Open source nanotechnology CAD with distributed computing

News from Howard Lovy, now working with Nanorex:

I wanted to make sure you saw this news item about molecular simulation
software maker Nanorex acquiring Nano-Hive, developer of a powerful open
source tool that speeds up nanoscale simulation through distributed
computing. Together, Nanorex’s NanoEngineer-1 and the renamed NanoHive-1 are
going to produce faster, better-quality animations.

Researchers and instructors working with current simulation technologies can
tell you how frustrating it is to wait hours or days for a nanoscale
simulation program to perform all the necessary calculations. Nanorex’s
acquisition of NanoHive promises to turbo-charge that process.

The news release…can be found at this URL:
http://www.nanoengineer-1.com/mambo/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=122&Itemid=1

If you want some illustrations you won’t find in the press release, take a look at this link
http://www.nanoengineer-1.com/mambo/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=101&Itemid=69

This is the result of work done by Nanorex CEO Mark Sims earlier this year.
Sims used NanoHive-1 to give NanoEngineer-1 the ability to visualize the
electrostatic potential (ESP) of molecular devices, and then calculated the
ESP of a small nanomechanical bearing. To understand a molecular device’s
ESP is to know its potential to “push” or “pull” other charged objects. But
to model ESP on such a tiny scale takes quantum mechanical calculations that
NanoEngineer-1 could not perform without the help of NanoHive-1.

Another example of the kind of power unleashed by NanoHive-1 can be found in
this video:
http://www.nanoengineer-1.com/nh1/videos/dc-cnt1.mpg

This one was produced by Nano-Hive founder Brian Helfrich last year as a
demonstration of distributed computing mechanisms. It simulates three carbon
nanotubes being pushed on by a diamondoid carbon “knife.” Did the knife cut
through the tough tubes? Watch the simulation and find out.

This combined software will be open source, although I don’t think it has been
released yet. —Christine
UPDATE: bad URLs have been fixed, sorry. –C