It’s a challenge to study something that hasn’t happened yet, but they’re taking a shot at it over at the Center for Nanotechnology in Society at Arizona State University, as part of a lecture series titled Studying the Future of Nanotechnology: Establishing Empirical and Conceptual Foundations (pdf). Powerpoint slides and mp3 recordings are now available… Continue reading Studying the future of nanotechnology
EurActiv.com reports on a citizens’ panel on nanotechnology held by the Ile de France region: Citizens find nanotechs ‘elitist’ A citizens’ conference on nanotechnologies in France found public information on nanosciences difficult to access for non-specialists. The report itself (PDF) is in French, but an Altavista automatic translation gives English speakers some limited access: Efforts… Continue reading French citizen panel: Nanotechnology is too technical
We should assume that those participating the ETC Group’s nanotechnology hazard symbol contest are all trying to be helpful, and such a symbol may someday be of some use. However, of the three top symbols named as winners, the first one — by far the most vivid — has a real problem. First, see the… Continue reading Nanotechnology hazard symbol misleading
Given our interests in both nanotechnology and open source, we are happy to see that Wikibooks has an open-content textbook called The Opensource Handbook of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology. It includes not just text, but also demonstration experiments and media files. This online book was voted Wikibook of the Month for December 2006. Excerpt on molecular… Continue reading Help write open source nanotechnology textbook
On the plane back from last week’s U.S. National Nanotechnology Coordinating Office-sponsored workshop on ethics and nanotechnology, I dug into the report “Health and Nanotechnology: Economic, Societal, and Institutional Impact” (not on web, as far as I can tell). This was the result of a meeting sponsored by the U.S. Department of State and the… Continue reading Nanotechnology prof boggles nano community
A medically-oriented nanotechnology game is now available in Beta form, presumably for the PC. NanoMission is aimed at 12-to-18-year-olds: Our aim is to inspire some of the brightest teenagers about the world of nanotechnology, potentially opening their eyes to choosing it as a career. You can see videos here. The action of the game appears… Continue reading Medical nanotechnology game now in Beta
Nanotechnology career advice is available from the U.S. Departments of Labor and Education at CareerVoyages.gov. It’s a pretty good place to start for people who are entirely new to the field. Most of the link lists include useful sites. A couple of areas could use additional work. The Nanotechnology — Tools and Technology section lists… Continue reading U.S. government advice on nanotechnology careers
Regular readers of Nanodot know that we rarely use this space to “bleg” (i.e., request donations via blog). We make an exception for our annual $40,000 Challenge Grant, during which your donations are doubled. As this is posted, we have about $30,000 to go. Take each example below and multiply the payoff by two —… Continue reading Deadline to double nanotechnology impact: this Sunday
Switzerland’s Centre for Technology Assessment has issued its report Public Reactions to Nanotechnology in Switzerland (428 KB pdf), and — not surprisingly — it’s relatively balanced. From page 33 (page 35 of pdf file): “There’s a good and a bad side to everything” — This saying sums up quite well the way that the publifocus… Continue reading Sensible Swiss views on nanotechnology benefits, downsides
Allison Stoddart of the Royal Society of Chemistry’s magazine Chemical Science interviews nanotechnology researcher David Leigh on the joy of molecular machines in a piece titled “The magic of chemistry”: What motivated you to study molecular machines? I worked in Fraser Stoddart’s group before he made any catenanes or rotaxanes. We made our first catenane… Continue reading Molecular machines: the magic of nanotechnology
