Responsible Nanotechnology

Happy Belated Birthday...

...to the World Wide Web!

There are, as this BBC article suggests, a number of different ways to determine the proper birth date for the Web, but April 30, 1993, might be the most appropriate:

That's the day that Cern [the European laboratory in Geneva where it was invented] put the web in the public domain, thereby ensuring that the world would have a single system for accessing the Internet, instead of a Microsoft Web, a Macintosh Web and who knows, perhaps even an Amstrad Web.

So hurray for Cern, happy 15th birthday to our beloved World Wide Web, and renewed congratulations to its primary inventor, Sir Tim Berners-Lee.

In a separate BBC article, Berners-Lee says the Web is "still in its infancy." Looking ahead, he predicts that the future Web will put "all the data in the world" at the fingertips of every user.

We're getting there, many thanks to Sir Tim and his colleagues at W3C.

 

Drexler to Speak

We received an interesting press release [PDF] today, that says:

World-famous futurist and the man who first coined the word, nanotechnology, will be a leading attraction among other top minds in science during International Nanotechnology Week. 

Organizers of the international nanotechnology event held each year in Dallas, Texas, announced that K. Eric Drexler will present his latest insights the second day of the event, Friday, October 3, when he speaks to a crowd of nanotech business interests at nanoTX USA’08, held this year at the Hyatt Regency Dallas convention hotel. 

As a researcher and author, Drexler’s work focuses on advanced nanotechnologies and directions for current research. His 1981 paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences established fundamental principles of molecular design, protein engineering, and productive nanosystems.

And, if that's not impressive enough, the announcement goes on to say:

Much of what Drexler saw coming is being realized today, indeed he worked to create it.  This field has been his basis for numerous journal articles and books, including Engines of Creation: The Coming Era of Nanotechnology (written for a general audience) and Nanosystems: Molecular Machinery, Manufacturing, and Computation (a quantitative, physics-based analysis).  And Drexler helped lead development of the 2007 Technology Roadmap for Productive Nanosystems, a project managed by Battelle and hosted by several of the U.S. National Laboratories.

Drexler was awarded a PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Molecular Nanotechnology (the first degree of its kind). Dr. Drexler serves as Chief Technical Advisor to Nanorex, a company developing open-source design software for structural DNA nanotechnologies. He consults and speaks on how current research can be directed more effectively toward high-payoff objectives, and addresses the implications of emerging technologies for our future, including their use to solve, rather than delay, large-scale problems such as global warming.

Put that together with the complimentary language used in Monday's press release from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and it looks like Drexler's ideas for molecular manufacturing are being rehabilitated/resurrected by the U.S. science community.

This all goes back, it seems, to the landmark report in December 2006 from the U.S. National Materials Advisory Board that called for increased research funding of such concepts, and then the remarkable work achieved by the UK's "Ideas Factory" in the following month.

Since then, we have seen denials of molecular manufacturing's feasibility drop off to almost zero, while more and more scientists now appear willing to credit Drexler for their inspiration. It's a remarkable change.

Mike Treder

Vertical Farming in NYC?

Amber waves of grain on the 15th floor? A "green sky" solution that means fewer carbon miles for food?

Vertical farms may not be the answer to all our problems, but they certainly are an intriguing concept.

I'm especially enamored by this proposed project, just a few miles from where I live:

You can read much more about vertical farming in this long entry at the TreeHugger blog, and also here on our blog.

Mike Treder

Stonehenge History

This here is pretty cool...

The animated history of Stonehenge -- watch 4,500 years of history behind the iconic monument in just about a minute.

Nanomedical Technology

Opening today in Quebec is the First Annual Unither Nanomedical & Telemedical Technology Conference, billed as " The Next Decade's Approach to Medicine."

Among the presenters at the conference are several members of CRN's Global Task Force on Implications and Policy, including Ralph Merkle, Ray Kurzweil, Tihamer Toth-Fejel, and CRN co-founder Chris Phoenix. The conference, which actually gets underway tonight, features a long list of distinguished speakers covering two full days of discussions on nanomedicine and biotechnology.

New U.S. Nanotech Agency

A story from Nanowerk dated April 1 tells us:

Newly formed Nanotechnology Protection Agency (NPA) to regulate molecular assemblers

The newly created U.S. Nanotechnology Protection Agency (NPA) announced today, April 1, 2008, that, effective immediately, all laboratories and production facilities for molecular assemblers (commonly called nanobots) need a special license and have to follow strict guidelines in all research and production facilities that deal with nanoassemblers. At the same time, the NPA declared gray goo a hazardous substance.

While the NPA regulations will have an immediate economic impact on many nanotechnology companies, most have been preparing for this dreaded day. However, public and media reactions seem to indicate that the public and many organizations were taken completely by surprise.

The Other Half

China is often depicted by the traditional media as a nation with a booming economy, a thriving middle class, and an unlimited future. We're led to expect that it soon will become the world's unchallenged economic and geopolitical superpower.

But there is another side to that narrative, a story of how the other half lives, those many millions who are caught up in the turbulent backwash of industrial and commercial growth. A few days ago, I had the opportunity to see a small masterpiece of a movie called Ling yi ban ("The Other Half") at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.

A Robot-Dominated Future

Another shout out to Cory Doctorow at BoingBoing, who found this humorous and compelling satire from Onion News:

Funny or frightening?

Mike Treder

Tags: nanotechnology nanotech nano science technology ethics blog

Everybody Kills Hitler

Hat tip to Cory Doctorow for linking this hilarious short short story about time travel.

LOL

Mike Treder

Tags: nanotechnology nanotech nano science technology ethics blog

Arthur C. Clarke Dies

The great author, inventor, and futurist Arthur C. Clarke has died in Sri Lanka at the age of 90, according to reports.

Some of our favorite Clarke observations:

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.

If we have learned one thing from the history of invention and discovery, it is that, in the long run -- and often in the short one -- the most daring prophecies seem laughably conservative.

It may be that our role on this planet is not to worship God -- but to create him.

Every revolutionary idea evokes three stages of reactions: At first people say, “It's completely impossible.” Then they say, “Maybe it's possible to do it, but it would cost too much.” Finally they say, “I always thought it was a good idea.”

At the present rate of progress, it is almost impossible to imagine any technical feat that cannot be achieved -- if it can be achieved at all -- within the next few hundred years.

Politicians should read science fiction, not westerns and detective stories.

He will be deeply missed.

UPDATE: Read this tribute from David Brin.

Mike Treder

Tags: nanotechnology nanotech nano science technology ethics blog