Responsible Nanotechnology

Survey Results

As promised, here are the initial results of the "Climate Change Predictions" survey that we opened a week ago (click images below to enlarge).

Part One (Questions 1-5):

Part Two (Questions 6-10):

There was, as noted previously, an annoying glitch in the survey software that prevented choosing the same answer to a question for both time periods. We don't think that it necessarily negates the value of the this survey; however, we have figured out how to prevent its recurrence if we either repeat the survey or do another one.

Next week we'll report on some of the comments that were made by survey takers and we'll offer analysis of these results.

Mike Treder

Survey Update

Our thanks to all who have completed the brief survey we posted on "Climate Change Predictions." We've had a few dozen people give answers so far, and we'll leave the survey open until later tonight (Friday).

Originally we planned to report on the results today, but it turns out that I will be out of town all day to attend the first annual Environmental Law and Policy Annual Review Conference, on Capitol Hill in Washington DC.

So, instead, we'll compile all the survey results and tell you what it says tomorrow (Saturday).

Mike Treder

Survey Invitation

What, in your opinion, are the most likely impacts of global warming and climate change? How bad will things get, and how soon? What options might we have to prevent or at least mitigate the damages?

We want to know what YOU think!

CRN has created an online survey, ten questions long, that we hope you will take. It's titled "Climate Change Predictions." To access the survey, you'll need a password, which is CRN101 (case sensitive).

Click here to take the survey.

We'll report on the results at the end of this week.

C-R-Newsletter #62

The latest edition of the C-R-Newsletter has been posted on our main website.

CONTENTS OF THIS ISSUE:

Powerful Nanoscale Computer Created
More Enabling Technologies
Visions of the Future
Empowering Hope
Disruptive Nanotechnology
Religion & Nanotech
New Nano TV Show
Debating CRN's Scope
Archiving Nanotech Interviews
Guest Science Essay: Atomic Force Microscopy

Read the whole newsletter here — and sign up for a free subscription here.

Disruptive Nanotechnology

A California newspaper, Palo Alto Weekly, has a cover story today on nanotechnology.

Scientist Cheri Pereira stood in a lab at Palo Alto-based Nanosys and held up a glass beaker with a half-inch of gold-tinged liquid at the bottom. That half-inch contained around a billion nanowires, she said. . .

"Nano" is a prefix meaning one billionth. Nanotechnology is the science of working with substances around one to one hundred-billionths of a meter in size. It could help cure cancer, make better clean-energy batteries and create computers with nearly unlimited memory, researchers say. . .

Some predict the nano-revolution will dwarf the computer revolution in its scope.

Travel and Appearances

Here is where I will be going over the next several months...

April 11: Environmental Law and Policy Annual Review Conference, Washington DC

• I've been invited to attend this event as an audience member on behalf of CRN with the opportunity to ask questions and participate in dialogue. The morning session will focus on "A Framework Convention for Nanotechnology." This is an invitation-only affair, but the good news is that you can invite yourself. See this page for more information.

July 17-20: Conference on Global Catastrophic Risks, Oxford, UK

• This event, organized by the Future of Humanity Institute at Oxford University, is built around a new book composed of essays on the full range of global catastrophic risks. Chris Phoenix and I co-authored a chapter on advanced nanotechnology for the book, and we will make a joint presentation at the conference on the subject of "Small Machines, Big Choices: The Looming Impacts of Molecular Manufacturing."

July 26-28: WorldFuture 2008, Washington DC

• The annual conference of the World Future Society, where I have made presentations twice before, in 2005 and 2007. My talk this year, scheduled for 11:00 am to 12:00 pm on Sunday, July 27, will be on "Radical Technologies, Rapid Change, and the Real World." You can download the preliminary conference program here [PDF].

September 3-5: Basque Country Program on Globalization, San Sebastian, Spain

• This is an annual event sponsored by the Basque Savings Bank Federation. In previous years they have covered the digital revolution, sustainable development, demographic evolution, climate change, and other issues. For this year's conference, I've been asked to give a lecture "broadly focused on globalization and nanotechnology."

