John Faith and Billy Harvey bring our attention to progress in Dip Pen Lithography nanotech reported at Phys.org.com: Ever since the invention of the first scanning probe microscope in 1981, researchers have believed the powerful tool would someday be used for the nanofabrication and nanopatterning of surfaces in a molecule-by-molecule, bottom-up fashion. Despite 25 years… Continue reading DPN nanotechnology reaches 80 nanometers, but IBM likes DNA
The long-awaited report on the U.S. NNI from the National Academies’ National Research Council has just been issued. For Foresight, the most important part is the review of molecular self-assembly and molecular manufacturing. Here’s the short form: Molecular Assembly: Self-assembly for the manufacturing of simple devices and materials is feasible, but because the probability of… Continue reading National Academies nanotechnology report calls for experimentation toward molecular manufacturing
I remember when the most popular timing estimate for molecular manufacturing was “huh?” Next it was “never”. Then “centuries”. Here’s where we are today, as reported by the Australian Broadcasting Corp.: Dr Peter Binks of Nanotechnology Victoria, a sponsor for Treder’s tour, says his organisation does not “yet buy into the idea” of the desktop… Continue reading Nanotechnology desktop factories timing debated
I just received two copies of a beautiful brochure from the California NanoSystems Institute describing the new nanotechnology facility they’re building at UCLA, opening informally this fall and formally on September 7-9, 2007 (there will also be one at UCSB). They’re looking for sponsorship. My first thought was, boy do they have the wrong list,… Continue reading Massive transfer of nanotechnology students to UCLA and UCSB expected
The Society of Manufacturing Engineers, who’ve done two conferences focusing in part on molecular nanotech, now have a video on nanomanufacturing. The script is free, and so is a video clip with some images, so if the cost is an issue for you ($99 SME members/$280 nonmembers), you can get quite a bit just from… Continue reading Nanotechnology video from SME: Nanomanufacturing
The U.S. Navy’s Thomas Vandermolen looks at defense aspects of advanced nanotech in a footnoted paper over at Nanotechnology Now. He argues against a do-nothing strategy: Given MNT’s tremendous potential for both peaceful and violent applications, controlling it with a “do nothing” strategy is analogous to providing nuclear reactors to every country under the assumption… Continue reading National security implications of long-term nanotechnology
Probably because I’m an IEEE member — see their Nanotechnology Council and journal — I’ve just received the nanotechnology book catalog from Wiley. This 16-page catalog shows that Wiley, long a leader in high-quality technical publishing, is probably the dominant force in nanotech books today. To save 20% on orders through October 31, 2006, use… Continue reading Now's the time to expand your nanotechnology library
News from Howard Lovy, now working with Nanorex: I wanted to make sure you saw this news item about molecular simulation software maker Nanorex acquiring Nano-Hive, developer of a powerful open source tool that speeds up nanoscale simulation through distributed computing. Together, Nanorex’s NanoEngineer-1 and the renamed NanoHive-1 are going to produce faster, better-quality animations.… Continue reading Open source nanotechnology CAD with distributed computing
Phil McCallister warns over at SeekingAlpha that some investors fall for nanotech hype: owever, investors have been burned (charred to a crisp actually) by the big Nanotech hype back in January of 2004. Remember that? George W. Bush signed the 21st Century Nanotechnology Research and Development Act in 2003, and continued mentioning nanotech throughout the… Continue reading Advice for 5-to-10 year nanotechnology investors
Great news in the August 2006 issue of Nano Today in an opinion piece by two UCLA researchers, Guodong Sui and Hsian-Rong Tseng, titled “Reactions in hand: Digitally controlled microreactors are providing chemists with a new playground for discovery.” First, some background. As an MIT undergrad in chemistry, I tried to make reactions work in… Continue reading Bottom-up nanotechnology to be speeded by nanoliter-on-a-chip reactors
