NanoGuy

More dreams of near term nano

2011-12-17T15:40:00.000-08:00

Nowadays when one goes in for a CT scan on your digestive organs you get this sort of milkshake like drink you have to swallow, a contrast agent. Or if you are unlucky enough to need a scope you'll have assorted piping slithered in one opening or the other. Your best hope is to get one of those pill cameras.

I'm envisioning a different approach based not on x-rays and radiation blocking contrast agents or intrusive devices but instead on food science and fiber optics. A swallowable transparent gel or syrup like solution which would make an excellent optical wave guide. Even a thin film of it persistent throughout each systalic wave would act as a waveguide. Low power laser emitters in the straw would supply pulses of light to each swallow, the light would propagate through the liquid and back scatter during dark phases between the pulses thus carrying information from the gut. Very sensitive cameras outside the patient (in a darkened room) could also capture light leaking out of the body. Pursued over a course of hours the entire digestive system could be mapped.

Cellular Lidar a step closer

2011-06-12T13:27:00.000-07:00

Neal Stephenson's book "The Diamond Age" has reference to the use of Lidar for nanoscopic ranging and communications between nanorobots. This article makes a nice inroads in that direction.

Snazzy

2010-10-25T12:28:00.000-07:00

Love these little baby steps in nanolithography. What are we down to now in common practice? about 25 nanometers for some flash memory and processors? Wonder what sub wavelength will add to that. The critical line? "realizable using current technology." That's always sweet.

Very cool DNA controlled organic synthesis process

2010-10-11T18:30:00.000-07:00

This is one the best so far, very precise control, high yields for an organic reaction. Also neat how the process restricts the by-products yields.

OMG! Rudy Rucker's Imipolex flickercladding is almost here.

2010-09-12T11:11:00.000-07:00

In Rudy Rucker's "Ware Tetralogy" there is a product called "flickercladding" which is described as being made of polymer and nanowires.

From the article linked:
The "e-skin" made by Javey's team comprises a matrix of nanowires made of germanium and silicon rolled onto a sticky polyimide film.

I find it quite amusing this product is made on a polyimide film. Fold up a few layers with some light emitting OLED and you've got Rudy's dream come true.

New fractal data process

2010-08-22T18:13:00.000-07:00

Been experimenting with some new fractal sets of my own design, using them to map data points across a transformation boundary. Here I've applied the principle to a group of pixels drawn from some of Tom Moore's nanotechnology design work:

conductive thoughts

2010-05-19T13:54:00.000-07:00

The ethereal "vital force" of life is electro-chemistry.

More good DNA origami work at Caltech

2010-05-13T18:19:00.000-07:00

These folks just rock.

Is climate change even science?

2010-03-14T15:26:00.000-07:00

Considering that it is a fundamentally untestable supposition one is forced to wonder.

X-rays influence crystal formation

2010-01-25T20:57:00.000-08:00

One of the themes I've been noticing/contemplating is the link between imaging and manipulation. At the scale of atoms the two arenas can easily overlap. This serendipitous discovery of X-ray influence on peptide crystal formation brings to mind the methods for manipulating X-rays which have gotten better in recent years. Could self assembly be affected by information imposed on X-rays?

ultraviolet metamaterial?

2010-01-20T11:30:00.000-08:00

Keeping an eye on the ever shrinking domain of imaging, while also keeping in mind that what can image can also often manipulate. I found this patent for a metamaterial that will allow hyperlensing of ultraviolet light.

But upon reading it I am wondering if it is a patent for an actual material, or if this is another attempted patent thicket to box people out of an area of development. We've been seeing a lot of that recently.

more nanocrap

2010-01-18T10:04:00.000-08:00

Pure fiction & drivel mix with fear mongering & politically motivated self-interest in this article at mi2g.

I understand the real concerns over the development of goods and materials with new or unknown properties. But this unsubstantiated pile of lies and exaggerations serves none of us well except of course for the author, who no doubt gained something, at least smug self-satisfaction, from wasting bytes and bandwidth.

continueing advances in plasmonic manipulation

2010-01-12T14:56:00.000-08:00

Not just for imaging? I often focus on the "thingness" of atoms in my thinking on nanotechnology but this article raises my awareness of fields and energies. The understanding & control of energy fields could lead to many advances in nano.

more imaging advances

2009-12-20T11:08:00.000-08:00

Evanescent waves are being imaged via a coupled photon stimulation/electron microscope technique. With femtosecond resolution this promises to provide some bright new insights.

Significant imaging advance

2009-10-14T21:44:00.000-07:00

Imaging molecules at low energies with coherent electrons, good stuff.

Some fine analysis

2009-08-02T16:07:00.000-07:00

Melanie Swan does a great job of bringing us up to date on the realm of synthetic biology while also pointing out some very insightful ramifications of the current trends.

Bootstrap innovation fence-hop

2009-07-23T07:44:00.000-07:00

Nanoscale lenses created by Korean researchers are an example of how innovations can overcome what seems to be insurmountable barriers. If a similar scale of addressable electron source were developed feature scales near 1nm become conceivable.

Billion year mind blower

2009-05-20T18:05:00.000-07:00

A data recording system that is stable for a billion years. Could be a bit of a game changer for history.

Useful measurements in nanotech

2009-03-29T12:21:00.000-07:00

This info might to be useful to the folks at Nanorex in their continuing design of NanoEngineer-1 especially in regards to simulation.

Much of the development to be done in nanotech is not just dependent on bright new designs or structural discoveries. There is also the advance of empirical information. Accurate measurement of molecular and atomic behavior will improve the ability of our models and designers to produce effective devices.

More chemical reactions in constrained regions

2009-03-12T22:08:00.000-07:00

Once regions of chemical reactions can be constrained to few molecule through-put the dimensions of freedom which introduce error into most self-assembly systems will fall to manageable levels. By properly tailoring region size, substrate and feed stock molecules intentional assembly will manifest due to energy minimizing probabilism.

The attached article is a step in that direction.

Engineering Vs. Science

2009-03-10T20:58:00.000-07:00

Chris Phoenix does a wonderful job of pointing out the facts of life in nanoscale manufacturing and contrary to some commonly held beliefs those facts aren't all bad.

Dimensionaly constrained chemical reactions

2009-03-06T13:12:00.000-08:00

This is a good move towards forcing self-assembly down controlled pathways. I've seen several articles which highlight chemical reactions and molecular behavior in nanotube environments but this piece of work converges with some other ideas on constraining reactions.

Finally! Something nano worth noticing

2008-11-13T10:51:00.000-08:00

Femtomolar optical tweezers! Brilliant work pointing out the efficacy to be gained by thinking small. Also highlights how much nanotech and just plain old tech has been floating around for a decade now. The basic patent for this was issued in 1997. What else is there floating around out there, maybe already in the public domain?

Bottom up pulls ahead

2008-08-09T20:55:00.000-07:00

It looks like the top-down crowd is falling behind in the race for molecular precision. In the linked article, entitled "Chiral Kagomé Lattice from Simple Ditopic Molecular Bricks" we see another example of fine atomic precision engineering which mirrors many of the control elements provided in DNA architectures.

