Nanodot: the original nanotechnology weblog

SME has let us know that Foresight members get a discount to their upcoming Nanomanufacturing conference in the Boston area on April 22-23, which features three sessions of special interest:

Understanding Nanotechnology, workshop led by Tihamer Toth-Fejel of General Dynamics, to cover topics including: brief history of nanotechnology, taxonomies and roadmaps, near-term passive structures, medium-term active devices and machines, far-term productive nanosystems, metrology, potential problems.

Exponential Manufacturing, also led by Tihamer Toth-Fejel: One of the grand challenges in nanotechnology is to design and assemble nanoscale systems that can build other nanoscale systems, leading to manufacturing systems that can fabricate or assemble additional instances of themselves. This is exponential manufacturing. The RP research project “RepRap” is intended to build all its own parts except for a few off-the-shelf components such as stepper motors, metal rods, and integrated circuits. Nanotechnologies in development may deliver nanoscale nanofactories that can do exponential manufacturing with a very large envelope in less than two decades.

Technology Roadmap for Productive Nanosystems, led by David Forrest of the U.S. Naval Surface Warfare Center: The first edition of the Technology Roadmap for Productive Nanosystems was completed in the fall of 2007. Long anticipated by those interested in atomically precise manufacturing (APM), the document:
• Articulates compelling reasons to develop and scale up APM;
• Surveys current capabilities in nanosystem design, modeling, fabrication, and testing;
• Provides examples of intermediate applications that could drive development;
• Identifies a range of technical approaches;
• Outlines strategies for developing more advanced systems; AND
• Recommends ways for existing institutions to focus their efforts toward APM.
With the support and collaboration of partners, The Waitt Family Foundation and Battelle, the Foresight Nanotech Institute aims to identify the gap between manufacturing technologies for today’s basic nanostructured materials, and a manufacturing system based on productive nanosystems to make large atomically precise structures. How can this gap be narrowed and eventually closed? The development of adequate tools to build these systems will require several intermediate stages, each building on the results of the previous stage, and each having its own commercial applications. This presentation will discuss the roadmap, progress made to date, and the next steps.

If you’ve made a donation to Foresight within the last year, you’re a Basic member or above and qualify for the discount. Contact foresight@foresight.org for the registration code to use, and say hi to Tihamer and David at the meeting. (Note: it’s okay — and financially smart — to join Foresight just to get this discount!) —Christine

As a step toward advanced nanotechnology, general methods for producing complex nanoscale structures in three dimensions are useful stepping stones from current nanotech to atomically precise functional nanosystems. Although the nanomaterials and nanostructures produced are far from atomically precise, a recently developed method of using a micropipette and rapidly drying ink to draw long fibers and complex 3D structures is an important advance.

Excerpts from a University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign news release “New process makes nanofibers in complex shapes and unlimited lengths“

The continuous fabrication of complex, three-dimensional nanoscale structures and the ability to grow individual nanowires of unlimited length are now possible with a process developed by researchers at the University of Illinois.

Based on the rapid evaporation of solvent from simple “inks,” the process has been used to fabricate freestanding nanofibers, stacked arrays of nanofibers and continuously wound spools of nanowires. Potential applications include electronic interconnects, biocompatible scaffolds and nanofluidic networks.

“The process is like drawing with a fountain pen — the ink comes out and quickly dries or ‘solidifies,’ ” said Min-Feng Yu, a professor of mechanical science and engineering, and an affiliate of the Beckman Institute. “But, unlike drawing with a fountain pen, we can draw objects in three dimensions.”

—Jim

In a virtuoso demonstration of nanotechnology, researchers used a scanning tunneling microscope (STM) to build walls of carbon monoxide molecules to confine electrons on a copper surface so that they resonate like a drum. They found that electrons confined by differently shaped walls resonated in the same way, that is, they shared the same properties. The researchers expect that this nanotech insight will prove useful in constructing real nanoelectronic systems and in obtaining information about quantum systems that is normally difficult to obtain.

From Science Daily “Hearing the sound of quantum drums“:

Using a tunneling scanning microscope and two roomfuls of equipment to move around individual carbon monoxide molecules on a copper surface, [Stanford physicist Hari Manoharan and his team] built tiny walls only one-molecule high and shaped them into nine-sided enclosures that could resonate like drums (because of the quantum wave/particle duality of the electrons within the enclosure).

Manoharan calls these enclosures quantum drums. Each drum has only 30 or so electrons inside. They are walled in by roughly 100 carbon monoxide molecules.

