Foresight members have long been interested in physical/mechanical control of the positions and reactivity of molecules, as a pathway to advanced molecular nanotechnology and atomically-precise contruction of large products. This connection is described on Wikipedia in the mechanochemistry entry. Now at team at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign led by chemistry prof Jeffrey Moore has… Continue reading Nanotechnology video: Forcing reactions mechanically
Tom Moore has set up the Machine Phase blog to chronicle his nanotechnology adventures designing molecular machines using the NanoEngineer-1 software from Nanorex. Read the whole thing starting on March 3 in the archives. Some of the images are still shots; others turn into animations when you click on them. It’s quite impressive considering that… Continue reading Nanotechnology @ home: Design your own molecular machines
Small Times reports that nanotechnology medical applications are expected to climb immensely: U.S. demand for nanotechnology medical products will increase over 17 percent per year to $53 billion in 2011, says The Freedonia Group, Inc., a Cleveland-based industry research firm. Afterwards, the increasing flow of new nanomedicines, nanodiagnostics, and nanotech-based medical supplies and devices into… Continue reading Nanotechnology health uses to grow hugely
A Yale researcher has won the $25,000 Wiley Prize in the Biomedical Sciences for his discovery of natural molecular machine that guides some proteins to fold properly in the warm, crowded environment inside cells: They learned that a large double donut-shaped machine is responsible. They analyzed how that machine uses the energy of ATP and… Continue reading Molecular machine work wins $25,000
Richard Jones and commenters bring our attention to a number of enticing research papers on the use of catalysis and molecular motors to produce movement. One paper mentioned sounds particularly useful: an overview of progress on Synthetic Molecular Motors and Mechanical Machines. From the abstract: The widespread use of controlled molecular-level motion in key natural… Continue reading Nanotechnology leading to molecular machines
By now we’ve all seen AFM images of individual atoms — in black and white. Why only B&W? Why can’t the AFM show us the atoms in color, having each color indicate a different chemical element, as in our molecular modeling images? Now it can, and at room temperature, not only super-low temps as before.… Continue reading Nanotechnology probe 'sees' atoms by chemical type
A recent issue of the useful journal Nanotechnology Law & Business includes a review (pdf) by Daniel Moore of J. Storrs Hall’s book Nanofuture: What’s Next for Nanotechnology. The conclusion: Nanofuture: What’s Next for Nanotechnology will be of interest to those looking for an introduction to the concepts of nanotechnology and molecular manufacturing. It is… Continue reading What's next for nanotechnology
The ever-vigilant Physorg.com brings us news of a one-atom thick freestanding (i.e., unattached) graphene carbon film: Physicists pioneer new super-thin technology Physicists at The University of Manchester and The Max-Planck Institute in Germany have created a new kind of a membrane that is only one atom thick. It’s believed this super-small structure can be used… Continue reading One-atom thick carbon gauze via nanotechnology
Though we do not always agree with Gregor Wolbring, his column on nanotech and the military reminds us of a very difficult potential problem: The start of a nano arms race, and the lack of willingness to regulate potential synthetic biology through the modification of existing treaties or the application of existing treaties or the… Continue reading Security implications of nanotechnology
Kevin Bullis of Technology Review reminds us of something we should all remember from thermo class: Inside fossil-fuel and nuclear-power plants, as well as in cars and trucks, the lion’s share of energy in fuel is wasted as heat rather than converted into electricity or mechanical power. But the search for a practical material that… Continue reading Nanotechnology turns heat into electricity
