Category: Nanodot

from the why-can't-SciAm-do-as-well-as-this dept.
Josh Wolfe, Managing Partner, Lux Capital reports that "USA Today's Life section included a broad mainstream overview of nanotechnology"…"Suddenly, nanotechnology is a concept with buzz. Like 'atomic' in the 1950s, nanotech is loaded with almost unimaginable promise and fear. It's also burdened by misunderstanding." It mentions the usual suspects (Zyvex, Bill Joy — "Says IBM's Theis: ''Bill Joy is a great software architect, but he's not a scientist"…) CP: This piece is more accurate than many that have appeared in publications which are supposedly more technical. Kudos to writer Kevin Maney.

from the not-just-a-comment,-it's-a-commentary dept.
Tom McKendree writes, "Pat Gratton's idea of a third moral syndrome, Idealist, to complement the Commercial and Guardian syndromes described in Jane Jacob's Systems of Survival, is sufficiently compelling to deserve further exploration. (For more discussion of this concept, see the original story on nanodot).

I've tried to compare the three syndromes, matching characteristics where I could, and guessing characteristics where there seemed to be holes. From this exercise, I would guess that the Idealist Moral Syndrome also says 'Respect truth,' 'Collaborate easily with strangers and aliens for the sake of the task,' and 'Treasure standing in the subject area community.'"

Click Read More… to view Tom's table summarizing the comparison.

from the 18-pages-and-growing dept.
The Oct 16 issue of Chemical & Engineering News has a large (about 18 pages) special report on nanotechnology . Unfortunately, the web pages are password-protected. Research ("Building from the bottom up"), instrumentation, business ("Firms find a new field of dreams"), and government are covered. From the first, an excerpt: In any case, [Feynman Prize winner Nadrian] Seeman says, his primary goal is not computation per se but algorithmic assembly–using DNA to make novel and potentially useful nanostructures. Nanostructures, after all, are the key to nanotechnology, whether they are designed to perform lightning-fast calculations, detect molecules in the environment, eliminate pathogens from the body, or improve the properties of a material." Amusingly, one researcher is quoted as blaming the medical nanobot concept for getting the field "off to such a bad start"; this same concept inspires the new NASA/NCI/Caltech project. If someone has time to type in more quotes, we'll post them.

from the there's-nothing-small-about-nanotechnology dept.
From a Cox News Service item, some excerpts: “There seems to be no limit to the possibilities of creating new things through nanotechnology,'' said Zhong Lin Wang, head of Georgia Tech's new Center for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology. Georgia Tech is among major institutions around the world that are banking much of their future on the new technology…Some leading researchers see the nano fields as ultimate solutions to mankind's age-old problems — disease, food shortages, lack of clean water and inadequate shelter. “Nanotechnology may offer the final answer for the sustainability of the world,'' said Mihail C. Roco, senior adviser on nanotechnology at the National Science Foundation. “We may be limited only by our ability to imagine.'' Read More for further excerpts.

from the UK-physicists-vs-US-chemists-duke-it-out dept.
In this corner, the journal Nanotechnology from the UK's venerable Institute of Physics. Longtime publisher of the papers from the Foresight conference series, this journal is now offering free online access until Dec. 22, to get you interested.
And in this corner, upstart monthly journal Nano Letters from the respected American Chemical Society "invites original reports of fundamental research in all branches of the theory and practice of nanoscience and nanotechnology." The online version "will publish articles on the Web constantly–weeks ahead of the print edition…" Their editor is chairing Biological Applications of Nanotechnology (or maybe of Nanochemistry, the webpage is unclear), modestly described as "the one nanoscience event you must attend in 2001".

from the see-you-there! dept.
Senior Associate AlisonChaiken writes "The upcoming 2001 American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting will prominently feature a Nanotechnology Seminar. Among the speakers at this seminar will be Foresight friend James Ellenbogen [and Feynman Prize winner Phaedon Avouris –CP]. The meeting will be held in San Francisco from February 15th through 20th within easy reach of public transit. For those not familiar with AAAS, it is the organization that publishes the important journal Science that is so often referred to here on Nanodot. AAAS meetings tend to have layperson-friendly interdisciplinary talks on wide-ranging topics, particularly those that impact public policy — not unlike Foresight fall meetings, but ten times larger." CP: Foresight hopes to have a table at this meeting, thanks to Alison's prompting.