Since our FastForward Radio show Sunday night, I’ve been thinking over part of the conversation we had with our Nanotech panel. On a couple of occasions Christine Peterson stated that some problems might not be worth the cost of developing nanotech solutions. I’d be foolish to disagree. She is, afterall, the president of the Foresight […]
We know that nanobots are possible because, in a very real way, they already exist. It’s a point that’s been made before, most famously in the Drexler-Smalley debates, but it bears repeating. Single celled life is “the ultimate existence proof of the feasibility of a molecular assembler.” This is not a metaphor. Life is nanotech, […]
As Stephen has been mentioning, I had the privilege of attending the Foresight Vision Unconference over the weekend at Yahoo! headquarters in Sunnyvale California. In fact, the event was half conference and half unconference. The conference half included the following: A talk from David Friedman on how the technologies of public key encryption and surveillance […]
Preparing for the Foresight Vision Weekend in Sunnyvale, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about my map of the development space for nanotechnology which we revisited in a recent edition of FasftForward Radio. I’ve never been completely satisfied with the axes of that diagram. I wanted to show how some developments have this immediate […]
This is cool: Researchers in California today report development of the world’s first working radio system that receives radio waves wirelessly and converts them to sound signals through a nano-sized detector made of carbon nanotubes. Our cellphones, MP3 players, and radios are already integrating into one device. We’ll still have that device – or its […]
Mike Treder has some insights on a subject we definitely want to keep an eye on: Of the many questions that must be answered about molecular manufacturing, one of the most important is: Who will attain the technology first? It matters a great deal if this powerful and potentially disruptive new manufacturing technique is developed […]
Wet, sloppy, and soupy or cut like a diamond (because, you know, it’s made of little diamonds)? Christine Peterson says that debate is settled. Excellent. Now will someone please get to work on my utility fog? Thank you.
Carbon Nanotubes, that is: Pound for pound, carbon nanotubes are stronger and lighter than steel, but unlike other materials, the miniscule cylinders of carbon – which are no wider than a strand of DNA – remain remarkably robust even when chunks of their bodies are blasted away with heat or radiation. A new study by […]
…to support nanotechnology in 2006. It’s the annual Foresight Nanotech Challenge Grant. I made my usual 11th-hour annual membership pledge last week without even realizing that the money I gave will be doubled thanks to the challenge. So this is your big chance not only to help , but to have your contribution matched dollar […]
…to support nanotechnology in 2006. It’s the annual Foresight Nanotech Challenge Grant. I made my usual 11th-hour annual membership pledge last week without even realizing that the money I gave will be doubled thanks to the challenge. So this is your big chance not only to help , but to have your contribution matched dollar […]