Wouldn’t it be great to change the colour of your car depending on your mood? Passion red on a hot date, indigo blue for a corporate meet, killer black for a business deal….well, new material technology can make this happen for you. 

Here’s how the quick-change paint works:

While you drive, pushing a button sends electric current through a special polymer paint containing paramagnetic nanoparticles. The current creates a magnetic field that affects the spacing of crystals within the particles, which changes their ability to reflect light…and voila! A white car becomes Steelers black…or Cardinals red.

Nearly two-dozen podcasts on “Materials Around Us” and “The Science of Materials” are available on Materials Radio to bring the excitement of materials to middle school students, parents and teachers. Visit www.materialsradio.com for free downloads.

If you are looking for a link to the nanotech research centres in India, You’ll find a list here

Universities and research centres in India

Meanwhile admissions to Phd programs have started in most IITs in India.

Here’s a link to the Phd announcements at IIT Guwahati

Mark your calendars for the Kerala International Nanotech Conference in Kochi 

Date: 2nd week of August 2009.
Venue: Gokulam Park Kochi
In association with the Chamber of Commerce & Industry
Check link for more details

The Electrochemical Materials Science Division of the Central Electrochemical Research Institute in Karaikodi is looking for a Junior Research Scientist.

Required a Junior Research Fellow to work in DST sponsored project on “Development of nanoscale multilayered and nanocomposite super hard coatings by reactive magnetron sputtering for bio medical applications.
Position : JRF (Project)
No. of position : 01
Qualification : I Class M.Sc Chemistry/Physics/Materials Science
preferably with NET /GATE.
Desirable : Preference will be given to those who have research
background and working knowledge in vacuum
coating and characterization of thin films

Stipend : Rs.12,000/-p.m + HRA

Walk in interview will be held at CECRI,Karaikudi on 29-01-2009.

Contact
Dr B.SUBRAMANIAN
Scientist
Electrochemical Materials Science Division
Central Electrochemical Research Institute
 

If you want to know whether the Obama government will be nano friendly or not, here is a post about nano lessons for Obama. The blog suggests that since science is a long term project and as politics and science have never really mixed, the nanoscene it seems, is not very optimistic. After all, there are other more urgent political issues, terrorism and economy for starters. But there are lessons to be learnt from the Blair government suggests Cientifica.

Mmm I read somewhere about Moscow investing billions of dollars to be used in the military warfare on the rapid development of nanotechnology to achieve leadership in the world market. Now, why do I have this uncanny feeling that Obama will want to jump into playing the leadership game.

Here is some green news for your stimulation. Green tea gets greener by getting ready to adopt renewable energy. The effective use of solar, bio fuel and micro-hydel energy would not only reduce manufacturing cost but also  help reduce pollution and protect the ecosystem. The Tea Board of India and West Bengal Green Energy Development Corporation (WBGEDC) have jointly decided to prepare an energy efficient package, to be submitted to the Centre. WBGEDC managing director S. P. Gonchoudhuri said they held a meeting with tea board officials and several tea associations to discuss adoption of green energy in tea gardens.

 ”We and the tea board will prepare a plan, which will be submitted to the Centre. The package will seek to reduce existing levels of energy consumption to maintain the eco-system of the Hills,” he said.

The Indian Tea Association secretary-general Monojit Dasgupta said they were very interested in using renewable energy sources in the tea industry. “The use of solar energy in the industry was planned earlier, too, but the usage cost was high. Now, there are subsidy schemes available for these energy sources,” he said. >>More Energy News

Algae is the new weed in vogue. Toted as the answer to the looming energy crisis, this new biofuel seems to be the all green solution everybody is looking for. And several startups, biofuel companies, governments and investors are already pouring millions of dollars into it.

There are many crops that are currently used for oil production such as soy, palm, corn and jatropha but as the worldchanging website reports, unlike these crops algae contain as much as 50% oil. Once algae is grown, harvested and pressed to extract the oil, the remaining residue can be processed into ethanol, or burned directly in a power plant. The oil can then be processed into biodiesel using the ethanol (or methanol from another source). The National Renewable Energy Lab also believes jet fuel from certain strains of algae is possible.

In India,  Growdiesel has created a detailed business model for Indian Railways to cultivate 40000 Ha of its spare land with Jatropha, convert Jatropha oil to biodiesel & use the biodiesel to run rail engines.