The next closest top-down approach which is currently shining involves a UV laser building molecularly precise shapes in type III and V elements. However, that is far less developed than the bottom up approaches.

Brilliant use of self-assembly

2008-06-17T17:43:00.000-07:00

Self assembly meets pick-and-place with microfluidics. Really clever use of mixed engineering principals. Click chemistry and some other self assembly (DNA origami for instance) could go a long, long ways in such circumstances.

Bigger than nano but really cool

2008-06-17T17:39:00.001-07:00

A device for isolating cancer cells from whole blood. Dang clever.

Careless futurism and amateur science fiction

2008-04-09T16:40:00.000-07:00

Like many internet savvy Americans I've long been a fan of science fiction. For the last few years I've been writing short stories and scenario snippets based on my readings of nanotechnology, futurists and assorted others which I'm calling "The Glassman Anthologies" I hope to have the collection on the web before summer is out.

Today my futurism thinking is centered on terraforming Mars. There's been a lot of work about thickening the atmosphere of Mars with chloroflourcarbons, melting the polar ice caps, installing domes and releasing CO2 from frozen reserves. But these plans overlook one of the biggest issues causing the martian atmosphere to be degenerate from the point of view of earth life. This is the lack of a powerful magnetosphere. Much of Mars' atmosphere is lost to scouring by the solar winds.

To prevent this it would be necessary to install both synchronous orbiting magnetic field generators and to locate nuclear powered magnetic field generators on the surface near any residual magnetic domains preferably near the poles.

This would allow gases to accumulate more readily in the atmosphere as well as reduce harmful particle flux from the sun.

My other terraforming ideas involve an enormous freznel lens made of thin film placed in a parallel orbit to mars that would focus sunlight near the equator of the planet. This could actually be a narrow ring with a diameter greater than the planet thus not blocking light to any other part of the planet. A similar parallel orbit scheme could be used to place a gigantic shade cloth between the sun and Venus thus dropping the temp of Venus. But there's the whole solar wind pressure problem to deal with there. Still working on that...

No wonder people are confused

2008-04-09T10:03:00.000-07:00

Here are 2 articles at azonano.com that seem to be diametrically opposed on the subject of the safety of buckyballs and other nanoparticles in the ecosystems.

This one says little or no toxic effects.

This one assumes toxicity.

Notice the difference in phrasing. The first article points directly to researchers who clearly state a case. The second article says

there are reports that these aggregates can be toxic

without any actual supporting documentation or citation. This is common behavior for alarmists and spin doctors.

Broader Perspectives

2008-03-20T21:34:00.000-07:00

Been enjoying the pugnacious and perspicacious writings of Melanie Swan over at Broader Perspectives. Is she humanoform or is she a digital descendant? How far has her avatar evolved? Only time and reflection will tell.

Probabilistic CMOS

2008-03-14T17:29:00.000-07:00

MIT's Technology Review has a fascinating article about Krishna Palem's development of probabilistic electronics. This looks especially interesting for artificial intelligence software.

I wrote my first ELIZA program and cellular automata when I was in high school and later moved on to fuzzy sets and neural nets so I can tell you for sure that a probabilistic design scheme like the one described in this article holds out great promise in all these AI arenas.

Friends of Earth=Chicken Little

2008-03-11T18:59:00.000-07:00

The sky is falling again. I always have to laugh at articles like this. It's pretty much just a list of unsupported accusations. Lots of mights and maybes made to sound like "absolutely and for sure" but then never a single specific to detail any true threat. Where is the list of exact agents and products?

Look for the individual agenda of one group or another trying to position itself to increase its political power and social persuasion when facts aren't readily available.

Doesn't bode well but might be great

2008-03-10T20:15:00.000-07:00

Fred Friendly has made some really thought provoking programs over the years which I have almost always enjoyed. And this one looks pretty good too, called "Power of Small" it presents many of the current discussion points surrounding nanotechnology. I will keep an open mind until the full series begins in April but I must say I am concerned by hearing many of the misleading and alarmist statements that are facetiously batted around the web in shallow science and tech news articles. Check it out for yourself ( a short preview is available at the link)

Nano-Lies at the LA Times

2008-03-01T16:31:00.000-08:00

One of the most egregious examples of nano-paranoia I've ever read, the LA Times article "An unprecedented ability to harm" by George Kimbrell is composed of unsupported statements and sourceless references. All the usual lies, distortions and misunderstandings. He even stole my line "The new asbestos" from a year ago. According to Mr. Kimbrell, all that is unknown will most certainly kill us all with even the slightest brush. And of course industry can never be trusted to act responsibly and only the government can save us from the evil nanotech overlords.

A tour-de-farce of propaganda and fear mongering, when will the old media outlets quit poisoning the data stream with their agenda driven spin-doctoring?

Aatish Salvi does a passable job of countering these claims in his answering article "Fake fears shouldn't stop progress" but I sense in this an attempt by the LA Times to engineer plausible deniability. Aatish could do a better job of pointing out that many of the issues George raises are either out-right lies or are based on poorly designed experiments.

Nanoscale View

2008-02-29T21:09:00.000-08:00

A pretty good blog there. Heavy on the science which my brain finds delicious.

Event Horizon

2008-02-28T21:22:00.000-08:00

Stretching and bending some analogies here, but that helps me think.

A number of different authorities have predicted the technological singularity's arrival at anywhere from about 2018 to 2050 (lots of other's have placed it sooner, later or not at all but I'm sifting some sand here)

So I've got to wonder if we are approaching the singularity's "Event Horizon" yet. In astrophysics this is the point-of-no-return beyond which light or information can not escape a black-hole's gravity well. In societal and technological terms the Event Horizon will be marked by some similar phase transition after which the singularity will become unavoidable excepting perhaps a nearby gamma-ray burst or sudden cometary impact which utterly wipes out all life on earth.

The web is seeing a proliferation of do-it-yourself-ism and intention hacking such as the biohackers, reprap, Make, Lifehacker and of course our hopeful friends the transhumanists. Social networking is building slow meta-minds and even potentiating some initial loops that might network meta-minds into meta-meta-minds. These minds are even beginning to have the means to effectively take a hand in our world with groups like The Point. Meanwhile "ancient" infrastructure such as usenet are still bubbling along providing the rich and varied services they always have, almost like the older parts of the human brain that give us primitive emotions and fight-or-flight style instincts.

I recently read that in about another year or two over half the people on earth will have cell phones. This means every odd numbered person on earth will have a potential immediate open line to half the people in the world. Somewhere a hungry meme opens its baleful eye and yawns awake.

Apologies to Ray

2008-02-28T08:46:00.001-08:00

An earlier posting criticized Ray Kurzweil for his website's lack of feedback abilities. Michael A. has corrected my perceptual bias. I've only been reading the news section for some years now and was unaware of the forum section. Although in my defense, if it were labeled "Forum section" instead of "Brain-X" [a title of questionable meaning] I might have been aware of it.

