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Gaming the Future: The Book!

Author: Foresight Editor

UK, US researchers working on self-assembling solar cells

from the fun-in-the-sun dept.
Patrick Underwood writes: "Here is an article from newscientist.com on self-assembling solar cells ("Self-assembling solar cells developed", by Ian Sample, 9 August 2001). Reminds me of Unbounding the Future. This comes pretty close to the idea in that book of paving streets with solar collectors."

The New Scientist article describes solar cells that "self assemble" from a liquid developed by scientists at the University of Cambridge. The method could make it cheap and easy to cover large areas, like roofs, with efficient, ultra-thin solar cell coatings.
Related research is being conducted at the University of Arizona, as described in this detailed press release from 28 August 2001. UA researchers have received nearly US$ 1 million from two separate federal grants to develop organic molecules that "self assemble," or self-organize, from liquid into efficient solar cell coatings. Some of the UA researchers had previously collaborated with the U Cambridge team.

Update on California NanoSystems Institute

The California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI) hasnít been much in the news since it was established in December 2000, even though it is the largest government-supported research program (in terms of funding) after the federal National Nanotechnology Initiative. These two reports provide an update:

VC firm issues investment-oriented report on nanotech

from the pay-per-view dept.
Lux Capital, a venture capital firm based in New York, has released "The Nanotech Report," a 269-page overview of the field. The report provides a conceptual framework for understanding nanotechnology and its implications for business, including both startups and established firms, and focuses on near term prospects. The lead author was IMM Senior Associate Josh Wolfe, one of the founding partners in Lux Capital.
Additional information about the report can be found in an article from the Wall Street Journal ("Investors Should Eye How Feds, Researchers Handle 'Nanotechnology' " by D. Hamilton, 27 August 2001), as well as an article from the Small Times website ("New VC firmís report outlines nano challenges, opportunities", by T.Henderson, 29 August 2001) and a profile of Wolfe.
Apparently based on the principle that you must be able to spend money to make money, the report is currently available only to the investment community and sells for $4,750.

Sandia creates MEMS device to catch blood cells

from the getting-cute-with-PR dept.
The press accounts indicate that a lot of people are just ga-ga over the silicon micro-device developed at Sandia National Labs. Described as a "Pac-Man-like microstructure" and the "gobbler", the device has silicon microteeth that open and close like jaws. The microjaws fit in a microchannel about one-third the width of a human hair (about 20 microns wide). When the jaws close, they trap a red blood cell. According to a Sandia press release on 20 August 2001, "The jaws, which open and close very rapidly, deform captured cells, and then, in less than the blink of an eye and almost playfully, let the little things loose. The blood cells travel on, regain their former shape and appear unharmed." [Playfully?]
Additional coverage can be found in this article from UPI. And Robert Trombatore writes: "A news item on the Scientific American web site details a just announced microdevice that can grab individual red blood cells flowing through a central channel. So far no practical uses, but the article mentions a few intriguing possibilities!"

Adieu, NanoCAD list?

from the roads-not-taken? dept.

NanoCAD represented a significant initiative to promote open development of software for molecular nanotechnology. Will Ware, the maintainer of the NanoCAD list, is now planning to discontinue the list, given the lack of traffic and his need to change ISPs.

This raises the question, is there enough interest to continue initiatives to develop software, and associated standards and licensing, that could be freely and openly shared by those interested in MNT?

Read More on the question of the NanoCAD list and initiatives for open source development of MNT.

New clues to the genetic basis of ageing

from the be-careful-when-choosing-grandparents dept.
Andrew writes "This item from the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences from New Scientist: Annibale Puca and his team of researchers at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) have used genetic linkage analysis to show a 95% probability that a particular region on chromosone four correlates to long lifespan in humans. Importantly this region appears to have a strong influence on the rate of ageing. Read about it at: http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns999 91201"

According to an HHMI press release, "By comparing the DNA of siblings who are extremely long-lived, researchers believe they have found a region on chromosome 4 that may hold an important clue to understanding human longevity. According to the researchers, their finding is "highly suggestive" that somewhere in the hundreds of genes in that region of chromosome 4 is a gene or genes whose subtle modifications can give a person a better chance of living well beyond the average life expectancy."
Additional information on this research can be found at EurekAlert and in this article from UPI.

