From the category archives:

Nanotechnology

Video of my talk
at the Moscow Polytechnical Museum

December 23, 2011

A video of my talk at the Moscow Polytechnical Museum is now on YouTube. I gave this talk on advanced nanotechnology prospects to an audience drawn from local technical universities during my recent Moscow visit.

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Moscow Report (II):
Russians embrace a radical vision
of nanotechnology

December 21, 2011

(This is followup to my brief post from Moscow.)
Because I’m primarily known for the concept of an advanced, atomically precise nanotechnology, the enthusiastic welcome I received in Moscow at Rusnanotech 2011 indicates how the idea is received in Russia. With that in mind, here are some markers of Russian interest in the concept:

Dmitry Medvedev speaking [...]

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Video of my Oxford nanotechnology lecture

December 7, 2011

I recently gave the Inaugural Lecture for the Programme on the Impacts of Future Technology at the Oxford Martin School, and the lecture video is now available.*
The talk describes the application of physical law and exploratory engineering to studies of the future potential of nanotechnology.
Summary here: News & Research Highlights.

* With thanks to Stuart Armstrong, [...]

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Peptoid technology for molecular nanosystems — My review is now online

November 7, 2011

My invited review “Peptoids at the 7th Summit: Toward Macromolecular Systems Engineering” [pdf] kicks off the peptoid special issue of Biopolymers: Peptide Science.
Astoundingly, all the papers are open access.
Here’s the abstract:

Peptoids at the 7th Summit: Toward Macromolecular Systems Engineering
Methods for facile synthesis of extraordinarily diverse peptide-like oligomers have placed peptoids at the center of [...]

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A Busy Day in Moscow

October 26, 2011

I am no longer in possession of a Russian secret regarding the lineup of speakers during the opening plenary session of Rusnanotech 2011 this morning.
Rusnanotech is organized by Russia’s state-sponsored nanotechnology investment corporation, Rusnano. My plenary talk followed a speech by Anatoly Chubais, the Chairman of Rusnano and former First Deputy Prime Minister of Russia. [...]

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I’ve moved to Oxford

October 22, 2011

Rosa and I now work at Oxford’s Martin School in the new Programme on the Impacts of Future Technology. (My Oxford Martin School bio here; Rosa’s here.) We plan to be at Oxford while I finish work on my new book, Radical Abundance, to be published by PublicAffairs.
On November 10th I will deliver the inaugural [...]

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My next book: Radical Abundance, 2013

July 21, 2011

I’m now working on a new book, Radical Abundance, scheduled for publication in 2013 by PublicAffairs. The book has a wide scope in both its content and intended audience, addressing scientists, a general reading audience, and thought leaders in the policy arena.
Radical Abundance will integrate and extend several themes that I’ve touched on in Metamodern, [...]

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An advance in atomically precise
building-block assembly

May 27, 2011

A paper in Science reports a design method that substantially advances the macromolecular technology base for building atomically precise nanosystems.
Background: foldamer engineering
As many readers know, biology shows an effective way build large, intricate, atomically precise systems: Use covalent chemistry to build chains of small building blocks, and design these chains to fold into nanoscale building [...]

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Nanosystems for India

May 6, 2011

Wiley India publishes textbooks “catering to the needs of Indian students”, and now offers Nanosystems:  Molecular Machinery, Manufacturing, and Computation, the book I wrote on the principles and potential components, architectures, and implementation pathways for high-throughput atomically precise manufacturing systems.
Here’s a list of Indian distributors.
Wiley India, a branch of John Wiley & Sons, the original [...]

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Polyoxometalate papers

May 3, 2011

Background: polyoxometalate nanostructures are cool (more here).
Lee Cronin sent me a pdf of the polyoxometalate paper I discussed in my previous post, and he notes that readers can download it here, with other papers on his group’s website here.
The Israel Journal of Chemistry has a new special issue, “Frontiers in Metal Oxide Cluster Science”, [...]

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Crystallizing molecular assemblies
that don’t exist

April 26, 2011

Leroy Cronin’s group has pioneered the development of large, atomically precise metal oxide clusters (the polyoxometalates) with an eye to applications in nanotechnology. A recent publication shows why crystal engineering is a natural complement to this work — and to the engineering of self-assembling systems in general.
Here’s an excerpt from the abstract (emphasis added):
Cations in [...]

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The Quantum Information Science
and Technology Roadmap
(for example…)

April 24, 2011

Roadmaps are crucial in developing new technology platforms — in other words, for the coordinated development of complete sets of compatible technologies that, taken together, support system-level technologies at a new level. Whether formal or informal, roadmaps address a fundamental problem of risk and mutual expectations in technology development: the problem of giving all necessary [...]

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