என்அருகில் நீ இருந்தால் என் மனம் பறக்கிறது
மனிதினுள் நீயே முழுவதும்
என் இனிய துன்பமே !!!!
Sunday, February 22, 2009
இசை புயலின் விருது மழை
Double Oscar delight for A R Rahman
Indian music maestro A.R. Rahman became the first Indian to bag two Oscars for his work in British filmmaker Danny Boyle's much acclaimed 'Slumdog Millionaire', which tells the rags-to-riches story of a Mumbai slum dweller.
He got his first Oscar on the night of the 81st Academy Awards here for best original score for the Mumbai-based drama.
The composer was overwhelmed and interspersed his speech with Hindi as well as Tamil on receiving the coveted trophy here Sunday.
"There is a dialogue from an old Hindi film - "Mere paas ma hai" - which means I have nothing but a mother. My mother is here, I have her blessings. I am glad she could be here," said Rahman.
He ended the acceptance speech by saying "God is great" in Tamil, something he says after winning every award.
He shared the second Oscar for best original song for the film's theme number "Jai Ho" with noted Indian lyricist Gulzar.
"All my life I had a choice between hate and love. I chose love and I am here," said Rahman after receiving his second golden statuette.
Rahman had to overcome many hurdles on his path from his native Chennai (formerly Madras) in south India to the Kodak Theater for the Academy Awards ceremony.
After his musician father died when he was 9, his mother scraped out a living by renting out her husband's musical equipment. Rahman began supporting his family at age 11 as a keyboard player in south Indian film composer Ilaiyaraaja's ensemble, and later formed a rock band and toured with prominent Indian musicians like tabla maestro Zakir Hussain. He earned a scholarship to the Trinity College of Music in London, where he studied Western classical music. Back in India, he worked on advertising jingles until director Mani Ratnam tapped him to compose the score for the 1992 film 'Roja'. Rahman ended up changing the face of Indian film music by introducing Western styles like reggae, rarely heard on Indian soundtracks. "I think my philosophy of life is music is universal ... so I'm never closed to things," said Rahman. "Like some people say, 'Oh, I hate heavy metal,' or 'I hate jazz.' Why do you need to hate it? Why don't you appreciate it in a certain context." Western film composers began taking note of his work. Rahman's first major exposure to a larger Western audience came when Andrew Lloyd Webber asked him to write the songs for the 2002 London musical 'Bombay Dreams'. "Like any good artist, A.R. is not a traditionalist, he's a revolutionary. He uses all the revolutionary things that come from all over the world in his stuff ... hip-hop beats, electronics .. and there's an incredible inquisitiveness and playfulness in his music," said the Oscar-winning, German-born film composer Hans Zimmer. "Plus he writes a bloody good tune ,,, and at the end of the day it comes down to can the guy write a tune or not and obviously he can."
Indian music maestro A.R. Rahman became the first Indian to bag two Oscars for his work in British filmmaker Danny Boyle's much acclaimed 'Slumdog Millionaire', which tells the rags-to-riches story of a Mumbai slum dweller.
He got his first Oscar on the night of the 81st Academy Awards here for best original score for the Mumbai-based drama.
The composer was overwhelmed and interspersed his speech with Hindi as well as Tamil on receiving the coveted trophy here Sunday.
"There is a dialogue from an old Hindi film - "Mere paas ma hai" - which means I have nothing but a mother. My mother is here, I have her blessings. I am glad she could be here," said Rahman.
He ended the acceptance speech by saying "God is great" in Tamil, something he says after winning every award.
He shared the second Oscar for best original song for the film's theme number "Jai Ho" with noted Indian lyricist Gulzar.
"All my life I had a choice between hate and love. I chose love and I am here," said Rahman after receiving his second golden statuette.
Rahman had to overcome many hurdles on his path from his native Chennai (formerly Madras) in south India to the Kodak Theater for the Academy Awards ceremony.
After his musician father died when he was 9, his mother scraped out a living by renting out her husband's musical equipment. Rahman began supporting his family at age 11 as a keyboard player in south Indian film composer Ilaiyaraaja's ensemble, and later formed a rock band and toured with prominent Indian musicians like tabla maestro Zakir Hussain. He earned a scholarship to the Trinity College of Music in London, where he studied Western classical music. Back in India, he worked on advertising jingles until director Mani Ratnam tapped him to compose the score for the 1992 film 'Roja'. Rahman ended up changing the face of Indian film music by introducing Western styles like reggae, rarely heard on Indian soundtracks. "I think my philosophy of life is music is universal ... so I'm never closed to things," said Rahman. "Like some people say, 'Oh, I hate heavy metal,' or 'I hate jazz.' Why do you need to hate it? Why don't you appreciate it in a certain context." Western film composers began taking note of his work. Rahman's first major exposure to a larger Western audience came when Andrew Lloyd Webber asked him to write the songs for the 2002 London musical 'Bombay Dreams'. "Like any good artist, A.R. is not a traditionalist, he's a revolutionary. He uses all the revolutionary things that come from all over the world in his stuff ... hip-hop beats, electronics .. and there's an incredible inquisitiveness and playfulness in his music," said the Oscar-winning, German-born film composer Hans Zimmer. "Plus he writes a bloody good tune ,,, and at the end of the day it comes down to can the guy write a tune or not and obviously he can."
Saturday, January 24, 2009
a new leader
Obama: the first 100 hours
By Andrew Purcell in Washington
BARACK OBAMA spent his first 10 minutes in the Oval Office reading a note that had been left on the desk by George Bush. Courtesy observed, he set about dismantling his predecessor's legacy immediately. Whether the envelope, "To: Number 44, From: Number 43", contained an appeal to keep up the good fight in Iraq or tips on how to operate the White House boiler, it was the last counsel Obama will accept from a man who flew back to Crawford, Texas as the least-popular president ever.
America has a new boyfriend. For as long as the infatuation lasts, all he has to do is be different. An early official photo showed Obama smart casual, in a white shirt and light blue tie, breaking a Bush edict requiring jackets in the office. "Roll up your sleeves and join in the work of remaking this nation," read the imaginary thought bubble. His cuffs stayed buttoned but the look said "a clean break from business as usual" more effectively than any speech.
On Tuesday, two million people waited for hours in the gruelling cold, high on hope, to cheer the USA's first African-American president. They kept warm by booing Bush and dancing a disrespectful polka on his memory. Some threw spare pairs of shoes, others sang "na-na-naa-na, hey-hey-hey, goodbye". In the silver-ticket section, either side of Third Street, it was hard to separate the joy inspired by Obama's arrival from the sheer glee of showing Bush the door.
advertisement
Edna Wilkes had come with her grown-up daughter. "We've been waiting eight years. So when the subway opened at four o'clock this morning, we took the first train," she said. "It doesn't matter what Obama does first, because it has to be better than running the country into the ground."
Barbara Cummings, from San Diego, carried a placard reading "I Have A Dream." It showed Bush and Dick Cheney behind bars. "I have very high expectations but he needs to address the crimes of the Bush administration," she said. "It's like going into a house that was just obliterated by a tornado. Where do you even start to pick up the splinters?"
Obama's inaugural address announced his intention to be un-Bush. He is too slick, too careful to proclaim himself the anti-Bush, so the repudiation was couched in polite language, but it was no less powerful as a result. He urged Americans to reject the "false choice" between safety and ideals, to place their faith in science rather than ideology, and to accept that overwhelming military power does not "entitle us to do as we please".
On his first day in the job, he issued two executive orders and three presidential memorandums. These froze pay for executive officials, banned them from lobbying their former colleagues if they leave for the private sector, and relaxed confidentiality clauses that made it too easy for the government to suppress information. "Transparency and rule of law will be the touchstones of this presidency," he said. He also suspended all trials at Guantanamo Bay, not quite honouring a pledge to close the prison down.
At the back gate of the White House, 77-year-old peace campaigner Eve Tabaz was climbing into an orange jumpsuit and mask, ready to join four friends in a silent protest. "We are a nation of law. We do not torture. We do not oppress," she said. "I have high hopes, only if the people that were present at the inauguration will continue to express their horror that for the past eight years our constitution has been trampled underfoot. Let him come out and say no more'."
The next day, he did. "This morning, I signed three executive orders," he told reporters at a ceremony to swear in Hillary Clinton as Secretary Of State. "First, I can say without exception or equivocation that the United States will not torture. Second, we will close the Guantanamo Bay detention camp and determine how to deal with those who have been held there. And third, we will immediately undertake a comprehensive review to determine how to hold and try terrorism suspects to best protect our nation and the rule of law."
