One of these days, nanotechnology is going to take a huge leap forward, when we start developing things like nano-tweezers and bi-pedal walking nanobots, especially if such items can be produced on a molecular assembly line. Oh, wait. That’s right. We’re already doing all those things, using DNA: As if the blueprint for life wasn’t […]
Micah Glasser, visionary or shamless shill for big oil? So this got me thinking: all that carbon dioxide we keep dumping into the atmosphere via combustion could be a global fortune rather than a disaster. Just imagine molecular manufacturing on a global scale that produced almost every economic good out of carbon directly from the […]
Roland Piquepaille: Our cells contain small protein factories which have to deliver materials inside the cell via a network of microtubules. And the transportation is carried out by biomolecular motors. Now, researchers from Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands have built a traffic control system able to force individual molecules to choose between ‘roads’ […]
We missed the first wave of essays from the CRN task force on nanotechnology, but we won’t make that mistake twice. The complete set of essays, new and old, are listed here: Introduction to the first issue Kurzweil, Ray – “Nanotechnology Dangers and Defenses” Freitas, Robert A. Jr. – “Molecular Manufacturing: Too Dangerous to Allow?” […]
Sure, they sound kind of icky…but potentially useful nonetheless: THE propulsion system used by slime-squirting bacteria could teach rocket scientists and nano-engineers some new tricks. Myxobacteria are micrometre-scale filament-shaped organisms that glide along surfaces, leaving a trail of slime in their wake. Biologists were convinced the bugs produced the slime as lubricant, but couldn’t explain […]
Although we have dedicated no small amount of space to disagreeing with him on certain points over the years, it is beyond question that Richard Smalley, who died on Friday, was an integral leader of and contributor to the emerging field of nanotechnology. Smalley won a Nobel Prize in chemistry for his discovery of buckminsterfullerene, […]
Protestors picketed the Chicago Eddie Bauer store in early May for selling stain resistant nanopants. As is the norm these days, the protest involved nudity. I’m not sure how effective these nude protests are when the protestor is attractive. Is this woman really going to scare customers away from Eddie Bauer? “You mean I can […]
Wouldn’t it be great if a strawberry malt was as healthy as a cup of steamed veggies? It could happen. Dr. David Weitz at Harvard University is developing a self-assembling nanoscale capsules called “colloidosomes” that could deliver nutrients, medicine, even tastes at a set time. The capsules, called “colloidosomes,” are made of tiny particles just […]
Lord Broers, the President of England’s Royal Academy of Engineering, recently said, “Our experience with chemistry and physics teaches us that we do not have any idea how to make an autonomous self-replicating machine at any scale.” Broers didn’t say that autonomous self-replicating machines are impossible. Still, this caused a bit of a stir over […]
Howard Lovy compares two statements made by distinguished British scientists. Chronologically separated by 110 years, these predictions are united in their unabashed eagerness to be proved wrong. UPDATE: I just did a Google on Lord Kelvin. He died in 1907, four years after Kitty Hawk. Talk about living to see it! Lord Broers was born […]