From the AAAS website EurekAlert: “It has been 20 years since the futurist Eric Drexler daringly predicted a new world where miniaturized robots would build things one molecule at a time. The world of nanotechnology that Drexler envisioned is beginning to come to pass, with scientists conjuring new applications daily. “Now Salvatore Torquato, a Princeton… Continue reading New nanodesign work from Princeton
From Michael Toffel in the Berkeley Daily Planet: “…I asked the City of Berkeley’s Community Environmental Advisory Commission (CEAC), of which I am a member, to consider a draft motion calling for the City Council to ask a similar set of questions. This motion simply asks LBL to: 1. Publicly disclose how they are identifying… Continue reading Ground zero for nano controversy: Berkeley, of course
Prof. Alan Goldstein, who debated Ron Bailey on nanoethics at the Foresight Vision Weekend, writes on the effect of nanomedicine on medical privacy in Salon: “And by the way, the proliferation of unique molecular identifiers will make medical privacy an impossibility because, ultimately, these types of data cannot be encrypted. The medium is the message.… Continue reading Medical privacy: lack thereof
From EurekAlert, news from Prof. Pulickel Ajayan of RPI: ” ‘These nanotubes can be squeezed to less than 15 percent of their normal lengths by buckling and folding themselves like springs,’ says lead author Anyuan Cao, who did much of the work as a postdoctoral researcher in Ajayan’s lab and is now assistant professor of… Continue reading Nanotube foams make super-compressible springs
In blog/nano, Darrell Brookstein takes a competitor to task, characterizing an ad for the Forbes Wolfe Nanotech Report as “rabidly hyped-up.” On another topic: for those loyal Nanodot readers who are seeing this on Thanksgiving, may you enjoy eating the products of “Nature’s Nanotechnology” with family and friends today. For those outside the U.S., similar… Continue reading In this corner: Darrell Brookstein…
Ronald Kostoff of the Office of Naval Research brings our attention to some new ONR publications, listed on this page: “Two recent reports (1, 2) contain a text mining survey and analysis of the global nanotechnology literature, and should be of use to nanotechnology research performers, managers, planners, sponsors, evaluators, vendors, and implementers/ users… “Some highlights of… Continue reading Global nanotech review by U.S. Office of Naval Research
Not everyone is a big fan of the United Nations or UNESCO, but the wording of their declarations has impact, and we can expect this year’s bioethics declaration (PDF format) to have an effect on later nanoethics documents. Here’s a clause that may come into play on the question of human enhancement: “The autonomy of… Continue reading Bioethics declaration may affect Nanoethics
Joining DuPont and Environmental Defense, followed by Foresight, Nanodynamics CEO Keith Blakely has issued a call in recent Congressional testimony for 10% of federal nano spending to go toward safety studies: “The federal government, as the largest single investor in nanotechnology research, must take the lead in identifying the appropriate gaps in EHS information and… Continue reading Nanodynamics joins call for 10% nano funds for safety
UW Madison prof Dietram Scheufele writes about his research in Smalltimes: “In work forthcoming in the Journal of Nanoparticle Research and Science Communication my colleagues and I explored many of these shortcuts in greater detail. I want to highlight one here that illustrates the competing influences of information and heuristics. We conducted a national phone… Continue reading Claim: Public nano views based on heuristics, not tech literacy
There will be a webcast of the U.S. House Science Committee hearing on “Environmental and Safety Impacts of Nanotechnology: What Research is Needed?” to be held at 10 AM to noon Eastern time. Witnesses testifying: Dr. Clayton Teague, Director, National Nanotechnology Coordination Office Dr. Richard Denison, Senior Scientist, Environmental Defense Dr. Krishna C. Doraiswamy, Research… Continue reading Webcast this Thursday on Environmental/Safety impacts