With a left-handed flourish, witnessed by a roomful of retired generals gathered for a photo opportunity, the whole system of rendition, "enhanced interrogation" and military tribunals had been put on notice. Where the remaining Guantanamo detainees will go and how they will be tried are questions for Clinton and Attorney General Eric Holder, assuming he is confirmed next week. As a Los Angeles Times editorial noted: "Obama put off many of the most difficult decisions."
For now, symbolism will suffice. The executive pay freeze was no more than a gesture. Together with the introduction of a daily economic briefing, similar to the intelligence updates he receives from the CIA, it was intended to show that Obama understands the pressure on middle-class Americans. "Families are tightening their belts," he said, "and so should Washington." The politically fraught business of passing a $900-billion stimulus plan that is acceptable to both parties has only just begun.
The government's willingness to throw huge sums of money at the crisis has inevitably created a queue of interest groups framing their demands in terms of economic necessity. To Al Gore, green energy is the remedy for all ills. Ted Kennedy has insisted that "healthcare can't wait".
George McGovern wrote a column in the Washington Post advising Obama to cut his losses in Afghanistan and invest the savings back home, to avoid suffering the same fate as the British Empire and the Soviet Union.
Microsoft's announcement of 5000 redundancies was a grim reminder that the economic collapse is more than a recession. Meeting with Congressional leaders on Friday, Obama reiterated his belief that America is facing an "unprecedented economic crisis that has to be dealt with, and dealt with rapidly."
There are precedents, of course. The most commonly cited, not least by Obama himself, is the Great Depression. This casts him as the second coming of Franklin D. Roosevelt, whose inaugural address is as appropriate at the moment as it was on March 4, 1933, despite sailing a little close to socialism for contemporary American tastes.
"Values have shrunk to fantastic levels, taxes have risen, our ability to pay has fallen, government of all kinds is faced by serious curtailment of income," Roosevelt said. "The withered leaves of industrial enterprise lie on every side the savings of many years in thousands of families are gone a host of unemployed citizens face the grim problem of existence, and an equally great number toil with little return. Only a foolish optimist can deny the dark realities of the moment."
Obama hopes to replicate the success of Roosevelt's first hundred days, in which Congress passed every piece of legislation he asked for, including the Emergency Banking Act, the Agricultural Adjustment Act, and a suspension of the gold standard.
New presidents usually enjoy a spell of bi-partisan goodwill, but it never lasts. Republicans complained about the level of government spending in the stimulus plan at Friday's meeting. Obama reportedly replied: "I won". He is determined to push through his legislative agenda, and popular enough to do so.
A USA Today poll found that by a margin of six to one, Americans feel more hopeful about the next four years than they did before Obama's inauguration. Leroy Collins drove 600 miles from Kokomo, Indiana for the event. "I work for Chrysler," he said. "I worry about my job every day and I'm gonna worry about it again tomorrow. But what's happening right now, as an African-American, is bigger than that, and I thank God that I could be here to see it."
Stallholders did brisk trade in T-shirts hailing Obama as the culmination of the civil rights struggle, a claim he avoids making for himself. "You don't got your merchandise, you don't got bragging rights," shouted one man. Another offered a "genuine photo of Obama and King in the Oval Office. It'll make you cry."
As we waited to get out of the Mall, lawyer James Ely, a Republican, told me :"I don't agree with him about a lot of things, but it's just a relief to have a president who respects the constitution again." Bush's final approval rating of 22% is the lowest since Nixon's at the height of the Watergate scandal. Obama inherits an economy in freefall, a trillion-dollar deficit and two wars with no obvious exit strategy. The gift wrapped in all this calamity is that compared to the last guy, he can only look good.
***
What do you think of the show so far?
ALEX SALMOND, FIRST MINISTERThe Scottish Cabinet marked Barack Obama's historic inauguration by interrupting our weekly meeting last Tuesday to watch live coverage of the event, which was truly epoch-making in the changes it represented for America and for the world.
The level of expectation thrust upon the new US President is enormous, but he is aware of that and ensured his inauguration speech was tempered with realism.
That address, with its message of hope triumphing over fear and its call for a new "era of responsibility" in addressing the challenges we face as a global society, was inspiring and pointed the way to President Obama's immediate priorities in office.
His rapid action in moving to end the military tribunals at Guantanamo Bay, coupled with the order signalling the closure of the facility itself, underlines his intention to back up words with action. Similarly, his phone calls on his very first day in office to various Middle Eastern leaders, including the President of the Palestinian Authority, show that the new President is determined to be an honest broker for peace in the region.
As I said immediately after President Obama's inauguration, his inauguration is a turning point and expectations are high - but it is always better to have high expectations than none at all.
JIM MURPHY, SECRETARY OF STATE FOR SCOTLANDOn Friday, I was in the Gorbals with the prime minister meeting apprentices when President Obama called to speak to Gordon. This was a fitting setting for their first conversation since the inauguration as on both sides of the Atlantic we are meeting the challenges of today by investing in the future.
The great quality of America's new president is his call to not shy away from the challenges and threats we face but to meet them head on. In speaking both to his fellow citizens and to the community of nations - including ours - Obama reminds us that the big things worth doing are rarely easy. Scots appreciate this; we have experience of overcoming adversity, finding new paths to success and keeping our hearts and minds warmed with a canny optimism.
ELAINE C SMITH, ACTRESSWhen I was a kid I always wanted to be American. Television made it look really glamorous and exciting, and it was a place that I always dreamed would be wonderful to live well I was in a mining village in Lanarkshire!
The reality of the US was a more mixed picture, of course. As I grew up, the spectacle of the Kennedy assassinations, race riots and Martin Luther King, Vietnam, Nixon and later "the twa Bushes" dampened much of the enthusiasm I once had.
The day Obama was inaugurated was the first time in many years that I wished I was in the US, and American. I wished I was part of it as I stood in front of my TV and cried.
What has happened there is truly momentous - not just because of Obama's colour but because of the type of man he is - intelligent, open, loving and a truth-seeker. The fact that non-believers were mentioned in his speech along with believers in religion demonstrated a tolerance not seen in our fundamentalist world for a long time.
The announcement on Guantanamo demonstrates that he is a President who understands that America is part of the world and that the rest of the planet is influenced by what the US does and says. In his first 100 days he can achieve much. He has so much goodwill and support that will carry and support all his decisions.
There is a Churchill quote which I love: "You can always count on the Americans to do the right thing, especially when they have exhausted every other opportunity".
America has done the right thing with Obama and the world can breath a sigh of relief at least for the first 100 days.
IAIN GRAY, HOLYROOD LABOUR LEADERObama has ticked most of the boxes: the right tone and message in his inauguration speech and immediate action on Guantanamo Bay and CIA prisons. He has sent out a clear message about human rights. Part of Obama's appeal is he connects on both a cerebral and visceral level. His family looked great on Capitol Hill and he showed he can shake it up on the dance floor.
What I admire in Obama is he has introduced the politics of thoughtfulness in the age of the glib soundbite. He is indeed a serious man for serious times. He is a unifier and has the potential to instigate real change both in America and on the world stage. Will he be able to fulfil it? You could easily list 100 reasons why not, but yes, he can.
TOM DEVINE, HISTORIANIt was important Obama kept faith with some of his key promises as early in his presidency as possible, and this he has done with fast and decisive action. Already he has established clear blue water between his administration and that of the discredited Bush regime.
I like his choice of key ministers and advisers; a mix of highly experienced people with glittering CVs and relative newcomers with considerable potential.
On the other hand, Obama has been elected on the basis of grossly inflated expectations at a time when the US faces a vast array of challenges. He will only be able to deliver, if at all, on a very few of these. One of the first things he should do is use his mastery of oratory to educate the American public about what is and is not possible.
STUART COSGROVE, BROADCASTERBarack Obama's inauguration was compelling and distracting in equal measure. I celebrated it in a bar at Manchester airport.
What struck me was the youthful exuberance, the elegant clothes, the choreographed dance steps but ,most of all, the profound break with racism.
It emphasised the importance of Washington DC. It exists on the cusp of north and south and in the words of funk musician George Clinton is a "chocolate city with vanilla suburbs".
I had the privilege of studying in DC and it was great to see the Howard University marching band striding down Pennsylvania Avenue.
Howard is one of the centres of African-American leadership and an institution whose day had come.
PHILIP SCHLESINGER, PROFESSOR IN CULTURAL POLICY, GLASGOW UNIVERSITYPresident Obama has made a promising start. From the dignity of his inauguration to his ease on the dance floor, he has told us something about who he is. His journey to highest office as an African-American of outstanding talent is truly inspiring.
Obama has quickly broken with the Bush years, signalling an end to the Guantanamo human rights abuses. He has begun to rectify a derelict US policy in the Middle East. Finding a diplomatic route to Iran is imperative. But will he get it right in Afghanistan? Can his administration turn round the US economy? The first days have given us hope in dark times ... for the first time in eight years we can welcome signs of truly intelligent life in the White House.
