Christine Peterson, co-founder and president of The Foresight Institute, a public interest group seeking to educate the community on forthcoming technological advances, emphasized the increasingly prominent role that nanotechnology has come to play.

Peterson noted that nanotechnology has the potential to create new materials and make vast advances without the side effects, such as pollution, that would currently ensue. She allowed, however, that the near-invisible and highly sensitive technology might enable intrusions on privacy.

“We need to know what data is collected,” Peterson said, “how it is used and how long it is retained. We have those rights.”

Peterson highlighted the medical benefits of nanotechnology, noting, “The ability to control atoms and molecules would mean that there really isn’t a physical illness [that] we wouldn’t be able to address.”

The report quotes the moderator of the panel, author Piero Scaruffi, as stating that the four panelists were picked because “They discussed life as in the future, rather than life as in the past.” We can certainly expect that life after advanced nanotechnology has been developed will be fundamentally different from life up until that point.

“Christine Peterson, president of the Foresight Institute based in Palo Alto, California, warns that without safeguards, the data we gather about each other might one day be used to undermine rather than to protect our freedom. ‘We are moving to a new level of data collection that our society is not accustomed to,’ she says.” …

“‘We need to look urgently at who is getting the data, what they are doing with it, what it does to our freedoms and whether the information can be abused,’ she says. ‘And we need to think about these things now.’”

Establishing standards now for current and near future widespread sensing based upon smart phones owned by individual members of the public will set precedence for considering the future in which MEMS and nanotechnology will make truly ubiquitous and thorough sensing inexpensive.

Dear Nanodot,

Zyvex Technologies announced that its 54-foot‚ boat named Piranha completed sea trials near Puget Sound in the Pacific Ocean and demonstrated record fuel efficiency. After six months of extensive testing, the Piranha this morning completed its final sea trial; a 600-nautical mile, rough-weather test in the Pacific Ocean in Washington and Oregon.

Piranha finished the tests in time to travel to its debut at the Sea Air Space show in Washington, DC, on April 11th. There, defense contractors are evaluating the Piranha for use as an unmanned platform with a variety of mission applications, including anti-piracy, harbor patrol, and oceanographic surveying

A conventional aluminum or fiberglass boat would have consumed 50 gallons or more per hour, while test results prove that Piranha consumed only 12 gallons of fuel per hour while cruising at 25 knots. The Piranha demonstrates Zyvex Technologies‚ ability to produce products with nano-enhanced materials that are 40% stronger than metals, such as aluminum, and 75% lighter, resulting in increased fuel efficiency.

Zyvex produced Piranha in just 90 days. The makers believe it can help coastal city leaders in ports like Seattle, San Diego, Miami, Norfolk, and New York better protect their harbors. In 2009, the New York City Police Commissioner testified before Congress that even with the Coast Guard’s assistance, the department could not fully protect the harbor, especially considering the vast amounts of uninspected cargo that enters the Ports of New York and New Jersey, pointing out that Mumbai was just another reminder. Two years later, there is still an urgent need for better port and maritime security.

The recent Oman piracy tragedy for four Americans from Seattle underscores the need for additional civilian and commercial security. In addition to the U.S. Navy, unmanned surface vessels such as Piranha can be deployed by Customs and Border Patrol, Port authorities and harbor police in high risk areas. Pirates can be tracked over long ranges with a clear picture of location so commercial vessels can avoid them. Piranha is an alternative to costly aircraft carriers. With its range and endurance, military personnel could remain on station for weeks and still protect designated areas. Piranha can be leased as an escort for commercial or private sailors through dangerous areas.

Jackie
For Zyvex Technologies

For more, Piranha completes rough weather sea trials. See also PRWeb and at Zyvex Technologies.

