Foresight Update 28
Page 2
A publication of the Foresight Institute
 Foresight
Creates $1,000 Annual Award
 For Leading
Nanotechnology Student
Foresight Institute has created an academic grant to recognize
the most promising student in the rapidly developing field of
nanotechnology.
The Foresight Institute
Distinguished Student Award will provide a $1,000 award each
year to the college undergraduate or graduate student whose work
in nanotechnology is deemed most notable. The winning student
will be selected by Dr.
J. Storrs (Josh) Hall of Rutgers University, moderator of the
sci.nanotech newsgroup on the Internet, and the Foresight board
of directors.
The award, provided for the next four years through the
generosity of computer industry entrepreneur Jim Von Ehr of
Macromedia Inc., is intended primarily to allow the winning
student to attend Foresight Institute's Conference on Molecular
Nanotechnology, which is held in odd-numbered years to bring
together leaders in nanotechnology research, or the Foresight Senior Associates
Gathering, held in even-numbered years for researchers and
supporters of nanotechnology research.
The Foresight Institute Distinguished Student Award
institutionalizes the first grant made in 1996 by Foresight to
John M. Michelsen, a University of California at Irvine chemistry
student. Michelsen's
work, "Atomically Precise, 3D Organic Nanofabrication:
Reactive Lattice Subunit Design for Inverse AFM/STM
Positioning," is described on the Web (see Web Watch in this issue).
"I found John's discussion of his work on the World Wide Web
last year, and was so impressed that I wanted to make sure we got
him involved in last
fall's Senior Associates Gathering," said Von Ehr.
"Later, it seemed like such a good idea to bring bright and
promising students into the mix that we decided to make the award
more permanent. We hope it will further stimulate the burgeoning
interest in nanotechnology study on campuses around the
country."
Persons interested in nominating themselves or others for the
award should contact Josh Hall via sci.nanotech, or Foresight
Institute by e-mail at foresight@foresight.org, or by calling
Foresight Institute at (415) 917-1122. Entries for this year's
award must be submitted by September 1, 1997. The winner will be
selected in time to allow attendance at the November 1997
Conference on Molecular Nanotechnology in Palo Alto.
Matching
Grant Program Encourages
Much New Senior Associate
Participation
A $40,000 matching grant
offered in late 1996 by a generous long-time Senior Associate
proved even more beneficial than expected. Because of the grant,
Foresight received 20 new Senior Associate memberships, several
increases in membership level, and nearly $10,000 in one-time
donations, according to Foresight Executive Director Chris
Peterson.
"Matching grants work wonderfully well," Peterson said.
"The $40,000 donation was extremely helpful, even standing
alone. Combined with the generosity of others who were motivated
by the opportunity to leverage their own gifts, it has helped
Foresight Institute achieve a stronger financial footing than we
have enjoyed for some time. We are very grateful to everyone who
participated in the project, and most especially to our matching
grant donor."
Inspired by the matching grant, Foresight supporters pledged
$22,802.86 for new or upgraded Senior Associate memberships and
one-time gifts-- more than sufficient to meet the two-for-one
matching requirement of the grant.
"With the focus on nanotechnology in the technical community
rapidly turning from 'can this be done?' to 'here's how we can do
this!', the role of Foresight Institute in leading public policy
discussions becomes ever more important," Peterson said.
"The support of Senior
Associates is invaluable in providing the resources to
continue our many initiatives, including an impressive and
increasing World Wide Web presence, our online discussion forum
and expanded newsletter, and increasing technical discussions in
our biennial
Nanotechnology Conferences and elsewhere."
Senior
Associates Program
The Senior Associates
Program has been established to provide steady support for
the research projects of the Institute
for Molecular Manufacturing, and for the education and
communication projects of the Foresight Institute, enabling
long-term planning and commitments, and providing seed money for
new efforts.
The Senior Associates Program supports vital research and
education in molecular nanotechnology. It enables individuals to
play a key role in advancing this technology and its responsible
use through their individual or corporate contributions.
By pledging an annual contribution of $250 to $5,000 a year for
five years, Senior Associates join those most committed to making
a difference in nanotechnology. Benefits of becoming a Senior
Associate include special publications, online interaction, and
special meetings. Senior Associates will also beta-test
Foresight's Web Enhancement
debate software.
Foresight is a nonprofit foundation; donations are tax-deductible
in the U.S. to the full extent permitted by law. Donations can be
made by check from a U.S. bank, postal money order, VISA, or
Mastercard. Credit card donations may be sent by fax.
To contribute, obtain a donation form on
the Foresight Institute World Wide Web site, call 415-917-1122,
fax 415-917-1123, or email foresight@foresight.org
Ralph
Merkle Joins Foresight Board;
Chris Peterson Named
Executive Director
 Ralph Merkle,
a leading computational nanotechnologist at Xerox Palo Alto
Research Center, was elected in January to the Board of
Directors of Foresight Institute. He replaces Chris Peterson,
who resigned from the Board to accept a new position as Executive
Director of Foresight Institute. Peterson served as an unpaid
Director of the organization since it was founded.
