Feynman on 'muddling through'

This is not Richard Feynman, but an actor reading a passage from "The Pleasure of Finding Things Out." I thought it was appropriate. Enjoy:

Engines of Distortion

Dear Howard,

It is a pity that Lord Broers has joined the parade of denialists who discuss distorted versions of obsolete scenarios to the exclusion of all research in the field since 1990. The Royal Society report twice misstates my views, citing publications in which I state the opposite.

For those interested in a brief summary, I recommend my essay for the AAAS, "The Future of Nanotechnology: Molecular Manufacturing". For more technical information, I recommend the discussion and bibliographies my website, e-drexler.com.

K. Eric Drexler

Backgrounder
We've seen the nano enemy and they is us
UK misses chance to defuse nanotox issue
Molecular manufacturing: Who needs it, and why?

Song of Soon-Shiong

I know I've told this one before, but for some reason I just can't get enough of these stories about mavericks coming in from the fringe to collect their cash and have the last laugh.

The Mavericks: Patrick Soon-Shiong - doctor, pioneer, billionaire (Razor Magazine)

Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong is no ordinary doctor. Born in South Africa to parents who emigrated from China, Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong moved to Los Angeles in 1980 and took a faculty position at UCLA's medical school. Known for taking on difficult cases, at age 34 he successfully performed the school's first whole pancreas transplant, saving the life of a diabetic woman.

Soon-Shiong left UCLA to open American BioScience, a private development laboratory which focuses on nanoparticles, a science aimed at making injectable medicines. Through this research he developed Abraxane, an experimental breast cancer treatment that was found to significantly slow tumor growths with fewer side effects than traditional chemotherapy drugs. In January of this year, the FDA approved Abraxane, opening the door to nanotechnology, and making Soon-Shiong one very rich man.

With the announcement, stock in American Pharmaceutical Partners (APPX), which will market and sell Abraxane as well some 130 generic injectable drugs, shot up 50 percent. Soon-Shiong, who is executive chairman and majority shareholder, predicts sales of Abraxane will run between $125 million and $155 million this year - and analysts predict it will generate $250 million in 2006 - meaning a hefty payday for Soon-Shiong, who is already worth an estimated $1.2 billion. More here

Backgrounder
A Spoonful of Nano
Abraxane again
Nanoparticles clobber cancer with sneak attack

I've got more male!

Now, I don't mean to lord my superior scientific skills over Lord Broers, but I do have an idea of "how to make an autonomous self-replicating machine at any scale."

It's a boy, and I expect him to be fully assembled by late September.

Backgrounder
Human Nanofactory Experiment: The Sequel
Eureka
Shocking photo of secret human nanofactory!

QuoteBot

"Our experience with chemistry and physics teaches us that we do not have any idea how to make an autonomous self-replicating machine at any scale."

Lord Broers, President of the Royal Academy of Engineering, 2005
Quoted in BBC News

"Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible."

Lord Kelvin, President of the Royal Society, 1895

An armchair nanotube quarterback

I just listened in on a news conference where Rick Smalley promised America some more Tang for its buck. NASA recently rained 11 million of them down on his Carbon Nanotechnology Laboratory at Rice University.

This might be as close as nanotech gets to a "we choose to go to the moon" style goal, and it's at least a step in the right direction when it comes to capturing public imagination.

But is it really about space at all? At today's news conference, the professor said it out loud. His goal over the next few years is to "get to the point where I can hold in my hands an armchair buckytube quantum wire."

Looks like the space program will boldly take him where "nano-energy" failed him before. Smalley's previous attempts to rally the nation around nanotech -- through energy following the big blackout almost two years ago -- never really caught on. There, too, he used the national focus on energy to try to win funding for his quantum wire project.

This is America, of course, where the profit motive usually goes hand-in-hand with the progress motive. So, there is nothing at all wrong with Smalley advancing his own business interests through government grants. It simply needs to be pointed out.

So, finally, he found his funds in the final frontier. What really cool space stuff are we going to do with this miracle molecule? WE'RE GOING TO MAKE ... ARE YOU READY FOR IT, AMERICA? WE'RE GOING TO CREATE ...

... a power cable.

But the world's strongest power cable, made entirely of carbon nanotubes. (Which I'm sure Smalley's company would be more than happy to provide).

Yep. Well, Dr. Smalley is no John Kennedy.

