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Gaming the Future: The Book!

Article says nanotech needs products soon, or it

from the Nano-hype,-nano-whining dept.
An article on the Small Times website ("Nanotech headed for historyís dustbin unless it cuts the hype, panelists warn", by Matt Kellye, 5 February 2002) recaps comments made during an investment forum at Harvard Business School by a four-member panel who make the dubious assertion that "the fledgling sector needs to start creating real devices to solve existing problems . . . Otherwise, nanotech could follow artificial intelligence or other technology fads that once flashed into the public mind, only to end up as niche ideas that never went mainstream." The article also described what seems to be a lot of impatient hand-wringing over a lack of perceived applications and short-term returns for nanotechnology investment.

Corrected: Bush Administration proposes $679 million for NNI

from the you-wish dept.
The version of this item posted on 4 February 2002 incorrectly listed the amounts requested by federal agency in billions, rather than millions, of U.S. dollars. Unfortunately, the correct amounts are only millions. Below is the corrected version — Ed.

As part of the US$2.13 trillion budget proposed for the U.S. federal government for fiscal year 2003, the Bush Administration has requested a total of $679 million for the multi-agency National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI), a 17 percent increase over FY2002.

The request includes:

An 11% increase for the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), to $221 million from $199 million
A 12% increase for the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), to $201 million from $180 million
A 16% increase for the U.S. Department of Commerce, presumably primarily at the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST), to $44 million from $38 million
A 6% increase for the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), to $43 million from $41 million
And a whopping 53% increase for the Department of Energy (DoE), to $139 million from $91 million. The DoE operates many of the U.S. national laboratories that are engaged in nanotech-related research.

According to the Analytical Perspectives: Budget of the United States Government, a document which discusses the Administrationís budge proposals in detail:

The budget provides $679 million for the multi-agency National Nanotechnology Initiative, a 17 percent increase over 2002. The initiative focuses on long-term research on the manipulation of matter down to the atomic and molecular levels, giving us unprecedented building blocks for new classes of devices as small as molecules and machines as small as human cells. This research could lead to continued improvement in electronics for information technology; higher-performance, lower-maintenance materials for defense, transportation, space, and environmental applications; and accelerated biotechnical applications in medicine, healthcare, and agriculture. In 2003, the initiative will focus on fundamental nanoscale research through investments in investigator-led activities, centers and networks of excellence, as well as the supporting infrastructure. Priority areas include: research to enable efficient nanoscale manufacturing; innovative nanotechnology solutions for detection of and protection from biological-chemical-radiological-explosive agents; the education and training of a new generation or workers for future industries; and partnerships and other policies to enhance industrial participation in the nanotechnology revolution. The convergence of nanotechnology with information technology, modern biology and social sciences will reinvigorate discoveries and innovation in many areas of the economy.

The document is available online as an Adobe Acrobat PDF file (about 3.2 Mb). Additional budget documents are available at the White House/Office of Management and Budget (OMB) website.

It is worth noting that the document also mentions the following areas that will be addressed by the U.S. Information Technology Initiative: ëëtrustíí (security, reliability, and privacy); high-assurance software and systems; and micro- and embedded sensor technologies. The document is available online as an Adobe Acrobat PDF file (about 3.2 Mb). Additional budget documents are available at the White House/Office of Management and Budget (OMB) website.

It is worth noting that the document also mentions the following areas that will be addressed by the U.S. Information Technology Initiative: "trust" (security, reliability, and privacy); high-assurance software and systems; and micro- and embedded sensor technologies.

Article notes Zyvex interest in medical device technology

from the long-range-plans dept.
An article in Dallas-Ft. Worth TechBiz ("Local medical device industry could boom with right political support", by Pavan Lall, 21 January 2002) describe innovative companies in the medical device industry in Texas. The article includes a brief nod toward the potential medical applications of nanotechnology:

Nanotechnology will help shrink medical devices, said Christopher Chavez, president and chief executive at Plano-based Advanced Neuromodulation Systems Inc. ìThe technical issues of nanotech will be resolved downstream, and the improvement of devices will be based on a synthesis of different technologies,î he said. . . . In about 20 years, through a better understanding of the central nervous system, electricity will be accepted as a digital drug, Chavez said. The shrinkage of medical devices will stimulate other technologies as well as make the broad-based use of drugs and chemicals obsolete. ìMachinery and electrode miniaturization will result in very elegant solutions that will be tremendously intelligent,î he said.
Jim Von Ehr, president and chief executive of Richardson-based nanotech company Zyvex Corp., agreed. ìWe have been talking with a number of doctors about things in the medical area and have looked at micro-devices and micro-diagnostics. In the future, there could be a variety of micro-devices that will detect bacteria in a system, chop it into pieces and digest it or even carry oxygen better than a cell in a bloodstream can.î To successfully implement different aspects of medical devices in production, one must understand biological content as well as the relation to software and bioinformatics, Von Ehr said.

