diets seem “primitive”. Geographers Peter Illgner and Etienne Nel argued in a 2000 paper on consumption and harvesting of the mopane worm in sub-Saharan Africa that the global food system had to a certain extent marginalized traditional or alternate forms of food in favor of a more westernized style of dining, and that entomophagy was now seen in some quarters as primitive even as the moth grubs became a more important source of cash for some families.

Certain insects, notably bees and silk worms, have been cultivated across the planet by humans for centuries, but wider scale farming of insects for food lags. There are 20,000 cricket farms in Thailand, though little legislative support or government oversight, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).

The FAO has been studying entomophagy for over ten years now but even it admits, "the science of edible insects is still at a relatively pioneering stage, it boasts only a few scientists of renown." Until his death last year Dr Gene DeFoliart was one of the best-known and most-referenced. He ran the Food Insects Newsletter (which is still online and being updated) and the FAO’s 2013 report dedicates itself to him.

The FAO has bemoaned the lack of standardization or legislation that can deal with broader scale industrial farming. Many nations’ food safety laws can be applied to insects, or certain kinds of insect, but there is little being done to improve the situation, though the European Council has expressed political will. One of the few government initiatives was a partnership between the FAO and the Laos government a few years ago to set a series of standards on the commercial farming of insects. The Laos Technical Cooperation Project sought to impose Codex Alimentarius type food safety standards, but the project has since gone quiet. In fact, it is industry that seems to be taking up the slack and the insects-as-feed (not human food) is expanding rapidly; certain kinds of insects can be turned into fish, poultry or pig feed and are environmentally friendly, not requiring the same amount of land for grain or fishing from the seas to feed fish stocks. There are also many smaller gourmet companies providing insects, or insect products (such as cricket flour) and reports suggest interest in the West, where it remains a novelty, niche market, is growing.

Food safety when it comes to edible insects is a key issue: improper treatment or collection of insects that may have been sprayed with pesticides can cause health issues. Some other health risks identified by the FAO include heavy metals, mycotoxins, pesticide residues, pathogens, natural toxins, allergens, processing contaminates and veterinary residues.

In Vietnam some months ago media noted some deaths and comas associated with eating cicada nymphs carrying an apparently toxic fungi. The health department issued a warning against eating insects. Dan Dockery, a longtime British expat and one of the founders of Highway 4 restaurant chain in Vietnam told Gizmag that his restaurant did often serve insects.

”Consumption of insects is [even now] a rare thing in major urban centers in Vietnam and is a much more widespread phenomenon in the countryside," said Dockery. "Why? Because there insects are readily available, to all intents and purposes they are 'free', and they taste damn good as a drinking snack. However careful cleaning and processing is essential in order to guarantee a 'safe' product.”

Start ups have done well. In the case of Exo bars, the two Ivy League graduate founders received over $1 million in funding money from some major venture capital firms as well as running a crowdfunding campaign. Others, such as Ento, offer varied snacks and are, according to a draft FAO paper, leading the way in terms of standardizing treatments and farming for some insects. Other companies produce small farms for use in the home; live bugs are fed kitchen scraps and are later turned into food that can be thrown into a stirfry, rather like a pot of herbs on a windowsill.

Earlier this year the FAO gathered 450 experts from 45 nations and varied disciplines to discuss the potential of insects-as-food. All seemed excited by the progress made. For a quick, jump-cut precis of that conference and the many benefits of entomophagy and insects as feed this video is worth a watch. There are also fascinating nuggets of information such as the fact that given the tremendous variety of edible insects worldwide (between 1,500 to 1,900 different species according to varied reports) not only does treatment to make them safe for eating differ, but also, as Gizmag can attest, their taste – from ants with a fruity punch to of tea-flavored sun-dried emperor moth caterpillars.

Ultimately, food security may be one of the more pressing questions for the planet’s population but a move, either by governments, entrepreneurs, or both, towards finding a way to solve the problem will be needed and taking advantage of food that is environmentally safe and also high in protein and calories seems an intelligent move.

As Marcel Dicke, professor of entomology at the Wageningen University in the Netherlands, puts it: "The major question is, why would we not eat insects?" 