ARCHI MACPHERSON, WRITER, BROADCASTERI sat with white middle-class Americans in a house in Florida watching almost the entire day's proceedings and was struck not just by the uninhibited admiration they expressed for their new president, but by the display of anxiety for his safety which continually nags at their hopes for his success. When he alighted from his armoured car and started his walk down Pennsylvania Avenue, the hostess simply gasped: "Get back in the car for God's sake!". Those who adore him fear his uniqueness makes him especially vulnerable. Obama's coolness in the early hours and particularly his refusal to make light of Justice Steven's oath mix-up suggests that his first mode of protection from hostility will not be the Secret Service, but intellectual sobriety.
PROFESSOR ALAN MILLER, CHAIR, SCOTTISH HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION"It is to be hoped that the symbolism and signals from the early days of the Obama presidency have a far-reaching and lasting effect in contributing to the building of a better world for us all.
I could not help but feel whilst watching his inaugural speech that it was not so much that on that occasion "we were all Americans" but more that "we are all part of humanity" and that America was rejoining our common cause in building a better world for all.
This was not just because of the demonstrable break with the Bush presidency as illustrated by the executive orders to end some of the worst aspects of the "war on terror" such as the closure of Guantanamo, prohibition of torture and restatement of the rule of law at home and abroad.
Nor was it just because of witnessing the first African-American family in the White House although who could not have been moved by the dignity of the elderly black man in the Mall silently rising to his feet and raising his head to the sky when Obama recounted that only 60 years ago his own father could have been refused service in a Washington restaurant.
It is simply that in these early days Obama has reflected and appealed to the best instincts of us all - the instincts of common humanity.
His words that "As the world grows smaller, our common humanity shall reveal itself" resonated with myself as someone whose human rights work has taken me to many parts of the world and introduced me to many individuals from a diversity of nationalities, races and faiths and whose lives are so impacted by decisions made in the White House.
So, the pledges to embrace change and celebrate diversity of humanity, to promote global sustainable development and to combat climate change and restore science to its rightful place, to uphold international law and human values do recognise the needs of humanity in these challenging times.
Of course Obama remains to be tested in all of these pledges - and not least in contributing to a just and lasting peace in the Middle East.
He will not meet the expectations of all and is not a messiah but would appear to be more a builder of consensus for change.
Perhaps the most far-reaching and profound consequence of his presidency will ironically not be what he personally accomplishes. It will be what each and all of us do and particularly the new generation who are becoming energised and inspired to become active in seeking a better world. It is this generation which will need to go further than Obama will be able to do in his term of office.
This was captured by the response of a young African-American woman who responded to a sceptical BBC journalist by declaring "Don't you get it. It's Yes We Can, not Yes Obama Can!"
Personally, as a child of the 60s, this spirit reminds me of that era and it is the energising of that spirit which is the most significant early impact of the Obama presidency."
JUDITH ROBERTSON, OXFAM SCOTLANDIn his inauguration speech President Obama's said, " we can no longer afford indifference to the suffering outside our borders; nor can we consume the world's resources without regard to effect. For the world has changed, and we must change with it. "
One of the things that has to change is for the two billion people around the world who are living in poverty to be given the chances that so many take for granted. No one is suggesting that President Obama can wipe out global poverty in one hundred days but he should put down a marker that this issue is back on the agenda.
I would like to see President Obama introduce a package that puts in place effective and sufficient aid that would help support health and education in the developing world, also to introduce strong climate legislation in the US that not only cuts US emissions but provides significant assistance to the most poor and vulnerable communities both in his own country and around the world.
Such actions would create a better world not only for the lifetime of his presidency but beyond that. As the father of two young daughters the world's most powerful man has the chance to create a better world not only for them but also for millions of others around the globe.
GRAEME BROWN, DIRECTOR, SHELTER SCOTLANDThe unknowns always make walking into a new job a nervy business. But for Obama, his "known known" * to quote another American * was that he was taking on a country from which the global credit squeeze originated. Poor lending decisions as people reached to get on the property ladder led to the US sub-prime repossession crisis and the worldwide knock on effects.
His broad appeal certainly led to his overwhelming election success but a great many of his supporters are those in the inner cities; people who are poor and African Americans. For them, he needs to deliver a major public housing investment programme to help rebuild shattered communities.
The need to deliver social housing to pick up the fall-out from the burst bubble of the homeownership dream chimes loudly not just for the US, but also our own politicians. We can only hope that if Obama prioritises housing his people in their time of need that Scotland and the UK follow.
By Andrew Purcell in Washington
BARACK OBAMA spent his first 10 minutes in the Oval Office reading a note that had been left on the desk by George Bush. Courtesy observed, he set about dismantling his predecessor's legacy immediately. Whether the envelope, "To: Number 44, From: Number 43", contained an appeal to keep up the good fight in Iraq or tips on how to operate the White House boiler, it was the last counsel Obama will accept from a man who flew back to Crawford, Texas as the least-popular president ever.
America has a new boyfriend. For as long as the infatuation lasts, all he has to do is be different. An early official photo showed Obama smart casual, in a white shirt and light blue tie, breaking a Bush edict requiring jackets in the office. "Roll up your sleeves and join in the work of remaking this nation," read the imaginary thought bubble. His cuffs stayed buttoned but the look said "a clean break from business as usual" more effectively than any speech.
On Tuesday, two million people waited for hours in the gruelling cold, high on hope, to cheer the USA's first African-American president. They kept warm by booing Bush and dancing a disrespectful polka on his memory. Some threw spare pairs of shoes, others sang "na-na-naa-na, hey-hey-hey, goodbye". In the silver-ticket section, either side of Third Street, it was hard to separate the joy inspired by Obama's arrival from the sheer glee of showing Bush the door.
advertisement
Edna Wilkes had come with her grown-up daughter. "We've been waiting eight years. So when the subway opened at four o'clock this morning, we took the first train," she said. "It doesn't matter what Obama does first, because it has to be better than running the country into the ground."
Barbara Cummings, from San Diego, carried a placard reading "I Have A Dream." It showed Bush and Dick Cheney behind bars. "I have very high expectations but he needs to address the crimes of the Bush administration," she said. "It's like going into a house that was just obliterated by a tornado. Where do you even start to pick up the splinters?"
Obama's inaugural address announced his intention to be un-Bush. He is too slick, too careful to proclaim himself the anti-Bush, so the repudiation was couched in polite language, but it was no less powerful as a result. He urged Americans to reject the "false choice" between safety and ideals, to place their faith in science rather than ideology, and to accept that overwhelming military power does not "entitle us to do as we please".
On his first day in the job, he issued two executive orders and three presidential memorandums. These froze pay for executive officials, banned them from lobbying their former colleagues if they leave for the private sector, and relaxed confidentiality clauses that made it too easy for the government to suppress information. "Transparency and rule of law will be the touchstones of this presidency," he said. He also suspended all trials at Guantanamo Bay, not quite honouring a pledge to close the prison down.
At the back gate of the White House, 77-year-old peace campaigner Eve Tabaz was climbing into an orange jumpsuit and mask, ready to join four friends in a silent protest. "We are a nation of law. We do not torture. We do not oppress," she said. "I have high hopes, only if the people that were present at the inauguration will continue to express their horror that for the past eight years our constitution has been trampled underfoot. Let him come out and say no more'."
The next day, he did. "This morning, I signed three executive orders," he told reporters at a ceremony to swear in Hillary Clinton as Secretary Of State. "First, I can say without exception or equivocation that the United States will not torture. Second, we will close the Guantanamo Bay detention camp and determine how to deal with those who have been held there. And third, we will immediately undertake a comprehensive review to determine how to hold and try terrorism suspects to best protect our nation and the rule of law."
With a left-handed flourish, witnessed by a roomful of retired generals gathered for a photo opportunity, the whole system of rendition, "enhanced interrogation" and military tribunals had been put on notice. Where the remaining Guantanamo detainees will go and how they will be tried are questions for Clinton and Attorney General Eric Holder, assuming he is confirmed next week. As a Los Angeles Times editorial noted: "Obama put off many of the most difficult decisions."
For now, symbolism will suffice. The executive pay freeze was no more than a gesture. Together with the introduction of a daily economic briefing, similar to the intelligence updates he receives from the CIA, it was intended to show that Obama understands the pressure on middle-class Americans. "Families are tightening their belts," he said, "and so should Washington." The politically fraught business of passing a $900-billion stimulus plan that is acceptable to both parties has only just begun.
The government's willingness to throw huge sums of money at the crisis has inevitably created a queue of interest groups framing their demands in terms of economic necessity. To Al Gore, green energy is the remedy for all ills. Ted Kennedy has insisted that "healthcare can't wait".
