Nano mythos

Nonexistent Nanotechnology Update: Karl W. B. Schwarz has turned up again, this time in Hungary attempting a protest against President Bush. Apparently, this 911 conspiracy theorist will be a 2008 presidential candidate.

Schwarz's company, "Patmos Nanotechnology" has, as far as I can tell, no actual ties to Patmos or to nanotechnology. I do have to give him credit, though, for a nanotech corporate Web site that says absolutely nothing in five links.

I will regret this post. Last time I mentioned Schwarz, I was placed on an annoying mailing list from some folks who have some kind of agenda against him. Frankly, I don't care about whatever he's peddling, nor do I care too much about those who are trying to expose him. None of the public information about Patmos and Schwarz makes any sense to me. I just wish he had chosen some other trendy mumbo jumbo techno-jabber on which to base his shell company.

OK. Back to real nanotech ...

Backgrounder
Invisible Nanotech CEOs for Truth?
Nanotech's real danger is the nano con

Perceptive nano

Here's something I've been "agitating" for these past three years. With Lux Research onboard, I'm no longer a lone gunman ...

On perceptual risks, the public's outlook on nanotech remains positive despite a lack of knowledge, but press coverage and agitation from NGOs mean that firms won't be able to dodge these questions much longer. Instead of remaining silent, companies need a communications strategy to share their safety studies, collaborate with trusted partners, and explain the benefits nanotech can bring. More here

Backgrounder
Nanotechnology at a crossroads between hypothesis and hype
Nanotechnology industry takes Greenpeace's bait
U.K. recognizes importance of perception
Apocalypse Nano
Britain balances science, economics, perception
IPO and Public Perception
Rational science for an irrational world
Perception is de facto nano fact

Who answers at Yahoo!?

I am still not convinced that Yahoo! Answers has hit on the correct formula for ensuring correct answers. This question is closed to new answers, but you can still vote on the existing six: what is nanotech and their uses in future life?

Technology Review sent me a promo today on an article scheduled to appear tomorrow. Sounds like it will be a worthwhile read, since this is the information our kids will likely use when they dash off assignments on "nanotechnology."

Visitors post questions and volunteers answer them at Yahoo Answers. But how accurate and useful is the service -- and why do volunteers participate? We get answers from some of the website's most-prolific contributors.

Update (6/27/06):
Answers By the People, For the People
One volunteer has spent a lot of time contributing to the social media site Yahoo Answers. Why? (By Wade Roush, Technology Review)

Backgrounder
Nanotech an open question at Yahoo! Answers

Dictionary defines the indefinable 'nanobot'

"Nanobot" has been added to the Oxford English Dictionary. You can find it here under out-of-sequence new entries, lodged between nadger and off book.

I heard the news via Minnesota Public Radio. If you have a RealMedia player, you can listen here, although the reporter sadly skips over the nanobot entry. But she does comment: "The words we use tell us a lot about what's going on in our society. They're like a reflection of our culture at that point in time."

And that is the truth, especially when it comes to "nanobot" -- that vague, almost anthropomorphic, incarnation of our greatest hopes for modern technology ... and our most ghastly nightmares.

Backgrounder
NanoBot's discard pile

Nanotech's sensitive side

powered by ODEO

Do you want to give your future robot overlords the ability to "feel?" Ravi Saraf of the Nebraska Center for Materials and Nanoscience is using nanoparticles to give machines the finger -- that is, a sense of touch rivaling that of the human finger. Punch the play button above to hear the NPR story.

Tag-teaming with nature to build nanomachines

Nadrian Seeman of NYU doesn't want to waste time building nanomachines from scratch -- not when nature has already done most of the heavy lifting for him these past few billion years.

In "Beyond Biology: Making Factories and Computers with DNA," LiveScience has more on Seeman, DNA and nanotech's softer side.

The first person to see DNA's potential beyond biology was Naiman Seeman, a chemist at New York University. More than twenty years ago, he began imagining how the genetic information in DNA might be engineered to perform useful tasks.

