Category: Nanodot

from the Groves-of-academe dept.

Flinders University, located in Adelaide, South Australia, Australia (about 750 km northwest of Melbourne) is offering a Bachelor of Science program in Nanotechnology. The BSc degree is an honours specialization of a general science degree program, adding nanotechnology-related courses to a curriculum that includes math, physics, chemistry and biology. A description of the program can be found on the Flinders web site, along with an overview of the coursework required for the program. There are apparently not yet any similar post-graduate programs in place.

This is the second degree-oriented academic program directly targeting nanotechnology that has come to our notice; the University of Washington (Seattle, USA) has initiated a doctoral (PhD) program in nanotechnology.

from the society-for-imposition-of-cruelty-to-nanotubes dept.
Two groups of researchers have measured electronic effects of mechanical deflection in nanotubes. A group mostly at Clemson permanently bent multi-walled nanotubes (MWNTs) and saw "local metallic character" at the kink. They have an abstract online. A group mostly at Stanford reversibly bent single-walled nanotubes (SWNTs) with an AFM tip and saw hundredfold drops in conductivity in their experiments. They have an abstract and a press release online.

from the Go-Huskies! dept.

In a press release issued on 24 July 2000, the University of Washington (Seattle) announced it is launching the nation's first doctoral degree program in nanotechnology. The UW already operates the Center for Nanotechnology.

The new program will put in place a Ph.D. nanotechnology track tied closely to other science disciplines. Nine departments will take part, and students will earn concurrent degrees in nanotechnology and in a discipline of science, engineering or medicine. The effort is being funded by a $2.7 million grant from the National Science Foundation's Integrative Graduate Education Research Training program.

More about the program can also be found in this article from the Bellevue, Washington Eastside Journal (7 August 2000).

from the sufficient-unto-the-day dept.
Richard Smalley, Nobel-laureate researcher into carbon nanotubes at Rice University, recently appeared as a panelist on National Public Radio's "Talk of the Nation – Science Friday" program (11 August 2000). In response to a question about the concerns that nanotechnology might get out of control, Smalley responded:

"Most of the discussion, at least in my experience, ends up coming back to the self replicating out of control robots, and I think that that, at the moment, is a silly concern."

from the big-crunch dept.
Stephen Farrington writes "Reading between the lines of a recent posting to the Commerce Business Daily — the publication through which federal agencies announce all competitive procurement plans — NASA is beginning work now to exploit the massively parallel computing architectures that nanotech will enable. According to the August 10th announcement, 'NASA Langley Research Center will solicit proposals for algorithms…capable of effectively exploiting concurrently operating processors whose number may be very large; hundreds of thousands, even millions are expected to become available within two decades.' For more information, go right to the source."

from the nanointerviews-galore dept.
Senior Associate GinaMiller announces that issue 2 of her Nanotechnology Industries Newsletter (paper format, $7 per issue) is now available: "This issue features an inside view on what is happening in Zyvex, the first company founded to develop molecular manufacturing technology (interview with George Skidmore). Also read the thoughts of Robert Freitas, author of Nanomedicine, on what we might be spending after nanotechnology is developed. Will Ware (author of NanoCAD) provides a perspective on a simple approach to modeling some nanoscale devices. Charles Ostman (senior fellow, Institute for Global Futures) explores the convergence of breakthroughs in biotechnology as a progenitor to transformation of the world by nanotechnology."

from the mark-your-calendars dept.
"The Next Twenty Years", a series of high-tech showcases being held around the US, will be in NYC on August 3 including thoughts on nanotechnology by Michio Kaku, co-founder of string theory. I saw him give a similar talk in SF a while back, and it was pretty conservative, but he's an interesting guy. In case you don't want to go to NYC, it will be broadcast online.

from the nano-micro-what's-the-difference dept.
GordonWorley brings our attention to a confused article about a process for sculpting micromachinery (MEMS or MicroElectroMechanical Systems). Regardless of whether MEMS are on the path to nanotech, we're all rooting for improvements to that technology, which is already moving into general use.

from the ambivalence-by-Nature-is-positively-positive dept.
Senior Associate and Foresight Advisor RalphMerkle writes "The June 15, 2000 issue of Nature has a three-page article titled "Nanotech thinks big" on page 730 about the NNI (U.S. National Nanotechnology Initiative). The first paragraph is about Drexler and Engines of Creation (rather ambivalent, looks like they might be starting to worry that Drexler was right…). Most of the story is about the NNI and the research work it's funding. The last paragraph closes with Bill Joy calling Drexler "naive" about the dangers of nanotechnology. The last sentence of the article is: "We are laying the foundations for the next industrial revolution," declares Theis.They have a "Web Links" box with five URLs, including Engines of Creation as the second link."

from the problematic-website dept.
As part of EXPO 2000, The World Exposition in Hannover, Germany, it appears that a Global Dialogue will be attempted July 13 on: "Nanotechnology, now to be found only in its initial stages, will become the key technology of the 21st century … This is both environmentally and resource friendly, as it creates new materials and functional units from the elementary components of material using the 'bottom up approach' and this new procedure uses the smallest amounts of energy, and, in addition, uses only the atoms and molecules which, at the end of the process, are used for the functioning of the whole."