"PHOTONIC: Unnatural optics create precise photonic lens"
Optical experiments using arrays of nanowires are demonstrating that the concept of a negative refractive index could be realized in practical systems. The work, done at Purdue University, attempts to reproduce results similar to those shown last year at the University of California at San Diego using microwave radiation. A negative refractive index, which is not found in nature, would allow scientists to construct new types of microscopes with unprecedented resolution and could allow the creation of novel photonic devices.

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Story in EE Times: http://eet.com/at/news/OEG20020826S0041

"MRAMs: Nanoscale metal deposition eyed for magnetic tunnel junctions"
A new technique for fabricating magnetic tunnel junctions would enable magnetoresistive random-access memories (MRAMs) to be economically manufactured, according to researchers here at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. Acting on theoretical evidence uncovered by Sandia National Laboratory solid-state theorist Dwight Jennison, PNNL chief scientist Scott Chambers formed atomically flat crystalline films of metal measuring only a few atoms thick on sapphire (aluminum oxide).

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"SUB-NANO: Adaptive electron scope makes angstrom-scale measures"
Using adaptive optics techniques employed by advanced astronomical telescopes, researchers at IBM Corp.'s Thomas J. Watson Research Center have developed an electron microscope that can make sub-angstrom measurements in finer detail using less power than previous systems.

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Story in EE Times: http://www.eet.com/at/news/OEG20020807S0020

"Q-BITS: Quantum computer called possible with today's tech"
Researchers at the University of Wisconsin in Madison claim to have created the world's first successful simulation of a quantum-computer architecture that uses existing silicon fabrication techniques. By harnessing both vertical and horizontal tunneling through dual top and bottom gates, the architecture lays out interacting, 50-nanometer-square, single-electron quantum dots across a chip.

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Story in EE Times: http://www.eet.com/at/news/OEG20020806S0030