Category: Nanodot

from the glass-not-ice dept.
sjvan writes "Alcor is now planning on vitrifying rather than freezing all new neurosuspension patients. This represents a major improvement in the quality of preservation, and consequently the probability of recovery. Look here for more details." CP: In that piece, Fred Chamberlain writes that this new procedure may eliminate the need for molecular nanotechnology in reviving these patients.

from the win-prizes-galore-in-nanotechnology dept.
We tried to wait until after the presidential election was over before sending out this press release. Who could guess that a week later would still be too early? Anyway, here it is: Uzi Landman of Georgia Tech won the Feynman Prize in Nanotechnology (Theoretical) and a team of three won the Experimental Prize: James Heath of UCLA with Phil Kuekes and Stan Williams of HP Labs. On the journalism front, the first-ever Foresight Prize in Communication went to Ron Dagani of Chemical & Engineering News. Harvard's Christopher Love won the Distinguished Student Award. Kudos to all. Read More for the full release.

from the girls-just-wanna-have-nanofun dept.
The Siemens Westinghouse Science & Technology Competition reports their regional results: "Heidi Hsieh, who competed in the individual category, developed a winning original research project entitled 'The Formation of Nanoscaled Super Zeolite-like Meso-Structures by Various Block Copolymer Matrices'…Her project, which uses nano-technology (smaller than microscopic), organizes structures into formations (similar to ping-pong balls in a package). These organized structures could impact the development of molecular electronics, robots and other molecular-sized machines. 'Miss Hsieh has pushed back the forefront of nano-technology,' said lead judge Richard D. McCullough, head of the chemistry department at Carnegie Mellon University. 'She has found a way to not only make hollow shells of molecules but also put them into ordered structures and change the size of these structures. Her project produced results that until now seemed next to impossible — but she's done it — and it's a real breakthrough!' [emphasis added] CP: If the head of CMU's chemistry dept. says it, I believe it. Good luck to Heidi in the competition finals being held this weekend.

from the it's-still-a-lot-of-money dept.
Check out this Nov. 9 slide presentation by NSF's chief nanoadvisor, Mike Roco, entitled National Nanotechnology Initiative: From Vision to Implementation. Note the mentions of "nanosystems" on slides 21-22, and the funding summary on slide 12:
NSF: $97M in 2000; $150M in 2001, up 55%
Dept of Defense: $70M in 2000; $110M in 2001; up 57%
Dept of Energy: $58M in 2000 ; $93M in 2001; up 60%
NASA: $5M in 2000; $21M in 2001; up 320%
Dept of Commerce: $8M in 2000; $10M in 2001; up 25%
Nat'l Inst of Health: $32M in 2000; $39M in 2001; up 22%
TOTAL: $270M in 2000; $423M in 2001; up 57%
Clinton had requested $495 for 2001, so that's about 85% of his target. IMPORTANT: only a fraction of this funding is relevant to molecular machine systems. Care to make any estimates of that fraction?

from the money-with-no-strings-attached-that's-very-nice dept.
Carrying on the David Packard tradition of innovation, the Packard Foundation gave many of its prestigious Fellowships in Science and Engineering to nano-oriented projects this year, according to this press release : "Twenty-four of the most promising science and engineering researchers at 22 universities across the United States have been awarded five-year fellowships worth $625,000 each from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation…It is one of the nation's largest non-governmental programs of unrestricted grants to young university faculty in science and engineering. From the study of galaxies, the earth, and its atmosphere, to cell biology, to nanotechnology and materials design, to theoretical mathematics and physics, the Fellows' research covers a multitude of disciplines in science and engineering." (Emphasis added) CP: At least a quarter of the grants listed have a "nano" orientation.

from the pollution-is-just-atoms-in-the-wrong-place dept.
The corporate world is starting to notice that nanotech is clean tech. From a story on Yahoo News: Global technology group ABB said today that it has been named number one in corporate sustainability among the electric equipment industry by the SAM Sustainability Group… “We are pleased that our efforts are recognized,'' said Goran Lindahl, President and CEO of ABB. “This ranking acknowledges the fine work that is done throughout our global organization – in ABB sustainability is a core value for all our activities.''…ABB invested US$ 865 million on research and development and US$ 1,212 million on order-related development activities, for a total of some eight percent of Group revenues in 1999. ABB's technology innovations during that time included advances in molecular-scale nano-technologies… [Emphasis added]