'Nano? We don't need no stinking nano'

update and links re: anti-nanotechnology protest in leeds (Leeds Indymedia)

INFO ON PROTEST: On Friday 12th there was an action against Nanotechnology/Convergence Technologies at the Royal Armouries in Leeds. A report was posted but was incomplete.

The protest took 3 main parts. Firstly, an information gathering exercise to gain further details of who is involved in what, for future actions. Secondly, the hall was visited and made extremely unplesant by a well-known substance for stinking out conferences: comfrey in water left to rot for a couple of months, and fish bait. visitors to the hall an hr after said people were holding their noses and not staying, and the smell was hideous. Leaflets were also given out. The third aspect was the seizing of the tannoy and a communique being read out. This coincided with a talk on nanotech which drowned it out, and was heard in every room through the museum. Leaflets were also scattered down. Two of these people were held by security until the police arrived, took down the name and address and date of birth that the two claimed were theirs, quick check to make sure there was no warrant on the names given, and then released.

The communique read:

Nanotechnology is the newest weapon against diversity, rebellion, difference, autonomy and freedom. The US military is, of course, the biggest investor as it tries to ensure total domination of all life on the planet. The British government has also invested £90 million in nanotechnology and most industries and universities* are developing interests in the field.

Genetic engineering was recognised as having massive social and ecological implications and this ensured worldwide resistance against it. Nanotechnology, which has the ability to transform all matter, has far more dramatic effects and needs drastic action to confront this new assault on diversity of life. More here

NanoBot Backgrounder
Nano industry hits bottom
'Mongrel dogs who teach' *
WSJ is down with nano

NSF = No Science Funding?

Congress Trims Money for Science Agency (By Robert Pear, The New York Times)

Congress has cut the budget for the National Science Foundation, an engine for research in science and technology, just two years after endorsing a plan to double the amount given to the agency.

Supporters of scientific research, in government and at universities, noted that the cut came as lawmakers earmarked more money for local projects like the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland and the Punxsutawney Weather Museum in Pennsylvania.

David M. Stonner, director of Congressional affairs at the science foundation, said on Monday that the reduction might be just the beginning of a period of austerity. Congress, Mr. Stonner said, told the agency to expect "a series of flat or slightly declining budgets for the next several years."

In renewing the legal authority for science programs in late 2002, Congress voted to double the budget of the science foundation by 2007. The agency finances the work and training of many mathematicians, physicists, chemists, engineers, computer scientists, biologists and environmental experts.

... The science foundation helped finance research that led to Web browsers, like Internet Explorer and Netscape, and to search engines like Google. Its research has produced advances in fields from astronomy to zoology, including weather forecasting, nanotechnology, highway safety and climate change.

At the University of Southern California, the foundation is supporting research on an artificial retina, to restore sight to blind people, and on silicon chips that could be implanted in the brain to replace neurons damaged by disease or injury. More here

Related News
New Jersey Institute Of Technology Pioneers New Way To Teach Engineers (Science Daily, Nov. 26)
A $2m Grant Brings Technology and Biology Together at UC Riverside (Medical News Today, Nov. 17)
Ohio State Universtity Awarded $12.9m by NSF to Develop Nanotechnology (azonano.com, Nov. 15)

NanoBot Backgrounder
Cut NSF, but grow nano
Berkeley to play with tiny tinkertoys
I got Study Hall, PhysEd, Shop, then ... Nanoscience? Whaaaa!?

