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nanotimes Content | Editor‘s Letter Content Dear Readers,

Breakthrough in Nanocomposite for High-Capacity Hydrogen Storage (57)

Watchlist New Thermal Material Companies

News in Brief EU-Projects

Events 2011 Cartoon Corner Trends | Quotes Imprint 06 – 07 08 – 09

10 – 49 50 – 83 84 – 85

86 – 91 92 93 – 94 95

this edition again covers the most relevant news in the field over the past weeks. Especially note- worthy are the latest Austrian computer simu- lations to Rare Earths [page 80]. The Austrian computer simulations show deformations in the crystal lattice of Rare Earths. Thereby, the use of these special and, most importantly, expensive materials can be optimised.

Facing the restrictive export politics of the current major producer China for almost a year, this is a very important insight for the Western world. A company like MOLYCORP (NYSE: MCP), a Rare Earth Oxide (REO) producer in the Western hemisphere and owner of Rare Earth project out- side of China, needs up to 1 or 2 years to moder- nize and expand its old mines where Molycorp stopped removing ore in 2002.

I find it too bad that over the past few years the European Union only started to seriously think about a strategy for securing raw materials. That way, we lost time.

Fukushima reveals again the vulnerability of our system. Failures and catastrophes can imply chan- ces for companies and governments – if they are recognized as such. Especially the possibilities in high technology, particularly micro- and nano- technology, are exploited to only some extent. It was already at the beginning of the 1990s that

11-02/03 :: February / March 2011

Editor‘s Letter