Nanotechnology is, ultimately, a mechanization of the molecular processes of life. One of the most important of those processes is photosynthesis. If we really understood photosynthesis as deeply as we do, say, gear trains, and had the machinery to build whatever molecular machines we designed, we could build trees that produced gasoline from sunlight and… Continue reading Quantum entanglement in photosynthesis?
EurekAlert reports work by the University of Liverpool and Chinese Academy of Sciences: New rotors could help develop nanoscale generators In collaboration with the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, scientists have investigated the rotation of molecules on a fixed surface to understand how they may help in the development of future rotor-based machinery at… Continue reading UK/China team aim at molecular rotors to generate current
What kind of software will AIs run? This is of some interest, because it will tell us how much the current flowering of parallel hardware will actually get us toward human equivalent processing power. Amdahl’s Law holds: If the task of being intelligent is strongly serial, all those processors won’t help much. If it’s parallelizable,… Continue reading HEPP: serial or parallel?
From The Gulf Times via Nanowerk: The proposal for establishing an Arab Council on Nanotechnology (ACON) was presented by Al-Quds University’s Mukhles Sowwan while discussing about ‘Nanotechnology and molecular manufacturing: Towards balanced plans for responsible worldwide use.’ “The mission of ACON should be to raise awareness of the benefits and dangers of molecular nanotechnology, and… Continue reading Proposal for Arabs to address molecular manufacturing
from Nanowerk News: Held at a former air force base in Victorville, Calif. in late 2007, the DARPA Urban Challenge offered a $3.5 million purse to competitors who could design the fastest and safest vehicles that could traverse a 60-mile urban course in moving traffic in less than six hours. The contestant vehicles were unmanned… Continue reading GM engineer: Self-driving cars in next decade
In Beyond AI, my book about the future of artificial intelligence and machine ethics, I made a prediction about how much processing power would be needed for an AI and how long it would take to get it assuming Moore’s Law: You really can’t blame the early AI researchers for their optimism. It must have… Continue reading HEPP: Human Equivalent Processing Power
An interesting question was posed to my “Do the math” post of last week: What does this have to do with nanotechnology? A little history helps, as usual. Eniac plugboard: Hardware or software?
Longtime Foresight associates may remember Robert Birge, then of Syracuse, who spoke at the very first Foresight Conference in 1989. He has just won the Connecticut Medal of Science for his work in photoactive biochemicals. Story here (Hartford Courant).
Some interesting developments in memories: This Nanowerk story reports results out of Alex Zettl’s group at Berkeley on a memory cell that consists of an iron nanoparticle which can be moved back and forth in a nanotube. More information on this can be found at Zettl’s site here. This memory, like someother nanotech schemes, relies… Continue reading Memories: nanotech?
Nominations are now open for the Foresight Institute Prizes for 2009, due June 30. Our best-known prizes of course are the two annual Foresight Institute Feynman Prizes in Nanotechnology, one for Experiment and one for Theory: Description Instructions Also open are nominations for the Foresight Prize in Communications: Description Instructions And the Student Prize: Description… Continue reading Feynman Prize nominations now open, also Communications, Student Prizes
