Month: October 2004

Vance McCarthy writes "Move over carbon nanotubes. Another maturing vein of nano-science, "nano-structured fluids," is capturing the imagination of some of the nation's top nano researchers.

The Nano Science and Technology Institute (NSTI) will for the first time, provide an international briefing on why "nano-structured fluids" research is poised to dramatically change the direction of traditional nano-materials work, in a variety of unexpected ways.

Dynamic Self-Assembly: Nano-Structured Fluids' Hidden Gold Nano-structured fluids research has long been the domain of consumer products and foods companies such as LíOréal, Proctor and Gamble, and Nestlé. Innovative work on next-generation consumer products such as cosmetics, paints, ice cream, and shampoo has been based on nano-structured fluids science for years.

"We view nano-structured fluids as a major growth area for business and scientific development. The capability of this area of science to unlock principals of self-assembly has the potential to greatly impact and accelerate commercialization of nanotechnology." Said Bart Romanowicz, NSTI executive director of technology.

More….

At the recent Foresight conference, the presentation "Productive Nanosystems: from Molecules to Superproducts", a collaborative work between John Burch and K. Eric Drexler was well received.

Thanks to Mark Sims, President of the nano-CAD software company, Nanorex, the Foresight Institute has a $10,000 challenge grant running through November 15, 2004 with the aim of expanding on these animation/film efforts. It takes us back to that age old axiom — "a picture is worth a thousand words"…

Here is your opportunity to support the creation of more pictures…

One can either go to this form

… and click on "not a membership, but another donation button" and enter: "Animation Completion" in the purpose of this donation field.

Or if you want to send in your donation by US post or fax print out and send in this form.

Ed. Note… Yes I know this can be viewed as blatant commercial promotion of the Foresight Institute. But on the other side of the coin is the fact that robust MNT will potentially save ~50 million lives a year. There is an old saying — "one must begin by being there". And if it takes animations and simulations to fire the imagination to get us there then I can't imagine a more noble cause deserving our support. My hat is off to Mark for understanding this.

The American National Standards Institute announced the formation of the Nanotechnology Standards Panel (ANSI-NSP), a new coordinating body for the development of standards in the area of nanotechnology. Nanotechnology refers to the manufacturing or manipulating of matter at the atomic and molecular level, or nanoscale. The panel will convene September 29-30, 2004, in Gaithersburg, MD, to focus its initial work on nomenclature and terminology. More…

Ed. Note. Though the initial meeting was several weeks ago this might still be an interesting project to become involved in if only because it is open to discussion whether many of the people who might become involved will have read the relevant literature.

Thomas Giusepe writes "Nanorobots and simulation research might become available in 5 to 10 years as discussed in the interview at NanoBiotech News.

See the full history at: http://news.nanoapex.com/modules.php?name=News&fil e=article&sid=4996"

Ed. The actual article by Jane MacNeil is reprinted (in PDF format) here.

Wendy Emanuel writes "Nanosphere Inc. Founder, Chad A. Mirkin, Ph.D., Wins First NIH Directorís Pioneer Award. More…

Ed. Note. We realize this is older news but readers should understand that there is a backlog of submissions to nanodot that we are slowly attempting to work through without dropping things off the front page too quickly.

DavidForrest writes "The Foresight Conference this last weekend was one of the best ever. Kudos to all involved. I hate to nitpick after such a wonderful event, but as a metallurgist, I feel compelled to comment on the "metals are weak" meme that resurfaced several times. More…

HLovy writes "
The Edmonton Journal asks: Will nanoscience repeat ag-biotech fiasco? The story is a rehash of all the issues NanoBot readers have been familiar with for more than a year now. But it gives me a good excuse to go into part of the "tough love" advice I gave to the Foresight Institute during my presentation last weekend.

If the group wants to remain relevant, it needs to address concerns associated with nanotechnology today, and not only this vague "someday" when true molecular manufacturing is in use.

Full commentary on Howard Lovy's NanoBot."

Pamela Bailey writes "Alameda, CA and Brussels, Belgium ñ October 28, 2004 ñ The European Nanobusiness Association (ENA), an industrial and trade organisation founded to promote the professional development of the emerging business of nanotechnology at the European level, announced today the launch of a Career Center that focuses on European jobs in nanotechnology. The job center will be hosted by tinytechjobs and can be found at: http://www.nanoeurope.org. more….

The New York Times (registration required) is reporting in Tiny Ideas Coming of Age that "nanotechnology" is now a legitimate patent category (Class 977).

The problem is that the definition "one dimension of an invention be less than 100 nanometers" is so general that its questionable whether or not it will be useful (for example all drug molecules fall into this category). And then of course there is the quote, "a number of overlapping patents have already been issued".

Is this an improvement or just one more sign that in a world as complex as ours currently is the patent system is fundamentally flawed?