Gina Miller writes "New Study: Nanotechnology Poised to Revolutionize Tech, Manufacturing Markets; Market Will Rival Sales Volume of Combined Tech and Telecom Markets. Sales of products incorporating nanotechnology will total $2.6 trillion in 10 years, approximately one-fifth of the current Gross Domestic Product, greatly exceeding previous estimates, according to a new report released by a leading Wall Street financial analyst. Nano- enhanced products will account for 50 percent of all electronics and information technology products and 16 percent of all healthcare products by 2014, according to the report. This story was found at U.S. Newswire 10/29/04."

Ed. Note… Maybe its slowly sinking into the minds of those who are supposed to be predicting the future how disruptive nanotech is likely to be….

Vance McCarthy writes "Move over carbon nanotubes. Another maturing vein of nano-science, "nano-structured fluids," is capturing the imagination of some of the nation's top nano researchers.

The Nano Science and Technology Institute (NSTI) will for the first time, provide an international briefing on why "nano-structured fluids" research is poised to dramatically change the direction of traditional nano-materials work, in a variety of unexpected ways.

Dynamic Self-Assembly: Nano-Structured Fluids' Hidden Gold Nano-structured fluids research has long been the domain of consumer products and foods companies such as LíOréal, Proctor and Gamble, and Nestlé. Innovative work on next-generation consumer products such as cosmetics, paints, ice cream, and shampoo has been based on nano-structured fluids science for years.

"We view nano-structured fluids as a major growth area for business and scientific development. The capability of this area of science to unlock principals of self-assembly has the potential to greatly impact and accelerate commercialization of nanotechnology." Said Bart Romanowicz, NSTI executive director of technology.

More….

At the recent Foresight conference, the presentation "Productive Nanosystems: from Molecules to Superproducts", a collaborative work between John Burch and K. Eric Drexler was well received.

Thanks to Mark Sims, President of the nano-CAD software company, Nanorex, the Foresight Institute has a $10,000 challenge grant running through November 15, 2004 with the aim of expanding on these animation/film efforts. It takes us back to that age old axiom — "a picture is worth a thousand words"…

Here is your opportunity to support the creation of more pictures…

One can either go to this form

… and click on "not a membership, but another donation button" and enter: "Animation Completion" in the purpose of this donation field.

Or if you want to send in your donation by US post or fax print out and send in this form.

Ed. Note… Yes I know this can be viewed as blatant commercial promotion of the Foresight Institute. But on the other side of the coin is the fact that robust MNT will potentially save ~50 million lives a year. There is an old saying — "one must begin by being there". And if it takes animations and simulations to fire the imagination to get us there then I can't imagine a more noble cause deserving our support. My hat is off to Mark for understanding this.

The American National Standards Institute announced the formation of the Nanotechnology Standards Panel (ANSI-NSP), a new coordinating body for the development of standards in the area of nanotechnology. Nanotechnology refers to the manufacturing or manipulating of matter at the atomic and molecular level, or nanoscale. The panel will convene September 29-30, 2004, in Gaithersburg, MD, to focus its initial work on nomenclature and terminology. More…

Ed. Note. Though the initial meeting was several weeks ago this might still be an interesting project to become involved in if only because it is open to discussion whether many of the people who might become involved will have read the relevant literature.

Thomas Giusepe writes "Nanorobots and simulation research might become available in 5 to 10 years as discussed in the interview at NanoBiotech News.

See the full history at: http://news.nanoapex.com/modules.php?name=News&fil e=article&sid=4996"

Ed. The actual article by Jane MacNeil is reprinted (in PDF format) here.

Wendy Emanuel writes "Nanosphere Inc. Founder, Chad A. Mirkin, Ph.D., Wins First NIH Directorís Pioneer Award. More…

Ed. Note. We realize this is older news but readers should understand that there is a backlog of submissions to nanodot that we are slowly attempting to work through without dropping things off the front page too quickly.

DavidForrest writes "The Foresight Conference this last weekend was one of the best ever. Kudos to all involved. I hate to nitpick after such a wonderful event, but as a metallurgist, I feel compelled to comment on the "metals are weak" meme that resurfaced several times. More…

HLovy writes "
The Edmonton Journal asks: Will nanoscience repeat ag-biotech fiasco? The story is a rehash of all the issues NanoBot readers have been familiar with for more than a year now. But it gives me a good excuse to go into part of the "tough love" advice I gave to the Foresight Institute during my presentation last weekend.

If the group wants to remain relevant, it needs to address concerns associated with nanotechnology today, and not only this vague "someday" when true molecular manufacturing is in use.

Full commentary on Howard Lovy's NanoBot."