I have taken that post down and apologize for the haste of my judgment.

If I could offer a constructive suggestion: the news section is the most actively engaged part of Ray's page. The featured articles change seldom and once you've perused them all you pretty much don't bother going back. So a comment section for each news article would also be a really good thing.

Why the progression of science freakin' ROCKS!

2008-02-27T12:57:00.000-08:00

A very promising bit of research revealing a path to type 1 diabetes cure. Keep your fingers crossed on this one for early human trials.

Pullin' the Merkle Bootstrap

2008-02-26T13:10:00.000-08:00

Bootstrap was a very important idea when I started to learn programming back in '78. It was the means of loading enough software so you could load more software, a tricky philosophical treat.

Ralph Merkle has done a fine job of finding a molecular bootstrap for diamond manufacture. With as few as 9 molecules he has defined a set of tools which can not only make themselves but should also make some nifty diamond.

Hattip Michael A.

The nano Sky is falling

2008-02-22T14:41:00.000-08:00

A host of new safety concerns floated to the top again this week. I guess some mental conditions just never get old.

I think what I find most egregious about these articles is that they assume time and again that no one what-so-ever is aware of safety issues.

The other assumption is that government agencies are the only hope of any sort of safety. That industry can never, ever be trusted to make the right choices. But if you compare the track records of government and industry which is the one that really gets things done? Can you imagine a government agency trying to run eBay or Amazon?

Some misnomers, exaggerations and out-right lies you'll see:

Materials behave differently at the nanoscale. Materials behave the way they behave regardless of scale. Only a few examples of scale dependent structures are significant such as nanocrystals of gold. A nanocrystal of aspirin might dissolve faster but other than that once it's dissolved it is still just aspirin.

Nanoproducts are strange, unheard-of or alien. Many nanodevices, components and structures are actually very familiar and well studied. Fullerenes for instance have been present in soot throughout history and they've been a product of study for about 20 years. All of modern chemistry employs bottom-up statistically derived nanotechnology.

Replicators will destroy the earth. For the last 3 billion years every living organism on this planet has struggled mightily to convert as much mass into copies of itself as it could. And yet only a tiny amount of the planet is actually conscripted into this process. If an inconceivably large population of replicators using trial and error for billions of years can't do it what makes anyone think intentionally designed devices will?

Ultimately everything is composed of nanodevices: the atoms and molecules which chemistry has long ago elucidated for our understanding. The fact that someone is too lazy to comprehend this understanding does not give them the right to spread panic and rumor.

Some details

2008-02-20T11:54:00.000-08:00

Not finished with this yet and I don't have time right now to find the links supporting this design. Plus I've also got a diagram displaying the folding process for penta- and hexa- graphitic ring origami coming. But I promised Michael Anissimov a graphic explaining an earlier post so here's what I have so far. Nothing is to scale and a few details are missing but it should still explain much. Stay tuned:

Click to view large

Update (1:36pm):
here's a link to using oligonucleotides on AFM tips.

Dreaming of nanotech

2008-02-17T12:16:00.000-08:00

I dreamt of this last night. It is a form of simple nano factory

Take a bunch of magnetic nanowires engineered with atomically sharp tips and place them in an elastomer matrix. Attach oligonucleotides to these tips. Float polymer precursors in a solvent on top of the elastomeric matrix. Capillary action will transfer the mers up onto the oligonucleotides. Using a technique like this to assemble precise sequences of polymer subunits which are then deposited on a substrate that passes over the nanowires/dna tips. If the substrate is a controlled material like synthetic sapphire, silicon, graphene etc. and the nanowire's motion is controlled by very precise magnetic fields from circuit traces or NEMS underlying the elastomer matrix then the deposited polymers will only be able to fall in certain locations on the substrate. As the substrate passes over the many tips phenol rings in the polymer will line up in precisely controllable manners on the substrate.

If the chemistry is managed right, then oxides and other radicals will depart the polymer deposition upon pyrolysis. Using origami-like modeling the resulting graphitic structures will fold up into designed shapes due to energetic changes like folding a flat piece of cardboard into a box.

No obvios toxicity to carbon nanotubes

2008-02-15T13:52:00.001-08:00

A several months long study demonstrates that most carbon nanotubes are excreted rapidly by the body and do not accumulate or damage organs.

Scientific American: Revealing their own ignorance

2008-02-15T08:10:00.000-08:00

I've been a fond reader of Scientific American since I was 11. Most of the time they delight me with mind-expanding articles about cutting edge discoveries.

But every once in a while one of their contributors writes an article that just makes me shake my head "How did this get past the editors?" Has SciAm been taken over by some sort of political action committee?

In the linked article is some of the grossest glossing of an entire field I've ever seen. In the first page the vast and complex arena of nanotechnology is reduced to some niggling dust engineering.

Furthermore, the article completely overlooks all industry-wide accepted standards and practices as well as an entire field of researchers already dedicated to the purpose of scrutinizing the safety of nanotechnology. There is no mention of good workers like the folks at the Center for Responsible Nanotechnology or the Foresight Institute both of whom have long spoken of the dangers and need for research on this issue.

More and more SciAm disappoints me as it loses its scientific objectivity to the politics of panic.

DNA-Directed Synthesis of short polymers

2008-02-12T12:37:00.000-08:00

Wow! this was another great article from the ACS. I never thought I'd come across a method for controlling the growth of polymers so precisely. Well sure, oligonucleotides but not aromatics like Aniline and 4-Aminobiphenyl. I can see some promising polyblock copolymer technology developing from this. Especially when you think of it in terms of some of the recent active and structural DNA designs being developed.

Damn! I wish I had the spare change to become an ACS member!

Stole my idea...

2008-02-10T10:00:00.000-08:00

The Navy done stole my idear!

Not that I'm implying any impropriety.

About a two months ago I was working with thermalizing/pyrolyzing linearized polystyrene ( a conveniently configured source of aromatic rings) with metallic stearates. I used stearates because ferocene's aren't readily available. I had pretty good success, able to produce distinguishable fullerenes and nanotubes. But now the Navy has beaten me to the punch.

A nanorocket?

2008-02-05T16:51:00.000-08:00

This is some brilliant stuff, coupling two complimentary proteins on the surface of a nanotube results in glucose being used as a power source for motion. The product looks safe for biological use and it doesn't take much imagination to picture a control mechanism stashed inside the tube which could block/unblock the two enzymes in order to stop/start the thrust.

Hat tip to Christine at Foresight.

Metal-Peptide Frameworks for metamaterials?

2008-02-05T16:32:00.000-08:00

Metal-peptide frameworks look like a promising medium for the design of very high frequency metamaterials.

Best nanoscope ever

2008-02-01T08:15:00.000-08:00

Was going to type "microscope" then I realized...
This device gives better resolution than 1 hydrogen diameter so it's definitely a nanoscope. This along with the other stuff I've written about this week; I'm starting to think 2008 will be a great year for nanotechnology.

