Nanobees! (trained to kill cancer cells) [more inside]
posted by msalt on Sep 29, 2009 - 29 comments

The Nano Song. Teaching the wonders of nanotechnology to puppets. This is one of the submissions to the NanoTube Contest. [Via]
posted by homunculus on Mar 1, 2009 - 13 comments

H+ Magazine is an online quarterly publication focusing on transhumanism, a product of the futurist movement that supports science and technology to enhance the mental and physical capacities of the human being. Sometimes referred to as posthumanism, Francis Fukuyama calls it one of the world's most dangerous ideas. If you feel like you're lagging behind, George Dvorsky is kind enough to inform us ~>H's of the must-know transhumanist terms for today's intelligentsia. [more inside]
posted by ageispolis on Dec 19, 2008 - 107 comments

Nanobliss "Nanobliss is a gallery of visualizations of small-scale structures of carbon nanotubes and silicon, created by John Hart." I came for the awesome Nanobamas [Flickr set here], but was impressed enough with the rest to share the whole. Enjoy---particularly the informative techniques page. At the very least, have a look at some of the pretty nano pictures.
posted by kosem on Nov 12, 2008 - 11 comments

The Autonomous NanoTechnology Swarm (ANTS) "...is a generic mission architecture consisting of miniaturized, autonomous, self-similar, reconfigurable, addressable components forming structures. The components/structures have wide spatial distribution and multi-level organization. This ‘swarm’ behavior is inspired by the success of social insect colonies...." ANTS may one day teem through the solar system.... (last two links large QT files) [more inside]
posted by Kronos_to_Earth on Sep 14, 2008 - 14 comments

Researchers working on optofluidic microscopy at the California Institute of Technology have developed a minuscule microscope that works without lenses.... (via) [more inside]
posted by Kronos_to_Earth on Jul 29, 2008 - 5 comments

Nanotube Radio. "We have constructed a fully functional, fully integrated radio receiver, orders-of-magnitude smaller than any previous radio, from a single carbon nanotube". (via)
posted by Kronos_to_Earth on Jul 9, 2008 - 19 comments

The Kanzius Machine: A Cancer Cure? 60 minutes (12:38) investigates an amateurs garage technology that some are saying "in 20 years of research this is the most exciting thing that I’ve encountered" and one Nobel Prize winner said it "will change medicine forever." The nanotechnology-based cancer therapy without side effects is nearing trials.
posted by stbalbach on Apr 15, 2008 - 36 comments

The Nokia Morph concept phone is currently featured in The Museum of Modern Art “Design and The Elastic Mind” exhibition (warning: flash interface). This 'self-cleaning' shape-shifting mobile follows Nokia's other recent phone concept, the environmentally-friendly Remade, unveiled at Mobile World Congress earlier this month.
posted by chuckdarwin on Feb 28, 2008 - 20 comments

Richard P. Feynman { Information Junkie → PhD → Atomic Bomber → Professor/Lecturer on Physics + Mathematical Artist [DIY] + Nanotech Knowledgist → 33.3% Nobel laureate + QEDynamic Speaker + Tiny Machinist + Challenger of Conclusions + Best-Selling Writer –X– Busted [outside Tuva] → Star Trek TNG Shuttlecraft ↓ Pepsi Black/Blue ↑ U.S. Postage Stamp } ∞
posted by Poolio on Sep 16, 2007 - 51 comments

nanoHUB is an information goldmine, aimed primarily at scientists and engineers engaged under the broad umbrella of nanotechnology research, funded by the NSF, and based at Purdue University. Start with a series of nano tutorial lessons at the undergraduate or graduate level. Move on to seminars from top researchers on a variety of topics, or try some self-paced learning modules. Then run (real, useful) simulations in your browser. [some stuff requires free registration]
posted by sergeant sandwich on Aug 25, 2007 - 2 comments

