Any recent surveys of molecular nanotechnology?
Jim Logajan
Assuming anyone is still reading this newsgroup anymore, I'm interested in
suggestions or pointers on finding any nanotechnology survey articles (or
close facsimiles.) In my mind, such survey articles would attempt to
address two or more of the following:
0) Author's decomposition and brief description of the elements of a
nanofactory or assembler for reference later in the article.
1) What milestones have so far been passed toward molecular nanotechnology
and how they relate to any of the elements.
2) What lab techniques have been developed and are current.
3) Who in the world is (or was) working on any of the elements or their
prerequisites.
4) An up-to-date bibliography of important and/or relevant research papers,
books, and such publications.
I definitely haven't kept up with the progress of molecular nanotechnology.
Before I spend countless hours sifting through vast wads of cruft doing my
own survey, I thought it would be advisable to first see if anyone had done
that dirty work anytime in the last, oh, five years or so. Or even ever,
for that matter!
I would also appreciate suggestions on journals, books, or websites that
are "dense" with respect to references to technical articles on experiments
and theory related to molecular nanotechnology. I already know about more
than a few but no harm if people point out sources of which I'm already
aware.
mike
On Thu, 09 Jul 2009 22:08:43 -0500, Jim Logajan <Jam...@lugoj.com>
wrote:
>
>Assuming anyone is still reading this newsgroup anymore, I'm interested =
in=20
>suggestions or pointers on finding any nanotechnology survey articles (o=
r=20
>close facsimiles.) In my mind, such survey articles would attempt to=20
>address two or more of the following:
Hi Jim.
I still keep an eye on both newsgroups, although i don't feel capable
of contributing / participating anymore.
(I guess I was put off by the last response, which didn=92t seem to
understand =91brainstorming=92, and insisted on a level of learning I
simply do not possess and am unlikely ever to do so.)
Anyway - Good luck on your hunting, i suspect you'll have a lot of
digging and wading :-)
mike
STJensen
On Jul 9, 8:08=A0pm, Jim Logajan <Jam...@lugoj.com> wrote:
> I would also appreciate suggestions on journals, books, or websites that
ts
> and theory related to molecular nanotechnology.
Here's a link to one that I check everyday. It is by some unknown guy
by the name of Eric Drexler, but he seems to have a passable knowledge
about nanotech.
Scott Jensen
Perry E. Metzger
> Assuming anyone is still reading this newsgroup anymore,
Some people are still reading, but I think the quality of the postings
to the group has fallen so far that it drives away what interest
remains.
I'm thinking I may set up a new mailing list devoted solely to true
molecular machines/molecular manufacturing since this group seems to
mostly be about postings from semi-fraudulent computer science
"conference" scams. I may do that by the end of July. Interested persons
may want to contact me.
> I'm interested in suggestions or pointers on finding any
> nanotechnology survey articles (or close facsimiles.) In my mind, such
> survey articles would attempt to address two or more of the following:
>
> 0) Author's decomposition and brief description of the elements of a
> nanofactory or assembler for reference later in the article.
>
> 1) What milestones have so far been passed toward molecular nanotechnology
> and how they relate to any of the elements.
There are very few milestones that have been passed at this point.
Much research these days is labeled "nanotechnology", but the vast
majority of it is simply synthetic organic chemistry work or materials
science under another name.
If one is interested in actual molecular machines, only two important
threads of research have been in process of late: on the practical side,
the work on DNA origami (which is still at this point mostly in the
"that's cool"! stage but which might get somewhere), and the theoretical
work that Merkle, Freitas and others continue to push on diamondoid
mechanosynthetic techniques.
The most interesting recent paper from the latter effort was Merkle and
Freitas' massive tooltip paper of last year:
http://www.molecularassembler.com/Papers/MinToolset.pdf
I was rather surprised to see little comment about that paper when it
came out, perhaps because it is a difficult read requiring substantial
background in the subject. (It appears, sadly, that most of those
interested in molecular machines and manufacturing have not learned
enough to be able to contribute much to the field, and those who know
enough, primarily in the chemistry and physics communities etc., don't
understand the overall concept well enough or are otherwise not
involved.)
> 2) What lab techniques have been developed and are current.
The current lab techniques in DNA origami are well documented. Technique
in the scanning probe microscopy world (of vital interest to the
direct-to-diamondoid mechanosynthetic world) is pretty well documented
in appropriate journals, but is not generally directed at enabling
mechanosynthesis, though the recent work by Philip Moriarty et al may
(or may not) change that.
> 3) Who in the world is (or was) working on any of the elements or their
> prerequisites.
I think I've covered a large chunk of what is happening above. Of
course, it is a tiny fraction of what passes for "nanotechnology" these
days -- if you were just looking for that, you would find vast amounts
in appropriately titled journals, most of which is highly irrelevant.
