Декабрь 2008 г.

Российская наука и мир (по материалам зарубежной электронной прессы)

CONTENTS / ОГЛАВЛЕНИЕ


• RUSNANO Signs Agreements on Cooperation with Leading Russian Scientific Institutions
• Russian Companies Establish Joint Venture for Next-Generation Lighting Systems
• Russia and Finland sign nanotechnology cooperation agreement
• PolyU gears up for Sino-Russian Interplanetary Space Mission
• Japan unveils "space beer"
• Russians track wayward U.S. spy satellite
• Temperature response in the Altai lags solar forcing
• Moscou refuse de vendre son "droit à polluer"
• Under Frozen Lake in Siberia, Geoscientists Drill For Secrets of Earth's Ancient Climate
• Moscou prépare l'après-pétrole avec les nanotechnologies

Российская корпорация нанотехнологий (Роснано), Российская академия наук и Московский государственный университет подписали соглашение о сотрудничестве в области развития наноиндустрии.

Russian corporation of nanotechnologies signed agreements on cooperation with the leading Russian scientific institutions: Russian Academy of Science (RAS) and Moscow State University (MSU). The documents were signed by RUSNANO Director General Anatoly Chubais, president of the Russian Academy of science Yuri Osipov and MSU rector Viktor Sadovnichiy.
The Deputy Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation Sergey Ivanov and Minister of Education and Science of the Russian Federation Andrey Fursenko took part in the signing ceremony.
Under the terms of agreement, Russian Academy of Science will assist RUSNANO in defining the key directions for development of the nanoindustry by using the methodology of scientific and technical forecast (foresight) in various hi-tech industries. To enable this, the exchange of scientific and technical information, creation and unification of information databases on scientific and technical developments and innovative projects in the field of nanotechnologies, nanomaterials and nanosystems, are conceived.
The sides will cooperate on the selection and realization of projects aimed at commercialization of nanotechnologies, nanomaterials and nanosystems, on providing the conditions for development of competitive scientific and technical schools in Russia. To achieve these goals, RUSNANO and RAS will be jointly training professionals for nanoindustry and attracting young specialists, post-graduate students and post-doctoral researchers to the field of nanotechnologies.
RUSNANO and MSU will cooperate on the development of innovative infrastructure for nanoindustry, preparation and realization of the innovative nanotechnological projects in its early stages; on the implementation of educational projects on retraining and advanced training of professionals for nanoindustry. RUSNANO will use the expert potential of MSU's scientists for project expertise and will lure the university laboratories to the RUSNANO's certification center activity.
The sides have agreed on creation of the Innovation Center for Nanotechnologies, which will serve as a base for development and pilot production. This will allow to breach the existing gap between the results of research and their practical implementation. The Center will function as an infrastructure base for realization of RUSNANO and MSU nanotechnological projects.

Российская корпорация нанотехнологий (Роснано), частный инвестиционный фонд "Онэксим" и Уральский оптико-механический завод им. Э.С.Яламова создадут совместную компанию по производству светотехники нового поколения. Цель проекта - создание высокотехнологичного промышленного производства систем освещения нового поколения на основе полупроводниковых чипов нитрида галлия, разработанных российскими учеными.

