In addition to the experimental project described here yesterday, there are now two more posted on the U.K. Software Control of Matter Ideas Factory blog which are very likely to be funded — the first experimental, the second theoretical: Directed Reconfigurable Nanomachines We propose a scheme to revolutionise the synthesis of nanodevices, ...

Earlier we expressed enthusiasm for the UK Software Control of Matter project, and sure enough, they have already made progress toward setting themselves an ambitious, visionary goal which is expected to be funded: We propose to create a molecular machine that will build new materials under software control. The output of the machine will be ...

The U.S. National Academy of Engineering is requesting your input on Grand Challenges for Engineering over the next 100 years. This being Nanodot, we hope you’ll nominate nanotechnology. It’s a serious effort funded by $500,000 from NSF. From the MSNBC coverage: The comments will be winnowed down, then reviewed by an 18-member ...

We’ve written before about the nanotechnology-based matter compiler project in the U.K, wishing we could participate. Richard Jones writes that now, we can: You may be interested to hear (and I’m hoping you might post about it on your blog) that we’ve now got a blog running associated with the “Software Control of ...

The idea of a nanotech-based matter compiler began in the U.S., and we do some relevant computer modeling studies, but the U.K is pulling ahead toward actually building one. Twenty to thirty lucky researchers will gather on January 8-12, 2007, to brainstorm how to do this, after which the U.K. government will spend about [...]

The long-awaited report on the U.S. NNI from the National Academies’ National Research Council has just been issued. For Foresight, the most important part is the review of molecular self-assembly and molecular manufacturing. Here’s the short form: Molecular Assembly: Self-assembly for the manufacturing of simple devices and ...

Of course most Nanodot readers will want to study this 76-page report (PDF) in great detail, but for the few who don’t quite get around to this task, here are some of the more ambitious parts: In the section on 2006 and 2007 Activities by Agency, NIST says they will continue to “devise ways to build [...]