Author: Foresight Editor

Keith Gillette writes "Nanotechnology research at the University of Wisconsin–Madison provides the subject for the cover story of the Spring 2005 edition of On Wisconsin , the UW-Madison alumni magazine. From the examples used, the article appears to use the term nanotechnology in its popular sense, drawing no distinction with molecular nanotechnology."

It would appear that Adrian Bower, a lecturer at the University of Bath, is promoting an open source project for a "Replicating Rapid-Prototyper" that can reproduce not only itself but other macroscale objects.

More on self-replication…

The World Peace Herald and the Meridian Institute are discussing on the problem of whether nanotechnology will reach the poor.

Given years of history with open source software we already know how to solve this problem. This is pointed out by Bryan Bruns, a sociologist with the Foresight Institute, who promotes better policies on intellectual property, including full publication of publicly-funded research in ways that are accessible and affordable.

This feeds into a complex development problem. In an ideal world developments paid for by the public should be available to the public. At the same time business will be disinclined to push those developments to the marketing stage without some exclusive rights on the market. How does one resolve this problem?

Diane Surine writes "NANOTECHNOLOGY SEMINAR SERIES COMING TO A CITY NEAR YOU!

Join HORIBA Jobin Yvon for a free seminar on nanotechnology applications in 10 cities across the United States. Explore how Ellipsometry, Fluorescence, Raman and Glow Discharge Spectroscopy are being used to develop and understand the properties of smart surfaces, nanotubes, nanofilms, nanocolloidal metallic films, quantum dots and self-assembled monolayers. Applications below will be presented in detail."

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A group of physicists (Naumov, Bellaiche & Fu) at the Univ. of Arkansas are reporting in Nature the exploration of phase transformations in non-volatile ferroelectric memories composed of Pb(Zr,TI)O₃. They are finding that the minimum size of nanodiscs/nanorods able to retain a bistable state is of the order of 3.2 nm. That translates to 60×10¹² bits/sq. inch (7+ terabytes/sq. in).

Obviously there are a couple of problems here. The first would be how do you read or write a nanorod every 3.2 nm? Of course this may drive the need for improved nanowiring and/or nanomechanical head positioning. The second would be the claim regarding "low-temperature structural bistability". How low does the temperature actually need to be? If one needs a room full of refrigeration equipment to allow a nanoscale memory to retain its data then the applications may be somewhat limited. E.g. you aren't going to see it in an iPod.

At a news conference in Washington D.C. today a number of SIA leaders questioned the ability of the U.S. to retain its lead role in the semiconductor industry as it moves into nanoscale technologies. They called for a number of solutions including increased funding for the NSF of 7%/yr. In contrast, as reported by Thomas Freidman in the NY Times on Dec. 26, 2004, the proposed Bush-Republican 2005 budget specified a $100M cut to the NSF. (The actual budget request is open to debate as is seen here and here.) For comparison purposes the NSF budget is slightly less than $6B while the war in Iraq from March 2003 thru 2005 is estimated at $207B.

Clearly the industry leaders recognize that long term R&D support is required and because the financial markets do not seem to have worked out a model which could enable this they must turn to the government for support. It would seem that those involved in politics are not quite as able to connect the dots as one would hope. One could double funding for the NSF for 15 years for the cost of a war. The advancements in nanotechnology that such R&D could provide could so advance the quality of life of people in places such as Iraq that there would be significantly fewer incentives to become a terrorist or an insurgent. Two extremely simple problems — clean water and sufficient electricity — could be significantly dealt with through applications of nanotechnology in Iraq. Why is there no focus on these approaches to uplifting their population? �

PhysOrg is reporting that IBM Zurich is showing off its Millipede storage device at CeBIT. For those unfamiliar with this device it uses cantilever arms to read & write a polymer medium.

As the pits that the cantilevers read & write are ~10nm in diameter it is definitely a nanoscale device. The storage density is approximately 1 terabit per sq. inch. That capacity in that size implies that one should be able to fit the contents of a entire college education into a handheld device.

It would appear that TI is delivering chips for wireless phones based on its 65nm process. The chip architecture description is rather impressive. Because the circuit density is so high it allows the implementation of system-on-a-chip solutions incorporating both analog and digital functions. Also of interest is that the process may end up in Sun's UltraSPARC® processors.

But it gives real meaning to the statement "Could you pass the nanophone…"

University of Missouri-Rolla writes "UMR RESEARCHER RECEIVES $400,000 FROM NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION

The CAREER Award is NSFís most prestigious award given to assistant professors in tenure-track positions. The CAREER program recognizes and supports the early career development activities of those teachers and scholars who are to become the academic leaders of the 21st century.

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New Scientist is reporting that Altair Technologies has a new Lithium ion battery that uses lithium titanate nanocrystals to significantly decrease the recharge time (to minutes) and significantly increases the number of recharge cycles the battery can tolerate.

On top of this Science Daily is reporting that Georgia Tech scientists are using probabilistic bits (PBITs) to construct probablistic transistors (PCMOS) which use 100 times less power than conventional transistors.

The combination of these two approaches would yield a laptop that could probably last a week without recharging (which is great for long conferences) and wouldn't need a new battery every 6-12 months.