Month: February 2005

Two award-winning nanotech films from Europe are available for downloading, or you can order free DVDs. The first, "Nanotechnology", is clearly aimed at kids, while the second, "Nano: the next dimension", is for adults and includes Nobel winning chemist Jean-Marie Lehn. Your reviews welcome in the comments.

It is being reported in multiple sources that Intel has managed to develop "silicon lasers". The buzz is in a report in Nature here and is followed up in the NY Times (registration required) here as well as /. here.

It will be interesting to see how the optical methods play out against Sun's proximity communication.

For those readers who do not actively follow the technologies its about the speed and reliability of the interface between separate processing units (similar to communication between neurons in the brain), CPUs are probably way over the processing capacity of individual neurons (one could of course debate this…), but they are nowhere close to the density neurons achieve and the minimal communication delays between neurons. Laser and/or proximity based communication methods would seem to narrow that gap.

Nanopolis writes "Nanopolis invites instrument manufacturers, nanomaterials users and IP lawyers to participate in the upcoming "Exploring Nanotechnology" encyclopedia & Virtual Show, the first and only multimedia animated space of nanotechnology science and industry.

More…

Yinghao Wu (a.k.a. Matthias) from Shanghai, now a grad student in applied physics at Rice who works with rising star Prof. Jianpeng Ma, has posted his slides on Artificial Molecular-Level Machines with special emphasis on rotaxanes and catenanes. His goal is to design an artificial molecular machine for cargo transportation along a molecular track. If you prefer, you can view them as html at Google.

A transcript is available of the SAGE Crossroads joint interview with Robert Best of University of South Carolina and Mike Treder of CRN. Topics range widely, from medical, military, and economic applications to fairness issues and human enhancement. (I was unable to play the video; if you can, please advise in the comments section.) Some other interviews in this webcast series look worthwhile also.

May 31 is the deadline for international entries in the 2005 annual Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge, sponsored by AAAS and the U.S. National Science Foundation. Awards for outstanding examples of the use of visual media to promote understanding of research results and scientific phenomena will be given in five categories: photography, illustration, informational graphics, interactive media, and noninteractive media.

Over at Nanobot, Adam Keiper gives more details on the NAS meeting on molecular manufacturing. Eric Drexler argued that the goal is feasible, after which: "More noteworthy than Drexlerís remark was the response to it from Clayton Teague, head of the National Nanotechnology Coordination Office: 'I agree with you very much, and I think youíll find everyone on the NNI thinks that it is something of international importance.' " Read more for a comment on time estimates.

Technical debate on the feasibility of mechanosynthesis continues over at Soft Machines. Blog author Richard Jones is a skeptic, but there's some interesting back-and-forth in the comments, in which readers rebut Jones' odd claim that the use of abstraction layers — a standard tool in engineering — may not be possible at this scale.

Check these out at the O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference — (1) "ifabricate: Collaborative atom hacking" by Saul Griffith: "Where is the sourceforge for atoms? The operating system for compiling stuff? Squid:Labs is developing an open design platform…to collaborate, share, personalize, mass customize, and ultimately hack the physical objects and products around us" and (2) "Bits and Atoms" by Neil Gershenfeld: "emerging insights into the digitization of fabrication, based on building with logic (error-corrected molecular assembly)".

Roland Piquepaille writes "Many teams of nanoscientists around the world are using 'quantum dots.' But even if they're able to use them, not a single team has been able to consistently control their quantum mechanical states — or their properties — at the nanoscale. Now, a team from Ohio University claims it found a flaw in quantum dot construction and proposes a solution. And guess what? As it happens often in research, this new finding is based on a very simple fact: an interference between two physical phenomena. Read more for other details, references and a picture showing a quantum dot bombarded with laser light."