Big troubles may lurk in super-tiny tech/Nanotechnology experts say legal, ethical issues loom http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/10/31/MNG28FGMVJ1.DTL Richard E. Smalley, 62, Dies; Chemistry Nobel Winner http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/29/science/29smalley.html National Nanotechnology Initiative [pdf] http://www.nano.gov/ Nanotubes and...

The Center for Responsible Nanotechnology's (CRN) Wise-Nano project is "a collaborative website to study the facts and implications of advanced nanotechnology." The website is designed for researchers and intended to encourage collaboration worldwide and "to build an understanding of the technologies, their effects, and what to do about them." From this website, visitors can ask and answer...

This 86-page paper, published in October 2003, was written by the Director of Research at the Center for Responsible Nanotechnology. He proposes "an architecture for combining large numbers of programmable mechanochemical fabricators into a manufacturing system, or nanofactory, capable of producing a wide range of human-scale products." Rather than calling for the development of entirely new...

The Foresight Institute is "a nonprofit educational organization formed to help prepare society for anticipated advanced technologies." They offer this comprehensive webpage on nanotechnology, addressing why nanotechnology might be important to you, and providing information for the General Reader, the Technical Reader and other resources on technical issues, jobs, education, policy issues,...

Public perception and understanding of science and technology can be a difficult and daunting subject. This latest report from the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, authored by Dr. Jane Macoubrie, explores public attitudes toward the growing field of nanotechnology. In its 31-pages, the report reveals that the public is interested in the potential advances afforded by this...

The Institute for Molecular Manufacturing (IMM) conducts and supports research on molecular systems engineering and molecular manufacturing (molecular nanotechnology, or MNT). The website provides information on the IMM research projects. Also posted here are IMM's "guidelines for research and development practices that will minimize risk from accidental misuse or from abuse of molecular...

The McLean nanophysics group at Queen's University is mostly interested in studying nano-architecture and inverse photoemissions. The website presents the latest activities and updates of the group. Almost eighty publications are listed at the site, with links to downloads for most of them. The students in the group have also posted many of their masters' theses and other publications. Users can...

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Microsystems Technology Laboratories (last reviewed in the March 15, 2000 Scout Report for Science and Engineering) has its annual report for 2002 available online. The report is actually a very large collection of research abstracts, giving a thorough overview of the lab's latest work. Documents are divided into eleven general topics, including...

The MIT Center for Materials Science and Engineering "is devoted to the design, creation, and fundamental understanding of materials that are capable of enhancing the human experience." Visitors to this site can peruse the eight primary sections here, which include Facilities, Research, Highlights, and Connecting to Industry. In the Research area, visitors can learn about the Center's ongoing...

The Space Nanotechnology Laboratory (SNL) at MIT conducts research on nanofabrication, nanometer-accuracy x-ray optics fabrication, assembly and metrology, ultra-high resolution lithography, nanometrology, and nano-accuracy diffraction grating fabrication. SNL's pride and joy is the world's most advanced grating patterning tool, the Nanoruler -- a ruler with "ticks" only a few hundred billionths...