The answer for professor Dicke is this one : Consider that the people allover the world have been eating only insects for milleniums And, suddenly, they are disappearing. Well, we have a solution, let’s start eating beef, chicken, pork ….Ughhhhh, Oh, no, that’s impossible…..(Note from the blogger)

Acontece de vez em quando

Hoje prestando mais atenção, é inacreditável como ela sincroniza tudo ao falar: Meiguice, expressão corpórea angelical que se destaca plenamente quando está fazendo o papel de apresentadora do tempo, e tomara que não apareça outra, porque éla é ainda mais sublime nessa tarefa.  Expressão vocal e facial de acordo com cada detalhe da notícia, uma tonalidade de voz de extrema candura,.  Meus amigos da Bandeirantes, vocês tem um filão de diamantes na figura extasiante, fulgurante, plenamente dominante no cenário de apresentadores noticiariaristas, da minha amada virtual, a insuperável (espero que por muito tempo) ,TICIANE. 

Uma outra letra de música, desta vez em português, que eu gostaria muito que tivesse acontecido entre eu e esta pantera maravilhosa. Eu teria que voltar 40/50 anos no tempo, mas mentalmente isso é possível.

Olha, não importa a idade, mas de vez em quando, nós homens solteirões nos apaixonamos por alguma figura feminina. Antes dela, Grace Kelly,  ( e continua como uma das favoritas, embora não esteja mais entre nós, mas era muito linda, embora não tivesse todas os predicados de Ticiane.) . Marilyn Monroe, quem não se apaixonou por ela?  Mas finalmente encontrei uma brazuca para amar. Bem tem muitas outras brazucas amáveis, mas não creio que se aproximem da Ticiane tal como a vejo e admiro. E já li ou ouvi que amor platônico é amor homossexual, mas não, eu ainda pertenço à época do romantismo que está esmaecendo cada vez mais.

Ah, o marido dela? Sugiro umas férias de 10 anos no Caribe.

(Esse texto eu postei quando ainda não estava tomando Finasterida. Hoje, o bem-amado despencou….), e faz tempo que não a vejo, mas creio que ainda continua muito linda e com aquela voz maravilhosa. 

Vagamente

Só me lembro muito vagamente
Correndo você vinha quando de repente
Teu sorriso que era muito branco
Me encontrou

Só me lembro que depois andamos
Mil estrelas, só nós dois contamos
E o vento soprou de manhã
Mil canções

Só me lembro muito vagamente
Da tarde que morria quando de repente
Eu sozinho fiquei te esperando
E chorei

Só me lembro muito vagamente
O quanto a gente amou
E foi tão de repente, que nem lembro
Se foi com você que eu perdi meu amor.

You Tube :  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCML9MhWf70

Your own helicopter for under US$20,000

 

Your own helicopter for under US$20,000

Image Gallery

September 21, 2005 Flying is not a sport generally associated with those people who are light of wallet – which makes the Mosquito Ultralight helicopter something of a rarity. The entire kit for the Mosquito can be purchased for US$20,000 and if you think the minimalist Mosquito leaves you a bit vulnerable, there’s the fully enclosed Mosquito XE and XEL which can be purchased for US$23,000.. Building the kits will cost you about 200 to 300 hours to build or you can have the plane built for you for a flat US$4000. Getting airborn for under US$20,000 in your own, new helicopter is quite a feat – we’re not aware of any other helicopter in this price category and on top of that, both Mosquito variants offer very low maintenance and operating costs.

The Mosquito’s designer John Uptigrove is a mech engineer by trade and like a lot of people always dreamed of being able to fly. “By creating an ultralight helicopter it offers that ability without all the cost and hassle of dealing with air regs,” says Uptigrove. To date, Uptigrove’s Innovator Technologies has sold 37 mosquito kits (two in Japan, two in Canada, one in Spain, one in France, one in Belgium and the remainder in the US) and a dozen have been built to airworthiness by their purchasers at the time of going to press. The open frame Mosquito first became available in 2002 and the XE model was brought on in 2004.

All of the mosquitoes sold so far have been built in kit form, though the company has just begun offering a factory build program and the first factory-finished Mosquito is being finished as you read this.

The birds are typically used for “recreational flight for the most part,” says Uptigrove.

“Some plan to use them for flying into their favorite fishing hole. As a work machine they are ideal for ranch herding, flying fence lines or flying out to your farm machinery. I think every farmer and rancher should have one,” he jokes.

The Ultralight legal Mosquito and Mosquito XEL are only permitted to carry five gallons of fuel and hence have a range of just 60 miles. The XE can carry 12 gallons of fuel and so has a range of 150 miles.