(Nanowerk News) RUSNANO, ONEXIM and the Ural Optical and Mechanical Plant establish the joint company to manufacture the new generation lighting products. The establishing documents have been signed by Anatoly Chubais, Director General of the Russian Corporation of Nanotechnologies (RUSNANO), Mikhail Prokhorov, President of "ONEXIM Group" Ltd. and Sergey Maksin, Director General of the Ural Optical and Mechanical Plant (UOMP).
The project is aimed at creating a highly technological industrial production of a new generation lighting systems based on the gallium nitride semiconductor chips. The final product will be LED chips, LED lamps and lighting systems, the brightness of which is comparable with the best world analogues. The record low amount of defects in semiconductor layers allows the devices to work without losing effectiveness with high-density currents, enabling the good brightness to price ratio for LED chips. The unique chip production technology was created by the founders of the German-Finnish company OptoGAN Vladislav Bougrov and Maxim Odnoblyudov who were students of the Nobel prize winner, member of the Russian Academy of Science (RAS) Zhores Alferov. The successful establishment of a new enterprise will allow to return one of the most promising projects developed by the Russian scientists back to Russia.
The total value of the Corporation's investment into the project will reach 1 776 million rubles, 323 million rubles of which will be given in the form of a contribution to the chartered capital and 1 453 million rubles in the form of a loan. RUSNANO's equity share in the joint company will be equal to 17%, UOMP's share will be 33% - 1 share, ONEXIM Group's share will be 50% + 1 share. It is expected that the annual revenue will reach about 6 000 million rubles by 2013. Industrial production of heterostructures (multilayer structures consisting of semiconductors with different zone structure and varying lattice parameters) will be situated in Saint-Petersburg within the special economic zone. The LED chips, lamps and lighting products assembly will be located in Yekaterinburg, on the basis of the lighting products subdivision of the Ural Optical and Mechanical Plant.
The project received a positive resolution from scientific & technical, patent, and production-technological expertise arranged by RUSNANO. The attractiveness of the project from the investment point of view was also confirmed by experts. Development of LED lighting products is a very promising direction for investment due to high rates of market growth because of increasing consumer demand. The lighting products based on the semiconducting nanoheterostructures substitutes the traditional light sources, such as incandescent, fluorescent and other lamps. Using the LEDs will allow to reduce significantly the consumption of electric power and increase the simplicity of lighting systems' operation. It will also free up quite an amount of power capacity.
Reference
LEDs or light emitting diodes are semiconducting units emitting light when the electric current is passing through them. LEDs were invented by Oleg Losev, a Russian scientist, who first discovered and studied the crystal diode fluorescence in the middle of 1920s. The developer of LEDs based on the multilayer nanometer heterostructures was member of RAS Zhores Alferov, who was awarded the Noble prize in 2000 for his works. LEDs have no glass bulbs and filaments thus having the high mechanical durability and reliability. Absence of heating elements and high voltages guarantees high level of power and fire safety. Subminiaturization and light distribution built into LED allow for creating flat, compact and convenient for installation lighting devices. The market of LED lighting products is actively developing and drives out other light sources. The world market of LED lighting products is growing at 37% per year as the growth of the world lighting engineering market (all light sources) reaches 5% per year. Nowadays LED lamps occupy already at least 3.5% of the Russian lighting systems market. The world market of LEDs equaled $4.2 bln. in 2007 and is forecasted to reach the level of $12 bln. in 2012 growing at an average annual rate of 23%. The Russian market of lighting products comprised more than 50 billion rubles in 2007 and is growing annually by 13% on average. At the present state of the Russian market, LEDs are mainly used in the light signalling devices (traffic lights etc.), for illuminating the architectural facilities, in automotive industry (headlights and taillights). The lighting products based on the traditional light sources will be most likely substituted with LEDs, at first, in the segments of HCS object illumination, street, commercial building and industrial object illumination.

РОСНАНО и Министерство занятости и экономики Финляндии подписали Меморандум о взаимопонимании. Меморандум предусматривает обмен информацией о национальной политике в области нанотехнологий, научных исследованиях, производстве и потенциальных рынках. Стороны будут сотрудничать в реализации проектов, связанных с коммерциализацией нанотехнологических достижений России и Финляндии, также планируется проведение совместных мероприятий и обмен специалистами.