George McGovern wrote a column in the Washington Post advising Obama to cut his losses in Afghanistan and invest the savings back home, to avoid suffering the same fate as the British Empire and the Soviet Union.
Microsoft's announcement of 5000 redundancies was a grim reminder that the economic collapse is more than a recession. Meeting with Congressional leaders on Friday, Obama reiterated his belief that America is facing an "unprecedented economic crisis that has to be dealt with, and dealt with rapidly."
There are precedents, of course. The most commonly cited, not least by Obama himself, is the Great Depression. This casts him as the second coming of Franklin D. Roosevelt, whose inaugural address is as appropriate at the moment as it was on March 4, 1933, despite sailing a little close to socialism for contemporary American tastes.
"Values have shrunk to fantastic levels, taxes have risen, our ability to pay has fallen, government of all kinds is faced by serious curtailment of income," Roosevelt said. "The withered leaves of industrial enterprise lie on every side the savings of many years in thousands of families are gone a host of unemployed citizens face the grim problem of existence, and an equally great number toil with little return. Only a foolish optimist can deny the dark realities of the moment."
Obama hopes to replicate the success of Roosevelt's first hundred days, in which Congress passed every piece of legislation he asked for, including the Emergency Banking Act, the Agricultural Adjustment Act, and a suspension of the gold standard.
New presidents usually enjoy a spell of bi-partisan goodwill, but it never lasts. Republicans complained about the level of government spending in the stimulus plan at Friday's meeting. Obama reportedly replied: "I won". He is determined to push through his legislative agenda, and popular enough to do so.
A USA Today poll found that by a margin of six to one, Americans feel more hopeful about the next four years than they did before Obama's inauguration. Leroy Collins drove 600 miles from Kokomo, Indiana for the event. "I work for Chrysler," he said. "I worry about my job every day and I'm gonna worry about it again tomorrow. But what's happening right now, as an African-American, is bigger than that, and I thank God that I could be here to see it."
Stallholders did brisk trade in T-shirts hailing Obama as the culmination of the civil rights struggle, a claim he avoids making for himself. "You don't got your merchandise, you don't got bragging rights," shouted one man. Another offered a "genuine photo of Obama and King in the Oval Office. It'll make you cry."
As we waited to get out of the Mall, lawyer James Ely, a Republican, told me :"I don't agree with him about a lot of things, but it's just a relief to have a president who respects the constitution again." Bush's final approval rating of 22% is the lowest since Nixon's at the height of the Watergate scandal. Obama inherits an economy in freefall, a trillion-dollar deficit and two wars with no obvious exit strategy. The gift wrapped in all this calamity is that compared to the last guy, he can only look good.
***
What do you think of the show so far?
ALEX SALMOND, FIRST MINISTERThe Scottish Cabinet marked Barack Obama's historic inauguration by interrupting our weekly meeting last Tuesday to watch live coverage of the event, which was truly epoch-making in the changes it represented for America and for the world.
The level of expectation thrust upon the new US President is enormous, but he is aware of that and ensured his inauguration speech was tempered with realism.
That address, with its message of hope triumphing over fear and its call for a new "era of responsibility" in addressing the challenges we face as a global society, was inspiring and pointed the way to President Obama's immediate priorities in office.
His rapid action in moving to end the military tribunals at Guantanamo Bay, coupled with the order signalling the closure of the facility itself, underlines his intention to back up words with action. Similarly, his phone calls on his very first day in office to various Middle Eastern leaders, including the President of the Palestinian Authority, show that the new President is determined to be an honest broker for peace in the region.
As I said immediately after President Obama's inauguration, his inauguration is a turning point and expectations are high - but it is always better to have high expectations than none at all.
JIM MURPHY, SECRETARY OF STATE FOR SCOTLANDOn Friday, I was in the Gorbals with the prime minister meeting apprentices when President Obama called to speak to Gordon. This was a fitting setting for their first conversation since the inauguration as on both sides of the Atlantic we are meeting the challenges of today by investing in the future.
The great quality of America's new president is his call to not shy away from the challenges and threats we face but to meet them head on. In speaking both to his fellow citizens and to the community of nations - including ours - Obama reminds us that the big things worth doing are rarely easy. Scots appreciate this; we have experience of overcoming adversity, finding new paths to success and keeping our hearts and minds warmed with a canny optimism.
ELAINE C SMITH, ACTRESSWhen I was a kid I always wanted to be American. Television made it look really glamorous and exciting, and it was a place that I always dreamed would be wonderful to live well I was in a mining village in Lanarkshire!
The reality of the US was a more mixed picture, of course. As I grew up, the spectacle of the Kennedy assassinations, race riots and Martin Luther King, Vietnam, Nixon and later "the twa Bushes" dampened much of the enthusiasm I once had.
The day Obama was inaugurated was the first time in many years that I wished I was in the US, and American. I wished I was part of it as I stood in front of my TV and cried.
What has happened there is truly momentous - not just because of Obama's colour but because of the type of man he is - intelligent, open, loving and a truth-seeker. The fact that non-believers were mentioned in his speech along with believers in religion demonstrated a tolerance not seen in our fundamentalist world for a long time.
The announcement on Guantanamo demonstrates that he is a President who understands that America is part of the world and that the rest of the planet is influenced by what the US does and says. In his first 100 days he can achieve much. He has so much goodwill and support that will carry and support all his decisions.
There is a Churchill quote which I love: "You can always count on the Americans to do the right thing, especially when they have exhausted every other opportunity".
America has done the right thing with Obama and the world can breath a sigh of relief at least for the first 100 days.
IAIN GRAY, HOLYROOD LABOUR LEADERObama has ticked most of the boxes: the right tone and message in his inauguration speech and immediate action on Guantanamo Bay and CIA prisons. He has sent out a clear message about human rights. Part of Obama's appeal is he connects on both a cerebral and visceral level. His family looked great on Capitol Hill and he showed he can shake it up on the dance floor.
What I admire in Obama is he has introduced the politics of thoughtfulness in the age of the glib soundbite. He is indeed a serious man for serious times. He is a unifier and has the potential to instigate real change both in America and on the world stage. Will he be able to fulfil it? You could easily list 100 reasons why not, but yes, he can.
TOM DEVINE, HISTORIANIt was important Obama kept faith with some of his key promises as early in his presidency as possible, and this he has done with fast and decisive action. Already he has established clear blue water between his administration and that of the discredited Bush regime.
I like his choice of key ministers and advisers; a mix of highly experienced people with glittering CVs and relative newcomers with considerable potential.
On the other hand, Obama has been elected on the basis of grossly inflated expectations at a time when the US faces a vast array of challenges. He will only be able to deliver, if at all, on a very few of these. One of the first things he should do is use his mastery of oratory to educate the American public about what is and is not possible.
STUART COSGROVE, BROADCASTERBarack Obama's inauguration was compelling and distracting in equal measure. I celebrated it in a bar at Manchester airport.
What struck me was the youthful exuberance, the elegant clothes, the choreographed dance steps but ,most of all, the profound break with racism.
It emphasised the importance of Washington DC. It exists on the cusp of north and south and in the words of funk musician George Clinton is a "chocolate city with vanilla suburbs".
I had the privilege of studying in DC and it was great to see the Howard University marching band striding down Pennsylvania Avenue.
Howard is one of the centres of African-American leadership and an institution whose day had come.
PHILIP SCHLESINGER, PROFESSOR IN CULTURAL POLICY, GLASGOW UNIVERSITYPresident Obama has made a promising start. From the dignity of his inauguration to his ease on the dance floor, he has told us something about who he is. His journey to highest office as an African-American of outstanding talent is truly inspiring.
Obama has quickly broken with the Bush years, signalling an end to the Guantanamo human rights abuses. He has begun to rectify a derelict US policy in the Middle East. Finding a diplomatic route to Iran is imperative. But will he get it right in Afghanistan? Can his administration turn round the US economy? The first days have given us hope in dark times ... for the first time in eight years we can welcome signs of truly intelligent life in the White House.
ARCHI MACPHERSON, WRITER, BROADCASTERI sat with white middle-class Americans in a house in Florida watching almost the entire day's proceedings and was struck not just by the uninhibited admiration they expressed for their new president, but by the display of anxiety for his safety which continually nags at their hopes for his success. When he alighted from his armoured car and started his walk down Pennsylvania Avenue, the hostess simply gasped: "Get back in the car for God's sake!". Those who adore him fear his uniqueness makes him especially vulnerable. Obama's coolness in the early hours and particularly his refusal to make light of Justice Steven's oath mix-up suggests that his first mode of protection from hostility will not be the Secret Service, but intellectual sobriety.
PROFESSOR ALAN MILLER, CHAIR, SCOTTISH HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION"It is to be hoped that the symbolism and signals from the early days of the Obama presidency have a far-reaching and lasting effect in contributing to the building of a better world for us all.