"Ralph's leadership at the Foresight Institute, and in the
field generally, have established him as one of the leading
nanotechnology researchers," said Foresight Chairman K. Eric
Drexler. "He has chaired the most successful biennial
Molecular Nanotechnology conference in Foresight's history,
contributed thoughtfully to public discussion of the
ramifications of nanotechnology, and still finds time to conduct
brilliant creative research in nanotechnology engineering. He is
a welcome addition to our Board."
Foresight's staff now numbers six people - Office Manager Judy
Hill, Membership Services Coordinator Elaine Tschorn, Webmaster
Jim Lewis in Seattle, Update Editor Lew Phelps in Pasadena, CA.,
Conference Coordinator and Graphic Designer Marcia Seidler, and
Peterson.
Web
Watch
John Michelsen's Web site has a large section on molecular
nanotechnology that focuses on technical aspects of diamondoid
mechanosynthesis, and also includes discussion of using larger
molecular building blocks for positional synthesis. It provides a
lot of food for thought for anyone interested in paths from
current technology to molecular manufacturing. The material is
well-presented but quite technical, so those who are familiar
with Nanosystems
and have a good chemistry background will have an easier time
following the arguments than will those who encounter diamondoid
molecular machinery here for the first time. The document is
well-linked to related material on the Web.
The major nanotechnology-related component of the site is a large
document entitled "Atomically
Precise, 3D Organic Nanofabrication: Reactive Lattice Subunit
Design for Inverse AFM/STM Positioning." It begins with
a clear and concise introduction to diamondoid molecular
machinery, followed by a section on mechanosynthesis that
presents novel, detailed reagent preparation proposals. A
particularly useful feature of this and other sections is the
availability of atomic coordinates (PDB files) for many of the
proposed structures, so that users with the appropriate software
can examine in detail the proposed atomically detailed
structures.
A section on "Diamondoid
Analog Machinery" discusses how using larger subunits,
such as aryl rings, relaxes the imaging resolution and positional
accuracy necessary to make mechanosynthesis work, and how
interpenetrating lattices might present a solution to the
"zeolite effect" that arises when using molecular
building blocks. There is a section on tip
arrays for use in AFM-based positional synthesis, based upon
a proposed atomically precise tip, composed of phenylacetylene
rods, for inverse imaging of the AFM tip. Michelsen claims that
"The approach presented here, in contrast to much work done
in two dimensional surface patterning, aims towards atomically
precise organic nanofabrication in three dimensions." Site
visitors interested in considering this claim will find specific
proposals to evaluate. Another nice feature of this site is that
Michelsen posts (and responds to) critiques
of his ideas.
Markus Krummenacker's web site contains the paper "Steps
toward molecular manufacturing", which was published in
1994 in Chem. Design Autom. News, and which is based
upon his work that was supported by IMM. This paper presents a
discussion of design rules for molecular building blocks to be
used along a pathway for development of a primitive assembler. As
an alternative to approaches based upon folding polymers,
Krummenacker considers the problem of designing small molecular
building blocks (MBB's) able to form covalent bonds in three
dimensions. Such MBB's would be an important advance over current
attempts to design solids using weak, noncovalent bonds to hold
the parts together.
After exploring various issues with linking small organic
molecules together to form MBB's, Krummenacker concludes that the
approaches considered lead to lattices of MBB's with large empty
cavities (the "zeolite effect"), with consequently
compromised mechanical properties. Atomic coordinates (PDB files)
are provided for a pair of proposed MBB's that illustrate some of
the trade-offs in MBB design.
Motivated by the need to find a way to fill cavities to reduce
the zeolite effect, Krummenacker is developing a program called CavityStuffer
to pack a defined volume with a branched polymer. A PDB file of a
"tree molecule" produced by the current, very early
implementation of the program, is available as an example of the
output of the program. The program files and information on
setting up and running the program are available for those who
would like to contribute to the further development of
CavityStuffer.
Thanks to Eugene Leitl for posting on the sci.nanotech news
group a pointer to this scanning probe microscopy homepage. This
page provides a very extensive list of annotated links to the Web
pages of groups doing scanning probe microscopy (79 links in this
section as of 2/7/97), companies selling equipment, journals
publishing results, and professional societies involved with
scanning probe microscopy and related technologies.
The following are a few links from this page that led to web
sites with large amounts of useful technical information on SPM.
The STM group at the University of Nottingham presents an html
version of a published paper on using STM to manipulate C60
molecules on a silicon surface . The web site maintained by Paul
Weiss's group at Pennsylvania State University offers a
wealth of publication abstracts and images concerning
interactions of atoms with surfaces, and ways to extend the
capabilities of the STM. The web site for Nanoscale
Physics at Purdue University provides a collection of
pictures and papers dealing with SPM of nanoscale structures.
This group is part of the Purdue
Nanotechnology Initiative, which focuses on demonstrating
"novel techniques for the design and fabrication of
nanoelectronic devices by the chemical manipulation of nanometer
(10-9 meters) sized clusters and molecular
wires."
Foresight Update 28 was originally
published 30 March 1997.
|