"DNA structures are programmable by sequence, and so are their intermolecular interactions," Seeman says. "That makes them unique."

Whereas nature alone dictates how most molecules interact, DNA comes with a built-in code that researchers can re-formulate to control which DNA molecules bond with each other. The goal of this DNA tinkering is microscopic factories that can produce made-to-order molecules, as well as electronic components 10 times smaller than current limits.

"Nanofabrication is where we are going," Seeman told LiveScience. "It will happen soon." More here

And, to get your nanomotor running, the European Union and the Max Planck Institute in Germany want to fund your Frankenstein flagellum.

Related News
DNA Art: Origami Goes Nano

Backgrounder
These 'bots are made for walkin'
The Descent of Nano
Martyn Amos: Lecturer, Blogger
Nano-engineered intelligent flagellum?

Everything is animated

Nanorex Inc., the world’s first developer of tools for the design, simulation and analysis of atomically precise molecular machine systems, will launch its educational outreach program by placing an early pre-release version of its powerful molecular modeling software at the fingertips of some of California’s brightest high school students.

Students who report for the Nanotechnology and Robotics class at the California State Summer School for Mathematics and Science (COSMOS) on July 9 at UC Santa Cruz will begin testing NanoEngineer-1, the first computer aided design (CAD) program for the nanotech age. Scheduled for release this fall, NanoEngineer-1’s 3-D, interactive environment and molecular physics engine will enable the students to invent and test new kinds of molecular machines and devices, designed atom by atom exactly to their specifications.

The students will be helped by a team of "virtual" teachers, the NanoKids and "nanocar."

And, full disclosure, I am doing some work for Nanorex now, helping CEO Mark Sims and his band of creative geniuses promote the unveiling of this quite cool, useful (and open source) software. Read all about it.

Backgrounder
This little joint is jumping

The walls have ears

Lisa Napoli, of American Public Media's Marketplace, is hot on the nano trail again. This report (RealMedia Player required) highlights Natural Nano Inc.'s RF shielding technology, featuring halloysite nanotubes that can be added to wall paint to enforce no-call zones in theaters and houses of worship.

Now, if Natural Nano were to acquire some of this NanoPottyTech, annoying cell phone gabbers would also find no sanctuary in the bathroom stalls.

For nostalgia's sake, here's a RealMedia link to a nanotech story Napoli did a couple of years ago that featured an interview with your humble narrator.

Still plenty of room at the bottom

Is nanotechnology an ass man?

Nanotech toilets could clean themselves (By Ethan Todras-Whitehill, Popular Science)

Royal flush: QuarTek to sign nano-diaper deal (The Business Journal)

Baby Got Backgrounder
Prosaic Potty-Cleaning Nanoparticles
Plenty of room at this bottom
Magic Nano' nano? Naahhh

Secret nanotech research 'Lost' in flight

Is the black smoke on "Lost" a nanobot swarm? Well, the mystery deepens with the revelation that a leading nanotechnology researcher was aboard the flight from Sydney that never made it to Los Angeles. I discovered this on a fan site for Drive Shaft, the washed-up British pop band featuring brothers Liam and Charlie. The band was about to stage a comeback when Charlie disappeared on that mysterious Oceanic Airlines flight.

So, is this a real clue? Or is it a red herring planted by ABC?

Do you remember Flight 815, the plane that mysteriously disappeared on its way from Sydney to LA? In seat 23-C sat Harold Wollstein, who was poised to lead the next wave of digital technology. The man that would make a watch-sized blackberry a thing of the present joined the fate of the other 400+ passengers.

We don't know what happened to Harold any more than we know what happened to his research. Word in Silicone Valley is that all of Harold's research was in his laptop on board the plane, headed to an important meeting with the CEOs of the companies leading the nano-technology revolution. But the truth may never be discovered, about the crash or about Harold's top secret work. More here

Well, at the very least we know this must be fiction. You'd think that a brilliant nanotech scientist like "Harold" would have backed up his files somewhere.