It took a long time for many achievements of the ancient world to be duplicated. The first city to reach one million people was Baghdad in 775 CE (or possibly Rome nine hundred years before), a feat that would not be duplicated until London and Beijing grew in the 19th century. The largest building in the world was the Great Pyramid for forty centuries until the 19th, and the world's current longest canal is over two millenia old. Some mysteries still remain, such as the formula of Greek Fire, but it looks like a different ancient weapon's secret has been discovered, that of Damascus steel. The key ingredient -- nanotech!
posted by blahblahblah on Jan 25, 2007 - 29 comments

While thinking about nanotechnology, Jamais Cascio found a six-minute YouTube video of a LEGO Mindstorms factory that builds a LEGO car.
posted by cgc373 on Jan 4, 2007 - 26 comments

Productive Nanosystems (youtube) is an animation visualizing how a nano-factory manufacturing devices with atomic precision might work. Artist's page on Nanotechnology Now here. Production model here (though it looks much bigger than what the video hints at).
posted by Burhanistan on Jan 2, 2007 - 14 comments

University of Arizona physicists have discovered how to turn single molecules into working transistors. The research could result in much smaller, more powerful computers and other devices with the ability to process many more channels of high-resolution audio and video than current products can manage. The abstract is available in PDF.
posted by terrapin on Nov 28, 2006 - 17 comments

"We are living in science fiction." --William Burroughs
posted by jason's_planet on Oct 24, 2006 - 33 comments

Miracles You’ll See In The Next Fifty Years (Feb, 1950)
Some more up-to-date predictions: science, invention, space travel, colonisation, immortality, water shortage, flooding, nanotech, techno-apocalypse, extinction, mental health, smart machines, robots, mind uploading, AI, Asia, economics, demographics, goverance, cities. What is your prediction?
posted by MetaMonkey on Oct 5, 2006 - 54 comments

Never wanna work/Always wanna play/Pleasure, pleasure every day. What happens when the jobs go away and don't return? Should we take the surpluses generated and pay people not to work? What happens to the assumption of scarcity when nanotechology allows us to generate potentially anything we want from grass clippings? Maybe Marx had it wrong all along. Maybe, instead of fetishizing work and the authoritarian mindset that it generates, we should have been reading Paul Lafargue instead. Just as a thought experiment, what would you do if your job category disappeared? How would you spend your time? Would you invest more time and energy in friendships and other relationships? Hobbies? If you were your employer, what technologies would you use to get rid of your position and save money?
posted by jason's_planet on Jun 25, 2006 - 43 comments

On the heels of microscopic jewelry rides golden buckyballs (full text).
posted by Mr. Six on Jun 1, 2006 - 11 comments

New hope for blind hamsters. According to the Guardian, scientists at MIT have repaired brain damage and restored eyesight to rodents using nanotechnology. In the study, minute particles were injected into damaged parts of the brain, and subsequently arranged themselves into a "scaffold" gel throughout the damaged area. The scaffold allowed severed nerves to regrow and form new connections. 75% of test animals' injuries were improved with the new technique. (The article did not note if the test subjects offered any resistance to the therapeutic measures.)
posted by rob511 on Mar 14, 2006 - 18 comments

Nanocrystal technology shows promise for cheaper, more efficient solar energy generation [more inside]
posted by expialidocious on Mar 13, 2006 - 21 comments

Dermal Displays
Building on a Robert A. Frietas theory (4th paragraph down) from his book, Nanomedicines, Vol 1: Basic Capabilities, a 6 cm x 5 cm programmable display embedded into your skin made up of 3 billion display pixel nanorobots could be used to monitor and direct medical nanobots within your body.
Nanogirl has recently completed work on a three minute animation of the concept, available in both QT (8.1 megs) or WMV (10.4 megs).
posted by fenriq on Sep 29, 2005 - 8 comments

Formula One car "skin" provides it's own power. A potentially very cool application of nanotechnology might appear on F1 cars as early as next season.
posted by Jazznoisehere on Aug 24, 2005 - 34 comments

Australian scientist Cameron Jones puts nanocrystals on the bottom of his CDs. And prints fractals on them. And grows bacteria, yeasts, and fungi on them. What's perhaps the most surprising about this is that when these CDs are actually played, they sound pretty cool. More details can be found here and here. [Last four links are MP3, MP3, PDF, and PDF, respectively.]
posted by Johnny Assay on Aug 1, 2005 - 4 comments

