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Gaming the Future: The Book!

Category: news

Bush Proposes Increase for Nanotech Funding

from the gathering-momentum dept.
An article on the web site of MITís Technology Review Magazine ("Nano Gets Boost from Bush," by A. Leo, 13 April 2001) reports that the Bush Administrationís proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2002 for the U.S. federal government would significantly boost research and development funding for nantechnology-related efforts. According to the TR report, in his budget proposal released last week, Bush requested $485 million for nanotechnology research in fiscal year 2002, a fifteen percent increase from the $422 million Congress granted last year. This is still less than the $495 million the Clinton Adminstration originally requested for the U.S. National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI) for FY2001.
Analysts with the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) R&D Budget and Policy Program put the nanotech funding for FY2002 at $482 million, and note in their preliminary analysis of the budget proposal that nanotech is one of the few areas that receives an increase in research and development funds.

The TR article also contains this interesting teaser: The NNI has also begun "to address how nanotechnology will affect society. This month, the National Science Foundation will publish a 400-page report, authored by Roco, on those implications. In that report, Roco predicts that in ten to fifteen years the entire semiconductor industry, as well as half the pharmaceutical industry, will rely on nanotechnology."

IMM Prizes in computational nanotechnology

from the Preparing-future-technologies dept.
The Institute for Molecular Manufacturing will offer four new annual prizes in computational nanotechnology, one each in the fields of design, analysis, rendering, and simulation. The Prizes will be presented in person at the annual Feynman Prize presentation ceremony at the Foresight Conference on Molecular Nanotechnology. The four winning projects each year will automatically be nominated for the next Feynman Prize in Nanotechnology (Theoretical).
The goal of this program is rapid advance and iteration, so the IMM Prizes do not require journal publication. Incremental improvements to prior designs, including those originally produced by others, are explicitly encouraged.
Special consideration will be given for analysis or designs that contribute to system security or component mechanisms designed specifically to prevent abuse (refer to the Foresight Guidelines on Molecular Nanotechnology for several specific mechanisms). This consideration may not come up in the early days of the Prizes, but is expected to be increasingly important as designs advance.

Details are available on the IMM website.

Nanotechnology on "Springboard" national public TV

from the public-education dept.
The new national (U.S.) PBS-TV show Springboard is doing a show on nanotechnology including guests Ralph Merkle, Principal Fellow, Zyvex (and Foresight Advisor); Philip Clayton, Principal Investigator, Center for Theology and Natural Sciences; Phil Kuekes, Fellow, HP Labs (and Feynman Prizewinner); Joe Haldeman, Author; and myself (Christine Peterson, President, Foresight Institute). Read More for broadcast info.

Formerly-secret trade negotiations opening up

from the openness-in-government dept.
In a stunning move reported by AP wireservice, negotiators of the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas will make the text public prior to finalization: "A draft text of the all-Americas free trade agreement would be made public, he said. In the past, negotiations went on behind closed doors." A victory for the growing openness movement, probably stimulated by the failure of a previous international treaty draft which was deliberately leaked by the opposition.

MG Taylor to hold "Transparent Society" event

from the Inventing-the-Future dept.

Foresight benefactor and associate MG Taylor will hold a TANSTAAFL DesignShop Event, "Coding the Transparent Society," on May 8-10 in Palo Alto, California, bringing together a community of people concerned with impact of the advent of the Internet, an "Information Revolution that will alter global societies as dramatically as the invention of the printing press over 500 years ago . . . The decisions we make regarding the design of cyberspace will have an ever greater impact on our everyday lives in the years to come."
You are invited to participate in the event, where critical issues concerning the future of society and of the global information infrastructure will be discussed, solutions explored and next steps designed.

Read More for a sampling of issues on the table . . .

Budding Nanotechnologist Wins Intel Student Competition

from the Better,-Faster,-Cheaper dept.
PatrickUnderwood brings our attention to this remarkable story on ABCnews/Go.com:

Mariangela Lisanti, a high school student from Westport, CT, has been named as this yearís winner of the Intel Science Talent Search. She was awarded a $100,000 college scholarship.
Lisanti, who as already compiled an impressive resume, entered a physics project titled "Conductance Quantization in Gold Nanocontacts." She is the third young woman in a row to win the top prize in the Intel competition. Lisantiís work was conducted at Yale University under the guidance of Prof. Mark Reed, Chair of the Electrical Engineering department and a leading researcher in the field of molecular electronics. To better understand electron transport in tiny nanostructures, Lisanti developed a new measurement apparatus that enables data acquisition at an unprecedented rate and is applicable to a wide range of studies. Additional details are available on the Yale web site.
Amazingly, this is the second award of $100,000 Ms. Lisanti has received: She was also winner in the Siemens Westinghouse Science & Technology Competition in December 2000.

Bill Joy to Speak at Stanford in April

from the Bring-your-questions dept.

The Stanford GSB Futurist Club will present a WIRED Conversation with Bill Joy, titled "Nirvana or Nightmare? Exploring the Technological Future," on Thursday, 5 April 2001.
Joy, cofounder and chief scientist of Sun Microsystems, will discuss his controversial Wired essay, "Why The Future Doesn't Need Us," (April 2000) with Katrina Heron, Editor in chief of Wired Magazine, followed by Q&A with the audience. Joy's essay, which has sparked heated debate in science, technology, ethics and policy circles since its publication, argues that imminent advances in genetics, robotics, and nanotechnology may pose grave threats to the future of humankind.

The event will be held at 5:30 pm on Thursday, 5 April 2001, in the Bishop Auditorium of the Graduate School of Business on the Stanford University campus. RSVP by Monday, 2 April to [email protected].

Nanomedicine Featured in The Lancet

from the Whatís-Up,-Doc? dept.

A brief overview of the emerging field of nanomedicine appeared in the prestigious British medical journal, The Lancet ("Macrodoctor, come meet the nanodoctors," by K.Morris, 10 March 2001). The article begins with the vision of advanced medical nanotechnology presented by Robert A. Freitas Jr. in Nanomedicine, then moves on to present examples of current research that is laying the foundations for the development of actual medical nanosystems. The article also addresses safety concerns, and makes note of the Foresight Guidelines for safe research and development of nanotechnology. As the article concludes, ìthe beauty of nanomedicine is that systems will be specifically designed then self-built, molecule by molecule, for any function, at any level down to the atom. Perhaps this is why the forward-thinking chair of Foresight, Eric Drexler, predicts that nanomedicine will dominate medical technology research for at least half this century.î

Note: Access to the online version of The Lancet is free, but requires registration.

Startup aims at programmable molecular machines

from the when-matter-becomes-software dept.
engeneOS in Cambridge, MA states in a press release: "The company is developing Engineered Genomic Operating Systems to enable the design and construction of programmable Biomolecular Machines employing natural and artificial building blocks. These Biomolecular Machines will serve a broad range of commercial applications including biosensors, chemical synthesis and processing, bio-electronic devices and materials, nanotechnology [emphasis added]…" CP: The team list is impressive.

$100 million for nanotech start-ups from Mitsubishi

from the the-race-is-on dept.
A Dow Jones news item reports: "Mitsubishi Corp… will set up an investment fund in April focusing on start-ups working in the field of nanotechnology, where devices are measured in billionths of a meter, The Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported in its Wednesday morning edition. The big trading company will use the $100 million fund to invest in start-ups developing new materials, information technology equipment and medical technology based on nanotechnology, the first fund to specialize in the area." Read More for additional excerpts.

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