Update: see this correction for an even earlier course: http://new.foresight.org/nanodot/?p=1958 –CP To our knowledge, this is the first college course on nanotechnology from a business perspective, being taught at UC Berkeley by Tom Kalil and Drew Isaacs: “Offered for the first time in Fall, 2005, this is UC Berkeley’s first course focused on nanotechnology-based business [...]

Stacy Lawrence at Technology Review presents a graphic showing that knowledge and fear about nanotech anti-correlate: “In one survey, the more people knew about nanotech, the greater optimism they had about its potential benefits; the less knowledge, the more concern they had over potential risks.” I could not tell the source of this info; if [...]

On Mondaq (free reg required), Foley & Lardner has published a writeup on the first FDA approval of nanoparticulate drugs: “As nanotechnology companies emerge in the pharmaceutical market, they will have to develop the capability to navigate through the regulatory waters. Until recently, federal agencies had not faced the question of whether to approve a [...]

“Sensors happen to be among the simplest electronic devices one can make from nanomaterials, yielding an abundance of development activity. But of 66 companies claiming to offer nanosensors, only 13 actually harness the size-dependent properties of nanomaterials,” according to a report from Lux Research.

Red Herring reports on complaints by U.S. Senator Wyden : “ ‘Just discussing export controls in our country, while Europe and Asia are making progress, could have a chilling effect on U.S. leadership in this area,’ Senator Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) told NanoBusiness Conference attendees over cocktails early this week in New York City. The senator [...]

In a talk for NanoBusiness 2005, Bell Labs president Jeffrey Jaffe gave a visionary perspective: “During his keynote address, Jaffe said that the pieces are falling in place to create nanotechnology-enabled communications networks that allow people to converse over great distances, while feeling as if they’re in the same room…Ultimately, according to Jaffe’s vision, tiny [...]

You may laugh, or at least smile, but the environmental benefits already resulting from the so-called nanotech toilet are substantial. With a “roughness” reported at under 30 nanometers, evidently these fixtures need much less cleaning, which means much less of that nasty chemical cleanser going down the drain. Oh, and they should be healthier for [...]

Big debate over at Howard Lovy’s on the nanoweapons-of-mass-destruction concept, mentioned here previously. Most notable to me is that both Howard and Charles Choi imply that only near-term possibilities are worth discussing today: “there’s no real danger of that happening anytime soon” and “If studies raise convincing evidence that near-term nanotechnology can lead to a [...]

In case you missed attending this in person (as I did), check out the transcript from the Council on Foreign Relations discussion on nanotechnology, including George Atkinson, science and technology adviser to the secretary of state, U.S. Department of State: “Do we need every wise nanotechnologist working here in the United States? I think my [...]

Charles Choi of UPI’s Nano World presents two views of the development of new nanotech weapons: (1) “Pardo-Guerra and colleague Francisco Aguayo, of the College of Mexico, outlined in Nanotechnology Law & Business Journal three ways in which nanotechnology could enable new weapons” and (2) Microbiologist Mark Wheelis, of the University of California at Davis: [...]

Menlo Park, CA – May 23, 2005 – Foresight Institute, the original organization in the nanotechnology field, founded in 1986, announced today that it has updated its mission and focus. The organization has also renamed itself Foresight Nanotech Institute to reflect these changes. “As Foresight approaches its twentieth year, it has largely succeeded in its [...]

Environmental Defense is getting active on nanotech issues, including advocating that of the approximately US$1 billion spent by the US federal government on nanotech, at least $100 million should be spent on nanomaterial risk identification. That’s a lot of money, but we agree the current amount is too small. Industry should support an increase–if the [...]

Those of us tracking bottom-up nanotech have long been keeping an eye on the dendrimer pathway. Now a pioneer in the field is claiming a major breakthrough: “Priostar™ dendrimers radically change the economics of nanotechnology and have broad commercial applications. They share and improve the physical properties of the original PAMAM dendrimers that were invented [...]

David Berube at U. South Carolina, in an ongoing campaign against nanohype, has been looking into complaints by the ETC Group that a nanoparticle product was approved by the Bureau of Indian Affairs for use to prevent erosion on Taos Pueblo land in New Mexico. His conclusion: “a review of the actual event discredits their [...]

Posted by Robert Bradbury: For many years we have had “rational design” of drugs (see drug design) and other small molecules. Unfortunately these developments have been generally limited, particularly with respect to proteins, because we have not really solved the protein folding problem. We have had several companies, particularly Maxygen and Genencor which have worked [...]

Foresight participating member Norm Wu has two essays available on the Ziff-Davis ExtremeNano site: one on quantum dots and one on “parallel entrepreneur” David Soane of Nano-Tex. From Soane: “even with a very conservative business plan, each project generally ends up taking twice as long (and costing twice as much) to accomplish…with many twists and [...]

Bored with the U.S. NNI? Check out the Iranian NanoTechnology Initiative. It’s a beautiful site due to the pretty alphabet, which is unfortunately completely unreadable by me, Google, or Babelfish. How about a translation of some key elements, readers in Iran? (Credit: Elaine Tschorn)

The President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) has issued its five-year review of the U.S. National Nanotechnology Initiative. You can read the whole 60-page pdf, or just Howard Lovy’s humorous summary. Or, go with my summary: They like it.

Greenpeace UK and Interdisciplinary Research Collaboration (IRC) in Nanotechnology at Cambridge University have set up a “Citizen’s Jury” to review risks and opportunities and give a “verdict” on nanotechnology by mid-September. Doug Parr, of Greenpeace, said: “We want to provide an opportunity for people to give their perspectives…at a time when we hope they can [...]

As previously mentioned, this year’s top prizes have been awarded in Victorian nanotechnology by NanoVic. But it’s worth calling particular attention to the postgraduate prizes for solar cells and drug delivery. (And when you read about “Victorian nanotechnology,” try not to think of The Diamond Age.) (Credit: Elaine Tschorn)