from the Who-ordered-this? dept.
A group of Australian scientists has published experiments demonstrating that microscopic systems (such as a nanomachine) followed for short time periods (as long as a second) could sometimes violate the Second Law of Thermodynamics, that is, they extract useable energy from the temperature of their surroundings. In so doing, these systems become spontaneously more ordered and entropy decreases, in violation of the second law. It has long been known that the second law is subject to statistical fluctuations in very small systems (a few molecules), but it is surprising that such fluctuations occur in systems microns in length followed for a second or more, systems containing many billions of atoms. It would appear that these results have implications for micron-sized molecular machine systems: how microbes and other cells function, and how nanomachines should be designed to take into account that they could run backwards for short periods. For a concise summary, see the AIP Bulletin of Physics News, Pushing the Second Law to the Limit

from the at-what-price-security? dept.
A prominent civil libertarian and member of the Foresight Board of Advisors has sued the U.S. government and two major airlines in favor of the right of U.S. citizens to travel anonymously: Suit challenges airline ID requirements

In a lawsuit filed in federal court in San Francisco, John Gilmore, co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said that requiring ID from travelers who are not suspected of being a threat to airport security violates several amendments to the U.S. Constitution.

from the self-promotion dept.
Gina Miller writes "Tune your radios to Seattle's KEXP 90.3FM Saturday morning 7am Pac-daylight time. James Lewis is interviewed on the potential benefits and dangers of nanotechnology. If you are not in the Seattle area, you can also listen to the airing live via their website, http://www.kexp.org/ from where ever you are located."

from the plenty-to-talk-about dept.
Neil Gordon writes "The Canadian NanoBusiness Alliance and Sygertech are proud to be part of the organizing committee for the CANEUS workshop on micro and nano technology development, emphasizing aerospace, defense and industrial R&D as well as nanotechnology commercialization and investment. August 25 to 30, 2002, Montreal, Canada"

from the make-them-and-they-will-come dept.
2012Rocky writes "In an email conversation with Allen MacCannell, Director of Sales for NanoLab, I learned about various manufacturing and research uses for their carbon nanotube powder and aligned nanotube arrays, so far in 'research quantities' of no more than 200 grams per order."

from the small-points-of-light dept.
Gina Miller writes "The EE Times article Synthesis of nanoparticles coming into focus, by R. Colin Johnson, July 16, 2002, describes progress with two types of nanoparticles: work done at the University of Arkansas on colloidal semiconductor nanocrystals, and work done at Michigan's Center for Biologic Nanotechnology on organic dendrimers."

from the light-bedtime-reading dept.
A special issue of Nanotechnology containing more than three dozen papers, mostly technical, from the 2001 Trends in Nanotechnology conference is available online. Access to papers published in Nanotechnology is free until November 30, 2002.

from the seat-of-your-pants dept.
The Next Wave, by Michael Fitzgerald in the July 2002 Issue of Business 2.0, tells how startup Nano-Tex uses 10 nm-long nanowhiskers to make cloth too dense for liquids to penetrate, but still soft enough to wear:

Forget all the futuristic hype about subatomic robots. Nanotechnology is already here, and Burlington CEO George Henderson is using it to save the U.S. textile industry from extinction (and your pants from Beaujolais).

An informative sidebar lists nanotechnology products now available or in development. Founded about four years ago, Nano-Tex was the subject of a Dec. 27 2000 Nanodot post.

from the taking-a-long-view dept.
They've Seen the Future and Intend to Live It by Bruce Schechter in the NY Times (registration required) provides an informed and positive portrayal of the long range outlook that Dr. Ralph C. Merkle and other Foresight members bring to their views of life and the development of nanotechnology. Describing some of what was said at the most recent Foresight and IMM Senior Associates Gathering, the article travels from the National Nanotechnology Initiative and near term prospects to the "far more expansive vision of the future" held by Foresight members, and the link to cryonics, much in the news following Ted Williams's suspension (Nanodot July 10, 2002).

from the how-long-will-it-take? dept.
2012Rocky, writes "Chris Phoenix has an essay at nanotech-now.com on assembler timeline possibilities Ten-Year Assembler Timeline and Weather Forecast

Like most things in nanotech, assemblers are a big topic. Is an assembler even possible? What do we need to do to develop them? Who is working on them? When will we have them? And what will we be able to do with them? That's too many questions for one essay; I'll focus on the technology required to build one, and by extension, the schedule we might see. The point of this essay, as the title implies, is that it's impossible to give a sensible timeline for the development of an assembler."