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Gaming the Future: The Book!

Month: August 2004

Jurvetson sees nanotechnology innovation wave

Michael Kanellos of CNET News.com writes of a recent lecture by venture capitalist and Foresight Senior Associate Steve Jurvetson: "Nanotech will tap nature's potential, investor says". "Speaking at the Hot Chips conference at Stanford University, Jurvetson asserted that nanotechnology–the ability to make products on the molecular level–will usher in the next great wave of innovation despite the recent cancellation of Nanosys' high-profile initial public offering. That revolution will occur, in part, because scientists will be able to harness or imitate the power of nature."

Nanorobots Inside Our Bodies?

Roland Piquepaille writes "In this very short article, Genome News Network (GNN) looks at the work of a Brazilian researcher, Adriano Cavalcanti, and his colleagues. Cavalcanti is working in nanorobotics, an emerging field in medicine which states that nanorobots soon will travel inside our bodies, digging for information, finding defects or delivering drugs. The GNN article contains spectacular images, and Cavalcanti's page about Nanorobotics Control Design includes additional ones. Even if the computer-generated images are impressive, please notice that real uses of nanorobots for health care will only appear progressively within the next ten years. Finally, this summary contains more details and a third set of images of simulated nanorobots at work. [Additional note: I didn't flash about Cavalcanti's work when Nanodot wrote about it last July in Collective Nanorobots Control Design. Now, I think it's worth mentioning a second time.]"

Advanced Nanotechnology Conference

1st CONFERENCE ON ADVANCED NANOTECHNOLOGY: RESEARCH, APPLICATIONS, AND POLICY, October 22-24, 2004, Crystal City Marriott Hotel Washington, DC area. Join us as we examine nanotechnology from three different perspectives. Choose your areas of focus: FRIDAY — Research SATURDAY — Applications SUNDAY — Policy and Funding. While Friday is designed for researchers and technologists, Saturday and Sunday will make this revolution accessible to public interest representatives, investors, general public, and those aiming at a career in the field. https://foresight.org/conference/AdvNano2004/index.html

Symposium on Nanotechnology and Patents

MartinMeder writes "There will be an International Symposium on Nanotechnology and Patenting, The Hague, 9-10 November 2004. The proceedings will be in English. The program may be found here: http://academy.epo.org/schedule/2004/_pdf/prog2004 _se1.pdf , while a brief summary can be found here: http://academy.epo.org/schedule/2004/se1/index.en. php The deadline to apply is October 20, 2004. A link to register for the Symposium will eventually appear here: http://academy.epo.org/schedule/"

Organ Printing, no sweat

Patrick writes "Medical Rapid Prototyping. The nonchalant tone of the last paragraph is most amusing. http://www.economist.com/science/PrinterFriendly.c fm?Story_ID=2724491"

A New Use for Old Printers: Treating Burn Victims

Roland Piquepaille writes "Researchers in the US are using old inkjet printers to produce sheets of human skin to be used on burn victims. The printer cartridges are filled with living cells that are printed one by one into skin tissue. They think that this 'skin-printing' method will minimize rejections by patients and reduce post-operative complications. In this article, the Wall Street Journal (paid registration needed) writes that while the technology is still in its early stages, it could be used clinically within two years. This could be a life-saving technology for the 20% of burn patients who have the most extensive burns. Considering that each year, some 45,000 people are hospitalized with burns in the U.S. alone, this 'skin-printing' method is a very useful advance in regenerative medicine. You'll find more details, previous references and an illustration in this overview."

Nanotechnology Could Speed Internet 100x

Roland Piquepaille writes "Using a new hybrid material made of nanometer-sized "buckyballs" and a polymer, Canadian researchers have shown that nanotechnology could lead to an Internet based entirely on light and 100 times faster than today's. This material allowed them to use one laser beam to direct another with unprecedented control, a featured needed inside future fiber-optic networks. These future fiber-optic communication systems could relay signals around the global network with picosecond (one trillionth of a second) switching times, resulting in an Internet 100 times faster. Please note this discovery appeared in a lab: we'll have to live with our current networks for some time. This overview contains more details."

BBC Reports on Nanotech / Hydrogen energy

Dr_Barnowl writes "The BBC reports on the hydrogen economy in today's Tech column, with an article that shines a positive light on nanotechnlogy; while the focus is on solar hydrogen production, nanocrystalline materials manage to bathe in the reflected glow. The public perception of green energy is a good one, and nanotech can only benefit from being associated with it."

Snapshots of Molecules in Movement

Roland Piquepaille writes "By combining scanning probe microscopy and femtosecond laser techniques, a team of American researchers was able to take snapshots of the movement of molecules in a billionth of a second. The researchers said this is a significant advance in surface science, which studies phenomena such as the formation of crystals and the activity of catalysts that transform pollutants into benign gasses. Their next step will be to shoot real-time, real-space movies of molecular motions. This overview contains more details and an illustration of the process of using femtosecond laser pulses to measure molecular movements at a nanoscale level. It also contains other references to femtosecond lasers."

Nanotech Hits the Roads

Roland Piquepaille writes "When you hear the word 'nanotechnology,' I bet you immediately think about nanochips or ultra-small medical devices. But do you know that nanotechnology is starting to be used in highways, bridges and other buildings? In "Small Science Will Bring Big Changes To Roads," a very long article from Better Roads Magazine, you'll discover that "research in structural polymers could lead the way to guardrails that heal themselves, or concrete or asphalt that heal their own cracking." Nanotechnology is also used to design better steel or concrete. And there are even nanosensors in place on the Golden Gate Bridge to monitor its behavior. The nanotechnology revolution is on its way, even if self-healing potholes and guardrails are still science fiction. This long article discusses nanotechnology advances in concrete and cement, self-cleaning traffic signs or better steel. This shorter overview contains selected excerpts about embedded nanosensors, self-healing pavements and smart dust."

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