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Gaming the Future: The Book!

Category: Nanodot

Columnist calls for hard questions about emerging technologies

A lengthy commentary by Richard Louv on the lack of substantial discussion and debate of emerging technologies — including nanotech — appeared on SignOnSanDiego.com, the website of the San Diego (California) Union-Tribune ("Debate should advance with technological leaps", by Richard Louv, 24 February 2002). Louv quotes Daniel Yankelovich, a public opinion analyst: "Overconfidence in technology leads to distraction, lack of attention to the human element, not watching where you're going . . . In any enclosed environment in which people are isolated, you become vulnerable to delusionary thinking. You stop questioning." Louv writes, "Have we stopped questioning? Maybe. Or we've barely begun."

Read more for additional quotes from the article.

NBA works to foster nanotech in Colorado

An article in the Denver Post ("Group has big plans for tiny technology: The NanoBusiness Alliance targets Denver", by Jennifer Beauprez, 21 February 2002) reports the NanoBusiness Alliance (NBA) has picked Denver as one of three cities to start its nationwide push to expand. According to the report, NBA representatives will meet with Denver Mayor Wellington Webb on 5 March 2002 with hopes of creating a loose network of local business leaders, university researchers, entrepreneurs, investors and government officials who can expand the industry.

NSF thinks nanotech is OK

An article on the NewsOK.com website from The Oklahoman ("Oklahoma receives funding to expand research program", by Chip Minty, 26 February 2002) reports Oklahoma was named one of five states chosen to receive a three-year, $9 million grant from the Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) from the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF). The funding is designed put Oklahoma in a better position to compete for federal research funding in the future. Historically, the state has been among the poorest states in the nation when it comes to federal funding for scientific research. According to the article, the money allows the state's major research institutions to expand work in nanotechnology and functional genomics, said Frank Waxman, state director of the grant program. The Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education have committed $4.5 million in matching funds for a total infusion of $13.5 million for new research programs.

While atoms and fullerenes roll, Canada frets about NT competitiveness

from the World-Watch dept.
An article in the Toronto Star ("Atoms on a roll", by Rachel Ross, 18 February 2002) describes the "[s]teady but significant strides have made molecules called ëbuckyballsí a promising new tool in science, medicine and technology", covering work at the Canadian firm C Sixty, which hopes to create medical applications of fullerenes, as well as the work at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the University of Pennsylvania with carbon nanotubes packed with fullerene spheres. (See the Nanodot post from 3 January 2002.)

A second piece from the Toronto Star ("Keeping pace in research spending", by David Crane, 17 February 2002) is an editorial by the Starís economics editor, who says, " The [Canadian] federal government has launched Canada on a national debate on how to make our country one of the most innovative in the world. This is essential if we want to do well as a country in the 21st century." One of the areas in which Crane worries whether Canada can remain competitive is nanotechnology.

Canada is not the only country worrying about keeping up in the increasing global competition for nanotech leadership. Similar concerns have also been expressed in France and Japan.

Seoul researchers report buckytube

An article on the Small Times website ("South Koreans create building blocks for tiny, tailor-made nano-tranistors", by Peg Brickley, 27 February 2002) describes work by South Korean scientists at Seoul National University who packed nanotubes with tiny spherical fullerene molecules to create regions of varying semiconducting properties within each tube. The result is a hollow structure containing the equivalent of a series of tiny transistors far smaller than any now in existence, according to their research report that appeared in the 28 February 2002 issue of Nature.

This work takes a quick step toward practical application of results reported on 3 January 2002 by researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the University of Pennsylvania who discovered that carbon nanotubes packed with fullerene spheres, like so many peas in a pod, have tunable electronic properties.

Holographic control of atom lithography

A brief article on the Physical Review focus website ("Guiding Atoms with a Hologram", by J.R. Minkel, 21 February 2002) describes research into holographic control of atom lithography:

One approach to 3D patterning envisions steering atomic beams with a maze of laser light, but creating complicated light patterns isn't easy. Now a team reports in the 25 February print issue of Physical Review Letters that a so-called holographic crystal can efficiently generate more complex stencils for atoms. With a single incoming laser, the authors generated a three-beam interference pattern and etched a periodic design onto a gold surface. The method could theoretically accommodate 1000 beams and make intricate structures, such as photonic crystals–a new technology that may lead to "circuits of light."

Cryonics under fire in France

from the cold,-cold-world dept.
Anonymous Coward writes "The BBC is carrying a story about a couple in France whose frozen bodies may be thawed by local authorities. Cyronics have been outlawed there, and the official position is that burial or cremation are the only acceptable fates for the dead. The couple in question were apparently wealthy enough to have set up the necessary equipment on their own property, but even this does not guarantee their post-mortem privacy. While there are not too many details, it would appear that the husband placed his wife in a freezer in 1984 after she died of cancer, and he himself was placed in the freezer by his son when he recently died."

More from the venture capital world

A few more recent examples of the mounting interest in the business and investment community in the potential for nanotech as "the next big thing":

More on oscillating nanotubes

An article in Technology Research News ("Nudged nested nanotubes may oscillate", by Eric Smalley, 6 February 2002) provides additional details on the work by researchers who calculate that a group of concentric nanotubes nested inside an outer set of tubes can slide back and forth a billion times every second, as noted here on Nanodot on 22 January 2002. Such a gigahertz oscillator could be a major advance in nanotechnology that would enable applications such as ultra-fast optical filters and nano-antennae.

French RMNT attempts innovation by committee

from the well,-maybe dept.
An extensive article on the Small Times website ("French system ensures good research translates into marketable products", by Genevieve Oger, 21 February 2002) describes another French effort to centralize and bureaucratize technological innovation: the French National Network on Micro and Nanotechnology (RMNT in French), a system that (purportedly) "identifies and evaluates the most promising technologies, the ones most likely to end up on the market." According to the article,

Here is how it works. A research lab and a business must team up to work on a specific project. The public/private consortium can be made up of three or four entities, as long it includes a company interested in making the product if the research succeeds. The consortium then hands in a proposal to the 17-member RMNT orientation committee, made up of businesspeople and researchers.

Two members of the committee are put in charge of examining the proposal and drawing up an internal report in tandem with two experts chosen from the specific field. The committee, which is made up of members from around the country, meets in a central location three times a year to evaluate all the proposals. . . .

The RMNT works on a tiny budget. It does not directly fund micro and nanotechnology projects. Its job is to rate them and decide whether they are worth funding. The label of quality they stick to a proposal will allow the business-lab team to seek government funding either through the Ministry of Research or the Ministry of Economics and Industry. The goal is to have funding go to projects that have been evaluated and chosen by specialists rather than ministry staff, who may not have the same degree of expertise.

See this Nanodot post from 14 January 2002 for more info on the French effort to create a centralized technology incubation center at Minatec in Grenoble.

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