One of the Foresight Challenges is “Improving Health and Longevity”, which we take to be a positive goal for nanotechnology and biotech. Not everyone sees it that way, as we find in a recent online debate over at Cato’s online forum called Cato Unbound: Each month, Cato Unbound will present an essay on a big-picture… Continue reading Debate on radical life extension
Our favorite nanotechnology VC is Steve Jurvetson, who is interviewed over at LiveMint.com from India, which is affiliated with The Wall Street Journal. An excerpt: How are the elements of the nanotech start-up ecosystem different from other sectors? First, it is hard to find human talent because a lot of the really interesting breakthroughs happen… Continue reading Jurvetson on nanotechnology startup ecosystem
As we close out Nanodot for 2007, we note some predictions for the future of nanotechnology through 2025 from Peter von Stackelberg: “Between the end of the first decade of the 21st century and 2025, a number of gamechangers will need to occur if nanotech is to advance significantly,” von Stackelberg says. These gamechangers include:… Continue reading Nanotechnology: Predictions through 2025
Foresight president Dr. Pearl Chin was interviewed on nanotechnology by Stephen Gordon and PJ Manney on Dec. 16, and the show can now be downloaded for your listening edification. A brief summary appears on Phil Bowermaster’s blog The Speculist: Dr. Chin is excited about [the] medical advance that nanoparticles are making possible – particularly with… Continue reading BlogTalkRadio: Pearl Chin on nanotechnology
Those of you who subscribe to Foresight’s free Weekly News Digest (sign up using the Join Email List box at upper right of our home page) have seen that practically every week there’s new positive results to report on nanotechnology for drug delivery, especially for cancer. A summary of where to read about these advances… Continue reading Nanotechnology medicine: will it be affordable?
Nanowerk brings our attention to a story at Forbes.com looking at anticipated developments in sensing and monitoring: At their annual meeting this fall in Montreal, there was little of the traditional talk among the international privacy people about the nuts and bolts of data protection. Instead, there were urgent and distressed discussions about “uberveillance,” “ambient… Continue reading Nanotechnology for surveillance vs. privacy
CRN has been working on eight scenarios for advanced nanotechtechnology, and they are now available. You can get a quick feel for them by their titles: Scenario 1: Secret Military Development Scenario 2: Positive Expectations Scenario 3: Negative Drivers Scenario 4: Presidential Commission Scenario 5: … And Not a Drop to Drink Scenario 6: A… Continue reading Eight nanotechnology scenarios sketch possibilities
Jamais Cascio offers four nanotechnology policy scenarios over at CRN, looking at options resulting from two axes: centralized vs. decentralized, and precautionary vs. proactionary. His two decentralized scenarios describe some territory similar to that which Foresight is investigating as part of our Decentralized Physical Security project: The third scenario, combining Distributed rule-making and Proactionary technology… Continue reading Nanotechnology: Is decentralized control feasible?
Like many MIT alumni, I have decidedly mixed feelings about the school, but one program to be entirely pleased with is OCW: OpenCourseWare, the free online provision of MIT course materials. They just reached a major milestone: Join us as we celebrate the publication of virtually the entire MIT curriculum — 1800 courses — on… Continue reading Get a free nanotechnology education via MIT
An article in Small Times by Paul Burrows of Pacific Northwest National Laboratory covers the Technology Roadmap for Productive Nanosystems (TRPN) aimed at Atomically-Precise Manufacturing (APM), a joint project of Foresight Nanotech Institute and Battelle, funded by the Waitt Family Foundation and by Sun Microsystems. Some excerpts: The Foresight-Battelle roadmap aimed to address this “vision… Continue reading Nanotechnology roadmap for atomically-precise manufacturing