I could not help but feel whilst watching his inaugural speech that it was not so much that on that occasion "we were all Americans" but more that "we are all part of humanity" and that America was rejoining our common cause in building a better world for all.
This was not just because of the demonstrable break with the Bush presidency as illustrated by the executive orders to end some of the worst aspects of the "war on terror" such as the closure of Guantanamo, prohibition of torture and restatement of the rule of law at home and abroad.
Nor was it just because of witnessing the first African-American family in the White House although who could not have been moved by the dignity of the elderly black man in the Mall silently rising to his feet and raising his head to the sky when Obama recounted that only 60 years ago his own father could have been refused service in a Washington restaurant.
It is simply that in these early days Obama has reflected and appealed to the best instincts of us all - the instincts of common humanity.
His words that "As the world grows smaller, our common humanity shall reveal itself" resonated with myself as someone whose human rights work has taken me to many parts of the world and introduced me to many individuals from a diversity of nationalities, races and faiths and whose lives are so impacted by decisions made in the White House.
So, the pledges to embrace change and celebrate diversity of humanity, to promote global sustainable development and to combat climate change and restore science to its rightful place, to uphold international law and human values do recognise the needs of humanity in these challenging times.
Of course Obama remains to be tested in all of these pledges - and not least in contributing to a just and lasting peace in the Middle East.
He will not meet the expectations of all and is not a messiah but would appear to be more a builder of consensus for change.
Perhaps the most far-reaching and profound consequence of his presidency will ironically not be what he personally accomplishes. It will be what each and all of us do and particularly the new generation who are becoming energised and inspired to become active in seeking a better world. It is this generation which will need to go further than Obama will be able to do in his term of office.
This was captured by the response of a young African-American woman who responded to a sceptical BBC journalist by declaring "Don't you get it. It's Yes We Can, not Yes Obama Can!"
Personally, as a child of the 60s, this spirit reminds me of that era and it is the energising of that spirit which is the most significant early impact of the Obama presidency."
JUDITH ROBERTSON, OXFAM SCOTLANDIn his inauguration speech President Obama's said, " we can no longer afford indifference to the suffering outside our borders; nor can we consume the world's resources without regard to effect. For the world has changed, and we must change with it. "
One of the things that has to change is for the two billion people around the world who are living in poverty to be given the chances that so many take for granted. No one is suggesting that President Obama can wipe out global poverty in one hundred days but he should put down a marker that this issue is back on the agenda.
I would like to see President Obama introduce a package that puts in place effective and sufficient aid that would help support health and education in the developing world, also to introduce strong climate legislation in the US that not only cuts US emissions but provides significant assistance to the most poor and vulnerable communities both in his own country and around the world.
Such actions would create a better world not only for the lifetime of his presidency but beyond that. As the father of two young daughters the world's most powerful man has the chance to create a better world not only for them but also for millions of others around the globe.
GRAEME BROWN, DIRECTOR, SHELTER SCOTLANDThe unknowns always make walking into a new job a nervy business. But for Obama, his "known known" * to quote another American * was that he was taking on a country from which the global credit squeeze originated. Poor lending decisions as people reached to get on the property ladder led to the US sub-prime repossession crisis and the worldwide knock on effects.
His broad appeal certainly led to his overwhelming election success but a great many of his supporters are those in the inner cities; people who are poor and African Americans. For them, he needs to deliver a major public housing investment programme to help rebuild shattered communities.
The need to deliver social housing to pick up the fall-out from the burst bubble of the homeownership dream chimes loudly not just for the US, but also our own politicians. We can only hope that if Obama prioritises housing his people in their time of need that Scotland and the UK follow.
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Radiation sensor-installed mobiles may help thwart nuclear terrorismthwart nuclear terrorism.
Purdue University researchers in Indiana are developing a system to create an array of millions of cell phones, and install radiation sensors in them so that they may help detect and prevent terrorist attacks with radiological "dirty bombs" and nuclear weapons.
The project, being funded by the Indiana Department of Transportation, aims at installing radiation sensors in millions of mobile phones to facilitate the detection of even light residues of radioactive material.
It is believed that the network of cell phones may serve as a tracking system, given that the handsets these days already come equipped with global positioning locators.
"It's the ubiquitous nature of cell phones and other portable electronic devices that give this system its power. It's meant to be small, cheap and eventually built into laptops, personal digital assistants and cell phones," said physics professor Ephraim Fischbach, who is working with Jere Jenkins, director of Purdue's radiation laboratories within the School of Nuclear Engineering.
A Purdue alumnus and consulting instrumentation scientist named Andrew Longman is the man behind the new system. He has written software that integrates radiation detectors and cell phones.
Initial tests conducted last November have already proved the system to be capable of detecting a weak radiation source 15 feet from the sensors.
"The collective action of the sensors, combined with the software analysis, detects the source. The system would transmit signals to a data centre, and the data centre would transmit information to authorities without alerting the person carrying the phone," Fischbach said.
The system may be trained to ignore known radiation sources, such as hospitals, and radiation from certain common items like bananas, which contain a radioactive isotope of potassium.
"The radiological dirty bomb or a suitcase nuclear weapon is going to give off higher levels of radiation than those background sources," Fischbach said.
"The system would be sensitive enough to detect these tiny levels of radiation, but it would be smart enough to discern which sources posed potential threats and which are harmless," the researcher added.
Purdue University researchers in Indiana are developing a system to create an array of millions of cell phones, and install radiation sensors in them so that they may help detect and prevent terrorist attacks with radiological "dirty bombs" and nuclear weapons.
The project, being funded by the Indiana Department of Transportation, aims at installing radiation sensors in millions of mobile phones to facilitate the detection of even light residues of radioactive material.
It is believed that the network of cell phones may serve as a tracking system, given that the handsets these days already come equipped with global positioning locators.
"It's the ubiquitous nature of cell phones and other portable electronic devices that give this system its power. It's meant to be small, cheap and eventually built into laptops, personal digital assistants and cell phones," said physics professor Ephraim Fischbach, who is working with Jere Jenkins, director of Purdue's radiation laboratories within the School of Nuclear Engineering.
A Purdue alumnus and consulting instrumentation scientist named Andrew Longman is the man behind the new system. He has written software that integrates radiation detectors and cell phones.
Initial tests conducted last November have already proved the system to be capable of detecting a weak radiation source 15 feet from the sensors.
"The collective action of the sensors, combined with the software analysis, detects the source. The system would transmit signals to a data centre, and the data centre would transmit information to authorities without alerting the person carrying the phone," Fischbach said.
The system may be trained to ignore known radiation sources, such as hospitals, and radiation from certain common items like bananas, which contain a radioactive isotope of potassium.
"The radiological dirty bomb or a suitcase nuclear weapon is going to give off higher levels of radiation than those background sources," Fischbach said.
"The system would be sensitive enough to detect these tiny levels of radiation, but it would be smart enough to discern which sources posed potential threats and which are harmless," the researcher added.
Monday, January 21, 2008
nano technology
Innovations at the intersection of medicine, biotechnology, engineering, physical sciences and information technology are spurring new directions in R&D, commercialization and technology transfer. Basic research in nanomedicine and bionanotechnology is rapidly producing commercially viable products. Governments and industries across the globe are staking their claims by investing billions for research. Clearly, international rivalries are growing and political alliances and battle lines are beginning to gel.
Micro technology strives to build smaller devices; materials science strives to make more useful solids; chemistry strives to synthesize more complex molecules; manufacturing strives to make better products. Each of these fields requires precise, molecular control of complex structures to reach its natural limit, a goal that has been termed molecular nanotechnology. It has become clear that this degree of control can be achieved. The paper says about applications other than computation (describing 109-instruction-per-second submicron scale CPUs executing ~ 1016 instructions per second per watt)
Today's nanotechnology harnesses current progress in chemistry, physics, materials science, and biotechnology to create novel materials that have unique properties because their structures are determined on the nanometer scale. Some of these materials have already found their ways into consumer products, such as sun screens and stain-resistant pants. Others are being intensively researched for solutions to humanity's greatest problems — diseases, clean energy, clean water, etc. Other work is aimed at developing a roadmap for productive nanosystems, in which a path is sought from today's nanotechnology capabilities to advanced future systems in which molecular tools will build useful materials, devices, and complex systems to atomic precision.
INTRODUCTION
What is Nanotechnology?
The term "nanotechnology" has evolved over the years via terminology drift to mean "anything smaller than microtechnology," such as nano powders, and other things that are nanoscale in size, but not referring to mechanisms that have been purposefully built from nanoscale components.