Pamela Bailey writes "Alameda, CA and Brussels, Belgium ñ October 28, 2004 ñ The European Nanobusiness Association (ENA), an industrial and trade organisation founded to promote the professional development of the emerging business of nanotechnology at the European level, announced today the launch of a Career Center that focuses on European jobs in nanotechnology. The job center will be hosted by tinytechjobs and can be found at: http://www.nanoeurope.org. more….

The New York Times (registration required) is reporting in Tiny Ideas Coming of Age that "nanotechnology" is now a legitimate patent category (Class 977).

The problem is that the definition "one dimension of an invention be less than 100 nanometers" is so general that its questionable whether or not it will be useful (for example all drug molecules fall into this category). And then of course there is the quote, "a number of overlapping patents have already been issued".

Is this an improvement or just one more sign that in a world as complex as ours currently is the patent system is fundamentally flawed?

Brian Wang writes "University researchers are using self-assembly techniques and chip-related chemistry to develop a process for mass producing tiny crystals called quantum dots. Semiconductor nanocrystals promise a quantum leap over traditional optoelectronics due to their unique and size-tunable properties. Quantum dots measure a few nanometers in size and are already revolutionizing biological and environmental sensing due to their size-dependent luminescence. Other applications include telecommunications, photovoltaics, lasers and quantum computing. A research team at the University at Buffalo claims to have discovered a simple way to mass-produce quantum dots with extreme precision, in nearly any desirable size, using a technique based on self assembly and room-temperature chemistry. Researchers simplify quantum-dot manufacture"

Michael E. Thomas writes "The small size of ferroelectric transparent structures makes it possible to fabricate nano-optical devices like volume holographic storage. Both positive and negative index of refraction that will allow molecular particles of an atomic size to be modified, controlled, and changed to perform a specific function, desired task, used for low cost accurate chemical / biological matter detection, and reprogrammed to accept new non-volatile data and molecular functions. My invention and U.S. Patents, exclusively licensed to Colossal Storage Corporation on a technique for changing matter at the molecular level is one of the World's only new enabling technologies, having many hundreds of electro-optic applications, a few of which are discussed in this article: http://www.nanonewsnet.com/index.php?module=pagese tter&func=viewpub&tid=4&pid=6."

Wendy Emanuel writes "Nanosphere, a nanotechnology-based life sciences company, announced today it has expanded its multi-million dollar development contract with the U.S. Government Technical Support Working Group (TSWG). The company also announced the receipt of a $750,000 Phase II grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID).

This is an information message from the nanodot editors to nanodot users with respect to adapting the nanodot display for their personal preferences.

molecool writes "PhysOrg writes that researchers at The University of Manchester and Chernogolovka, Russia have discovered the world's first single-atom-thick fabric, which reveals the existence of a new class of materials and may lead to computers made from a single molecule. The research is to be published in Science on 22 October."

Ed. Note. The molecular fabric is single layer graphite (graphene) and which is hardly a "discovery". It is of course useful that it can be manipulated in the laboratory and possibly at an industrial level. For those with access to Science, the URL for the publication is here

The 2004 Feynman Prize winners have been announced. They include Dr. David Baker and Dr. Brian Kuhlman for Theoretical Work, Dr. Homme Hellinga for Experimental Work, Howard Lovy for Communication and Damian Allis as a Distinguished Student.

Details follow…

Ed. Note. Howard's blog has his comments on the award and Damian's site is a trip.

This submission is of interest given previous comments by Eric Drexler on the politics of nanotech research discussed in July.

MartinBaldan writes "Hi, I'm afraid it's a bit late for this, but I've found a piece of Smalley's previous position on MNT and it was rather opposed to the one he holds now: [1]

Ed. Note. The format of the Smalley web site has changed and so links to older URLs on it appear to be invalid at this time. The reference has been pulled out of the Internet Archive (without figures) and is now located here:

1. http://www.aeiveos.com/~bradbury/Authors/Engineering/Smalley-RE/dallas12-96.html

Gina Miller writes "Story Quote: The National Cancer Institute (NCI) announced today at a media briefing a new $144.3 million, five-year initiative to develop and apply nanotechnology to cancer. Nanotechnology, the development and engineering of devices so small that they are measured on a molecular scale, has already demonstrated promising results in cancer research and treatment. "Nanotechnology has the potential to radically increase our options for prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of cancer," said Andrew von Eschenbach, M.D., director of the National Cancer Institute. "NCI's commitment to this cancer initiative comes at a critical time. Nanotechnology supports and expands the scientific advances in genomics and proteomics and builds on our understanding of the molecular underpinnings of cancer. These are the pillars which will support progress in cancer." End Quote. Story found at Medical News Today."

Several people, including Roland and Patrick, have pointed out that physicists from Boston University have fabricated nanomechanical switches which promise significant advances in data storage densities (to much greater than 100GB/in²).