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Ted Greenwald continues his Singularity University executive program coverage over at Wired: Ted Greenwald posted yesterday at Wired about Foresight member Ralph Merkle’s presentation on nanotechnology at the Singularity University’s first Executive Program, which has just convened over at NASA Ames here in Silicon Valley: A recently released poll shows that the American public is largely uniformed about both nanotechnology and synthetic biology, and furthermore that the level of public awareness about nanotechnology has not changed since 2004. An item from the June newsletter of the Innovation Society (based in St.Gallen, Switzerland) announces a training course for secondary school science teachers to help them develop a teaching syllabus on nanotech: Innovation Society introduces teachers’ training course “TEACH-NANO” Here at Foresight we try to present a balanced view of nanotechnology, discussing prospective benefits while also acknowledging potential problems. It would be good if the “first major television series to look at the implications of advances in nanotechnology” did the same. But see the description of the upcoming public television series: We’ve been critical in the past of Saudi Arabia’s policy of having women researchers in nanotechnology (and of course other fields as well) work separately from male researchers. Now King Abdullah has moved personally to fund, at the US$10 billion level, a new graduate-level university with a new policy toward women, to be advised [...] An interview by Nanotechnology.com of the director of the Center for Nanoscale Chemical-Electrical-Mechanical Manufacturing Systems got our attention. I’d give you a URL for this interview but it doesn’t seem to be on the web, only in email. An excerpt: Longtime Nanodot readers and Foresight members know that our goal here at Foresight is to maximize the benefits and minimize the downsides of nanotechnology. Our friends over at the Wilson Center’s Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies share that goal, as shown in their mission statement: Nanowerk brings to our attention the Future City Competition, using SimCity software and sponsored by National Engineers Week, which this year is focused on nanotechnology and how to use it to prevent tomorrow’s urban disasters: After 20 years of delivering Foresight’s message, we see it popping up everywhere, most recently in law school: For those of us who can’t get enough nanotechnology info, now there’s a one-hour radio show/podcast every week to download and enjoy while you drive or work out, hosted by industry analyst Marlene Bourne: Yesterday we highlighted MIT’s work in getting their course materials online. But many other schools with courses relevant to nanotech have been working on similar goals, especially UC Berkleley. 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: Words can’t really get across the essence of the nanoscale and potential of nanotechnology, but images can do much better. That’s why Foresight encourages participation in the NanoArt competition: On October 8, some of us were in the air on our way to the Productive Nanosystems Conference (pdf). Others — specifically, UgoTrade.com — were blogging about the new Nanotechnology Island in Second Life: Most nanotechnology emails I receive are because the sender knows I have some connection to the field professionally. This one came due only to my being an MIT alum. The nanotech event described is only for such alumni, but I bet it’s possible to get in some other way if you try hard [...] Getting experimental results in nanotechnology can be a long, hard slog — those doing this work need and deserve inspiration. Beautiful nanoscale images — both of current results and future designs — can help. Damian Allis shows us some of his own images in his post about a new nanoscale art/gallery site called [...] Registration for Foresight’s Nov. 3-4 Vision Weekend focused on nanotechnology and other advanced technologies — traditionally restricted to Foresight Senior Associates — is being opened to the general public this year as an experiment. Space is limited and participants are advised to register very soon. This year as an experiment we are opening up a subset of seats at the Nov. 3-4 Foresight Vision Weekend to members of special groups such as Nanodot readers. The event is usually open only to Foresight Senior Associate members: Some MIT nanotechnology activities are targeted at alumni, but you may be able to get in the door at a higher price: |
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