Don’t be lost at the next Speculist cocktail party! New Scientist offers a 1,400 word nanotech primer.

Back during the Drexler/Smalley debates, Drexler argued that “The ultimate existence proof of the feasibility of a molecular assembler is life itself.” Smalley responded that life is “wet nano” – that many things that may be possible in molecular biology will prove impossible to duplicate with “dry” nanomaterials. And though I’d love for Drexler to […]

On Friday, Newsfactor Technology News published an article entitled, “The Bleeding Edge of Computing” which contained this speculation: Professor Drew Endy in biological engineering at MIT says that soon we will be able to write DNA — perhaps even building and coding living organisms capable of conducting work for us on the nano-scale. It is […]

Big News: Scientists from the Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University have created the first reproducible single molecule negative differential resistor and in the process have developed a groundbreaking experimental technique that provides a “roadmap” for designing single-molecule devices based on biochemistry. Based on biotechnology? Very interesting. Those single-molecule devices will no doubt be used […]

Over a year ago Phil posted “Mapping The Development Space.” Phil’s post took four categories of possible nanotech developments (as conceived, I believe, by Glenn Reynolds) and put them on a grid: These four categories are: Fake (where it’s basically a marketing term, as with nanopants); Simple: high-strength materials, sensors, coatings, etc — things that […]

Mike Treder, Executive Director of the Center for Responsible Nanotechnology has given us permission to republish this thought-provoking essay on how soon we can expect to see molecular manufacturing. How does 20 years sound? Too long? How about 10? Many recent developments, including the progress that Stephen has been tracking in the development of “fab […]

Where were you on May 19, 1998 when the

Chris Phoenix has some sobering thoughts on the potential coming energy crisis… If oil supply ever does fall below demand, we can expect prices to rise steeply. At this point, it could take years for alternative technologies to come online, no matter how much economic incentive there is–and meanwhile, since oil demand is relatively "inelastic," […]

Chris Phoenix has some sobering thoughts on the potential coming energy crisis… If oil supply ever does fall below demand, we can expect prices to rise steeply. At this point, it could take years for alternative technologies to come online, no matter how much economic incentive there is–and meanwhile, since oil demand is relatively "inelastic," […]

Here’s a major development: One line of nanotube research has been to find ways to make the tubes grow continuously. Long nanotubes could be used as wires in electronic circuits and woven into macroscopic fibers that could be used to make extremely strong fabrics and rope. One long-range possibility is using ultralong carbon nanotubes fibers […]