Charles vs. 'scientific materialism'

Britain: Prince Charles bemoans “child-centred” education (World Socialist Web Site)

Throughout his adult life, the Prince has been prone to make public utterances on topics he knows little about, from architecture to nanotechnology—each time exposing his extremely limited intellectual horizons. But more recently, he is said to have held a series of meetings with David Lorimer, a former Winchester College teacher, who heads the Scientific and Medical Network group, which have informed his thinking. The group describes its mission as “to challenge the adequacy of scientific materialism as an explanation of reality”. The group publishes pseudoscientific articles, such as “Minds Beyond Brains,” claiming to explain telepathy and other supposed parapsychological phenomena. More here

Related News
Focus: Life on Planet Charles (The Independent, Nov. 21)
The Prince and his PA: so alike (The Daily Telegraph, Nov. 21)

NanoBot Backgrounder
Britain offers cash prizes for bright ideas
Prince Charles called to the Commons
Life, actually

EU news service grows small coverage

Revamped CORDIS service on nanotechnology reflects huge importance of the very small (CORDIS News Service)

CORDIS, the Community Research and Development Information Service, has launched a newly revamped information service on 'nanotechnology', bringing together news and information from diverse sources on developments in technologies based on nano-scale engineering.

Nanotechnology applications include health care, information and communication technologies, materials sciences, manufacturing, instrumentation, energy, security and space. Reflecting this growing importance, the European Commission held a public consultation on the future of nanotechnology in Europe, following its communication 'Towards a European strategy for nanotechnology' in May 2004. An action plan is in preparation, and initiatives in this area have been coordinated via the Irish and Dutch Presidencies, as well as the NanoForum, an EU sponsored thematic network for the business, scientific and social communities. More here

Related News
New US nanotech alliance follows in footsteps of EU research networks (Europa, Nov. 29)
Adiabatic Logic voted ‘Start-up of the Year' at 2004 European Electronics Industry Awards (sourcewire.com, Nov. 19)

NanoBot Backgrounder
Get with the programme
Europeans like it tiny and tough
NanoSurvey says ...

Britain offers cash prizes for bright ideas

Minister to provide funds for innovative projects (FT.com)

Patricia Hewitt, the trade and industry secretary, will launch a competition today offering £80m in grants for companies that invest in nine technologies believed to be of national importance.

The government's technology strategy board, made up of senior business executives, venture capitalists and civil servants, decided the key technology areas at a meeting earlier this month.

Companies with a bright idea in nanotechnology, pervasive computing and new waste management techniques will be able to compete for the funds.

Money will also be given to projects involving bio-based industrial products, notable for using fewer natural resources, and smart materials, such as those that reduce the effects of earthquakes on bridges.

In addition, the competition will allocate cash to projects involved in computer modelling for design work, renewable energy technologies, imaging systems and opto-electronic technologies. More here

Related News
Blair vision of Britain as science capital (Birmingham Post, Nov. 18)
Hewitt plans to tempt scientists to UK (The Guardian, Nov. 17)

NanoBot Backgrounder
Prince Charles called to the Commons
Westinghouse finalist caught nano bug
Journal recants publication of autism study

VC: Don't follow the baloney

Legendary venture capitalist looks ahead (CNET News.com)

Which technology or company is most overhyped at the moment?

Nanotech anything, probably in part because of the huge amount of technology press coverage of what is sort of a lab fascination with the chemical process. People don't talk about particular applications, like making Pentium chips 50 times faster or curing diabetes.

So it's the media's fault?

The press has become fascinated with the concept and the scientists and investors and all the peep show surrounding the phenomenon. They have been interviewed to death. If there is an application for nanotechnology, it's going to be the later part of our lifetimes. You have this huge amount of press coverage and no market problem that needs solving. More here

NanoBot Backgrounder
Start the nano revolution without me
Nanotechnology a 'synthetic haloword'
'The hype and the fear'

Ta Ta for NanoBot (for now)

I'm off to an undisclosed location for a couple of weeks, so you'll need to endure this site's "hold" music until after Thanksgiving. But feel free to continue browsing around here, as I've built up an extensive archive over the last year or so. You can search this site using the form at the bar up top. Who knows? Maybe I blogged you and you didn't even know it. I'll be off e-mail, so please tell your attorneys to delay all action against me until I return.

And when I return, I'll let you know about some exciting and new stuff in store for NanoBot.

