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Dear Readers,
The World Bank is predicting a recession in the eurozone in the coming year and warns that the global economy may crash. In the new annual economic report for this year, the Federal Government is expecting growth of 0.7 percent for Germany and expects record employment on the labor market. The International Grains Council anticipates a global wheat harvest of 690 million tons, and the Maya calendar even predicts the end of the world.
How reliable each of these predictions is will not be clear before the end of the year. Until then, we will again see you through with our newsletter containing information and contributions about all aspects of Nanostart.
We hope you enjoy reading this.
Sincerely yours,
Dr. Hans Joachim Dürr
Head of Corporate Communications
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BioMers: Expansion and Automation
A change of scenery at BioMers: The innovative start-up recently moved to new premises. This is mainly in response to the increasing demand for the “invisible” braces, SimpliClear. There is great interest from orthodontists and patients in Singapore, the United States and Europe. SimpliClear has been available to patients since 2010. We spoke to Sidra Ahmed, Investment Manager at Nanostart Asia in Singapore >>
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How Nanotechnology makes wintertime warm and cozy and saves energy
More efficient heating insulation, more robust building materials, more environmentally sustainable energy production – which is particularly important in winter – are all due primarily to the rapid progress in materials and energy management. Nanotechnology is increasingly playing a critical role >>
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NanoWebTalk: Successful Premier with the Director of Deutsches Museum
The participants of Nanostart’s first NanoWebTalk experienced an amusing and informative journey into the world of nanotechnology. Professor Wolfgang Heckl, Director of the Deutsche Museum in Munich and member of the Supervisory Board at Nanostart, is not just a brilliant scientist; he also understands how to present the most difficult material in an entertaining way >>
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Nanostart in research and teaching: lecture to economics students
Avid attention for the ‘man from the trade’: Economics students at the Goethe University in Frankfurt followed the lecture by Hansjörg Ruof, Senior Venture Partner at Nanostart, on January 11 with great interest >>
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 Sidra Ahmed,
Investment Manager
Nanostart Asia |
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BioMers: Expansion and Automation
A change of scenery at BioMers: The innovative start-up recently moved to new premises. This is mainly in response to the increasing demand for the “invisible” braces, SimpliClear. There is great interest from orthodontists and patients in Singapore, the United States and Europe. SimpliClear has been available to patients since 2010. We spoke to Sidra Ahmed, Investment Manager at Nanostart Asia in Singapore.
Why did BioMers move?
Sidra: As a result of the positive response to SimpliClear and the company’s global expansion strategy, production is to be increased this year. We have also hired new employees in sales and manufacturing roles.
Did changes have to be made to production?
Sidra: Yes they did, and they are essential. The new location is three times as big as the old one, but production will grow by 20 times. The fabrication of BioMers’ flagship product, the clear fiber-reinforced nano-polymer wire; the core technology behind BioMers’ SimpliClear braces, is being semi-automated for the first time. This is huge progress if you consider that the polymer wires had until now mainly been based on skilled labour.
And you wear SimpliClear yourself?
Sidra: Yes, you could say that I am close to the source – and I am definitely smiling with more confidence. With SimpliClear, BioMers has introduced a revolutionary new orthodontic treatment system made possible by a breakthrough in engineered materials. SimpliClear is the first, completely clear, customized, fixed braces system - and most importantly it works! My teeth are finally straighter, and I shall be finishing my treatment by June this year. I notice myself every day how positively people react to it. Many people don’t even realize that I am wearing braces, until I tell them. No wonder the response to the product is so great.
Thank you Sidra.
Further information on Nanostart's portfolio-holding BioMers can be found here: www.biomersbraces.com
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Thermal imaging of a single-family home |
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How Nanotechnology makes wintertime warm and cozy and saves energy
More efficient heating insulation, more robust building materials, more environmentally sustainable energy production – which is particularly important in winter – are all due primarily to the rapid progress in materials and energy management. Nanotechnology is increasingly playing a critical role.
“Daily high temperatures near freezing, snow, and sleet will cause slick streets – also expect strong and stormy winds”: When you’re sitting in a well heated living room, you may suddenly appreciate the importance of building techniques.
Effective thermal insulation is central to a comfortable indoor climate, while consuming the minimum possible amount of energy. Governments are enacting increasingly rigid energy consumption ordinances for new as well as existing buildings. It’s no wonder in times of urgent climate discussions – nearly a fifth of all CO2 emissions in Germany is attributable to buildings. In private households in Germany, an average 75 percent of energy consumption is used for indoor heating alone.
Nanopores keep heat where it belongs
To drive down exterior wall heating requirements to near passive house levels, it is possible to install 20 to 30-centimeter thick layers of conventional insulating material, such as polystyrene – but this approach has undesirable effects on aesthetics and space requirements.
