Foresight Institute has appointed Scott Mize to the position of President. "This is an important step in our evolution," said Christine Peterson, Founder and former President of Foresight Institute. Peterson will remain with Foresight Institute as Vice President focusing on public policy, legislative issues and education.
Roland Piquepaille writes "Building computer chips which use light instead of electricity will be possible in a few years, thanks to the new techniques developed by two separate research teams from the MIT and Kyoto University. Both have built photonic crystals that can be manufactured using processes suited to mass production. Technology Research News says that "the techniques could be used to make smaller, more efficient communications devices, create optical memory and quantum computing and communications devices, develop new types of lasers and biological and chemical sensors, and could ultimately lead to all-optical computer processors." Please read this overview for more details and references about the two different approaches towards photonic chips, which measure only hundreds of nanometers — right now."
Rosa Wang writes "In his address to a group earlier this year, just published in the press today in India, the President of India sees the future in nanotechnology. There is no ambiguity in their intent:"
Our future lies in nanotechnology
GUEST COLUMN | President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam
July 31"When I think of nanoscience and nanotechnology, I am reminded of three personalities. The first person is Richard Feynman, who described the concept of 'building machines' atom by atom in his talk at Caltech titled 'There is plenty of room at the bottom'. The second person is Eric Drexler, who wrote the book titled Nanosystems, Molecular Machinery, Manufacturing and Computation. The third person is Prof C.N.R. Rao, who pioneered and fostered nano science research in India."
Roland Piquepaille writes "An interdisciplinary team of researchers at Arizona State University (ASU) has discovered a new nanotechnology effect, the ability of moving water molecules by light. This is a far better way than current methods such as damaging electric fields and opens the way to a new class of microfluidic devices used in analytical chemistry and for pharmaceutical research. For example, this makes possible to design a device that can move drugs dissolved in water, or droplets of water and samples that need to be tested for environmental or biochemical analyses. Please read this overview for more details and references, plus an image of two water drops illuminated with a fluorescent dye and sitting respectively on a nanowire surface and on a flat surface."