That's not to diminish the technological breakthroughs this four-year mission will achieve ... for Dr. Smalley and his company, that is, which not coincidentally claims a dominant position in nanotube intellectual property, including this key one on how to grow the stuff. Smalley's company is waiting for the right moment to send out its lawyers against the competition.

Not all nanotubes were created equal, and the current, clumsy way of cooking them produces too many varieties. It's the "armchair" flavor that he needs for his wires and, Smalley said today, "we won't rest until we get them all armchairs."

The method to be developed is to grow them from "seeds" that tell the tubes exactly how they are to grow. To make each tube grow in a predictable way, well that would be much better ... for Smalley's business.

Not a bad way to get some government dough to benefit your company while also wrapping it in an American flag. He's making just one mistake, though.

Power cables?

Dr. Smalley did not ask my advice, but I'll give it away for free. I have a better idea for a project that will not only advance the science but will also capture America's imagination a la Kennedy.

Going up?

Update: I'm glad I pointed out that Smalley's private company stands to gain from this deal, because his hometown paper ignored it. Remember, members of the media, don't be so awed by the cool science that you forget how to be news reporters covering a straight business story. Get out of this "nanotech is cool" or "nanotech is dangerous" frame of mind. That's the dog and pony show that only distracts from the hard work of real reporting. These nanotech players have had it too easy with those simplistic stories. What is happening now will set nanotech's course well into this century. Who are the players? What are their goals? Who's driving the vision, and for what reasons? Who stands to gain and will rise to positions of prominence and power when the nanodust settles?

Another update: Here's Wired on the nanowires, with essentially a one-source transcript of the news conference, quoting the NanoGod's self-worship of his "miracle polymer."

Related News
Company Plans To Build Space Elevator (AP)

Backgrounder
The Springfield Syndrome
Nano knowledge is power
Got the world on a string

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Control Over Nanowires "Growth": An article from: Energy Optimization News

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Diseases betrayed by cantilevers of love

If you're wondering whether nanotech will ever break into something more meaningful than a few novelty items like stain-proof pants and extra-bouncy balls, the more interesting products are on their way, with cancer in their crosshairs. The VeriScan Biosensor System from Protiveris caught my attention today because of the company's claim that its microscale cantilevers are somehow related to nanotech. A closer look tells me that, yes, Protiveris has every right to enjoy the prefix.

A cantilever is a tiny "diving board." For liberal arts folks, think Frank Lloyd Wright's Falling Water, stamp out any number of copies, line them up in arrays and then "microsize" them. Then, it's time to introduce the "live bait." Coat each cantilever on one side with a protein, antibody or even a snip of DNA, depending on what kind of prey you're after. Then step back and watch -- if you have really, really good eyes -- as complementary molecules just cannot resist the charms of their sexy soulmates all displayed like that on a diving board.

The poor suckers bind themselves to the board, the board bends and, bingo, you've got evidence that bad little things are carrying on inside your sample. Here's a flash animation of the process.

Where's the nano? Well, the cantilevers are bigger than nanosize, but the bending caused by the binding is measured by the nanometer.

So in other words, in this case anyway, it really is not the size that matters. It's all about the motion.

Build the buzz by informing the blogs

Is your company blogged? Once thought of as a trend, participation in blogs is now essential to your media relations. They have been leading the industry with their blogging technology. The easiest way to make sure that your company is taking advantage of the online buzz associated with online blogs is to distribute your press release with nanoPRwire.com™. More here

Umm. Sounds like a great idea. But maybe you should tell the bloggers. I just happened to bump into this while doing some research on the NSTI site. Or, maybe I'm the only blogger who's out of the nanotech press release loop. Can't imagine why.

Through the nanotech looking glass

Boy, the struggle of one lone nanotech blogger trying to make a living sure does occupy a great deal of space in the ruminations of a few large nano organizations with actual budgets and employees. What exactly is everybody worried about? That I just might accomplish what I had set out to do four years ago -- cover nanotechnology in a way that gets the general public engaged? I think I'm accomplishing that a little more every day. But, apparently, large nanotech research and financial institutions -- not to mention a Big Three auto company -- that could buy and sell my house and my neighbors' a hundred times over are hanging on every word I write.

Not offering me work, mind you, but just very, very worried about what this "downsized" bankrupt blogger might say.