Meaning of Nanotechnology
Nanotechnology can best be considered as a 'catch-all' description of activities at the level of atoms and molecules that have applications in the real world. Nanotechnology involves the use of man-made materials so small; they are measured on the scale of a nanometer. The word "Nano" is derived from the Greek word for Dwarf. It means "a billionth." A nanometer is a billionth of a meter, that is, about 1/80,000 of the diameter of a human hair, or 10 times the diameter of a hydrogen atom.
The ideas behind it are simple ones: Every substance on earth is made up of molecules composed of one or more atoms (the smallest particle of element); to describe the molecule that constitute a physical object & how they inter-relate is to say nearly everything important about the object. It follows, then, that if you can manipulate individual atoms & molecules & put them together in certain configuration.
Nanotechnology, more descriptively known as molecular manufacturing, involves the design, modeling, fabrication and manipulation of materials and devices at the atomic scale. It necessitates thorough spatial control of matter at the level of molecules and atoms, with capabilities to process and rearrange them into custom designs.
HISTORY OF NANOTECHNOLOGY
Richard Feynman was the first scientist to suggest that devices and materials could someday be fabricated to atomic specifications: "The principles of physics, as far as I can see, do not speak against the possibility of maneuvering things atom by atom."
An early promoter of the industrial applications of nanotechnology, Albert Franks, defined it as 'that area of science and technology where dimensions and tolerances in the range of 0.1nm to 100nm play a critical role'. In 1959, the great physicist Richard Feynman suggested that it should be possible to build machines small enough to manufacture objects with atomic precision.
The term nanotechnology was not used until 1974, when Norio Taniguchi, a researcher at the University of Tokyo, Japan used it to refer to the ability to engineer materials precisely at the nanometer level. Indeed, at IBM in the USA a technique called Electron Beam Lithography was used to create nanostructures and devices as small as 40-70nm in the early 1970's. It was not until the invention of the scanning tunneling microscope in 1985 that scientists were able to actually see atoms.
When Eric Drexler popularized the word 'nanotechnology' in the 1980's, he was talking about building machines on the scale of molecules, a few nanometers wide-motors, robot arms, and even whole computers, far smaller than a cell. In 1990, with Eric Drexler's 'Engines of Creation - the coming era of Nanotechnology', Nanotechnology entered the popular imagination with visions of molecular manufacturing guided by nanocomputers and fantastic advances in medicine and surgery carried out by Nanorobots. In 1996, Richard Smalley was awarded the Nobel Prize for his discovery of fullerenes and with the creation of the United States National Nanotechnology Initiative in 2000 Nanotechnology seemed truly possible.
BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO THE CORE CONCEPTS
The nanoscale mantra
Molecular Mechanics
Consider, however, the bearing illustrated in figures 1 and 2. Unlike the protein folding problem, where an astronomical range of configurations of similar energy are feasible, the bearing basically has only one configuration: a bearing. While the protein has many unconstrained torsions, there are no unconstrained torsions in the bearing.
A molecular bearing. The bearing taken apart.
APPLICATIONS OF NANOTECHNOLOGY
Gaining molecular-level control over the structure of matter will bring a wide variety of positive applications. Although nanotechnology is in the "pre-competitive" stage (meaning its applied use is limited) then to it has various applications such as: Nanoparticles are being used in a number of industries. Nanoscale materials are used in electronic, magnetic and optoelectronic, biomedical, pharmaceutical, cosmetic, energy, catalytic and materials applications.
AIIMS, IIT take nanotech route to cancer treatment
Nanotechology could help people avoid chemotherapy and radiotherapy now that experts at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) have jointly developed nano-particles that can kill cancer cells when injected in the body.
Scientists develop particles for delivering drugs to kill tumour cells while sparing healthy ones, thereby reducing side effects“Side effects like loss of hair, vomiting and renal damage can be avoided if only that particular area of the body which is cancerous is targeted. Once (the technology is) introduced, cancer cure will be high with least morbidity. Various infections and bone marrow suppressions can henceforth be avoided,” A K Dinda, Department of Pathology, AIIMS, said.
The nano-particular drug delivery system can be injected intravenously. At present, experts are working on breast and ovarian cancer, but cancer in other parts of the body will be focused on in due course.“We are trying to develop a xeno-transplantation (the transplantation of cells, tissues or organs from one species to another) model of breast cancer and test the nano-particles system in that. Nano-particles will be further developed for targeting other cancers,” Dinda added.
Disease and ill health are caused largely by damage at the molecular and cellular level, yet today's surgical tools are too large to deal with that kind of problem. If we can reduce the cost and improve the quality of medical technology through advances in nanotechnology, then we can more widely address the medical conditions that are prevalent and reduce the level of human suffering.
A nanotech solution to wrinkled skin
Those of us unhappy with our ageing skin may find solace in nanotechnology. Researchers who have discovered that nanoparticles prevent thin polymer films from buckling say their concept could be applied to stop human skin wrinkling too.
Nanoparticles are already marketed in cosmetic skin products; usually because they can penetrate much deeper into skin than conventional creams, delivering vitamins that are supposed to plump and soften the skin, reducing wrinkling.
Nanoparticles in a thin polyelectrolyte multilayer (PEM) film prevent buckling.
He speculates that wrinkle-free film could be sandwiched between protecting layers, to be used in artificial skins for surgery, or implanted onto a face. Another route involves a topical cream containing materials which act in human skin as the nanoparticles behave in thin films.
Homing nanoparticles pack multiple assault on tumors
Burnham Institute [profile] for Medical Research at UC Santa Barbara [profile] has developed nanoparticles that seek out tumors and bind to their blood vessels, and then attract more nanoparticles to the tumor target. Using this system the team demonstrated that the homing nanoparticle could be used to deliver a "payload" of an imaging compound, and in the process act as a clotting agent, obstructing as much as 20% of the tumor blood vessels.
Using a screening technique developed previously in Ruoslahti's laboratory, the group identified a peptide that homed to the blood vessels, or vasculature, inside breast cancer tumors growing in mice. The peptide was comprised of five amino acids: Cysteine-Arginine-Glutamic acid-Lysine-Alanine, abbreviated CREKA.
The researchers then demonstrated that the CREKA peptide recognizes clotted blood, which is present in the lining of tumor vessels but not in vessels of normal tissues. They used a special mouse strain that lacks fibrinogen, the main protein component of blood clots, to show this: tumors growing in these fibrinogen-deficient mice did not attract the CREKA peptide, whereas the peptide was detected in the tumors of a control group of normal littermates.
Having confirmed clotted blood as the binding site for CREKA, the team constructed nanoparticles from superparamagnetic amino dextran-coated iron oxide (SPIO); such particles are used in the clinic to enhance MRI imaging. They coupled the CREKA peptide to the SPIO particles to give the particles a tumor-homing function and programmed an additional enhanced imaging functionality into their nanoparticle by making it fluorescent.
On another level, food; the simple process of feeding the human population. Today because of technological limits there is a certain amount of food that we can produce per acre. If we were to have intensive greenhouse agriculture, which would be something we could do economically, if we could economically manufacture the appropriate computer controlled enclosures that would provide protection and would provide a very controlled environment for the growth of food we could have much higher production. It looks as though yields of over 10 times what we can currently grow per acre are feasible if you control, for example, the CO2 concentration, the humidity, the temperature, all the various factors that plants depend on to grow rapidly. If we control those, if we make those optimal for the growth of various crops then we can grow more per acre. And furthermore, we can grow it less expensively because molecular manufacturing technology is inherently low cost, and therefore it will let us grow more food more easily.
Sunscreens are utilizing nanoparticles that are extremely effective at absorbing light, especially in the ultra-violet (UV) range. Due to the particle size, they spread more easily, cover better, and save money since you use less. And they are transparent, unlike traditional screens which are white. These sunscreens are so successful that by 2001 they had captured 60% of the Australian sunscreen market.
Nanomaterials, which can be purchased in dry powder form or in liquid dispersions, often are combined with other materials today to improve product functionality.
Nature leads the way: The leaves of certain plants and the wings of insects always stay clean because dirt and water cannot adhere to their structured surface. In the same manner Self-cleaning principle on Nano textile are used such as Water, stains and other substances such as ketchup, honey, oil, red wine or blood simply run off the nano-surface.
Using aluminum Nanoparticles, Argonide has created rocket propellants that burn at double the rate. They also produce copper Nanoparticles that are incorporated into automotive lubricant to reduce engine wear.
To purify the indoor environment. The NanoBreeze Room Air Purifier uses patented photocatalytic nanotechnology to clean and purify indoor air. Technology consists Titanium dioxide (TiO2) crystals, only 40 nanometers in size, form a molecular machine powered by light. TiO2 is a semiconductor charged by ultraviolet photons.
Military equipment including clothing, armour, weapons, and personal communications will, thanks to low cost but powerful sensing and processing, be able to optimize their characteristics, operation and performance to meet changing conditions automatically.
