From Newswire Today: Raj Bawa, a former patent examiner and now biotech consultant and Adjunct Assistant Professor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, writes in the journal Nanomedicine on his concerns about the growing nanotech “patent thicket” and its negative impact on innovation: “According to Dr. Raj Bawa, author of a recent paper titled ‘Will the nanomedicine [...]

The UK-based Institute of Nanotechnology has posted 17 lectures from their December 2005 meeting on Nanoeducation and training, including turning ideas into business opportunities, public perception, and ethics. The one I’m most interested to see explains how to become an “International Master in Nanotechnologies.” Note: to see the speaker names and talk titles, you must [...]

From Kevin Bullis at Technology Review we learn of a project from Europe to build large numbers of robots carrying out work at the molecular scale: “The work could eventually lead to teams of such robots automating work on the molecular scale, first for research projects and prototype assembly, and eventually for industrial applications, such [...]

For those of us interested in longer-term nanotechnology issues, CRN has released a set of eleven essays by visionary writers, most of whom will be familiar names from their having participated in Foresight conferences over the years: Kurzweil, Ray – “Nanotechnology Dangers and Defenses” Freitas, Robert A. Jr. – “Molecular Manufacturing: Too Dangerous to Allow?” [...]

From the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, via ag-IP-News: a “Nanotechnology Customer Partnership meeting will be held on March 28, 2006 in the Madison Auditorium, North Side, located at 600 Dulany Street, in Alexandria, Virginia. This Nanotechnology Customer Partnership initiative is designed and developed to be a forum to share ideas, experiences, and insights between [...]

Longtime reader Eoin Clancy from the UK brings our attention to a piece in Nature (1.6 MB pdf) by senior reporter Declan Butler on the prospect of ubiquitous sensing and computing: “Everything, Everywhere: Tiny computers that constantly monitor ecosystems, buildings and even human bodies could turn science on its head…Computers could go from being back-office [...]

From New Scientist, news of an achievement at University of Tokyo: “the first combination of two molecular machines is an important step on the long path to nanodevices sophisticated enough to, for example, perform repair functions within our cells. ” ‘The next step is to integrate multiple molecular machines’ into much bigger devices, says Kazushi [...]

There are few goals that more of us share than that of losing weight, now that the problem of obesity is spreading (sorry) far beyond the US. NutraIngredients.com brings us news of a new nanoscale product for which the manufacturer claims to have scientific evidence of efficacy in weight loss: “AquaNova has developed a new [...]

Earth & Sky brings us comments on nanosurveillance: “Nanotechnology experts have suggested that nano sensors — tiny devices too small to see with the unaided eye and able to monitor sounds and physical conditions — could be put into paint and sprayed on a wall. “David Guston [Director of the Center for Nanotechnology in Society [...]

From Alan Boyle, science editor at MSNBC, news of DNA self-assembly work at the lab of Eric Winfree of Caltech: “A computer scientist has developed a method to weave stringy DNA molecules into nanometer-scale, two-dimensional patterns ranging from smiley faces to a map of the Americas. “Experts say the ‘DNA origami’ procedure laid out by [...]

Foresight Participating Member Mark Sims of Nanorex brings to our attention a new version of the five-minute film Productive Nanosystems: from Molecules to Superproducts posted at Google video. The description: “Visualizing productive nanosystems and molecular manufacturing is a major challenge in communicating the power of this technology. To help address this problem, Nanorex (http://www.nanorex.com ) [...]

From Live Science, a summary of a recent paper in PNAS: “Scientists partially restored the vision in blinded hamsters by plugging gaps in their injured brains with a synthetic substance that allowed brain cells to reconnect with one another, a new study reports. “If it can be applied to humans, the microscopic material could one [...]

In the U.S., patent rights from federally-funded grants to university researchers generally go to the universities. Sometimes, the research professors benefit personally, depending on the school. This situation results from the Bahy-Dole Act of 1980. Most observers regard this act as an improvement over what came before, but it’s not clear that it is the [...]

Foresight director Glenn Reynolds writes at TCS Daily about a major piece now running at Technology Review on biowarfare and bioterror. Basically it sounds as though we have gotten ourselves into a situation where biotech can now be used pretty easily by terrorists, exotic bioweapons (perhaps targeted on ethnic groups) are within the reach of [...]

From Arab News, comments by Prince Turki ibn Saud, vice president of the research institutes at the King Abdul Aziz City for Science and Technology (KACST): ” ‘We have government approval for a 20-year strategic development plan,’ he said. ‘The Kingdom is keen to develop nanotechnology, which holds immense potential in the future. The KACST [...]

The Wilson Center’s Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies has launched a product database currently listing over 200 consumer products identified by their manufacturers as using nanotechnnology. A 10-page initial analysis is available (1.1 MB pdf). David Forman commented in Small Times Direct, the email service from Small Times magazine: “On the safety front, note that the [...]

Biologist Alan Goldstein has a long essay titled I, Nanobot at Salon.com which expresses concern regarding potential dangers of nanobiotechnology, specifically, the creation of non-biological life forms. Most of the stated concerns are abstract, e.g.: “Chemical intelligence can manifest as the ability to catalyze a single chemical reaction. It is a dangerous, and possibly terminal, [...]

OK, not many nanotechnologists have reached this level. But there appears to be one who is being fought over by the US and UK. An excerpt: “The University of Washington is lobbying state lawmakers for $4.5 million to help recruit a star scientist to head up UW’s nanotechnology program. “The scientist, Gabriel Aeppli, directs the [...]

Congratulations to editor Cordelia Sealy and her team over at Nano Today, which has just launched as an independent publication, no longer a supplement to Materials Today. The first stand-alone issue has meaty review articles, research news, some business news, and a surprising amount of policy commentary, including an opinion piece (PDF) by David Berube [...]

On Friday I was at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research’s Economic Summit (some videos available), where among other things I learned that the oil sands of Canada are, unfortunately, more accurately thought of as “tar sands”. But Chevron has announced a $60 million deal to develop these sands. The Motley Fool’s Jack Uldrich [...]