Category: Nanodot

A lengthy article in the Winston-Salem (North Carolina) Journal ("Small Miracles: Micromachines are being developed that may offer mankind great benefits – or threaten its very existence", by Kevin Begos, 14 April 2002) rehashes much of the mass media shorthand on nanotech weíve seen so often before: "Many researchers, government officials and venture capitalists are saying that over the next few decades, the effect of such inventions on society may dwarf what has happened in the computer or telecommunications revolutions. Skeptics see a dark side to such a future. Humans may well be able to make such products, they say — but may not be able to control them after they're unleashed on the world." We get warmed-over visions of advanced nanotech applications, Bill Joyís worries over human obsolescence, government funding, venture capitalists ñ the usual stew.

Read more for some of the more interesting bits.

According to a press release (16 April 2002), the University of Texas at Dallas (UTD) has begun ramping up its nanotechnology research efforts at the UTD NanoTech Institute established last year, on news that it won two grants worth a total of $1.8 million in initial annual funding from the United States Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). The projects being funded will involve collaboration among researchers at UTD, as well as at major universities and research institutes throughout the U.S. and in other countries.

Additional coverage, though not much, is available in an article from the Dallas Business Journal ("UTD NanoTech Institute gets $1.8M in grants", 15 April 2002), which basically reprinted the UTD press release with a few additional details thrown in. "This is leading-edge science and precisely what we had in mind when we brought two of the top nanotechnology experts in the world to UTD last fall," Franklyn Jenifer, president of UTD, said in a statement. "Now that the UTD NanoTech Institute is up and running, the university is in a position to begin playing a pivotal role in helping realize the potential of nanotechnology."

from the death-by-committeee dept.
An article in the Philadelphia Business Journal ("Coalition aims to aid startups", by Peter Key, 29 March 2002) tells of yet another organization aimed at fostering economic development being established in Pennsylvania. According to the article, "five Philadelphia universities, a business incubator and an economic development organization have joined forces to boost the number of technology and life-science startups in the region. Called the Commercialization Working Group, its first task will be to help the Port of Technology incubator in University City bring technological innovations to market." One of the efforts to be supported is the Nanotechnology Institute, a venture among the University of Pennsylvania, Drexel University and the Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania, a state-funded economic development organization. An official said the timing for the group is right because it comes after smaller efforts by the region's schools and tech organizations to work together, such as the Nanotechnology Institute.

Well, maybe. For all the organizational dithering over the past year or two, Pennsylvania hasnít yet got much real results to show from its nanotechnology programs (see Nanodot posts from 30 July and 17 December 2001, and 9 November 2000.

from the World-Watch dept.
The Asahi Shimbun in Japan ran an interview Koji Omi, Japanese State Minister in Charge of Science and Technology Policy ("Koji Omi: Unite nanotechnology with biotechnology", 8 April 2002), about the government's future strategy and outlook on the subject of nanotechnology. Some interesting comments by Mr. Omi:

• Although Japanese nanotechnology is said to be advanced, actually, I am very worried about its future. While companies are conducting research that looks five years ahead, none of them is directed at 20 years into the future. Traditionally the Japanese idea of nanotechnology has been molecular-level processing to expand the capacity of integrated circuits by reducing the size of circuit elements used in information technology. Silicon is the material currently used to make circuit elements. When I visited the United States in January and exchanged views with top-class researchers in Washington and elsewhere, they all agreed that the days of silicon as circuit element material are numbered. The question is how can we beat the limits of silicon. I think nanotechnology can serve as a means to overcome the problem.
• I visited the newly established Beckman Institute at the California Institute of Technology. Specialists in physics, chemistry, biology and computer science are doing research in the same room. I also met with researchers at such top-level U.S. universities as Harvard, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford and University of California, Berkeley. They all shared the view that from now on, such interdisciplinary research will become increasingly important. . . . In Japan, however, research systems are sectionalized. Physicists study physics, chemists concentrate on chemistry and biologists engage in biological research. Researchers don't even know what their colleagues in other field are doing in the lab next door. At this rate, I am worried that we would eventually lose the competition as all-around players. Even when capable talent enters an important field of research, they may be able to lead the race up to a point but could soon run into a wall.
• [A planned graduate school university in Okinawa] will have a 500-strong faculty and the same number of students. In keeping with European and American universities, the school year will start in September and all classes will be held in English. In terms of education and research, the central subject will be biology but it will be merged with physics, chemistry and information technology. In other words, it will be a fusion of nanotechnology and biotechnology.