Meanwhile, get your daily nano fix from excellent sites such as Nanotechnology Now or any one of the fine information sources in my "Required Reading" list on the left.

With apologies to fellow Wayne State University alumnus Casey Kasem: Keep your feet on the ground and keep reaching for the small.

Memories, like the CMOS of my mind

Better living -- and smarter rats -- through chemistry
Some day, humans may plant a chip in their head to help them remember where they put the car keys. (By Michael Kanellos, CNET News.com)

A group of researchers at the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry in Martinsried, Germany, have devised a specially designed chip that can stimulate or monitor brain tissue when placed under it. A synapse fires, and a corresponding spike in voltage occurs in the adjacent chip. Alternatively, electricity courses through the chip, and chemical synapses fire in the brain tissue.

So far, the group has only used the technology to study the reactions of snail neurons, sections of rat brain and a few other types of nerve cells. The group is not close at all to delivering a product -- but the technology creates the possibility that the movements of mind can be mapped (or guided) by computers.

"The real goal is to make content-addressable memory" in living beings, said Peter Fromherz, speaking at the International Congress of Nanotechnology this week in San Francisco. "You can really look at brain dynamics with a CMOS chip," he said, referring to complementary metal-oxide semiconductors.

If you want to get a glimpse of the future, a nanotechnology conference is the place to be. Other ideas discussed at the three-day event include a fuel cell that runs on plant matter, including matter scavenged from the ground; a chip that can detect the onset of a disease days before any physically visible symptoms appear; and computers controlled by domino-like chain reactions among zinc-oxide molecules. More here

NanoBot Backgrounder
Quanta on my mind
Nano on the brain
Nanotubes and the tale of the rats

Georgia Tech, meet your new nanotech wide receiver

Q: What will you be thinking just before the game on Friday night?

A: I have no idea. I don't have a pregame ritual, my mind usually just wanders about the game. But I know I'll definitely be thinking about football.

Q: Where are you considering attending college?

A: Auburn or Georgia Tech. I want to go into nanotechnology. Tech has a program and Auburn will have one soon.

Q: What would it feel like to win a state championship?

A: I know it would feel great. I have been here a long time through all the ups and downs. I definitely know about getting kicked out of the playoffs so winning state would be a great feeling. More here

Central Michigan is dendrimers' delight

Biotechnology Specialist MultiGen Joins Central Michigan University’s Nanotechnology Cluster (azonano.com)

Beginning in January 2005, a new start-up company at Central Michigan University will provide detection and diagnostic commercial testing services to a wide range of local and regional organizations, such as medical, clinical and veterinary offices, public health institutions, and the agricultural food industry.

MultiGEN Diagnostic Inc. is a subsidiary of Bio-ID Diagnostic Inc., a Saskatchewan-based firm that specializes in the development of new DNA-based technologies used for detection and diagnosis of microbes and biological threats. MultiGEN, which will be housed in CMU’s Health Professions Building, is the latest addition to a growing field of nanotechnology researchers on the CMU campus.

T.V. Moorthy, Bio-ID Diagnostic Inc. president and chief executive officer, said CMU’s research environment was a key factor in the decision.

"There is some exciting work being done in the field of dendrimer nanotechnology on the campus of Central Michigan University," said Moorthy. "We’re confident we can leverage that technology in a way that will yield some very positive results."

... Bio-ID collaborated with local researchers in a nanotechnology research initiative funded through U.S. Department of Defense appropriations totaling $5.9 million over the past two years. CMU, in partnership with the CMU Research Corp. and Mount Pleasant-based Dendritic NanoTechnologies Inc., has been designated as a Dendritic Nanotechnology Center of Excellence by the U.S. Army Research Labs.

