…
I like to read a lot of journals and articles about different topics and then lie on the couch or take a walk and just let all the information settle. Then all of a sudden I can get an idea and connect some dots. Then it’s back to reading so I can fill in missing pieces.
…
[I] found the names and professional emails of lots of professors in my area who were working on pancreatic cancer…. Week after week I’d receive endless rejections. The most helpful one was actually from a researcher who took the time to point out every flaw and reason why my project was impossible.
…
One of my most world- expanding experiences came very quickly when I went to Singularity U in California. I met people who weren’t afraid of failure, but just used failure to say well that path didn’t work and moved on.

Stories like this are good reminders to value not only good ideas, but to value people who show propensity for innovation.
-Posted by Stephanie C

Would this sound like a potentially world-changing substance worthy of scientific attention and funding?

That substance is graphene, a single layer of graphite with hexagonally arranged carbon atoms (visualized as chicken wire).

Now imagine that the mechanical properties of this substance aren’t measured yet, as was the case for graphene before 2009. Imagine further that there is no way to grow or isolate the single-layer crystals in their free state, as was the case for graphene before 2004. Stepping back in time yet further, imagine that the theoretical work predicting massless charge carrier behavior hasn’t been carried out yet, as was the case for graphene before 1984.

Peeling back these milestones, we can see that if the scientific question being asked is “What can be realized from here?” then the graphene timeline played out characteristically, with major advancements coming primarily from opportunity-based research. In other words, over 50+ years, from the initial theoretical work on graphene in 1947 until stable monolayers were achieved in 2004, there was limited vision of what end-goals might be achievable and limited drive to get there.

What happens when a different question is asked, specifically “What can be realized according to physical law?” This is the key premise of the exploratory engineering approach, a methodology proposed by Eric Drexler for assessing the capabilities of future technologies. He points out, for example, that the principles of space flight had been worked out long before science and industry advanced enough to get to actual launch.

For initial space flight development, the answers to the two questions above were dramatically different: what could be done in practice was far behind what had been established as theoretically possible, and there was no defined path between them. By identifying what was achievable according to physical law, the longer-term goal of space flight entered the consciousness of physicists, engineers, and politicians, bringing great minds and great resources to the challenge.

With the benefit of similarly future-focused knowledge, perhaps graphene might have received far more attention far sooner. Consider this: the groundbreaking experimental work that sparked the field as we know it today was the discovery that single-layer graphene could be extracted from a piece of graphite by (essentially) pressing cellophane tape against it and peeling it away. In other words, a decades-long roadblock to achievements in graphene research was not a matter of inadequate supporting technology but one of limited scientific attention.

Here graphene serves as a useful illustration of how progress could potentially be hindered when opportunity-based research is relied upon exclusively. Scientific advancement could benefit significantly from deliberate, exploratory engineering. Perhaps there are numerous other ‘graphenes’ right now, going unnoticed or under-prioritized, because we are failing to ask: what can be realized according to physical law?
-Posted by Stephanie C

National Chemistry Week 2012: Nanotechnology, Oct. 21-27th
The focus of the 25th National Chemistry Week is “Nanotechnology – The Smallest BIG Idea In Science.” Use the link to find events scheduled for your area, connect with NCW coordinators and other like-minded thinkers, and/or learn how to set up your own event.

NanoDays 2013: March 30 – April 7th
Organized by participants in the Nanoscale Informal Science Education Network, NanoDays is

a nationwide festival of educational programs about nanoscale science and engineering and its potential impact on the future.

Events are held at science museums, observatories, universities, and more. Kits are available to applicants, providing experiments and tips for anyone interested in hosting an event, or find out about designing your own.

Science Coaches Program: Apply By October 30th
This remarkable program gives you the opportunity to team-up with a like-minded middle- or high school teacher in your community to bring nanotechology-oriented concepts and experiences to students. The ACS Science Coaches program is entering its third academic year.

Kids & Chemistry Program
The ACS Kids & Chemistry program is aimed at younger students and offers broad flexibility regarding the size of your volunteer commitment.

Volunteer efforts can be implemented as a full program administered by an ACS local section or by an individual as a one-time classroom visit.