(Nanowerk News) The memorandum was signed on the 3rd of December within the first day of the Nanotechnology International Forum. The document was signed by Anatoly Chubais, Director General of the Russian Corporation of Nanotechnologies (RUSNANO), and Mikko Alkio, State Secretary of the Ministry of Employment and the Economy.
The document covers the information exchange on the national policy in the sphere of nanotechnologies, scientific research, production and potential markets, development of the mechanisms used for evaluating the nanotechnology application perspectives and risks, certification and standardization of the nanotechnological research results, intellectual property protection in the field of nanotechnologies.
The Parties will cooperate in implementation of the projects connected with commercialization of the Russian and Finnish nanotechnological developments as well as in executing the scientific work on foresight in the sphere of nanotechnologies and drawing up of the road maps. It is planned to conduct the joint seminars, symposia and other activities in the sphere of nanotechnologies, provide mutual visits and specialist exchanges under the Agreement.
Today, Finland occupies one of the leading positions in the world rating of economy competitiveness among highly-developed countries. The Finnish national model of the innovative economy and application of new knowledge is recognized to be one of the most efficient in the world. Development of the nanotechnologies receives the higher priority for financing with a great role of private funds. The Finnish delegation will be one of the most representative at the Forum.
Mikko Alkio, State Secretary of the Finnish Employment and Economy Ministry, head of the delegation, participates in the panel discussion "INTERNATIONAL INTERACTION - A PREREQUISITE FOR NANOINDUSTRY DEVELOPMENT", where he will speak about the peculiarities of the Finnish innovative development and, particularly, in the nanoindustry of the country. The Academy allocates the budget investments in the sphere of fundamental researches in Finland. It invests the funds into the projects in the new perspective branches and finances "Centers of Excellence". This is a chain of the most advanced laboratories and scientific centers selected once per five years. They obtain additional financing for making scientific researches.
A link between science and real sector is provided by the Technical Scientific Centre VTT (Valtion teknillinen tutkimuskeskus), the main goal of which is to make the applied researches within a wide range of directions in order to bring new knowledge to the level of new products.
The organization's budget is formed by 30% out of the state funds, the rest 70% are the private investors' money. The key link of the Finnish innovative infrastructure is TEKES, the National Technological Agency attached to the Ministry of Commerce and Industry. Its basic function is to initiate an active joint work of the company's scientific subdivisions with the scientific groups of the universities and institutes. TEKES provides 35.80% of the amount required to implement the submitted project; the rest part is to be invested by the company itself.
At that, the more universities, scientific institutes and companies are specified in the list of this project participants, the more chances to be supported such a project has. In such a way through TEKES the government provides the widest application of new knowledge and technologies in the economy of the country.
One more link of the Finnish innovative infrastructure is a state-owned fund SITRA supporting the technological startups. SITRA is working as an ordinary venture fund: it enters the company's stock capital for 3 to 5 years and sells its shares as soon as other investors are ready to buy them out.

Гонконгский политехнический университет (PolyU) и Федеральное космическое агентство (Роскосмос) ведут совместную работу в рамках проекта китайско-российской космической экспедиции к спутнику Марса Фобосу - "Фобос-грунт". Основными целями данной экспедиции (старт намечен на октябрь 2009 года) станет сбор образцов грунта с Фобоса, и на университет возложена ответственность за разработку приспособления для забора образцов.