Canadian-based Uptigrove originally charged less for his offspring, but as he explains, “I sell in US dollars as that is the primary market, but I live in Canada and the Canadian dollar keeps going up which is cutting into my profit in a bad way, so I have to keep raising my price to match.” You can actually start building your Mosquito for a lot less as the kit is sold in bite size chunks and the first kit group, the frame kit, sells for only US$2,995.00.

Uptigrove believes safety is paramount in aviation and puts his money where his mouth is. Provide proof that you have had helicopter training from a certified instructor to at least the "solo" signoff, or a minimum of 10 hours dual instruction by the time of your purchase of the last group (Rotor System and Blades) and Innovator will discount the final price by US$2,000 to help pay for your training.

If you’d like more info on the Mosquito, there’s a Mosquito information video pack that sells for US$30.00

 

Airplanes Flying Incredibly Close To The Ground At Maho Beach in St. Maarten

 

By H.Q. Roosevelt / 21 August 2014

Maho Beach in St. Maarten is one of the few places in the world where airliners pass just a few feet overhead upon landing. All the images of  airplanes floating just a few meters above the ground look unbelievable but they are real.

 

 

      

 

 

 

 

Reprieve Bicycle Saddle goes for comfort with a dip and a bladder

 

3 West Design's Reprieve Bicycle Saddle

If there's one recurring complaint about conventional bicycles, it's that the saddles hurt peoples' nether regions. As a result, we've seen ergonomic seats that have no material in the middle, that are made up of independently-moving ribs, and that move around with the rider. One of the latest, the Reprieve Bicycle Saddle, combines a dipped middle with an inflatable nose.

Designed by Texas-based 3 West Design, the Reprieve features a fairly normal rear end that supports the rider's "sit bones" much like any other saddle. Its mid-section, however, drops down by three-quarters of an inch (19 mm). This is to relive pressure on the rider's perineum, by not requiring it to take as much of the rider's weight as it would otherwise.

Additionally, the rider's soft tissues are supported by an inflatable polyurethane bladder in the nose of the saddle. This allows the seat surface to deform in response to pressure applied by the perineum (and by ... other things), instead of simply pressing back against it.

The saddle itself features a genuine leather surface, titanium rails, and weighs about 210 grams (7.4 oz).

If you're interested, 3 West Design is currently raising production funds for the Reprieve on Kickstarter. A pledge of US$100 will get you one, when and if they're ready to go. The planned retail price is $185.

Sources: 3 West Design, Kickstarter

 

 

How to Lose More Weight with Home Workouts

 

Schedule workouts to get the best results.  Barry Yee/Photographer's Choice/Getty Images

Updated September 30, 2014.

Do you work out at home? If you don't, you should give it a try. Gym memberships are expensive and health clubs are often overcrowded and intimidating.  And now that many workouts are available online, more exercisers are jumping on the home workout bandwagon.  So who wouldn't want to stay home and exercise in private?

The problem is that when you exercise at home, you don't get any feedback.  It's hard to know if your workout is really effective. At the gym, you have an instructor or a trainer to guide your program, but at home you're on your own.  So I went to a few trainers who work specifically with home exercisers. They gave me their best tips to burn more calories and make your home workout both safe and effective.

How to Make Your Home Workout More Effective

• Schedule your sessions.  Home exercisers often believe that extra time to exercise will just magically appear on their schedule.  But when you are home, there are always other priorities that pull your attention away from working out.  So if you work out at home,  schedule your exercise sessions (and healthy meals!) just like you would schedule a class at the gym.  Then put your workout calendar in a place where you see it everyday.
• Use high quality equipment.  If you buy home exercise equipment, invest in the best machine that you can afford.  According to the folks at Precor, "the best way to keep a treadmill or elliptical from becoming a coat rack is to not shortchange yourself on both feel and features."  Do your homework and learn how to buy the best treadmill or elliptical so that you can use it effectively to lose weight.
• Do a wide variety of workouts.  If you are trying to change your body, you should mix up your workouts to get faster results. That means you can't do the same old DVD day after day.  Visit a website like DailyBurn or Vidergize to get a wider variety of workouts.  This will help you to use different muscles and burn more calories.  Need a simpler option? Try one of these home strength workouts or this short 30-minute celebrity-inspired total body workout developed by JR Allen.
• Get personalized attention.  Just because you aren't at the gym, doesn't mean you can't get personalized attention. Websites like Wello allow you to work out with a trainer one-on-one with the use of a computer camera and microphone.  If you like to spin, consider investing in a Peloton bike. These specially designed cycles allow you to take part in virtual spin classes where the studio instructor monitors your ride at home and provides personalized feedback.

