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Gaming the Future: The Book!

Month: August 2001

Stem cells used to produce heart, insulin-producing cells

from the progress-and-paranoia dept.
Pointing up some of the reasons why many researchers are excited about the prospect of using embryonic stem cells to produce different types of tissues — such as heart tissue to repair damaged hearts — two teams of scientists at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Israel have produced tissue cells derived from human embryonic stem cells.
One team of researchers has for the first time succeeded in growing precursors of heart cells from human embryonic stems cells, puting the researchers considerably closer to clinical application in humans. Their report appears in the August 2001 issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation. In a second study, another team demonstrated that human embryonic stem cells can produce insulin, a result that could signal an important step toward a cure for type 1 diabetes. Their research was published in the August 2001 issue of Diabetes.

Additional coverage can be found in this article from United Press International.
An interesting editorial commentary appeared in the Los Angeles Times on 29 July 2001: "Science is far ahead of the public debate, and scientists need to educate the public about what they are doing. Otherwise the public debate will be fueled by fear."

Getting at the basics of replicating machines

The August 2001 issue of Scientific American has an interesting article ("Go Forth and Replicate", by M. Sipper and J. A. Reggia) on machine replication. (Unfortunately, it is not available online). The article describes attempts to develop a general understanding of self-replicating systems, with its roots in the work of John von Neumann, Stanislaw Ulam, and others. The article covers research into cellular automata simulations before moving on to describe more recent work by the authors and others that often employ evolutionary methods, including self-replicating systems that do not include an explicit self-description. They also mention the pioneering 1980 NASA study on complex replicating machine systems led by Robert A. Freitas Jr., now a researcher at Zyvex Corp. and author of Nanomedicine.

The authors, aware of the implications, state: "Researchers in the field of nanotechnology have long proposed that self-replication will be crucial to manufacturing molecular-scale machines . . . Recent advances have given credence to these futuristic-sounding ideas." They add that the study of such systems presents a "twofold challenge of creating replicating machines and avoiding dystopian predictions of devices running amok. The knowledge we gain will help us separate good technologies from destructive ones."

Read more for links to a few items related to nanotechnology and self-replicating systems.

U.S. House votes to ban all forms of human cloning

from the penny-wiseÖ? dept.
The U.S. House of Representatives voted on 31 July 2001 to ban human cloning and to prohibit the practice of cloning human embryos for medical research. The vote would ban cloning not only for reproduction but also for medical research. The measure passed by a wide margin, 265-to-162. The House also rejected a less restrictive measure that would have prohibited making babies by cloning while allowing research into "therapeutic cloning". The rhetoric of the debate was impassioned, and often based on religious or moral grounds, rather than scientific or medical issues:
"Cloning treats human embryos — the basic elements of life itself — as a simple raw material," House Majority Whip Tom DeLay, R-Texas, said. "This exploitative, unholy technique is no better than medical strip mining."
Others said the bill would derail possibly vital medical breakthroughs. "This would stop ongoing studies to help people suffering from a whole litany of life-threatening diseases," House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member John Conyers, D-Mich., said

Coverage of the vote is available from UPI and the New York Times.

Medicinal Buckyballs

TanMauWu writes "Wired has an article ("Buckyballs Make Fantastic Voyage", by Jill Neimark, 1 August 2001) about using buckminsterfullerenes as tiny drug dispensers. Advantages of buckyballs as cited by the article include size (they're small), reactivity (they're not), and toxicity (also not). There's even a quote from R.A. Freitas, Jr., author of Nanomedicine."

The article focuses on the work of C-Sixty, a Toronto-based company that is applying to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for Phase I testing and fast-track status on a novel fullerene drug for HIV that has shown great promise in animal studies, even against drug-resistant forms of the virus.

Scripps researchers test artificial peptide nanotubes as antibiotics

from the self-assembling-bug-busters dept.
A research team at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) led by M. Reza Ghadiri have developed antibiotic agents based on self-assembling cyclic peptide nanotubes that which stack inside the cell membranes of bacteria and poke holes in the membranes, killing the cells. They reported on their research in the 26 July 2001 issue of Nature. The team synthesized rings of amino acids, the building blocks of peptides, which stack up to form tubes in bacterial cell walls. These self-assembling peptide nanotubes cleared infections of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in mice, even when injected far from the site of infection. Early work in this research project won Ghadiri Foresightís 1998 Feynman Prize in Nanotechnology for Experimental Work.

Read more for links to additional media coverage of this research.

Study lists nanotech as potential growth sector for "Chicagoland"

from the "Chicagoland"? dept.
A report issued by the office of Chicago Mayor Richard Daley examines options to help the Chicago region ("Chicagoland" — who thinks these things up?) retain its position as a leading economic center in the United States. The Mayor's Council of Technology Advisors engaged a consulting firm to help develop an economic growth strategy for Chicagoland; the report identifies nanotechnology as a potential growth option, and notes local strengths that would allow the region to develop a leading role in the nanotechnology sector. The report ("A New Economy Growth Strategy for Chicagoland") is available online as an Adobe Acrobat PDF file (about 2.2 MB) at the Chicago Technology Today website.

A commentary on the plan that appeared in the Chicago Sun-Times ("How Chicago can seize the New Economy future", by H. Wolinsky, 19 July 2001) is available on the SmallTimes website.

Examining the legal implications of nanotech

from the future-tense dept.
An interesting and wide-ranging article on the legal and ethical implications of molecular nanotechnology ("At nanoscale, the laws of humans may not apply", by Michael Becker, 30 July 2001) appears on the SmallTimes website. The article includes extensive quotes from Robert A. Freitas Jr., author of Nanomedicine and a research scientist at Zyvex Corp.; and Glenn Reynolds, a Foresight Institute Director and professor of law at the University of Tennessee. The piece raises some of the thorny issues on regulating new technologies, intellectual property, open source development models, and others.

France funds nanotech incubator in Grenoble

from the World-Watch dept.
According to a report in Tornado-Insider (ìThe Renaissance of Minatecì, by D. Coviello, 23 July 2001), funding has been secured for Minatec, the new research and incubation center for microtechnology and nanotechnology startups in Grenoble, France. Minatec operates under the French Commissariat de líEnergie Atomique (CEA) Laboratoire díélectronique, technologie et instrumentation (LETI; website is in French), based in Grenoble. The financing plan would provide 122 million euros (about U.S. $106 million). About half of the funds will come from nearby regions, towns, councils and departments, with the remainder provided by private institutions and the CEA. According to the report, Minatec aims to build a 60,000-square-meter center for 3,500 entrepreneurs, students, professors and researchers in the field of microelectronics and nanotechnology to work on developing products and launching start-up companies. It is expected to be completed by 2004.
If you read French, you can find more information at the Minatec website.

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