Foresight advisor John Gilmore brings our attention to the use of nanotechnology to inject a nanoscale cargo directly into a human cell. Lynn Harris writes in Science@Berkeley about work by Alex Zettl and team: The prick of a flu shot may momentarily sting, but the penetration of the needle does no lasting harm to the… Continue reading Nanotechnology injects into living human cell
At one of the Accelerating Change conferences I saw Prof. Beth Noveck introduce for the first time her ideas on improving patents via peer review. Now, the nanotechnology field will be envious to hear that another field has been chosen to carry out the first pilot project — software, as reported in IEEE Spectrum: The… Continue reading Patent peer review: now software, soon nanotechnology?
Marvin Hofberg of the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine sends info on nanotechnology for medicine and longevity: Among the scientific and medical phenomena unveiled at the Eighth Congress that are projected to revolutionize the delivery of healthcare and, as a result, improve the quality and extend the quantity of the human lifespan: • Nanobots, fleets… Continue reading Medical nanobots: Nanotechnology desired but not here yet
The current issue of Nanotechnology Law and Business (Vol. 4, Issue 2) includes a surprising article called “Nanoassemblers: A Likely Threat?” by Martin Moskovits, a Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry and Dean of the Division of Mathematical and Physical Sciences at the University of California Santa Barbara. I saw this just as I was heading… Continue reading Nanotechnology assemblers: likely or unlikely?
Today’s San Jose Mercury News — the newspaper of Silicon Valley — features a guest editorial by Wirt Cook, IBM vice president and senior state executive, on the proposed Patent Reform Act, titled “Patent Reform Act best way to protect, foster innovation”: Berman’s bill will enable private-citizen-experts to help patent examiners research the novelty of… Continue reading Patent Reform Act to aid nanotechnology?
Just received from Steffen Foss Hansen is a paper by his colleague Evan Michelson at the Wilson Center on the tough issue of “Nanotechnology Policy: An Analysis of Transnational Governance Issues Facing the United States and China.” An excerpt: Due to the rapid pace of R&D, discoveries in nanotechnology could come in great, discontinuous leaps… Continue reading Challenges of US/China nanotechnology
The nanotechnology project over at The Wilson Center sent Steffen Foss Hansen, a PhD candidate visiting from his university in Denmark, here to Foresight to interview me for a policy project they are doing on nanotech regulation. Normally these kinds of things don’t seem very useful, but I have to make an exception for this… Continue reading Grueling nanotechnology policy interview pays off
iTWire reports that a recent test by NASA of a nanotech-based sensor has succeeded: “The nanosensor worked successfully in space,” said principal investigator Jing Li, a scientist at NASA’s Ames Research Center. “We demonstrated that nanosensors can survive in space conditions and the extreme vibrations and gravity change that occur during launch,” she said. The… Continue reading Nanotechnology sensor succeeds in space test
Those of us who spend our days looking at innovation would do well to look at the other side now and then. The New Yorker gives us a chance with a book review by Steven Shapin of the book “The Shock of the Old: Technology and Global History Since 1900” (Oxford) by David Edgerton. He… Continue reading Nanotechnology: utopian, dire, or neither?
Nanotech Briefs has announced its Nano 50 award winners for 2007, in the categories of Innovators, Products, and Technologies. (Full disclosure: I was a judge again this year.) Great to see Zyvex on the list. Don’t see your favorites? Maybe they weren’t nominated. Don’t let that happen for the Foresight Institute Feynman Prizes; nominate your… Continue reading Nano 50: Nanotechnology winners announced