> I definitely haven't kept up with the progress of molecular
> nanotechnology. Before I spend countless hours sifting through vast
> wads of cruft doing my own survey, I thought it would be advisable to
> first see if anyone had done that dirty work anytime in the last, oh,
> five years or so. Or even ever, for that matter!
I'm unaware of any comprehensive surveys in the last couple of years. Of
course, "Nanosystems" itself contains an extensive bibliography, but
that is nearly 20 years old at this point. The various Freitas books are
also insanely well footnoted, but again, they are not that recent.
Perry
Jim Logajan
"Perry E. Metzger" <pe...@piermont.com> wrote:
> I'm thinking I may set up a new mailing list devoted solely to true
> molecular machines/molecular manufacturing since this group seems to
> mostly be about postings from semi-fraudulent computer science
> "conference" scams. I may do that by the end of July. Interested
> persons may want to contact me.
If you do create such a mailing list, please consider posting
subcription info to this group.
> There are very few milestones that have been passed at this point.
That was my uninformed impression.
> Much research these days is labeled "nanotechnology", but the vast
> majority of it is simply synthetic organic chemistry work or materials
> science under another name.
Don't I know it! It makes finding results I'd like to know about rather
challenging.
> If one is interested in actual molecular machines, only two important
> threads of research have been in process of late: on the practical
> side, the work on DNA origami (which is still at this point mostly in
> the "that's cool"! stage but which might get somewhere), and the
> theoretical work that Merkle, Freitas and others continue to push on
> diamondoid mechanosynthetic techniques.
It has been relatively straightforward to track publications of Merkle,
Freitas, et al. But I admit I have fallen off the wagon on even tracking
their publications and work.
> The most interesting recent paper from the latter effort was Merkle
> and Freitas' massive tooltip paper of last year:
> http://www.molecularassembler.com/Papers/MinToolset.pdf
Even though I have devoted little effort to keeping up, I was aware of
that paper. But I never got around to studying it - though it is very
high on my list of things to read!
> I was rather surprised to see little comment about that paper when it
> came out, perhaps because it is a difficult read requiring substantial
> background in the subject. (It appears, sadly, that most of those
> interested in molecular machines and manufacturing have not learned
> enough to be able to contribute much to the field, and those who know
> enough, primarily in the chemistry and physics communities etc., don't
> understand the overall concept well enough or are otherwise not
> involved.)
>
>> 2) What lab techniques have been developed and are current.
>
> The current lab techniques in DNA origami are well documented.
> Technique in the scanning probe microscopy world (of vital interest to
> the direct-to-diamondoid mechanosynthetic world) is pretty well
> documented in appropriate journals, but is not generally directed at
> enabling mechanosynthesis, though the recent work by Philip Moriarty
> et al may (or may not) change that.
I first read of the Freitas and Moriarty collaboration in a Life
Extension Foundation article (and pointed the article out back in March
on this newsgroup):
"After working closely for three years with Philip Moriarty, one of the
leading scanning probe microscopists in the UK, our international
colleague is now undertaking direct experiments to build and validate
several of our proposed mechanosynthesis tooltips in his laboratory."
Quoted from the LEF Freitas article:
http://www.lef.org/magazine/mag2009/jan2009_Nanotechnology-Radically-Extended-Life-Span_01.htm
Your last comment above seems to indicate that Moriarty has published
relevant results. I guess I should go hunt them up - or if you have them
handy perhaps you could post bibliographic details?
> I'm unaware of any comprehensive surveys in the last couple of years.
> Of course, "Nanosystems" itself contains an extensive bibliography,
> but that is nearly 20 years old at this point. The various Freitas
> books are also insanely well footnoted, but again, they are not that
> recent.
I'd say I'm aware of most of the relevant experimental work up to around
2003 but my tracking of the field slowly declined after that. I will
probably have to perform my own "survey" and write something up. If I
do, I probably wont finish till sometime this fall. But I'll post what
I come up with, however bad it is.
William R. Cousert
"Perry E. Metzger" <pe...@piermont.com> wrote in message
news:4r-dnb_GI58lzMLX...@supernews.com...
>
>
>> Assuming anyone is still reading this newsgroup anymore,
>
> Some people are still reading, but I think the quality of the postings
> to the group has fallen so far that it drives away what interest
> remains.
>
> I'm thinking I may set up a new mailing list devoted solely to true
> molecular machines/molecular manufacturing since this group seems to
> mostly be about postings from semi-fraudulent computer science
> "conference" scams. I may do that by the end of July. Interested persons
> may want to contact me.
>
Gina Miller (Nano Girl) has her own mailing list -
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/nanotech/