from the Getting-it-right? dept.
UPI published an interview with Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., a few days after his 21st Century Nanotechnology Research and Development Act passed Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee approval and headed for the Senate floor (see Nanodot post Sept. 25, 2002). The interview is noteworthy for the perspective it gives on the major ideas motivating one major sponsor of government funding of nanotechnology development.

from the Uncle-Sam-wants-Nano dept.
The October 2002 issue of Technology Review features relatively near-term applications of nanoscale science and technology to protecting and arming future soldiers. Part of the material on super soldiers and building tomorrow's body armor is available on the web: "Nano materials could provide future soldiers with super strength, protection against bioweapons and even a way to communicate covertly." The rapidly escalating interest in and support for applying nanotechnology for defensive military purposes (see Nanodot post of April 8, 2002) complicates the task of those proposing to limit or eliminate military uses of nanotechnology (see, for example, Nanodot post of July 15, 2002).

from the Serious-errors dept.
A prominent nanoelectronics researcher whose work has been under a cloud of suspicion for several months has been fired after investigators concluded that he falsified published experimental data. The committee formed by the researcher's employer, Bell Labs, "…concluded that Jan Hendrik Schon, 32, made up or altered data at least 16 times between 1998 and 2001…" The research involved superconductivity, molecular electronics and molecular crystals. Speaking of the tainted results that had received much attention, the committee concluded that Schon "did this intentionally or recklessly and without the knowledge of any of his co-authors." See Famed Nanotech Researcher Axed. Before the results were suspected, they were considered substantial advances in the field. See, for example, a Nanodot post of November 8, 2001.

from the Cultured-Pearly-Whites dept.
Ryan writes "Scientists have found a way to grow teeth in the lab. The Boston Globe has the story on how 'the work raises the possibility that dentists of the future could dispense with mechanical implants – such as dentures, bridges, and crowns – and literally grow new teeth for patients on demand.'"

from the possibly-a-milestone dept.
Mr_Farlops writes "According to Nature, computer simulations have finally become accurate enough to predict the final shape of some small proteins from raw gene sequences. This is one of the central problems of molecular biology and will likely revolutionize drug design, biotechnology and it will have implications for machine-phase nanotechnology. Large proteins are still too unwieldy for current computers to simulate in a timely fashion but this too may become tractable with quantum computers, faster computers and new algorithms."

from the securing-your-personal-stake-in-the-future dept.

Fifth Alcor Conference on Extreme Life Extension
Saturday November 16 & Sunday November 17, 2002
Newport Beach Marriott Hotel near Los Angeles, California
http://www.alcor.org/conferences/2002

Foresight's own Ralph Merkle is conference chair, and both Foresight President Christine Peterson and Foresight Advisor Ray Kurzweil are speaking. Among a host of other excellent speakers, Michael D. West (President and CEO of Advanced Cell Technology) will describe the impressive potential of therapeutic human cloning and Rob Freitas will be talking about the even more impressive potential of nanomedicine.

SAVE $100 — REGISTER by September 30th (it's only a few days away!)

from the gathering-influential-supporters dept.
Legislation to advance nanotechnology research and development advanced toward full Senate consideration, unanimously passing the Senate Commerce Committee on Sept. 19: Senate Committee Passes Nanotech Bill. For earlier coverage of the recent Senate scrutiny of nanotechnology, see Nanodot post of Sept. 18, 2002, the written opening statements of hearing witnesses, and Nanotechnology bill introduced in Senate.

from the Nanoparticles-for-diagnosis dept.
Wendy Emanuel writes with a September 17, 2002 press release from Nanosphere Inc. announcing Nanosphere Inc. Awarded Two NIH Grants to Assess Genetic Risk Factors for Cancer and Hypercoagulation Disorders. The work to be financed by $1.5 million in NIH funds features the company's ultra sensitive detection platform using "nanoparticle probe technology in conjunction with a proprietary bio-molecular detection system".

from the Great-deals dept.
Robert A. Freitas Jr., author of Nanomedicine, writes to announce that Nanomedicine, Vol. I: Basic Capabilities is now available in a paperback edition. See listing at Amazon for Vol. I, paperback. Also, Nanomedicine, Vol. IIA: Biocompatibility will be published in February 2003 in hardback by Landes Bioscience (pre-order Vol. IIA).

from the every-atom-in-its-place dept.
Gina Miller writes "University of California, Irvine scientists used a scanning tunneling microscope to build chains of gold atoms, one atom at a time, from one to 20 atoms long, and to measure the electrical conductivity of the chains: UCI gold chain study gets to heart of matter. The electronic properties of the gold nanostructure changed dramatically as the first few atoms were added and could share electrons. But by six atoms, the electrical conductivity of the chain was very similar to that of bulk gold, implying functional gold structures could be built with as few as six atoms."