The result? Just as in the normal world, two nanostructures with different shapes can resonate in the same way, a phenomenon known as isospectrality. Manoharan, along with his graduate student Chris Moon and others, published their result in the Feb 8 edition of the journal Science. To reinforce the point, they created a video, complete with two quantum drums beating with the same sound. Read the rest of this entry »

Two stories report new tools that should accelerate nanotech development by providing scientists with faster determination of molecular structures. In the first technique an atomic force microscope tip is followed by a laser beam to produce spectroscopic data as it traces an individual strand of RNA. The second advance is a tabletop synchrotron that will make it much easier for researchers to obtain high-quality protein structures, thus accelerating the design-build-test cycle for the protein and protein-like polymer path to productive nanosystems.

From Science Daily “Direct sequencing of DNA, RNA using novel technique“:

Volker Deckert and his team at the Institute for Analytical Sciences (ISAS) in Dortmund have recently developed a method that could provide a way to directly sequence DNA. Their process is based on a combination of Raman spectroscopy and atomic force microscopy. They have successfully analyzed DNA’s closest relative, RNA.

Corinna Wu, writing in Technology Review: “A miniature synchrotron: Researchers get a new tool to determine protein structures“:

This miniature synchrotron offers scientists a new way to perform high-quality x-ray experiments in their own labs.

…[For determining protein structures] synchrotron radiation has advantages over ordinary x-ray sources: It’s a hundred million times brighter and highly concentrated, which allows for very precise, high-resolution experiments.

—Jim

Reason magazine, which generally takes positions in favor of technology and free enterprise, has a cover story on nanotechnology (full text not posted yet, check link later) which speculates that the U.S. may be more open to nanotech than Europe:

In the U.S., despite our flirtation with paranoia about biotech and our routine panics over pharmaceuticals and industrial chemicals, our resilient gee-whiz attitude toward machines may yet make our country a haven for unbounded nanotech. But we will have to be watchful of those who seek to smother it as a potential monster long before it has had a chance to yield anything remotely resembling the dreams of the optimists or the nightmares of the detractors.

Given people’s instinctive unease about strange things entering their bodies, we may be better off if the American public becomes enamored of relatively trivial nanotech applications, such as the now-omnipresent stain-resistant pants, before taking much notice of the far more beneficial medical uses. Biotech endures in the U.S. largely because people are accustomed to seeing it used in corn, soybeans, wheat, and other staples of the food supply before opponents had really spread their message. Similarly, we may find that a nation long accustomed to unnaturally clean pants is more receptive to nano-based treatments for cancer and Parkinson’s.

Our view here at Foresight is that, compared to Europe’s caution and Asia’s relative lack of attention to EHS concerns, the U.S. is likely to take a middle course, and that is probably a good idea. Such a middle course could well lead to the most rapid progress over the long term. —Christine

This nanotech electronic device is not nanoscale, but all of the transistors are made from parallel arrays of thousands of nanotubes to demonstrate the potential of single-walled carbon nanotubes in advanced electronics. A few excerpts from “Tuning in to nanotube radio“, over at Technology Review, written by Duncan Graham-Rowe.

Carbon nanotubes have long been a contender for future electronic devices because of their potential to scale down the size of components and their excellent electronic properties. But building practical circuitry out of carbon nanotubes has proved challenging. Now researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign report having made scalable radio-frequency analog electronics in which all of the transistor-based devices, including the antennas and amplifiers, are built out of nanotube transistors.

The goal is to establish carbon nanotubes as a realistic competitor with conventional analog electronics, says John Rogers, a professor of materials science and engineering at the University of Illinois. Rogers found a novel way to make transistors using parallel arrays of nanotubes.

Read the rest of this entry »

Longtime Nanodot readers and Foresight members know that our goal here at Foresight is to maximize the benefits and minimize the downsides of nanotechnology. Our friends over at the Wilson Center’s Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies share that goal, as shown in their mission statement:

The Project is dedicated to helping ensure that as nanotechnologies advance, possible risks are minimized, public and consumer engagement remains strong, and the potential benefits of these new technologies are realized.

It’s great to have more effort going into this. The two organizations are complimentary rather than competitive: PEN has a nearer-term focus (mostly nanomaterials), Foresight’s is longer-term (mostly nanosystems). PEN’s funding is more centralized (Pew Charitable Trusts); Foresight is membership-based, funded by the general public. We hope and expect to see many more organizations of both types participating as the field develops. —Christine

French nanotech researchers have used theory to increase the precision of carving with electron beams enough to remove individual atoms from single walled carbon and boron nitride nanotubes.

