Nanotechnology or not: Iron seeding of ocean seems premature at best

Regular readers of Nanodot know that we often disagree with ETC Group — but not always. They have issued a press release condemning a plan by a private firm to seed the ocean with iron particles in an effort to fight global warming. An excerpt: As worrying, Planktos boasts on their website that the iron… Continue reading Nanotechnology or not: Iron seeding of ocean seems premature at best

Fortune profile on Kurzweil and nanotechnology

These days Foresight is focused on our Technology Roadmap and policy initiatives such as Open Source Physical Security. But we still have our visionary side, shown in a Fortune profile of Foresight advisor Ray Kurzweil, which also features Foresight director and X PRIZE founder Peter Diamandis: If you went around saying that in a couple… Continue reading Fortune profile on Kurzweil and nanotechnology

Russia: $1 billion from oil into nanotechnology

BusinessWeek.com reports that nanotechnology is the next big thing in Russia: Russia will pour over $1 billion into equipment for nanotechnology research over the next three years as it uses massive oil and gas export earnings to diversify an economy now heavily dependent on raw materials, First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov said Wednesday. “(Nanotechnology)… Continue reading Russia: $1 billion from oil into nanotechnology

Realism on the size of nanotechnology market

Michael Berger of the useful Nanowerk website has produced a clarification essay on the size of the nanotechnology market, helping to put the hype in perspective. Some excerpts: First of all, these market size forecasts are dealing with what is called evolutionary nanotechnology. The goal of evolutionary nanotechnology is to improve existing processes, materials and… Continue reading Realism on the size of nanotechnology market

Environmental groups dispute about nanotechnology

We mentioned earlier a request for comment on a proposed Nano Risk Framework for approaching nanotechnology materials safety organized by Environmental Defense and DuPont. Now a different group of organizations has come out against that framework. Their statement is titled “Civil Society-Labor Coalition Rejects Fundamentally Flawed DuPont-ED Proposed Framework“. An excerpt: We reject outright the… Continue reading Environmental groups dispute about nanotechnology

NSF: "Moving very fast" toward molecular nanotechnology

A wide-ranging interview of NSF’s Mihail Roco includes an opinion on the rate of advance of nanotechnology toward its more advanced stages: If you look toward the future, the field is moving very fast from studying simple components – like nanotubes, nanoparticles, quantum dots – to studying active devices and nanosystems. We are also beginning… Continue reading NSF: "Moving very fast" toward molecular nanotechnology

Nanotechnology patent problems blamed on unionization

Small Times reports on a meeting held in Oregon among a wide variety of nanotechnology-based business participants, at which many commercialization challenges were discussed. One was difficulties encountered with the U.S. Patent office: Start-ups expressed frustration with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Long waits for patent award decisions make it difficult for them… Continue reading Nanotechnology patent problems blamed on unionization

Visionary Congressional report on nanotechnology

Nanowerk brings our attention to a new report by the Joint Economic Committee of the U.S. Congress titled Nanotechnology: The Future is Coming Sooner Than You Think (pdf), apparently authored by Senior Economist Joseph V. Kennedy and sponsored by Rep. Jim Saxton (R-NJ). On molecular nanosystems: At this stage a single product will integrate a… Continue reading Visionary Congressional report on nanotechnology

"Faster please" on nanotechnology

In The Examiner, An Army of Davids author Prof. Glenn Reynolds makes nanotechnology one of his four technologies that deserve speeding up: Nanotechnology — a technology for making and engineering things on the molecular scale — is already a force in many areas, but at the moment it’s mostly a source of high strength materials,… Continue reading "Faster please" on nanotechnology

The nanotechnology book for your coffee table

Finally, some decent swag for us here at Nanodot: We have received a review copy of the Italian book Blow-up: Images from the Nanoworld mentioned here earlier. It lives up to its advertising, being a beautiful collection of nanoscale (and microscale) images by Lucia Covi, including AFM tips, nanodevices, quantum dots, nanowires, DNA, nanotubes, and… Continue reading The nanotechnology book for your coffee table

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