I'm pulling an all-nighter tonight, so my perspective might be overly influenced by exhaustion and caffeine, but if I'm really as big of a nutcase as posts like the one above indicate, why am I seeing my audience grow among nanotech businesses, institutions, investment houses and educational programs? Well, anecdotally only, of course, they tell me that I make this subject interesting, entertaining and consider it more objective than those who write about nanotech while being a "player" in it at the same time.

But there's something twisted about large nanotech organizations that are quick to comment about what I write (indicating they do read every word), then stand silently, voyeuristically by while I go through the publicly humiliating process of trying to rescue my home (the blog plea was last-ditch Plan Z), then emerge once more to question my integrity for accepting work from a nonprofit think tank whose mission it is to help educate the public about nanotechnology.

I've often thought that I slipped inside the looking glass and into a strange, quantum world when I began to write about this stuff. Let me get this straight: The business and scientific communities writing about themselves is considered "objective," while a knowledgable outsider who helped pioneer nanotech journalism is considered "not objective." Curiouser and curiouser.

Now, here's something I never would have imagined -- a wealthy jet-setter with an organization behind him would go out of his way to gleefully throw pot-shots at me -- an unemployed writer trying to save his house and family. Meanwhile, I continue to spread the word to a larger segment of the population, helping them understand what the nanotech business and research communities are up to.

OK. Enough of that now. Back to work.

Converging ideologies against human performance

Turn off your TV! (By Azly Rahman, malaysiakini.com)

Our children are bombarded with thousands of images daily as they sit passively in front of the television set. Their brain cells are slowly being turned into miniature advertising billboards.

These billboards become field of dreams and consciousness, turning the self into whatever the producers of propaganda wish them to turn into. These brain cells are conditioned by the nano-technology of smart TV programming. More here

I had no idea that the networks employed nanoscientists. As near as I can tell, these evil geniuses must have devised some sort of nanoparticle beam that can be sent through your TV's IR remote receiver (also secretly a sender), enter the body through the mouth as the victims snack on junk food, penetrate the blood-brain barrier and restructure our synapses into a pattern determined back at network headquarters.

That's the only method of nanotech mind control via television that I can think of. Then, again, I'm not very creative. Too much TV.

But I would take a very serious look at what Samsung is doing with nanotube displays ...

In all seriousness, though, the assumption here is that total control of the mind can be achieved through mastery over our neurons. While I doubt that TV networks that bring us "The Bachelor" and "Wife Swap" are capable of such sophisticated mind control, get ready for these kinds of fears to enter into political discussions in the United States, where the possibilities of "human enhancement" have already raised red flags in Congress. The target will be this vague thing they heard of called "nanotechnology."

This author, Azly Rahman, "is a transcultural philosopher rooted in the tradition of Critical Theory and Pedagogy." As near as I can tell from that collection of rather impressive words, Mr. Rahman is a neo-Marxist who crosses international borders to attack your children's brains (sounds even more frightening than the nanoparticle beam, to me). So, he approaches "nanotechnology" from the left, meaning he sees it as just another corporate and capitalist tool to keep the common man under control.

The religious right, of course, has no problem with using technology to keep the rabble dumb and pliable. But they'd rather not have the government mess with these obviously perfect bodies and brains that God gave us. Every synapse is sacred.

Look for a meeting of the "minds" between left and right on this issue, and at its core will be this "nanotechnology" thing, whatever that is. Is the Congressional Nano Caucus ready with a "nano is pants, nano is not 'bots" argument? And, if so, how can they distract attention away from one of the biggest proponents of human enhancement via nanotech: U.S. nano architect Mike Roco? But Roco uses a nice acronym for NanoBioInfoCogno convergence -- NBIC. Hmmm. Come to think of it, that sounds a lot like NBC ...

Backgrounder
Congress is thinking about thinking
Evangelicals and Nano-Gnosticism

Michigan creates new halls of nanomedicine

U-M nanotechnology institute approved (mlive.com)

The University of Michigan has created a research institute that takes a new approach to treating disease.

The Michigan Nanotechnology Institute for Medicine and the Biological Sciences was approved by the U-M Board of Regents on Thursday. Nanotechnology is the science of extremely small technology.

The institute will tap faculty from across the university, though the faculty won't leave their current schools.

