Engines of Creation
Sunday, September 5, 2004 4:25 PM

topics: books:nf  nanotech 

Engines of Creation. K. Eric Drexler's original work describing nanotechnology.

The future of nanotechnology
Sunday, September 5, 2004 4:21 PM

topics: nanotech 

The future of nanotechnology. Excellent overview article discussing different types of nanotechnology, problems with Drexler's original vision of "radical" nanotechnology, and an examination of some potential paths forward for the science. Risks are also examined - "grey goo" being dismissed as an unlikely occurrence, while issues of toxicity are cited as critical.

NEC positions carbon nanotubes for prime time
Sunday, September 5, 2004 3:42 PM

topics: basic research  nanotech 
related posts

• Tools design DNA-nanotube logic
• Intel in new chip breakthrough

NEC positions carbon nanotubes for prime time. NEC breakthrough allows for controlling both position and diameter of carbon nanotubes used to create circuits.

Electrons can flow through carbon nanotubes 10 times faster than they can in circuits made using silicon, and carbon nanotubes can carry 100 times the current and dissipate 20 times the heat of circuits made with silicon. Carbon nanotubes in transistors can also amplify about 20 times more current than conventional silicon-based transistors, Ochiai said.

Not-So-Spotty Material Breakthrough
Wednesday, September 1, 2004 9:40 PM

topics: basic research  nanotech 

Not-So-Spotty Material Breakthrough.

Using pulsed lasers, researchers have coaxed the metal nickel to self-assemble into arrays of nanodots — each spot a mere seven nanometers (seven billionths of a meter) across -- one-tenth the diameter of nickel nanodots and on par with the world's smallest.

Because the method works with a variety of materials and may drastically reduce imperfections, the new procedure may also bolster research into extremely hard materials and efforts to develop ultra-dense computer memory.

Self-assembly generates more versatile scaffolds for crystal growth
Wednesday, September 1, 2004 9:33 PM

topics: basic research  nanotech 
related posts

• Tools design DNA-nanotube logic

Self-assembly generates more versatile scaffolds for crystal growth. Application of gene therapy technologies to develop self-assembling scaffolds for the production of inorganic materials.

"By investigating the fundamental design rules for the control of self-assembled supramolecular structures, we can now organize large functional molecules into nanoscopic arrays," said Gerard Wong, a professor of materials science and engineering and of physics at the University of Illinois. Wong and his colleagues report their latest experimental results in the September issue of the journal Nature Materials.

"We showed that the self-assembly of charged membranes and oppositely charged polymers into structures can be understood in terms of some simple rules," said Wong, senior author of the paper. "We then applied those rules and demonstrated that we could organize molecules into regular arrays with pore sizes ten times larger than in previous DNA-membrane complexes."

Tools design DNA-nanotube logic
Monday, August 30, 2004 9:28 PM

topics: artificial intelligence  nanotech  basic research 
related posts

• Self-assembly generates more versatile scaffolds for crystal growth
• NEC positions carbon nanotubes for prime time

Tools design DNA-nanotube logic. Duke University researchers combine newly developed special CAD software with a recently created DNA scaffold technique to lay the ground work for building DNA-nanotube transistors.

The tools are designed to build computer circuits at a density of 2,500 transistors per square micron, which is about 30 times more closely packed than devices made using current chipmaking technologies, according to Chris Dwyer, an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at Duke University. A micron is one thousandth of a millimeter.

Transistors are arranged into logic gates, which in turn are combined by the millions into the complicated circuits that process and store data. Being able to assemble individual nanotube transistors is the prerequisite for developing a nanotube-based chipmaking technology. The key is finding ways to combine them into logic circuits.

One of the issues that could possibly derail future computing advances (as well as any potential Technological Singularity) is the so-called expiration of Moore's Law, where it becomes impossible to build faster, larger computers. This rapidly approaching problem arises from the physical limits imposed on current chip making technologies, where it becomes impossible to place circuits any closer together. DNA-nanotube technology offers one possible successor technology to current chip making methods that has the potential to circumvent this problem.

Nanotech will tap nature's potential, investor says
Sunday, August 29, 2004 9:28 PM

topics: nanotech  society 

Nanotech will tap nature's potential, investor says. Venture capitalism interest in nanotechnology appears to still be strong despite recent setbacks.

Speaking at the Hot Chips conference at Stanford University, Jurvetson asserted that nanotechnology--the ability to make products on the molecular level--will usher in the next great wave of innovation despite the recent cancellation of Nanosys' high-profile initial public offering. That revolution will occur, in part, because scientists will be able to harness or imitate the power of nature.

Next News: Building nanostructures
Sunday, August 29, 2004 8:24 PM

topics: nanotech  basic research 

Next News: Building nanostructures.

Researchers at the University of Michigan have discovered a way to "self-assemble" tiny nanoparticles into wires, sheets, and shells by using "sticky patches" that make the particles attract to each other in programmed ways. The results of computer simulations showed that "if surfaces of particles could be patterned with patches of molecules, they could make the particles assemble into different shapes." The patches, made of other molecules, attract and repel specific parts of other particles, much like proteins do in the body.

Internet Heading to Light Speed
Sunday, August 29, 2004 8:06 PM

topics: basic research  artificial intelligence  nanotech 

Internet Heading to Light Speed. A new nanotechnology that eliminates network bottlenecks could help create a web surfers' paradise that is 100 times faster than today's internet.