Advance could speed RNA nanotechnology

RNA nanostructures chemically modified to be resistant to degradation retain 3D structure and biological activity.

Update and summary of potential applications of medical nanorobotics

Robert A. Freitas Jr. has made available his chapter on nanorobotics from the book The Future of Aging.

Theoretical analysis of powering nanorobots with blood glucose and oxygen

Hogg and Freitas provide a theoretical analysis of the power constraints when nanorobots rely entirely on ambient bloodstream oxygen and glucose and identify aspects of nanorobot design that significantly affect available power.

Futurisms – Critiquing the project to reengineer humanity: Happy Birthday, Nanotechnology?

Futurisms – Critiquing the project to reengineer humanity: Happy Birthday, Nanotechnology?. Adam Keiper over at the New Atlantis reminds us it’s the 50th anniversary of Feynman’s Plenty of Room at the Bottom talk.

Prediction

Futurists make lots of predictions, and usually by the time they can be tested they’ve been long forgotten. That’s great when we get them wrong (which is a lot more often than we’d like!) but I take pleasure in claiming I got one right. In this post I wrote: So what’s the next paradigm shift?… Continue reading Prediction

Liquid metal?

New Scientist is reporting on the development of "liquid metals". Particularly Liquidmetal is pushing forward with these. These are almost "anti-nanotechnology" as they are not based on a high covalent bond density and do not depend on precise atomic structures. This raises significant questions from materials science perspectives. The concept of nanotechnology has been in large part built upon the concept that high covalent bond density (i.e. diamondoid) is "it". But is it "it"? Are we now a a point in chemical and materials science where there are other "its"? And do they produce significantly different visions for paths of development?

Nano-Probes Allow to See Tumors Through Skin

Roland Piquepaille writes "Nano-sized particles embedded with bright, light-emitting molecules have enabled researchers to visualize a tumor more than one centimeter below the skin surface using only infrared light. An interdisciplinary team from the Universities of Pennsylvania and Minnesota have imaged tumors within living rats by embedding fluorescent materials into cell-like vesicles called polymersomes, which are composed of two layers of self-assembling copolymers. According to the researchers, this imaging process has the potential to go even deeper. And "it should also be possible to use an emissive polymersome vesicle to transport therapeutics directly to a tumor, enabling us to actually see if chemotherapy is really going to its intended target." Read this overview for other details and references, including a picture showing how these nanoparticles are used to image a tumor beneath the skin of a living rat."

Nanoscale field emission effects

Ok, I'm at a loss. We have a report from U Wis.-Mad. regarding the ability to construct structures someplace between MEMS and MNT. The diagram is looking like things are on the micrometer scale yet the effects seem to be being produced at the nanometer scale. Is this or isn't this nanotechnology?

NSF Misses the Point on Nanotechnology

Mike Treder writes "A recent report published by the U.S. National Science Foundation highlights their systematic failure to address the most important issues raised by nanotechnology. By ignoring the societal impacts of molecular manufacturing, they miss the major significance of the technology."

Nanotube Oscillator Might Weigh a Single Atom

Roland Piquepaille writes "Recent developments in nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS) have typically used vibrating silicon rods so small that they oscillate at radio frequencies. But now, Cornell University researchers have replaced the silicon rod by a carbon nanotube. This new electromechanical oscillator might be capable of weighing a single atom. The oscillator consists "of a carbon nanotube from one to four nanometers in diameter and about one-and-a-half micrometers long, suspended between two electrodes above a conducting silicon plate." Such an oscillator, tunable from 3 to 200 MHz, could be used in future cell phones, which have to change frequently their operating frequencies. The only problem is that the current production of carbon nanotubes is too small for such a huge market. Read more for additional details and references."

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