... The institute will be led by Dr. James Baker, the Ruth Dow Doan Professor of Biologic Nanotechnology. More here

Backgrounder
Dendrimers could have cancer in their clutches
NanoChat transcript
Nanostuff vs. nanotechnology

Iran: N is for nano, nuke and not fair

Iran accuses West of bullying over N-programme (Times of Oman)

Iran on Saturday hit out at pressure over its controversial nuclear programme, accusing developed countries of bullying to prevent the proliferation of atomic technology.

In a speech to a conference of Asian and African leaders, Iranian Vice President Mohammad Reza Arif complained of the industrialised world's "illogical" opposition to nuclear and other scientific advances.

"Developing countries have reached great advancements in various scientific areas such as nanotechnology and nuclear energy," Arif said.

"However, unfortunately we are witnessing certain limitations and barriers to stop these countries attaining modern technology."

... Arif called on Asian and African countries to band together to claim what he called the "undeniable right of all developing countries" to gain access to technological advances. More here

Related News
Transhumanism and a Tribute to Fereidoun FM Esfandiary (Sam Ghandchi, Iranscope, Jan. 24)
Microtechnology pioneer Fariborz Maseeh and his foundation give $2 million to establish UCI Center for Persian Studies and Culture (Today@UCI)
Seminar on nanotechnology held (Islamic Republic News Agency)

Resources
Yahoo! Groups: Iran_nanotechnology
Iranscope: Future, Futurism, and Iran

Backgrounder
Iran hard-liner: Nano a key to regional power
The developing world and the myth of industry

QuoteBot

"Picture the blog world as the biggest coffeehouse on Earth. Hunched over their laptops at one table sit six or seven experts in nanotechnology. Right across from them are teenage goths dressed in black and thoroughly pierced. Not too many links between those two tables."

BusinessWeek
Blogs Will Change Your Business

Maxwell Lovy's NanoDance

I'm getting caught up on some work now. Pardon the silence. I'll be back in full blogging mode soon. Meanwhile, here's a progress report on my first experiment in bottom-up molecular manufacturing. Apparently, this specimen enjoys dancing. The lad has talent. Pardon the amateur video editor's work.

NanoBot Backgrounder
Human Nanofactory Experiment: The Sequel
Eureka!

Escape from my own private Pennsylvania

In this time of transition, I've been thinking a great deal about my brief 1992-'93 stint as assistant news editor for the Wilkes-Barre (Pa.) Times Leader. It was there that I experienced the first major upheaval of my professional life.

I headed for those hills after about four years of work at the now-defunct Haverhill Gazette, a smaller daily in northern Massachusetts. I get sentimental over my 1988-'92 "Gazettte period" because that was where I really began to learn how to be a reporter, working under the guidance of an editor whom I admired and respected. There was a "family" feel to the place -- literally, since I would sometimes take my newborn daughter into the newsroom. (She's now 13 years old. Yikes!) While I did my work, some of the writers and photographers would keep my baby occupied and entertained.

I moved from there to the ruins of Pennsylvania coal country because I felt it was time to make the transition to a larger paper with better pay and more responsibility, since I now had a daughter to support. I was brought in as an "outsider" to take over the copy desk, where it soon became apparent that my arrival was greatly resented. Two of the senior copy editors believed they should have been given my job, but the chief editors wanted to shake things up with some new blood.

Long story short, it was pretty much a nightmare from the beginning. I had to watch my back against the bitter editors I supervised, while trying to show my bosses that I was cracking the whip and making measurable improvements in the copy desk's work. I would stay awake nights, worrying myself sick over how to get my employees to like me, and my supervisors to notice the good work I did.

It was a hopeless situation, and I found myself turning into somebody I did not want to be -- a panting dog so eager for praise and acceptance that I tossed away nearly everything I had learned the previous four years. It was no longer about journalism at all, I lost this driving sense of mission to learn the craft and improve my skills. Now, it was a job. A middle management purgatory. A place that literally made me sick with worry over how everybody was perceiving me. My demeanor in those days was a great deal more "serious" than it is today. I certainly did not go around making wisecracks and emanating irreverence -- especially not to people who had control over my life and my family.

It's been an evolutionary process since then to get me where I am today -- more sure of myself and less likely to really give a damn about what others think of the way I practice my profession or what they perceive to be my attitude. Admittedly, I've probably overcompensated in my willful escape from the sniveling, cowardly kiss-ass I thought I was in danger of becoming.

