From the monthly archives:

February 2009

Advanced Nanotechnology Keynote

for WORLDCOMP’09

February 17, 2009

I’ll be giving a keynote talk for the opening plenary session of WORLDCOMP’09, the 2009 World Congress in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, and Applied Computing. The conference, to be held July 13–16 in Las Vegas, is the largest annual gathering of researchers in computer science, computer engineering and applied computing.
In my keynote, I’ll describe critical [...]

Read the full article →

Nanostructures, Nanomaterials,
and Lattice-Scaled Stiffness

February 15, 2009

Toward Advanced Nanotechnology: Nanomaterials (4)

The peg aligns with the hole if the hole is large enough, and the fluctuations are small enough.

In a nanofabrication technology that uses nanomachines to assemble products, the stiffness of the machines is important because it limits the amplitude of thermal fluctuations, yet tolerance for fluctuations is important too. When both [...]

Read the full article →

For Darwin Day: On the Origin of Genetic Information

February 12, 2009

The ideas that evolved from Darwin’s thought have shaped my thinking for more than 35 years, and a decade later, writing Engines of Creation, I relied on the generality of evolutionary principles as an anchor point for surveying the future of technology. Today, in my home, “Uncle Charles says…” means “Evolutionary principles say…”

In joining the [...]

Read the full article →

Nanomachines: How the Videos Lie to Scientists

February 10, 2009

Sound physical inference from an illusory premise

Don’t let this animationfool you about the physics!

By now, many scientists have seen videos of molecular-scale mechanical devices like the one shown here, and I have no way to know how many have concluded that the devices are a lot of rubbish (and have perhaps formulated an unfortunate corollary [...]

Read the full article →

Toward Advanced Nanotechnology:

Nanomaterials (3)

February 8, 2009

Mechanical engineering meets thermal fluctuations
Thermal fluctuations distort nanoscale structures, and this makes them an enemy of nanotechnologies that rely on precise mechanical motion. Indeed, if one were to set aside design and calculation and instead substitute guesses (I’m not naming guilty parties here), one might suppose that this would prevent nanomechanical engineers from designing reliable [...]

Read the full article →

Predictably Irrational

February 5, 2009

If you’ve read Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions, you’ve probably recommended it to a friend. I you haven’t read it, then I think you’ll like it provided that:

You like to learn strange facts about how the human world really works, and
You sometimes enjoy well-written books on science by scientists who know [...]

Read the full article →

Toward Affordable Structural DNA Nanotechnology

February 4, 2009

Science recently reported a research advance linked to a series of topics I’ve covered:

Self-assembled systems
George Church’s roadmap for radically lowering the cost of DNA
Structural DNA nanotechnology for modular molecular composite nanosystems
Cryo-electron microscopy for visualizing large self-assembled structures

The advance is an improved structural map of the core of the self-assembled protein machinery that some bacteria use [...]

Read the full article →

From Self-Assembly to Mechanosynthesis

February 3, 2009

In an ongoing series, I’ve been discussing paths forward from today’s atomically precise fabrication methods to advanced molecular manufacturing. The posts that address broad topics are:
Modular Molecular Composite Nanosystems
Toward Advanced Nanotechnology: Nanomaterials (1)
Toward Advanced Nanotechnology: Nanomaterials (2)
Self-Assembly for Nanotechnology
In some areas I’ve discussed, lab research is active today; in other areas, research (at least, of [...]

Read the full article →

← Previous Entries

Next Entries →