UW Madison prof Dietram Scheufele writes about his research in Smalltimes: “In work forthcoming in the Journal of Nanoparticle Research and Science Communication my colleagues and I explored many of these shortcuts in greater detail. I want to highlight one here that illustrates the competing influences of information and heuristics. We conducted a national phone… Continue reading Claim: Public nano views based on heuristics, not tech literacy
Publishing in Nature, Stanford researcher Steven Block has produced an amazing new tool for the nanoscale, accurate down to one angstrom, or one-tenth of a nanometer. From the detailed press release: ” ‘This technical achievement will no doubt lead to new information about the molecular machinery that carries out basic cellular processes, particularly those related… Continue reading Atomic precision achieved in real-time protein imaging
For those interested in the longer-term applications of advanced nanotech to medicine — Over at Nanotech.biz, Sander Olson interviews (part 1 and part 2) Robert Freitas, prolific author of Nanomedicine and many other works on related topics: “…I immediately realized that medicine would be the single most important application area of this new technology. In… Continue reading Interview of Nanomedicine author Robert Freitas
Last talk: Luc Jaeger of UCSB explaining “Sculpting Bio-materials by Programmable Assembly of RNA”. He has been building super-molecular RNA assemblies. Good control of folding has been achieved. One shape they’ve built is a square, presented at Foresight Conference two years ago. Goal at that time was to make larger 2D arrays of these squares.… Continue reading Building with RNA; Nanotech X Prize; Closing remarks
Liveblogging the Foresight Conference research sessions: Co-chair Bill Goddard dedicated his talk to Eric Drexler for his role in stimulating this field as long as ago as early 1990’s. Dr. Goddard is describing his computations at the nanoscale, for example of the contact resistance at metal-carbon nanotube junctions. Palladium, platinum, and titanium look the best.… Continue reading Goddard on predicting nanostructure properties
Researchers at Rice have build a single-molecule device that rolls along a gold surface, which they have nicknamed the nanocar. From Chemical & Engineering News: “A group led by chemistry professor James M. Tour constructed the tiny four-wheeler from an oligo(phenylene ethynylene) chassis and axle covalently mounted to four fullerene wheels. With the help of… Continue reading Light-driven motorized nanocar built at Rice: step toward molecular manufacturing
Kinematic Self-Replicating Machines (KSRM), the book co-authored by Robert A. Freitas Jr. and Ralph C. Merkle, was published on paper in 2004, but the book is now freely accessible online . With 200+ illustrations and 3200+ literature references, KSRM describes all proposed and experimentally realized self-replicating systems that were publicly known as of 2004, ranging… Continue reading Kinematic Self-Replicating Machines book now free online
Foresight Participating Member Mark Sims of Nanorex brings our attention to this NSF solicitation on Active Nanostuctures and Nanosystems, with proposals due November 29, so get going on this now (emphasis added): “Examples of active nanostructures are nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS), nanomachines, self-healing materials, nanobiodevices, transistors, amplifiers, targeted drugs and chemicals, actuators, molecular machines, light-driven molecular… Continue reading $42 million for active nanostructures and nanosystems
From Medical News Today, a report on work by Foresight Feynman Prize winner Charles Lieber of Harvard: “Harvard University researchers have found that molecular markers indicating the presence of cancer in the body are readily detected in blood scanned by special arrays of silicon nanowires — even when these cancer markers constitute only one hundred-billionth… Continue reading Early signs of cancer found by nanowires
Thanks to the Nanotechnology Foundation of Texas, you can enjoy 12 nanotech research lectures from the comfort of your personal computer (unless you use the Safari browser, but never mind). These were recorded at their July conference at the Texas Medical Center. See the abstracts and agenda, and then check out the list of presentations… Continue reading Enjoy nanotech research lectures from comfort of home