DNA construction sites

2008-02-01T07:54:00.000-08:00

Hermann Gaub at the University of Munich and his team have used AFM cantilevers with attached DNA strands to lift and carry nano components like a nano crane.

If Angela Belcher's virus adaptation method could be sequenced to isolate the peptide components for molecular selectivity those peptides could similarly be placed on an AFM tip and used to pick up a wide range of nanomaterials. Or for that matter an individual virus could be locked into place on a cantilever.

I'm thinking of pick-and-place and machine tool paths here, a selection of tailored cantilevers and carry paths to deliver step-wise precise moieties to a reaction site. The reaction site would be mounted on a NEMS conveyors system to complete a factory scenario.

Advances on the Map

2008-01-31T12:57:00.000-08:00

With the release of Foresight's latest nanotech roadmap a clear path has finally been blazed across the mesoscopic pass.

The interesting thing to me about this work is a number of recent research and industry developments which play directly into the map's strengths.

Nanoink is sponsoring a symposium on dip-pen nanolithography and bottom-up assembly of desired nano structures.

Radial diblock nanotube assembly, Brookhaven's DNA organization of nanomaterials and Caltech's programming of DNA self-assembly pathways are all recent sign posts.

And if you want a dizzying array of optional paths, just punch the word "Supramolecular" into Google.

Porphyrin Grabber

2008-01-25T15:31:00.001-08:00

The linked article got me thinking about the ol' "Stubby fingers" problem. So I wrapped my head around some potential moiety grabbers and came up with this neat-o porphyrin and carbon nanotube based device. Several points: this ring is from chlorophyll so it has an Mg core atom, the linked article used Zn and of course, hemoglobin uses Fe. Which points out the range of tools that switching a single atom can produce. Porphyrin have the added benefit of their optical and electrical properties which I figure means they can be charged optically and quenched electrically (via metallic nanotube) so as to open or close them, respectively. This device could easily be mounted on one of the newer nanotube-tipped electron microscopes.

Once more, thanks and credit for Nanorex's fine Nanoengineer-1 software.

The world through Nano-Eyes

2008-01-22T18:54:00.000-08:00

The ever salient Christine from Foresight's Nanodot has interesting things to say about discovery and understanding which highlight a thought haunting me for a while.

I think one of the biggest revolutions nanotechnology has brought into existence is the subsidiary product of a different way to see the world. No longer just the bulk materialism of old. Anyone involved long enough with nanotechnology begins to see the world as its ensemble of minuscule, invisible parts.

When I look at a cup of water now I see a ten-to-the-twentieth molecules H2O machine with some additional minerals and gases suspended in it. Whether the silicon dioxide gravity restraint system is half-full or half-empty I'll leave up to you.

Novel amino acids in proteins and RNA

2008-01-21T12:06:00.000-08:00

Professor Ronald Kluger and PhD candidate Svetlana Tzvetkova at University of Toronto have found a relatively simple method to incorporate unusual amino acids into peptides.

More fun with DNA

2008-01-20T13:37:00.000-08:00

Found this neat dynamic DNA design tool off of Niles Pierce's lab at Caltech (I posted about his nucleotide programming a couple days ago) Lots of good stuff to explore at both places.

C60 ponderings

2008-01-18T11:56:00.000-08:00

Inspired by the company C-Sixty I spent a little time making a fullerene-carotene conjugate with NE-1. Then I went looking for links to help elucidate my thinking. Interestingly C-Sixty is no more, they got bought by Carbon Nanotechnologies. So I went there. But C-Nano is no more either, they got absorbed by Unidym and the only thing Unidym makes is carbon for electronics. So now I'm baffled, what happened to all that promising intellectual property that was once held by C-Sixty? All of the therapeutic agents they were exploring have become lost in the shuffle. Anyways, you can follow the link above to an article which presents some info in the vicinity. Below is an image of the molecule I made and here's the link to the molecular machine part. Notice the interesting shape that the fullerene takes, sort of like a pear and also that it is so neutral as to not force the rest of the molecule away (which is what I expected)

Business side: nanoencapsulation of food ingredients

2008-01-16T18:47:00.000-08:00

This isn't high-end MNT grade stuff, but the potential positive product and profit fall-out from this looks good to me. There are a lot of vitamins, bioactive compounds, minerals, etc. which would benefit from nanoencapsulation in a digestible medium especially in regards to taste, palatability and absorption. Plus, these products will get to market without the excruciating regulatory maze that is necessary for pharma products.

Activating DNA origami

2008-01-16T15:11:00.000-08:00

In a technique very similar to Paul Rothemund’s DNA origami, California Institute of Technology's biomolecular engineer Niles Pierce has developed a method for programming motion and logic in oligonucleotides. Not quite the full fledged assembler that the article would like it to be, but still an interesting advance in the technology.

conductive Carbon nanopipettes for cellular research

2008-01-16T12:06:00.000-08:00

This is just pretty cool stuff here.

It is unclear from the article whether these pipettes are actually fullerene nanotubes or not. If so, then I see in this a method for producing very long CNTs.

Machining nanotubes with electrons

2008-01-16T09:30:00.000-08:00

Scanning transmission microscopes can be used to reshape single wall carbon and boron-nitride nanotubes. We've seen a number of electrical methods for welding nanotubes, this is the first I've come across that allows precise defect introduction.

Nanoengineer-1 Rocks!

2008-01-15T18:15:00.000-08:00

I've been privileged to get my digits on an Alpha release of Nanorex's Nanoengineer-1 and I must say I'm having a blast.

I saw my first molecular dynamics models in about '86 and have salivated in envy ever since.

I have modeled many things in my software design career: planarian worms, dividing bacteria, plasmas, nuclear magnetic pulses and a few others. I can tell you it isn't an easy or forgiving field.

But NE-1 is everything I dreamed of. Good job NanoRex! Here's a molecule I created in just about 20 minutes:

Gonna try some interlocking rings next...

thoughts on assembly procedures

2008-01-13T14:50:00.000-08:00

Been thinking a lot about assembly procedures and the top down/bottom up dichotomy.

In particular the technique of molecular imprinting has my mind spinning.

In a modern factory such as those which make linoleum there is a process called "roll-to-roll printing" which is a nice analogy for what I'm thinking of.

Say we take some DNA origami pattern or perhaps an active peptide, enzyme etc. and bond a molecule thick layer to a metal cylinder of sufficient diameter to have thermally separate zones. Then the coated cylinder rolls through a solution of -mers which cover and fill the voids and surfaces of the molecular molds. Appropriate polymerization agents (UV, ions, infrared or chemical) could then be applied and after the polymerization completes the cylinder could rotate into a region which cools it, thus pulling away the template from the polymer substrate.

In this manner a continuous surface of identical molecular behavior could be rolled out of effectively unlimited lengths.

Subtle secrets of smooth running nanomachines

2008-01-12T15:30:00.000-08:00

Max Planck Institute of Metals has done some good work on the Casimir sticking force. Interestingly they are able to play on aromatic surface charges to reverse the sticking force and encourage free movement. Not suitable for operation in a vacuum though, solution only.

