The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) announced on 19 September 2001 about $65 million in funding over five years to establish six university centers to promote research and education in nanotechnology. The centers will each focus on a specific area in nanoscale science and engineering, and include collaborations with industry and other institutions. The six centers will be located at Columbia and Cornell Universities and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in New York, Harvard University in Massachusetts, Northwestern University in Illinois, and Rice University in Texas. Details are available in this NSF press release.

Additional coverage is available in an article on the Small Times website, and in individual press releases from Northwestern University, Rice University and RPI.

Computer simulations on the structures of carbon nanotubes by researchers at Pennsylvania State University indicate it is possible to create carbon fibers with mechanical strength comparable to that of diamond. In a paper published in the 17 September 2001 issue of Physical Review Letters, a tema led by Vincent Crespi reports that they discovered incredibly strong and stiff carbon tubes about 0.4 nanometers in diameter. "Based on our calculations, these new nanotubes are about 40 percent stronger than the other nanotubes formed using the same number of atoms," said Crespi. "In fact, the nanotubes we simulated may well be the stiffest one-dimensional systems possible."

An article from the Dallas Business Journal ("To boldly go… The race is on to capitalize on the potential of nanotechnology", by Jeff Bounds, 7 September 2001) laments the lack of adequate funding and other support for nanotechnology at Texas universities, and ponders whether the state if falling behind in the race to establish a nanotech industry base. The article looks at programs in California, New York, Pennsylvania, and Illinois, and ponders what is needed to keep nanotech talent and companies in Texas. The article includes some interesting quotes from James Tour of Rice University and Jim Von Ehr of Zyvex.

An article from the Dallas Business Journal offers an intersting commentary by Rocky Angelucci, technical liaison for Zyvex ("Science fact or science fiction …", 7 September 2001) on both the promise and the hype surrounding nanotechnology: "Some futurists promise nanotechnology will cure all ills and transform our lives. But how much of this is true and how much is hype? What is nanotechnology really going to bring us? And when?"

After making some short term predictions regarding enhanced materials, molecular electronics, and other possibilities, Angelucci offers a few predictions. Within 10 to 20 years, he says, "It seems likely by this time someone will build the first prototype molecular assembler. Capable of rudimentary picking and placing of individual atoms and molecules, it will accomplish what today's scanning tunneling microscopes can do, only faster and with greater precision. The ability to move atoms and molecules will give rise to very simple molecular machines, most likely for use in the medical field." And within 50 years, "Few doubt we'll have sophisticated, molecular-sized medical machines capable of traveling in the body in order to detect and repair damage at the cellular level" that could lead to (very) smart materials, artificial intelligence and, possibly, the revival of patients in cryonic suspension.

In the same issue, Angelucci also offers a primer on the basic concepts of nanotechnology.

from the worth-reading dept.
In the Sept 25, 2001 New York Times, Gina Kolata has an article entitled "When Science Inadvertently Aids an Enemy" in which she looks at both encryption and nanotechnology. Foresight Director Glenn Reynolds and Advisor Ralph Merkle are quoted. Also: "It is a technology whose consequences could be so terrifying that one scientist, Dr. K. Eric Drexler, who saw what it could do, at first thought that he should never tell anyone what he was imagining, for fear that those dreadful abuses might come to pass…With the Asilomar discussions as a model, a group of scientists and others who worried about nanotechnology formed a nonprofit institute, the Foresight Institute based in Los Altos, Calif. Its goal is to prepare society for the transforming powers of new technologies, and, in particular, of nanotechnology…The institute's chairman, Dr. Drexler, originally thought that the best thing to do would be never to disclose nanotechnology's darker possibilities for fear it might give terrorists ideas. But he soon realized that if he could think of these abuses, others could too. So he decided to try to help society prepare for the good uses of the technology and to protect itself against its evil use. Dr. Drexler, Dr. Merkle and others at the Foresight Institute argue that openness is critical toward developing nanotechnology safely." Thanks, Gina.

from the if-only dept.
In an op/ed piece in the Washington Post (and other papers including the San Jose Mercury News) on the Sept 11 attack on the World Trade Center, well-known engineering expert and Duke Univ. professor Henry Petroski points out that strong materials made possible using nanotechnology might provide the framework for fire-resistant skyscapers. Petroski authored the popular book "To Engineer is Human: The Role of Failure in Successful Design", among others.

from the talks-demos-&-lunch dept.
Accelrys is offering a free one-day computational nanotechnology seminar to be given in mid-October 2001 in DC, Houston, and Silicon Valley. While it includes some product demos, it also features speakers from outside the company, an "interactive session — creating complex structures from atomic building blocks (Audience participation)", and lunch. The invitation states "Entire nanoscale devices can be modeled on a computer in complete atomic detail". For a free event, this looks hard to beat.