It is also possible to use more intelligent insulating materials. Today, silica-aerogels are available – highly porous, noncombustible solids made of silicon dioxide and air: over 90 percent of the volume consists of pores, which are only a few nanometers in size. Similar nanoporous foams based on synthetics are currently in development.
From an oven to a research station in Antarctica
Nanopores make aerogels rigid, somewhat translucent, and lend them a remarkably large interior surface area, often totaling over 1,000 square meters per gram – which makes this class of materials attractive for a wide variety of applications. Their structure ensures extremely low thermal conductivity: there are far too many small amounts of the base material present to transmit significant heat, and heat conductivity is effectively impeded.
Such nanoporous foams can be applied to conventional insulating panels that have been previously installed on building facades to retain heat inside buildings – to keep boilers hot or keep a refrigerator cold that is near an oven. Likewise, material in the form of granulate can be used as spray insulation or, with even greater effectiveness, as a filler for vacuum insulation panels. A unique example is the use of aerogel as a translucent filler between glass panels, which results in diffuse, translucent, heat- and sound-insulating building components. It’s not only a good idea for our latitudes: a British research station in Antarctica has installed this distinctive type of glazing.
Steel that does not rust
Probably the most important and most commonly used material in construction is concrete, which is essentially a mixture of cement, water, and gravel (aggregate). Maximum structural performance is achieved by optimizing concrete at the nanotechnological level. Pores form in concrete, which cause compression strength to diminish. The surface area subject to concrete-damaging substances can corrode and become larger. Adding the right particle can provide protection by filling the tiny cavities, making the concrete more compact, harder, and more durable.
To achieve this, over the last decade researchers in the town of Kassel in Germany systematically studied the nanostructure of concrete. In order to find the optimum mixture, they measured possible particle additives on a scale of nanometers. When tensile strength is increased by adding steel fibers, the result is a material with the properties of steel that does not rust: ultra high performance concrete (UHPC).
The material has already been used to construct several bridges, including the Gärtnerplatz Bridge in Kassel, Germany and numerous smaller bridges in the American state of Iowa. The advantages: structures last longer and require less material thickness. This conserves raw materials and helps protect the climate: the production of cement is responsible for nearly five percent of global CO2 emissions.
Better solar cells
As an emissions-free source of energy, electricity from sunlight is playing an increasingly important role. A key objective is to continue optimizing solar cells in terms of material consumption, effectiveness, and cost. One approach makes use of thin-layer cells made from silicium that are up to 1,000 times thinner than conventional photovoltaic elements – and save a corresponding amount of materials. The problem is, if they are too thin, too much sunlight can pass through unimpeded, instead of producing electricity. A current technique is to disperse the light with zinc oxide crystals, so that the path distance within the silicium layer becomes greater. It was a challenge to force zinc oxide crystals into the correct nanoscaled shape, so that the technique could function properly. Researchers have however found an efficient solution: they produce a negative of the desired structure and allow zinc oxide crystals to form on it. The nanolayer can then be removed.
Another path of development is the Grätzel cell. Inventor Michael Grätzel won the 2010 Millennium Prize – in essence the Nobel Prize for engineers – for developing the technology. It generates electricity not in semiconductor layers but instead in special dyes, based on a process borrowed from natural photosynthesis. The Grätzel cell promises inexpensive, flexible, and transparent solar panels – even a window could become a photovoltaic cell. “Nano” is also found is this development: titanium dioxide is a necessary component, which captures the electrons that are set free from the dye by sunlight and transmits them to the electrical circuit.
Titanium dioxide is a nanoporous material or a material occurring in nanoparticles. It is used extensively as a white color pigment in wall paint and as a UV reflector in sunscreen lotions.
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Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Heckl
Director of Deutsches Museum, Munich
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NanoWebTalk: Successful Premier with the Director of Deutsches Museum
The participants of Nanostart AG’s first NanoWebTalk experienced an amusing and informative journey into the world of nanotechnology. Professor Wolfgang Heckl, Director of the Deutsches Museum in Munich and on the Supervisory Board at Nanostart, is not just a brilliant scientist; he also understands how to present the most difficult material in an entertaining way.
"Nanotechnology: Between Hype and Hope” was the title under which Professor Heckl invited the audience of the NanoWebTalk on January 25 to a journey through nanotechnology. His ability to cross-link was fascinating.
Everything is connected to everything else. He used scientific graphics, images using scanning tunneling microscopes, even comics and Bavarian original Karl Valentin to explain the world of nanotechnology. Incidentally, Professor Heckl also holds a nanotechnology record for the smallest hole in the world with the diameter of an atom, which he drilled himself.
It was a successful launch: Around 80 participants registered for the first NanoWebTalk. Anyone who didn’t get the chance to see Professor Heckl’s presentation or who wants to see it again can do so here >> (only available in German)
The next NanoWebTalk will be on February 15 at 5 pm with the science journalist Niels Boeing. The title of his presentation is: “Nanotechnologies – risks and (media) side effects”.