From the Jamestown Foundation, China’s Secure Communications Quantum Leap

In May 2010 a team of 15 Chinese researchers from Tsinghua University in Beijing and the Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences, a government-directed research center, published a research paper announcing a successful demonstration of “quantum teleportation” (liangzi yinxing chuan) over 16 kilometers of free space. These researchers claimed to have the first successful experiment in the world. The technology on display has the potential to revolutionize secure communications for military and intelligence organizations and may become the watershed of a research race in communication and information technology.

Although much of the science behind this technology is still young, quantum technologies have wide-ranging applications for the fields of cryptography, remote sensing and secure satellite communications. In the near future, the results from this experiment will be used to send encrypted messages that cannot be cracked or intercepted, and securely connect networks, even in remote areas, with no wired infrastructure, even incorporating satellites and submarines into the link…

From the UK, Bristol scientists develop photonic chip for ‘quantum’ computers

Scientists have developed a computer chip that could pave the way for a new generation of powerful ‘quantum’ computers.

The photonic chip, built by scientists from Bristol’s Centre for Quantum Photonics, uses light rather than electricity to pass information.

The breakthrough could lead to ‘quantum’ computers capable of performing complex calculations and simulations that are impossible for today’s computers.

The researchers believe that their device represents a new route to a quantum computer – a powerful type of computer that uses quantum bits (qubits) rather than the conventional bits used in today’s computers.

Senior Associate Alvin Steinberg suggests that we portray the nanotech race as in part a security race involving quantum computing, and that Foresight use this as a way to get Congress interested in funding nanotechnology R&D. What do you think?

Dr. Long Que, assistant professor of electrical engineering at Louisiana Tech University, has reported success in designing and fabricating a device that allows microscale electronic devices to harvest their own wasted energy.

… this technology uses a cantilever made out of piezoelectric material — material capable of converting distortions to itself into electrical energy — and is coated with a carbon nanotube film on one side. When the film absorbs light and/or thermal energy, it causes the cantilever to bend back and forth repeatedly, which causes the piezoelectric material to generate power as long as the light and/or heat source is active. …

“The greatest significance of this work is that it offers us a new option to continuously harvest both solar and thermal energy on a single chip, given the self-reciprocating characteristics of the device upon exposure to light and/or thermal radiation,” said Que. “This characteristic might enable us to make perpetual micro/nano devices and micro/nanosystems, and could significantly impact the wireless sensory network.”

…Que believes that, in the future, the device could be used to power a number of different nano and microsystems such as implanted biomedical devices or remotely located sensors and communication nodes.

Enabling microsensors and microcomputers to harvest power from their environments should advance the advent of global networks of sensing and surveillance devices. Those interested in the looming conflict between those using sensors to collect data and those whose data is being collected should take a look at Foresight Institute’s “Open Source Sensing Initiative“.

Journal Reference (courtesy of ScienceDaily):
Venu Kotipalli, Zhongcheng Gong, Pushparaj Pathak, Tianhua Zhang, Yuan He, Shashi Yadav, Long Que. Light and thermal energy cell based on carbon nanotube films. Applied Physics Letters, 2010; 97 (12): 124102; 10.1063/1.3491843

Palo Alto, CA — June 8, 2009 — A new open source-style project to promote Open Source Sensing has been started, with the goal of bringing the benefits of a bottom-up, decentralized approach to sensing for security and environmental purposes.

“The intent of the project is to take advantage of advances in sensing to improve both security and the environment, while preserving — even strengthening — privacy, freedom, and civil liberties,” said Christine Peterson, coiner of the term ‘open source software.’ “We have a unique opportunity to steer today’s emerging sensing/surveillance technologies in positive directions, before they become widespread.”

“Cheap, ubiquitous sensing has the potential to turn the worlds of privacy and civil rights upside-down,” said Brad Templeton, a futurist and civil rights activist who chairs the Electronic Frontier Foundation. “No easy solution stands out, but the quest for an answer to these problems — by learning from the bottom-up approaches of the open source community — may provide some water in the desert.”

