The benefits to energy and space applications of advanced nanotechnology will be huge, but nearer-term we are already seeing some very promising results from simple aluminum nanoparticles. From University of Wisconsin on the work of engineering prof Pradeep Rohatgi, via Foresight Senior Associate Brian Wang: The newest class of MMCs [metal matrix composites] that his [...]

First a confession: I have not, in fact, read the entire article “Living with Uncertainty: Toward the Ongoing Normative Assessment of Nanotechnology” by Jean-Pierre Dupuy and Alexei Grinbaum of the Ecole Polytechnique in France, published in Techné: Research in Philosophy and Technology. It is about 10,000 words long and has a great deal of philosophy [...]

It would be nice if we could physically rearrange the nanotech components on a computer chip after it is made. From Nanotechweb.org: One generally promising approach for electromechanical manipulation at the nanoscale and microscale is “dielectrophoresis” – the net force experienced by a neutral dielectric object in a non-uniform electric field. In recent work at [...]

The competition must be fierce to be selected by the U.S. National Institutes of Health as one of four National Network of Nanomedicine Development Centers. Based on both this year’s and last year’s medical nanotech funding results, it helps to focus on molecular machines: 2006 Georgia Tech: Nanomedicine Center for Nucleoprotein Machines Purdue: Nanomotor Drug [...]

First, the good news. Here’s an update from Physorg.com on the nanoactuator work reported previously. Not much new technical info, but new thoughts on cool applications: Researchers at the University of Portsmouth, UK, have developed an electronic switch based on DNA – a world-first bio-nanotechnology breakthrough that provides the foundation for the interface between living [...]

Darrell Dvorak at MidwestBusiness.com points out that there’s often some expertise missing from discussions on nanotech risk: Because nanotech operates at the molecular level, there has been much speculation about new, unknown risks of nano products and processes… An encouraging development for a fact-based approach is that regulation has been shown to often hurt more [...]

We already knew that U.S. President George W. Bush is bullish on nanotechnology, but look who else is on the nanotech bandwagon: Nanotechnology research now under way at the University of Massachusetts Lowell will be a crucial part of any future economic success in both Massachusetts and the United States as a whole, Sen. Edward [...]

Here’s yet another new national effort in nanotechnology — Kazakstan wants to get in on the action in nanotech: President Nursultan Nazarbaev announced the spending increase on October 13 at a ceremony to mark the 60th anniversary of the country’s Academy of Sciences. Funding will increase by a factor of 25 over the next five [...]

Eoin Clancy writes from the Institute for Nanoscale Science & Technology at University of Newcastle: Recent paper published in Nano Letters “Medium Scale Integration of Molecular Logic Gates in an Automaton” by Joanne Macdonald et al. From the abstract: We now report a second-generation deoxyribozyme-based automaton, MAYA-II, which plays a complete game of tic-tac-toe according [...]

[Instapundit readers: you can sign up for nanotech news emails on the right side of this page at "free registration."] A nanotechnology report has come out from the World Council of Churches titled “Science, Faith & New Technologies: Transforming Life — Volume I: Convergent Technologies.” (PDF) The World Council of Churches is a group of [...]

The FIRST organization — inspired by inventor Dean Kamen — and the Lego Group are sponsoring the 2006 Nano Quest Challenge, and sadly for the rest of us, it seems to be limited to kids 9-14 years old, plus 6 to 9-year-olds in the junior league in US and Canada. But wait — all the [...]

Roger Brent, director of the Molecular Sciences Institute in Berkeley, is a leader in open source biotech: Putting his patents where his principles are, Dr. Brent’s institute has drafted an “Open Source Policy” which commits to “[making] reagents and methods freely available to the research community.” You can see MSI’s open source policy and a [...]

In the U.S., psychoanalysis has fallen a bit out of fashion. But in Italy, a psychonanalyst heads up their bioethics organization, Centre for Science, Society and Citizenship. A year ago, Professor Emilio Mordini presented on “Dreams, Hopes and Uncertainties in the Nano Revolution” at EuroNanoForum 2005: Nanotechnology and the Health of the EU Citizen in [...]

Atomistix has just expanded to the U.S. at the Innovation Center Denmark in Palo Alto, not far from Foresight. I missed their open house on September 28, but I see that their CEO Thomas Magnussen explained the value of computational modeling in nanotechnology: Over time, the price of nanotechnology experimentation has gone up while the [...]

[UPDATE: Welcome, Instapundit readers. If you like to get nano news, free subscription to our e-newsletter is at the right, part way down, on this blog's home page.] From scientific animation company XVIVO in collaboration with Harvard comes an 8-minute video showing nature’s nanotechnology: molecular machinery of the cell, in action: Nuclei, proteins and lipids [...]

[UPDATE: Welcome, Instapundit readers. For free e-newsletter, subscribe at right, part way down, on this blog's home page.] The ETC Group, recently mentioned here for its PR skills, has announced a contest to design a Nano-Hazard symbol for nanotechnology: Standard setting bodies around the world are now scrambling to agree on nomenclature that can describe [...]

From the Popular Mechanics Breakthrough Awards for 2006, MIT’s Angela Belcher and colleagues are using viruses to build at the molecular level: VIRAL MANUFACTURING Innovators: Angela Belcher, Yet-Ming Chiang, Paula Hammond MIT scientists reached a major nanotech milestone: re-engineering a virus to create a self-assembling product. THE GOAL OF nanofabrication is to make tiny machines [...]

Lots of people say that nanotech R&D should include international collaborations, but these are not always easy to set up, especially the money part. To the rescue is Nanoforum, a “European Nanotechnology Gateway” funded by the EU, which has published a report (free reg. req’d) listing such opportunities: Countries for which funding opportunities have been [...]

One of the top four nanotech articles highlighted in the first issue of Nature Nanotechnology is “Making Molecular Machines Work” by Wesley Browne and Ben Feringa. Full text of the article is free, at least for now. From the conclusions: The exquisite solutions nature has found to control molecular motion, evident in the fascinating biological [...]

The ETC Group has a new 63-page PDF report out titled “Nanotech Rx — Medical Applications of Nano-scale Technologies: What Impact on Marginalized Communities?” Although we at Foresight share ETC’s concern for these communities, we disagree with the report. A couple of excerpts: Can OECD donors who have failed to deliver promised mosquito netting to [...]