Backgrounder
'Lost' in nanobot space

Straight-up info on nanotech regulation

Artech House, publisher of books for high-tech professionals, contacted me about a year ago and asked me to take a look at author Jeffrey H. Matsuura's proposal for a book on nanotechnology regulation. They must have liked my critique and suggestions, because late last year FedEx folders full of Matsuura's raw manuscript began arriving at my doorstep for my critique and input, which I gladly gave.

The end result is Matsuura's Nanotechnology Regulation And Policy Worldwidereleased this month. I have not yet read the final version, but I thought the raw manuscript was thoughtful, thorough and hype-free. This book is a useful resource for anybody who is looking for straight-up information on nanotech regulation -- information that has not been filtered through an interest group trying to sell you an agenda or a media company trying to capture your eyeballs.

This process was anonymous, so if Jeffrey is reading this, he might be surprised to learn that his publisher let me monkey around with his manuscript and he's writing an angry note to Artech House right now. I think everything turned out well, Jeffrey, but why did you ignore my suggested additional chapters on the impact nanotech regulation might have on Madonna's rabbi?

SciFi imitating science fiction

Here's an interesting quote from David Eick, a producer of the addictive new version of Battlestar Galactica. He's talking about some of the issues to be explored in a spinoff series, "Caprica."

"And it’s all the corporations involved in struggling how to find the best way for this artificial intelligence to realize itself," says Eick. "And so you have a lot of conflict between the corporate barons and the scientists and the dreamers, who are all looking upon this thing really as a great breakthrough. There was a great piece in the LA Times yesterday about nanotechnology, and how terrifying it really is because we know so little about it and we’re already starting to use it. And so it sort of follows that principle of stumbling upon some technological advance, some epiphany that you start putting to use even before you quite understand what it is or what it might do." More here

Related News
LA Times Misses the NanoMark (Darrell Brookstein)

Backgrounder
Nanobots: The Wonder Years
SciFi and the scientist

Nanotubes and nanotox? Maybe not

Carbon nanotubes, those merry nano pranksters, were only fooling. Turns out, the tubes were so salty, they produced false positive results for toxicity. Yes, really. Read about it here and here. So, keep this in mind next time you read a news story with the requisite sentence, gleaned off Google and accepted by the mainstream media as fact, saying, "Tests have shown nanotubes to be toxic in laboratory animals."

Again. Nothing wrong with any of the researchers who made previous mistakes in testing the tubes. This is how science works -- especially a young science like nanotoxicity, where there are no standard procedures for handling new materials like nanotubes.

The science is progressing at its usual pace. It is the agenda groups that are spinning the science fast and furious to conform to convenient conclusions.

Related News
Nano World: Nanotube Toxicity Exams Differ (By Charles Q. Choi, UPI)

Backgrounder
Let the facts interfere with your nanotox story
UK misses chance to defuse nanotox issue
Nanoscientists meet nanocitizens in new video
Nanotubes and the tale of the rats

Friends of the Earth releases nanotox report

Dear Howard,

I am writing further to your post of May 31 "Cosmetics: Facing the (lack of) facts". I thought you may be interested in a recent report released by Friends of the Earth in Australia and the United States titled "Nanomaterials, sunscreens and cosmetics: Small ingredients, big risks".

Friends of the Earth wholeheartedly agree with the conclusion that you and Paula Begoun (to whom you refer in your post) have drawn, that the risks of nanoscale ingredients in cosmetics and personal care products remain poorly studied and poorly understood. However we believe the existing small body of toxicological evidence indicates the potential for harm.

Our report surveys the existing literature and calls for a moratorium on the release of cosmetics and personal care products that contain nanomaterials until we have regulatory oversight and comprehensive toxicological testing.

Best regards
Georgia Miller
Friends of the Earth Australia Nanotechnology Project

This little joint is jumping

The revolution will be indeed be televised, most likely on the monitor of a Dell laptop running nanoENGINEER-1

Appropriately, this atomically precise nanoscale driveshaft was designed by the Motor City's Mark Sims, the driving force behind nanotech computational modeling company Nanorex Inc.

