From the category archives:

Brevia

New project launched:
Atomic Scale and Single Molecule
Logic Gate Technologies

November 25, 2010

The Atomic Scale and Single Molecule Logic Gate Technologies project is a Singapore/EU effort that aims to build atomically precise digital devices and circuits by direct surface manipulation at cryogenic temperatures.
According to the project leader, Prof Christian Joachim, “The UHV interconnection machine at IMRE [in Singapore] is the only one in the entire project that [...]

Read the full article →

Molecular machine animations
in the New York Times

November 16, 2010

The New York Times has an article, “Where Cinema and Biology Meet”, on the recent high-quality animations of biomolecular machines.
The author, Erik Olsen, highlights Drew Barry as the Steven Spielberg of the field:
Mr. Berry’s work is revered for artistry and accuracy within the small community of molecular animators, and has also been shown in museums, [...]

Read the full article →

QED meets General Relativity

November 8, 2010

“Quantum gravitational contributions to quantum electrodynamics” (D. Toms, Nature, 4 Nov.) is the most exciting paper I’ve seen on quantum field theory and gravitation in a long time. It offers no speculations about strings, extra dimensions, new symmetries, or the like, and no loop quantum gravity or causal dynamical triangulations, just a carefully cross-checked mathematical [...]

Read the full article →

Why “Science Policy”
is a mistake from the start

October 29, 2010

Science and engineering drive the great technological revolutions of our time, and it might be helpful to have some idea of what they are — for example, to recognize that they are fundamentally different. Colin Macilwain offers a guide for the perplexed:
Science is mainly concerned with unearthing knowledge. Engineering seeks to deliver working solutions to [...]

Read the full article →

As the word turns…

October 21, 2010

Latest semantic news:
…the field of nanotechnology deals only with the science and technology of entities dominated by surface atoms….nanomedicine is a field of science, which is based on cellular uptake of targetable nano-sized materials….Hence nanobiotechnology or the science nanomedicine derived from it is a part of cell biology and under no circumstances can be [...]

Read the full article →

Boron is the new carbon…

September 13, 2010

…and I read it in EMBO Reports.
Declaring that “boronate esters are the new [reversible covalent linkers in foldamers and self-assembly]” would be less playful and entertaining, but I say something like that here: “Exploiting strong, covalent bonds for self assembly of robust nanosystems”.

Read the full article →

Metacognition, then and now
(a crisp example)

September 2, 2010

As a follow-on to recent posts here and here, I’d like to offer a crisp example of the standards of cognitive reflection that were taught in the once-upon-a-time United States: a sample from Studies in Civics (1897), a high school textbook.
TO STUDENTS.
You will notice in chapter one that at the close of nearly every paragraph [...]

Read the full article →

High-school civics and minds,
1890 and now

September 2, 2010

A comment on my recent post, “The problem: a metacognition deficit,” reminded me of a striking illustration of cultural change, the level of the language and content of a book used in the 1890s to teach high school civics (available in plain text, a big pdf and simulated in-browser book ). It reeks of a [...]

Read the full article →

The best introduction to DNA nanotechnology

August 28, 2010

For a good overview of structural DNA nanotechnology and DNA origami (a molecular wonder of the modern world), see this presentation from a course in the College of Engineering at the University of Illinois. The subject calls for a strong visual presentation, and the slides deliver this together with a good description of DNA engineering [...]

Read the full article →

The problem: a metacognition deficit

August 27, 2010

…there’s a metacognition deficit. Very few in public life habitually step back and think about the weakness in their own thinking and what they should do to compensate…
Of the problems that afflict the country, this is the underlying one.
David Brooks, (“A Case of Mental Courage”, New York Times)
Brooks begins with the story of how [...]

Read the full article →

How to Learn about Everything in Belorussian

August 25, 2010

“How to Learn about Everything”, now in Belorussian translation:
       
(With thanks to Patricia Clausnitzer!)

Read the full article →

Updated post on high-throughput atomically precise manufacturing

August 23, 2010

I’ve updated “The Physical Basis of High-Throughput Atomically Precise Manufacturing”. Not a big change, but I expanded the discussion of reliable molecular modeling of selected, highly constrained systems, along the lines discussed here: “Making vs. Modeling: A paradox of progress in nanotechnology”.

Read the full article →

← Previous Entries

Next Entries →