Home Workout Tips from the Pros

So how do the pros keep home exercisers on track?  I talked to a few trainers to find out what they recommend to their clients who exercise at home.

Celebrity trainer JR Allen works with superstar clients like Mary J. Blige. But he also trains regular folks like you and me.  He stresses the importance of safety and common sense. "If you work out at home you should be aware of the space you have available. Make sure the area is clear so that you can move safely."  He also says that you should include enough time for a 5-10 minute dynamic warm-up before every session.

And of course, home exercisers need to work hard enough to lose weight.  This can be a challenge without the dynamic energy of a gym environment.  But Peloton cycling coach Marion Berrian Roaman keeps her home riders accountable by using social media.  When she streams her live classes into people's homes she encourages them to work harder if she sees that their intensity is lacking.  To reward them when they do, "we follow up with posts, tweets and emails...all fantastic ways to keep our riders on track to achieve their goals," she says.

What habits should home exercisers avoid? JR says that you should be careful not to do too much too soon. "Don't lift weights that are too heavy," he says, "and never overexert yourself.  Always stop if you feel sick in any way."

Nanotechnology in Finland: Market Report

 

Introduction

Finland is located between Sweden and Russia in Northern Europe. It covers an area of 338,145 km² and had a population of 5,262,930 as of July 2012.

Finland has the 4th largest knowledge economy in Europe behind Sweden, Denmark and the UK.

Finland has a diversified modern industrial free-market economy with fields such as electronics (e.g. Nokia), metrology (e.g. Vaisala), transport fuels (Neste Oil), engineering consulting (Pöyry), chemicals (Kemira), and information technology (e.g. Rovio). Services is the largest economic centre contributing to the GDP, followed by manufacturing and refining.

The GDP of Finland was $194.3 billion in 2011.

 

Nanotechnology Organisations

Finland has many world-leading organisations and networks committed to promoting nanoscience as well as exploring the challenges and future of nanotechnology. A brief introduction to the key nanotechnology-related organisations in Finland is given below:

Spinverse- Spinverse commercialises emerging technologies and creates new business by combining industrial, financial and scientific expertise with worldwide networks. Their customers and partners include innovative growth companies, global industrial leaders, the world’s leading universities, venture capital firms and public funding organizations. Their services include business development, technology and market studies, fundraising and large programme management. Their technology experience covers new innovations in energy, electronics, environment, materials and nanotechnology.

Tekes - The Tekes’ initiative is implementing nanotechnology partnerships between China and Finland. The principles of strategic co-operation have been agreed between Ministry of Science and Technology of China (MOST) and Ministry of Employment and the Economy of Finland. The main guideline is supporting new nanotechnology innovations, their utilization and commercialization to enhance industrial competitiveness in both countries.

Finnish Nanotechnology Cluster Programme- Nanotechnology Cluster Programme initiated by the Ministry of Employment and Economy promotes nanotechnology based business in Finland. The mission of the Nanotechnology Cluster Programme is to foster the growth of Nanotechnology based business, supporting implementation of nano and micro technologies and future materials in Finnish companies.

HelsinkiNano -The initial idea for the HelsinkiNano initiative arose from the recognition of the fact that the region has considerable expertise in nanoscience, but nobody to gather together the research groups that are spread out in different universities. HelsinkiNano was thus started to act as a catalyst to create contacts within the science world and also between companies and universities.

NanoCenter Finland - gathers together the nanoscience centres and research departments in Finland to maintain and develop national co-operation as well as internationally competent nanoscience and nanotechnology infrastructure in Finland.

Academy of Finland - The Academy of Finland’s mission is to finance high-quality scientific research, act as a science and science policy expert, and strengthen the position of science and research.

 

Nanotechnology Companies

The major nanotechnology companies in Finland that cater to the diverse nature of nanotechnology sectors are listed below along with a brief introduction to each of them:

