The U.S. National Cancer Institute brings us a summary of a journal article which argues that comparing nanotechnology to genetically-modified organisms misleads the public: “Writing in the Bulletin of Science, Technology & Society, Ronald Sandler, Ph.D., and William Kay, Ph.D., argue that the GMO-nanotechnology analogy overstates the likelihood of a backlash against nanotechnology. The use [...]

James Kanter of the International Herald Tribune reports that the Europeans are in a tiff over how to create a European version of MIT: “The European Union on Wednesday said that it would redouble its efforts to establish a new institution to rival the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the United States in a bid [...]

Closing out our week here at Nanodot on a cheery note, some good news about carbon nanotubes, brought to us by Michael Freemantle of C&E News, regarding research done by a UK/France/Italy team: “Carbon Nanotubes Pass Safety Test Functionalized carbon nanotubes are rapidly cleared from blood, excreted in urine “A new study could allay some [...]

Which country has the Nanotechnology President? Why, India, of course! See the text of President Kalam’s most recent speech on the subject. Excerpts (link added — hope I found the right report): “I am sure; there is an important message for all of us for nurturing young talent for all scientific research work particularly in [...]

Yesterday I wrote about a possible nanotech-based replacement for battery technology, and mentioned that I’m the daughter of a battery engineer. What I didn’t say then is that my dad died of a type of cancer which is found more often among those involved with battery manufacture. This gives me a more vehement view than [...]

As a battery engineer’s daughter, I appreciate how hard it is to make a better battery. Now Technology Review reports that some MIT researchers are taking a different approach: make a better capacitor. Excerpts: “The new technology, developed at MIT’s Laboratory for Electromagnetic and Electronic Systems, should improve ultracapacitors by swapping in carbon nanotubes, thereby [...]

Discussions of nanotechnology held in Europe usually invoke the Precautionary Principle, which comes in various forms from the reasonable to the extreme. Ron Bailey of Reason discusses the extreme form of this principle in Culture of Fear: Dealing with cultural panic attacks, based on a recent conference. Excerpts: “At the AEI conference, University of Kent [...]

Given how the word “nanoparticle” is often defined, one could say that a lot of our food is naturally made of nanoparticles. But industry needs guidelines on which new nanoparticles are safe to put in foods and food packaging. Current regulations address such substances by chemical makeup, not size — and size makes a difference [...]

From Roland Piquepaille, a useful summary, with pictures, of exciting new results at Georgia Tech. Even if you’re not very technical, this one is worth knowing about. Read Roland’s full story, but here’s an excerpt: “Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology have built a new device which is 100 times faster than current nano [...]

From today’s Altair Nanotechnologies press release: “The president and CEO of Altair Nanotechnologies (Altairnano), today urged the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation to provide increased federal funding for nanotechnology, suggesting that the initiative could be compared to the man-on-the-moon or Human Genome projects… “As for the chemical/biological sensors, Altairnano continues its work with [...]

A group of 15 companies and non-profit organizations today sent a letter to each member of the U.S. Senate and House Appropriations Committees, calling for an increase in federal nanosafety funding. While the National Nanotechnology Initiative legislation has included funding for creating new nanotechnologies, and for studying their societal impact, it did not mandate a [...]

Check out the Wilson Center website this Thursday, February 16, at 2-3 PM Eastern time for the first event of the Green Nano series, sponsored by the Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies: “The GreenNano series aims to advance development of clean technologies using nanotechnology, to minimize the environmental and human health risks associated with the manufacture [...]

The report from the September 2005 workshop on The Nanotechnology-Biology Interface: Exploring Models for Oversight has been issued today by the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs. In addition to the usual nanoparticle safety discussions, the report touches on bigger issues. From the press release: “The report also calls for more conversation about nanotechnology [...]

For a fun-and-easy introduction to biological nanotechnology, check out the Gulf of Maine Research Institute’s site on the topic. It includes coverage of some of the controversies. The site is a heavy user of Flash — those on dial-up connections may find it too slow. (Credit: Alan Lishness, the Institute’s Director of Innovation) —Christine

Foresight director Glenn Reynolds has a new book coming out March 7 which you can order on Amazon now: An Army of Davids: How Markets and Technology Empower Ordinary People to Beat Big Media, Big Government, and Other Goliaths. Chapter 9, “Empowering the Really Little Guys”, is on nanotechnology. Some excerpts [emphasis added]: “All sorts [...]

NanoChina is a new website and service provided by the UK-based Institute of Nanotechnology. If you’re interested in tracking nano in China — and what Nanodot reader isn’t? — you can sign up for their free associate membership and get their e-newsletter at no charge. (Not to be confused with NanoChina.com.) Also useful is the [...]

An article in InformationWeek, while focused primarily on information technology, has lessons for nanotech as well (emphasis added): “U.S. universities need to recognize they’re in a global showdown for research dollars. But sometimes they’re their own worst enemies in landing such funding. The culprit: The conflict over who gets the right to collect royalties on [...]

The term nanochemistry has always seemed a bit confusing to me. Since a typical atomic diameter is a third of a nanometer, wouldn’t most chemistry be nanoscale? I am not the only one confused: the current top entry on Google for nanochemistry is for chemistry taking place in very small volumes. Be that as it [...]

From the San Jose Mercury News, a story on NASA/Google collaboration: “The Mountain View-based Internet giant is expanding its plans for potential collaborations with NASA scientists at Moffett Field to include research on everything from private commercial rocket launches to search engines in the classroom to nanotechnology in orbit… ” ‘Everyone got so excited with [...]

In his State of the Union address, President Bush called for nanotech U.S. federal funding to be doubled. From News.com: “First, I propose to double the federal commitment to the most critical basic research programs in the physical sciences over the next 10 years. This funding will support the work of America’s most creative minds [...]