Month: June 2002

Collected Coverage of May NanoBusiness Conference Numerous press reports of the NanoBusiness Spring 2002 conference, organized by the NanoBusiness Alliance (NBA) and held 19-21 May 2002 in New York City, covered the diversity of presentations made during the conference:

• A report from United Press International ("Nanotech's development called inevitable", by Scott Burnell, 20 May 2002) described the visionary presentation by Ray Kurzweil on the potential capabilities of advanced nanotechnology, as well as brief mention of the remarks made by former U.S. House Speaker New Gringrich.
• Gingrichís remarks received more extensive coverage in a similar piece on the Small Times website ("Visionaries see the promise and the nightmare of nanotech", by Jack Mason, 21 May 2002) that also included coverage of Kurzweilís speech.
• Additional coverage of Gingrichís keynote address appeared on the Wired website ("Newt Gingrich Gets Small", by Patrick Di Justo, 20 May 2002).

Coverage of the business and venture capital perspectives on the emerging nanotech sector:

• Another item from Scott Burnell at UPI ("Private funding limited for nanotech", 21 May 2002) noted that "Long lead times for payback on investments probably will discourage venture capitalists from funding nanotechnology start-up companies for some time, [conference] speakers said."
• The cautious approach of some venture capitalists toward nanotech investments was highlighted in an item from CNETís News.com website ("With nanotech, VCs are playing it safe", by Tiffany Kary, 23 May 2002). The article also appeared on the New York Times website.
• A somewhat different perspective was offered by a piece on the Wired website ("Big Bucks From Little Science", by Patrick Di Justo, 23 May 2002).
• Finally, waynerad noted "This article at nanotechweb is from a participant at two nanotechnology business and investment conferences in the US (Nanotech Planet in San Jose and the NanoBusiness Alliance's NanoBusiness Spring in New York City). He says, 'Despite the worst conditions for raising funding for a decade, venture capital and professional services companies are scrambling to get a piece of nanotech.'"

Stephan J. Schmidt writes "According to a press release, Infineon announced that "Infineon Technologies achieves breakthrough in carbon nanotube technology – First microelectronics compatible growth of nanotubes at predefined sites on silicon wafers". The press release is online at:
http://www.infineon.com/news/press/206_101e.htm"

from the late-but-catching-up-fast dept.
The IEEE was not the first engineering professional society to notice nanotechnology, but they are moving fast now. From the June 2002 newsletter "The Institute": Half of the IEEE Societies (19) are represented on its Nanotechnology Council…The Council will hold its second nanotechnology conference on 26-28 Aug. in Arlington…The IEEE is also developing a Web-based virtual community platform to enable collaborations…open to anyone…"

from the "pressure-cooker-stage"? dept.
An accessible overview of future computing hardware is available at Popular Science: "Nanocomputers may also hold promise for managing vast databases, solving complex problems such as long-range weather forecasting, andóbecause they can theoretically be integrated into nanomachinesómonitoring or even repairing our bodies at the cellular level. All this remains highly speculative, of course, because nanocomputing research is at the pressure cooker stage."

from the if-a-harp-plays-on-the-nanoscale-does-it-make-a-sound? dept.
A Christian Science Monitor article reprinted at Technology Review describes a nanoscale "harp" made with by "carving" silicon with a beam of electrons: "It may be the world's smallest harp, but it doesn't play music. It's an example of a nano-electrical-mechanical device. Like a real harp, it has 'strings.' The strings are 50 nanometers (nm) in diameter. That's 50 billionths of a meter, or about 150 atoms thick! They range in length from 1,000 to 8,000 nm. The whole "harp" is the size of a red-blood cell."

from the the-race-is-on dept.
Ken Kahn brings to our attention additional info on the nanotechnology portion of the European Union's Sixth Framework Programme. Mentioned are: self-assembling materials and structures; molecular and bio-molecular mechanisms and engines; methodologies or instruments exploiting the self-assembling properties of matter and developing nano-scale machines. The U.S. National Nanotechnology Initiative may want to take note.

from the politicians-in-lovefest-for-nanotech dept.
Smalltimes reports on what surely could be called a nanotech lovefest at a Senate hearing. Here's a sample: "In the coming years, nanotechnology research funded by the National Science Foundation could aid the development of electronic circuits and devices from a single atom or molecule," said Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Science, Technology and Space. "Who knows what potential that may have for medicine, for technology, even for homeland security?"…[Gingrich, a Republican:] "The explosion of knowledge in nanoscale science and technology and in the quantum behaviors associated with that scale, from smaller than one atom to about 400 atoms, represents a profound transformation in our understanding of the natural world," Gingrich said. "Every member of Congress should take time to learn the basics of nanoscale activities and the potential of quantum behaviors."

from the dollars-for-spheres-'n-tubes dept.
David Kanaan forwards this news: "Applied NanoMaterials, Inc., a provider of nanotechnology-based products, today announced that it has raised $1 million in first round financing. The investor in this round is the Newton Technology VC Fund which also has an option for an additional $2 million investment in the company. Applied NanoMaterials commercializes a revolutionary scientific discovery: nanospheres and nanotubes of inorganic compounds that were discovered at the Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel."

from the not-*that*-inevitable dept.
Senior Associate Patrick Salsbury writes "Just found The Lifeboat Foundation, which seems to be the latest project of Eric Klien, founder of the (now defunct) Atlantis Project.

Overall, I like and support the idea of moving into space, and building "space arks" to preserve live and spread it around the Universe, however, I find the choice of language and scenarios on the Lifeboat pages to be…well…alarmist. There's talk about the "inevitability" of a gray goo scenario, and various references to info from Foresight newsletters that I'm almost (but not entirely) sure have been taken somewhat out of context.

Here's a sample of the negativity I'm talking about (from the FAQ):
"Obviously, gray goo is inevitable and with that being the case, so is the end of life itself."

I suspect that having this sort of language and attempting to frighten people into the prospect of space exploration isn't going to be the most productive way of doing things. I'm sure the page could use a review by the various folks here. Go explore the above links, and Crit away! (I tried to embed http://crit.org/ links in the above URLs, but slash munged them.)"

from the possibly-not-a-breakthrough-after-all? dept.
Tulsi Zeidman brings to our attention an article stating that the Bell Lab's work on a single-molecule transistor, published in Science and Nature, is now being questioned.