Moorthy’s arrival on campus reflects the central Michigan region’s growing reputation in the field of nanotechnology, said James Hageman, CMU Research Corp. interim CEO. More here

Related News
Michigan Tech develops new nanoscience engineering major (Online Lode)

NanoBot Backgrounder
The Tale of Tomalia
Playing God with Monsters
Come up to my state and look at my isotopes

Hello, ma'am, can I interest you in a set of nanopedias?

Big book for small things (NE Ohio Craintech)

For those looking to impress friends with their nano knowledge at the next cocktail party, never fear, the nanopedia is here.

Financed with a $100,000 grant from the National Science Foundation, Case Western Reserve University researchers Alexis Abramson and Dave Smith are compiling an encyclopedia of nanotechnology terminology.

The nanopedia is targeted at both the nano geek looking for the latest research on carbon nanotubes and the nano novice simply looking for a definition of nanotechnology. More here

Berkeley to play with tiny tinkertoys

New NSF center to study fundamentals of nanostructures, build and test nanodevices (EurekAlert)

Nanobatteries, nanopumps, nanomotors and a slew of other nanoscale devices - most with parts that move a mere fraction of the width of an atom - are among the promises of a new $11.9 million Center of Integrated Nanomechanical Systems (COINS) starting up this fall at the University of California, Berkeley.

The center, one of six new Nanoscale Science and Engineering Centers funded for five years by the National Science Foundation (NSF), will harness the skills of theoretical and experimental physicists, chemists, biologists and engineers to explore the basic science of nanostructures and then use this knowledge to both create nanoscale building blocks and assemble them into working devices.

The goal is to merge nanotubes and a host of other Tinkertoy-like nanopieces with organic molecules - DNA, proteins or nanomolecular motors - to create sensors or nanomachines small enough to fit on the back of a virus. Each nanoscale building block ranges from a few to hundreds of nanometers across (a nanometer is a billionth of a meter, about one thousandth the width of a human hair). More here

Udub's D.C. dollar dealer

Husky fishes for funding in D.C. (By Pamela Hardy, The Daily of the University of Washington-Seattle)

In recent years, colleges and universities have raised their spending budget on lobbying Congress, and the UW is no exception.

Barbara Perry, UW associate vice president and director of federal relations, spends her time in Washington, D.C. representing the voice of the faculty and students of the UW, advocating for their interests and the University community.

In Washington, D.C., Perry, a lobbyist for more than 30 years, spends the majority of her time campaigning for funding in basic research by such agencies as the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Her promotion of research in science and medical advancements had led to such funding as a $70 million grant for the UW and its nanotechnology funded by the NSF. More here

NanoBot Backgrounder
From Boston to Berkeley, this land is nano land
Nano Bacon Brought Home
Mr. Kulongoski goes to Washington

Red-state remuneration

Draper plans to establish Ohio office
Cincinnati startups will have access to $60M (By Steve Watkins, Pittsburgh Business Times)

Draper Triangle Ventures, one of Pittsburgh's largest venture capital firms, plans to open a Cincinnati office early next year, giving entrepreneurs in eastern Ohio access to a $60 million fund.

Draper invests mainly in early-stage advanced software, medical device, MEMS, automation and nanotechnology firms. It announced in September it had raised $40 million toward its goal of building the $60 million fund by next spring. Draper said then that it expects to fund roughly 25 startups over the next five years, with initial investments ranging from $500,000 to $2 million. More here

NanoBot Backgrounder
Nanowaxing Elegant
Cave Capitalists

Westinghouse finalist caught nano bug

Staples High senior makes strides in science (The Stamford Advocate)

When Staples High student Shane Mulligan visited a leading nanotechnology laboratory at New York University two years ago, he was expecting a routine tour.

The sophomore was taken aback when Nadrian Seeman, the lab director, asked whether he would like to do research under his tutelage.

"I was sort of caught off-guard," said Shane, 17, now a senior.

Then a first-year student in Staples' three-year science research program, Shane saw it as the chance of a lifetime. He has a keen interest in nanotechnology and accepted without hesitation.