Over in Nanowerk Spotlight, researcher Alberto Zobelli describes progress in the top-down approach to atomically precise manufacturing (APM) that he and his coworkers recently achieved. From “‘Nanosculptors’ carve atom by atom“:

They [referring to himself and his coworkers] have developed a new approach to shaping nanomaterials atom by atom, using a scanning transmission electron microscope (STEM) as a nanometrically precise cutting tool. In this way they ‘carve’ their materials, such as carbon nanotubes, by removing individual atoms from specifically chosen locations. This technique has the added advantage that scientists can observe what they are doing at the same time. The new technique demonstrates a ‘nanoelectron-lithography’ of single walled nanotubes, a top down approach to locally control their nanostructures.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tetrahedrons made from DNA that extend and shorten in response to added short strands of DNA may provide new nanotech methods of drug delivery, but may present even more exciting possibilities for atomically precise functional nanosystems.

I feel like a broken record this week, only posting about DNA nanotechnology, but I won’t apologize because it’s such an exciting area. In this article from the New Scientist news service, Tom Simonite describes the latest advance from Andrew Turberfield and his colleagues. After pioneering the use of “fuel strands” to cause programmed movement in DNA nanostructures and building rigid tetrahedron from DNA, Turberfield now combines the two to change the shape of DNA tetrahedrons in a precisely controlled fashion. A few excerpts from “Remote-control DNA ‘pistons’ could power tiny robots“.

Nanoscopic DNA pyramids that change shape when sent different chemical signals, have been demonstrated by researchers in the UK and Germany. Such structures could act as the motors of nanoscale robots, they say.

Other researchers have previously built DNA devices capable of walking along proteins or functioning like nanoscopic robot arms, but precise control of these 3D structures has proven difficult.

Now Andrew Turberfield of Oxford University in the UK, and colleagues at the University of Bielefeld in Germany, have shown how carefully crafted DNA structures can be made to self assemble and change shape when sent specific DNA signals.

Read the rest of this entry »

In a major nanotech advance in constructing designer materials, DNA has been used to assemble gold nanoparticles into three-dimensional crystals.

Two research groups have made fundamental progress in using the molecular recognition properties of DNA strands to program the assembly of gold nanoparticles into three dimensional crystalline structures, in one case achieving two different crystalline structures according to the DNA sequences used. However the structures produced are not atomically precise, and the geometry of the nanoparticle networks is not directly programmable as it is with the “structural DNA nanotechnology” pioneered by Ned Seeman. Consequently it is unclear how useful these advances will be to the development of atomically precise manufacturing, despite the fact that they do indeed represent a “holy grail” in terms of using DNA nanotechnology to produce novel and useful nanomaterials.

From Brookhaven National Laboratory, via AAAS EurekAlert, “A technique yields 3-D crystalline organization of nanoparticles“

First step toward 3-D catalytic, magnetic, and/or optical nanomaterials

In an achievement some see as the “holy grail” of nanoscience, researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory have for the first time used DNA to guide the creation of three-dimensional, ordered, crystalline structures of nanoparticles (particles with dimensions measured in billionths of a meter). The ability to engineer such 3-D structures is essential to producing functional materials that take advantage of the unique properties that may exist at the nanoscale — for example, enhanced magnetism, improved catalytic activity, or new optical properties.

Read the rest of this entry »

A new DNA base pair that works with at least one enzyme that replicates DNA opens up new possibilities for nanotech. Biology-based pathways to productive nanosystems might be even more promising than they already are if the exquisite molecular recognition system of DNA could be expanded to include more than two types of base pairs. Other base pairs have been tested in the past, but failed to work with the necessary enzymes. Robert Adler at NewScientist.com news service reports that scientists at the Scripps Research Institute have now succeeded. An excerpt from “Artificial letters added to life’s alphabet“:

Two artificial DNA “letters” that are accurately and efficiently replicated by a natural enzyme have been created by US researchers. Adding the two artificial building blocks to the four that naturally comprise DNA could allow wildly different kinds of genetic engineering, they say.

Eventually, the researchers say, they may be able to add them into the genetic code of living organisms.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Royal Society of Chemistry brings news of early work leading toward designed engines for nanomachines:

Dutch scientists have made nanotubes move using enzyme-powered motors.

Ben Feringa and co-workers from the University of Groningen, The Netherlands, have designed engines for nanomachines that could potentially be used in the body.