Participation is welcome from individuals and organizations, both non-profit and for-profit. The project is coordinated by Foresight Institute, a non-profit 501(c)3 organization focused on transformative technologies.

Link to website:
http://www.opensourcesensing.org

Contact:
Christine Peterson
tel +1 (650) 289-0860 ext 255
or use Contact email form at opensourcesensing.org

Algae is a livid green giveaway of nutrient pollution in a lake. Scientists would love to reproduce that action in tiny particles that would turn different colors if exposed to biological weapons, food spoilage or signs of poor health in the blood.

Now, University of Florida engineering researchers have tapped the working parts of cells to clear a major hurdle to creating such “smart dust.” The feat, which signifies a new approach to technology known as the “lab on a chip,” is [published] in the journal Nature Nanotechnology [abstract].

“Instead of just changing one part of an existing system, we have a new and different way of doing things,” said Henry Hess, a UF assistant professor of materials science and engineering and the senior author of the paper. “And we can do it this way because of building blocks from bionanotechnology, and that’s what makes it very exciting.”

Chip-based labs have been developed in recent years as portable tools to gauge the presence of bioweapons, pollution, or to conduct on-the-spot blood tests. They are essentially assays, or ways to test for different pathogens, chemicals or compounds.

Scientists have suggested that the ever-shrinking labs could be reduced to the size of tiny particles of “smart” dust. But although today’s versions may be small, they require equipment that is hand-held at its smallest, and often large enough to require a lab bench.

“It’s like a computer,” Hess said. “The central processing unit is the really interesting thing, but you need all this other stuff to make it work.”

The extra equipment is needed because the assay, which uses pairs of antibodies to latch onto target contaminants and the markers that give away their presence, requires repeated flushing with water. That requires pumps, which need power. To miniaturize the system, it’s necessary to build miniature pumps and batteries. But that’s a challenge, especially for miniaturization to the level required for individual pieces of smart dust, Hess said.

His research strips out all peripheral equipment by using an altogether unique and different approach: biologically powered molecular forklifts.

The forklifts are assembled from natural motor proteins that are active in cell division. Hess and his team’s main innovation is manipulating these tiny proteins to perform heavy lifting and transport tasks — tasks that lead to a successful assay.

For a system rooted in biology, the process is uncannily mechanical.

Using standard laboratory methods, the researchers squirt the forklifts into the central zone of three-zone circular surface no larger than the period at the end of this sentence. They then attach the same antibodies used in traditional chip-based labs.

When the surface is exposed to a contaminant, the antibodies latch onto it, just as happens with traditional assays. But then, activated by a flash of light, molecular shuttles start pushing the forklifts into a second zone, where they load aboard fluorescent particles, or tags. They move their cargo to the third zone, at the edge of the circle. There, over several hours, they crowd against each other, accumulating to the point where their combined loads form a line visible under magnification — and providing the telltale indicator of the contaminant.

The process requires no rinsing. And instead of electricity, the naturally derived forklifts are powered by adenosine triphosphate, or ATP, the molecule that carries energy for cells.

“You have replaced all this washing with this active transport by molecular shuttles, so you don’t need a pump or battery,” Hess said.

Michael Sailor, a professor of chemistry and biochemistry at the University of California San Diego and prominent smart-dust researcher, called the research “quite promising.”

“The key advance is that the authors incorporate a transport mechanism derived from a natural system into an artificial microsensor,” he wrote in an e-mail. “The authors show how adding the ability to move around in an autonomous fashion can dramatically improve the performance of the microsensor.”

Hess emphasized that the research results represent only the initial of many steps toward smart dust. Among other challenges, the molecular forklifts need to be sped up, producing results in seconds or minutes rather than hours. But, he said, the process suggests that there are promising, alternative to traditional lab-on-a-chip assays.

“Right now, this is light years away from competing with any assay,” he said. “But, it is a completely different way of doing it.”