I paid a visit to Sims just a couple of days ago in suburban Detroit. I found him sitting in his captain's chair, designing the engines that will create the future – a future that is totally open source and runs on Windows, Mac or Linux, by the way.

Backgrounder
Images of the possible

Railroaded by nanotech

"Today, China and India, nanotechnology, the Internet and the human genome project, the BlackBerry and the iPod are the railroads of the 21st century that are changing the landscape of history. They are propelling us forward into a world in which whatever was optimal before is no longer so. From now on, history just isn’t what it used to be."

Richard W. Fisher
President and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas
Commencement address
Department of Economics
University of Texas at Austin

Backgrounder
Steve Jobs' commencement speech inspires
Feynman on freedom

Foresight adds podcasts to communication prize

The Foresight Nanotech Institute, the think tank that has been thinkin' about nanotech since before you were a brat watching "Barney," young fella, is taking nominations for its annual communication prize. I was the first blogger to win the award back in '04, but blogs are so early '00s and Foresight is nothing if not up on the latest things. So, they've added nanotech podcasts to the mix.

I am not aware of any dedicated nanotech podcast, but I know the subject is being discussed more and more on podcasts ranging from science to business to investing to, of course, SciFi. The way I stay up-to-date on the latest podcasts that even mention nanotechnology is through the Podzinger RSS Alert. Plug this link into your iTunes or podcast application of your choice and you'll get interesting stuff ranging from the latest NPR report on nanotech to author Jack Uldrich giving a nanotech talk to a civic organization in Cleveland.

The Foresight prize is given for nonfiction communication on nanotechnology in any print, electronic, broadcast or other communications medium, including, books, periodicals, internet sites and services, and radio, film and video productions. Send in your nominations through this link.

Backgrounder
Thank you, Foresight
Foresight insight outta-sight
Foresight backtracks to build a bridge
How big is nano?

Cosmetics: Facing the (lack of) facts

Paula Begoun, who writes a "Cosmetics Tips" column for the Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service, recently fielded a nanotech question.

Q: A recent news article I read reported that nanotechnology is being used in cosmetic and skin-care products such as sunscreen. There is disagreement about the safety of nanoparticles in these products, particularly in terms of absorption into the skin, and apparently little regulation by any government agency. Do you have a position on these materials? How can a consumer know if nanoparticles are in a particular product? _Natasha, via email

Begoun's answer was refreshingly thorough, thoughtful and accurate, given the limited space she had. I encourage everybody to read her full answer, but if you're in a hurry I'll "bottom-line" it with the excerpt below:

A: ... I have been searching for relevant information to answer your question, and while I do think there are theoretical reasons to be concerned, I can't be any more specific than that, because there is no specific research on the subject, at least not as far as skin-care ingredients go. ... More here

Backgrounder
QuoteBot: Lipstick on a guinea pig?
A nano IPO and excuse to run a supermodel pic
'All we have is speculation on toxicity'

Nanotech's real danger is the nano con

You think "Magic Nano" pulled a fast one on the nanotech business community, watchdog groups and anti-nano activists (and the media that cover them)? Well, that was just a simple case of opportunism by all parties -- the company eager to cash in on the hot nano prefix and think-tanks, activist organizations and media outlets too eager to find a "real world" example in what remains essentially a war between competing hypotheticals.

Anyway, that was amateur stuff compared to Biofriendly Corp.'s alleged nano-hustle. And this apparent long con's mark was the entire state of Texas.

A modern-day Sylvester McMonkey McBean rode into town with his nanotech star-off machine (claiming to clean up diesel pollution) and, in a pitch that would make Mr. Haney proud, flimflammed the state with the nanotech equivalent of McMonkey McBean's "new patent process of polar potoxis of the inner subnuclear nusbaum nogotsis," sold the Lone Star State a whole lot of bottles of 98 percent rubbing alcohol.