Hydrogen peroxide has proven useful as a chemical fuel for powering microscopic motors but its practicality is somewhat limited by its inherent reactivity, said Feringa. To get around this problem the team have used two enzymes in tandem as the engine for their nanomachine. They explained that by coupling glucose oxidase with catalase, relatively stable glucose can be used as the primary fuel instead. ‘This fuel is already present in the body,’ said team-member Wesley Browne, ‘and it is completely inert.’

The glucose oxidase converts glucose and oxygen to gluconolactone and hydrogen peroxide. The hydrogen peroxide is then consumed by the catalase to produce water and oxygen. The results are surprising, said the team, because in principle nothing should happen - more oxygen is consumed than is produced. But the glucose oxidase produces high local concentrations of hydrogen peroxide, which in turn results in bursts of oxygen being released as bubbles of dioxygen gas. This is what causes the enzymes (and the nanotubes they are attached to) to move.

‘This work is the first step towards the design of functional nano-machinery working with renewable resources as fuel,’ said Heinz-Bernhard Kraatz, an expert on nano-biomaterials from the University of Western Ontario, London, Canada.

It would indeed seem that this might work inside the body. (Credit: Nanoforum.org newsletter) —Christine

Once again this year I’ll be helping to pick the winners of the Nano 50 Awards, sponsored by Nanotech Briefs. Now is the time to send in your entries:

Nanotech Briefs has announced a Call for Nominations for its fourth annual Nano 50 awards competition…The Nano 50 recognizes the top 50 technologies, innovators, and products with the greatest potential to advance the commercialization of nanotechnology…The awards categories are:

* Technology — A nanotechnology breakthrough that has, or is expected to have, a significant impact in one or more application areas.
* Product — A product that incorporates nanotechnology in its design and/or operation, with significant current or near-term commercial applications.
* Innovator — An individual recognized as a leader or pioneer in a specific area of nanotechnology, with a significant background of accomplishments in advancing the state of the art in nanotechnology.

These awards are focused on the near term. For those interested in longer-term, atomically-precise nanotechnology, see the Foresight Institute Feynman Prizes.

Hope to see your nominations for both types of prizes! —Christine

Below are comments from nanotechnology experts on yesterday’s release of the Technology Roadmap for Productive Nanosystems, a new roadmap for development of atomically precise manufacturing from Battelle and Foresight:

Jim Von Ehr, CEO, Zyvex Labs
“For the first time, progress across all key nanoscale disciplines has been brought together into R&D pathways leading to atomically-precise manufacturing, with revolutionary applications to medicine, smart materials, and energy. We look forward to hearing from technologists in industry, academia, and government on their thoughts about this roadmap, and their suggestions for improvement in the next version.”

Steve Jurvetson, Draper Fisher Jurvetson
“Since the concept of building molecule-by-molecule was introduced, investors and business professionals have wondered how we could possibly get from the nanotechnology of coatings and simple materials to the atomically-precise manufacturing that will have a revolutionary impact on business and our society. This Roadmap is a good step towards detailing on how we will get there.”

J. Fraser Stoddart, Northwestern University
“We’ll only reach the goal of atomically-precise manufacturing through extensive multidisciplinary collaborative research. This Roadmap will help researchers identify the pathways and talent sets needed to make the fundamental breakthroughs that will lead, on the one hand, to new medical treatments and bring us ever closer, on the other hand, to using nanomachines for complete control inside reticular structures, as well as at both molecular and supramolecular levels.”

Thomas Theis, Director, Physical Sciences, IBM Research
“The Technology Roadmap for Productive Nanosystems nicely Read the rest of this entry »

Dear Foresight members and friends:

It is with great pleasure that we announce the availability of the first Technology Roadmap for Productive Nanosystems.

Some of you have seen earlier drafts, but the document is now official. Files can be downloaded at: http://foresight.org/roadmaps

Below is the text of the press release going out today.

We look forward to your reactions and suggestions for additions and corrections for later versions.

Thanks to everyone who helped, including all Foresight members — your donations have helped complete this first version of a Roadmap for atomically-precise manufacturing! Read the rest of this entry »

Nanowerk brings news that the World Economic Forum is both rewarding nanotechnology pioneers and taking a look at potential risks of nanoparticles. Excerpts:

Over the past few years, the Global Risk Network team has released an annual report. This years’ report “Global Risks 2008″ (pdf download, 1.6 MB) was published two weeks ago. In it, as in previous years, nanotechnology was characterized as a global core risk…

Although nanotechnology has been included in the “Core Risks” group, it ranks well below the majority of risks both on the ’severity’ and ‘likelihood’ scales…

Underlining the positive impacts of nanotechnologies, the World Economic Forum’s Technology Pioneer program accepted four nanotechnology companies (out of 39) as 2008 Pioneers: Cima NanoTech Inc., Nanostellar Inc., RainDance Technologies, Unidym Inc.