—Jim

Hypothesis: Civil Nanotechnology
Starting in 2009, nanotech-based sensing will enable a level of
environmental monitoring that could help reduce pollution tremendously. Such
devices could be of immense benefit to the environment, but unfortunately,
without careful attention they will trigger serious privacy and civil-liberty
concerns that will stymie environmental progress. Rather than
develop closed-source, proprietary sensing devices, we could instead design,
build, and operate devices based on open-source hardware and software—
devices which can detect only actual materials of concern, rather than
tracking the location and behavior of individuals or the presence of
non-pollutant materials (e.g., recreational drugs).

Christine Peterson is the founder and president of the Foresight Nanotech
Institute.

For more info, see www.opensourcesensing.org.

Current topics to edit in the wiki, or you can add your own:
* Barless Prisons
* Bionic Eyes
* Living with a Brain Chip
* Disease Detector
* Automated Sewer Surveillance
* Engineered Tissues

Here’s the text sent to us by the Center:

The Center for Nanotechnology in Society at Arizona State University (CNS-ASU) invites you to help design the future of nanotechnology.

READ, REVISE, RANT: Some say that Nanotechnology will revolutionize life as we know it, but what should we really expect from the future of nanotechnology? CNS developed 6 plausible product descriptions- called scenes- to provide some structure to discussions about nanotechnology. These fictional scenes have been evaluated by nanoscale scientists and engineers for technical plausibility- it is up to you to weigh social, economic, ethical, environmental and political plausibility—and desirability!!

Through an interactive website, the NanoFutures experiment invites citizens, scientists and engineers, social scientists, policy makers, and others interested in nanotechnology to assess the potentials and perils of nano-enabled futures. On this site you can:

READ the scenes: What if ultra fast sequencing technology is used to analyze the DNA in harvested waste water? What if you could predict disease before the onset of symptoms? What if your intelligence was enhanced with a brain chip? What if, instead of prisons, convicted criminals were injected with disabling drugs that were activated if the prisoners misbehaved?

REVISE the scenes in a wiki: the scenes are predominately technical- what about social values, religious viewpoints, economic feasibility, and ethical desirability? Edit the scenes to create richer portraits of the implications of the technology.

You can also write your own scenario about nanotechnologies’ development!

RANT about and discuss the scenes: What are your thoughts on the implications of nanotechnology? Are there some technologies that should not be developed? Who should control nanotechnology?

Go to: http://cns.asu.edu/nanofutures

TAKE 30 MINUTES OF YOUR TIME NOW TO HELP CREATE THE NANOFUTURE!!

Warrantless Surveillance: The Worst is Yet to Come

…Far from censuring the president, most of Congress seems completely unconcerned by the issue of warrantless surveillance. And telecom companies are quite happy to actively participate in warrantless surveillance. (Any idiot could see the program violated the Constitutional rights of their customers, yet only one provider – Qwest – reportedly refused government demands, citing serious concerns about the legality of the program.)

More importantly, as technology advances, so does the potential for that technology to be abused by authority.

A clue to what the future may hold in this regard can be found in the pallid attempt by some in the current administration to defend wireless surveillance by saying that the telephone calls and Internet traffic were not being monitored by human listeners. Instead, the monitoring was being done by computers running artificial intelligence software…

Let me go out on a limb and make some bold predictions. First: Within two decades a President or his/her designees will legitimize the warrantless search of private property, using a robot instead of human beings to conduct the search. (It’s not a search and seizure, banned by the Constitution, because it’s not being done by a human – right?). Second: By 2040, advances in nanotechnology will allow swarms of nanobots (or “nanoids”) to perform these activities in a virtually undetectable way.

My concern is the future of telecommunications and the Internet. If the President of the United States can today unilaterally decide to wiretap any U.S. citizen without court authority and without any oversight, with the breakthroughs in technology that are undoubtedly coming, what does the future hold for us?

What indeed. The foresighted among us would do well to start coming up with guidelines that we can advocate in this new area. Volunteers? (Credit: Brian Berg) —Christine