Donate
Donate

Gaming the Future: The Book!

Author: Foresight Editor

New Nanomaterial for Future Magnetic Fridges

Roland Piquepaille writes "Magnetic refrigerators offer significant advantages when compared with current vapor-compression ones, such as gains in energy efficiency, lower cost of operation or elimination of environmentally damaging coolants. Unfortunately, all the materials which have been tested in the last fifty years suffer from hysteresis losses, lowering the energy available for cooling. But now, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) researchers have found a solution, reported in "Nanomaterial Yields Cool Results." By adding a small amount of iron to a gadolinium-germanium-silicon alloy, they enhanced the cooling capacity by 30 percent. This very significant step may help move the promising technology of magnetically generated refrigeration closer to market. This overview contains more details and references."

Nano Tetrapods With Tunable 'Legs'

Roland Piquepaille writes "A team of chemists from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), working with computer scientists, has discovered a new kind of adaptable nanoscale compounds. They previously devised tetrapods, structures with four 'arms' or 'legs', from materials such as cadmium telluride. But they now found that by using different materials, like selenium, tellurium or sulfur, to produce crystals of different cadmium compounds, each 'leg' could acquire different electronic properties. After isolating these 'legs,' they were able to produce 'nanorods' with specific properties. In "Nanotech Branches Out with New Discovery," NewsFactor Network says that this discovery will have important consequences, leading to the development of new solar cells, quantum computers or simply very small and fast transistors. This overview is more technical and contains additional references. You'll also find an image showing you the kind of nano tetrapods built at LBNL."

Nanoscale wires with interesting properties

RobertBradbury writes "Chongwu Zhou at USC has demonstrated a combination of chemical vapor deposition and pulsed laser deposition that can produce multi-material nanowires (diameters 30-100 nm, length up to 3000 nm). News here. The process appears to be able to produce the nanowires in quantity (from a nanoscale perspective). Interestingly the material that determines the properties of the wire is on the outside rather than the inside of the cable as is the case with coax and glass fiber.

Now of course if the high temperature superconductor varient of these wires could be positioned and bonded in place on semiconductor chips one would have a new and interesting method for connecting the transistors on the chips. I've seen claims that some types of buckytubes are good conductors — but are they anywhere close to HTSC?"

Singularity Institute on "3 Laws"

Tyler Emerson writes "In anticipation of 20th Century Foxís July 16th release of I, Robot, the Singularity Institute announces ì3 Laws Unsafeî ì3 Laws Unsafeî explores the problems presented by Isaac Asimovís Three Laws of Robotics, the principles intended for ensuring that robots help, but never harm, humans. The Three Laws are widely known and are often taken seriously as reasonable solutions for guiding future AI. But are they truly reasonable? ì3 Laws Unsafeî addresses this question."

New Conference for Advanced Nanotechnology

Foresight Institute, a nanotechnology education and public policy think tank, is sponsoring the 1st Conference on Advanced Nanotechnology: Research, Applications, and Policy, October 22-24, 2004 at the Crystal City Marriott Hotel, Washington DC area. "This is the first conference to focus on molecular machine systems and advanced nanotechnology," said Christine Peterson, president and founder of Foresight Institute. "The Conference targets the bottom-up goal of molecular machine systems and what this Next Industrial Revolution will mean for the environment, medicine, national competitiveness, and defense."

Robert Bradbury on Freitas interview

Svidinenko Yuriy brings to our attention commentary by Senior Associate Robert Bradbury on an interview of Robert Freitas, including responses to readers' posts. Topics: nanobiotechnology, nanowarfare, age curing, nanomedicine robotics and more.

Drexler on nanotech research politics

Foresight VP Ralph Merkle brings to our attention an article by Foresight founder Eric Drexler on the political forces shaping nanotech research in "Nanotechnology: from Feynman to Funding", published in the Bulletin of Science, Technology & Society.

Lawrence Lessig on efforts to stamp out MNT research

Foresight Senior Associate Luke Nosek brings to our attention a piece on Wired.com written by Foresight Advisor Lawrence Lessig, titled Stamping Out Good Science, which describes efforts to eliminate research proposals for molecular manufacturing from US NNI funding consideration. "Science thus becomes irrational because we can't imagine government as rational. Simple facts of a political nature, we might say, tweaking and reusing Smalley's warning in a much more depressing context, prevent good science from ever becoming a reality."

Nanotech Communication Prize deadline July 31

To promote responsible coverage and assist society in making informed decisions about advanced nanotechnology and molecular manufacturing, Foresight Institute has established a communication prize. The nomination deadline for the 2004 Foresight Institute Prize in Communication is July 31.

A Modest Proposal for Prince Charles

Phil Bowermaster writes "The Prince of Wales is once again warning about the dangers of nanotechnology:

The Prince acknowledges nanotechnology is a "triumph of human ingenuity".

"Some of the work may have fundamental benefits to society, such as enabling the construction of much cheaper fuel-cells, or new ways of combating ill-health," he says.

But he adds: "How are we going to ensure that proper attention is given to the risks that may… ensue?

Hmmm, well if he's really this concerned, I can think of something that might really help."

Facebook Twitter Youtube Linkedin Podcast Spotify
0
    0
    Your Cart
    Your cart is emptyReturn to Shop
    Continue Shopping

      Search Foresight Institute