Category: Nanodot

from the great-minds-think-alike dept.
Adam Burke writes "I recently read this account of Thomas Edison describing utility fog, and thought it may appeal to Foresight members, who share his enthusiasm for technology:

Edison had spoken one day at dinner

. . . as if out of a great revery, saying what a great thing it would be if a man could have all the component atoms of himself under complete control, detachable and adjustable at will. "For instance," he explained, "then I could say to one particular atom in me – call it atom No. 4320 – 'Go and be part of a rose for a while.' All the atoms could be sent off to become parts of different minerals, plants, and other substances. Then, if by just pressing a little button they could be called back together again, they would bring back their experiences while they were parts of those different substances, and I should have the benefit of the knowledge."

This originally appeared in an article in Harper's Magazine (issue 80, 1890) by George Lathrop, and is recounted in Paul Israel's 1998 biography of Edison."

from the World-Watch dept.
A paper presented by M.C. Roco at the symposium on Global Nanotechnology Networking, at the International Union of Materials Meeting, 28 August 2001, gives a high-level view for the potential for international cooperation and coordination of nanotechnology research and development efforts. The paper, "International Strategy for Nanotechnology Research and Development", which previously appeared in the Journal of Nanoparticle Research, is available as a MS Word (.doc) file (about 110 Kb). Roco is Senior Advisor for Nanotechnology at the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and Chair of the U.S. National Science and Technology Council's subcommittee on Nanoscale Science, Engineering and Technology (NSET), the coordinating body of the U.S. National Nanotechnology Initiative.

from the Go,-Huskies! dept.
According to a press release (29 November 2001), a team of researchers under Viola Vogel, director of the University of Washington's (Seattle) Center for Nanotechnology, have developed a new technique for observing large proteins that gives scientists the most detailed picture yet of the biological workhorses in action and promises to shed light on a wide range of protein functions, particularly in settings of medical interest.
"To a large extent, a protein's structure determines its function," said Vogel. "But, for very large proteins, the precise correlation is poorly defined. Now we have a very efficient way of tracking changes in structure so we can see how it relates to what these large proteins do."

from the current-events dept.
Adding to the recent spate of advances in molecular electronics research, two important papers on the use of carbon nanotubes to form electronic devices and circuits appeared in the 9 November 2001 issue of Science.

• Cees Dekker and co-workers at the University of Delft in the Netherlands report they have demonstrated logic circuits with field-effect transistors based on single carbon nanotubes. The transistors show favorable device characteristics such as high gain, a large on-off ratio, and room-temperature operation. The team was also able to demonstrate one-, two-, and three-transistor circuits that exhibit a range of digital logic operations, such as an inverter, a logic NOR, a static random-access memory cell, and an ac ring oscillator.
• Charles Lieber (recipient of the 2001 Feynman Prize in Nanotechnology for experimental work) and his research team at Harvard report a "bottom-up" approach in which functional device elements and element arrays are assembled from solution through the use of electronically well-defined semiconductor nanowire building blocks. Crossed nanowire junctions and junction arrays can be assembled with controllable electrical characteristics. The junctions can be used to create integrated nanoscale field-effect transistor arrays with nanowires as both the conducting channel and gate electrode. Nanowire junction arrays have been configured as OR, AND, and NOR logic-gate structures with substantial gain and have been used to implement basic computation.

Additional details is available in an article from the New York Times ("Nanowires May Lead to Superfast Computer Chips", 9 November 2001) and an item on the Nature Science Update website ("A little logic goes a long way", by Philip Ball, 9 November 2001). And Charles Lieberís work was the focus of an article in the November-December 2001 issue of Harvard Magazine ("Liquid Computing", by J. Shaw).

from the Getting-wired dept.
An extensive article on the Small Times website ("UCLA team develops molecular switches", by Jayne Fried, 26 October 2001) describes recent work by James Heath and his coworkers at the California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI) to develop working molecular electronics devices. According to the article, they have have attached molecular switches on a grid as small as 50 nanometers, a significant step forward in the UCLA effort to build a rudimentary molecular computer. "There's a long way to go," Heath said. "Right now we have circuits with molecules on a grid on normal lithographic wires." The goal is that one day the grid would be assembled with carbon nanotubes. More information on the molectronics work at UCLA can be found in Foresight Update #44.

Anybody remember Alba, the glowing transgenic bunny? An item on the Nature Science Update website (24 October 2001) reports an Italian researcher has now created a floral version with daisies that glow under ultraviolet light. While the research was originally aimed at helping to tag plants such as transgenic crops, the glowing daisies were created as an aesthetic project; the technique reportedly could be applied to any white flower. However, due to public hostility toward genetically-modified organisms in Italy, there are no plans to commercialize the glowing flowers. The NSU item also mentions similarly modified pigs with glowing snouts.

The Institute for Molecular Manufacturing (IMM) has posted responses to a pair of articles in the September 2001 issue of Scientific American which attempt to cast doubt on the feasibility of nonbiological molecular assemblers. The issue devoted six articles and a great deal of text to various perspectives on nanotechnology. The issue included various attacks on the feasibility of molecular assemblers and the work of IMM Research Fellow K. Eric Drexler and his research associates. The responses deal with issues raised in articles by Richard Smalley of Rice University and George Whitesides at Harvard University.

from the if-only dept.
In an op/ed piece in the Washington Post (and other papers including the San Jose Mercury News) on the Sept 11 attack on the World Trade Center, well-known engineering expert and Duke Univ. professor Henry Petroski points out that strong materials made possible using nanotechnology might provide the framework for fire-resistant skyscapers. Petroski authored the popular book "To Engineer is Human: The Role of Failure in Successful Design", among others.

from the what-about-licensed-copies? dept.
Despite calls or actual legislation to ban human cloning around the globe, at least some people seem to believe itís inevitable — and that people need legal protection for their personal DNA patterns. The DNA Copyright Institute (DNACI) is trying to persuade famous individuals to copyright their DNA to prevent unwanted duplication.

According to the companyís website, DNACI provides services for high-profile individuals such as actors, models, athletes, musicians, scientists, and others seeking to show ownership of their Personal DNA Pattern in order to protect it against future actions such as DNA theft and misappropriation, cloning, and other unauthorized activities.

Press coverage of DNACI can be found from BBC News and New Scientist.

from the presidential-punditry dept.
United Press International has recently run a number of interesting — and largely critical — commentaries on President Bushís policy decisions regarding embryonic stem cell research and human cloning with terms that range from "unworkable" to "embarrassingly stupid."

Read more for a sampling.