Fully integrated nano device (bottom up)

2008-01-12T09:38:00.000-08:00

Arizona State University’s Biodesign Institute have developed one of the first practical applications of what I see as a fully integrated nanoscale device. This DNA barcode style array holds a lot of potential. I could see the height increase created in the device's cantilever being used to open valves to release therapeutic agents for instance.

nanotubes: Bottom up

2008-01-11T08:48:00.000-08:00

Japan Science and Technology Agency brings us a particularly interesting method to self assemble graphitic nanotubes from chemical precursors without going the chemical vapor deposition route. Due to this being an azide mediated approach the resulting tube may be site-selectively functionalized.

Plumbing nanotubes: automatable?

2008-01-08T14:02:00.001-08:00

Scientist from Japan's National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology have managed to fuse carbon nanotubes using a controlled electric current. I'm thinking that the method sounds simple enough to automate, maybe on a nems or mems chip. With CN's high length to width ratio it should be a simple matter to get a series if individual tubes aligned, maybe in open "trench" arrangements. Then a series of electrostatic rotors could drive the tubes into by-pass alignment prior to fusing them. An on-chip STM could check them for quality, maybe another could perform spot repairs on tube discontinuities. This would allow for unlimited tube lengths.

Near term speculations

2008-01-03T20:17:00.000-08:00

Been reading about attoliter and zeptoliter fluidics recently and I had some thoughts on potentials for control of self assembly.

These tiny volumes of fluid restrict atom counts down into the tens of thousands of atoms. This is still a lot of atoms but self assembly processes will be constrained by that count. Polymers for instance will be unable to exceed this count in their catalysation, crystallization would have to occur in an indexed fashion especially if nanocrystals or colloidal particles were included in the initial solution. Mostly what strikes my mind is that the degrees of freedom would be limited albeit still huge. Many of the basic complaints about the sloppiness of self assembly can be addressed in such circumstances.

For instance if a chain was only allowed to polymerize within a carbon nanotube (thinking of UV polymerization here) the polymer resulting would not be entangled with its neighbors as is usually the case.

Software control of matter

2008-01-03T14:33:00.000-08:00

Seth asked for some extra info on the Uk's programmable matter project and unfortunately I've lost several of the links I had to the folks doing that work, but here's an older one to the same people who got grants for that project and there's also the umbrella organization Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.

No nano in 2007 nano

2008-01-03T07:15:00.000-08:00

MIT's Technology Review has a look back on 2007's nanotech development. Is it just me or do most of these items just barely deserve the label "nano" There's no mention of the Uk's "Programmable Matter" project which is the world's only openly government supported attempt at molecular nanotechnology fabrication. Nor any of the hundred of incremental progress steps being taken across the US documented in journals like ACS Nano Letters or IOP nanotechnology electronic journal.

Nanotech roadmap 2007

2007-12-08T11:00:00.001-08:00

Good ol' Eric Drexler has the 2007 roadmap for nanotech up at his site. Good stuff, albeit ladled full of his usual mixed metaphors. He keeps referring to "surfaces" as if there were such a thing at the atomic level. I realize this is probably more for the laymen but I find it distracting, and I'm a total dilettante laymen.

Anyways, I'm up to page 30 of part one and thoroughly enjoying the work. Anyone involved in current CMOS or other semiconductor R&D will find lots of inspirational material especially if they're keeping up with some of the stuff coming out of the universities in the last year.

3d microparticle sculpting moves forward

2007-12-03T16:59:00.001-08:00

Although it isn't "nano" per-se, it does verge on the sort of tech that hovers in the area. I commented on flow-lithography last year and now the bright people at MIT have extended the tech to include surface textures and porosity in their design profile. I'm going to be waiting with much anticipation to see if the methodologies from molecular imprint lithography can be dove-tailed into this field of work. If so we might soon (a couple years, the usual tech meaning of "soon") see exact or nearly exact atomic precision of placement come into play. Granted it'll only be that sort of precision with appropriate polymers but still a huge step in the direction of MNT.

Experts of ignorance

2007-07-12T16:19:00.000-07:00

I always have to laugh when I come across a so-called "expert" who makes unqualified statements of fact which are clearly not entirely correct. In the arena of synthetic biology we are beginning to see things like this:

The notion is that, as we engineer more complex systems, our ability to predict their behavior diminishes

according to microbiologist James Collins. But systems engineering tells us that more complex systems are generally more stable and predictable than simple systems especially under high degrees of feedback. On top of it, these alarmist statements ignore already existing guidelines and practices as well as the actual intelligence of those people working in the field of synthetic biology.

We've seen this same pattern before, in the social backlash at genetic engineering. Yet, after 40+ years of development and commercialization of genetic engineering none of the disasters which were stridently predicted have ever come to pass.

In the era of self-aggrandizing niche cutters it is just too much to hope that our fellow humans will respond with a modicum of detachment and common sense when faced with new opportunities.

Flow lithography showing off.

2007-03-20T20:58:00.000-07:00

Over at AZoNano is "MIT Chemical Engineers Step Closer to Theranostics" which contains the description of a brilliant new medical testing technology. Flow lithography is showing its potential.

Some bright new tech

2007-03-19T20:05:00.000-07:00

Shape Control of Multivalent 3D Colloidal Particles via Interference Lithography is the title of an interesting new development. I originally noticed optical flow lithography and holographic lithography over the last few years but I never put two and two together to derive this outcome. Now someone just needs to tailor this approach with molecular imprint lithography and you'd have a full scale-spectrum from nano to micro to meso. Nearly complete control of every molecular configuration.

Who says you need a replicating assembler?

2007-02-01T18:50:00.000-08:00

I've been studying a host of the bottom up self-assembly approaches and I'm becoming quite impressed. The one linked above has me imagining a roll-to-roll self assembly regime which could manufacture literally tons of assorted nanomaterials at low prices without the need for self replicating molecular nanoassemblers. Sure it wouldn't fit on a desktop but for mass production needs it'd work great. Especially when you add in the developments in molecular imprint lithography, dip pen lithography and imprint lithography. I can picture this channel of methods rolling out little tabs of medicines, micro circuitry, sensors, you name it, even those little breath mint sheets only made nano better.

The vast dross of nano writing

2007-02-01T11:52:00.000-08:00

There is a plethora of authors, journalists and opinion writers who have been galvanized by the growing "nano" phenomena and have decided to enrich us all with their vast wisdom.

Too bad they're all a bunch of slackers.

The A to Z of Nano website linked above has a library of poorly written material. In this example their analogies are only roughly similar to the actual things they are trying to describe. Top down design is likened to sculpting but what they are actually describing is merely the methodology of subtractive manufacturing when in fact many forms of additive top down technologies exist. Their description of bottom up design is equally spongy in its impreciseness.

