Time for a little art

I am not the artist of the family. That's my wife's department (She works at the Detroit Institute of Arts). So, I'm probably not qualified to spot an art "trend." But, as all the real scientists and engineers who read this blog know, lack of qualifications has never stopped me from openly expressing an opinion before, so why stop now?

Trend or not, there has been some recent news involving nanotech and art. The picture above comes from Jessica Burns, a junior at Central Columbia High School in Pennsylvania, who took first place in a Nanotechnology Digital Art Contest sponsored by Clarion University, where students can minor in nanotechnology. Jessica's piece is called "Up, Up, and Away with Nanotechnology," in keeping with the contest's nanotech-and-the-environment theme.

And my old friend and former Small Times correspondent Jack Mason continues his passion for science and art with a partnership with the Insight Art Connection. You can view and purchase his celebration of the tiny over here. The piece pictured here is called "Nano Under Glass."

NanoArt blogger Cris Orfescu tells us about art that, unlike much of my writing, is Finnish-ed. (That was supposed to be a joke. Never mind).

The 1st International Festival of NANOART - Finland 2007 (from Cris Orfescu's NanoArt blog)

The 1st International Festival of NanoArt will be hosted by the Kotkan Valokuvakeskus Gallery in Kotka, Finland between May 4 and May 31, 2007. The show is curated by Cris Orfescu (USA) and Timo Mahonen (Finland). ...

To view the artists' NanoArt albums please visit http://nanoart21.org/nanoart2006.

NanoArt is a new art discipline related to micro/nanosculptures created by artists/scientists through chemical/physical processes and visualized with powerful research tools like Scanning Electron Microscope or Atomic Force Microscope. The monochromatic microscope images are processed further to create pieces of art that can be showcased for large audiences to educate the public with creative images that are appealing and acceptable. To read more about NanoArt and Nanotechnology please visit http://www.nanoart21.org/.

Backgrounder
A little splash of color
Laurie Anderson's spirit in the sky
Tag-teaming with nature to build nanomachines

Roxxi the Foxxi 'Bot has the cure -- Part II

I see that Roxxi the Foxxi 'Bot is back in the news, with health insurer Cigna Corp. giving free copies of the game Re-Mission to young cancer patients. I've written about Re-Mission and similar games here, here and here. And above are two videos featuring the game. The one one the left is a 10-minute documentary from HopeLab on the making of the game and on the right is a TV news report.

A couple of points that I've made before need repeating.

1. Whether you believe the kind of "nanobot" depicted in this game (well, not literally, unless you want to try to shrink Raquel Welch down to nanosize and put her in a skin-tight outfit) is scientifically possible in the real world, nanobots have pervaded popular culture and are an easily recognizable symbol for the possibilities and dangers associated with nanotech. For these young cancer patients, they represent hope or, at the very least, a way to express rage against the invisible forces attacking them.

2. Those who would ban all research into nanotechnology should enter a children's cancer ward and break the news to them in person.

Here's an excerpt from the latest AP story.

Cigna offers free cancer video game (By Deborah Yao, Associated Press Writer)

Roxxi, a brunette nanobot with a blaster for a left arm, takes careful aim at a cancer cell and zaps it into oblivion.

The video game starring Roxxi aims to help young cancer patients deal with their disease by visualizing the destruction of cancerous cells.

Starting Wednesday, Philadelphia-based health insurer Cigna Corp. will be sending free copies of the game to doctors to hand out to cancer patients who want it, regardless of whether they are a Cigna customer. Patients can also get a free copy on CD or DVD by visiting http://www.cigna.com/re-mission. More here

Update (6/3/07): Re-Mission is being given credit for actually helping a 12-year-old beat cancer. Sounds like a case of "faith" healing to me, but whatever works sounds wonderful to me. There's a discussion going on at Digg (as opposed to my own Digg of a few days earlier).

Backgrounder
NanoBots for life
Another nanobot stars in educational video game
Roxxi the Foxxi 'Bot has the cure
NanoBots control the horizontal and vertical

Housekeeping

Please pardon my dust. This four-year-old blog is going through some updating. Those who subscribe to my RSS feed might be a little confused about old posts showing up as new. No, I'm not rewriting history. I'm just labeling it for easy access and search. But just the act of labeling brings it to the front of the line. I'm doing this slowly as I have time. Reliving history isn't all bad, though, as long as you're not condemned to repeat it ...

Fearless Leader Putin invented nanotech

Al Gore may have invented Internet, but, hah, Russians laugh at whimpy little achievement of ex-American funeral attender. Here's inconvenient truth for you. Vladimir "The Democracy Impaler" Putin invented nanotechnology.

QuoteBot: Nanotech's 'gullible simpletons'

"Nanotechnologies is a fancy name that excites millions of gullible simpletons who believe there's a Golconda behind every rinky-dink, small company in the nano-business."

