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The 2004 Feynman Prize winners have been announced. They include Dr. David Baker and Dr. Brian Kuhlman for Theoretical Work, Dr. Homme Hellinga for Experimental Work, Howard Lovy for Communication and Damian Allis as a Distinguished Student.
Details follow…
Ed. Note. Howard's blog has his comments on the award and Damian's site is a trip.
This submission is of interest given previous comments by Eric Drexler on the politics of nanotech research discussed in July.
MartinBaldan writes "Hi, I'm afraid it's a bit late for this, but I've found a piece of Smalley's previous position on MNT and it was rather opposed to the one he holds now: [1]
Ed. Note. The format of the Smalley web site has changed and so links to older URLs on it appear to be invalid at this time. The reference has been pulled out of the Internet Archive (without figures) and is now located here:
1. http://www.aeiveos.com/~bradbury/Authors/Engineering/Smalley-RE/dallas12-96.html
RobertBradbury writes "Scientists at Livermore have pushed the calculations on the phase state of hydrogen to the level that they think it may become a superfluid. Cold superfluids are of interest in nanotechnology because they could enable advanced cooling methods for nanocomputers or the operation of devices at temperatures that support more robust quantum computing. The classical superfluid is of course helium but now it looks as if hydrogen under the right conditions could be as well. The only question is how much diamondoid is required to sustain a pressure of 4 million atmospheres?"
Hal Finney writes "The X Prize Foundation, which recently awarded the Ansari X Prize for achieving a milestone in private space flight, is asking for suggestions for new X Prize ventures, under the name of The WTN X PRIZE. Among the topics they are considering are 'Technological ìholy grailsî, such as… molecular assemblers (true nanotechnology)".
What would be a good prize target for a nanotech project that is along the path to a molecular assembler? Hopefully it would be easier than the Feynman Grand Prize; something that could be done in the same kind of time frame as the Ansari X Prize took, and something for which a million dollar prize would be motivating?"
Foresight Institute Conference Tackles Nanotechnology Applications and Public Policy: Environment, Water Purification, Clean Energy, Medicine, Security, Space Exploration, Competitiveness, Zero-Waste Manufacturing and Societal Impacts to be Discussed
RobertBradbury writes "Well, it finally appears that large corporations are about to seriously engage in the nanotechnology area. A recent article by Manufacturing and Technology News indicates that Motorola is aware of the trends and is taking advantage of them. They are attempting to develop nano-velcro for chip connection technologies. This contrasts with recent efforts by Sun to develop capacitive chip interconnects (which also have advantages). These are not exclusive technologies and may well complement one another once they are fully developed. It should of course be noted that these are still top-down vs. bottom-up technologies for the design and manufacture of nanoscale materials But step by step, inch by inch we are going there."
Gina Miller writes "The ETC group has spoken publicly again. While presenting at the 4th World Conference of Science Journalists, director of ETC Pat Mooney stressed that nanotechnology needs to be addressed by the United Nations due to his concerns of economic upheaval and intellectual property issues. While Mr. Mooney states that his group is not against nanotechnology, he believes nanotechnologies will replace current market applications and thus widen the gap between the rich and the poor. There was no mention of the known ways that nanotechnology could be implemented to narrow this gap. This article was found at SciDev."
Keck writes "Ehud Shapiro of the Weizmann Institute Laboratory for Biomolecular Computers will be giving a special seminar Oct. 7 at Stanford: Injecting Life With Computers: Thursday, October 7, 3:00PM; Gates 104, Stanford University. While there's no way to be sure what the turnout will be, I'd suggest getting there early if you want a seat."
Chad Cooper writes "On September 13, 2004 the National Cancer Institute (NCI) launched the NCI Alliance for Nanotechnology in Cancer an integrated $144.3 million, five-year initiative to develop and apply nanotechnology to cancer prevention, detection, diagnosis and treatment. The Alliance will encompass researchers, clinicians, and public and private organizations that have joined forces to translate cancer-related nanotechnology research into clinical practice. Nanotechnology has already demonstrated promising results in cancer research and treatment. This initiative builds on the scientific advances in genomics and proteomics and our understanding of the molecular underpinnings of cancer by facilitating cross-disciplinary and cross-sector collaboration with nanotechnology, which is ripe for biomedical application. http://nano.cancer.gov/nano_highlights_alliance-la unch.asp"