Ray Kurzweil's book "The singularity is near" is another example of writing that is perforated with numerous inaccuracies. In several sections when he describes quantum computing he does us the egregious injury of confusing superposition with entanglement, for example. His mathematical projection of trends are similarly riddled with assumptions and errors. But he goes ahead and informs us with "factesque" assuredness that a number of events are going to come to pass.

Despite a recent French panels complaint that "the subject of nanotechnology is too technical" these sort of writings help no one and create tremendous opportunities for harm by being misleading and confusing. I think it's the confusion that the French panel objects to, not the technicality. With a little effort anyone can familiarize themselves with a technical issue be it legal or scientific. But if the writing is confusing or leads to results that run contrary to our common sense then we will have great difficulty learning about them.

And perhaps that difficulty ultimately explains a subconscious motivation on the part of writers who prefer ideas over precision.

Not nano but still really cool

2007-01-06T20:45:00.000-08:00

Was reading some articles at my favorite open-access science website, IOP new journal of physics when I came across this fascinating bit of thinking. These gentleman from malaysia have an idea for triggering lightning using ultra short laser pulses. And as if that weren't cool enough they also have a proposal for capturing and storing some of the electrical power present in the lightning stroke. I could picture many places where a scheme like this might provide a perpetual stream of cheap or nearly free electric power.

Nanotech milepost

2007-01-05T20:39:00.000-08:00

As we go into 2007 I’ve been wondering exactly where in the curve of nanotech evolution we are at. 2006 saw many advances which were surprising if not unexpected.

From the top down we are approaching the 35 nanometer node. Lots and lots of sub-90 nanometer stuff has been going on for a while but immersion lithography and extreme ultra-violet have pushed us well below the 45 nanometer regime in actual product-to-market.

While we’re on the subject of lithography we’ll touch on several related areas which have been maturing nicely. Four arenas of lithography are rapidly dropping well below the limits of standard optical lithography. The one that seems most likely to be rapidly adopted by industry is nanoimprint lithography, so called “squish and flash” that currently operates in the 10-20 nanometer region. Next is dip-pen nanolithography which operates at and below 10 nanometers and has been especially well received by biotechnology interests. DPN went massively parallel in 2006 with STM heads featuring hundreds of needles. Self-assembly techniques using diblock copolymers and molecular imprint lithography round out this set as providing methods which span the last few nanometers down into the sub-nanometer region of molecules themselves.

From the bottom-up a whole host of scientific advances have been showing themselves off. Rice’s nanocar stands out as a stirling example. Built entirely by chemical methods the nanocar has joined a veritable army of nanomachinery. Nanobelts of zinc-oxide, carbon nanotubes, fullerenes and structured carbons of almost every conceivable shape, structured DNA complexes, rotoxanes, quantum dots and of course the entire encyclopedia of small molecules are all well understood entities of the sub-nanometer realm.

The ubiquitous scanning tunneling electron microscope has been advanced with needles tipped by functionalized carbon nanotubes. Proof-of-concept mechanosynthesis has been demonstrated albeit without any sort of bulk application.

The necessary understanding of underlying quantum mechanical behavior such as phonons, plasmons, evanescent waves, near field optical affects and a plethora of other phenomenological studies round out the scientific advances made in 2006.

It doesn’t take a lot of imagination to picture devices rationally designed from this rather complete toolbox.

Yummy! clone burgers!

2006-12-31T13:28:00.000-08:00

Reading over at cnet news and I was struck by what a bunch of sissies the blogosphere is apparently made of. According to the article "Cloned meat? Yuck Factor prevails" people around the blogosphere have said they wouldn't eat meat from cloned animals. Leaving aside the fact that due to its expense cloning will only be used to produce breeding animals not animals for slaughter, it still wouldn't bother me to eat directly cloned meat. As a matter of fact I would prefer it.

Humans have been eating cloned fruits and vegetables for at least a couple thousand years. Many varieties of fig, grape, artichoke, the list is too long to bother, have long been cloned as their only form of cultivation. No one even blinks an eye about that; why should it matter with animals?

The only reason that an animal would be cloned is to acquire milk, meat and leathers of the highest quality with the least environmental impact and that's for me. You sissies can go back to sucking on wheat grass sorbet while me and the other carnivores move on to conquering the stars. See ya!

Help the nano

2006-12-30T13:19:00.000-08:00

Foresight institute's blog, nanodot needs help. You can contribute to this significant and long running site by going to the link above and making a donation. There is a matching funds grant riding on this so anything we can do will help.

The Berkeley of Attention

2006-12-12T18:30:00.000-08:00

Once more the city of Berkeley is the 4 year old child screaming on the grocery store floor because it can't have any candy.

The city is passing an ordinance forcing all researchers and manufacturers to report any nanotechnology they are working with. Without defining what they mean by that. Every chemist since Newton has worked with atoms and molecules, heck even farmers do that. Oh my gosh! You are breathing in nano-particles of oxygen, better report yourself to the Berkeley city council.

What a bunch of nitwits.

Down with hydrogen Up with electrons

2006-12-11T15:53:00.000-08:00

With the ever increasing improvements and recent breakthroughs in energy storage technology the hydrogen economy may be dead before it gets started. Why waste power making, transporting and storing hydrogen when it would be more efficient to deal directly with electricity instead? Ulf Bossel has done a fine job of pointing out the pitfalls in his recent study.

Where can I buy some?

2006-12-08T18:33:00.000-08:00

You can ask my friend Steve, I predicted this 6 years ago. Hydroxyapatite nanocrystals that heal tooth enamel. I would dearly love to get my hands on this! Of course my dentist won't be too happy.

And in the other corner, the alarmists are already gearing up their propaganda machine making the inevitable ridiculous comparison to asbestos and soot. Duh! I really hope you folks will protect me from my own bones! Which is exactly the same material (calcium phosphate nanocrystals) as tooth and enamel are made from.

Which would you rather have? A very very slight risk of some previously never heard of ailment or the very really pain of tooth decay? I'll take the nanotech thanks.

Once more with the panic

2006-12-04T10:29:00.000-08:00

I always love how these "studies" are full of might and maybe. Carbon nanomaterials might put on tiny hats and dance the macarana too.

The fact is that carbon nanotubes and all sorts of fullerenes as well as chlorinated organic compounds occur regularly in nature and have done so for the last 4 billion years.

Once more we see alarmists with an agenda to establish their own power base and disenfranchise those scientists and professionals who are actually best equipped to make judgments about the dangers and efficacies of these new technologies. The petroleum industry and certain middle eastern characters were delighted when the same thing happened to nuclear power.

Cornocopeia of nanotech information

2006-11-11T19:00:00.000-08:00

Just been cruising around the New Journal of Physics and once more I've been impressed by the landslide of nanometer regime information material which has been welling up. Lots of exploration into quantum behaviour, constrained materials, modelling systems and experimental results concerning the behaviour of nanomaterials. Check it.

Finally some common sense thinking about nano-safety

2006-09-06T21:10:00.000-07:00

There's been a lot of hoopla about the safety of nanoparticles, the automatic assumption by certain politically motivated organizations has been that all nanoparticles are identical to asbestos in the danger they pose to us.

