2 ToC | Editor‘s Letter 

Watchlist 6-12 Bosch – Research Grants 12-13 Companies 14-41 News in Brief 42-91 EU-Projects 92-95 Events 2012/13 96-101 Cartoon Corner 102 Quotes 103-105 Imprint 105

"Capitalism has created the highest standard of living ever known on earth. The evidence is incontrovertible." Ayn Rand

Dear Readers,

This is our late summer edition of the nanotimes magazine. We again have consolidated the most important and outstanding news. I find the work of Ken Donaldson at the University of Edinburgh (UK) very impressive. The findings were published in Toxicological Sciences. The outcome was that lung cells were not affected by short fibres that were less than five-thousandths of a millimetre long. However, longer fibres can reach the lung cavity, where they become stuck and cause disease [page 91].

The results again show that size, the material itself and the environment decisively determine the toxicity of nanomaterials. Therefore, you can‘t say that everything what's nano is toxic across the board. You can't even demonize nanoparticles in food straight away (please see an interesting discussion paper on the subject by IFPRI, Agricultural, Food, and Water Nanotechnologies for the Poor).

Some interesting news comes from Germany: German researchers found a way to stick Teflon and silicone together. Material scientists will be happy to hear about it [page 42].

The lightest material in the world until today called Styrofoam was now replaced by Aerographite, a network of porous carbon tubes that is three-dimensionally interwoven. It is 75 times lighter than Styrofoam! This is an amazing research success [page 50].

The situation especially in Europe remains economically tense according to the motto: no pain, no game, make hard decisions and move on. US companies are preparing for what was once unthinkable: that Greece will leave the eurozone. And The Economist calculates the options for breaking up the Euro.

Unfortunately, Europeans are prone to whitewash critical issues too often and are too slow for today's economic developments. In contrast, Americans are much clearer and more rigorous. If a company doesn‘t generate the expected turnover then hard decisions are made and the long-term business plan will be amended accordingly. Even closing a business is always an option. We try to save something that has already drowned. Therefore, I say: make hard decisions and move on. No pain, no GAIN.

Thomas Ilfrich