August 2001

Gaming the Future: The Book!

Issues raised by Bill Joy still being debated

from the reverberations dept.
Pondering the question of whether one can have too much Joy, a set of commentaries on the issues raised by Bill Joy in his (in)famous article in Wired Magazine (April 2000) have been posted on the KurzweilAI website.

The first is a lengthy article ("Stop everything…IT'S TECHNO-HORROR!") by George Gilder and Richard Vigilante that originally appeared in the March 2001 issue of The American Spectator. (The article blurb reads, "From Silicon Valley via Aspen, Bill Joy wants to call the police. On science. On technology. On the industry that made him rich. The Left is OverJoyed".)
In a lengthy response, Ray Kurzweil discusses points of agreement and disagreement with Gilder and Vigilante, as well as Joy. As KurzweilAI summarizes it: "Although George Gilder and Richard Vigilante share Ray Kurzweil's grave concerns about Bill Joy's apparently neo-Luddite calls for relinguishing broad areas of technology, Kurzweil is critical of Gilder and Vigilante's skepticism regarding the feasibility of the dangers."

(Oh, very well — Joy's original article is still available on the web. Some of the earlier reactions to Joyís arguments were covered in the "Media Watch" column in Foresight Update 41, 42, and 43.)

Superconducting buckyballs

brian wang writes "Lucent scientists have inserted chloroform and bromoform between buckyballs and got them to superconduct at 117K. Up from 55K with previous mixes of buckyball. Read about it here."

Additional coverage of this research is available on the PhysicsWeb site.

U.S. firm offers personal DNA patent service

from the what-about-licensed-copies? dept.
Despite calls or actual legislation to ban human cloning around the globe, at least some people seem to believe itís inevitable — and that people need legal protection for their personal DNA patterns. The DNA Copyright Institute (DNACI) is trying to persuade famous individuals to copyright their DNA to prevent unwanted duplication.

According to the companyís website, DNACI provides services for high-profile individuals such as actors, models, athletes, musicians, scientists, and others seeking to show ownership of their Personal DNA Pattern in order to protect it against future actions such as DNA theft and misappropriation, cloning, and other unauthorized activities.

Press coverage of DNACI can be found from BBC News and New Scientist.

Bush administration bioscience policies criticized

from the presidential-punditry dept.
United Press International has recently run a number of interesting — and largely critical — commentaries on President Bushís policy decisions regarding embryonic stem cell research and human cloning with terms that range from "unworkable" to "embarrassingly stupid."

Read more for a sampling.

Micrometer-scale sculpture has implications

from the bull? dept.
Colin Jacobs writes "Wired News have a story, and more importantly pictures, of a 10 by 7 micrometer sculpture made by a team of engineers in Osaka. They used a process called two-photon photo-polymerization, which might have important implications for the production of nanoscale machine components — not to mention pushing the boundaries of animal art."

UK, US researchers working on self-assembling solar cells

from the fun-in-the-sun dept.
Patrick Underwood writes: "Here is an article from newscientist.com on self-assembling solar cells ("Self-assembling solar cells developed", by Ian Sample, 9 August 2001). Reminds me of Unbounding the Future. This comes pretty close to the idea in that book of paving streets with solar collectors."

The New Scientist article describes solar cells that "self assemble" from a liquid developed by scientists at the University of Cambridge. The method could make it cheap and easy to cover large areas, like roofs, with efficient, ultra-thin solar cell coatings.
Related research is being conducted at the University of Arizona, as described in this detailed press release from 28 August 2001. UA researchers have received nearly US$ 1 million from two separate federal grants to develop organic molecules that "self assemble," or self-organize, from liquid into efficient solar cell coatings. Some of the UA researchers had previously collaborated with the U Cambridge team.

Update on California NanoSystems Institute

The California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI) hasnít been much in the news since it was established in December 2000, even though it is the largest government-supported research program (in terms of funding) after the federal National Nanotechnology Initiative. These two reports provide an update:

An article in the Los Angeles Times ("Science, State, Business Bond in a Nanosystem", by James Flanigan, 13 August 2001) describes activity to build new facilities for CNSI, the growing coterie of corporate sponsors, and efforts to develop CNSI as a center for basic research as well as a business incubator to commercialize scientific and technological results.
A lengthy profile of Martha Krebbs, former science director at the U.S. Department of Energy and now one of the directors of CNSI, on the Small Times website ("Experienced hand guides nanotech research from research to business level", by Jayne Fried, 15 August 2001) provides additional background and information on CNSI activities.

VC firm issues investment-oriented report on nanotech

from the pay-per-view dept.
Lux Capital, a venture capital firm based in New York, has released "The Nanotech Report," a 269-page overview of the field. The report provides a conceptual framework for understanding nanotechnology and its implications for business, including both startups and established firms, and focuses on near term prospects. The lead author was IMM Senior Associate Josh Wolfe, one of the founding partners in Lux Capital.
Additional information about the report can be found in an article from the Wall Street Journal ("Investors Should Eye How Feds, Researchers Handle 'Nanotechnology' " by D. Hamilton, 27 August 2001), as well as an article from the Small Times website ("New VC firmís report outlines nano challenges, opportunities", by T.Henderson, 29 August 2001) and a profile of Wolfe.
Apparently based on the principle that you must be able to spend money to make money, the report is currently available only to the investment community and sells for $4,750.

Sandia creates MEMS device to catch blood cells

from the getting-cute-with-PR dept.
The press accounts indicate that a lot of people are just ga-ga over the silicon micro-device developed at Sandia National Labs. Described as a "Pac-Man-like microstructure" and the "gobbler", the device has silicon microteeth that open and close like jaws. The microjaws fit in a microchannel about one-third the width of a human hair (about 20 microns wide). When the jaws close, they trap a red blood cell. According to a Sandia press release on 20 August 2001, "The jaws, which open and close very rapidly, deform captured cells, and then, in less than the blink of an eye and almost playfully, let the little things loose. The blood cells travel on, regain their former shape and appear unharmed." [Playfully?]
Additional coverage can be found in this article from UPI. And Robert Trombatore writes: "A news item on the Scientific American web site details a just announced microdevice that can grab individual red blood cells flowing through a central channel. So far no practical uses, but the article mentions a few intriguing possibilities!"

Adieu, NanoCAD list?

from the roads-not-taken? dept.

NanoCAD represented a significant initiative to promote open development of software for molecular nanotechnology. Will Ware, the maintainer of the NanoCAD list, is now planning to discontinue the list, given the lack of traffic and his need to change ISPs.

This raises the question, is there enough interest to continue initiatives to develop software, and associated standards and licensing, that could be freely and openly shared by those interested in MNT?

Read More on the question of the NanoCAD list and initiatives for open source development of MNT.

Gaming the Future: The Book!

Month: August 2001

Issues raised by Bill Joy still being debated

Superconducting buckyballs

U.S. firm offers personal DNA patent service

Bush administration bioscience policies criticized

Micrometer-scale sculpture has implications

UK, US researchers working on self-assembling solar cells

Update on California NanoSystems Institute

VC firm issues investment-oriented report on nanotech

Sandia creates MEMS device to catch blood cells

Adieu, NanoCAD list?

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