However researchers in Germany have taken a more scientific and reasonable approach to the question of toxicity and safety and have produced some results which would surprise anyone given to emotional cross-thinking.

Granted this work is focused on carbon nanotubes, but the results point out a central bias in the assumptions of certain reports which are being bantered around with that smarmy "I told you so" rhetoric.

Open door for boondoggle

2006-07-24T19:31:00.000-07:00

Nanotechbuzz has an interesting article about a safety framework for nanotechnology. However I am immediately concerned with the possibilities created by government regulation. The problem is that there is no clear line between nano and the rest of the world. Water for example is a nano device composed of 2 hydrogen atoms and 1 oxygen atom. Will the government be able to further regulate our use of this resource as defined here? (not like they don't have a law covering every conceivable source of water already, but just suppose...)

We can synthesize sugar and we can even grow nanocrystals of it. Does that make it any less sugar? and do we really need regulation for nanocrystals of sugar? Plants produce them, so do we apply these new regulations to anyone growing plants?

That's the problem with government regulation, there is no built in regulation of the regulation. Maybe that is what we really need first, to regulate those who would regulate.

Finally, someone actually DOING something with nano

2006-07-23T18:53:00.000-07:00

Nanotechnologies, Inc. is changing its name to Novacentrix and changing its game plan as well. These folks are making a really smart move in going to product-direct-to-market instead of being an initial materials supplier. Cutting out the middleman and selling finished products demanded by need is a much better business model. As anyone reading my blog in the past knows, one of the biggest frustrations about the "nano" field is the lack of direct, practical applications. There's lots of mights and maybes but very little "here's your nano-toothpaste. $4.79, please"

The best part about this article is that it points out that this is an expanding trend. Several other companies are now leveraging their experience in nano engineering to go directly into sellable products. Hoorah!

I'm really looking forwards to Novacentrix's printable metals and semiconductor inks. That should be a load of fun to fool around with.

Finally a voice of reason

2006-05-18T21:24:00.000-07:00

Nanotechbuzz wasn't where I expected to see a fine bit of calm clear logic but it should have been.

After 8 groups filed complaints with the FDA to ban sunscreens that contain zinc and titanium oxide nanoparticles NTB had a great point I hadn't even touch on yet: the repercussions of stirring up paranoia on the use of sunscreens. The public have been relying on these sunscreens to protect them from harmful ultraviolet rays and now these 8 groups, who are doing little more than maneuvering for more political power, come along and create a climate of fear likely to confuse the public on what is safe.

Let me clue these morons into a fact: Zinc is used by the human body. You need it to stay healthy. Are they really dumb enough to think that the relatively tiny amounts which will be absorbed through the skin are going to cause any harm to a person much less to the environment or some such nonsense? Chances are much better that this will actually be good for some people, improving their health by restoring a needed nutrient rather than causing any harm. But groups like Greenpeace and Fiends of the Earth are much more interested in how they can manipulate public opinion with fear and propaganda so as to gain further influence.

Keep up the good work, Nanotech Buzzz!

Nano paranoia tidal wave

2006-05-17T16:06:00.000-07:00

Nano paranoia continued gaining momentum today as a group calling themselves "Friends of the Earth" (positioning themselves against the rest of us who they insinuate are "enemies of the earth") and the International Center for Technology Assessment filed a petition with the FDA demanding that the FDA tighten its monitoring of anything in sunscreen or cosmetics which could, as they claim, "penetrate the skin and effect brain chemistry."

One wonder what is already affecting their brain chemistry. An attorney for the groups is planning on suing if the FDA doesn't meet their demands within 180 days.

So here we have a non-American organization which is demanding changes to our rules and threatening to sue us if we don't bend to their will. Furthermore the changes they want made are so non-specific that even water (which will penetrate the skin and effect brain chemistry!) would be regulated by it.

So far the FDA seems unconcerned. And with good reason considering the ludicrous nature of the proposed rule changes. However we all know from past experience that if these nut jobs shout loud enough and long enough eventually some unfortunate people will begin to fall under their sway. Some of the worst debacles of public policy have come about by exactly this course (banning of supersonic transports, stringent GMO regulations, digital copyright protection, nuclear power, the list goes on...)

The nano fear mongering continues

2006-05-16T19:26:00.000-07:00

This technocrat.net website is doing it again, my favorite thing to hate. Fear mongering. "Untested nanoparticles are gonna kill us all, run for the hills!!!!"

And of course they just can't get over the asbestos comparison. As if there is no other particle to be inhaled. Ugg, the worst part is they use the name "technocrat" and then they're dumb enough to describe asbestos as a nanoparticle. Asbestos, a particulate which can easily be seen by the unaided human eye and which a 12 cent paper mask will keep you from inhaling. If that is nano then so is flour, sugar, salt, hell just about anything small.

The worst damage done by these sorts of articles isn't just the unjustified fear or the stolen ad revenue they generate with spurious panic, it's the wholesale misleading of people into a distorted worldview wherein everything small is to be feared as being "just like the deadly asbestos!" Animals on earth have been inhaling nanoparticles for millions if not billions of years. Yes, these are a new type of nanoparticle but there is nothing to say they will be any more or less harmful than those which arise naturally. Like just about anything what will count most will be dosage. How much do you inhale, absorb or ingest. A single asbestos fiber inhaled will not automatically lead to lung cancer and neither is it likely that the relatively tiny amounts of nanoparticles (most of which are bound in a liquid, gel, or solid of some sort) will automatically lead to a horrible fate for all concerned.

This is the 21st century folks, we are a tad bit smarter than we were when asbestos came out.

Too early for "I told you so!" but...

2006-05-14T18:14:00.000-07:00

There have been a mixed lot of studies about the safety of fullerenes. This recent one by Los Alamos National Laboratory tends to support my own belief that the interaction of fullerenes with tissues and cells will be more like that of graphite rather than that of benzene as some have maintained. The fact of the matter is that most fullerenes are closed cyclic structures with few dangling hyrdogen atoms to give them the nasty reactivity of benzene.

What makes this study most valuable is the fact that the researchers weren't just testing for toxicity but also compiling knowledge to be applied to future engineering of fullerenes to increase their safety even further.

Now THIS is some good nanotech

2006-05-09T11:03:00.000-07:00

Researchers at MIT, the University of California, San Diego, and the Burnham Institute have demonstrated a two part nanoparticle system in which the two components are inactive until they encounter enzymes on the surface of cancer cells. The two nanoparticles then self-assemble. They think it could be used to image cancer cells via MRI (the nanoparticles have iron oxide cores) but it strikes me that there is also the possibility of applying magnetic fields which would heat the cancer cells thus injuring or killing them.

Check out the article for details, quite brilliant stuff.

