'Nanocar' assembly worker wins Feynman Prize

Remember the "nanocar?" The guy who built the smallest vehicle in the known universe, James Tour of Rice University, just won a Feynman Prize in Nanotechnology. See? We do make small, economy cars in the United States.

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Everything is Animated
NanoEngineering Puts On A Happy Face
This little joint is jumping
Thank you, Foresight

Nanotech? Nahh, doesn't exist yet

UT Dallas and Zyvex, the only company I am aware of devoted to true molecular manufacturing, recently announced a partnership to work on a new technique to "build 3D objects atom by atom."

But, wait ... isn't that what nanotech is supposed to be about? And we can't even do it yet? I mean, Merriam-Webster defines nanotechnology as "the art of manipulating materials on an atomic or molecular scale especially to build microscopic devices (as robots)." And just about every news story you read about nanotech informs readers that it's about building new stuff atom by atom.

Well, this is why I've been hesitant to comment any further than I already have on the renewed debate over whether and how to "regulate nanotechnology." In my mind, we're not there yet, and the presence of nanoscale materials in sunscreens, socks and bowling balls does not mean we've entered the nanotech age.

Maybe we're partway there, at best, since the size of these particles does give them new properties that simultaneously create new benefits for the products and raise new fears over "tiny terrors" and other such alliterative nonsense we've been reading about lately.

But, to me, nanotech will have arrived when we not only can dump nanoscale materials into the soup, but we can precisely control their assembly and what they do once they go to work. The sunscreen with nanoscale ingredients you've been reading about is just that -- sunscreen with nanoscale ingredients. Not yet nanotech.

However, count on Zyvex chief James Von Ehr to keep his eyes on the prize during these cave-man days of nano.

"Our goal is to develop the capability to fabricate nanostructures in such a way that we can control position, size, shape and orientation at the nanometer scale, which is not possible today,” said Tom Kenny, DARPA program manager. “If we can demonstrate this, we will be able to truly unlock the potential capabilities of nanotechnology." More here

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How PR 'spins' the atom
... and I am a trivial boy
Zyvex's Von Ehr on pixels, bits and stitches

The Dogs of Nano

I don't make this stuff up. Just reporting the facts, misplaced apostrophes and all ...

Nano Dogs the Movie (2009) Nanobots - /nan'oh-bots/ n. Robots of microscopic proportions. The future of computer science with astronomical potential. As of yet, only used experimentally. -Until Now! Nano-scientist Richard Spano has them, and his competitors will do anything to get them, but when his twelve-year old son, Matt, toys with a nano-solution, the family dogs ingest them and become the "talk" of the town. The nanos give them super abilities allowing them to speak and ultimately increasing their brainpower to telepathic levels. Matt tries to keep them a secret from everyone; until his next-door friends, Peg and Brandon, inadvertently find out and a couple of bumbling techno-spies steal one of the dogs, it's up to Matt and Peg to find his dog, Ozzy, before he becomes another casualty of the science lab. In the first film of it's kind, set in the science-fiction world of nanotechnology, "Nano Dogs the Movie" is a comedy caper-esque adventure that will be a journey of fun for the entire family! More here

Now, your NanoBot is working, so you don't have to, and some far-fetched claims need to be "checked out." If this little film does, indeed, make it to the big screen, it would not be the first of "it's" kind, or even its kind. Don't ask me why I remember this, but 1989's fantastic voyage into the nanorealm, "Honey I Shrunk The Kids" featured a dog named Quark.

But next year's small release does have one thing going for it. The writer involved, Michael David Murphy, apparently has a long rap sheet when it comes to making movies with mutts.

This Just In! We go now to Richard Jones in England, with some breaking news. Richard? Scooby Doo, nano too

(Sorry, my day job these days is in TV news)

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The scribe of Copernicus

"It is my hope that the discussions on Howard Lovy’s Nanobot are saved for future generations, because a lot of interesting, healthy debate went on there that probably looks, in form, very familiar to what similar public discussions concerning quantum theory, the heliocentric view of the solar system, representative democracy, and lots of other ludicrous ideas looked like. I get the feeling that the feasibility debate is over or, at least, it’s no longer an issue, I think everyone knows who the major players are and where they stand." More here.

Thanks, Damian. Thank goodness they don't burn heretics at the stake anymore. They just banish them to the status of just another crank in the blogosphere.

My point, however, was never that I believed or disbelieved in the feasibility of molecular nanotechnology. I approached it as a journalist, who saw obvious attempts in the business community to marginalize a school of thought for reasons that had nothing to do with science. So, I helped give voice to the marginalized, and I think I succeeded very well.

I'm not Copernicus. I'm the guy who wrote down what Copernicus said because nobody else would. I'm really not educated enough to know for sure whether the Earth really orbits around the sun.