If you are able to attend any of these events, I look forward to seeing you there!

Mike Treder

Tags: nanotechnology nanotech nano science technology ethics

Updating the Blogroll

We've recently done some housecleaning on our Blogroll (see the list in the panel to the right), and removed several blogs that were either dead or largely inactive.

If you have a favorite blog that's not listed and you think it covers subjects relevant to responsible nanotechnology, please let us know. No guarantee that we'll add it, of course, but we're always interested in seeing good blogs.

Mike Treder

Manufacturing with Nano

Looking to understand what nanotechnology means for you? Interested in learning about the latest applications and trends in top-down fabrication and bottom-up assembly techniques?

Those are some questions being used to promote a conference on nanomanufacturing, coming next month to the Boston area. The event, organized by the Society of Manufacturing Engineers, includes a day and a half of presentations and panels, including sessions on "Exponential Manufacturing" and on the recently announced "Technology Roadmap for Productive Nanosystems."

NanoManufacturing Conference & Exhibits
Sheraton Framingham Hotel
Framingham, MA USA
April 22 - April 23, 2008

In addition to the main event, they're also offering an April 21 pre-conference workshop on "Understanding Nanotechnology" presented by Tihamer Toth-Fejel, a member of CRN's Global Task Force.

More Interviews Added

Sander Olsen was one of the original developers of the NanoApex and NanoMagazine web sites. Since the acquisition of those sites in 2005 by the International Small Technology Network, many of Sander's in-depth interviews with notable figures involved in nanotech and other technologies have not been available on the web.

This week we have posted four more of his interviews:

• Jeff Chinn, Applied MicroStructures
• Jack Dunietz, Chairman of Dunietz Bros. Ltd.
• Jeffrey Harrow, technology analyst
• James Talton, Nanotherapeutics

A total of 24 interviews are now available on our site. We still have five more to add and hope to have that completed within the next week or two.

Mike Treder

Tags: nanotechnology nanotech nano science technology ethics blog

Nano & More Grab Bag

Catching up on items of interest from the past week or two...

1. Self-powered nanotechnology

Scientists have developed what they call self-powered nanotechnology that would allow fibres to be powered by movement such as in a person's clothing or even by wind blowing against a tent.

The nano-generators, consist of pairs of fibres that look like tiny, bendable bottle-brushes, with a Kevlar stalk at the end of each fibre. Each wire is grown in solution and is just 30-50 nanometres, or billionths of a metre, long and made of zinc oxide. US scientists have put these fibres into "smart" clothes that when worn could generate power.

Ottilia Saxl, chief executive of the Institute of Nanotechnology, said: "It could perhaps be used to power tiny medical devices like a true cochlear implant or heart pacemaker, or a delivery mechanism for subcutaneous drug delivery implants or antibiotic drug reservoirs for preventing infection in retinal implants."

This, of course, is not about molecular manufacturing (MM), but their innovative power-generating approach might someday be used to run atomically-precise devices.

2. Engineer Live posts an interesting article on the overlap between rapid prototyping and rapid manufacturing with nanotechnology. Again, it's not referring directly to MM, but the piece does help to illuminate the interim pathway that may lead to a direct linkage between microscale rapid manufacturing and atomically-precise manufacturing.

3. Michael Berger at the Nanowerk site has posted an excellent explanation of the meaning and power of atomic force microscopy. Highly recommended.

4. On his Climate Progress blog, Joseph Romm urges everyone, especially the media, to stop referring to those who oppose action on climate change as either 'skeptics' or 'deniers'. He suggests the term 'delayer-1000' instead. In a comment, I offer 'climate fatalists', which I think is a better fit.

5. Finally, a reminder about SciVestor's Disruptive Technologies Conference, coming to New York City on May 22. I'll be giving a talk on the topic of "Disruptive Abundance: Economic Implications of Advanced Nanotechnology." CRN's Director of Impacts Analysis, Jamais Cascio, also will be speaking, along with many others. Download the event brochure [PDF] and be sure to register before March 15th to save $100. We'll see you there!

Mike Treder

Tags: nanotechnology nanotech nano science technology ethics blog