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Gaming the Future: The Book!

Category: Found On Web

U.S. proposes $519 million for nanotech in FY2002

from the Washington-Watch dept.
The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), the lead agency for the National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI) has posted a brief document ("National Nanotechnology Investment in the FY 2002 Budget Request by the President") summarizing the Bush Administrationís budget request for fiscal year 2002. It breaks out the FY 2002 funding request for nanoscale science, engineering and technology research and development in eight federal departments and agencies. The total nanotechnology-related funding in the budget request is approximately $518.9 million ($485 million reported on April 9 plus $33.9 million in associated programs), 23% over $422 million approved by Congress for FY 2001. This is significantly more than the 15% increase noted in earlier reports. The NSF summary also notes collaborative inter-agency efforts that do not fall under any single agency. As previously noted, nanotechnology-related programs are one of the few areas in the federal research and development budget that saw increased funding in the FY2002 budget request.

Animated view of Drexler

from the fine-motion dept.
Those who want a better look at the molecular fine motion controller designed by Eric Drexler at the Institute for Molecular Manufacturing, Josh Hall has created an animation of the fine motion controller that allows it to be rotated around one (the vertical) axis. The animation allows you to view the device design from different angles not available in static single-angle views.

Student work a step toward an assembler?

from the budding-nanotechnologists dept.
Stuart Scott spotted this article from InfoWorld reprinted on the Small Times website: "There is an article in Small Times about the work of a summer intern that could be useful."

The article describes the work of Alex Wissner-Gross, a student intern at the MITRE Corporation in 1998 (he is now at MIT) in developing a system using "pattern structures to manipulate nanoscale objects. Alex's improvement generates millions of "nanofingers." These fingers might be used one day to handle multiple molecular-scale objects and possibly lead to mass-produced nanoscale computers."

The article actually devotes greater length to the excellent student intern program at MITRE, which has generated some excellent work in the field of nanotechnology under the guidance of James Ellenbogen, the Principal Scientist in the Nanosystems Group and also head of MITRE's summer employee program. An alumnus of the program, Christopher Love, won the 2000 Foresight Distinguished Student Award for his work in architectures for molecular electronic computers and nanomanipulation of structures on surfaces. He has contributed to nanotechnology research for seven years at three major U.S. research laboratories, starting in MITRE's Nanosystems Group at age 16.

Controlled production of carbon nanotubes

bbrelin spotted this item on the Technology Review web site on the work of a team from the University of Cambridge (U.K.) who have developed a method for producing large numbers of uniform nanotubes with predictable properties. According to the article, the "technique for growing nanocrystals yields perfectly aligned, dense groves of single-wall nanotubesóand controls exactly where the crystals are deposited

UK Defense ministry reviews nanotechnology

from the World-Watch dept.
RobertBradbury writes "The British Minstry of Defence (MOD) has released this recent report NANOTECHNOLOGY: Its Impact on Defence and the MOD (in Adobe Acrobat PDF format).

It's interesting for what they get wrong. They seem to be including quantum cryptography, AI, MEMS and biotechnology as part of "nanotechnology" while entirely missing the possibility of nanobots. Guess that's what happens when you don't include a microbiologist on the "expert" panel. It mentions that European funding is ~100 million pounds a year, but like the U.S. funding, that probably includes a lot of nanoscience and larger-than-nanoscale research."

Spielberg readies AI, the movie.

Mark Gubrud writes "Steven Spielberg plans to release a new movie about Artificial Intelligence, AI as a summer blockbuster starting in June. The movie's official website gives a few clues to what the plot is about, but if there is an official synopsis, I did not find it. There are pointers to related sites which appear to be put-ups, allegedly the homepages of pro- and anti-AI groups, including an "anti-robot militia" which revels in homemade high-tech weaponry to be used in the destruction of "non-human sentients."

[Editor's note: Spielberg's movie is apparently the result of his taking over the project for a movie about AI which the late Stanley Kubrick (the director of 2001: A space odyssey) had been working on for some years.]

Mark adds "While researching about the AI movie, I came across the very useful website AI Topics from the American Association for Artificial Intelligence. There is a subpage on the movie, plus many links to other high-quality resources on artificial intelligence and related topics."

Read more for additional comments . . .

Small Times launches micro-, nano-oriented website

from the nano-trade-press dept.
Stuart Scott brings our attention to smalltimes.com, a new web site "devoted entirely to the fast-growing industry that includes MEMS, microsystems and nanotechnologies."

The new site is produced by Small Times Media, a company "devoted entirely to the fast-growing industry that includes MEMS, microsystems and nanotechnologies. As these remarkable technologies move from laboratories to the marketplace, Small Times Media will offer full news coverage and industry-related trade events." The publishers say coverage on the site will include such areas as analysis of business developments; breaking news in life sciences, consumer goods, environmental, defense, telecommunications and transportation applications; a small tech stock index; and an industry calendar of events such as conferences and trade shows.

According to a notice on the web site, the firm will also launch Small Times Magazine in September 2001. The magazine will cover applications and technical breakthroughs, offer stories and profiles on industry leaders and pioneers, innovations and resources shared between academia, investors, government and industry. It will also spotlight key issues in the industryís development and market intelligence.

Alternative rock album based on "Spiritual Machines"

from the memetics dept.
Senior Associate Glenn Reynolds writes: The alternative-rock group "Our Lady Peace" has a new CD out called "Spiritual Machines." It's a concept album (well, kinda) based on Ray Kurzweil's work, and features snips of Ray reading from his book. It's pretty cool. (Downloadable music at www.ourladypeace.com)."

A Study on Artificial Markets (Idea Futures)

from the Buying-into-an-idea dept.
Senior Associate John Smart brings our attention to a study on the predictive power of artificial markets ("The Real Power of Artificial Markets: A research study on the efficiency and forecast accuracy of market games on the Web") by a team of researchers at the NEC Research Institute. According to one of the studyís authors, the prices of securities can be thought of as the market's assessment of the probabilities of the corresponding events, and players can be as accurate in their predictions as stock-market investors. He also suggest that trend watchers could study artificial markets to spot evidence of future trends, or even create new gaming markets to collect information on particular areas of interest.

The full NEC study and a short version that appeared in the 9 February 2001 issue of Science are both available online and as Adobe Acrobat PDF files at http://artificialmarkets.com

Nanotechnology in Europe

from the The-happening-world dept.
A correspondent from Belgium provides us with the URLs for two interesting web sites that provide useful information and resources on nanotechnology-related activity in Europe:

The first site is the Nanoforum, hosted by the European Cooperation in the Field of Scientific and Technical Research (COST) organization.
The second site is maintained by the (European) Community Research and Development Information Service (CORDIS).

If you are interested in whatís going on in Europe, these sites are worth a visit.

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