Nanotechnology in China: Ambitions and Realities (pdf) will be the topic of a live webcast on Tuesday, February 6, 2007 at 3 PM EST, sponsored by the Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies at the Woodrow Wilson Center: A senior Department of Commerce official recently claimed that China is rapidly catching up to the United States in… Continue reading Live webcast: Nanotechnology in China
Earlier we expressed enthusiasm for the UK Software Control of Matter project, and sure enough, they have already made progress toward setting themselves an ambitious, visionary goal which is expected to be funded: We propose to create a molecular machine that will build new materials under software control. The output of the machine will be… Continue reading Brits take lead toward advanced nanotechnology
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
The U.S. National Academy of Engineering is requesting your input on Grand Challenges for Engineering over the next 100 years. This being Nanodot, we hope you’ll nominate nanotechnology. It’s a serious effort funded by $500,000 from NSF. From the MSNBC coverage: The comments will be winnowed down, then reviewed by an 18-member blue-ribbon committee headed… Continue reading Now you can nominate nanotechnology as Grand Challenge
Somehow we missed the original launch of the 12-minute video describing MIT’s Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies, funded by the U.S. Army. It includes animated sequences depicting combat scenarios and how nanotechnologies could be used in response. Some of these are pretty science-fictiony, which means they have at least some chance of being accurate projections. The… Continue reading Military nanotechnology video is a mixed bag
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
Nanotechnology will soon be taught in Mexico’s public schools, but Valerie Strauss of The Washington Post explains that it’s a different story in the U.S.: Scientist Robert P.H. Chang of Northwestern University had no trouble persuading education officials in Mexico to introduce the burgeoning field of nanotechnology to schools there, but it’s been a far… Continue reading Nanotechnology taught in Mexico schools, but not U.S.
Red Herring reports that the city of Berkeley, California, has voted to approve its own nanoparticle regulations: On Tuesday night the Berkeley, California City Council passed an ordinance to regulate the use of manufactured nanoparticles, tiny subatomic [sic] materials that can be 100,000 times smaller than the width of human hair… Now the city will… Continue reading Nanotechnology regulations at city level: Unhelpful
Cognitive enhancement technologies already exist — if you drink coffee, you’re a user — so it seems likely that nanotechnology will eventually be used for this purpose. A new report (pdf) from the Consortium for Science, Policy & Outcomes at ASU summarizes the results of a workshop on this topic held with Sandia. They identified… Continue reading Nanotechnology for cognitive enhancement: okay or not