He is now one of five New England regional finalists in the Siemens Westinghouse Competition in Math, Science and Technology, one of the most prestigious science competitions in the nation. He will present his project to judges at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology this weekend. The student who takes first place will compete in the national finals for a $100,000 grand prize. More here

NanoBot Backgrounder
¡Venezuelan Nano Champ!
Not your father's 'shop' class
Hey kids, wanna be cool?

You ain't seen nano yet

This Associated Press story and this list of products all illustrate the wonderful new chemistry that is now coming of age, with our ability to tailor nanosize particles to perform specific tasks to make our lives better.

But to name this "nanotechnology" is akin to striking two flints together and labeling the spark a "supernova."

I'm not knocking or mocking nanopants. I think it's a great product. I spent more than three years helping to create the buzz surrounding nanoproducts. I own the pants, I've road-tested the socks, I've assigned product reviews of the nano-riffic cosmetics and tennis equipment and I played a key role in building a news organization that grabbed a disparate collection of businesses that deal with small stuff and called them an "industry"

And there, too, I have no regrets. The profit motive can and will help move nanoscience forward.

An entrepreneurial cave man can take his sack of flints on the road and, for a small fee, dazzle the locals with the spark. He can call it a fire or a thermonuclear explosion or whatever he wants, and the spark will seem wondrous. But in reality, it's still not yet a fire.

Advanced chemistry, business models and five-year profit plans are fascinating subjects to write about and to read. They certainly cannot be dismissed, since they are useful in keeping basic nanotech concepts in the public eye. And, of course, God bless the entrepreneur who's got his own.

But as for me, I remain curious about nanotechnology.

I want to know who's creating it, how far away are they, who's supporting it, who's not (and why), who's thinking about long-term implications and whether the U.S. government and Pentagon really know what they're doing as they guide nanotech's development with a tiny piece of my money. I just can't seem to find anything substantial anywhere on that subject in any of the publications I read. So, you'll find more and more of it on NanoBot.

Yes, I've drunk the Kool-Aid, chugged it all down. Yet, here I am, pink mustache and all, surviving to tell the story. I suspect -- actually, I know -- more than a few businesspeople who would like a window into not only the possibilities of real-deal nanotechnology, but also to be informed of the work going on to make it happen. Who are the visionaries -- the old, but especially the young -- that serve as the true thinkers and innovators of our age? Watch this space.

You think you've seen nano? You ain't seen nothin' yet.

Regulate this!

Nano World: Regulations in prospect (By Charles Q. Choi, United Press International)

"The planning phase for nanotechnology regulations needs to start now," said J.D. Shipman, a research associate with the University of South Carolina currently at the University of North Carolina School of Law. "We don't want to be caught up in the possibilities of a life-altering technology and not think about the long-term implications of what it will mean."

There is a "deep divide" in approaches toward nanotechnology regulation, Shipman explained, depending largely on where one stands on the ideas of scientist Eric Drexler.

Drexler coined the word "nanotechnology" in his 1986 book, "Engines of Creation." The landmark and influential work popularized the concept of molecular nanotechnology, which encompasses ideas such as self-replicating nano-robots that could have the power to grow entire cities from scratch or, conversely, turn civilizations into puddles of gray goo.

Drexler and others think molecular nanotech "has very broad ramifications, and needs strong regulations before it gets into the wrong hands," Shipman said.

On the other hand, physicist Richard Smalley at Rice University -- who won a Nobel Prize for discovering the soccer ball-shaped, carbon-based nanostructures called Buckminsterfullerenes, or buckyballs for short -- and others doubt molecular assemblers are scientifically possible.

U.S. Senators Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and George Allen, R-Va., both major legislative proponents of nanotech, "do not back the Drexlerian view," Shipman said. "They don't see the sweeping, broad, change-every-aspect-of-life view of nanotechnology and don't see the need for regulation."

