Category: Media Mentions

For a bit of perspective on the recent spate of advances in molecular electronics, there is an interview ("Nano panelist sees molecular devices and next step toward smaller, cheaper, faster devices", by Emily M. Smith) in the ASME News in which James J. Marek, Jr., president and chief executive officer of California Molecular Electronics Corp. (CALMEC; not to be confused with Houston-based Molecular Electronics Corporation, or MEC.), discussed his views on the implications and applications of molecular electronics technology. Marek was one of three experts on nanotechnology who participated in the keynote panel discussion at the ASME International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition in New York on 12 November 2001.

(MEC, the firm established by James Tour, Mark Reed and their partners, has updated and expanded its website. It provides some useful background information about the firm.)

In a keynote address to the International Conference on Computer Aided Design (ICCAD) in San Jose, California on 5 November 2001, Thomas N. Theis, director of physical sciences at IBM's Thomas J. Watson Research Center, predicted that self-assembled nanoscale devices will eventually replace silicon transistor devices. Theis predicted that in 10 years chemically synthesized nano-building blocks will begin to replace semiconductor logic and memory devices, and within 20 to 50 years we should see pervasive use of self-assembly. The address was covered in EE Times ("IBM scientist sees nanotechnology supplanting transistors", by M. Santarini, 6 November 2001).

Update: The EETimes coverage of the ICCAD program also included a panel discussion, in which the panelists were asked to speculate on which applications will make the first use of nanotechnology, how soon nanotechnology will be widely introduced, and how the technology will affect design tools and methodologies. The panelists included Theis, Philip Keukes from HP Labs and Eric Parker from Zyvex.

from the One-word:-nanoplastics dept.
For an upbeat but credulous look how the approaching advent of widespread nanotechnology is being viewed outside the scientific community, read the article in the December 2001 issue of Employment Review online ("Miniaturization fosters revolutionary future").

from the Nose-to-the-benchtop dept.
The October 2001 issue of Chemical Engineering Progress, a publication of the American Institute of Chemical Engineering (AIChE), has a brief article on nanotechnology, but itís rather limited in scope. Not surprisingly, the emphasis is on nano-structured materials and process chemistry involving nano-scale catalysis, with some attention given to carbon nanotubes; the timeline is rather near-term and little is said about the possibility of nano-scale devices.
Note: Access to the online version of Chemical Engineering Progress is free, but may require registration. The article is an Adobe Acrobat PDF file (about 440 KB).

from the The-future-as-minefield dept.
A rather morbid but informative article about the potential dangers of advanced nanotechnology and the abuse of information technology appeared in the Montreal Gazette ("Cyber-doomsayers offer chilling vision", by Alex Roslin, 14 October 2001). The article leads off with a fictional "grey-goo" meltdown, then recaps the arguments made by Bill Joy over the past year and a half. The article then more usefully focuses on current interest in military applications of micro- and nano-technologies, as well as information systems. The article quotes retired U.S. Army colonel Thomas Adams, who has criticized the U.S. military for its failure to envision the potential consequences of technologies it is helping to develop:

"We are rapidly approaching an event horizon in human development, a point at which the mutually reinforcing trends described here will combine to produce an aggregate result so different from what we now know that it is impossible to guess what it will be."

from the committee-speak dept.
A preliminary report has been issued by a committee organized by the National Research Council (NRC), an independent advisory body under the U.S. National Academy of Sciences (NAS) serving the government, to conduct a review of the National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI). The review was initiated in August, and is due to be completed in May 2002. The preliminary report identifies several items deemed critical to the success of the NNI: program management, including interagency coordination and ways of measuring progress; a balanced research portfolio that includes long-term planning, short-term successes, high-risk projects, and ìgrand challengesî; research partnerships with local, state and international entities including academia and the private sector; investment in developing infrastructure, fostering interdisciplinary research, and looking beyond nanoscale research to the creation of macro-scale products using nanotechnology; training of future scientists and engineers and examining societal impacts. (In other words, achieving the goals laid out in the original program are crucial to its success — it took a committee to arrive at this? Hopefully the final report will offer something more substantial.)

The report is available online, but be prepared to be exasperated: It is presented using the OpenBook system, as a series of low-resolution PDF files — one page at a time! Hint: many of the pages are blank; most of the sparse content is in Section 2.

Additional information about the NRC review (project scope, committee membership, meeting agendas, etc.) of the NNI is available at the NRC website.

A number of articles on various aspects of self-assembly in chemical and biological systems, and how it might be used to create nanotech devices, have appeared in recent weeks. These include a piece by Philip Ball in the November 2001 issue of Technology Review magazine (Ball also had an article on self-assembly in the 18 October 2001 issue of Nature, but it is not freely available online). Another article ran in the Boston Globe ("No assembly required", by G. Cook, 16 October 2001).
Technology Review also ran an item on its website on self-assembling peptide nanotubes developed by Reza Ghadiri at Scripps, which have potential use as a nano-mechanical antibiotic as reported in July 2001.

from the Miniaturizing-manufacturing dept.
An extensive article in Dallas-Ft. Worth TechBiz ("National grant may help speed up Zyvexís plans", by Pavan Lall, 22 October 2001) provides an in-depth look at how Zyvex and its collaborators will benefit from a $US 25 million cost-sharing program that includes a $12.5 million grant from the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

More information on the NIST grant and development program is available in this Zyvex press release from 12 October 2001. Additional coverage also appeared in the Albany, N.Y. Times-Union ("Tiny robots, tremendous potential", by K. Aaron, 25 October 2001).

Along with university collaborators at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Center for Automation Technologies in Troy, N.Y., the University of Texas at Dallas and the University of North Texas, Zyvex will develop prototypical microscale assemblers using microelectromechanical systems, or MEMS, to assemble nanoscale components. The long-term goal is to develop even smaller nanoscale assembler systems. "Our ultimate goal is adaptable, affordable, molecularly precise manufacturing,'' said Rocky Angelucci, Zyvex's technical liaison and manager of the company's NIST program.