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Gaming the Future: The Book!

Category: Nanodot

A basic intro to nanotechnology

from the Is-that-how-it-works? dept.
Stephanie Corchnoy brings our attention to a brief basic introduction to the concepts of advanced molecular nanotechnology ("How Nanotechnology Will Work", by Kevin Bonsor) that appears on the How Stuff Works website. The style is enthusiastic and a bit breathless:
"The promises of nanotechnology sound great, don't they? Maybe even unbelievable? But researchers say that we will achieve these capabilities within the next century. And if nanotechnology is, in fact, achieved, it might be the human race's greatest scientific achievement yet, completely changing every aspect of the way we live."
The piece is a bit out of date, mentioning events that occurred a year or two ago, but nothing more recent.

Taiwan will invest US$286 million in nanotech center

from the World-Watch dept.
Bob Grahame calls our attention to an article in the Taipei Times in Taiwan ("ITRI preparing nanotech center", 18 July 2001) which reports that the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) is preparing for the establishment of a nanotechnology center to help foster Taiwan's next-generation high technology development. ITRI is planning to establish the Center for Applied Nanotechnology Institutes (CANTI) in January 2002, with an investment of NT$10 billion (US$286 million) in the first five years. According to the report, the new Center will focus its efforts in five major areas: nanomaterials, nanoelectronics, nano opti-electronics, nano chemicals and nano biotechnology.

More on HP molectronics patent

from the In-the-news dept.
Additional coverage of the molecular electronics patent granted to Hewlett-Packard:

An HP press release (17 July 2001), which quotes HP Labs research director Stan Williams: "We have a strategy to reinvent the integrated circuit with molecular rather than semiconductor components."

An article from the San Francisco Chronicle website ("HP has circuit advance: molecules used as transistors", by Carrie Kirby, 18 July 2001).

And Bob Grahame found this story from The Register in the U.K. ("HP moves towards molecular-scale computing", by Robert Blincoe, 17 July 2001).

Los Alamos Archive will move to Cornell

from the portable-libraries dept.
The Los Alamos E-Print Archive, an "open source" library of scientific papers which is widely credited with revolutionizing the way physical scientists and mathematicians communicate, is moving from the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in New Mexico to Cornell University. Physicist Paul Ginsparg, who created and maintains the archive, will join the Cornell faculty this fall, and he is bringing the archive with him. It will become a service of Cornell University Library, which has developed several other digital academic resources. Both Ginsparg and library officials express hope that the archive will improve and expand in its new home.

The Los Alamos archive was covered here on nanodot in May 2001 in relation to the movement to establish web-based open public libraries of scientific papers.

CiSE has special issue on computational nanotech

from the simulation-and-modeling dept.
The July/August 2001 issue of Computing in Science and Engineering, a joint publication of the IEEE Computer Society and the American Institute of Physics, has a special section devoted to nanotechnology. Specifically, three articles focus on modeling and simulation of nanoscale systems.
An introduction to the special issue by Guest Editors James R. Chelikowsky at the University of Minnesota and Mark A. Ratner at the Northwestern University Institute for Nanotechnology, explaining the basic issues of nanoscience, nanotechnology, and modeling, is available as an Adobe Acrobat PDF file (about 515 KB).
The text of the articles in the issue are only available to members of the Computer Society of the IEEE, but the abstracts can be accessed without membership. The topics covered include:
– Computational Nanotechnology with Carbon Nanotubes and Fullerenes
– Multiscale Simulation of Nanosystems
– Computational Electromagnetics of Metal Nanoparticles and Their Aggregates

nanoTITAN announces nanoML early access release

from the NT-design-tools dept.
Rob Bishop writes "nanoTITAN, Inc. is pleased to announce the first early access release of nanoML, a markup language for the description and interchange of nanodevices. nanoML includes the molecular components and structure of a nanodevice — as you might expect — but goes well beyond that to include information about the properties, interoperability, operational characteristics, display, safety, and legal status of nanodevices.
It is our hope that nanoML will accelerate development of molecular nanotechnology by providing a common language for researchers, engineers and other interested parties. Our commitment is to evolve nanoML consistent with the needs of the nanotechnology community and to move toward an open standard. We would greatly appreciate a review of our work so far by the knowledgeable readers of nanodot.
More information can be found at:

