In the November 2006 issue of Nano Today, researcher-turned-science-journalist Jason Palmer urges nanotechnology researchers to open up to the public about the long-term promise of their nanotech work: In this sense, it is as important to consider and discuss what can be done as it is to rule out what cannot. Because they are careful [...]

Who knew the King was a nanotech fan? Arab News reports that the King of Saudi Arabia is putting the equivalent of about US$9.6 million into nanotechnology at Saudi universities: King Donates SR36 Million for Nanotechnology RIYADH, 25 November 2006 — Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah donated SR36 million to the three [...]

Foresight members and others would like to find ways to use nanotechnology to help those who need help the most. It’s a challenge, as described more generally by Nancy Birdsall, Dani Rodrik, and Arvind Subramanian, writing in Foreign Affairs. They suggest a solution, which ought to work for nanotech as well as medical technologies: Wealthy [...]

A story by Jon Van describes the growing backlog of nanotechnology patent applications: As the time it takes to process patent applications now averages almost four years, double the time it took in 2004, nanotech entrepreneurs are beginning to worry that their ability to raise money to develop products may be stifled. It’s not just [...]

Over at NewScientist.com, they’ve collected the 50-year forecasts of 70 “brilliant” scientists. Topics covered include nanotechnology and the control of physical matter, machine intelligence, and life extension. Here are a few excerpts: Peter Atkins, a Fellow and professor of chemistry at Oxford, on nanobio and synthetic life: Computers will continue to illuminate chemistry. It is [...]

Nanowerk reports that the German branch of Friends of the Earth (BUND) is calling for Samsung to withdraw from the market its washing machine using silver nanoparticles: …BUND criticized that considerable amounts of silver could enter sewage plants and seriously trouble the biologic purification process of the waste water. In addition, silver nanoparticles were blaimed [...]

Medical News Today tells of an advance by teams at Rutgers, UCLA, and Institut Jacques Monod in Paris on figuring out how an important molecular machine in nature does its job. Some excerpts: Two papers by Ebright and collaborators in the Nov. 17 issue of the journal Science define for the first time the mechanisms [...]

It had to happen somewhere: the first country to publicly state they are planning to use nanotechnology in weapons is…Israel. Before now, to my knowledge, only defensive uses have been discussed in public. From the Sydney Morning Herald: Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has given the green light for Israel to set up a special office [...]

We at Foresight are big fans of researchers with ambitious nanotech goals, and today we introduce to you Prof. Shuguang Zhang, associate director of the Center for Biomedical Engineering at MIT. In eJournal USA he wrote of his vision for the future of nanotechnology via molecular machines: By imitating nature, scientists are designing completely new [...]

Researchers at UCSF and UC Berkeley have found a way to combine a drug with a dendrimer to give a treatment that cures colon cancer in mice — in one treatment. From Phys.org: Single-Dose Drug-Loaded Dendrimer Cures Mice of Colon Cancer In a dramatic demonstration of the power of nanotechnology, a team of investigators has [...]

For decades we’ve heard of the horrific difficulty of the protein folding problem: how to go from knowledge of a linear sequence of amino acids to the three-dimensional structure of a folded, useful protein? This is needed if we are to use proteins to build 3D structures that we want for nanotechnology. From Physorg.com we [...]

From Nature.com, news of nanotechnology advances at Hebrew University: Tiny machines that patrol the body for invaders are one of nanotechnology’s favourite dreams. But a device made from a single molecule by a team of researchers in Israel sounds remarkably similar. They have built a ‘DNA machine’ that detects a virus by reading its genome, [...]

We are only in the very early stages of nanotechnology bringing new abilities to DNA reading, but the latest such nanotech advance comes from New Mexico Tech profs Peng Zhang and Snezna Rogelj, described in an article by George Zamora: NM Tech Researchers Develop Nanomaterial Bio-sensor New Mexico Tech researchers have developed a highly sensitive [...]

A team from Belgium, Italy, and France has achieved inspiring nanotech results in bonding single molecules to a surface using an AFM (atomic force microscope). From Nature Nanotechnology, which — as of today at least — is kindly giving free access to the full text of the article: Mechanochemistry: targeted delivery of single molecules The [...]

It can be hard to tell whether a given piece of research is nanotechnology or “just” chemistry. In this case, I would’ve said the latter, but Nanoforum carried the story (free reg. reg’d), so it’s honorary nanotech at least. In any case, it could be important. For years we at Foresight have theorized that nanotech [...]

Regular readers of Nanodot know that we never give nanotechnology investment advice. We are not experts at nanotech investing and our own personal portfolios are dismal. That said, here’s some news from Nanotero (pdf): Nantero Announces Routine Use of Nanotubes in Production CMOS Fabs Carbon Nanotube Electronics Era Has Begun Woburn, MA. November 1, 2006; [...]

Here’s a nanotech news item from the Financial Express (India) that shows the challenge that developing countries such as India face in their efforts to leapfrog over intermediate levels of technology directly to operating right at the cutting edge: Indian nanotech firm to move to Singapore Singapore, November 1: Bangalore-based nanotechnology firm Qtech Nanosystems has [...]

IEEE Fellows are a plausible group of engineers to ask about the timing of nanotech and other technology developments. No one is really great at doing this for nanotech, as it is always hard to do in any field and, for nano, more multidiciplinary than any one person can be. So with that in mind, [...]

Today’s young gamers don’t have much patience with boring textbooks and droning teachers. Fortunately, soon this may not hinder them from learning nanotechnology concepts, thanks to the London-based firm PlayGen, which looks like a serious, competent visualization and game producer. Managing director Kam Memarzia reports that the firm has signed up to the challenge of [...]