Drexlerians also contend that the 21st Century Nanotechnology Research and Development Act, which authorizes $3.4 billion for nanotech over the fiscal-year 2004-to-2008 period, moves away from the doctrine of molecular nanotechnology.

Whether or not the momentous issues posed by molecular nanotechnology arise, regulatory agencies inevitably will have to deal with nanotech issues. For example, nanomaterials often are merely smaller versions of existing materials, but their reduced size can grant them significantly different physical properties and potential health and environmental risks, said John Miller, a managing editor at the journal Nanotechnology Law & Business and vice president of intellectual property for Arrowhead Research Corp., a nanotech research firm in Pasadena, Calif. More here

NanoBot Backgrounder
Legislation before Education
Nanotech Policy Predictions
Creating a monster
This nebulous 'nano'
Whose nano matters?
Clash of the Nanotech Titans

India, U.S. to talk nanotech

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh calls Bush (The Telegraph, Calcutta)

(Indian) Foreign secretary Shyam Saran will visit Washington on November 17 and 18 for talks with senior US official Kenneth Juster to draw up an action plan for the Next Steps on Strategic Partnership II. The focus of the talks will be on the transfer of high technology, defence and nano-technology. Before this, an official team visits Washington to talk to the Americans on cyber-terrorism. More here

Related News:
Indian American Scientists Account for 16% of DoD Research (IndoLink)
Subra Muralidharan Targets “Agents of Terror” (IndoLink)

NanoBot Backgrounder
Nano now with less salt!
Gender selection technology … or infanticide
Take my spam, please

NASA seeks some spacey ideas

NASA Special Notice: Request for Information: Request for Flagship and Keystone Challenges (SpaceRef.com)

External organizations are sought to support Centennial Challenges within the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C.

It is expected that this effort will consist of one or more traditional, competitively bid contract(s).

This Request for Information (RFI) is intended to identify the field of possible supporting organizations based on the responses received and to obtain information that will help guide the development of future procurements.

Please respond to any or all of the RFI elements provided below.

"Repeatable contests" for:

• Advances in materials, especially nanotube tethers;
• Advances in lightweight power transmission, especially beamed power;
• Advances in deployable telescope technology, especially those that could be applicable to space-based observatories;
• Advances in general aviation technologies, especially those applicable to other modes of air transport;
• A precision landing system;
• An advanced tele-robotic construction system;
• Highly mobile and cooperative autonomous robots;and
• A human lunar all-terrain vehicle. More here

Update: NASA's request is getting the Slashdot treatment.

NanoBot Backgrounder
Mars Needs NanoMoney
Stairway to Heaven
Space Popsicles

Come up to my state and look at my isotopes

Ill., Mich. Want New Federal Isotope Lab (Associated Press)

Like most of us, politicians don't know much about isotopes. But because they know something about money and jobs, lawmakers from Illinois and Michigan are locked in a battle to convince the federal government that their state and not the other one is the perfect place for a new lab devoted to these unstable atomic forms.

The federal government plans to spend about $1 billion to build an isotope lab that could create a few hundred jobs for scientists and a few hundred more for support staff.

The choice, expected to be made next year, could come down to Argonne National Laboratory in suburban Chicago or Michigan State University, both leaders in nuclear physics.

The proposed facility — known as a rare isotope accelerator, or RIA — would allow physicists to explore the structure and forces that make up the nucleus of atoms, test theories of fundamental structure of matter and perhaps play a role in developing new nuclear medicines and techniques. More here

NanoBot Backgrounder
Nano-Economics in Lowell, Mass.
A nano chicken in every pot
It's the nano economy, stupid

Zeno, nano and quantum cwaziness

Howard,

First let me say that I am an avid follower of Kabbalah for about 10 yrs now, I am also involved in research and investment in nanotech, I for one appreciate the direction you took with that article. Religion and science are often referred to as opposite sides of a coin, but as we move along into the quantum realm, we will discover they are more like two sides of triangle, the further we move along, the closer we get to a common point.

