Christian Joachim, winner of Feynman Prizes in Nanotechnology for both experiment and theory, continues his exciting molecular machine systems work with a recent publication authored by a German/French team in Nature Materials titled “A rack-and-pinion device at the molecular scale“. From the summary and conclusion: In this work, we present a molecular rack-and-pinion device for… Continue reading European nanotechnology team builds molecular rack-and-pinion
David Leigh, Richard Jones, and other alert readers report that Fraser Stoddart has been knighted for “services to chemistry and molecular nanotechnology.” From the UCLA press release: UCLA professor Fraser Stoddart, director of the California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI), who holds UCLA’s Fred Kavli Chair in NanoSystems Sciences, has been appointed by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth… Continue reading Knighthood for molecular nanotechnology researcher
Regular readers of Nanodot know that we rarely use this space to “bleg” (i.e., request donations via blog). We make an exception for our annual $40,000 Challenge Grant, during which your donations are doubled. As this is posted, we have about $30,000 to go. Take each example below and multiply the payoff by two —… Continue reading Deadline to double nanotechnology impact: this Sunday
Forbes announces its top five nanotechnology breakthroughs for 2006, and we’re not surprised to see the winner of this year’s Foresight Institute Feynman Prize in Nanotechnology listed as #1: 1. DNA origami, at Caltech 2. Nanomagnets to clean up drinking water, at Rice 3. Arrays connect nanowire transistors with neurons, at Harvard 4. Single nanotube… Continue reading Forbes' 2006 Top 5 nanotechnology breakthroughs
The Future of Things, an online magazine based in Israel, has a nanotechnology article/interview with the clearest explanation I’ve seen of the two generations of nanocars built at Rice University. We’ve discussed this before, but a more comprehensible exposition is always welcome. See especially the Flash movie of how the latest nanocar moves. Some excerpts:… Continue reading New nanotechnology movie shows nanocar propulsion
Will Ware, whom you may remember from NanoCAD, has done the most accurate simulation and animation of a molecular bearing design to date. He explains: Using NanoEngineer-1 (see http://www.nanoengineer-1.com) and other open-source software, I have created an animated simulation of the molecular bearing design on page 298 of Nanosystems by Eric Drexler. I worked with… Continue reading How a molecular nanotechnology bearing will actually move
Over at NewScientist.com, they’ve collected the 50-year forecasts of 70 “brilliant” scientists. Topics covered include nanotechnology and the control of physical matter, machine intelligence, and life extension. Here are a few excerpts: Peter Atkins, a Fellow and professor of chemistry at Oxford, on nanobio and synthetic life: Computers will continue to illuminate chemistry. It is… Continue reading Brilliant Minds forecast nanotechnology
Philanthropist Fred Kavli has extended his nanotech research giving to found the Kavli Institute for Bionano Science and Technology at Harvard. From the Harvard press release: The Kavli Foundation and Harvard University have agreed to establish the Kavli Institute for Bionano Science and Technology (KIBST). The endowment from the Kavli Foundation will help to boost… Continue reading Nanotechnology for medicine: Harvard's new Kavli Institute to develop tiny machines for nanomedicine
Great news in the August 2006 issue of Nano Today in an opinion piece by two UCLA researchers, Guodong Sui and Hsian-Rong Tseng, titled “Reactions in hand: Digitally controlled microreactors are providing chemists with a new playground for discovery.” First, some background. As an MIT undergrad in chemistry, I tried to make reactions work in… Continue reading Bottom-up nanotechnology to be speeded by nanoliter-on-a-chip reactors
Judy Conner here at Foresight points out that today is Richard Feynman’s birthday — he would have been 88. Sadly, he died at age 69 instead, of cancer. I was fortunate enough to have heard him lecture and interact informally with students at Caltech; he made you understand physics, or at least feel that you… Continue reading Feynman's Birthday today: read his classic talk, then nominate for Feynman Prize
