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Gaming the Future: The Book!

Month: October 2001

CNSI updates website

from the Moí-better dept.
The California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI) has redesigned its website, and added a huge amount of new information. The new site is much more accessible, provides more in-depth background information on CNSI goals and programs, more current news on CNSI research activities, and new information on the Instituteís leadership, faculty, and partners in private industry. If you havenít been to the CNSI website recently, the new site is worth a look.

Self-assembly captures media attention

A number of articles on various aspects of self-assembly in chemical and biological systems, and how it might be used to create nanotech devices, have appeared in recent weeks. These include a piece by Philip Ball in the November 2001 issue of Technology Review magazine (Ball also had an article on self-assembly in the 18 October 2001 issue of Nature, but it is not freely available online). Another article ran in the Boston Globe ("No assembly required", by G. Cook, 16 October 2001).
Technology Review also ran an item on its website on self-assembling peptide nanotubes developed by Reza Ghadiri at Scripps, which have potential use as a nano-mechanical antibiotic as reported in July 2001.

Nanoculture?

from the invitation-for-discussion dept.
JeremyTurner writes:
"October 26, 2001…
Dear Nanodot members and readers,
I was just wondering if the Nanotech initiative will eventually cover an arts/cultural wing? Some individuals such as myself eagerly await the creative benefits towards the Arts and Entertainment industries…In fact, K. Eric Drexler mentioned towards the end of his "Engines of Creation" book that the end-goal of an advanced nanotechnological civilization would be the proliferation of performance and interdisciplinary art. I am worried that due to the recent climate, most of the research will go towards defense and security and little towards health, strategic diplomacy, the environment and culture…Any thoughts on how our country will utilize this emerging technology to our creative benefit? I was also wondering if those outside the United States will benefit and how long would it take for a trickle down effect to occur once corporations such as the Texas-based Zyvex make that ultimate breakthrough?
Best regards,
Jeremy Turner
www.fivethreesix.com"

[Editor's note: the mandate for the U.S. National Nanotechnology Initiative (currently) includes a component to examine the "societal implications" of nanotechnology. To date, the most significant result of this part of the initiative has been a NSF report issued early in 2001.]

Zyvex will lead $25 million MEMS/NEMS development program

from the Miniaturizing-manufacturing dept.
An extensive article in Dallas-Ft. Worth TechBiz ("National grant may help speed up Zyvexís plans", by Pavan Lall, 22 October 2001) provides an in-depth look at how Zyvex and its collaborators will benefit from a $US 25 million cost-sharing program that includes a $12.5 million grant from the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

More information on the NIST grant and development program is available in this Zyvex press release from 12 October 2001. Additional coverage also appeared in the Albany, N.Y. Times-Union ("Tiny robots, tremendous potential", by K. Aaron, 25 October 2001).

Along with university collaborators at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Center for Automation Technologies in Troy, N.Y., the University of Texas at Dallas and the University of North Texas, Zyvex will develop prototypical microscale assemblers using microelectromechanical systems, or MEMS, to assemble nanoscale components. The long-term goal is to develop even smaller nanoscale assembler systems. "Our ultimate goal is adaptable, affordable, molecularly precise manufacturing,'' said Rocky Angelucci, Zyvex's technical liaison and manager of the company's NIST program.

Computer system predicts social unrest and civil war

from the Not-quite-Hari-Seldon dept.
A press release from the New Scientist magazine (27 October 2001) reports researchers at Harvard and Ohio State Universities have developed what they term a "conflict barometer" gives a week-by-week measure of the scale of civil unrest. The system is based on a computer program that analyses several thousand news stories from Reuters daily, which classifies events into about 200 categories. These are then used to calculate the proportions of events involving civil protests, repressive government actions and outbreaks of violence. These three factors are fed into an equation to give a nation's "conflict carrying capacity" or CCC. The researchers reported their results in The Journal of Conflict Resolution.

More fun and games with biofluorescence

Anybody remember Alba, the glowing transgenic bunny? An item on the Nature Science Update website (24 October 2001) reports an Italian researcher has now created a floral version with daisies that glow under ultraviolet light. While the research was originally aimed at helping to tag plants such as transgenic crops, the glowing daisies were created as an aesthetic project; the technique reportedly could be applied to any white flower. However, due to public hostility toward genetically-modified organisms in Italy, there are no plans to commercialize the glowing flowers. The NSU item also mentions similarly modified pigs with glowing snouts.

Measuring conductivity of a single molecule wire

from the More-molectronics dept.
A collaborative research team from the University of Arizona and Motorola, Inc. have devised a method to measure the electrical conductivity of a single molecule using contacts bonded to the two ends of an octanedithiol molecule. Many previous efforts to characterize possible molecular wires and other molectronic components have given variable results because the contacts were often simple mechanical contacts, not chemically-bonded connections. In their report in the 19 October 2001 issue of Science, the UA/Motorola team describe a method for creating through-bond electrical contacts with very small (2 nanometer) gold particles bonded to single molecules and the achievement of reproducible measurements of the molecules' conductivity. A schematic image is also available.

Commercial, academic nanotech activity in Illinois

A Chicago Tribune article that provides a snapshot of nanotech-related companies and university research programs in the Chicago region ("Nanotech expands its small world", by Jon Van, 22 October 2001) appears on the Small Times website. The article highlights the increasing level of interest in nanotechnology among researchers, investors, businesses and the general public.

Brain scan patterns identify objects being viewed

from the Reading-minds? dept.
According to a press release (27 September 2001), researchers with the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) scientists have shown that they can tell what kind of object a person is looking at by the pattern of brain activity it evokes. These patterns, which arise in a visual processing area on the bottom surface of the brain, are different for each category of objects. Their research report appeared in the 28 September 2001 issue of Science.

The neuroscientists are looking at how the brain's visual system is able to represent a virtually unlimited number of faces and objects by scanning the activity of the visual cortex. The patterns may provide a key to deciphering the brain's code for recognizing objects and faces, say the researchers. "Brain imaging may be able to show how the brain encodes complex information, such as the appearance of objects, not just where the encoding occurs," said a team leader.

IMM responds to critics in Scientific American

The Institute for Molecular Manufacturing (IMM) has posted responses to a pair of articles in the September 2001 issue of Scientific American which attempt to cast doubt on the feasibility of nonbiological molecular assemblers. The issue devoted six articles and a great deal of text to various perspectives on nanotechnology. The issue included various attacks on the feasibility of molecular assemblers and the work of IMM Research Fellow K. Eric Drexler and his research associates. The responses deal with issues raised in articles by Richard Smalley of Rice University and George Whitesides at Harvard University.

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