U.S. students aren’t going into science and engineering they way they used to, but nanotechnology is sexy enough to attract their attention. So nanotech is the focus of a new education and training effort described in EE Times, called Nine (the National Institute for Nano-Engineering): Coinciding with the President’s Aug. 9 passage of the America… Continue reading U.S. to build more nanotechnology engineers
There’s still time to get your nominations in for this year’s top nanotechnology researcher, student researcher, and communicator or publication: The Productive Nanosystems conference will detail the pathways leading to the ultimate in manufacturing, and the Feynman Prizes recognize this year’s most impressive achievements toward that goal,” said Dr. Pearl Chin, President of Foresight Nanotech… Continue reading Nanotechnology researcher, student, communicator nominations due tomorrow
Now we can all explore a French version of the Powers of Ten, produced as part of a nanotechnology exhibit by the Cité des Sciences et de l’Industrie museum in Paris, brought to our attention by Foresight Senior Associate Gina Miller. Topics covered include Basics, Techniques, Uses, Ethics, “The Debate”, and Nanojourney (the powers-of-ten style… Continue reading Visionary French view of nanotechnology online
Nanowerk reports on a new nanotechnology ethics database at IIT: NanoEthicsBank. Perhaps the most interesting aspect is their experiment with participatory tagging: In conjunction with the fixed subject terms used in the NanoEthicsBank, we are also developing an experimental “folksonomy” tagging system for the database. A folksonomy is a user-generated taxonomy that uses open-ended labels… Continue reading Participatory nanotechnology ethics: Join right in
If you’re interested in dipping your toe into academic nanotechnology but don’t have time to go back to school, consider the ASME Nano Training Bootcamp this September. It’s mostly top-down, but includes some bottom-up nanotech such as self-assembly and useful tools such as scanning probes. In addition to the lectures at Santa Clara, you’ll get… Continue reading Three days of nanotechnology bootcamp
The winners of this year’s Lego engineering contest were inspired by nanotechnology concepts to design a robot to clean plastic from the ocean: For the competition, the students had to prepare a presentation on this year’s theme — nanotechnology, or molecular-size machines. They looked for a nanotech application that could clean up small, degraded plastic… Continue reading 7th graders to clean ocean with nanotechnology
It’s hard for us macroscale beings to get a gut feel for the extreme size differences between, say, ourselves and nanoscale objects. The old “Powers of Ten” illustrations helped, but now there’s a new online version from Nikon called Universcale, which shows from 1026 to 10-15 meters. One billionth is such an unimaginable, unrealistic smallness.… Continue reading Visualizing nanotechnology in context
Finally, some decent swag for us here at Nanodot: We have received a review copy of the Italian book Blow-up: Images from the Nanoworld mentioned here earlier. It lives up to its advertising, being a beautiful collection of nanoscale (and microscale) images by Lucia Covi, including AFM tips, nanodevices, quantum dots, nanowires, DNA, nanotubes, and… Continue reading The nanotechnology book for your coffee table
Now, kids around the world can benefit from the nanoeducational prowess of Singapore. (Or at least rich kids can.) The ever-vigilant website Nanowerk brings word of three Nano-Bio educational kits available for ordering from Singapore. They’re perhaps a bit more bio- than nano-oriented, but whatever gets kids doing science and technology is helpful: One of… Continue reading Singapore exports nanotechnology learning tools
If you’re a Foresight member, you’re already helping improve nanotechnology policy, but here’s another way: apply to participate in the upcoming online course Debating Science and The Nanotechnology Debate. In the syllabus (pdf), the actual course name appears to be “Debating Science: Practical Reasoning and Nanotechnology”: For example, what is the current state of development… Continue reading Your chance to influence nanotechnology policy
