Category: Nanodot

from the self-replicating-bureaucracies dept.
According to an extensive article on the SmallTimes website ("U.S. studies its nanotech plan to make sure itís on right path", by Jeff Karoub, 22 August 2001), the U.S. government has launched two projects to review its nanotechnology research and development efforts. Two committees organized by the National Research Council (NRC), an independent advisory body under the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) serving the government, will conduct the reviews.

The first will be a Review of the National Nanotechnology Initiative sponsored by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), which will take about 1 year. An interim report is due in October 2001 and a final report in May 2002. Information on the project, including scope, committee membership, and committee meetings is available on the NAS web site.

The second review will involve officials from the U.S. Air Force and Defense Department, and will examine the role of micro- and nanotechnologies in the military and how they could improve weapons systems and capabilities. The NRC released a report in June 2001 that recommended the U.S. Army embrace advancements in biotechnology.

from the World-Watch dept.
Concern over Japanís ability to maintain a position in the first rank of nations pursuing nanotechnology research and development was raised in an article in the Japan Times ("Nanotechnology is seen having a massive future", by Yosuke Naito, 8 August 2001). According to the article, "nanotechnology is expected to become a fiercely contested area of global industrial competition in the 21st century."

The piece provides a brief survey of nanotech-related activity in the private, academic and government sectors in Japan, and compares those efforts to those in the U.S. and Europe. The report says, "Amid intensifying global competition, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has designated nanotechnology as a key strategic area of focus for strengthening the fundamentals of the industrial sector."

"Although the framework of cooperation among businesses, academics and the government is being formulated in the nanotechnology field, Japan should quickly see visible results from such cooperation," said Susumu Takahashi, chief economist at Japan Research Institute. "In terms of transforming new technology into business opportunities, Japan is lagging far behind the U.S."

Similar concerns expressed over the last year or so (see Foresight Update 44) have helped prompt greater support for nanotech research in both the public and private sector in Japan

from the tools-of-the-trade dept.
An article on the SmallTimes website ("Tools let scientists virtually reach out and touch a nanotube", by Candace Stuart, 9 Augusut 2001) provides an update on the NanoManipulator, an interactive device that coverts data from a scanning probe microscope into sensory information. High-power graphics programs let an operator see the sample three dimensionally and look at it from various perspectives. A control arm that fits in the hand like a pen allows researchers to guide the probe to any spot on the sample to "feel" it, and allows them to exert force on the molecule to move it around.
The NanoManipulator is the result of seven years of research and development by physics and computer science faculty and students at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. UNC has created a company called 3rdTech, whose goal is to develop products and spin-off business from research at UNC. 3rdTech is commercializing the NanoManipulator system.

An article in Mass High Tech on 23 July 2001 reports that Northeastern University in Boston has established a Nano Manufacturing Research Institute. The new institute will also receive about $750,000 over four years to seed its research efforts, but will not have a dedicated faculty or laboratory facilities. The funds will allow the group to hire postdoctoral fellows and to attract students interested in nanotechnology. Fourteen Northeastern faculty members will take part in the nanotech institute. In addition, it will collaborate with researchers from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, MIT, University of Tennessee and Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The director will be Ahmed Busnaina, a professor of mechanical engineering at Northeastern.

from the World-Watch dept.
South Korea needs to encourage investment in new fields of technology to avert a collapse of the country's manufacturing sector, according to comments by Park Sung-rok, a researcher of the Korea Economic Research Institute (KERI) in a discussion of a government development program for the next 10 years. Referring to the government's efforts to foster the four future technologies – information technology, biotechnology, environmental technology and nanotechnology – Park said that of the four, nanotechnology would be the core technology. Pointing out that Korea's investment in these future technologies is less than one tenth that of the United States or Japan, he expressed concerns about Korea's future status in these technological fields. His comments were reported in the Korea Herald ("Expert warns of manufacturing sector collapse", 24 July 2001).
However, another KH report ("Sukgyung AT Co. zooms in on nanotechnology application market", 27 July 2001) shows that private sector firms in South Korean are beginning to move into the field: "Although the government and some companies have just begun to realize the importance of nanotechnology, few Korean firms have jumped into this next-generation technology," said Lim Hyung-sup, CEO of Sukgyung AT Co., a venture startup that produces basic materials used in electronic parts.

The August 2001 issue of Scientific American has an interesting article ("Go Forth and Replicate", by M. Sipper and J. A. Reggia) on machine replication. (Unfortunately, it is not available online). The article describes attempts to develop a general understanding of self-replicating systems, with its roots in the work of John von Neumann, Stanislaw Ulam, and others. The article covers research into cellular automata simulations before moving on to describe more recent work by the authors and others that often employ evolutionary methods, including self-replicating systems that do not include an explicit self-description. They also mention the pioneering 1980 NASA study on complex replicating machine systems led by Robert A. Freitas Jr., now a researcher at Zyvex Corp. and author of Nanomedicine.

The authors, aware of the implications, state: "Researchers in the field of nanotechnology have long proposed that self-replication will be crucial to manufacturing molecular-scale machines . . . Recent advances have given credence to these futuristic-sounding ideas." They add that the study of such systems presents a "twofold challenge of creating replicating machines and avoiding dystopian predictions of devices running amok. The knowledge we gain will help us separate good technologies from destructive ones."

Read more for links to a few items related to nanotechnology and self-replicating systems.