More background on "Biofriendly's Texas Scam Adventure" can be found here, along with video clips of a local news station's expose of the apparent long nanotech con.

So far, these nano scams are the only "real world" examples of nanotech dangers that I've come across in five years of writing about this stuff.

Backgrounder
How low can nano go?
'Crain's-ing' my neck to see the hype
'Nano' for your aura
Dirty diesel done 'nano' cheap?

The Invisible Man and the Five-Year Plan

  

Two publications take top prizes for best illustrations of the "invisible cloak" story that made the rounds late last week. National Geographic opted for the minimalist approach, with its "artist's conception a cloak of invisibility ... arranged against a white background" (pictured above left), while ChinaDaily's editors reached into their Little Red Book of Clip Art and pulled out a wonderfully retro Invisible Man (above right).

But I have to award the grand prize to the mad genius from Imperial College London who could not have been more transparent about the real purpose behind this "story."

Professor John Pendry, from Imperial College London, said that it may not take long to develop an invisible fabric - assuming there is sufficient research into the technology.

"If there is adequate funding, I'd have thought it would take in the order of five years," he said.

Note the use of that "five-year" timetable again. There must be a textbook somewhere in Mad Scientist/Entrepreneur University, where pupils are advised to tell the media that amazing, new sci-fi-type technology is only five years away. The five-year plan is cited often in nanotech stories. It makes sense. It's a short enough time span to get the general public all excited and attract some investor curiosity, yet far enough away so that there probably will be no follow-up stories when the time comes.

Those who invoke the five-year rule should be careful, though. The archives of Google News are not likely to do a disappearing act by 2011.

Is micro nano? A thousand times no

Note to headline writer at PC Magazine: While the components in a MEMS gyro are small, they are not in the nano range. MEMS, by definition, can be measured in microns (the acronym stands for microelectromechanical systems).

Here's one way of thinking about the size difference. Let's say my annual income represents one nanometer. A micron, then, would be the amount of money former Enron executive Kenneth Lay reaped from stock sales in 2001. Yes, the difference is that big.

Backgrounder
Bigger bucks for better metaphors
Catchphrase Cop
Merkle and the case of the misleading metaphor

QuoteBot: Mad Nano Money

"You're not going to look for a good nanotech company. You're going to look for the least bad one. Science that sounds just legitimate enough to get the crowd behind it. Once you're in, if you're right, the soon-to-be-hot sector will start getting coverage. Brokers will promote this garbage, then it will soar."

Jim Cramer, host of CNBC's "Mad Money"
Quoted in TheStreet.com

Backgrounder
TINY, Yahoo and Yaweh
Danville and the 'Valley of Death'
Wall Street Gang vs. Green Gang

'Magic Nano' nano? Naahhh

Small Times reports that the "Magic Nano" toxicity scare was really much nano about nothing. The German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment plunged into the toilet cleaner's ingredients and resurfaced with nein nanotech.

Yet, the story continues at its surreal pace. Erich Pica of "Friends of the Earth" (quotation marks are mine) does his best to synchronize reality with farce by calling for regulations on use of that nano marketing label. Sorry, Apple. Inject some real nanotech into the iPod Nano, or face the consequences.

Related News
German regulators: nano particles not cause of health problems linked to cleaning spray (Associated Press)
Magic Nano Cleared (Nanohype)

Backgrounder
Let the facts interfere with your nanotox story

Keithley pioneers nanotech corporate blog

Congratulations to nanotech measurement company Keithley Instruments Inc. for launching one of the first nanotechnology corporate blogs.

Keithley understands that the best way to promote itself is not by issuing bland press releases that are ignored by the press, but by providing interesting and relevant news content that present Keithley's products in the context of larger business, financial, political and societal issues. The company is also providing a place for users and developers of the company's products to exchange ideas on how to improve them. Excellent strategy.

The company's move is braver than you might think. When I present similar strategies to various nanotech companies, I am often met with the sounds of crickets chirping and tumbleweeds tumbling.