By combining more precise core-shell nanoparticle synthesis techniques with electronic structure theory to predict the properties of nanoparticles, nanotechnology researchers have produced a better catalysts for fuel cells.

While we wouldn’t call it nanotech porn exactly, as Wired magazine does, we agree that for us nanotech geeks it’s great fun to see nanotechnology tools up close. If you missed the MRS show in San Francisco this week, here’s the next best thing: photos of the latest nanotech-relevant machinery: Nanotech tool vendors hawked their [...]

Nanotechnology may enable faster and more sensitive detection of disease by using a molecular motor to spin a gold nanorod in the presence of the right DNA molecule.

An economical nanotech procedure—ball milling followed by hot pressing—recasts a commercially available material as a composite of random nanostructures that efficiently converts waste heat into electricity.

There’s still time — barely — to plan to attend next week’s 1st Annual Unither Nanomedical & Telemedical Technology Conference in Quebec. Co-chair is Martine Rothblatt, PhD, of Unither Biotech. Speakers include these names familar to Foresight members, as well as many nearer-term topics: Tad Hogg, PhD — Member of the Research Staff: Hewlett-Packard Laboratories, [...]

Advancing the case for graphene in nanotech is the recent demonstration that the intrinsic mobility of electrons in graphene is much greater than in silicon or in any other conventional semiconductor.

Those of you who have heard Peter Thiel speak (at the Singularity Summits and a while back at Foresight’s Senior Associates Gathering) already know that he is quite a visionary. In Hoover’s Feb/Mar 2008 Policy Review, Peter presents The Optimistic Thought Experiment, his thoughts on globalization and technology. Some excerpts: For every account of globalization [...]

A major milestone along the protein design path to productive nanosytems and advanced nanotechnology has been achieved—the design by computational methods of enzymes that catalyze reactions for which biological enzymes do not exist.

Researchers have combined several different nanotechnology techniques to introduce a switchable pore-forming protein into a stable polymeric nanocontainer.

Researchers have assembled molecular films on the Si(100) surface utilized in conventional CMOS technologies and shown them to be of comparable quality to those assembled in earlier studies on the Si(111) surface, which is not compatible with CMOS.

The American Chemical Society has awarded Nadrian Seeman its Nichols Medal for establishing the field of structural DNA nanotechnology, nearly 13 years after the Foresight Institute awarded Seeman the 1995 Feynman Prize in Nanotechnology.

another case where nanotech has been advanced by “innovative measurement techniques and new ways to position the molecules”

Normally this blog focuses on nanotechnology, but it’s also important to stay on top of major advances in related fields such as robotics; the fields will interact in interesting ways. This video of a DARPA-funded project from Boston Dynamics is a must-see: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1czBcnX1Ww Watch the whole thing, and use the YouTube version; the one on [...]

Researchers have published a new DNA nanotech method that uses essentially one tile that self-assembles into a variety of larger three-dimensional shapes.

IBM announced (credit PhysOrg.com) that stacking two layers of graphene—one on top of the other—reduces noise that has bedeviled attempts to build nanoelectronic circuits from graphene. From “IBM Scientists ‘Quiet’ Unruly Electrons in Atomic Layers of Graphite“: [IBM researchers] today announced a discovery that combats one of the industry’s most perplexing problems in using graphite [...]

Nanotech provides a way to tailor the optical and electronic properties of materials through engineering their nanostructures. Nanotechnology researchers have demonstrated that quantum dots of different sizes will absorb light of different wavelengths, and that an architecture using nanotubes transports electrons better than one using nanospheres, thus making more efficient solar cells possible. In “Catching [...]

Here at Foresight we try to present a balanced view of nanotechnology, discussing prospective benefits while also acknowledging potential problems. It would be good if the “first major television series to look at the implications of advances in nanotechnology” did the same. But see the description of the upcoming public television series: Nanotechnology: The Power [...]

The use of nanotechnology in treating cancer took a step forward with the demonstration that at least one class of nanoparticles can be manufactured with enough consistency for clinical use.

A developing understanding of non-Watson-Crick interactions places RNA nanotech on a firmer foundation.

It’s very early days as yet, but Japan is moving forward toward the goal of molecular-level machinery to control nanotechnology-based robotic devices for medicine. In the U.S. and Europe, the poorly-informed sometimes ridicule the prospect of such nanotech robots, but visionary goals are apparently okay in Japan. See the report and video at MSNBC from [...]