Yesterday we highlighted MIT’s work in getting their course materials online. But many other schools with courses relevant to nanotech have been working on similar goals, especially UC Berkleley. For a useful overview of what’s out there, see Jimmy Ruska’s page on Free Education (it covers all fields, not just nanotechnology). An excerpt: Ranked as [...]

Like many MIT alumni, I have decidedly mixed feelings about the school, but one program to be entirely pleased with is OCW: OpenCourseWare, the free online provision of MIT course materials. They just reached a major milestone: Join us as we celebrate the publication of virtually the entire MIT curriculum — 1800 courses — on [...]

An article in Small Times by Paul Burrows of Pacific Northwest National Laboratory covers the Technology Roadmap for Productive Nanosystems (TRPN) aimed at Atomically-Precise Manufacturing (APM), a joint project of Foresight Nanotech Institute and Battelle, funded by the Waitt Family Foundation and by Sun Microsystems. Some excerpts: The Foresight-Battelle roadmap aimed to address this “vision [...]

Words can’t really get across the essence of the nanoscale and potential of nanotechnology, but images can do much better. That’s why Foresight encourages participation in the NanoArt competition: FREE Entries NanoArt 2007 INTERNATIONAL ONLINE COMPETITION Submission deadline December 31, 2007. Open to All Artists and Scientists – Three Electron Microscope Scans are provided as [...]

Foresight Nanotech Institute has received a large Challenge Grant, but to fulfill the challenge we need to raise $40K in matching gifts. You can watch our progress on the pie chart as we work toward our goal. Are you up for the nanotech challenge? Thanks to contributions like yours, we’ve been able to advance beneficial [...]

As we move into a long holiday weekend here in the U.S., it’s time to indulge in a lighter moment in nanotech. Being suspicious of a sponsored link by Target on a “nanotechnology” search results page, I clicked on it to find this page of four highlighted products: Benny the Bear Memory Foam Plush Bear [...]

On October 8, some of us were in the air on our way to the Productive Nanosystems Conference (pdf). Others — specifically, UgoTrade.com — were blogging about the new Nanotechnology Island in Second Life: Dave Taylor, of the National Physical Laboratory (in the UK), explains that some of the key objectives are to: “provide resources [...]

Most of us avoid thinking much about the testing of human products on animals to check for safety. It’s distressing and we wish there were another, better way. Nanotech should eventually make such testing entirely obsolete, and the early stages of this process have begun. You can hear the latest in London this May at [...]

In their current issue, the folks who usually focus on nuclear war take a look ahead to nanotech war, via a book review by CRN’s Mike Treder of the book Military Nanotechnology: Potential Applications and Preventive Arms Control by Jürgen Altmann. Deeply researched and carefully worded, Military Nanotechnology is an overview of an emerging technology [...]

As mentioned previously, tonight MIT alums geek out on nanotechnology in 15 cities around the US. I speculated that non-alums might be able to get in if they try, and sure enough, it seems that they can — at least in the Bay Area, where the event appears to have opened up to the entire [...]

Although it is distressing to read the headline from ITAR-TASS “Russia to design nanotechnology weapons — commander“, when one reads the text, at first these “weapons” sound more like defensive protection than offensive weapons: Principally new weapons based on nanotechnology will be designed in Russia within 15 years for combating radiation, chemical and biological terrorism, [...]

Alexander Zaitchik writes at Wired.com a piece titled Russia Pours Billions in Oil Profits Into Nanotech Race. I’m quoted: “There’s a lot of technical talent in Russia, but not all of the funds allocated to nanotech will be deployed effectively,” said Christine Peterson, a vice president at the Foresight Nanotech Institute, in an e-mail interview. [...]

For decades, information technology has been the biggest change agent in technology. Now we see a prediction on CNet News.com that atoms will again step up to a significant role, compared to bits: Society-impacting technological change will increasingly come from physical sciences, such as chemistry, physics and mechanical engineering, rather than information technologies, said Matthew [...]

The 2007 Foresight Vision Weekend Unconference ended yesterday, and so far the comments are excellent. Many people helped to make it happen: Sponsors: Thanks to Pam Bailey of tinytechjobs and Brian Lundquist of Nanotechnology Now. Special thanks to Salim Ismail of Yahoo for approving the donation of their beautiful conference center and to Cindy Van [...]

Most nanotechnology emails I receive are because the sender knows I have some connection to the field professionally. This one came due only to my being an MIT alum. The nanotech event described is only for such alumni, but I bet it’s possible to get in some other way if you try hard enough: “It’s [...]