Can Open source methodology, with its promise of spreading benefits through new varieties of intellectual property, and which has played a major role in software development, also play a role in nanotech development? At least one MIT researcher, Stephen Steiner, thinks so. He is working on a web site for “open source nanotech”. Among other content, software he wrote for controlling nanotube furnaces would be available for download. The following article includes a link to a video from a BBC documentary that shows Steiner showing Michio Kaku how to grow carbon nanotubes. From “Making Nanomaterials Better, Faster And More Accessible” on Wired Science, from Wired.com, written by Loretta Hidalgo Whitesides”

Stephen Steiner wants to make nanotechnology more accessible to speed up the innovation process.

The inclination to think big goes back to Steiner’s teenage years when he vowed to never drive a car as motivation to solve the world’s energy problem. Now 26, he is a graduate student at MIT working to bring the world next-generation nanomaterials, like nanotubes that can make airplane wires lighter than copper, carbon aerogels that use electrolysis to pull hydrogen from water, and as announced yesterday, nanoparticles that can make super high density batteries.

Steiner’s first task at the MIT lab was to get the nanotube furnaces working manually, but he knew that to really get his lab breakthrough-ready, the furnaces needed to be automated. So he wrote a software program that automates a nanotube furnace using natural English syntax and fuzzy logic to help get us there faster.

…Steiner calls the new program “Ansari” after private space explorer and X Prize sponsor Anousheh Ansari. Her work to open up space flight for all inspired Steiner to try to do the same for nanotech. He is working on a website that he calls “open source nanotech,” where people will be able to download his automation software and learn about DIY nanotech.

—Jim

Researchers from the Dresden University of Technology in Germany have found that fungi can naturally absorb metal nanoparticles, potentially enabling metallic fungi that could be used as catalysts or disinfectants.

The U.S. Navy and Marine Corps have awarded a US$2.9 million contract to Z-Medica Corporation, a U.S. medical products company specializing in hemostatic nanotechnologies, to conduct large-scale human studies on the ability of the company’s QuikClot® Combat Gauze™ to stop bleeding from penetrating wounds.

Stephen Steiner, a graduate student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the U.S., has developed a software program that automates nanotube furnaces—eliminating the need for researchers to spend hours making small adjustments to the furnaces every few minutes in preparation for making nanotubes—which he plans to make available through an open source website intended to “make nanotechnology more accessible to speed up the innovation process”.

A new nanotechnology journal titled Nano Research published by Tsinghua/Springer is now available at http://www.thenanoresearch.com/. The journal is published monthly, and will be open-access in 2008 and 2009. The Editors-in-Chief are Hongjie Dai, Stanford University, USA, and Qikun Xue, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China. A glance at the Editorial Board reveals many researchers frequently cited in Nanodot posts. Three issues are available so far and each includes one review article and nine research reports. In a quick glance, I found all three review articles worth looking at, and the research articles look quite good too. The review articles spanned topics often mentioned here on Nanodot and can be downloaded as PDF files:
Energy harvesting for self-powered nanosystems
Bioconjugated silica nanoparticles: development and applications
A DNA-based approach to the carbon nanotube sorting problem

—Jim

The Society of Manufacturing Engineers is offering a free webinar on “Today’s Pioneering Nanotechnology Companies: The Race for a Trillion Dollar Market“, presented by Foresight Senior Associate Tihamer “Tee” Toth-Fejel.

Today’s Pioneering Nanotechnology Companies:
The Race for a Trillion Dollar Market
A popular feature of SME’s annual NanoManufacturing Conference, now brought to you as a webinar!

October 8, 2008
12:30 p.m. – 1:30 p.m. EDT

We can now buy over 800 products that incorporate nanotechnology, and that number will undoubtedly grow by the time this presentation is given. The U.S. government’s National Science Foundation estimates that within a decade, the total market impacts of nanotechnology will reach a trillion dollars. This market includes nanostructured materials ($340 billion), semiconductors and integrated circuits ($300 billion), pharmaceuticals ($180 billion), nanostructured catalysts ($100 billion) and nanotechnology-enabled aerospace products ($70 billion). But NSF did not even consider the cosmetics, agriculture, textiles, non-aerospace defense, and non-pharma medical. So their projections may be much to low–by a factor of two and a half (according to Lux Research).

When competing for survival, traditional manufacturing businesses will be wiped out by companies making superior nano-enabled products. This presentation will introduce 20 success stories of diverse companies that are nanotechnology pioneers—including some of the companies behind the $2.6 Trillion prediction. Undoubtedly some of these pioneers will become partners and suppliers to traditional manufacturers—perhaps yours?

Presented by Tihamer “Tee” Toth-Fejel

Tee is a senior research engineer, in the Innovative Intelligence Group of General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems. Toth-Fejel has almost two decades of experience in advanced engineering development, from specification and design to implementation and analysis. He is experienced in writing proposals, and designing and implementing complex software for GUI, decision support and DB applications. Toth-Fejel has a BS in electrical engineering from Lehigh University and an MS in electrical engineering from University of Notre Dame.

Registration is FREE! Sign up today.
SPONSORED BY: The Nanomanufacturing Technical Group of the Society of Manufacturing Engineers

—Jim