Month: October 2004

RobertBradbury writes "Scientists at Livermore have pushed the calculations on the phase state of hydrogen to the level that they think it may become a superfluid. Cold superfluids are of interest in nanotechnology because they could enable advanced cooling methods for nanocomputers or the operation of devices at temperatures that support more robust quantum computing. The classical superfluid is of course helium but now it looks as if hydrogen under the right conditions could be as well. The only question is how much diamondoid is required to sustain a pressure of 4 million atmospheres?"

Hal Finney writes "The X Prize Foundation, which recently awarded the Ansari X Prize for achieving a milestone in private space flight, is asking for suggestions for new X Prize ventures, under the name of The WTN X PRIZE. Among the topics they are considering are 'Technological ìholy grailsî, such as… molecular assemblers (true nanotechnology)".

What would be a good prize target for a nanotech project that is along the path to a molecular assembler? Hopefully it would be easier than the Feynman Grand Prize; something that could be done in the same kind of time frame as the Ansari X Prize took, and something for which a million dollar prize would be motivating?"