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Gaming the Future: The Book!

Month: April 2002

Chinese Academy of Science assesses nation

from the World-Watch dept.
A rather rambling article that appeared in the China Daily ("Winning a high-profile niche in nano technology", by Bao Xinyan and He Sheng, 26 March 2002) tries to summarize a report issued by the Chinese Academy of Sciences titled "High Technology Development in China, 2002", which includes coverage of advances in nano-scale science, materials and technology. According to the article, the report notes that "Most of the accomplishments were made in areas of research and development of nano materials, whereas advances in the areas of nano-electronics and nano biological research are still rather meager. . . . This is in sharp contrast with research at the forefront of nano technology in the world, which focuses on the research and development of nano-sized machinery and electronics." The article also includes comments from prominent Chinese researchers and administrators.

U of Illinois joins nanoresearch coalition

from the me,-too dept.
For some reason, the University of Illinois felt compelled to issue a press release (5 April 2002) to note the participation of UI researchers from the Frederick Seitz Materials Research Laboratory in collaborative work with two of the U.S. national Nanoscale Science and Engineering Centers established by the National Science Foundation in September 2001 (see Nanodot post from 27 September 2001). The release notes that the NSF Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center for Directed Assembly of Nanostructures is a partnership among the UI, the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y., and the Los Alamos National Laboratory in Los Alamos, N.M.

Audio file of Drexler

The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) has posted an audio file of remarks made by K. Eric Drexler, Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Molecular Manufacturing and Foresight Board Chair, who spoke on a panel discussion during a symposium on "The War On Terrorism: What Does It Mean for Science?", held on 18 December 2001 in Washington, D.C. (See Nanodot post from 19 December 2001).

Canadians look to long term for nanotech payoff

from the World-Watch dept.
An article in the Canadian National Post ("Nanotech revolution is coming (wait for it)", by Jill Vardy, 29 March 2002) repeats many of the increasingly common shibboleths regarding the emerging nanotech sector, including cautions about nano-hype: "Growing hype and bigger R&D budgets won't change the fact this science is still years away from practical application"

"I think we do have to be careful about managing expectations of the investment community and the public," said Dan Waynor, acting director-general of Canada's new National Institute of Nanotechnology, which is being set up in an engineering school at the University of Alberta's Edmonton campus while it waits for its own building. The $C120-million (about $US 75.3 million) institute, paid for by the federal and Alberta governments and the university, will eventually employ 150 National Research Council staff, 70 professors and 250 students doing nanotechnology research. "It will become a major centre for nanotechnology research on a global scale," Dr. Wayner said. Specifics of the institute's nanotechnology research plans will be unveiled in late April.

"There is a tremendous amount of hype around nanotechnology. But at the same time this is extremely important technology," said James Hollenhorst, director of the Electronics Research Laboratory at Agilent Technologies. "The investment community is interested in really exciting basic science work in universities and other labs … but what's getting attention right now is stuff that for the next 10 years or so will not be ready for real commercial business applications."

Dr. Wayner agrees that we're still years away from the big commercial and medical breakthroughs that nanotechnology promises. "There may be short-term applications of nanotechnology but most experts agree the payoff is 10 to 15 years down the road. We don't know enough about the science of nanotechnology yet to have a clear sense of what the economic impact will be in the next 10 years. But it will be enormous. It will be transformational and revolutionary."

For more information on Canadaís nanotechnology programs, see the Nanodot post from 11 January 2002.

Research reveals details of proton pump enzyme

from the Natural-Nanomachines dept.
According to a press release (7 March 2002), a molecular pump that helps cells produce chemical energy has been visualised by scientists at Imperial College, London. The structure of the pump, a key enzyme in bacterial respiration, reveals the molecular mechanisms that underpins cellular respiration, and confirms a Nobel Prize-winning theory proposed over 40 years ago by Peter Mitchell. Professor So Iwata and colleagues from the Laboratory of Membrane Protein Crystallography, Imperial College Centre for Structural Biology described their study of the structure of the enzyme formate dehydrogenase-N looks at a resolution of 1.6 angstroms in the 7 March 2002 issue of Science.

Their work with the bacteria E. coli provides the first real evidence for the 'chemiosmotic' theory proposed by Dr Peter Mitchell in 1961. Initially dismissed by mainstream science, Mitchell's theory on energy conversion is now accepted as a fundamental principle in the field of bioenergetics, the process by which living cells release energy in a controlled and useable form by converting metabolic energy derived from respiration into a compound called adenosine triphosphate (ATP). "In all cells, metabolites are converted via a series of respiratory enzymes into an electric potential or 'proton motive force' across the cell membrane. This proton motive force drives the generation of ATP," said Professor Iwata.