It is worth noting that Robert A. Freitas Jr., author or Nanomedicine, the first book-length technical discussion of the potential medical applications of molecular nanotechnology and medical nanorobotics, is a Research Scientist with Zyvex.

USPTO may have difficulty with nanotech patents

An article on the Small Times website ("U.S. patent examiners may not know enough about nanotech", by Doug Brown, 4 February 2002) describes some potential problems faced by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) in evaluating what is expected to be a sharp increase in the number of nanotechnology-related patent applications. The article describes problems with both a lack of staff expertise in the relevant fields and the fact that there is no well-defined group or office within the USPTO that can develop the necessary deep expertise or consistency in examination policy. As the article notes, "With examiners ignorant of the scope of nanotechnology, companies would be faced with patents that are either rejected improperly because the examiner mistakenly concluded that the application is not new, or overly broad patents that would give a single company far too much control over a particular swath of a technological field. . . . Now, nanotechnology patents are scattered from technology center to technology center. As a result, patents live in isolation within different art units. The agency doesnít necessarily need to launch a nanotechnology center, . . . but it should put in place a system that funnels nanotechnology patents to specific people tutored in nanotechnology within the different technology centers. The nanotechnology specialists can communicate with one another, which would help ensure that only the right patents are granted for the right reason."

Note: Small Times has begun posting short notices on the latest micro- and nano-tech patents in a special section of their website.

Dekker wins Springer Award for molectronics work

According to an article in Die Welt ("Julius-Springer-Preis für die Erforschung von Nanoröhrchen", 4 February 2002, in German), Cees Dekker, a physicist in the Netherlands, has been awarded this yearís Julius Springer Prize in Applied Physics for his work on the electrical properties of carbon nanotubes and their application in molecular electronic circuits. Recent coverage of this work by Dekker and his colleagues ran here on Nanodot on 13 November, 8 August, and 5 July 2001

The award to Dekker marks the second time in recent years that the Springer Prize in Applied Physics has gone to researchers in molecular electronics. In June 2000, HP Labs researcher Stanley Williams and his UCLA collaborator Jim Heath received the award, one of the most prestigious international awards in the field, for their work in nanotechnology and molecular electronics.

Talk by Montemagno covered in Halifax Daily News

A brief item in The Daily News of Halifax, Canada ("Tiny science no small matter", by Andrea MacDonald, 2 February 2002) describes a lecture by Carlo Montemagno, who studies biological molecular motor systems at UCLA and the California NanoSystems Institute, at Dalhousie University. According to the article, ìThereís a bright future for people who want to look at the business of molecular process,î Montemagno told his audience. Itís difficult to tell whether the writer or Montemagno had tongue in cheek regarding the articleís conclusion: Itís a golden opportunity for nations such as Canada to climb on board, Mantemagno said, as an investment of tens of millions of dollars is all thatís needed to be competitive.

Spectrum article on modular reconfigurable robots

While itís not nanotechnology, an article in the February 2002 issue of the IEEE Spectrum deals with research into robotics that may eventually be useful in designing swarms of nano-scale robots. "Modular Robots", by Mark Yim, Ying Zhang and David Duff from the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) describe the challenges of designing robots capable of operating outdoors, away from civilization, where both mission and geography are unpredictable. "Here," they authors maintain, "robots with the ability to change their shape could be of great value, since they could adapt to constantly varying tasks and environments. Modular reconfigurable robots — experimental systems made by interconnecting multiple, simple, similar units–can perform such shape shifting."
The article deals mainly with their own work on PolyBot, a modular robot being developed at Xerox PARC, but makes brief mention of work at other labs as well.

Bush Administration proposes $679 million for NNI

The request includes:

An 11% increase for the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), to $221 million from $199 million
A 12% increase for the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), to $201 million from $180 million
A 16% increase for the U.S. Department of Commerce, presumably primarily at the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST), to $44 million from $38 million
A 6% increase for the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), to $43 million from $41 million
And a whopping 53% increase for the Department of Energy (DoE), to $139 million from $91 million. The DoE operates many of the U.S. national laboratories that are engaged in nanotech-related research.

