From the monthly archives:

July 2009

Slides for Talk on Nanotechnology
and Computational Challenges

July 28, 2009

I’ve posted the slides for my WORLDCOMP’09 keynote, “Advanced Nanotechnology: Advanced Computing on the Critical Path”: Click here to download.
My earlier talk for the 2009 Berkeley Nanotechnology Forum was directed to a non-specialized nanotechnology audience and surveyed near-term directions in framework-directed self assembly as a basis for next-generation nanosystems. The WORLDCOMP’09 talk is organized like [...]

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Apollo+40

July 20, 2009

We are still in the prehistory of effective space technology. The problem is that we aren’t (yet) very good at making things.

See also:

The Physical Basis of Atomically Precise Manufacturing
A Telescope Aimed at the Future

Airbus 330: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jmiguel/ CC BY-NC 2.0

 

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Productive Nanosystems: The Ribosome Videos

July 16, 2009

While browsing the literature on the catalysis of bond formation in protein synthesis by ribosomes*, I came across a wonderful set of videos of the ribosomal protein manufacturing system at work, shown in recent-state-of-the-art molecular detail. These videos were presented in a Chemical & Engineering News article online, but I missed seeing them at the [...]

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Carbon Nanotubes in Ordered DNA Wrappers

July 12, 2009

Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNs) are well known for their outstanding strength, stiffness, and electronic properties, but their utility has been limited by the diversity of their structures and the difficulty of separating different kinds. In a new paper in Nature, a DuPont group reports the development of a new method for separation, one that also [...]

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What is simple?
Polyethylene, molecular modeling,
and molecular machines

July 8, 2009

A scientist recently remarked to me that molecular modeling techniques cannot accurately predict the mechanical properties of typical polymers, even one as simple as polyethylene, a hydrocarbon consisting of long chains of –(CH2)– units. He was, I think, suggesting that molecular modeling may tell us little about molecular technologies based on structures that would be [...]

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A Renaissance Weekend

July 1, 2009

I’m heading off to another Renaissance Weekend tomorrow to speak and learn from a range of leaders (nonpartisan!), historians, scientists, entrepreneurs, artists, and the like.
The venue this time is in the Grand Teton National Park near Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and the internet won’t be quite as accessible as usual. The Renaissance meetings are under the [...]

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