That being said, you know as well as I do, that as passionate as we may be about the simplicity of it all, it is near to impossible for the average reader who has no Kabbalah experience to get a grasp of what you were trying to put across. I do however applaud your attempt.

I must confess something to you: Ein Sof has always been a tough concept for me, I have pondered about for hours at end but never really got a grasp, so I just filed it in the back of mind in the ‘check back later’ folder. While reading your article, you mentioned Zeno's paradox in relation to Ein Sof. I sat up in my chair, eyebrows raised, it is so simple! I have not had a spark of insight strike me like that in a long time, its all so clear now! I must thank you for that!

Regards,
(Name withheld at writer's request. He says he doesn't like "mixing religion and business." Translation: He can't be associated publicly with my kind of nano voodoo. After all, unlike me, some people care about their reputations in the eyes of the science and business community. But I digress ...)

Dear (Name withheld -- see rant above)

Wow. I must be better than I thought! I do come from a line of rabbis -- yet, I'm certainly not rabbinic material. I'm glad you got something out of my piece. This has got to be the first time anybody has told me they've found God in anything I've done!

Howard

Well, I didn’t really find God, just got infinitely closer ...

(Name Withheld, blah blah blah)

NanoBot Backgrounder
NanoKabbalah in Salon on my birthday: Coincidence?
NanoKabbalah Jihad
Nanotech arrogance will meet the Luddite hammer

'Bot the Vote

It's a beautiful autumn day here in suburban Detroit, a perfect time for a stroll to the polls.

NanoBot has not officially endorsed any presidential candidate, but if you look very closely at the picture above with an atomic force microscope you might be able to determine my political preference. My wife snapped this picture of me and my continuing experiment in bottom-up molecular manufacturing just after we performed our civic duty today (fortunately, Max Lovy refrained from performing his civic doody during our hour-long wait in line).

If you don't vote, you can't complain about your government's policies on scientific and technological issues. So, Max and I want to urge all eligible voters to go to the polls, make history and show the world how peaceful transition of power is done.

NanoBot Backgrounder
Didn't mean to dis The Boss

Dilbert's done it again

Thanks again, to reader Ken Ellis, who wonders whether Dilbert will do a whole nano series.

NanoBot Backgrounder
Dilbert Does Nano

Rachmaninoff's Nano Concerto No. 2

This letter to the editor of the Hollister (Calif.) Free Lance illustrates, again, how "nanotechnology" is being called into active metaphor service, and it's not all hazardous duty.

She played Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2, and played it flawlessly. I was fortunate to have a seat where I could observe her delicate hands with dancing fingers traversing the ivory keyboard with the speed of lightning and the precision of nanotechnology. More here

NanoBot Backgrounder
Quantum Cocktail
Metaphors thinner than a human hair
Nano Virtuoso

Not your father's 'shop' class

Vocational ed embraced by college-bound (The Charlotte Observer)

... voc-tech has gone high-tech. As school districts educate for a new economy, the stereotypical shop class is being replaced by courses in digital communication, bioengineering and nanotechnology.

The word "vocational" has become taboo -- it's now called career and technical education -- and with the new name has come a more advanced curriculum.

... In South Carolina, Fort Mill High is one of about 100 high schools offering engineering courses for high school and college credit. Next month, students at 10 S.C. schools will watch a live broadcast of heart surgery. And starting next year, S.C. officials hope to offer classes in bioengineering, aerospace engineering and nanotechnology. More here

NanoBot Backgrounder
I got Study Hall, PhysEd, Shop, then ... Nanoscience? Whaaaa!?
The children are our nano future
Hey kids, wanna be cool?

Dilbert Does Nano

Thank you to NanoBot reader Ken Ellis for bringing this to my attention.

NanoBot Backgrounder
Dave Barry sends up the space elevator
Jay Nano