Already participating in any of these programs? Know of other programs worth pointing at? Leave a Comment to let us know.
-Posted by Stephanie C

Foothill College is starting a prototype program with NASA-ASL (NASA-Ames) to train working professionals (incumbent) and transitional workers to use FE-SEM (Field Emission SEM) and Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) plus exposure to Design of Experiments (DOE) in thin film deposition and nanocarbon synthesis.

I have attached the flier in hope that you might be able to promote this through the Foresight Institute. The training at NASA-ASL is funded through my NSF-ATE grant (but we do want people to consider our online course NANO53 to learn the material characterization techniques.

Robert D. Cormia, Foothill College

Learn to use FE‐SEM and TEM, and a course in Nanomaterials Characterization

NASA‐ASL MACS Lab ‐ UCSC Materials Analysis for Collaborative Science
http://macs.advancedstudieslabs.org/

Foothill College is partnering with NASA‐ASL (Advanced Studies Lab) to provide limited training on FE‐SEM (Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy) and TEM (Transmission Electron Microscopy) for qualified incumbent and transitional workers. The goal of this pilot program is to provide training for incumbent and transitional workers in materials engineering and technology firms, to enhance current job skills, or provide a path to enter these fields. Foothill will provide about 10 hours of hands on training (working in pairs) and additionally offer an online course to aid in nanomaterials characterization and understanding nanostructures.

Contact Robert Cormia CormiaRobert@foothill.edu and/or Michael Oye
moye@ucsc.edu

Nanomaterials Characterization NANO053 fall quarter CRN 20892 Wednesday evening and hybrid (online)

Techniques for micro and nano characterization of materials, including imaging, structural and surface analysis techniques, and physical properties measurements. Surveys the physics of modern instrumentation involved in characterizing materials, and the typical approaches to analyzing a wide variety of materials and nanostructures. Materials analysis approaches to quality assurance and quality control, failure analysis, and problem solving. Hands‐on exercises and experiential learning will include use of the Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM), Atomic Force Microscope (AFM), Auger Electron Spectroscopy (AES), X‐Ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS), and Raman spectroscopy. In fall 2012 we will also provide a hands‐on introduction to FE‐SEM and TEM (TBA) as well as AFM/SEM sessions Wednesday afternoon and Saturday morning at Foothill College.

Contact Robert D. Cormia, CormiaRobert@foothill.edu

Register at www.foothill.edu NANO‐053.01 CRN 20892

1)Foresighters Christine Peterson and Desiree Dudley will be speaking at NASA-Ames’ Singularity University this Monday night, August 13th, from 8-10pm. Presentations are from 8-9, and a Q&A panel with H+’s Amy Li and SU’s Jose Cordiero 9-10pm! Topics will include nanotech, biotech, life-extension, and our exciting new futurist youth outreach initiative. There will be champagne. Come out and see us! Building 583C.

2)Foresight CoFounder Christine Peterson and Director Desiree Dudley will appear in their role as mentors for the Thiel Foundation’s 20Under20 in CNBC’s documentary “20Under20: Transforming Tomorrow”. See these brilliant young people in CNBC’s upcoming documentary, 9-11pm EDT this Tuesday, August 14th! (It’s a 2-part documentary; the 1st episode actually first airs at 10pm EDT on Monday, but re-airs at 9pm EDT Tuesday before the second part at 10pm EDT.) Video trailer: http://youtu.be/F_YR7sfXjl0

Nano Outreach and Education in Ibero America

NanoDYF promotes nanoscience / nanotechnology outreach and education in Ibero America. The NanoDYF 2012 conference in Puebla, Mexico 2012 June 11 – 13, will draw together leaders in research, education, business, and politics to share discoveries and discuss objectives for this outreach. I will present on critical thinking about nanotechnology. More information is at http://www.nanodyf.org/ (use translate.Google.com if you don’t read Spanish). The NanoMex 2012 Conference runs immediately afterward, June 13 – 15, at the same location.

Buckyball Toy

Would you like a Buckyball model to hang from your ceiling? Trying to teach someone how hexagons and pentagons drive the shape of C₆₀? Would you like to see which size Buckyballs can form? Having trouble visualizing armchair and zig-zag carbon nanotubes? Would you like to let your mind wander while toying with shapes that carbon can form? About $3 lets you model a C₆₀. Buy 2 x $3 to model C₇₀, C₇₆, C₈₂, etc. Buy more to model carbon nanotubes.

