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Gaming the Future: The Book!

Month: February 2001

"Pick-and-place" nanoassembly system wins prize

from the 1,000,000-dpi dept.
epw wrote in about the "Pick-and-Place" Nanoassembly System that was discussed on Slashdot as "Hubert's Interesting Nanoassembler." Brian Hubert won the Lemelson-MIT Student Prize for this invention, as reported by Nando Media/AP. His Úwebsite has good pictures and diagrams. It's not molecular nanotechnology as in precise control of individual atoms, but still seems like an interesting development using atomic force microscopes. Read more for the introductory text from the website. "Unlike the prior art, this system can be used to pattern essentially any type of material. …"

Nonlinear atom optics

from the matter-waves-for-nanofab dept.
Michael Mehrle writes "Found this on Slashdot: Nonlinear Atom Optics uses laser light to cool atoms to one millionth a degree Kelvin…. Atom lasers could lead to advances in, among other things, Nanolithography and Holography. Cool. Literally."This was earlier noted on Memepool on Thursday February 15. The University of Arizona press release Atom Optics Technologies Could Be Phenomenal quotes Pierre Meystre saying "More practical atom lasers could lead to applications in precision nanofabrication, atom holography, and "undreamed of applications that will come as surprises."

Read more for more quotes from the press release.

Nanotech regulation: Let's keep the debate alive

from the survival-matters dept.

Chris Phoenix's essay "Can we have "some" regulation of nanotech?" has generated a lot of good discussion. Since the original post has now slipped off the front page of Nanodot, this post is made to encourage continued discussion. Click here to go to the discussion, or on Read More below for an overview of the discussion so far.

Nano simulation tools available

from the punching-ahead dept.
Anonymous Coward writes "This site offers some nano simulation tools for free http://www.nanohub.purdue.edu/"It would be helpful to have comments from anyone who has used these tools.

Conservative compares human germline engineering to "slavery"

from the someone's-very-upset dept.
Prominent conservative Dinesh D'Souza has an essay in the Jan. 22 National Review entitled "Staying Human", in which he argues vehemently against human germline engineering. Unfortunately, it's not online, so see instead this piece by Adam Wolfson in Winter 2001's The Public Interest (URL is temporary) and a rebuttal entitled "Right-wing Technological Dread" by Ron Bailey of Reason.
Fortunately, D'Souza's concerns don't have to apply to nanotech, since in that case changes can be made by adults on themselves, not applied involuntarily on offspring by their parents. Read more for excerpts from the D'Souza essay.

Self-healing materials: first steps

from the if-it's-broke-no-need-to-fix-it dept.
JohnPierce writes about work at UIUC published in Nature:"An AP article on Yahoo says: 'Researchers have developed the first material that automatically repairs itself, offering a potential way of fixing the hairline cracks that develop in the space-age composites used in everything from tennis rackets to aircraft. The scientists' secret: tiny capsules of glue that are added to the composite material… To heal tiny cracks automatically, the Illinois researchers sprinkled capsules about the thickness of a human hair throughout an experimental fiberglass-like compound. When a crack appeared, capsules in its path broke open, spilled their contents and sealed the cracks.'
Food for thought: Micro encapsulation is already in widespread use in medicine and food, so using it in construction materials is a natural progression. Nanotechnology will be able to encapsulate high strength repair substances that will survive high temperatures. Self repair will no doubt become a standard Nano application."

Single DNA molecules manipulated in nanochannels

from the no-more-gels dept.
Vik writes "Researchers at Cornell have been using the behaviour of uncoiling DNA to sort and count individual molecules as they pass through a micrometer-wide channel according to this link on Eurekalert. The article describes how nanopores can be used to sort DNA segments much like electrophoresis."

Nanotech mutual fund?

from the let's-put-our-money-where-our-mouths-are dept.
eeex writes "I am wondering as to what the Nanodot community thinks of establishing a mutual fund for investing in stocks of nanotech companies and companies in related areas. Would people invest in such a thing or is it still too early?…Are there enough companies out there doing real nanotech research to justify setting up some sort of mutual fund or at least an investment club/partnership? And more to the point, is there anyone out there actively trying to set up such a fund?" CP: Yes, one or two of the Foresight Senior Associates are looking into doing this. Read more for the full post.

Microsoft exec says Open Source stifles innovation

from the depends-how-you-define-innovation dept.
Foresight Director of Communications Tanya Jones writes "In an article on CNET (also seen on Slashdot), Microsoft executive Jim Allchin is quoted as saying that: 'freely distributed software code such as rival Linux could stifle innovation and that legislators need to understand the threat.' Has Microsoft neglected to consider that Open Source is a voluntary movement and that some intellectual property cannot be regulated (like the joys of building something cool) or perhaps this is just another attempt to stifle competition." CP: You have to admire that company's chutzpah, if not their products.

Casimir force used by MEMS, will affect nanotech

from the top-down-pathway dept.
ScienceExpress, an online preprint service (login req'd) of Science magazine, published on Feb. 8 a report from Bell Labs/Lucent that MEMS can exploit the Casimir force. Coauthor Federico Capasso was quoted in the Feb. 10 Science News: "Capasso speculates that makers of MEMS and even tinier nanoelectromechanical systems may find ways to harness the Casimir force in 5 to 15 years…the experiment also indicates that the Casimir effect may become problematic for designers of tiny machines, says Paul J. McWhorter of MEMX…" CP: What's problematic to some may be a fun challenge to others — anyone care to give their view on this? Read more for the abstract.

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