By Christine Peterson, on November 19th, 2009
In Popular Mechanics, longtime Foresight friend Prof. Glenn Reynolds looks at the future of nanotech and artificial intelligence, among other things looking at safety issues, including one call that potentially dangerous technologies be relinquished. He takes a counterintuitive stance, which we’ve discussed here at Foresight over the years:
But I wonder if that’s such a good [...]
By Christine Peterson, on November 10th, 2009
Ted Greenwald continues his Singularity University executive program coverage over at Wired:
These days, though, Merkle is setting his sights much higher. Over the past few years he has put together a theoretical system for building diamond, atom by atom. It involves nine molecular tools and methane/hydrogen feedstock on a diamond substrate. He has analyzed all [...]
By Christine Peterson, on November 9th, 2009
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:
From there he skims through a catalog of progress — familiar example of pushing atoms into IBM logos and such on a 2D [...]
By Christine Peterson, on October 27th, 2009
Nanotechnology Enables Real Atomic Precision is the title of a piece by Susan Smith in Desktop Engineering, which includes comments by longtime Foresight Senior Associates Steve Vetter and Tihamer Toth-Fejel:
While nanotechology might mean different things to different people, the term was originally coined to describe the building of things from the bottom up with atomic [...]
By Christine Peterson, on October 23rd, 2009
Here’s a talk happening next Tuesday at UCLA:
NanoSystems Seminar Series
Title: High-speed AFM meets the Holographic Assembler
Mervyn Miles
Physics
Bristol University
Abstract: High-speed AFM is important for following processes occurring on short time scales inaccessible to conventional AFM. We are working on two versions: one is capable of extremely high imaging rates and can image over relatively large [...]
By Christine Peterson, on October 21st, 2009
From The Atlantic:
Nouriel Roubini, the New York University economist who accurately forecast the bursting of the housing bubble and the resulting economic contraction, has become famous for his pessimism—he has been the gloomiest of the doomsayers…
“The question is, can the U.S. grow in a non-bubble way?” [Roubini] asked the question rhetorically, so I turned it [...]
By Christine Peterson, on September 21st, 2009
Josh Hall, on his way to catch a plane, sends us this news from Technology Review’s Katherine Bourzac:
A California company is using silicon ink patterned on top of silicon wafers to boost the efficiency of solar cells. The Sunnyvale, CA, firm Innovalight says that the inkjet process is a cheaper route to more-efficient solar power. Using [...]
By Christine Peterson, on September 2nd, 2009
Here at Foresight our main focus is on longer-term technologies such as molecular manufacturing, but we keep an eye on what’s arriving along the nearer-term pathways as well. In 2007 I attended a workshop on “Nanotechnology for Chemical and Biological Defense” and the proceedings volume of that meeting, with the same name, is now available. [...]
By Christine Peterson, on May 27th, 2009
EurekAlert reports work by the University of Liverpool and Chinese Academy of Sciences:
New rotors could help develop nanoscale generators
In collaboration with the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, scientists have investigated the rotation of molecules on a fixed surface to understand how they may help in the development of future rotor-based machinery at nanoscale level.
The [...]
By Christine Peterson, on May 26th, 2009
From The Gulf Times via Nanowerk:
The proposal for establishing an Arab Council on Nanotechnology (ACON) was presented by Al-Quds University’s Mukhles Sowwan while discussing about ‘Nanotechnology and molecular manufacturing: Towards balanced plans for responsible worldwide use.’
“The mission of ACON should be to raise awareness of the benefits and dangers of molecular nanotechnology, and assist in [...]
By Christine Peterson, on May 21st, 2009
Nominations are now open for the Foresight Institute Prizes for 2009, due June 30.
Our best-known prizes of course are the two annual Foresight Institute Feynman Prizes in Nanotechnology, one for Experiment and one for Theory:
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Also open are nominations for the Foresight Prize in Communications:
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And the Student Prize:
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If you’d like to nominate someone but are too [...]
By J. Storrs Hall, on May 19th, 2009
“Codex Futurius” is a project of Discover Magazine’s Science Not Fiction blog in which they ask science questions raised by science fiction.. Then they ask the National Academy of Sciences’ Science and Entertainment Exchange to reccommend them experts to answer the questions. Their first question came to me, and it was about gray goo … [...]
By Jim Lewis, on April 29th, 2009
Two recent publications provide more evidence of the growing capability of DNA scaffolds to support complex and interactive functions.
By Jim Lewis, on April 27th, 2009
A new modular method of constructing DNA nanotubes provides control of the geometry of the nanotube cross-section and may enable real-time modulation of the stiffness and porosity of the nanotube.
By Jim Lewis, on April 24th, 2009
A nanotech-based gene-therapy method that dramatically improved the efficiency of conventional cancer therapy in animal models is now undergoing clinical trials.
By Jim Lewis, on April 22nd, 2009
Two research groups have published two different ways to unzip carbon nanotubes to create graphene ribbons.
By Jim Lewis, on April 20th, 2009
Using a magnetic bead to slowly pull a DNA molecule through a solid-sate nanopore looks promising as the basis for a very fast and efficient nanotech DNA sequencing method.
By Jim Lewis, on April 17th, 2009
MIT scientists have demonstrated the usefulness of biological frameworks for combining distinct functional elements to make a device.
By Jim Lewis, on April 15th, 2009
Two papers in a recent issue of Science suggest that graphene is rapidly moving from being “just” a nanotech wonder material to becoming relevant to atomically precise nanotechnologies.
By Jim Lewis, on April 13th, 2009
A catalyst can be switched on and off using mechanical means.
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