Malcolm Berko, financial adviser
Advising a reader in his syndicated column: Don't waste nanosecond on Altair

Backgrounder
Arrowhead Research Corp. stock is airborne
QuoteBot: Mad Nano Money
TINY, Yahoo and Yaweh
Cramer not mad about Headwaters

NanoFiction and my guilty pleasure (audio link)

I've mentioned before that audiobooks are among my guilty pleasures. I read and write for a living, so by the time I'm ready to relax with some recreational reading, my eyes are shot. Audiobooks (I subscribe to Audible.com) also come in handy in traffic jams, long road trips and especially as a form of escape while doing mundane household chores.

So, I'm "reading" the second book in a series of film noir-esque sci-fi thrillers written by Richard K. Morgan and featuring a futuristic Sam Spade named Takeshi Kovacs.

Anyway, if you're like me and want true escape in your escapist fiction, I recommend the trilogy: Altered Carbon, Broken Angels and Woken Furies.

Nanotech, of course, plays a role in this world in which consciousness can be uploaded and downloaded into different bodies ("sleeves," in Morgan's world).

Listen to the excerpt below from "Broken Angels." Pardon the quality, but the audio traveled yesterday from my car speakers to my cell phone, up do Odeo, over to Blogger, then out to you.

Oh, and there are some bad words said, so it might not be work- or kid-friendly. Hit the button below at your own risk. Enjoy.

Update: Just discovered that you need to have an account with Odeo to listen to the audio. It's free to sign up. Sorry about that, though. Had I known that they force you to sign up, I would not have used the service. Maybe they know that, and that's why there's no mention of it on the site.

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Guaranteeeeed, Jen - U - Wiiiiine Nano!

Looks like we have another nominee for the NanoBot Mr. Haney Award

The Nanotech Biofuel Super Stock Scam (Tradeking, May 23, 2007)

Sometimes, penny stock scam artists are so convincing and so believable that even intelligent people who should know better get duped. This is especially true when companies leverage the buzzwords of the day in an effort to exploit the greed of investors. As Bill Alpert of Barron's pointed out in a recent "Technology Week" column, the New York Times was apparently duped into carrying ads by a highly questionable company promising untold riches to investors who bought into a future vision of nanotech innovation and alternative energy nirvana. Unfortunately, Nano Chemical Systems Holdings (ticker: NCSH) turned out to be a company on the wrong side of the law, as Bill Alpert explains: More here

Backgrounder
Dr. Nano's Travelin' Medicine Show
NanoCon Quiz
Nanotech's real danger is the nano con
How low can nano go?

What is nanotechnology?

What is nanotechnology? Click below and let's listen to Victoria explain it all.

Update: Just discovered that you need to have an account with Odeo to listen to the audio. It's free to sign up. Sorry about that, though. Had I known that they force you to sign up, I would not have used the service. Maybe they know that, and that's why there's no mention of it on the site.

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Arrowhead Research Corp. stock is airborne

Um, has anybody noticed what's been going on with Arrowhead Research Corp.'s stock price? *

* Howard Lovy's NanoBot takes no responsibility for any financial action you may or may not take based on anything you read here. If I were such a financial genius I'd have minions do the blogging for me, and I'd actually know how to make money off of NanoBot. Oh, and full disclosure: I did some work for Arrowhead Research Corp. last year and I have a few pennies invested in the company now. But I have no "inside" knowledge of the company. Hell, they won't even return my e-mails.

Related News
Arrowhead to Sell Restricted Stock
Arrowhead Announces $16.5 Million Investment by Institutional Investors
Form 8-K for Arrowhead Research Corp.

Backgrounder
My other life as a nanotech pitchman

Singing the Rust Belt Blues

A great deal remains in my reporter's notebook, and it would be a case of journalistic malpractice if I did not tell the continuing story of a writer, a region and their struggles for relevance. Check out my other blog, Rust Belt Blues, now and then for stories of the death of a region and seeds of rebirth. Along the way, perhaps I'll find a publication that has the intelligence, the foresight and the attention span to let me tell it.

Dear Boston Globe: A 'mashup' is not a survey

I'm surprised that the Boston Globe would be so technologically uninformed that it would mistake a Google Maps search that anybody can do for a full-fledged survey on nanotech hotbeds.

Even if you believe the exaggeration that this is any kind of real survey, it is far from the first. A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, I used to be the news editor for Small Times Magazine, where we actually did the first-ever rankings of nanotechnology hotbeds.

One other mistake in the Globe article: The Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies does not "promote the benefits of nanotechnologies." It was formed as a kind of watchdog think-tank to make sure environmental and health risks are taken into account -- and proper regulations formed -- along the way to our inevitable nanotech future.

Backgrounder
State rankings and quantum reality
Indigestible nanotech claim
Son of Massachusetts Miracle

NanoTube: 'Infest Wisely'

A "lo-fi sci-fi no-budget" feature in seven episodes, "Infest Wisely" makes you wonder whether the nanotech future will be hard to swallow. Enjoy.

Backgrounder
PBS station gives us nanoriches
NanoVox
Government Created Killer NanoRobot Infection