The U.S. Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) will be holding a Nanophase Materials Sciences Workshop on 24-26 October 2001 at the Garden Plaza Hotel in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The workshop will be part of the planning for a "highly collaborative and multidisciplinary Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences to address the national need for facilities to support state-of-the-art research on the synthesis, fabrication, characterization, and understanding of nanoscale structures, materials, and phenomena." The Center will include a Nanofabrication Research Laboratory, a Nanomaterials Theory Institute, and extensive facilities for materials synthesis and characterization. The purpose of the workshop is to facilitate community involvement in the planning for the Center. In particular, input is sought on equipment needs, candidate research areas, and user operations. A preliminary program is available online.

from the sharper-image dept.
DARPA's Defense Sciences Office (DSO), part of the U.S. Department of Defense, is soliciting proposals for the development of imaging technologies for the characterization of molecules, nanostructures and exotic materials (e.g., nanotubes). The new technologies should provide real-time, 3D, static images of molecules and nanostructures with atomic level resolution, or dynamic images of complex biomaterials at room temperature in aqueous media. Deadline for applications is 25 October 2001. Additional details and contact information are available on the web.

from the reacting-to-nanohype dept.
For a skeptical view of the potential benefits of nanotechnology, try this editorial ("Itty bitty miracles", by Jared Kendall, 12 September 2001) from The Advocate in Baton Rouge, Louisiana: "Every decade or so, a new scientific field is hailed as the answer to all our problems. Usually, such claims turn out to be slightly exaggerated. Such is surely to be the case with nanotechnology, a large field of study being built around the really, really small. That isn't to say that nanotechnology won't change our lives. Heck, it already has. It's just that nanotech won't solve all our problems. Technology is never as powerful as its potential."

According to a press release on 10 September 2001, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), part of the U.S. Department of Defense, is funding a five-year project that will establish a Quantum Architecture Research Center between the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and the University of California campuses at UC Davis and UC Berkeley. The project will examine possible methods to build a super fast computer that uses the properties of quantum physics. Primary researchers include computer scientists Fred Chong of the University of California, Davis, Isaac Chuang at MIT and John Kubiatowicz at UC Berkeley. Additonal details can be found on the project website, hosted at MIT.

According to a press release from 10 September 2001, computer security researchers at the University of California at Davis are studying a system that lets exposed, "untrusted" machines go on providing useful, accurate information, even though they might have been infiltrated and compromised. Their method invokes a digital signature from a "trusted" computer that can help verify the integrity of data received from an "untrusted" computer.

An article in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer ("UW, Richland lab join in brave new world of nano", by T. Paulson, 10 September 2001) provides an updated look at the work at the Joint Institute for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (JINN), which was established by the University of Washington (UW) in Seattle and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) in Richland, Washington in May 2001.

According to a press release on 10 September 2001, Lux Capital, a venture capital firm based in New York with a strong emphasis on nanotechnology, and McGovern Capital LLC have partnered to form Angstrom Partners LLC, a merchant bank providing intellectual property, corporate advisory and investment banking services to clients in the emerging nanotechnology industry. Angstrom Partners was formed as a Joint Venture between Lux Capital and McGovern Capital, a Greenwich and New York-based investment firm focused on capital formation, strategic transactions and alliances, and intellectual property.

Lux also released a major investor-oriented report on nanotechnology in August 2001.

from the Current-events dept.
An article in the New York Times ("Buckyball Success May Lead the Way to Practical New Superconductors", by K. Chang, 11 September 2001) provides some interesting background and details on research into (relatively) high-temperature superconductors made from fullerenes ("buckyballs") which was reported in August 2001.

from the But-is-it-art? dept.
A group of chemists, computer programmers and animators "who believe that science can be art and art can be science", led by molecular electronics researcher James Tour, a professor of chemistry at Rice University, have launched the NANOArtworks website. Although little actual content available on the site as yet, it appears to be aimed at providing a lighthearted look at chemistry for younger students and a general audience.

According to the siteís blurb, the members of the group "believe that chemistry is fun. So fun that we want to share our interest throughout the world by the means of Benny the NanoBoy in the land of Nanoput. In his upcoming movies, you'll not only enjoy the 3D animation and comical storylines, but you'll also walk away with a new-found interest in chemistry."

A number of people spotted the item from Associated Press from 10 September 2001 on the proposed use of nanotech-derived materials in U.S. Army combat uniforms. According to the article, "To help soldiers survive, the U.S. Army is developing a new generation of combat uniforms using tiny, doctored fibers that let air through while blocking toxins from chemical and biological weapons . . . The 'chemical protective overgarment,' expected to ship in as little as two years, is one of the early uses of nanotechnology."

The proposed new uniform is part of the U.S. Armyís Soldier Nanotechnologies program, which was announced in June 2001.

Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, has raised $51 million for the construction of the Birck Nanotechnology Center, according to a major press release issued on 7 September 2001. Additional information about the new center can be found in this related article. The center will be named for Michael and Katherine Birck, who contributed $30 million for Purdue nanotech center. Additional information about faculty research in nanoscience at Purdue is also available.

Two items join the drumbeat of coverage on the increasing interest by investors and venture capital firms in nanotechnology.

The first, from Small Times, covers a report issued by investment brokerage firm Merrill Lynch to its clients ("Merrill Lynch report bullish on nanotech as an investment", by Jeff Karoub, 7 September 2001). The report follows in the wake of a number of similar investment-oriented analyses of nanotechnology that have been issued in recent months.

A second report, from Tornado Insider ("Small is Big", by Alan R. Katz, 31 August 2001) provides a European perspective.

DavidMasterson writes "Being relatively new to the issues of nanotechnology, I have no story to offer, but I would like to see a greater discussion of the economics associated with a world of abundance that (supposedly) nanotechnology (and related technologies) will provide. In particular, I wonder what all the billions of people on Earth will do to "make a living" when their needs are taken care of through nanotechnology. It's obvious that there will be a small number of people who will be able to "profit" (for lack of a better word) from the development of nanotechnology, but what about the millions (or billions) of other people whose jobs will be displaced by nanotechnology? Where will these people make their living?"