These are not general purpose models. Each “carbon” is black plastic with 3 equally distributed bonding bumps in a plane and “bonds” are white plastic tubes that fit snugly over the bumps. One of the three bonds is an implied double bond, so if identifying it is important, a permanent marker is easiest. Spray-painting 1/3 of the tubes might look better. Diamond cannot be modeled with this kit, as it requires all four bonds exposed for tetrahedral bonding. Also, this kit is much smaller than the near-standard Prentice-Hall molecular modeling kits. It will not connect to those.

The model is easy to assemble, but holds together for hanging, handing around, or rolling on the floor. The least expensive I’ve found is at Suntekstore.com, which ships free out of Hong Kong. See here. If you would like to sponsor a school by providing a class-set of these kits, I would be happy to facilitate (aznar@foresight.org).

Swiss Children Learn Nano Fundamentals

The Switzerland-based Innovation Society has developed SimplyNano 1 (use translate.Google, if you don’t read German), an experiment kit being distributed to 7th – 10th grade classrooms in Switzerland. It focuses on nano dimensions, surfaces, and reactivity. It includes teaching guides plus materials to make a Lego + laser model of an atomic force microscope. Read a short article translated to English.

I have not received a kit yet, but if as good as it looks and priced reasonably, it could improve nano education in the US. When / if I can answer these questions in the affirmative, I will repost and welcome those who would like to sponsor a school for acquiring a set of these kits.

Miguel F. Aznar
Director of Education
Foresight Institute

Radiological Technologies University VT, located in South Bend, Indiana is pleased to announce the approval of the first Master’s of Science in Nanomedicine degree program in the country. The formal approval was granted today through the Indiana Commission for Postsecondary Proprietary Education. Nanomedicine is the medical application of Nanotechnology which focuses its work at the cellular level to do everything from repairing tissue, to cleaning arteries, to attacking cancer cells and viruses like AIDS. The RTU Nanomedicine program is the first of its kind in the country by combining Nanotechnology with an emphasis on Medical Physics. Radiological Technologies University offers degree programs ranging from a Bachelor’s degree in Medical Dosimetry to Master’s of Science degrees in Medical Dosimetry, Medical Physics, Medical Health Physics, and Nanomedicine.

Although Foresight has no information about the details of this nanomedicine program, just one item from the NCI Alliance for Nanotechnology in Cancer news archive highlights the potential of nanomedicine, specifically the application of nanoparticles to cancer therapy. From “Nanoparticles seek and destroy drug-resistant glioblastoma“:

Glioblastoma is one of the most aggressive forms of brain cancer. Rather than presenting as a well-defined tumor, glioblastoma will often infiltrate the surrounding brain tissue, making it extremely difficult to treat surgically or with chemotherapy or radiation. Likewise, several mouse models of glioblastoma have proven completely resistant to all treatment attempts.

In a new study, a team led by scientists at Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute (SBMRI) and the Salk Institute for Biological Studies developed a method to combine a tumor-homing peptide, a cell-killing peptide, and a nanoparticle that both enhances tumor cell death and allows the researchers to image the tumors. When used to treat mice with glioblastoma, this new nanosystem eradicated most tumors in one model and significantly delayed tumor development in another. These findings were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA [abstract].

“This is a unique nanosystem for two reasons,” said project leader Erkki Ruoslahti of the SBMRI. “First, linking the cell-killing peptide to nanoparticles made it possible for us to deliver it specifically to tumors, virtually eliminating the killer peptide’s toxicity to normal tissues. Second, ordinarily researchers and clinicians are happy if they are able to deliver more drugs to a tumor than to normal tissues. We not only accomplished that, but were able to design our nanoparticles to deliver the killer peptide right where it acts, at the mitochondria, the cell’s energy-generating center.”

The nanosystem developed in this study is made up of three elements. First, a nanoparticle acts as the carrier framework for an imaging agent and for two peptides. One of these peptides guides the nanoparticle and its payload specifically to cancer cells and the blood vessels that feed them by binding cell surface markers that distinguish them from normal cells. This same peptide also drives the whole system inside these target cells, where the second peptide wreaks havoc on the mitochondria, triggering cellular suicide through a process known as apoptosis.