More anti-nano scares from the hype pipe

2006-05-05T18:34:00.000-07:00

Under the heading of "oh my gosh!" you'll find a quote from some poor deranged fool at the bottom of this post. Here's my reply:

Why is it that intentionally controlled nanoparticles are any more dangerous than those which occur at random? There is no logical reason to instantly assume that the soot your car spits out is somehow safer than the zinc oxide particles in suntan lotion. And yet we're being warned all the time about the particles in our products despite the fact that we at least know what they are and can hazard a guess at least as to any threat they might offer. The same can not be said for the almost infinite sources of nanoparticles which occur in what we all think of as the "natural" world.

The analogy with asbestos is totally flawed for so many reasons I don't even know where to start. 1) at the time no one even knew tiny particles were a danger. 2) asbestos fibers are macroscopic even those which cause lung cancer. 3) We are now aware of the danger of inhaling things, like automobile exhaust or cat dander and can easily take steps to avoid them. 4) I could just keep pointing things out but you should be smart enough to figure them out on your own.

Don't even get me started about GMOs. No one, absolutely no one has ever died from exposure to a GMO. EVER. However millions of people are starving to death in Africa as you read this because they don't have GMO foods to keep them alive. Good job, idiot.

Far more irreversible harm is being caused by irrational panic mongers who delight in giving away their natural intelligence to be dominated by a herd mentality which furthers their loss of control to authoritarians.

I am sure when they started using Asbestos products several years ago, it was perceived as the best product for the application. It took several years to prove and feel the deadly side effects.

Seemingly harmless natural rubber could cause severe allergic reactions and no wonder majority of clinical facilities "discontinued" using rubber products. GMO crop / food / plant technology that people are toying with is another classic example, with irreversible harmful effects being discovered on a regular basis.

We ought to weigh potential harm than potential benefit first when other alternatives are available.

I would say much research needs to be done before these products penetrate our homes and lives and wreck potentially irreversible havoc.

From PB, unregistered commentor at Physnews. What a doh!

Nano safety as a tool for political change

2006-05-03T20:42:00.000-07:00

Big warning here folks. Some self-agrandizing idiot is about to redefine the bases of responsibility within the western legal system again (akin to the problems with copyright Lawrence Lessig has been warning us about for so long)

In the above linked article Greenpeace is making a grab for omnipotence again. Their chief Scientist in the UK, Doug Barr, is calling for a moratorium on all products which contain unbound nanoparticles. I wish Dougy (to his elitist pals) had stayed awake in chem 101. Virtually the entire planet contains unbound nanoparticles. Hell, you're shedding them right now in the form of keratin cells from your hair and skin. The CO2 molecules you're exhaling could be considered nanoparticles. When will these people learn to think before making sweeping generalizations? Oh, that's right it's Greenpeace.

If these sort of draconian limitations are placed on our burdgeoning nano-industry it will be a virtual abortion for a child technology which could easily bring about untold wealth and prosperity for every man, woman, and especially child on earth within the next 20 years. Abortion you say? Oh that's right, it's Greenpeace.

What's even worse is that this sort of maneuver is an opening for applying even more tyranny to our society. As I said, you contain unbound nanoparticles, so we'll have a moratorium on you as well. Fortunately, since I'm made of pure spirit I won't have to worry about it. However, the automobile is a powerful producer of nanoparticles in the form of soot. Just what you need, even tighter emission standards and higher gas prices from nanoparticle control taxes. Can you imagine the negative impact on the economy of our country?

Oh, that's right. It's Greenpeace.

Yet again with the nanotech danger hype

2006-05-03T14:01:00.000-07:00

Yes, everyone agrees that health testing may be necessary. But do we really need to test the nanotubes in our golf clubs, tennis balls, and bicycles?

Caution is a good thing but is this fella going to do the same thing that Ralph Nader did when he helped to ban super-sonic transports? That was a spin-doctor fiasco, SSTs were never a threat to the ozone layer but Ralph had no problem convincing people it was so.

Using a hot button issue like safety to evoke knee-jerk responses has always been a good way to further your career, if you don't mind the moral cost.

I'm just saying lets be cautious with our caution or we'll end up throwing out the good stuff just to benefit some agenda pusher who actually could care less.

Device fusion: will it lead to "Perfect Witness"

2006-05-01T12:22:00.000-07:00

Sound Solution has delivered a product called the torq100 which combines handheld PC, cellphone, GPS, wireless, and digital camera technology. I've been predicting such a fused device for about 7 years now. With just a tiny tweak of encryption to make the whole thing secure and a simple transparent verification system to give it reciprocal accountability this device (especially when operating in groups ) would provide a 99.99999% reliable witness system thus circumventing many if not all the problems inherent with relying on human witnesses. First hand accounts have been proven time and again to have dubious value even though it is one of the center pieces of our judicial system. By delivering a verified encrypted GPS located image stream to a third party site for later review perfectly reliable first hand accounts of events can be recorded or simply streamed to the web for public consumption. The reduction in historical uncertainty would be immense while subjective influence on reporting would be purely a matter of personal response, no longer coloring the perceived outcome of events.

Japanese Device Art

2006-05-01T07:17:00.000-07:00

Well this isn't nanotech, but it is pretty cool.

Nanomech an American nano success story

2006-04-27T20:17:00.000-07:00

Smalltimes has an article about Nanomech, a company out of Fayatville, Ar. which makes a number of products from particles of cubic boron nitride ( a diamondoid phase of inorganic graphite ) the best part I liked is their intention to keep the company 100% American. Hoorah for Nanomech!

Thinking about national debt

2006-04-23T12:30:00.000-07:00

The above linked article really got me thinking. There is one dimension of future expenditure which (and this is totally wishful thinking I admit!) could potentially absorb the vast run-off of debt which America is developing. The arenas of high tech evolution operate under rules of geometric progression. Electronics, IT and nanotech each produces orders of magnitude progression which would swamp an economy with surplus. But here's the catch: that wouldn't be an economy of shortages which allow governments ready control of the masses. Therefore the assorted control organizations of the world must stay ahead of this trend of accelerating returns. Venture capital which could go into the R&D of useful new media and products are absorbed by stock markets which over price already vested stocks and speculators drive up the price of required goods such as oil. These economic restriction coupled with government restraints prevent runaway technological development. And when these methods don't work another form of psycho-social engineering can be employed for instance as happened during the internet bubble in 2000. The over-hyping and subsequent burnout of web based businesses have left most investors scared of things technologically profound. A similar thing happened in biotech with the introduction of the "Frankenfoods" scare. Such psycho-social engineering (call it spin if you must) has all the hallmarks of classic mass control methodology. The saddest thing is, we all just give into the sound bites and image blurbs and let it work instead of exercising a little thought and behaving reasonably.

As scientists go, they're great christians...

2006-04-19T21:23:00.000-07:00

Once more people who should not be classified as either scientists or journalists are trying their hands as both. The Christian Science Monitor decided to demonstrate it's multiple levels of ignorance today. Apparently Pater N. Spotts has trouble grasping the concept of a nanometer (not even close to 1/800th the width of a human hair) and he also has no idea who Buckminster Fuller is or why buckyballs are called buckyballs. This fella should get a job in a carwash so that some nice illegal immigrant could move up into a better paying job.