DNA springs mechanically control an enzymatic reactions by exerting force on specific parts of the enzyme molecule.
Unique properties of two-dimensional arrays of carbon atoms promise both immediate applications and advantages for the development of advanced nanotechnology.
An IEEE Spectrum podcast asks the question, Why Are Terrorists Often Engineers? The blurb: With terrorism back in the news, so, too, is a curious footnote: Of the hundreds of individuals involved in political violence, nearly half of those with degrees have been engineers. This finding, first published in 2008, has been substantiated by two… Continue reading Why terrorists are often engineers: implications for nanotechnology
We have reports from a couple of Foresight members who have toured the Allosphere, part of the California NanoSystems Institute at UC Santa Barbara, and it sounds truly impressive. From their website: The AlloSphere, a 30-foot diameter sphere built inside a 3-story near-to-anechoic (echo free) cube, allows for synthesis, manipulation, exploration and analysis of large-scale… Continue reading Check out the Allosphere at California NanoSystems Institute, UCSB
Projects exist for aggregating personal computers into one large project for various worthy purposes, from space to biology research, some nanotech-related such a protein folding. Now IBM has a similar project with the goal of developing nanotechnologies for clean water. From Grist.org: In China, Tsinghua University researchers, with the help of Australian and Swiss scientists,… Continue reading Donate your laptop time to nanotech R&D for clean water
Forbes describes work at IBM Zurich: IBM researchers in its Zurich lab have drawn–or rather, carved–a three-dimensional map of the world that’s 22 micrometers east to west by 11 micrometers north to south. At that size, about 15 of the maps could be wrapped end to end long-ways around a strand of human hair, by… Continue reading IBM makes world map 1000 times smaller than grain of sand
We’ve received an update on work by our friend Anirban Bandyopadhyay at the National Institute for Materials Science in Tsukuba, Japan. Here’s the abstract of his recent Nature Physics paper: Modern computers operate at enormous speeds—capable of executing in excess of 1013 instructions per second—but their sequential approach to processing, by which logical operations are… Continue reading Cellular automata used for 700-bit parallel processing
Foresight Research Analyst and Technical Editor James Lewis has tracked the careers of those receiving Foresight’s student award. Here are his findings on the careers of a few of these gifted young researchers: We at Foresight find it gratifying to track the subsequent careers of those who have won our nanotechnology-related prizes and awards, in… Continue reading Foresight's student award-winners go on to great things
We can get a hint of the power coming from longer-term nanotech by seeing what is being discovered today on how to use some of the new materials becoming available. Many of us have been intrigued with graphene, a one-atom-thick planar sheet of bonded carbon atoms. It’s no surprise that exciting applications are being found… Continue reading Single-atom sheet of carbon clears arsenic from water
The nomination/submission process for the 2010 Foresight Institute Feynman Prizes in Nanotechnology is now open. Two $5000 prizes are offered, one for theory and one for experimental achievement. These prizes recognize progress toward the goal of atomic-level control in the construction of macroscale 3D objects: an ambitious goal but one toward which physicist Richard Feynman… Continue reading Nominations now open for 2010 Feynman Prize in Nanotechnology
