Somehow we missed the original launch of the 12-minute video describing MIT’s Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies, funded by the U.S. Army. It includes animated sequences depicting combat scenarios and how nanotechnologies could be used in response. Some of these are pretty science-fictiony, which means they have at least some chance of being accurate projections. The… Continue reading Military nanotechnology video is a mixed bag
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
Bernie Marcus, co-founder and one of Home Depot’s largest individual shareholders, has been named “Forbes/Wolfe 2006 Nanotech Person of the Year”. I was a little surprised until I read this interview; he’s quite a visionary and is putting his money where his mouth is. Here at Foresight, we like that a lot. Some excerpts: Recently,… Continue reading To fund nanotechnology, shop at Home Depot
We’ve written before about the nanotechnology-based matter compiler project in the U.K, wishing we could participate. Richard Jones writes that now, we can: You may be interested to hear (and I’m hoping you might post about it on your blog) that we’ve now got a blog running associated with the “Software Control of Matter” sandpit.… Continue reading Now we all can assist UK nanotechnology project
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
Nanotechnology career advice is available from the U.S. Departments of Labor and Education at CareerVoyages.gov. It’s a pretty good place to start for people who are entirely new to the field. Most of the link lists include useful sites. A couple of areas could use additional work. The Nanotechnology — Tools and Technology section lists… Continue reading U.S. government advice on nanotechnology careers
The Institute for the Future, in a UK-funded study published on the Stanford website, presents eleven outlooks for nanotechnology over the next 50 years: • Better drug delivery through nanotechnology • Carbon nanotubes and lighter vehicles • The coming nanoshell revolution in oncology • The dream of biochemical nanocomputing • Manufacturing with programmable materials “Advent… Continue reading Nanotechnology: eleven 50-year outlooks
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
Switzerland’s Centre for Technology Assessment has issued its report Public Reactions to Nanotechnology in Switzerland (428 KB pdf), and — not surprisingly — it’s relatively balanced. From page 33 (page 35 of pdf file): “There’s a good and a bad side to everything” — This saying sums up quite well the way that the publifocus… Continue reading Sensible Swiss views on nanotechnology benefits, downsides