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).

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

Government Created Killer NanoRobot Infection

From NanoBot

NanoBots for life

A few years ago, those who told fantastic tales of nanobots were accused by prominent scientists of perpetuating images that "have scared our children." Turns out, the evidence says the opposite is true.

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Roxxi the Foxxi 'Bot has the cure
NanoBots are Needed
We all live in a nano submarine
Stop worrying and learn to love nanobots

Ruh-Roh, Ranobots!

While nanotech scientists and promoters continue to bark up the wrong tree over the as-yet nonexistent movie version of Michael Crichton's "Prey," the WB network has tossed them a new bone to pick.

Well, more like a snack. A Scooby snack.

A ... nanotech ... Scooby snack.

Yes, you read this correctly. Scooby-Doo has gone nano, and no amount of whining and begging from those engaged in non-cartoon nanotech can stop it.

It seems that Shaggy had a rich uncle, Albert Shaggleford, who disappeared: "Zoinks! We're like gaziillionaires Scoob!" Uncle Albert was also a genius who left the clueless Shaggy with some nanobots that, of course, get mixed in with his mutt's Scooby-snacks. Zany side-effects ensue, with Scooby given the ability "to fly or turn into a giant robot."

"Shaggy and Scooby-Doo Get a Clue" premiered Saturday, Sept. 23.

Now, let's see whether those meddling nanoscientists will start barking about the toon, or roll over and play dead.

Backgrounder
Cranky Crichton hasn't a Hollywood 'Prey'er
Nanobots 'Lost' in 'The Dark Tower'
Nanobots: The Wonder Years

Can we build it?

NanoBot friend Richard Jones (friend to the blog, that is, but not necessarily to 'bots), is in charge of a challenge placed before British scienists for "software control of matter at the atomic or molecular scale." Applications are being accepted until Nov. 6 for participation in "a five-day sand-pit to look for innovative ways to explore whether we can design and construct a tool or method to arrange atoms or molecules to a blueprint." Just remember to play nice, boys and girls, and don't throw sand. Safety first.

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Collaborative NanoBot Blueprint
Everything is animated
Tag-teaming with nature to build nanomachines

Another nanobot stars in educational video game

Remember Re-Mission, a video game featuring a nanobot named Roxxi who blasts away cancer cells? That one was aimed at cancer sufferers. Now, a new game prototype has appeared aimed at students in biology and immunology classes. The game is called Immune Attack, produced by the Federation of American Scientists.

"A teenaged prodigy with a unique immunodeficiency must teach his immune system how to function properly, or die trying," the group says in a news release. "Using a nanobot and aided by a helpful professor, the teenager explores biologically accurate and visually detailed settings in pursuit of this goal."

Molecular self-assembly creates biped

Remember my two experiments in human bottom-up self-assembly? (See here, here, here, here, here and here.)

The first one is 2 years old now, but is so tall he is often mistaken for a 4-year-old. And the youngest one is 1, also a giant. But this specimen has recently evolved into a biped. Excellent. Excellent. Once he is old enough to develop his own musical tastes, I hope he retains his love for Johnny Cash. Click above to see the subject "Walk the Line."

Zombie nanobot warfare

This video really needs no introduction or explanation. Just enjoy.

Officially sanctioned nanotech speculation

"After 2015-2020, the field will expand to include molecular nanosystems--heterogeneous networks in which molecules and supramolecular structures serve as distinct devices. The proteins inside cells work together this way, but whereas biological systems are water-based and markedly temperature-sensitive, these molecular nanosystems will be able to operate in a far wider range of environments and should be much faster. Computers and robots could be reduced to extraordinarily small sizes. Medical applications might be as ambitious as new types of genetic therapies and antiaging treatments. New interfaces linking people directly to electronics could change telecommunications."

Mihail C. Roco, senior adviser for nanotechnology to the National Science Foundation and a key architect of the National Nanotechnology Initiative, writing in the August 2006 issue of Scientific American

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If it isn't materials, it's immaterial
NanoBot's Discard Pile, Part 2
Being Mike Roco

Roxxi the Foxxi 'Bot has the cure

When Pam Omidyar was a research assistant in an immunology lab back in 1990, she would grow cancer cells in a lab by day and relax with some video games by night. Now, she combines both worlds at HopeLab, a nonprofit she founded in 2001.

The result is Re-Mission, a video game for cancer patients featuring a "microscopic, yet intrepid, nanobot named Roxxi" who blasts away cancer cells. The 10-minute video above explains the research that went into Re-Mission's creation.

There have been a lot of stories written about Re-Mission lately, each one explaining what a wonderful idea this is. But this one from IGN also looks at it from the perspective of, well, is it a good video game?