Recent advances in molecular electronics in NYT

from the molectronics dept.
An extensive article in the New York Times ("Clever Wiring Harnesses Tiny Switches", by K. Chang, 17 July 2001) provides an overview of recent advances in the field of molecular electronics. The article focuses on work by Hewlett-Packard Labs. HP was awarded a patent on 3 July 2001 for a wiring strategy that takes describes how to connect molecular-scale devices by essentially assigning each switch a random marker that allows signals to be routed to it. The method is important because, as the NYT states, "conventional wires are too wide to attach to such molecular components, and the prospect of trying to hook together billions of components or more is daunting, if not impossible." The article quotes HP Labs research director Stanley Williams: "The current patent really is the blueprint for the research we're going to be doing for the next four years." HP was awarded another patent on a molecular memory device in October 2000.
Note: Access to content on the NYT website it free, but may require registration.

The article also notes that "researchers have already constructed the tiniest of components — molecules that act as switches — and they are now starting to tackle the harder problem: how to wire the tiny switches together into useful devices." The demonstration in June 2001 of a functional single-molecule switch is highlighted.

Growing interest in nanotech among venture investors

from the dollars-and-sense dept.
Two recent articles point out the growing interest among venture capitalists and other investors in the potential of nanotechnology:
The views of venture capitalist (and Foresight Senior Associate) Steve Jurvetson and associate Warren Packard on nanotechnology are profiled in the San Francisco Business Times ("Jurvetson pins big hopes on tiny nanomachines", by M. Calvey, 13 July 2001). The article quotes Jurvetson: "We are entering an era of exponential growth in our capabilities in biotech, molecular engineering and computing . . . The cross-fertilization of these formerly discrete domains compounds our rate of learning and our engineering capabilities." Jurvetson also had an article on nanotechnology in Red Herring Magazine in June 2001.
An article by Jayne Fried at the Small Times website ("Venture capitalists listen, learn as scientists discuss nanobiotech", 17 July 2001) discusses interest expressed by potential investors at a recent conference on nanobiotechnology.

A useful summary of nanotech in Texas

from the not-invented-here dept.
An article on the Small Times website ("NanoTexas: The Land of Big Oil is Now Boomtown for the Tiny", by Candace Stuart, 16 July 2001) provides a useful overview of nanotech-related activity in Texas. The article covers the various Texas institutions and private firms engaged in nanotechnology research and development, and describes some of their work.

Also, in the tradition of Texas tall tales, we again see the dubious claim that "Texas is the birthplace of nanotechnology." The claim is based on the co-discovery of fullerenes by Richard Smalley at Rice University, and the mistaken assumption that the Rice researchers are the only ones who have done interesting work with fullerene nanotubes.

Activity in Texas has recently been covered here on nanodot on 29 June, 13 June, and 30 May in 2001, and 16 August 2000.

AI researcher says nanotech won

from the intelligence-issues dept.
United Press International science correspondent Kelly Hearn recently interviewed artificial intelligence researcher Eric Chown ("Thinking robots coming, but decades away", 14 July 2001). Chown is a professor of computer science at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine. When asked if nanotechnology will help engineers build machines that better mimic the brain's activity, Chown said: "No, I don't think so. Nanotechnology will provide amazing breakthroughs in the medical domain in terms of robotic surgery and such. But in terms of building human-like robots, I don't think it will contribute greatly. I really think that the big breakthroughs will come in terms of better understanding of how the brain works."
On the question of whether the future will bring a merging of flesh and machines, Chown said, "merging man and machine is more a short-term issue than the potential long-term issue of machines actually replacing people. In terms of ethical questions, in the short run, I don't see a big ethical problem. If somebody can't see and an optical implant can help them, that's a good thing. But it doesn't take a great leap to see how it could get out of control. We aren't doing enough in society to consider the ethics of the technologies we're developing."

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