According to the Analytical Perspectives: Budget of the United States Government, a document which discusses the Administrationís budge proposals in detail:

The budget provides $679 million for the multi-agency National Nanotechnology Initiative, a 17 percent increase over 2002. The initiative focuses on long-term research on the manipulation of matter down to the atomic and molecular levels, giving us unprecedented building blocks for new classes of devices as small as molecules and machines as small as human cells. This research could lead to continued improvement in electronics for information technology; higher-performance, lower-maintenance materials for defense, transportation, space, and environmental applications; and accelerated biotechnical applications in medicine, healthcare, and agriculture. In 2003, the initiative will focus on fundamental nanoscale research through investments in investigator-led activities, centers and networks of excellence, as well as the supporting infrastructure. Priority areas include: research to enable efficient nanoscale manufacturing; innovative nanotechnology solutions for detection of and protection from biological-chemical-radiological-explosive agents; the education and training of a new generation or workers for future industries; and partnerships and other policies to enhance industrial participation in the nanotechnology revolution. The convergence of nanotechnology with information technology, modern biology and social sciences will reinvigorate discoveries and innovation in many areas of the economy.

The document is available online as an Adobe Acrobat PDF file (about 3.2 Mb). Additional budget documents are available at the White House/Office of Management and Budget (OMB) website.

Proposed modification to Sloan-Kettering nanogener

WillWare writes "Last November there was a press release (16 November 2001) about a potential cancer treatment agent called a nanogenerator, under development at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, with subsequent discussion here at Nanodot. The treatment involves a monoclonal antibody connected to a radioactive actinium atom. The antibody somehow targets cancer cells selectively, so that the decaying actinium is brought into the cell. The actinium releases four alpha particles as it decays, which are energetic enough to usually kill the cell. The timing of these particles follows a Poisson distribution over time, so the material must be prepared and transported on a careful schedule.

It would be nice if the actinium atom could be replaced by something that could be activated from an energy source external to the patient's body. This would allow for long-term storage, rather than needing to process the stuff soon before treatment. The absorption spectrum for water alternates several times between transparent and opaque, so it should be possible to get energy to the "weapon" using EM radiation that has minimal effect on surrounding tissue.

One strategy could be to use a benign molecule that breaks into toxic pieces when stimulated. This would be a one-time use weapon. This would leave the question of ensuring that the toxic products would not do further damage after the cancer cell was killed.

If the weapon could be fired repeatedly, it would overcome the limitation that actinium releases only four alpha particles. The function of the weapon itself could be merely to transduce received EM energy to a frequency that is absorbed by water, thereby heating and hopefully killing the cancer cell. It may be possible to find such a transducer simply by searching databases of known molecules and their absorption spectra."

ACS reports advances in nanowire production methods

According to a press release (1 February 2002) from the American Chemical Society (ACS), two independent groups have published reports in Nano Letters, an ACS publication, on methods for making lattices that they say will enable nanowires to be constructed with otherwise incompatible materials. Such mixed bundles may be useful in making electronics and other devices on an increasingly smaller scale:

A report by a U.S. team led by Peidong Yang, assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of California-Berkeley and a faculty scientist in the Materials Science Division at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, details how they successfully fabricated ìsuperlatticeî nanowire, so named because the nanowireís cylinder-shaped nanoscopic bundle interweaves substances with different compositions and properties. As a result, well-defined junctions and interfaces with potentially important functionalities were incorporated within individual nanowires.
A related paper by Swedish researchers working in the Materials Chemistry and Solid State Physics Departments in Lund Universityís Nanometer Consortium used related but different methods than their California peers.

In both cases, manufacture is relatively straightforward and results in stable nanowires that can operate at room temperature, Yang reports. Based on the findings of both research groups, tiny components known as nanowires that meld together a variety of materials could soon be routinely and cheaply built using little more than a special mixture of gases deposited on a foundation material.

Additional information on the Berkeley teamís work can be found in this press release (31 January 2002) issued by Nanosys, Inc. Yang is a cofounder of Nanosys, a company focused on the development of nanotechnology-enabled systems. These systems incorporate novel and patent-protected zero and one-dimensional nanometer-scale materials such as nanowires, nanotubes and nanodots (quantum dots) as their principal active elements. Another cofounder of Nanosys is Charles Lieber, a Harvard chemistry professor and winner of the 2001 Foresight Feynman Prize for Experimental work. Lieber has also been conducting significant research into the production and properties of nanowires and other nano-scale materials.

Gaming the Future: The Book!

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