Today, I'm probably my own worst enemy. But, like I wrote to a friend yesterday, I spent my 20s and early 30s worrying about what my editor or boss thought about my work, or whether I said the wrong thing to the wrong person. At the ripe old age of "pushing 40," I'm done with that. I try to let my work speak for itself. I keep my eyes directly on my core mission as a journalist without bothering to turn my head to the left or right to even listen to how it's being accepted or rejected by others. Some of my personal heroes are the ones who did not take the convenient positions of the moment, but stayed on their own path in the conviction that it will be proven correct in the long run.

And that's why I naturally float toward The Foresight Institute, a nanotech think tank whose members have always believed in the long-term vision of molecular manufacturing despite the way they've been conveniently marginalized by short-term nanobusiness interests. Oh, I've been critical of them, too, for what I've seen as their refusal to engage in issues of great importance to development of the nanoscale technologies that today call themselves "nanotechnology." Like I told Foresight members when they honored me with the 2004 Prize in Communication: "You need to remember that I am not your friend. It's just a matter of time before I write something that does not please you, if I haven't already. When I do, I hope you'll remember that I am only displaying the kind of independence that you all have encouraged in me."

This little blog is the only publication in existence that's dedicated to objective coverage of nanotechnology. And by "objective," I don't mean refraining from voicing an opinion. This is a blog, and blogs are all about opinions. I mean objective in the sense that I have no personal stake in any of the stuff I write about -- except that I'm fascinated enough by nanotech to want to continue committing random acts of journalism around it. But when all is said and done, I can decide to stop covering nanotechnology, move on to another topic and apply the same kind of standards of objectivity and readability that I have learned and applied throughout my career.

Foresight heard me, believed me and, even more importantly, placed enough of a value on the ideals of independence that its members took action to prevent it from going away. The Foresight Institute, its board of directors and the donors who make the work possible, including Larry Millstein who also sponsors the Communication Award, figured out a way to help me save my house from foreclosure. And it was not an act of charity. I'm going to do some "work-for-hire" writing for them to earn the advance in pay that their board voted to send me.

Instapundit Glenn Reynolds is a Foresight board member, and his support was key not only through the link he provided in his wildly popular blog, but also voting to help me through this crisis. My family and I are immeasurably grateful for Foresight's unsolicited, surprise, 11th-hour offer.

And it's not only the molecular manufacturing crowd that values my work. The head of a nanotech company that is very much into the nanoscale products of today -- in fact, has products on the market, also thought that I was enough of a worthwhile investment to advance me some money to save the ranch in exchange for future work. This, too, seemed to come out of the blue for me, and was unsolicited. The CEO, who wants to remain anonymous, wrote: "I believe that you perform a valuable service to the sector and would like to see that continue (as it benefits nano to have some objective journalism on the Web)."

Nice to get the affirmation from a sector that sometimes falls under my criticism. There are many other nanotech businesspeople and investors who tell me they value my blog because of its independence, and not despite it.

There are many other people to thank, as well -- the concerned readers who wrote to me with much-needed words of encouragement and job tips, the folks within the nanotech world who brainstormed ways to help me out and the family and close friends who were there when I needed them. I am deeply indebted to them all. And I never forget my friends.

Unlike my behavior during my personal "Dark Age" in Pennsylvania, I did not go out of my way to try to impress them or court their support. In some cases, I've been openly critical of them. And that's exactly why they want to see me continue this NanoBot experiment.

My gratitude to you all. Now, back to nanotech ...

Info in a nanoshell

I like to tell my colleagues, critics and interview victi ... I mean, subjects ... that I try to let as large an audience as possible in on our little nano secrets. Much of what I write -- especially on this blog -- is tailored for a general-interest audience, while also being careful not to oversimplify and alienate my more-educated readers. It's a tightrope I walk between these two worlds.

Then, I see how the real experts do it. Over at PBS, they make NanoBot seem as dry as "The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer." The "Nova Science Now" Web site accompanying tonight's segment about nanoscientist Naomi Halas and her amazing, even explosive, nanoshells is a lesson in simple communication. The site says more in only a few well-placed words and interactive elements than all of the blustery, blowhard, unnecessary, repetitive and redundant verbose verbiage I read in most of the nano publications out there.

