Previous work in this field has largely focused on using electron energy-loss spectroscopy (EELS) to detect single lanthanide metal atoms and light atoms like carbon. However, EELS can only be applied to certain elements thanks to the high-energy beams used in this method that can damage samples. Nobel metals, such as gold and platinum, are also difficult to detect with high sensitivity using EELS – a major drawback when it comes to investigating meteorites, catalytic clusters or anticancer drugs, where only a very small number of noble metals are looked at in any given sample.

But there's a problem because at the nanometre scale, the electronic properties of silicon can depend on the precise location of only a few dopants. That's difficult to control and causes wide variation in device performance.

Consequently, nobody has been able to make reliable diodes, transistors or logic gates out of silicon nanowires.

Today, Massimo Mongillo et amis at the Universite Joseph Fourier, Grenoble, in France demonstrate a way out of this conundrum. These guys show how to fabricate diodes and transistors from undoped silicon nanowires and how how such devices can be wired together to make logic gates.

2) Equality
All human beings are equal
People of all religions and races are welcome in Sikh Gurdwaras.
Women have equal status with men in religious services and ceremonies.

3) Human Life Precious Above Other Life
The human life is supreme and it is through this life that we can achieve oneness with God's will. Finding God in this life and living by his commands helps us to attain God's mercy.

4) Defending Against Injustice
Sikhs are a peace loving people and stand for Truth and Justice Guru Gobind Singh Ji said, "It is right to use force as a last resort when all other peaceful means fail."

Peter Higgs will likely get the Nobel Prize as will the researchers that confirmed his theories; Europe will become a Mecca of particle physics and science research. That will impact their educational curriculum, pedagogy and how they prepare their students to meet the demand of a complex world, learning how to problem solve, a skill becoming bereft in the US relegating evolution to "just [a] theory," the earth to 6,000 years old and the universe much younger despite the knowledge of light speed and the time it takes images to travel vast distances.

Unlike Star Trek, we won't evolve to just do science research for the greater good.

Such fantasies will be the providence of poets...and Trekkies.

Technology Review asked the prominent climate scientist, Thomas Karl, director of the National Climatic Data Centerin Asheville, North Carolina, to weigh in.

1. What's causing the recent heat waves and droughts?

This heat wave has a contribution from human activities, and you can expect these kinds of things to become even more extreme during both your and my lifetimes as we continue to increase greenhouse gases. As temperatures warm, they affect extreme weather events. It's quite clear that we're seeing, not only here in the U.S., but across the globe, events that we've never before witnessed in our instrumental record, and it's quite apparent there's a human contribution.

This was the second hearing that has been held this year on the nation’s supply of helium, driven by the very real concern that a legislative mandate will worsen already significant supply and price fluctuations. In May, the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources held a hearing on S. 2374, the Helium Stewardship Act of 2012. This 15-page bill, introduced by Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) would require changes in the management of the nation’s federal helium reserve in Texas. Indicative of the interest there is in this problem are the nineteen Democratic and Republican senators, with a wide range of political philosophies, who have cosponsored this bill.

The July 20 House hearing demonstrated similar bipartisan concern. In his opening comments, Subcommittee Chairman Doug Lamborn (R-CO) spoke of the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) helium reserve and its impending closure, calling helium “vital to national security,” and warning of the “significant economic disruption” there will be to American manufacturers. Of note, he spoke of a global shortage of Helium-3. “The impending shortage of helium and H-3 could have disastrous consequences for U.S. industries that are dependent on helium to innovate, manufacture, and provide jobs for Americans,” Lamborn said. “Having identified these issues, the question is what is the solution? Clearly, Congress cannot simply allow this huge economic dislocation and national security threat, when action can be taken on alternatives. However, neither can Congress simply continue along in the process that has resulted in this critical juncture.”

Scientists have suggested that it might be possible to improve this ratio by exploiting Mott insulators in transistors. Mott insulators are materials that should behave as metals according to conventional band theories but that act as insulators under certain conditions owing to quantum-mechanical correlations between neighbouring electrons. For reasons that are complex and not entirely understood, however, sudden phase transitions can be induced between the insulating state and the metallic state. Among other things, this metal–insulator transition can be induced by an electric field. While the gate voltage in an ordinary transistor simply modulates the resistance of a semiconductor, the gate voltage in a Mott transistor could turn an insulator into a metal.

The study of quantum dots began in the 1980s. Quantum dots are very small amounts of semiconductor material (nanoparticles) whose size affects the allowed energy levels of the material. The electrons of the material usually reside in the lowest band of energy levels called the valence band. When the electron absorbs energy it is excited to a higher band of energy levels, levels called the conduction band, leaving behind an empty spot known as a hole. When the electron returns to the lower valence energy level it emits energy. How far apart the valence band and conduction band are depends on the size of the particle. The size of the particle controls what is known as the confinement energy, Figure 1. This means that the size of the particle can be used to control the different types of light the particles absorb and emit. Quantum dots have been created that absorb ultraviolet light and emit all of the colors of the rainbow depending on their size, rather than just what it is made of.

Quantum Dots and Cells

How does the quantum dot make a neuron fire? When a quantum dot is excited by light shining on it, it becomes polarized so that one part of the material is more positive and the other is more negative. This in turn sets up an electric field, which can interact with a neuron or other cell of interest. How strong that interaction is depends on how close the polarized quantum dot is to the cell. The closer it is, the stronger the interaction. The strength of the interaction also depends on the type of ion channel on the cell membrane. If the field set up by the quantum dot is strong enough, it can cause the ion channels to open and a transfer of ions out of and into the cell. For a neuron, this is "firing" the neuron or switching it on.