• Attension- Attension is one of the product organizations within the Biolin Scientific group, a global provider of high-tech analytical instruments for nanoscale study of interfaces. Their product range consists of optical, force and bubble tensiometers for education, research and development. They also provide solutions for high-throughput development, quality control and process control in such industries as chemicals, pharmaceuticals, electronics, food, energy, paper and packing.
• Optitune - Optitune is a cleantech company of Finnish origin with R&D and manufacturing capabilities in Singapore and Finland. Optitune nano-science is a revolutionary coating technology offering cost effective and environmentally friendly light management solutions for the solar, touchscreen, electronics and construction industries.
• Canatu Ltd. - Canatu Ltd. is a leading developer of a new class of versatile carbon nanomaterial based components with industry transforming qualities. Based on their three key innovations - their novel NanoBud® nanomaterial having outstanding physical and chemical properties, their environmentally friendly and low cost Direct Dry Printing® process, and their superior proprietary methods for cost effective production of high-quality carbon NanoBuds® - Canatu is actively transforming cutting edge research into cutting edge business.
• DCA Instruments- DCA Instruments is a company specializing in the design and manufacture of Molecular Beam Epitaxy (MBE) and UHV thin film deposition systems and components. DCA is a Finnish company located in Turku, in the southwest corner of Finland. Since the company was founded in 1989, DCA has installed more than 100 UHV systems around the world. Finnish high tech is at its best at DCA. A large part of their business has always been building complex, custom design deposition systems. They utilize their custom design background in the manufacturing of standard systems. Their design flexibility is valued by their customers. Many of their standard systems have started as a solution to a customer's particular deposition process.
• Dekati - Dekati develops, manufactures and markets instrumentation needed in fine particle measurement and sampling. In 1995, Dekati introduced the world’s first real-time fine particle concentration and size distribution measurement instrument. Since then, their R&D department has continually increased the range of products which now consists of nearly 15 products for various different particle measurement needs.
• Hydrocell - Hydrocell is a leading developer and manufacturer of high-quality energy and fuel-cell technology and a range of air cleaners that employ related technology. They have been a leader in the sector in northern Europe since 1993. They manufacture CO₂ filters for industrial and laboratory use, and filters and filter solutions for handling tobacco smoke. Their product range includes efficient brush-type heat exchangers, and easy-to-install heat-storage, heating and cooling solutions. Our company values are high-quality products, satisfied clients and excellent service.
• Picosun - Picosun is an international equipment manufacturer with a world-wide sales and service organization. They develop and manufacture Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) reactors for micro- and nanotechnology applications. Picosun provides their customers with versatile, reliable, and user-friendly ALD process tools, which offer unique scalability from research to production. Picosun is based in Espoo, Finland and has its US headquarters in Detroit. PICOSUN™ ALD process tools have been installed in various universities, research institutes, and companies across Europe, USA, Asia and Australia. 
• Beneq Oy - Beneq Oy,Vantaa, Finland, is a supplier of industrial equipment for global markets. Beneq is addressing the market of industrial equipment for producing functional surfaces with latest technology, typically utilizing nanosize materials. Beneq acts as a business facilitator adding value for high-tech partner companies by converting proven innovations into industrial equipment. 
• Nanoway - Nanoway commercializes the top innovations created in the research of low-temperature physics in Finnish universities. In particular, they own the patents which cover the CBT-thermometer and SINIS-cooler. They have made an agreement with Aivon on marketing and delivery of CBT thermometers.
• Fluilogic - Fluilogic develops, produces and markets micro and nanoliter dispensing modules for applications used in precise liquid handling on global markets. The patented Electro-Magnetic Bellows technology (EMB-technology), invented in 2000, has enabled them to reach a new era in cost-effective and precise liquid handling.
• Genano Ltd - Genano Ltd is a Finnish high tech company specialized in air purifiers. Their solution is GENANO TOTAL AIR CARE™.
• KSV NIMA - With 30 years of expertise and 97% of the world’s top one hundred natural Life Science Universities using their instruments, they are the leading provider of instruments for thin film fabrication and characterization in research and development globally. Their instruments are being utilized in nanotechnology research, surface chemistry, surface physics, biophysics, colloidal research, biochemistry and materials development.
• Millidyne - Millidyne is an innovative materials technology company providing advanced coating materials and surface treatment technologies for customers in the metal, electronics, construction and process industries. They develop and manufacture specialty coating raw materials combining nanotechnology and surface engineering.
• Nanocomp - Nanocomp is a privately-held company established in 1997 to implement strong expertise in basic and applied optics research into advanced technology products. Focusing on design, manufacture and replication of optical components, Nanocomp carries out continuous research and development to provide versatile services for various branches of industry.
• Puraliq - Puraliq is a company that specialises in manufacturing ultra pure metal based chemicals for nanoparticle production. They offer customer solutions, flexible and responsive production and fast delivery.  Puraliq is incorporated in Finland. Their headquarters and their research, development and manufacturing operations are located in Lohja.  They use state of the art reaction equipment to maintain the highest possible purity during processing phases. They also offer purification services especially for laboratory scale applications.
• Carbodeon - is a privately owned Nordic company with corporate headquarters in Helsinki, Finland. Carbodeon NanoMaterial manufacturing is located in Vantaa, Finland, together with an R&D and an applications laboratory which serves in house and customer projects. uDiamond® and Nicanite® are Carbodeon registered trade marks. Carbodeon's technology including its material specifications, production and applications are covered by patents.
• Picodeon - Picodeon is a privately owned Finnish nanotechnology company specialized on thin film coatings and surface treatments with its patented Coldab® Ultra-Short Pulsed Laser Deposition (USPLD) process. We are located in Ii, northern Finland and providing equipment, solutions and services for our clients worldwide.