Together, these peptides and nanoparticles proved extremely effective at treating two different mouse models of glioblastoma. In the first model, treated mice survived significantly longer than untreated mice. In the second model, untreated mice survived for only eight to nine weeks. In sharp contrast, treatment with this nanosystem cured all but one of ten mice. What’s more, in addition to providing therapy, the nanoparticles could aid in diagnosing glioblastoma; they are made of iron oxide, which makes them and the tumors they target visible by magnetic resonance imaging.

In a final twist, the researchers made the whole nanosystem even more effective by administering it to the mice in conjunction with a third peptide. Ruoslahti and his team previously showed that this peptide, known as iRGD, helps co-administered drugs penetrate deeply into tumor tissue. iRGD has been shown to substantially increase treatment efficacy of various drugs against human breast, prostate, and pancreatic cancers in mice, achieving the same therapeutic effect as a normal dose with one-third as much of the drug. Here, iRGD enhanced nanoparticle penetration and therapeutic efficacy.

In this study, the researchers tested their nanoparticles on mice that developed glioblastomas with the same characteristics as observed in humans with the disease. Once the nanoparticles reached the tumors’ blood vessels, they delivered their payload directly to the cell’s power producer, the mitochondria. By destroying the blood vessels and also some surrounding tumor cells, the investigators found they were able to cure some mice and extend the lifespan of the rest.”

Our friends over at the Thiel Foundation asked us to help spread the word about their fellowship program, which offers $100,000 grants to innovators age 19 or younger.

If you know of a very bright, energetic, and visionary young person, please bring this opportunity to his or her attention.

Of course, here at Foresight we hope that your protege will work on nanotechnology, and the Thiel Foundation is very interested in this field, but the fellowships are available in a wide range of areas of endeavor.

Below is their message. Think of this as a potentially large holiday gift to the smartest teenager you know!

Another great holiday gift — to yourself and society at large — is your membership in Foresight Institute. Donate by December 31 and your gift will be matched:
http://www.foresight.org/challenge

Best wishes,

Foresight Institute

from the Thiel Foundation:

We’d like to tell you about the 20 Under 20 Thiel Fellowship, a no-strings-attached grant of $100,000 that lets extraordinary young adults skip college and focus on their work, their research, and their self-education. We are delighted to announce that our friends at the Thiel Foundation are now accepting applications for the 2012 class of Fellows.

The future will not take care of itself. Global prosperity is not inevitable. The world will only get better if visionary people are creative and relentless about solving hard problems.

The 2011 class of Thiel Fellows includes 24 people who are tackling breakthroughs in hardware and robotics, making energy plentiful, making markets more effective, challenging the notion that there is only one way to get an education, and extending the human lifespan. Several of them have already launched companies, secured financing, and won prestigious awards. As they’re demonstrating, you don’t need college to invent the future (you can read about their progress in a recent article in TechCrunch).

If you’re under twenty and love science or technology, we hope you’ll consider joining the 2012 class of fellows. Go to ThielFellowship.org and apply to change the world. There’s no cost to apply, and they’re accepting applications through December 31. Fellows will be appointed this spring and begin two-year fellowships this summer.

If you’re twenty or over, we have a different request. Think of the smartest, most creative person you know who’s 19 or younger. Sit down and talk with that person about her or his goals and interests. For some people, such as future doctors, the time and cost of four years of college may be worth it. But for those who plan to invent things or start companies, starting now may make more sense. If your friend is interested, you might suggest pursuing an innovation or applying to the Thiel Fellowship.

Millions of people enjoy a higher quality of life because smart people like Steve Jobs, Muriel Siebert, Benjamin Franklin, Mark Zuckerberg, and hundreds of others skipped college to start a project that couldn’t wait.

We hope you’ll help me spread the word about the Fellowship. The time for innovation is now.

Please visit ThielFellowship.org to learn more.

Nanotechnology: How should we evaluate the environmental impact of human-made machines that are too small to see? What limits should be placed on self-replicating nanodevices? What defenses should we institute against malevolent uses of such technology?

These questions were asked by Marc Goodman, a senior advisor to Interpol and founder of Future Crimes Institute, a think tank that explores the security implications of new technology.  In a report by Ted Greenwald at Forbes.com, Goodman urged “aspiring captains of emerging industries like synthetic biology, robotics, and nanotech to take a proactive attitude toward their impact on the global community.”

Great to see this message of foresight reaching such a key audience, in addition to Ralph Merkle’s frequent briefings on nanotech at SU.  —Christine Peterson