Here, for example, is how they explain nanoshells:

"Nanoshells are hollow silica spheres covered with gold. Scientists can attach antibodies to their surfaces, enabling the shells to target certain cells such as cancer cells. In mouse tests, Naomi Halas's research team at Rice University directed infrared radiation through tissue and onto the shells, causing the gold to superheat and destroy tumor cells while leaving healthy ones intact."

Crystal clear. The copy does not try to impress me with an "I know more than you do" attitude and use of "insider" lingo that means nothing to any kind of audience that simply wants to be informed.

I bow to the superior skills of PBS's writers and designers. Public TV for the public. Hey, that sounds like a good idea.

  

Leaving Pottersville

Speaking of Frank Capra, today I felt like Jimmy Stewart at the end of "It's a Wonderful Life." I'll explain more later. I'm too old to stay awake for 42 hours straight. Meanwhile, whadaya say we start talking about nanotechnology again?

Take nano from my cold dead hands

Hello, interested readers and foreclosure voyeurs. I still haven't saved the ranch, but I'm following up a great many leads today. Thank you to everybody who has sent me good wishes and job tips.

Regardless of how my own mini-drama plays outs, you can expect to see some exciting announcements from NanoBot in the next few weeks and months, even if I have to post them from the public library. The main reason I'm in financial trouble today is the time I've been devoting to new creations.

Pay attention. There's something happening in the media world, and the future belongs to those who can see it now, and act on it.

And there's one wildcard. In my Frank Capra dream world, an 11th-hour call comes from an agent who loves my book proposal.

Nano lends an ear

Medgadget reports on an Australian ABC story describing a new bionic ear ... (Wait. Let me pause here. How cool is that. I'm actually using the word "bionic" in connection with something real. If only the 11-year-old Howard, who really, really wanted to BE Steve Austin, could see me now. Let me just repeat that last phrase. OK. Back in "news announcer voice") ... a new bionic ear made with a piece of magic plastic called polypyrrole. The polymer conducts electricity and can host molecules called neurotrophins. Give that stuff a zap, and they could stimulate nerve cell growth.

Translation: A bionic ear (I think Steve Austin had the eye, and it was Lindsey Wagner who had the ear, right?) that can also help bring back your natural hearing. You can read more about nano-assembled polypyrrole here as an abstract for the upcoming Nano Science and Technology Institute conference in Annaheim this May. I'm told that NSTI is really the only nanotech trade show that's worth attending. (Anybody with a travel budget want to send me there?)

Some grownups also call bionic ears "cochlear implants" (but the 11-year-old me could not have said THAT with a straight face). Scientific American Frontiers on PBS recently devoted part of a show to the subject. The show featured a young girl hearing for the very first time using her cochlear impant. It was an incredible scene. The series is hosted by Alan Alda, who has graduated from smart-aleck surgeon Hawkeye Pierce to smart-aleck physicist Richard Feynman.

NanoBot Backgrounder
Nanobionic man
Nanomatic for the people

Chrome-dome-atography?

I'm not sure if this is a bald-faced lie, but it's humorous, anyway. I can't access the Nikkei story. Write in if you know anything ... or even if you dont. -- HL

Balding men given nanotechnology hope (The Inquirer)

Japanese scientists have created a substance based on nanotechnology which they claim will help sprout hairs on bald mens' bonces.

According to the Nihon Keizai Shimbun, the breakthrough is based on tiny nanoparticles which will soak further into a bald pate than your conventional hair restorer.

A firm caled Hosakawa Micron has teamed up with boffinettes and boffins at Hiroshima Prefectural University to develop the solution solution. More here

A little splash of color

Small wonder Nanotechnology
Nanotechnology - which deals with the minutest of technological scales - has a big role in new exhibit -- Inland Valley (Calif.) Daily Bulletin

Shouting their presence in loud shades of red, blue and yellow, artist and scientist Cris Orfescu's images look first like abstract pieces. The colorful curves, angular lines and sudden bursts that command the canvases appear to be the fantastical expression of the artist's whim and creative taste.

Then familiar objects begin to appear in the abstract renderings. One resembles a falling leaf; another could be a bird of paradise.

That exploratory process is what Orfescu hopes viewers experience when they look at his work on display this month in a two-man show at La Casa Decor Interiors in Los Angeles.