PolyU is working closely with the Russian Space Agency in designing a state-of-the-art space tool which will be carried onboard a Russian spacecraft for the Red Planet in the 2009 Sino-Russian Space Mission.
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) is working closely with the well-established Russian Space Agency in designing a state-of-the-art space tool which will be carried onboard a Russian spacecraft for the Red Planet in the 2009 Sino-Russian Space Mission - the first strategic interplanetary collaboration between China and Russia.
This historical mission also marks the first interplanetary space mission by Russia since the dissolution of the former Soviet Union. This is also the first attempt in the history of mankind to land on the moon of a planet other than the Earth. This is also the first ever interplanetary sample return mission, and PolyU has been entrusted with the responsibility of designing a mission-critical space tool known as the "Soil Preparation System" (SOPSYS).
Dr Alexander V Zakharov, Chief Scientist of the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Science and Project Scientist of the Phobos-Soil project, has made a special trip to the University this week and discussed stringent requirements for testing the qualifying model of this tool with PolyU engineering scientists working on the project.
The PolyU-developed sophisticated device weighs merely 400 grams and measures slightly larger than a cigarette pack. It will be capable of grinding and sifting Phobos rock to the size of less than 1mm in diameter for in situ analysis by the Lander. This procedure is considered a crucial step in understanding the evolution of the universe and in searching for possible signs of life on the extraterrestrial planet.
The aerospace authorities of the two nations agreed to jointly probe Mars and its innermost moon Phobos, following the signing of space collaboration agreement as witnessed by Chinese President Hu Jintao and Russian President Vladimir Putin on 26 March 2007. According to mission schedule, Russia will launch an explorer carrying a Chinese satellite and a lander installed with PolyU-made device to collect samples of Phobos soil.
The objectives of this inter-planetary space mission are to collect soil samples from Phobos, a satellite of Mars and to bring the samples back to Earth for comprehensive scientific research into Phobos, Mars and Martian space.
This collaboration with Russian Space Agency is made possible with the unremitting efforts of PolyU Fellow Dr Ng Tze-chuen, who is a dentist by profession; and Prof. Yung Kai-leung, Associate Head of the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering. They have put much effort in negotiating with space authorities and showed their experience of developing space tools and working with the Russian Space Agency and European Space Agency. SOPSYS is designed and manufactured by Prof. Yung and engineers of PolyU's Industrial Centre, with the full support of the Centre's Director Dr Chris Wong Ho-ching. The system is currently near the final stage of development, and will be ready for the mission by the end of this year.
The University has a wealth of experience in developing space tools and for space agencies over the years. The development of space tool by PolyU researchers can be dated back to 1995 with the launch of the Space Holiner Forceps for Russian astronauts working on the MIR Space Station. The Holinser Forceps, which function like a pair of dental forceps, were developed by PolyU engineers from a concept initiated by Dr Ng. The idea was further developed into the Space Forceps System which consists of 70 inter-connectable components for used by astronauts in space. In 1995, four sets of Holinser Forceps were ordered by the Russian Space Agency for use by astronauts in precision soldering at the MIR Space Station.
In 2003, PolyU scientists also developed the Mars Rock Corer which was carried onboard the Beagle 2 Lander in a spacecraft of the European Space Agency's Mars Express Mission. Although the Beagle 2 Lander reportedly crashed on the surface of Mars, but Dr Ng and PolyU researchers never give up their dream for space exploration.

В Японии сварили "внеземное пиво" из зерен ячменя, выращенных российскими космонавтами в лаборатории на Международной космической станции. Напиток стал итогом продолжительного сотрудничества Российской академии наук (РАН) и университета Окаямы.

The extra-terrestrial beverage was the result of a five-month mission during which barley was grown for the first time in a Russian laboratory on board the International Space Station (ISS).
Sapporo Breweries, one of Japan's major breweries, went on to use the crop of barley grown in space to create 100 litres of a 5.5 per cent proof beer aptly named Space Barley.
"There's really no beer like it because it uses 100 per cent barley. Our top seller is the Black Label brand, using additional ingredients such as rice. This one doesn't, and is really a special beer," said Junichi Ichikawa, managing directory for strategy at Sapporo Breweries.
The space brew was the result of a collaboration between the Russian Academy of Science, Okayama University in Japan and Sapporo Breweries, one of the oldest brewers in the country.
The barley was grown as the result of an on-going crop growing project on board ISS, with other products including wheat, lettuce and peas. In the furute, potatoes could also be grown in space.
However, Boris Morukov, a cosmonaut who spent 11 days in space on board the ISS, said: "I think we would try to grow potatoes as food, not for vodka production." While the current batch of space beer will not be sold commercially, 30 couples selected from among the public by lottery will be invited to a special tasting event in Tokyo next month.
Although beer has previously been off space menus due to its alcohol and gas content, breweries are hoping that the newly-created space beer may eventually become available for astronauts to enjoy in space.
The unveiling of the space beer comes to light only days after a selection of Japanese delicacies such as seaweed soup, mackerel in miso and green tea, were blasted into space to feed astronauts on board the ISS.

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