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News at a Clancy
Would 'Professor Z' get a government grant?
Nanomation

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.

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NanoBot's discard pile

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.

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'Lost' in nanobot space

Nano submarine crew saves scientist's life!

A super-top secret military project, the Combined Miniature Deterrent Force, succeeded in sending a nanosize submarine crew into a top scientist's bloodstream. After battling anti-bodies and an evil doctor working for the "other side," the crew returned safely through the tear duct.

  

     
The crew, of course, brought along Raquel Welch.

'Lost' in nanobot space

A few months ago, while making frequent flights to California, I found myself hooked on ABC's "Lost," which I downloaded via iTunes and used them to pass the time on cross-country flights (yes, I watched Episode 1 while on a plane. Yikes!)

So, imagine my pleasant surprise when my worlds collided a few episodes ago, and what looked like a nanobot swarm made itself known to one of the bad-ass castaways. Click on the picture above to see the clip for yourself.

Word on the Web is that it's the nanobots that are responsible for making the paralyzed walk and other island "miracles." I've been refraining from reading all the details because I really hate spoilers. I think more will be revealed this Wednesday. For those who do want to read more, I'll provide a few links below.

Island of intrigue
The Transmission: Lost Podcast
Another message board here (bad language used)
Fire+Water Addendum
Bullpucky: The Lost Report

... and blah blah blah ... Let's watch the show, and report back here afterward to tell me whether it sets back real nanotechnology, is scientifically implausible, echoes some real conspiracy theories you've been working on ... or whatever ...

A response to 'I, Nanobot'

OK, Alan Goldstein, I will not call you Ishmael. But somewhere along your road to Melville, you took a detour into speculative fiction, because that is clearly the genre of your Salon article, I, Nanobot.

The piece needs some work, but it appears to be written in the tradition of writers like Isaac Asimov, author of the article's namesake. Good science fiction takes a kernel of fact and extrapolates strange, new worlds via acres of “therefores.” I applaud Goldstein for this, as I did his previous Salon work, The (really scary) soldier of the future, which was a kind of "Terminator" meets "Gattaca." Most definitely FUD for thought.

So, why listen to me? A voice that, like Goldstein, is not Ishmael (sounds as though Isaac would be the correct branch of both of our family trees, anyway)? Because I can tell you something that just about anybody who has looked at what is called "nanotechnology" today can: He has been hoodwinked by the hype. In reality, scientists are still trying to figure out how to cook up a batch of nanotubes so that they all come out looking the same. We're far, far away from engineering our own extinction. No, if that happens courtesy of science, we'll do it the old-fashioned way and just blow ourselves to smithereens.

I have written before about the primary source of nanotech hype (here, here and here) and have shown how it is neither the media nor the nanobot futurists who are at fault. Most of the hype comes directly from the U.S. government's and nanotech industry's own promotional material about trillion-dollar markets and the dream of converging technologies to enhance "human performance." Nanotech proponents in government and business are continuously asking us to believe their "positive" hype and to dismiss the objections of those, like Goldstein, who take the same information and extrapolate a future dystopia.

Goldstein's article helps to solidify positions against nanotech that I predicted a few years ago -- that the right would turn vocal against a hypothetical, future nanotech that dares to "play God," and the left would organize against its own nano-mythology of out-of-control "green goo," (pissing off Mother Nature.)

But buried within Goldstein's whale of a hyperbolic tale are a few issues we all should consider as the young discipline of "nano-ethics" begins to define the rules of engagement. Do cochlear implants, for example, represent a wondrous cure for deafness, or are they the beginnings of a "genocide" perpetrated by science against the "deaf community?"

These are issues worthy of debate, yet I feel uneasy with the assumption that what occurs in nature is always the best outcome, that there is a pristine Eden that can only exist without the intervention of higher primates.

But, somewhere along the way, with or without the aid of Clarke/Kubrick's monolith, some clever monkeys began to use tools to survive, and those tools – while not physically melding with their bodies – became extensions of them, nevertheless, and guided the species along the path toward evolutionary survival.

Goldstein writes:

"Some people might argue that it is pretty cavalier to work on 'artificial life' or 'synthetic biology' before we have even agreed on definitions for these 'things.' They might even point out that 'artificial life' containing nonbiological components or new forms of biology could drastically alter the ecological balance or even the evolutionary trajectory of life on Earth."

I certainly hope so. The "evolutionary trajectory" of every single species on Earth – from Cro Magnon to South Park Republican – is extinction. The future needs those of us who can adapt.

Collaborative NanoBot Blueprint

In the new spirit of open access research, I sent Damian my drawing of a happy nanobot. Damian improved on my concept here. Collaborative nanotech research is alive and well through GE ad campaigns.

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Imagination at Work