The research article "Development of One-Dimensional Band Structure in Artificial Gold Chains" by N. Nilius, T. M. Wallis, and W. Ho appeared in the September 13, 2002 issue of Science.

from the moving-it-out-of-the-lab dept.
Jerry Soderquist writes that an August 2002 press release by Nanotech Capital, LLC announced that the North Carolina based nanotechnology intellectual property management and development company has just signed an agreement with the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The agreement is the first agreement that the Oak Ridge Laboratory has for the commercialization of nanotechnology research conducted at the Oak Ridge facility.

from the Until-we-get-medical-nanobots dept.
WillWare writes "A novel and promising cancer treatment was mentioned Friday night on 20/20. A young guy with advanced skin melanoma was treated by taking lymphocytes from a tumor biopsy, culturing them in a laboratory to produce large populations of lymphocytes, and transfusing these back into the patient. This work was done by Steven Rosenberg at the National Cancer Institute. Here are some URLs:"

• 20/20's website
• a more technical description provided by the Centre of BioInformatics at Peking University
• NCI press release

"t would be interesting if a vestigial organ like the appendix could be re-engineered to do the work that these researchers are currently doing in the lab."

from the Know-thyself dept.
Gina Miller writes "A small British company Solexa is developing a dense single molecule array, based on nanotechnology, that allows simultaneous analysis of hundreds of millions of individual molecules. It expects to apply this technology to sequencing an individual human genome much more quickly and cheaply than can be done with current methods: Cambridge University Spinoff Devises Array for Swift, Cheap Resequencing. The arrays could also be applied to studying interactions between other large sets of molecules."

from the Bots-in-the-blood dept.
Mr_Farlops writes "Scott Burnell, UPI's science journalist, skillfully (Well, I think it was skillful.) attempts to clear up some of the nanotechnology inaccuracies in the new movie, "Ballistic: Ecks v. Sever.""

from the There's-still-room dept.
Openings are still available for the 10th Foresight Conference on Molecular Nanotechnology and the Tutorials preceding the Conference. To register, the secure Web form may be used through Thursday October 3. The print and fax form may be used through Friday October 4. After Oct 4 registration must be done on site, beginning Thursday, October 10, at the Hyatt Regency Bethesda at One Bethesda Metro Center in Bethesda, MD.

from the Picking-and-placing dept.
Ravi Pandya writes "From Nature, September 12 2002 'Self-healing tweezers' (free registration required):"

The development of optical tweezers for the manipulation of objects at micrometre and submicrometre scales has opened up many new possibilities across the physical and biological sciences. The use of self-reconstructing 'Bessel beams' now extends their potential to allow the simultaneous manipulation of many different objects by a single set of tweezers….

from the I-want-one-of-those dept.
A NASA web page, The Right Stuff for Super Spaceships, touts the benfits of nanotechnology, in combination with information technology and biotechnology, "for making dramatically improved spacecraft possible." The focus is on the advantages of carbon nanotubes as very high-strength, very low-weight structural materials, as building blocks for molecular wires and sensors, as fuel storage elements, and as components of self-healing materials.

from the More-dollars dept.
Stan Hutchings writes "A Senate subcommittee held a hearing examining U.S. investments in Nanotechnology research. http://computerworld.com/managementtopics/manageme nt/itspending/story/0,10801,74341,00.html"

Foresight Advisor Jamie Dinkelacker points to a c|net article Nanotech funding bill in the wings further describing the proposed funding, "Sen. Ron Wyden has big plans for small technology."

from the what-does-it-all-mean? dept.
Long-time Foresight Senior Associate Richard Smith, now with Alternative Futures Associates, has announced a Forum on Nanotechnology Strategy that

… provides a practical understanding of how nanotechnology will impact how you compete, from recent developments to the frontiers of science. The forum gives you the insight of science visionaries and nano-entrepreneurs, business leaders and policy-makers to fully explore what this journey will mean in real terms for your organization. Only the Forum will help improve the return of your strategic investments in nanotech over the next decade.

Rather pricey, but if you happen to be a senior decision maker for an organization with substantial resources ….

from the promises-and-perils dept.
Chris Phoenix wrote Foresight to point out The Ultimate Tool?, the Sept. 9, 2002 issue of The Harrow Technology Report. "The 'Harrow Technology Report' recently included a blurb about nanotech assemblers, including a mention of my 'assembler timeline and weather forecast' [see Nanodot post of July 16, 2002] and a pointer to an article about the risks of assemblers [see Nanodot post of July 15, 2002]. Jeff Harrow appears to care about getting it right: when I wrote to point out that convergent-assembly manufacturing with tabletop factories would be fundamentally safe from gray goo worries (at least of the 'factory becomes rogue assembler' variety), he said he'd include a long clarification comment (more than a paragraph–he wants to give people background info) in the next report."