Smart Pills: It begins.

Nanoparticle Assembly: the Holy Grail

FTA: Because of its reliability and precision control, Brookhaven’s nano-assembly method would be scalable for the kind of high-throughput production that would be essential for commercial applications.

This is a game changing technology. This could radically boost the efficiency of dozens of our technologies- notably photovoltaic solar. Early commercial applications will likely just be nanocoatings for existing industrial materials, then new industrial materials... then new products using those materials. Perhaps materials like this gas storage nanomaterial, 'Just 1/30th of an ounce of the material has the approximate surface area of a football field,' which makes storing vast amounts of hydrogen far easier...

Theory is nice. Practice is better. That's what this break through promises us.

And it's only the beginning.

A step towards Ubiquitous Computing

Ah, wikipedia, is there anything you can't define for me? Ubiquitous Computing, or ubicomp, 'is a post-desktop model of human-computer interaction in which information processing has been thoroughly integrated into everyday objects and activities. As opposed to the desktop paradigm, in which a single user consciously engages a single device for a specialized purpose. In the course of ordinary activities, someone "using" ubiquitous computing engages many computational devices and systems simultaneously, and may not necessarily even be aware that they are doing so.'

I also like the phrase, 'everyware.' Anyway, I know what you're thinking, 'MissedCall, what small steps been taken towards ubicomp?' Well, take a gander- FTA: This ultra-thin chip package (UTCP) technology allows integrating complete systems in a conventional low-cost flex substrate. This paves the way to low-cost, unobtrusive wearable electronics for e.g. wearable health and comfort monitoring.

Shirts that call for an ambulance if their wearer has a heart attack, or houses that adjust their lighting and temperature when you walk in based on the layers you're wearing are only the beginning. Its easy to imagine how ubicomp could impact augmented reality... or more darkly, end privacy.

Of course, like many of you, I'm less concerned about my privacy rights and more concerned about whether or not there's a ridiculously cute picture I can loosely link back to this topic. Why yes there is- having the chips is one thing, but we'll need to power those chips, I submit to you this!



FTA: "This can totally be scaled up," said Zhong Lin 'ZL' Wang, who co-authored a paper describing the research in this month's issue of Nano Letters. "This is just the first step. The idea is that we would harvest energy from any body movement, from walking, breathing, from any kind of vibration."

One serious note: think about how ubicomp could improve our modelling of traffic, solve congestion problems, create an understanding of how pedestrian traffic impacts a neighborhood, maybe even provide insight into how the phenomenon of emergence relates to human crowds. Very, very useful things that are very, very difficult or time consuming to model. And, though, I'm not wild about the idea of government being able to know exactly where I am at all times, it is nice to think that I could perhaps recover all of my things if I'm mugged.

The Swords Other Edge

Tech's frequently a double edged sword. One man's cancer treatment is another's weapon.

FTA: A technique thought to be a promising cancer treatment is also being investigated as the basis for a Taser-like weapon that stuns for longer, New Scientist has learned.

Nano-warfare will be every bit as nasty as chemical warfare. The only upshot is that, in theory, it *could* also be more discriminating. Personally I'd rather deal with cookie-cutter nanobots (nano's that get into your blood and explode) than gas.

Film trailer for Kurzweil's "Transcendent Man"

For me, Kurzweil's money in the bank... up to a point. All prediction models break down past the singularity- yet he continues to make predictions about what will come after it. Now, all that being said, I think he's broadly right. We stand at the cusp of three major revolutions (see my post about Juan Enriquez) all of which are likely to break in the next ten to twenty years. Anyone of them could fundamentally change the world. All three of them definitely will.

What kind of world will our grandkids live in? To us, it will truly seem like magic- especially on the holodeck.

Counter Productive Medical Breakthrough?

If you want to try to reduce the number of diabetics in this country you should be discouraging risky behaviors... not inventing color changing tattoos!

FTA: 'The tattoo contains tiny particles of "nano ink" that change colour depending on whether they come into contact with glucose molecules.

If levels are high, the ink appears yellow. If levels of the sugar are low, it turns purple. A healthy level shows up as orange.'

Jebus Crisps, I can't wait til this tech is expanded! I want a Mario Tattoo that gets bigger when I eat mushrooms.

Building a Synthetic Brain

FTA: Nanocarbon modeling may be the next step toward emulating human brain function. That’s the focus of USC electrical engineering professor Alice Parker’s “synthetic cortex” study funded by the National Science Foundation.

The good folk who advocate for brain emulation as the best way to make an AI breakthrough usually point out that brains, though very complicated themselves, have a comparatively simple pattern development (with a few random variables thrown in). Still, its an incredibly complex undertaking.

Will it work? Probably. Most of the team is Asian. (Jonathan Joshi, Chih-Chieh Hsu, Adi Azar, Matthew Walker, Ko-Chung Tseng, Ben Raskob, Chuan Wang, Yoon Sik Cho, Changsoo Jeong and Jason Mahvash.) Couple of Jews thrown in for good measure... yeah, I think they'll succeed.

At long last...

... the tag we've all been waiting for... ROBOTS IN THE BLOOD!!!

FTA: A range of complex surgical operations necessary to treat stroke victims, confront hardened arteries or address blockages in the bloodstream are about to be made safer as researchers from the Micro/Nanophysics Research Laboratory at Australia’s Monash University put the final touches to the design of micro-motors small enough to be injected into the human bloodstream.

It's only a mater of time! Tiny little machines cruising through our arteries, scraping up our cholesterol, repairing wear and tear... perhaps each carries a small payload of stem cells that can be delivered anywhere in the body as needed, or work in conjunction with a 'universal handheld diagnosis system' which uses nanowires coated with DNA sequences matching those of viruses or disease causing bacteria. Our sanguine nanobots could then swarm around these invaders, isolating them and moving them out of the body in the same way that a horseshoe crab's immune system works.

Very, very exciting.