Canada to create national center for nanotechnology

from the World-Watch dept.
With funding provided by the Canadian federal and the Alberta provincial governments, Canada will create a National Research Centre facility devoted to nanotechnology. The new NRC facility will be located at the University of Alberta in the provincial capital of Edmonton. Funding for the center will total about $CN 100 million, with roughly equal contributions from federal and provincial sources.

National and political motivations played a large role in the decision to establish the center in Alberta, which does not currently have a NRC facility. However, the University of Alberta is a good choice: UA already has made nanotechnology research a priority, and has 60 faculty members with expertise in the area — more than any other Canadian university.

Read more for links to press coverage of the announcement.

Special Issue of Scientific American devoted to nanotech

from the The-vision-thing dept.
Nanotechnology is the focus of a special issue of Scientific American (September 2001). About half of the articles are available online, including a relatively brief piece by Eric Drexler ("Machine Phase Nanotechnology").

However, the tenor of the other articles is, in general, either skeptical or openly hostile to the concept of machine phase chemistry or mechanosynthesis, as well as advanced applications, as pointed out by Sander Olson, who writes "Scientific American's latest issue has the cover story on nanotechnology. Although the issue has an article from Mr. Drexler ("Machine Phase Nanotechnology"), most of the articles are highly critical of Drexlerian nanotechnology concepts. In one article, Gary Stix claims that Drexler's contribution to nanotechnology will be akin to Star Trek's — a fantasy that will nevertheless encourage people to enter the field. In another article, George Whitesides argues that "The charm of the assembler is illusory: it is more appealing as metaphor than as reality, and less the solution of a problem than the hope for a miracle." "

Read more for the table of contents and links to the articles available online. Additional articles about nanotechnology from SA are also available, including the 1996 article from Gary Stix that triggered an extensive online rebuttal from Foresight.

U.S. will review nanotech efforts

from the self-replicating-bureaucracies dept.
According to an extensive article on the SmallTimes website ("U.S. studies its nanotech plan to make sure itís on right path", by Jeff Karoub, 22 August 2001), the U.S. government has launched two projects to review its nanotechnology research and development efforts. Two committees organized by the National Research Council (NRC), an independent advisory body under the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) serving the government, will conduct the reviews.

The first will be a Review of the National Nanotechnology Initiative sponsored by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), which will take about 1 year. An interim report is due in October 2001 and a final report in May 2002. Information on the project, including scope, committee membership, and committee meetings is available on the NAS web site.

The second review will involve officials from the U.S. Air Force and Defense Department, and will examine the role of micro- and nanotechnologies in the military and how they could improve weapons systems and capabilities. The NRC released a report in June 2001 that recommended the U.S. Army embrace advancements in biotechnology.

IBM researchers create nanotube-based NOT gate

from the circuit-logic dept.
Researchers at IBM have created and demonstrated the world's first logic-performing computer circuit within a single molecule, according to an IBM press release. The device, based on a carbon nanotube, functions as a voltage inverter and thus acts as a NOT gate — one of the three fundamental binary logic circuits that are the basis for digital computers. They encoded the entire inverter logic function along the length of a single carbon nanotube, forming the world's first single-molecule logic circuit.

The achievement was announced on 26 August 2001 at at the 222nd National Meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS) held in Chicago. The full research paper describing the device is available in the online ACS journal, Nano Letters ("Carbon Nanotube Inter- and Intramolecular Logic Gates")

In April 2001, the same IBM team became the first to develop a technique to produce arrays of carbon nanotube transistors, bypassing the need to separate metallic and semiconducting nanotubes. The team used these nanotube transistors to make the NOT circuit.

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