The June 2005 Technology Quarterly report in the The Economist includes an update on the work of MIT’s Neil Gershenfeld (subscription required). There’s a summary of his fab lab project and some projections: “He admits that his far-flung fab labs are not the advanced molecular machines he foresees in the next 20 years on a… Continue reading MIT's Gershenfeld: Desktop molecular machines within 20 years
Small Times CEO Patti Glaza writes: “The nanotechnology industry needs to be able to compartmentalize itself, so that if and when the first widespread negative impact of nanotechnology is felt, people only demand the end to the harmful (or perceived harmful) applications and not demand the end of beneficial forms of nanotechnology too.” Indeed. Companies… Continue reading Small Times CEO to nanotech industry: Compartmentalize
[Update: Welcome, Instapundit readers. If you would like future nanotech news emails, just type your email address in the “Free Registration” box to the right.–CP] In the Summer 2005 Issues in Science and Technology, two of the primary White House advocates for the original U.S. National Nanotechnology Initiative, Neal Lane and Tom Kalil, issue a… Continue reading Original NNI advocates issue warning plus 8 recommendations
Just back from a meeting of ICON in Houston (agenda in PDF format). I went out a day early to sit in on a meeting focused on Rice University’s CBEN, which included a high-level summary of their research plus some in-depth examples. Especially impressive was the research on gold nanoshells to treat cancer, and work… Continue reading CBEN: near-term nanotech for health and environment
A partnership of 25 scientists from The Burnham Institute, University of California Santa Barbara, and The Scripps Research Institute will use a $13 million NIH award to design nanotechnologies to detect, monitor, treat, and eliminate “vulnerable” plaque, the probable cause of death in sudden cardiac arrest. The project team will work on three innovative solutions… Continue reading Nanomachines to mount attack on atherosclerotic plaque
Last Thursday I spoke at a Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition conference on nanotech, at which Jim Thomas of the ETC Group also spoke. While we agree that nanoparticles need better testing and regulation, one of the ETC handouts, A Tiny Primer on Nano-scale Technologies, illustrates the risks of making policy recommendations that aren’t quite fully… Continue reading ETC nanotech policy would ban most processed food
A new report on environmental, health, and safety (EHS) risks from nanotechnology: “Lux Research, one of a handful of investment advisory firms that focuses on nanotechnology companies, said corporations including Lockheed Martin and Kraft Foods Inc. spent $3.8 billion on nanotech research and development last year. Yet, it said corporate EHS officers are ‘mostly unaware… Continue reading Lux Research warns of nanotech risks
We’re adding more speakers continually, but a preliminary list is now posted for the 13th Foresight Conference on Advanced Nanotechnology this Oct. 22-27 in San Francisco. Choose your area(s) of focus: the first two days give the big picture (Vision), the next two are on Applications & Policy, and the last two are on Research.… Continue reading Speaker list now up for Foresight Conference
The attitude taken by insurance companies toward nanotech will have a major impact on the field. The OECD and Allianz, an insurance firm, have published a study on the opportunities and risks of nanotechnology (available in pdf format, 2.7 MB). From the announcement: “Allianz believes that it would not be appropriate to create a general… Continue reading Risks and rewards of nanotechnology, from OECD and Allianz
From a UC Irvine press release, based on work published in Nano Letters: UC Irvine scientists have demonstrated for the first time that carbon nanotubes can route electrical signals on a chip faster than traditional copper or aluminum wires, at speeds of up to 10 GHz…Now that Burke’s team has developed both high-speed nanotube-interconnect technology… Continue reading Nanotubes beat metal wires, reach 10 GHz