Thai nanotechnologists found out technology of creating nano-fabrics after spending three long years and over Bt200 million. Earlier nanotechnologists tried this technology on sports shirts successfully. After its success in sports shirts, nanotechnologists are trying to introduce its technology in school uniforms. They are also trying to instill waterproofing and bacteria-preventing qualities in new nano-fabric products. It will also be sweat and dirt resistant and are easy to clean. This technology can also be used to improve colour quality of school uniforms.
Diamond has a better strength-to-weight ratio than steel or aluminum. Its strength-to-weight ratio is more than 50 times that of steel or aluminum alloy. So, it's much stronger and much lighter. If we had a shatterproof variant of diamond, we would have a remarkably light and strong material from which to make all of the products in the world around us. In particular, aerospace products -- airplanes or rockets -- would benefit immensely from having lighter, stronger materials. So we will have much lighter, much stronger materials, and this will reduce the cost of air flight, and it will reduce the cost of rockets. It will let us go into space for literally orders of magnitude lower cost.
ADVANTAGES
· By applying Nanotechnology, products can be 5 times as strong, 10 times as efficient, and millions of times compact -or better.
· Products can be designed in days and can be distributed in hours.
· Products can even be Pre-Designed.
· Nearly free consumer products
· PC's billions of times faster then today
· Safe and affordable space travel
· End of famine and starvation
· Superior education for every child on Earth
· Reintroduction of many extinct plants and animals
· Providing Renewable Clean Energy
· Supplying Clean Water Globally
· Improving Health and Longevity
· Making Information Technology Available To All
· Pollution free environment.
FUTURE OF NANOTECHNOLOGY
Within a decade, nanotechnology is expected to be the basis of $1 trillion worth of products in the United States alone and will create anywhere from 8, 00,000 to 2 million new jobs. "Nanotechnology will require you to radically rethink what your core business is, who your competitors are, what skills your workforce needs, how to train your employees, and how to think strategically about.
Even though it may sound far off at times, within the decade Nanotech will have huge effects on many practical industries, including manufacturing, health care, energy, agriculture, communications, transportations & electronics.
The industries that nanotechnology will likely disruptively affect in the near term include the following: (Amounts are in Billions of US Dollars).
$1,700 Healthcare $600 Long Term Care
$550 Electronics $550 Telecom
$480 Packaging $450 U.S. Chemical
$460 Plastics $182 Apparel
$180 Pharmaceutical $165 Tobacco
$100 Semiconductor $92 Hospitality / Restaurant
$90 US Insurance $80 Corrosion Removal
$83 Printing $57 US Steel
CONCLUSION
From a fundamental point of view we don't attempt to predict what will happen. What we can do is describe what is possible within the laws of known physics. Physics is well understood. Within that framework of well understood physical law we can describe some of the capabilities that we could develop, some of the things we could do, and we can describe systems that would be feasible. Quite likely by the time we actually develop such a system, there will be alternative designs that will be better.
Much as the invention of electricity and transistors were enabling technologies, so too is Nanotechnology (more precisely, nanoscale technologies) enabling - it will enable us to do radical new things in virtually every technological and scientific arena. It will also change things in unpredictable and unanticipated ways. Having learned lessons from their experiences with other revolutionary technologies, scientists (technologists and social scientists) are collaborating in examinating the implications of the developments that are beginning to take place, in an effort to both smooth the transitions, and to head off potential negative.
SO "Imagine a world in which microscopic procreating robots are sent into the human body with the mission of detecting cancer cells, disassembling them, and sending them out into the bloodstream as waste products. Then imagine similar robots in the hands of a sinister force that decides to turn an entire continent into gray dust. Science fiction or reality?" .
Micro technology strives to build smaller devices; materials science strives to make more useful solids; chemistry strives to synthesize more complex molecules; manufacturing strives to make better products. Each of these fields requires precise, molecular control of complex structures to reach its natural limit, a goal that has been termed molecular nanotechnology. It has become clear that this degree of control can be achieved. The paper says about applications other than computation (describing 109-instruction-per-second submicron scale CPUs executing ~ 1016 instructions per second per watt)
Today's nanotechnology harnesses current progress in chemistry, physics, materials science, and biotechnology to create novel materials that have unique properties because their structures are determined on the nanometer scale. Some of these materials have already found their ways into consumer products, such as sun screens and stain-resistant pants. Others are being intensively researched for solutions to humanity's greatest problems — diseases, clean energy, clean water, etc. Other work is aimed at developing a roadmap for productive nanosystems, in which a path is sought from today's nanotechnology capabilities to advanced future systems in which molecular tools will build useful materials, devices, and complex systems to atomic precision.
INTRODUCTION
What is Nanotechnology?
The term "nanotechnology" has evolved over the years via terminology drift to mean "anything smaller than microtechnology," such as nano powders, and other things that are nanoscale in size, but not referring to mechanisms that have been purposefully built from nanoscale components.
Meaning of Nanotechnology
Nanotechnology can best be considered as a 'catch-all' description of activities at the level of atoms and molecules that have applications in the real world. Nanotechnology involves the use of man-made materials so small; they are measured on the scale of a nanometer. The word "Nano" is derived from the Greek word for Dwarf. It means "a billionth." A nanometer is a billionth of a meter, that is, about 1/80,000 of the diameter of a human hair, or 10 times the diameter of a hydrogen atom.
The ideas behind it are simple ones: Every substance on earth is made up of molecules composed of one or more atoms (the smallest particle of element); to describe the molecule that constitute a physical object & how they inter-relate is to say nearly everything important about the object. It follows, then, that if you can manipulate individual atoms & molecules & put them together in certain configuration.
Nanotechnology, more descriptively known as molecular manufacturing, involves the design, modeling, fabrication and manipulation of materials and devices at the atomic scale. It necessitates thorough spatial control of matter at the level of molecules and atoms, with capabilities to process and rearrange them into custom designs.
HISTORY OF NANOTECHNOLOGY
Richard Feynman was the first scientist to suggest that devices and materials could someday be fabricated to atomic specifications: "The principles of physics, as far as I can see, do not speak against the possibility of maneuvering things atom by atom."
An early promoter of the industrial applications of nanotechnology, Albert Franks, defined it as 'that area of science and technology where dimensions and tolerances in the range of 0.1nm to 100nm play a critical role'. In 1959, the great physicist Richard Feynman suggested that it should be possible to build machines small enough to manufacture objects with atomic precision.
The term nanotechnology was not used until 1974, when Norio Taniguchi, a researcher at the University of Tokyo, Japan used it to refer to the ability to engineer materials precisely at the nanometer level. Indeed, at IBM in the USA a technique called Electron Beam Lithography was used to create nanostructures and devices as small as 40-70nm in the early 1970's. It was not until the invention of the scanning tunneling microscope in 1985 that scientists were able to actually see atoms.
When Eric Drexler popularized the word 'nanotechnology' in the 1980's, he was talking about building machines on the scale of molecules, a few nanometers wide-motors, robot arms, and even whole computers, far smaller than a cell. In 1990, with Eric Drexler's 'Engines of Creation - the coming era of Nanotechnology', Nanotechnology entered the popular imagination with visions of molecular manufacturing guided by nanocomputers and fantastic advances in medicine and surgery carried out by Nanorobots. In 1996, Richard Smalley was awarded the Nobel Prize for his discovery of fullerenes and with the creation of the United States National Nanotechnology Initiative in 2000 Nanotechnology seemed truly possible.
BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO THE CORE CONCEPTS
The nanoscale mantra
Molecular Mechanics
Consider, however, the bearing illustrated in figures 1 and 2. Unlike the protein folding problem, where an astronomical range of configurations of similar energy are feasible, the bearing basically has only one configuration: a bearing. While the protein has many unconstrained torsions, there are no unconstrained torsions in the bearing.
A molecular bearing. The bearing taken apart.
APPLICATIONS OF NANOTECHNOLOGY
Gaining molecular-level control over the structure of matter will bring a wide variety of positive applications. Although nanotechnology is in the "pre-competitive" stage (meaning its applied use is limited) then to it has various applications such as: Nanoparticles are being used in a number of industries. Nanoscale materials are used in electronic, magnetic and optoelectronic, biomedical, pharmaceutical, cosmetic, energy, catalytic and materials applications.
AIIMS, IIT take nanotech route to cancer treatment
Nanotechology could help people avoid chemotherapy and radiotherapy now that experts at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) have jointly developed nano-particles that can kill cancer cells when injected in the body.
Scientists develop particles for delivering drugs to kill tumour cells while sparing healthy ones, thereby reducing side effects“Side effects like loss of hair, vomiting and renal damage can be avoided if only that particular area of the body which is cancerous is targeted. Once (the technology is) introduced, cancer cure will be high with least morbidity. Various infections and bone marrow suppressions can henceforth be avoided,” A K Dinda, Department of Pathology, AIIMS, said.
