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
In addition to the experimental project described here yesterday, there are now two more posted on the U.K. Software Control of Matter Ideas Factory blog which are very likely to be funded — the first experimental, the second theoretical: Directed Reconfigurable Nanomachines We propose a scheme to revolutionise the synthesis of nanodevices, nanomachines, and, ultimately,… Continue reading U.K. nanotechnology project causing U.S. nanoenvy
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
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
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
Christian Joachim, winner of Feynman Prizes in Nanotechnology for both experiment and theory, continues his exciting molecular machine systems work with a recent publication authored by a German/French team in Nature Materials titled “A rack-and-pinion device at the molecular scale“. From the summary and conclusion: In this work, we present a molecular rack-and-pinion device for… Continue reading European nanotechnology team builds molecular rack-and-pinion
Bernie Marcus, co-founder and one of Home Depot’s largest individual shareholders, has been named “Forbes/Wolfe 2006 Nanotech Person of the Year”. I was a little surprised until I read this interview; he’s quite a visionary and is putting his money where his mouth is. Here at Foresight, we like that a lot. Some excerpts: Recently,… Continue reading To fund nanotechnology, shop at Home Depot
We’ve written before about the nanotechnology-based matter compiler project in the U.K, wishing we could participate. Richard Jones writes that now, we can: You may be interested to hear (and I’m hoping you might post about it on your blog) that we’ve now got a blog running associated with the “Software Control of Matter” sandpit.… Continue reading Now we all can assist UK nanotechnology project