With the interactive, web-based series of presentations NanoWebTalk, Nanostart offers anyone who is interested the opportunity to listen live to presentations by experts about nanotechnology and various aspects. Participation is free and takes place on your own computer after registering under www.nanowebtalk.de.
With the NanoWebTalks, Nanostart wants to give a platform to social discourse about nanotechnology and contribute to a factual discussion about the opportunities, advantages and possible risks of nanotechnology. More information about NanoWebTalk can be found here >>
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Niels Boeing,
Science journalist |
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Next NanoWebTalk with science journalist Niels Boeing: "We’re dealing with a new age of technology”
On February 15 at 5:00 p.m., science journalist Niels Boeing will be a guest on the Nanostart program NanoWebTalk. The topic of his presentation is “Nanotechnology: risks and secondary (media) effects.” He explains in this interview.
Mr. Boeing, you are a journalist and physicist. You have had a concentration on nanotechnology for a long time. On NanoWebTalk you talk about the “secondary media effects” of nanotechnology. What does that mean?
Boeing: By secondary media effects, I mean how the portrayal of nanotechnology has changed over the past 15 years. The media have mostly reflected the depiction provided to them by researchers and research policymakers. Looking back, this depiction was not always favorable.
The result is that nanotechnology today is viewed and presented very narrowly: for example scratch-resistant car paint – a sensation –, sunscreen with nanoparticles – mixed feelings –, or nanotubes that are supposed to be the new asbestos – threatening. These images can quickly take on a life of their own and obscure what makes nanotechnology so interesting: namely the improvement of materials and technical solutions on a nanoscale, which also enables us to conserve resources.
Is there one “nanotechnology,” or are there many different nanotechnologies?
Boeing: There is certainly not just “one” nanotechnology. We are not talking about a single, uniform technology that somehow deals with one subject known as “nano.” But the research scene has long given the impression that it is a coherent technology. Though it may not have been their intention, researchers have essentially perpetuated the controversial vision of Eric Drexler. He viewed nanotechnology as a uniform technology of “assemblers,” which refers to nanorobots.
Once we understand that we are dealing with a new age of technology, only then can we take greater advantage of opportunities – but also take risks seriously without calling into question the entire field of technology.
Regarding a differentiated viewpoint: Can we say that there are areas where nanotechnology can help us make decisive progress, and there are others where possible risks have not yet been adequately researched?
Boeing: Nanotechnology is not a self-starter. Despite the billions that have been invested worldwide over the last few years, it is still difficult to scale promising ideas from lab prototype to a market-ready application. This can be seen with nanoelectronics, where there is no shortage of good concepts. Nanotechnologies represent huge potential for resource efficiency, energy technology, and medicine.
There is still a lot of work to be done regarding possible toxicity of nanomaterials. With many substances, it is still too early to render an authoritative judgment. We have the benefit that up to now, not many “engineered nanoparticles” have been released into the environment yet. But we should not equate risk with environmental risk. If a few new, groundbreaking nanoapplications achieve success in the next 10 or 20 years, we must examine very closely what economic and social impacts they could have. Technologies, such as the internet and now mobile computing, also change social interaction. With all advances, there are always some unpleasant surprises. Nanotechnology will be no exception.
Thank very much Mr. Boeing.
More informationen about the NanoWebTalk can be found on: www.nanowebtalk.de.
For registration, please click here >>
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Nanostart in research and teaching: lecture to economics students
Avid attention for the ‘man from the trade’: Economics students at the Goethe University in Frankfurt followed the lecture by Hansjörg Ruof, Senior Venture Partner at Nanostart, on January 11 with great interest.
Ruof’s lecture dealt with the challenges and opportunities of venture capital business in the field of nanotechnology. At the invitation of the Goethe Finance Association (GFA), he explained Nanostart’s business and the special features of venture capital financing using practical examples. The discussions at the subsequent get-together showed how valuable guest lectures by managers from the industry are for the students, who took full advantage of the opportunity to exchange ideas with Ruof and other representatives of the Nanostart team.
Nanostart AG has been a patron of the GFA since September 2011. Further information on the GFA can be found here >> (German website only)
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January 11, 2012
NanoWebTalk: New Nanostart AG event series on nanotechnology >>
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Contact
Dr. Hans Joachim Dürr
Head of Corporate Communications
P +49 (0) 69-21 93 96-111
F +49 (0) 69-21 93 96-150
e-mail: presse@nanostart.de
website: www.nanostart.de
Nanostart AG
Goethestrasse 26-28
60313 Frankfurt am Main
Germany
CEO: Marco Beckmann
Supervisory Board: Dr. Alfred Krammer (chairman),
Prof. Wolfgang M. Heckl (vice chairman), Achim Lindner
Commercial register: Frankfurt am Main, HRB 74535
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