The Washington Post has one of the better articles about nanotechnology that I've seen, providing both a view of the billions of dollars of investment in the technology, and the concerns of environmentalists and consumer health advocates. The article predicts upcoming regulatory battles over how and when this technology should be released. Perhaps one of the brighter points of light is that concerns have shifted away from the superlative grey goo (IMHO: if a grey goo was chemically possible, bacteria would have done it already) towards the possible risks of disease due to exposure. Rice University has a page devoted to current information on research regarding nanotechnology and health.
posted by KirkJobSluder on Feb 1, 2004 - 18 comments

Nanotech? Kids stuff. The nanotech industry and research community has been plugging away steadily since Eric Drexler's cheerleading for it in the early 80's. Now the National Science Foundation acknowledges (in the form of this Request for Proposals) that kids as young as 7th grade must be prepared for living in a nanotech world.
posted by badstone on Oct 21, 2003 - 2 comments

Little robots in your pants -- Popular Science calls Dockers to investigate their claim that the stain-repellent "Go Khakis" use nanotechnology. Certainly my favorite headline of the day thus far.
posted by logovisual on Jul 18, 2003 - 16 comments

Pictures of microbes and the machines that may one day fight them...
posted by Fabulon7 on Oct 4, 2002 - 7 comments

The Grey Goo guys gain ground.
"The controversy involves the potential perils of making molecule-size objects and devices - a field known as nanotechnology ... The ultimate nightmare was the so-called Gray Goo catastrophe, in which self-replicating microscopic robots the size of bacteria fill the world and wipe out humanity."

While 'gain ground' may not be wholly accurate (it was alliterative), the theory is being given lots of play in scientific circles as nano-devices approach practical status.
posted by o2b on Aug 19, 2002 - 26 comments

Kurzweil teleports to nanotech conference. Well, nearly... it looks like an oversized teleprompter - but according to those who were there, a lifesized 3D image of ace tech-visionary Ray Kurzweil did indeed appear at a conference in Richardson, Texas, March 7, 2002. "I thought it worked really well," said Steve T. Jurvetson, Managing Director, Draper Fisher Jurvetson. "I thought it was at least 95% of the real thing. In fact, the person that followed strangely enough seemed pale and flat. In comparison Ray almost was more realistic and three-dimensional." But will it share a Bud in the after-meet schmooze? In any case, we always knew that, in terms of the tech-spec, The Force Was With Us.
posted by theplayethic on Mar 12, 2002 - 19 comments

Nano-art. Japanese artist builds a sculpture of a bull that can only be seen with an electron microscope. It's the size of a single red blood cell. Next? Christo will wrap the head of a pin in pink tissue paper, I assume.
posted by rev- on Aug 23, 2001 - 12 comments

Nanotech Machines overrun by (relatively) giant bugs. Electron Microscope imagery has such a great look to it. Here's a series of images from the folks at Sandia Labs, who - while imaging their micro-machines - placed some interesting creatures in the frame for scale.
posted by kokogiak on May 7, 2001 - 12 comments

If you`re like me, then you believe that as time goes on and technology gets better, information content providers will have fewer and fewer means of preventing their content from being freely distributed - until all information is free, essentially. We`re already seeing this - MP3, motion pictures and whatnot. But let`s stretch our imagination a little and try to conceive the convergance of this trend with Nanotechnology... [more]
posted by SilentSalamander on Jun 27, 2000 - 5 comments

"Imagine having your body and bones woven with invisible diamond fabric." Sound like something Ron Popiel would say after spray painting a bald man's head? No. It's Nanotechnology. Also of interest is this idea of Ufog. Will it be a boon to all mankind or just to fat sexually frustrated nerds?
posted by Nyarlathotep on Jun 13, 2000 - 9 comments

"Breakthrough in nanotechnology"
posted by grumblebee on Jun 13, 2000 - 0 comments

What's old is new again. This sounds suspiciously like "core", which is what computers used when I was in college.
posted by Steven Den Beste on Apr 9, 2000 - 2 comments