The nano-particular drug delivery system can be injected intravenously. At present, experts are working on breast and ovarian cancer, but cancer in other parts of the body will be focused on in due course.“We are trying to develop a xeno-transplantation (the transplantation of cells, tissues or organs from one species to another) model of breast cancer and test the nano-particles system in that. Nano-particles will be further developed for targeting other cancers,” Dinda added.
Disease and ill health are caused largely by damage at the molecular and cellular level, yet today's surgical tools are too large to deal with that kind of problem. If we can reduce the cost and improve the quality of medical technology through advances in nanotechnology, then we can more widely address the medical conditions that are prevalent and reduce the level of human suffering.
A nanotech solution to wrinkled skin
Those of us unhappy with our ageing skin may find solace in nanotechnology. Researchers who have discovered that nanoparticles prevent thin polymer films from buckling say their concept could be applied to stop human skin wrinkling too.
Nanoparticles are already marketed in cosmetic skin products; usually because they can penetrate much deeper into skin than conventional creams, delivering vitamins that are supposed to plump and soften the skin, reducing wrinkling.
Nanoparticles in a thin polyelectrolyte multilayer (PEM) film prevent buckling.
He speculates that wrinkle-free film could be sandwiched between protecting layers, to be used in artificial skins for surgery, or implanted onto a face. Another route involves a topical cream containing materials which act in human skin as the nanoparticles behave in thin films.
Homing nanoparticles pack multiple assault on tumors
Burnham Institute [profile] for Medical Research at UC Santa Barbara [profile] has developed nanoparticles that seek out tumors and bind to their blood vessels, and then attract more nanoparticles to the tumor target. Using this system the team demonstrated that the homing nanoparticle could be used to deliver a "payload" of an imaging compound, and in the process act as a clotting agent, obstructing as much as 20% of the tumor blood vessels.
Using a screening technique developed previously in Ruoslahti's laboratory, the group identified a peptide that homed to the blood vessels, or vasculature, inside breast cancer tumors growing in mice. The peptide was comprised of five amino acids: Cysteine-Arginine-Glutamic acid-Lysine-Alanine, abbreviated CREKA.
The researchers then demonstrated that the CREKA peptide recognizes clotted blood, which is present in the lining of tumor vessels but not in vessels of normal tissues. They used a special mouse strain that lacks fibrinogen, the main protein component of blood clots, to show this: tumors growing in these fibrinogen-deficient mice did not attract the CREKA peptide, whereas the peptide was detected in the tumors of a control group of normal littermates.
Having confirmed clotted blood as the binding site for CREKA, the team constructed nanoparticles from superparamagnetic amino dextran-coated iron oxide (SPIO); such particles are used in the clinic to enhance MRI imaging. They coupled the CREKA peptide to the SPIO particles to give the particles a tumor-homing function and programmed an additional enhanced imaging functionality into their nanoparticle by making it fluorescent.
On another level, food; the simple process of feeding the human population. Today because of technological limits there is a certain amount of food that we can produce per acre. If we were to have intensive greenhouse agriculture, which would be something we could do economically, if we could economically manufacture the appropriate computer controlled enclosures that would provide protection and would provide a very controlled environment for the growth of food we could have much higher production. It looks as though yields of over 10 times what we can currently grow per acre are feasible if you control, for example, the CO2 concentration, the humidity, the temperature, all the various factors that plants depend on to grow rapidly. If we control those, if we make those optimal for the growth of various crops then we can grow more per acre. And furthermore, we can grow it less expensively because molecular manufacturing technology is inherently low cost, and therefore it will let us grow more food more easily.
Sunscreens are utilizing nanoparticles that are extremely effective at absorbing light, especially in the ultra-violet (UV) range. Due to the particle size, they spread more easily, cover better, and save money since you use less. And they are transparent, unlike traditional screens which are white. These sunscreens are so successful that by 2001 they had captured 60% of the Australian sunscreen market.
Nanomaterials, which can be purchased in dry powder form or in liquid dispersions, often are combined with other materials today to improve product functionality.
Nature leads the way: The leaves of certain plants and the wings of insects always stay clean because dirt and water cannot adhere to their structured surface. In the same manner Self-cleaning principle on Nano textile are used such as Water, stains and other substances such as ketchup, honey, oil, red wine or blood simply run off the nano-surface.
Using aluminum Nanoparticles, Argonide has created rocket propellants that burn at double the rate. They also produce copper Nanoparticles that are incorporated into automotive lubricant to reduce engine wear.
To purify the indoor environment. The NanoBreeze Room Air Purifier uses patented photocatalytic nanotechnology to clean and purify indoor air. Technology consists Titanium dioxide (TiO2) crystals, only 40 nanometers in size, form a molecular machine powered by light. TiO2 is a semiconductor charged by ultraviolet photons.
Military equipment including clothing, armour, weapons, and personal communications will, thanks to low cost but powerful sensing and processing, be able to optimize their characteristics, operation and performance to meet changing conditions automatically.
Thai nanotechnologists found out technology of creating nano-fabrics after spending three long years and over Bt200 million. Earlier nanotechnologists tried this technology on sports shirts successfully. After its success in sports shirts, nanotechnologists are trying to introduce its technology in school uniforms. They are also trying to instill waterproofing and bacteria-preventing qualities in new nano-fabric products. It will also be sweat and dirt resistant and are easy to clean. This technology can also be used to improve colour quality of school uniforms.
Diamond has a better strength-to-weight ratio than steel or aluminum. Its strength-to-weight ratio is more than 50 times that of steel or aluminum alloy. So, it's much stronger and much lighter. If we had a shatterproof variant of diamond, we would have a remarkably light and strong material from which to make all of the products in the world around us. In particular, aerospace products -- airplanes or rockets -- would benefit immensely from having lighter, stronger materials. So we will have much lighter, much stronger materials, and this will reduce the cost of air flight, and it will reduce the cost of rockets. It will let us go into space for literally orders of magnitude lower cost.
ADVANTAGES
· By applying Nanotechnology, products can be 5 times as strong, 10 times as efficient, and millions of times compact -or better.
· Products can be designed in days and can be distributed in hours.
· Products can even be Pre-Designed.
· Nearly free consumer products
· PC's billions of times faster then today
· Safe and affordable space travel
· End of famine and starvation
· Superior education for every child on Earth
· Reintroduction of many extinct plants and animals
· Providing Renewable Clean Energy
· Supplying Clean Water Globally
· Improving Health and Longevity
· Making Information Technology Available To All
· Pollution free environment.
FUTURE OF NANOTECHNOLOGY
Within a decade, nanotechnology is expected to be the basis of $1 trillion worth of products in the United States alone and will create anywhere from 8, 00,000 to 2 million new jobs. "Nanotechnology will require you to radically rethink what your core business is, who your competitors are, what skills your workforce needs, how to train your employees, and how to think strategically about.
Even though it may sound far off at times, within the decade Nanotech will have huge effects on many practical industries, including manufacturing, health care, energy, agriculture, communications, transportations & electronics.
The industries that nanotechnology will likely disruptively affect in the near term include the following: (Amounts are in Billions of US Dollars).
$1,700 Healthcare $600 Long Term Care
$550 Electronics $550 Telecom
$480 Packaging $450 U.S. Chemical
$460 Plastics $182 Apparel
$180 Pharmaceutical $165 Tobacco
$100 Semiconductor $92 Hospitality / Restaurant
$90 US Insurance $80 Corrosion Removal
$83 Printing $57 US Steel
CONCLUSION
From a fundamental point of view we don't attempt to predict what will happen. What we can do is describe what is possible within the laws of known physics. Physics is well understood. Within that framework of well understood physical law we can describe some of the capabilities that we could develop, some of the things we could do, and we can describe systems that would be feasible. Quite likely by the time we actually develop such a system, there will be alternative designs that will be better.
Much as the invention of electricity and transistors were enabling technologies, so too is Nanotechnology (more precisely, nanoscale technologies) enabling - it will enable us to do radical new things in virtually every technological and scientific arena. It will also change things in unpredictable and unanticipated ways. Having learned lessons from their experiences with other revolutionary technologies, scientists (technologists and social scientists) are collaborating in examinating the implications of the developments that are beginning to take place, in an effort to both smooth the transitions, and to head off potential negative.
SO "Imagine a world in which microscopic procreating robots are sent into the human body with the mission of detecting cancer cells, disassembling them, and sending them out into the bloodstream as waste products. Then imagine similar robots in the hands of a sinister force that decides to turn an entire continent into gray dust. Science fiction or reality?" .
Saturday, January 19, 2008
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