from the here-and-now dept.
TimHarper writes "Nanocatalysis is one area of nanotechnology that is already beginning to alter the economics of energy production, and billion dollar deals have already been signed. The shift away from dependence on oil from the Persian Gulf region also has implications for the bargaining power of OPEC, and provides significant opportunities in the energy sector for both Russia and China. In the post-September 11th world, desire to reduce dependence on imported energy is hot topic both in Washington and Brussels, and nanocatalysis is starting to make this possible."

from the phonons-and-photons dept.
Gina Miller writes "Using an instrument much like an atomic force microscope with a platinum tip as an antenna to focus an infrared laser beam, a group of German scientists was able to measure very strong reflection of the laser beam over nanometer-scale patches of scanned crystal surface when the frequency of the laser was very close to the vibration frequency of the crystal. This could lead to determining the composition of the surface to nanometer-scale resolution, or perhaps to building storage devices with 10-nm bits, equivalent to a storage density near 1 Tbit inch^-2. See:" Infrared antenna for nano-size mapping of crystal vibrations

Tony Garnock-Jones writes "The MacDiarmid Institute, a recently-establshed New Zealand Centre of Research Excellence, is organising an international conference on Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology, AMN-1, to take place in early 2003. Three Nobel Laureates, Professors Alan MacDiarmid, Alan Heeger and Hideki Shirakawa, have agreed to participate."

from the give-credit-where-credit-is-due dept.
In his column Unfogging the Future on Tech Central station, Foresight Director Glenn H. Reynolds writes about a new government report entitled Converging Technologies for Improving Human Performance (the subject of a Nanodot post July 13, 2002) as a salient example of something the government did right. Reynolds applauds the report's frank assessment that radical technological changes are coming, and its realization that delay in dealing with these changes may mean being overwhelmed by catastrophe.

from the let-us-reason-together dept.
Technology Fear Factor, by Daintry Duffy and Sari Kalin, originally published in Darwin Magazine May 2002. Published on KurzweilAI.Net July 21, 2002.

Three futurists — George Gilder, Ray Kurzweil, and Jaron Lanier — agree that emerging dangerous technologies will require smarter defenses, such as standards diversity, decentralized systems, a transparent society, better communications between factions, and mutually beneficial collaboration of business leaders.

from the new-tools dept.
Gina Miller writes "A July 23, 2002 EE Times.com article, Finding the charge within angstroms, reports that a team from Munich has built a highly sensitive charge detector from the combination of a quantum dot with a nanomechanical device. The team is comprised of researchers from Ludwig-Maximilians University and the Walter-Schottky Institute. This device could support realtime scanning with resolutions down to the sub-Ångstrom level. According to the group leader, Prof Blick, 'This system allows for ultra-sensitive displacement detection, which is quite important for any scanning probe application.' Applications of the technique include communications electronics as filter elements and sensor components."

TimHarper writes "Trends in Nanotechnology 2002 09 Sep 2002 – 13 Sep 2002 – Santiago de la Compostela, Spain Europe's largest scientific and technical applied nanotechnology conference, "Trends in Nanotechnology" conference (TNT2002) will be held in Santiago de la Compostela, Spain. Keynote speakers from IBM, HP, Samsung, NASA and NEC will be presenting the latest applications of their nanotechnology reseach. For more information: http://www.cmp-cientifica.com/TNT2002.html"

from the bang-for-the-buck dept.
An article in Red Herring dated July 12, 2002, Slow starts: Canada and Europe slouch toward nanotechnology blames the bureaucratic culture in Europe and in Canada for slowing efforts to commercialize nanotechnology, despite very sizeable public investments in nanotechnology research.

from the seeing-what-you're-doing dept.
A news article in Scientific American, Scientists Create Smallest Ever Laser-Like Light Beam, describes a table-top apparatus that focuses 25-femtosecond pulses of visible light to create (using a process called high-harmonic generation) highly coherent femtosecond-scale pulses of extreme ultraviolet light, suitable for creating holograms of micron-scale objects.

from the seeking-growth dept.
Gina Miller writes "The Korea Times reports ROK to Emerge as 8th Largest Economy, July 17, 2002. " …the Korean government will be adopting industrial development strategies designed to place such promising sectors as biotechnology and nanotechnology on the global map." The article explains that Korea would like to become a leader (eighth by 2010) in the manufacturing and technology areas and the new government programs will help to attain these goals. Read previous Nanodot coverage April 9th, 2002"