Regarding the risks, we’re guessing that they’re only looking at nanomaterial EHS concerns, and not security issues arising from the nanotech-based military innovations coming later. —Christine

Sonia Arrison over at TechNewsWorld takes on the issues of genetic engineering, nanotechnology, and steering innovation toward responsible uses:

“When we look at cells as machines, it makes them very straightforward in the future to design them for very unique utilities,” Venter told participants at DLD. Of course, Venter has often referred to the possibility of designing cells to help clean the environment, but his premise could be applied for any purpose. Indeed, biogerontologist Aubrey de Grey is promoting the use of bio-engineering methods to repair human cells and fight aging. However, some worry that human-driven evolution could bring about harmful, unforeseen consequences.

“Accusing a scientist of playing God is obviously stupid,” Dawkins said, “but what is not obviously stupid is accusing a scientist of endangering the future of the planet by doing something that could be irreversible.”

He’s right about that, and that’s why a conversation about how scientists can safely create new life forms and alter existing ones has already begun in labs around the globe and at organizations like the Foresight Nanotech Institute. Indeed, most scientists are developing their work with an eye to improving the human lot, not the other way around.

There is no stopping the march of science, as some hope, including Sun Microsystems’ (Nasdaq: JAVA) cofounder Bill Joy. Instead, the focus should be on the best practices created within the community itself. Plus, of course, technologies such as gene manipulation and nanotechnology are only pieces of the larger puzzle. Robotics is another…

All these examples show that the future of human enhancement is rocketing forward, and many people from a variety of disciplines are contributing. Technology is the common driver, but in the end, is simply a tool. Tools can be used for good or evil purposes, and it’s up to involved and responsible people to make sure they use the technology and innovations in a beneficial way. There is reason to believe that enhancement technologies will be used for both good and evil purposes, but in an age of greater communication, globalization and transparency, the good should stand a better chance of winning.

Sounds right to us. Go, Sonia! —Christine

Nanowerk brings news that the annual technology predictions (PDF) are out from Deloitte, and nanotechnology is looking green to them:

…it is becoming increasingly apparent that nanotechnology could have an important role to play in healing, rather than harming the planet…Nanotechnology is already being used to address several environmental issues: generating clean power, reducing existing power consumption, providing drinkable water, cleaning contaminated land, reducing harmful emissions and enabling long-life portable power.”

But proponents need to communicate with the public:

Companies, research institutes and industry bodies should make a substantial, sustained effort to make nanotechnology more understandable to the layperson. That should help the public feel less threatened by the technology. Part of the dialog should include direct and open responses to concerns about nanotechnology. As the size of impact of nanoscale innovation grows, the list of concerns is likely to expand proportionately. If the industry does not provide evidence and explanations, scaremongers may fill in the gaps.

A longer-term picture of clean manufacturing using advanced nanotechnology can be found in the book Unbounding the Future, free online. A more recent description can be found in the book Nanofuture by J. Storrs Hall. —Christine

Korea.net informs us of challenging nanotechnology goals for that country:

An ambitious government plan seeks to make Korea one of the top three countries for nanotechnology by 2020…

“By securing more than 50 of the finest international nanotechnologies by 2020, Korea will create a new industry to emerge as a top three nanotechnology power and control 20 percent ($500 billion) of the global nanotechnology market,” a ministry statement said.

Which other countries have clear plans — public or private — to reach their 2020 nanotech goals? —Christine

We’ve previously pointed out the usefulness of looking at future-oriented fiction as a way of stimulating thinking about nanotechnology. Now Annalee Newitz’s io9 site brings an interview of Kathleen Ann Goonan, who “was writing about nanotech before most people even know it existed.” An excerpt:

I think that, for me, nanotech has been a metaphor for the power of thought, and for the power of language. This may sound odd, but it seems that the more we understand matter and the more we are able to manipulate it and to make decisions about how and why to do so, the better we understand ourselves.

Well put! Oddly, some seem to feel that knowing the physical world better — including our own brains/minds — undermines something wonderful about being human. This has always seemed wrong to me. It just gets more and more exciting as we learn more, and appreciate more, just how amazing living things are. —Christine