Month: October 2002

from the nanotechnology-goes-to-Washington dept.
Gina Miller writes "House Gets Own Nanotech Legislation to Consider, a story carried on dc.internet.com on Oct. 18, reports legislation introduced into the US House of Representatives that would establish an independent advisory board comprised of leaders from industry and academia to provide oversight related to the government's National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI)."

from the bigger-molecules-mean-smaller-transistors dept.
Gina Miller writes "From a University of Chicago press release: Chemists synthesize key component in the drive toward molecular electronic devices. 'The component, called a molecular diode, restricts current flow to one direction between electronic devices. In the semiconductor industry these components, called p-n junctions, form half of a transistor.'"

from the hats-off-to dept.
During the 10th Foresight Conference on Molecular Nanotechnology the Institute for Molecular Manufacturing announced the winners of the 2002 IMM Prizes in Computational Nanotechnology. Awards were made in three categories of the four categories covered by the IMM Prizes in Computational Nanotechnology. The DESIGN Category was won by the team of Santiago Solares, Mario Blanco, and William A. Goddard III. The RENDERING Category was won by Carlo D. Montemagno. The SIMULATION Category was won by Lawrence Fields and Jillian Rose.

from the hats-off-to dept.
During the 10th Foresight Conference on Molecular Nanotechnology the Foresight Institute announced the following prize winners. The winners of the 2002 Foresight Institute Feynman Prizes in Nanotechnology were Chad Mirkin for the Experimental category and Don Brenner for the Theory category. The winner of the 2002 Foresight Institute Distinguished Student Award was Yi Cui. The winner of the 2002 Foresight Institute Prize in Communication was David Pescovitz. A story reporting the awards was carried by Small Times and by the UPI.

from the planning-for-the-long-term dept.
Forever Young: "Suppose You Soon Can Live to Well Over 100, As Vibrant and Energetic as You Are Now. What Will You Do With Your Life?" Writing in the October 13, 2002 edition of the Washington Post, Staff Writer Joel Garreau provides another example of the growing interest of mainstream media in radical life extension.

from the getting-the-facts-right dept.
Senior Associate Mark Muhlestein writes to point out an ACM TECH_News summary "Big Risks on a Minuscule Scale" that, amazingly, labels Foresight Chair Eric Drexler as opposed to the development of nanotechnology: "The wide scope of potential nanotech applications makes it hard to determine the most dangerous risks, but opposition figures such as Eric Drexler and Bill Joy have envisioned doomsday scenarios in which nanobots either self-replicate and overwhelm the planet, or wreak havoc from within the human body."

from the making-dents-in-hard-problems dept.
Nanotech Goes Mainstream, an article by Alexandra Stikeman in the October 2002 Technology Review, describes how "The new NanoMechanical Technology Laboratory brings a burgeoning field closer to the real world." The new facility at MIT is equipped with instruments like nanoindentors, atomic force microscopes, and computer workstations for running three-dimensional simulations of materials. These tools help researchers study materials across a range of disciplines and applications, including materials for hard disk drives, composites of biological and inorganic materials, and experiments to discover the mechanical properties of tissues and cells.

from the tuning-tiny-sensors dept.
Nano-Machines Get Some Fresh Air, posted Oct. 1, 2002 to Daily inScight, describes work that could considerably broaden the potential uses of NEMS (nanoelectromechanical) devices. The researchers used laser light shining through a 2 micrometer-square piece of silicon suspended by a pair of 200-nanometer-thick silicon beams to allow the silicon to vibrate at a precise frequency in air, the way that it would vibrate in a vacuum without the laser light. Since a single bacterium or several virus particles stuck to the square would change the vibration frequency, this advance opens the way to developing NEMS devices as ultrasensitive biodetectors.