Professor Iwata and his team are the first to solve the structure of a respiratory enzyme that produces the proton motive force by the "redox-loop mechanism" originally proposed by Peter Mitchell. "Forty years on, this is the first enzyme structure to be determined that shows Peter Mitchell's original hypothesis of how cells convert energy into a usable form is correct," said Professor Iwata.

Israeli venture capitalists interested but cautious about nanotech

from the hostile-business-climate dept.
According to an article in Israel's Business Arena ("Nanotech – Too big for little Israel?", by Gilad Nass, 19 March 2002), venture capitalists in Israel are interested but rather cautious about potential investments in nanotech research and development. The article provides a useful overview of private sector activity, and includes an interview with David Solomon, CEO of Israeli investment firm 4HighTech, who describes his fundís attitude to nano-technology investments in Israel as ìinterested, but it will take time before the first investment.î

Additional background on VC interest in nanotech in Israel can be found in a Nanodot post from 11 December 2001.

Of course, pondering investment decisions in a war zone has its difficulties.

Open Source (Sandia's DAKOTA app available)

Stuart Scott writes "Here is a major engineering application available in source code for anyone. http://www.sandia.gov/media/NewsRel/NR2002/DAKOTA. htm It appears to be available in different forms from a Linux application to a massively parallel computer version."

Pursuing nanotech via green, gray pathways

from the unintended-consequences dept.
In his regular column on technology and public policy for Tech Central Station ("Green or Gray?", 3 April 2002), University of Tennessee law professor and Foresight Director Glenn Reynolds asks whether we face a choice between a "biofuture" and a "machine future?" In other words, will things take a green path or a gray? He notes:

In truth, of course, there's a lot of overlap. You can, in principle, do most of the things that you could do with nanotechnology using advanced biotechnology, since biological processes are really just naturally evolved nanotechnology. And in the process of using and studying biological systems, you're sure to learn things that will have important applications for nanotechnology. (The reverse is probably also true — in engineering nanodevices, you're almost certain to learn things that will have biological applications).

Reynolds concludes by observing that:

"[I]t's the Greens who may provide much of the impetus for going gray. Over the past couple of decades, environmentalists who are opposed to genetic engineering have spent a lot of time demonizing biotechnology as 'tinkering with life.' . . . The problem is, having chosen to take that approach, they've committed intellectual disarmament where nanotechnology and other gray technologies are concerned. When you're building robots, you're not tinkering with life. . . . So although there may be little reason, on the merits, to choose between going green and going gray, the actions of environmentalists and anti-biotech activists may load the dice in favor of more mechanical approaches."

New Zealand funds nanotech research center

from the World-Watch dept.
An article in the The Press ("Boost for researchers", by Tara Ross, 27 March 2002), a regional publication serving the South Island of New Zealand, reports that the University of Canterbury's Nanostructure Engineering, Science and Technology (Nest) Group will get significant funding through its partnership with Victoria in the MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology. In March, the New Zealand national government announced that five centers that would share its new and hotly contested $NZ60 million (about $US 26.2 million) Centre of Research Excellence (CORE) funding. The McDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology, a partnership between Canterbury and Victoria Universities, has been awarded $NZ3.6 million (about $US 1.57 million) annually from the CORE fund. Some additional detail can be found in another article from New Zealand InfoTech ("New frontier in computing lies in the minuscule", by Judy Voullaire, 8 April 2002),

For additional background on the CORE funding for nanotech research in New Zealand, see the Nanodot post from 8 March 2002.

South Korea expands funding for nanotech programs

from the World-Watch dept.
According to an article in the Korea Herald ("Korea earmarks W200 bil. for nanotech", by Yang Sung-jin, 13 March 2002) South Korea will invest 203.1 billion won (about $US 153 million) in nanotechnology this year and seek a revision of related laws to accelerate NT projects, the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) said on 12 March 2002. The ministry said it will expand research, facilities and manpower in the nanotech sector during 2002. Accordingly, the 2002 investment figure of 203.1 billion won is up 93% from 105.2 billion won (about $US 79 million) last year.

"Nanotechnology is still a fledgling technology and there's a great shortage of seasoned engineers. Therefore, one of the major focuses of the NT initiative is to secure as many high-quality nanotechnology engineers as possible," the ministry said.

Last year, the science ministry drew up a ten-year master plan to nurture [nanotechnology] in an initial step to catch up with the global trend. The long-term plan breaks down into three stages until 2010, with the government pouring 1.37 trillion won (about $US 1.03 billion) in state and private investments into the project in a bid to pave the way for the introduction of a nanotech infrastructure within five years. According to the report, the plan calls for the production of "at least 10 cutting-edge NT products and produce 13,000 NT experts by 2010 in a bid to compete with other advanced countries."

For more information on South Korean nanotech initiatives, see the Nanodot post from 16 January 2002.

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