From the Popular Mechanics Breakthrough Awards for 2006, MIT’s Angela Belcher and colleagues are using viruses to build at the molecular level: VIRAL MANUFACTURING Innovators: Angela Belcher, Yet-Ming Chiang, Paula Hammond MIT scientists reached a major nanotech milestone: re-engineering a virus to create a self-assembling product. THE GOAL OF nanofabrication is to make tiny machines… Continue reading Viruses begin to do nanotechnology construction at MIT
Lots of people say that nanotech R&D should include international collaborations, but these are not always easy to set up, especially the money part. To the rescue is Nanoforum, a “European Nanotechnology Gateway” funded by the EU, which has published a report (free reg. req’d) listing such opportunities: Countries for which funding opportunities have been… Continue reading Finding funds for int'l nanotechnology collaborations
One of the top four nanotech articles highlighted in the first issue of Nature Nanotechnology is “Making Molecular Machines Work” by Wesley Browne and Ben Feringa. Full text of the article is free, at least for now. From the conclusions: The exquisite solutions nature has found to control molecular motion, evident in the fascinating biological… Continue reading Molecular machines highlighted in 1st issue of Nature Nanotechnology
The ETC Group has a new 63-page PDF report out titled “Nanotech Rx — Medical Applications of Nano-scale Technologies: What Impact on Marginalized Communities?” Although we at Foresight share ETC’s concern for these communities, we disagree with the report. A couple of excerpts: Can OECD donors who have failed to deliver promised mosquito netting to… Continue reading Nanotechnology medicine policy report disputed
The idea of a nanotech-based matter compiler began in the U.S., and we do some relevant computer modeling studies, but the U.K is pulling ahead toward actually building one. Twenty to thirty lucky researchers will gather on January 8-12, 2007, to brainstorm how to do this, after which the U.K. government will spend about US$… Continue reading UK pulling ahead on nanotechnology matter compiler
One of the cover stories in Machine Design is by Mark Sims, CEO of Nanorex, on nanotech molecular modeling in CAD (computer-aided design). For those of us who have already been tracking the field, the most exciting part is at the end: The software does not currently output data that could drive such machines as,… Continue reading Next hot job: Molecular engineer for 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
John Faith and Billy Harvey bring our attention to progress in Dip Pen Lithography nanotech reported at Phys.org.com: Ever since the invention of the first scanning probe microscope in 1981, researchers have believed the powerful tool would someday be used for the nanofabrication and nanopatterning of surfaces in a molecule-by-molecule, bottom-up fashion. Despite 25 years… Continue reading DPN nanotechnology reaches 80 nanometers, but IBM likes DNA
Regular Nanodot readers will not be surprised to read this short item at Forbes.com by Andrew Pasek of AFX News, apparently reporting on an article in the China edition of the Wall Street Journal: BEIJING (XFN-ASIA) – China is making rapid advances in the field of nanotechnology and the US should monitor China’s progress in… Continue reading China said to be gaining on the US in nanotechnology
Patrick Lin over at the Nanoethics Group let us know that the principals of that group have received a US$250,000 grant from the NSF to study the ethics of using nanotechnology to do human enhancement, through their academic affiliations at Dartmouth and Western Michigan U. The questions to be investigated by the nanoethics research team… Continue reading U.S. nanotechnology funds study ethics of human enhancement