Nanotechnology Education and Research

Finland is home to a number of world-leading universities that offer research and educational opportunities in nanotechnology. Given below is a list of universities and academic institutions in Finland and the academic courses or research opportunities offered by them in various aspects of nanotechnology.

• Micronova - Micronova is Finland's National Research Infrastructure for micro- and nanotechnology. It is jointly run by VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland and Aalto University. Their mission is to develop innovative, enabling technologies, and to apply these in practical micro- and nanosystems.
• Aalto University - offersM.Sc. degrees in Micro- and Nanotechnology. The University promotes Computational Nanoscience (COMP). The basic strategy of COMP is to develop and apply cutting-edge theoretical and computational methods and the best available computing resources in attacking challenging problems in condensed-matter and materials physics.Aalto University also hosts the Nanomicroscopy Center.    
• VTT Technical Research Centre - VTT Finland is the largest multitechnological applied research organisation in Northern Europe. VTT provides high-end technology solutions and innovation services. One of the areas of interest is nanotechnology and VTT explores and develops nanomaterial applications using biomolecules.
• University of Helsinki - The Laboratory of Inorganic Chemistry at the university is involved in the research of Thin Films and Other Nanostructured Materials. One of the Department of Physics' key focus areas is Materials Physics where The research projects in nanoscience are multidisciplinary.
• University of Jyväskylä - offersM.Sc. Nanoscience and a National Doctoral Programme in Nanoscience. The university promotes the Nanoscience Center (NSC), which is a cross-disciplinary research center shared by the departments of physics, chemistry, and biological and environmental science.
• Vantaa Innovation Institute - helps to accelerate the growth of Vantaa and the Aviapolis area into an international business environment. Vantaa is an international innovation hub located next to the capital city of Helsinki. The Institute promotes the Nano Lab Finland- which is a showroom for new nanotechnology solutions and products in Vantaa.

Recent Developments

Reports revealed in March 2012 that nanotechnology-based businesses are growing rapidly in Finland and have been doing so since 2008. According to recent statistics, there are about 210 nanobusiness companies in Finland, whereas in 2008 there were only 65. The figures were published in an international coating seminar in Mikkeli, Finland.

Reports published in October 2012 stated that the nanotechnology is a strong growth sector in both Finland and Russia. The partnership between the two countries has worked really well and has led to this technology becoming a success. The Finnish-Russian Nanotechnology Innovation Alliance has helped accelerate commercialization of nanotechnology based innovations. Earlier in April, Rusnano announced a EUR25 million investment in Beneq.

In November 2012, Picosun Oy, a leading Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) equipment manufacturer, joined the China-Finland Nano Innovation Center, which was opened on 2 November in the city of Suzhou, Jiangsu Province in the Eastern China. The Center was initiated by Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) of China and Ministry of Employment and the Economy (TEM) of Finland to strengthen ties between the two nations in the field of nanotechnology.

In June 2013, VTT announced that they are able to produce metallic nanoparticles that are not yet commercially available. The process reactor used to produce these nanoparticles runs at atmospheric pressure, reducing running costs. Running costs are further improved through the use of affordable raw materials and a continuous process.

A workshop also held in June heard how nano-silver used by Vietnamese and Finnish researchers was able to save dying shrimp farms and preserve fruit for relatively long periods of time. A separate workshop has heard how Nordic countries including Finland have been racing to collaborate with China to exploit science and technology opportunities with areas such as nanotechnology, new materials and clean technology being of significant interest.

Researchers from Utrecht University (the Netherlands) and Aalto University in Finland have been able to attach tiny pieces of gold to graphene nanoribbons in such a way so as to create electrically transparent connections so that they could assess the electrical properties of the graphene.

 

References

Updated: Oct 3, 2014