Foresight Editor, Author at Foresight Institute

Gaming the Future: The Book!

Conservative compares human germline engineering to "slavery"

from the someone's-very-upset dept.
Prominent conservative Dinesh D'Souza has an essay in the Jan. 22 National Review entitled "Staying Human", in which he argues vehemently against human germline engineering. Unfortunately, it's not online, so see instead this piece by Adam Wolfson in Winter 2001's The Public Interest (URL is temporary) and a rebuttal entitled "Right-wing Technological Dread" by Ron Bailey of Reason.
Fortunately, D'Souza's concerns don't have to apply to nanotech, since in that case changes can be made by adults on themselves, not applied involuntarily on offspring by their parents. Read more for excerpts from the D'Souza essay.

Self-healing materials: first steps

from the if-it's-broke-no-need-to-fix-it dept.
JohnPierce writes about work at UIUC published in Nature:"An AP article on Yahoo says: 'Researchers have developed the first material that automatically repairs itself, offering a potential way of fixing the hairline cracks that develop in the space-age composites used in everything from tennis rackets to aircraft. The scientists' secret: tiny capsules of glue that are added to the composite material… To heal tiny cracks automatically, the Illinois researchers sprinkled capsules about the thickness of a human hair throughout an experimental fiberglass-like compound. When a crack appeared, capsules in its path broke open, spilled their contents and sealed the cracks.'
Food for thought: Micro encapsulation is already in widespread use in medicine and food, so using it in construction materials is a natural progression. Nanotechnology will be able to encapsulate high strength repair substances that will survive high temperatures. Self repair will no doubt become a standard Nano application."

Single DNA molecules manipulated in nanochannels

from the no-more-gels dept.
Vik writes "Researchers at Cornell have been using the behaviour of uncoiling DNA to sort and count individual molecules as they pass through a micrometer-wide channel according to this link on Eurekalert. The article describes how nanopores can be used to sort DNA segments much like electrophoresis."

Nanotech mutual fund?

from the let's-put-our-money-where-our-mouths-are dept.
eeex writes "I am wondering as to what the Nanodot community thinks of establishing a mutual fund for investing in stocks of nanotech companies and companies in related areas. Would people invest in such a thing or is it still too early?…Are there enough companies out there doing real nanotech research to justify setting up some sort of mutual fund or at least an investment club/partnership? And more to the point, is there anyone out there actively trying to set up such a fund?" CP: Yes, one or two of the Foresight Senior Associates are looking into doing this. Read more for the full post.

Microsoft exec says Open Source stifles innovation

from the depends-how-you-define-innovation dept.
Foresight Director of Communications Tanya Jones writes "In an article on CNET (also seen on Slashdot), Microsoft executive Jim Allchin is quoted as saying that: 'freely distributed software code such as rival Linux could stifle innovation and that legislators need to understand the threat.' Has Microsoft neglected to consider that Open Source is a voluntary movement and that some intellectual property cannot be regulated (like the joys of building something cool) or perhaps this is just another attempt to stifle competition." CP: You have to admire that company's chutzpah, if not their products.

Casimir force used by MEMS, will affect nanotech

from the top-down-pathway dept.
ScienceExpress, an online preprint service (login req'd) of Science magazine, published on Feb. 8 a report from Bell Labs/Lucent that MEMS can exploit the Casimir force. Coauthor Federico Capasso was quoted in the Feb. 10 Science News: "Capasso speculates that makers of MEMS and even tinier nanoelectromechanical systems may find ways to harness the Casimir force in 5 to 15 years…the experiment also indicates that the Casimir effect may become problematic for designers of tiny machines, says Paul J. McWhorter of MEMX…" CP: What's problematic to some may be a fun challenge to others — anyone care to give their view on this? Read more for the abstract.

1-click patent suit: Barnes&Noble win a round

from the what's-obvious? dept.

A federal appeals court declared that "BN has mounted a substantial challenge to the validity of the patent in the suit." The case has been sent back for further proceedings. The Internet E-Newsarticle is discussed on Slashdot, where "Artagel" gave a link to the court decision. Cases like this are defining what can be turned into intellectual property.

Weeds vanquish GM crops

from the apocalypse-not dept.

An AP report "Study eases fears of modified plants" says "A 10-year look at genetically modified crops found that they survive no better than their conventional cousins, easing fears that superplants could stray from farm fields and crowd out natural species." The original report was published in Nature [subscription required] "Transgenic crops in natural habitats." The Economist [subscription required] reported on "Genetically modified weaklings."

IMHO, there are parallels to the issue of the likely fragility and vulnerability of future nanomachines in natural environments. Alarmism about "superweeds" has some analogies to the fixation on "gray goo" dangers, rather than taking a broader view of safety issues in desiging nanomachines. – Bryan

Room temperature molecular switch

from the tinker-toys-taking-off dept.
Charles Vollum writes "Researchers at UCLA have come up with a reconfigurable molecular switch that works in a solid state at room temperature." According to a UPI article. " 'We feel that we truly have a line-of-site toward manufacturing an extremely powerful and efficient molecular based computing machine,' said team leader James Heath, professor of chemistry at UCLA and scientific co-director of the recently created California NanoSystems Institute."

Wiring Up Nanoelectronics

from the twice-as-nice-for-bottom-up dept.
In Wiring Up Nanoelectronics, in MIT's Technology Review, Alan Leo writes "In the race to create ever-tinier electronic devices, nanowires are looking like a better bet. This month a team of Harvard researchers disclosed that they had created several functional nanoscale semiconductor devices, including the world's smallest bipolar transistor. Using silicon nanowires, semiconductive filaments only 20 nanometers wide, researchers in the lab of Harvard professor Charles Lieber also built a nanoscale diode and an inverter, the first devices ever assembled from both positive- and negative-type nanoscale semiconductors."

Gaming the Future: The Book!

Author: Foresight Editor

Conservative compares human germline engineering to "slavery"

Self-healing materials: first steps

Single DNA molecules manipulated in nanochannels

Nanotech mutual fund?

Microsoft exec says Open Source stifles innovation

Casimir force used by MEMS, will affect nanotech

1-click patent suit: Barnes&Noble win a round

Weeds vanquish GM crops

Room temperature molecular switch

Wiring Up Nanoelectronics

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