That way, when he explains that the images are actually what he calls "nanoart," showing colored images of such impossibly tiny objects as dust and dirt particles, he hopes onlookers will have a greater connection with nanotechnology.

"The whole idea behind this is I want people to understand a little bit more about nanotechnology," Orfescu said. "I'm trying to make a parallel with the macro world --- the one we see with the naked eye." More here

NanoBot Backgrounder
Laurie Anderson's spirit in the sky
The Art of Nano

Intel sets $10,000 bounty for Moore's Law mag

Martyn Amos is doing some eBay sleuthing and found that Intel is offering $10,000 to anybody who can find a "mint-condition copy of the April 19 1965 issue of Electronics magazine containing the article that gave rise to "Moore's Law." Here's the eBay page. I wonder. Will that prize double every 18 months?

Update: Well, somebody has a digital copy, but either doesn't have -- or won't part with -- the original. The magazine is out of print and the article is difficult to find. Check out the scans, though. You'll need to squint to make it out, but it's pretty cool to read 40-year-old predictions that actually came true. Note to self: Reread old NanoBot articles in 40 years ... and remember to take your teeth out before bedtime.

Another update: The subject is being given the full Slashdot treatment.

NanoBot Backgrounder
Intel: 65 nano? No prob ... we hope
Thanks for the nanomemories, Intel

Once more unto the breeches

I wonder if Nano Pants Dance knows about the vibrating trousers.

And this just in ... 'Extreme Textiles' Come of Age (By Kenneth Chang, New York Times) Great story, Kenneth. Now do you forgive me for this? One question: Your story mentions "carbon fiber ... several times stronger than steel." Are we talking about fiber spun from carbon nanotubes?

Update: Kenneth says, "No, just the generic carbon fibers you find in tennis rackets and whatnot."

NanoBot Backgrounder
'When Pants Attack'
Pogue does the pants
Playing hardball with nano pants

The developing world and the myth of industry

At last, the nanotech message is beginning to move beyond the cloistered world of nanopeople talking nanotalk among their nanoselves. This BBC News report contains the usual "predictions" about how nanotechnology will someday send Sally Struthers packing by solving every single problem in the developing world, from better farming tools to cleaner water to cleaner air, etc.

But the BBC report does not dwell on the "someday," for a change. There are also, finally, some suggestions on how to make it happen. The authors of a study on this topic recommend launching a separate initiative modeled on Grand Challenges in Global Health, a program started last year by the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

The 63 specialists consulted on the report should be given credit for realizing that these technologies will not magically appear in the world's developing nations. There needs to be a strong will to make it happen, a carefully laid out vision and, of course, there's nothing like a source of cash to get those nanotech labs and companies to turn their heads and pay attention.

The authors, thankfully, are not taken in by nanotech's myth of "industry." The nano world actually does itself a disservice by artificially creating this label. "Industry" implies some kind of cohesion, some sense of working toward a common goal. Well, the developing world -- and any other sector that can really use nanotechnology now -- will need to wait a long, long time for any nanotech "industry" to emerge and hand them the tools they need.

The researchers and companies that have the enabling technologies are all working in disparate, unrelated areas and going after scattered sources of funding. There's no reason why they should find one another and somehow decide to put together a care package of nanotech water filters and farm tools. It's up to those who care about the developing world -- and can raise the cash -- to gather together the right kinds of tools, materials and processes and create a temporary "industry" of companies working toward the same goal.

Without somebody from the "macro world" who is informed enough about nanotech to know which nano-peddlers to invite over to their office, the nano world will continue have fun with its Tinkertoys and talk about "someday." But nothing will actually be built.

A perfect illustration of this point accompanies the BBC article. See that list of "Top 10 Nanotech Uses" above? How many of these "uses" really exists as a product that can be deployed to the developing world today?

Anyone? Anyone?

Yes, that's right. Zero.

Update: Boy, when I go to sleep, Great Britain is wide awake and contributing to NanoBot. Thank you, Richard and Jim (see comments below). A few updates: You can look at the PLoS Medicine report online here, or download it here (PDF, 220 KB). SciDev.Net (which has been doing some excellent nano reporting lately) has its take on the story here and the EC's Cordis news service has a report here. A list of panel members can be found here, according to PloS Medicine, but the link seems to be dead right now.

Another update: Reuters has a story, too, and here's the press release from EurekAlert.

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