Over at Accelerating Future, Michael Anissimov has a post about self-replication in which he seems to find it remarkable that Foresight, among others, can view a world containing mechanical replicators with aplomb: What is remarkable are those that seem to argue, like Ray Kurzweil, the Foresight Institute, and the Center for Responsible Nanotechnology, that humanity… Continue reading Self-replicating nanofactories?
Two recent publications provide more evidence of the growing capability of DNA scaffolds to support complex and interactive functions.
As I pointed out in Nanotechnology Without Engines, nanotechnology’s promise of being a revolutionary rather than evolutionary technology was based on two key ideas: Nanotechnology, the revolutionary technology, was always about the power of self-replication and never only about the very small. This was clearly the case both in Drexler’s conception and in Feynman’s: …… Continue reading The other half of nanotech
A new modular method of constructing DNA nanotubes provides control of the geometry of the nanotube cross-section and may enable real-time modulation of the stiffness and porosity of the nanotube.
A nanotech-based gene-therapy method that dramatically improved the efficiency of conventional cancer therapy in animal models is now undergoing clinical trials.
Evolution has adapted what were the bones of the fingers of the bat’s ancestors to form the skeleton of its wing. Similarly, in technology, when one element of a system is capable of expanding to take up new functions, it can substitute for what might have been expected to be different ways to achieve the… Continue reading Bat Wings
Two research groups have published two different ways to unzip carbon nanotubes to create graphene ribbons.
Earth day is April 22 and it is appropriate to think about the future of the Earth and its biosphere. The key word here is think. What popularly passes for environmental concern today has evolved into something much more resembling a religion than scientifically-informed values. Unfortunately, as with many religions, the resulting memetic structure can… Continue reading Earth Day as if Earth mattered
Using a magnetic bead to slowly pull a DNA molecule through a solid-sate nanopore looks promising as the basis for a very fast and efficient nanotech DNA sequencing method.
MIT scientists have demonstrated the usefulness of biological frameworks for combining distinct functional elements to make a device.
