Science Daily brings news of the future of transportation as nanotechnology changes how we make our products, described in the book Transport Communications. An excerpt from Science Daily: By introducing nanotechnology, the authors suggest, goods could be produced and distributed locally, limiting the amount of worldwide transport that takes place annually. Whether discussing virtual reality-based [...]

As reported at Nanowerk and many other nanotech sites, IBM nanotechnology research is advancing toward being able to store information magnetically at the level of single atoms: In the first report, IBM scientists describe major progress in probing a property called magnetic anisotropy in individual atoms. This fundamental measurement has important technological consequences because it [...]

One person whose views on nanotechnology are always worth hearing is VC Steve Jurvetson of Draper Fisher Jurvetson. He’ll be speaking at the upcoming Singularity Summit, Sept. 8-9 in San Francisco, but if you can’t get there, you can listen to this ZDNet podcast with Dan Farber in which Steve discusses both nanotech and AI: [...]

“Fun” is not the first word that comes to mind when the topic of ethics comes up, but the new book Nanoethics: the Ethical and Social Implications of Nanotechnology manages to include a surprising amount of it. Topics include the end of biological aging, body enhancement, privacy, military use, exponential manufacturing, space development, AI, and [...]

There seem to already be an awful lot of nanotechnology and nanoscience journals out there, but ACS feels there’s room for another: ACS Nano. Editor Paul Weiss — who does “molecular motor-driven assembly“, which sounds fascinating — explains: One of the great traditions of the chemical sciences is that one’s work can be reproduced anywhere [...]

We hear so much about possible environmental concerns with respect to nanoparticles that it is a joy to have David Berube bring to our attention the upcoming EPA conference on Pollution Prevention through Nanotechnology, Sept. 25-26, which may possibly still be accepting poster presentations: Representatives from industry, academia, non-governmental organizations, and government are invited to [...]

U.S. students aren’t going into science and engineering they way they used to, but nanotechnology is sexy enough to attract their attention. So nanotech is the focus of a new education and training effort described in EE Times, called Nine (the National Institute for Nano-Engineering): Coinciding with the President’s Aug. 9 passage of the America [...]

Nanoforum.org, a nanotechnology gateway site in Europe, has published results from a workshop “Nanotechnologies for Environmental Remediation” (free reg req’d): The issues of environmental remediation are quite substantial and poorly addressed by conventional technologies. They include access to clean drinking water, removal of airborne pollutants, and the clean-up of industrially contaminated sites (in particular ex-military [...]

Here at Foresight we’ve been interested in nanotechnology based on diamondoid since the beginning, so it’s great to see these structures getting more attention. Someday they’ll be manufactured with atomic precision, in large structures, but for now even small structures are looking useful in today’s nanotech. Nanotechnology.com‘s August 17 Edigest, sponsored by PurpleGoldMedia, features an [...]

We are very pleased to announce the dates and location of the 2007 Foresight Vision Weekend, to be held November 3-4 in at Yahoo! headquarters here in Silicon Valley. We’ve learned that you demand a highly interactive meeting, so this year we’ll be experimenting with a new format including big chunks of time for the [...]

An opinion piece in IEEE Spectrum by Cientifica business development director Dexter Johnson is so conservative in its views that it crosses over into being truly radical. On designer materials: In fact, we are so far from that goal it’s not clear whether we will ever be able to overcome all the obstacles. Not ever? [...]

Nanowerk brings us an interview from Chemical Biology about the use of nanotechnology for the measurement of happiness. Yoshinobu Baba, a professor of chemistry at Nagoya University and a director for nanobiotechnology research at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology in Japan, explains: Nanobiotechnology could be used as a measure of happiness, [...]

Nanotech experiments using real molecules are expensive and slow. Progress in nanotechnology would be greatly increased by highly advanced software truly able to model how molecules interact to make materials, devices, and systems. What are the odds of highly advanced software — machine intelligence — being developed any time soon? Explore this question at the [...]

Here’s a cheerful note on which to end our week: Most of us would like to reduce the need for experimentation on animals, but the question has been how to do it without increasing risks to humans. Now nanotech is being considered as a possible route, in a new conference sponsored by IoN (there does [...]

Nanowerk brings to our attention a new report Democratic technologies? The final report of the Nanotechnology Engagement Group (pdf) which examines the success or otherwise of various attempts at public engagement in nanotech. The foreword by Prof. Richard Jones ends: This report summarises the experiences of public engagement on nanotechnologies that have taken place over [...]

US Rep. Mike Honda (D-San Jose), who has played a key role in previous US nanotechnology legislation and won the 2005 Foresight Institute Government Prize, has introduced a wide-ranging new nanotech bill, described by Nanowerk. In addition to addressing risks: The NANO ACT includes a number of provisions to create partnerships, raise awareness, and implement [...]

Foresight president Pearl Chin brings our attention to an interview of Sanjay Gupta in Life Extension magazine. It sounds as though his new book Chasing Life includes coverage of nanotechnology. Excerpts from the interview: Turn on any television in the world—Beijing, Chicago, Tel Aviv, Rome, Los Angeles, or Tokyo—and you will find Dr. Sanjay Gupta [...]

Rounding out our nanotechnology week on a leisurely note, we have a new source of nanotech podcasts, over at AzoNano. They’ve just posted their first weekly podcast and also have a couple of nano topic overviews for your commuting or exercising pleasure: Nanotechnology News – Week Commencing 29th July 2007 – NEW Total running time [...]

The new book Nanoethics: The Ethical and Social Implications of Nanotechnology is now out. From the press release: Examining the impact of nanotechnology on society, “Nanoethics: The Ethical and Social Implications of Nanotechnology”…offers incisive essays on the potential risks and rewards of applications of nanotechnology written by both proponents and critics of this burgeoning technology. [...]

First, I should state that I yield to no one when it comes to caring about the environment. That’s what got me interested in nanotechnology in the first place, and a large part of why Foresight was founded in 1986 and keeps going today. So I was disappointed with the recent press release from a [...]