Nanowerk describes a recent advance toward the “e-nose” by an international team of researchers. Team member Andrei Kolmakov explains: Our approach demonstrates the potential of combining bottom-up nanowire fabrication protocols with state-of-the art microfabrication methods to design prospective simple sensing arrays which, in principle, might be scaled down to the size of few micrometers and [...]

We’ve received an update on work by our friend Anirban Bandyopadhyay at the National Institute for Materials Science in Tsukuba, Japan.  Here’s the abstract of his recent Nature Physics paper: Modern computers operate at enormous speeds—capable of executing in excess of 1013 instructions per second—but their sequential approach to processing, by which logical operations are [...]

Foresight Research Analyst and Technical Editor James Lewis has tracked the careers of those receiving Foresight’s student award.  Here are his findings on the careers of a few of these gifted young researchers: We at Foresight find it gratifying to track the subsequent careers of those who have won our nanotechnology-related prizes and awards, in [...]

The Open Science Summit on July 29-31 in Berkeley is looking better and better. Topics include OpenPCR, DIY biology, open source hardware, brain preservation, synthetic biology, gene patents, open data, open access journals, reputation engines, crowd-funding and microfinance for science, citizen science, biohacking, open source biodefense, cure entrepreneurs, open source drug discovery, patent pools, tech transfer, and [...]

We can get a hint of the power coming from longer-term nanotech by seeing what is being discovered today on how to use some of the new materials becoming available.  Many of us have been intrigued with graphene, a one-atom-thick planar sheet of bonded carbon atoms.  It’s no surprise that exciting applications are being found [...]

If you’re having trouble remembering to stop by Nanodot (this blog), and also having trouble keeping up with your RSS feeds (as I am), there’s an easier way to keep up with Nanodot news, albeit a bit delayed. Once a month we compile all the most recent Nanodot posts — plus other news such as [...]

Finishing off the week on a fun note, we see that robotic firm Willow Garage — of special interest to Foresight due to their emphasis on open source — has achieved an important milestone in robotics: namely, the ability for a robot to fetch a beer from the fridge and deliver it. It’s worth seeing [...]

The nomination/submission process for the 2010 Foresight Institute Feynman Prizes in Nanotechnology is now open.  Two $5000 prizes are offered, one for theory and one for experimental achievement.  These prizes recognize progress toward the goal of atomic-level control in the construction of macroscale 3D objects: an ambitious goal but one toward which physicist Richard Feynman [...]

Nanotechnology Now brings news of a recent Atom Technology workshop in Singapore featuring dual Foresight Institute Feynman Prize winner Christian Joachim, Feynman Prize founder Jim Von Ehr of Zyvex Labs and Zyvex Asia, and Foresight Roadmap participant Damian Allis of Syracuse University: Atom Technology is IMRE’s flagship program led by well known scientist Prof. Christian [...]

Small investors who want to invest in nanotech startups have for years turned to publicly-held venture group Harris & Harris Group, which has focused on private companies in nanotech and microsystems. With the economy down, and initial public offerings (IPOs) more rare, this strategy is changing.  Brian Gormley of the Wall Street Journal’s Venture Capital [...]