Once again this year I’ll be helping to pick the winners of the Nano 50 Awards, sponsored by Nanotech Briefs. Now is the time to send in your entries: Nanotech Briefs has announced a Call for Nominations for its fourth annual Nano 50 awards competition…The Nano 50 recognizes the top 50 technologies, innovators, and products [...]

Below are comments from nanotechnology experts on yesterday’s release of the Technology Roadmap for Productive Nanosystems, a new roadmap for development of atomically precise manufacturing from Battelle and Foresight: Jim Von Ehr, CEO, Zyvex Labs “For the first time, progress across all key nanoscale disciplines has been brought together into R&D pathways leading to atomically-precise [...]

Dear Foresight members and friends: It is with great pleasure that we announce the availability of the first Technology Roadmap for Productive Nanosystems. Some of you have seen earlier drafts, but the document is now official. Files can be downloaded at: http://foresight.org/roadmaps Below is the text of the press release going out today. We look [...]

Nanowerk brings news that the World Economic Forum is both rewarding nanotechnology pioneers and taking a look at potential risks of nanoparticles. Excerpts: Over the past few years, the Global Risk Network team has released an annual report. This years’ report “Global Risks 2008″ (pdf download, 1.6 MB) was published two weeks ago. In it, [...]

Sonia Arrison over at TechNewsWorld takes on the issues of genetic engineering, nanotechnology, and steering innovation toward responsible uses: “When we look at cells as machines, it makes them very straightforward in the future to design them for very unique utilities,” Venter told participants at DLD. Of course, Venter has often referred to the possibility [...]

Nanowerk brings news that the annual technology predictions (PDF) are out from Deloitte, and nanotechnology is looking green to them: …it is becoming increasingly apparent that nanotechnology could have an important role to play in healing, rather than harming the planet…Nanotechnology is already being used to address several environmental issues: generating clean power, reducing existing [...]

Korea.net informs us of challenging nanotechnology goals for that country: An ambitious government plan seeks to make Korea one of the top three countries for nanotechnology by 2020… “By securing more than 50 of the finest international nanotechnologies by 2020, Korea will create a new industry to emerge as a top three nanotechnology power and [...]

We’ve previously pointed out the usefulness of looking at future-oriented fiction as a way of stimulating thinking about nanotechnology. Now Annalee Newitz’s io9 site brings an interview of Kathleen Ann Goonan, who “was writing about nanotech before most people even know it existed.” An excerpt: I think that, for me, nanotech has been a metaphor [...]

Here at Nanodot and Foresight we tend to focus on more advanced nanotechnology such as devices and systems, but living in the pollen-filled San Francisco Bay Area — where a high percentage of residents have trouble with allergies — we would also appreciate some near-term help with that problem. From Nanowerk on an advance in [...]

For many years, Foresight has been pointing out that nanotechnology will be used for surveillance. Now Kevin Mitnick makes a long-term prediction on nanosurveillance. An excerpt: Warrantless Surveillance: The Worst is Yet to Come …Far from censuring the president, most of Congress seems completely unconcerned by the issue of warrantless surveillance. And telecom companies are [...]

DNA-based construction is one of the major contenders on the pathway to atomically-precise manufacturing, and Caltech has made an important advance in that direction. From New Scientist: A group at the California Institute of Technology, led by biomolecular engineer Niles Pierce, has created a DNA-based fabricator. This is a system that allows the team to [...]

Regular Nanodot readers know that we at Foresight focus more on longer-term nanotechnology, especially atomically-precise manufacturing. Yet, we joined with other nonprofits and industry to call for a better plan to address near-term nanomaterial environmental, health, and safety issues. From today’s joint press release by Environmental Defense and Dupont: (Washington, DC – January 16, 2008) [...]

Chemistry World over at RSC.org tells of a happy new research result in the area of nanotechnology for energy: Two teams of US scientists have demonstrated silicon-based ‘thermoelectric’ materials that could convert waste heat back into electricity – potentially giving a boost to the efficiency of everything from power stations to refrigerators… The thermoelectric effect [...]

The first issue of the journal Studies in Ethics, Law, and Technology (free reg req’d) is devoted to the topic of Human Enhancement and includes essays by familiar names (de Grey, Freitas, Wolbring, Cameron) and a number of newer ones. In “Medical Nanorobotics: Breaking the Trance of Futility in Life Extension Research (A Reply to [...]

Nanowerk brings to our attention the Future City Competition, using SimCity software and sponsored by National Engineers Week, which this year is focused on nanotechnology and how to use it to prevent tomorrow’s urban disasters: Future City Students Confront Urban Disasters and Engineer Hope with Nanotechnology Seventh- and eighth-graders in the annual National Engineers Week [...]

In the postal mail today is the annual research report (PDF) of the CNSI, California NanoSystems Institute. Last month on Dec. 14 was the dedication ceremony (includes video) for their beautiful new nanotechnology building at UCLA. Thirteen projects were singled out for coverage in this year’s report. Our favorite is “Nano Machine Center for Targeted [...]

Nanodot readers in the U.S. may be asking, who should I vote for to promote nanotechnology? Good question! Your suggestions are welcome in the comments section. Meanwhile, see this post by Prof. Robin Hanson (inventor of prediction markets, formerly called idea futures) about a tool that could be used to find out more clearly what [...]

On January 2 a press release was issued announcing an updated Strategic Plan (PDF) for the U.S. National Nanotechnology Initiative. For those of us interested in molecular nanosystems and atomically-precise manufacturing, it’s disappointing. I haven’t read the whole thing, but this is the closest wording I could find on a quick skim: A key challenge [...]

One of the Foresight Challenges is “Improving Health and Longevity”, which we take to be a positive goal for nanotechnology and biotech. Not everyone sees it that way, as we find in a recent online debate over at Cato’s online forum called Cato Unbound: Each month, Cato Unbound will present an essay on a big-picture [...]

Our favorite nanotechnology VC is Steve Jurvetson, who is interviewed over at LiveMint.com from India, which is affiliated with The Wall Street Journal. An excerpt: How are the elements of the nanotech start-up ecosystem different from other sectors? First, it is hard to find human talent because a lot of the really interesting breakthroughs happen [...]