Update 26.04

[Foresight Institute]

** Better, cheaper oligonucelotides for DNA nanotechnology
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** Foresight Update 26.04 - June 12, 2013
ISSN 1078-9731
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** Nanotech News
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Discuss these news stories at http://foresight.org/nanodot.


** In this issue:
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* Mass production of higher quality oligonucelotides to spur DNA nanotechnology
(http://www.foresight.org/nanodot/?p=5700)
* Quantum dot conduction impacted by stoichiometry, not dangling bonds
(http://www.foresight.org/nanodot/?p=5681)
* Germanane: germanium's answer to graphane
(http://www.foresight.org/nanodot/?p=5668)
* Drexler's book tour extends to U.S. May 6-9
(http://www.foresight.org/nanodot/?p=5650)
* Silicene: silicon's answer to graphene
(http://www.foresight.org/nanodot/?p=5642)
* A framework to promote critical thinking about nanotechnology
(http://www.foresight.org/nanodot/?p=5637)


** Mass production of higher quality oligonucelotides to spur DNA
nanotechnology (http://www.foresight.org/nanodot/?p=5700)
------------------------------------------------------------

Currently structural DNA nanotechnology ... is the most promising method
to build arbitrarily complex multi-million-atom atomically precise structures
... One of the major limitations of these methods, however, is the cost and
quality of the small, single-stranded DNA molecules required, which are
prepared by solid state chemical synthesis. ... Fortunately two DNA
nanotechnology laboratories at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden and at
Harvard and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute appear to have solved this problem
by harnessing biological molecular machine systems to make large quantities of
very high quality single-stranded DNA oligonucleotides. ...


** Quantum dot conduction impacted by stoichiometry, not dangling bonds
(http://www.foresight.org/nanodot/?p=5681)
------------------------------------------------------------

Quantum dots are semiconducting, nanoscale clusters that show electronic
characteristics distinct from both bulk-scale materials and single molecules.
Their special characteristics make quantum dots attractive for a broad range of
potential applications, including photovoltaics and nanoscale transistors.

The size and shape of quantum dots impact electrical properties and can
therefore be used to tune the dots (for example, for absorption/emission of
desired wavelengths of light). In the case of photovoltaic cells, the
performance of quantum dots has not lived up to theoretical potential, and it
was expected that the reason had to do with the presence of dangling bonds at
the dot surfaces. ...


** Germanane: germanium's answer to graphane
(http://www.foresight.org/nanodot/?p=5668)
------------------------------------------------------------

... a new addition to the family of 2D honeycomb-lattice materials has arrived:
germanane. Structurally analogous to graphane, germanane comprises
hydrogenated, hexagonally arranged germanium atoms in single (or few) layer
sheets. Like silicane and silicene (see companion post Silicene:
silicon's answer to graphene), germanane should have a band gap, possibly
allowing it to be implemented sooner than graphene. ...


** Drexler's book tour extends to U.S. May 6-9
(http://www.foresight.org/nanodot/?p=5650)
------------------------------------------------------------

Recently (http://www.foresight.org/nanodot/?p=5607) we pointed at a Forbe's
interview with Eric Drexler, in anticipation of his pending new book Radical
Abundance.

The book has shipped, and Drexler's tour schedule now includes a few stops on
the coasts of the U.S ...


** Silicene: silicon's answer to graphene
(http://www.foresight.org/nanodot/?p=5642)
------------------------------------------------------------

On the list of potential post-silicon materials for electronics and chips is
none other than silicon. More specifically, silicene - 2D sheets of hexagonally
arranged silicon atoms, structurally analogous to graphene and experimentally
characterized by physicist Guy Le Lay of Aix-Marseille University in France ...


** A framework to promote critical thinking about nanotechnology
(http://www.foresight.org/nanodot/?p=5637)
------------------------------------------------------------

Last year we announced a talk that Miguel F. Aznar, Foresight's Director of
Education, would be givng a talk on critical thinking about nanotechnology. The
talk "Critical Thinking about Nanotechnology" is now available on the web;
however, only in Spanish. Here for comparison with the output from
translate.Google.com, are the first two paragraphs from the English draft that
Mr. Aznar forwarded ...

- Nanodot posts by Stephanie C. and James Lewis
(http://www.foresight.org/about/Lewis.html) .


** Foresight Events and News
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** Foresight Kudos to past President and Welcome to new President
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Kudos to Larry Millstein for picking up the role of President over the last
year. The Foresight Technical Conference 2013, "Illuminating Atomic Precision
(https://www.foresight.org/conference/) ," was long overdue and a great
success. Professor Neil R. Champness was quoted in the March 2013 issue of
Nature Nanotechnology "Foresight technical conference 2013: Illuminating
Feynman's vision
(http://www.nature.com/nnano/journal/v8/n3/full/nnano.2013.28.html) " saying:
"The candid nature of the conference, helped by a strict media policy, allowed
free-flowing discussion of both unpublished science and exploitation of
nanoscale devices in a commercial setting." Many attendees pronounced this to
be the best Foresight Technical Conference ever!

Please join us in welcoming incoming Foresight President Paul Melnyk
(http://www.foresight.org/about/Melnyk.html) . Paul has been a community member
and active with Foresight since 1998.


** Foresight Lectures
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7th Annual SAP CEO Summit (http://www.sap.com/)
Oct. 22-23, 2013 New York City
Christine Peterson will speak on nanotechnology and synthetic biology as part
of a plenary panel on Innovation Futures, addressing how these fields are
opening up new areas of commercial innovation, and how governments and
corporations should respond.


** Other Upcoming Activities of Interest
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2013 ASME Annual Meeting
(http://www.asme.org/events-details/conferences/2013-asme-annual-meeting)
June 21-26,2013 Indianapolis, Indiana, USA


** About the Foresight Institute
Foreseeing Future Technologies
------------------------------------------------------------

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