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Foresight Update 24 - Table of Contents | Page1 | Page2 | Page3 | Page4 |
Foresight
Institute is offering a $250,000 cash prize to the first
individual or group to achieve specific major advances in
molecular nanotechnology.
To win the newly announced Feynman Grand Prize, entrants must
design and construct a functional nanometer-scale robotic arm
with specified performance characteristics, and also must design
and construct a functional nanometer-scale computing device
capable of adding two 8-bit binary numbers.
"Foresight Institute expects this large prize to attract the
interest of talented people working in the many sciences and
technologies bearing upon molecular nanotechnology," said K.
Eric Drexler, Ph.D., Chairman of Foresight Institute.
Prizes have long played a key role in technological advancement.
For example, Charles Lindbergh flew the Atlantic Ocean to claim a
$25,000 cash prize. More recently, the £50,000 ($95,000) Kremer
prize led to the realization of humanity's age-old dream of
human-powered flight. "The Feynman Prize will recognize one
of the most significant technological breakthroughs in human
history," Drexler said. "However, the rewards awaiting
those who achieve significant nanotechnology breakthroughs will
be far greater than the prize itself."
Funds for the $250,000 Feynman Grand Prize have been donated to
Foresight Institute by two Foresight Institute supporters - James
R. Von Ehr II, formerly founder of Altsys Corporation, and
currently vice president at Macromedia, a leading computer
software company; and Marc Arnold, chief executive officer of
Angel Technologies, a St. Louis-based wireless telecommunication
company. Arnold suggested the concept at a Senior Associates
meeting last November. Fund raising is continuing in an effort to
increase the prize to $1 million, Drexler said.
Foresight Institute will continue to offer its biennial Feynman
Prize for the most significant recent advance in nanotechnology.
In recognition of pioneering work to synthesize complex
three-dimensional structures built from DNA molecules, Foresight
Institute awarded the 1995 Feynman
Prize in Nanotechnology to Nadrian C.
Seeman, Ph.D., chemistry professor at New York University.
The Feynman Grand Prize is named in honor of Nobel Prize
winning physicist Dr. Richard
P. Feynman, who in 1959 pointed in the direction of molecular
nanotechnology in a talk at California Institute of Technology,
"There's
Plenty of Room at the Bottom." Carl Feynman, son of the
late Nobel laureate, has participated in the definition of
requirements for the Feynman Grand Prize and comments, "I'm
delighted that Foresight Institute chose to name this prize after
my father. It will be an important prize for an important
accomplishment."
Detailed technical
specifications of the Feynman
Grand Prize requirements will be posted on the Foresight Web
site: http://www.foresight.org
Foresight Update 24 - Table of Contents |
Naval Research Laboratory's
comprehensive survey of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology in
Europe outlines the scope of significant nanotechnology
research in Western Europe. Indirectly, it also points to the
need for Foresight Institute to continue playing a strong role in
public discussion of nanotechnology-related issues.
The 152-page report, written by NRL's Associate Director of
Research for Strategic Planning, William M. Tolles, covers a wide
range of both "bottom up" and "top down"
research efforts underway in Europe as of 1995.
"The nanoscience community is uncovering information that
will make us see a world that we do not now even envision,"
Tolles writes in his "Conclusions" section. "With
an improved view of the forces, limitations and opportunities
that may be controlled through intelligent application of the
laws of physics, biology and chemistry, many opportunities can be
foreseen for producing new materials. These materials are the
basis for new products, enhanced performance, and capabilities
that may now only be envisioned. A futuristic field such as
robotics, as it unfolds, will inevitably make use of a great
variety of new ideas emerging from this frontier."
Tolles goes on to relay a concern expressed by many of the
European scientists he interviewed for his study - that the
subject of nanotechnology "could attract practitioners bent
on hypothetical postulates or excessive 'salesmanship' without a
realistic appraisal of the products of experimental
research."
Translation: much of the scientific community is restrained in
its willingness to discuss the potential applications of
nanotechnology. This reticence arises out of fear of
over-promising results that scientists do not believe they can
deliver soon.
While valid, such views create real concern for those who believe
the economic, social and political consequences of nanotechnology
are too significant to be limited to verbal discussion only.
Indeed, one of Foresight Institute's primary roles is to enhance
awareness and discussion of nanotechnology-related issues. This
role inevitably leads to discussion of technological advances
that have not yet been achieved. Foresight Institute intends to
continue to fulfill that role even if it sometimes appears at
odds with the prevailing approach of the scientific community.
The NRL report itself covers a range of top-down research efforts
in Europe, such as new means of lithography, that do not bear
significantly on efforts to realize "bottom-up"
molecular nanotechnology. However, it also describes significant
work in Europe of interest to Foresight members, mostly in the
self-assembly arena. European researchers appear "less far
along in creative use of probe technology than their American
counterparts," the NRL report says. The most significant
work described includes:
A good deal of the report deals with top-down research work,
conducted in France, Belgium and Austria, where little bottom-up
effort appears underway. The report does mention some work in
Toulouse, France, to model images obtained by STM and AFM.
The 154-page report includes over 350 references to specific
research.
The report is published by Naval Research Laboratory, Washington
DC 20375-5320, publication NRL/FR/1003-94-9755.
Foresight Update 24 - Table of Contents |
NanoTech®, a newly formed subsidiary of BioSoft (both Danish
firms), is preparing to stage a major nanotechnology conference
in Copenhagen - the Continent's first, according to its sponsors.
Just starting as we go to press, the planned dates are April
10-11 at Symbion, the Copenhagen Science Park. The conference
will be conducted in English.
"Our intention will be to create a new European
Nanotechnology Initiative (ENI) as a natural extension of our
Conference," says Bent Hundrup, BioSoft Group's Research
Coordination Manager, who is spearheading the conference. The ENI
will be based in Copenhagen, but active from the Walther-Nernst
Institute in Germany as well, he says. The goal is to "cover
the European angle on future research in nanotechnology, making
Europe very active, coordinated, determined and visionary."
Organizers also seek to promote cooperation between industry,
universities, organizations, governments, and European Union
commissions and institutes.
Topics for the planned conference include many areas that will be
familiar to those attending Foresight's Nanotechnology
Conferences:
The list of possible attendees provided by conference
organizers indicates a focus on both molecular nanotechnology and
top-down approaches such as low voltage electron beam
lithography. Many of the individuals cited for key research in
the Naval Research Laboratory report on European nanotechnology
(see related story)
are on the roster of invited participants.
For further information contact:
Mr. Bent Hundrup
3 Fruebjergvej, DK-2100 0
Denmark
Phone (+45) 39 17 98 28
Fax (+45) 39 27 90 11
He also lists an email address,
but at press time it was not yet operational:
biosoft@symbion.ku.dk
Foresight Update 24 - Table of Contents | Page1 | Page2 | Page3 | Page4 |
From Foresight Update 24, originally
published 15 April 1996.
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